Building in Mission approved to house charities

Week after week the plight of nonprofits and artists in the gentrifying Mission District is a theme at Planning Commission meetings.

Finally the neighborhood’s nonprofits got some good news Thursday, although this being San Francisco, some residents still found plenty to complain about.

The Planning Commission unanimously approved Common Ground Urban Development’s project at 1850 Bryant St., a $120 million, 200,000-square-foot commercial condominium complex that will be 100 percent occu-

pied by 10 nonprofits offering services including job training, housing placement, addiction counseling and adult education.

Commissioner Dennis Richards called the project “an idea whose time has come. Ownership is the best form of eviction defense.”

Despite the unanimous approval, the project, led by developer Chris Foley, faced criticism from two abutting groups: artists living at 1890 Bryant St., and residents of the Franklin Square live/work lofts at 1800 Bryant St. While members of both groups were careful to say they support the concept of creating a home for nonprofits, they said the five-story building will cast shadows, leaving their spaces in darkness.

“We are not against nonprofits, we’re just concerned about the light. We need the light to work,” said Gustavo Ramos Rivera, an abstract painter from 1890 Bryant whose work has been shown internationally. “Artists have been treated badly in this city.”

But Jack Tse, a nonprofit real estate specialist with the Northern California Community Loan Fund, called 1850 Bryant a “bold project” that will “encourage vision.” He credited the developer for coming up with the idea.

“There are not enough philanthropic landlords in the city,” he said.

— J.K. Dineen

Direct messages: Fielding angry phone calls and emails is routine for any elected official in San Francisco. But in the age of Twitter, citizens have an easier way to voice their displeasure.

Now it’s up to the city’s Sunshine Task Force to decide whether officials have to listen.

Next week the task force will hear three complaints from citizens saying that department heads and politicians should not be allowed to shield themselves on social media. Two of those complaints are against Board of Supervisors President London Breed — one challenging her freedom to block Twitter trolls, the other saying she failed to provide a list of the accounts she’s blocked.

Angela Greben, who filed the first complaint against Breed, is a Sunnyvale resident who has requested Twitter block lists from public officials in several cities, including some in New York and Florida. She publishes some of the results on a blog.

“I’ve been submitting these requests for two years now,” said Greben, who has collected block lists from state health departments, law enforcement agencies and Supervisor Jane Kim. Greben also requested lists of people blocked or muted by Supervisor Mark Farrell, who said he doesn’t block anyone, which is “not that interesting,” Greben said.

Josh Wolf who filed the second complaint against Breed, asked for the supervisor’s blocked user list on March 14, and said he has yet to hear back from her office. Wolf is a member of the Sunshine Task Force, but said he will recuse himself from this decision.

The third complaint, filed against the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Services, for failing to respond on time to requests for tweets from the department’s director, Jeff Kositsky. The complainant, Dolores Clean, said Kositsky has prevented at least one Twitter user from reading his tweets on homelessness.

All three complaints cite a March ruling by the state Supreme Court over a legal fight that began eight years ago in San Jose, when the city refused to disclose personal texts and emails about a downtown real estate development. The high court ruled that information kept on private accounts or devices can be subject to public records laws.

Breed did not return calls seeking comment Friday. Kositsky said he’s unblocked the user who wrote the complaint against him, even though members of the Sunshine Task Force told him he didn’t have to.

“I’m a public figure, and people have a right to hear my opinion, and I’m sorry to the person I blocked,” he said.

As for the delay in getting the tweets, Kositsky said his department was short-staffed and that the request caused some confusion.

“This is a challenging question that comes up when people use Twitter for personal and public reasons,” he said.

— Rachel Swan Peace, at last: After a two-year court battle, tension has thawed between San Francisco and the vacation rental service Airbnb.

Mayor Ed Lee ratified a settlement between the city, the company and a similar platform called HomeAway on Friday, creating an online registration system for all local hosts.

Airbnb spokeswoman Mattie Zazueta praised the new system, saying it “provides certainty and clarity for thousands of San Francisco families who share their homes to help make ends meet.”

— Rachel Swan