We already know that Airbnb has spent around $8 million dollars to fight San Francisco's Proposition F, a ballot initiative that seeks to impose restrictions on private, short-term housing rentals. But along with the $1,715,097 they've spent at Sadler Strategic Communications and the $264,800 they've spent at David Binder research (among many other recipients of funds) they'll now need to add a budget line for some more practical items: Paint remover and glass cleaning, after the windows of their campaign office were defaced this week with anti-Airbnb graffiti.

Capp Street Crap was the first to report that the No on F gang had given up on efforts to find a campaign office in the Mission, after an abortive attempt to open their headquarters in a building owned by a notoriously unscrupulous landlord.

Instead, they rented out a spot at 3200 Geary Boulevard at Spruce Street, once the home to a tragic little Radio Shack. In their report, Capp Street Crap said that "With the Mission gentrifying at a rapid clip and recent reports like this one in the Examiner suggesting short-term rentals have eaten a large piece of the neighborhood’s available housing stock, I’m guessing the SF for Everyone campaign will get a warmer welcome in its new location."

This has apparently not been the case, however, as Dyan Ruiz spotted the freshly-vandalized office while riding the 38 Geary Thursday.

It appears that the vandalism, which reads "FUCK AIRBNB" was spray-painted on the front windows and doors of the office, as well as another window on the Spruce Street side of the office.

SF Weekly reports that No on F's Campaign Manager Patrick Hannan took this to mean that "The proponents of Prop. F have gotten desperate."

"Illegal vandalism and graffiti," Hannan said, "won't make this misguided proposition better."

It's unclear of Hannan has reported the vandalism to the San Francisco Police Department, and a call to SFPD on the matter was not returned at publication time.

Meanwhile, however, Prop F's highest-profile supporters are addressing the attack without condemning it outright. For example, Sarah Shortt, the executive director of San Francisco's Housing Rights Committee, told the Weekly that the vandalism "clearly reflects the growing ire of residents of San Francisco who are angry that a corporate behemoth like Airbnb is not only stealing our precious housing stock, but buying the election."

"In the end," Shortt says, "the campaigning shouldn’t be about attacks on entities or individuals, but on the policies themselves and educating voters about what needs to change."

Soon, however, all this will be less a matter for spray paint than the ballot box: As of Monday, voting begins in the November 3 election. And in a little more than a month, the fate of Prop F (whatever that means in the long run) will be decided.

Related: Airbnb's $8 Million And More: SF Campaign Fundraising, By The Numbers
Short-Term Rental Law Violators Got Fined $155K Last Month Alone

Perhaps you recall the case from 2011: following a Thanksgiving morning altercation, a man intentionally runs over a state firefighter at a San Francisco gas station, then flees. The victim was left with traumatic brain injuries, and after days of searching, the suspect was tracked down and arrested. This week, that driver was convicted of torture, mayhem, and assault with a deadly weapon with an enhancement for great bodily injury, four-plus years after the crime.

Former Marine, current Cal Fire firefighter, and father Albert Bartal, who was then aged 29, was at the Jack in the Box at 11th Avenue and Geary Boulevard at around 3:45 a.m. on Thanksgiving, 2011. While there, he got into an argument with Eduardo Chaparro-Esquivel of South San Francisco.

"Give me my food, I'm going to run him over," prosecutors said Chaparro-Esquivel announced from inside the Jack in the Box.

"I'm going to fuck him up," he reportedly added.

Less than two minutes later, witnesses saw Chaparro-Esquivel drive his SUV into Bartal as the victim walked through the lot of the gas station at the corner of Geary and 11th.

Chaparro-Esquivel "was going about 35 mph and hit the victim head on, causing him to be projected into the air and land head first on the curb," a San Francisco District Attorney's office spokesperson said this week. Bartal suffered a traumatic brain injury in the collision, and has been in a coma since that day, prosecutors say.
Chaparro-Esquivel fled the scene. Police released photos of his vehicle, and the below video taken at the Jack in the Box that night, in an effort to track him down.

Chaparro-Esquivel was arrested days later, but didn't face trial until this month. Wednesday, he was convicted of torture, mayhem, and assault with a deadly weapon with an enhancement for great bodily injury.

In a statement, District Attorney George Gascón said that "We're pleased that this violent man was held accountable," but noted that Bartal "and his family may never fully recover."

According to Gascón, the convicted man "may spend the rest of his life behind bars," as the maximum penalty for those charges could be life with the possibility of parole.

Chaparro-Esquivel is due to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on May 6th.

Photo by Erik Wilson.

Not a good week for those of us traversing the city sans automobile. Today, over at Geary and Arguello in the Richmond, a driver smacked a cyclist a little before 11:30 am. "The bicyclist was conscious and alert following the collision," reports SF Appeal. "No other information about the collision was immediately available."

Today's incident, though harrowing in its own right, wasn't as tragic as two separate car-related accidents that happened this past week. On New Year's Eve, a family was struck by a car in the Tenderloin. Six-year-old Sophia Liu died as a result of her injuries. Earlier that day in San Francisco's Crocker-Amazon neighborhood, 86-year-old Zhen Guang Ng died after getting struck by a pickup truck near the intersection of Naples and Rolph Streets.

[SF Appeal]

Oh dear. A 38 Geary line in the Outer Richmond caught fire this morning. The minor blaze erupted at around 6:45 a.m. in the engine of as the bus was parked at Point Lobos Avenue and 48th Avenue near Lands End.

"The fire damaged the left rear side of the bus and was extinguished a couple of minutes later," according to reports. Fortunately, only the bus driver and one passenger were on board at the time. Neither of them were injured.

The bus, sadly, didn't fare so well. It's been removed from service until it gets better.

[SF Appeal]

Most of you know RJ's Sports Bar as that yellow-sinage watering hole you see while smoking on the patio at Rye. "What is that place," you ask yourself between drags. "It scares me a bit." Well, it's a bar. Obviously. And now it's been sold to House of Shields owner Dennis Leary and bar manager Eric Passetti. Brava!

Now, will the noted Canteen chef and expert bar manager turn Sports Bar into yet another reclaimed-wood-and-Edison-bulb bar of mixology? Hardly. In fact, they've reportedly had it up to here with the overemphasis on cocktailologyness. Inside Scoop, who has the titular scoop, has a great quote from Leary. Ahem:

“Eric and I have been talking quite a bit about the whole service/hipster/mixology conundrum and his opinion is basically that, as far as he can tell, service has suffered from an overemphasis on mixology, and, while we want to prepare excellent cocktails, our focus is on building authentic relationships with our customers,” notes Leary, pointing out that they want to aspire to the kind of service that the late Maurice Rouas used to provide, and that Greg and Shelly Lindgren provide now.

While the bar's next incarnation as yet to be named, its looks will be created by a New York/LA designer. Thank God.

Meanwhile, at Canteen: Leary is working on something daunting yet intriguing called "The 100 Menus Project."

More details.

Several homes have been ordered to evacuate after a gas leak occurred at 25th Avenue and Geary in San Francisco. Aa tear was punctured in a 2-inch gas main was reported a little after 8 a.m.

According to the Chon, "Firefighters responded and asked nearby residents to keep their windows and doors closed. Some homes and apartment buildings were evacuated."

Traffic in the area, of course, is a nightmare. The hole should be plugged any second now.

After attending the Frameline Film Festival opening night party on Friday, Leo Volobrynskyy, 30, walked home after the festivities. En route, he entered a liquor store on Geary and Larkin to buy a bottle of wine. He got more than he bargained for, it seems. According to Volobrynskyy, he witnessed a man being beaten inside the store while "gay slurs" were being hurled at him.

SF Examiner reports:

Volobrynskyy said a man was sitting atop a another man, hitting him, yelling “faggot” and saying, “This is my store, just don’t come here.” The victim was screaming, “Please don’t kill me” and, “Just let me go,” according to Volobrynskyy. He said that while the attack was occurring about three or four men, including the cashier, laughed and cheered.

He then ran out of the store to call police for help. That's when things took a turn for the worse.

“When I realized what was happening, I walked outside the store and called 911,” Volobrynskyy said. Not long after, he saw the victim run from the store. The next thing he knew, the attacker was in his face.

“Why did you f---ing call the cops?” the man asked Volobrynskyy. The thug punched him in the face, snatched his cellphone and fled, Volobrynskyy said.

“I lost consciousness for a second,” he said. “I had a mouthful of blood."

When the cops arrived, the group of men, who also laughed on as Volobrynskyy was allegedly being attacked, denied the entire ordeal. The victim had a dentist remove his tooth the following day. And although a police report more or less matches Volobrynskyy's story, "there is nothing in it about inflammatory or derogatory comments," SF Examiner goes on to point out.

“This is actually why we march,” Volobrynskyy said referencing this month's Pride bacchanalia. We should point out that the victim is also a serial Good Samaritan. Read more about it at SF Examiner.

"Nine people meditating" by Brandon Doran.

A former Marine and current Cal Fire firefighter who was intentionally hit by a car at the Shell gas station parking lot at Geary Boulevard on Thanksgiving morning remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Prior to the attack, and in classic trashed trash mode, the two got into a fight at a Jack in the Box at 11th Avenue and Geary Boulevard on Thursday, according to police.

Both dudes were separated. The victim left the restaurant. The suspect, still heated from the fast food showdown and his own stupidity, then climbed into his mind-numbingly tacky black Mazda CX-type SUV, a vehicle sporting tragic 12-spoke sport rims, and followed the victim to the gas station. He then plowed his SUV into the victim. Vile.

Police have released video of the suspect.

According to BCN (via SF Appeal), "the suspect was described as a mixed-race or Latino man, between 18 and 24 years old, with short black hair and a manicured beard."

Tips about the suspect's whereabouts can be directed to the SFPD anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444 or text-a-tip at TIP411.

Eastbound Geary Boulevard between 9th and 11th Avenues closed temporarily this morning after a vehicle-pedestrian collision. According to SF Appeal, "a 70 year old male was struck by a Toyota SUV at 10th Avenue and Geary at 7:56 AM. The victim was transported to SF General, and the driver, who stopped after the accident, remained at the scene."

The pedestrian was whisked to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries.

"I am advising people avoid the area," SFPD spokesperson Officer Albie Esparza explained to the Appeal, "and I am expecting the area to be shut down for quite some time."

According to reports, traffic on Geary at Gough and Franklin moves sluggish this morning after a dead body near St. Mary's Cathedral. SF Appeal notes: "Police responded to the area at 7:40, after a passer-by reported seeing a body. According to KTVU broadcast, police say they have recovered a gun from the scene, and say that the deceased person did not appear to be homeless."

Please avoid the area if at all possible.

Over on the 900 block of Geary Street, around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, a man was robbed of over a pound of medical marijuana while leaving a dispensary. (Presumably The Divinity Tree at 958 Geary.) "The victim, a 34-year-old man, was walking out of the dispensary when a suspect pointed a gun at his face and demanded 'weed,' " reports SF Appeal. "The victim handed over a satchel that contained 1.25 pounds of medical marijuana and cash."

Mean!

The awful suspect, described as "a man in his late teens or early 20s," took off in "a black pickup truck with dealer plates." No arrests have been made.

While fans of Method soap and Paul Frank bedding patiently await the arrival of San Francisco's first Target store, still slated to open in the Metreon sometime in the fall of 2012, the San Francisco Planning Commission has approved a permit to build another location of the discount retailer in the largely deserted City Center shopping complex at Geary and Masonic. The city's second Target store, currently planning for a Grand Opening in Spring 2013, will be moving in to the former home of Mervyn's after a bit of a facelift.

Judging by the renderings above, the 120,000 square foot City Center Target will enjoy Mervyn's open-air (and downright suburban) parking lot on Masonic Ave. Appropriately enough, the new tenant will also be cozying up to other strip mall favorites in the complex: There's currently a Best Buy on the second level and an Office Depot around the back. (Not to mention a Trader Joe's about a block away.)

The Planning Commission's approval came during a hearing last Thursday on the state of retail franchise approvals in the city. In Target's case, the chain retailer didn't see much opposition. The Chronicle's John King reports that the signage may be the only sticking point. Target, it seems, wants more and bigger signs than the Planning Commission is likely to allow thanks to city regulations about signs in residential areas.

[SocketSite]
[SFExaminer]
[Chronicle]