The Chronicle’s Heather Knight blames City Hall’s “custom of spending as long as possible to get almost nothing done” for stalling the effort to install a statue honoring Maya Angelou, angering the artists who submitted designs and belying the City’s decision to push for more women to be represented in art installations throughout San Francisco.

In the City’s motion to dismiss the NRA's federal lawsuit, SF’s legal team pointed to memos and press releases where the NRA seems to acknowledge that the Board's non-binding resolution calling the NRA a "domestic terrorist organization" is not a real threat to the gun-toters of America. One NRA memo described Mayor Breed’s letter that laid out the details of the resolution as “a bunch of hot air with no legally binding effect whatsoever."

With all of the focus on the many scandals coming from the White House and the highly competitive Democratic Primary, many San Francisco voters have forgotten there is a local election coming up next month.

City officials, including Supervisors Shamann Walton and Sandra Lee Fewer, held a rally Friday, urging everyone who is eligible to register to vote. In a city of nearly 900,000, with about 14% below voting age, there are nearly 497,000 registered voters. There are many more people who can register to vote and make their voices heard.

Saturday morning, Suzy Loftus was sworn in as interim District Attorney of San Francisco. This comes over the opposition of not only her opponents in next months election but also from complaints by the ACLU, who called the appointment a “tilting of the scales.” Breed had endorsed Loftus before then District Attorney George Gascón stepped down to run for DA of Los Angeles. He had stated he didn’t think the Mayor would appoint an interim DA before the election.

As campaign spending reaches new heights, Supervisor Gordon Mar is hoping to put a new focus on who is contributing to each campaign in new elections. Proposition F, officially titled Sunshine on Dark Money, campaign ads “will have to include both the name and amount contributed by the top three donors of $5,000 or more. If any of the top three donors are a committee, then the disclaimer must also have the name and the dollar amount contributed by each of the top two major contributors of $5,000 or more to that committee” according to the Chronicle. The measure was co-sponsored by 8 Supervisors. Its only registered opposition is the San Francisco Republican Party.

After spending over $18 million on Measure C to overturn the city’s ban on e-cigarettes before suspending their campaign last month, San Francisco based e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs has announced they are suspending the sale of flavored non-tobacco, non-menthol flavored products. The company is under scrutiny by the FDA for making claims for their products that were not supported by the FDA. 18 vaping related deaths and over 100 illnesses have been reported in the United States.

California Public Utilities Commission President Marybel Batjer blasted PG&E’s performance in the recent blackouts. Among the complaints were failures on even simple issues, leaving local officials in the dark, and the lack of a plan for how to deal with future blackouts. PG&E’s CEO Bill Johnson told state regulators its customers could be looking at blackouts over the next 10 years. San Francisco has offered to buy out PG&E for its local power and San Jose is looking to join them as well.

While there is widespread agreement County Jail #4 is unsafe and should be closed, a new debate has sparked over where to put the 300 inmates housed there. Supervisors Matt Haney and Sandra Lee Fewer have called for efforts to be made to reduce the inmate population. Sheriff Vicki Hennessy has stated that isn’t possible and a new jail must be built instead. In 2015, the Board of Supervisors rejected a proposal for a new jail to be built next to the Hall of Justice and called for more programs to reduce the jail population instead. It costs the city over $250 a day to incarcerate an individual.

Over 28,000 people left San Francisco in the second quarter of 2019, more than double the rate in 2017. San Francisco is second only to New York City for the number of residents leaving and is ahead of Los Angeles and Chicago, despite those cities having far more residents. Many fear the increase in housing costs will scare away companies, who will move to other states and bring their jobs with them.

In hopes of keeping his campaign promise to add 3.5 million new homes to California by 2025, Governor Newsom has given his conditional support to Senator Scott Weiner’s latest housing bill. Senator Weiner has introduced housing legislation twice in the last two years, failing each time. Newsom has said he will help the Senator this time. Because SB50 is a holdover from the last session, Weiner has till January to pass his bill.

In an effort to add more room to their buses, MUNI will be experimenting with sliding doors on them. Currently, the doors take up the space of at least two people and require passengers to disembark and then get back on again. Currently, these doors are being tested on the 48 line. However, it could take until 2035 for the doors to be on all MUNI buses, as the agency as stated they will only put them on new electric buses and that is the deadline that has been set to switch to an all electric fleet.

Many in Redwood City fear landlords will try to get around the recently passed statewide rent control by raising rates so high many are evicted. Assemblyman David Chu, who co-authored the bill, has stated there is evidence of this happening. He has urged the city council to pass an emergency ordinance to protect renters in the Peninsula city. Redwood City Mayor Ian Bain has said they are looking into complaints by renters of this occurring while Councilwoman Diana Reddy suggested action will need to happen.

Mayor London Breed is putting a measure on the March primary ballot, to up the amount of office space the City can approve and prioritize approval for projects that include subsidizing below market rate community and retail spaces.

A competing proposal from SoMa nonprofit Todco wants to restrict office development unless the City meets its affordable housing goals, which is unlikely considering the lack of funding for such projects. Mayor Breed has expressed a willingness to discuss a compromise between the measures, but so far Todco isn’t having it.

Speaker Pelosi is proudly brandishing the photo of her standing up in a White House meeting, taking the sitting (duck) Trump to task for any number of his egregious actions of late. After the meeting Pelosi told reporters, “Now, we have to pray for his health because this was a very serious meltdown of the part of the president.” 

Of course, Trump immediately tweeted out the photo with the petty caption “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown.”

Curbed SF asks the question - how will residents get around after the next “big one” hit, diving deep into the potential risks facing Muni, BART, SFO, ferries and ride-sharing apps should a large earthquake seriously impact existing infrastructure.