Author Archives: Public Press staff

By Rachael Myrow, KQED News Fix Tens of thousands of tech workers have flooded into San Francisco in recent years, changing the face of the city. How will they affect the upcoming election? Let’s begin by agreeing that there is no techie block vote. We’re not talking about The Borg here. But more to the […]

By Graelyn Brashear, Bay Nature On a recent Wednesday evening at the edge of Pine Lake Park dog play area in San Francisco, Gina Farr stepped forward in front of several dozen people and their dogs, and rattled a Red Bull can full of loose change in the face of a volunteer. “And then I […]

By Bryan Goebel, KQED News Fix A type of bikeway popular in bicycling meccas such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam is going to be tested on San Francisco’s main thoroughfare next month. It has a design that transportation officials say will become more common over the next few years, as the city rolls out a number […]

By Lauren McNulty, Bay Nature  If you remember the Presidio’s Mountain Lake of 15 years ago, you remember the algae blooms in summer and the dead fish floating in the lake. To see the lake a few weeks ago, as over 50 people did at a triumphant restoration event at the outdoor classroom, is to […]

By Laura Waxmann, Mission Local For those involved in the struggle to keep San Franciscans in their homes, the year following tenant activist Ted Gullicksen’s sudden death was both challenging and transformative. “Ted was the key strategist for pretty much any piece of tenant legislation that went to the ballot over the last 20 years,” […]

By KQED News Staff and Wires, The California Report California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Monday approved the state’s first auto insurance policy specifically for Lyft drivers who have a passenger in the car. The policy, from MetLife Auto & Home insurance, is not the first approved in California for drivers working for Uber or […]

By Rebecca Bowe, KQED News Fix On Nov. 3, San Francisco voters will be asked to decide between Mayor Ed Lee and five other candidates for San Francisco’s top political job, which Lee has held since 2011. None of Lee’s challengers have a track record in politics, nor do they have strong name recognition. The […]

By Lindsey Hoshaw, KQED News Fix/KQED Science In a win for environmentalists, Gov. Jerry Brown signed 23 bills on Thursday, banning plastic microbeads, boosting composting and divesting public retirement funds from coal. The microbead ban, AB888, outlaws the sale of cosmetics and toothpaste that contain tiny plastic particles, which pollute waterways and are known to […]

By Mission Local Staff San Francisco has doubled its number of pee-proof walls, but do they repel urine as advertised? Mission Local investigates. The urine-repellent coating at our two testing sites did not repel streams of piss. It may be that our jets of urine were not sharply angled enough. Or the walls could have […]

By Lindsey Hoshaw, The California Report/KQED Science After four years of drought, California has a huge number of dead and dying trees. After a U.S. Forest Service aerial survey last spring, researchers estimated there were 12.5 million dead trees on national forest lands alone. That does not count dead and dying trees in open spaces […]