San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2018/05/page/2/)
By Jeremy Dalmas, KALW/Crosscurrents
April 15 just passed and you, hopefully, finished paying the IRS. But if you’re an independent contractor in San Francisco, your taxes to the city are due next on May 31. This is separate from the money you pay to the IRS or the state of California. Confused? You’re not alone.
By Matt Levin, CALmatters
The median price of a California single-family home is now well over half a million dollars. That’s more than double what the average house costs in the rest of the U.S.
Put a more nauseating way, you could buy two “average” non-California houses for the price of one California house. Can’t decide between the Cape Cod or the midcentury Craftsmen? Move to the Midwest and buy both! You’d forgive Californians, though, for shrugging off words like “average” and “median” to describe the state’s housing situation.
Sixth in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
Ellen Lee Zhou has a plan to end San Francisco’s homelessness crisis. And it could involve you.
Zhou, a public health worker who is competing against some political heavyweights to be the next city mayor, said that if elected June 5 she would pay homeowners monthly stipends to house and mentor some of the city’s estimated 4,353 unsheltered residents. » Read more
Fifth in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
In 2015, Richie Greenberg ran for District 1 supervisor. On the advice of several acquaintances, he called himself a Democrat. “I was not very politically involved,” he said. » Read more
By Charlotte Silver, Mission Local
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is using a gunfight that surprised a sleepy street in Bernal Heights last October as part of his salvo against property owners who illegally rent out their homes on short-term rental sites like Airbnb. On Wednesday, Herrera announced that his office had filed a lawsuit against the couple that own 212 Banks St., which on Oct. 14 became the site of a party-turned-gun battle. There were no fatalities and only one injury that night, but the hail of bullets sprayed parked cars with bullets and sent partiers fleeing. According to the lawsuit, Erik Rogers and Anshu Singh rented their home out to tourists for most nights between June 2016 and October 2017, sometimes for as much as $800 a night.
Fourth in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
It’s her second mayoral race, but Amy Farah Weiss doesn’t rate in polls that have been released so far for the June 5 special election to fill the seat of the late Mayor Edwin Lee. » Read more
By Felicia Mello, CALmatters
The message popped into UC Berkeley sophomore Varsha Sarveshwar’s inbox a few days before the start of her Introduction to General Astronomy course last fall. It contained the usual details about class times and textbooks. But then there was something surprising: a plea from the professor to skip the first day of class. “I’d like to encourage at least 200 of you NOT to come to Hertz Hall the first two lectures, and simply watch them on webcast instead,” professor Alex Filippenko wrote. While 850 students were enrolled in the course, the lecture hall could only hold 650, Filippenko explained.
By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local
Retirement, for Larry Bush, looks a lot like work did. The former journalist, politico, fixer and government apparatchik is seated on a recliner in his Castro district living room, his feet up; his tiny dog, Izabel, sitting across his legs; and a MacBook in his lap. He’s following the money. Well, someone has to. “His watchdoggery is unrelenting … No one else is doing the job,” reads a profile of Bush.
Horse race. Blood sport. Relay race. Full-court press. Hunger games.
Welcome to campaign season.
We’re in the run-up to the June 5 primary and special election, and city and state politics are in overdrive.
Here’s what’s up with a few of the San Francisco mayoral hopefuls and, heck, the body politic. » Read more
Third in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
This is Angela Alioto’s third full-fledged attempt to crack City Hall Room 200, and the detractors of the feisty and charismatic civil rights attorney, former board president and aspiring second-generation mayor, dismiss her as a vestige of this city’s past — our very own Make San Francisco Great Again candidate. » Read more