Officials offer explanations for 18-month delay in releasing city-funded study that foresees serious climate-related flooding in Mission Bay in the decades ahead. The release followed a public-records request by the Public Press.
Author Archives: Kevin Stark
Kevin Stark is a journalist living in San Francisco. Before joining KQED radio in spring 2019, he worked for the Public Press for 10 years, having covered local politics, labor, health care and the environment.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Neighborhoods
Researchers: Abandon Neighborhoods, Avoid Flood Zone to Limit Sea Level Rise
The vision of a future San Francisco buttressed by dikes, levees and seawalls over coming decades is being overshadowed by an increasingly accepted alternative: moving away from the waterfront. Some experts argue that physical barriers offer only the illusion of protection and that cities should accept that some neighborhoods will need to be abandoned.
Posted inNews
Gov. Brown Rallies Climate Scientists Worried That Trump May Destroy Key Data
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday rallied scientists fearful that decades of crucial climate data could disappear after President-elect Donald Trump takes control of the federal government.
Posted inClimate Change
Waterfront Developers Would Be Winners in Proposed Property Tax to Fight Sea Level Rise
If passed, Measure AA would help protect coastal real estate from sea level rise by funding wetland restoration. Beneficiaries could include major developers and tech companies in Silicon Valley.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Land use, News, Technology
Silicon Valley Expansion Plans Risk Flooding From Rising Seas, State Planners Say
Google, Facebook and others are building headquarters along the shoreline as scientists paint a grimmer picture for coastal development.
Posted inArts & Culture, Climate Change, Elections, Government & Politics, Land use, Neighborhoods
When Sea Level Rises, How Long Can Mission Rock Survive?
Voters approved the Giants’ $1.6 billion waterfront development, but environmental questions linger about whether Mission Rock could be occasionally or permanently submerged as bay waters rise by many feet before the end of the 21st century.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Housing, Land use, Neighborhoods, News, Sea Level Rise: 1st in a Series, Technology
Major S.F. Bayfront Developments Advance Despite Sea Rise Warnings
Builders plan to invest more than $21 billion in offices and homes in flood-prone areas, where waters could climb 8 feet above today’s high tide by the end of this century. Land-use records reveal that the building boom, fueled by a white-hot tech economy, is moving too fast for regulators to keep pace. (Cover story from the summer 2015 print edition)
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Housing, Land use, Neighborhoods, News, Sea Level Rise: 1st in a Series, Technology
As Science Gets Better, Dramatic Sea Rise Seems More Certain
Sea level rise of 8 feet is an unlikely but worrisome possibility. Many objections to preparing aggressively for sea level rise center on the uncertainty in projections about how quickly global warming will cause the oceans to expand. But the science is increasingly clear.
Posted inNews
Pier 70 Waterfront Development Could Flood This Century
New projections reveal that a major proposed housing and retail project could be underwater by the year 2100.
Posted inCity Hall, Law & Justice, Public Safety, Social Justice
Poor Record Keeping Hinders Analysis of Domestic Violence Policing Practices
As statistics go from tick marks to laptops, police struggle to make sense of trends
The San Francisco Police Department cannot precisely measure the number of domestic violence cases it handled before 2011, because investigators in the Special Victims Unit hand-tallied monthly records, and used changing and inconsistently understood categories of crimes. This story appeared as part of a special report on domestic violence in the Fall 2012 print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.