A report from the Coalition on Homelessness alleges that the city’s encampment clearing practices are illegal and often fail to connect homeless people to the services they need.
Category: “Civic” Podcast
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, Climate Change, Environment
Bay Area Organizers Take Climate, Indigenous Rights Advocacy to Global Summit
Thousands of delegates from around the world will meet next week in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss their nations’ commitments to addressing the climate crisis at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Among those attending will be local organizers from the NDN Collective, an indigenous-led and -staffed organization.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Community, Coronavirus, Social Services
Knock-Knock: Have You Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19?
In Bayview Hunters Point, most residents have already gotten their shots. One community organizer says part of the reason for that high vaccination rate is because of on-the-ground outreach work that local groups have been doing. That work continues and will for the foreseeable future.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Education, Government & Politics
Officials Vow to Fix Crumbling School: ‘We Have Failed You’
Vermin infestation and electrical malfunction. A copy machine in the restroom. Falling ceiling tiles. Parents, students and staff at Buena Vista Horace Mann School in the Mission testified at recent hearings about these and other chronic maintenance problems they say have plagued the school for years. Officials promised swift action, but delayed a vote on how much money to allocate toward repairs at the school by two weeks.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Coronavirus, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Health, Housing
Thousands in SF Saddled With Rent Debt but Ineligible for Government Help
Thousands of San Franciscans who borrowed money to pay rent during the pandemic are stuck with that debt, making them worse off than those who let the bills lapse.
Federal relief funds cover only unpaid housing expenses. That leaves tenants vulnerable if they made good-faith efforts to pay those costs by taking on thousands of dollars of debt to credit card companies, payday lenders, relatives or friends — especially if they later seek different housing.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, Community, Government & Politics
Elected Officials Do Not Reflect Bay Area’s Diversity
In the ethnically and racially diverse Bay Area, local politicians have long been disproportionately white. Research shows that while more people of color have been running for and winning seats, they make up only slightly more than a third of the region’s elected officials. Some city councils are entirely white.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, Coronavirus, Housing
California Eviction Moratorium to Expire; Advocates Urge Renters, Cities to Act
Landlords may proceed with evictions against tenants for unpaid rent beginning Oct. 1 as a statewide moratorium on such evictions expires. Tenant, legal and public health advocates are urging tenants to apply for rent relief money, and want municipalities to approve additional protections, citing loss of housing as a public health concern.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Transportation
Transit Advocates Celebrate Muni, Flaws and All
As public transportation advocates and officials mark Transit Month in San Francisco and encourage riders to return to buses and trains, they are grappling with the reality that Muni needs, and has long needed, additional robust and long-term funding to meet the city’s transit demands.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Climate Change, Health
Battling Despair Over a New Climate Change Reality
As wildfires rage, unprecedented heat waves kill and cities are drowned in heavy rain, climate dread is turning to climate grief for many people.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Bay Area, Community, Immigration, Social Services
Local Veterans Reflect on ‘Moral Obligation’ to Afghans
After the Taliban took over the Afghan government, a massive evacuation effort began, but thousands are still waiting at the airport in Kabul. Tyler Solorio, an Army veteran deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and a policy analyst for the veterans nonprofit Swords to Plowshares, said the U.S. government has made it dangerously complicated for Afghans to get out.