Civic

In this press conference, city officials advise residents to stay indoors with windows closed as much as possible to avoid unhealthy smoke. If air quality deteriorates to very unhealthy levels, they said, the city will open respite centers with healthier air.

'Unforgetting' launches Sept. 1

The 2020 census is well under way, but a timetable muddled by the coronavirus pandemic coupled with attempts by President Trump to make disruptive changes have set the stage for the spread of misinformation that threatens a complete count. Local community organizations have been working to get correct and timely information to people often labeled “hard to count” to avoid that outcome.

This year the census, a constitutionally mandated count of every person in the country every 10 years, is being conducted primarily online for the first time. While the shift offered convenience to the digitally connected, many communities already considered “hard to count” include people with limited digital tools or literacy that put the digital questionnaire out of reach. With the coronavirus pandemic and confusing federal directives, the in-person enumeration most likely to document them has been delayed and cut short.

The decennial census is used to determine how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives. And according to the Project on Government Oversight, California can also expect to receive more than $170 billion in census-guided federal funding over the next ten years. In a July memo, the President sought to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count used to apportion representatives. In this first episode in a series on the 2020 Census, we hear from advocates about why past encounters with well-meaning government agents have already made some homeless, poor, undocumented and otherwise marginalized people skeptical that being counted will actually benefit them.

In this press conference, Mayor London Breed announced that hundreds of millions of dollars have been set aside in San Francisco’s budget for COVID-19 prevention, testing and treatment. Over the next year, the Mayor’s Office has allocated $185 million for health care operations, $183 million for housing and shelter, $62 million for food distribution and $16 million for communications. Hear full audio from the announcement here.

The Crescendo gala takes place Monday, August 17 at 7 pm.

A recording of a Public Press Live event featuring a panel discussion on law enforcement agencies’ use of surveillance technology and the San Francisco police department’s access to live feeds of private camera networks in Union Square. Hear from Dave Maass, senior investigative researcher at Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Shelby Perkins and Craig Nelson, graduate students at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute researching local law enforcement agencies' surveillance capabilities.

Nearly 2,500 cases of verbal and physical attacks against Asian Americans were reported between March 19 and July 22 to a tracking project called Stop AAPI Hate. In San Francisco, an Asian American bus driver was assaulted by passengers after an argument over proper mask wearing. A woman reported getting verbally assaulted and a drink thrown at her by a passenger who told her and her brother to "go back to their country." Another man reported being shoved on the stairs, trampled and kicked in the head. Dr. Russell Jeung, chair and professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, is calling on local, state and federal governments to address these racist attacks.

Local governments around the nation are grappling with police reform. One proposal that's been floated is to change the role and thereby the approach of law enforcement officers by giving them responsibilities beyond policing. Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety includes fire, medical and police services and all first responders are trained across all three disciplines. Department Chief Phan Ngo said the different roles mean officers see themselves as caretakers, building their reputation as public servants with residents.

In contact tracing, health workers identify and reach out to people who have an infectious disease, then try to determine with whom they have been in close contact and to whom they may have transmitted the disease. Then they try to reach those potentially exposed people to try to halt further infections. Dr. Darpun Sachdev, the contact tracing program lead in San Francisco, and Luis Hernandez, a local case investigator, talk about how contact tracing works, who is doing the job and what the latest contact tracing data reflect.

San Francisco’s coronavirus infection rate falls slightly but remains in the red zone, with the city expected to reach 7,000 cases overall in days. Also: SF extends the Great Plates program until September, funding restaurant-prepared delivery meals for some seniors sheltering in place.

When the fallout of the pandemic started to hit Richmond, the affordable housing organization Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services jumped into action, setting up a rapid response fund for families and making its money management and housing education courses virtual. Nikki Beasley, the organization’s executive director, talks about inequities in housing and wealth in the Bay Area, how to think about financial and housing stability in a time of uncertainty and how crucial homeownership can be to that stability across generations.

In the reporting series “Driving Home: Surviving the Housing Crisis,” photojournalist Yesica Prado documents life on four wheels in Berkeley and San Francisco. The project, in partnership with CatchLight Local, offers an intimate look at what it really means for home to be a vehicle in the Bay Area, whether it’s an RV with lots of space and utilities or a sedan with neither. Prado, who was and is part of one of the vehicle dweller communities she documented, says vehicle living comes with the daily task of avoiding parking or law enforcement and securing access to basic needs like hygiene, food and water.

For some of the Bay Area’s Central American residents, there are parallels between the deployment of federal law enforcement to American cities and their own experiences with authoritarian governments in their countries of origin. Lariza Dugan-Cuadra, director at advocacy and social service nonprofit CARECEN SF, talks about how the Bay Area’s Central American diaspora is reacting.

In this press conference, SF officials announce that the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in San Francisco is rising rapidly and the city is facing “a major surge.” Department of Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said, “In April, we experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases, which at its peak, saw 94 San Franciscans in the hospital. That number dropped to just 26 patients six weeks ago. Today, it's 107.” Listen to the full announcement here.

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom says what had once been uncommon is now a necessity. “Before COVID, about 5% of working days were spent at home and that was done by about 15% of Americans, with an average of one in every three days. During COVID, 42% of us are now working from home so it's an eight-fold increase.” When the pandemic is over, Bloom predicts that fewer people will work five days a week in a central office.

In March, Dr. Monica Bhargava, a pulmonary critical care physician at the county hospital in Oakland, predicted on Civic that the novel coronavirus would deeply affect the region’s health care system for many months to come. In recent months, scientists and doctors have learned much more about how the virus spreads and what makes patients vulnerable to serious complications. Bhargava returns to the program to follow up on her earlier observations and discuss how the conversations doctors, patients and whole communities are having about managing the coronavirus pandemic have changed.

Local organizers in Vallejo have been raising the alarm about police brutality for years. Among them is Club Stride, Incorporated, an organization dedicated to cultivating civic participation in communities of color and empowering youth led by executive director and founder Dr. Rhonda Renfro. Club Stride and its youth organizers like Raven Manigault, a recent Howard University graduate who aspires to become a judge, have long been confronting structural inequalities, including police violence.

San Francisco Public Press publisher Lila LaHood talks with 48Hills publisher Marke Bieschke and arts editor about his new book "Into the Streets: A Young Person's Visual History of Protests in the United States," which gives background and context for a long legacy of uprising and civil disobedience around the nation. Bieschke also discusses what this history means in light of recent the recent wave of protests against police brutality.

In this press conference, hear Mayor London Breed and Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax discuss the expansion of coronavirus testing. San Francisco is conducting more than 3,000 coronavirus tests per day, but backlogs are developing at labs and a rising demand is making it more difficult to schedule a test. Testing capacity will be expanded by about 1,400 tests per day in the coming weeks.

Working from home could become the new norm, emptying out San Francisco’s office highrises. Two architects imagine how those buildings could become housing and even farms as part of an eco-friendly post-pandemic downtown.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin has introduced legislation that aims to keep landlords from engaging in construction work in ways that disrupt the lives of their tenants who are sheltering in place. Tenant Andrea Carla Michaels says her power and water are frequently shut off without warning and construction work is done without proper dust mitigation. Peskin's proposal would require that landlords provide alternative electrical and water supplies if the construction they’re doing results in either being shut off.

In this press conference, Mayor London Breed said that San Francisco has been added to the statewide watch list of counties due to the rise in infections. As a result, on Monday indoor malls and non-essential offices will be required to close. Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the county's Department of Public Health, said that a health directive would require private hospitals to conduct same day testing for residents showing coronavirus symptoms and for health care workers in high exposure environments.

As workers head back to their jobs, they are navigating the new workplace safety reality of operating in a global pandemic. Labor organizers say the protections against catching the novel coronavirus on the job are insufficient at many workplaces, and lack enforcement. They allege that California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal/OSHA, is critically short-staffed. A spokesperson for Cal/OSHA said in an email the staff shortage doesn’t keep the agency from meeting its mandate.

More details about Lockdown Comedy are available here.

In this press conference, Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's director of public health, says San Francisco cases of COVID-19 are surging. Colfax said the rate of hospitalization could rise ten-fold by the fall if current trends continue. Gatherings of friends and families appear to be fueling the rise in cases, he said. Listen to his full remarks here.

The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected people of color throughout the Bay Area. At a panel organized by the coalition of health departments known as BARHII, Black community leaders from fields ranging from public education to community development to transportation said those most affected have not been given a seat at the table when it comes to determining the region’s pandemic response. In these excerpts from their remarks, they discuss initiatives they have set in motion to support their communities during the pandemic and what they would like to see done next.

This story was reported by Rebecca Bowe, an experienced print and radio journalist who is currently employed full time in communications for a national environmental organization and reported this piece on a freelance basis. Her organization’s work is unrelated to the shipyard. Find her on Twitter at Twitter.com/ByRebeccaBowe.

From automated license plate readers to drones to devices designed to identify gunshots, law enforcement agencies use a variety of tools to gather data. Dave Maass, senior investigative researcher with the digital privacy nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Stanford students Craig Nelson and Shelby Perkins discuss which law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area use which technologies, and whether and how they are complying with a state law that requires them to publish their standards, policies, procedures and training materials online.

Read Farivar’s reporting at NBC News.

In this special broadcast to bring you the complete remarks of city officials on the latest coronavirus developments in San Francisco, city officials announced that outdoor bars and indoor restaurants will not be able to reopen on July 13. No new goal date has been set. Coronavirus cases are still rising and certain key health indicators are now at concerning levels, the city's health director said. However, reopening progress thus far is not being reversed.

San Francisco’s Emergency Operations Center Thursday urged residents to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday weekend at home to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. As of June 29, there were 67 COVID-19 patients in city hospitals, including 18 transferred in from hot spots in Imperial and Fresno counties and San Quentin Prison in Marin County. Hear full audio from this press conference with city leaders here.

The full schedule for the release of the radio plays can be found here.

San Francisco public officials warned that people should avoid gatherings to celebrate July 4, as infection rates and hospitalizations linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have surged over the past week. Hear the full audio of the announcements made by Dr. Tomás Aragón, San Francisco Health Officer, and Joaquín Torres, the director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, here.

Joaquín Torres, director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, gives an overview of local programs meant to support struggling businesses and workers and how many have received aid. The need, among workers and businesses, exceeds what the city can immediately offer — all of the money in the city’s Give2SF fund, which is supplied by donations, is spoken for. Many city programs have reached their fund capacities, but others are still rolling out and will accept applications soon.

Drivers for Uber and Lyft staged a car caravan and rally outside Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's home last week to protest their classification as contractors despite a California law, AB5, which the state says defines such drivers as employees. The drivers, affiliated with groups including Gig Workers Rising and We Drive Progress, were also there to call on Uber to withdraw support for a ballot measure backed by Uber, Lyft and DoorDash that would add some protections but exempt drivers for these services from AB5’s requirements.

San Francisco officials have halted plans to reopen hair salons, nail salons, museums, zoos and outdoor bars as planned on Monday. They cited a spike in the number of new coronavirus cases that have moved the threat level from yellow to orange. Hear this and other updates from this press conference with Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax.

More information about seeing the film is available here.

In this perspective piece, producer Mel Baker recounts some of his memories of the movement that resulted in the creation of the AIDS quilt, which has now returned to the Bay Area. He says the callous eight-minute-long killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis Police officer in the midst of a pandemic, which has been the catalyst for a worldwide demand for police accountability and long denied racial justice, seems to have a certain rhyme with the callous disregard for an epidemic that was initially killing despised minorities and spurred the LGBTQ community and its allies to action.

The United States Postal Service is running out of money — the agency requested $75 billion in emergency funding in April, saying it would be out of money by September. Legislators had planned to give the postal service $25 billion in the CARES Act. But the Trump administration blocked the funding. Local members of the American Postal Workers Union staged a car caravan Tuesday to raise awareness of the impending financial calamity for the agency. They said they hoped to remind supporters to call on their Senators to allocate $25 billion in a new stimulus package to the Postal Service. They also rejected the notion that the agency should be reshaped to turn a profit, and emphasized the role of the service in the November elections, in which Californians will vote by mail.

Thousands have been protesting police brutality and racism in cities across the world, since a Minneapolis officer killed George Floyd in late May. Last Friday, marches and other demonstrations were planned throughout the day in San Francisco and around the Bay Area to mark Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the ending of slavery in the U.S. San Francisco Public Press reporter Brian Howey talked with demonstrators about how they were reflecting on the day and their feelings about the sustained momentum of these recent protests.

As San Francisco marks the 50th Anniversary of the first LGBTQ rights march, the program “Out in the Bay” is returning to the air on KSFP, a radio station created by the San Francisco Public Press. “Out in the Bay” returns after a four-year hiatus. Mel Baker, producer and contributor for “Civic,” spoke with “Out in the Bay” founding producer and host Eric Jansen and producer Truc Nguyen about the show and the parallels between the LGBTQ rights movement and the broader fight for civil rights.

As San Francisco improves its ability to mitigate the spread and treat the effects of the novel coronavirus, the city is also grappling with the fallout of its economic shutdown. Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the city’s Department of Public Health, said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday that the city has rapidly expanded its testing and contact tracing capacity and improved its supplies of personal protective equipment. Listen to the full press conference audio here.

Hi listeners — we just wanted to let you know why you won't be seeing many new episodes this week. But keep an eye out for one special interview with the producers of Out in the Bay!

A few days after a new city-approved tent encampment, known as a “safe sleeping village,” opened at Everett Middle School, "Civic" talked with District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and some people at nearby encampments to get their perspectives on the site, which will be in operation for just six weeks.

The uprising sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has turned a national spotlight on the idea of defunding police, and locally, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton have announced they are developing a proposal for something in that vein. “Civic” spoke with people demonstrating about whether the idea of defunding the police department appealed to them, how drastically they would reduce funding, and what they would like to see money reinvested in.

Omorede “Rico” Hamilton, a street violence intervention program coordinator and community organizer, has been addressing crowds of hundreds at recent protests against police brutality and racism at San Francisco’s City Hall. In this interview, Hamilton expands on some of his remarks made at one demonstration and makes a case for addressing some of the damage done by racism with reparations.

Read Lydia's story here. The full Board of Supervisors is slated to vote on whether or not to reject the appointees Tuesday, June 9. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. and this is item 13.

This is part of a series of shows that collect perspectives from demonstrators. Listen to a previous episode here.