HIV & AIDS
Volunteers spread open a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt during an opening ceremony on Saturday, June 11, 2022, at Robin Williams Meadow in Golden Gate Park. This was the largest display of the quilt since it was shown in Washington, D.C., in 2012.

After SF Visit, AIDS Quilt Heads to South to Raise Awareness

07.05.2022
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The AIDS Memorial Quilt was unfurled recently in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for its largest display in a decade, marking the start of a campaign to educate the public about a disease that, since 1981, has infected 1.2 million people nationwide. 

While new HIV infections in the United States have been in decline, the disease continues to take a disproportionate toll on racial and ethnic minorities, men who identify as gay or bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. The highest rates of new infections and numbers of untreated people are found in the South. 

Organizers estimated that 20,000 people visited the San Francisco quilt display June 11 and 12. This fall, sections of the quilt will be taken on a tour of the South for “large displays in city centers, as well as smaller displays in rural, non-metro areas,” said Dafina Ward, executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition. New names will be added to the 35-year-old quilt during the tour, she said. 

HIV & AIDS
Harold Phillips, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, says the Biden administration is boosting HIV prevention and treatment initiatives after two years of concentrating public health resources on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden Administration Refocuses National HIV Response

07.05.2022
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After two years of focusing on COVID-19 pandemic response, the Biden Administration is renewing attention to other ongoing public health challenges, including HIV and AIDS. The response is led by Harold Phillips, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. The San Francisco Public Press spoke with Phillips this month when he came to San Francisco to participate in events tied to the display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Golden Gate Park.

Media
Ricardo Sandoval-Palos is the public editor at PBS.

PBS Public Editor Says Complaints Can Spark Community Conversations

06.10.2022
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With the proliferation of social media channels, misinformation and disinformation now spread as fast as the click of a trackpad. Even for a trusted outlet like PBS — nationally recognized for its family friendly programming and sober, nonpartisan news coverage — this era has brought a flood of digital rumors to quell.

As the public editor at PBS, Ricardo Sandoval-Palos fields complaints for the organization and uses community feedback to cultivate conversations between viewers and PBS’s creative teams.

HIV & AIDS
Activists and healthcare providers gather on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall on March 21 during a die-in rally to demand renewed efforts in the public health fight against HIV.

While SF Fought COVID, HIV Prevention Stalled

06.01.2022
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Over the past several months, health care providers have been warning San Francisco officials that while the city was focused on fighting COVID-19, rates of HIV infection and related illnesses were creeping in the wrong direction.

From the very beginning, and throughout the HIV epidemic, which began in 1981, San Francisco led the way in prevention, care and treatment that came to be recognized around the world.

Environment
Half Dome was originally called “Tis-sa-ack,” meaning “Cleft Rock” in the language of the Ahwahnechee People, one of the seven tribes that lived in Yosemite. John Muir referred to the iconic monolith by its native name and Half Dome interchangeably. The mountain is prominently visible from Highway 120, a road leading up to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

John Muir, Racial Politics and the Restoration of Indigenous Lands in Yosemite

05.26.2022
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John Muir has been honored extensively, with his name on many sites and institutions, including 28 schools, a college, a number of mountains, several trails, a glacier, a forest, a beach, a medical center, a highway and Muir Woods National Monument, one of the most visited destinations in the Bay Area. But in the time since the Sierra Club issued a nuanced statement in 2020 acknowledging some racist language in his early writings, some have come to believe that Muir’s legacy should be diminished, despite his contributions to the preservation of wilderness and later writings praising native tribes. 

Elections
San Francisco Election Guide banner

June 2022 SF Election Guide

05.25.2022
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A nonpartisan election guide featuring text and audio summaries of all San Francisco ballot measures for the election occurring June 7, 2022.

• Proposition A — MUNI Reliability and Street Safety Bond
• Proposition B — Building Inspection Commission
• Proposition C — Recall Timelines and Vacancy Process
• Proposition D — Office of Victim and Witness Rights; Legal Services for Domestic Violence Victims
• Proposition E — Behested Payments
• Proposition F — Refuse Collection and Disposal Ordinance
• Proposition G — Public Health Emergency Leave
• Proposition H — Recall Measure Regarding Chesa Boudin

Social Justice
Derrick Soo stands by old industrial circuits in Oakland’s Cannery Lofts, the site of his great-grandfather Lew Hing’s first cannery. By the time Lew died in 1934, he had been forced to liquidate most of his business holdings, leaving him stripped of the wealth he spent his whole life earning. Soo said he believes that had it not been for the racist policies and actions against his family, their legacy would look much different today.

Tax Cuts and Eroding Worker Protections Made Wealth Gap More Extreme

05.05.2022
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When we examine the massive wealth gap between the rich and poor in this country, what stands out most is how differently it affects the country’s white and Black populations.

According to data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the typical Black family has $24,000 in wealth. That is less than 13% of the $190,000 in wealth held by the typical white family.

Community
Singer at benefit concert with Ukrainian flags.

Ukrainians in SF Are Anxious and Angry, and Refugees Need Homes

04.08.2022
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Members of the Ukrainian diaspora in San Francisco are angry, anxious and desperate to connect with loved ones in their ancestral homeland. Meanwhile, a local aid agency is asking for help as refugees begin arriving in the Bay Area. On a sunny weekend afternoon in mid-March, hundreds gathered at the bandshell in Golden Gate Park music concourse for a show called Slava Ukraini — or Glory to Ukraine. It was a fundraiser for the World Central Kitchen, which is helping to feed Ukrainian refugees.

Health
hands holding a vial of naloxone

Harm Reduction Critical to Addressing Overdose Crisis, Local Experts Say

04.07.2022
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The key to addressing San Francisco’s overdose crisis, say community activists and medical experts in the city, is harm reduction. That’s an approach that acknowledges not all drug users will achieve abstinence, and that focuses on keeping them safe and alive if they’re not ready or able to quit. Drug overdoses killed more people in San Francisco than did COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic — 711 deaths in 2020, and 645 in 2021.