San Francisco Public Press

Coronavirus

California has lifted its emergency lockdown order, and San Francisco will get official word on its new tier assignment Tuesday. City leaders expect San Francisco to be placed in the purple tier, which will once again allow outdoor dining. In October, Cheese Plus installed canvas dividers between tables along its Pacific Avenue sidewalk in the city’s Russian Hill neighborhood.

Lockdown Ends — Outdoor Dining, Other Restrictions to Be Lifted

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday that the state’s decision to lift an emergency lockdown order to contain the COVID-19 surge is “good news’’ and a “cause for celebration” even as she cautioned residents that “we have to just use common sense and continue to just accept that we are going to be living with this for some time.” City leaders expect San Francisco to be placed in the purple tier, which will once again allow outdoor dining, limited indoor personal services — if clients and patrons can both wear masks — more capacity in retail stores and the reopening of outdoor museums, zoos, skate parks and golf courses.

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New Emergency Homelessness Response Plan Calls for Elimination of Healthy Streets Operation Center

In an attempt to limit police involvement with emergency calls about homelessness, a city group is proposing eliminating a multimillion-dollar program launched in 2018. The group, composed of representatives of about two dozen city agencies and non-profits, released a 74-page paper Tuesday outlining its plan, called the Compassionate Alternative Response Team.
State Senator Who Made Police Disciplinary Records Public Pushes Transparency Expansion

State Sen. Nancy Skinner wrote SB 1421 to open up law enforcement disciplinary records. In 2020, she moved to expand that legislation to grant access to records about officers who engaged in biased or discriminatory behavior or used excessive or unreasonable force.
One-Quarter of Bay Area Tenants Say They Can’t Pay the Rent

As the pandemic stretches into its second year, an estimated 278,000 households, or roughly one-quarter of the Bay Area’s 1.1 million renters, have little or no confidence they will be able to make next month’s rent, according to a San Francisco Public Press analysis of Census Bureau data. An estimated 60,000 renters living in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo and San Francisco counties who were behind on their rent in mid-December said they feared eviction in the next 60 days.

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