By Sam Harnett, KQED News Fix One night Darcel Jackson was lying in bed at a homeless shelter, wondering what local tech companies could do for the poor. How could they help people like him get jobs and find housing? Then it hit him — an idea so simple and cheap you probably assumed someone […]
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Driving Home the Butterfly
By Eric Simons, Bay Nature The Mission blue butterfly takes its name from San Francisco — the original population was discovered on Twin Peaks, at the time considered part of the Mission — and is the city’s only endangered butterfly. It probably never was widespread, but in the modern era it is incredibly rare. When […]
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Cities ponder tighter rent controls
A city councilmember in San Jose has said he may propose strengthening his city’s loose rent controls to keep at least some housing there affordable. But rents in Oakland continued to soar after it made the same move last summer. Few other solutions to the Bay Area’s housing crisis have emerged, and even San Francisco’s stringent controls haven’t kept a lid on evictions or rent increases.
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Airbnb Cuts Into S.F. Housing, Should Share Data, Says Report
By Daniel Hirsch, Mission Local A new report by the Budget and Legislative Analyst Office states what many have long been arguing about Airbnb and other short-term rental sites. They are decreasing the amount of available permanent housing in San Francisco. The independent agency’s report also recommends several policy options to restrict short-term rental companies’ […]
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Mission Residents Meet Proposed Medical Neighbors and Say, ‘Go Somewhere Else’
By J.J. Barrow, Mission Local/KQED News Fix The appropriateness of Sutter Health’s plan to open an affiliate medical center on the corner of 20th and Valencia streets was the subject of a lengthy and at times tense meeting on Monday night. The talk, hosted by the Liberty Hill Neighborhood Association, brought together 25 concerned Mission District […]
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Flood Control 2.0
By Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, Bay Nature It was the kind of January day where you could not see your breath, but the baylands were steaming. Puffs of smoke garlanded the spires of bordering oil refineries. Blue skies, green hills, white windmills and three bridges marked the corner of my eye. With so much to look […]
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Berkeley’s Latest Help-the-Homeless Effort: Cash Boxes on Street
By Seung Y. Lee, KQED News Fix/Berkeleyside Members of the Berkeley City Council, the Downtown Berkeley Association and the Berkeley Food and Housing Project gathered by the downtown BART station last Thursday to launch a donation program for the city’s homeless population. The “Positive Change” program will install up to 10 tamper-proof donation boxes around […]
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Sea Level Rise Shapes Future of Bay Area Waterfront Development
Sea level rise threatens tens of billions of dollars worth of new waterfront development in the Bay Area — but there may be time to adapt. That was the message at Tuesday’s panel on sea level rise hosted by the San Francisco Public Press at the Impact Hub, a co-working space. Panelists included UC Berkeley […]
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Getting Creative on Saving Water: Tips From Experts and Listeners
By Amanda Stupi, KQED News Fix California’s new statewide water restrictions take effect on June 1. Depending on where you live, your water district could be asked to cut urban water use by as much as 36 percent compared with usage in 2013. And with maximum fines now set at $10,000 and the citation process […]
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S.F. Supervisors Gear Up for Battle Over Mission Housing Construction
By Alex Emslie, KQED News Fix San Francisco Supervisor David Campos is calling for a moratorium of up to two years on market-rate residential construction in the Mission District, a neighborhood that has become ground zero for the city’s housing crisis. Campos represents the Mission, which his office says has lost more than 1,600 low- […]