SFBG ›

Politics Blog

Plastic bags banned from all SF stores

02.07.12 - 7:49 pm | Yael Chanoff |
(4)

The Board of Supervisors voted to expand a 2007 ban on plastic checkout bags to cover all retail and food establishments.

The law bans all businesses from providing plastic bags to customers. It also requires a ten cent fee for paper bags, to be pocketed by the store. With the ban, only paper bags, compostable bags, and reusable bags will be permitted at checkout. The city hopes to encourage shoppers to carry reusable bags.

Supervisors acknowledged that this ordinance could create confusion and inconvenience for business owners. Read more »

The marriage decision, for better and for worse

02.07.12 - 4:35 pm | Tim Redmond |
(6)

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges cited both Groucho Marx ("marriage is a great institution, but who wants to live in an institution?") and Marilyn Monroe (what if the movie was called "Who Wants to Enter Into a Domestic Partnership With a Millionaire?") in discussing the importance of the word "marriage." Justice Steven Reinhardt's ruling made clear that the only purpose of Proposition 8 was to "lesson the status and dignity of gays and lesbians in California." Th Read more »

San Francisco celebrates same-sex marriage ruling

02.07.12 - 1:50 pm | Yael Chanoff |
(4)

While the usual procession of heterosexual couples beamed as they said their wedding vows on City Hall's Grand Staircase this morning, a historic celebration took place in the South Light Court: hundreds applauded the announcement that same-sex couples are a big step closer to achieving equality in the basic right to marry.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held today that Proposition 8, which eliminated same sex marriage rights for couples in California, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.Read more »

Conflicted Chron buries the lead in city corruption case

02.06.12 - 3:08 pm | Steven T. Jones |
(42)

UPDATED BELOW The San Francisco Chronicle's Matier and Ross love to poke snarky fun at progressives such as Matt Gonzalez, as they did again today when they wrote about his work on the Cobra Solutions vs. San Francisco case, for the second time. But they waited until the last paragraph in this second-to-last item in their column to reveal the real news: Mayor Ed Lee was deposed in the case last week and may be called as a witness.Read more »

Coit Tower battle: How do we fund the parks?

02.03.12 - 2:42 pm | Tim Redmond |
(59)

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

02.03.12 - 1:51 pm | Steven T. Jones |
(4)

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

02.03.12 - 12:35 pm | Tim Redmond |
(4)

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

02.03.12 - 12:00 pm | Tim Redmond |
(4)

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

02.02.12 - 2:43 pm | Tim Redmond |
(14)

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.

02.02.12 - 12:55 pm | Tim Redmond |
(54)

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 »