The 3,500-gallon spill of a toxic chemical into San Pablo Bay over the weekend cost an estimated $250,000 to clean up - and it was all for a lousy $10 worth of brass.

The thieves who caused the spill of the chemical toluene at Reaction Products in Richmond were after the valves on holding tanks - the latest example of a crime wave involving barely precious metals that yield a few dollars at the recycling yard but can cost taxpayers big bucks.

In the past year, thieves have stolen everything from copper wiring along the Richmond Parkway to the little aluminum shades that go over the city's red, green and yellow street signals.

"You won't believe the lengths that thieves will go to these days for a couple of bucks worth of metal," said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

It's happening in San Francisco as well, where someone stole two nearly century-old bronze plaques from the Shakespeare Garden in Golden Gate Park a couple of weeks back.

"And that was just a week after the cops busted a dude who was dragging a 300-pound bronze tablet from Dolores Park," said Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Rose Dennis.

The damage can run into the thousands - as evidenced by metal bandits in Richmond who pulled an air conditioning unit out of the Nevin Community Center, and in the process ruptured a water pipe.

The building flooded, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage. "All for a few feet of copper wire and plumbing worth about $2.50," Gagan said.

Replacing the stripped wiring on the Richmond Parkway cost an estimated $250,000 and prompted the city to install wire alarms.

And its not just public property that's getting hit.

Some homeowners have come back from extended absences to find that metal thieves have torn out their interior walls and carted off wiring and piping.

Even the dead are targets.

Last year, Gagan said, metal thieves made off with more than 200 little graveside bronze flower vases from Rolling Hills Memorial Park cemetery in Richmond.

Measuring up: It was all smiles for the cameras a few days back as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sen. Dianne Feinstein held a rally in Bayview-Hunters Point in support of Proposition G, the June ballot measure backing a big development at Candlestick Point that could include a new home for the 49ers.

But with vote-by-mail balloting already getting under way this week, there is a growing fear behind the scenes that the measure is in danger of going down far short of the goal line.

A lack of unified support from the Board of Supervisors, the absence of a deal with organized labor over how much "workforce housing" should be included, and a rival "poison pill" initiative by Supervisor Chris Daly that would require half the homes built to be affordable housing, threaten to upend the mayor's big development before it even gets off the ground.

"You can always count on a certain number of folks to line up and do the wrong thing," said Prop. G and mayoral campaign adviser Eric Jaye. "It's really destructive ... but I don't think anyone is surprised."

Recent polls conducted by developer Lennar Corp.'s "Yes on G" campaign show that while the measure is ahead 50 percent to 30 percent, Daly's "companion" Proposition F is leading by an even wider margin - 58 percent to 31 percent. And even if Prop. G gets more votes, Prop. F needs only simple majority approval to take effect.

If that happens, "it's all over - we absolutely can't do the project at 50 percent (affordable hous-ing)," said Kofi Bonner, head of Lennar's San Francisco office.

The mayor's City Hall point man on the project, Michael Cohen, calls Daly's initiative "reckless and dishonest" - arguing that it will kill development in the city's southeast corner for years.

Daly, whose initiative has the backing of the weekly Bay Guardian and the local chapter of the Sierra Club, said the Lennar plan - at least in its present form - deserves to die.

"This out-of-state developer should play by the rules and meet the needs of everyday San Franciscans," he said.

Not surprisingly, with millions of dollars already invested in the project, Lennar is gearing up for a costly campaign against Prop. F that highlights Daly - not exactly the town's most popular politician - as its biggest backer.

Meanwhile, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin is also holding back his endorsement of the mayor's plan, and instead is turning up the heat on Lennar to bend more for the unions.

Put it all together, and what once looked like a sure thing for Lennar is shaping up more as a 50-50 bet at best.

Hurd on the street: Veteran NBC-11 reporter Cheryl Hurd found herself the star of her own story on San Francisco's plague of car robberies the other day when she had her computer snatched right out of her lap as she sat in her camera truck working on a story about "smash and grab" robberies in the Western Addition.

Hurd had just wrapped up her interviews and had parked on the corner of Eddy and Buchanan streets for her live shot.

"Three men walked up very close to the van and the next thing I know the passenger door was pulled open," Hurd said. "They grabbed the computer and ran."

It all happened right under a police surveillance camera. The cops are still looking for the guys who did it.

And finally: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom'sgubernatorial road show continued Tuesday with some nice photo ops in Israel - first of the mayor laying a wreath at slain leader Yitzhak Rabin's memorial, then meeting with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.

When Huldai mentioned that he had to deal with a legislative body of 31 members, Newsom - who has 11 supervisors of his own to contend with - sympathetically shot back, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yes," Huldai said after the laughter subsided, "but ours only meets once a month."

EXTRA! Catch our Web page at www.sfgate.com/matierandross.

Play the bending Bill Clinton caption contest. Tell us what really happened to fugitive financier Robert Vesco. And read the Extra, Extra, Extra musings and insights of friends including Rich "Big Vinny" Lieberman and The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci and Don "Bad Reporter" Asmussen.