By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local Retirement, for Larry Bush, looks a lot like work did. The former journalist, politico, fixer and government apparatchik is seated on a recliner in his Castro district living room, his feet up; his tiny dog, Izabel, sitting across his legs; and a MacBook in his lap. He’s following the money. […]
Category: News
Posted inNews
Public Press Weekly: Look Ma, It’s Politics
Horse race. Blood sport. Relay race. Full-court press. Hunger games.
Welcome to campaign season.
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Lead Paint Makers Balk at Huge Bill for Toxic Cleanup — Instead They Want You to Pick Up the Tab
By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters Three companies found to have sold toxic lead paint for decades — despite knowing it posed health hazards for children — are waging a major battle to avoid paying the several hundred million dollars in liability that California courts have slapped on them. And they’re asking you, the California voter, to […]
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Why Hasn’t the Tenderloin Gentrified Like the Rest of San Francisco?
By Kelly O’Mara, KQED News Fix San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is located downtown, bordered by some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. Yet, it has a bad reputation. Tourists are told to avoid the area. You can often see drug dealing out in the open, and garbage on the streets. “Growing up we always […]
Posted inBay Area Smart Growth, City Hall, Elections, Health, Homelessness, Housing, June 2018 Special Election, Land use, Media, Neighborhoods, News
As Mayor, Kim Would Try to Expand Inclusionary Housing Citywide
District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim represents the city’s wealthiest and poorest ZIP codes. She has focused much of her political energy on inclusionary housing — programs mandating a percentage of apartments in new developments be set aside at below-market rates — and set a new standard by securing higher-than-normal affordability ratios on several mega-projects. On homelessness, she says that if elected mayor, she would treat it more like a public health crisis than an economic problem. Second in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
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The Open Secret About California Taxes
By Judy Lin, CALmatters California’s tax system, which relies heavily on the wealthy for state income, is prone to boom-and-bust cycles. While it delivers big returns from the rich whenever Wall Street goes on a bull run, it forces state and local governments to cut services, raise taxes or borrow money in a downturn. During […]
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How Teacher Strikes in Other States Help California Unions Make Their Case
By John Fensterwald and David Washburn, EdSource Teachers are on the march. Lashing out against low pay and what they see as paltry state spending on education, teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma — and recently Arizona and Colorado — have made national headlines by walking off the job in unprecedented displays of statewide solidarity. Although […]
Posted inCommunity, Elections, Government & Politics, Health, Housing, June 2018 Special Election, Media, Neighborhoods, News, Social Justice
Candidates Say How They Would Help African-American Community
A trio of African-American organizations aimed to get some answers from aspiring local leaders at “Facing the Voters,” a candidates’ forum hosted by the Public Press and moderated by its publisher. The candidates were given the opportunity to lay out their bona fides with respect to this city’s dwindling, marginalized African-American community; some did that and some did not. First of two articles.
Posted inHousing, June 2018 Special Election, Land use, News
In Mayoral Run, Leno Promises to ‘Get Serious’ About Affordable Housing Crisis
As the father of San Francisco’s inclusionary-housing ordinance, which requires developers to build below-market-rate apartments or pay a hefty fee, mayoral candidate Mark Leno calls for mandatory higher percentages for developers building on transit corridors or city-owned parcels. He also has vowed to “end street homelessness by 2020,” in part by filling vacancies in private, single-room occupancy hotels. First in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates’ records and pledges on housing and homelessness.
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Educators Face New Challenges in ‘Superdiverse’ Classrooms Where Multiple Languages Are Spoken
By Ashley Hopkinson, EdSource Teachers of English learners find it challenging to communicate in classrooms where students come from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. Some children may speak Spanish at home, while others speak Vietnamese, Punjabi or Arabic. However, learning can improve by incorporating students’ languages in classrooms, increasing teacher access to dictionaries […]