San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/category/bay-area/page/7/)
The morning of Nov. 8, 2018, a fire sparked in rural Northern California. It grew to disastrous proportions faster than some fire experts thought possible, and ultimately destroyed the town of Paradise and devastated several nearby communities.
Bay Area health officers have been working hard to coordinate the region’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. But as Mission Local managing editor and columnist Joe Eskenazi reported last week, that cohesion seems to have started crumbling
Some 80% of calls the fire department responds to are medical emergencies.
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, people are making their own hand-sanitizer to donate to community groups around the Bay Area.
Dr. Monica Bhargava, a pulmonary and critical care physician, emphasizes that social distancing and other protective measures are crucial, but that the health care system is likely to be seeing effects for months to come.
A proposal to ban panhandling and performing on BART is slated to go before the BART board of directors in October. When it heard about the potential ban, the ACLU told the board that such a law would be a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. Abre’ Conner, a staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, addressed issues of free speech and, in particular, how they affect homeless people. Conner details how such a ban would unlawfully restriction this constitutional right.
“It’s a good opportunity for BART to remember that they are a government entity — that does not isolate them or insulate them from having to adhere to people’s free speech rights.” — Abre’ Conner, ACLU Foundation of Northern California staff attorney
Journalist Sylvie Sturm discusses her analysis of how journalists reported on homelessness starting with what was billed as the S.F. homeless project, annual media blitz coordinated by the San Francisco Chronicle beginning in 2016. One of the upshots of the coverage: Lots of proposed solutions, but scant attention paid to digging into the “whys” of homelessness. “The other problem, too, possibly with reporting on homelessness is that the media tends to take the government’s word on everything.” — Sylvie Sturm, journalist
Even in cities with rent control, tenants in those buildings can still face unexpected and potentially ruinous rent increases. This is especially true in San Francisco.
