So that swanky condo showroom at the corner of New Montgomery and Howard is now empty. (Did they really sell all those condos? In this market? Maybe to the wealthy parents of all those Academy of Art College University students across the street and everywhere else around town?)

The Gavinator and the Arts Commission want to put art exhibits in empty storefronts, the way they're doing in that cow town East of the Hudson River, but the folks who own that building decided to make a little coin while they're preparing the space for the next tenant. The problem is they didn't think to check whether it's OK to turn hundreds of linear feet of street space into a big ol' commercial billboard. According to the SF Planning Department, the answer is no.