San Francisco halts approval of new data centers for 45 days
The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an emergency ordinance on Oct. 6 pausing approvals for new data centers and expansion of existing ones for 45 days, making San Francisco the first Bay Area city to do so. Supervisor Shamann Walton, who introduced the measure, said the city needs more time to study how data centers affect electricity, water and nearby neighborhoods before writing long-term rules.
Housing & Land Use
1 story, 1 outletSan Francisco landlord offers tenant $35,000 to move out; she hesitates
A San Francisco tenant, Serabeth Mullaney, was offered a $35,000 check to leave her apartment, the New York Post reports. She has not agreed, weighing whether the money would cover a comparable place to live.
City Hall
3 stories, 2 outletsSF Voters: Did Your Midterm Ballot Arrive Torn? Here’s What to Do
Some San Francisco voters are reporting that their midterm ballots arrived in torn or damaged envelopes. Elections Director John Arntz said in an advisory that tears in the outer envelope do not affect voting as long as all four ballot cards and the return envelope are intact, and attributed the damage to Postal Service processing equipment. USPS has switched to handling the remaining ballots by hand.
Manny Yekutiel se retira de la contienda para supervisor de S.F. tras acusación de agresión sexual
Manny Yekutiel has dropped out of the District 8 supervisor race after two more people accused him of sexual assault. Most of the people who had endorsed him withdrew their support after the new accusations.
Former SF DA Employee Testifies to Being Called Racial Slur, Harassed by HR Director
Twanda Bailey, who worked 14 years in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, testified Wednesday that a co-worker called her a racial slur in 2015 and that the office's human resources director harassed her afterward. Bailey said the HR director told her no complaint existed and warned that discussing the slur could create a hostile work environment for her. Her lawsuit is being tried in a San Francisco courtroom by an Alameda County judge after all San Francisco judges recused themselves.
Public Safety
3 stories, 3 outletsSFPD beat city resident into near-coma in 2025 and DA ‘tried to cover it up,’ public defenders allege
San Francisco public defenders say police officers beat Kevon Gibson during an Aug. 17, 2025 arrest, leaving him in a medically induced coma, and that body camera footage complicates the department's account of the case. The Public Defender's Office alleges the district attorney tried to cover up the conduct.
Woman accused in fatal Warfield Theatre shooting is linked to retail theft ring, police say
San Francisco police say Shakia Vanderbilt, 32, has been charged with murder in the shooting death of Ulysses Davis, 47, a security guard at the Warfield Theatre on Market Street. Investigators say Vanderbilt is linked to a retail theft ring accused of taking more than $1 million in merchandise across California in the 2010s, and that she was arrested Tuesday.
SFPD announces major reforms to rape investigations following SF Standard report
The Police Department announced changes to how it investigates rape and sexual assault at a packed City Hall hearing Thursday, three months after The Standard reported on systemic failures in those cases. Supervisors and survivors pressed police officials on the department's handling of the investigations.
Homelessness
1 story, 1 outletMore tents and more poop complicate SF’s comeback story
The number of tents counted in San Francisco is up 29 percent since May, and the city's feces problem is getting worse. Vehicle encampments, by contrast, have hit a new low.
Health & Environment
1 story, 1 outletThere have been 40 PG&E blackouts since December’s disaster. The city is pissed
San Francisco has lost power roughly once a week since a Dec. 20 blackout, with at least 40 major PG&E outages this year. City officials are urging state regulators to open a public investigation into the utility's reliability, pointing to the outages, recent electrical fires and delays to infrastructure projects.