San Francisco

New fare gates meant to deter turnstile hoppers are coming to the 24th Street BART station this spring, sometime in May or June, BART officials said today. It will be one of eight stations across the Bay Area to receive the upgrades.

The November election may seem far away, but the campaign for District 9 supervisor is already heating up.

With Hilary Ronen leaving her post this year — and her aide Santiago Lerma opting out of the race to replace her — the field is wide open to challengers from all corners. Eight hopefuls have filed for candidacy and seven are actively campaigning, making District 9 the most heavily contested in the city.

It would be unfair to say San Francisco’s Ethics Commission moves very, very slowly. In order to do that, they’d have to go a lot, lot faster.

As it is, the Ethics Commission operates at a glacial pace (a metaphor nobody will understand in a generation). To wit: Ethics has, to date, completed only three of the mandatory audits of the 16 candidates who received public funds for the 2020 election cycle — among other things, ensuring the people’s money was spent on what candidates said it was spent on, and that campaigns were conducted in a legal, proper manner.

Storm clouds are gathering at San Francisco City Hall as 2024 brings with it two momentous elections.

Mayor London Breed faces uncertainty as dissatisfaction with City Hall opens the door for challengers, including Supervisor Ahsha Safaí and philanthropist Daniel Lurie. But Safaí and Lurie lack Breed’s name recognition and have yet to make much traction in their bids to take over Room 200. Political insiders are grasping for alternatives, such as Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin or former Mayor Mark Farrell.

I'm wearing a sweater under my jacket!

SAN FRANCISCO - A video of a woman barking at a man on a bus in San Francisco, allegedly because he was playing loud music, has gone viral.

rosamunde is closing its mission street location

you can also purchase the beverage sans pumpkin for a mere $6.50

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/5epXV

Written by Joshua Bote and Kevin Truong

The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection has opened an investigation into the Mint Plaza pod housing complex that received widespread attention on social media and local news media last week.

A case was opened up Tuesday as city officials determine whether the developers had the proper permits to build sleeping pods inside the Downtown San Francisco building, which was previously a location of the San Francisco Fire Credit Union.

"We are aware of the issue and have opened an investigation to determine if there is a code violation," said Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the department, in a statement to The Standard.

The department is also looking into whether additional work has been done on the property without proper permits.

Brownstone Shared Housing, the firm managing the development, opened up the complex sometime in June, according to social media posts by the company. The company already has similar short-term pod housing properties in Palo Alto and Bakersfield. Last year, the Palo Alto unit was cited for multiple code violations.

Brownstone did not respond to a request for comment.

The Downtown San Francisco property currently has around 20 pods on the top floor of the three-story structure—with a mixture of AI founders, other technologists, artists and retail workers currently renting out the pods. The other two floors have common areas, a stove-less and oven-less kitchen; there is a bathroom on each floor. It costs $700 a month; internet and utilities are included.

The property is currently listed on the market as an office building for $3.3 million. The owner of the property is Kansas-based Elsey Partners, a developer who previously submitted plans to develop an eight-story pod-style hotel on the property.

Markus Shayeb, a real estate broker with TRI Commercial listing the property, said those plans stalled and Elsey signed a one-year lease for the property with Brownstone.

“We had a very strong disclaimer when we did the lease,” Shayeb said.

This is a developing story.

Written by Kevin Truong

The Port of San Francisco is trying to evict two historic restaurants with a prominent place in Fisherman’s Wharf, one of the city’s premiere tourist destinations.

The San Francisco City Attorney filed unlawful detainer lawsuits in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday against Fishermen’s Grotto No. 9 and Tarantino’s, alleging the restaurants—which remained largely shuttered throughout the pandemic—have failed to pay rent for years.

Both restaurants are registered under the name Herringbone Tavern Inc., which is owned by businessman Chris Henry, who also owns Barrel House Tavern in Sausalito and Tommy’s Joynt on the corner of Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue. The San Francisco Business Times first reported news of the lawsuits.

Henry did not respond to a request for comment about the future of the Fisherman’s Wharf restaurants.

Fishermen’s Grotto—which started in 1946, is located at 2847 Taylor St. and is known for its distinct facade and turn-of-the-century neon signs—owes $332,642.22 in unpaid rent between October 2022 and September 2023.

Tarantino’s, which started in 1935 around the corner at 206 Jefferson St., racked up $147,346.08 in unpaid rent over the same period, according to the lawsuit.

But a San Francisco Port representative said that’s only a portion of what’s owed. Boris Delepine, a spokesman for the port, said neither restaurant has paid rent since March 2020, bringing the total for both to $1.4 million in back rent.

“The Port’s goals regarding these two restaurants were to see them both fully reopen and a feasible plan to pay the $1.4 million in back rent owed. We’ve engaged with Mr. Henry over the past three years to encourage these outcomes, but unfortunately they did not come to pass,” Delepine said in a statement. “We remain open and willing to explore short and long-term strategies to keep both restaurants open and active.”

A string of restaurants have closed at Fisherman’s Wharf as pandemic shutdowns took their toll on foot traffic and tourism. Alioto’s, a century-old restaurant on the wharf, decided to pay an early termination fee to walk away from its lease last year.

Similar deals were struck by Pompei’s Grotto and Lou’s Fish Shack, with their respective lease terminations approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The vacancies continue to stack up as a team led by longtime San Francisco businessman and political power player Lou Giraudo looks to overhaul and update the wharf.

Their group, called Fisherman’s Wharf Revitalized, seeks to redevelop the port-owned property in the area into an events center, experiential museum and new winery and distillery.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted earlier this month to allow the San Francisco Port to enter into negotiations with Giraudo’s team.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/opdb3

by Xueer Lu

Daniel Lurie, Levi Strauss heir, declared his bid for mayor this morning, joining Supervisor Ahsha Safaí in an attempt to unseat Mayor London Breed.

Lurie, who is also the founder and CEO of the grant-making nonprofit Tipping Point, signed papers at the Department of Elections this morning at 9 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Becca Prowda, who serves as Director of Protocol for Gov. Gavin Newsom. The couple have two children.

At Lurie’s campaign launch event in Potrero Hill he criticized Breed and her office for focusing on “business as usual” and failing to stare down the city’s real threats: homelessness, affordable housing, the fentanyl crisis, open-air drug markets, neighborhood business struggles and public safety.

“We don’t have a mayor who’s challenging the system. We have a mayor who’s entrenched in it,” he said. “She’s been on the Board of Supervisors or in the City Hall for over a decade. What do we get? No solutions. We get excuses and finger pointing.”

Lurie’s solutions coalesced around public safety, homelessness, and improving city governance.

He said that his administration would increase staffing in the police department, speed up increasingly-long 911 response times, deploy more police officers in commercial corridors to prevent car break-ins and auto thefts and place officers in Chinatown to perform foot patrols.

The candidate also promised to drastically expand access to emergency psychiatric services and provide enough shelter beds for every San Franciscan who needs one. The city is currently facing a lawsuit alleging it dismantles homeless encampments without offering their residents adequate shelter space.

And Lurie emphasized transparency and accountability, saying he would challenge what he called a dysfunctional bureaucracy. “No more backstabbing and sabotaging between departments. No more lack of accountability,” he said.

The candidate was joined by some 200 supporters, friends and family members, who crowded the theater at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.

“I think the analogy of him rolling up his sleeves and getting involved has been true his whole life. He’s just never shied away from the hard work,” said Cobie Everdell, who has been friends with Lurie since Everdell was five years old.

“I’ve worked with him for a long time and I think one thing about Daniel is that he is very good at facing issues head-on and bringing in the right partners and resources to solve them,” added Kelly Bathgate, who used to work alongside Lurie at Tipping Point. “And I trust his leadership to do that for San Francisco.”

Max Young, a 58-year-old who works in the bar business in the city and knows Lurie from his advocacy work, said Lurie’s track record of success with Tipping Point is to his advantage. “Tipping Point built the supportive housing units that got up in San Francisco under budget and ahead of schedule.”

Lurie, for his part, spoke at length about his nonprofit’s good deeds in the city. He said Tipping Point has helped to alleviate poverty, mentioning an affordable housing project at 883 Bryant St. funded in part by his nonprofit and calling it “a project that came in on time and under budget with good paying, union labor”.

Lurie also talked about the non-profit’s efforts to fundraise to alleviate fire displacement in the North Bay and partner with the NFL to bring Super Bowl 50 to the Bay Area.

After a 15-minute speech, Lurie walked around the venue and thanked his supporters for attending. Supporters mingled for half an hour before ambling out of the center.

Outside the venue, Conor Johnston, a former legislative aide of then-Supervisor London Breed, handed out flyers calling out Lurie’s lack of political experience. The glossy handouts derided Lurie as “Malibu Dan,” a reference to his purchase of a $15.5 million home in that city in 2021.

Most of the supporters streaming out of the venue ignored Johnston, walking swiftly past.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/0434x

by Annika Hom

Withholding welfare to force drug users into treatment won’t work, experts say

“I’ve known many people who are on welfare and I’ve known many people at City Hall,” said a political consultant, “and there are many more people at City Hall who are high on drugs.”

Mayor London Breed and three moderate supervisors said on Tuesday that a proposal to drug test San Francisco welfare recipients would keep individuals “accountable” and help shepherd those struggling with addiction into treatment.

But more than half a dozen addiction experts and political figures told Mission Local that, if the goal of the measure is to address people’s addictions, the plan is likely to backfire.

Tell welfare recipients to undergo drug testing or risk their cash, and “they’re going to say — pardon my French — ‘Eff you, I’ll find something else,’” said Dr. William Andereck, a doctor of internal medicine who runs the ethics committee at Sutter Health/California Pacific Medical Center.

Andereck said that because addiction is a serious disease that changes brain function, most drug users will probably want to use, and decline treatment and forgo the cash.

Even if they accept, there do not appear to be sufficient treatment options for the potentially hundreds or thousands of additional patients the measure would create.

The proposal, announced by Breed on Tuesday, would require drug testing for some 5,200 people who receive cash through the County Adult Assistance Program, a city-run program that disburses between $100 to $700 a month to low-income San Franciscans.

The city’s Human Services Agency, which administers the program, said that some 20 percent of those receiving cash assistance during 2018 to 2020 had reported substance use disorder. Twenty percent of today’s program enrollees is 1,040.

Yet presently there are almost no slots available for drug treatment, according to Vitka Eisen, the CEO of nonprofit HealthRight 360, which provides addiction services across the city.

There are just 2,600 overnight beds in the city for various drug and mental health purposes, according to the Department of Public Health; another 50 are in the pipeline.

The majority of these beds, however, are currently occupied, said Eisen.

“If everybody decided today to go, and they get urine tested … there’s definitely not enough capacity for that,” Eisen said.

Drug users and experts said that, in reality, the proposal would likely lead users to other means, like crime, to fund their addiction. Cutting cash off could even worsen health outcomes by limiting access to basic needs like food or housing, they said.

Many experts said there is little evidence that coercive proposals help sober people up. Even doctors who believe in forced treatment for severe addiction said restricting cash assistance did not make sense.

“I don’t see how [this proposal] accomplishes what they want,” said Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a UCSF professor on family addiction medicine. “This is another piece of proof that the war on drugs is a war on people.” Is cash enough to compel people into treatment?

Andereck, the internal medicine doctor, said that he generally supports Breed’s efforts to address the “frustrating” drug epidemic.

When he first heard Tuesday’s proposal, he was supportive, he said. “But then, you start thinking about it — it’s harsh,” he said. “The only consequence is creating more crime.”

Of the choice to revoke cash assistance or get help, he said: “I basically see it as a bribe.”

Several medical experts said the compulsory proposal ran counter to best practices in harm reduction and public health fields. The approach “aligns in people’s mind a coercive public response that can be unhelpful,” said Harold Pollack, the co-director of the Health Lab, a public health division at the University of Chicago.

Pollack compared the situation to a doctor whose diabetes patient comes in for an appointment while slurping down a Pepsi.

“You want to say: ‘Let’s work on that, because that’s going to hurt you, given your health,’” Pollack said. “We’re not going to say: ‘We’re not going to give you any medical care for your diabetes right now, and we’re not going to give you food stamps.’”

Janet Coffman, head of the Master of Science and Health Policy and Law Program at UCSF, added that the most successful outcomes are when individuals voluntarily participate in programs.

In reality, cutting people off cash may actually worsen people’s health by depriving them of basic needs, like food or housing, experts said.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani said she supported the measure and suggested that some individuals are using welfare cash to buy drugs off the street. Dr. David Smith, an addiction expert, said this was true in some cases, and that drug markets should be disrupted. However, he estimated just 10 to 15 percent of patients suffering from addiction that he has studied use cash for drugs.

“Which implies that 80 to 90 percent, if they get [cash] use part of it for the intended purpose,” Smith said. Capacity unlikely to meet demand

Withholding cash may incentivize some to accept help, experts agreed. But in a time when nursing shortages abound and bed availability is scant, many wondered if those who accepted the preconditions would receive adequate treatment.

“The big question for the mayor is: Do we have the resources to provide treatment to everybody who … will accept?” said Coffman, adding that there are also not adequate withdrawal medications for methamphetamines in the same scale as for opioids.

Smith, who opened the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics and is the former president of the California and American Societies of Addiction Medicine, agrees with Breed and Andereck that the status quo is “not working.”

Smith is open to forced treatment in certain instances, but proposals like Breed’s should only focus on the heaviest users — not all welfare recipients.

“The extension of drug testing for everybody, seems to be a little beyond,” Smith said, saying he would like to see programs targeted to those cycling in and out of emergency rooms, or “frequent flyers,” instead.

And, he said, he has asked the city to study how similar programs have fared elsewhere before implementation. “I would like to see more clinical evaluations,” he said. Why go after the poor? It’s politics

Meanwhile, political consultants and progressive supervisors accused Breed of using the proposal to play politics. Breed’s announcement came the same day that Daniel Lurie, the Levi Strauss heir and Breed’s most well-heeled opponent, announced his candidacy for mayor.

“There are no coincidences in politics,” said political consultant Eric Jaye, who helmed then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom’s Care Not Cash measure and subsequent mayoral campaign.“If she loses the billionaires, who does she have?”

Board President Aaron Peskin swiftly denounced Breed’s proposal on Tuesday. He questioned how the mayor could means-test thousands of welfare recipients if she could not even act against hundreds of drug dealers.

“She can’t, and she won’t, and this would simply be silly politics if the issues we face as a city were not so serious,” Peskin said.

The proposal is unlikely to pass the Board of Supervisors, which is controlled by a progressive faction, though Breed could take the measure to voters directly as a ballot initiative.

For his part, Jaye said he was tempted to introduce a ballot measure of his own: Mandating drug-testing for elected officials and their aides.

“I’ve known many people who are on welfare and I’ve known many people at City Hall,” said Jaye, “and there are many more people at City Hall who are high on drugs.”

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/mYPyV

By Dan Gentile, Gabe Lehman

One of San Francisco’s most notable — and loudest — civic traditions continues this year.

Although many cities around the country host annual celebrations of the United States armed forces, San Francisco’s Fleet Week is one of the largest in the country. San Francisco’s yearly event began in 1981 at the direction of then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein and has grown to a nine-day event. It has a somewhat divisive reputation in San Francisco, due largely to the noise disruptions and spending, but still draws thousands of visitors to enjoy air shows, ship tours and concerts.

When is San Francisco Fleet Week?

The 2023 festivities happen Oct. 2 through 10, running just after the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and concurrently with the Italian Heritage Festival.

Where does San Francisco Fleet Week take place?

Fleet Week happens throughout the entire city of San Francisco, and given the constant flyovers by Blue Angels and other pilots, most places around the bay can expect to experience an increase in noise as a result of the events. Military bands are scheduled to perform several times a day across the city at locations ranging from Duboce Park to the Japantown Peace Plaza. However, most of the action is set to take place near the waterfront, spanning from the Marina Green to ship tours at piers 19, 30/32 and 35. If you’re looking to enjoy great views of the action, try visiting one of these rooftop bars.

What events happen during Fleet Week?

The week kicks off with a Veterans Art Exhibit at the War Memorial Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Ave. and performances by several different military bands across town. Specifically, the schedule includes a concert to honor fallen service members from the United States Marine Corps 1st Marine Division Band at the Herbst Theatre on Oct. 5.

The headlining air show is set to take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz on Oct. 6, 7 and 8, featuring the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy Leap Frogs Parachute Team and even a United 777.

The schedule also includes a special celebration of K-9s at Duboce Park on Oct. 7, along with free ship tours Oct. 3 through 9.

Why do people hate Fleet Week?

Despite all the pomp and circumstance, Fleet Week isn’t every San Francisco resident’s favorite civic event. Some critics see the aerial exercises as a disturbance, causing excessive noise that drives animals crazy and has potentially dangerous implications for those with post-traumatic stress disorder. If you live in the city, there’s almost no way to avoid the noise, so expect plenty of disruptive flyovers throughout the week. There’s also criticism about the level of spending on the event, and although the overall budget is hard to decipher, each flight show by the Blue Angels alone was estimated to cost $633,482 in 2016.

But those critiques aside, many still enjoy the lively atmosphere the event brings to San Francisco, and it serves as a rare opportunity to see up-close views of the equipment and personnel used by the United States military. For more information on Fleet Week and to learn about volunteer opportunities, visit FleetWeekSF.org.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/nk4Jz

By Nico Madrigal-Yankowski

San Francisco’s only Boston Market has been served an eviction notice and may be closing permanently.

Boston Market is known for its fast-casual rotisserie chicken meals, as well as baby back ribs, meatloaf and chicken pot pie. At the corner of Potrero Avenue and 16th Street, on the ground floor of Potrero Center, the Mission District location opened in 2010, according to Facebook.

A tip from a reader this week notified SFGATE that the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department had served an eviction notice to the property owners on Sept. 6. According to the notice posted on the restaurant window, any tenants or property owners would be subject to arrest if they entered the property on or after Sept. 13.

A spokesperson for Boston Market said the company has no comment at this time. SFGATE reached out to the law firm of the property owners but did not hear back in time for publication. A sheriff’s spokesperson confirmed an eviction notice was served at 2300 16th St., Suite 100.

Nationwide, Boston Market has struggled as of late. In 2019, the chain closed 45 restaurants to improve the company’s “long-term sustainability.” In 2021, a Rancho Cucamonga, California, outpost shut down after a staffwide walkout on Thanksgiving, according to KTLA-TV in Southern California.

2023 has also been a bad year for the company. In May, the Colorado Department of Revenue seized the company’s headquarters, as well as three Colorado branches, for allegedly failing to pay taxes and withholding wages, according to KUSA-TV in Denver. Boston Market swiftly paid its taxes, and the seized buildings were reopened. However, in August, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development forced the company to cease operations across the state, as the department had found multiple violations of workers’ rights — 314 employees were owed over $600,000 in wages — but Boston Market quickly appealed the stop-work order, according to New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW-FM).

This summer, US Foods, an Illinois-based food distributor, filed a lawsuit against Boston Market alleging the fast-casual restaurant owes around $11 million in two years' worth of unpaid bills.

Boston Market was created in 1985 and went public in 1993, according to Business Insider. However, in 1998, the chain filed for bankruptcy. McDonald’s bought the brand in 2000 but sold it to Sun Capital Partners in 2007. After Sun Capital shuttered 45 stores in 2019, it sold the company to Engage Brands in 2020. Engage Brands is a subsidiary of the Rohan Group of Companies, which is owned by restaurant operator and real estate investor Jignesh Pandya.

As of now, there are eight Boston Markets throughout the Bay Area, according to the company website. However, along with the San Francisco location, outposts in Daly City, Pleasant Hill and San Jose are all reportedly either temporarily closed or permanently shuttered. The Oakland, Fremont and Santa Clara locations, as well as another San Jose location, are all still listed as open.___

Someone dumped orchids on the sidewalk. It's kinda sad.

If your smoothies are good enough, grammar is optional.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/FWh5E

Written by George Kelly Published Sep. 21, 2023

Readers may already know the California Highway Patrol has been drafted to wage war on the drug crisis plaguing San Francisco’s streets.

Usually, CHP conducts traffic stops to find highly addictive substances such as fentanyl. But on Wednesday, CHP officers found themselves unloading 40 to 50 boxes of Pocky—an addictive chocolate-covered biscuit stick created in Japan in 1966.

CHP patrol officers noticed a van with no license plate at around 3:52 p.m. near its San Francisco office on Eighth Street, Officer Mark Andrews told The Standard. Andrews confirmed the van was stolen.

A video posted to X/Twitter from the incident shows officers unloading the van on Harrison Street, with cookies-and-cream-flavored Pocky boxes stacked nearby.

When officers pulled the stolen van over, they spoke with a woman behind the wheel and a male passenger. Soon after, officers took the woman into custody on suspicion of possession of stolen property. The passenger was released after questioning and was not charged, Andrews said.

The incident is being investigated as retail theft, according to Andrews, who asked any establishments with missing shipments of Pocky to contact the CHP's San Francisco office.