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tech knowledgeable future cops want to spend their long training period in what only be charitably described as an outdated Dump?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.
The destruction of rustic California continues to bulldoze its way through the state as developers and realtors cash in on the law requiring tens ofthousands of housing units be built.
Sausalito, the small town north of San Francisco in which I spent my high school years is not immune from this scourge has been taken over by YIMBYism. The one time quaint town, famous for its bohemian and laid back lifestyle, is lurching into the urban sprawl of the 21st century.
The town’s planning commission has green lit a massive building project which will disrupt an entire neighborhood. 19 units will be constructed on four stories. What was for over a hundred years a sleepy section of Sausalito is going to be torn asunder to satisfy the rapaciousness of developers and realtors.
Excerpted from Marin Independent Journal 6.26.2025
The Sausalito Planning Commission has approved the city’s largest new housing project in two decades.
Bridgeway Avenue in Sausalito – undated photo
The site is an overgrown lot and hillside hollow with decaying garages, century-old structures and apparently abandoned cars.
The lot will be cleared and two-dozen trees removed.
Workers will excavate 5,200 cubic yards of soil, which planning commissioner David Marlatt said could be 700 truckloads. The site will be graded and retaining walls built to enclose the complex.
After the meeting, Brandon Phipps, the city community and economic development director, said it is on track to meet its state housing mandate in less than two years. The mandate is to allow 724 more residences by 2031.
Bridgeway Avenue in Sausalito – circa 1960’s
The panel voted Wednesday to permit the four-story townhouse-style complex at 1755 Bridgeway near Easterby Street. The plan calls for 19 condominiums in two buildings.
Four residences will be sold at a reduced price to moderate-income households to satisfy a state housing mandate. The rest will be market rate.
“This is the first major multi-family housing project in decades,” said Andrew Junius, vice chair of the Planning Commission. “These 19 units are going to fit right in. I’m very, very excited to see it move forward.”
The Ferry terminal in Sausalito which takes workers, tourists and local day trippers to San Francisco
The city’s last project of this scale was Rotary Village, an income-restricted 22-residence project built in 2004.
The developers filed their first application for the project in 2018. It has been scaled back in response to concerns voiced by neighbors and city officials, city planner Kristin Teiche told the commission and audience before recommending its approval.
Planning commissioners noted they could not reduce the project’s size under state laws. The commission unanimously approved the complex after amending some conditions where city staff would revisit guest parking issues and the exterior color and design.
“In the last 30 days, the city of Sausalito has approved 31 units of housing,” Phipps said.
Top photo: The property at 1755 Bridgeway in Sausalito on May 9, 2023. A developer plans to build 19 condominiums there, including four for moderate-income households. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Spreading racist bigoted anti-immigrant slurs. The incendiary appeal to the worst in people has served the Felon Trump well for 10 years.
The latest target of his obscene vitriol is the just officially declared Democrat nominee for the Mayoralty of the Felon Trump’s hometown.
NomineeZohran Mondami is having none of it.
Excerpted from The New York Times 7.1.2025
“The president of the United States just threatened to have me arrested,” Zohran Mamdani said in a response on social media, adding that Mr. Trump’s statements “don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: If you speak up, they will come for you.”
He continued, “We will not accept this intimidation.”
President Trump on Tuesday floated an outlandish claim that Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, was an illegal immigrant and threatened to arrest him if he blocked immigration arrests in New York City.
Mr. Mamdani was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018. If elected, Mr. Mamdani would also be the first Muslim to become mayor of New York City. There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen.
Mr. Trump’s attack on the mayoral candidate echoed language he has long used to lend credibility to falsehoods. “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” he said of Mr. Mamdani. “We’re going to look at everything.”
When a journalist raised the possibility that Mr. Mamdani “will not allow” ICE to make immigration arrests, Mr. Trump replied, “Well then we’ll have to arrest him.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has so far declined to endorse Mr. Mamdani, rallied behind him after Mr. Trump’s attacks.
“I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States,” Ms. Hochul wrote on social media. “If you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”
When Felon Trump leaves the White House he will leave behind a legacy of environmental degradation. Not only in America but around planet Earth.
Felon Trump is the willing handmaiden of Big Oil. He loves the billionaires who have funded his three presidential campaigns and does their dirty work with no prompting whatsoever.
As the Wall Street Journal reports Trump is pulling all the political levers he can “to quash the European Union (EU) flagship environmental rules.“
What infuriates Big Oil the most is the clunkily titled Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Big Oil companies whose revenue exceeds 522M are being required to “pinpoint and curb human rights violations and the climate impact on their operations and global supply chains” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Big Oil Exxon Mobil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods met with Trump shortly after he took office in January. He told Trump, “he believed CSDDD would bog down U.S. Companies in Europe.”
That was all Trump needed to hear and he is now whining about “unfair regulatory burdens placed on American companies.”And doing everything he can to kowtow to his Big Oil benefactors.
Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal 6.28.2025
Oil executives enlisted President Trump in fights against clean-car rules, drilling restraints and climate laws from New York to California. Now, they have won his support in their effort to quash Europe’s flagship environment rules.
American oil chieftains and their lobbyists have urged Trump and his cabinet members to use ongoing trade talks with the European Union to push for a rollback of two major climate laws in the European Green Deal. Trump officials have pressed their EU counterparts to scale back those laws in recent negotiations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The administration’s willingness to give priority to the interests of the oil executives—alongside those of several other industries—in a dispute with a vital trading partner shows how influential they have become in Trump’s second term. Oil donors sent millions of dollars to Trump’s third presidential campaign last year, and the administration in turn has tried to shore up demand for their products and rescinded U.S. environmental rules.
The barons of the business world and the Felon Donald Trump are beside themselves angsting out over the prospect that a genuine, intelligent, charismatic newcomer could be the next Mayor of New York City.
In his first comments since Tuesday’s mayoral primary, President Trump called Zohran Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” while insulting his appearance, voice and intelligence. He added that Mamdani’s ascent was “a big moment in the History of our Country!”
The sense of the corporate freak out is already on full display in the mainstream media.
“It’s officially hot commie summer,” Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Andrew Cuomo backer, wrote on X.
Red baiting the NYC Mayoral candidate
The Red Scare label is sure to be the framework for the next several months. The corporate world, the Republicans and mainstream media work overtime to obliterate the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.25.2025
On Wednesday morning, the world’s epicenter of capitalism woke up to find it might soon have a socialist mayor.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor shocked Wall Street. Some of the world’s most influential and powerful financiers were left grasping to understand what Mamdani’s victory would mean for their industry—and whether they would leave the city.
Will Zohran Mamdani have the last laugh next November?
“It’s officially hot commie summer,” Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Cuomo backer, wrote on X.
Mamdani’s campaign was, up until a few weeks ago, a long shot. On Polymarket, which successfully predicted the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Cuomo had odds as high as 92.5% on May 27. Negative ads against Mamdani paid for by Wall Street-funded super political-action committees, as well as also-ran candidate Whitney Tilson—himself an investor—blanketed airwaves and filled residents’ mailboxes.
Mamdani’s platform includes increasing taxes on those making more than $1 million a year. He has said he would make the city more affordable by freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments, investing $70 billion in publicly subsidized housing, providing free bus service and opening government-operated grocery stores.
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani protesting the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL – BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CHAMBERS
Lee Heidhues 6.16.2025
Everything is politics in San Francisco. Particularly when law enforcement is involved.
Today provided a vivid example of the political brawling involved in the selection of a panelist for the seven member Police Commission. Particularly when the Commission will be a major player in the selection of a new Chief of Police. Replacing eight year incumbent Bill Scott.
The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee heard a couple of hours of testimony.
People lined up to testify at the Rules Committee hearing.
The most graphic and political testimony was provided by Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic a supporter of the eventual nominee Pratibha Tekkey; and Nancy Tung, Chairperson of the San Francisco Democratic Party, a supporter of Marjan Philhour.
Portions of the their respective testimony follow.
Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter spoke at the two hour: 35 minute: 50 second point in the televised hearing.
Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter in suit jacket waiting in line to speak. Sitting wearing glasses is Tracy McCray newly named SFPD “Commander” and currently President SF Police Officers Association.
“There has never been anyone from the Tenderloin on the Police Commission… Some people, including the head of the Democratic party Nancy Tung..if you don’t support Marjan you’re politicizing the process. But here we have the head of the Democratic Party in San Francisco doing more lobbying than anybody. That seems to be politicizing that which should be a non-political process. She also said that ‘everyday people’ support Marjan. I saw a lot of ‘everyday people here today. Everyday people who never come to City Hall to testify came out for Pratihba Tekkey.“
Nancy Tung – Career Prosecutor – Marjan Philhour supporterspoke at the two hour: 41 minute: 05 second point in the televised hearing.
Nancy Tung – Career Prosecutor – Marjan Philhour supporter
“I want to pull back the curtain a little bit. People want to think these actions of this committee are apolitical. The actions of this Board and these committees often times show they are not (apolitical). In 2020 I was nominated for Mayoral appointment not in competition with anyone else for this very commission and was voted down by a majority of the Board of Supervisors. Including (current) Board President Mandelman. Do I take offense to this? No. Because this is not a decision, a decision that happens in a vacuum. It is a political decision and I want people to understand that. Was it bonkers? Maybe to some. But more than anything else the vote was political.”
A link to the entire hearing is attached. Open the link and go to the RULES COMMITTEE 6.16.2025 meeting.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is a serial abuser of her office.
By and large San Francisco’s mainstream media has given this slick political operative a pass, instead giving big play to the successful prosecutions, while ignoring the dark underside of how Brooke Jenkins performs her job.
Her years shameful historical record of prosecutorial misconduct is well documented.
Brooke Jenkins history of prosecutorial misconduct started before she quit DA Chesa Boudin’s office in October 2021, labeled herself a “volunteer” (though she was being paid over 150K) and worked as a leader in his June 2022 Recall.
Brooke Jenkins, being rewarded for her political treachery, is sworn-in as District Attorney at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, July 8, 2022. | Paul Kuroda for The Standard
Thenbeing awarded for her political treachery by former Mayor London Breed. Selected as DA. Her incumbency has reeked of prosecutorial misconduct. Conduct which has resulted in several complaints lodged with the California State Bar.
The latest story in the Mission Local, a sordid tale which the mainstream media chooses to ignore is illustrative of this journalistic dereliction of its duty.
Excerpted from Mission Local 5.23.2025
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has, under Brooke Jenkins, made a “pattern and practice” of improperly withholding evidence in both misdemeanor and felony cases, the city’s public defenders assert.
“That is the tip of the iceberg,” said Jacque Wilson, one of two misdemeanor managers at the public defender’s office. The 50 incidents of late discovery tracked by the public defender’s office is a conservative estimate, he said, since it only includes cases where public defenders are aware of a violation. “It’s a pandemic over there.”
Under California law, prosecutors and defenders must disclose their evidence to one another at least 30 days before trial during the discovery process. This ensures the opposing side has enough time to review evidence before a court hearing.
But in a six-month period between Sept. 1, 2024 and Feb. 28, 2025, the public defender’s misdemeanor unit says it tracked 50 incidents of the district attorney’s office failing to turn over evidence on time.
The DA has had some of this evidence “in their possession for weeks, if not months or years, before disclosure,” wrote assistant chief public defender Angela Chan in a document sent to the Bar last month and obtained by Mission Local.
At times, she added, evidence was withheld until the eve of a trial. And “in a number of egregious cases” important evidence was not disclosed until the middle of a trial, Chan wrote.
Felon fascist Donald Trump’s surrogate flunkies VP JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are interfering and lashing out at the German domestic intelligence Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz(BfV) agency after it labeled the Alternative for Deutschland “extremist.”
That’s no surprise. Donald Trump is a kindred soul with dictators and the most incendiary, radical, far right political parties worldwide.During the recent German election campaign, Trump’s loudmouth cheerleader Elon Musk immersed himself in the effort to gain the Chancellorship for the AfD.
Felon fascist Trump is one of the most vilified and scorned people on the planet. The reputation of America as a beacon of enterprise and innovation is being destroyed by one man. Trump doesn’t care.
He’s a petty criminal despot who craves the attention.The Trump flunkies blast at Germany lays bare the extremist tenor of their leader’s mind.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.3.2025
Top-ranking officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration were quick to criticize Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV on Friday for designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “right-wing extremist” entity.
“The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” VP JD Vance wrote on X.
In February, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel in Munich after delivering a contentious speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he accused European nations of failing to defend free speech, calling out Germany in particular.
Vance complained that the AfD was being ostracized and called for it to end. The US vice president’s statements angered officials in Berlin.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also waded in on Friday, calling the AfD designation as a right-wing extremist outfit as “tyranny in disguise.”
“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” Rubio said on X. “That’s not democracy — it’s tyranny in disguise.”
He said “Germany should reverse course.”
The BfV disagreed. The agency said the party’s positions on ethnicity were incompatible with democracy, noting that the AfD “aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society.“
It also highlighted the party’s use of hateful rhetoric and incitement to undermine democratic institutions.
The BfV had previously designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, but it now said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to “undermine the free, democratic” order in the country.
The designation gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party’s activities.
The AfD slammed the decision as “politically motivated.”
The AfD, founded in 2013, has surged in popularity over the past few years by capitalizing on fears over migration. It is now Germany’s largest opposition party, after securing over 20% of the vote in February’s election, a record result and behind only the center-right CDU/CSU bloc.
The AfD, however, remains excluded from government due to the other parties’ refusal to collaborate with it due to its extremist tendencies.
April 12th, 2025 was the day of celebration for San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio who spearheaded the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Park, “California’s largest pedestrianization project” a reality.
Supervisor Joel Engardio the leader of the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Parka reality celebrates the moment as a beaming Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg looks on.
It was a historic day in San Francisco on a sunny April Saturday as thousands turned out for the formal opening of Sunset Dunes Park.The culmination of the victorious Proposition K in the November 2024 election as 55 percent of San Francisco voters approved creation of the two mile park alongside the Pacific Ocean.
Liz Heidhues flashes the “V” for Victory sign as the Snowy Plover waves approvingly
A parade of dignitaries spoke at the event including, but not limited to, Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg, representatives from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), the California Coastal Commission, the California Academy of Arts and Science and a representative from Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office.
Sunset Dunes Park. A happy place for people of all ages.
The beautiful Pacific Ocean adjacent to Sunset Dunes Park
The mural celebrating Sunset Dunes Park near Judah Street.
Bikes, bikes and more bikes on Sunset Dunes Park
Park Rangers have a quiet day at the Sunset Dunes Park inaugural festival
A group of Sunset Dunes Park celebrants
San Francisco Chronicle – 4.14.2025
Sunset Dunes Park emcee Unique Derique juggled many responsibilities during the inaugural party.
A jazz rock fusion band ‘Children of Lucy’ provided musical entertainment at Sunset Dunes Park.
Sunset Dunes Park is a “PARK IN PROGRESS.”
One celebrant steps up to get a better view.Sunset Dunes Park is welcoming to everyone.
An enterprising citizen offered lemonade to the attendees.
Back home after the celebration blogger Lee proudly displays his “OFFICIAL SOUVENIR” ribbon
The old San Francisco along the Pacific Coast shorelineBanned forever from Sunset Dunes Park in San Francisco
The losers trying to Recall the leader of Sunset Dunes Park
A small group of obnoxious motorists gunned their engines and tried to disrupt the joyful event. Their rotten entitled motorist behavior fell flat when the City blocked the nearby streets to all vehicular traffic. “One family in the protest parade screamed in unison out of their open car windows, mother and children lending their voices to the cacophony. Another protestor, revving his motorcycle, declined questions, and revved only louder when a park supporter asked him to quiet down.“I hate them,” said the supporter, Dee, who withheld her last name for privacy. The Great Highway neighbor and SFUSD paraeducator said she had been on the fence about the issue, but the protestors helped make up her mind. ‘They have convinced me. They’re just a bunch of screaming, tan-truming 3-year-olds,’ “she said. Reported in SF Standard. SF Chronicle photo – Stephen Lam
These guys intentionally blocked traffic on the Lower Great Highway and blew their horns repeatedly. But it was barely audible in the park. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
Liz Heidhues stands at the bus stop en route to the Sunset Dunes Park celebration. Blogger Lee and Liz have never owned a car. We have made our way through life in San Francisco raising two children utilizing bicycles, public transit and our feet. Using our bodies, our good health, our wits. Never succumbing to the typical American false need for a climate destroying car.
Top photo – Sunset Dunes Park ribbon cutting – Liz Heidhues
California criminal justice grinds slowly and not necessarily fairly.Particularly when the death penalty is at issue.
Why has it taken 16 years for the California Supreme Court to over turn a jury’s verdict now 16 years old?
Why did the trial Judge not declare a mistrial in 2009 when a holdout juror refused to convict?
Instead this Judge ousted the recalcitrant juror, empaneled an alternate juror who voted to convict. Kicking off a 16 year appeal process while the accused has languished behind bars since 2009.
What’s next? Another trial no doubt with witnesses whose memories have faded over time.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 4.3.2025
A California Supreme Court unanimously overturned Timothy Joseph McGhee’s convictions and death sentence for three gang-related killings in Los Angeles between 1997 and 2001. Prosecution witnesses said he had fatally shot members of rival gangs, while the defense said the witnesses had admitted being under the influence of alcohol and drugs and had been coached by prosecutors.
After three days of deliberations on his guilt, the court said, several jurors told the trial judge that another juror appeared to be incapable of making a fair decision, had expressed distrust of the police and had told them, “I am not changing my mind.”
After speaking with other jurors, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry questioned the holdout juror, then removed him, saying he was biased and had refused to deliberate. He was replaced by an alternate juror who then joined unanimous verdicts for convictions and a death sentence.
In a unanimous ruling overturning the convictions and sentence, Justice Goodwin Liu said the juror’s stated refusal to change his mind about McGhee’s guilt did not amount to a refusal to deliberate, and he should have been allowed to remain on the jury.
The juror “was rejecting, not disregarding, the prosecution’s evidence, and the record as a whole indicates that his rejection was based on the evidence,” Liu said.
“There was an evidentiary basis for (the juror’s) concerns regarding the credibility of the witnesses who were central to the prosecution’s case,” Liu wrote. He said many of the prosecutions’ witnesses were current or former gang members, and some admitted having lied to the police.
McGhee, was initially convicted and sentenced in 2009 and who could still face death penalty charges from Los Angeles County’s newly elected district attorney, Nathan Hochman.
McGhee’s lawyer, Patrick Ford, said the ruling “sent the important message that our system won’t tolerate the removal of a dissenting juror,” especially one who was troubled by what Ford described as “massive police misconduct.”
Hochman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee's Perspective 