A state appellate court has blocked San Francisco from considering an historical landmark designation for a 98-year-old church building. The court ruled that, under state law, the building is exempt from local regulations to protection historic landmarks. >>read more

To many Californians, the lively, pedestrian-oriented streets and plazas of San Francisco are what make the city so enjoyable. But away from these celebrated areas, San Francisco has many of the same problems with its streets as other aging urban areas. There are countless blocks of treeless roads that are more useful for shuttling speeding cars to freeways, than for providing safe corridors for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The city has set out to improve those streets that don't match up to the city's reputation with an ambitious "Better Streets Plan."

A roundup of green news: San Francisco may soon have the most stringent environmental building standards in the country; the state's "million solar roofs initiative" gets a slow start; new Oakland office tower would be among the tallest and greenest.