Housing & Land Use5
At Richmond District town hall on Safeway housing project, neighbors see an assault on democracy
About 60 people came to a Richmond District town hall to hear and air views on an eight-story Safeway redevelopment proposed for the Outer Richmond. Neighbors at the meeting described the project's path as an assault on democracy.
Mahmood seeks to loosen chain retail rules to speed supermarket and pharmacy openings
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has drafted legislation that would let chain supermarkets and pharmacies take over existing storefronts without a conditional use permit, and let an existing grocery or drugstore change operators without a new one. The bill would also allow supermarkets to run attached chain businesses such as banks, restaurants and pharmacies, and to use up to 49 percent of their floor area for food service. Supervisors Stephen Sherrill and Myrna Melgar co-sponsored it, and Mahmood's office expects to bring it to the Board of Supervisors within two weeks.
A former tenant, a dream bakery, and a warning that came too late
Butter & Crumble owner Sophie Smith spent thousands getting ready to open a second bakery on Telegraph Hill. She then found out about the storefront's tangled history of problems. The story traces the shop's earlier tenant and a warning that came too late.
The Man Who Hated Victorians
Landmarking is part of San Francisco's zoning politics: Supervisor Rafael Mandelman demanded protection for more sites last year in exchange for his vote on the Family Zoning Plan, and Mayor Daniel Lurie expanded the landmarking effort this year to potentially thousands of sites. Mandelman tells The Frisc he does not weigh in on specific sites and wants preservation experts to have room to do so. The piece looks back at Newton J. Tharp, the city's official architect a century ago, who considered much of what San Francisco now protects an abomination.