SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution Tuesday that would make the First St. John’s Methodist Church at Larkin and Clay Streets a historical landmark. The landmark status would prevent alterations to the building’s façade and likely bring an end to a housing development of 27 units proposed for that site. The church, built in 1911, is the only extant California structure designed by renowned architect George Washington Kramer and combines elements of the Mission Revival and English Gothic Tudor architectural styles, according to the resolution.

TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

County agency approves bus rapid transit system

A proposal to introduce a rapid bus transit system on the heavily traveled Geary Boulevard corridor came one step closer to reality Tuesday when a key committee of the Transportation Authority of San Francisco County gave it the thumbs up. The authority’s Plans and Programs Committee, consisting of six city supervisors, recommended that the proposal move to the next stage of development — an environmental review. BRT systems typically feature bus-only lanes closed to vehicles, with buses having priority at traffic signals.

REC AND PARK DEPARTMENT

Planning director to discuss park improvement plan

The director of planning for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department will discuss the capital needs of The City’s park system and a proposed parks and open space general obligation bond for the June 2008 ballot at a meeting of the Neighborhood Parks Council on Thursday. The meeting will be held at City Hall, 6 p.m., and will also discuss how communities can finance park maintenance and improvements through park improvement districts. For more information, contact council@sfnpc.org or call (415) 621-3260.

E-mail your city officials:

Mayor: Gavin Newsom

Supervisors: Jake McGoldrick - District 1; Michela Alioto-Pier – District 2; Aaron Peskin - District 3; Ed Jew - District 4; Ross Mirkarimi - District 5; Chris Daly – District 6; Sean Elsbernd - District 7; Bevan Dufty - District 8; Tom Ammiano - District 9; Sophie Maxwell - District 10; Gerardo Sandoval – District 11

Comments from Examiner Readers

3:45 PM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
with all the homelessness, aids, drugs , murders this Idiot Daly is wasting time with the Damn Blue Angels....I guess thats the way to go when you dont want to help real people.

164 agree | 123 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

12:44 PM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
Waste of time by another local official.

182 agree | 112 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

12:24 PM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
Chris Daly, we have better things that the Board of Supervisors needs to vote on daily issues, and that is not an important daily issue. This City needs to look at education, health care, homelessness, deferred maintenance, and the budget to name a few. Daly's banning the Blue Angels and Canadian Air Force is total BS and it is nonsense. Daly, can you name one thing that is important in your district and banning Fleet Week is not one of them. Listen to your district or else face recall.

186 agree | 161 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:28 AM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
Chris daly is a spoil brat . He should solve real city problems professional and not with his hot head. Leave the blue angels alone!

178 agree | 245 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:24 AM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
Daly, where's the resolution to keep the Space Shuttle from flying near San Francisco during re-entry? Can you say RECALL?

184 agree | 194 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

9:55 AM MST on Tue., Aug. 21, 2007 re: "City Hall: Daly to send Blue Angels resolution to full board"

Examiner Reader said:
Dear pol heads, crime, litter and the homeless. Fix these problems then you can waste your time posing and posturing on this type of political nonsense.

171 agree | 133 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

2:21 PM MST on Thu., Aug. 16, 2007 re: "City Hall: Bill introduced to spur workers to use transit"

Examiner Reader said:
I ride BART to work every day. It's clean, efficient, and comfortable. The management does not tolerate disruptive and abusive riders. There are BART police around and they actually show up if needed. I used to carpool into SF and was dropped off on Market at 6:30 a.m. I would try to ride Muni Metro to work, but gave up after having to deal with malfunctioning cars, evidently deaf and dumb drivers, and "the homeless" passed out in the cars, along with the usual psychotics. You will not get me on MUNI for all the tea in China. No wonder people drive.

158 agree | 173 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:54 AM MST on Fri., Aug. 10, 2007 re: "City Hall: Response to Critical Mass set for tonight"

Examiner Reader said:
no other city allows 500+ bickes to disrupt traffic and fight with motorists. The group has been around a short while and has accomplished nothing positive. Keep up the good work. Can someone attach their next route with their reply so we can all avoid their city sanctioned street party.

172 agree | 180 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

6:29 PM MST on Thu., Aug. 9, 2007 re: "City Hall: Bill introduced to spur workers to use transit"

Gretchen said:
Yes, we should encourage the use of public transit but Mirkarimi is going to far by trying to legislate what businesses must do to support it. Just the cost of monitoring and enforcing such a plan would be self defeating. If employees of SF businesses are not using public transit perhaps there's a problem with it! Let' fix public transit before we try to legislate the use of it. Employer provided vanpool service would probably reduce the number of public transit users and increase the number of minivans driving around the city - very counter productive. I am also concerned that again the small businesses are being asked to pay for a progressive agenda. First we make them raise minimum wage, then we want universal health care, now we want businesses to pay for transit passes or vanpools. Decent wages, health benefits at least make sense, but public transit is a city service that is disfunctional and needs attention. Fix Muni so that other measures aren't needed.

205 agree | 204 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

2:39 PM MST on Wed., Jul. 11, 2007 re: "City Hall: Committee to decide on Muni measures"

Examiner Reader said:
The SEIU runs Muni, and is one of the chief causes for it's problems. I don't think the workers are overpaid, but they are underworked. The arcane work rules prohibit any reasonable management of workers. Work rule concessions (like requiring a call-in if not showing up for work) are absolutely necessary. Also, reduce the number of bus stops from every other block to every third block. This will speed up the system as well.

380 agree | 277 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

11:53 AM MST on Wed., Jul. 11, 2007 re: "City Hall: Supes to vote on Wi-Fi antenna review"

Examiner Reader said:
I would support this if I thought the Board would use this opportunity to discuss REAL issues related to the City, and not use is as an opportunity to slander the Mayor. In particular, Chris Daly's obsession with Gavin reminds me of Dan White. Scary!

420 agree | 259 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

12:04 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007 re: "Supes may force Newsom to attend meetings"

Examiner Reader said:
Newsome haven't repesented the people of this cty as along as Newsome allows discriminatio in his departments there will beno rest, remember Newsome was alos mention for voter fraud along with Mohammad Nuru who still works for Gavin, Gavin is afraid to fire Nuru because Nuru has the goods on Newsome

317 agree | 272 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

12:02 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007 re: "Supes may force Newsom to attend meetings"

Examiner Reader said:
I think Gretchen works for the mayor for he do have a obligation to appear before the board remember that was voted on so Gretchen can stop kissing on the mayor's butt

288 agree | 306 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

10:51 AM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007 re: "Supes may force Newsom to attend meetings"

Gretchen said:
The mayor was elected by the people of SF, not the Board of Supervisors. He has no obligation to come before them and be submitted to any questioning or, given the personalities involved, verbal abuse. It will be interesting to see which six supervisors will actually stand up and say: "Because I am such an obnoxious person with such a vile attitude and childish inability to even carry on a civil conversation, I know that the only way I can get the mayor to pay attention to my stupidity is by passing this egregious resolution." Gee, I can't imagine that six of our supervisors would admit to this, but, well, it is SF and these are (for better or worse) our supervisors. It will be interesting to see which supervisors want to be identified as one of Daly's dunderheads.

288 agree | 286 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

4:50 AM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007 re: "City Hall: Newsom may be foreced to attend meetings"

Examiner Reader said:
seems utterly ridiculous to require the mayor to formally answer questions in a trial-like setting. i think it's inappropriate, just like it would be inappropriate for the mayor to ask each board member to answer questions in a similar setting. they are all adults now, i think they can call meetings with each other as necessary, like grown ups. let's not have the mayor, or anyone, use their valuable time when there's many other important issues at hand that need to be addressed.

416 agree | 264 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

1:13 AM MST on Sun., Jul. 1, 2007 re: "City Hall: Board committee curbs community court funds"

Examiner Reader said:
i'm glad community court got funding, but it doesn't seem enough. $750k is a drop in the bucket compared to the $10-20 million line items that seem a bit inflated. we need something to address quality of life issues. i'm tired of living in filth, graffiti, and bathroom residue. walking out the door and experiencing this makes me feel harassed everyday. it's good that the perpetrators will finally have an understanding what it means to clean up the trash they've created + what it means for to the owner of that property who would've had to clean it up for me. seems like this would make the wrong right.

877 agree | 269 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

2:02 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 27, 2007 re: "City Hall: Historic Children�s Playground reopens"

ed bobatee said:
i'd be happy to pay the cops lots of money if they actually did their jobs. but they are so lazy and risk averse, the criminals run around and know the ycan get away with petty offenses, assault, and more, because no one will stop them. and this city charges 900k for a crackhouse? whatever you deserve your lousy pd. and I laugh when the pensions bankrupt this city!

399 agree | 290 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

7:29 PM MST on Fri., Jun. 15, 2007 re: "City Hall: Contract with officers association goes to vote"

Gretchen said:
Re: Article about Police contract. The salary increase is high but it's a tight market and employers have to pay market rate. Our police officers have been underpaid compared to other departments in the area. What is NOT mentioned in the story is the increase in retirement pay and lifetime medical benefits. After 30 years working for a large profitmaking corporation, the average employee can retire with a 401K or IRA which contains money from the company as well as money contributed. But, it is up to the employee to manage that money and make sure he takes care of himself. The new Police contract, on the other hand, will give 30 year veterans almost full salary when they retire. Plus cost of living adjustments. For life. We the tax payers will foot the bill. It is time for Unions to join the real world can convert from the old Defined Benefits plans to Defined Contributions plans. More on Police Retiree benefits? Check out the Matier and Ross column from June 4.

661 agree | 303 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

4:14 PM MST on Mon., Jun. 11, 2007 re: "City Hall: Slate of new gun laws goes before committee"

Examiner Reader said:
Wasn't the District of Columbia just informed that they were and had been in violation of the Constitution with their locked and or dismantled firearms in their homes crap? What is so difficult in understanding, shall not be infringed?

737 agree | 317 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

5:59 PM MST on Fri., May. 11, 2007 re: "City Hall: St. John's church to be landmark"

Examiner Reader said:
In the 1980s it was also a site for the Hip Wo Chinese Christian Academy, also known as Hip Wo Chinese Language School, one of the oldest, if not the oldest continuously operating Chinese language schools in America.

551 agree | 581 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

12:35 PM MST on Fri., May. 11, 2007 re: "City Hall: St. John's church to be landmark"

Examiner Reader said:
This historic 160 year old church is the oldest Protestant Church in San Francisco. Founded in 1847, many prominent clergy persons have served there. In recent years the church was a sanctuary for G.I. resisters during the first Persian Gulf War, a sanctuary for Haitian refugees, and was known in the community as an activist Peace with Justice congregation. In early 1993 East Timor Religious Outreach was also founded there. Working to stop nuclear weapons production, deployment, and use, the Central America peace movement, and advocacy on behalf of the hungry and homeless were all important aspects of its ministry.

640 agree | 568 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate

1:32 PM MST on Wed., May. 9, 2007 re: "City Hall: St. John's church to be landmark"

Examiner Reader said:
Awesome that this building is recognized for its architecture. It should be equally recognized as a peace site. There were active peacemaking projects during the 80's and 90's at a time when it was most unpopular to do so. Support for East Timor independence. Reseistance to US sponsored terror in Central American. Protest against 1st US invasion of Iraq. and more...

766 agree | 613 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree

Report as inappropriate