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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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Meet Jason Feng, perhaps San Francisco’s last newsstand owner

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! Regulars expect to find Jason Feng sitting in the green box no bigger than a tool shed, peering out from the middle doorway with a red news rack on one side and a yellow news rack on the other. What they might not know is that Feng oversees possibly the last newsstand in San Francisco.Positioned at the intersection of Columbus Avenue, Stockton and Green streets, Feng sells newspapers seven days a week. His inventory — mostly the San Francisco Chronicle and Sing Tao Daily — reflects the geography. He’s in North Beach but close to ChinatownCustomers, almost exclusively over 60, come and go every few minutes, bringing daily sales to 30 or 40 newspapers, according […]

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Four data takeaways from San Francisco’s November election

It’s been three weeks since the Nov. 5 election in San Francisco, the votes have all been counted, and we can identify some interesting data tidbits from this year’s races. We’ve already written about the role that redistricting played this year. Here are some other takeaways.1. TurnoutIn 2020, turnout reached a near-record high of 86.3 percent in the presidential election. This November, turnout was a far cry from that: 78.9 percent. San Francisco’s average turnout in presidential elections, going back to the 1916 election of Woodrow Wilson to a second term, is 77 percent. So this year was just slightly above average; there was no “Trump bump,” as in the last two general elections, but numbers were more in line with other years.“There wasn’t that last extra spark that takes presidential turnout from good to great,” said Eric Jaye, a San Francisco […]

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Where to find San Francisco’s holiday markets for 2024

It’s almost the holiday season in San Francisco, and there are markets across the city for you to do some shopping, eating, and more.We’ll be keeping track of all the markets in the city, and updating this list as the weeks go by.West Coast Craft, Nov. 23-24West Coast Craft will have a special holiday sale from local artisans for their winter craft fair leading up to the holidays. The craft fair is located at the Fort Mason Center and will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23-24. Great Dickens Christmas Fair, Nov. 23 to Dec. 22The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a Ruby Jubilee Celebration, featuring an immersive, 19th century London Christmas Market of handmade and antique gifts, music, performances, food, pubs, and a dance hall. The […]

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Dean Preston concedes likely defeat in San Francisco’s District 5

Tech entrepreneur and “YIMBY” candidate Bilal Mahmood is poised to unseat District 5 supervisor Dean Preston, San Francisco’s only democratic socialist now serving on the board. In the most expensive district race, political opposition groups lavishly funded the effort to “Dump Dean.”  Though some 42,000 additional citywide votes are still uncounted, Preston on Sunday evening acknowledged his dwindling chances to mitigate his vote deficit and seemed to concede the race.“I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for underdogs, often against the odds,” Preston said in a statement to Mission Local. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it. We can’t win every battle, but we’ll continue the fight.”Though Preston has continued to gain on Mahmood in first-place votes, Mahmood has maintained a lead when ranked-choice selections are counted, putting him more than 1,300 votes ahead of Preston with 52.7 percent.  “I think it’s representative of […]

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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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