Politics Blog

Coit Tower battle: How do we fund the parks?

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The emerging battle over whether San Francisco should allow private parties at Coit Tower is really part of a much larger political debate: How do we fund public parks? Is public space something that resources are put into, something that's paid for by tax money and preserved and made available for everyone -- or should part of the role of parks be to generate cash?Read more »

Bronstein and mergers are not what local journalism needs

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Local, independent, public interest journalism – which is what Warren Hellman sought to create by founding the Bay Citizen in 2009 – could be undermined by a proposed merger between that newsroom and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) under the leadership of former San Francisco Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein.Read more »

Some reality about the jobs report

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The Obama Administration is thrilled with the new employment figures, and it's clear the president will use this as a key part of his campaign (as long as the recovery keeps going and doesn't sputter again). Read more »

A new district elections map

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There's only about a month left before the Redistricting Task Force starts to finalize a new map for supervisorial districts in San Francisco. You can look at the draft map the task force is working on here. The Guardian held a forum on the topic Jan 26 and that's lead to an alternative community map, which is here. Read more »

Presidio Trust gets sued -- for good reason

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The Sierra Club and the Presidio Historical Association have filed suit in federal court charging that the Presidio Trust violated environmental laws when it approved a new luxury hotel for the Main Post area.

The suit reflects the essential problem of the semi-private trust: When you force a national park to make enough money to pay its own way, and you stock the governing board with people who think like real-estate developers, then you create the near inevitability of serious problems.Read more »

Facebook: More rich people. Just what we need.

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So Facebook is going public, and a homeless artist is going to get $200 million. Nice. And a company that has spent eight years spying on your private life (with your consent, of course, although admit it, you didn't know exactly how the data mining worked and how much these folks now know about you) is going to pick up a few billion dollars for selling your secrets to advertisers. Read more »

Santorum lives for donuts and venison

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I love Bad Lip Reading. And the Rick Santorum ad is the best one ever.

We are all homosexuals.

The big fat chick stunk ... like beef.

I hold it like it's a fancy fist for joy.

I had some porn, and I swore, and some weird witch gagged me.

I'm living for donuts and venison.

The first time I drank I had my shoes under my arm.

Diarrhea is OK.

Check it out.

 

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Gavin Newsom (suddenly) cares about economic justice

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I was eating my (late) breakfast as I was listening to Gavin Newsom on KQED's Forum this morning, and at first it was just the usual lofty rhetoric about education ... and then Michael Krasny asked the lieutenant governor about the Occupy movement, and I almost threw up my whole wheat bagel and peanut butter.Read more »

America's cup: What does Larry get?

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The development agreement for the America's Cup comes out next week, although the project is already under way. But there's some concern that the number of visitors (and thus the revenue to the city) might not be as high as projected.Read more »

Castro plaza bill passes, 6-5

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The Board of Supervisors has passed a watered-down version of Supervisor Scott Wiener's legislation to prevent camping and sleeping in Harvey Milk and Jane Warner plazas, with Supervisor David Chiu  casting the swing vote.

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