Kathleen Anne Hughes Anderson. Photo courtesy of Diantha Stensrud.

BY EMILY MIBACH
Editor of the Daily Post

Atherton's former arborist has been identified as the woman found stabbed to death in her Menlo Park home.

Kathleen Anne Hughes Anderson, 62, was the arborist for the City of Atherton for 22 years, from November 1989 until her retirement in November 2011. She was the widow of Billy “Andy” Anderson, who owned Dahl Plumbing on Alma Street in Palo Alto. Andy Anderson died in 2007.

Before his death, the two were married for about 30 years and had no children.

Anderson was from Decatur, Illinois, and came to California to attend school in the 1980s, said her brother-in-law, Barry Anderson, who also works for the post office. The couple were regulars at the Alpine Beer Garden in Portola Valley.

Anderson was known for her green thumb at work and at home. Barry Anderson said her garden at her home at 925 Valparaiso Ave. was “amazing.”

Atherton Town Clerk Theresa DellaSanta said Anderson “was very passionate about her work as an arborist.”

Franz Wolke

“She had a deep passion for landscaping and trees, and she shared that love with many of our town residents by spending time with them in their gardens and giving them insight into tree pruning and planting,” DellaSanta wrote. “It was the little things Kathy did around town that residents remember and came to love about her. Kathy was a beacon of positivity to all who came into contact with her, and her impact on the trees in Atherton will last for many generations to come.”

Police found Anderson stabbed to death in her home on Wednesday (Dec. 12) after receiving a 911 call from Daniel Baggett, a former tenant of Anderson's. Baggett told police to The Post he stopped by at 5 p.m. on Wednesday after driving by and noticing her garbage cans were still on the side of the road a day after garbage collection. He also saw that her bedroom window, which was normally open, was closed, he said.

Baggett said he saw the back door was open and went into the house. He spotted Francis Wolke, 36, of Cincinnati, Ohio, at the top of the stairs. Baggett called 911. Police arrested Wolke on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Was there a connection between the three people?

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Friday that his office and Menlo Park police are still investigating the connection between Wolke, Baggett and Anderson, if there is one. Wagstaffe said the relationship between Anderson and Baggett was not rosy and that investigators are “digging” into the pasts of the three people to find a connection.

Wolke had an arrest warrant issued by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office for prowling and drug possession from a 2014 case.

While police believe Wolke's current address is in Cincinnati, records indicate he was living in San Francisco in 2014. Wagstaffe said Wolke has not made any statement about why he allegedly murdered Anderson.

Wagstaffe said Anderson died as a result of being stabbed in the head with a “sharp object,” but because the investigation is ongoing, he could not yet identify the object.

Wolke is in prison without bail.

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James T. Kirk boldly went where he’d gone many times before – and walked out of probate court with an agreement to sell San Francisco’s beloved “Starship House.”

Kirk – yes, that’s his given name – had been fighting for years to hang onto his family home, a two-bedroom, one-bath a few blocks from Ocean Beach in the Sunset. Born just before “Star Trek” premiered on television, he’s lived there for decades with homemade creations including a replica of the bridge from the Starship Enterprise. A car dressed up to resemble a Batmobile is parked in front and visitors are welcome.

The home is a beacon for the “wonderfully weird” and a “resource for thousands of people every year,” according to Supervisor Gordan Mar, who represents the Western San Francisco neighborhood.

The wonderfully weird Starshiphouse on 46th near Taraval is a landmark and resource for thousands of people every year. James T Kirk (yes, that’s his real name) is in a battle in probate court to purchase the house from his mother’s estate. pic.twitter.com/4ygDAcrsOx

— Gordon Mar (@D4GordonMar) December 5, 2021

At a probate hearing this week, Kirk and neighborhood friend Jason Hodge were prepared to outbid a $1 million offer. Instead, the prospective buyers “turned out to be pretty cool and like what Kirk does,” said Hodge, a firefighter who is married to California State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

Once Hodge was sure Kirk wouldn’t be summarily evicted, they made a handshake deal with the buyers that will allow Kirk and any tenants to stay on at market-rate rents for one to two years while “the Captain” figures out “the next option for his universe,” Hodge said. The buyers live in San Jose and plan to eventually make the Outer Sunset home their primary residence.

While the lease terms must still be put in writing, and the probate proceedings left Kirk “a little numb,” he said the time has come to move on. “It’s going to open up a new chapter in my life,” he said.

Kirk has been battling his two sisters to keep the house since their mother died about three years ago. The artist and handyman hasn’t ever had a bank account or credit card, which made it difficult to secure a loan.

Photos via Jesse Chandler

Hodge was so committed to the cause that he put his Southern California beachfront bar up as collateral. He also organized a GoFundMe that raised more than $22,000 to help Kirk keep the property.

“The house is such a community resource,” Hodge said. “Kirk never turns people away when folks need a place to stay.”

Kirk thanked his supporters, some of whom had never seen the tinfoil stalactites in the garage or jammed in the band space. Some donors said the house represented the stranger days of San Francisco’s past, before people needed an income of $350,000 to afford a median-priced home and properties sold for millions over the asking price.

“This is the San Francisco weirdness that makes the city great and has been slowly dying out,” wrote one $20 donor. “We need to support folks like this to stay here.”

Hodge said the GoFundMe money that hasn’t already been spent on legal fees will help Kirk craft a lease agreement with the new owners. After the property closes, he will get a third of the proceeds to help find a new home for his treasures, including an enormous ping-pong table that takes up much of the yard and oversized hieroglyphics-inspired paintings.

Hodge is also trying to find Kirk a more enduring form of income. He was recently approved to captain Batmobile tours of San Francisco on Airbnb, and already has people signed up.

Kirk hopes he can find another place in the neighborhood to recreate his weird yet welcoming home. “What I do is not going to stop,” he said.

Contact Emily Landes

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The largest owner of hotel properties in San Francisco is close to finalizing the sale of a 99-year-old boutique hotel near Union Square.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is selling the 236-room Hotel Spero to an affiliate of Memphis-based real estate management firm Fairwood Capital LLC, the San Francisco Business Times reported. News of the sale was found through a liquor license application.

The price of the sale is not yet public. Pebblebrook acquired Hotel Spero with its 2018 purchase of LaSalle Hotel Properties for $5.2 billion. LaSalle bought the hotel, then called the Hotel Californian, in 2013 for $69 million.

Including Hotel Spero, Pebblebrook owns nine hotels in the city. This is the company’s second recent sale in San Francisco — more specifically, on the same block. The Marker hotel at 501 Geary St. was sold by Pebblebrook for $77 million to a Los Angeles real estate investment firm last month, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Hotel Spero opened as the Hotel Californian in 1923. The Spanish Colonial style building was renovated in 2018 and boasts a historic lobby with hand-painted wooden ceiling beams, as well as a chic diner-style restaurant.

Along with Hotel Spero and The Marker, Pebblebrook has sold two other San Francisco hotels over the last two years: the Sir Francis Drake hotel, now called Beacon Grand, and the Villa Florence. Both hotels are also located near Union Square.

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The largest owner of hotel properties in San Francisco is close to finalizing the sale of a 99-year-old boutique hotel near Union Square.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is selling the 236-room Hotel Spero to an affiliate of Memphis-based real estate management firm Fairwood Capital LLC, the San Francisco Business Times reported. News of the sale was found through a liquor license application.

The price of the sale is not yet public. Pebblebrook acquired Hotel Spero with its 2018 purchase of LaSalle Hotel Properties for $5.2 billion. LaSalle bought the hotel, then called the Hotel Californian, in 2013 for $69 million.

Including Hotel Spero, Pebblebrook owns nine hotels in the city. This is the company’s second recent sale in San Francisco — more specifically, on the same block. The Marker hotel at 501 Geary St. was sold by Pebblebrook for $77 million to a Los Angeles real estate investment firm last month, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Hotel Spero opened as the Hotel Californian in 1923. The Spanish Colonial style building was renovated in 2018 and boasts a historic lobby with hand-painted wooden ceiling beams, as well as a chic diner-style restaurant.

Along with Hotel Spero and The Marker, Pebblebrook has sold two other San Francisco hotels over the last two years: the Sir Francis Drake hotel, now called Beacon Grand, and the Villa Florence. Both hotels are also located near Union Square.

The post Main lodge proprietor sells 99-year-old San Francisco lodge appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Cleve Jones has called the Castro neighborhood his home for five decades. The gay activist first moved to the city in 1973 from Arizona as a 19-year-old and was quickly swept up in the burgeoning LGBTQ political movement of the era, becoming a protege of pioneering gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and a community organizer in his own right.

In 1987, the neighborhood was also where Jones founded the Names Project, the organization behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt. When Jones published “When We Rise: My Life in the Movement” in 2016, the book chronicled the evolution of the Castro as an LGBTQ neighborhood as much as it told his own story.

“Even during those times when I was away from the city, I was never really away,” Jones, 67, said recently. “I was always coming back. That’s my hood.”

But this week, Jones is moving out of the rent-controlled, one-bedroom flat in an 18th Street duplex he’s lived in since 2010. The move comes after he received notice of a significant rent increase from the building’s new owner, who argues that the unit is not his primary residence. Jones denies that is the case, but has decided he does not have the stamina to fight what would likely be a protracted legal battle to remain there.

For those familiar with San Francisco’s often volatile real estate and rental issues, the dispute between Jones and his new landlord is probably not surprising. What is unusual in this case is the high profile of the tenant in question.

The new owner of the duplex is San Francisco resident Lily Pao Kue, 30. Zillow shows that she purchased the property on Feb. 18 for $1,585,000. Since making the purchase, Kue has initiated some construction work on the building, installed new security cameras, had a car belonging to Jones’ friend and roommate towed from in front of the property, and notified Jones that she planned to more than double the rent .

Jones showed The Chronicle a letter he received from Kue on March 18 informing him that she had determined he had vacated the unit and was invoking a Costa-Hawkins petition, which would allow her to raise the rent from $2,393 to $5,200 as of July 1. Costa-Hawkins is a state law that sets some requirements for cities with rent control, including allowing a landlord to raise rent to market rate once a tenant moves out.

Kue says that she is seeking a hearing on her petition with the San Francisco Rent Board, but is waiting for a staff member to be assigned to the case.

“I want Cleve to continue the tenancy and let the judge determine the petition,” Kue said in an email. “I will be gracious and accepting of law.”

The San Francisco Rent Board did not immediately respond to questions about the case.

Experts say there are a few ways to prove residency in a property. According to Janan New, the executive director of the San Francisco Apartment Association, a driver’s license address and utility bills are among the documents that can be used as proof. The San Francisco Tenants Union also lists numerous factors, including the presence of personal possessions and that the tenant resides there except for “reasonable temporary periods of absence.” Jones said he believes he meets these requirements.

Jones said he feels that he and his roommate, Brenden Chadwick, have been harassed by Kue, citing her towing away Chadwick’s car without notice and installing the security cameras that allow her to monitor their comings and goings. He also is concerned that the construction work on the property could endanger archival materials from the LGBTQ movement he has kept there. She denies that she has harassed Jones and Chadwick.

Kue, who described herself as a stock market investor who previously worked as a janitor and as a farm laborer after immigrating to the United States from Thailand, calls the duplex her “dream home.” She said that since the dispute over the duplex became public, she is worried about harassment from Jones’ social media followers. She said she has filed a police report after comments she’s seen in response to Jones’ post about the situation on Facebook.

Rather than further contest Kue’s plans, though, Jones and Chadwick plan to move out this weekend and look for a new home in the Castro, which means they would lose any potential relocation payments if Kue were to lose her Costa-Hawkins petition and choose to pursue eviction.

“If I were a younger man, I would fill the sandbags and I’d batten down the hatches and would drag this out for as long as possible,” Jones said. “Part of me feels quite guilty that I don’t have it in me to do it. I am not in good health, I’m HIV-positive and one of the longest-living HIV survivors. … and I’m old.”

Still, Jones is not going quietly. On Sunday, supporters of Jones plan to take part in a rally at 11 am at Harvey Milk Plaza focusing on his situation and similar issues facing other renters in the neighborhood. A 2021 story in The Chronicle reported that since 2009, there have been 614 no-fault evictions in District Eight, where the Castro is located, and that most are either because of owner move-ins or Ellis Act evictions, where the owner decides to stop renting altogether.

While Jones said he expects to survive financially, “It is very clear how an event like this could be truly catastrophic for so many others.”

“Cleve recognizes that this is happening and has happened to so many other folks,” said District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who will be at the rally. “But he is such an iconic figure and so associated with that neighborhood. It’s heartbreaking.”

Tina Aguirre, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District manager, told The Chronicle that housing security in the neighborhood is especially important for older residents and people living with HIV, and that the district is “saddened” by what Jones is experiencing.

“The fact that he is a community icon, organizer, and AIDS activist underscores that this can happen to any of us,” Aguirre said.

Kue said that she installed security cameras on the property to monitor construction workers. But in checking the comings and goings from the building, and seeing that many of Jones’ posts on Facebook indicated that he had been staying in Guerneville, she said she determined that the unit on 18th Street was not his primary address, and that there was “overwhelming proof” that Chadwick was living there alone.

Jones said he was told by Kue that she planned to move into the vacant unit above his after construction on the property was completed, and that she planned to move her mother and grandmother into the unit he and Chadwick occupied.

Jones said Kue began discussing buyout options with him, but said she did not want to involve attorneys. Kue said she still does not have an attorney representing her. Jones, though, hired Dave Crow of the tenants rights firm Crow & Rose.

Crow said he believes the rent increase notice was not legal because Jones had not moved out of the property.

Jones denies that he ever vacated his unit, but says that, for his health, he has spent time during the two years of the pandemic at a “fairly primitive” cabin he owns in Guerneville.

“When COVID happened, of course, that became my refuge,” Jones said of the cabin. “I’m 67, I’m immunocompromised. So I’m guessing that that’s her reference to me vacating the unit. But of course it’s a lie. I never vacated. I never moved my stuff out and continued to spend time there.”

Among that “stuff,” Jones said, are materials from the LGBTQ movement going back to the 1970s, including Milk’s famous bullhorn, the quilt his great-grandmother made that inspired the creation of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and items connected to the filming of the 2008 biopic “Milk,” in which Jones was a central character.

To protect them from possible damage, Jones has given the National AIDS Memorial some of the materials related to the Names Project while the GLBT Historical Society Museum now has Milk’s bullhorn.

“My office is right there on Castro Street, my doctor is right there on Castro Street. The hospital is right down the street. … Guerneville is lovely, but it doesn’t have the kind of specialized health care that’s necessary for people in my circumstance.”

Jones said he needs to remain in the city for his work as a community and political coordinator at Unite Here, the North American Hospitality Workers Union.

Jones said he, like many longtime survivors of HIV, cannot afford to retire because many of his potential earning years were spent battling serious health complications from the virus instead of working.

Still, Jones said he’s turned down requests to create crowdfunding campaigns to assist him. He said he’s also received offers of legal help and housing, but has not felt at risk enough to accept help that others in the community likely need more.

“I’m going to be just fine, but she’s going to do this to someone else,” Jones said. “This old gay guy is being forced out of his home, but the real issue is one more gay elder has been lost and one more rental unit has been lost.”

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TonyBravoSF

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SAUSALITO (CBS SF/BCN) – Sausalito police cited the owner of a small sailboat that was illegally beached in Dunphy Park Saturday, which later sank and possibly created an environmental hazard.

Police said they issued 72-hour warnings to move the sailboats to the owners, who initially refused to move their boats Saturday afternoon after beaching them illegally in Dunphy Park to have their hulls scraped.

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Police said they informed the boaters that beaching the boats was against the law in that area, because it is considered environmentally sensitive and that scraping the boats could also pollute the area.

Police said one of the boats sailed away but the other stayed, eventually filling with water and then sinking. A sheen formed around the boat, something police suspect is the result of fuel leaking from the boat.

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Police have not released the name of the sunken boat’s owner, who was cited for the environmental violation related to the diesel spill.

Police also arranged for Parker Diving Service to place a protective boom around the sunken boat to prevent further damage to the environment.

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© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Stolen San Francisco Service Dog reunited with owner

A stolen San Francisco service dog named Summer was reunited with her owner.

SAN FRANCISCO – A German Shepherd named Summer, who was stolen from her owner earlier this week, is back home.

Summer was dating her owner Locke MacKenzie on Waller Street Monday night when a suspect grabbed the dog by the harness and ran away.

Somebody later found the dog and called the Oakland police, who turned Summer over to animal service.

Since Summer has a microchip, the officers were able to find her rightful owner and reunite the two on Thursday evening.

“I wish she could talk to tell me about her adventure,” said MacKenzie. “But I am very relieved and very happy to have her back in my life and so on, because she is my companion, she is my dog. And we are a team.”

The investigation into who kidnapped Simmer is ongoing. There were no arrests at this point.

MORE: Heartbroken tourists after a kitten was stolen from Smash-and-Grab in San Francisco

Another stolen dog was reunited with its owner this week.

Police said someone from Sacramento saw on social media that “Rosie” was forcibly stolen on Jan. 1, which he did not know when he bought the French Bulldog.

He called the police on Monday and the police confirmed it was the same stolen dog.

And Rosie was reunited with her owner.

Neither the owner nor the Sacramento man wanted to be identified.

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James T. Kirk bravely went where he had been many times before – and left the probate with an agreement to sell San Francisco’s beloved Starship House.

Kirk – yes, that’s his real name – had struggled for years to hold onto his family home, a two-bedroom bath a few blocks from Ocean Beach in the Sunset. He was born shortly before the TV premiere of “Star Trek” and has lived there for decades with homemade creations, including a replica of the bridge of the spaceship Enterprise. A Batmobile-clad car is parked in front of it and visitors are welcome.

The house is a beacon for the “wonderfully strange” and a “resource for thousands of people each year,” said supervisor Gordan Mar, who represents the Western San Francisco neighborhood.

The wonderfully weird Starshiphouse on 46th near Taraval is a landmark and resource for thousands of people each year. James T. Kirk (yes, that’s his real name) is in a dispute in a probate court to buy the house from his mother’s estate. pic.twitter.com/4ygDAcrsOx

– Gordon Mar (@ D4GordonMar) December 5, 2021

At an estate hearing this week, Kirk and his neighborhood friend Jason Hodge agreed to beat a $ 1 million offer. Instead, prospective buyers turned out to be “pretty cool and like what Kirk does,” said Hodge, a firefighter married to California state treasurer, Fiona Ma.

After Hodge was certain that Kirk would not be evicted out of hand, they struck a handshake deal with the buyers that allowed Kirk and all tenants to stay at market rents for a year or two, while “the captain” did the next “Makes an option for his universe,” said Hodge. The buyers live in San Jose and plan to make the Outer Sunset their primary residence.

While the lease terms have yet to be put into writing and the probate process has made Kirk “a little numb,” he said it was time to move on. “It will open a new chapter in my life,” he said.

Kirk has been struggling with his two sisters to keep the house since their mother died about three years ago. The artist and craftsman had never had a bank account or a credit card, which made it difficult to secure a loan.

Photos via Jesse Chandler

Hodge was so committed that he put his beach bar in southern California as a security. He also organized a GoFundMe that raised more than $ 22,000 to help Kirk keep the property.

“The house is such a community resource,” said Hodge. “Kirk never turns people away when people need shelter.”

Kirk thanked his supporters, some of whom had never seen the tinfoil stalactites in the garage or jammed in the tape room. Some donors said the house represented the stranger days in San Francisco’s past, before people needed an income of $ 350,000 to buy a home at average price and properties that sold for millions above the asking price.

“This is the weirdness of San Francisco that makes the city great and is slowly dying out,” wrote one $ 20 donor. “We have to support such people to stay here.”

Hodge said the GoFundMe money that has not yet been spent on legal fees will help Kirk sign a lease with the new owners. After the estate closes, he will receive a third of the proceeds to find a new home for his treasures, including a giant ping pong table that takes up much of the courtyard and oversized paintings inspired by hieroglyphics.

Hodge is also trying to find a more permanent form of income for Kirk. He was recently approved as the captain of Batmobile tours of San Francisco on Airbnb and has already signed up.

Kirk hopes he can find another spot in the neighborhood to recreate his strange but inviting home. “What I am doing is not going to stop,” he said.

Contact Emily Landes

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Alles begann vor ein paar Jahren, als ein fröhlicher Typ namens Joe Omran, mit dem ich schwimme, eines Tages schlecht gelaunt im Aquatic Park auftauchte. Vor dreißig Jahren kaufte er am westlichen Rand von Nob Hill ein kleines Lebensmittel- und Feinkostgeschäft namens Le Beau Market. Nun wollte er in der Nähe ein Café eröffnen. Nur ein kleiner.

„Es ist ein kleiner Raum“, sagte er. “Nur 950 Quadratmeter.”

Und er sagte mir, er sei fassungslos über den Prozess, den die Stadt ihm durchführte: eine scheinbar endlose Liste von Gebühren, komplizierten Bauvorschriften, Verzögerungen und gemischten Nachrichten aus verschiedenen städtischen Abteilungen.

„Ich musste Miete zahlen, ich musste Grundsteuer zahlen, ich musste eine Eigentumsversicherung bezahlen, ich musste Arbeiterentschädigung zahlen für Arbeiter, die nicht da waren. Wir mussten all diese Dinge beantragen und mit der Zahlung von Prämien beginnen, obwohl wir noch nicht für den Geschäftsbetrieb geöffnet waren“, sagte er.

Für Joe kam die verrückteste dieser Regeln vom Gesundheitsamt der Stadt, wie viele Waschbecken in seinem kleinen Café benötigt werden. Er plante an sieben Tischen. Die Abteilung wollte, dass er acht Waschbecken hat. Und als sein Klempner mit dem Einbau dieser acht Waschbecken fertig war, betrug seine Rechnung 35.000 Dollar – nur für die Klempnerarbeit.

„Mein Installateur lächelte also, als wir sahen, was nötig war, um dieses Ding mit nur 950 Quadratmetern zu öffnen“, sagte er. „Das war der Traum eines Klempners!“

Nach Joes Bericht zu urteilen, war die Sanitärrechnung nur der Höhepunkt eines qualvollen, fünfmonatigen Prozesses. Wie kam es zu diesem ganzen Fiasko?

In den bürokratischen Prozess

Die Idee, ein Café zu eröffnen, kam Joe zum ersten Mal im Frühjahr 2012. Bei seinen täglichen Spaziergängen in die Bay kam er immer wieder an einem alten, heruntergekommenen Markt an der Ecke Union und Leavenworth Street vorbei. Dies war ein erstklassiger Ort auf einem Hügel. Es blickte im Osten auf North Beach und im Norden auf Fisherman’s Wharf und den Aquatic Park.

„Als ich mir die Nachbarschaft ansah, sah ich, dass es nicht wirklich ein Café war. Und es ist eine tolle kleine Ecke“, sagte er.

Dann sprach er mit einem Sachbearbeiter der Planungsabteilung, um sicherzustellen, dass er fortfahren konnte.

„Er kam zurück und sagte: ‚Ja, es sollte kein Problem sein, es in ein Café umzuwandeln.’ Mit diesen Informationen bewaffnet, kontaktierte ich meinen Architekten. Er kam und nahm die notwendigen Messungen vor, um eine Genehmigung für den Umbau des Standorts zu erarbeiten. Und damit fing alles an“, sagte er.

Der Papierkram.

“Und sobald sie die Adresse sahen und sie eintippten, gingen all diese Glocken und Pfeifen los und die Flagge ging hoch, und sie zeigten an, dass sich der Standort in der Unternehmenszone von North Beach befindet”, sagte er.

Offenbar war es nicht das ganze Anwesen. Einfach Teil. Welcher Teil?

„Die Toilette“, sagte er.

Joe musste nun bei der Stadt eine Sondergenehmigung – eine sogenannte „Conditional Use Permit“ – beantragen. Was er im November 2012 tat, zwei Monate nachdem er bereits einen Mietvertrag unterschrieben hatte und anfing, Miete zu zahlen. Wann konnte er also eine Antwort von der Stadt erwarten?

„Normalerweise dauert es vier bis sechs Monate, bis die Genehmigung erteilt wird, vom Beginn der Genehmigung bis zur tatsächlichen Feststellung“, sagte er.

Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte Joe sich noch nicht einmal mit allen Sanitärkosten beschäftigt, die ihn erwarteten. Aber nur um die mündliche Genehmigung der Stadt zu erhalten, hatte er bereits fast 6.000 US-Dollar ausgegeben – für die Einstellung eines Architekten, eines Klempners und eines Elektrikers sowie verschiedener Genehmigungsgebühren.

Frustriert über die gemischten Botschaften der Stadt, suchte Joe nach einer offiziellen Entlastung. Zuerst traf er sich mit einem Berater des Bürgermeisters, der ihn mit Dan Sider, einem hochrangigen Troubleshooter im Planungsamt der Stadt, verhandelte.

“Wir hatten ein Treffen. Ich erzählte Dan Sider, was passiert war: dass ich zum Schalter ging, diese schlechten Informationen bekam, weitermachte, nur um festzustellen, dass sich die Spielregeln geändert hatten, und ich war bereits dabei“, sagte Joe. „Und er war sehr sympathisch, obwohl er mir die Gründe erzählte, warum die Stadtbürokratie das ist, was sie ist oder geworden ist, und er nicht viel tun kann.“

Da er bei diesem Vorhaben bereits so weit war, beschloss Joe, den Prozess durchzuziehen. Also besuchte er immer wieder verschiedene städtische Abteilungen.

„Ganz leicht etwa ein Dutzend und eine Hälfte Fahrten nach unten“, sagte er.

Als alles gesagt und getan war, waren seine Kosten – nur in Form von Stadtgebühren – schwindelerregend.

“Oh wow. Mal sehn. Ich habe ein paar Zahlen herausgesucht“, sagte er.

Und sie kamen auf 18.392 Dollar.

Für ein kleines Café.

Auf zum San Francisco Department of Public Health

Es schien mir, dass ein Durcheinander wie dieses eine rationale Erklärung haben musste. Also machte ich mich auf die Suche. Offensichtlich war eine meiner ersten Stationen das Gesundheitsamt der Stadt – das Büro, das Joe veranlasste, all diese Waschbecken zu installieren. Dort traf ich den San Francisco Environmental Health Specialist Mohanned Malhi.

Die Stadt beschäftigt rund zwei Dutzend Gesundheitsinspektoren. Fast keiner dieser Inspektoren hat jemals in Restaurants gearbeitet. Aber Mohanned hat. Da ich dies wusste, bat ich ihn, für ein Café von nur 950 Quadratmetern zu schätzen, wie viele Waschbecken die Abteilung benötigte.

„Drei“, sagte er. “Verschiedene Typen. Und ein Moppwaschbecken. Also vier. Handwaschbecken, Vorbereitungswaschbecken, anderes Waschbecken, Moppwaschbecken.“

Als ich ihm sagte, dass die Antwort acht war, fragte er mich, was Joe in seinem Café anbieten wollte. Neben Kaffee servierte es Suppen und Salate, warme Gerichte und kalte Sandwiches, sogar Eis. All diese verschiedenen Dienste hoben Mohanneds Augenbrauen.

„Wissen Sie, Handwaschbecken müssen überall dort strategisch platziert werden, wo Lebensmittel zubereitet werden“, sagte er.

Ein Teil des Problems, sagte mir Mohanned, war, dass Joe in seiner Küche verschiedene Arten von Essensservices hat.

„Wir kommen rein und sehen, wie in einem Abteil Hühnchen auftaut und in einem anderen Gemüse gewaschen wird, das direkt neben schmutzigem Geschirr zubereitet wird. Wir versuchen also, zwischen den verschiedenen Prozessen abzugrenzen, um Kreuzkontaminationsprobleme zu vermeiden“, sagte er.

Bevor ich Mohanneds Büro verließ, fragte ich ihn, was er tun würde, wenn er den Regulierungsprozess der Stadt ändern könnte. Er lachte.

„Ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich in San Francisco gelernt habe, dass die Menschen viele Verordnungen durchlaufen müssen“, sagte er.

Ich hatte auch das Gefühl, das zu lernen. Aber ich wollte genau sehen, wie viele. Also schaute ich beim Bau- und Planungsamt vorbei, um zu sehen, was es braucht, um ein Café zu eröffnen.

Rund um das San Francisco Planning Department

Ich nahm ein zweiseitiges rosa Formular, auf dem neun verschiedene städtische Abteilungen aufgelistet waren, die einen Antrag genehmigen mussten. Nachdem ich mit hoffnungsvollen Geschäftsinhabern gewartet und herumgeschubst wurde, um die richtige Person zu finden, landete ich schließlich im Büro von Dan Sider – dem Berater, den Joe suchte, um seinen Fall zu vertreten.

Ich erzählte ihm von all den gemischten Nachrichten, die Joe bekommen hatte, insbesondere davon, in welcher Nachbarschaft sein Café tatsächlich sitzen würde.

„Der Planungscode ist klar“, sagte Dan. „Und es zeichnet Linien zwischen Entfernungen und Nutzungspunkten. An einem bestimmten Punkt muss irgendwo die Grenze gezogen werden.“

In diesem Fall direkt gegenüber von Joes Badezimmer.

„Ich habe vor einiger Zeit mit Mr. Omran darüber gesprochen“, sagte er. „Ich glaube, wir waren beide frustriert, dass die Grenze hier zufällig fiel. Aber das Gesetz ist das Gesetz.“

Okay, aber Dan hat mir erzählt, dass der Genehmigungsprozess der Abteilung normalerweise drei Monate dauert; oder bei einem Rückstand bis zu vier Monate. Warum sollte die Stadt also fünf Monate brauchen, um ein Missverständnis zu beheben?

“Ich bin sicher, Mr. Omran hätte es gerne gehabt, wenn unsere Mitarbeiter einen Zauberstab schwenken und ihn diesen Prozess ohne diese Prüfung durchlaufen lassen hätten, aber unabhängig davon, ob wir das wollten oder nicht, wir hatten nicht den Ermessensspielraum.”

Gab es eine Möglichkeit, ihn schneller durchzubringen?

„Nein“, sagte Dan.

Wie sich herausstellte, dauerte es in den letzten zehn Jahren am häufigsten, dass Projekte wie die von Joe Sondergenehmigungen – diese „Conditional Use Permits“ in Planning Speak – erhielten, etwa 10 Monate. Viele Verzögerungen wurden durch die Antragsteller selbst verursacht, die ihre Füße schleppen, während sie auf die Finanzierung warten, auf die Verpflichtung der Partner, was auch immer. Aber Dan sagte, dass Genehmigungen normalerweise auch über ein Haupthindernis stolpern: Konflikte mit den Regeln. Und in diesem Fall spielt die Größe anscheinend keine Rolle.

„Möglicherweise haben Sie im Outer Sunset ein zusätzliches Achterdeck, das aufgrund von Einsprüchen, Überprüfungen, Herausforderungen und dem Genehmigungsverfahren zwei Jahre dauern kann. Gleichzeitig haben Sie möglicherweise ein Hochhaus in der Innenstadt, das alle Planungsvorschriften erfüllt und nicht umstritten ist und in sechs Monaten durchfliegen kann “, sagte er.

Nach diesem Maß, betonte Dan, war Joes Tortur nicht sehr ungewöhnlich.

Er sagte: „Meine Meinung nach würden andere Bewerber sagen: ‚Fünf Monate. Das ist nicht schlecht!'”

Aber ist es gut? Nun, vielleicht für eine Stadt mit der Menge an Vorschriften, die San Francisco hat.

„Die Realität ist, dass die Stadt einen enormen Boom erlebt. Und unser Planungscode umfasst 2.000 Seiten und wächst“, sagte Dan.

Ich habe es tatsächlich gesehen, als ich am Planungsschalter anhielt. Es ist eine riesige Menge von Bänden.

„Ja, lassen Sie mich meine Adjektive mit Bedacht wählen“, sagte Dan. “Es ist ein robustes Dokument.”

Ich fragte ihn, ob er das Ganze gelesen hätte.

„Von Deckung zu Deckung“, sagte er.

Angesichts von Dans umfassender Wissensbasis bat ich ihn zu raten, wie viele Waschbecken die Stadt Joe in seinem Café aufstellen soll.

„Nennen wir es eine Küchenspüle und eine Spüle mit drei Becken“, sagte er.

Er war sechs zu klein.

Ab ins Internet

Nachdem ich alles über Joes Erfahrungen erfahren hatte, wollte ich sehen, was mit mir passieren würde, wenn ich versuchen würde, ein Café wie das von Joe zu eröffnen. Ich stellte schnell fest, dass die Stadt es tatsächlich ziemlich einfach gemacht hat, den Prozess zu starten. Letztes Jahr hat es eine Website namens SFLICENSE123 erstellt. Die Site schätzt automatisch die verschiedenen Genehmigungen und Gebühren, die für jedes neue Projekt erforderlich sind. Innerhalb von Sekunden wurde mir gesagt, dass ich 15 verschiedene Genehmigungen und Lizenzen brauche. Und die Kosten – allein für die Beantragung dieser Genehmigungen – wurden auf 18.500 bis 20.000 US-Dollar geschätzt.

Joe Omran hat das alles und noch viel mehr getan. Und am 13. Mai 2013, nachdem er ungefähr eine Viertelmillion Dollar für Stadtgebühren und Renovierungsarbeiten ausgegeben hatte, war Joes neues Projekt endlich bereit zu eröffnen. Es hieß La Paloma Café.

In den folgenden Monaten lief das Café ziemlich gut. Und Joes Mitarbeiter, die alle zur Familie gehören, schienen sich anzupassen. Sogar zu den Waschbecken, so seine Frau Leslie.

„Ich liebe sie“, sagte sie mir. “Es ist bequem.”

Bis ins Ziel

Aber das ist nicht das Ende dieser San Francisco-Geschichte. Das Interesse der Nachbarschaft an Joes Café ließ bald nach. Und etwas mehr als ein Jahr nach der Eröffnung von La Paloma beschloss Joe, es zu schließen. Jetzt versucht er, neue Nutzungen für die Fläche zu finden, während er nach jemandem sucht, der sie übernimmt – und das alles, während er jeden Monat Miete für ein leerstehendes Geschäft zahlt.

Der enorme Aufwand und die Kosten, die Joe für dieses kleine Café auf sich genommen hat, haben mir klar gemacht, warum San Francisco immer noch gelegentlich als „Stadt der Liebe“ bezeichnet wird. All diese Vorschriften können zeitaufwendig, kostspielig und ärgerlich sein. Aber jeder ist auch ein Akt des Mitgefühls – ein Pfahl für die eine oder andere Interessengruppe. In einer Welt, die für den Durchschnittsbürger immer schneller und teurer wird, stellt jede dieser Regeln für jemanden einen winzigen, aber entscheidenden Teil der Handlung dar.

Joe versteht das alles. Und zu diesem Zeitpunkt weiß er, dass er bei diesem Unterfangen seine eigenen Fehler gemacht hat.

„Ich habe wahrscheinlich nicht getan, was ich hätte tun sollen“, sagt er. „Jetzt, wo ich weiß, was ich weiß, gehe ich als Erstes Schritt für Schritt durch, damit ich weiß, dass es im Backend keine Überraschungen gibt.“

Angesichts all der Lektionen, die Joe jetzt gelernt hat, frage ich ihn am Ende, ob er erwägen würde, einen weiteren Laden oder ein Café in der Stadt zu eröffnen, wenn er die Gelegenheit dazu hätte.

“Was?” er sagt. “Bist du verrückt?”

Haben Sie schon einmal versucht, ein kleines Geschäft in San Francisco zu eröffnen? Wir würden gerne von Ihren Erfahrungen hören. Hinterlassen Sie unten einen Kommentar oder hinterlassen Sie uns eine Nachricht unter (415) 264-7106.

The post The $35,000 Plumbing Invoice: The adventures of a hopeful café proprietor appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Not long after Bob Mainardi opened The Magazine as a storefront selling glossy magazines for collecting on Larkin Street, two construction workers stopped by to see his always inventive window display.

“How do places like this stay in business?” Mainardi heard one say to the other. “Beats me,” said his companion.

Mainardi told this story for the next 50 years while standing behind the counter raving about the illustrators, art directors, photographers and writers who poured their talent into the magazines that were mailed and sold at the kiosks.

When there were no customers, Mainardi was lucky enough to just leaf through his warehouse and admire the illustrations in the vintage glossies of the first half of the century.

Opened in April 1973, the store was still operating on December 11, 2021 when Mainardi left the store and went home to take an afternoon nap.

Four hours later, longtime partner Trent Dunphy went to check on him. Mainardi died in his sleep with his typical suspenders, glasses with owl rims on the side table. His cat Kicius was lying at the foot of the bed. Mainardi was 75 years old and the cause of death was heart failure, Dunphy said.

As always, the magazine opened the following Tuesday, as Mainardi would have liked. Throughout its history, The Magazine has only been closed for three business days due to power outages caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Mainardi never missed a work day, even after testing positive for HIV in 1986. He took the experimental drug AZT as soon as it hit the market in 1989. He was a longtime survivor who never developed symptoms of AIDS.

Robert Thomas Mainardi was born and raised in Patterson, NJ on February 2, 1946. His father, Marcus Mainardi, taught math in college and his mother was a housewife.

Mainardi came west to attend Whittier College, which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1968. A college buddy had been inducted into UC Hastings College of the Law, and “Bob came along because he thought it might be fun,” said Dunphy.

After renting an apartment on California and Polk Street, Mainardi got a job at the Bonanza Inn Bookshop across Market Street from the Palace Hotel. Mainardi was a book buyer who specialized in remaining stock – texts that no longer sold well – but his love was always magazines. He collected copies of the Saturday Evening Post for Norman Rockwell and JC Leyendecker’s illustrations dating back to the 1910s.

Mainardi’s own collection formed the magazine’s original inventory when he and Dunphy opened the store at 839 Larkin Street, conveniently located next to Gangay, one of Polk Gulch’s oldest gay bars.

At its peak around 1980, the magazine had over a hundred regulars, mostly collectors, looking for retrospective issues of Time and Life. People has been a constant seller starting with the premiere edition on February 4, 1974, with Mia Farrow on the cover of The Great Gatsby. The older issues of Holiday, Look and Colliers also sold well.

Those were the front books in the shop. At the back were skin magazines and erotica in trash cans, sorted according to fetish preferences.

“The funny thing about The Magazine is that it wasn’t like walking into a dirty bookstore because it was classy and looked so old-fashioned,” said Kevin Bentley, a former book editor at Harper Collins.

“Everything has been treated with appreciation for the preservation of all things on paper. You were never embarrassed, ”said Bentley.

Bentley can remember looking in the magazine for the latest issue of Playgirl or Blueboy while a straight collector next to him looked for a specific vintage issue of Playboy.

“Whether you asked for a magazine about surfers or a magazine about spanking, you always got a respectful reply from Bob,” said Bentley.

When the shop opened, either Mainardi or Dunphy were behind the counter. They met at a mutual friend’s Sunday brunch in 1969 and have been partners in life and business ever since.

“We both loved magazines,” said Dunphy. “We always believed that if it were legal we would sell it.”

They also believed in the power of window dressing. “That’s how Bob put himself,” said Dunphy. “His first memorable appearance was the day Nixon stepped down. He put every magazine we had with Nixon on the cover. There was no comment from us, just the cover. “

A stunned passer-by was photographed in front of the window. The picture made the morning chronicle.

In 1986 the magazine needed more space and a wider shop window front for Mainardi’s creative shop window displays. So it moved one block south to combine two storefronts at 731 Larkin. They had hardly moved in when a friend who worked in the real estate business gave Mainardi some important piece of advice.

“He said, ‘If you don’t buy a building, you’re going to be out of business in 10 years,'” said Dunphy. They bought 920-924 Larkin, an abandoned three-story building for $ 450,000. They mortgaged Dunphy’s home in the mission district, and Mainardi contributed an inheritance from his parents to pay cash.

The renovation of the shop window and the two apartments on the upper floor took four years. The last location was opened in 1993. Among those addressed was the illustrator R. Crumb, who designed an advertising poster for the shop. He took payment in copies of Time, which contained WWII propaganda drawings.

Mainardi never stopped collecting. There are roughly 5,000 postcards with New York pictures and boxes and boxes of magazine covers in the old Victorian style he and Dunphy owned on the mission. Mainardi spent his working day organizing and studying his magazines, then going home and organizing and studying.

“He spent hours looking through them,” said Dunphy. “He has always immersed himself in his collection, smoothed it out and organized himself.”

He was also a collector of body photography and illustrations, mostly of male bodybuilders. These were published in three books that he edited and introduced introductions.

Mainardi’s last window display, Christmas scenes with covers of the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post, was still there as New Year’s Eve approached.

“People still come by and poke their heads in and say, ‘I love these windows, let them come,” said Dunphy.

The fate of Mainardi’s personal collection has not yet been determined, but the store will live on, at least as long as Dunphy did. He is 84.

“The store was Bob’s life,” said Dunphy, noting that Mainardi never had a cell phone and that his store doesn’t have a computer. “He loved coming here every day and working on his windows or sealing magazine covers. It was something from another time. “

A memorial service is due. Survivors include his 50-year-old partner, Trent Dunphy of San Francisco; Brother Mark Mainardi of San Francisco; and cousins ​​Jesse Mainardi from San Francisco and Paul Mainardi from Philadelphia.

Donations on his behalf can be made to the Tyler Clementi Foundation (which focuses on combating harassment and bullying of gay children). PO Box 345, Harrison, NJ 07029; and Larkin St. Youth Services, 134 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco CA 94102

Sam Whiting is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @swittingsf

The post Bob Mainardi, proprietor of San Francisco’s The Journal and lover of all issues print, dies at 75 appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.