We’ve mostly stayed away from the Ed Jew story. It’s one of those cases where we don’t necessarily have that much to add. There’s one question that nobody has answered yet, however, which is where dows Ed Jew actually live? It’s well-documented that he is rarely seen at his putative 28th Ave residence, and he’d have a hard time living there unless he’s living some sort of water-free life.

What’s been less discussed, however, is that he’s not been seen around Burlingame, where his wife and kid live, either.

Jew’s wife and daughter live at the Burlingame house at 2116 Roosevelt Ave., which records show the Jews purchased in 1997. Neighbors there told The Chronicle that Jew stops by infrequently.
Now this may be one of those City Hall open secrets, where everybody knows he’s living in a Clement Street walkup with his girlfriend, or boyfriend, or whatever, but I think it would have come out by now, if it were.

What’s more serious is yesterday’s accusations that it was Jew who initiated the exchange that ended up with $20,000 cash in his safe.

ew told The Chronicle Friday that operators of Quickly outlets approached him earlier this year for help with permit problems and he later accepted a $40,000 cash payment from the businessmen because they said the money was owed to a permit consultant Jew had referred them to and because they insisted on paying the rookie supervisor directly.

But the Quickly employee told The Chronicle this week that it was Jew who approached the franchisees about permit problems they didn’t even know they had at the time and said it would cost them money to make the problems go away.

It was only after being approached by Jew that the franchisees received letters from the city Planning Department informing them they needed to obtain special city Planning Commission conditional use permits to continue to operate.

“Ed Jew asked them to pay money,” said the Quickly employee, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the criminal investigation now under way . “He said, ‘I need to have the money to take care of this issue.’ ”

It’s still not a slam dunk that Jew’s guilty, but as one former judge has been heard to say, “there are all the elements of a chargeable crime here.”