By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle

Fewer than seven months since its inception, San Francisco's 311 call center, where live operators answer city-related, nonemergency calls 24 hours a day, marked its 1 millionth phone call on Tuesday. Mayor Gavin Newsom answered that call from a man reporting upturned newspaper racks at Geary and Kearny streets. Newsom told the man that he would make sure the problem was promptly fixed. The call center, located at Market and South Van Ness and modeled on similar centers in New York, Chicago and Baltimore, receives 6,000 to 7,000 calls every day. Most calls are related to Muni, but other popular subjects for callers are potholes, graffiti and garbage.

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San Francisco City Hall

San Francisco, CA –Today, Mayor Gavin Newsom answered the one millionth call to the 311 Customer Service Center. The "one-stop" government services call center answers questions about all city services and records citizen input about any issue related to city government. 311 was established in 2006 and launched in spring 2007. Read more »

By Cecilia M. Vega
San Francisco Chronicle

Hoping to keep teachers and police officers from fleeing San Francisco because of its high cost of living, city officials unveiled a program Friday that offers down-payment assistance for the two professions. Credentialed teachers employed by the San Francisco Unified School District who are purchasing their first home in the city could receive a $20,000 interest-free loan to help cover the cost of a down payment. Teachers whose households earn less than 200 percent of the area median income, roughly $120,000, would be eligible. If teachers remain employed in the district for 10 years, the loan will be completely forgiven.

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By Ellen Lee
San Francisco Chronicle

MySpace, the popular social-networking destination, is opening an office this week in San Francisco and plans to hire as many as 200 employees as it moves to redesign its site, introduce features and fend off rivals such as Facebook. The San Francisco office, in the SoMa neighborhood near AT&T Park, will focus on enhancing MySpace's infrastructure, creating products and forging strategic partnerships - some of which are expected to be announced this week. "We literally planned out all the products we're going to build in the next year or two. We don't have enough engineers to do what we want to do," MySpace Chief Executive Officer Chris DeWolfe said. "Clearly, San Francisco and Silicon Valley attract the top engineering talent in the world. ... It's going to allow us to develop incredibly rapidly."

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Bay Area Reporter

February 12, 2004 changed our world. Mayor Gavin Newsom had just returned from Washington where he was a guest of then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at the president's State of the Union address. He, and the rest of us, witnessed the president voice his support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Returning to San Francisco, Newsom, in an act of amazing boldness and incredible political courage, ordered then-city Assessor Mabel Teng to issue marriage licenses to any couple who wished to marry, regardless of sex or gender identity, an order that Teng was happy to follow. For the next month, nearly 4,000 couples from all over the country flocked to San Francisco to marry in what would be called the "Winter of Love." The national and world press at first reported it as just another example of left coast San Francisco being out of touch with the real world. But as married couples returned home and resumed their lives, the sky didn't fall, and the national dialogue changed. Read more »

By Ryan Kim
San Francisco Chronicle

The Wikimedia foundation, the force behind the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is moving its headquarters to San Francisco this winter. Founder Jimmy Wales said Wednesday the small operation is packing up its office in St. Petersburg, Fla., and moving to San Francisco in an attempt to create a larger brand, attract more talent and make better inroads in developing countries, particularly in Asia. Wikipedia, which is edited largely by volunteers, is among the 10 most visited Internet sites in the world. "San Francisco won out for all the obvious reasons - the Internet culture, the great developers and potential partners. It's really the place to be," Wales said. "We're a major Internet brand and this is where a lot of the major brands are located."

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By The Milken Institute

In a groundbreaking study released by the Milken Institute, the annual economic impact on the U.S. economy of the most common chronic diseases is calculated to be more than $1 trillion, which could balloon to nearly $6 trillion by the middle of the century. Yet the news is not entirely grim because much of this cost is avoidable. "An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease" brings to light for the first time what is often overlooked in the discussion of the impact of chronic disease — the economic loss associated with preventable illness and the cost to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and American businesses in lost growth.

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By Jill Tucker
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco's schoolyards have long been off-limits on the weekends and holidays, most with large padlocks and chain-link fences that keep families out. The city and school district have decided to change that, announcing a pilot program Monday that would allow weekend access at up to 14 school playgrounds.The idea sounds simple enough: Open the gates, let kids in, and then shut the gates at the end of the day. But actually putting that into practice is not so easy.

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By CBS 5 News

A new pilot program exploring pay-by-cell-phone parking in San Francisco received backing from Mayor Gavin Newsom today. "Other cities around the world already use this technology, so there's no reason for us to not give our residents the same advantage," Newsom said in a written statement. The 90-day San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency program began Sept. 10 and is employing three different companies in test areas throughout the city in order to compare technologies, according to Newsom's office. Currently, parking meters in certain city-owned, off-street parking lots in the Richmond, Marina and West Portal districts are employing the technology.

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The coalition for marriage equality grew a little bigger last week when Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego reversed his opposition to same-sex marriage and signed a resolution in support of gay marriage in California. Choking back tears, Mayor Sanders -- with his wife at his side -- told a news conference that separate is not equal, after revealing his daughter is a lesbian. "In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships, their very lives, were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana," Sanders said. Watch the powerful video of Mayor Sanders by clicking here. If you support marriage equality sign our petition. Read more »