Civic

More than 61 percent of San Francisco voters approved Proposition B, a charter amendment to split the Department of Public Works in two and add oversight commissions to both departments as part of an effort to address city corruption and get cleaner streets. Matt Haney, District 6 supervisor and author of the measure, said the new department doesn’t need to be created until 2022, but city legislators can get to work now on building the oversight commission for the existing Department of Public Works.

Despite the pandemic shutting down most in-person gatherings and services, staff and volunteers with the veterans services group Swords to Plowshares are still on the ground. In the streets and in drop-in centers, they’ve continued to offer support with housing, employment, mental health and food for local vets. In addition to some 400 veterans it had already housed permanently, the organization has been able to secure temporary stays in hotel rooms for about 200 people during the pandemic, says executive director Michael Blecker.

Researchers at the Urban Institute have been looking into how effective various responses to homelessness are. In a series of blog posts, they issue a warning against a punitive response to homelessness and recommend other ways to respond to homelessness, especially in the context of the coronavirus pandemic that threatens millions of people’s livelihoods and housing stability. Samantha Batko, a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, said a “housing-first” approach, which prioritizes giving homeless people stable housing before other interventions, is the most effective.

In October, the US government began implementing an expansion of rapid deportations, in which undocumented immigrants may be removed from the country without a hearing before an immigration judge. While such deportations have been conducted for decades, the new policy expands who might be affected, including undocumented immigrants anywhere in the U.S. who cannot prove they have been in the country for two years or more. Priya Patel, an immigration attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza, said that while she has not seen Bay Area residents affected by the policy, its implementation only serves to exacerbate existing fears of crackdowns among immigrants.

San Francisco voters have approved a crucial bond measure and several tax measures by wide margins and voted in favor of propositions removing a mandatory minimum staffing level for the police department and adding oversight for the sheriff’s department. Votes remain to be tallied, however, and some contests are close, including a measure that would give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in municipal elections. Lila LaHood, publisher of the San Francisco Public Press, and Laura Wenus, host of the radio show and podcast “Civic,” discuss the results and what they mean for the city.

Find Chris Arvin's election maps at electionmapsf.com.

Activist groups have been hosting trainings and developing plans to mobilize residents, elected leaders and businesses to demand the results of the November 3 presidential election be recognized. Demonstrations calling for every vote nationwide to be counted are already planned for Nov. 4 in cities around the Bay Area, including San Francisco and Oakland. The activist network Bay Resistance has been calling on residents to get ready to defend democracy. We talk with Zachary Norris, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, about what exactly that means and how people can hold government officials to account.

San Francisco has faced many scandals in which public officials abused their power for personal, political or organizational gain. On the November, 2020 ballot, Proposition B has been proposed as a way to limit the scope of alleged corruption in the sprawling Department of Public Works, but what other measures could voters use in the future to keep elected and appointed officials accountable in San Francisco?

The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been performing socially conscious and often very funny productions in Bay Area parks since 1959 but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to take their plays to the air with a series of ten radio plays. Now that the last episode of the season has aired we wanted to find out how the experiment in going from live to virtual has worked.

During the pandemic, nurses have been given a lot of praise for the vital, frontline work they do, but some nurses working for San Francisco’s Department of Public Health would like to be paid the overtime they have put in.

Proposition 14 asks California voters to approve a $5.5 billion bond to allow the institute to continue to provide grants for stem cell research. Jeff Sheehy has been the lonely voice on the board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where he stands in opposition to the state ballot measure that would fund the organization for years to come.

More information about ensuring voters in care facilities are able to participate in the election are available from Senior and Disability Action.

Find our summary of Proposition G here and our full voter guide at sfpublicpress.org.

In September, President Trump issued an executive order characterizing trainings about racism, sexism and white privilege as anti-American propaganda. Federal employees and contractors are now prohibited from engaging in that kind of training. Lauren Aguilar, president and founder of the inclusion and diversity practice at the consulting group Forshay, described the language in the executive order as Orwellian and said the ban ignores evidence that everyone has biases which influence decisions about workplace diversity and inclusion. We talked about what is lost when these trainings are eliminated.

To read and hear more about the measures and candidates on this November's ballot, find our voter guide here.

As dozens of candidates are running for seats on several local boards, we've reached out to them with a question and asked for 90-second audio responses. Hear statements from candidates for the Board of Education, City College Board of Trustees, BART Board, and Board of Supervisors.

Among more than a dozen measures that voters are deciding on this November, several are taxes, including business taxes, a parcel tax, and a sales tax. Many have components meant to reduce inequality or fund much-needed services. We talked with Donnie Charleston, director of public policy and advocacy for E Pluribus Unum, a nonprofit whose mission is to build a more just, equitable, and inclusive South, to get some perspective on the tools local governments have to address income and racial inequities, and some of the tax measures up for voter approval.

Amanda Fried, who directs policy and communications at the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector, explains how Proposition F, the business tax overhaul on the November ballot in San Francisco, would work.

Donohue will be discussing “She Represents” at Litquake on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 3:30 p.m.

This episode's audio has been updated after an earlier mixup. Sorry about that! - Laura

"The Boys Who Said NO!" will be screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, where it will be available online for a nationwide audience Oct. 8–14. It will also be screened at the United Nations Association film festival at 6 p.m. on Oct. 25 for a California audience only.

Proposition I on this november’s ballot would double the transfer tax levied on properties worth $10 million or more. Transfer taxes are charged by the city when a property is sold and are usually paid by the seller. Right now, a 2.75% tax is levied on buildings worth $10 million to $25 million, and a 3% tax is levied on buildings worth more than $25 million. If voters were to approve this proposition, both of these taxes would double. Opponents argue that the tax would be bad for the city’s economy, hurt businesses, and cost construction jobs. Proponents say the tax will affect those who can afford it, and will raise money for important initiatives like partly paying landlords for rents their tenants can’t pay because of the coronavirus pandemic, and funding a social housing pilot program. "Civic" talked with measure’s author, Supervisor Dean Preston, and an opponent, Jay Cheng with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Proposition L, a tax measure on the November ballot, is intended to give businesses incentive to change their pay structure to bring executive compensation more in line with workers’. Revenue from the measure, if passed, is expected to range from $60 million to $140 million a year. Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and researches Wall Street reform, CEO pay, taxes, labor and international trade and investment, said the proposal would set an example and would target a business practice that contributes to inequality.

Talbot will be speaking at an Institute on Aging event Monday, Oct. 5 at 5:30 p.m.

In this conversation about the regional sales tax to fund Caltrain, Measure RR, Adina Levin, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Caltrain and co-founder and advocacy director of the nonprofit Seamless Bay Area, explains how Measure RR got on the ballot and what it would enable Caltrain to do.

In this discussion about the regional tax proposal to fund Caltrain, Measure RR, Eric Garris, a San Francisco resident who submitted the official opposition to the measure, lays out his argument against it.

Read the original story and follow-up reporting in Mission Local.

The documentary “The First Angry Man” turns its lens back on the moment when Proposition 13, which dramatically restricted property taxes, was passed and examines the social and political context of the time. The filmmakers, Camille Servan-Schreiber and Jason Andrew Cohn, make the case that Howard Jarvis, the public face of Proposition 13, helped usher in an era of nationwide tax revolt and distrust in government that persists more than 40 years later. The documentary comes ahead of an election in which California voters will consider a ballot measure that would amend Proposition 13 to raise property taxes for some businesses.

Barbara Hale, assistant manager for power with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, responds to some of these concerns raised by Treasure Island resident Barklee Sanders about disruptive power outages, and outlines the various responsibilities for the island's power supply and how those were assigned. Check out our podcast feed for an interview with Barklee Sanders illustrating the impact of the outages on residents and businesses.

Residents on Treasure Island live with frequent and recurring power outages, in part because the infrastructure is quite old. Barklee Sanders, an island resident who has been researching and advocating for improvements to the grid, illustrates the scope of the problem and just how disruptive the outages are to residents. Check our podcast feed for another interview on this topic in which the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission responds to some of these concerns and outlines the various responsibilities for the island's power supply.

At the top of the list of local ballot measures going before voters in November is Proposition A, billed as the “Health and Recovery Bond.” Several initiatives would be funded by this $487.5 million bond, including the development of behavioral health and substance abuse services, expansion of shelters and temporary housing, renovating or developing parks and repairs to infrastructure like roads. Reporter Kristi Coale helps unpack what's in the measure and takes a closer look at one of the projects that could get funding from it.

Hear WORD for WORDcast on KSFP 102.5 FM Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Proposition K on the November ballot represents an attempt to allow the city to create new low-rent housing units, like public housing but at the municipal level. Unlike other affordable housing being built in the city, these units would be created by the local government, not nonprofits or private developers. The city must obtain voter approval to build such housing because of an article in the California constitution. Laksh Bhasin, co-author of Proposition K, explains the details of the proposal, its scope and how it would be funded.

Tens of thousands of people are facing evacuation orders and threats to their safety as fires continue to blaze across the Western United States. These disastrous fires are one of the effects of climate change that scientists predicted, says climate activist Laura Neish, executive director of 350 Bay Area and 350 Bay Area Action. We discuss how to talk about climate change amid these disasters, and what can be done.

Read Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano's writing here.

CalMatters reporter Ben Christopher explains what it means for California to have an "almost" all vote-by-mail election and what to expect from ballots, polling places, and vote tallying this November.

With an infusion of $25 billion to help the postal service weather the coronavirus pandemic still in limbo awaiting consideration by the Senate, local mail workers continue to work extended hours under difficult conditions to beat back delays in mail delivery. APWU Local 2 President Cindy Datangel says postal workers are also grappling with absences as coronavirus spreads to and among staff.

Corrections: An earlier version of this podcast misstated the status of Jacob Blake, whom Kenosha, Wis. police officers shot and gravely injured. The podcast was further updated to clarify a reference to police use-of-force data.

Nonprofits in the Bay Area are facing the challenge of carrying out their missions during a pandemic and maintaining their funding so they can continue to serve once the crisis has passed. Reporter George Koster has been chronicling those changes on this new show "Voices of the Community" which premiers on our station KSFP.

When you tune your radio to 102.5 on the FM dial, you might get public radio-style talk programming, or you might hear music from local artists. That's because there are two radio stations on this frequency, KSFP — Civic's radio home — and KXSF, a project of San Francisco Community Radio. San Francisco Public Press Publisher Lila LaHood talked with two KXSF DJs about the station partnership and keeping live community radio going strong during a pandemic.

In response to the disproportionate law enforcement violence against people with mental illness and amid ongoing calls to defund or reform police, activists with the Anti Police-Terror Project on Friday night will launch an initiative in Oakland designed to offer an alternative to calling the police in mental health crises. The initiative, called M.H. First Oakland, will begin operations as a hotline with the number (510) 999-9MH1.

San Francisco Press Conference. Beginning on Sept. 1, many gyms, hair salons and barber shops in San Francisco will be allowed to serve customers if they can find a way to do so outdoors.

Performances as part of ACT’s InterACT at Home initiative will be livestreamed Sept. 4-12 and will be available on demand Sept. 18-25. Details at ACT-sf.org

Uber and Lyft are battling in the California courts and on the November ballot to avoid having their drivers classified as full employees, The companies have threatened to shut down operations in California if they lose. We speak with the Taxi Workers Alliance about how the companies have changed the ride-hailing industry, what happens if Uber and Lyft leave California and the gig work economy.

Treasure Island resident and organizer Hope Williams has worked for years to get resources for the island. When the pandemic hit, she kicked her efforts into even higher gear. Hear why she’s still working to get residents heard:

Californians were hit with power shut-offs last weekend and were told to conserve energy by minimizing use as power needs could exceed availability. But some energy experts, including former CPUC president Loretta Lynch, are doubtful that unusually high demand led to the shutdowns, alleging mismanagement on the part of the state’s energy grid operator. A spokesperson for the Independent System Operator wrote in a statement that the operator sought every available megawatt of energy to cover demand and reserves.

Uber and Lyft were expected to shut down service at 11:59 p.m. tonight as a court ruling forcing them to reclassify drivers as employees was set to go into effect. With just hours to spare, an appeals court judge granted the companies a reprieve. We talked with two rideshare drivers who have been organizing for employee status.

It's our birthday! On this day last year, Civic aired its first episode. San Francisco Public Press publisher Lila LaHood talks with producer Mel Baker and host Laura Wenus about major changes in the first year, what we've learned, and what we're hoping to focus on next.