Where No City Has Gone Before: San Francisco Will Be World's First Zero-Waste Town by 2020

A sculpture made of garbage salvaged from
San Francisco's dump
Photo Credit: Sven Eberlein

A future without landfills? SF is already 78% of the way there -- but the hardest part is still ahead.

April 18, 2012

Last month, the millionth ton of food scraps, coffee grounds and soiled paper from San Francisco’s mandatory composting program returned to residents’ dinner tables in the form of fresh, organic foods grown by local farmers using the city’s nutrient-rich compost as fertilizer. Coming on the heels of the city’s 2009 municipal ordinance requiring city-wide source separation of all organic materials, the first large-scale urban food waste and composting program in the country has not only helped reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions to nearly 12 percent below 1990 levels; it's also catapulted San Francisco to a staggering, nation-leading 78 percent waste diversion rate.

Just a few years ago, a zero-waste city was considered a futuristic scenario. Now, the city by the bay is on track to be the first and only North American city to achieve this impressive goal -- and it plans to get there by 2020.  READ MORE

Study: Errors in 84 percent of SF foreclosures

February 16, 2012 5:30 PM

(AP)  SAN FRANCISCO — More than 80 percent of residential mortgage loans that have gone into foreclosure in San Francisco have missing documents or signatures or otherwise violate the law, according to a review ordered by the city assessor.

The results hint at potentially broader problems with how foreclosures have been handled since the collapse of the housing market.

While many of the errors were technical and related to paperwork, the problem shows the state needs to change its antiquated real estate regulations, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said on Wednesday.

"The whole process ... is absolutely, 100 percent broken and not working for any of us at this time," Ting said. "These rules were made for people who walked or rode their horse to the bank."

The review found that signatures of some original owners of loans were missing and that affidavits were not filed showing lenders had contacted borrowers to discuss their options 30 days before a mortgage default notice.

The review was conducted by Newport Beach-based Aequitas Compliance Solutions. The company looked at 382 of the city's 2,405 foreclosure sales between January 2009 and October 2011.
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