Author Archives: Public Press staff

Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park is set to become Hellman Meadow if the Recreation and Park Department approves the plan unanimously passed earlier this month by the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors. The name change would honor Warren Hellman, the financial and spiritual force behind the three-day free music fest known as Hardly […]

 By Viji Sundaram, New America Media In the one year Gabe Chavez was without health insurance after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, life “was horrible,” he said. “Nobody should be without insurance,” said Chavez, 39. “It’s too dangerous.” Chavez’s doctors did the best they could to help him cope with the disease, but blood […]

By C.K. Hickey, Mission Local From the day BART’s tracks first powered on in 1972, the public rapid transit system has been synonymous with its magnetically striped cards, available in sky blue, pea green or pale red. That familiar pneumatic chink as you insert the card into the terminal gate is as much a part […]

By Terria Smith, Crosscurrents From KALW News This year marks the 100th anniversary of the public debut of a man called Ishi. Ishi was Native American, a Yana from the Deer Creek area, about 150 miles northeast of Berkeley. And for the past century he’s been known as “the last wild Indian in North America.” […]

By Alicia Avila, Mission Local A small group of teenagers talking sports and girls passes through the doors of the computer lab on the second floor of Mission High school. One student in particular stands out. She looks like a teenager in a mood, with her backpack hanging from one hand, an attitude in her […]

By Heather Smith, Mission Local How did San Francisco go from being in the technological vanguard of dog poop innovation to falling somewhere behind Boston and Phoenix? It’s a long story. Welcome, reader, to the second part of Mission Local’s series on that which people pretend not to see but also look for carefully, so […]

By Zaineb Mohammed, New America Media Carolyn Gage was evicted from her foreclosed home in January. In November, she moved back in. “I’ve been in here for 50 years. I know no other place but here. I left, and it was just time for me to come back home,” said Gage, who is in her […]

By Jamie Goldberg, Mission Local When Rami Husary finishes a meal, he collects the trash and scrapes food from the table. Then, opening the trash bin at his parents’ home, he dumps all the waste in together. “We don’t do compost,” said Husary. “It stinks.” Well, he’s breaking the law. Championed by Gavin Newsom and […]

By Alison Hawkes, Bay Nature Four surfboard-size vehicles set sail off the coast of the San Francisco Bay earlier this month in an attempt to break world records in ocean exploration and robotics. The wave gliders will, if successful, traverse the longest distance of any unmanned ocean craft as they cross the Pacific Ocean. Driven […]