Robert Tillman, the self-described “newbie developer,” was on Tuesday foiled again by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in his efforts to develop a 75-unit building on Mission Street between 25th and 26th streets. It is currently the site of a laundromat he owns. The board voted unanimously to uphold an appeal of the project, saying that not enough analysis has...
Mary Feeley, who lives at an SRO downtown, walked into the One $ Store at 17th and Mission with a stack of Street Sheets tucked under her arm and waved hello to the store’s owner, Arman Muhammad. She had come for some soap, but when she found out the store will likely be replaced with an apartment complex, her smile...
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 such as Airbnb. On Wednesday, Herrera announced that his office had filed a lawsuit against the couple that own 212 Banks St.,...
City officials confused by political scion’s attachment to troubled residential hotel accused of pushing out tenants The first thing you’d notice was trash. Everywhere. There was garbage scattered across the front staircase and overflowing from every trash bin in the building. That’s what you’d see when you’d open the door. Then things got worse. “The kitchen: You could smell it....
City Attorney: Faux leases, faux tenants hid couple’s $700,000 profit on illegal Airbnb hotels across 14 residential properties — $5.5M penalty sought. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera today threw the book at pair of city landlords who, having already settled a suit charging they were operating more than a dozen illegal Airbnb hotels across the city, allegedly spent the...
St. Francis Fountain turns 100 St. Francis Fountain, the diner on the corner of 24th and York street, is hitting the century mark. The ice cream and lunch eatery has been at the same location since 1918, and to celebrate, owner Peter Hood said they’ll be giving the landmark a rest: it will be closing for four to six weeks to revamp the...
Anne Kihagi, the city’s most infamous landlord, recently launched a charm offensive, hiring a publicist to seed positive stories in local media. That required quite a bit of cheek, considering Kihagi has been found guilty by a succession of San Francisco judges of harassing and/or illegally evicting indigent, rent-controlled tenants — including terminal cancer patients and disabled senior citizens. Her...
As the mayoral race heats up, the city got some sobering news: despite all the talk about the need for more housing, the city added fewer new units last year than it had in 2016. San Francisco added 4,441 housing units in 2017 — a 12 percent decrease, compared to net additions in 2016. Last year’s additions, however, are well...
Past and present Mission District representatives are doubling down on their support for mayoral hopeful Mark Leno. Indeed, unlike recent past mayoral elections, the Mission District appears to be in play. On Thursday morning, standing beside District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen and her predecessor David Campos at the 24th Street BART plaza, Leno trumpeted his plans for small business, housing...
Last week, the onetime-stately-beauty-of-a-home-turned-fetid-wreck at 1060 Potrero Ave. caught fire. Again. But this time, gaining entry wasn’t so much of a challenge for San Francisco firefighters. In January, they kicked in the door to put out a blaze and, months later, the homeowner had never bothered to replace it. “It was an open house,” said Nadia, who’s lived in close...
Last week, Mission Local columnist Joe Eskenazi and reporter Julian Mark discussed San Francisco’s oldest house and its hidden story of “eviction, displacement and misery.” Earlier that week, Eskenazi reported that the city’s “oldest house” was on the market. On further inspection, however, it was revealed that a long-time Mission family had been Ellis Acted out of that very house. In Eskenazi’s...
Board of Supervisors candidate Sonja Trauss escorted off by sheriff’s deputy after wading into crowd of opposing protesters Following dueling press conferences, protests and counter-protests, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday went on record about SB 827, Sen. Scott Weiner’s bill in the California legislature that would reduce restrictions on height and density for residential developments near transit lines. They...
The Mission Economic Development Agency is proposing an eight-and-half-story mixed-use building at the corner of 18th and Mission streets — now the site of a decaying former stove store that could cost the nonprofit as much as $1 million to restore. As Mission Local reported in December, MEDA bought the building for $6 million, with plans to develop it...
The demolition of the old warehouse on the corner of Harrison and 22nd streets has temporarily opened up a new vista from Harrison Street to the south. There’s nothing but rubble where the white walls of the warehouse once stood, and the illuminated windows and stairwells of the Telco building at 25th and South Van Ness, which were blocked from...
Contempt charge purged for city’s ‘cruelest landlord’ after her check clears Renegade landlord Anne Kihagi’s dance with the city has taken some wild twists and turns, but last week she was faced with a simple, binary option: Pay up or go to jail. On March 1, Judge Lynn O’Malley Taylor found Kihagi, a serial predatory landlord, in contempt of court. At...
