Steven T. Jones

Can we have cool new additions without gentrifying the Mission?

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Do livability and gentrification go hand-in-hand? In other words, as you improve a neighborhood like the Valencia Street corridor with bike lanes, wide sidewalks, parklets, and other improvements that are part of the so-called “livability agenda,” does that necessarily drive up rents and force out the working class?Read more »

Love for women flows through the streets of San Francisco

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Can you feel the love, San Francisco? Cuz it's flowing through the streets right now, taking many forms on this unusually busy and politically active Valentine's Day, with a strong theme of protecting the interests of women.Read more »

Technical difficulties mar main Burning Man ticket sale

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So much for the lack of drama around ticket sales for Burning Man this year. Today at noon was when 40,000 tickets went on sale to the general public, and while some burners got their tickets in less than an hour, others endured a frustrating wait of several hours and then found themselves unexpectedly kicked out of line.Read more »

Union divisions

SEIU Local 1021 fights with employers — and its own employees — over salary and benefit cuts

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steve@sfbg.com

Service Employees International Union Local 1021 strenuously resists the wage and benefit givebacks regularly demanded in recent years by employers, including the city of San Francisco, which is now trying to slash the salaries for more than 40 city job classifications.

At the same time, Local 1021 is asking its own employees for benefit givebacks during new contract negotiations, a move that their own union is blasting as hypocritical.Read more »

Hearing called on America's Cup "fundraising fiasco" as Mayor Lee talks about scaling back the event

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Amid reports that San Francisco taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $20 million in America's Cup expenses because of anemic fundraising efforts by the America's Cup Organizing Committee, today Mayor Ed Lee talked about scaling back the event and offering public naming rights to wealthy donors and Sup. Read more »

Two good questions for Mayor Lee

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UPDATED When Mayor Ed Lee appears before the Board of Supervisors this afternoon (Tues/12) for the voter-mandated monthly “Formal Policy Discussions” (aka Question Time), he will be asked a couple of good, relevant questions with no easy answers. This is exactly what voters and progressive supervisors intended, a serious policy discussion, rather than sterile, hollow ritual that our current crop of politicians have turned it into.Read more »

BART could shed light on shady contest between rival developers for Millbrae station

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The BART Board of Directors will next week consider rival private development proposals for property it owns adjacent to BART's Millbrae station, the latest step in a long and potentially lucrative process that has been highly politicized and marred by accusations of unethical behavior.Read more »

Low-key registration underway for Burning Man tickets

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After last year's big Burning Man ticket freakout, it's strangely quiet this year during the brief registration window now underway to buy tickets to this year's event. The lion's share of 40,000 tickets will be sold on Feb. 13 to those who register between yesterday and this Sunday. Read more »

City considers making building owners do seismic upgrades

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City Hall sources have confirmed the basic details of a San Francisco Public Press report from Friday afternoon that the Board of Supervisors will consider requiring the owners of soft-story buildings of three stories or more to seismically retrofit them by 2020 – at the expense of building owners, something sure to rouse controversy.Read more »

Suhr apologizes for sparse spying report, pledges more info

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Police Chief Greg Suhr has issued an apology for the sparse report on joint SFPD-FBI surveillance activities that his department gave last week, pledging to work with the activists who had criticized it as failing to comply with a city law adopted last year. But it remains to be seen whether the two sides will agree on the level of detail that would constitute meaningful civilian oversight of sensitive domestic spying operations.Read more »