Nonprofit community radio stations KXSF-LP and KSFP-LP are broadcasting again on 102.5 FM from the second level of Sutro Tower in San Francisco. San Francisco Community Radio and the San Francisco Public Press each broadcast 12 hours a day on their shared frequency, which can be heard throughout the city.
Category: “Civic” Podcast
Laguna Honda Doctors Warned SF of Looming Crisis
Nearly 700 live-in patients at Laguna Honda Hospital were thrown into chaos this spring after a series of damning inspections led the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to pull funding and mandate a closure plan for the facility.
It’s a dire situation for residents of the skilled nursing facility who have specialized needs that make them hard to place elsewhere. Hospital administrators are scrambling to attain the recertification needed to continue to receive federal funding.
Two former Laguna Honda physicians say they have continued to warn city officials about this looming crisis after first flagging it 18 years ago. That’s when a Department of Public Health policy began admitting to Laguna Honda patients whose needs fell outside the scope of a typical nursing home for the elderly.
After SF Visit, AIDS Quilt Heads to South to Raise Awareness
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.
Biden Administration Refocuses National HIV Response
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.
PBS Public Editor Says Complaints Can Spark Community Conversations
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.
While SF Fought COVID, HIV Prevention Stalled
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.
John Muir, Racial Politics and the Restoration of Indigenous Lands in Yosemite
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.
June 2022 SF Election Guide
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
Tax Cuts and Eroding Worker Protections Made Wealth Gap More Extreme
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.
America’s Wealth Gap Is Rooted in Racism. How Did We Get Here?
While the wealth gap continues to expand, much of it is grounded in discriminatory economic practices dating back to the early 20th century that made it difficult for members of racial minorities in the U.S. to accumulate wealth — or to keep what they were able to acquire.
