Haney Wins
District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney won last month’s special election for the District 17 State Assembly, trouncing David Campos, 63 percent to 27 percent, with fewer than 62,000 voters. Mayor London Breed will name a successor to fill Haney’s seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until an election is held in November.
College Contracts
Last month, California College of the Arts staff and adjunct faculty voted 98 percent and 96 percent respectively to ratify tentative agreements reached with the College in the wake of a four-day unfair labor practice strike in February. The contract is the first for CCA staff, who voted by a supermajority to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021 in 2019; the second for CCA adjuncts, who connected with SEIU 1021 in 2014. “The thing that I’m most proud of in the new contract is that we established a minimum wage of $26 an hour, $50,700 a year. This not only represents a more than 30 percent raise for a few of our lowest paid coworkers but is a huge step toward something that’s been a goal for us since the beginning: living wages for all,” said Piper Alldredge, a studio manager who has worked at CCA for four years and is a SEIU 1021 CCA staff contract negotiations team member. Agreement highlights include a 5.5 percent raise over the next two years, with another up to three percent in year three; $1,500 stipends in July 2022 and July 2023 for all workers earning less than $28/hour; more pathways to promotion; and the right to negotiate layoffs, including recall rights and severance pay.
I Like Beer
One hop leads to another. While Magnolia Brewing Company closed earlier this year, Olfactory Brewing Company has announced plans to take over the former Triple Voodoo Brewery space on Third Street between 19th and 20th streets. Olfactory hopes to start selling beer by the end of summer, according to Phil Emerson, one of four partners. Emerson previously worked at Alameda’s Almanac Beer Co. and has a degree in Food Science and Technology from the University of California, Davis, with an emphasis on beer. Partner Max Crango-Schneider brewed at Elk Grove’s Titled Mash and partner Trevor Allen has spent more than a decade installing brewing systems including at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. The team’s fourth partner, Robert Moyer, lives on the East Coast.
Greeks Takeover Brewery
Speaking of Magnolia, this June, Souvla, the fast-casual Greek food eatery, will open its fifth restaurant, its biggest: a 60-seat space at 2505 Third Street, the former Magnolia Brewing Co. space. There’ll be a 10-seat marble bar where customers can enjoy Greek wines by the glass and snack on spinach hand pies, tzatziki with pita and plant-based lamb meatballs…A five-story, 60,000 square foot RH Gallery opened at Illinois and 20th streets last month in the former Bethlehem Steel headquarters, a landmark on the National Register. RH Chief Executive Officer Gary Friedman, a San Francisco native who spent years at Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn, claims RH’s glass-enclosed atrium, featuring crystal chandeliers and date palms, was inspired by visits with his single mom to the Emporium department store half a century ago.
Giant Sculptures
The San Francisco Giants’ 2.8 million square-foot Mission Rock project, which includes office and retail space, as well as 1,200 housing units, 40 percent of them affordable, is steadily being constructed. A new addition are five “street rooms,” mostly consisting of sculptures, intended to “help activate the Mission Rock streetscape.” One of them is by former KPIX anchor Dana King, who left the news desk to statue of women’s baseball legend Toni Stone, who broke the gender barrier and once played for the Negro Leagues’ San Francisco Sea Lions.
