It’s typical SF POA behavior to torch any politician who fails to toe the party line.It is a certainty that the powerful cops Union is leaning on Law and Order Mayor Daniel Lurie to not appoint Natalie Gee to the Board of Supervisors.
I am more concerned about Natalie Gee’s desire to dismantle Sunset Dunes Park than I am about her views regarding the San Francisco Police Department.
Look what happened to Joel Engardio. Driven out of office by the car centric entitled District 4 motorists.
Now former Supervisor Joel Engardio, driven from office for taking a courageous stand, speaks at the opening of Sunset Dunes Park – April 12, 2025
It is Natalie’s boss Supervisor Shamann Walton who notoriously described JFK Promenade as “recreational redlining” in 2021. Without a doubt she would bring these car centric views to the Board of Supervisors.
Louis Wong, shown in 2013 as an officer with the San Francisco Police Department, is now president of San Francisco’s police union. He wrote a letter to Mayor Daniel Lurie suggesting Natalie Gee should not be appointed supervisor of the Sunset District. Michael Macor/The Chronicle
Being able to Just Say No to the entitled motorists takes guts in District 4. Natalie would not be the one. Having said that, no D4 politician who wants to survive in office will advocate for Sunset Dunes Park.
It’s her views on this issue which carries more weight than anything Natalie Gee says about the SFPD.
I am Lee Heidhues. My wife is Liz Heidhues. I am 78. Liz is 75. My wife is a San Francisco native and retired educator. I am recovering from prostate cancer and Clostridioides difficile (C. diff). My wife is being forced to care for me. We have nobody else. Our home is 120 years old. Last weekend, our ancient sewer pipes burst. We had a plumbing contractor come out immediately. He considered it a major job. We signed a contract for $78,000. He has done some of the work. As the photo shows, the front of our home, in which we have lived for over 41 years, is now a work site. Our water supply is tenuous. When the workers return next week to finish the job, we must vacate the house for a couple of days. We are on a fixed income and are in danger of losing our home. We will have to sell our small stock holdings, which we use to live on. Both of us have been life long athletes and have led a very healthy life style. We raised two children utilizing public transit. Our entire livelihoods are at risk. I am reaching out for help in this moment of severe crisis. Should there be a philanthropist in the Bay Area who recognizes our dire situation he/she may be the individual/organization to assist Liz and me.
I have been saying for months that “Interim” San Francisco Chief of Police Paul Yep is no “Interim” Chief.
When Mayor Daniel Lurie named Paul Yep as interim chief of the San Francisco Police Department in June, both said the appointment was temporary.
Finally, the mainstream media has laid out the truth. Paul Yep will be the next permanent SFPD Chief.
The search for a new Chief of Police Is it all cosmetic and the Deal has already gone down for Paul Yep?
The entire San Francisco Standard article is printed herein.
Jonah Lamb – 8.25.2025
In less than two months “Interim” San Francisco Chief of Police Paul Yep has made dramatic moves to reshape the department in his own image, appointing a command staff, reshuffling station captains, cutting civilian reform leaders, promoting a raft of officers to the rank of sergeant and lieutenant, and this week announcing a department reorganization that reduced its bloated leadership.
Over the last two weeks, Yep’s dismantling of the Strategic Management Bureau has raised eyebrows among current and former officers. The civilians who led the bureau had been elevated by Scott and led much of the department’s reforms, including increasing transparency and reducing and tracking things such as use of force incidents.
Catherine McGuire, who headed the Strategic Management Bureau, had been with the department foralmost 10 years; Scott had put her in charge of department finances and reform efforts. Yep divided the defunct bureau’s responsibilities among the remaining bureaus.
In an interview, McGuire said gutting her unit will harm the department in the long run. “This reorganization removes the resources that would allow the department to monitor reforms,” she said. “If you have the internal checks and balances you are able to prevent the external scrutiny, and public scandal, which distracts the department from doing mission-critical work.”
Several of McGuire’s former underlings have been demoted or dismissed from the SFPD, including Kara Lacy, who headed constitutional policing, and Diana Oliva-Aroche, who liaised with city politicians and headed the department’s transparency and equity initiatives. Neither responded to a request for comment.
Another former officer said disbanding the reform unit will set the SFPD back after years of progress and millions of dollars meant to transform the department.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder said she is concerned about where the department stands on reforms, how to handle detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protests against them, and how to address overtime abuse.
“There’s a change-up of leadership in SFPD right now — a cross between [Police Officers Association] and anti-reform people,” Fielder said. “I am confused. Why are changes being made before a real chief is being found?”
Smiles all around.Paul Yep and the man who put him in the Chief’s seat, Mayor Daniel Lurie
The boldness of Yep’s moves suggest to former SFPD command staffers that the chief, who served as an officer for nearly three decades, is interim in name only.
“He came in, and he changed basically the whole upper management of the police department. That doesn’t strike me as the actions of an interim,” former SFPD Commander Rich Corriea said. “Wouldn’t you leave [the] status quo for the next person to set up their command staff? So it suggests to me he will be the next chief.”
Yep maintains that he is only a caretaker, saying the changes he is making will continue reform efforts while setting up the next chief for success.
“As I’ve said numerous times, I’m not a candidate for the permanent position,” he said in a press release. “There is a process for the search for the new chief, and I am confident that the best candidate will be selected.”
Regardless, his actions represent a shift around policing in San Francisco, reversing course on some of the reform efforts that in many ways shaped the career of his predecessor, Bill Scott, according to several former officers. These people, some of whom held high-ranking positions, told The Standard that Yep’s actions indicate that he is auditioning to be the next chief and will return the department to the tough-on-crime model that predated Scott.
At an all-hands meeting soon after taking charge of the department, Yep repeated that he had no interest in taking the job and would not make any major changes to the department, said one person present at the meeting.
“Well, one of those isn’t true,” the witness said, “so I’m not buying the other one either.”
Bill Scott stepped down as SFPD chief in the spring. | Camille Cohen/The Standard
‘Streamlined and efficient’
As soon as he was appointed, Yep moved to replenish a command staff that had been emptied by retirements, elevating four people to deputy chief and eight to commander. Two new deputy chiefs, Derrick Jackson and Derrick Lew, have been rumored to be potential chief candidates.
Yep also elevated outgoing police union boss Tracy McCray to commander, paving the way for the election of a popular longtime cop, Louis Wong, as the new leader of the Police Officers Association.
Yep said the reorganization of his command staff couldn’t wait, and will help to modernize the department. As part of the ongoing reorganization, Yep has reduced the number of bureaus from six to five. He added that his moves will put more cops on the street, but declined to say how many.
“The San Francisco Police Department is more streamlined and efficient than ever,” Yep said early last week in a press release. “These necessary changes will give our officers the support they need to keep our city safe.”
Further down the ranks, Yep has promoted 13 officers to captain, reshuffled all 10 of the station captains, and replaced the head of the police academy. These moves came in addition to a raft of promotions of officers to sergeant and lieutenant, effectively creating a bench of future department leaders hand-picked by Yep.
Even in smaller ways, Yep’s moves have affected the city. He recently assigned additional lieutenants to stationhouses to stabilize leadership, due to the SFPD’s practice of shuffling captains every couple of years.
Not all of Yep’s efforts to shape the department have been successful. In mid-July, his attempt to revert the name of the Community Violence Reduction Team to the Gang Task Force failed after community pressure.
Yep and Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie speak to supporters in November at St. Mary’s Square. | Source:Jason Henry for The Standard
Head coach, interim chief
As interim chief, Yep’s moves are akin to creating a sports team and farm system, then saying he plans to hand the team to another coach. Few insiders buy that he doesn’t want the job of full-time chief.
The last interim chief, Toney Chaplin, who was appointed in 2016 by Mayor Ed Lee, kept much of the department structure in place despite saying he planned a top-to-bottom assessment.
Like Yep, Chaplin initially said he did not want the chief position, only to backtrack and put his name in the running.
After Scott was appointed as chief later in 2016, he expanded the command staff, creating two assistant chief positions, a chief of staff, and a civilian director who was essentially at the same rank and received $350,000 in compensation, equal to a deputy chief. Scott also hired a civilian communications director, Matt Dorsey, who was later elected supervisor for one of the city’s most crime-plagued districts.
Scott’s efforts were focused on shepherding the department through reforms that were only recently completed. The former chief announced his departure in early May, and much of his command staff followed suit. His second in command, Assistant Chief David Lazar, retired that same month.
Happy rank and file, worried reformers
Yep’s changes appear to be popular with the rank and file, who admire his choice of cops with street experience as leaders, according to current and former officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. Many are pleased that Yep has not insulated himself behind a huge command staff, as they believe Scott did. But some former officers worry the department is backsliding on reforms and contemporary policing practices.
One former cop said the promotions were popular among officers, as they involved “real cops,” who are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
A former department leader said Yep’s actions are meant to “right the ship” by getting rid of dead weight and putting into leadership officers who are popular among beat cops. Consolidating responsibilities and getting rid of some civilian leadership is “actually a good thing,” said the former officer.
But others worry Yep’s actions are a step backward, or simply cosmetic. A former department leader said none of the moves made by Yep are fundamentally changing the department: “This is smoke and mirrors.”
As Yep continues to transform the department, the city’s Police Commission is searching for a new chief. It has hired a search firm, Ralph Andersen & Associates, that has released material on the kind of chief the city is looking for, with an emphasis on reform and transparency initiatives and quality-of-life issues like homelessness, the mental health crisis, and open-air drug dealing.
The commission will choose three finalists to put in front of the mayor, who will ultimately decide on the hire. One of those names could very likely be Yep’s.
It was another trip via the mode of transport which is generally foreign to me.
But, here is the blogger On the Road Again. Forced to utilize the American way of life to take care of my continued well being. Speeding down the streets and highways into the future.
Oyster Point Boulevard in South San FranciscoHighway 101 at Candlestick Point passing by the former home of the Giants and 49ers.
Hard to believe. We’re celebrating a remarkable fete. 48 years married and a 78th birthday.
Actually the relationship goes back much further.
Raised three blocks from each other. Only meeting at San Francisco State during the tumultuous late ’60s. Surviving the ongoing unrest and making way through the four month student strike we bonded and have experienced life in all its joy and bitterness.
As the old saying goes “The People United Will Never be Defeated.”
We took a walk through the neighborhood we have lived nearly 50 years and enjoyed a good meal and companionship at the nearby Pacific Cafe. A local treasure since 1974.
Liz and Lee together at The Pacific Cafe
Lee beams at Pacific Cafe co-owner Frank Gundry delivers a special birthday treat
Liz, leg aloft glass of wine in hand, shows off her special sox worn specially for the occasion
Liz brandishes her carrot and enjoys the feast before her.
Maureen, the co-owner of Pacific Cafe, deftly handles plates full of delicious sea food to the waiting patrons.
The hard working chefs in the Pacific Cafe kitchen
A wait staff member readies a table for the next guests at Pacific Cafe
The busy scene on a Saturday evening.
Chef Specials on the menu board. Maureen, a wait staff member and Frank serve up the guests.
Liz at the entrance.
Home on birthday Sunday. Lee shows off the special card created by Liz as Bendi looks down from the back porch fence.
The perfect tune for Pacific Cafe. J’Attrendai by Rina Ketty on a CD purchased by Liz at the nearby Legion of Honor
Liz and Lee made it official as Judge Ollie Marie-Victorie signed the marriage certificate in her chambers at City Hall – 8.17.1977
Top photo: Liz in black and white pose at The Pacific Cafe. A throwback art style to the 1960’s
The Supreme Court effectively criminalized homelessness.
San Francisco, the City of St. Francis, was shamefully in the lead.
I have lived in San Francisco most of my life. I have never felt intimidated, afraid, concerned or fearful being around and amongst the unhoused.
The problem is not with our marginalized citizens. The problem is with the uptight, paranoid citizenry which has been unleashed to put their obsessions on full display. Shame!!!
A long time subscriber I posted this ‘Comment’ in the Wall Street Journal response section. I was deluged with responses attacking the unhoused in general and my thoughts in particular.
Below you will find these comments. I have deleted the names of the authors to spare them the personal embarrassment of having their intolerance publicly exposed.
A homeless man asks for money in the Financial District in San Francisco, California REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY POVERTY BUSINESS) – RTR300S7
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 8.16.2025
San Francisco Has Embraced a New Tool to Clear Homeless Camps
In San Francisco, homelessness became a defining issue in last year’s mayoral race, won by Daniel Lurie. The Levi Strauss heir, allied with the city’s tech sector, won on a platform emphasizing cleaning up streets to boost economic growth.
Former SF Mayor London Breed talks with a homeless man in front of Outfit on Castro Street as she takes a neighborhood walk this morning on Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. (Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
City officials point to cleaner streets as evidence that a more active approach is working. Some say the tactics are making conditions worse.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to penalize people for sleeping outside, handing city leaders a new tool with which to clear homeless people from the streets.
Since then, San Francisco has been among the most aggressive in wielding it.
Street people of San Francisco
Between July 2024 and July 2025, the city arrested or cited more than 1,080 people on illegal-lodging charges, over 10 times the number of illegal-lodging arrests during the same period a year earlier. In April 2025, illegal-lodging citations and arrests hit 130, the most in a single month since the Supreme Court’s ruling.
In the 12 months following that ruling, around 220 new anticamping ordinances have passed across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nowhere has the ruling had a bigger impact than in California, which accounts for a third of those ordinances. The state is home to nearly half of the unsheltered homeless people in the country and includes about 70,000 shelter beds to accommodate more than 187,000 homeless people.
An unhoused citizen with his belongings in the shadow of San Francisco City Hall
The war criminal Netanyahu is out to totally obliterate not only the citizens of Gazas, of whom he is now responsible for the slaughter of over 61,000 children, women and men.
The criminal thug Netanyahu will stamp out any journalist who dares to speak up and tell the real story about the genocide Israel has committed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
This criminal murderer needs to immediately be arrested, shackled and dragged before the International Criminal Court of Justice in the Hague.
The Israelis are engaged in a crime against humanity which will long be remembered and never forgotten throughout history.
There will be a price to pay for the Jewish State.
Excerpted from Al Jazeera 8.10.2025
Al Jazeera staff killed in targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists near al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif has been killed alongside four colleagues in a targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City.
Seven people were killed in the attack on the tent located outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital late on Sunday evening. They include Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.
Shortly before being killed, al-Sharif, a well-known 28-year-old Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who had reportedly extensively from northern Gaza, wrote on X that Israel had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also known as “fire belts” – on the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.
In his last video, the loud booms of Israel’s intensive missile bombing can be heard in the background as the dark sky is lit in a flash of orange light.
Where are cop friendly Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Board of Supervisors?I have never read a story about any elected officials talking about the overarching need to present a modern facility to the future generations of law enforcement in San Francisco.
Admittedly, I will be the last blogger to ever write that the cops are lacking in resources.
There’s an exception to every rule.
I was shocked to read the latest GrowSF newsletter with its searing critique of the San Francisco Police Department Training Academy. Located in a dilapidated not earthquake proofed elementary school from the 1960’s.
SFPD recruits doing their exercises in the parking lot at the Police Academy
The past several years the media has been deluging the public about all the presumed unmet needs of the SFPD and why San Francisco has trouble recruiting new officers.
I had no idea until this morning that, perhaps, the biggest reason why there is a 500 officer shortage can be found by looking at the current training facility.
SFPD Academy vintage 1960’s classroom. Note the loose wires running along thefloor
Why would today’s tech knowledgeable future cops want to spend their long training period in what only be charitably described as an outdated Dump?
SFPD recruits doing their push ups in former elementary school auditorium
In comparison, the New York City Police Department has a modern up to date state of the art facility.Looking very much like a university campus.
While San Francisco welcomes its recruits with a dilapidated, rundown shabby old elementary school.
New York City Police AcademyOther major cities have invested in modern training campuses. New York City opened a 32‑acre police‑academy campus in College Point, Queens in 2014. The official description from the NYC government notes that the campus contains about 750,000 square feet of usable space, including state‑of‑the‑art classrooms, a gymnasium, an indoor track and a “tactical village” with mock environments such as a precinct station, multi‑family residence, grocery store, restaurant, park, court room, bank and subway car. The New York Times notes that the project cost $950 million and features a physical and tactical‑training building with a gymnasium and swimming pool. In other words, New York treats police training as a public‑safety priority and invests accordingly.
William Webster was a government official I never paid much attention to because I considered him to be an honest and equitable public servant.He performed his job and stood up for democracy and the rule of law.
12/02/2002 photograph attorney William Webster, former FBI and CIA director who resigned as chair of the Accounting Oversight Board during a press conference at Baker & McKenzie regarding conclusions reached by the Oversight Board. (Photo by Gerald Martineau/The The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Traits in short supply in MAGA America.And which we may not see again for a long time, if ever.
This afternoon I was transported via Uber and Yellow Cab through the streets and freeways of San Francisco and the surrounding areas.
Happily sequestered close by the Pacific Ocean in a quiet neighborhood of northwest San Francisco I rarely must confront the mayhem which is the American car centric life.
My everyday normal mode of transport is via foot and riding the buses.
I could only sit back and appreciate that I do not have to immerse myself in the normal daily routine of speeding down streets and highways in 21st century America.
There was definitely a reason for suddenly being thrown into the everyday maelstrom. A problem needs a solution and the only way of addressing it is to reach my destination via the mode of transportation I avoid. The car.
So, there I was hurtling through space like a visitor from the off world colonies.It was definitely a pleasure to return home to my house in the fog.
Bob Dylan fits the mood with his ‘HIghway 61 Revisited’
Top photo: The blogger waits for his Uber. – photo – Liz Heidhues
Lee's Perspective 