Education

Officials Vow to Fix Crumbling School: ‘We Have Failed You’

10.14.2021
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This article is adapted from an episode of our podcast “Civic.” Click the audio player below to hear the full story.

Vermin infestation and electrical malfunction. A copy machine in the restroom. Falling ceiling tiles. Parents, students and staff at Buena Vista Horace Mann School in the Mission testified at recent hearings about these and other chronic maintenance problems they say have plagued the school for years. » Read more

Homelessness
Public Works eorkers in vests work to clear an encampment.

Report Calls SF’s Homeless Sweeps Practices Illegal

10.07.2021
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On Jan. 8, 2020, Jayson Hill awoke in his tent near Jerrold Avenue and Rankin Street in the Bayview to the voices of police officers informing him he had to leave his camp.

“Imagine you are at home with your family when there is a knock at the door,” Hill recalled to Judge Michelle Tong in an August small claims hearing. » Read more

News

How SF Renters Can Face Down the Eviction Wave and Stay Housed

10.01.2021
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The head of tenant legal defense in San Francisco wants renters to hear one message loud and clear: Even though the eviction moratorium is now over, “You’re still protected.”

Thursday was the end of the statewide pause on evictions for unpaid rents due to COVID-19-related hardships, and by Friday landlords could begin the process to remove tenants who had not paid at least one-quarter of what was due over the previous year. » Read more

Government & Politics
The Dixon City Council meets on Sept. 21, 2021. According to a Bay Area Equity Atlas report, people of color are underrepresented on councils and boards across the region, and some local governing bodies are all white, including Dixon's.

Elected Officials Do Not Reflect Bay Area’s Diversity

09.30.2021
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This article is adapted from our “Civic” podcast. Click the audio player to hear the full story.

In the ethnically and racially diverse Bay Area, local politicians have long been disproportionately white. Research shows that while more people of color have been running for and winning seats, they make up only slightly more than a third of the region’s elected officials. » Read more

“Civic” Podcast
A crochet teddy bear peeks through the window of a family home in the Ingleside neighborhood. The teddy bear wears blue scrubs, a stethoscope and a mask.

California Eviction Moratorium to Expire; Advocates Urge Renters, Cities to Act

09.23.2021
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This article is adapted from our “Civic” podcast. Click the audio player to hear the full story. 

Landlords may proceed with evictions against tenants for unpaid rent beginning Oct. 1 as a statewide moratorium on such evictions expires. Tenant, legal and public health advocates are urging tenants to apply for rent relief money, and want municipalities to approve additional protections, citing loss of housing as a public health concern.   » Read more

“Civic” Podcast
Kathy Setian, using a walker, boards the J Church train in Noe Valley.

Transit Advocates Celebrate Muni, Flaws and All

09.16.2021
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This article is adapted from our “Civic” podcast. Click the audio player to hear the full story.

After making a nearly hourlong trip with two transfers across three transit lines to cover 2.2 miles, Kathy Setian was not going to join a rally to mark Transit Month at City Hall. » Read more

Climate Change
Wildfires, like the 2018 Carr Fire pictured, are one of the climate threats California may increasingly face in the coming years and that climate action plans are meant to address.

Battling Despair Over a New Climate Change Reality

09.14.2021
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As wildfires rage, unprecedented heat waves kill and cities are drowned in heavy rain, climate dread is turning to climate grief for many people. 

Dr. Robin Cooper, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, told “Civic” that the constant wildfires and air pollution in California have caused some of her patients to become overwrought with grief. » Read more