San Francisco, CA
London Breed calls for overhaul of San Francisco city charter
San Francisco Mayor London Breed is proposing the first overhaul of the city’s charter since 1995.
Breed called on city and county leaders to start the process of comprehensive charter reform and examine potential changes that could be put before voters in November 2026.
As the city and county’s “fundamental law,” the city and county charter is its governing document that defines its governance structure and government duties.
In an executive directive on Tuesday, Breed did not lay out any specific proposals, but said broadly that the changes should “improve the effectiveness of government and improve the delivery of services to our residents.”
The directive also took aim at the ballot measure process, saying it had added too many layers of bureaucracy to the city’s government. Eight measures will go before voters this fall.
The closest the directive comes to specifics is its component that calls on city leaders to gather data related to potential reforms, including “consolidating City Departments, overhauling Commission structures, improving accountability in the Executive Branch, and updating the legislative process to ensure that new rules can be implemented,” according to the executive directive.
Breed said she thought now was the time for wholesale reform.
“Over the last three decades, the Charter has been amended over and over, adding new departments, creating new positions, setting in place new legal requirements, restricting city spending, and adding other bureaucratic barriers that have not been created through a holistic view of what it means to govern,” Breed’s directive said.
Breed also included the nonprofit San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, known as SPUR, as a participant in the process. The organization has made specific recommendations for a new charter, including reducing redundancies, adding a legislative analyst to the Board of Supervisors, and restoring the mayor’s ability to hire and fire department heads.
The organization has also suggested “raising the bar” for getting measures on the local ballot, something Breed’s directive hinted at. The organization said in its newly released report, “Designed to Serve,” that any potential measure put forth by the county Board of Supervisors and be subject to a mayoral veto, and that any measure proposed by the mayor should first be passed by the Board.
It also suggested raising the signature threshold from 2% to 5% of registered voters’ signatures to qualify a measure for the ballot.
The mayor’s executive directive calls on the city controller and city administrator to work with other city leaders and good government experts like SPUR to prepare for putting proposed changes before voters in fall 2026 by collecting data, preparing outreach and stakeholder input, and, ultimately, make a range of recommendations for reforms.
“It’s the right time to ensure that laws are keeping pace with our ever-evolving city,” said San Francisco Controller Greg Wagner.
County Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who, like Breed, was interviewed for SPUR’s report, agreed that a lot of “dysfunction is baked into our Charter.”
“Too often, our City government acts more like a collection of loosely affiliated departments than a unified municipal government with clear lines of accountability and oversight,” Mandelman said.
SPUR’s President and CEO, Alicia John-Baptiste, agreed it was time for a broad reexamination of the charter.
“Sometimes, it’s important to step back and evaluate whether the system we have in place is structured to allow the government to play this critical role effectively and if not, how it should change,” John-Baptiste said.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced multiple hate crime charges, as well as assault and vandalism charges against an Oakland man for an incident that happened in the Castro District last month.
On Thursday afternoon, Hans Haken pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of vandalism, one count of hit-and-run, and one count of reckless driving.
Prosecutors also allege each of the felony assault counts was a hate crime.
“In San Francisco, we have zero tolerance for any hate, hateful acts, certainly that cross the criminal line, and we will do everything that we can to protect our residents from these types of incidents,” said Jenkins at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
It was on May 16, around 5:30 p.m., when prosecutors say Haken spray-painted a homophobic slur on the wall next to Chartreuse by Roje, a gay-owned floral boutique in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“It was a reminder that even though we’re here in Castro, San Francisco, we live in this well-protected bubble that we have created very passionately and strongly, that that can still happen,” said Jeffrey Dumlao, the owner of Chartreuse by Roje. “If anything, that is what’s scary, that it happened here in broad daylight of all times.”
Dumlao says his store had already closed by that time, but Justin Donnelly, who lives above the store, heard the spray-painting and came down to confront the man and tell him to stop.
“He just became very agitated,” Donnelly said. “I tried to remain calm and just tell him, like, sir, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m not involved in any of that. I’m just, I live here, right, and this is, this is my home, and you know, this is vandalism.”
Donnelly says when he took a picture of Haken’s license plate, Haken got in the car and tried to run him over. Then, prosecutors say he got out of the car and punched Donnelly in the jaw while uttering homophobic slurs.
“I’m definitely doing a lot better than I was. It’s been, I don’t know, a month or so,” Donnelly said.
He says the incident has shaken him, but he’s been lifted up by the community’s support and law enforcement.
“A lot of people have said, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe something like this could happen in San Francisco, of all places.’ And the fact is that something like this can happen anywhere, but in San Francisco, we don’t stand for it, and we deal with it, so, so that makes me feel good,” Donnelly said.
In announcing the charges, Jenkins pointed out the climate in this country has become more hostile to the LGBTQ community. She says that makes it even more important for elected officials to protect that community, just like they do every other community.
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San Francisco, CA
Artwork quilt unveiled at San Francisco dirt alley that was mistakenly bought at auction
In the fall of 2025, CBS News Bay Area first brought you the story of a Sunset couple that had the winning bid for a piece of property next to their home. They thought they were getting the duplex next door. Instead, they got a small patch of land known as Dirt Alley.
This story has many chapters, but it ended with a community celebration.
The final chapter in the story of Dirt Alley was written Wednesday night as they unveiled the tiles of artwork on the pavement.
“I’m very happy today,” JJ Hollingsworth said. “It’s just amazing that these artists that I’ve been working with and sold the alley to have come through with this incredible art.”
JJ Hollingsworth was the original property owner. She took out $25,000 from her retirement to pay for this parcel in a city auction. She thought she got a bargain for the duplex next door. When she found out it was actually the alley, the stress led to health problems and a lot of anxiety.
“I’m trying to forget, but I caused all this,” she said. “That’s what happened. I caused all this.”
Then came an email that would help her get out of the Dirt Alley nightmare. A group of friends from San Francisco was interested in buying this 82-foot-long alley.
“I know she was really stressed out when she first bought this and kind of didn’t know what she was going to do with it,” Theo Bleier said. “It’s really lucky. We were going to buy a different parcel, and we lost the auction. It was more than we wanted to spend. We felt really lucky the coincidence worked out, and we were able to help out JJ.”
The new owners then had the idea of laying an artwork quilt on the pavement and took submissions online.
“I think we had about one million people visit the website at least,” owner Patrick Hultquist said. “1.2 million, I think is the number of people that visited the website.”
The tiles with the most votes made it onto what is now called Notion way.
“Now, it’s not an official name of the street. It’s an unofficial name, but we did get an official-looking sign,” he said.
JJ Hollingsworth, who is a music composer, wrote a ballad called Notion Way for the special occasion. What started as a horrible mistake ended up bringing the community together.
“It’s really beautiful,” neighbors Tom Goslinga & Nesha Niezrecki said. “It’s how culture gets created in a lot of ways. People kind of being creative with an interesting situation. It’s really cool.”
While Hollingsworth is grateful for how this story ended, she says she learned a valuable lesson from this whole experience.
“Read the fine print and ask a lot of questions,” she said.
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