Mission Buzz: Latino Democratic Club gets new leadership

The San Francisco Latino Democratic Club announced last week that Kevin Ortiz will step away as the club’s president after three years in the position. His tenure ended today.  

“I decided not to take on and run for another term, because it was time to allow leadership that’s been developing to take the reins,” Ortiz said on Monday. “It’s always been that way with the LDC. We create spaces; spaces for others.”

The club’s new president will be Gabriela Lozano, its current treasurer.

Ortiz stepped aside from his position in July 2024 following allegations of sexual misconduct by two women. He was reinstated in March 2025 after the findings of a special investigation committee formed by the club did not support the allegations. The club then cut ties with the local Democratic Party.

One of the women accusing Ortiz declined to participate in the process citing concerns over a bias investigation. The attorney for the second accuser said the investigation committee did not reach out to his client.

“The scope of the investigation was too narrow to be credible,” read a statement by Neil Hallinan, the attorney for the second accuser. “The public can have no confidence in the findings of this investigation.”

Despite the allegations, Ortiz said he’s proud of the work he’s done for the club.

“I walk away with my head high, because I have survived very personal attacks through an orchestrated scandal, and I have done so without surrendering my integrity or my commitment to this community,” Ortiz wrote in a statement. 

Ortiz said he will focus more on consulting, working out, spending time with family, and school. 

Ezzo Rotisserie at 3388 24th St. near Valencia Street opened in August. The restaurant serves rotisserie chicken and other staples of Arabic cuisine. 

The restaurant’s menu includes staples like grilled chicken, shawarma, falafel wraps, kebab, hummus and baba ganoush. As for desserts, there’s baklava, kanfeh and basbossa.

Ezzo Rotisserie is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to midnight.

A new Mediterranean restaurant is coming later this year to 3034 24th St. near Balmy Alley. The planning commission greenlit the project earlier this month after it sought a change of use from commercial to restaurant space.

The location, formerly the home of a grocery store-turned-restaurant, has been empty since approximately 2009. Project representative Danial Shabaz, whose family has run the Pakistani restaurant Pakwan at 3180 16th St. for nearly 30 years, said the new owner — his aunt — is excited to be part of the 24th Street corridor.

“We’ve loved 24th Street for the cultural, multicultural background and diverse background that it’s always had,” Shabaz said. “We’ve always wanted to be a part of this community.”

Shabaz is advising his aunt, who, alongside his parents, owns the building, on how to get a business up and running.

Shabaz said there’s still no name for the restaurant. The menu, too, is still in the works, but he does not expect any Pakwan items to be included.

The planning commission heard a proposal earlier this month for a new four-story, eight-unit market-rate apartment building at 241 Dolores St. between 15th and 16th streets. 

The proposed 12,700-square-foot building will go up in the courtyard of an existing six-unit apartment building facing Dolores Street.

Seven units in the proposal would be two-bedroom apartments, and one would be a three-bedroom. The plan also includes the construction of a separate one-story accessory dwelling unit. 

Projects with fewer than 10 units are exempt from any affordable-housing requirements. The project takes advantage of state law SB 423, which expedites permitting processes. The law also limits planning commissioners’ ability to approve or deny projects.

Commissioner Sean McGarry lamented the project’s use of SB 423 for a project “just under the wire to qualify for affordable housing.”

“I do like the project,” McGarry said at a hearing on Jan. 15. But, he said, “I do want to say I’m not a big fan of 423 being used for nine units, anything under 10 units. I don’t believe that was its original intent.”  

Project architect Ryan Knock from Knock Architecture Design did not reply to a request for comment. According to Redfin, the property sold in September for $2.7 million. It is unclear who the owner is. 

Bigface, Jimmy Butler’s coffee pop-up, is coming back to the corner of 22nd and Valencia streets.

The Warriors forward brings his coffee back to the storefront after previously occupying the space for more than two weeks in July. The pop-up starts on Thursday, and it will run until mid-April.