A fourth playground fire in the month of May broke out in the Outer Richmond at 10:55 p.m. Wednesday night, burning down the playground structure at Lincoln Park. ⁠ ⁠ This comes on the heels of two recent fires at nearby Lafayette Elementary School that destroyed a PTA storage shed and the schoolyard play structure, and a May 10 fire also at Lincoln Park. The San Francisco Fire Department could not yet confirm arson or serial arson, but the arson task force is assigned to the case, according to a fire department lieutenant. ⁠ ⁠ Lincoln Park’s playground, located at the southeastern edge of the park near Clement Street, has now been closed off by yellow tape. The playground at Lafayette Elementary School on 36th Avenue between Balboa and Anza streets has been fenced off; parents and students wove a work of art into the fence to obscure the wreckage. ⁠ ⁠ “There have been expressions of concern like ‘is this an escalating situation? Is someone trying to send a message?” said the vice president of the PTA at Lafayette Elementary School. ⁠ ⁠ Read more from Xueer Lu and Madera Longstreet-Lipson at the link below: (fb)

Mayor Daniel Lurie made a promise to give San Francisco a fresh start. Today, delivering on that promise includes the announcement of a new public-private street-cleaning initiative — and a new alliance with billionaire political donors Michael Moritz and Chris Larsen. ⁠ ⁠ Avenue Greenlight, a nonprofit founded and initially funded by Larsen, has provided money to merchant organizations to support community projects along commercial corridors, and is putting $3 million toward the power-washing initiative. ⁠ ⁠ Larsen, through Avenue Greenlight, and Moritz, via his philanthropic organization Crankstart, are supporting the initiative — and both made a rare public appearance alongside Lurie at a press conference on Thursday morning at Mission and 19th streets. ⁠ ⁠ The power-washing initiative will serve high-traffic areas in the Mission, Sunset, Tenderloin, Richmond, Chinatown, North Beach and Fillmore. The program will supplement city cleaning efforts with “deep steam sanitation, recurring maintenance, and real-time community reporting,” during afternoon and evening hours. ⁠ ⁠ “Clean streets are key to our comeback. When our streets are cared for and vibrant, people come out and spend time in their neighborhoods,” said Lurie.⁠ ⁠ Read more from Kelly Waldron at the link below: (fb)