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Streets & Safety

San Francisco police solved 6.6% of property crimes in 2018, down from 17% in 1985

Aug 26, 2026

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7 min read

San Francisco police solved 6.6% of property crimes in 2018, down from 17% in 1985

Burglaries and car break-ins are about as common now as four decades ago. But in 1985 police solved one case in six. By 2018 it was one in fifteen, and the state's own numbers rule out the easy excuse.

City Hall

San Francisco's 2004 chain-store law banned El Farolito's 12th shop

Aug 24, 2026

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7 min read

San Francisco's 2004 chain-store law banned El Farolito's 12th shop

The ordinance that invented "formula retail" still bans chains outright in three neighborhoods. Seventeen years after writing North Beach's version of that ban, the former supervisor who wrote it found a way around his own law to let a Mission taquería in.

City Hall

San Francisco's Sanitation and Streets Department lasted just one budget: $116.7 million

Aug 21, 2026

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5 min read

San Francisco's Sanitation and Streets Department lasted just one budget: $116.7 million

Voters created the agency in November 2020 and eliminated it two years later, before it produced a second year of spending.

Housing

Treasure Island created 1,318 of San Francisco's 1,534 new lots in 2026

Aug 19, 2026

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5 min read

Treasure Island created 1,318 of San Francisco's 1,534 new lots in 2026

The island's redevelopment recorded 86 percent of every new property line the city drew this year.

Business

Salesforce Tower Filed 7% of San Francisco's H-1B Sponsorships

Aug 17, 2026

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5 min read

Salesforce Tower Filed 7% of San Francisco's H-1B Sponsorships

One office tower accounted for 144 of the city's 2,044 H-1B filings last quarter, more than any other San Francisco address by a wide margin. A year earlier the tower carried more filings in raw terms, 164; what grew was Salesforce's own grip on the building, from three-quarters of its filings to nine in ten, as other tenants there pulled back and nearly all of Salesforce's own filings were renewals, not new hires.

Housing

Seven San Francisco neighborhoods have zero affordable units in the pipeline

Aug 14, 2026

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4 min read

Seven San Francisco neighborhoods have zero affordable units in the pipeline

Four others hold 53% of the 10,100 income-restricted units now moving toward completion: Bayview Hunters Point, the Mission, Mission Bay, and the Financial District/South Beach.

Streets & Safety

Aug 12, 2026

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7 min read

The Quietest Camera in San Francisco

San Francisco’s thirteen camera-enforced intersections have issued 25,467 citations since January 2024. Five of those came from the one at Market and Octavia, which required an act of the state legislature. The turn it watches has all but stopped. The injuries at that corner have not.

Culture & History

In 1907, San Francisco paid only 7 cents

Aug 11, 2026

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6 min read

In 1907, San Francisco paid only 7 cents

San Francisco has voted on 1,998 ballot measures since 1907, and 1,212 of them were amendments to its own charter, the document that used to hold the pay of every clerk in the building. One election in 1995 closed that ballot down.

City Hall

Five hundred and fifteen asks, and no answer

Aug 9, 2026

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9 min read

Five hundred and fifteen asks, and no answer

One Planning file, the Flower Mart on Brannan Street, has drawn more logged lobbying than any other municipal decision in San Francisco’s sixteen-year disclosure record. The median file draws five contacts. Nine years on, the department’s own status for the case reads On Hold.

Archive

San Francisco police solved 6.6% of property crimes in 2018, down from 17% in 1985

San Francisco's 2004 chain-store law banned El Farolito's 12th shop

San Francisco's Sanitation and Streets Department lasted just one budget: $116.7 million

Treasure Island created 1,318 of San Francisco's 1,534 new lots in 2026

Salesforce Tower Filed 7% of San Francisco's H-1B Sponsorships

Seven San Francisco neighborhoods have zero affordable units in the pipeline

The Quietest Camera in San Francisco

In 1907, San Francisco paid only 7 cents

Five hundred and fifteen asks, and no answer

Read it free, three mornings a week.

The Frisconian