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Seniors selling what they get from food banks

Juan Gomez, Mission Local — Nov 14 2011 - 11:37am

Visit the farmers market in downtown San Francisco on Sundays, and you may see, past the stands of organic lettuce and fresh flowers, a few elderly women hunched over a random assortment of condiments and canned goods. As security approaches, they quickly scatter, only to set up shop on the opposite corner a few moments later. According to several food pantries, elderly recipients of free food disbursements are turning around and selling the donations at various locations throughout San Francisco. 

Change starts at neighborhood corner store

Marta Franco, Mission Local — Nov 3 2011 - 10:15am

Cookies, sandwiches, salads: Every afternoon, neighbors and visitors stop at Tony’s Market at 24th and Hampshire to buy  food or pick up lunch at Pal’s Takeaway, inside the store. Only a few years ago, Kassa Mehari, the store’s owner, sold mostly liquor. But three years ago, as the street was developing, Mehari decided it was time for the store to change. 

Occupy Oakland protesters push for general strike

Alima Catellacci and Alejandra Cuéllar, SF Public Press — Oct 27 2011 - 1:30pm
The day after a tumultuous confrontation between police and the protesters of the Occupy Oakland movement, more than 2,000 people gathered Wednesday at the civic center to vent their outrage at the heavy-handed eviction tactics, which included launching teargas into the crowd. Thousands of protesters convened in the early evening in an amphitheater in what they were calling Oscar Grant Plaza — officially Frank Ogawa plaza at City Hall, renamed after the victim of a police shooting on BART last year — to discuss the events of the previous 48 hours.

Gulf residents doubt government committed to working with communities to fix spill damage

Kevin Stark, SF Public Press — Dec 9 2010 - 11:01am

Some fear money won't go to restoring ravaged coastline

As the federal government promotes initiatives to ensure long-term recovery for the oil-spill-beleaguered Gulf Coast region, officials are attempting to court marginalized community groups whose members say their suggestions have been disregarded or they have been left out of discussions entirely. But the reaction has been skeptical, with residents saying they have been deceived by low-ball official assessments of environmental and health threats. Residents say they are increasingly anxious about the economic and environmental viability of life along the shoreline. As many as one-quarter of the region’s residents say they are thinking of moving away.

Utopianism behind them, co-ops seek new strength helping low-wage workers

Mineko Brand, SF Public Press — Sep 9 2010 - 10:00am

Worker-owned cooperatives are growing as an alternative business model that puts the people who do the work in control. And they are getting a lot more organized than in the recent past, turning local networks into regional and national organizations. With the Bay Area still grappling with high unemployment rates and a weak economy, co-op advocates say they have a solution that is gaining momentum. Membership in the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives has grown 25 percent a year for the past two years, said Melissa Hoover, executive director of the San Francisco-based group.

‘Socially responsible outsourcing’ takes tech jobs to developing world

Ambika Kandasamy, SF Public Press — Aug 12 2010 - 10:41am
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A local nonprofit group is making a name for itself in the tech world by providing U.S.-based companies with low-priced online labor in developing countries. While thousands of for-profit companies have been offshoring tech jobs for years, San Francisco-based Samasource says it wants to turn online work into a tool to alleviate poverty.

Report says city’s mandate on local hiring for construction projects isn’t working

Jerold Chinn, SF Public Press — Aug 2 2010 - 5:31pm

A new report from the Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Brightline Defense Project said the city is not meeting its local hiring mandate for construction projects in the city. Vincent Pan, executive director of the Chinese for Affirmative Action, a non-profit organization that advocates hiring local residents, said San Francisco is well below its mandate. The report titled “The Failure of Good Faith,” shows only 24 percent of city work hours are filled by city residents in 29 projects surveyed by the organizations.“We have to change this mandate to make it more solid so that San Francisco residents are getting the jobs,” said Pan.

At Amybelle’s wash & dry, clean your clothes and work history

Saul Sugarman, SF Public Press — Aug 2 2010 - 9:32am
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Historically, many laundromats have provided cover for seedier operations such as money laundering, gang violence, or more recently in Oakland, marijuana peddling. But a family-run shop in the Richmond District is trying a far different experiment: free Wi-Fi and career counseling.

City workers decry layoffs, demand alternatives

Christopher D. Cook, SF Public Press — Mar 15 2010 - 2:48pm

City workers are demanding alternatives to Mayor Gavin Newsom’s hard-nosed fiscal approach as he attempts to close a $522 million projected budget gap through mass layoffs and de-facto furloughs.

As San Francisco grapples with a ballooning deficit for the coming fiscal year, Newsom laid off 17,474 workers two weeks ago, but promised to hire back “most” of them at 37½ hours per week. For the rehired, that represents a 6.25 percent pay cut — which city workers’ unions intend to challenge in court.

Toting 8½-by-11-inch “termination of employment” pink slips, angry city workers lined up at last Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee hearing to decry the layoffs and urge city leaders to explore other sources of money.

Embattled union seeks to blunt second year of city cuts

Kevin Stark, SF Public Press — Feb 26 2010 - 10:54am

(UPDATE: A reform slate of candidates won victory in the election. For details, see Kevin Stark's blog). wins the election this weekend at Northern California’s largest public-sector union will inherit a troubled labor local beset by internal conflict and controversial negotiations in San Francisco that cost the union hundreds of jobs this past year.

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