After months of pushback from Chinatown community leaders, a compromise has been reached on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s proposed bus service cuts. The revised plan will allow the 30S bus route to run slightly south of Market Street.
Category: Neighborhoods
Posted inElections, Government & Politics, Neighborhoods, Transportation
It’s Not Just the Great Highway. Some Chinese American Voters Have Felt Unheard for Decades
Many local officials and media outlets have portrayed Proposition K’s opponents as anti-park and pro-freeway without explaining why or acknowledging the pain that informed some of their positions. Through extensive interviews, the San Francisco Public Press found that many, especially older Chinese American residents, have felt dismissed and sidelined in discussions about transportation and land-use policy for decades.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Shuttered Radiation Lab Poses Ongoing Health Risks for Growing Neighborhood
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 6, we detail how cavalier attitudes toward radiation exposure and an indifference to how pollution left by the Navy might affect San Franciscans have been constants officials warned of plutonium blowing in the air three-quarters of a century ago.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Destroyed Records, Dying Witnesses Consign San Francisco Radiation Lab to Obscurity
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 5, we trace the obscure nature of the work at the lab to the military’s culture of secrecy, explore why officials shredded millions of pages of paper records and show how an ongoing lack of official interest in acknowledging this history has frustrated local people dealing with the shipyard’s environmental legacy.
Posted inCommunity, Elections, Homelessness, Housing, Neighborhoods, Politics
Politics Didn’t Matter to Him When He Was Homeless. Now He Organizes His Neighbors.
Solomon Bukenya, a formerly unhoused San Franciscan, has never lost hope for long — surviving a genocide in Rwanda, the loss of his leg, addiction and homelessness. Though he had no interest in civic engagement for years, today he’s on a mission to make sure his community’s voices are heard. Even after a tumultuous election, he remains undeterred.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Cold War Scientists Pushed Ethical Boundaries With Radiation Experiments
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 4, we examine the ethical implications of the lab’s use of radioactive substances on humans, when neither scientists nor study participants knew enough about the risks to offer informed consent — and how taking such gambles may have seemed more excusable in an atomic-age context than today.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
Human Radiation Studies Included Mock Combat, Skin Tests and a Plan to Inject 49ers
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 3, we show how the lab’s scientific agenda expanded from monitoring workers’ occupational exposures to using radioactive substances in mock atomic combat and clinical experiments that included topical, oral and intravenous administration of potentially harmful isotopes.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
After Atomic Test Blunder, Government Authorized Study of Radiation in Humans
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 2, we examine public records that prove that exposing humans to radiation was part of the known cost of the lab’s research program, a toll accepted by top military and civilian brass at every level of the chain of command, from Washington down to the docks.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Environment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
A Community of Color Contends With the Navy’s Toxic Legacy
In the first of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe traces the soil contamination plaguing a Navy shipyard back to its origins — 20th century nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.
Environmental justice advocates, scholars and military officials describe their experiences battling over land redevelopment, and reckoning with the legacy of a radiation laboratory that sometimes used human subjects.
Posted inEnvironment, Exposed, Government & Politics, Health, History, Neighborhoods
How a San Francisco Navy Lab Became a Hub for Human Radiation Experiments
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
Part 1, the series overview, was co-published by the Guardian. Listen to the two-episode “Exposed” podcast, which will be broadcast on KALW Public Radio. See also: Parts 2-6, laying out the origins, methodologies, ethics, documentation and public health legacy of the lab.