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Land & Water

San Francisco vowed zero landfill trash by 2020 and sent 515,037 tons there in 2025

Oct 9, 2026

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5 min read

San Francisco vowed zero landfill trash by 2020 and sent 515,037 tons there in 2025

In 2003, when the city set its deadline, 718,863 tons of its trash went to landfills; in 2019, 713,010. The state’s count has sat near 500,000 since mid-2019, when it changed how it counts. The city’s own gauge barely moved.

Housing

Parkmerced’s 1,538 apartments voted for demolition in 2011 still stand; the complex is 12% empty

Oct 7, 2026

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11 min read

Parkmerced’s 1,538 apartments voted for demolition in 2011 still stand; the complex is 12% empty

The complex’s own filing to the Rent Board, signed in December with a court-appointed receiver running the property, lists 3,162 units at San Francisco’s largest apartment complex and 383 of them vacant. That is nearly three times the 4.4 percent vacant across all 133,320 rent-controlled units in the same file, and down from one in five in June. Nothing in the 2011 plan has been built. A court handed the complex to a receiver in 2025 after its owner defaulted on a $1.5 billion loan, and the first four building sites went to a second lender at foreclosure in July.

Housing

59% of homes in San Francisco’s new buildings sit on ground that can give way in a quake

Oct 5, 2026

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8 min read

59% of homes in San Francisco’s new buildings sit on ground that can give way in a quake

The state maps the 700 block of Valencia Street, where a hotel sank in 1906, as ground that can liquefy, or weaken and give way, in a strong earthquake. Of 48,718 homes in new buildings the city has permitted since 2001 and finished, 28,780 stand on ground mapped the same way. That ground covers about a fifth of the city.

Streets & Safety

Russian Hill car break-ins fell 88% in two years; residents feel safer walking at night

Oct 2, 2026

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8 min read

Russian Hill car break-ins fell 88% in two years; residents feel safer walking at night

Police took 243 reports of car break-ins at the ends of Lombard Street’s crooked block in 2023, and none this year. In the city’s new survey, the share of Russian Hill residents who feel safe walking alone at night rose from 29% to 80%, against 37% to 60% citywide.

Land & Water

San Francisco Bay Topped NOAA’s Flood Line on 6 Days in 2026, Twice in Summer

Sep 28, 2026

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12 min read

San Francisco Bay Topped NOAA’s Flood Line on 6 Days in 2026, Twice in Summer

From 1920 through 1968, NOAA’s tide gauge in the Presidio never once counted a flood day, and every one it counted after that fell between November and February. This year it has counted six, two of them on summer nights. The Bay sits about nine inches higher than it did a century ago.

Housing

The Baldwin Drew 353 Complaints, Most of Any SRO in San Francisco

Sep 25, 2026

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8 min read

The Baldwin Drew 353 Complaints, Most of Any SRO in San Francisco

The Baldwin at 74 6th Street has logged more Department of Building Inspection complaints since 1994 than any of San Francisco’s other 457 single-room-occupancy buildings, though its size explains much of that gap. The city converted the old supportive-housing hotel into an emergency shelter in 2021.

Business

Treasure Island’s Shop-Tax Take Is Back to Its 2015 Level: $81,502

Sep 23, 2026

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6 min read

Treasure Island’s Shop-Tax Take Is Back to Its 2015 Level: $81,502

The number is sales tax collected, not sales made. On the state’s own quarterly count it more than tripled by 2023, then gave nearly all of it back.

Business

A Church Street Building Has Paid $3,500 in Vacancy Fines Since 2022

Sep 21, 2026

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5 min read

A Church Street Building Has Paid $3,500 in Vacancy Fines Since 2022

San Francisco’s vacancy tax, which applies only inside the city’s designated shopping districts, charges owners more each year a storefront sits empty. At one Church and Market corner, two units have paid the maximum rate three years running.

Housing

Sep 18, 2026

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5 min read

Tenderloin Holds 31% of San Francisco’s Homeless-Designated Housing

San Francisco has financed 5,628 units of affordable housing reserved for people who were homeless. Nearly a third, 1,769 units, sit in the Tenderloin, more than any other neighborhood, though the area holds just 17.5% of the city’s affordable stock overall.

Archive

San Francisco vowed zero landfill trash by 2020 and sent 515,037 tons there in 2025

Parkmerced’s 1,538 apartments voted for demolition in 2011 still stand; the complex is 12% empty

59% of homes in San Francisco’s new buildings sit on ground that can give way in a quake

Russian Hill car break-ins fell 88% in two years; residents feel safer walking at night

San Francisco Bay Topped NOAA’s Flood Line on 6 Days in 2026, Twice in Summer

The Baldwin Drew 353 Complaints, Most of Any SRO in San Francisco

Treasure Island’s Shop-Tax Take Is Back to Its 2015 Level: $81,502

A Church Street Building Has Paid $3,500 in Vacancy Fines Since 2022

Tenderloin Holds 31% of San Francisco’s Homeless-Designated Housing

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The Frisconian