Timeline San Francisco 1978-1995
Return to home
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.
(SFC, 3/14/03, p.E8)
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.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.E8)
1978 Mar 31, The SF General
Brewing Company capped its last bottle of Lucky Lager.
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.E8)
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.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.E8)
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.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.E8)
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.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1978 Jul 24, A fire burned through
the Audiffred Building at the foot of Mission St.
(SFC, 7/18/03, p.E5)
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."
(SFC, 7/25/03, p.E6)
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.
(SFC, 8/8/03, p.E6)
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.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 20, The Castro Village
held its 5th annual street fair for an estimated 20,000 people.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 29, The SF Board of
Supervisors unanimously passed a "pooper scooper" ordnance.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.E2)
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 Oct 1, Some 7,000 runners
took part in the 2nd 8.1 mile Bridge to Bridge run.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.E4)
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.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.E9)
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.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E4)
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.
(SFC, 10/24/03, p.E4)
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.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.E2)
1978 Nov 14, Dan White declared a
change of mind and asked to be allowed to return to the SF Board of
Supervisors.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.E2)
1978 Nov 17, California Rep. Leo
J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the Jim Jones cult,
traveled to Jonestown, Guyana.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.E2)
1978 Nov 18, California Rep. Leo
J. Ryan and four other people, investigating the Jim Jones cult, were
killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple. The
killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912
cult members led by Rev. Jim Jones. 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 914 suicides at Jonestown
included 260 children. In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored
"Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People."
(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)
1978 Nov 21, Mayor Moscone backed
away from re-appointing Dan white to his former seat on the Board of
Supervisors.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.E4)
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.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.E2)
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.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
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.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
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.
(SFC, 6/14/08, p.E3)
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 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.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A23)
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.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A24)
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 Huey Newton was convicted 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)
1978 The city 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.
(SFC, 10/28/96, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A11)
1978 The Little Puffer train at
the SF Zoo was retired for a new gorilla exhibit.
(SFC,10/21/97, p.A20)
1978 ABC News opened a SF Bureau.
It was closed to cut costs in 1998.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.E1)
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 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.
(SFC, 10/15/02, p.A20)
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.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
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.
(SFC, 1/28/98, p.A15)
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.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E2)
1979 Jan 10, Recent rains
triggered a huge rockslide on Telegraph Hill that closed 4 blocks of
Sansome St.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.E2)
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.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.E2)
1979 Feb 1, The People's Republic
of China opened its 1st two American Consulates in San Francisco and
Houston.
(SFC, 1/30/04, p.E6)
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.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A20)
1979 Feb 25, James Williams and
Gene Stewart of Redwood City won the 18th world championship domino
tournament in San Francisco.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.E4)
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.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F5)
1979 Mar 28, The SF Police
Commission approved the concept of facial hair for on-duty officers,
but did not yet determine the specifics.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 3/26/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A21)
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.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
1979 Apr 2, The West Portal
streetcar station was officially opened.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
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.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
1979 Apr 5, BART re-opened
following the Jan 17 tube fire.
(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)
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.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1979 Apr 12, Police commissioners
voted 3-1 to rescind their tentative approval on beards.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
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.
(SFC, 4/16/04, p.F5)
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 Easter, The Sisters of
Perpetual Indulgence, a gay theater group, was founded.
(SFC, 3/17/99, p.A6)
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.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.F5)
1979 May 11, SF passed an odd-even
gas sales plan in response to the gasoline crises.
(SFC, 5/7/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 5/21/04, p.F8)
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.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F2)
1979 Jun 1, The “Treasures of
Tutankhamun” exhibit opened at the de Young Museum.
(SFC, 5/28/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 6/9/04, F7)
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.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 6/25/04, p.F6)
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.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 7/2/04, p.F9)
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.
(SFC, 7/16/04, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 8/13/04, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 8/27/04, p.F2)
1979 Sep 2, Hundreds of singles
gathered in SF at the Jack Tar Hotel for 1st national singles
convention.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.F8)
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.
(SFC, 9/3/99, p.B1)
1979 Sep 11, SF public school
teachers authorized their 1st strike in five years.
(SFC, 9/10/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 9/10/04, p.F2)
1979 Sep 20, SF elementary schools
opened amidst a teacher’s strike. 63% of students and 43% of teachers
showed up.
(SFC, 9/17/04, p.F4)
1979 Sep 23, Some 150 people
marched down Market Street to celebrate the 2nd annual All Species Day
parade.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.F9)
1979 Sep 25, The 14th Dalai Lama
arrived in SF for a weeklong visit.
(SFC, 9/24/04, p.F9)
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.
(SFC, 10/8/04, p.F12)
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.
(SFC, 10/8/04, p.F12)
1979 Nov 4, The California Street
cable car line resumed operation following a 6-week shutdown due to
neglected maintenance.
(SFC, 11/5/04, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 11/26/04, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
1979 Dec 26, Mayor Diane Feinstein
launched her effort to meet a predicted $100 million-plus city deficit
with 10 proposed charter amendments.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 12/24/04, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)
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.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C6)
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.
(SFEM, 10/18/98, p.4)(SFC, 10/20/03, p.D5)(SFC,
10/22/04, p.B1)
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.
(SFC, 6/3/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.B3)
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.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
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.
(SFC, 1/14/05, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 1/28/05, p.F7)
1980 Jan 20, Mayor Feinstein and
Richard Blum were married in a private ceremony in her City Hall office.
(SFC, 1/14/05, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
1980 Jan 24, A 2nd earthquake,
centered 8-miles north of Livermore, hit the Bay Area and measured 5.6.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 1/28/05, p.F7)
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.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 2/18/05, p.F4)
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.
(SFC, 2/25/05, p.F4)
1980 Mar 7, The new Univ. of
California Dental School on Parnassus was formally dedicated.
(SFC, 3/4/05, p.F3)
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.
(SFC, 3/11/05, p.F8)
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.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F2)
1980 Mar 26, Hibernia Bank,
California’s oldest state-chartered bank, opened its new $20 million
Hibernia Bank Building at 201 California St.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 4/1/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F2)
1980 May 2, Foremost-McKesson
notified its 1000 SF customers that home delivery of milk would end on
one month.
(SFC, 4/29/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 6/10/05, p.F2)
1980 Jun 24, The SF Gay Film
Festival opened at the Roxie Theater with 12 films chosen for
presentation.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F3)
1980 Jun 27, The SF 133rd Police
Academy gtraaduating class included 2 gay men.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.F7)
1980 Jun 29, The SF 9th annual Gay
Freedom Parade drew over 30,000 marchers and some 250,000 spectators
along Market St.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.F7)
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.
(SFC, 7/1/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 7/1/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F6)
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.
(SFC, 7/15/05, p.F3)
1980 Jul 22, SF police arrested 46
hotel strikers and union leaders outside the Hyatt Regency during a
mass rally.
(SFC, 7/22/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 7/29/05, p.F7)
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.
(SFC, 8/12/05, p.F2)
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, SF 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.
(SFC, 8/19/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 8/19/05, p.F5)
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.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.F2)
1980 Aug, Native Americans began
an annual sunrise drumming ceremony at Dolores Park to bless the park
as a sacred burial ground.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 9/9/05, p.F2)
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 15, An FTC judge upheld
Heublein’s acquisition of SF-based United Vintners, the 2nd largest
wine company in the US.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.F2)
1980 Oct 24, The US Court of
Appeals in SF ruled that the US Navy has the right to discharge
personnel for homosexual conduct.
(SFC, 10/21/05, p.F6)
1980 Oct 28, In SF a 3-alarm fire
destroyed the 2nd floor of Vanessi’s North Beach restaurant.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F2)
1980 Oct 31, Benjamin H. Swig
(86), SF financier, philanthropist and real estate investor, died in
his penthouse atop the Fairmont Hotel.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 11/4/05, p.F6)
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.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F2)
1980 Nov 16, Joe Edley (32), a SF
night watchman, won the North American Scrabble championship at a
tournament in Santa Monica, Ca.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 1, SF Assemblyman Willie
Brown was elected speaker of the state Assembly.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.F2)
1980 Sam Moskowitz published
"Fiction in Old San Francisco," that covered an early strain of science
fiction.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.E1)
1980 Victor Miller (d.2002 at age
54) founded the New Mission News.
(SFC, 8/27/02, p.A22)
1980 The National Japanese
American Historical Society was founded in SF.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.7)
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 Muni Metro opened.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A27)
1980 Voters approved a measure to
repeal district elections and return to at-large elections.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, Z1 p.4)
1980 Alfred J. Nelder (d.2002 at
87), former police chief and Supervisor, was named to the Police
Commission. He served for 9 years.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A26)
1980 The 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.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A24)
1980 Former Mayor Joseph Alioto
lost a $3.2 million legal malpractice case filed against him by a
Wyoming rancher.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1980 The SF Chronicle purchased
the Bloomington Pantagraph in Illinois.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1980 The Potomac, a form Coast
Guard cutter that was converted to serve as a presidential yacht
Franklin Roosevelt, sank near Treasure Island after it was seized in a
drug raid. It had passed to private hands in 1945. It was refloated
then and rebuilt 14 years later for $8.2 mil and put on display at Jack
London Square in Oakland.
(SFC, 3/12/97, p.A19)
1980 A reforestation program was
begun in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1980 Gorilla World opened at the
SF Zoo.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
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.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.E11)
1981 Nov, San Francisco Mayor
Diane Feinstein established Fleet Week as an annual celebration for
Columbus Day weekend.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A19)
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.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, DB p.36)
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.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
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.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.E6)
1981 The SF Friends of the Urban
Forest was founded.
(SFC, 9/9/98, Z1 p.3)
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.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A5)
1981 SF passed a 53-page hotel
conversion law to preserve affordable housing.
(SFC,10/22/97, p.A17)
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),
co-founder of Independent Trucks (1978), founded Thrasher Magazine in
SF dedicated to the growing skateboard community.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.B6)
1981 In SF a farmer’s market began
operating in the UN Plaza of the Civic Center.
(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B1)
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.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 12/30/05, p.F2)
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 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.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
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.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.A16)
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 Good
Vibrations published "Good Vibrations: The Complete Guide to Vibrators."
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A3)
1982 Tom Stoddard published "Jazz
on the Barbary Coast," and anthology of oral histories and essays.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D7)
1982 The TV food show "Yan Can
Cook" began on KQED in SF with Martin Yan.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.E1)
1982 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.
(SFC, 6/11/01, p.A17)
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.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A20)
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.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1982 In SF the Martin Luther
King-Marcus Garvey Square housing complex at Eddy and Steiner went
co-op.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A11)
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.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D1)
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.
(SFC, 4/13/99, p.A19)
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.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
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.
(SFC, 8/7/97, p.A1)
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.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A19)
1982-1988 Terence A. McEwen (d.1998 at 69) directed
the SF Opera.
(SFC, 9/18/98)
1983 Jan 27, The Rock &
Bowl at 1855 Haight St. held its opening night.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.E4)
1983 Apr 27, SF Mayor Diane
Feinstein overwhelmingly defeated a recall attempt.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
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.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
1983 May 1, Charles McCabe (68),
SF Chronicle columnist, was found dead at his home at 22 Alta St.
(SSFC, 4/27/08, DB p.58)
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 Oct, Frank W. Epperson (89),
who invented the Popsicle on an extraordinarily cold night in San
Francisco in 1905, died in SF.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, DB p.58)
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 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.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.1)
1983 David Schneider (1918-2005),
violinist with the SF Symphony, authored “Music, Maestros, and
Musicians.”
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.B7)
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.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, DB p.49)
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.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1983 Archbishop John Quinn folded
the 125-year-old Catholic Monitor newspaper.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A17)
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 Goldengate
Park was renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1983 Queen Elizabeth II visited SF
and ate at Trader Vic’s.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
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 mayor Feinstein to the Port Commission.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.C3)
1983 A fringe pro-gun group, the
White Panthers, attempted to recall Mayor Diane Feinstein.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.D1)
1983 The non-profit Creativity
Explored opened on Mission Street in SF to provide people with
disabilities a facility to create art.
(SFC, 11/30/04, p.D1)
1983 A group of 25 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 Mayor Diane Feinstein.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.C1)
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.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A20)
1983 Bank of America acquired
Charles Schwab securities brokerage firm.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
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.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A18)
1983 The city had 711 cabs in its
taxi fleet.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A23)
1983 Russell Hartley, a dancer and
designer with the 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).
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.C1)
1983 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)
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.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, DB p.50)
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.
(SSFC, 1/25/09, DB p.50)
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.
(SFC, 2/10/06,
p.B6)(www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t26.html)
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.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B4)
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 Piers 30 and 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.”
(SSFC, 5/10/09, DB p.50)
1984 Jul 11, Charles Chitat Ng
shot and killed Donald Guiletti in the Castro district.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A13)
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 Jonathan Borofsky, sculptor,
began his work "Hammering Man." It was completed in 1985 and stands
outside the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B1)
1984 Adah Bakalinsky (60) authored
the 1st edition of “Stairway Walks in San Francisco.” In 2004 a 5th
edition was published.
(SFC, 5/21/04, p.F8)
1984 The 285-room Marriott at
Fisherman’s Wharf was constructed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1984 Jeremiah Tower opened his
Stars restaurant on a desolate alley near the 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 John-Michael Olexy helped
found the first federal gay and lesbian employees group in SF.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A6)
1984 In the Rathskeller scandal 2
SF police officers were fired for hiring a prostitute to perform at a
police graduation party.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A22)
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.
(SFEC, 6/27/99, p.A14)
1984 The Hard Rock Café
opened on Van Ness Ave. In 2002 it planned a move to Pier 39.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.B1)
1984 SF installed a computerized
fingerprint matching system.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A18)
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.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
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
the New Main Library was later named in his honor.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.B2)
1985 Jan, The SF 49ers defeated
the Miami Dolphins in the Super Bowl played at Stanford Stadium.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A1)
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.
(SFC,10/18/97, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 8/4/07, p.A1)
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 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 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.
(SFC,12/23/97, p.A20)
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.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.D4)
1985 Rodrigo Betancur of SF made
his clay and copper sculpture "Movement," a part of his Movimento
series.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.18)
1985 Frances Jaffer (d.1999 at
78), SF poet, published her book of poems "Alternate Feelings."
(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A19)
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.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A25)
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.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1985 Robert J. Senkewicz published
"Vigilantes in Gold Rush San Francisco."
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W19)
1985 Helgi Tomasson succeeded Lew
Christensen as artistic director of the SF Ballet. The season opened
with a full-length "Nutcracker."
(SFEC, 8/10/97, p.B9)(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.47)
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.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.B7)
1985 Randy Hayes founded the
Rainforest Action Network, a non-profit group in SF.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.B1)
1985 Ruth Brinker 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)
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.
(SFC, 10/22/04, p.B7)
1985 In SF Larry Harvey and
friends began the Burning Man festival with a torching of an 8-foot
wooden figure on 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)
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.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.C3)
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.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.D1)
1985 In SF Howard Junker founded
ZYZZYVA, a journal of West Coast Writers and artists.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A21)
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.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A27)
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.
(SFC, 6/24/97, p.A15)
1985 The SF Chronicle created an
electronic news archive.
(SFC, 10/19/05, p.B7)
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.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A19)
1985 Elsie St. in Bernal Heights
was widened after property owners petitioned SF Mayor Diane Feinstein.
(SFEM, 7/21/96, p.9)
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.
(SFC, 4/13/98, p.A8)
1985 In SF the BofA building at
Kearny and California was sold to Walter Shorenstein for $660 million.
(SFC, 10/3/00, p.A11)
1985 The Bransten family of SF
sold MJB coffee to Nestle.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A23)
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.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1985 The Levi Strauss Co. was
taken 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)
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.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A25)
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 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.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.B2)
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.
(AP, 8/28/06)
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 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.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A15)
1986 Nancy Olmsted authored
"Vanishing Waters," which described the historical waterfront of SF.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
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.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A24)
1986 Mayor Feinstein appointed
Louise Renne as the SF City Attorney.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A24)
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.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A5)
1986 Voters approved Prop. M,
which limited new office development to 475,000 square-feet per year.
(SFC, 10/22/04, p.A21)
1986 SF raised cable car prices to
$1.50.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.B7)
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.
(SFEC,11/30/97, Z1 p.7) (SFC,12/11/97, p.A23)
1986 William G. Lazar (1918-1996),
owner of Luxor Cab Co., retired.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A20)
1986 The Bank of America Center
was sold to the Shorenstein Co. for $660 million.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A1)
1986 Chronicle Publ. purchased the
Worcester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1986 Valencia Rose, a gay cabaret,
closed.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.35)
1986 Demetrio "Dami" Braceros was
assigned to be the one-man gardening crew for Cayuga Playground.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A2)
1986 A city fire in the Bayview
industrial park killed 8 people.
(SFC,12/16/97, p.A17)
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 Mar, John Frantz resigned as
head of the library system and he was succeeded by Kenneth Dowlin.
Dowlin resigned in 1997.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A20)
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 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.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A10)
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.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A12)
1987 Bill Weber painted a jazz
mural at the North Beach corner of Columbus and Grant. He began a
restoration in 2004.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.E3)
1987 In SF Kenneth R. Dixon
(1945-1994) became artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros.
(SFC, 2/12/08, p.E1)
1987 Ground was broken at the
former site of the Gartland Apartments at Valencia and 16th for
low-income housing.
(SFC, 9/14/02, p.A16)
1987 "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 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.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W34)
1987 The Social Venture Network
was founded. Members focused on investing in "socially responsible"
companies.
(WSJ, 2/4/00, p.A1)
1987 Art Agnos was elected mayor
over John Molinari by a margin of 70-30.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A19)
1987 Judge Marilyn Hall Patel
imposed a consent decree to control discrimination in the Fire
Department.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A1)
1987 A.W. Clausen, head of the
Bank of America, sold Charles Schwab securities firm and refocused on
the domestic market.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1987 The real estate firm Grubb
& Ellis was acquired by Fox & Carskadon.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.B2)
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.
(AP, 2/10/97)
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 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 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.
(SFC, 8/17/04, p.C1)
1988 The square-rigged Balclutha
was moved to San Francisco’s Hyde Street Pier.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)
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.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.A8)
1988 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.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.21)
1988 In San Francisco a law was
passed to allow artists to live in old industrial buildings.
(SFC, 3/30/98, p.A1)
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."
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A24)
1988 The San Francisco
Redevelopment Agency gave the SF Museum of Modern Art land for a new
home on Third Street.
(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A15)
1988 San Francisco raised cable
car prices to $2.00.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.B7)
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.
(SFC, 2/27/97, p.A16)
1988 In San Francisco Chronicle
Publ. Purchased Motor Books and later renamed it MBI.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
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.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.B2)
1988 Robert Corrigan, former
chancellor of the Univ. of Massachusetts, became the 12th president at
SF State Univ.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
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.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1988 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.
(SFC, 5/26/96, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 1/7/04, p.A19)
1988 Sylvester James (41), disco
superstar, died of AIDS-related causes.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.E1)
1988 John Maher, ex-con and
co-founder of Delancey Street, died. Grover Sales (d.2004) authored a
biography of John Maher.
(SFEM, 10/20/96, p.17)(SFC, 2/25/04, p.A19)
1988-1991 The Palace Hotel went dark for a 3-year
renovation.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C4)
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.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A13)
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.
(AP, 1/22/99)
1989 Apr 8, 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.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A23)
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 Aug 19, 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.
(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.A13)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A1)(SFC,
8/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 8/30/03, p.A1)
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.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, Z1 p.3)
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.
(AP, 10/9/99)
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
Spreckel’s 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 Hotel
opened.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.E3)
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.
(AP, 10/27/99)
1989 Oct 28, The Oakland A's won
the earthquake-interrupted World Series, completing a four-game sweep
of the San Francisco Giants.
(AP, 10/28/99)
1987 Nov 29, Joe Montana of 49ers
completed an NFL record 22 consecutive passes.
(www.sportingnews.com/archives/nfl/hof00/montana-stats.html)
1989 Nov, 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.
(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A1)
1989 Nov, A ballot was passed to
demolish the Embarcadero Freeway.
(SFC, 5/19/96,Mag, p.11)
1989 Thomas Chinn (d.1997 at 88)
published "Bridging the Pacific, San Francisco Chinatown and Its
People," a history of Chinatown.
(SFC, 9/16/97, p.A18)
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 Renovation for damage to the
SF City Hall totaled $181 million.
(SFEM, 1/4/98, p.7)
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.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.E1)
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.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B3)
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.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F8)
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.
(SFC, 8/29/05, p.C2)
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.
(SFCM, 1/18/04, p.12)
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.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A14)
1989 The Asian Business League
presented Jess T. Esteva (1904-1997), founder of the SF Filipino
newspaper the Mabuhay Republic, a distinguished leadership award.
(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A19)
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.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.A13)
1989 George Seifert replaced Bill
Walsh as head coach of the SF 49ers.
(SFC, 1/16/96, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A24)
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.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
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.
(SFC, 6/23/96, p.A6)
1989-1997 Angelo Alioto serve on the Board of
Supervisors. In 1997 she published her book "Straight to the Heart."
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.E1)
1990 Jun 30, Mary Cobb (d.1998)
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.
1990 Jan 28, The San Francisco
49ers routed the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in the 24th Super Bowl.
(AP, 1/28/00)
1990 Mar 30, Harry Bridges
(b.1901), Australian-born SF labor activist, died.
(SFC, 7/27/01, p.A19)
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 Goldengate
Park was reconstructed as a multisport facility.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A8)
1990 Josie’s Cabaret and Juice
Joint, a gay comedy club, opened in the Castro. It was scheduled to
close Jan 2, 1999.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.35)
1990 The 221-room Tuscan Inn at
Fisherman’s Wharf was constructed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1990 Susan Claymon (d.2000 at age
61) co-founded Breast Cancer Action in SF and helped organize the first
advocacy meetings in 1991.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D7)
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.
(SFC, 7/15/02, p.E1)
1990 Mayor Art Agnos called for
the embarcadero Freeway to be removed.
(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
1990 South of Market was rezoned
in the hopes that private development would infill the empty, deserted
factories.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.E6)
1990 Police halted the Burning Man
torching 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.
(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.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A24)
1990 Mount Zion Medical Center
merged with UCSF.
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A10)
1990 A.W. Clausen, head of the
Bank of America, retired and was succeeded by Richard Rosenberg. He
proceeded to acquire banks in Oregon and Arizona.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1990 The Ritz-Carlton opened on
Stockton St. in the former western headquarters of Metropolitan Life
Insurance.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.B4)
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.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1990 Danielle Steele, fiction
writer, paid between $5-6 million for the 15,000-sq.-foot Spreckels
estate.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A21)
1990 Danny Phat Vong, a leader of
the 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)
1990s Jimmy Smythe escaped from
the Maze prison near Belfast along with 37 other prisoners in 1983. 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
1990s and held in a federal prison in Pleasanton, Ca. They were
released on bail in 1998.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A20)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(SFC,
10/17/98, p.A15)
1991 Feb 27, Jim Mitchell shot and
killed his brother Artie Mitchell 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. He was
found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 6 years in
prison. He was released on parole in 1997.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A1,15)
1991 Feb 27, In San Francisco
Karen Wong (39) was 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.
(SFC, 12/11/08, p.B2)
1991 Feb, Demolition of the
Embarcadero Freeway began.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A27)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 2/27/97, p.A16)
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.
(SFC, 10/1/97, p.A16)(SFC,11/6/97, p.A6)
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.
(AP, 6/7/01)
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 "El Dorado" by John Adams had
its world premier by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by the
composer.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, DB p.54)
1991 The epic play "Angels in
America" by Tony Kushner premiered at the Eureka Theater. It was about
AIDS, morality and spirituality.
(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A6)
1991 Valery Gergiev made his US
opera conducting debut the SF Opera production of "War and Peace."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.48)
1991 The 313-room Hyatt at
Fisherman’s Wharf was constructed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1991 The Epiphany Center was
founded as a federally funded pilot project as a family-centered
program for social services.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1991 The City Science project was
founded at UCSF with $6 million in federal grants to improve math and
science training for city teachers.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A18)
1991 The Ark of Refuge was founded
by Rev. Yvette Flunder as a charitable ministry for people with AIDS.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
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.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.C4)
1991 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.
(SFC, 12/15/99, p.A19)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A23)
1991 Voters approved an amendment
to the City Charter for a Children’s Fund to support youth
organizations.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A1)
1991 The Youth Law Center sued
over poor conditions at the YGC and the city spent more than $5 mil on
repairs.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.A8)
1991 Jelani House opened as a
residential treatment program to help low income or homeless women and
children.
(SFEM, 5/11/97, p.6)
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.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A15)
1991 SF taxi fares were raised to
$1.70 for flag drop, waiting time and mileage fees.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.A20)
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.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1991 Connie Norman (1949-1996),
transsexual AIDS activist, debuted the Connie Norman Show on AM radio
on AIDS related issues.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A19)
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.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1991-1994 Bank of America extended full-service
branches into supermarkets throughout the state.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1991-1997 Allen S. Lucas, a bookkeeper for the Sidney
Mobell jewelry company in SF, embezzled $457,627 to pay his credit card
bills.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.A24)
1992 Feb 27, Former Sen. S.I.
Hayakawa died in San Francisco at age 85.
(AP, 2/27/02)
1992 Feb 29, Victor Diep, hired by
Thaun Wu, attempted to kill Phuoc Huynh, a gambling acquaintance. Wu
had taken out insurance on Huynh.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A13)
1992 Apr 29-May1, After the Rodney
King verdict a riot occurred in the city and some 2,000 people were
arrested.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.A8)
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.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W43)
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.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 9/15/96, p.A12)
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 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.
Glover was sentenced to life in 1996 and Young was sentenced to death
in 1998.
(SFC, 1/17/98, p.A19)
1992 Dec, A Los Angeles diamond
dealer was robbed of $1.2 million in large-carat diamonds.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A23)
1992 Former mayor Joseph Alioto
read rhymed couplets at the North End Cafe from an epic historical poem
he had written about SF.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1992 SF raised cable car prices to
$3.00 for a round trip.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.B7)
1992 The Magic Theater produced
"The Baltimore Waltz" by Paula Vogel.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, DB p.43)
1992 The first annual SF Fringe
Festival was held.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.B1)
1992 Construction of the new SF
Main Library began.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.22)
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.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.13)
1992 Marty Crosley helped found
the SF Illegal Soapbox Society. They raced their cars in Bernal Heights.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.E1)
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.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A7)
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.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.A18)
1992 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.
(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A25)
1992 The 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.
(SFC, 5/22/98, p.B2)
1992 Bank of America acquired
Security Pacific Corp.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1992 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.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.D1)
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.
(SFC, 11/5/05, p.C1)
1992 Starbucks opened its first
coffee stores in SF.
(SFEM, 8/1/99, p.9)
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.
(SFC, 6/20/98, p.B1)
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.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C2)
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, 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 Jul 1, Gunman Gian Luigi
Ferri opened fire with a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistol at the law
offices of Petit & Martin at 101 California St. He killed 8 people,
wounded six and then committed suicide.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A20)(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A17)(SFEC,
5/2/99, p.A11)
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, 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.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)
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.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A23)
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.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A17)
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.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A16)
1993 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.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A19)
1993 The Yerba Buena Gardens
opened across from the Moscone Center.
(SFC, 11/9/99, p.D1)
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.
(SSFC, 11/20/05, p.B3)
1993 Channel 54 began operating as
the independent nonprofit SF Community Television Corp.
(SFC, 9/28/99, p.A17)
1993 Rev. Max Christensen
(d.1998), rector of St. James Episcopal Church, published his book
"Turning Points." In 1997 he published "Heroes and Saints."
(SFC, 7/15/98, p.A20)
1993 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.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, BR p.8)
1993 Voters approved Prop. AA, a
policy declaration saying that all city employees should ride MUNI to
work at least twice a week.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A22)
1993 SF raised cable car prices to
$2.00 each way.
(SFC, 3/2/05, p.B7)
1993 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.
(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A15)
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.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.D1)
1993 SF Gate of Chronicle Publ.
opened for business on the Internet.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1993 Management of the SF Zoo
shifted from the city to the Zoological Society.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.E15)
1993 There were 117 deaths and 436
injuries due to handguns this year in SF.
(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A19)
1993 SF reported 132 killings for
the year.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A18)
1993 The Dolores St. Baptist
Church experienced a devastating fire.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
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.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A23)
1993 Angel Lopez, prostitute, was
slain in SF.
(SFC, 3/13/04, p.B6)
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.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, BR p.3)
1993-2001 The PBS mini series "Tales of the City" was
filmed extensively in SF.
(SFC, 6/26/02, p.D8)
1994 Jan, Steve Oh was shot to
death during a robbery at KD’s Grog & Groceries at the corner of
Castro and Market.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.D2)
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.
(SFC, 11/1/96, p.C9)
1994 Jun, Voters approved
permanent extra funds for the city library system to expand hours and
buy more books.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.A15)
1994 Jul 1, The last Mass at St.
Brigid Church was held after it was ordered closed along with 8 other
city churches by Archbishop Quinn.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)
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.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A16)
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.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A14)
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.
(SFC, 2/25/98, p.A14)
1994 Sep, The SF Opera premiered
its commission of "The Dangerous Liaisons" with music by Conrad Susa
and libretto by Philip Litell.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A11)
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 The Magic Theater produced
"Playland" by Athol Fugard.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, DB p.43)
1994 St. Francis Cathedral in
North Beach was closed because of a dwindling congregation. It was
re-opened in 1998 as a shrine.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A18)
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.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, BR p.2)
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.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E1)
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.
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.E1)
1994 The Collision Art Space was
founded. The collective had some 15 people at a communal apartment at
417 14th St.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A18)
1994 The Creative Arts Elementary
Charter School opened.
(SFC, 2/7/97, p.A21)
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.
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A20)
1994 Mayor Jordan signed a sister
city agreement with Ho Chi Minh City, the largest urban center in
Vietnam.
(SFC, 2/26/97, p.A12)
1994 Gladys Cox Hansen was named
SF Archivist Emeritus by Mayor Frank Jordan.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)
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.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.A1)
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.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A13)
1994 A SF newspaper strike lasted
12 days.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.A1)
1994 Shooters at Lake Merced’s 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.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.B1)
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.
(SFC, 8/5/96, p.A22)
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.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A20)
1994 The Jeremiah O’Brien Liberty
Ship made an epic voyage to Normandy under Captain George Jahn (d.1999
at 83).
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A19)
1994 Chi Van Huynh (19) was shot
and killed at the North Beach Amusement Arcade at 447 Broadway by
another teenager (17).
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A14)
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.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/9/96, p.A15)
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.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A17)
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.
(SFC, 3/5/96, p.A13)
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.
(AP, 1/29/00)
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, Bill Bailey (b.1910), 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]
(SFC,11/15/97, p.A19)(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A19)
1995 Mar, Authorities arrested 75
people in the biggest dog fighting bust in San Francisco history.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.C-9)
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.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.B1)
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.
(AP, 6/27/00)
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.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, Z1 p.3)
1995 Aug 3, Southern Pacific was
bought by Union Pacific for $5.4 billion.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1)
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.
(SFC, 7/16/96, p.A14)
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.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A25)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A21)
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.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A17)
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.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
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.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, DB p.48)
1995 Dec, The Coconut Grove
nightclub under Sam Conti filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
(SFC, 9/3/96, p.D1,4)
1995 Randolph Delehanty authored
"San Francisco: The Ultimate Guide."
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
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 moved to a new home at 678 Mission, 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)
1995 Joe Montana retired from
professional football. He had led the 49'ers to 4 Super Bowls, 1982,
1985,1989 and 1990.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E7)
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.
(SFC, 5/19/05, p.B6)
1995 The California College of
Arts and Crafts purchased the old Greyhound Bus maintenance center at
8th and Irwin.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.E1)
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.
(SFC, 8/14/04, p.C1)
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.
(SFC,12/27/97, p.A17)
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.
(SFC,12/18/97, p.A23)
1995 Bill Graham Presents was sold
by Graham’s heirs to 15 employees for $5 million.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A15)
1995 Tele-Communications Inc.
acquired the SF cable franchise from Viacom.
(SFC, 1/23/96, p.A13)
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.
(SFC, 3/19/05, p.B4)
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.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.26)
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.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A21)
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.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A23)
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