Last week was a whirlwind one for San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi: on Monday he learned via reporter inquiry that his driver's license had been suspended, on Tuesday we learned that he's had a pretty rough driving record in the past year or so, and by Wednesday his license was back in good standing again. And now the embattled sheriff is saying that this is just another in a long list of ways Mayor Ed Lee is trying to get him down.

It's a story some disdained, like the San Francisco Examiner's Jonah Owen Lamb...

...though, to be fair, it's possible that my tongue-in-cheek use of "nightmare" might have been a bit too much for the excellent, hard-working Lamb.

But others took the story quite seriously. (Look at the comments on any of SFist's posts on the issue to see what I mean.)

From where Mirkarimi stands, however, this is all politics. While he doesn't appear to note what I speculated on, that the Chron was likely fed the initial suspended license story by anti-Mirk forces, he does have some choice words for Lee.

Mirkarimi's haters, he tells Matier and Ross, "have capitalized on my mistakes and misfortunes. That’s fair game in politics. I can take that."

However, he still believes that the buzz around this latest issue to befall Mirkarimi “is about Mayor Ed Lee consolidating power” and turning SFPD (not the Sheriff's Department, which Mirkarimi oversees) 'into his Praetorian Guard.”

For those of you who fail to recall your history, the Praetorian Guard were the elite but frequently corrupt private army used by Roman Emperors from 275 B.C. until their dissolution by Constantine I in 4 A.D. They're known for helping to assassinate Caligula, among other notable moments.

ANYWAY. Back to Mirkarimi. He says that “I know that without a contested mayor’s race, mine is going to be the top-of-the-ticket, pay-per-view event of the election" and argues that "the mayor ignores the mistakes of the SFPD or his own friends.”

“I’m already hearing about boasts of the mayor’s friends putting up $500,000 to beat me. They want their own police chief, their own fire chief, and now he wants one of his own as sheriff."

“This is a rough town...If my socks are mismatched, it gets reported negatively — but look at my overall record."

Previously: Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's Suspended Driver's License Nightmare Is Over, But Big Questions Remain
Inmate Found Dead Tuesday Is SF County Jail's Third Fatality Of 2015
Ross Mirkarimi Got His Domestic Violence Conviction Expunged
Public Defender: SF Jail Inmates Are Made To Fight While Sheriff's Deputies Bet On Them
SF Jail Escapee Was Major Drug Kingpin, No One Knows How He Got Low-Security Clearance
Sheriff's Deputy In Lynne Spalding Case: 'No, I Didn't Smell Her...'
He's The Sheriff: Ross Mirkarimi To Keep Job

John Avalos: San Francisco's League of Pissed Off Voters has stepped up (or jumped the gun, depending on how you look at it) and named the progressive candidate/oldies DJ as their official endorsement for Mayor. To celebrate, the League is expecting the candidate to drop in on their usual monthly happy hour tonight at Thieves Tavern in the Mission tonight from 6 - 9 p.m. The League occasionally springs for pizza, so we're not quite sure what everyone is so pissed about. Details.

Joanna Rees continues her tour of San Francisco neighborhoods with two very different stops this week. This evening, the milky-white ladycandidate will stop by The Creamery at 4th & Townsend around 6:30 p.m. for Talk of the Neighborhood Mission Bay. Then, on Saturday, she'll be down in the Bayview at Frisco Fried at 11 a.m. for another conversation about San Francisco's future. She's buying the coffee and donuts. Details.

Bevan Dufty and David Chiu: the former supe and the current supe will be getting down at Rasselas Jazz Club on Fillmore this Thursday evening along with District Attorney candidate David Onek. The event is hosted by the African American Democratic Club and if you're not already sweet on Dufty or Chiu's charming personalities, you could always down a couple glasses of the bar's honey wine. Details.

John Avalos and Phil Ting The SF Women's Political Committee event we mentioned last week was listed with the wrong date on the group's facebook page. If you're a woman, or at least someone who supports women (that should be all of you), you can still make it to this Thursday's event featuring Phil Ting and John Avalos. It is unfortunately still happening at Nobel Bar on Polk Street, but they've created a signature cocktail just for the event. It's called a Mayoral Mixer, which we assume is made with one part political experience and two parts cash, strained over an icy voter population and garnished with a big fat ego. Details.

Ross Mirkarimi: Sure, the D5 supe is running for Sheriff, not Mayor, but his fundraising event a "Comedy Variety Show" seems worthy of a mention. It happens this Friday at Carnelian by the Bay (behind the Ferry Building) from 6 - 9 p.m. and features several local comedians who we have never heard of, but we're sure are all very hilarious. Be warned that Ross will personally hit you up for money, although in a polite way. Details.

In Pac Heights, the problem is too much empty retail and not enough restaurants, but down in the [ahem] Lower Fillmore area District 5 Supervisor and potential sheriff Ross Mirkarimi sees a different factor holding back revitalization of the district: Businesses using ground-floor storefronts as offices. Don't these businesses know that's where the boutiques are supposed to go?

According to the Chronicle, Mirkarimi has a proposal in front of the planning commission today that would require ground-floor businesses be "active use". While updates from the planning commission weren't immediately available this afternoon, if Ross got his way, the current street-level offices will have to go elsewhere (upstairs perhaps) and open the storefronts to businesses that will attract pedestrians (who we know love to spend money) and won't close up right at 5 p.m.

We tried to remember the shops we passed on our last stroll along Fillmore from McAllister to Bush Streets (The blocks Mirkarimi's proposed ordinance would affect) and it seemed pretty lively to us. There's a fro-yo place and a Sunday Farmer's on those blocks, after all, but as Gabriel Metcalf of SPUR told the Chronicle, "It is not so much a problem of vacancies as it is closed blinds."

[Chronicle]

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, plastic bag-banning politico and California Green Party co-founder with a great head of hair, announced yesterday that he'll be running for sheriff. Sheriff Michael Hennessey, whose eighth term expires next January, announced Friday that he won't seek re-election. Mirkarimi had previously mentioned he was considering running for mayor, but the move for sheriff isn't as surprising as it might sound.

Mirkarimi graduated from the San Francisco Police Academy in 1996, has his Peace Officer Standards and Training certification from the state, and he worked for nearly a decade in the district attorney's office investigating white-collar crimes before his stint as supervisor.

We also can't forget Mirkarimi has already built quite a reputation as a crime-fighting neighborhood hero. As SFist reported back in 2007, the beloved sup stopped a burglary several years back, saved someone's life in Buena Vista Park, and caught two people involved in a drive-by shooting. Pretty great track record so far.

[Chronicle]

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• With Four Loko on it's way to an FDA ban, ABC begins a crackdown on Irish Coffee. Because it's aggressively marketed towards tourists, obviously. [generic]
  
• Ross Mirkarimi would like you to pay a dime for every paper bag you use [SFEx]
  

(By Travis Jensen)

The S.F. Skate Club, a youth skateboarding program dedicated to providing children with skateboarding lessons and mentoring, hosted an art show last Friday in Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office at City Hall. The show featured a series of hand-painted skateboard decks by local youth skateboarders, ages 8 to 13. Although none of the artwork was for sale, the club was hoping the show would help raise awareness about the need for a skateboard park in Golden Gate Park, near Stanyan and Waller streets.

Supervisor Mirkarimi originally drafted the legislation for a new skateboarding facility in Golden Gate Park; due to concerns from surrounding businesses and neighbors about the kind of crowd the park might attract, however, planning has since been put on hold. Skate park supporters feel the concerns are ironic, because the proposed Upper Haight location is a neighborhood that prides itself on diversity.

San Francisco currently has one skate park, which is basically an empty swimming pool in a remote corner of Crocker-Amazon Park. Built in 2001; the park is rarely ever skated because of its old-fashioned design and out-of-the-way location. A second park is scheduled to open this Saturday, June 28 in Potrero Del Sol at 25th and Utah streets. (Continued after the jump.)