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A San Francisco supervisor wants to require grocery stores to provide six months of notice before closing a location A San Francisco lawmaker introduced a proposal that would require grocery stores in the city to provide six months of notice before closing a store and to explore a replacement supermarket at the vacated location. Dean Preston, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, introduced what he calls the Grocery Protection Act – which is based on a proposal the board approved in 1984 that was vetoed by then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Preston's proposal would require grocery store...

When in doubt, blame businesses for closing their doors instead of the crime that has made it unsustainable for them to operate. San Francisco might even do you one better: force the businesses to stay open anyway. One of the 11 members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is floating reviving a vetoed 1984 law that would force grocery stores to stay open against their will. Supervisor Dean Preston calls it a “good idea” because of the risk of “food insecurity” that comes with grocery stores closing. The law in question would require stores to give a whopping six-month notice...

Several neighborhoods in San Francisco and Oakland had the most postal worker robberies in California in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Postal Service. According to the data analyzed by ABC7, about 61% of the 145 reported postal robberies across the state last year happened in the Bay Area. Robberies of postal carriers and drivers have increased across the country in recent years. Thieves, often armed with guns or other weapons, have stolen mail carriers’ master keys to gain access to large groups of mailboxes. The robberies have become an increasing concern since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic...

People are not satisfied with the San Francisco city government’s progress in providing reparations to descendants of African Americans who have suffered historical discrimination, according to a new report. Although a city government panel proposed monetary reparations for eligible Black residents last year – with some potentially receiving $5 million, "So far, all they’ve received is an apology," The Washington Post reported. The Post detailed how the city has had to cut funding for the project, and that people are growing frustrated over the lack of progress on reparations. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors put out an official apology...

A presumed mountain lion sighted this week walking atop a fence in South San Francisco turned out to be a large gray cat, police reported. “We were able to confirm the Big Cat was not a mountain lion,” the South San Francisco Police Department said in a post on its Facebook page. “We are happy to report there is no potential threat for the neighborhood.” The animal was spotted by a home security camera early Tuesday morning walking along the fence line separating two homes on the 200 block of Mansfield Drive. The photo of the cat was posted as...

The Meltdown of Commercial Real EstateIn case you’ve still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could “topple” hundreds of US banks.Leaving taxpayers on the hook for trillions in losses.The note, by Senior Editor James Crombie, walks us through the festering hellscape that is commercial real estate.To set the mood, a new study predicts that nearly half of downtown Pittsburgh office space could be vacant in 4 years. Major cities like San Francisco are already sporting zombie-apocalypse downtowns, with abandoned office buildings baking in the sun.So what happened? The Fed’s yo-yo interest...

City leaders in San Francisco, California, are working to install 400 license plate readers across the area to reduce criminal activity. Leaders and community groups held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the technology for which the city received a $15.3 million grant to install, KTVU reported. Mayor London Breed (D) said, “This does not include speed cameras. This does not include facial recognition, but it will be useful for Amber Alerts. It will help us to find missing persons as well.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Police Chief William Scott have agreed to release surveillance video believed to show the moments in which an elderly Asian woman was shoved to her death last year. Key points: Yanfang Wu, 63, died after being shoved on a sidewalk in the Bayview neighborhood on July 3, 2023. No arrests were made and no charges were filed as the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) ruled the incident an accident. Thea Hopkins, 43, the person accused of shoving Wu, was arrested earlier this month for attacking a 71-year-old Chinese woman “without provocation.” The news prompted...

FRESNO, CA (KMJ) When Governor Gavin Newsom suddenly pulled the plug on Monday’s annual State of the State speech with no explanation, insiders and analysts were quick to assume the reason may be due to the extremely close vote on Proposition 1.More than two weeks after the primary election, the race is still too close to call. As of today, Prop 1, Newsom’s $6.4 billion plan to help California’s homeless and addicts leads by 17,000 votes with 200,000 yet to be counted. The tight race reportedly has Newsom’s group scrambling to find more “yes” votes to push it over the...

San Francisco city officials plan to pull its offices from a downtown building near City Hall due to high rent and a bad real estate market, The San Francisco Standard reported Friday. The 11-story building in downtown San Francisco was initially leased to city and county officials back in 1999 and has over the years served as office space for many municipal departments like the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector, the Mayor’s Office of Disability and the Department of the Environment, the outlet reported.

The perpetrator in a high-profile stabbing case from June 2021 was sentenced to five years of probation and supervision programs at San Francisco Superior Court Friday, despite arguments by the prosecutor that the attacker should be imprisoned for the crime. Anh “Peng” Taylor, a Chinese and Vietnamese immigrant who was 94 years old at the time of the attack, was stabbed multiple times in the city’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood in broad daylight when she was walking down the street. Caught on camera during a period of high-profile attacks on Asian Americans, the incident shook the city. Taylor fell “in...

Citizens in a residential area of San Francisco are bolstering their homes with chicken wire in a bid to keep out intruders. Happening in the city's Richmond District, the safety measures come amid a recent jump in burglaries, robberies, and homicides in the affluent neighborhood. Headline-grabbing incidents like thieves making off with a Bank of America ATM earlier this year have even longtime residents on edge - with some installing cameras and safety locks along with the unconventional farm equipment. Several have attended community meetings and made posts on social media as the rampant crime wave persists. In interviews with...

The Chinese operative, who was Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-CA) personal companion and staffer, broke cover in an X-post of her sitting with a Global Times reporter nearly 10 years after her abrupt exit from the United States—shortly after the FBI warned Swalwell she was a foreign agent.“I had lunch with this lady today. Her name is Fang Fang, and U.S. media called her a ‘suspected Chinese spy,’ wrote Hu XiJin, along with the operative who became an omnipresent force in San Francisco Bay Democratic politics—with significant dalliances in the Midwest.Hu wrote that Fang Fang, who presented herself in the U.S....

The event marked the third cancellation on the book tourStranger Things star Brett Gelman has spoken out after a third bookstore cancelled his signing event, following backlash surrounding his views on Israel. Book Soup in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, was set to be the next stop on the star’s debut book tour, promoting his short story collection, The Terrifying Realm Of The Possible: Nearly True Stories (set for release on March 19). However, similarly to bookstores in San Francisco and Winnetka, Illinois, Book Soup have cancelled his appearance. The decision comes after Gelman has been outspoken in support of Israel,...

Tire falls off United flight after takeoff from San Francisco; diverted plane lands safely at LAX

San Francisco voters passed a pair of law-and-order ballot measures on Tuesday night, including one that would require welfare recipients suspected of using drugs to undergo screenings to receive benefits. It marks yet another rebuke of progressive policies in the famously liberal city, following the recall of far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022. The welfare requirement, called Proposition F, had 63 percent support as of Wednesday morning, according to the most recent election results online. Proposition E, which expanded some police surveillance powers and reined in some oversight, had support from 60 percent of voters. There are still votes...

Hey civic-minded folks! Big news from the Golden Gate City – over 60% of San Francisco residents have just given a nod to Propositions E and F. Let’s unpack the changes and what they might mean for the city’s future. First up, Proposition E is handing more tools to the police to tackle crime head-on. Think of it as a power-up for law enforcement, allowing them to fight crime more effectively, pursue suspects with added vigor, and even bring drones into the mix for catching criminals. It’s like a strategic upgrade for the city’s crime-fighting team.

3:07 Voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures on Super Tuesday that expanded police powers, required drug screening for welfare recipients, and reduced restrictions on commercial real estate development — a massive defeat for the left. The San Francisco Chronicle declared boldly in its front-page headline Wednesday morning: “PROGRESSIVISM IS OUT — FOR NOW,” and “Voters make it clear: San Francisco can no longer be called a progressive city.” It reported: For now, at least, San Francisco can no longer be called a progressive city. Not after voters approved ballot measures Tuesday to loosen restrictions on the police and screen...

On March 4, the world´s oldest person, Maria Branyas Morera, celebrated her 117th birthday in Catalonia. Morera was born in San Francisco, USA, but returned to Spain with her family at the age of eight, spending the rest of her life in Catalonia. For the past 23 years, she has stayed in the nursing home, Residencia Santa Maria del Tura. “Order, tranquillity, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people” is what Morera credits her health and longevity to. Morera´s family arrived in Barcelona...

New San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin has instituted a new rule for his club in his first year with the the franchise, and it’s difficult to miss during spring training. Melvin is requiring every person in the team’s dugout to stand for the national anthem, and he explained why. “It’s all about the perception that we’re out there ready to play,” Melvin said, per The Athletic. “That’s it. You want your team ready to play, and I want the other team to notice it, too. It’s really as simple as that.” Melvin also made it clear his reasoning has...