Monday San Francisco News Roundup

By sf-admin • 9 years ago • News

Police Release Video Of Arsonist Suspect Of Vandalizing Mission Mural

Police released a surveillance video Saturday of a man suspected of vandalizing a mural in the Mission District.

Around 11:10 p.m. on June 29, police responded to the corner of 24th Street and Bryant Street regarding a building fire, police said.

Upon arrival, police discovered the mural had been burned.

The mural belongs to the Galeria De La Raza and is titled “Por Vida” or “For Life.”

The mural was unveiled by San Francisco’s Galeria de la Raza on June 13th and is located close to the gallery. The mural depicts three scenes mixing queer and low-rider culture.

One scene shows two men together, another shows a transgender person and the third shows two women together.

Before the most recent incident, the mural had been vandalized with graffiti on June 16 and again on June 21, police said.

Police described the suspect as a male, 6 feet tall and weighing 190 pounds. The suspect was wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants, white tennis shoes, white gloves and a black cloth covering the lower half of his face.

The suspect was last seen running south on Bryant toward 25th Street.

18-Year-Old Man Rescued From Lands End

Emergency crews rescued an 18-year-old man who fell down a San Francisco cliff early Monday morning, according to fire officials.

Around 12:34 a.m., firefighters received a report of a person who had possibly fallen down a cliff at Lands End, located at 680 Point Lobos Avenue, a fire dispatcher said.

When firefighters arrived, they learned the victim had reached the bottom of a cliff near Eagle Point Labyrinth, according to the dispatcher.

At 2:17 a.m., a rescue boat was able to locate the victim at the bottom of the cliff and take him to safety, the dispatcher said.

The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with injuries not considered life threatening, according to the dispatcher.

Protesters Launch Kayaks In Bay To Protest Potential Arctic Oil Drilling

About 40 people kayaked in San Francisco Bay on Saturday to protest the potential for oil drilling this summer in the Arctic, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The protest started at about 1 p.m. at Pier 40 in San Francisco and also included 20 to 30 protesters on shore, the center’s spokesman Steve Jones said.

Protesters and a person dressed as a polar bear named Frostpaw chanted and held signs to urge President Obama to avoid giving Royal Dutch Shell PLC, The Hague, Netherlands, drilling approval, Jones said.

The protest was one of 17 simultaneous events occurring around the country.

“As we struggle to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change, it’s unthinkable that Shell could drill for oil in the Arctic,” the center’s attorney Kristen Monsell said in a statement. “The recent pipeline rupture near Santa Barbara showed how damaging coastal oil spills can be, but harsh conditions in the Arctic would make a cleanup impossible and do irreparable damage to the environment.”

Jones said groups and people opposed to the drilling are using the hashtag #ShellNo to draw attention to their dissent.

Jones said earlier this year kayakers in the Port of Seattle successfully halted a Shell rig on its way to the Arctic. That protest prompted today’s action, according to Jones.

Record High Temperatures In Three Bay Area Cities

Three Bay Area cities saw record high temperatures Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperature Sunday in San Francisco was 86 degrees, breaking the previous record of 82 degrees set in 1996, National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin said.

The high temperature Sunday in Oakland was 91 degrees, breaking the previous record of 85 degrees set in 1971.

Benjamin said the high temperature Sunday at the Salinas Airport was 82 degrees, one degree above the previous record set in 1988.

“It was very, very warm over the Bay Area,” he said. The normal high in San Francisco this time of year is 66 degrees, he said.

The normal high in Oakland is 70 degrees.

Benjamin said moist humid southerly air from Hurricane Dolores influenced Sunday’s Bay Area temperatures.

“We experience this every so often,” Benjamin said. The storms usually track west, but this one tracked north, he said. The storm brought nearly an inch of rain to Carmel Valley, a community in Monterey County, he said.

A thunderstorm sat over the community for about two hours Sunday, according to the weather service.