High anxiety:
Film buffs aren’t happy with the recent makeover of the house made famous in “Vertigo.”
It’s not easy living in an iconic piece of San Francisco film history.
Just ask Hanna Suleiman and his wife, Sandy, who, after 23 years, have had their fill of being a tourist attraction and are putting up a wall in front of the Lombard Street house where Jimmy Stewart’s character lived in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller, “Vertigo.”
To hear the Suleimans tell it, they’ve put up with tourists ringing their door bell, strangers picnicking on their fence and others tossing garbage into their yard.
If that weren’t enough, they now have the constant racket of kids playing at the reopened Yick Wo Elementary School across the street.
“The noise starts at 8:30 in the morning and goes at least until 5:30 nonstop,’’ Hanna Suleiman said. “We can’t even open our windows or door, or watch TV.’’
In addition to the 6-foot wall across much of the front, the house has a new entryway, and the Suleimans have put stucco over the brick chimney.
The changes, however, are not sitting well with film buffs — one of whom grumbled, as he walked
past the construction site, “They’ve ruined it.”
The Suleimans counter that their sanity was at stake. And their adult son, Sasha, who oversaw the design work, insists that when the job is completed, “the house will retain the same feel.’’
“I took the changes seriously,’’ he said. “But this isn’t historic value — it’s pop culture history.’’
The Planning Department flagged the house for review as “a potential historic resource’’ — based partly on its age (over 60) and partly because of its big movie moment.
However, records show a department planner waived a full historic or environmental review. That was based on the Suleimans’ description of the job as a $15,000 “replacement of property line fence in place with new stucco facing and new wood gate,’’ plus the entryway alteration.
Tim Frye, the agency’s preservation coordinator, said the planner had concluded that the job wouldn’t cause any “material impairment.’’
“If it exceeded the scope of work, there will be an enforcement issue,’’ he said.
The Suleimans, however, say they have done everything by the book.
“The bottom line,” said Hanna Suleiman, “is it’s our house, we paid for it, we maintain it and we want to enjoy it.” What I meant was …: The attorney for 22-yearold Reid’s reply: If you take a shot at someone in politics, you’d better take ’em out — because they will never forget.
And that’s pretty much where things stand between Oakland Mayor
Jean Quan and City
Council President Larry Reid.
Quan’s Block by Block organization ran a slate of council candidates in the Nov. 6 election, including a candidate against Reid, one of the mayor’s most vocal critics.
Reid won, and he’s not ready to forgive or forget.
“The mayor can’t count on me for anything,’’ he said. Gregory Graniss, who was allegedly caught on camera smashing the windshield of a Muni bus during the post-World Series celebrations in San Francisco, says his client wasn’t talking out of both sides of his mouth when he publicly took responsibility for his action — then promptly pleaded “not guilty.”
“Gregory is very sorry and absolutely willing to take responsibility for the bus’ window,” said attorney Douglas Rappaport. “But he’s also being charged with intentionally attempting to hurt people on that bus, and on that charge he is 100 percent innocent.”
And it’s no small matter. The “intent to cause harm” charge carries a sentence of up to three years in state prison. Kid power: Fresh from his Proposition 39 win to close a $1 billion corporate tax loophole, San Francisco do-gooder and investment banker Tom Steyer has teamed with his brother Jimand others on a national TV campaign to press for more government funding for children’s programs.
Tom Steyer has pledged $15 million to the Center for the Next Generation and its “Too Small to Fail’’ campaign.
Matt James, president of the nonprofit advocacy group founded by Steyer and his older brother, says the idea is to push issues such as education and childhood hunger further up a congressional spending list that is dominated by programs for seniors and the military. Ground attack: Some of the ground game that was used to help re-elect San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar will now be turned to helping win support for President Obama’s tax plan.
Nicole Derse, who managed Mar’s campaign, has signed on with Team Obama to put pressure on California’s House members to stand behind whatever plan the president ultimately picks.
That means enlisting Obama backers to organize rallies and phone banks in key members’ districts, Derse said.