This month, we embark on a new partnership with CitySmart — a free weekly briefing that covers key Board of Supervisors votes, decisions, and what’s coming up next, in plain language to keep San Franciscans informed and engaged with what their government is up to. Let us know how you like this new feature!

1. Cliff’s Variety Turns 90, With Your Supervisor in the Room

On June 23, President Mandelman suspended the rules to grant privilege of the floor and personally presented a Certificate of Honor to Cliff’s Variety, accepted by Terry Asten Bennett, marking the beloved Castro Street hardware-and-everything-else store’s 90th anniversary and its run as a neighborhood fixture since 1936. It’s the kind of item that never makes an agenda headline but says something real about District 8: a five-minute ceremonial resolution, sandwiched between charter amendments and lawsuit settlements, honoring a business that generations of Dolores Heights and Castro residents have walked to for a lightbulb, a garden hose, or a Halloween costume. Small institutions like Cliff’s are exactly what keeps a hillside residential neighborhood functioning as a walkable one.

2. The Board Authorized a $200M Lifeline to Keep MUNI Running

The Board voted on June 16 to let SFMTA borrow up to $200 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for transit operations over the next 12 years. That’s not a glamorous vote, but for the Mission it matters: the 14-Mission and 14R Rapid are two of the highest-ridership surface bus routes in the entire city, running the full length of Mission Street and carrying tens of thousands of riders daily. Add the J-Church along Church Street through Dolores Park, the 49 along Van Ness and Mission, and BART at 16th and 24th Streets, and the neighborhood has more transit infrastructure per block than almost anywhere else in SF. The loan is a stopgap against service cuts while SFMTA works through a long-term structural deficit — the kind of behind-the-scenes fiscal move that doesn’t make headlines until the buses stop showing up.

If you care about what happens at City Hall, CitySmart makes it easy to stay informed — including what the Board passed this month to make Dolores Heights a better place to live.