San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/series/big-decisions-schools-housing-privacy/)
The November 2018 election once again put big issues before San Francisco voters, among them a business tax to expand funding for homelessness services and housing; stronger data privacy, and new supervisors and school commissioners. And once again, city voters backed progressive candidates for City Hall and schools, and higher taxes for social services. They also approved a blueprint for the ambitious goal of crafting the nation’s toughest policy on the collection and use of residents’ personal information.
Photo of school board candidates forum by Noah Arroyo // San Francisco Public Press
Big Decisions: Schools, Housing, Privacy
Here’s what we focused on during the fall campaign, which is included in the the winter 2019 print edition of the Public Press, now available at select locations.
ABOUT THIS REPORTING PROJECT
REPORTING: Noah Arroyo, Andrew Perez, Andrew Stelzer, Liza Veale, Rob Waters | EDITING: Michael Winter | COPY EDITING: Michele Anderson, Richard Knee, Dean Takehara | GRAPHICS: Reid Brown| PHOTOGRAPHY: Judith Calson, Yesica Prado | PRINT DESIGN: HyunJu Chappell/Magna Citizen Studio | ONLINE: John Angelico
This project was made possible by donations from Public Press members and the San Francisco Foundation
Noah Arroyo, Assistant Editor In a first for the 2018 election season, students took the reins to organize a forum for school board candidates. They asked the questions and ran the show.
Liza VealeVeritas Investments owns nearly 200 buildings in the city. It’s been a target for tenant advocates, who accuse the company of building a business model that relies on pushing tenants out of rent-controlled units so they can be re-rented for much more. Veritas disputes the accusations that is “hostile or negligent” toward tenants.
Nathan Collins, Freelance writerAs Californians battle this fall over a ballot measure to allow cities much wider leeway to impose all sorts of rent control, both sides of the debate throw around citations to academic papers, economic studies and seemingly compelling statistics. But a review of the available research shows that both sides are wrong.
Andrew StelzerVoter-approved Proposition B mandates that San Francisco create what supporters say would be the toughest data-protection policy of any U.S. city, and would go beyond California’s landmark Consumer Privacy Act. Now comes the hard part: writing the rules that will overcome legal, technical and enforcement challenges.
Noah Arroyo, Assistant Editor A Public Press examination of calculations that went into projections of homeless people helped versus jobs or companies lost from a tax increase offers a clearer picture of Proposition C’s potential impacts and the limitations of trying to accurately quantify the effects of the measure — if it withstands legal scrutiny.
Donors opposing a ballot measure to fund more homeless services in San Francisco with a new tax on its wealthiest companies previously bankrolled a successful 2016 initiative to ban tent encampments in the city.