text:
San Francisco 1996-1997
Timeline San Francisco F: 1978-1995
1978 Jan 10, Diane Feinstein was elected president of the 11-member SF Board of Supervisors. Harvey Milk and Dan White took their seats on the board for the first time.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)(SFC, 1/10/03, p.E6)
1978 Feb 4, A lone gunman held up the Park Merced branch of Crocker Bank, threatened the manager with dynamite, and walked away with $82,500.
(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1978 Mar 14, Clayton Thomas (27) surrendered in Denver after hijacking United Flight 696 from SF.
1978 Mar 28, A SF city power failure lasted up to an hour and 42 minutes after workmen in a Potrero power plant skipped a step while restarting a circuit.
1978 Mar 28, In San Francisco the badly beaten and strangled body of Marissa Rolf Harvey (15) was found in the Sutro Heights Park area. She had disappeared a day earlier while on trip from New York to visit family. In 2021 Mark Stanley Personette (76) was arrested in Conifer, about 40 miles outside of Denver, and booked into a local jail on one count of homicide.
(https://tinyurl.com/2p8e2umz)(SFC, 12/20/21, p.C1)
1978 Mar 31, The SF General Brewing Company capped its last bottle of Lucky Lager.
1978 Apr 25, The Zodiak killer, last heard from over 4 years ago, wrote a new letter that said "I am back with you."
(SFC, 4/25/03, E4)
1978 May 14, Gerard Barrett of Australia won the 68th annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers race in a record 35 min., 17 sec. There were 9,738 official entrants with some 4,000 unofficial runners. 13 members of the UC Davis track team tied themselves together and became the first centipede to run in the race.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 5/15/09, p.B4)
1978 May 20, US counterintelligence authorities reported that the Soviet consulate in San Francisco's Pacific heights has become a major base for espionage activity.
1978 May 25, Most of SF's 18,000 black students, 28% of the public school enrollment, stayed away from classes in honor of a one-day boycott called by Pastor Amos Brown.
1978 Jun 6, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann amendment, a primary ballot initiative calling for major cuts in property taxes. It limited the taxing abilities of local governments and many city services were reduced as a result..
(AP, 6/6/97)(LaPen, 12/86, p.8)
1978 Jun 6, SF voters passed Proposition K, a ballot measure prohibiting users from transferring taxi medallions.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.B4)(SFC, 6/2/04, B7)
1978 Jun 25, Some 240,000 people took part in the 7th SF Gay Freedom Parade.
1978 Jul 24, A fire burned through the Audiffred Building at the foot of Mission St.
1978 Jun 27, Sam Shepard's play "Buried Child" had its world premier in San Francisco.
(www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/buried_child.html)
1978 Jul 27, A fire destroyed the Cristofani Marine Ways shipyard in India Basin. The 103-year-old yard had turned out Jack London's "Snark."
1978 Aug 2, In San Francisco a Mill Valley tax lawyer and four other men were arraigned in US District court on charges they conspired to smuggle 547 pounds of hashish from Pakistan to San Francisco. Assistant US attorney Robert Mueller took part in the case. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had confiscated the hashish during a drug raid at a storage facility in Concord.
1978 Aug 8, Pier 40 sustained $400,000 in damages from a fire.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.E6)
1978 Aug 10, Ground was formally broken for the $100 million Yerba Buena Convention Center. Initial requests for federal financing took place 16 years and 8 months earlier.
1978 Aug 18, Bechtel Corp. hired Richard Helms, former director of the CIA, as a consultant. Former government officials George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger were also recently hired.
1978 Aug 20, The Castro Village held its 5th annual street fair for an estimated 20,000 people.
1978 Aug 29, The SF Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a "pooper scooper" ordnance.
1978 Aug 31, Emily and William Harris pleaded guilty to 4 charges related to the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst. On Oct 4 they were sentenced to prison terms.
(SFC, 10/3/03, p.E3)
1978 Sep 30, Huey Newton (1942-1989) was convicted in Oakland, Ca., on weapons charges and launched into a 40 minute harangue calling SF Superior Court Judge Joseph Koresh (1909-1996) "a renegade Jew."
(SFC, 6/21/96, p.E2)(www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificapanthers.html)
1978 Oct 1, Some 7,000 runners took part in the 2nd 8.1 mile Bridge to Bridge run.
1978 Oct 4, Diane Feinstein, President of the SF Board of Supervisors, presided over the opening the Pier 39 complex in a one-piece bathing suit. Warren L. Simmons (d.2006 at 79) developed the project and sold it in 1981. In 1986 Simmons co-found Chevy's restaurants.
(SFC, 10/3/03, p.E3)(SFC, 6/23/06, p.B9)
1978 Oct 19, The US League of Savings and Loan Associations reported that the San Francisco Bay Area had the highest housing costs in the nation.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
1978 Oct 22, In SF Episcopal priest William Barcus III revealed his homosexuality before a supportive congregation at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin on Union Street during a sermon criticizing Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative.
1978 Oct 24, The SF Redevelopment Agency staged a symbolic "burning of the mortgage" ceremony for the nearly completed Diamond Heights development of some 2,146 homes. The project began in 1955.
1978 Oct 29, Some 1,000 runners participated in the 1st SF Mayor's Cup Marathon. Ron Nabers (29) won the race from Treasure Island to Golden Gate Park.
1978 Oct, SF City Hall and the Civic Center was declared a national landmark.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A13)
1978 Nov 10, Dan White resigned from the SF board of Supervisors citing personal financial difficulties due to his $9,600-a-year salary. He later changed his mind and lobbied unsuccessfully to get Mayor Moscone to reappoint him.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1978 Nov 14, Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver introduced a measure to provide health benefits to supervisors along with a pay raise.
1978 Nov 14, Dan White declared a change of mind and asked to be allowed to return to the SF Board of Supervisors.
1978 Nov 17, California Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the Jim Jones cult, traveled to Jonestown, Guyana.
1978 Nov 18, In Jonestown, Guyana, California Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the Jim Jones cult, were killed by members of the Peoples Temple. Greg Robinson, a SF Examiner photographer, Don Harris, NBC correspondent, Bob Brown, NBC cameraman, and Patricia Parks, a temple defector, were shot dead. Congressional aide Jackie Speier survived 5 bullets. The killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide. 918 people died at Jonestown, including 260 children. In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored "Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People." In 2010 Laura Johnston Kohl authored "Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look." In 2011 survivors unveiled a memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Ca., with the names of all the dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones)(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.22)(AP, 11/18/97)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A18)(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C2)(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.D1)(http://tinyurl.com/4ync97m)(SFC, 5/30/11, p.C1)
1978 Nov 21, Mayor Moscone backed away from re-appointing Dan white to his former seat on the Board of Supervisors.
1978 Nov 27, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supv. Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were gunned down inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White. White used 4 bullets on Moscone and turned himself in at the city's Northern Police station and made a 24-minute taped confession. Moscone became the 3rd US mayor to die in a political killing. [see Chicago]
(SFC, 9/13/96, p.E2)(AP, 11/27/97)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1978 Nov 27, Diane Feinstein automatically became acting mayor of SF.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A8)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)
1978 Nov 28, The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the SF 49ers 24-7 at Candlestick Park.
1978 Dec 4, San Francisco got its first female mayor. The Board of Supervisors voted 6-2 for Dianne Feinstein to replace the assassinated George Moscone. The Board voted unanimously to rename Yerba Buena Convention Center after Moscone and to name a new gay community center after Harvey Milk. Feinstein was later elected mayor over Quentin Kopp 54%-46%.
(AP, 12/4/98)(SFC, 12/5/03, p.E10)
1978 Dec 19, Stephan Jones (19), son of Jim Jones, said he killed top cult official Sharon Amos and her 3 children following weeks of questioning about the Guyana massacre.
1978 Dec 25, Guards at the SF De Young Museum discovered that 4 Renaissance paintings had been stolen. In 1999 3 of the works, including Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Rabbi," were recovered in NYC. "Harbor Scene" by William van de Velde was still missing.
(SFC, 11/11/99, p.A1,13)(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A27)(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1978 Dec 31, The Grateful Dead played for the final show at Winterland.
1978 The Sex Pistols performed at Winterland in San Francisco and broke up shortly after.
(SFC, 6/9/96, DB p.34)
1978 Jello Biafra (b.1958), born as Eric Reed Boucher in Boulder, Colo., moved to San Francisco, took on a new name and co-founded the Dead Kennedys, a punk band that soon played at the Mabuhay Gardens.
1978 Louis A. Botto (1952-1997) founded the SF men's chorus Chanticleer. The first performance was at the altar-stage at Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A16)(SFC, 5/19/97, p.D1)
1978 Gilbert Baker (1951-2017), gay artist and activist, designed the eight-colored banner that flew over the Pride festivities in San Francisco. Within a year he agreed to drop two colors because fabrics and dyes in pink and turquoise weren't always readily available. The six-color flag became globally recognized as a symbol of the LGBT community.
(SFC, 4/1/17, p.C1)
1978 In San Francisco John Elberling took over as head of the Tenant and Owner's Development Corp. (TODCO), a non-profit real estate developer that was just starting construction on the first of its senior housing buildings. In 1986 he moved into a 400-square-foot, rent-free resident manager's unit on Folsom St. and continued living there through 2021 with a salary of $200,000.
1978 The 1st SF Carnaval started as a tiny event on lower Fillmore called Calypso Carnaval.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.E11)
1978 Sewer construction along the southern Embarcadero unearthed an old sailing ship. In 1980 it was identified as the Lydia, a whaling boat built in 1840 in Rochester, Mass.
(SFC, 8/5/05, p.F2)
1978 The Eagle Café, operated by Dan Andreotti (1921-2005), was moved to Pier 39. The bathroom tiles were redone by Algis Ratnikas.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.B7)(EW)
1978 Roland G. Schembari (d.2000 at 56), journalist, helped found the SF Bay Times. It was the 1st paper in the city to be jointly published by both gay men and lesbians. It folded after 3 issues. Schembari and Bill Hartman began the Coming Up publication in 1979, which was renamed SF Bay Times in 1988.
1978 The National Park Service inherited the SF Maritime Park from the state of California.
(SFC, 9/9/05, p.B3)
1978 An accountant (41) sued a waitress (31) at Vesuvio Cafe for failing to show up for a theater date. Judge Richard P. Figone (d.1998 at 63) ruled against him finding that "the promise to engage in a social relationship for one evening in exchange for affection and/or an evening at the theater is unenforceable under the law of contracts and torts.
1978 The "Metergate" scandal in SF charged 18 people with theft. Seven cases were dropped and the rest pleaded guilty or were convicted.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A19)
1978 San Francisco stopped the sale of cab permits. Permits were recycled upon the death of a holder and given out free to the next man on a list that by 1996 had a waiting period of about 14 years.
1978 The SF Women's Centers bought the Dovre Hall building on 18th St. between Valencia and Guererro, home of the Irish pub, the Dovre Club.
1978 The Little Puffer train at the SF Zoo was retired for a new gorilla exhibit.
1978 ABC News opened a SF Bureau. It was closed to cut costs in 1998.
1978 Perry Mann held a nudist ball at his Tenderloin apartment in San Francisco as a fund-raiser for Louis Abolafia, who since 1968 had run as the candidate for the Cosmic Love Party. In 1979 it moved to California Hall as the Exotic Erotic Ball.
(SFEM, 10/18/98, p.4)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.D5)(SFC, 10/22/04, p.B1)
1978 In San Francisco the Boas family opened their Honda dealership at the corner of Market and South Van Ness. In 2014 they sold the site to Crescent Heights, a Miami development firm, which planned a two tower complex for the site.
1978 Noel Lee founded Monster Cable Products in San Francisco. In 2018 Monster was acquired by Atlantic Acquisition Corp., a so-called "blank check" company.
1978 Henry Doelger (b.1898), SF and Daly City home builder, died on his boat in the Mediterranean. His 1st SF house is believed to be at 1419 39th Ave.
1978 Vincent Rovetti (d.1997 at 62), soccer and 49er player, set a Guinness Book of World Records mark for place kicking a football 1,035 times through the uprights at Candlestick in 2 hours and 30 min.
1978-1987 Tom Brown, radio personality and jazz lover, moved to SF where he worked on KNBR. He died in LA in 1998 at age 67. He had ran a jazz club in Cleveland and went on to Philadelphia where he did the radio show "The Thomas Brown Affair" from 1960-1968.
1979 Jan 3, Boris Naumoff, owner of a Twin Peaks liquor store, was murdered. Robert Massie was convicted but the ruling was overturned in 1985. He was sentenced to death for the murder in 1989. He was dubbed "The Killer Who Wants to Die," for requesting his death, but changed his mind. He was also once on death row for a 1965 murder of a San Gabriel woman, but was paroled in 1978, when the state's death penalty law was struck down. His death sentence was upheld in 1998.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A18)
1979 Jan 9, Mayor Diane Feinstein appointed Harry Brit to succeed slain district 5 supervisor Harvey Milk.
1979 Jan 10, Recent rains triggered a huge rockslide on Telegraph Hill that closed 4 blocks of Sansome St.
1979 Jan 17, There was an explosion on a BART train in the Transbay tube. One Oakland firefighter died and at least 46 people were injured.
(SFC, 1/16/04, p.A1)(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
1979 Jan 23, Willie Mays, former outfielder for the SF Giants, was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.
1979 Feb 1, The People's Republic of China opened its 1st two American Consulates in San Francisco and Houston.
1979 Feb 2, The 1st Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was struck in San Francisco. Public issue began July 1.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/1/02)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.E6)
1979 Feb 20, A motel cleaning woman found the remains of Maria Talavares (38) in a cardboard box at 19th and Mission. Luis Rivas, a merchant seaman, was suspect but he was not directly linked to the murder until 2001.
1979 Feb 25, James Williams and Gene Stewart of Redwood City won the 18th world championship domino tournament in San Francisco.
1979 Mar 16, Frank McNulty (67), former Oakland machinist, was released from SF County jail. He 49 months in jail for refusing to share his $128,000 Irish Sweepstakes winnings with the government.
(SFC, 3/12/04, p.F8)
1979 Mar 24, Four young people were shot and another stabbed outside the Alhambra Theater following a showing of "Boulevard Nights." Mayor Feinstein requested that future showings be cancelled and theater owners agreed.
1979 Mar 28, The SF Police Commission approved the concept of facial hair for on-duty officers, but did not yet determine the specifics.
1979 Mar 31, A bachelor party involving several young SF police officers ended in a scrap when drunken revelers invaded a lesbian bar called Peg's Place on Geary.
1979 Mar, Herb Caen wrote his famous "Newspaper Stuff" column in which he documented the origin of "etaoin shrdlu," the characters of the 2 left hand columns of the lower case keyboard of the linotype machine used to indicate needed corrections, but occasionally appearing in print.
1979 Apr 1, San Francisco's first annual St. Stupid's Day Parade, founded by Ed Holmes, was held in the Financial district to mock greed.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.B2)(SFC, 4/2/08, p.B1)
1979 Apr 2, Patricia Campbell Hearst (25) married Bernard Shaw (33), her bodyguard and boyfriend, on Treasure Island.
1979 Apr 2, The West Portal streetcar station was officially opened.
1979 Apr 4, Bechtel Corp. announced that it had won a contract to manage construction of a 115-square-mile airport for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The cost was estimated a $3 billion.
1979 Apr 5, BART re-opened following the Jan 17 tube fire.
1979 Apr 9, Some 300 lesbians and gay men competed with 6,500 other applicants for 600 SF police jobs. There were no openly gays officers at the time.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1979 Apr 11, Two federal undercover narcotics agents shot their way out of Orange Alley in the Mission after an attempt to buy $22,000 worth of pure "Chinese white" heroin.
1979 Apr 12, Police commissioners voted 3-1 to rescind their tentative approval on beards.
1979 Apr 15, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a San Francisco gay theater group, made their debut.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A6)(SFC, 3/29/18, p.E1)
1979 Apr 18, A ceremony marked the change of name of Funston Park to the George R. Moscone Recreation Center, despite complaints from the Marina neighborhood organization.
1979 Apr 23, A time capsule buried in 1879 by Henry Cogswell, an eccentric dentist, at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in Washington Square was opened. It contained a copy of The Call newspaper dated Jun 2, 1879, Harper's Weekly dated May 1872, a manual of the Ladies Christian Union and books of poetry. 2 new capsules were planted to be opened in 2079. They contained a pair of Levi's, a poem by Ferlinghetti, and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)(SFC, 4/23/04, p.F5)
1979 May 1, May Day groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the 22-acre Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in SF, the state's 1st urban state park.
1979 May 11, SF passed an odd-even gas sales plan in response to the gasoline crises.
1979 May 14, Some 6,000 people attended a free concert by the Jefferson Starship at Marx Meadow in Golden Gate Park. In the Polo Field some 220 players competed in the Northern California Frisbee Championships.
1979 May 20, Over 20,000 participated in the 68th annual Bay to Breakers. Bob Hodge of Hanover, Maine, set a record time of 36 minutes, 50.9 seconds.
1979 May 21, Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The verdict set off the "White Night Riots," involving thousands of protesters outside City Hall. $400,000 worth of property damage resulted including 14 police cars.
(SFC, 7/11/96, p.C2)(AP, 5/21/97)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)
1979 May 22, In the aftermath of the riot at City Hall an estimated 22 police officers stormed the Elephant Walk bar on Castro Street.
1979 May 28, Fay Stender, SF prison reform attorney, was shot and left paralyzed by a vengeance-minded intruder. She died a year later in Hong Kong in an apparent suicide.
1979 Jun 1, The "Treasures of Tutankhamun" exhibit opened at the de Young Museum.
1979 Jun 5, The National Guard Armory at 14th and Mission was decommissioned as a military building.
(SFC, 6/4/04, F2)
1979 Jun 11, The Miramonte Hotel at 25th and Mission was torched for a 2nd time in less than a year.
1979 Jun 12, The Board of Supervisors passed the 1st SF rent control law limiting increased for the year to 7%.
(USAT, 6/11/04, p.F7)
1979 Jun 21, Mayor Diane Feinstein returned from her visit to China, where she signed a sister-city relationship with Shanghai. In August Wang Bingnam announced that San Francisco and Shanghai will become "friendship cities."
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A3)(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A19)(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)(SFC, 8/27/04, p.F2)
1979 Jun 24, An estimated 300,000 people attended the 8th annual SF Gay Freedom Day Parade with about 80,000 in the procession.
1979 Jun 25, Everything at Breen's Bar at 71 Third was auctioned off. The 72-foot-long bar was purchased for $42,000 by Henry Africa, John Wilson and Bob Morris. The Phillips family had operated Breen's since 1952.
1979 Jun, SF police recovered the body of a victim in a fatal shooting. The case quickly went cold. In 2015 DNA samples identified the victim as Andre Drath (16), a recent arrival from Chicago.
1979 Jul 1, The Susan B. Anthony dollar was issued. It was the 1st US coin to honor a woman. The 1st coin was struck Feb 2 in San Francisco. The SF mint produced 100 million of the coins. Another 400 million were made in Philadelphia and Denver. It was not widely accepted and production stopped in 1981.
(WSJ, 7/12/96, p.B5B)(MC, 7/1/02)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.E6)(SFC, 7/2/04, p.F9)
1979 Jul 2, Employees at the SF Museum of Modern Art went on strike.
1979 Jul 3, Dan White, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. He served five years.
(AP, 7/3/9)
1979 Jul 3, Cable cars resumed service following a halt on May 28 due to snapped steel shaft at the cable car machinery barn on Mason and Washington.
1979 Jul 8, Robert Opel was shot and killed during a robbery in at his Howard St. art gallery in SF. On Apr 2, 1974, on Oscar night Opel (33) had streaked naked across the stage as David Niven prepared to introduce Elizabeth Taylor.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, DB p.37)(SFC, 7/9/04, p.F5)
1979 Jul 16, A strike at the SF Museum of Modern Art ended when employees voted to accept a 2-year contract calling for a first-year $110-monthly pay increase.
1979 Jul 31, Cesar Chavez began a 12-day march from SF to Salinas to dramatize the 6-month strike of the United Farm Workers.
1979 Aug 3, INS inspectors at the SF Int'l. Airport stopped 2 male Mexican nationals because their bags contained cosmetics. The INS soon issued a new directive temporarily halting its agents from turning back foreign visitors suspected of being homosexuals.
1979 Aug 10, SF planners approved a 48-story silo-shaped office tower for 101 California St. The building was designed by Philip Johnson (1906-2004).
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F2)(SFC, 1/27/05, p.A2)
1979 Aug 18, Joe Montana made his 1st start as a pro quarterback as the SF 49ers hosted the Denver Broncos and lost 21-0.
1979 Aug 23, A 200-pound female shark died following an attack by other sharks in a feeding frenzy one day after being introduced at Steinhart Aquarium.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.F4)
1979 Aug 27, Some 2,000 runners competed in the SF Mayor's Cup Race. Ron Nabors won with a time of 2:27:20.
1979 Sep 2, Hundreds of singles gathered in SF at the Jack Tar Hotel for 1st national singles convention.
1979 Sep 3, Steven Burns, graduate of St. Ignatius High School, shot and killed Catina Salarno, his former girl friend at the Univ. of the Pacific in Stockton. It was her first day of college. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison with parole eligible after 8 years.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.1)
1979 Sep 7, Shirley Hill, mother of an 8-year-old and part-time phone operator at St. Mary's Hospital, was found raped and murdered in a Mission High School classroom bungalow. Russell Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder. In 1998 he was still awaiting execution.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A8)
1979 Sep 11, Jeffrey Fraenkel (24) opened the Fraenkel Gallery at 55 Grant St. with an exhibit of 49 works by photographer Carleton Watkins.
1979 Sep 11, SF public school teachers authorized their 1st strike in five years.
1979 Sep 13, SF Superior court Judge Ira Brown ruled that city employees are entitled to at least $12 million in back pay because the city's "emergency" declaration after the passage of Proposition 13 was illegal.
1979 Sep 20, SF elementary schools opened amidst a teacher's strike. 63% of students and 43% of teachers showed up.
1979 Sep 23, Some 150 people marched down Market Street to celebrate the 2nd annual All Species Day parade.
1979 Sep 25, The 14th Dalai Lama arrived in SF for a weeklong visit.
1979 Oct 4, SF high schools opened to some 15,000 students as 26% of the regular teachers crossed picket lines.
(SFC, 10/1/04, p.F5)
1979 Oct 8, Five people bungee jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. 3 were caught and arrested fro trespassing.
(SFC, 10/8/04, p.F12)
1979 Oct 9, Wayne Cullinane (22) hanged himself in jail. He had paralyzed Market St. in a sniping incident for 23 hours.
1979 Oct 11, Anton Refregier (74), artist, died in Moscow where he had traveled to paint a mural. He had painted the historical murals at the SF Post Office's Rincon Annex.
1979 Oct 21, In SF the body of Mary Frances Bennett was found at Lands End. She had been stabbed at least 25 times. In 2010 DNA evidence tied her murder to David Joseph Carpenter, who was on death row at San Quentin for 7 other murders.
1979 Nov 4, The California Street cable car line resumed operation following a 6-week shutdown due to neglected maintenance.
1979 Nov 6, SF Mayor Diane Feinstein was forced into a runoff election with supervisor Quentin Kopp. 5 incumbent members of the Board also faced runoffs. District elections had been revised so that candidates needed at least a 50% vote to win.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 11/5/04, p.F5)
1979 Nov 25, Warren Simmons, the developer of Pier 39, was sentenced to 3 years probation and fined $2,000 for making political contributions under false names.
1979 Nov, In San Francisco the Imperial Hotel at Fourth and Minna was demolished indicating upcoming redevelopment for the area. Photographer Janet Delaney (26) captured the scene.
1979 Dec 4, The Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty ship was guided into dry dock at the Bethlehem Yard in SF for a $1 million project to memorialize it as one of the last WW II Liberty Ships. The project was led by Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson (1924-2008).
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(SSFC, 10/5/08, p.B7)
1979 Dec 7, SF police staged a massive raid on an alleged bordello in the Forest Hills neighborhood. A defense attorney later argued that the raid was designed to sweep former DA Joseph Freitas to victory on Dec 11.
1979 Dec 7, Walter A. Haas Sr. (b.1889), former head of Levi Strauss (1928-1955), died in his sleep.
(SFC, 12/3/04, p.F8)(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0771923.html)
1979 Dec 19, Mayor Feinstein appointed Cmdr. Cornelius P. Murphy Jr. to be the new SF Chief of Police. He replaced Chief Charles Gain.
1979 Dec 23, SF cartoonist Marty Links retired her comic strip, Bobby Sox, saying there was no place for her characters in the modern cartoon world.
1979 Dec 26, Mayor Diane Feinstein launched her effort to meet a predicted $100 million-plus city deficit with 10 proposed charter amendments.
1979 Dec 27, The names of several tiny south of Market streets, that honored old Irish settlers, were reported to being changed to honor Filipino patriots.
1979 Dec 27, Five SF police officers were suspended and charged with accepting a total of some $11,000 in gratuities from motion picture production companies from 1977-1979.
1979 The Magic Theater produced "True West" by Sam Shephard. The premiere with Peter Coyote and Jim Haynie was in 1980.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, DB p.43)(SFEC, 4/26/98, DB p.45)
1979 The 212-unit Woolf House tower at 4th and Howard was completed.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.A21)
1979 Gary Larson, Seattle humane society investigator, began his career as a cartoonist when SF Chronicle editor George Stanleigh Arnold (d.1997 at 78) purchased his cartoons.
1979 Betty Lim (1933-1996), budget analyst and aide to 3 SF mayors, wrote and published a book about equal rights and racial justice for Asians.
1979 The film "Escape From Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood and Fred Ward was released. It was directed by Don Siegel and had been shot in the SF Bay Area.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.39)
1979 The Franklin St. annex to the Opera House was constructed.
(SFEM, 8/31/97, p.7)
1979 John Ta Chuan Fang founded AsianWeek, an English-language tabloid aimed at the Asian American communities. Fang had arrived penniless from Taiwan in the early 1950s.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.A17)
1979 The Exotic Erotic Ball was founded by Perry Mann. It all started in a private apartment as a fund-raiser for Louis Abolafia, who since 1968 had run as the candidate for the Cosmic Love Party.
1979 The annual SF Ethnic Dance Festival began.
(SFEC, 6/7/98, DB p.39)
1979 The 2nd SF Carnaval was held in the Mission District at Precita Park.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 5/22/03, p.E1)
1979 The SF Women's Center opened on 18th St.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A15)
1979 The Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty Ship was taken out of the US reserve fleet and restored by volunteers. Now based in SF, it was one of 2,751 identical cargo ships built during WW II. Restoration of the ship was assisted by Harry Morgan (d.1997) a veteran marine engineer who also assisted in the later restoration of the steam tug Hercules.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A2)(SFC,11/25/97, p.A22)
1979 SF home prices averaged $90,000, up from $72,000 in 1977.
1979 The Int'l. Hotel at 848 Kearny in Chinatown was demolished and remained vacant to 2001. In 2002 construction began at the site for new senior housing.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.A30)(SFC, 6/8/01, WBa p.6)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A17)
1979 Several streets south of market were renamed to honor Irish settlers and Filipino patriots. These included Lapu Lapu and Mabini Street.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.6)
1979 John Hefferman agreed to pay Charles Boles $309,000 for his gelato stores. Hefferman grew the operation and changed the name to Caffe Classico from Gelato Classico. Around 1991 he sold the operation to Baskin-Robbins and its corporate parent, Allied Domecq PLC., and bought it back around 1995.
1979 Ernie Gabiati (1921-2005) sold his SF Gallo Salame operations to Consolidated Foods Inc. He had taken over the Roma Sausage operation of his father in 1946 and created Gallo Salame Inc.
(SSFC, 10/16/05, p.B5)
1979 Fritz Maytag moved his Anchor Brewing Co. to 1705 Mariposa St. in the Potrero Hill area.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1979 The Insect Zoo opened at the SF Zoo.
1980 Jan 1, The barge Kona smashed ashore between Point Bonita and Bird Rock. The barge Agattu impaled on a rock near Cronkhite Beach. Helicopters were used to remove dangerous cylinders of chlorine gas from the Agattu which was eventually pulled free from the rocks.
(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1980 Jan 13, A fire gutted the Pharmex Limited warehouse at 145 Mission. The firm was under investigation for a Nov 21 fire at its manufacturing plant at 28 Folsom.
1980 Jan 16, Arturo Duran (16), a Latino student at Visitacion Valley High School was shot to death sparking ethnic tension between Filipino and Latino students.
1980 Jan 20, Mayor Feinstein and Richard Blum were married in a private ceremony in her City Hall office.
1980 Jan 20, Grocery clerks in 8 Bay Area counties went on strike at 175 supermarkets. All the Safeway stores were targeted. Supervisory staff kept Safeway stores open.
1980 Jan 21, Six major food chains announced they will lock out some 5,000 checkers and clerks in retaliation for the union's selective strike against Safeway.
1980 Jan 23, A rolling earthquake hit northern California and measured 5.5 in Contra Costa. It destroyed 25,000 gallons of wine at the Livermore winery of Wente Brothers. A leak of radioactive tritium was reported from the weapons lab at Livermore.
1980 Jan 24, A 2nd earthquake, centered 8-miles north of Livermore, hit the Bay Area and measured 5.6.
1980 Jan 28, Mayor Diane Feinstein signed a Friendship City agreement with Zhao Xingzhi, vice mayor of Shanghai. It was the 1st of its kind between an American city and the PRC.
1980 Feb 10, The Port of SF made Pier 45 available for development as a fish handling and processing facility.
(SFC, 2/11/05, p.F10)
1980 Feb 18, San Francisco's new $330 million underground transit system officially opened on the N-Judah line.
1980 Feb 20-21, The Bay Area's 3 hazardous waste dumps were shut down over concerns of their containment systems during a period of heavy rains.
1980 Feb 21, The SF Board of Supervisors announced plans to name 2 small drawbridges in China Basin after former Seals manager Lefty O'Doul and police inspector Peter Maloney.
1980 Feb 27, The estimated cost of rebuilding the SF cable car system was raised to $58.6 million due to exploding inflation and unrealistic original estimates.
1980 Mar 7, The new Univ. of California Dental School on Parnassus was formally dedicated.
1980 Mar 16, SF public health and school departments began preparations for the mass vaccination of schoolchildren pending successful field tests of a polio vaccine.
1980 Mar 17, The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur announced plans to close Notre Dame High School for girls in SF in June. The structure across the street from the Mission Dolores Basilica had opened in 1866.
1980 Mar 26, Hibernia Bank, California's oldest state-chartered bank, opened its new $20 million Hibernia Bank Building at 201 California St.
1980 Apr 3, Mission St. jitney drivers were reported to have asked the SF Board of Supervisors to raise their rates to 50 cents for a short trip and 60 cents farther than 22nd and Mission.
1980 Apr 8, FBI agents swept into SF to close the Iranian consulate on the 18th floor of the Embarcadero Center following Pres. Carter's sanctions against Iran.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.Fe)
1980 Apr 13, An estimated 7,000 hikers crossed the Bay Bridge. Some 80 backpackers planned to continue on to Washington DC over the next 14 months to publicize the need for more hiking trails.
1980 Apr 27, The biggest jailbreak in SF history took place as 13 prisoners escaped from the 7th floor of the county jail at the Hall of Justice.
1980 May 2, Foremost-McKesson notified its 1000 SF customers that home delivery of milk would end on one month.
1980 May 28, John Grisanti, Tennessee restaurateur, paid $31,000 for a bottle of 1822 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux at the Heublein Wine Auction in SF.
1980 Jun 11, Leftist demonstrators in SF vandalized the Richelieu Cinema at 1075 Geary overnight during a showing of the "Birth of a Nation" by D.W. Griffith. They protested the sympathetic treatment of the Ku Klux Klan in the silent film classic.
1980 Jun 24, The SF Gay Film Festival opened at the Roxie Theater with 12 films chosen for presentation.
1980 Jun 27, The San Francisco 133rd Police Academy graduating class included 2 gay men.
1980 Jun 29, The SF 9th annual Gay Freedom Parade drew over 30,000 marchers and some 250,000 spectators along Market St.
1980 Jul 1, The Japanese Tea Garden in SF's Golden Gate Park began charging admission for the 1st time in its 86-year history.
1980 Jul 2, In SF 2 men robbed the Sidney Mobell store at 141 Post St. of up to $750,000 in jewelry, precious stones and watches.
1980 Jul 10, "True West" by Sam Shepard premiered in SF and became a stage hit. It was a comic drama of fraternal rivalry and family angst.
(SFC, 7/10/97, p.E3)(www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/true_west.html)
1980 Jul 14, Bulldozers razed the building at 960 Bush St., site of the Boarding House entertainment venue. Owner David Allen planned to reopen the club at 901 Columbus.
1980 Jul 17, Over 6,000 union hotel employees went on strike and were locked out of SF hotels in a contract dispute, the 1st in 40 years.
1980 Jul 22, SF police arrested 46 hotel strikers and union leaders outside the Hyatt Regency during a mass rally.
1980 Jul 25, In San Francisco the Red Vic repertory movie theater opened at Haight and Belvedere. In 1991 it moved to 1727 Haight. In 2011 it was set to close following a final birthday screening.
1980 Aug 2, In SF the last 25 people living in the Project One artists' haven at Tenth and Howard were evicted. Owners Robert and Vera Cort purchased the former 4-story candy factory in 1968 for $390,000.
1980 Aug 12, SF hotel workers voted 1823 to 523 to accept a 3-year contract and end a 26-day strike and lockout at 36 major hotels.
1980 Aug 15, George Manuel Bosque (25) reportedly abandoned his armored truck at the SF Airport Hilton Hotel, stole a car at gunpoint, and vanished with over $1.8 million in cash. 2 days later he sent an envelope with $20,000 to SF Police officer Lou Vance to pay off a business deal. Bosque was caught on November 23, 1981 and pleaded not guilty before a Federal Judge on November 24, 1981.
(SFC, 8/12/05, p.F3)(http://tinyurl.com/ebwtd)
1980 Aug 19, San Francisco voters approved Proposition A, a measure to drop district elections for city supervisors. 69,632 voted for and 68, 036 voted against in the low turnout special election.
1980 Aug 22, A great white shark captured Aug 19 was hauled back to the ocean after spending 2 ½ days at San Francisco's Steinhart Aquarium. The 4-month-old female had not eaten since her arrival. Over 20,000 people paid to see the shark.
1980 Aug 27, Homestake Mining of San Francisco announced the discovery of a gold deposit, valued at $630 million, in Napa County, north of Lake Berryessa.
1980 Aug, Native Americans began an annual sunrise drumming ceremony at Dolores Park to bless the park as a sacred burial ground.
1980 Sep 12, Authorities in SF seized 20 tons of Colombian marijuana at Pier 26 along with 2 vessels, that included the Potomac, Franklin D. Roosevelt's historic yacht. Gunnysacks of the marijuana were labeled "Crippled Children's Society of America." 15 men and a woman were arrested.
1980 Sep 15, The new $28 million Davies Symphony Hall opened in SF. The performance was taped for nationwide broadcast on PBS.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.AB9)(SFC, 9/16/05, p.F2)
1980 Oct 6, In San Francisco four teenagers abducted a student (24) at Second St. near Minna following her evening classes at Golden Gate Univ. Michael Brown, Clyde Jackson Larry Shepard (all 17) and Damont Miller (16) raped her over a four-hour period, dumped her on a desolate street, shot her twice and ran her down with their car. She survived and testified at their 1981 trial. All were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. In 2017 Michael Brown was released on parole.
1980 Oct 15, An FTC judge upheld Heublein's acquisition of SF-based United Vintners, the 2nd largest wine company in the US.
1980 Oct 18, In SF Marlene "Brandy" Baldwin finished serving her 90-day sentence in the Convent of the Good Shepherd and declared that she will not run a bordello or procure women again.
1980 Oct 24, The US Court of Appeals in SF ruled that the US Navy has the right to discharge personnel for homosexual conduct.
1980 Oct 28, In SF a 3-alarm fire destroyed the 2nd floor of Vanessi's North Beach restaurant.
1980 Oct 31, Benjamin H. Swig (86), SF financier, philanthropist and real estate investor, died in his penthouse atop the Fairmont Hotel.
1980 Nov 4, SF voters re-elected 8 of 11 Board of Supervisors. Women held a majority of seats for the 1st time in city history.
(SFC, 11/4/05, p.F2,6)
1980 Nov 10, In SF some 30 youths bludgeoned Richard Christenson and Thomas Larsen in the Dolores Park area.
1980 Nov 11, Crab season opened in SF. Some 9 million pounds were caught in the 1956-1957 season. Recent annual catches averaged 300,000 pounds.
1980 Nov 16, Joe Edley (32), a SF night watchman, won the North American Scrabble championship at a tournament in Santa Monica, Ca.
1980 Nov 20, The SF Redevelopment Agency chose the Canadian firm Olympia & York to develop the $300 million Yerba Buena Gardens center on 21 acres prime South of Market land.
1980 Dec 1, SF Assemblyman Willie Brown was elected speaker of the state Assembly.
1980 Sam Moskowitz published "Fiction in Old San Francisco," that covered an early strain of science fiction.
1980 The 128-room Howard Johnson at Fisherman's Wharf was constructed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1980 The Academy of Friends' Oscar Night Gala began as a fundraiser for HIV and AIDS services.
1980 Victor Miller (d.2002 at age 54) founded the New Mission News.
1980 The National Japanese American Historical Society was founded in SF.
1980 The SF Hash House Harriers was founded as a "drinking club with a running problem."
(SFC, 8/11/00, WBb p.7)
1980 The San Francisco Muni Metro opened.
1980 San Francisco voters approved a measure to repeal district elections and return to at-large elections.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1980 In San Francisco Sidney Goldstein founded the City Arts & Lectures series. In 2017 Goldstein (72) turned the event production company over to a new generation.
1980 In San Francisco Con Murphy took over the position of police chief following Charles Gains. The police force numbered about 1500 with 82% being white males. By the end of 1985 the force included 1,988 officers with almost a third composed of women and minorities.
(SSFC, 12/26/10, DB p.46)
1980 Alfred J. Nelder (d.2002 at 87), former police chief and Supervisor, was named to the SF Police Commission. He served for 9 years.
1980 The SF Recreation and Park Commission voted to charge a 50 cent fee for the Japanese Tea Garden in Goldengate Park to make up for losses in property tax support from Prop 13.
1980 Former SF Mayor Joseph Alioto lost a $3.2 million legal malpractice case filed against him by a Wyoming rancher.
1980 The SF Chronicle purchased the Bloomington Pantagraph in Illinois.
1980 A reforestation program was begun in San Francisco's Goldengate Park.
1980 Gorilla World opened at the SF Zoo.
1980 Greg Steltenpohl started his Odwalla juice company selling drinks out of his jazz band's Volkswagen van around San Francisco. In 1996 a child died and dozens were sickened because of contaminated apple juice produced by Odwalla. He and his partners were forced to sell a controlling interest to private-equity firms and not long after the company was sold to Coca-Cola.
1980s The Bermuda Triangle was the name of the Cow Hollow fern bar strip on Union St.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A15)
1981 Jan 6, The James M. Nederlander organization announced that it has taken over the SF Orpheum Theater bringing an end to the 43-year-old SF Civic Light Opera.
1981 Jan 9, The SF Civil Service Commission prepared a new city policy requiring criminal record checks of all applicants certified for civil service jobs.
1981 Jan 12, The US District Court in SF sentenced Joseph Bonanno Sr. (75), the reputed NY mafia boss, to serve 5 years in prison. Bonanno was released from prison July 29, 1984.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F2)(www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=12052002-011843-1177r)
1981 May 17, SF celebrated "Tillie Olsen Day." Her books included "Yonnondio" (1974), and "Silences," a study of blocked creativity. In 2001 she received the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award.
(SSFC, 4/1/01, BR p.2)
1981 May, The SF Carnaval was moved up to May to take advantage of better weather.
1981 Oct 17 - 1981, Oct 18, In San Francisco over 145,000 attended two concerts by the Rolling Stones at Candlestick Park.
(SSFC, 12/22/13, p.A14)
1981 Nov, San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein established Fleet Week as an annual celebration for Columbus Day weekend.
1981 Dec 2, In SF the 300,000 sq-foot Moscone Convention Center opened.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W43)
1981 Dec 31, The Blue and Gold Fleet discontinued its ferry service between Berkeley and SF due to low usage. The service had operated for 5 months averaging 169 passengers a day.
1981 The SF Ballet under Michael Smuin performed "The Tempest" live from the Opera House and won an Emmy.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.47)
1981 The Jewish Film Festival began in SF.
1981 Terence McEwen succeeded Kurt Herbert Adler as the director of the SF Opera.
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.47)
1981 The Irish Rock Band U2 first performed in SF at the Old Waldorf.
(SFEC, 6/8/97, DB p.3)
1981 The Dutch Windmill in San Francisco's Goldengate Park was restored.
1981 In San Francisco the 5-story Levi's Plaza was built at 1155 Battery St. Architects included HOK and Richard Friedman. It was developed by Gerson Bakar (1928-2017).
(SSFC, 12/6/09, p.C3)(SSFC, 6/18/17, p.C10)
1981 In San Francisco Roberto Hernandez founded the San Francisco Lowrider Council to unite rival clubs and organize against police brutality.
1981 In San Francisco pediatric oncologist Dr. Arthur Ablin (1926-2017) co-founded Family House, a boarding home for families of children receiving cancer treatment at UCSF.
(SSFC, 9/10/17 p.C3)
1981 The SF Redevelopment Agency began to reconfigure 115 acres along the Bay shoreline of South Market and created a residential community of nearly 3,000 housing units.
1981 Rev. Floyd Lotito (1934-2009) founded St. Anthony's Dining Room, a free-meal program for seniors, the disabled and the homeless.
1981 The SF Friends of the Urban Forest was founded.
1981 Valencia Rose, a gay cabaret, opened in San Francisco's Castro district.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.35)
1981 Calvin Grigsby opened a SF investment banking business that went on to distinguish itself with innovative municipal finance and became the nation's largest minority-owned firm. The firm was indicted in 1998 on federal bribery charges.
1981 SF passed a 53-page hotel conversion law to preserve affordable housing.
1981 In SF Bill Kimpton (d.2001 at 65), former Wall Street investment banker, opened the Clarion Bedford Hotel and Post and Leavenworth and ushered in a new era of boutique hotels.
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.E1)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.C7)
1981 San Francisco held its 1st Comedy Day. Comedian Jose Simon (d.2008 at 63) co-founded Comedy Day in SF with Mike Pritchard. They brought the idea to the SF Chronicle in 1980, which agreed to act as sponsor.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.B9)(www.comedyday.com/about.php)
1981 Fausto Vitello (1947-2006), Eric Swenson (1947-2011) and Kevin Thatcher co-founder of Independent Trucks (1978), founded Thrasher Magazine in SF dedicated to the growing skateboard community.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.B6)(SFC, 6/24/11, p.C5)
1981 Quentin Easter (d.2010 at 53) and Stanley Williams co-founded the Lorraine Hansberry Theater. It grew to become the premier African-American theater company in San Francisco and California.
1981 In SF a farmer's market began operating in the UN Plaza of the Civic Center.
1981 In SF the California Academy of Sciences invited Wojciech Pulowski from Poland to be curator of Hymmenoptera at the Academy.
(PacDis, Winter/'96, p.43)
1981 Achilles G. Rizzoli (1896-1981), SF architectural visionary, died. He created a 2,600 page illustrated philosophical tract. The first book on his art by Jo Farb Hernandez, John Beardsley and Roger Cardinal was published in 1997: "A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions." His apparent architectural drawings were "symbolizations" of people he knew.
(SFEC, 6/8/97, BR p.10)(SFEC, 3/22/98, DB p.9)(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D5)
1981-1991 James R. Harvey (1935-1996) was CEO of the Transamerica Corp. He sold off much of the company's diversified portfolio and refocused on its core business in insurance and financial services. He also moved the company into a philanthropic role that concentrated on hunger and homelessness in the Bay Area.
1982 Jan 1, Cecil Williams (b.1929), the pastor of San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church, married Janice Mirikitani (b.1941). Both had children from previous marriages.
1982 Jan 5, SF Bay fishermen refused to fish for herring after Japanese buyers offered $800 a ton. Buyers recently paid $1200 a ton. Ten years earlier, before fishermen realized there was a Japanese demand for herring roe, the fish sold for $50 a ton.
1982 Jan 11, Dwight Clark made "The Catch" and the 49ers won against Dallas. In Super Bowl XVI San Francisco played against Cincinnati.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.B13)(SFC, 1/28/97, p.E1)
1982 Jan 25, In San Francisco crowds estimated at over 500,000 took to the streets to celebrate the Super Bowl XVI parade. City Hall had planned for 25,000.
1982 Feb 23, In SF nearly 3,500 people applied for the lottery for 162 apartments at Mei Lun Yuen, the newly completed, federally subsidized housing development in Chinatown.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1882 Apr 10, Capt. William Matson sailed the schooner Emma Claudina through the Golden Gate toward Hawaii. Matson had just founded his shipping company to cover service between San Francisco and Hawaii.
1982 Sep 5, In San Francisco a van crashed into a taxi carrying actress Janet Gaynor (75), her husband Paul Gregory, actress Mary Martin and manager Ben Washer. Washer was killed and the others were injured. Gaynor never fully recovered and died in 1984.
1982 Sep 22, San Francisco's famous cable cars made a final run before closing down for a 20-month, $60 million renovation. The SF cable car system was shut down for an overhaul. Gripman Raymond M. McCann (d.1997 at 47) was assigned to write the first manual on operating cable cars. The system was overhauled under the Feinstein administration for $59 million, in mostly private and federal funds. Cable car prices were raised to $1.00.
(AP, 9/22/02)(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A22)(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A16)
1982 Nov 25, Pike (Pee-ka) the polar bear was born at the SF Zoo on Thanksgiving.
1982 Dec 18, Tara Burke (3 years old) was freed in SF after being held captive in a van for ten months. She had been kidnapped in Concord by Luis "Tree Frog" Johnson (33) and Alex Cabarga (17). Johnson was sentenced to 527 years in prison and Cabarga served 25 years.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A1,4)
1982 Dec 23, The Golden Gate Bridge closed for 2 hours as winds reached 70 mph.
(http://goldengatebridge.org/research/facts.php)
1982 Joani Blank of San Francisco's Good Vibrations published "Good Vibrations: The Complete Guide to Vibrators."
1982 Tom Stoddard published "Jazz on the Barbary Coast," an anthology of oral histories and essays in San Francisco.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D7)
1982 The TV food show "Yan Can Cook" began on KQED in SF with Martin Yan.
1982 In San Francisco the musical work "Dreams and Fantasies" by David Sheinfeld (d.2001 at 94) was premiered at the SF Davies Symphony Hall under Edo de Waart.
1982 In SF the 48-story silo-shaped office tower at 101 California St., designed by Philip Johnson (1906-2004), was completed.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F2)(SFC, 1/27/05, p.A2,E14)
1982 In SF the Nieman Marcus department store chain opened a store on Union Square in a space formerly occupied by the City of Paris department store.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A21)(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.G3)
1982 In SF Sgt. John Macauley Park opened at Larkin and O'Farrell. It was named after Sgt. John Macauley, who was shot to death making a traffic stop in 1982.
1982 In SF Dolores Street Community Services was organized to help the poor and sick in the Mission and Castro neighborhoods. It was originally a ministry of the Dolores St. Baptist Church.
1982 In SF the Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square housing complex at Eddy and Steiner went co-op.
1982 San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein accepted a $1 million dollar pledge from Atari, creator of the Pac-Man arcade game, to help save the cable car system.
(SFC, 12/2/17, p.D1)
1982 In SF Bernice Hemphill (d.1996) retired as director of the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank. She began work there before the end of WW II and was the first managing director of this first nonprofit, medically sponsored blood collection center in the nation.
(SFC, 11/27/96, p.B2)
1982 In SF Tom Waddel founded the Gay Olympics, later renamed the Gay Games.
(SFC, 6/23/96, BR, p.1)
1982 In SF actors began declaiming Shakespeare on picnic tables in Golden Gate Park and thus founded the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival.
1982 In SF the WW II submarine "Pampanito" was opened to the public at Pier 45, the foot of Taylor St. under the operation of the National Maritime Museum Association. In 1986 the sub was named a National Historic Landmark by the national Park Service.
(SFC, 6/19/97, p.A22)(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A17)
1982 A federal consent decree went into effect that forced SF to release low-level offenders to prevent severe jail overcrowding.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, A14)
1982 In SF Mary Jane Rathbun (d.1999), aka Brownie Mary, was arrested on marijuana charges and ordered to perform 500 hours of social work. She sold her "Magically Delicious" brownies from a succession of Castro area homes in SF.
1982 Todd Industries bought the Bethlehem Iron Works (United Iron Works at Pier 70) in SF. By 1987 Todd faced bankruptcy, broke its lease with the SF Port Authority, and abandoned the property.
1982 Grace Marchant, the SF woman who maintained the garden on the east face of Telegraph Hill at the Filbert steps, died. The garden was later named in her honor. The retired seamstress had begun her work in 1949. Before her death she asked cab driver Gary Kray (d.2012) to continue her work.
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/30/12, p.C12)
1982-1984 Edward J. Malatesta S.J. (d.1998 at 66) worked on the China Jesuit History Project and then founded the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History as part of the USF Center for the Pacific Rim.
1982-1988 Terence A. McEwen (d.1998 at 69) directed the SF Opera.
(SFC, 9/18/98)
1983 Jan 27, In San Francisco the Rock & Bowl at 1855 Haight St. held its opening night. Gilbert Klein (1946-2018) took over the 22 lanes of the Park Bowl and reopened it as Rock & Bowl. The facility closed in 1996 and re-opened as Amoeba Music.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.E4)(SFC, 5/2/18, p.D6)
1983 Apr 27, SF Mayor Diane Feinstein overwhelmingly defeated a recall attempt.
1983 Apr 28, The nuclear powered aircraft carrier Enterprise ran aground in SF Bay and was stick for over 5 hours yards from her berth at the Alameda Naval air Station.
1983 May 1, Charles McCabe (68), SF Chronicle columnist, was found dead at his home at 22 Alta St.
1983 May 21, Eric Hoffer (b.1902), longshoreman-philosopher, died in SF. His writings included "The True Believer" (1951), a critical view of mass movements, "The Passionate State of Mind," "The Ordeal of Change," and "The Temper of the Time."
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer)
1983 Sep 25, In Northern Ireland Jimmy Smythe escaped from the Maze prison near Belfast along with 37 other prisoners. He made his way to San Francisco where he was arrested and released on bail in 1992. Kevin Barry Artt, Terence Kirby, and Pol Brennan also escaped and made their way to California. They were arrested in the 1992 and held in a federal prison in Pleasanton, Ca. After a lengthy court battle, Smythe was extradited in 1996 to Northern Ireland to serve the remainder of his 20-year prison term. In 1998 he was freed from a Belfast prison.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A20)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/y2q4hr7u)
1983 Oct, Frank W. Epperson (89), who invented the Popsicle on an extraordinarily cold night in San Francisco in 1905, died in SF.
1983 Nov 8, In SF Mayor Diane Feinstein won her final 4-year term as mayor. Voters backed policy measures asking for an end to bilingual voting.
(SSFC, 11/9/08, DB p.58)
1983 Nov 16, In San Francisco Nikolaus Crumbley was found murdered in McLaren Park. In 2012 police with DNA evidence from the scene arrested William Payne (47). Payne had been arrested in 1984 in connection with a sexual assault on a woman.
1983 Nov, In San Francisco Jimmy "the Beard" Ferrozzo (40), the assistant manager of the Condor Club, made famous by topless dancer Carol Doda, was crushed to death by a piano that was used to raise Doda up and down on a hydraulic lift. Exotic dancer Teresa Hill (23), naked and hysterical, survived beneath him.
(http://tinyurl.com/7lrvcuu)(SSFC, 12/30/12, DB p.42)
1983 Dec 6, The SF Golden Gate Bridge closed for the 2nd December in a row as winds at the toll plaza measured 77.2 mph.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, DB p. 58)
1983 Prof. Arthur Chandler published "A Biography of SF State University.
1983 Louis K. Loewenstein (d.2002) authored "Streets of San Francisco: The Origins of Street and Place Names."
(www.goodreads.com/book/show/2010922.Streets_of_San_Francisco)
1983 David Schneider (1918-2005), violinist with the SF Symphony, authored "Music, Maestros, and Musicians."
1983 Randall Kline founded Jazz in the City.
(SFC, 9/15/96, C13)
1983 The SF Jazz Festival began with 2 nights of concerts and a $27,000 budget.
1983 In San Francisco the 42-story office tower at 50 Fremont was completed.
1983 The Episcopal Community Services was founded when Mayor Diane Feinstein convinced Bishop William Swing to set up cots in the basement of Grace Cathedral in response to the homeless crises.
1983 SF Archbishop John Quinn folded the 125-year-old Catholic Monitor newspaper.
1983 Dr. Constance Wofsy (1943-1996) and Dr. Paul Volberding founded the AIDS program at San Francisco General Hospital.
(SFC, 6/5/96, C5)
1983 South Drive in San Francisco's Goldengate Park was renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
1983 Queen Elizabeth II visited SF and ate at Trader Vic's.
1983 The SF Giants baseball team began awarding fans the Croix de Candlestick badge for sitting through extra-inning night games at Candlestick.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.6)
1983 Jimmy Herman (1924-1998), labor leader, was appointed by SF Mayor Feinstein to the Port Commission.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.C3)
1983 A fringe pro-gun group, the White Panthers, attempted to recall SF Mayor Diane Feinstein.
1983 The non-profit Creativity Explored opened on Mission Street in SF to provide people with disabilities a facility to create art.
1983 A group of 25 SF artists were forced out of the Goodman Building, a ramshackle Victorian at 1117 Geary Blvd. to make way for redevelopment plans in the Western Addition. Goodman II later developed with $1.5 mil in city funds sparked by a $500,000 planning grant from SF Mayor Diane Feinstein.
1983 A court-ordered desegregation plan brought $37.6 million in state funding to SF schools for busing, teacher preparation and academic programs was begun. The program was rescinded in 1999 with an expiration date set for Dec 31, 2002.
1983 San Francisco police officer William Bigarini (d.1986), one of two former Beatnik patrol officers, was fired from the force after pleading no contest to a charge that he kept $50,000 from a check-cashing operation he was running at Woolworth's at Market and Powell.
1983 SF-based Bank of America acquired Charles Schwab securities brokerage firm.
1983 Mark Zuckerman opened his first Pasqua coffee bar in the SF financial district.
(SFEM, 8/1/99, p.8)
1983 The 412-foot Royal Yacht Britannia visited SF.
1983 San Francisco had 711 cabs in its taxi fleet.
1983 In San Francisco workers building the foundation of the Pansini Building at Pacific and Columbus found fossilized mammal bones that dated back to about 25,000 years BC.
1983 Russell Hartley, a dancer and designer with the SF Ballet, died. He had earlier (1940s) begun a private collection of records of artistic events that grew to become the SF Performing Arts Library (PALM).
1983 In San Francisco Dr. Robert N. Ross was shot twice in the head at the Potrero Hill Health Clinic by a paranoid on a rampage. Another doctor was also shot. The gunman retreated to India Basin and killed a former employee before he turned the gun on himself.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.E10)
1983 Charlie Sava, an immigrant born in the Balearic Islands of Portuguese parents, died while driving to work at Larsen pool on 19th Ave. He had coached San Francisco's Crystal Plunge swimming team and 1948 Olympic medalist Ann Curtis.
1984 Jan 19, In SF seven Municipal Railway workers were arrested by police who saw them skimming money from locked fare boxes at the Kirkland yard near Fisherman's Wharf. Estimates of losses for the year ran from $500,000 to $2 million.
1984 Jan 29, It was reported that SF Muni administrators were rushing to implement a $1.9 million security plan due to major losses from lax security at its maintenance yards.
1984 Feb 10, Kevin Andrew Collins (9) was abducted from a SF street corner. The child's picture was among the 1st to appear on milk cartons across the country. By 2007 Kevin's whereabouts were still unknown, and there were no new leads in the 23 year-old case. The strain of Kevin's disappearance and the search for their son eventually led Kevin's parents, David and Ann Collins, to divorce. Suspect Dan Therrien (51) died in 2008.
(www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t26.html)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.B6)(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A9)
1984 Apr 6, In SF Joan Baldwin (43) was killed and mutilated at an Earl Scheib paint shop at 555 Bryant St. In 2006 police arrested parolee Dwight Culton (57) based on DNA evidence. On may 4, 2011, Culton was convicted of the murder.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B4)(SFC, 5/5/11, p.C3)
1984 Apr 10, In San Francisco Mei "Linda" Leung (9) was kidnapped, raped and killed. Her body was found hanging over a pipe in the baxement of her apartment building at 765 O'Farrell St. In 2009 DNA evidence tied Richard Ramirez (b.1960), known as the "Night Stalker," to her murder. The evidence also indicated a possible 2nd attacker.
1984 Apr 16, In San Francisco nearly 200 people were arrested as some 1,000 demonstrators protested the noon speech by Henry Kissinger as the SF Hilton Hotel. "I believe that, within the next 12 to 15 months, there is every possibility that significant negotiations with the Soviet Union will start."
(www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/84/84-04kissinger-speech.html)(SSFC, 4/12/09, DB p.43)
1984 May 9, In San Francisco a 5-alarm fire engulfed the structures on Pier 30-32 along the Embarcadero at the foot of Bryant Street. Damages were estimated at $2.5 million.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1984 May 15, Thomas Albright (48), art critic for the SF Chronicle, died. He had just completed his book "Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980."
1984 Jun 3, In San Francisco the cable cars on California Street returned to service after nearly 20 months and $58.2 million in re-design and construction costs.
1984 Jun 12, In San Francisco the Huntington Falls at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park was again turned on after being rebuilt for $846,000 under a state grant. The 1893 falls had collapsed in 1962 and were turned off for 22 years.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, DB p.46)
1984 Jul 11, Charles Chitat Ng shot and killed Donald Guiletti in the Castro district.
1984 Jul 19, U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York won the Democratic nomination for vice president at the party's convention in San Francisco. Pasqua Coffee sold 16,000 cups of premium coffee from a pushcart at the Moscone Center.
(AP, 7/19/97)(SFEM, 8/1/99, p.8)
1984 Jun 24, In San Francisco the 12th annual Lesbian/Gay Freedom Parade drew an estimated 300,000 observers and participants.
1984 Jun 29, In San Francisco Hoffman's Grill on Market Street closed to make way for a 19-story office building.
1984 Aug 12, In San Francisco a driver on an apparent suicide mission smashed head-on into a packed cable car climbing the Hyde Street hill. The driver, an Iranian alien, was killed and at least 23 people were injured.
1984 Aug 31, San Francisco 19 plainclothes police officers raided Lord Jim's bar at 1500 Broadway and arrested the owner. Patrons and employees were detained for up to 90 minutes as police checked for warrants. Attorney William Barfield, one of those detained, later filed 5 of six damage claims totaling 375,000 against the city. Proposed settlements in 1988 included $63,500 for a dozen people in the first batch of lawsuits.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, DB p.50)(SSFC, 10/13/12, DB p.46)
1984 Sep 14, Janet Gaynor (77), the first actress to win an Academy Award (1929), died in San Francisco. She had never fully recovered from a car crash in 1982. Her 34 movies included "Seventh Heaven" and the first "A Star Is Born."
1984 Sep 24, San Francisco's Hard Rock Café opened at 1699 Van Ness Ave. This was the chain's third outpost in the US and the sixth in the world. In 2002 it moved to Pier 39.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.B1)(SFC, 9/22/18, p.C1)
1984 Nov 7, San Francisco's memorial to the Holocaust was formally dedicated in Lincoln Park. It included a sculpture by George Segal depicting a pile of white bronze corpses.
1984 Nov 13, In San Francisco the body of Masataka Kobayashi, chef and co-owner of the Masa's restaurant on Bush Street, was found dead at his Knob Hill apartment. His restaurant became an immediate sensation when it opened in 1983.
1984 Jonathan Borofsky, sculptor, began his work "Hammering Man." It was completed in 1985 and stands outside the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
1984 Adah Bakalinsky (60) authored the 1st edition of "Stairway Walks in San Francisco." In 2004 a 5th edition was published.
1984 In San Francisco the first new homes on Silverview Terrace opened. The attached houses on the former site of an orphanage atop Mount St. Joseph were priced from $123.5k to $145k.
1984 In San Francisco the 23-story building at 580 California St. was built.
(SSFC, 7/8/12, p.C2)
1984 The 285-room Marriott at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf was constructed.
1984 Jeremiah Tower opened his Stars restaurant on a desolate alley near the SF Civic Center. It closed in 1999 and was to reopen under new management. In 1986 Tower authored his cookbook "New American Classics."
(SFC, 9/29/99, Z1 p.1,4)
1984 San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum was founded by Malcolm Whyte and a few friends. Shows were mounted in varies spaces for three years until it found office space at 665 Third St. It moved a few times before relocating to 655 Mission St. in 2001. In 2015 its status was in limbo as its lease ended.
1984 John-Michael Olexy helped found the first federal gay and lesbian employees group in SF.
1984 In San Francisco Michael Denman (1929-2018) co-founded the Ramp restaurant on the waterfront at 855 Terry Francois St. with partner Joe Costello.
1984 In the Rathskeller scandal 2 SF police officers were fired for hiring a prostitute to perform at a police graduation party.
1984 Charlie Walker, head of Charlie Walker Trucking Inc., was convicted of grand theft, attempted extortion, perjury and tax evasion for bilking the City's minority contracting programs. He was paroled from Folsom Prison in 1987.
1984 SF installed a computerized fingerprint matching system.
1984 SF voters approved Prop. K, which prohibited towers from casting new shadows on city parks.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, p.B3)
1984 Giant pandas from China visited the SF Zoo.
1984 Brooks Walker, lumberman and inventor, died. He was the president of Shasta Forest Products and held over 250 patents and invented such items as smog-control devices, Venetian blinds and shock absorbers. The Brooks Walker Patent Center in San Francisco's New Main Library was later named in his honor.
1985 Jan 6, Dan White (1946-1985), former SF supervisor and the killer in 1978 of SF Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, was released from prison in Los Angeles.
1985 Jan 20, The SF 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16 in the Super Bowl played at Stanford Stadium. This capped the winningest season in national Football League history, with 18 wins and only one loss.
(www.superbowl.com/history/recaps/game/sbxix)(SSFC, 1/17/10, DB p.42)
1985 Jan 29, In SF the US Army trucked the historic Goldie Shack from 485 34th Ave. to the Presidio, where it will be stored and eventually reopened to the public. It was one of 5,610 shacks built in 1906-1907 to house earthquake refugees. The 34th Ave site will be used for a shopping mall.
1985 Feb 27, In San Francisco the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank said that 80 Bay Area residents have received blood since 1979 from donors who are know to have contracted AIDS.
1985 Feb 21, The first 3-day Macworld Expo opened at Brooks Hall in San Francisco.
1985 Jun 2, Leonard Lake committed suicide during a police interview in a South SF police station over his role in the tortures and killings at his home in Calaveras County.
1985 Feb, In SF Armen Baliantz (1921-2007) closed her Bali's restaurant at Pacific and Battery. The original had opened in the early 1950s on Sansome St.
1985 May 6, In SF an arson fire gutted the warehouse offices of Bill Graham causing over $1 million in damage and destroying an irreplaceable music archive.
1985 May 22, SF Mayor Diane Feinstein declared this day to be "James Bond Day" to honor the premier of "A View To Kill," a third of which was filmed in the city. Stars Roger Moore and Grace Jones were present along with the rock group Duran Duran, which sang the title song.
1985 Aug 1, It was reported that SF Mayor Diane Feinstein, currently on a visit to Ireland, has received a $10,000 gift from the SF 49ers, the largest gift to date to any city official. The gift came as the Feinstein administration was in touchy negotiations over renovations to Candlestick Park.
1985 Aug 18, In San Francisco George Bender (32) and brother Columbus Bender (33) stole over $65,000 in quarters from a Brink's offices at 970 Illinois Street. They were caught after carrying $3,400 in quarters from a Reno casino, saying they had made a killing at the MGM Grand Hotel. A year later they were sentenced to 4 years in jail.
1985 Aug 18, Peter and Barbara Pan were found in their blood-soaked bed in Lake Merced, a housing development in San Francisco. Both had been shot in the head. Peter Pan (66), an accountant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs. Pan (64) survived but would be an invalid for the rest of her life. Scrawled on the wall in lipstick were an inverted pentagram and the words "Jack the Knife." The murder was later attributed to Richard Ramirez, the "night stalker."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ramirez#Peter_and_Barbara_Pan)(SSFC, 8/22/10, DB p.42)
1985 Sep 11, VP George Bush visited San Francisco and gave the most extensive administration comments on the AIDS epidemic to date. He sympathized with parents afraid to send their children to school with victims of the disease.
1985 Oct 21, Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White committed suicide by carbon monoxide in his wife's car in the Excelsior. He killed Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, for which he served barely 5 years after a diminished capacity defense called the "Twinkie defense."
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A19)
1985 Nov 18, Hai Vo of San Francisco won $2 million in the California state lottery. He had purchased his winning ticket with state welfare benefits.
1985 Dec 4, In SF, Ca., Barbara Martz (28) was raped and stabbed to death when she walked in on a robbery at her Potrero Hill home. In 2007 DNA evidence linked John Davis, already in prison at Pelican Bay, to her murder. On Aug 27 Davis was convicted of murder. On Dec 17 he sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(SFC, 8/16/07, p.B3)(SFC, 8/28/07, p.B1)(SFC, 12/18/07, p.B3)
1985 Dec 6, The San Francisco Chronicle described a "super cocaine," known on the streets as crack, rock or base. It was being smoked in a pipe to produce an intense euphoria. Crack cocaine was first discovered in use in New York City.
(SSFC, 12/5/10, DB p.50)(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A5)
1985 Dec 14, The charred body of Wendy Cheek (24) was found near Crystal spring Reservoir. She had been beaten and stabbed. Robert Fairbank, released without bail on rape charges 4 days earlier, was convicted of the torture and murder of the SF State student and sentenced to death. The death sentence was upheld in 1997.
1985 The 26-foot high "Skygate" by Roger Barr (d.2000 at 79) was the San Francisco's first piece of public art financed by a corporation. The arch-shaped structure was erected near Pier 35 and was dedicated to longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer.
1985 Rodrigo Betancur of SF made his clay and copper sculpture "Movement," a part of his Movimento series.
1985 Frances Jaffer (d.1999 at 78), SF poet, published her book of poems "Alternate Feelings."
1985 The Magic Theater in SF produced "Scar" by Murray Mednick.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, DB p.43)
1985 Harre Demoro, a SF Chronicle transportation reporter, wrote a 2-volume history of the Key Route train system.
1985 Mary Mahoney (d.1997 at 82), SF nurse, wrote "Reflections on Mary's Help Hospital and Seton Medical Center." Mary's Help Hospital on Guerrero St. moved to what is now Seton Medical Center in Daly City in the 1960s.
1985 Robert J. Senkewicz published "Vigilantes in Gold Rush San Francisco."
1985 Helgi Tomasson succeeded Lew Christensen as artistic director of the SF Ballet. The season opened with a full-length "Nutcracker."
1985 Bill Griffith began a daily strip of "Zippy the Pinhead" for the SF Chronicle. He created the cartoon character "Zippy" in 1970 as an underground cartoon.
1985 Randy Hayes founded the Rainforest Action Network, a non-profit group in SF.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.B1)
1985 Ruth Brinker (1922-2011) founded Project Open Hand, a SF program to provide meals for people with AIDS. By 1988 the project was serving 500 meals a day. In 2005 she was honored with a Jefferson Award for community service.
(SFC, 7/23/05, p.B6)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.C9)
1985 In SF Cleve Jones and Mike Smith formed the Names Project to remember those who died of AIDS. The project went on to develop the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
(SFC, 9/15/96, C8)
1985 Willie Walker (1949-2004) helped found the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society in San Francisco.
1985 In SF the California College of Arts and Crafts opened a small campus on 17th St. It closed in May 1996 prior to the opening of a new site at 8th and Irwin.
1985 In SF the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, an incubator for startup businesses, was conceived. It opened in 1990 on Bryant St. with backing by PG&E. A new location was acquired in 1998 at 275 Fifth St.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.D1,2)
1985 In SF the first annual A La Carte A La Park festival in Golden Gate Park was held over Labor Day weekend.
1985 In SF Howard Junker founded ZYZZYVA, a journal of West Coast Writers and artists.
1985 The SF Giants lost 100 games this season.
(SFC, 9/18/17 p.A9)
1985 The SF Board of Supervisors declared SF a "city of refuge" for immigrants seeking asylum from El Salvador and Guatemala, whose right-wing governments were backed by the Reagan administration. It prohibited police from helping federal authorities deport undocumented workers. Mayor Diane Feinstein signed the legislation. In 1989 the (1984) resolution was made into an ordnance. In 1992 and 1993 the legislation was altered to allow law enforcement to report felony arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.
(SFEC, 8/15/99, p.A18)(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A27)(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.A14)
1985 In SF Proposition M limited downtown growth.
1985 In SF the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors approved the nomination of the Beach Chalet as an official city landmark.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.C4)
1985 The US Army transferred much of San Francisco's Fort Baker's open space to the National Park Service. The base would be formally decommissioned in 1998-99 and become part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
1985 The SF Chronicle created an electronic news archive.
1985 The square-rigged Balclutha, located at the SF Maritime National Historic Park, was declared a National Historic Landmark. The 3-masted ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1880s and appeared in the 1935 film classic "Mutiny on the Bounty."
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
1985 The SF Zoo opened a $7 million Primate Discovery Center. The atrium half was demolished in 1999 and a new structure was planned.
1985 Elsie St. in Bernal Heights was widened after property owners petitioned SF Mayor Diane Feinstein.
1985 In SF the South Park Cafe, a French bistro, opened under Bob Voorhees.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1985 SF General opened the nation's first full AIDS ward.
1985 In SF the BofA building at Kearny and California was sold to Walter Shorenstein for $660 million.
1985 The Bransten family of SF sold MJB coffee to Nestle.
1985 In SF the former site of St. Ignatius College Prep. on Stanyon St. was torn down. The gym was left and incorporated into the USF Koret Center.
(SFCM, 1/18/04, p.12)
1985 In SF Bill Graham's offices were fire bombed after he took out adds protesting Pres. Reagan's visit to Bitburg cemetery, where Nazis were buried.
1985 The Haas family took San Francisco-based Levi Strauss Co. private in a $1.7 billion leveraged buyout. Pres. Thomas Tusher was granted options in 1987 to buy 404,750 shares of stock at $3.50 per share. He sold them back to the company in 1996 at $265 per share.
(SFC,11/12/97, p.A10)(SSFC, 3/24/19, p.D5)
1985 The Swiss Nestle S.A. corporation bought the SF based Hills Bros. Coffee and MJB. The Bransten family of SF sold MJB coffee to Nestle.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A23)
1985 Antonio Sotomayor, SF muralist, died.
1986 Jan 7, San Francisco mayor Diane Feinstein appointed Frank Jordan (50) as the new police chief to succeed Con Murphy.
1986 Jan, Bob Kaufman, Beat poet, died in San Francisco at 60. He was born in New Orleans and had been called the "black American Rimbaud." His work includes "Cranial Guitar." Much of his work was preserved due to the diligence of his wife Eileen. Kaufman took a vow of silence after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and began speaking again after the Viet Nam war ended. His last year was spent under the care of his friend Lyn Wildey.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A15)(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A13)(I-witness)
1986 Mar 13, Ed Balatti (62), a San Francisco used car dealer, was arrested and charged with fencing everything from TVs to vintage wines. This climaxed an 11-month undercover investigation. Balatti had played as an end on the original 49-er football team in 1946-48.
1986 Apr 4, In SF a huge explosion destroyed 125 shops and artist studios around 1070 Revere Ave. At least 8 people were killed in the blast sparked by the manufacture of illegal fireworks.
1986 Apr 11, In San Francisco Jack Spiegelman (47) opened fire on accused killed Daniel David Morgan in a Hall of Justice courtroom. Morgan (39) was on trial for the 1983 murder of Spiegelman's daughter, Sarah (17), who was shot to death in Golden Gate Park.
1986 May, The SF-based Jack Jr. fishing trawler was rammed and sunk by a large hit-and-run vessel off of Point Reyes, Ca. 3 fishermen were killed.
1986 Jun 21, In SF Larry Harvey (1948-2018) and friends began the Burning Man festival with a torching of an 8-foot wooden figure on San Francisco's Baker Beach. It was to celebrate the summer solstice and exorcize the sadness of a lost love affair.
(SFC, 7/19/96, p.D1,12)(SSFC, 4/29/18, p.A8)
1986 Jun 25, San Francisco clothier Wilkes Bashford pleaded no contest to a felony charge and agreed to pay back $750,000 in rent to the city.
1986 Jul 24, Jerry A. Whitworth (47), retired US Navy warrant officer, was convicted in SF for his role in a Soviet spy ring. The government called it the most damaging espionage case since World War II. On August 28 Whitworth was given a 365-year sentence and ordered to pay $410,000.
(http://tinyurl.com/5r9fq8)(AP, 8/28/06)
1986 Aug 28, Jerry A. Whitworth, retired US Navy warrant officer, convicted for his role in a Soviet spy ring, was sentenced by a federal judge in San Francisco to 365 years in prison.
1986 Aug 29, The Beatles performed their last public concert. The San Francisco event at Candlestick Park drew some 24,000 people.
1986 Sep 9, In SF Henry Michael Pederson (46) was found stabbed to death at his Corbett Ave. apartment. Clifford Bolden, a recent San Quentin parolee, was arrested after 2 days. Bolden was tried and convicted in 1991. In 2002 the California Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A24)(SSFC, 7/17/05, p.A1)
1986 Sep 11, Davey Rosenberg, SF publicist, died. In 1964 he made the SF Condor Club famous after persuading waitress Carol Doda to dance wearing a topless bathing suit.
1986 Oct 30, US Treasury Sec. James Baker struck the first American Eagle silver coin at the US Mint's San Francisco Assay office. The coins went on sale on Nov 24. Silver at this time was selling for $5.58 an ounce.
1986 Nov 12, In San Francisco the WWII submarine Pampanito was dedicated as a national historic landmark at Pier 45.
1986 Peter Richards, an artist with the Exploratorium, built his Wave Organ, an acoustic sculpture at the jetty of the St. Francis Yacht Club. It was designed to amplify the sound of the tide lapping against pipes.
(SFEC, 10/5/98, p.D1)
1986 Nancy H. Bechtle was named to succeed Brayton Wilbur as the president of the SF Symphony. She assumed leadership in Dec 1987.
1986 Nancy Olmsted authored "Vanishing Waters," which described the historical waterfront of SF.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
1986 Willie McCovey (b.1938) of the San Francisco giants was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His 521 home runs put him in a tie with Ted Williams.
(SSFC, 1/9/11, DB p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_McCovey)
1986 The SF Chronicle started the Season of Sharing Fund, an extension of the Emergency Family Needs/Housing Assistance Fund administered by Northern California Grantmakers in 1983 and 1984. Walter A. Haas, a descendant of Levi Strauss, conceived of the SF Season of Sharing Fund in 1985. He presented the idea to Dick Thierot, publisher of the SF Chronicle and the fund began. Ira Hirschfeld, head of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, co-founded the Season of Sharing Fund with the SF Chronicle to meet the Bay Area's charitable needs. The effort raised $700,000 in its first year. In 2021 the fund dispersed more than $14 million.
(SFEC,11/30/97, Z1 p.7)(SFC,12/11/97, p.A23)(SSFC, 12/12/21, p.E2)
1986 Mayor Diane Feinstein removed Jo Daly (d. 1997 at 51) and 2 others from the police commission due to a political falling out. Ms. Daly was the first SF lesbian Police Commissioner.
1986 Mayor Feinstein appointed Louise Renne as the SF City Attorney.
1986 Voters approved Proposition 65, an anti-toxics law. It barred the release of chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects into any source of drinking water.
1986 Voters approved Prop. M, which limited new office development to 475,000 square-feet per year.
1986 SF raised cable car prices to $1.50.
1986 William G. Lazar (1918-1996), owner of Luxor Cab Co., retired.
1986 The Bank of America Center was sold to the Shorenstein Co. for $660 million.
1986 Chronicle Publ. purchased the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts.
1986 Valencia Rose, a gay cabaret, closed.
1986 Demetrio "Dami" Braceros was assigned to be the one-man gardening crew for Cayuga Playground.
1986 A city fire in the Bayview industrial park killed 8 people.
1987 Jan, San Francisco station KRON-TV became the first major market TV station in the US to air a condom commercial.
(www.tvacres.com/sex_contraceptives_firsts.htm)
1987 Feb 1, Sala Burton (b.1925), US Representative from California (1983-1987), died of colon cancer in Washington, DC. She served as president of the San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum from 1957 to 1959. Burton was succeeded by Nancy Pelosi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sala_Burton)
1987 Mar, John Frantz resigned as head of the library system and he was succeeded by Kenneth Dowlin. Dowlin resigned in 1997.
1987 Mar, In San Francisco Grimes Poznikov, aka the Automatic Human Jukebox, was ticketed by noise police and lost his street corner near Ghirardelli Square after 15 years of entertaining tourists. His horn was recorded as 13 decibels too high.
1987 May 5, In San Francisco the 21st Street Baths at 3244 21st St. turned off its steam room and shut down its adult movie theater in response to the AIDS epidemic. The building was razed in 1996.
(SSFC, 5/13/12, p.42)(http://tinyurl.com/77xoonh)
1987 May 24, An estimated quarter-million people crowded onto San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to celebrate the structure's 50th birthday a few days before the actual anniversary.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A21)(AP, 5/24/97)
1987 May 30, Turk Murphy (b.1915), San Francisco-based trombone player and jazz singer, died of bone cancer in San Francisco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk_Murphy)(SSFC, 1/27/19, p.A2)
1987 Jun, City Tow was awarded a 5-year contract to tow cars. The contract was extended to 1999 and rates have stayed constant. The average payout for a towed car was $146.25 in 1997. With outstanding tickets it could take as many as 3 stops to retrieve a towed car.
1987 Aug 10, In San Francisco 4 women began training and took the oath of office as rookie firefighters. They were the first women in the history of the department with roots to 1850.
1987 Sep 16, Pope John Paul II visited San Francisco and drew the largest protests of his US tour as homosexuals, feminists and Jews protested outside Mission Dolores Basilica.
1987 Sep 18, In San Francisco Pope John Paul II ended his 21-hour visit to the city by celebrating Mass at Candlestick Park before some 70,000 people.
1987 Oct 7, In San Francisco eleven 49ers, including Joe Montana and Dwight Clark, went back to work in the biggest breach of the 17-day-old NFL strike. Of nearly 1,600 players on strike, only 145 have gone back to work.
1987 Oct 11, Thousands of homosexual rights activists marched through Washington [DC] to demand protection from discrimination and more federal money for AIDS research and treatment. The AIDS Memorial Quilt had its inaugural presentation. In 2000 Cleve Jones and Jeff Dawson authored "Stitching a Revolution, The making of an AIDS Activist."
(AP, 10/11/97)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.5)
1987 Oct 29, Virginia Lowery (56) was killed in her home at 966 Brussels in the Excelsior. In 1998 DNA evidence led police to Robert Nawi, a local laborer with an extensive criminal record. Nawi (58) was convicted in 2001. Nawi had been hired by husband and son Bill and David Lowery.
1987 Nov 29, Joe Montana of 49ers completed an NFL record 22 consecutive passes.
(http://tinyurl.com/pcwba9n)
1987 Dec, SF activists formed the SF Coalition on Homelessness.
1987 Randy Shilts, a San Francisco-based writer, authored "The Band Played On," in which he chronicled the early days of AIDS. Shilts had learned in 1985 that he had AIDS, but only made it public in 1993.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Band_Played_On)(SSFC, 2/11/18, DB p.50)
1987 In San Francisco Bill Weber painted a jazz mural at the North Beach corner of Columbus and Grant. He began a restoration in 2004.
1987 In SF Kenneth R. Dixon (1945-1994) became artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros.
1987 In San Francisco the gay-oriented Stud bar opened at Ninth and Harrison streets. It was forced to close in 2020 amidst loss of revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
1987 In San Francisco ground was broken at the former site of the Gartland Apartments at Valencia and 16th for low-income housing.
1987 In San Francisco "Food of Southern Italy" by chef Carlo Middione won the Tastemaker Award in the International Cookbook category. His restaurants are Vivande Porte Via at 2125 Fillmore and Vivande Ristorante at 670 Golden Gate.
(SFEM, 7/21/96, p.16)
1987 Chendra and Shanti, one-horned rhinos, were presented as a gift to the SF Zoo from Prine Gyanendra of Nepal. They came from the Royal Chitwan National park, one of only 3 places where the species survives in the wild.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.B1)
1987 In San Francisco the Omega Boys Club was founded by Joseph Marshall Jr., a public school teacher, and Jack Jacqua, a guidance counselor.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.C1)(SFC,12/11/97, p.A25)
1987 The KQED radio program "Forum" began with Kevin Pursglove as the founding host. He stressed politics on the program until 1993 when Michael Krasny, a literature professor at SF State Univ., became moderator and expanded the subject matter to a broad range of contemporary issues. Pursglove went on to become the press secretary to San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer.
(SFC,10/21/97, p.E1,3)
1987 Mary Risley, owner of Tante Marie's Cooking School, founded Food Runners, a volunteer organization to pick up and deliver excess food to homeless shelters in SF.
1987 In San Francisco the Social Venture Network was founded. Members focused on investing in "socially responsible" companies.
(WSJ, 2/4/00, p.A1)
1987 In San Francisco Art Agnos was elected mayor over John Molinari by a margin of 70-30.
1987 In San Francisco Judge Marilyn Hall Patel imposed a consent decree to control discrimination in the Fire Department.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A1)
1987 San Francisco banned new restaurants on Noe Valley's 24th Street because residents felt they were losing local shops to eateries that drove up rents and caused traffic jams. In 2010 the city poised to undo the rule as some 15 storefronts stood empty on the street.
1987 A.W. Clausen, head of the Bank of America, sold Charles Schwab securities firm and refocused on the domestic market.
1987 The real estate firm Grubb & Ellis was acquired by Fox & Carskadon.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.B2)
1988 Jan 8, In San Francisco Art Agnos was inaugurated as the city's 39th mayor. He promised not to rest as long as a single homeless person has to make a bed on the streets of the city.
1988 Jun 9, Cyril Magnin (88), San Francisco's "merchant prince," died of cardiac failure.
1988 Jan 19, In downtown San Francisco a runaway commuter bus plowed through a crowd at Mission and Fremont killing at least 3 people and injuring 15.
1988 Feb 3, Robert Duncan, American poet, died. He and his partner Jess Collins (d.2004) along with Harry Jacobus founded the King Ubu Gallery in SF in 1953.
(www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/duncan/life.htm)(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A19)
1988 Feb 10, A 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down the Army's ban on homosexuals, saying gays were entitled to the same protection against discrimination as racial minorities. The ruling was later set aside by the full appeals court.
1988 Mar 8, In San Francisco at least 3 people made off with more than half a million dollars after the loot spilled from a Loomis Armored Inc. truck onto Third Street. An additional $1.3 million was left on the street. Louis A Lopez of Daly City picked up two bundles containing $40,100 and took them to the Loomis offices.
1988 Apr 18, San Francisco journalist Stanton Delaplane (80) died at his home on Telegraph Hill. The SF Chronicle Pulitzer Prize-winner was credited with introducing Irish Coffee to the city at the Buena Vista Cafe.
(SSFC, 4/14/13, p.46)
1988 May 26, In San Francisco Lu Hurley's $20 helicopter rides were grounded at Pier 43.
1988 Jun 2, San Francisco's St. Ignatius College Preparatory School announced plans to accept young women beginning in the Fall of 1999.
1988 Jul 10, Lester Garnier (30), an off-duty SF vice cop, was shot and killed in a Walnut Creek, Ca., parking lot. His murder remained unsolved and a new investigation was begun in 1998. Sgt. Robert Guinan allegedly spread rumors that Inspector Vince Repetto was responsible. Repetto sued the police dept. In 2008 Walnut creek police identified Catherine Kuntz (44) of Florida as a prime suspect in the murder. Kuntz was deported to Scotland in Dec 2008.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A17)(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A1)(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A11)
1988 Sep, In San Francisco Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, suffered five fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen from tactical squad officer Francis Achim during a poitical demonstration. Material in Achim's personnel file was removed just after the incident. In 1989 Deputy Chief John J. Jordan was charged with improperly modifying material in the file.
1988 Oct 29, Walter Mullins (29) was gunned down in Hunters Point in front of some 100 witnesses at Oakdale and Baldwin Ct. In 1997 Bernard Temple (29) was put on trial for the murder and was also charged for the 6/4/91 murder of Jacky Williams (31) at H&K Liquors and Deli. Temple was found not guilty in a 1997 trial.
(SFC, 10/1/97, p.A16)(SFC,11/6/97, p.A6)
1988 Nov 30, San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, on the eve of World AIDS Day, asked city residents to light candles in their windows to recognize those who were sick or had already succumbed to the disease.
(SFC, 12/1/14, p.C1)
1988 Dec 4, John Maher, ex-con and co-founder of Delancey Street in San Francisco, died in New York. Grover Sales (d.2004) authored a biography of John Maher.
(SFC, 2/25/04, p.A19)(www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3917524.html)
1988 Dec 16, Sylvester James (b.1947), disco superstar, died in San Francisco of AIDS-related causes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_%28singer%29)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.E1)
1988 Lotfi Mansouri became the general director of the San Francisco Opera. He succeeded Terence A. McEwen.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.47)(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A11)
1988 Anita Monga began programming the films for San Francisco's Castro Theater, owned by Blumenfeld Enterprises.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A8)
1988 In San Francisco the open air Stonestown Shopping Center was enclosed.
1988 The square-rigged Balclutha was moved to San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier.
1988 In San Francisco Terry Brisbane took over the Cornerstone Independent, a nondenominational church on Valencia St. Albert Brisbane had bought the building in 1963.
1988 In San Francisco The USF Center for the Pacific Rim was founded.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, BR p.5)
1988 The San Francisco Shopping Center at 865 Market St. opened.
1988 In San Francisco a law was passed to allow artists to live in old industrial buildings.
1988 In San Francisco 78% of the voters approved a ballot measure for a new library.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.22)
1988 San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos appointed Frank Quinn (1923-1996) to the Fire Commission. Quinn pushed for integration and new equipment. Quinn was also the first president of the SF Human Rights Commission. Quinn also wrote a book about Indian culture: "Indians of California, Past and Present."
1988 The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency gave the SF Museum of Modern Art land for a new home on Third Street.
1988 San Francisco raised cable car prices to $2.00.
1988 San Francisco accepted an offer by Gannett Outdoor Advertising for 1,000 free bus shelters with 15 years of maintenance in exchange for the right to place advertising on the sides. Lewis Lillian (1935-2007), political figure and advertising executive, played a key roll in the deal.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.C7)
1988 Connie "Chip" Armstrong Jr., former firefighter, acquired Hamilton Taft & Co., a SF payroll tax firm, after he discovered that company officials had diverted payroll tax money to themselves. He filed suit, acquired the company and proceeded to embezzle $85 million. The company went bankrupt in 1991 and he was convicted in 1997.
1988 In San Francisco Chronicle Publ. Purchased Motor Books and later renamed it MBI.
1988 In San Francisco the Academy of Art College was rejected in its bid for accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), due to the lack of full-time, permanent faculty.
1988 Robert Corrigan, former chancellor of the Univ. of Massachusetts, became the 12th president at SF State Univ.
1988 In San Francisco a 7-bed hospice care program began at Laguna Honda. In 1990 it expanded to 15 beds and added an AIDS ward.
1988 In San Francisco Chu Fung opened the Candlestick RV Park.
1988-1991 The Palace Hotel went dark for a 3-year renovation.
1989 Jan 13, There was a sit-in at SF General Hosp. by ACT-UP to call attention to the difficulty of obtaining foscarnet, a drug to stabilize CMV retinitis, a common AIDS illness that could lead to blindness.
1989 Jan 22, In Super Bowl XXXIII, the San Francisco 49ers came from behind to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 20-to-16 in Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium.
1989 Apr 8, In San Francisco Roshawn Johnson (20) and Charles Hughes (18), described as innocent bystanders, were slain in a gang gun battle at Newcomb Ave and Mansell in Hunters Point. In 1992 Caramad Conley was locked up for 2 life terms. In 2010 a SF Superior court judge ruled that Conley was denied a fair trial after the star witness, Clifford Polk, lied on the stand about whether he was being paid to testify. Earl Sanders, later SF police chief, acknowledged in 2010 that that he had made payments to Polk. In 2011 Conley was freed. In 2014 Conley was poised to get $3.5 million from SF for being wrongfully convicted.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A23)(SFC, 12/15/10, p.A1)(SFC, 1/12/11, p.C3)(SFC, 7/14/14, p.C1)
1989 May 1, Sebastian Rico, accountant at the Juvenile Probation Dept., began embezzling city funds. He wrote more than 1,200 checks to himself from this time to Aug, 1996, for a total of at least $732,000.
(SFC, 1/1/96, p.A1,13)
1989 May 2, California announced that San Jose had passed San Francisco in population. In 2003 the Census Bureau decided to rank San Jose as the seat of the Bay Area.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 7/18/03, p.A1)
1989 Jun 4, In San Francisco thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate to protest the slaughter of students and other citizens at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In Chinese Tiananmen translates as Gate of Heavenly Peace.
1989 Jul 14, In San Francisco promoters staged a four-round exhibition match between legendary boxer Roberto Duran (38) and Irishman Pat Lawlor (25) of the Sunset District before 4,787 fans at the Civic Auditorium.
1989 Aug 19, In San Francisco Roderick "Cooley" Shannon (18) was beaten and shot to death at Leland and Rutland streets. Officers Earl Sanders and Napoleon Hendrix determined that J.J. Tennison and Anton Goff did the killing and withheld evidence in the case. Lovinsky Ricard later confessed to the murder, but refused to testify. Goff and Tennison were convicted in Oct, 1990. In 2003 a federal judge threw out the conviction and Scheduled Goff and Tennison for release. In 2004 Tennison sued SF, Earl Sanders and others for 13 years of wrongful imprisonment. In 2009 SF officials tentatively agreed to pay $4.6 million to Tennison and $2.9 million to Goff.
(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.A13)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/09, p.C2)
1989 Sep 7, A robbery by 2 bandits took place at the BofA headquarters. A Brink's guard was killed and another wounded along with a passer-by. The bandits escaped on mountain bikes with undisclosed sums that were later believed to be bearer bonds.
1989 Oct 1, The San Francisco Health Department reported the first two documented cases in which men became infected with the AIDS virus through oral sex.
(http://ww5.aegis.org/news/ap/1990/AP901005.html)
1989 Oct 9, The San Francisco Giants won the National League championship by defeating the Chicago Cubs.
1989 Oct 17, The 7.1 Loma Prieta [Watsonville] hit the Bay Area minutes before the start of a World Series game at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. 67 people died and 3,000 were injured. It caused $7 billion worth of damage. The Spreckels Temple of Music in Golden Gate Park was damaged and later restored. 28,000 structures were damaged and several freeways ruined. 42 people died on the Cypress Freeway. At the train station in SF Dr. Margaret McChesney commandeered a tour bus to take frightened passengers home and navigated the driver safely through barricades of cars and gangs of marauding youths on 3rd St. In 1999 new measuring methods changed the magnitude to 6.9.
(SFC, 4/15/96,A-6)(SFC, 10/17/96, A15)(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A13)(AP, 10/17/97)(AR,9/12/98)(HN, 10/17/98)(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A21)
1989 Oct 17, The SF Marriott Marquis Hotel opened at 780 Mission St. The Olympia & York Real Estate Dev. Co. opened the 1,500 room Marriott, which was quickly dubbed the Jukebox Marriott for its garish design by Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall.
(SF E&C, 1/15/1995, SFE Mag. p.26)(SFC, 1/4/99, p.E3)(SSFC, 8/17/14, p.E2)
1989 Oct 27, The third game of the World Series, delayed by the Northern California earthquake, was played at Candlestick Park. The Oakland A's defeated the SF Giants, 13-7.
1989 Oct 28, The Oakland A's won the earthquake-interrupted World Series, completing a four-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants.
1989 Nov 13, In San Francisco Deputy Police Chief John Jordan (55), the brother of Police Chief Frank Jordan, filed for disability retirement after he was was forced to retire under charges of polie misconduct.
(SSFC, 11/9/14, p.42)
1989 Nov 28, In San Francisco a 16-story crane snapped apart during the morning rush hour. It plunged to the pavement at the 20-story Federal Home Loan Bank Board building at California and Kearny. 4 workers were killed and a bus driver was crushed. 20 others were injured.
1989 Nov, SF voters approved a bond measure of $76 million to make City Hall safe shortly after the earthquake. Cost overruns in 1997 were estimated reach $30-80 million.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A8)(SFC,10/20/97, p.A1)
1989 Nov, SF Voters approved Prop. B which imposed a new half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects. This created the SF County Transportation Authority.
1989 Nov, A ballot was passed to demolish the Embarcadero Freeway.
(SFC, 5/19/96,Mag, p.11)
1989 Dec, In San Francisco the Coalition on Homelessness produced its first newsletter. In 1990 a special edition was created for a Phil Collins concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater, but concertgoers were not much interested. Copies were returned to SF where homeless men began selling them on the street giving birth to the modern Street Sheet.
1989 Thomas Chinn (d.1997 at 88) published "Bridging the Pacific, San Francisco Chinatown and Its People," a history of Chinatown.
1989 Gladys Cox Hansen co-authored "Denial of Disaster, The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire in 1906."
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)
1989 In San Francisco the music group "Those Darn Accordions" formed and played their first gig at the Paradise Lounge. The group included Clyde Forsman (1915-2009), who quickly gained notoriety for his full body tattoos.
(SFC, 6/12/09, p.B6)(www.thosedarnaccordions.com/clyde.php)
1989 Renovation for damage to the SF City Hall totaled $181 million.
1989 In San Francisco a 6-story office building at 200 California was built by Home Savings of America and featured a clock tower at the top. Plans in 2014 called for the removal of the clock tower and recoloring the red sandstone to two shades of beige.
1989 The residential highrise Rincon Towers went up at 101 Spear St.
(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.B9)
1989 The 3 bedroom "Black House" on Potrero Hill was designed by architect Daniel Solomon of UC Berkeley. It went on sale in 1999 for $1.5 million.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.W8)
1989 Cafe Bastille opened at 22 Belden Place between Bush and Pine near Kearny.
1989 The Lone Star Saloon opened in SF and became a mecca for a gay subculture that came to known as "bears." The annual Harrison Street Fair, begun in 2003, celebrated the gay bears aesthetic.
1989 Roger Howell and Steve Sparks of England opened their "The Mad Dog In Fog" English pub on Haight St. near Fillmore. Sparks sold the operation in 2002.
1989 The Marsh began in SF as a Monday night series at the Hotel Utah. It initiated full theater productions in the Mission District in 1990 and took ownership of a 12,000-square-foot building at 1062 Valencia in 1996.
1989 The USF Koret Center, a workout structure known as Cardio Alley, was built on Stanyon St. at the former site of St. Ignatius College Prep.
1989 St. Ignatius High School went coed.
(SFCM, 2/6/05, p.3)
1989 Pat Christen was named executive director of the SF AIDS Foundation. Her salary in 1999 reached $175,000 as she oversaw 100 employees, 450 volunteers and an annual budget of $19 million.
(SFC, 9/6/99, p.A17,21)
1989 Russell Scott (d.1999) began his Freedom From Alcohol and Drugs program. By 1999 the operation had expanded to 15 group homes.
1989 The Asian Business League presented Jess T. Esteva (1904-1997), founder of the SF Filipino newspaper the Mabuhay Republic, a distinguished leadership award.
1989 Friday Night Skate was started when members of the Golden Gate Park Skate Patrol began taking skating tours of the city after their weekly meetings.
1989 George Seifert replaced Bill Walsh as head coach of the SF 49ers.
1989 Michael Slade, SF forensic toxicologist, reported to Medical Examiner Boyd Stephens that employees were taking gifts from funeral homes. He was laid off in 1993.
1989 Ascend Communications was founded.
(WSJ, 9/10/96, p.A16)
1989 Bank of America declared its first dividend since 1985 and expanded retail operations into Nevada and Washington. It became the first major California bank to open all branches on Saturdays.
1989 Questar of New Zealand agreed to pay $200,000 a year for eight years to the California Academy of Sciences as part of a deal to develop a new aquarium at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.
1989 Jay DeFeo, SF artist, died. Her work "The Rose" weighed a ton and in 1965 was moved out of a house and later to the SF Art Institute where it languished for 26 years.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, DB p.8)
1989 3,000 people had died of AIDS by this year in SF.
1989-1997 Angelo Alioto serve on the Board of Supervisors. In 1997 she published her book "Straight to the Heart."
1990 Jan 8, In San Francisco Doris Ward (1932-2018) was worn in as president of the board of Supervisors, becoming the first African-American to serve in that position.
1990 Jan 22, SF Giant's first baseman Will Clark became the baseball's highest paid player as he signed a 4-year contract for $15 million.
1990 Jan 28, The San Francisco 49ers routed the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in the 24th Super Bowl.
1990 Feb 15, The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Commission decided that the gigantic concrete cross atop Mount Davidson will remain a city-owned landmark, but that it should never be lit again.
1990 Mar 8, In San Francisco Giovanni Torrocha (30), part owner of the Grant and Green Bar and the Condor nightclub shot and killed Francesco Tarsitano (42), a chef and former maitre d' of Martinelli's, in the vengeful climax of a love triangle.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.42)
1990 Feb 28, In San Francisco protesters lit the street outside the St. Francis Hotel with a flaming torch parade and bonfire as part of demonstrations against a visit by Pres. George H.W. Bush.
1990 Mar 30, Harry Bridges (b.1901), Australian-born SF labor activist, died.
1990 Apr 10, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors approved reducing the city's curfew laws. Minors under 14 will be banned from public places between midnight and 5am. The old law included minors under 18 from 11pm to 6am.
1990 Apr 16, In San Francisco some 950 shops and restaurants in Chinatown shut down in protest over Mayor Art Agnos' proposal to demolish the embarcadero Freeway.
1990 Apr 22, Millions of Americans joined in a worldwide 20th anniversary celebration of the first Earth Day. Harriett Burgess (d.2010 at 73) founded the San Francisco based American Land Conservatory to shelter land from development in all parts of the country.
(AP, 4/22/00)(SFC, 5/8/10, p.C4)
1990 Jun 30, Mary Cobb (d.1998) allegedly witnessed Maurice Caldwell pump shotgun blasts into a car that resulted in one death and one serious injury at the Alemany Housing Project. The mother of 2 children later reported the killing to investigating police and identified Caldwell who was convicted and sentenced to 34 years in prison. Mary Cobb died of lupus as age 37. In 2010 a judge ordered the conviction of Caldwell set aside following a signed declaration by Maritte Funches that he and accomplice Henry Martin were responsible. In 2011 Caldwell was released after prosecutors learned that evidence in the case had been destroyed. In 2012 Caldwell filed a federal civil rights suit against San Francisco. In 2021 SF supervisors approved an $8 million settlement with Caldwell (54), who had spent 20 years in state prison.
(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A1)(SFC, 3/26/11, p.C1)(SFC, 9/29/21, p.C5)
1990 Sep 18, The SF Giants cited rising player salaries and sought to raise ticket prices for a 3rd year in a row. Upper reserved seats at Candlestick would jump from $7 to $8 if approved by the SF Recreation and park Dept.
1990 Nov, SF voters approved Proposition H, which placed a moratorium on waterfront development until a new plan for growth is drawn up.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A23)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
1990 Kezar Stadium in San Francisco's Goldengate Park was reconstructed as a multisport facility.
1990 Josie's Cabaret and Juice Joint, a gay comedy club, opened in the Castro district of San Francisco. It was scheduled to close Jan 2, 1999.
1990 The 221-room Tuscan Inn at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf was constructed.
1990 Susan Claymon (d.2000 at age 61) co-founded Breast Cancer Action in SF and helped organize the first advocacy meetings in 1991.
1990 Richard and Rhoda Goldman, SF philanthropists, founded the Goldman Prize to provide cash awards for grass-roots environmentalist activity in 7 major geographic regions.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A1)(www.goldmanprize.org/)(SFC, 4/22/02, p.A3)
1990 Doug Tompkins founded the Foundation for Deep Ecology in SF after his wife eased him out of the fashion firm, Esprit Corp.
1990 The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) was founded by Leroy Aarons (d.2004) and 6 other journalists in San Francisco.
1990 San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos called for the embarcadero Freeway to be removed.
1990 San Francisco's South of Market was rezoned in the hopes that private development would infill the empty, deserted factories.
1990 San Francisco police halted the Burning Man torching ceremony on Baker Beach. Larry Harvey the founder of the event then hooked up with the SF Cacophony Society, a gang of fun-loving provocateurs, and moved the fiery scene to Black Rock Desert, Nv.
(SFC, 7/19/96, p.D1,12)
1990 The SF medical examiner's office was investigated by a Grand Jury on reports of illegal gifts.
1990 In San Francisco the Mount Zion Medical Center merged with UCSF.
1990 A.W. Clausen, head of the SF-based Bank of America, retired and was succeeded by Richard Rosenberg. He proceeded to acquire banks in Oregon and Arizona.
1990 The Ritz-Carlton opened on Stockton St., SF., in the former western headquarters of Metropolitan Life Insurance.
1990 The Southern Pacific Railroad spun off its oil and gas exploration business to form Santa Fe Energy Resources in Houston. Its 1995 revenues were $442 mil. Land holdings were spun off to form Catellus, the San Francisco real estate development company which owns about 855,000 acres, mostly in Ca., including the 313-acre Mission Bay in SF.
1990 Danielle Steele, SF-based fiction writer, paid between $5-6 million for the 15,000-sq.-foot Spreckels estate.
1990 Danny Phat Vong, a leader of the SF Chinatown youth gang Wah Ching, was slain. A month later a retaliatory attack outside the Purple Onion in North Beach wounded 6 and killed a member of the Wo Hop To triad, a Hong Kong based crime syndicate. The clash occurred as Peter Chong, the Wo Hop To's leader in California, tried to build a unified syndicate out of disparate Northern California gang organizations.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A20)
1991 Jan 15, In San Francisco thousands of anti-war demonstrators laid siege to the city, shutting down the Federal Building, closing the Bay Bridge for nearly two hours and ending the day with a violent, late-night rampage through the downtown area.
1991 Jan 17, San Francisco police arrested 991 people protesting the US war with Iraq.
1991 Feb 27, San Francisco porn businessman Jim Mitchell shot and killed his brother Artie Mitchell (45) at Artie's home in Corte Madera. The brothers had produced pornographic films and operated a number of pornographic theaters that included the O'Farrell Theater in SF. Mitchell was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and on April 24, 1992, was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1997.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A1,15)(SSFC, 4/23/17, DB p.50)
1991 Feb 27, In San Francisco Karen Wong (39) was found raped and killed in her flat in the 400 block of 47th Ave. In 2008 DNA evidence identified Otis Hughes (56), a paroled burglar, as the murderer. In 2013 Hughes faced a jury trial.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.B2)(SFC, 12/13/13, p.C2)(SFC, 12/13/13, p.C2)
1991 Feb 27, In San Francisco wrecking balls began demolishing the Embarcadero Freeway.
1991 Feb, Demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway began.
1991 Mar, Connie "Chip" Armstrong Jr., former firefighter, led Hamilton Taft & Co., a SF payroll tax firm, into bankruptcy after embezzling $85 million. He was convicted in 1997.
1991 Jun 4, Jacky Williams (31) at H&K Liquors and Deli in Hunters Point was murdered. In 1997 Bernard Temple (29) was charged for the murder. In 1997 Temple was put on trial for the 1988 murder Walter Mullins. Temple was found not guilty in a 1997 trial.
1991 Jun 7, A US District Court judge rejected a request by San Francisco TV station KQED for permission to televise the execution of convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris.
1991 Nov, Michael Acosta (20) was shot and killed by off-duty police officer Daniel Yawczak after an apparent purse snatching in Pacific Heights. Jurors later awarded 259,000 to the parents of Acosta. US District Judge Samuel Conti later overturned the verdict and dismissed the suit. On 5/17 a US Court of Appeals reversed Conti's judgement and reinstated the award.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-15)
1991 Dec 10, In San Francisco Frank Jordan was elected over Art Agnos by a margin of 52%-48%. Agnos fared poorly with Asian voters following his support the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway. Jordan had built a huge margin among absentee voters, who accounted for one-third of the vote.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A19)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)(SSFC, 12/11/16, DB p.50)
1991 Dec 26, Chris Cohan (b.1950) purchased a 25% stake in the San Francisco Warriors basketball team for almost $21 million. In 1994 he paid $119 million for full ownership.
1991 Patrick McGrew (d.2013 at age 71), architectural preservationist, authored "Landmarks of San Francisco." At this time the city had 198 landmark buildings. By 2013 there were 264.
1991 "El Dorado" by John Adams had its world premier by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by the composer.
1991 The epic play "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner premiered at the Eureka Theater. It was about AIDS, morality and spirituality.
1991 Valery Gergiev made his US opera conducting debut the SF Opera production of "War and Peace."
1991 In San Francisco gay activist Denis Peron (1946-2018) founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, the first public cannabis dispensary in the US. The club was closed by a SF Superior Court judge in 1998.
1991 The San Francisco police department built a $3.6 million state-of-the-art firing range at lake Merced costing 500% more than original spending estimates. The range with a chalet-like headquarters was temporarily unusable due to some design flaws.
1991 The 313-room Hyatt at Fisherman's Wharf was constructed.
1991 In San Francisco the 3-story, block-long building at 185 Berry St. was designed by architect Jorge de Quesada. In 2008 a stories were added on top.
1991 The Epiphany Center was founded as a federally funded pilot project as a family-centered program for social services.
1991 The City Science project was founded at UCSF with $6 million in federal grants to improve math and science training for city teachers.
1991 The Ark of Refuge was founded by Rev. Yvette Flunder as a charitable ministry for people with AIDS.
1991 The private SF Museum was founded under the driving force of Gladys Hansen, the retired city archivist. It was housed on 2,000 sq ft on the 3rd level of the Cannery at Fisherman's Wharf. In 1997 Mayor Willie Brown proposed a public Museum of San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum was forced to close in 2000 when the Cannery required the space for revenue.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A19,23)(SFC,10/27/97, p.A15)(SFC, 2/17/00, p.A17)
1991 The Beach Chalet was closed for code violations.
1991 In San Francisco Mimi Silbert opened the Delancey Street Restaurant as the centerpiece of her live-in drug rehabilitation center.
(SSFC, 2/2/14, p.G3)
1991 Jean Jacobs (d.1999 at 85) spearheaded the passage of Prop J which made SF the 1st city in the nation to guarantee a portion of its budget for children. A % of property taxes was dedicated to children's services for 10 years.
1991 Voters approved an amendment to the City Charter for a Children's Fund to support youth organizations.
1991 The Youth Law Center sued over poor conditions at the YGC and the city spent more than $5 mil on repairs.
1991 Jelani House opened as a residential treatment program to help low income or homeless women and children.
1991 The SF Garden Project began as a program for inmates of the County Jail to learn gardening skills while incarcerated. Upon release they were to be offered a job tilling the soil at a one-acre plot in the Bayview District.
1991 HUD took over the operation of the Geneva Towers. It was the first time the agency ever foreclosed on a property due to unsafe living conditions.
1991 SF taxi fares were raised to $1.70 for flag drop, waiting time and mileage fees.
1991 The Southern Pacific Railroad sold the Peninsula line to the Joint Powers Authority, the counties of San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo, for $230 million.
1991 Connie Norman (1949-1996), transsexual AIDS activist, debuted the Connie Norman Show on AM radio on AIDS related issues.
1991 Bill Graham died in a helicopter crash along with his girlfriend, Melissa Gold and pilot, Steve Kahn. A memorial concert in GG Park drew some 300,000 people with music by the Grateful Dead; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; John Fogerty; Bobby McFerrin; and Robin Williams.
1991-1994 Bank of America extended full-service branches into supermarkets throughout California.
1991-1997 Allen S. Lucas, a bookkeeper for the Sidney Mobell jewelry company in SF, embezzled $457,627 to pay his credit card bills.
1992 Jan 22, The San Francisco Port Commission voted unanimously to install some 300 palm trees along the Embarcadero roadway.
1992 Feb 19, In San Francisco porn entrepreneur Jim Mitchell (48) was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the Feb 27, 1991, rifle slaying of his brother Artie Mitchell at Artie's home in Corte Madera.
1992 Feb 27, Former Sen. S.I. Hayakawa died in San Francisco at age 85.
1992 Feb 29, In San Francisco Victor Diep, hired by Thaun Wu, attempted to kill Phuoc Huynh, a gambling acquaintance. Wu had taken out insurance on Huynh.
1992 Apr 24, In San Francisco Jim Mitchell (48) was sentenced to 6 years in prison for killing his brother Artie Mitchell on Feb 27, 1991. He was released on parole in 1997.
1992 Apr 29- 1992 May1, After the Rodney King verdict a riot occurred in San Francisco and some 2,000 people were arrested.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A8)
1992 May 15, San Francisco Police chief Richard Hongisto was fired over his role in the seizure of the gay SF Bay Times newspapers from newsstands.
1992 May 19, In San Francisco, Vice President Dan Quayle denounced what he called the "poverty of values" in America's inner cities, and criticized the T.V. show "Murphy Brown" for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock.
(DT internet 5/19/97)
1992 May, The Moscone Center expanded its space to 600,000 sq-feet.
1992 Aug 26, Arthur Leigh Allen (b.1933) of Vallejo, a convicted child molester and alleged Zodiac killer, died in Vallejo, Ca. In 1985 Robert Graysmith authored "Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with the pseudonym of "Robert Starr." Graysmith authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In 2009 lawyer Robert Tarbox said a merchant seaman had identified himself as the Zodiac killer as a walk-in client at his SF Montgomery Street office in the early 1970s.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SSFC, 7/19/09, p.A18)
1992 Sep 2, Michael Nguyen (9) was murdered in San Francisco. Two men were later found guilty of murdering the boy for profit based on insurance claims.
1992 Sep 25, Some four dozen San Francisco bicycle riders began to ride up Market Street in a group called "Commute Clot." It grew to become Critical Mass bike ride held on the last Friday of each month.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A13)(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A25)(SFC, 9/28/07, p.A1)
1992 Sep, Bulgari's, a fine Italian jeweler, opened their 10th American store at 237 Post St.
(SFEM,7/28/96, p.32)
1992 Oct 22, Police officer Robert Johnson, while responding to a call about a man with a gun, hit and killed Gerardo Dejelo and his wife Antonia on Geneva near Mission.
1992 Nov 10, Major League Baseball rejected the $115 million deal for Tampa Bay to acquire the SF Giants and Safeway pres. Peter Magowan led a local group to acquire the team for $100 million.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.9)(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.A14)
1992 Nov 24, Bob Lurie, owner of the San Francisco Giants, agreed to sell the baseball team to a group of city business leaders for $100 million. Safeway Chairman Peter Magowan will be the managing general partner of the investment group. Lurie will retain a $10 million share for the next four years.
1992 Dec 1, The new owners of the SF Giants fired manager Roger Craig. SF Mayor Frank Jordan has assured the new owners that the team could play at Candlestick Park for the next five years for just $1 in rent compared with the $750,000 a year currently being paid. The concessions still needed approval by the city's supervisors.
1992 Dec 8, In San Francisco Barry Bonds singed a record six-year, $43.75 million contract with the SF Giants baseball club.
1992 Dec 8, Francia Young (25), a SF market analyst, was kidnapped at the MacArthur BART station, and raped and killed by Keith Tyson Thomas and Henry "Rooter" Glover. In 1996 Glover was sentenced to life in prison. In 1998 Young was sentenced to death.
1992 Dec, A Los Angeles diamond dealer was robbed of $1.2 million in large-carat diamonds.
1992 Former mayor Joseph Alioto read rhymed couplets at the North End Cafe from an epic historical poem he had written about SF.
1992 SF raised cable car prices to $3.00 for a round trip.
1992 The Magic Theater produced "The Baltimore Waltz" by Paula Vogel.
1992 The first annual SF Fringe Festival was held.
1992 Construction of the new SF Main Library began.
1992 KQED moved into its new $19 million building.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.B14)
1992 Ruth Asawa, sculptor and activist, founded the SF School of the Arts.
1992 Marty Crosley helped found the SF Illegal Soapbox Society. They raced their cars in Bernal Heights.
1992 A US Senate report linked the Sun Yee On triad to criminal organizations in Canada, the Dominican Republic, and 7 US cities including SF. The report stated that the syndicate was in outright control of the entertainment industry in Hong Kong. The book "Hong Kong Babylon" by Fredric Dannen describes the Hong Kong movie industry.
1992 Frank Jordan took office as major of SF. He soon appointed Rev. Eugene Lumpkin to the SF Human Rights Commission.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A8)(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A16)
1992 Former mayor Diane Feinstein was elected to the US Senate.
1992 San Francisco's Belt Line shut down. The rail system, which began in the 1880's, moved freight from the docks for transshipment by rail.
1992 San Francisco City College banned military recruitment on campus in opposition to the military's policy of discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. A 1995 federal bill that allowed the withholding of federal funds from schools that ban military recruiting forced the college to reconsider its position in 1997.
1992 The San Francisco Academy of Art College under new pres. Elisa Stephens, an attorney, moved into the digital era and expanded its real estate holdings with 9 separate buildings. Undergraduate tuition reached an annual $13,500 in 1998.
1992 San Francisco-based Bank of America acquired Security Pacific Corp.
1992 In San Francisco Just Deserts purchased the Tassahara Bakery on Cole St. In 1999 the bakery was turned into a Just Desert retail outlet due to financial losses.
1992 In SF the Mission Bay Golf Center driving range opened on Channel St. between Sixth and Owens. In 2005 plans called for closure in Mar 2006 to make way for another phase of the Mission Bay development plan.
1992 Starbucks opened its first coffee stores in SF.
1992 In Russia the Golden ADA company was set up to export diamonds to the West. Yevgeny Bychkov, head of the Russian Committee on Precious Metals and Gems, arranged a $180 million shipment to Golden ADA. Andrei Kozlekov and associates sold the shipment and moved to San Francisco. Kozlekov was returned to Moscow in 1998 to face charges of stealing.
1992 Robert Arneson (b.1930), Bay Area ceramic artist and sculptor, died.
(SFEM, 2/23/97, p.6)(SFC, 2/23/02, p.D1)
1992 Phil Palmer, SF photographer, died.
1993 Jan 7, In San Francisco the number of people dying from AIDS passed 10,000.
1993 Jan, Wired Magazine in SF published its first issue under Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalf as a bimonthly with 12 employees. The 1st issue featured a cover story on the military's use of computer war simulations and sold 100,000 copies. In 1998 the monthly magazine was sold to S.I. Newhouse's Advance Publications for $90 million. Before the end of the year it became a monthly.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.C1)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.B1)(SFC, 6/7/99, p.E1)
1993 Feb 14, In San Francisco a knife-wielding motorcyclist stabbed and killed Gordon McEntire (51) outside the Saloon at 1232 Grant St. McEntire was owner of a boat service and diving business in the Mission Rock area.
1993 Feb, Michael Krasny, a literature professor at SF State Univ., became moderator of the KQED radio program "Forum."
(SFC,10/21/97, p.E1,3)(SFC, 2/11/03, p.D1)
1993 May 26, DJs Mancow Muller and Chewy Gomez from the KSOL radio station stopped all traffic on the Bay Bridge for "8 minutes" during the morning commute for a haircut. Muller was fined $500 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. They were inspired by news reports that Pres. Clinton had held up air traffic in LA for a haircut in Air Force One 8 days before. United Broadcasting Corp. agreed to pay $1.5 million plus expenses for some bridge improvements.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A1,13)(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A20)
1993 Jun 22, A bomb mailed from Sacramento attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski maimed Univ. of Calif. San Francisco geneticist Charles Epstein at his home in Tiburon. Epstein (d.2011 at 77) had new eardrums installed, got a nerve transplant to raise his wrist and spent a year retraining his damaged hands to play his cello.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A3)(AP, 6/22/98)(SSFC, 2/20/11, p.C11)
1993 Jun, In San Francisco hundreds of thousands marched in the Lesbian/Gay Freedom Day Parade behind a banner proclaiming 1993 as "the year of the queer".
1993 Jul 1, In San Francisco Gian Luigi Ferri (55) opened fire with a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistol at the 34th floor law offices of Petit & Martin at 101 California St. He killed 8 people, wounded six and then committed suicide.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.A11)(SSFC, 7/1/18, DB p.50)
1993 Jul 14, The San Francisco 49ers signed quarterback Steve Young to a five-year, $26.75 million contract.
1993 Jul 15, Police officer William Wohler shot and killed Brian Sullivan (22). A suit filed by Sullivan's family was won and the city paid $295,000. Wohler said that Sullivan had pointed a gun at him but Sullivan was found on the roof of his family's house with a mortal wound in his back. Wohler retired early with reduced retirement pay just before a hearing before the Office of Citizen Complaints.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p. A15)
1993 Aug, In San Francisco the Holy City Zoo comedy club, in operation since 1974, closed its doors at 400 Clement St.
1993 Aug, A robbery by 10 men at the Fuji Oriental Massage parlor at 585 Eddy St. netted more than $5,000 in cash and jewels from patrons.
1993 Aug, 11 youths escaped from the Youth Guidance Center. 5 of them were awaiting hearings on murder charges.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C5)
1993 Nov, A Los Angeles diamond dealer was robbed and fatally shot outside the SF Jewelry Center.
1993 Dec-Apr, '95, Three police officers were charged in 1997 for stealing thousands of dollars from arrested drug dealers. Officers Gary Fagundes, Steven Landi and James Acevedo were indicted.
1993 Rev. Eugene Lumpkin, a member of the SF Human Rights Commission, spoke against the homosexual lifestyle and quoted scripture that it was abomination against God. He later stated in a TV interview he agreed with a biblical statement that "a man who sleeps with a man should be put to death." Mayor Jordan quickly fire Rev. Lumpkin from the HRC. Lumpkin filed suit on the basis of freedom of speech and religion but his case was lost.
1993 In SF a free medical clinic for teenagers was established at Mission High School. In 1998 Superintendent Bill Rojas blocked approval of a $50,000 grant for the clinic to continue.
1993 In SF the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market opened.
1993 In SF The Yerba Buena Gardens opened across from the Moscone Center.
1993 The St. Francis of Assisi church in North Beach, built in 1860, was one of 9 churches closed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In 1997 it was reborn as a national shrine to St. Francis, the only sanctioned shrine outside his Italian hometown.
1993 Channel 54 began operating as the independent nonprofit SF Community Television Corp.
1993 In SF Rev. Max Christensen (d.1998), rector of St. James Episcopal Church, published his book "Turning Points." In 1997 he published "Heroes and Saints."
1993 In SF Ken Romines was assigned to Edison Elementary School in Noe Valley, described as the worst in the city. He spent 2 years trying to turn it around, after which it was "reconstituted." He wrote the 1997 "A Principal's Story" to describe the events.
1993 In San Francisco the remains of almost 500 people were found during excavation for seismic renovations of the Palace of the Legion of Honor at Lincoln Park. The area was the site of a public cemetery for indigents that closed at the turn of the century. The cemetery land eventually became a golf course.
1993 SF voters approved Prop. AA, a policy declaration saying that all city employees should ride MUNI to work at least twice a week.
1993 SF raised cable car prices to $2.00 each way.
1993 SF police officer Joanne Welsh filed a suit against police-chief Anthony Ribera for sexual harassment. In 12/95 Ribera was acquitted by a federal jury but the jury found the city guilty for not returning her to her job. She was awarded $288,606 in damages, attorneys fees and back pay.
1993 Police officer Bob Geary successfully defended his right to use his dummy puppet "O'Smarty" while on patrol. The defense cost him $11,465 and was denied as a tax deduction.
1993 SF Gate of Chronicle Publ. opened for business on the Internet.
1993 Management of the SF Zoo shifted from the city to the Zoological Society.
1993 The Dolores St. Baptist Church experienced a devastating fire.
1993 John B. Fortunio (45) was robbed and stabbed to death by Juan Arballu (28). Fortunio left his estate by will to the city of SF and in 1998 it was valued at about $782,193.
1993 Angel Lopez, prostitute, was slain in SF.
1993 There were 117 deaths and 436 injuries due to handguns this year in SF. 132 killings were reported for the year.
(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A19)(SFC,12/9/97, p.A18)
1993-1997 Might Magazine was published in SF. In 1998 "Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays from Might Magazine" was published.
1993-2001 The PBS mini series "Tales of the City" was filmed extensively in SF.
1994 Jan 2, In San Francisco Father Alfred Boeddeker (90), the founder of the city's St. Anthony Dining Room, died. The Tenderloin dining hall for the poor was founded in 1950.
1994 Jan, Steve Oh was shot to death during a robbery at KD's Grog & Groceries at the corner of Castro and Market.
1994 Feb 17, Randy Shilts (b.1951), San Francisco-based author and journalist, died of AIDS in Guerneville, Ca. His books included "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic" (1987).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shilts)(SSFC, 2/17/19, p.46)
1994 Apr, The Fillmore re-opened with a show by the Smashing Pumpkins. More than $1 million was spent by Bill Graham Productions to re-open the building that was closed after the 1989 earthquake.
1994 Jun 26, In San Francisco the last mass was held at the St. Francis of Assisi Church in North Beach because of a dwindling congregation. It had been founded in 1849 and completed in 1860. It was one of nine churches to be shut down under a parish consolidation plan. It was re-opened in 1998 as a shrine.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A18)(SSFC, 6/23/19, DB p.39)
1994 Jun, Voters approved permanent extra funds for the city library system to expand hours and buy more books.
1994 Jun 30, In San Francisco the last Mass at St. Brigid's Church was held after it was ordered closed along with 8 other city churches by Archbishop Quinn. In 2011 Julian Guthrie authored "The Grace of Everyday Saints: How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith."
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.F3)(SSFC, 6/30/19, DB p.39)
1994 Aug 2, Richard Lee, owner of the Rodeway Motor Inn in Cow Hollow, was beaten to death with a 2-by-4. Cedric McClanahan pleaded guilty to the murder in 1999. He was also charged with an attempted murder from 1993.
1994 Aug 28, Henry Hernandez stabbed his wife to death in front of their 3-year-old daughter at 2892 Folsom St. He fled the city and was picked up on a misdemeanor charge in Florida in 1996.
1994 Sep 22, Amanda Buritica of Columbia arrived at SFO while on a trip around the world. Customs agents suspected her of carrying drugs and after a failed strip-search, transported her to San Mateo County hospital for x-rays with a powerful laxative that also proved negative. She filed suit in 1995 and in 1998 was awarded $451,000 in damages.
1994 Sep, The SF Opera premiered its commission of "The Dangerous Liaisons" with music by Conrad Susa and libretto by Philip Litell.
1994 Nov 5, San Francisco recorded 5.54 inches of rain, its wettest day on record.
1994 Nov 8, Voters approved Prop. G, a measure to reform the Bureau of Building Inspection. It was co-written by Joe O'Donohue, head of the Residential Builder's Association, and Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Also approved was Prop E, a .025 cent assessment per $100 of property valuation to support libraries.
(SFC, 7/17/00, p.A1,10)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A23)
1994 Nov 13, Officer James Guelff was shot and killed by Vic Lee Boutwell, who was then killed by other officers. Robert Pinckney, who tried to stop the gunman, was beaten up by the police, who mistook him for a cap killer. A compensative settlement was reached in 1998. A heavily armed gunman traded fire with San Francisco police, hitting two police officers, a paramedic and another person before being killed.
(SFC, 2/12/98, p.A26)(AP, 11/13/99)
1994 Nov 18, Daniel Sterling repeatedly stabbed Lisa Stellwagen, his girlfriend of 8 years, after saying: "I want to kill you and drink your blood," and "tonight you are going to die." He was found guilty in 1997. Stellwagen survived. In 1998 he was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A22)(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A22)
1994 Dec 30, The Federal Mint building at 5th and Mission was closed after operating 22 years as a museum. In 1997 Mayor Brown hoped to acquire it for the city's use as a storage space for the Main Library.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A13)(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A14)
1994 Dec, In San Francisco the SantaCon tradition began as people dressed up as Santa Claus made donations and began bar hopping.
1994 WritersCorps began as an AmeriCorps program, thus the name, in San Francisco, the Bronx, and DC.
(SFC, 10/20/10, p.C2)(http://tinyurl.com/256lvpv)
1994 The SF Chronicle newspaper began its SFGate site on the Internet.
(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W3)
1994 The Magic Theater produced "Playland" by Athol Fugard.
1994 Rev. Seiyu Kiriyama, founder and president of the Agon Shu Buddhist Assoc. in Japan, established the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Foundation at USF's Center for the Pacific Rim in SF to promote understanding among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim.
1994 A miniseries showed on TV that was based on "Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin. A 6-hr sequel was filmed in 1997 in Montreal for Showtime TV.
1994 Carol Queen and Robert Lawrence of SF founded the Center for Sex and Culture, www.sexandculture.org. In 2004 they acquired office space at 11th and Harrison.
1994 The Collision Art Space was founded. The collective had some 15 people at a communal apartment at 417 14th St.
1994 The Creative Arts Elementary Charter School opened.
1994 Operation Dream was begun by the Housing Task Force of the SF Police Department. Its mission was to enrich the lives of children living in the city's housing projects through social, cultural and educational excursions.
1994 Mayor Jordan signed a sister city agreement with Ho Chi Minh City, the largest urban center in Vietnam.
1994 Gladys Cox Hansen was named SF Archivist Emeritus by Mayor Frank Jordan.
1994 Monsignor Patrick O'Shea of St. Cecilia's was charged with molesting 9 boys from 1969-1980 during junkets to Lake Berryessa and Lake Tahoe. The charges were dropped because of the statute of limitations. O'Shea was indicted in 2000 on 224 counts of child molestation.
1994 Police officer Francis Hogue picked up a Mission St. masseuse on a misdemeanor or warrant and forced her to perform oral sex on him to avoid arrest. Hogue was later charged, fired and convicted.
1994 A SF newspaper strike lasted 12 days.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.A1)
1994 Shooters at Lake Merced's Pacific Rod and Gun Club in SF, Ca., stopped using lead shot and switched to biodegradable targets following a 1993 environmental study. During the 1980s some 128 tons of lead were removed from the site. In 2005 lead contamination was reported to be 10 times higher than the 1993 study and efforts to raise the water level were put on hold. Clean-up costs at Lake Merced were later estimated at over $10.5 million.
1994 The new SF tuberculosis center was dedicated to Dr. Francis Curry (1911-1996). He led the building of the new SF General Hospital, helped found the St. Anthony medical clinic and helped form the La Madre de los Pobres which set up community health and feeding projects overseas.
1994 The US Army left the Presidio, which included 870 buildings.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1994 KKHI, San Francisco's classical music station, went off the air.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.B11)
1994 The median sales price for a 3-bedroom home in SF was $270,000.
1994 The Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty Ship made an epic voyage to Normandy under Captain George Jahn (d.1999 at 83).
1994 Chi Van Huynh (19) was shot and killed at the North Beach Amusement Arcade at 447 Broadway by another teenager (17).
1994 A Dominoe's Pizza driver was shot and killed on a delivery in the Excelsior district.
(WSJ, 7/10/96, p.A1)
1994 Father Boedeker, founder of St. Anthony's Dining Room, died.
(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-24)
1995 Jan 1, A New Year's AIDS benefit party in a South of Market warehouse was raided by police at 4:a.m. Four officers were later put under charges of abusing their authority.
1995 Jan 4, Aaron Williams (35) was killed while under police custody. He was picked up under suspicion of burglarizing a pet store in the Western Addition. It was later charged that police office Marc Andaya, one of a dozen cops involved, kicked Mr. Williams during the incident. It was also learned that officer Andaya had numerous complaints filed against him for physical abuse. A SF Police Commission decided not to uphold a charge of excessive force in Nov 1996. [2nd source dates the event on Jun 4] The Williams family settled a suit against the city in 1999 for $98,500.
(SFC, 10/5/96, p.A1)(SFC, 4/13/99, p.A15)
1995 Jan 11, A 100-year-old, brick city sewer ruptured during a rainstorm near 25th Ave and El Camino Del Mar. A sink hole, that swallowed a Seacliff mansion, was created measuring 240 feet long and 150 feet wide. By 1999 some $18 million was involved in payouts and claims.
1995 Jan 15, San Francisco's I. Magnin store on Union Square closed. The first I. Magnin was founded in 1877 on Market St. In 2006 James Thomas Mullane authored "A Store to Remember," an illustrated history of the store.
(SSFC, 12/31/06, p.E1,5)
1995 Jan 23, Citicorp Vice president David Arnold was picked up by police officers at the Fairmont Hotel for being drunk. After being booked Arnold was unresponsive and taken to St. Francis Hosp. where he was found to be suffering from a fractured skull and intercranial bleeding. He died after 13 months in a coma. Officers Carl Payne, Anthony Gomez and Richard Benjamin were later charged with neglect of duty.
1995 Jan 29, The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in NFL history to win five Super Bowl titles, beating the San Diego Chargers, 49-26.
1995 Jan, The SF MOMA, having moved from the Veteran's Building, opened in new quarters south of Market St.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A19)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A15)
1995 Feb 22, Bill Bailey (b.1909), a union activist and vice-president of SF dock Local 10, died. He was a veteran of the Lincoln and Washington battalions during the Spanish Civil War and a writer and actor in his later years [see Jul 26, 1935]. The Telegraph Hill cottage in which he lived, ended up near a MUNI yard at Tulare and Indiana streets, where it became damaged beyond repair.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPbailey.htm)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A19)(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A2)
1995 Mar, Authorities arrested 75 people in the biggest dog fighting bust in San Francisco history.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.C-9)
1995 Apr 10, In Vietnam San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan and Chairman Truong Tan Sang of Ho Chi Minh People's Committee signed an Agreement on Friendship Affiliation.
1995 May, Larry Lee Hillblom, co-founder and majority shareholder of DHL Corp., disappeared into the Pacific Ocean in his World War II vintage seaplane. He was conservatively valued at 500 million and willed most of his estate to a charitable trust for medical research. $240 million was set aside for medical research at UCSF.
(WSJ, 5/15/96, p.A-1,8)(SFEC, 1/11/98, p.A1)
1995 Jun 15, The first JCDecaux public toilet was unveiled at Market and Powell streets. They cost $125,000-150,000 to manufacture and install.
1995 Jun 26, A demonstration occurred on behalf of Abu-Jamal, convicted in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer. Police arrested 279 demonstrators. In 1996 34 of the demonstrators won small claim settlements of $1,000 each for lack of probable cause in the felony-arson arrests where 2 trash bins and a couch were set on fire.
(SFC, 9/19/96, p.A13,16)
1995 Jun 27, The San Francisco Chronicle received a message from the Unabomber threatening to blow up a plane by the July Fourth weekend. The Unabomber later called the threat a prank.
1995 Jun 30, A gang attack on Stockton St. left 7 people wounded. A tenderloin gang teamed with members of the Jackson Street Boys gang targeted rival members of the Jackson Street Boys. Wilson Mak and two others were later arrested. Mak pleaded guilty in 1998 and returned to Hong Kong. Run Zhen Feng was arrested in 1998. Stephen Pan, the last suspect, was arrested in 1999.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A14)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A25)(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A18)
1995 Jun, Episcopal bishop William Swing sponsored an Interfaith Youth Conference and publicly announced the United Religions Initiative at the UN's 50th anniversary worship service in SF.
1995 Aug 3, Southern Pacific was bought by Union Pacific for $5.4 billion.
1995 Aug 9, Jerry Garcia, guitarist and lead singer of the Grateful Dead, died in San Francisco of a heart attack at age 53..
(WSJ, 8/11/95, p.A-7)(AP, 8/9/97)
1995 Aug 25, Mayor Frank Jordan declared Denny Jordan Day in honor of Dennis P. Jordan (1909-1996), real estate developer and organizer of the SF Bay Sailing Association.
1995 Sep 6, An undercover narcotics officer shot and killed William Hankston (29) in the back of the head during a struggle at Ocean View Playground. The officer was later cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. In 1998 SF awarded $110,000 to Hankston's family.
1995 Sep 19, Tafisi Suafai was shot in the back during a family quarrel. Anthony Fletcher struck a plea bargain in 1998 for voluntary manslaughter.
1995 Sep, The F line of historical streetcars opened on Market St. and was run by the Market street Railway Co. By 1997 it had 17 historical streetcars.
1995 Oct 26-27, Gary Pattock (37), a Charles Schwab employee, was found beaten, murdered and robbed near St. John's Elementary in Glenn Park. In 1997 police arrested Joseph Keel for the murder. 2 other suspects were involved. Keel was found guilty of 1st degree murder and 2nd-degree robbery in 2000.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.A23)(SFC, 5/25/00, p.A18)(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A20)
1995 Oct, the first edition of the book: "Choosing a Public Elementary School for Your Child in San Francisco: An Independent Guide," was released.
1995 Nov 4, Ronnie Lee Hodges Jr. (26) was murdered on Potrero Hill. Terry Morgan was charged with the murder which was done in retaliation for his being shot by Hodges 2 months earlier. His first trial ended in a hung jury. His 2nd trial also ended in a hung jury. Morgan entered a voluntary manslaughter plea in 1998 and faced a 3 year jail term.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A13)(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A21)(SFC, 6/23/98, p.A16)
1995 Dec.11-12 A major rainstorm hit the city with high winds and flooding. A large sink hole formed in the Sea Cliff neighborhood and sucked down a whole house. The storm caused millions of dollars of damage to the glass Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.
(eyewitness local news)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1995 Dec 12, Willie Brown beat incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco. California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco in a victory over Frank Jordan 57 to 43%.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-1)(SFEC, 6/14/98, p.A16) (HN, 12/12/98)
1995 Dec 20, Seth Woods (21), a developmentally disabled man, was stomped to death by some youths at the Sunnydale projects. Failautusi Moevao, just under 16, was charged in the slaying and later admitted to being intoxicated on drugs and alcohol at the time. Moevao was sentenced to 21 years to life in prison in 2001.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A18)(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A21)
1995 Dec 31, The SF Opera House closed for an 18-month renovation. Dvorak's "Rusalka" was the last opera performed before closure.
1995 Dec, In San Francisco the Coconut Grove nightclub under Sam Conti (1944-2009) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Conti had opened the Van Ness street club earlier this year and retained control until the summer of 1966. The club closed in 1998. In the 1970s Conti had run a string of 5 night clubs in North Beach that included "encounter parlors" for tourists.
(SFC, 9/3/96, p.D1,4)(SFC, 11/11/09, p.C4)
1995 Randolph Delehanty authored "San Francisco: The Ultimate Guide."
1995 Archbishop William Levada was appointed spiritual leader of the 417,000 Roman Catholics in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties. His job includes overseeing some 2,000 employees in Catholic related agencies. He replaced Archbishop John Quinn, "an introvert who hated crowds." Levada was the city's 7th Catholic archbishop.
(SFC, 5/19/96, Z1, p.1)(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1995 The California Historical Society under Mike McCone (1934-2017) moved to a new home at 678 Mission, SF, the former Hundley Hardware store, which had moved to Bryant St. Its collection had over 500,000 photos, 150,000 manuscripts, some 4,000 maps, posters and broadsides, 2,500 serials and periodicals and piles of ephemera.
(SFEC, 10/26/97, DB p.56)(SFC, 5/16/17, p.C4)
1995 Joe Montana retired from professional football. He had led the 49'ers to 4 Super Bowls, 1982, 1985,1989 and 1990.
1995 Peter Rowland (1963-2005), SF real estate developer and ex-con, pleaded no contest to bilking investors out of more than $200,000. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
1995 The California College of Arts and Crafts purchased the old Greyhound Bus maintenance center at 8th and Irwin.
1995 Craig Newmark founded Craigslist in San Francisco. It was an Internet forum for finding jobs, housing, and goods for sale. In 2004 Ebay acquired a 25% stake from a former employee's equity sale.
1995 Salon.com was founded in SF as an online publisher by former staffers of the SF Examiner. The company purchased the Sausalito online community Well in 1999 from Bruce Katz, the founder of Rockport Shoes. In June 1999 it became a public corporation with an IPO at $10/share.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.B1)(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.B1)
1995 Norma Hotaling, an ex-prostitute, founded the Sage Project, a peer counseling organization that combined educational and job training with substance abuse and sexual abuse counseling for prostitutes.
1995 The first City Store opened at Pier 39 to help the needy and raise revenues without raising taxes. A 2nd store opened in 1997 at the Beach Chalet.
1995 Bill Graham Presents was sold by Graham's heirs to 15 employees for $5 million.
1995 Tele-Communications Inc. acquired the SF cable franchise from Viacom.
1995 Rev. Albert Chan (1915-2005), Jesuit priest, linguist and Chinese history scholar, became senior research fellow at the Ricci Institute of the University of SF.
1995 St. Paulus Lutheran Church at 999 Eddy burned to the ground. The 101 year-old church had a wooden facade recreation of the stone facade of Chartres Cathedral.
1995 Penny the elephant died at the SF Zoo. It left Tinkerbelle all alone. In Mar, 1997 Calle was acquired from the LA Zoo and soon found to have tuberculosis.
1995 Walter A. Haas Jr., former owner of the Oakland A's baseball team, died. He was a descendant of Levi Strauss and conceived of the SF Season of Sharing Fund. He presented the idea to Dick Thierot, publisher of the SF Chronicle in 1985 and the fund began in 1986.
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