Free Republic

Janet Sluizer knew she was taking a bit of a chance when she turned to Craigslist this summer to find a tenant for her apartment in the Mission.What she didn't expect was that she'd be spending thousands of dollars in a struggle to evict a roommate who she says hasn't paid rent beyond the first month. "This is a nightmare,"Sluizer said. It's a nightmare that landlord advocates say is all too common in SanFrancisco, where 64 percent of residents rent. .....According to [Janan]New[executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association], a combination of confusing rent ordinances and an abundance of...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman and congresswoman from Florida, was at ease this morning among a group of Democrats from deep-blue California. "Let me just tell you how much I appreciate the oasis of Democratic politics that California is," she said at a delegation breakfast on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. "I know that you all feel like you live in heaven."

UPDATE: In response to the uproar over his (below) comments Monday, California Democratic Party Chair John Burton issued this statement: “To correct press reports of my recent comments about Republican lies, I did not call Republicans Nazis nor would I ever. In fact, I didn’t even use the word. “If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the big lie – I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment.”Charlotte – Greetings from the California delegation breakfast at the DNC where before he had...

The balance sheet on Barack Obama stands at zero right now. The country is evenly divided about his performance as president. And he’s tied in the polls with Republican Mitt Romney.“It’s a neck-and-neck race,” said Rick Snyder, Michigan Republican governor, in an opinion widely shared across the political spectrum.Let’s take a look at the Democratic incumbent’s assets as he heads into his party’s national convention in Charlotte this week — and his liabilities.Which way do you think the ledger of public opinion will eventually tip?ASSETS1. Most Americans still like him.Although the president’s personal approval rating has slipped from 79 percent...

<p>The speeches are over. The road blocks are dismantled. The delegates are heading out of town. As the debris of the week that was is swept away, let’s savor some of the high points and low points of the Republican National Convention.</p>

Recently, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, perhaps at the instigation of its incoming archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, denied permission for drag queens to emcee at charity events in the community hall of Most Holy Redeemer, a Roman Catholic church in the Castro district. That prompted this letter to me from the Rev. Robert Warren Cromey, who will identify himself in the letter: "When I was rector of Trinity Episcopal in the late nineteen nineties, I conducted at least five funerals of drag queens in the church. They were usually held on Saturday afternoons. Neighbors' heads would lean out the windows in...

Most Holy Redeemer is at a crossroads. The Catholic church in the Castro district has arguably the largest gay parish in the nation, and controversial new decisions have members worried about leadership, policies - even that the church might be shut down. And it all began with drag queens. When the archdiocese refused to allow drag queens to serve as emcees for charity events at the church's community hall, it fed rampant paranoia about antigay sentiment. The decision was initially blamed on incoming Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage who has been championed by extreme conservative Catholic...

The renovation of Lafayette Park in Pacific Heights looked like one of those rare San Francisco projects that everyone liked.It will receive $10 million as part of a voter-approved parks bond. The neighborhood is so supportive it raised an extra $500,000 for a nature-themed playground. Even the city's famously fractious dog-walkers are happy - among the six community outreach meetings, one was devoted specifically to the designated dog area.The bathrooms will be renovated, paths will be repaved, tennis courts resurfaced, and a new picnic area will have an overlook with killer city views. One quarter of the park has been demolished and...

After 25 years in Washington, nearly half of it as the highest-ranking woman in American politics, Nancy D'Alesandro Pelosi has learned the art of when to attack and when to pull back. The Democratic House minority leader, in an interview in her hometown last week, was asked about former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's recent comment that President Obama has "lost his mojo" on the campaign trail and shows "no life, no personality and no real enthusiasm." Her answer was typically diplomatic. "I don't agree," she said. "I love Willie, but maybe he hasn't been to any of the public...

City official consults Ouija board before vote SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco supervisor says he consulted a Ouija board before city leaders voted on whether to recommend naming a Navy ship after slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/KnVnbu ) that he believes he made contact with Milk's spirit and that Milk spelled out letters indicating: "Good riddance to don't ask, don't tell." The Board of Supervisors approved the non-binding resolution Tuesday on a 9-2 vote. Milk was a city supervisor and former naval officer. He was fatally shot in...

The wacky and wonderful world of San Francisco politics once again went viral, this time after the City Insider and other local publications reported on Supervisor John Avalos’ remarks that he summoned the ghost of former Supervisor Harvey Milk to find out how the slain gay civil rights leaders would feel about having a U.S. Navy vessel named after him. During the City Hall debate Tuesday, supervisors said they conferred with Milk’s nephew, friends, former colleagues and compatriots, gay rights activists, the anti-war contingent and others on the issue; the affable Avalos, known around City Hall for his humor, said...

Safeway has enough on its plate - market share under siege, tough union negotiations, rumors of a takeover - without a senior executive putting his foot halfway down his throat, at its annual shareholders' meeting no less. Vice President and General Counsel Robert Gordon thought he was cracking wise with a lame joke involving the Secret Service, President Obama and two Arkansas razorback hogs deemed an "excellent trade" for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. Among the less-than-laugh-out-loud-responses was a letter from members of the Bay Area congressional delegation, led by Rep....

Petty local politics shouldn't ruin a truly meaningful national gesture, which is naming a U.S. Navy ship after gay icon Harvey Milk. A ship named for the first openly gay supervisor in San Francisco seems like such a bold and audacious gesture that you wonder whether the Navy would consider such a thing. Actually, it might. Last week, the service commissioned the Cesar Chavez, a ship named for the Mexican American labor leader. Chavez served two years in the Navy during World War II. So the Harvey Milk makes sense. Although it would be controversial in conservative political circles -...

A judge has declared San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White a deadbeat divorcee and ordered the city to start garnisheeing $3,300 a month from her paycheck for spousal support to her ex-husband. Hayes-White says she stopped paying support about 14 months ago, after an incident in which her ex-hubby, Robert "Sean" White, grabbed and choked one of their sons while in a booze-fueled rage. In December, he pleaded no contest in San Mateo County Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment and cruelty. He is serving his sentence on a county sheriff's work detail and living in a...

Presbyterian church representatives refuse to rebuke former San Rafael pastor in gay marriage dispute In an unprecedented defiance of a church judicial commission, representatives of Northern California Presbyterian churches Tuesday refused to rebuke a retired pastor for marrying 16 same-sex couples when gay marriage was legal in California in 2008.The 74-18 vote on a motion opposing the censure of the Rev. Jane Spahr came at a meeting of the Presbytery of the Redwoods at the First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo."Love and justice have come together here," Spahr, 69, said after the vote. "I think this is going to help...

The surreal moment at the Green Party's recent presidential debate in San Francisco came just after it ended, when candidate Roseanne Barr - yes, that Roseanne Barr - got campaign advice from punk pioneer and previous Green Oval Office candidate Jello Biafra. He urged Barr to "use your humor." Barr, as famous for her groundbreaking 1980s sitcom "Roseanne" as for the tabloids' documentation of her plastic surgery history, has been playing it straight - at least lately. But she is carrying a serious message for the party faithful searching for a way to grow.So in deference to the Greens' anti-death-penalty...

San Francisco wouldn’t be San Francisco if not for robust political debate, even over a seemingly feel-good request to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to name a ship after gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk, the assassinated city supervisor who served as a Navy officer during the Korean War. Critics of the idea, led by Supervisor Christina Olague and a contingent from the San Francisco gay Democrat club named in Milk’s honor, don’t think he would have wanted his name associated with a military ship. Milk was “against the Vietnam War and war in general,” Olague said of Milk,...

President Obama's position on same-sex marriages has indeed been "evolving" - back in 2004, he wouldn't even have his photo taken with Gavin Newsom, for fear that being pictured with the man who opened the City Hall wedding chapel to gays and lesbians would cost him votes back home in Illinois. At the time, Obama was a mere state senator from Chicago looking to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Like a lot of up-and-coming African American pols, he tapped Willie Brown to host a fundraiser here to score some badly needed cash.Brown tossed a party at the Waterfront...

The Lusty Lady has been serving the nude dancer and peep show needs of North Beach for nearly 30 years. But now that it is facing financial problems, San Franciscans should remember the club's place in the city's colorful history.A case can be made that the Lady is the most pro-feminist strip club in the city - and maybe in history. In 1996, the dancers at the Lusty Lady created a national sensation when they became the first nude club to create an "exotic dancers union." Seven years later, they had another landmark moment when the dancers banded together to...

Every time windows are smashed and clashes erupt with police at Occupy protests in Oakland and San Francisco, one group is in the thick of it: masked, black-clad anarchists known as the Black Bloc. Police say they are pure trouble and point to conflicts at last week's May Day rallies as the most recent example. Most pacifist protesters wish they would go away. Hard-core Occupiers say they like having them around to diversify their movement's tactics. Exactly who makes up the Black Bloc is, by design, a bit of a mystery. Adherents rarely reveal their identity and say they aren't...