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District 7 candidates discuss transit shortcomings
Welcome to “Meet the Candidates,” where Mission Local asks supervisor hopefuls questions in the lead-up to the November election. In District 7 — which includes the Inner Sunset, Parkmerced and West Portal — Matt Boschetto and Stephen Martin-Pinto are running against incumbent Myrna Melgar. This week’s...
People We Meet: Issam Dabit, 41-year owner of 828 Irving Market
We bumped into this small business owner while canvassing District 7 as part of our ongoing coverage of November’s supervisorial race. For many residents in the Inner Sunset, Issam Dabit is a familiar face: For 41 years he and his family have run 828 Irving Market, the grocery store that is predictably located at 828 Irving St.
Where to see SF marathon runners Sunday morning
The 47th annual San Francisco full marathon kicks off Sunday morning at 5:15 a.m. Runners will start at Embarcadero and Market, follow the perimeter of the city through Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina District and cross the Golden Gate Bridge and back before cutting east through the city to conclude near the starting point.
Review: Rasa Rasa Kitchen – Indonesian Fare so Rare
There is only, I believe, one other Indonesian restaurant left in San Francisco, not counting Rasa Rasa, which moved into the former Pho on Bryant space four months ago. But people have been enjoying Joe Sharp and Patty Tang’s food since 2020 at their food truck, which lives at Parklab Gardens in Mission Bay and opened just as the pandemic hit.
Newcomers join Team USA vets in S.F. wheelchair ‘power soccer’
Imagine a mix of bumper cars and pinball, and you’ve got a quick sense of what power soccer is, the manager of San Francisco’s team jokes. In reality, it’s harder than it looks. The Eureka Valley Rec Center gym echoed with the whir of specialized power wheelchairs,...
People we meet: Daniel Beck, the pit-bull photographer
Daniel Beck doesn’t own a pit bull, but he photographs them. And he has been for the past ten years in the Bay Area, mostly in San Francisco. On a typical gloomy Thursday morning in the Excelsior, Beck was doing another photo shoot for a pit bull inside Excelsior Coffee at 4495 Mission St. The star of the show was Romy, a five-month-old blue-nose pit bull with blue-ish gray hair, who was adopted two months ago by the coffee shop owner, Lea Sabado. Romy was not there by herself.
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...
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...
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