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We're a little late to this story, in part because we spent all day yesterday trying to separate out the hilarious comments from the offensive ones on SFGate.com (it looks like the homophobic ones have already been taken out as of today) -- but in a nutshell, last Friday, Lance Farber, the 47-year-old boyfriend of the city's new planning director John Rahaim trashed their temporary apartment, which the city put them up in and which is located in the ceremonial fire chief's house in downtown SF.
Farber broke up some antique furniture, smeared crushed tomatoes on the walls, set a mattress on fire, and then fled the scene, after which he was arrested on a DUI in San Mateo County. In case you were wondering, fire chief Joanne Hayes-White (who's had some strange domestic violence incidents of her own) does not live at the ceremonial fire house. No one was hurt in the fire, but the damages are estimated at $100,000. Will the city have to pay for that?
Rahaim just started as the new SF Planning Director this January, and he previously worked in Seattle to increase the amount of open space in their downtown. Farber is some kind of new age chiropractor. Fire Chief Hayes-White, along with Supervisor Bevan Dufty, are now saying maybe they shouldn't be using historic landmarks as temporary housing for SF officials in the future.
We're not even sure what to make of this. Were the tomatoes organic? And why can't they give Ed Jew a temporary apartment too if he needs city housing so bad?
Picture of the ceremonial fire house from KCBS.
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Horray! Now this is what I was waiting for SFist to post about. So many wheels upon wheels of fail here, I don't even know where to approach the topic. So I'll let someone else do it.
At least he didn't burn his boyfriend to death.
1-800-DIVORCE or
1-800-MEDICATE
are two needed phone numbers...
Hee hee, the planning commission. They redlined our neighborhood at a recent pot club hearing, and now this. Ha ha.
I am so going to start smearing crushed tomatoes on the walls of my enemies. Brilliant.
Did he get the tomatoes at the treasure hunt in Dolores park?
One of the commenters on the Gate last night made a remark that sounds like a story waiting to break:
The reason they're letting new city executives live in the house is because Chief Hayes-White refuses to live in the official residence herself.
According to the commenter, the official residence is provided to the chief so that he or she can be downtown quickly in the event of a major disaster. Hayes-White apparently lives near the Daly City border -- not exactly an easy place to get to downtown from in the case of a massive earthquake or other mega-incident.
I'd love to hear more about this angle and less about the psychotic issues of some Seattle chiropractor.
I wondered about Hayes-White not living there as well, but I don't think policy made over 50 years ago about the fire chief living there is necessarily valid now. I also don't get the SFGate commentators angry because the city is using it for temporary housing. Relocation packages are fairly normal, and I would rather they put new employees up in a vacant city owned property than paying for a room at the Mark Hopkins.
Where the Chief lives is hardly the problem. The not-so-secret is that a large majority of Bay Area firefighters and police officers live way the hell out in suburbia - I'm talking Modesto, Sacramento, Chico, Red Bluff.
After the big one, wish them luck getting through the traffic and downed overpasses.
This is one of the major justifications for CERT/NERT traning and the "72 Hours" argument.
I'm not sure that this story is anyone's fucking business. Some guy had a meltdown; it was unpleasant for everyone involved; the end. Why not give them some privacy?
Talk about the firefighters' residency issues, sure; but gossiping about emotional difficulties seems like the epitome of mean.
I'm not sure that this story is anyone's fucking business... Why not give them some privacy?
Excellent question. Replace "Lance Farber" with "Jennifer Siebel" and answer that on your own. Good point, though...
Anyone can have a meltdown, but what makes this the story is that this is the Fire Chief's house, one of those city jems.
I lived two doors away from that beautiful house for 8 or 9 years, walked by it daily, and the closest I ever got to getting to explore or look around it was when one of Willie Brown's firechiefs lived there and regularly had the garage door open with a big red Crown Victoria parked in the driveway.
And if I ever had the opportunity to actually sleep in the structure (ala a Bed & Breakfast, or house-swap, or whatever), I'd treat it (and the antiques inside) as gently as I would any guest house I've ever stayed at.
I'm not sure how much the new Planning Director is earning but it's likely to be somewhat more than any of us posting here. Why didn't Rahaim had his own place Farber could trash? Is Rahaim going to be on the hook for the damages? If I had a potentially crazy (or overly dramatic) partner in one city and an awesome opportunity in another city, I'd be likely to gently drop the partner in the original city before high tailing it out of town to the new opportunity.
Anyways, I do agree with you up to a point, Matty, about gossiping excessively about people we know barely anything about. But stories like this reflect really badly on the Gav and keep San Francisco's government in (national) headlines.
b.t.w. as an aside, the house has a "No Parking Fire Station" set of signs on either edge of the driveway. If any poor soul so much as parks an inch into the red zone, the parking ticket they'd get slapped with is something like $400 or so.
The Pink section in the Chron the last 2 weekends in the "25 years ago, 50 years ago" section has been covering a former city law that all police had to live in SF, and how some listed "summer cottages" in Daly City! Priceless!
"Gently drop"?? Substitute partner for "wife" or "husband" and the thought of gently dropping seems a tad extreme. Partner is as legit as some can call somebody they are committed to for life.
True, Daithi. I should have used the words "boyfriend / girlfriend". The articles I've read indicate the arsonist was a boyfriend. No article I've read (or just googled for) said Farber was a "partner". I tend to think of spouse or partner as a more committed thing than "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", but this is all semantics.
A typo in Rita's posting, b.t.w. Damaged in the original article were originally estimated at $10K, not $100K, but this updated SFGate article says damage is more along the lines of $25,000.
Shouldn't we be using the term "ex-boyfriend" already?
I think they've probably broken up by now, what with the restraining order and all . . . .