July 2018
December 2015
February 2013
December 2012
Nov 2012
Sept 2012
July-Aug 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
March 2011
February 2011
December 2010
November 2010
September 2010
July 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
October 2009
September 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
March 2009
February 2009
December 2008
October 2008
September 2008
March 2008
With hospital blood use up, some elective surgeries are being delayed until the blood supply stabilizes, delaying crucial patient care. Your help is needed! rcblood.org/donate
Trending Articles at the Westside Observer
...not like the usual old pipelines that leak... It is the seismically reinforced, 36 inch wide, 4.4 miles long, replacement pipeline paid for by the $4.8 billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) bond...
Check it outWildfires and PG&E Bailout Impinge
PG&E diverted money from its power line projects for decades to “other high priority system improvements...
Check it out
CEQA mandates ... that “the key question and first step” ... is whether any of a projects’ significant effects “would be avoided or substantially lessened by putting the project in another location.
Check it out
WE NEED A CARE HOMES LAW
In the event of a public health emergency, folks in long-term care have the right to loved ones in person.
Check it out
The city has offered $2.5 billion for PG&E’s local assets ... based on study by experts ...it will be substantially increased.
Read More ...
In our numerous wood-frame residential neighborhoods ... controlling fires will need an inexhaustible water source.
Check it out
Homelessness is so grueling that getting high brings welcome relief. When the high wears off, a dysphoric “crash” ensues along with a craving for more meth.
Check it out
With less water in the rivers, the temperature increases, killing salmon and allowing the green scum called algae bloom that can make water toxic to humans and fish.
Check it out
You’re on your own. What are all those bright Berkeley grads at their SFMTA desks doing?
Check it out
Learning to read doesn’t happen naturally — it has to be taught. Years of scientific research have revealed a great deal about how reading develops.
Check it out
This is how red herrings work ...
You already know what you want to do. And you have already been told, loudly, that riders want — and need — all their old routes back in operation. Soon. Not months from now. Therefore, the phoney survey.
Check it out
Public school enrollment declined by 3,459 students the past two years, thus portending a decrease of $35,000,000 in state funding ... the District cannot use general obligation bond money for operating expenses without a vote.
Check it out
Dozens of neighbors stopped by Unity Plaza on Saturday to see the new designs for the 1,100-unit Balboa Reservoir housing development’s park.
Check it out
It is a rare moment indeed when the U.S. Navy publicly admits it has uncovered a dangerous bone seeking radionuclide with a half-life of 28.9 years in concentrations exceeding safety at a federal Superfund site.
Check it out
Marge Summerville and Nob Fukuda improved the lives of more children than many of the politicians who grab the headlines
Check it out
Letter to the Editor Re: your article on corruption at City Hall.
Read More ...
Ethics staff concluded that current gift disclosures are “ineffective”. Will their proposed remedies deter pay-to-play?
Check it out
Sometimes City Hall listens
An eyesore for many years, Triangle Park was a plot of brown weeds. What used to be a stone water fountain lay deteriorated and moldering...
Check it out
Blockbuster's attempt to open a store on West Portal launched her activism, preserving the street's ‘village feel’ was important.
Check it out
Ionizing radiation is the established environmental cause of breast cancer. No safe dose of radiation has been identified.
Check it out
Plans for Market Street, Van Ness Avenue & Main Library / Where are the trees?
Check it out
Tribal communities and government officials are cooperating and providing prescribed burns for up to half a million acres.”
Check it out
Political differences are wholesome. It’s political indifference that hurts.
Check it out
Combat invasive species and fuel for wildfire
The goats are rescues that are no longer producing goat milk and rescues from the slaughterhouse, now they just graze.
Check it out
Alden is widely reviled as a “vulture hedge fund” that gobbles up distressed newspapers, saddles them with the debt, draws out management fees, sells off their assets, decimates their newsrooms, cuts salaries and ramps up workloads
Check it out
High school students work hard toward a college goal, Jr. High students' goal: entry to Lowell as incentive.
Check it out
Asked to commit to reducing herbicide use, the Integrated Pest Management’s answer was: “it is impossible ... and the quantity needed is impossible to predict.”
Check it out
...not like the usual old pipelines that leak... It is the seismically reinforced, 36 inch wide, 4.4 miles long, replacement pipeline paid for by the $4.8 billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) bond...
Check it outWildfires and PG&E Bailout Impinge
PG&E diverted money from its power line projects for decades to “other high priority system improvements...
Check it out
CEQA mandates ... that “the key question and first step” ... is whether any of a projects’ significant effects “would be avoided or substantially lessened by putting the project in another location.
Check it out
WE NEED A CARE HOMES LAW
In the event of a public health emergency, folks in long-term care have the right to loved ones in person.
Check it out
The city has offered $2.5 billion for PG&E’s local assets ... based on study by experts ...it will be substantially increased.
Read More ...
In our numerous wood-frame residential neighborhoods ... controlling fires will need an inexhaustible water source.
Check it out
District Attorney Chesa Boudin won’t be hanged, but...
Check it out
Was the Herrera Mayor's Office “Investigation Probe” a cover up?
Check it out
Time to Engage Community Advisory Boards
To be effective the CPAB must be able to represent and to be aware of the needs of the larger community.
Check it out
Parents have never been so worried … Except when we had smallpox. And measles. And polio. And tuberculosis.
Check it out
He changed the way we fought City Hall
He raised the questions and issues back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s—that are still pressing on us even more today. .
Check it out
A hotspot for complaints about workplace bullying, sexual harassment and racial discrimination
... while Black employees comprised 15% of the workforce, they accounted for “36% of dismissals, 24% of probationary releases and 38% of medical releases..
Check it out
Will no one rid us of these miscreants?
Local investigations have not always been successful in ridding the City of bad actors. Is it the resources or the will to do so?”
Check it out
"Given that the City’s low-pressure hydrant system simply won’t survive a major earthquake, it must be expanded to cover all San Francisco
Check it outPROBLEM SOLVED
Collins thinks he's going to pay $20 for a ride. But Uber charges him $98 instead. What's going on?
Read More ...
With hospital blood use up, some elective surgeries are being delayed until the blood supply stabilizes, delaying crucial patient care. Your help is needed! rcblood.org/donate
A Public Farce—the Blow by Blow
Few doubted that political intrigue propelled their deal. Less well known is how the SFPUC’s own search for a new General Manager (GM) was upended.
Check it out
From 1934 through 1994 lead pellets as shot resulted in about 27 tons of lead in the lake per year. Lead pellets and targets containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ...
Check it out
Social distance necessity has subsided, but a closed-door effort never to reopen the Great Highway fostered by the Bicycle Coalition and the allied groups inveigh willing collaborators.
Check it out
Water users aren't out of the woods ... recycling, purification, groundwater, maybe desalinization, and conservation schemes are coming—guess who pays?
Read More ...
Plastic grass and rubber-tire infill is so toxic and particularly dangerous to children, ten years ago New York outlawed its use.
Read More ...
Hospital blood use is up. Some elective surgeries are being delayed until the supply stabilizes, delaying crucial patient care. Your help is needed! rcblood.org/donate
Wanna Cabin in Yosemite? Fuggedaboutit.
Former City Attorney Dennis Herrera runs an SFPUC immersed in mistrust. Can he impose fiscal and ethical discipline?
Check it out
On the day of Neilson’s 6-per-day article, a guard at one Walgreens caught 23 shoplifters by himself—he averages 15 shoplifts per day
Check it outPolice Commission’s Staffing Guidance
From 2009 to 2018, property crimes dropped 23% across the country but increased 46% in SF — a 66% point spread
Check it out
What my Mom's travails taught me about SF's broken system
After she sold her home, the cost of sending in caregivers depleted her savings and then cut into mine. Could our family meet her social needs in my own home.
Check it out
All children should learn how our country was born and that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution expressed ideals of equality at a time when racism and sexism flourished
Check it out
The Millionaire's Art Club
Illuminate is mostly composed of elite white capitalists who put up electric lights in public spaces
Check it out
Taraval Police District
With the COVID shutdown, tourism declined and local folks stayed home. … auto break-ins were no longer profitable. So criminals adapted by turning to burglaries.
Check it out
Not only does the state want more water to go down the river, but also climate change is changing patterns of precipitation and runoff. SFPUC is being hit with a one-two punch.
Read More ...
In Boudin-speak, “my office filed the case” has the equivalent meaning of “my office read the SFPD police report” or “at least I didn’t let the arrestee immediately back to the streets.”
Check it out
If DPH really believes in providing accurate and reliable facts to the public, why does it lie about whether it is able to track how many of its patients have been discharged out-of-county?
Check it out
At press time, recall group San Franciscans for Public Safety had collected about 20,000 voter signatures and secured campaign donations totaling approximately $400,000. The necessary 51,000 recall voter signatures must be filed by October 25, 2021 ...
Check it out
Should the Bay Area Panic?
The SFPUC also has a long history of inflating demand projections. They got caught trying to cook the books in their Management Plan.
Check it out
At the corner of West Portal Avenue and Vicente Street, an impromptu shrine collects memories and flowers and notes, love notes, to a man who no longer is with us.
Check it out
Another Alternative Response Team?
I don't know how the workers in the community will be trained. Are they only responding to C-calls? How do they know they are responding to a C-call?
Check it out
(It) has become one of the most animating issues for Republicans nationwide, believing it teaches kids to &lquo;hate the US and each other.
Check it out
BOS has complete discretion to reallocate funding formerly set aside for the minimum sworn police officer staffing, and additional discretion to use any portion of that funding for any public purpose
Check it out
Musical Chairs and other games
Dennis Herrera, Esquire has been nominated … as general manager of the Public Utilities Commission, without experience in managing a municipal water system or other public utilities.
Check it out
"Earthquakes, climate change, and drought cause fires. Water suppresses fires. San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water - yet today, over half the City is still not protected against catastrophic fires …
Check it out
Can SF Go 100% Solar?
More surfaces are available for solar energy right under our feet. The answer is solar roadways, parking lots, sidewalks, driveways, athletic courts and bike paths”
Check it out
The chance for a quiet walk in the park is fast disappearing. Please protect our parks from encroaching development.
Check it out
On weekdays there simply isn’t a crush of bikers, walkers, skateboarders, roller bladders, and more demanding a little piece of blacktop as they move about.
Check it out
The SFPUC does need a fully qualified GM. I do not see Dennis Herrera filling that description.
Read More ...
The Commission was blindsided. From its perspective it is diligently engaged in a search, in good faith and fair, for the best possible leader of an important city enterprise that has suffered from allegations of corruption.
Read More ...
In Boudin-speak, “my office filed the case” has the equivalent meaning of “my office read the SFPD police report” or “at least I didn’t let the arrestee immediately back to the streets.”
Check it out
… even though employees of color tend to be under-represented in jobs that can be performed remotely. What is unjust is if already-privileged managers exploit telecommuting to dodge obligations.
Check it out
We still have to live with gridlock, reckless commuters, and commercial vehicles speeding through our neighborhoods, all for a park that the majority didn’t ask for and a great many don’t use or want.
Check it out
London Breed applauding SF’s 75% vaccination rate … deserves careful scrutiny … in reality — of the 769,000 vaccine eligible residents only 56% are fully vaccinated — a number slightly higher than the state average”
Check it out
Nobody wanted to defund the police. All supported the deployment of Street Crisis Response Teams to address behavioral disturbances that do not require armed officers … community organizing is essential to deter crime
Check it out
Youth of color are disproportionately sentenced to life without parole. Nationally, Black youth are sentenced 10 times more than White youth, and 22.5 times more likely in California
Read More ...The plan was a success but the downtown administrators put the kibosh on it. It’s a long story but they sabotaged it …
Read More ...
... the favorite stores of thieves — Lululemon, Apple, and Victoria Secret — were also closed for the majority of 2020. Eighty-one percent of the 23% drop in “overall crime” came from just a decline in property crimes ... not Boudin’s policies.
Check it out
Some people will complain that Lowell does better because it is full of rich white kids. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The student body is about 72 per cent non-white and 35 per cent socioeconomically disadvantaged
Check it out
..like people, coyotes have adapted to their new habitat with ease, and basically, just want to be left alone. In addition to their adaptability, coyotes have a lot of other similarities to humans and our human society.
Check it out
SF School Board now faces a lawsuit to compel repeal of another flawed resolution abolishing Lowell High School admission upon the basis of grades and examination scores and substituting a lottery!
Check it out
"We need electric light for human safety, comfort and health but lighting up the night sky for amusement or displays should be kept to a minimum.
Check it out
The California Constitution XIII (1996 Proposition 218) states that only costs for current services can be part of the customer rates. .The fundamental structure of a rate includes O&M (operation and maintenance) and debt service.
Check it out
Exile for SF's Subacute Skilled Nursing Patients — Continues
His parents are afraid that if they are not able to visit Ken to oversee his care and emotional health, he will deteriorate again and potentially die. He is very vulnerable.
Check it out
Westside folk are beginning to emerge ... as inside dining and browsing are available, customers are, once again, on sidewalks.
Check it out
Former Chancellor Mark Rocha cut nearly a thousand classes at the same time he proposed hefty pay raises for the school’s administrators ... the current administration insists on following the same misguided course.
Check it out
What's behind PG&E's Time Of Use Pricing?
The promise of TOU metering is that the customer can adjust their usage to use electric devices when the cost is lower, during the day. That’s not really possible. For those working households ....
Check it out
Slush-funds via ‘pay-to-play’ contract bidding
After Mar sent a Letter of Inquiry... the just-released, heavily-redacted copy has folks wondering what’s being concealed?
Check it out
Rates Up, Up and Away!
It will take a few years for SF to deplete its stored water, but rationing could begin early to prevent worse later.
Read More ...
Many are aware of the environmental issues southeast SF faces but not hazards in seemingly "pristine" regions west of Twin Peaks.”
Check it out
Notorious Crooks of San Francisco
... the case took a stranger turn ... he had been kidnapped. Yet an hour later he was seen at Powell and Geary ... behaving in an unkidnapped manner ... then dropped from sight as well.
Check it out
If I ordered a double scoop cone, how many times would I have to go to get all the possible combinations ? ... my husband reminded me it's not an eating contest.
Check it out
Mr. Denny has single-handedly held the 2019 Bond hostage with his futile lawsuit to overturn passage despite the will of 143,055 San Franciscans ...
Check it out
Could the Controller’s Office be tainted by a conflict of interests?
Although the Board of Supervisors had requested this audit back in July 2019, bureaucratic shuffling and delays almost turned it into a spectral fantasy.
Check it out
Exactly one week and 20 minutes later as Aidan slept, a single hot prowl burglar ... made off with $3,500 worth of his electrician’s tools.
Check it out
... access to records enables the public and press to uncover “corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.” The “pay to play” scandal unfolding in San Francisco makes clear the extent of corruption in government...
Check it out
Why did the SFPUC sign a contract with its peninsula agency (BAWSCA) ... so that BAWSCA customers would always have their taps filled while San Francisco would not — about 46% of the time?
Check it out
What happened at Lowell... is happening because of our increased awareness of inequitable opportunities for many black and brown children. But let’s not jump to a solution without properly analyzing the problem.
Check it out
Street Crisis Response Team
There was a time when unsettling public disturbances were addressed by calling the cops. Peace Officers kept communal peace. That formula no longer works."
Check it out
...it appears that approximately 2,100,000 signers ... such a recall election permits consolidation of a recall to remove District Attorney Chesa Boudin ..."
Check it out
Now that many of San Francisco’s employers are allowing work from home, San Franciscans are leaving in large numbers to live in homes with more space — and for half the price.”
Check it out
"Mr. Hall: Not only was Governor Newsom handling twice the population of NY dealing with a pandemic, — there were 9,639 wildfires burning over 4 million acres of our state...”
Read More ..."" Dr. Kerr, San Francisco has already tried that. The lack of enforcement of laws against drug dealing and drug use has led to a de facto legalization for several years.”
Read More ..."The Wheel is of little or no benefit to the de Young and I am disappointed that staff are calling in support of a private, for-profit vendor based in St. Louis, MO, with no transparency, and SF Parks Alliance, a private non-profit.”
Read More ...
The proper course of action for ratepayers is a simple repeal of the 1932 monopoly ordinance and substitution of an ordinance requiring garbage contracts to be competitively bid.
Check it out
The Wheel is also a massive 150’ strobe light—strobe lights are sold to protect your pets in the backyard at night. The shadows strobe lights produce are intolerable to birds.
Check it out
San Francisco's Drug Crisis
... in 2018, there were 693,000 marijuana arrests – 90% for possession only — exceeding the arrests for all violent crimes combined. Most drug-related arrests are for simple possession.
Check it out
In my years of working with him before, during and after our stint together on the Board of Supervisors, he never once demonstrated that he had even the slightest knowledge or understanding of the basic tenets of good government ...
Check it out
... something even more odd about Michaela’s account: One of her followers was Chesa Boudin ... his official San Francisco District Attorney Twitter account.
Check it out
"Single use plastic bags, plastic straws are banned. Why is it a good idea to put plastic grass in Golden Gate Park? It lasts 8-10 years then becomes toxic waste that can't be recycled."
Check it out
I have been assigned to chair the Land Use and Transportation Committee at the Board of Supervisors, as well as representing the Board on the First Five Commission ... We will begin holding regular office hours in the community this month ...
Check it out
The Naperville, Illinois school board announced last month it would refund $10,000,000 to taxpayers this year, meaning a typical family will receive $200 to $500 ... Meanwhile, private and Catholic schools are open for learning without demanding extra tuition.
Check it out
... the isolated resident, as they withdraw into depression and weakness, is quiet. Others are needy, there is always too much to do ... When they cry out or kick, family should approve sedatives. Comfort is best, isn’t it?
Check it out
...the “nuisance neighbor” installed a Ring Motion Sensing floodlight camera ... The high beam floodlight activated within six feet of my patio door ...”
Check it out
A public bank could provide the City with low interest loans, could provide a safe place to deposit bridge toll fares and could invest in Green Business instead of “Big Tobacco,” the fossil fuel industry or industries of war.
Check it out
UC proposes a project that would add over 2 million square feet to the currently over-built campus — the equivalent of a Sales Force Tower and the TransAmerica Pyramid combined.
Check it out
... basically the ‘burbs get the first water, the city the leftovers ... The system runs short, the burbs get first dibs, the City gets the dribbles.
Read More ...
Only in San Francisco do you get a judge who looked at the entire trajectory ... Two strong-arm robberies, followed by a burglary, then an auto burglary, a loaded firearm charge, a third armed robbery, and finally graduating to attempted murder.
Check it out
With charges of elitism and racism, the school board made a major blunder in voting to change Lowell High School’s merit based admission policies to a lottery ... not looking at all the facts.
Check it out
Now Rec and Park has backpedaled on the one-year commitment and asked ... for four more years. If one year is not enough, will four years be enough ... or is this the beginning of a permanent midway in the midst of our premiere landscape park?
Check it out
In late January MUNI restored the T-Third light rail line, as well as the 27-Bryant, 33 Ashbury and the 15-Bayview. But no services have been restored on the west side of the City.
Check it out
Notorious Crooks of San Francisco
When not engaged in larceny, Long worked as a salesman. His persuasive skills made him a top salesperson ... but the lure of the dishonest dollar proved too strong for him.
Check it out
Herrera's Curious Union-Busting Law Firm
Recent lawsuits alleging discrimination against Black employees are startling in egalitarian San Francisco. Doubling the consternation is the City Attorney’s paying a Union-busting law firm to fight these claims.
Check it out
All of these reductions in value for her personal benefit were arranged while appeals for reductions before the Assessment Appeals Board from regular mom and pop homeowners were vehemently opposed by the Assessor’s Office.
Check it out
Others stand by, keep these links and don't get discouraged yet!. There are A LOT of vaccine appointments... If you get a text notification, try to get an appointment right away as they may be exhausted later in the day.
Check it out
Broken Promises Pique Tempers
"Now a pedestrian or a car cannot cross Taraval for three blocks ... Chow said. "How are residents and merchants going to conduct business or even get in and out of their driveways?”
Check it out
Board Decisions Only
Muddy the Water
"The city has a high school for the arts, and another for students interested in the trades. There is a bi-lingual Chinese-American high school. Why shouldn't there be a school for those interested in academics?
Check it out
"The Wheel has been totally shut down, partially opened, and then totally shut down again ... the glaring, flashing lights are still turned on every day and into the night, and the noisy diesel generator that powers the Wheel runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Check it out
Note from Doc Palmer: appointments: Keep checking for updates and ability to self-schedule an appointment online if you are in an eligible group.
Check it out
"... Berkeley-UCSF Agreement that included UC paying money every year to Berkeley for fire and emergency services ... a precedent for the City to require UCSF to offset our currently unreimbursed City costs...
Check it out
... when he came into the room, his coworkers turned and left — only the other black workers remained. Baraka was called names such as “faggot” and “sissy” as well as “Sambo.”
Check it out
Notorious Crooks of SF Returns to WSO!
the Examiner took a strong prosecutorial view in the trials. The San Francisco Chronicle took the defense’s part...
Check it out
Internet computer records show that Ali Hudson was booked at 1:46am that night into Sacramento County Jail for both murder charges and for a still outstanding warrant...
Check it out
Hooray for SF Supes—It's a Good Start ... a Delaware-sized iceberg, ... is threatening the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Check it out
The Revenue Bond Oversight Committee issued another MOU with the Controller ...this illegal union is an important aspect of the swamp that City Hall has become.
Check it out
Even though school is closed, students continue to produce and perform high quality work.
Check it out
Whether or not another impeachment of the lying, cheating, draft-dodging Donald Trump is inarguably warranted ... It’s no surprise that Trump aspired to pardoning himself; that would constitute his ultimate historical achievement.
Check it out
(Analysts) obtained 10 years-worth of records related to the PUC’s Community Benefits Program, grants and contracts. Then…nothing. The PUC audit evaporated as City Hall, DPW and the PUC were rocked by corruption investigations
Check it out
"There's not even been one meeting on the underlying project. The plan itself has never been reviewed by any public body or by any group of advisors ..."
Check it out
Since Proposition 19 passed, estate-planning attorneys are scarcer than toilet paper during the pandemic. Thanks to Governor Newsom’s misleading Proposition 19, we are seeing panicked strategizing ...
Check it out
...the Atomic Energy Commission allowed NRDL researchers ... radioactive waste into laboratory drains at the shipyard, radiation contaminated materials into the industrial landfill on the shoreline and radioactive fuel ships hauled back following atomic explosions ...
Check it out
DPH decided to present data only on the number of COVID cases among residents of the 19 Skilled Nursing Facilities in the City, eliminating reporting cumulative case reporting for healthcare workers (staff) at the 19 facilities.”
Check it out
When the war ended they were free to leave. But they had to find their own way back. To escape the harsh weather they made their way to Kazakhstan via river raft. To return to Poland was dangerous because as Michalski noted, “nobody wanted the Jews.
Check it out
D7 Neighborhood News Sources Westside Observer, Ingleside Light, and West Portal Monthly pose tough questions
Check it out
Openness applies to wrongdoing as well. When taxes pay for investigations ... taxpayers deserve to know which City agencies break rules ..."
Check it out
Breed and her allies asserted that placing housing on public parcels would save massive amounts of time two years later—still no publicly revealed plans...
Check it out
General Manager, who has been charged with corruption. That’s the bad news. A new report about expected capital costs is out, and costs are up 42%. That’s even worse.
Read More ...
For almost two decades, “pay-to-play” has pervaded our “City Family” with bribes to obtain millions of dollars in public contracts. Presently, criminal charges have been filed only against powerful non-elected officials.
Check it out
It has taken a pandemic to help all of us process just how critical schools are to our children and our communities.
Check it out
Preston accused the Marina Times of being “an entity that has proven time and again that they are a mouthpiece for disinformation ... on par with the likes of Breitbart News and Tucker Carlson ..."
Check it out
...even if he and his wife did donate $75 million ... his net worth is $101.2 billion as of November 2020 ... that’s no reason for Zuckerberg’s name to despoil the good name of SF General Hospital."
Check it out
"Seven acres of artificial turf that is so toxic nothing can live in it... Toxins from tire crumb can enter the body through inhalation of particulates, fibers, and volatile organic compounds."
Check it out
While I was repeating over and over “wear a mask...wash my hands... he was creating spaced learning for the alternative universe. Don’t wear a mask... And I am not even going to touch whether he washed his tiny hands
Check it out
Since people tend to like money, to varying degrees, I was surprised by the lack of websites about “How much your neighbors or countrymen give to charity.“
Check it out
The Dept. of Public Health Lacks Transparency. Deaths surged 76% and the media went quiet. Why the lack of stories?.
Check it out
Water, Fish, and You.
...In super dry years, no way there’s enough water. You will be forced to ration fifty percent, that is, you get half rations of water.
Read More ...
In District 7, despite Joel Engardio accruing the most first place votes for supervisor, the third place candidate, Myrna Melgar, employed ranked choice voting to win.
Check it out
"SFPUC Watchdog or Lickspittle? From the first meeting of the RBOC, SFPUC operatives and aligned city-family loyalists injected themselves into the business and governance of the RBOC."
Check it out
Once a “benefit” district is formed ... private firms are hired ... The disgraced former head of DPW, Mohammed Nuru, was personally involved ...
Check it out
... allow restaurants to increase indoor dining capacity from 25% to 50% ... cases stood at 11,275 confirmed cases ... Another 3,048 COVID cases occurred ..."
Check it out
... public utilities were formed so that public officials would not steer the ship of modern electricity. ... the state Public Utilities Commission, would review, and ensure fair treatment.
Read More ...
His approach bears the fingerprints of first-lady-elect Dr. Jill Biden ... President-elect Biden ... “You’re going to have one of your own in the White House.”
Check it out
... we are down 37% in vehicle burglaries, 27% in assaults, and 36% in robberies. We are currently up 24% in vehicle thefts and 8% in home and commercial burglaries.
Check it out
...a patronage network that recycles retiring City employees - including former Willie Brown special assistants” In return, these former City employees provide access to City department managers.”
Check it out
After being hired in 1998 , she rewarded her benefactor by running against him ... she raised $563,000 for her campaign ... signed under penalty of perjury a ... $211,000 campaign expenditure limit.
Check it out
...the largest job, almost a billion dollars, has not gone well. The so-called biosolids digesters — the heart of the operation ... pre-construction services have increased in cost by a factor of 18 times.
Read More ...
Since March 2000 voters passed three parks bonds totaling $800.5 million in principal and interest. If this new bond passes, pushing park bonds to approximately $1.3 billion
Check it out
... the new regime under Interim Chancellor Gonzalez abruptly ... returned to the previous agenda structure, with very limited public comment — and only near the beginning of the meeting — reservation is now required in advance as well.
Check it out
Déjà vu: Controlling Pay-to-Play Donations
In October 2009, former Supervisor Chris Daly proposed an Ordinance that prohibited department heads and employees from steering donations to “Friends of…” non-profits that raised funds for their departments ...
Check it out
"Our beloved Golden Gate Park ... natural environment is being replaced by concrete and artificial turf. Two and half million dollars are being spent so dogs can run around?"
Check it out
"There is an obvious power grab designed to attack Lowell’s long-term academic status, that provides a unique service to a unique student population, just as School of the Arts does.”
Check it out
I agree that we should not celebrate those who represent the worst in our society. But there is true historical value to recognizing leaders who have made our world better—and recognizing them warts and all.”
Check it out
Inside City Hall’s Web of Corruption
DPW’s subaccounts at the Parks Alliance amassed $990,000... donated by 8 contractors who received $572 million from DPW plus 7 companies that obtained 218 building permits from the Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
Check it out
If LHH was too small for 160 units, how is it now suddenly big enough for up to 375 units?”
Check it out
" ... the cleanup reports need to be available to the public. Skipping these steps will result in future lawsuits and the city will be ultimately held accountable, making the taxpayers liable”
Check it out
Prop. A's — $960 Million Oversite?
Problem is, the Bond Oversight Committee has held only one meeting in 2020 ... Then COVID detonated. Unfortunately, CGOBOC never figured out holding remote meetings accessible to the public.”
Check it out
The developer is proposing a six-unit condo development on the site of a former auto repair shop contaminated with benzene and other pollutants at levels 900 times above residential standards ...
Check it out
Audit's Unanswered Questions:
The audit fails to mention that no retaliation claims have ever been sustained by the Ethics Commission. That startling fact has been hidden by reporting only that cases are “dismissed” or “closed.”
Check it out
Taraval Crime Report
Police officers from the Tactical Unit, Specialist Team, and Taraval Neighborhood Team (TNT) served a search warrant on the 1500 block of 48th Ave.”
Check it out
Any time someone mentions a good book, I literally just go to my phone and reserve it on the App. That says a lot...”
Check it out
The federal subpoena demanded the resumes, job descriptions, and performance evaluations for “any PUC employee who earned at least $100,000” since 2010 ... Evidently, the feds are probing cronyism as well as self-dealing
Check it out
Six contenders respond to the questions that will guide the next 4 years in the district.
Check it out
The arts touch our emotional core, whether it is song or dance or drama or drawing. The arts can connect the mind and the spirit and help guide children from crisis to confidence.
Check it out
"The giveaway, linked to corrupt leadership, sacrifices precious public land for private profit ... leaves City College more vulnerable and is a significant reversal in our goal of income equality"
Check it out
That’s not a balanced budget; it’s a gaping hole she plans to solve by kicking pay-raises bargained for in good faith down the road.”
Check it out
"Assuming teachers agree to these and additional detailed conditions, school begins August 17th."
Check it out
While the FBI is investigating city bigwigs, SFPUC personnel included ... Everyone in power is complicit in forcing the rate payer to “donate”
Read More ...
A photographer goes in search of life on the Avenue ... dining and browsing are available on sidewalks, parking spaces and in some stores inside within strict limitations.
Check it out
"The authors of the San Francisco Plan Bay Area 2050 are asking for public feedback on their 9-county plan to provide solutions ... "
Check it out
Our city is in big trouble. And it is not just because of Covid-19 It is because of a continued string of bad policies and decisions by City Hall over the past 10 years.
Check it out
Whether it’s protests about police violence and racism or defiance of government orders to wear a mask, the most fundamental issues of our democracy are being played out every day in front of millions of people.
Check it out
Dennis Herrera's retaliatory sewer-gate debacle, alongside the FBI's recent arrest ... jab at the City's anti-graft capabilities.
Check it out
City College Stakeholders File CEQA Appeal"This is NOT the time for any Project to go forward that will all but destroy the access for 70,000 college students, most of them from working class, immigrant, black or brown communities."
Check it out
"... the heralded notion of "defunding" police ... risks a return to the high-crime era of the 1960s and 1970s that damaged so many American cities. That applies to San Francisco, which suffers supervisors who berate police and ostracize them politically."
Check it out
"... the issue of Black Lives Matter is on everyone’s lips. Unfortunately, many Americans do not acknowledge institutional racism. But consider the numerous steps that led to the problem and two alternative policing solutions."
Check it out
"Teachers, who are already using their own money to buy school supplies are now also purchasing masks and materials in order to be prepared ..."
Check it out
"If schools do not open this fall, it is likely to induce students to interact with one another outside of school. At school ... it is easier to enforce facemask and social distancing ..."
Check it out
"SFPUC Failed to Protect Clean Water The Beach Chalet Soccer Fields (BCSF) in Golden Gate Park used to have a permeable surface; it's called grass."
Check it out
"... your water, wastewater, and garbage rates are special taxes ... Your great-grandchildren should not be paying for a service provided in 2020."
Check it out
Morale was sagging. Capt. Rainsford ... apparently referenced how the police had handled previous protests.
Check it out
...whether the discrepancy is due to President Trump wanting CMS to “slow down” the testing and positive test results...
Check it out
...the attitude of professional sports team-owning billionaires that local taxpayers must provide stadiums for their professional sport businesses ...
Check it out
a $1.7 billion deficit over the next two fiscal years which could reach over $2.5 billion per Controller Ben Rosenfield...
Check it out
SFPD officers spend 99% of their day responding to where 9–1–1 customers direct them. It is 9–1–1 callers themselves who determine the location and quantity of encounters.
Check it out
Development is in trouble. If Parkmerced, which is the largest multifamily property in San Francisco is an example of the future of development in San Francisco, it is in very real trouble.
Check it out
Board of Supervisors seek solutions ... raising concerns among the public about the possibility of long-term use of parkland to address social and economic problems ...
Check it out
The SF PUC will sell over 17 acres, for approximately $11.2 million — about $640,000 per acre for prime SF real estate to a privateer for more than 90% below market rate ...
Check it out
Hopes were that recovering from COVID-19 would generate antibodies, thus conferring immunity and peace of mind. Plus, survivors could help treat newly-infected COVID-19 patients by donating their convalescent plasma. It's not that simple.
Check it out
While water and sewer bills are not taxes, they are worse. They hit ordinary people harder ... and rates are determined by cost. When costs rise, so do rates.
Read More ...Popular Articles
Life returns slowly to West Portal People are beginning to return to West Portal — and other Westside businesses are ready to make sales...
Check it out
My Mom is Not Disposable...universal testing in all group care facilities, where asymptomatic staff can begin a deadly outbreak, is now being publicly recognized. But it is slow to happen.
Check it out
Tommy refused to social distance...... Upon arrival, the two officers immediately observed Tommy was bleeding from his mouth ...
Check it out
Double Whammy... Schools throughout California are facing severe budget cuts for the next few years...
Check it out
We've been here before...after the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the incomprehensible murders in Guyana...AIDS and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake...
Check it out
Planning to 'streamline' CEQA? ... projects that formerly might have needed extensive review under CEQA would be approved unilaterally by Planning staff if the projects met specific requirements ...
Check it outWhere Are Our Priorities? Nursing homes are like cruise ships, and the outbreak at Central Gardens is illustrative...
Check it outNuru was not the FBI’s main target of the investigation—he was the bait to lure someone bigger.
Check it out...a coyote attack raises the question... How do we coexist with wildlife?
Check it out...suspending access to public records — even temporarily, is clearly dangerous to open government.
Check it outTaxpayer costs will exceed $5 million since the City has been paying the Keker & Van Nest law firm $850/hour to defend Herrera. They already billed the City $2,267,75, in September 2016...
Read More ...Don’t be fooled: you’re being sold insurance. Do you have a choice? Yes you do…
Read More ...… City Officials are worried that Nuru is about to negotiate a plea bargain deal naming names as he is facing twenty years in prison.
Read More ...
