All stories about "Nancy Shanahan"

Under the cover of night (or the North Beach Festival) a fed-up hooligan or two scaled the shuttered building at 1701 Powell Street, on the corner of Powell and Columbus, in order to deliver a pointed message to the notoriously NIMBY-infested nabe below: "Enough with the plywood," says the strategically-placed banner. Built in 1909, the former Pagoda Theater has soldiered through a long series of identity changes including— shocker— a stint as a 24-hour Rite Aid. Next up: Around 17 dwellings, underground parking, and (via per Eater) a rumored second resto for La Corneta on the ground floor. Now don't expect any of this to go down soon— as per our last post on the subject:

Naturally, nabe cronies from rival groups the North Beach Neighbors and the Telegraph Hill Dwellers are going fisticuffs over the plan which, if approved (as if!), could be under construction as soon as August. Everyone has something to say on the subject, of course, least of all Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Marsha Garland, president of the NB Chamber of Commerce. Says Garland of Nancy Shanahan, Telegraph Hill Dwellers president (and Peskin's wife) who Garland claims puts the block on any and every project: "She says, 'It doesn't look like it did back in the '30s,' " ... "Well, neither do you, lady." Harsh.

Thanks to the Chron's C.W. Nevius for helping us with our homework— Nev's picked up the scent on the (hopefully) soon-to-be-new-and-improved Pagoda Theater across from Washington Square Park. Last month, a Curbed SF reader alerted us to the proposed project, which calls for 17 residential units (according to our source; Nevius says 20) underground parking, and ground-floor restaurant space. The latest proposal is one in a long history of "almost" and "could've been" plans for the site, which was built in 1909 and has survived many incarnations since, including a stint as a 24-hour Rite Aid. A Rite Aid pharmacy. In North Beach. Imagine.

Paging Naomi Campbell and her Blackberry: Naturally, nabe cronies from rival groups the North Beach Neighbors and the Telegraph Hill Dwellers are going fisticuffs over the plan which, if approved (as if!), could be under construction as soon as August. Everyone has something to say on the subject, of course, least of all Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Marsha Garland, president of the NB Chamber of Commerce. Says Garland of Nancy Shanahan, Telegraph Hill Dwellers president (and Peskin's wife) who Garland claims puts the block on any and every project: "She says, 'It doesn't look like it did back in the '30s,' " ... "Well, neither do you, lady." Harsh. (Hired!)

The People's Guide is Curbed SF's tour o' the nabes, led by our most loyal readers, favorite bloggers, and other luminaries of our choosing. Jackson West has been on board with us as a guest contributor for the past week— he's been blogging in and about San Francisco for nearly five years, most recently gossiping about the technology industry at Valleywag. Why not go out in a blazing ball of flaming glory? Thus we present Jackson's last post in this series, a hard-hitting piece of journalistic inquiry if there ever was one. Let it rip, Jackson.

I get a lot of weird mailers at my building. Living in North Beach, it's apparently assumed that I agree with the Examiner's Ken Garcia, can't wait to read about Donald Fisher's CAMP in Northside and that I might want to recall my district representative, President of the Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin. Okay, that last one made me chuckle. Isn't he about to get termed out, and hasn't he publicly expressed his unwillingness to run again for public office? (Which hasn't stopped talk of mayoral ambition.) But one of the "issues" the flier brought up was the rumor about Peskin getting a sweetheart deal on his Telegraph Hill home— one that has been around for years.

It was on my rumor radar early in 2006, even though it was quickly discounted by H. Brown, from whom I first heard the anecdote. I did some digging, and I came up with bupkiss. I could confirm some details, but the crux of the allegations— that Peskin was essentially gifted hundreds of thousands of dollars by local Republicans and that the Department of Building Inspection let him get away with un-permitted renovations— I couldn't nail down. And frankly, given that I run into Peskin regularly and I've heard he can be really mean, I didn't want to press the issue.

But if anyone can make sense of it all, I figured Curbed readers might. So quit slaggin' me in the comments and put on your thinkin' caps, as I shall present the facts without judgment as best as I can: