Twitter uses the t.co domain as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets. Back to Twitter Learn more Continue reading →

Russell Yip / The Chronicle San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee. There may finally be a solution to helping middle-class San Franciscans who cannot afford to buy a home of their own in the city. Mayor Ed Lee on Tuesday will announce plans to create the city's first dedicated funding stream for moderate-income and affordable housing, generating $20 million to $50 million a year for 30 years. The plan not only would help provide middle-income residents with up to $100,000 in down payment assistance, but it also is designed to stimulate market-rate development and fund 4,500 units of affordable housing. Lee, a former tenants' rights lawyer, is pushing for a comprehensive housing proposal as he grapples with two problems: one old, the other relatively new. The ... Continue reading →

The Golden State Warriors are jumping across the bay, with plans for a privately financed, $500 million waterfront arena that would allow the team to play its home games in San Francisco for the first time in more than four decades. The NBA franchise would leave Oakland for a 17,000- to 19,000-seat arena that would be built on Piers 30-32 near the foot of the Bay Bridge, a short walk from downtown, and open in time for the 2017-18 season. "It is going to happen - let there be no doubt," Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob said Monday. The arena would also host conventions and entertainment events such as concerts, Lacob said. Plans for the site also include 100,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space. ... Continue reading →

They bought the perennially underperforming Golden State Warriors in 2010 for $450 million - the most anybody had ever paid for a professional basketball team. Now they've pledged to build a new arena in San Francisco on piers that are literally crumbling into the bay. They're dealing with a city so notoriously political, even the bold Oracle owner and America's Cup organizer Larry Ellison gave up on building on the exact same site. And they've agreed to privately finance the entire $500 million arena with no taxpayer money. Call them crazy or incredibly courageous, but Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber - and team President and CEO Rick Welts - are certainly quick moving, big spending, risk taking, enamored with San Francisco and filled ... Continue reading →

Fior D'Italia. Photo: The Chronicle Fior D’Italia, the 126-year-old restaurant that bills itself as America’s oldest Italian restaurant on its website, is closing tonight. The original incarnation of the restaurant was opened by Angelo Del Monte and ‘Papa’ Marianetti on May 1, 1886, in a bordello at 492 Broadway. When that building burned down a few years later, Fior hopped around several locations through the next several decades. It had a longtime home at 601 Union, where Original Joe’s is today. In 2005, a fire hit that location, and Fior moved to its current location, further down by the Wharf, at the corner of Mason and Francisco. “Times were tough, I guess. The economy is tough,” says partner Trudy Audieri, who confirms the closure. “When ... Continue reading →

An internationally recognized symbol of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Golden Gate Bridge celebrates its 75th anniversary in May of 2012. Originally designed by Charles Ellis, Joseph Strauss and Irving Morrow, the 1.7-mile suspension bridge opened on May 27, 1937, at the time making it the longest suspension bridge in the world. Some 200,000 people crossed the bridge by foot and on roller skates the day before the official opening, and the surrounding festivities lasted an entire week. Prior to the bridge's construction, crossing the mouth of the San Francisco Bay required a 27-minute ferry ride. Building a bridge was simply considered too difficult due to strong winds and currents, until a former engineering student named James Wilkins submitted a feasible proposal in 1916. ... Continue reading →