Transportation
a ride-hailing car displays Uber and Lyft logos

Utilities Agency Admits More Problems in Tracking Ride-Hailing Assaults

01.21.2022
|
By

The state agency responsible for ensuring that rides with Uber and Lyft are safe has acknowledged that it failed to consistently monitor passenger complaints about rapes and assaults for years. The California Public Utilities Commission confirmed in an unpublicized ruling that it had let the ride-hailing giants use varying definitions of sexual assault and harassment in their mandatory reports to the agency since at least 2017.

Utilities

Growing Bay Area Need Not Use More Water, Report Says

12.02.2021
|
By

The Bay Area can house millions more people without increasing its water use, according to a new report from the urbanist and water-use think tanks SPUR and the Pacific Institute. This could be done by continuing to improve water conservation efforts while concentrating on developing infill housing to prevent urban sprawl.  

Transportation
Uber and Lyft vehicle

Officials Demand Reform on Uber, Lyft Assault Reports

11.19.2021
|
By

Two key elected officials have criticized the California Public Utilities Commission’s inconsistent collection of information on passenger complaints about assaults and threats on Uber and Lyft rides and called for reforms. A leading researcher on sexual assault added that the commission’s methodology was out of line with accepted practice and that it suggested a “lack of concern” about monitoring the incidents.

Environment
Workers at the initial sort deck inside Recology’s sorting facility at Pier 96 in San Francisco pluck items that cannot be recycled or pose a threat to equipment from a conveyor belt.

Reduce First, Then Recycle: Sorting Out SF’s Waste

06.29.2021
|
By

In recent years, the mills and foundries that receive recyclables from Recology have stopped accepting bales of material with more than 1% impurities, so the sorting facility at Pier 96 must work to a very high standard. Through a recent tour of the sorting center, “Civic” reported on what happens when things that cannot be recycled end up there, and what should be done about material that is difficult to recycle, like plastic bags.

“Civic” Podcast
Three people stand and hold flowers and other harvest from Hummingbird Farm.

Urban Community Farm Adapts as Exceptional Drought Hits Home

06.14.2021
|
By

Tere Almaguer, an environmental justice organizer with PODER, talked with “Civic” about how the group has adapted to years of inconsistent rainfall. Almaguer said California’s exceptional drought conditions have already had visible effects on the farm, like flowering plants that grew shorter and bloomed later this year than previously. Hummingbird Farm will also be experimenting with an alternative water source: Drawing water from the air.

Utilities
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, a key source for water in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

SF Water Use Efficient, but State Restrictions Would be Challenging, Official Says

05.31.2021
|
By

San Francisco’s residential water use is among the lowest among large cities in California, said Steven Ritchie, assistant general manager for water for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Ritchie joined “Civic” to explain how the city sources and uses its water, and why it is fighting state restrictions on the use of Tuolumne River water.