Lee Heidhues 9.24.2022

This is sad.

 I worked in the neighborhood for 10 years where the Double Play is located. First at an import company, which now houses the San Francisco animal shelter, and later at the Best Foods Mayonnaise production plant at Bryant and Mariposa streets.

Down the street from the Double Play was the Oroweat Bakery store which I shopped at regularly.

Back then it was a working class neighborhood  with rail cars and big rigs delivering and picking up at both the import company and the mayonnaise factory.

Those days are long gone but the Double Play remained. Until today.

The San Francisco Chronicle 9.24.2022

The Double Play Bar & Grill, a beloved watering hole in San Francisco’s Mission District that first opened in 1909, was destroyed by a fire Saturday morning.

Jonathan Baxter, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, said the blaze at the landmark establishment on the corner of 16th and Bryant streets started shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday.

The fire resulted in “a total loss” of the three-story building’s ground floor, which housed the Double Play, Baxter said. Video footage from the fire department showed the building’s first floor in flames as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire.

No one was hurt or displaced in the incident, Baxter said, and firefighters put out the blaze before it could spread to the apartments in the building’s two upper floors or adjacent buildings. A photo shared by San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 showed the fire caused exterior damage to at least two apartment units on the second floor.

Firefighters are investigating the fire’s cause.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-total-loss-Fire-destroys-S-F-Mission-17465003.php

Lee Heidhues 9.23.2022

Now this is serious political reporting with an edge. 

Something you don’t normally see in San Francisco where everyone tries to be nice while they are stabbing you in the back.

It’s must reading for all who are concerned about how Mayor London Breed expects total loyalty from her political appointees and the consequences for failure to toe the line.

Excerpted from San Francisco Standard 9.23.2022

The Fate of the Police Chief

Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone said the mayor indicated to him on two occasions that she was considering making a leadership change at SFPD.

Carter-Oberstone said the mayor initially raised the issue in an April 19 meeting when he joined Breed to discuss his reappointment. He was in the process of finishing out the tail end of his predecessor’s term.

When the mayor first told him she needed his support to change leadership at the department, he interpreted that to mean that he should not back a vote by the Police Commission to fire the chief without checking in with her office.

But Carter-Oberstone said the mayor corrected him.

“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” Breed said, according to Carter-Oberstone. “I’m saying I might need to remove the chief—and if that happens, I’m going to need your help in doing that.”

The issue came up again last Wednesday when Carter-Oberstone called the Mayor’s Office to let them know he was supporting Cindy Elias as Police Commission president, he said.

First Sean Elsbernd, the mayor’s chief of staff, brought it up and said electing Elias would obstruct their plans, according to Carter-Oberstone.

Then the mayor herself called, he said.

“She was very upset,” Carter-Oberstone said. “The first thing she went to was that she had told me that she would need my help to change leadership at the department and how this would not be possible with Cindy in place.”

When Breed asked him to not support Elias, Carter-Oberstone says he declined.

That conversation apparently spurred Breed to blast Carter-Oberstone at a Chinese press event later in the week, where she also accused the commission of focusing on reform at the expense of public safety.

That message troubled Carter-Oberstone.

“The mayor is pushing this narrative: we can either protect the Asian community from hate-based crime or we can do police reform,” he told The Standard. “Those things are not in tension.”

Jeff Cretan, Breed’s spokesperson, confirmed that both Breed and Elsbernd raised the issue of SFPD leadership with Carter-Oberstone.

But Cretan said the mayor is not considering firing Scott.

“What they both said was that if they ever did need to make a leadership change, which of course can happen, they would need his help,” Cretan said. “But again, that’s not under consideration.”

https://sfstandard.com/politics/whats-really-behind-the-mayors-spat-with-her-appointee-influence-over-sfpds-future-leadership/

Top photo – The Mayor with  a smiling (for now) SFPD Chief Bill Scott.

Lee Heidhues 9.23.2022

It appears the water pipe work is done at the site of the beautiful New Zealand Christmas tree adjacent to the Lincoln Park Golf Course.

The work crew has laid an 8″ pipe which will bring recycled water to accommodate an entitled class of golfers.

The work was delayed after a City worker willfully disregarded a San Francisco Public Utilities Final Decision (SFPUC) and destroyed a major root on the tree.

WD-2852_Decision_on_appeal_Tree_Removal_lyman

The July 2022 Final Decision in our favor was apparently the first time that the SFPUC has upheld an Appeal to stop the destruction of a tree under its jurisdiction.

Our great victory has been cast aside.

Despite lodging numerous complaints with the San Francisco PUC, the Department of Public Works, the Bureau of Urban Forestry and the Recreation and Parks Departments we have received not one piece of correspondence detailing how and why the City blatantly ignored its own Final Decision to preserve the tree.

All our complaints are just a lot of hot air.

The damage is already done.  Hopefully the New Zealand Christmas Tree will survive.

Lee Heidhues 9.23.2022

Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle columnist,  published a column on September 22, 2022 headlined.

‘He’s back’: Alleged stalker returns to S.F. after judge dismisses case, sparking new complaints from women

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/S-F-women-frightened-by-return-of-alleged-17461002.php

Heather and I  engaged in the following colloquy.

9.22.2022

Heather

Mercifully for Chesa’s  Peace of Mind he is not available for you to troll.

Otherwise, I’m sure Chesa would have received Heather Knight lede type Nightcrawler coverage holding him liable.

It stands out that the 153K Volunteer Puppet DA is not mentioned in this op ed.

She’s now the flavor of the month.

Lee Heidhues

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9.23.2022

Perhaps you don’t understand how the criminal justice system works. I wrote about the West Portal case involving the teenage girl last year when it occurred while Chesa Boudin was the DA – didn’t blame him then, blamed the judge. No arrests have been made since Hobbs returned to San Francisco so there’s no case yet for Brooke Jenkins to handle.

I’m more concerned about the fact that women are being harassed and followed on the streets of San Francisco and will continue to write about that.

Sincerely,

Heather Knight

Columnist

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Heather

9.23.2022

Thanks for your response to my email

We have a long torturous history of communication 

I totally concur with the 2nd graph in your email that shining a light on abuse of women is something you will always report

My point is now and will be forever that the MSM spent 2 1/2 years destroying Chesa

And abetted by 9MM (the final total) in MAGA money appealing to the most paranoid psyche of San Francisco the political lynching of Chesa worked.

Were Chesa still DA every crime in San Francisco, abetted by the MSM, would be tossed at Chesa’s doorstep 

Your piece of 9.22 included.

I did note buried deep in the story is the fact Chesa charged this guy with a misdemeanor. I appreciate that inclusion 

Chesa is very honest ethical intelligent Man

The disgraceful Coupd’etat in which the MSM was complicit will rank with the worst moments in San Francisco history 

Lee Heidhues

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Top photo – Artwork accompanying @simbagirrl Tweet 9,23.2022

Says it all about the current State of Play in San Francisco politics.

Lee Heidhues 9.22.2022

It won’t be a pretty picture in 2023 if, as most pundits and polls predict, Republicans take control of the House of Repesentatives.

What Trump didn’t accomplish on January 6, 2021with his attempted Coup d’etat will take place under the guise of the representatives of the People.

Excerpted from New York Intelligencer – 9.22.2022

Next year, if Republicans have the majority again, they will enter office with far more fury and star power than whatever the tea party brought to bear.

The new class of Republicans will be overwhelmingly loyal to Donald Trump, with many of them elected in primaries that have become, more than anything else, tests of how slavishly devoted a politician can be to the MAGA brand.

It’s Trump’s party in every way, even if he’s indicted, even if Ron DeSantis runs for president. Many of these House Republicans tout all of his conspiracies and fever dreams. They are devoted to the Big Lie of 2020, that Trump somehow didn’t lose an election to Biden.

Unlike the Senate Republican contenders, who have been forced to moderate themselves to appeal to statewide electorates, House Republicans face almost no such pressure, especially in gerrymandered districts. They can be as unhinged as they want to be.

The new class of MAGA Republicans will be far more formidable, in terms of their mass followings and messaging, than any of the kingmakers of the tea-party period.

The 2010s version of the Freedom Caucus never had anyone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who — with her more than 1 million Twitter followers — possesses all of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s media savvy and will probably be able to mount a presidential bid someday.

Greene, like AOC, has found alternative channels to burnish her brand, growing into a right-wing social-media star almost overnight. Greene’s ascension to the majority will, at the minimum, catalyze all of her pet causes, like declaring the United States a Christian nation, railing against transgender surgery for minors, and QAnon.

Greene will have acolytes and rivals, those with their enormous fanbases in the new majority. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado congresswoman who gained fame for touting her love of assault weapons, is younger than Greene and has even more followers on Twitter.

Twitter isn’t real life, but with a weak speakership, personalities will matter. The two are not exactly friendly, but will be united in their hatred of Biden and the Democrats — or at least in their enthusiasm for impeachment. More young stars of the MAGA movement may be on their way. All of them will be positioned to deny the outcome of the 2024 election too, if Biden or another Democrat manages to triumph.

Presiding over all of this will probably be Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader from California who is not known for his legislative prowess or ability to manage a caucus. He will be a weaker speaker than John Boehner or Paul Ryan, and will probably bow to whatever cause the far right wants to push in a particular month.

He will not be in charge of the House in any real sense, but rather captive to the conspiratorial currents online that fuel Greene, Boebert, and their ideological allies. As his resurrection of Trump after January 6 shows, he will, if necessary, subvert democracy to stay in power.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/09/the-maga-house-will-make-the-tea-party-look-tame.html

Lee Heidhues 9.20.2022

The TOTALITARIAN BIG BROTHER ‘POLICE STATE OF SAN FRANCISCO’ GOES FULL ORWELLIAN BIG BROTHER.

Mayor London Breed. A shameless craven MAGA servant.

Along with her Myrmidon Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins and a now unleashed gang of Cops will run amok and further destroy personal liberty for San Francisco citizens.

George Orwell is turning in his Grave to realize that his predictions in the novel 1984 are coming to pass in of all places, San Francisco.

The four courageous Supervisors who stood up to the pitchfork wielding crowd of paranoid citizenry will ultimately be vindicated.  Connie Chan.  Hillary Ronen. Dean Preston.  Shamann Walton.

The most bizarre moment in this entire tawdry abdication by elected officials came when a harried looking Pacific Heights Supervisor Catherine Stefani uttered the word “FASCIST.”  

Stefani went on to tell her fellow legislators that, “I have an Italian Passport and can leave the country.”  Stefani then voted for the Orwellian legislation.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 9.20.2022

San Francisco police will be allowed to temporarily monitor live video feeds from privately owned surveillance cameras in certain circumstances under controversial legislation approved by city supervisors.

The San Francisco Bar Association, which represents thousands of local attorneys and law firms, issued a blistering critique of the surveillance policy.

Yolanda Jackson, the group’s executive director, signed a seven-page letter to supervisors this month saying that the proposed version of the policy was too vague and far-reaching and would violate residents’ privacy by giving police “access to an ever-growing (and potentially limitless) network of cameras” from a central location without restrictions to prevent unlimited tracking.

“Public safety can be achieved without abandoning residents’ Constitutional rights in favor of unprecedented levels of surveillance,” Jackson wrote on behalf of the association.

The legislation authorizes a new 15-month surveillance policy for the San Francisco Police Department that spells out the conditions in which officers can view real-time security camera video — without first obtaining a warrant — if businesses or homeowners grant permission.

Approved in a 7-4 vote Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, the policy reflects a compromise between Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, both of whom had at one point planned to put competing surveillance measures on the June 7 ballot. Breed and Peskin pulled their measures before the ballot was finalized and then negotiated a legislative deal with the police department.

Under the policy authorized by the legislation, police can request up to 24 hours of access to live surveillance video in three circumstances: to respond to a life-threatening emergency, to decide how to deploy officers during a large event with public safety concerns and to conduct a criminal investigation if allowed for in writing by a captain or higher-ranking SFPD official.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/SFPD-can-access-live-feeds-from-private-security-17455803.php

 

Lee Heidhues 9.19.2022

$737,000 now spent by the wealthiest San Franciscans to strangle environmental progress and ignore climate change.

The De Young Museum Destruction Derby to Destroy JFK Promenade rolls along as wealthy politically connected donors continue to barrel ahead.

Just today the deep pockets benefactors of the De Young Museum, with their sense of entitlement and greed unlimited, dumped another $150,000 into their campaign to protect the profits of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

These wealthy people pay nothing more than lip service to the environment and a healthy San Francisco.

These people want cars, once again, to turn JFK Promenade into a parking lot to the detriment of thousands of San Franciscans who enjoy this car free oasis.

This evil, selfish campaign must be crushed on November 8, 2022.

FAMSF Contribution 75K 9.19.2022

FAMSF 75K II Contribution 9.19.2022