A new group that formed before the pandemic began but is just now getting its gears in motion is aiming to revive San Franciscans' pride in their city, after at least a decade in which the overall consensus has been that everything here is terrible.

They're called Shine On SF, and one of their first big initiatives kicks off this weekend with some whimsical Golden Trees. The idea is that 16 trees will be temporarily installed in multiple locations around the city, and residents are encouraged to visit one during specific event times and write on a golden card an answer to the question "What makes San Francisco shine?" — and the cards will all be hung from the trees. This seems a bit like the product of a corporate off-site team-building event, but the intention is heartfelt, and perhaps it will have the desired effect of encouraging positivity.

Each site will reportedly host a different "craft activity" during the events, which begin this weekend and go on through August 15 — and then the cards will be used to make one grand installation. See this weekend's events below, or check out this interactive map for other locations.

Even the sometimes dour Heather Knight at the Chronicle seemed amused by the idea, and she even came up with a few reasons we should still love SF: "It’s drop-dead gorgeous. Its weather is cool and temperate as the rest of the state bakes. Seventy-five percent of San Franciscans over 12 are fully vaccinated, among the highest rates in the world. The Giants are the best team in baseball. The dahlias in Golden Gate Park are blooming, and the carousel is spinning once more. Even the cable cars are running again..."

As the SF Business Times notes, Shine On SF is also working with the city to improve how 311 calls and requests for trash and graffiti cleanups get handled, harnessing the power of various neighborhood groups to help. Mayor London Breed announced the initiative at a Wednesday event, noting that $2 million in the new city budget has been allocated to the effort.

Coalition members include leaders of the Hotel Council, San Francisco Arts Alliance, SF Travel, Golden Gate Restaurant Association, the SF Chamber of Commerce, the Tenderloin Business Improvement District, and the American Conservatory Theater; private companies like Clorox, Dropbox and NextDoor; and it brings together representatives from city agencies as well.

"It can’t be just about one city agency or one nonprofit agency taking care of cleaning up and some of the challenges that exist here," Breed said on Wednesday. "It requires all of us to do our part."

"It shouldn’t be the job of business owners to deal with the stuff that’s going on the sidewalk,” said Simon Bertrang, executive director of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, speaking to the Business Times. “Imagine if the business owner just reports an issue to 311 and that very same day we’re there to deal with it."

He added, "For years the city is working in one silo and the community benefit districts in another, we weren’t talking to each other. Now our work, their work will go into the same system through 311."

Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of SF Travel, said in remarks on Wednesday that he sees the effort as a way to communicate to tourists that the city itself is trying, and the people here care — despite what some streets look like.

"We want San Francisco to tell a story to our visitors and residents alike about our unified commitment and enthusiasm to making our city the best it can be," D'Alessandro said.

Residents who want to volunteer for a Golden Tree event can sign up here.

A months-old feces smear — or should we call it a fresco? — on a block of Russian Hill is now a work of public art thanks to a small museum-style label, likely placed there by a big fan of Marcel Duchamp.

According to the tipster who sent these images to SFist, "the people who live there haven't bothered to clean it up, even though one of the condos just sold for $2 million." Who cares about the condos — what's this piece selling for?

Have a tip for SFist? Send it along!

Related: Photos: One Guy Turned His Roommates' Mess Into A 'Passive-Aggressive Art Gallery'

It's that time of year again! 2003's Prop C mandated that the beautiful City of San Francisco issue an annual report on the state of our dear sweet streets and sidewalks, and here that is, once again: The Street and Sidewalk Maintenance Standards Annual Report.

To produce the report, issued last week for Fiscal Year 2015-2016, inspectors from contractor JBR Partners walked 183 selected routes in town — about half of them commercial, half of them residential — at the midpoint in the week between street cleanings. Compared to FY 2014-15, these inspectors found less litter and grime on streets, with about twice as many routes free from "excessive" litter.

That's the good news, here's the bad: The big three hazards on streets — feces, needles, and condoms, or FNC as they're known in the biz — were spotted more often than last year along residential routes, though inspectors found conditions to be roughly the same on commercial routes.

For another metric, the City’s SF311 customer service center fielded an increase in reports about feces and the like on streets, suggesting a palpable uptick in "FNC" sightings. In fact, 311 calls grew by 25 percent in FY 2015-16 to reach an average of 34,480 requests per month.

Going by 311 calls, reports of needles saw a 41 percent increase across the city, moving the proverbial needle quite a bit. Last year saw 2,527 reports of needles, and this year there were 3,551. The SF Public Works "Hot Spot" team, which actually performs needle cleanups, also noticed a big uptick here, counting internally 16,000 needles picked up in FY2015 and then 23,300 in FY2016 — an increase of 40 percent.

Human waste reports were up 39 percent, with District 6 bearing the brunt of that.

via the Office of the Controller

311 requests regarding broken glass were also up, tied to car break-ins, by 24 percent this year. That includes an astronomical jump after April and May media coverage brought attention to the issue of broken glass and car break-ins, possibly skewing the numbers.

via the Office of the Controller

Graffiti was also up according to the report. So who's responsible for cleaning up this mess? Mostly the answer is Public Works. Per the report, "among the twenty-two street and sidewalk standards evaluated, the Public Works department is generally responsible for the maintenance of the streets and Public Works assets located on the sidewalks." To keep up and help "operationalize" findings, the report recommends that the number of street and sidewalk evaluations each year be increased.

But trash, needles, and shit on city streets don't just spontaneously generate: A large factor in all of this is that San Francisco's population is up 8 percent since 2010, with 60,000 more residents as of January 2016. "This continued growth of people living and working in San Francisco places additional demand on the City’s service systems," the report explains. More people means more trash, and maybe it also means more people to complain about crap on the street. However, the report notes that the increase in 311 reports far outmatched the increase in new 311 users. Aw, crap.

Previously: Report Cites Fewer Needles On Sidwalks, But Complaints About Them Rise Anyway

Where were the encampments? ^KH

— SF311 (@SF311) February 26, 2016

"Where were the encampments?" tweeted San Francisco's Information and Services hotline at 4:21 this morning...to no one? To us all?

Sure, they could have been responding to an @er and made an error. But maybe this was more of a meta-statement, addressing, perhaps, the contentious hearing called Thursday by Supervisors Malia Cohen and Jane Kim, during which "supervisors questioned city staff about progress toward unifying homeless services and policy under the newly created Department of Homelessness," Bay City news reported.

Or, were they addressing comments like that of Division Street tent city dweller Mark Arroyo, who told ABC7 that "I told everyone to pack up and go. And just go. Go to the hills and eventually you will find a place to hang out."

Perhaps it was a reaction to the news, reported by the Ex, that "the Homeless Outreach Team, which connects with homeless persons on the street, has lost hundreds of temporary housing beds, decreasing from 330 beds in 2004 to today’s 65 beds." The result, they say, of illegal conversions of those units by the Academy of Art.

Maybe 311's tweet was the only way they could respond to the New York Times' report that homeless people are currently involved in "a standoff" with Mayor Ed Lee, with one Division Street encampment resident saying “I kind of want to stay put and fight it out."

In any case, as you know, San Francisco has set 5 p.m. today as the deadline for residents of the tent city to leave the area. Will they go to Pier 80? Stay and get arrested? Or go elsewhere, prompting still more questions like "Where were the encampments?"

Previously: Will The Remaining Tent City Homeless Get Arrested On Friday?
Pier 80 Shelter Fills Up As Tent City Sweeps Continue
City To Clear 'Tent City' Homeless Encampment Within 72 Hours

Well, this is some surprising news. Word has it that whenever you make a Muni-related call to SF service number 311, that call costs Muni around two dollars. No, seriously. During today's Dufty-driven Muni accounting meeting, according to reports," the D8 Supe confirmed with Tom Nolan (MTA board vice-chair) that each "Municentric" call to 311 costs $1.96. That is to say, the $1.96 per call has added up to a whopping bill to MTA of $6.2 million. The 311 operators you call to simply "check nextmuni for you" cost Muni several million dollars. Jesus. 311, for those of you who don't know, is Mayor Gavin Newsom's project that "connects residents, businesses, and visitors to Customer Service Representatives ready to help with general government information and services."

"This is Gavin Newsom, what the hell do you want?" Newsom (might have) said when he answered yesterday's one millionth call to 311.

Since its launch in April, 311 helps SF residents bypass "over 2,300 telephone numbers that existed previously to access city services...[and] reduces calls to the City’s 911 center, where over 50% of calls received are for non-emergency services." (Really? Like, "Hi, I just called to chat, is all" or "I just saw Loni Anderson over on Chestnut!" kind of non-emergency calls? Because there should be an eleven-number just for those. That would be awesome.)

And what was the one millionth call concerning? A report of upturned newspaper racks at Geary and Kearny. Newsom told the man that he would make sure the problem was fixed right-quick, and to have a nice day. Us, we would have asked him if his arms were broken.

San Francisco's other and inferior eleven, 511, has no comment as of this time.