Civic

After George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, protestors have been taking to the streets to demand justice and end police violence against black people and other people of color. We collected some demonstrators' thoughts on what moved them to participate. This is part of a series that includes voices from protests early in the week. Hear more perspectives soon.

San Francisco remains under an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in the wake of a nationwide civil uprising over the death of George Floyd, an African-American man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. During a Monday morning press conference, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said he is cautioning Mayor London Breed not to end the curfew too soon. Hear the press briefing with this and other updates here and read a summary at sfpublicpress.org

Read more at sfpublicpress.org.

Muni is running only a core system of buses with no rail lines in service. But around 100,000 people still ride every day. Cat Carter, interim executive director of the San Francisco Transit Riders, hasn’t been on Muni in months, but she and others in the organization have kept busy, distributing masks and thinking about the future of Muni as budget cuts and the return of traffic congestion loom.

The San Francisco Unified School District has announced that fall classes will begin on Aug. 17, and administrators are in the process of planning how campuses will function as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. We heard directly from students about what life has been like for them under the shelter-in-place order. Abigail Ault, a junior at Lincoln High School, and La’Jaya Smith, a senior at Life Learning Academy, joined us on a Public Press Live webinar to share their experiences with distance learning.

The shelter-in-place order that has directed San Francisco residents to stay home except to conduct essential business will be in effect indefinitely, though with significant modifications to allow certain previously restricted businesses to re-open. Meanwhile, the city’s mask order will be expanded, now requiring everyone to cover their noses and mouths within 30 feet of another person. Hear these and other updates in this audio from today's coronavirus press conference.

Every year, San Francisco Pride events bring hundreds of thousands of people to the city during the last week of June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York City, which kicked-off the modern LGBTQ movement. This year was expected to be larger than ever, marking the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s first march, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced its abrupt cancellation on April 14, 2020. Pride Board President Carolyn Wysinger abd Executive Director Fred Lopez discuss the event's transformation.

The Camp Fire grew to disastrous proportions faster than some fire experts thought possible, and ultimately destroyed the town of Paradise and devastated several nearby communities. At least 85 people were killed, and tens of thousands were displaced. In the new book “Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy,” two journalists with the Guardian US, Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano, tell the stories of those who were affected, from the early hours before the fire took hold to the months of uncertainty in the aftermath. But while the ferocity of this fire came as a shock, it’s unlikely to be California’s last such megafire.

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: City departments told to cut budgets, transportation agency braces for gridlock, some hygiene stations found to be missing essentials. Coming up: Transit directors to meet, library will conduct summer learning online, collect COVID-19 time capsule materials, and library materials are not due until August 1.

The coronavirus pandemic has cost millions their jobs, and that means many tenants haven’t been able to pay rent, landlords have had trouble making mortgage payments and other bills are also stacking up. Sarah “Fred” Sherburn-Zimmer, director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, and Katrina Logan, director of the economic advancement program at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, discuss the potential effects. Debt can be sold to collections agencies, and even keep renters from accessing affordable housing, they said.

Read Joe's story here.

Read Chris Roberts' story here.

Some two weeks after a universal coronavirus testing mandate for nursing facilities was announced, 40% of the city’s nursing patients and staff have been tested, according to San Francisco health director Dr. Grant Colfax. Hear this and other updates from today's press briefing on the city's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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: CA faces deep budget cuts, shelter-in-place restrictions on retail ease slightly, needs for rental assistance exceed available funds, drive-through food bank opens. Coming up: Planning Commission to weigh plans for The Hub, Muni slightly increases service again.

Youth aged 16 and 17 could gain the right to vote in municipal elections if existing voters approve a charter amendment in November. City supervisors have introduced that amendment, and if it continues to see widespread support from the board, the measure will go to the ballot. This will be San Francisco’s second time voting on such an expansion of voting rights — a similar 2016 measure failed with just shy of 48% support. Nationally, only a few municipalities have extended voting rights to youth, but in other countries where youth can vote, their turnout rates tend to be higher. San Francisco Youth Commissioners Sarah Cheung and Rocky Versace gave participation as one reason they have worked to extend voting rights to young people.

Read Gosia Wozniacka's reporting at Civil Eats.

Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday that up to 95% of retail businesses should be able to reopen for limited curbside service starting on Monday, May 18th. Many warehouses and factories should also be able to resume operations. Hear this and other coronavirus update from today's city press briefing.

How to best support the thousands of people who are homeless in San Francisco, and prevent the spread of the new coronavirus among them, during this pandemic has been a point of contention for months. San Francisco Public Press reporter Brian Howey has been covering everything from a scuttled initiative to test everyone in the shelter system to how the city would use RVs it had secured for people without housing to self-isolate.

Some nonessential businesses will be able to resume limited operations starting May 18 if the rate of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in San Francisco does not increase in the next week, Mayor London Breed said Monday. “The curve is indeed flat,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the city’s Department of Public Health, referring to the hospitalization rate in the last month. Hear this and other updates from the latest city press conference on San Francisco's coronavirus response.

Under shelter-in-place orders, the Public Press staff has been producing the local current affairs program “Civic” from home, conducting interviews remotely and managing a radio station at a distance. The team has also turned its focus almost exclusively to covering the local effects of the coronavirus pandemic through in-depth interviews, complete press briefing coverage and San Francisco specific newscasts. In this excerpt from a live webinar, “Civic” producer and KSFP program director Mel Baker and “Civic” host and KSFP operations manager Laura Wenus discuss the changes to the show during the shelter-in-place order and their plans for its future.

A Mission District coronavirus testing initiative has shown stark disparities in who has been getting sick — 95% of those who tested positive in this initiative identified as Hispanic or Latinx. Among all those tested, less than 2% tested positive. Among people who worked in the testing area, that figure was 6.1%. Dr. Carina Marquez, assistant professor of medicine at UCSF and an infectious disease doctor at San Francisco’s general hospital, said not only do the tests show a disparity in who is getting sick, but that the virus is still spreading in the community even as many residents have been staying home for weeks.

In late April, a coalition of medical, community and government organizations called Unidos En Salud tested nearly 3,000 people in one Mission District census tract for the new coronavirus. Among those testing positive, 95% identified as Hispanic or Latinx, though they made up only 44% of those tested. Jon Jacobo with the Latino Task Force on Covid-19 and the UCSF Study Committee says the disproportionate impact on Latinos is the result of longstanding inequities in the city and around the nation.

In response to an increase in tent encampments in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, city officials will target 13 blocks with outreach, services, cleaning and enforcement. People living in some encampments will be asked to relocate to permitted sites, and the city will open one such site with 50 spaces on Fulton Street between Larkin and Hyde streets. Hear this and other updates from the most recent city press briefing.

Last Friday, two homeless women, Couper Orona and Jess Gonzalez, briefly occupied a long-vacant home in the Castro before police removed them. They are part of Reclaim SF, an organization inspired by Moms4Housing, a group of mothers who took over a vacant house in Oakland last year to protest real estate speculation. Quiver Watts, an organizer with Reclaim SF and editor of the Street Sheet, outlines how and why activists arranged for the takeover of the 19th Street house.

The anti-Asian racist rhetoric around the coronavirus pandemic is part of a long history of anti-Asian racism in America. Author and activist Helen Zia warns that the surge of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is likely to worsen as shelter-in-place orders are relaxed, and says as racism is used to sow division, we should come together.

As part of the effort to expand testing to all San Franciscans the city is offering free coronavirus testing to all essential workers, even those without symptoms. Mayor London Breed expressed concern over crowds at Dolores Park. Officials also reiterated that assistance for the homeless is being prioritized for those who were homeless in San Francisco before the pandemic, claiming others have arrived from out of town to seek services. Hear this and other updates from today's press conference.

Updated 5/5 to reflect Board of Supervisors vote.

Gina Baleria, assistant professor of communication and media studies at Sonoma State University and host of News In Context, guest hosts this discussion about the future of news media with Martin Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute, and Michael Stoll, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press. Reynolds says the traditional business model for news fails to support the local journalism people count on.

Among the most exposed and often vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic are people who don’t have a place of shelter. Joe Wilson, executive director of Hospitality House, a nonprofit that offers a variety of services from employment guidance to emergency shelter, said the city seems to be waiting for people to get sick before intervening. Like other service providers, when he and others at Hospitality House have seen a need in the community not being met, they stepped in — for example, by moving most of the residents of the organization’s emergency shelter to hotels. When the crisis eventually subsides, he said the city will need to address leaving homeless people always “last in line” for housing, testing and care.

As San Francisco officials worked to expand housing options for the homeless, city leaders warned that anyone from outside San Francisco seeking a hotel room or other shelter would be turned away to preserve resources for those who were homeless within city limits before the pandemic hit. “The hotel rooms that we are providing are for people who were homeless in San Francisco before this crisis,” Mayor London Breed said Wednesday. “No one from other cities should be coming to San Francisco expecting to be prioritized over the people who are here.” Hear this and other updates from city officials in this press briefing from April 29.

Many sex workers are barred from accessing protections and resources meant to help workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic — federal small business loans, for example, specifically excludes those whose work is “of a prurient sexual nature” from eligibility. Organizations like St. James Infirmary, a peer-run health and safety clinic for sex workers, are mobilizing harm-reduction efforts. Staff with the clinic are also distributing groceries, masks, and other hygiene supplies, and redoubling their efforts to help find housing for sex workers who need it, said Celestina Pearl, outreach manager for the clinic.

The Bay Area is the third largest economy for film and entertainment in the U.S. after New York and Los Angeles, and is home to more documentary filmmakers per capita than any other region. With film festivals canceled or postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, independent filmmakers are being forced to rethink how to launch and promote their work. Filmmakers Marc Smolowitz, Rodrigo Reyes, Anne Flatte and Leo Herrera discuss their current projects and how they’ve been affected by the public health crisis.

The shelter-in-place order keeping Bay Area residents in their homes except for essential activities will be extended through the month of May, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Monday. Dr. Grant Colfax, the city’s health director, said health officials are also looking for a sustained decline in the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 before the shelter-in-place order can be lifted. Breed also announced that two major thoroughfares through city parks, John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park and John F. Shelley Drive in McLaren Park, would close to car traffic to enable pedestrians and cyclists to maintain social distancing while they exercise. The mayor also described the idea of housing thousands of homeless people in hotel rooms — the ordinance allocates 7,000 rooms specifically for homeless people — as unrealistic. Hear this and other updates from today's press briefing.

Farmers markets are able to reconfigure stalls and have the advantage of often being open-air, but some are also adapting to social distancing health orders by increasing access to fresh produce for low-income customers. Markets across the nation are changing their layouts and shopping procedures, while farmers, vendors and advocacy groups grapple with decreased foot traffic and at times inconsistent government guidance. CUESA's Christine Farren and Kelly Verel from Project for Public Spaces discuss how markets are reshaping themselves during the crisis.

San Franciscans may be required to shelter-in-place well beyond May 3, the expiration date of the city’s current public health order. In a brief aside during Friday’s Department of Emergency Management press conference, Mayor London Breed said that her administration could make an announcement about extending the order as early as next week. Hear this and other updates from the press briefing here.

A group of Stanford-affiliated volunteers has set out to develop a tool to make accessing financial support, whether public or private, easier. The project, called Healthier Finance, is part of Stanford’s COVID-19 Reponse Innovation Lab, in which volunteers from a broad range of disciplines including medicine, business and media hope to collaborate to create technology and systems that are needed during the pandemic.

City officials on Wednesday announced expanded access to coronavirus testing. Tests will now be available to essential workers who must leave their homes to work and anyone who has symptoms, regardless of ability to pay. A doctor's note is not needed to schedule a test, and neither is insurance, though those who have it will be asked to provide their insurance information when they schedule the test. Listen to this and other updates here.

The St. Anthony Foundation of San Francisco has paid some $400,000 of its own money, and expects to pay $250,000 a month going forward, for equipment, staff and service changes necessary to meet the needs of the community during the coronavirus pandemic, its director José Ramirez, estimates. That includes an increase in staff time, stays in hotel rooms for residents of its winter shelter over age 50, the rental of hand-washing stations for those living on the street and packaging for meals which must now be taken to go rather than eaten in a communal indoor space. Ramirez explains how the nonprofit is responding to increased needs in its community.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation last week that obligates the city to procure 8,250 hotel rooms by April 26. As of April 20, 2,209 were under contract. Activists around the state organized demonstrations last week, showing up outside hotels and unfurling banners, calling on their city leaders to take over hotels and immediately house the homeless in them. While San Francisco department heads and the mayor had laid out plans to procure 7,000 hotel rooms, they had been adamant that these must be allocated to first responders and the most vulnerable homeless.

San Francisco’s Mission District has the highest number of COVID-19 infections, based on new data released on the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Data Tracker map. Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the Department of Public Health, called the results “sobering, but not surprising.” He said many residents living in the hardest hit neighborhoods have long suffered from numerous forms of inequality, which have made them more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Hear this and other updates from today's city press conference here.

Read more about the mask rule here.

With millions filing for unemployment benefits across the state, a projected unemployment rate of more than 18% and whole industries out of business, the state is facing dire needs and stark inequalities. Donnie Maclurcan, executive director of the Post Growth Institute and an affiliate professor of economics at Southern Oregon University, says the economy was already fragile, but that there may be an opportunity now to advance campaigns for equity.

San Francisco is training a corps of city workers to trace the contacts of people who may have been exposed to someone suffering from COVID-19. City officials also announced the opening of a new drive-through testing center in the city’s South of Market District for those who may have been exposed to SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The city is still limiting testing to front-line workers and those who meet the medical criteria for needing a test. Listen to the full press conference audio here.

Some 80% of calls the fire department responds to are medical emergencies. Emergency medical workers with the San Francisco Fire Department, with help from dispatchers, are implementing distancing where possible on calls, including by asking callers to meet first responders outside, said SFFD Public Information Officer Lt. Jonathan Baxter. First responders are also wearing protective equipment and taking extra decontamination measures.

City officials explained their efforts to place homeless people in hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic at a press conference April 13. Mayor London Breed explained the multiple challenges to quickly placing vulnerable unhoused people in hotel rooms — an especially pressing goal after a COVID-19 outbreak at a homeless shelter last week. By Sunday, the city had placed approximately 750 homeless people in hotel rooms throughout San Francisco. Hear the full press conference audio here.

In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, two leaders of the Elder Abuse Prevention Program at the Institute on Aging and San Francisco’s district attorney describe how authorities handle reports of scams and fraud, and answer listener questions about preventing web-based and phone scams.

The MSC South homeless shelter is being turned into a medical facility for COVID-19 patients after 68 of its residents and 2 staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, San Francisco officials announced Friday. Around 100 residents were at the shelter, down from its usual capacity of 340, when residents and staff were tested. Those who did not test positive have been moved into hotels, said Mayor London Breed. Hear this and other updates officials offered on Friday.

San Francisco firefighters are still on duty, working shifts at the firehouse, responding to calls and conducting fire safety inspections. As part of an ongoing series of conversations with front-line workers, Civic spoke with local firefighter Adam Wood. He says that, among other things, firefighters are wearing protective equipment where possible, cleaning common areas and equipment three times a day and bracing for a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Now more than 850 members strong, the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group is made entirely of volunteers and was sparked by just one person’s post offering to pick up groceries for those unable to leave their homes. In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, full-time artist and Sunset resident Bianca Nandzik, her husband Stefan and former printing industry worker Frank Plughoff share their experience building a mutual aid society from the ground up.

Some San Francisco bookstores carry a colorful magazine that looks like the New Yorker of the west coast. This is the San Franciscan, a volunteer passion project. Amanda Legge and Erica Messner are two women living in San Francisco and working full time in non-media jobs who started the magazine purely for fun. Messner says part of the inspiration for the magazine came from a desire to reflect the creativity the two saw around them.