In the last two years murder rates have increased in San Francisco, while clearance rates have declined.  Last year the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) solved only roughly one-third of homicide cases.   As the City searches for a new police chief, a pressing concern is how the murder clearance rate - the percentage of homicide cases closed - can be improved.  “Twenty, 20, and even 40 percent [clearance rate] is not acceptable,” said Theresa Sparks, San Francisco Police Commission president.

Sporting a Chinese lucky number in its address, 888 7th Street sits across the street from the 280 Freeway, Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling offices, and the Caltrain tracks.  The recently constructed complex is noticeable in the middle of Potrero Hill’s old industrial belt.  Its exterior is clad with futuristic-looking lime green sheets of glass, installed not only for modern appeal but to block the courtyard and the building’s interior spaces from noise and air pollution. Though sleek signs with the developer’s contact information still decorate the building’s sides, all of its units have been sold.

Under the recently adopted Eastern Neighborhoods Area Plan, which rezoned large swaths of Dogpatch, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, and Showplace Square, a Citizens Advisory Committee, or CAC, will be established to ensure citizen involvement in plan implementation.  Regulations adopted last month state that the CAC is to be the “….central community advisory body charged with providing input to City agencies and decision makers with regard to all activities related to implementation of the Eastern Neighborhoods Area Plans.”  The thirteen member committee will be primarily charged with reviewing and overseeing development-related community improvement projects and commenting on Area Plan monitoring efforts.

Nineteen years ago Eleanor Drey was teaching English to high school students. Today, she’s an associate clinical professor of obstetrics-gynecology (OB/GYN) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), performing caesarean sections, hysterectomies, Pap smears and abortions.  Dr. Drey has also served as the Medical Director of San Francisco General Hospital’s (SFGH) Women’s Options Center for the past half-decade.