Our friends over at CurbedSF brought to our attention that Hayes Valley will soon be getting a new makeover, via the redevelopment of 55 Laguna. The proposals for the "mixed-use" of the former UC Berkeley extension -- which was relocated four years ago -- has recently been approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission. So what can we look forward to at 55 Laguna? Plans for the property include a community center, retail space (specifically......

-- Smell that? It's the stench of awards season underway. And the San Francisco Film Critics Circle nominees are... [Hartlaub, Maximum Strength Mick] -- Rincon Hill? Is fit to be tied. [Curbed] -- The Hayward fault is coming to get you, us. [The Snitch] -- Mark and Carole and Tim and SFist. [SFBG] -- "[C]od sperm crostini." (Also: barf.) [Eater] -- Will you buy us this incredibly well lit house? [The Front Steps] --......

Eastern SOMA's budding, unfortunately named condo "community" BLŪ, on Folsom and Second Streets, is about ready to bloom in all of its steel and glass glory. Problem is, we don't see any lottery for affordable housing on their site. Has the lottery already happened? Or are they planning on having some sort of learning annex or UC Berkeley extension, a la The Paramount, to skirt those types? We can't seem to get anyone over......

No, not Ed. That's been done. Homeless SF mayoral candidate Grasshopper Kaplan was booked "on suspicion of stalking and use of a vehicle for habitation" -- is that really illegal? using your ride as your home? -- after taking a nap in his taxi while parked in the driveway of Ed Jew's 28th Avenue (non-)residence yesterday. It seems that he did it to make a statement about homelessness, affordable housing, the moon, or whatever. Maybe......

-- Tzssss: Golden Gate Bridge gets branded. (They won't really have billboards on the bridge, but who would want to see tasty Pizza Rolls high above, or why Sally Field stays so ramrod straight?) [Chron] -- Castro is now dead, says Perez. No, not the Castro. Although that neighborhood [insert your own joke here]. [SFBG, via PH] -- Man killed by J-Church on Thursday identified as John O'Neill, 47. RIP, dude. [Chron] -- What will......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Well, at least he lives in the Richmond, right? (Some) affordable housing advocates and ethicists are shaking their heads over District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's poor party timing this week. Remember that lot on Cesar Chavez and Mission that everyone's fighting about condoizing? Well, the Board of Supes had a contentious debate about it on Tuesday, and narrowly voted for development on a 6-5 vote. (hey, Michela Alioto-Pier must've shown up that day!) The swing......

-- Are you ready for the genius that is Peaches Christ and her Midnight Mass cult-film series? [Bay Area Reporter] -- Television -- glorious, warm, loving television! -- on BART cars? Hmm. [Inside Bay Area, Oakland Tribune] -- Matt Stroud takes a brief, much-needed break from his Rocky-like boxing bootcamp training. [The Snitch] -- Affordable housing advocates get pinched by the fuzz. Remember, purveyors of justice: don't drop the soap! [Fog City Journal] --......

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again: the civilly-disobedient affordable housing gang finally either climbed over or clipped open that fence at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Mission yesterday morning, bust in on the lot, and set up tents. Tents! Man, we'd love to have a tent across the street from the Palace Steak House. Twelve people were arrested as a group of about 80 protestors chanted anti-high end housing slogans. Fog......

We're already getting tired of this story. Can we please get back to the Ed Jew investigations? The only coverage we're enjoying is Bad Reporter's! (We're enjoying Bad Reporter's coverage very, very much, though. "No oxygen: He could die.") Here's the latest in Daly Fight 2007: --Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier is going to reintroduce a code of conduct for behavior before the Board of Supes. You may remember she introduced a motion to censure Daly for......

You know we'd never say Chris Daly backed down from a fight, especially not in the title of a post! However, we did just get an email from the Gavin Newsom 2008 people noting that the Board of Supes Budget Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled. That was the meeting that was supposed to be the proxy mayoral race over Daly and Newsom's competing visions of the city (i.e., whether we were......

Hey, have you seen that giant, ugly monstrosity of a wall on Haight Street between Laguna and Buchanan? That's the old UC Extension campus. Yep, the one that's been closed since 2003 and has been fallow since. Why are we bringing this thing up now, ruining your beautiful June morning with mental images of a dilapidated, graffiti-scarred bit of lovely urban blight right in the middle of the city? Because there's a meeting tonight to......

Okay, we'll admit it. San Francisco local politics as of late has been, shall we say, BORING. Boring boring boring boring. No shouting matches, no chicken suits, no revelations from either underage drinkers or hyphenated-named wives of best friends -- it's been slim pickings. So how excited are we to hear that the simmering cauldron of rage that is the Gavin Newsom-Chris Daly rivalry is heating up!!!! YES!!!!!! So, according to Left in SF:......

It's almost the end of April and we didn't even realize it was National Poetry Month! We're going to make it up to everyone by passing along tonight's Poems Under The Dome event. Poems Under The Dome is an open-mic poetry event in the big reception area of the SF City Hall and sponsored by the city -- show up and read whatever poem you'd like! (One poem per reader, time limits will be......

Here's todays news...

At a conference yesterday hosted by people trying to find a solution to the increasing amount of families leaving the city, Gavin said things were improving. In the speech, he rattled off a bunch of things the city is doing to help families stick around, including new housing, tax credits, the improving school district, and the upcoming attempt at universal health care. Also: free ice cream!...

You didn't think that our recent distractions would prevent us from forgetting about our NIMBY neighbors down by the armory, would you? In case you had forgotten, kink.com has valiantly attempted to purchase a building which has stood empty for 35 years for the purpose of making porn, much to the chagrin of their potential neighbors. Other than a few local groups planning on protesting the move today (Thursday) at noon, there isn't much......

-Could the 49ers and the Raiders be planning to move in with each other? -Soldier from Hayward was killed in Iraq. ...

We know the rest of you will be just as shocked as we are to hear of other elections going on besides the District 6 race (except for you, commenter poormojo!). Well, David Kiddoo, the write-in candidate for District 2 (Pac Heights, the Marina) running against incumbent Michela Alioto-Pier, has graciously agreed to submit to an SFist interview and tell us what they're worrying about up there north of Market. Thanks, David! Who are you,......

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for?...

Greg's already put it better than we could, but in case you haven't heard, District-Eight Supe candidate Alix Rosenthal is throwing a party this weekend that may or may not reflect well upon her. The event is entitled "Get in B.E.D. with Alix," (the B.E.D. stands for, um, actually, nothing at all) and it's described as "Burning Man meets Cirque du Soleil," with "art ... tarot readings ... fire dancing." All of which sounds......

Public art is often the butt of jokes and viewed with contempt, along with performance art and washed up aging rockers on the county fair circuit. Whatever your feelings are about the role of government in the arts, many people support public art in theory, and its civic impact is meager compared to contracts for garbage disposal, cable television, and towing. Public art controversies are noteworthy in that one sees people get twisted knickers......

It's our column about the dramarama of the November District 6 election! This week's episode: Everybody Hates Signing Things. After we made so much fun of Chris Daly's signature-gathering for the ballot last week, we feel duty-bound to report that we got a triumphant email from his campaign headquarters (that had some weird spacing in it -- but we attribute that to our webmail browser) announcing that he'd collected 1200 signatures in support of his......

Sister sister -- Shanghai and SF affirmed their 25 years of friendship as Gavin and Shanghai mayor Han Zheng totally touched their cut pinky fingers together to affirm their sister city status. Gavin sprung for the trip "himself" (i.e., he's flying with the Gettys), and is bringing Plumpjack wine to present to the Shanghai mayor too. The two mayors pledged to do a lot of things -- like build a Chinese garden on Divisadero. Among other things, Michael Tilson Thomas will take the SF Symphony to Shanghai, SF will sponsor a ping-pong tournament, and (this is totally our favorite) the two cities will work on making more affordable housing. But you know what we really want? A panda!!!!!! Gavin, get us a panda! Awwwww, we love you, Shanghaiist! Will you be our sister citysite? (if we're not sisters already, come to think of it?) And more importantly -- can you get us (and not Oakland) a panda? Jen, can we start Chengdu-ist soon? ...

We suppose the subject matter trumps the supervisor, as even a Daly-free meeting about condo conversions descended into shouting and gavel-pounding yesterday. Supervisor Bevan Dufty (pictured at right) had proposed that we give preference in the condo conversion lottery to people who've been applying for years to turn their TICs into condos for several years, noting that with the 200-conversions per year and five-year cap on applications, many people simply never get the chance to convert. All was going well, until Supervisor Sandoval "forcefully told" the city lotto supervisor to stop advocating for an immediate change in the law. Dufty then raised his voice in defense of the city staff, and chair Sophie Maxwell had to pound the gavel for order. They ended up tabling the whole thing and saying they'd think about it some more. Sandoval says we should be focusing on affordable housing, and Ted Gullickson from the Tenants' Union says people should stop trying to back-door themselves into condo ownership through TICs anyways. The dispute should be on streaming video here soon. Where was Chris through all this? You know he hates to miss a housing fight! He was probably just resting up his voice for his Daily Show debut -- scheduled for next Tuesday! We're just going to have to miss the KRON 4 news at 11 that night! And oh yeah -- don't forget your SFist Daily Daly Show drinking game cheat sheet! ...