Author Archives: Public Press staff

By Laura Wenus, Mission Local The San Francisco Department of Building Inspections released a report this month showing that the majority of housing code violations reported in the Mission District between 2014 and 2015 were corrected. Between July 2014 and June 2015, 215 notices were issued that cited some 1,564 code violations were in the […]

By Laura Wenus, Mission Local Many people living on the streets know that the only exit from homelessness is finding a home. But in a city with exorbitant rents, that becomes trickier than simply getting a job and submitting an application. Some already work, and others are on a fixed income. And leaving altogether often […]

By Laura Waxmann, Mission Local Despite a large number of well-publicized sweeps and routine cleanups of homeless encampments throughout the city, records on file with the Department of Public Works show that city cleaning crews only picked up and preserved the personal belongings of 23 homeless people over a six-month period. Since February, two major […]

By Alison Hawkes, Bay Nature Every year, as summer turns to fall, the mouse population on the South Farallon Islands explodes to plague-like densities, numbering 490 mice per acre, among the highest found on any island in the world. The scientists who live and work there describe the assault of the invasive house mouse as […]

By Lauren Sommer, KQED News Fix/KQED Science When Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced plans to close California’s last remaining nuclear plant last week, it also announced a historic plan to replace it with clean energy, like solar or wind, and energy efficiency gains. That way, the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which doesn’t put out […]

By Dan Brekke and Ryan Levi, KQED News Fix San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee expressed anger about “illegal, irresponsible, outrageous” motorist behavior that resulted in the hit-and-run deaths of two cyclists on city streets Wednesday evening — a statement bicycle safety advocates criticized as “hollow words” that aren’t being backed up with effective action. The […]

By Viji Sundaram, New America Media California’s Prop. 47 allows many individuals to change certain felonies into misdemeanors on their criminal records — but less than a quarter of those eligible have submitted their requests, and the window of opportunity could expire next year. Eighteen months into Prop. 47’s enactment, the state has received some 211,000 […]

By Alice Daniel, KQED News Fix/KQED Science Roger Coigny has lived in the mountain community of Pinehurst for most of his 75 years. He’s seen a lot of changes, but nothing like the millions of Ponderosa pine trees here in the Southern Sierra Nevada that have died over the past two years. “And the ones […]

By Calindra Revier, El Tecolote/ New America Media California is the leader of solar technology and one of the wealthiest states, yet its poorer communities, in large part, don’t have access to this expanding technology. The Mission District, recognized for its Latino community, has for some time been battling the powerful push from the tech industry. […]

By Laurel Rosenhall, KQED News Fix/CALmatters Some of the outsized money spent on California legislative races this year came pouring through the mail slot of voter Michael Johnson’s home, arriving in the form of two or three glossy ads a day in advance of the June primary. Most of the ads weren’t from candidates. They […]