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Downtown SF vandalism shuts down key City Hall meeting

A damaged Comcast box at Hyde and Geary streets | Morgan Ellis/The Standard

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday meeting was canceled after a Downtown San Francisco Comcast cable box was vandalized, officials said. 

A connection box at Hyde and Geary streets was damaged, forcing the meeting to end its broadcast.

When the board was set to convene at 2 p.m., Board President Aaron Peskin announced the problem and described the issue with the cable as vandalism.

Because supervisors’ meetings are broadcast to Comcast Cable channels 26 and 78, the meeting had to be moved to Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. 

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A damaged Comcast box at Hyde and Geary streets cut a City Hall meeting short after it was vandalized. | Morgan Ellis/The Standard

When contacted by The Standard, a spokesperson for Comcast said the company would provide further information when available. “We are aware of the issue and working to gather more details,” the spokesperson said.

"A fiber enclosure in an underground vault was completely destroyed, disrupting services to customers served by that portion of Comcast’s network," the spokesperson added. "Comcast is working quickly and diligently to restore services for customers impacted by the damage to our network. We will provide updates as services are restored, which we anticipate will occur later this evening."

Early reports from Comcast say around 5,000 customers or fewer have been affected by the damage.

The Board of Supervisors meeting was set to have policy discussions with Mayor London Breed on the city’s developing reparations policy, to vote to accept a settlement deal of up to $19 million from two major pharmacy chains over the opioid epidemic and to pass a resolution against city employees and agencies paying for Twitter Blue certification. 

Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Catherine Stefani were also set to request the drafting of a charter amendment to increase police staffing for the 2024 ballot.

San Francisco police said they received a vandalism report at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday near Hyde and Geary streets and detained an individual during their investigation. No arrested have been made at this time, police said.

This is a developing story.