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By Madeline Medina : sfgate – excerpt (audio)

CVS Pharmacy plans to close another one of its San Francisco locations next month.

CVS Pharmacy plans to shutter one of its San Francisco locations next month, further shrinking its presence in a city already grappling with widespread pharmacy closures.

The store at 701 Van Ness Ave. is slated to close on Feb. 24, the company said in a statement shared with SFGATE, leaving just eight CVS stores in San Francisco.

Patient prescriptions will be transferred to the pharmacy located at 1059 Hyde St., which is about 1 mile away from the Van Ness location. Employees at the closing location are also being offered “comparable roles within the company,” CVS said in its statement.

CVS did not cite an exact reason for the closure, but the company said some of the factors it considers are “market dynamics, population shifts and a community’s store density.”

The closure comes as San Francisco has been facing a worsening pharmacy shortage in recent years, affecting major chains like Walgreens and CVS alongside longtime neighborhood pharmacies… (more)

By Katie DeBenedetti and Eliza Peppel : kqed – excerpt

At least 45 Tenderloin residents have been displaced after a three-alarm fire in a residential complex on Dec. 12, 2025. Nearly a month after the fire in central San Francisco, many tenants who remain displaced worry that their property manager wants to replace them with market-rate renters. (Courtesy of San Francisco Fire Department)

“It’s been incredibly difficult,” Leeman said after a community meeting on Tuesday with the area’s supervisor and city housing officials. “You’ve got multi-generation families that have lived here for 20, 30, 40 plus years. They can’t afford to go onto the open market.”

In the weeks since the fire, Leeman has been able to move into a new apartment, costing him nearly $500 more a month than his rent-controlled $1,172 rate. Still, he considers himself among the fortunate ones to be able to get settled in that time.

‘Coercive at best’

At the time of the fire, those who had lived for decades at 50 Golden Gate would have been paying a fraction of market rate because of the city rent ordinance’s cap on annual increases.

Because Mosser could stand to make significantly more money by renting the units at market rate, Leeman said he and others are concerned that the company isn’t incentivized to help the current tenants stay in their units after the fire.

“The best thing in their financial interest is to have these people displaced,” he said.

So far, he worries his suspicion is correct. In the days directly following the fire, Leeman said Mosser offered to return renters’ security deposits, though the move would end their leases — and therefore their rent-controlled rates.

Residents said they also received an offer from the company to rehouse them in another building while theirs was being renovated, and then return to 50 Golden Gate, but the contract included a provision that would release Mosser from any liability that could arise related to the fire in the future.

“This, on the surface, is very coercive at best,” Leeman said.

Mosser did not respond to requests for comment from KQED, but tenants said the company had agreed to pay December’s rent and provide security at the building after reports of possible theft…

Residents on Tuesday also expressed concerns about security at the building. During the meeting, some said that they believe property they left behind has been removed from their apartments or perhaps stolen. Leeman said people saw via Find My iPhone that their devices had been taken out of the building and accessed off-site, and photos of the building’s roof show that it has been uncovered.

Residents have been unable to retrieve their property because authorities have deemed the building unsafe to enter.

Mahmood said his office was helping residents who are concerned about their property to file police reports, and that it is expediting repair permits needed to allow building access, including to fix a broken elevator at risk of collapsing. He expected tenants would be able to get into the building next week.

“Our focus has been security and making sure the residents get access [as soon] as possible,” he said. “The next step is making sure they’re going to start scheduling appointments for people to come into the building and get access to the resources.”…

That subsidy will be in effect for two years, she said, with a possible two-year extension. She’s also applied for the Displaced Tenant Housing Preference program through the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which gives preference in the city’s affordable housing lottery system to renters forced out of their homes by fire, no-fault eviction and other reasons out of their control. But she said she’s been told that the process could take longer and isn’t a guarantee… (more)

By Stephen Council :sfgate – excerpt

The idea for Flipcause was simple. Starting in 2012, the Oakland startup provided technical tools for thousands of nonprofit organizations, handling the work of online storefronts, donation systems and ticketing pages. Millions of donor dollars flowed through Flipcause’s tech to nonprofits focused on just about every societal issue.

Then, this year, much of that money suddenly stalled under Flipcause’s control, as evidenced by testimonials from client companies on social media, with the Better Business Bureau, and to SFGATE. Nonprofits across the country were left in the lurch, unable to access the donor cash that funds their work in education, food distribution, health care, legal defense and more…

“Donors placed their trust in Flipcause to ensure their contributions reached those in need,” Bonta said when he issued the cease and desist order. “Instead, charities are experiencing significant financial stress due to the platform holding these funds back. This is simply unacceptable.”… (more)

2025 was the year of the ripoffs for non-profits who trusted other entities to handled their money.

The state Employment Development Department acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots in the pandemic so call center employees could work from home.

Then it forgot to cancel them once nobody was using them.

As CalMatters editor Adam Ashton reports, that’s how the agency – in charge of distributing benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians in the pandemic – racked up $4.6 million in monthly service fees.

The details come from a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies. Auditors began looking at the cell phones after receiving a tip.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

• The audit: “We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage.”

More on EDD: After the pandemic, we investigated breakdowns at EDD that left the state with the worst of both worlds: tens of billions of dollars lost to fraud, and workers who lost their financial stability, their homes or, in extreme cases, their lives. Read the full series here.

More audits: Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fill vacant medical and mental health positions at prisons and state hospitals, California has little to show for it, Kristen Hwang reports.

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

The city relied on a three-year-old EIR for a different project; will that survive a court challenge?

A neighborhood coalition plans to file a lawsuit that could delay the implementation of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Rich Family Zoning Plan—potentially until after the next elections for Board of Supes, when the majority on that body might change.

Lori Brooke, a founder of Neighborhoods United SF and a candidate for D2 supe, told me today that the group plans to file a case as soon as Lurie signs the legislation.

The argument: The city used an environmental impact report done for the 2022 Housing Element of the General Plan to fulfill the requirements that the upzoning undergo review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Yimby movement hates CEQA, but the law exists for a very good reason: Before any major project that could impact the environment gets approval, the public has the right to know what those impacts might be.

CEQA doesn’t prevent policy makers from approving projects that have negative impacts; it just requires that those impacts be made public, so the voters can decide whether to hold officials accountable.

In this case, according to a letter from Richard Drury, an environmental lawyer, the Housing Element and the Rich Family Zoning Plan have very different impacts, and the city needs to study those before final approval:

“The Rezone will forever change the face of the City. It will allow new development to accommodate 54,000 new housing units in so-called “well-resourced” areas of the City.1 While the City prepared an environmental impact report (“EIR”) for its Housing Element in 2022 (2022 EIR), the proposed Rezone is vastly different from the zoning studied in the 2022 Housing Element and its associated 2022 EIR. Nevertheless, the Planning Department proposes to rely on the 2022 EIR.”…

A few critical facts: The Lurie plan contains no new funding for affordable housing. The state mandates under the Regional Housing Needs Assessment call for more than half of the new units to be affordable, but under current plans, at most 20 percent will be below-market rate… (more)

By Chase Difeliciantonio : politico – excerpt

Moderate Mayor Daniel Lurie has leaned on personal ties to business execs to revamp the city, but they could be facing a backlash.

SAN FRANCISCO — Riding a city comeback narrative and a wave of popularity, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is facing a test over one of his signature strategies: leveraging his close ties to wealthy tech and business leaders to revive his hometown.

The Levi Strauss heir ousted the incumbent mayor last year amid voter discontent with public safety, homelessness and a beleaguered downtown. His win spearheaded a resurgence of moderate Democrats in a city famously controlled by progressives who have long had a complex relationship with the billionaires in their midst…

“Trump’s billionaire tax giveaways are hurting working people. Billionaires are becoming Trillionaires. So we’re going to ask the same folks who reaped a windfall from the Trump tax cuts to pay their fair share,” Chan told POLITICO exclusively in a statement announcing her stance this week.

Chan is running for Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional seat next year, and her support for the labor effort, which still needs to collect enough signatures to qualify for the June ballot, could help punctuate her liberal bona fides going into what is expected to be a competitive contest…

In her bid for Congress, Chan will need to distinguish herself in a field that includes at least two others — prominent state Sen. Scott Wiener and Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy former tech executive who previously worked as chief of staff to Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. If Chan jumps further into the ballot measure battle, it could go a long way toward increasing her visibility with voters… (more)

Not mention of the fact that Saikat Chakrabarti has his primary residence in another state, or had it when he filed to fun for office. The jury is still out on that one. So far nothing from AOC regarding his run for office that we have seen. But, read the article to see how the national press is covering San Francisco politics.

By David Crane : sfstandard – excerpt

Two proposed initiatives would worsen the state’s dependency on taxing and spending

No sooner had Gov. Gavin Newsom spearheaded Proposition 50, the congressional redistricting measure that defuses the bomb tossed by President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, than he found himself dealing with two other explosive devices.

These were planted by two of the governor’s deep-pocketed supporters: the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and the California Teachers Association, which just filed, respectively, a wealth tax initiative that targets any Californian with assets of more than $1 billion and a ballot measure that would make a temporary income tax permanent.

The governor must now decide whether he should retreat from or continue to support the tax-and-spend policies that have saddled California with the highest state income-tax rate and the nation’s highest rates of poverty unemployment, and homelessness, as well as the highest energy costs in the continental U.S., without producing better public services… (more)

Great headlines deserve to be repeated so I’m going to repeat this one.
Tax increases that don’t fix what’s broken

There are efforts underway to fight the state taxes that create such a burden on California citizens that many are leaving, or investing in out-of-state property where the taxes are a lot lower. The loss of value in the highly taxed real estate is creating a new storm of economic failures in the state that wants likes to boast about its economic prowess on the world stage. Newsom is running out of time to fix California before he steps into the national arena. Talk, as they say, is cheap. We need to see results yesterday! Soon someone will be knocking on your door asking you to sign a petition to join the tax revolt in California. Like so many others, this is not a partisan issue. This is a human issue that affects  us all and could and send a loud message to Sacramento and Washington. 

By Junyao Yang : missionlocal – excerpt

“I’m ready to do this job since yesterday,” said Gee, aide to D10 supe

At a forum for the mayor’s current finalists for the District 4 supervisor seat, some 40 Sunset merchants and residents declared Natalie Gee the clear favorite.

The Outer Sunset Merchant and Professional Association, which held the event at Hole in the Wall Pizza on Monday evening, have little say in who the mayor will actually choose to replace Joel Engardio, D4’s former supervisor, who was recalled by district voters in September.

Political insiders have expressed their doubts that Mayor Daniel Lurie would appoint Gee to the position, since her politics lean progressive and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton has openly accused Lurie of trying to use his district as a dumping ground for unpopular city projects…

Out of 26 people who cast a vote — on pieces of paper distributed at the start of the meeting — 13 picked Gee. Albert Chow, the hardware store owner and recall supporter, ranked second with eight votes. Kwon received three. Alan Wong, the City College trustee and National Guard lieutenant, got two…(more)