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Mission barbershop murder suspect to stand trial
Judge Christine Van Aken ruled today after a two-day preliminary hearing that Alexander Martinez, 30, accused of shooting and killing Alberto Vargas Quero, 23, outside a Mission barbershop in April, will stand trial for murder. Martinez has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail in San Bruno. In...
Meet the District 1 Candidates: Do you support the Geary/19th Subway?
Welcome back to our weekly “Meet the Candidates” series, in which District 1 supervisorial candidates who have filed to run respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published each week, but we are also archiving each answer on this page for District 1, to make it easier for voters to browse.
Bernal residents bemoan height of 50-ft. affordable housing proposal
One hears often about the excessive cost of housing in San Francisco. At a Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center meeting on Wednesday, the gripe was a rare one: That home values on the lower western slope of Bernal Heights could plummet. The cause? A proposed 100 percent affordable development at the...
Sameer Gupta gets massive at Yerba Buena Gardens
Sameer Gupta hasn’t exactly been hiding out since he returned to the East Bay last July, after his impressively productive 15-year stint in New York City. But Saturday’s Color Your Mind Festival serves as a banner announcement that the Fremont-raised drummer and inveterate scene-maker is back, and he’s ready to make things happen.
See how they run: Safaí has what no other mayoral candidate has — an MIT degree
In his application essay to MIT’s master’s program in city planning, Safaí wrote, “I want to come to the program to become a mayor of a city one day. I want to learn exactly the elements it takes to run a city.”. Now, as a candidate,...
After 15 years on Mission Street, Artillery AG owners are ready to move on
The owners of the pottery studio and apparel shop Artillery AG have decided to step aside from the business after 15 years, and are looking for an interested buyer. Ivan Lopez and Kelly Ortega, who are partners, want to focus on raising their 5-year-old son and transitioning into personal artistic projects.
Mission barbershop murder started with altercation and piece of bread, witness says
During a court preliminary hearing Thursday, witnesses identified Alexander Martinez as the shooter in the April midday Mission District killing of a newly arrived Venezuelan immigrant. The dispute may have started over a piece of bread. In a video played in court, Martinez told police investigators that later, after he...
New 23-story, 200-unit housing building planned for Duboce and Market
San Francisco’s Planning Commissioners heard preliminary information on Thursday for a proposed housing project at Market Street and Duboce Avenue that could bring 200-units of mostly market-rate housing to the Duboce Triangle area. The project includes 98 two-bedroom units, 80 one-bedroom units, 12 studios, 10 three-bedroom units and 61...
District 11 candidates reveal plans for Persia Triangle
Welcome back to the “Meet the Candidates” series for District 11, where we ask each candidate to answer one question every week leading up to the election. They must answer the question in 100 words or less. We will link to longer answers. With District 11 Supervisor Ahsha...
Cold cocktails, warm vibes at SF’s ‘polyamory happy hour’
Hosts of the San Francisco Polyamory Happy Hour warn guests to “check your expectations at the door.”. “This is a social event, not a dating event,” the event posting explains. No cruising is allowed to prevent the monthly gathering — for people interested in relationship styles that are non-monogamous — from “feeling like a meat market.” The event is primarily for building community and friendship, not just finding people to date.
Valencia St. affordable housing complex for unhoused seniors breaks ground
Construction for a new city-funded affordable housing development on Valencia Street kicked off on Tuesday, drawing Mayor London Breed and other city officials to the site for a celebration. This will be the first project funded by the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund, a $50 million pool geared towards accelerating...
CA Supreme Court upholds Prop 22: Gig drivers are independent contractors
California app-based gig workers — Uber, Lyft drivers and DoorDash food-delivery workers — can be legally classified as independent contractors, per today’s ruling on Proposition 22 from California Supreme Court. Much of the lawsuit turned on the question of whether Prop. 22 usurped the legislature’s authority to...
The top columnist for San Francisco’s largest Chinese newspaper? Mayor London Breed.
In an election year when Chinese voters are being courted by all the major contenders, incumbent Mayor London Breed relishes a distinct advantage: Every other Sunday, her column gets a full page spread in the print edition of Sing Tao Daily, San Francisco’s largest Chinese newspaper. Her columns also appear in World Journal, the second-largest Chinese newspaper.
Mayor London Breed gets sole endorsement of SF Democratic Party
Mayor London Breed won the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party on Wednesday night, giving her campaign a major seal of approval and robbing her rivals of the party’s second- or third-place picks. The party also voted to endorse mostly moderate candidates in the Board of Supervisors...
Man killed in broad-daylight shooting following brawl at 16th St. BART Plaza
Following a fight at the 16th Street BART Plaza late Wednesday afternoon, a man was shot and taken away by an ambulance with life-threatening injuries, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Mission Local learned in a police news release on Thursday morning that the victim died of his wounds....
Glass workers’ Mission picket attracts political crowd
Several dozen glaziers picketed today outside Golden Gate Glass at Folsom and 16th streets, banging cowbells and gongs, beating paint-bucket drums, and pounding their signs on the metal plates in the sidewalk. District Council 16, which represents glaziers across northern California, has been negotiating for higher wages with the Northern...
Mark Farrell doubles down on practice of commingling campaign funds
San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell has continued a practice that his opponents say amounts to skirting campaign finance limits: He has pooled $160,895 in expenses between his mayoral race and a ballot measure he is backing. Rival campaigns allege that this effectively allows Farrell to access larger sums from...
Five of the six D3 candidates express disapproval of the Biking and Rolling Plan
Between February and the November election, Mission Local is asking each District 3 candidate one question per week, and candidates will get 100 words to respond. We will compile all responses to the 40-odd questions on a “Meet the Candidates” page, so that voters can get a full picture of their stances.
See how they run: Safaí, the stair-master, knocks doors in the Mission
At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, seven campaign staffers for Ahsha Safaí were getting ready for some door-knocking at their 22nd and Mission headquarters. “Ahsha for Mayor” T-shirts were neatly folded on the table, waiting for volunteers to take home. Later, the campaign staffers would all change into one before they broke into four groups and headed to two precincts in the Mission, carrying light blue tote bags in fruit and beach prints with window signs and door hangers.
Meet the Candidates: SFUSD school board contenders on balancing the budget
Welcome back to the “Meet the Candidates” series for the school board, where we ask each candidate one question every two weeks. They must answer the question in 100 words or less. We will link to longer answers. Twelve candidates are vying for four seats on the city’s...
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Since 2008, Mission Local has been all up in the Mission District reporting on everything from tacos to tech, crime to culture, murals to MUNI, recording the lives and changes in the city’s oldest (and arguably, best) neighborhood.
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