Having stomped off and given up on developing a new movie studio on property he owns in Lucas Valley, filmmaker George Lucas is waving a figurative middle finger back at the NIMBYs who made his life difficult over the last fifteen years by converting the land into (gasp!) low-income housing instead. Marin County is notoriously short on housing that's affordable to non-millionaires, and if Marin residents had their druthers, all of it would be in a dark corner of San Rafael where no one had to look at it. Now, Lucas has partnered with the Marin County Foundation and they are reportedly "looking into" the affordable housing option for the property. more ›

The cover of this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian bears the headline "Is Oakland Cooler Than San Francisco?" Not that we haven't heard this before, like, from our Oakland friends, but lots of hip cats live over there! Artists and folks who enjoy cheap rent and true, gritty, urban experiences! The Guardian's main objective is to criticize San Francisco's "failed housing policy," because if we had more affordable housing, they say, we'd have more cool people staying here. But isn't there a difference between abundant and cheap housing and formalized "affordable housing," which is in the city's control to zone for and protect? more ›

City College is contemplating whether to begin foreclosure proceedings on the New Mission Theater property as well as the adjacent building, Giant Value, which were sold to Medjool owner Gus Murad back in 2005. According to the Guardian, Murad is now $2 million behind in payments on the properties, and his plans to build affordable housing and restore the historic theater would therefore seem in limbo. more ›

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. more ›

-- Smell that? It's the stench of awards season underway. And the San Francisco Film Critics Circle nominees are... [Hartlaub, Maximum Strength Mick] more ›

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 at BLŪ on the phone to fill us in. more ›

No, not Ed. That's been done. more ›

-- 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] more ›

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, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles. more ›

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. more ›

-- 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] --... more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

You know we'd say Chris Daly backed down from a fight, especially not in the title of a post! more ›

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? more ›

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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! more ›

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 news to report. Except for this one delectable quote which appeared in a salon.com article about what goes on in a porn palace. (The full story is really not safe for work. Even in San Francisco.) more ›

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

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! more ›

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? more ›

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 very nice, if that's your scene, but it doesn't really evoke Board-of-Supervisorial imagery. more ›

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 over something being ugly or, to put it politely, "compositionally unresolved." (Personally, we wonder if Baby Suri isn¹t compositionally unresolved.) more ›

It's our column about the dramarama of the November District 6 election! This week's episode: Everybody Hates Signing Things. more ›

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? more ›

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! more ›