...flexed their muscle when over 100 of them showed up at the Planning Commission last Thursday to push for a new Whole Foods supermarket across from Golden Gate Park.

Because of the success of the RBA's first annual golf tournament and raffle both held on October 6^th, 2008, the RBA has made a $5000 donation to the Boys’ and Girls’ Club.

The controversial and long-awaited Eastern Neighborhoods Community Plan — which includes a thicket of thorny planning and financing issues that will largely determine San Francisco's socioeconomic future — has finally arrived before the Board of Supervisors....

"...Under a rezoning proposal recently approved by the Planning Commission, the plan would grant housing developers access to huge swaths of industrial land that was previously available to them only with special permits. The zoning would allow housing development opportunities in east SoMa, the Mission district, Potrero Hill and the central waterfront, four areas with a rich industrial history that also make up about 7 percent of San Francisco’s 47 square miles of land..."

"...Most of Dogpatch is parking permit and meter-free.  And, according to the City, with the “approved and impending development of 21,000 parking spaces at Mission Bay,” which “will consume virtually all street capacity in the area,” Dogpatch residents are squarely facing, to put it mildly, a parking nightmare.  “Dogpatch used to be a little rough and tumble, but now we have four-star restaurants and the owners of the high-end bistro A16 are planning a new restaurant in Homes Esprit,” said Eslick..."

"Will Californians drive less to reduce global warming? Maybe not on our own -- but state officials are ready to nudge us. The Legislature is on the verge of adopting the nation's first law to control planet-warming gases by curbing sprawl..."

...Supervisor Sophie Maxwell is talking about proposing a new law in the coming months that could impose fees on loft owners, but only on those who hope to get something in return...

A 2-year-old Planning Department moratorium that put some 2,000 proposed housing units indefinitely on hold in the eastern neighborhoods of San Francisco has been lifted, giving developers hope that dozens of condo and apartment projects that have been stuck in political limbo will finally be revived....

"Mayor Gavin Newsom today signed what's being touted as the "nation's most aggressive green building legislation" requiring all new and renovated office buildings to meet minimum green standards by 2009 and the highest green standards by 2010..."

"...Local engineers estimate that San Francisco has several hundred concrete-frame buildings that are liable to crumble in a big earthquake centered close to the city. The precarious structures come in different shapes and sizes - some are high-end condominiums on Nob Hill, and others are former printing houses South of Market. But they were all constructed before building code revisions in the mid-1970s that demanded more steel reinforcement in and around beams and columns, and stronger walls..."

"...But while the city spends hundreds of millions of dollars to house the extremely poor, there is a large segment of its population - hard-working, fully employed and stable - that makes too much money to get the help they need to find affordable housing. "

"Half a million square feet of unwanted office space has hit the market in downtown San Francisco over the past three months, brokers say, the consequence of bankruptcies, downsizings and financial turbulence...."

"...Oakland's condo building boom has ground to a near halt. While construction has continued on existing projects,  no new projects have broken ground during the first half of 2008..."

"...After eight years in the making, the city's massive Eastern Neighborhoods document has emerged from city planners. It's too much of a loving look backward at San Francisco's industrial past, and not enough of a bold grasp for its post-industrial future..."

"...The idea is to discourage driving by concentrating development in urban areas near transit, jobs and retail or by laying out suburbs more efficiently. For decades, Northern California's growth hasn't followed this dense, urban model. Most development has occurred outside the nine-county Bay Area, according to a report by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association..."

"...Many worry it's increasingly turning San Francisco into an enclave of the rich, where nurses, firefighters, cops, teachers and other professionals aspiring toward homeownership or in need of cheaper rent can no longer afford to stay...."

"... as long as the Left keeps talking about housing for the poor (but not housing for the middle class), our capacity to grow as a local political movement will remain illusory. Progressives cringe at the idea of standing up for households making six-figure salaries – but as the Chronicle article demonstrated, even families at the lower end of that spectrum are getting priced out of San Francisco..."

"...As San Francisco takes an increasingly conservative approach to historic preservation, rejected proposals are piling up in the City Planning office. The delays have hurt homeowners, architects and the building industry. Today most everyone - even some preservationists - has started to question the city's permit process and what needs to change..."

"The Bay Area housing market displayed its first positive sign in months as the volume of April sales rose by its highest percentage in at least 20 years..."

"...The 12,284 new arrivals to San Francisco were drawn to an estimated 10,000 new jobs and the city's enduring panache - good weather, views, arts and culture, restaurants, and access to the outdoors. But San Francisco still has some of the highest housing prices in the world and a long-standing housing shortage, so where will all these people live?..."

"...Given the tug-of-war that has emerged between Mayor Gavin Newsom's pro-growth policies and the supervisors' focus on developer fees to create affordable housing, Rahaim may benefit from being an outsider...."

"Stories about family members leaving San Francisco due to overcrowded conditions and insufficient options set the stage for this proposal...when it comes to the mammoth problem of affordable housing, we should encourage such creative solutions...."