Civic

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Even on main commercial corridors in the city, long-empty storefronts have raised concerns about blight from merchants, customers and politicians. In response, Supervisor Aaron Peskin drafted a vacancy tax measure that now appears on the March ballot as Proposition D. Lee Hepner, a legislative aide to Peskin, explains how the proposed tax is designed to motivate landlords to rent properties, how it could stabilize existing small businesses, and how the city will know if it’s working.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: Subpoenas issued emerge in corruption investigation and Mayor reveals gift from arrested department head, judge rules to make Apple pay employees for time spent in security searches, and a new planning director is appointed. Coming up: Youth Commission will discuss youth engagement with government and a letter to DHS about a deportation, and a megaproject seeks approvals from Planning Commission.

In the final episode in our series of interviews with the candidates running for state senate to represent District 11, current State Senator Scott Wiener discusses his legislative record in areas ranging from housing policy to conservatorship to criminal justice reform.

Editor’s Note: “Civic” reached out to several opponents of Proposition E, but nobody was available for an interview by broadcast time. Read more at sfpublicpress.org.

A California proposition on the March ballot would issue $15 billion in state bonds for facilities construction at public schools. John Fensterwald, a staff writer at EdSource, explains how districts will be prioritized for funding, and addresses confusion that has arisen over the measure’s number designation and implications for property taxes.

If you are a registered democrat living in San Francisco, your ballot for the March election is likely to be long because there are more than 50 candidates running to fill 24 seats on the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), the governing body of the local Democratic Party. Jason McDaniel, associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, helps explain the committee’s structure, history and role in city politics.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: More details emerge in corruption arrest, sobering center planned for the Tenderloin, and the POA votes on leadership. Coming up: Supervisors to consider property purchase and tenant buyout law, and a 100-unit building proposed for California and Polk is expected to go before the Planning Commission.

San Francisco has rent control – rents can only go up by a certain percentage a year in buildings constructed before 1979 – but there are some costs that landlords can pass on to tenants. Tenants, in turn, may apply for an exemption by showing that the cost creates a financial hardship for them. A report from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office indicates that the pass-throughs individually may not seem like they amount to much, but they can add up to substantial rent increases, up to 13% in some cases.

Decades of explicitly and implicitly racist policies have left the Bay Area not just unaffordable, but deeply segregated, according to panelists at a gathering of regional government administrators, nonprofit staff and community advocates. They convened recently at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Building to talk about the future of fair housing in California and how governments and community advocates could implement new laws to undo the wrongs of the past.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Jackie Fielder details her platform and shares insight into her background. Fielder is an indigenous organizer who co-founded the San Francisco Public Bank coalition. She calls for increased taxation of corporations and billionaires to build and preserve affordable housing, universal rent control, and single-payer healthcare.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Erin Smith tells her story and lays out where she stands on policy issues. She calls for reforms of policies like Proposition 47, a state ballot measure passed by voters in 2014 that reduced six nonviolent felonies including drug possession to misdemeanors, and AB 5, the “gig worker” law that makes it harder for companies to label workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: FBI arrests a top city employee, City College gets a funding boost, and the CA governor demands changes at PG&E. Coming up: Workshops to determine the future of public transit, supervisors to weigh naming part of City Hall after Buck Delventhal, and a proposed resolution to return a deported asylum seeker.

The FBI this week arrested Mohammed Nuru, now on administrative leave from his position as director of the Department of Public Works, on corruption charges and other charges relating to failing to keep the investigation secret. Joe Eskenazi, managing editor and a columnist at Mission Local, explains why Nuru’s alleged behavior likely isn't the sole focus of this investigation – and how this same behavior is part of a pattern in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance has joined several legislators in calling for the California Public Utilities Commission to allow at least some public access to ride-hailing safety data, which are kept hidden. Safety data about taxis is available to the public through records requests. Mark Gruberg, a taxi driver and a member of the Taxi Workers Alliance’s executive board, explains how this disparity affects taxi workers and why the alliance is calling for action.

In some countries, legal representation in civil cases is a right. Not so in the U.S., which means low-income people facing a civil legal proceeding may not be able to afford an attorney. One organization looking to change that is Open Door Legal. With the help of a million-dollar city grant, the nonprofit has just cut the ribbon on two new locations in the Excelsior and Western Addition. Director Adrian Tirtanadi lays out the organization's history and vision.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. This week: San Francisco all but ends cash bail, mental health advocates deliver a letter to the Department of Public Health, Supervisors will vote on banning gas in new buildings, and Muni service changes and car-free Market Street will take effect this week.

Read the CalMatters explainer here.

When foster youth age out of the foster care system, they can find themselves in difficult housing and financial situations. Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese explains the reasoning behind his proposal for a pilot program in which the county would give each youth transitioning out of foster care $1,000 a month.

Brian Howey reported on the complications of assessing homelessness by counting tents for the San Francisco Public Press and explains what the numbers do and don’t show. Yesica Prado, a multimedia journalist and a Catchlight fellow for the Public Press, is producing photo essays for the Public Press that document the experiences of vehicle dwellers in San Francisco and Berkeley, and shares how city policies affect those who shelter in their cars or RVs.

Read the Public Press story here, and Seth's follow-up here.

The city of Redding, California, made headlines late last year when its then-mayor proposed legislation to force people to enter a shelter facility and only allow them to leave on certain conditions, like sobriety. Independent journalist Evelyn Nieves has covered homelessness extensively and has been reporting in depth on Redding’s response to homelessness, and how it parallels trends around the region and the state.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. This week: Changes in the District Attorney's office, a city supervisor announces her retirement and a candidate announces a run to replace her, and advocates plan an anti-war protest.

For years, advocates in San Francisco have pushed for the city to create its own bank, to divest from enterprises like oil pipelines and for-profit prisons, or to fund urgent needs, like affordable housing development. Jackie Fielder, co-founder of the SF Public Bank Coalition, lays out the details of how such a bank would be formed and what steps are being taken toward creating one.

The federal government has tightened requirements that adults without disabilities and without dependent children must work at least 20 hours a week to access food stamps, a change expected to go into effect in April. California and 13 other states have filed suit against the Trump administration to block the rule. Dr. Hilary Seligman, associate professor of medicine at UCSF and director of the university’s National Clinician Scholars Program explains how food stamps influence public health and what the impending policy shift, along with other proposed changes, might mean for food-insecure households in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Nearly half a million people in San Francisco say they visit their local library branch every month — for books, sure, but the library offers homework help, career coaching, access to film streaming and even immigration advice. Michael Lambert, San Francisco’s City Librarian, gives an overview of what the library does, from offering services to organizing book clubs to hosting events like the seven-hour marathon Night of Ideas.

Donna Farvard, national organizing director for the National Iranian American Council, shares what communities in the Bay Area were experiencing and talking about during a period of rapidly escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iranian governments.

In her one-woman show "Mimi's Suitcase," actress Ana Bayat draws on her own experience returning to post-revolutionary Iran after growing up in Spain to explore involuntary displacement, immigration, and a search for identity that is uniquely her own but also universally relatable. It's a coming-of-age story in which Bayat plays 27 roles, in four different languages, with just a suitcase, a trenchcoat and two scarves.

In the second part of our conversation with journalist Seth Rosenfeld about his investigation for the San Francisco Public Press about the hidden incident record of the ride-hailing industry, we learn how complaints about a dangerous driver were handled, and how ride-hailing is impacting traffic safety.

When investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld couldn’t find published data on Lyft and Uber’s safety records in California, he set out to find that information for himself. His new Public Press investigation is the result of months of reporting to uncover at least an outline of safety data the public isn’t allowed to see.

After revealing that a former Police Officers Association president and former consultant in 2018 threatened to publish a city supervisor's husband's disciplinary record as a police officer, journalist Joe Eskenazi unpacks why the story matters in local politics.

Barbara Hale from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission explains why San Francisco was exploring public power long before PG&E's bankruptcy, and how other cities and counties around Northern California are proposing that they could better serve residents.

When Chloe Jackman-Buitrago was pregnant with her son Alonzo, she got word that the building she’d lived in for nine years, 369 3rd Avenue, was for sale. As more details emerged, there was a possibility she might be having a baby and getting evicted at the same time. Instead, the tenants of this building in the Richmond organized to preserve their homes as affordable through acquisition by a nonprofit, the Mission Economic Development Agency.

The San Francisco Police Department held a town hall meeting to share preliminary information about an incident in which two officers shot and injured Jamaica Hampton. Videos were shown that captured his confrontation with police officers on Dec. 7, which ended with Hampton in life-threatening condition and an officer seriously injured. Hampton's friends and family praised his character, and community members voiced their outrage.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to take up – and will thereby let stand – a ruling that if there aren’t enough shelter beds or housing for homeless people, governments can’t cite them for sleeping or camping in public. Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, offers perspective on what the ruling means and how cities have long "criminalized" homelessness.

After police shot and injured 24-year-old Jamaica Hampton, reporters for Mission Local were able to review video of the incident which shows he was not shot while allegedly assaulting an officer. In fact, the reporting indicates, he was attempting to escape. Reporter Julian Mark discusses what new information has come to light.

San Francisco's Outdoor Public Warning System is shutting down for upgrades for up to two years. You probably know it as the siren that sounded every Tuesday at noon. Francis Zamora from the Department of Emergency Management gives some insight into the weekly tests and why they won't be happening for a while.

In the second part of our story with journalist Julia Flynn Siler about her book "The White Devil's Daughters," we travel to the Cameron House, where women and girls rescued from forced prostitution were brought around the turn of the 20th century, and which serves as a community center today. (Part 2 of 2)

Listen to the second half of this story in the next episode of Civic.

Two artists whose work will appear at this year's FRESH, an experimental dance, music and performance festival, talk about fostering healing from trauma like domestic violence and sex trafficking through artistic expression. Co-curator José Navarrete and exchange artist Regina Y. Evans also discuss their interpretations of the festival's theme, "tender."

In San Francisco's superheated market, displacement pressures are intense and affordable housing is in high demand. The San Francisco Community Land Trust pioneered a method of keeping people in housing they can afford: Buying small multi-unit buildings and turning them into cooperatives. Bruce Wolfe, president of the land trust's board, explains how the method works and how it has evolved.

In late November, students and instructors at City College of San Francisco learned that nearly 300 classes had been slashed from the Spring roster, resulting in more than 100 part-time instructors at City College being laid off or losing their health benefits. San Francisco Examiner reporter Laura Waxmann covers education and offers insight into the events leading up to, and the impacts of, the cuts.

In November of 1969, a group of indigenous activists sailed to Alcatraz and began an occupation that lasted some 19 months, drawing attention to the repression of indigenous rights and sparking a movement. In the early hours of Thanksgiving Day, indigenous communities gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occupation.

Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten and UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Leilani Farha discuss Gertten's documentary "Push," which looks into the practices and impacts of investment firm ownership of housing around the world.

In the Mission District, officials and neighborhood leaders recently announced that a portion of the Mission Language and Vocational School's building, which the school had previously rented and sold to make ends meet, has been bought back by MLVS and neighborhood allies. We look into the history of the school, the dispute, and the sale.

Uzuri Pease-Greene is the Executive Director of C.A.R.E., Community Awareness Resources Entity, which helps promote safety for public housing residents. She is also a former candidate for District 10 supervisor who has experienced homelessness and addiction. In her many roles, she works as an activist and a spokesperson for the under-served. We talked about getting out of homelessness, running for office, and creating stress-free environments in public housing.

The nation is losing newspapers. Local journalists are rallying for better pay from hedge-fund controlled media companies. And some papers are going not-for-profit. Professor Dan Kennedy explains how the funding model of a newspaper can change its incentives and its ability to sustain good reporting.

Journalists for three Bay Area papers are in contract negotiations and organized a rally on Tuesday, Nov. 19 to call attention to the practices of an company that owns newspapers around the country, including several Bay Area papers. It's a New York-based hedge fund that has a reputation for taking over papers and gutting them to increase profits.

For every one older adult, there were once five people under the age of 15. Now the ratio is almost one to one. In response to this demographic shift, Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a master plan on aging to ensure elders have the care and support they need to age with dignity. Jeannee Parker Martin, CEO of Leading Age California, has long pushed for such a plan, and shares some insight into what its priorities could be.

Two of the producers of the audio series "Uncuffed," from Solano and San Quentin state prisons, share how they became journalists, what it's like to make radio inside prison walls, and how the series offers incarcerated men an opportunity to express themselves.