San Francisco’s civil grand jury on Thursday chastised many of the city’s restaurants for profiting from surcharges they add to customers’ bills under the name of paying for health care and recommended that the city ban the practice.
Yearly Archives: 2012
Posted inEducation
Faces of City College
After a harsh accreditation review detailing financial and administrative failures, City College of San Francisco has been given a year to prove itself worthy of accreditation or face the risk of closure. Though the school’s community has promised to fight the criticisms with change, it could be an uphill battle for all those involved. In the struggle to keep the school’s doors open, it’s been frequently reported that the possible loss of accreditation would affect over 120,000 City College students, faculty and staff. Here, in their own words, are some of their stories.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
S.F. controller’s audit finds meter maids need more ongoing training
Audit also finds that transit agency should seek reimbursement for city events
A city audit released Tuesday said the Municipal Transportation Agency needs to do a better job training parking control officers. The audit, conducted by the city controller’s office, looked at whether parking control officers are adequately trained, how officers are deployed throughout the city and if staffing levels are sufficent.
Posted inCity Hall, Elections
Ranked-choice voting survives in San Francisco after supervisors’ decision
Ranked-choice voting in San Francisco will continue in its original format and any attempts to change it will have to wait until after the November election. By agreeing to send three proposed alternatives back to the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee on Tuesday, the board assured that all three potential ballot questions posed by supervisors Christina Olague, Mark Farrell and David Chiu wouldn’t make their July 27 deadline for the November ballot.
Posted inMuni, News
S.F. Muni paid bonuses tied to inflated on-time rate
By Zusha Elinson, Bay Citizen Muni paid thousands of dollars in bonuses to top executives for meeting or exceeding on-time performance goals, even as the agency inflated its on-time rates by as much as 18 percent. The agency’s two previous chief executives, Michael Burns and Nathaniel Ford, received the bonuses. Both men have denied knowing […]
Posted inNews
S.F. supervisors deliberate on housing trust fund
By Noah Arroyo, Mission Local The Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee will continue its deliberations Monday on a measure to establish a Housing Trust Fund, which would give the city an independent funding source for affordable housing. If the measure passes the committee and the full board, voters will have the final say when it […]
Posted inArts & Culture, City Hall, Community, Homelessness, Neighborhoods, Public Safety
Most Haight merchants say nothing changed on street after ‘sit-lie’ prohibition
A majority of retailers surveyed last November in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood said the enactment of San Francisco’s sit-lie law hasn’t worked as expected: Homeless people still hang out in front of their businesses. An independent research report commissioned by the city found that 58 percent of the merchants in the district — the focus of a political battle that led to voter approval of the ban in 2010 — say the same number of people or more continue to park themselves on sidewalks. Sixty-one percent said they encountered sidewalk sitters at least three times per week.
Posted inEconomy & Business, Government & Politics, News, Politics
Krugman: California represents the worst of current U.S. economic crisis
The budget pain facing California this year is not California’s fault, said Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who has been among the most outspoken writers critiquing the government’s response to what he calls an economic “depression.” “Gov. Brown faces political constraints that, if anything, are even worse than those faced by President Obama, because of the craziness of California’s constitutional setup,” Krugman said at a recent appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California. He said Proposition 13, the state’s requirement of a legislative supermajority to pass tax increases, was the main culprit.
Posted inCity Hall, Economy & Business, Public Safety
S.F. mayor says police need $30 million more after years of stalled hiring
The San Francisco Police Department appeared to save money over the last three years by paying veteran officers extra to delay their retirement and freezing hiring of new recruits. But the bill for those changes is now coming due. Much of those savings have been wiped out since 2008, after a flood of officers took advantage of the Deferred Retirement Option Program to dip into their pensions early while still earning a salary.
Posted inArts & Culture, California, Health, Human Trafficking, Public Safety
Comic: Obedience is the best weapon
One woman’s true tale of human trafficking and rescue
Human trafficking is largely seen as a problem overseas, but its rise in the U.S. has gone largely underreported. For its Spring 2012 edition, the San Francisco Public Press published a special report on human trafficking in the Bay Area. The report examined the financial and political challenges facing agencies that aid trafficking victims and prosecute perpetrators. As a follow-up to this report, renowned cartoon artist Dan Archer illustrated one woman’s story with a full-page cartoon in the Summer 2012 edition.