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Daniel Lurie proposes rejiggering San Francisco mayor’s office

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie is proposing to overhaul the mayor’s office and bring in several “policy chiefs” to serve as his deputies, a bid to “enhance effectiveness and accountability” over the city’s sprawling 56-agency bureaucracy.The move partly harkens back to a system that San Francisco had until the early 1990s in which “deputy mayors” supervised city departments. San Francisco voters did away with the system by passing Proposition H in 1991, a move largely fueled by anger about the high pay of deputy mayors at the time. Since then, the mayor has leaned heavily on a single position to corral the city’s department heads: the chief of staff.Currently, all department heads report to the mayor through the chief of staff. The proposed changes would add four more chiefs overseeing public safety, housing and economic development, public health, and “infrastructure, climate, […]

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Where to volunteer in San Francisco this holiday season

Read Mission Local often?If so, consider supporting us — San Francisco’s premier independent, nonprofit newsroom — during end-of-year fundraising. We’re almost at our $200,000 goal! The number of unhoused people in San Francisco has increased seven percent compared to the city’s previous count in 2022. Among them: 535 families facing housing insecurity. Another sobering statistic: Among poor households — those making double the federal poverty level — food insecurity skyrocketed from 35 percent to 67 percent between 2021 and 2022, according to the city.As the holidays are upon us, different organizations around the city are rolling up their sleeves to tackle these and other issues. They’re serving residents who may need an extra hand, a toy, a meal, a smile, a hug or a physical place to find community.Mission Local has drafted a list of local organizations where readers can volunteer […]

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Live updates from San Francisco November races

Follow along for Mission Local’s live updates for Election Day from across San Francisco. For updates in the run-up to the election, click here, and to learn more about the candidates and measures on the ballot, go to our election dashboard. If you like our coverage, consider supporting Mission Local. It’s a heck of an effort, today and every day. Election analysisTuesday, Nov. 5: Today is Election Day in San Francisco. Here’s what to expect.Imagine a political campaign is like a ski ramp, with candidates gaining momentum before soaring off into the unknown.  If so, that would render Mark Farrell the Vinko Bogataj of the 2024 San Francisco mayoral campaign. You probably don’t know this name, but you probably do know who this is: He’s the Yugoslavian skier whose horrifying ski-jump-gone-wrong for many years defined “the agony of defeat” in […]

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Election extra! Neighbors for a Better San Francisco gives $89K to No on K

Mission Local is starting an election blog for the week before Nov. 5, updating San Francisco voters on the small twists and turns of the campaign trail in the home stretch before Election Day. Sunday, Nov. 3: Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, big-spending political group, goes all-in against Prop. K — and Matt BoschettoNeighbors for a Better San Francisco, the deep-pocketed political group that has become one of the top-spending outfits in city politics, has given $89,000 to fight Proposition K, the measure to close the Upper Great Highway to cars. The give is the second-biggest campaign donation from Neighbors during this election cycle, after its $950,000 spend on Prop. D, the TogetherSF measure to cap the number of city commissions and expand mayoral power, while restricting police oversight. Like the Prop. D spending being used by mayoral candidate […]

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A requiem: The ghosts from 40 years of walking San Francisco

I got my first job in San Francisco nearly 40 years ago, in the Flood Building, at 870 Market Street. A chubby cheerful, uniformed lobby attendant pressed the elevator buttons for me. The lobby was marble and, oh wonderful, there was a Woolworth’s on the ground floor.I loved to sit at the curved Formica lunch counter just like I loved the ladies who served me: bright lipstick, hairnets, and pink puffy-sleeved uniforms. I loved the Coca-Cola glasses and the grilled cheese sandwiches. I felt grown-up: part of a purposeful lunch crowd, we were all very important. (All photos are from the San Francisco Public Library Archive.)Flood Building at Market and Powell streets. San Francisco Public Library 1905.Woolworth’s. San Francisco Public Library. But best of all, I loved my walk to work from North Beach, up and down Powell Street along the […]

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Murder trial for CashApp founder Bob Lee kicks off in San Francisco

During opening statements today in the highly anticipated murder trial of Nima Momeni, who is accused of stabbing CashApp founder Bob Lee to death last year, attorneys presented two different versions of events: One in which Momeni was a hostile aggressor, the other in which Lee was a drug-addled, sleep-deprived assailant. “Stabbed through his heart — and left to die,” Omid Talai, the lead prosecutor, said slowly and deliberately to the packed San Francisco Superior Courtroom, underscoring his version of events with images projected on two large screens of Lee’s lifeless and stitched-up body.He also showed the jury of seven men and five women surveillance footage of Lee’s movements in the hours before his death. Saam Zangeneh, the lead defense attorney, started with a similarly dramatic opening: “Six. Six hours,” he said. Evidence would show, he said, that Lee slept only six hours […]

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BART halts San Francisco services on College GameDay at Cal

At around 11 a.m., BART resumed regular services from an earlier “major medical emergency” at the Embarcadero station, which had caused delays systemwide and shut down the Embarcadero station.BART spokesperson Jim Alison confirmed that a person was killed after walking onto a track at the Embarcadero station. Just before 8:30 a.m., a train at the Embarcadero station was stopped and unable to move due to a mechanical issue, starting the disruption. “Within 10 minutes, an individual entered the other track at Embarcadero of their own volition with a train in the vicinity,” a statement from BART read. “A collision may have occurred. This was the major medical emergency.”Alison said that BART then decided to close the Embarcadero station.  San Francisco Fire Department workers pushed the disabled train out of the way while emergency workers attended to the individual. Once they declared […]

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San Francisco District 3 debate filled by conservative voices

Residents who listened to Friday night’s District 3 forum witnessed a supervisor race speeding toward a conservative endpoint, with five candidates poised to replace Supervisor Aaron Peskin often collectively supporting tough-on-crime measures and police commission reforms while opposing reparations for Black Americans. The sixth candidate, Wendy Ha Chau, didn’t attend the forum.The direction was led by candidate Matt Susk, who previously worked in private real estate and who is endorsed by organizations like the big-money groups Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and ConnectedSF, which is largely funded by Neighbors; San Francisco Association of Realtors; and the San Francisco Police Officers Association. Among the three leading candidates, Sen. Scott Wiener’s pick, Danny Sauter, occasionally emerged as the more progressive voice on stage, surpassing his two Peskin-endorsed competitors. He was the strongest pro-reparations voice, for example, among the candidates. The latter includes Moe […]

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What is your position on AVs operating in San Francisco?

Leer en español 閱讀中文版Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where we ask the District 9 supervisorial hopefuls in the November 2024 election one question each week. Candidates are asked to answer questions on policy, ideology and more in 100 words or fewer.Answers are being published individually each week, but we are also archiving the weekly series here.If you know of other political events, let me know and I will add them to the post. We will not post a question next week, but we will be back the week after.I will be at Cafe de Olla (3388 19 St.) at 5. p.m. on Thursday September 6, to say hello and talk about the district, or you can email me at oscar.palma@missionlocal.com. This week’s question: What is your position on automated vehicles operating in San Francisco? Do you have any safety concerns? […]

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