Fifth & Mission

Activist Cleve Jones has lived in the Castro for five decades but now he faces eviction after a wealthy new landlord bought his building and more than doubled his rent. Chronicle reporter Tony Bravo joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the tense dispute and Jones explains what's at stake when people of his generation are displaced from 'gayborhoods' like the Castro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Employees at California fast food restaurants are confronting sometimes volatile situations at work without protection or training, according to a study that reviewed 911 calls at eateries in nine cities. Reporter Shwanika Narayan speaks with host Dominic Fracassa about what fast food workers are asking for to make their jobs easier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California lawmakers approved an emergency bill to extend eviction protections that were set to expire on March 31st. 11th hour politics have provided temporary relief for tenants and landlords, but there's no permanent solution in sight. Chronicle reporter Lauren Hepler joins host Cecilia Lei to explain why rent relief is getting more complicated and how that impacts the state's housing crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 700 patients at the San Francisco facility could be displaced as federal officials have threatened to withhold critical funding from the facility after two patient overdoses. Those non-fatal incidents triggered an investigation that found Laguna Honda, which had a patient abuse scandal in 2019, had fallen out of regulatory compliance. Reporter Rachel Swan tells Dominic Fracassa about the hospital's latest trouble, and what the Department of Public Health is doing to keep it open. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As California's historic drought persists, Chronicle reporter Kurtis Alexander joins host Cecilia Lei to give an update on water conservation efforts and whether the state is prepared for the upcoming wildfire season. He also shares the status of water restrictions and new research on the health impact of wildfire smoke. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that many Bay Area residents have been reinfected with COVID-19 — some more than once — what does that mean for the future of the pandemic? The bad news, Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday tells Demian Bulwa, is that the virus isn't going away. The good news is that both vaccinations and infections can build protection for the future, and so-called hybrid immunity might be the strongest of all. Allday also talks about what we learned from omicron reinfections and what that says about the possibility of another Bay Area surge. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Award-winning Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the Season 3 launch of the Extra Spicy podcast. Ho reflects on what it's like being a critic, how the pandemic has changed the food industry and using food to explore larger social issues, including race, labor and gender. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Residents of communities like Richmond, Martinez and Benicia are angry after finding out that a hydrogen stack at the Valero refinery in Benicia was releasing chemicals at levels hundreds of times higher than the legal limit for years. Government regulators knew — but had kept it a secret since 2019. Chronicle reporter Julie Johnson breaks down the story with host Demian Bulwa. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California has the highest average gas price in the country. Gov. Gavin Newsom has unveiled a gas tax rebate plan that would put money back into the pockets of car owners and incentivize mass transit services. Reporter Dustin Gardiner joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the proposal and what negotiations might look like in the Legislature. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, the families of people lost to suicide have campaigned for a barrier on the bridge to make it harder to jump. Now, after years of construction delays and opposition, a steel-net suicide prevention system is nearing completion. Chronicle reporter Rachel Swan joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about what the project means to victims’ families and the lessons learned by people on the front lines of bridge rescues. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On any given night, thousands of people sleep unsheltered in San Francisco. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wants to change that with a proposal that would force the city to offer shelter to all unhoused people. He joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss the legislation, and Chronicle reporter Mallory Moench explains the potential costs and concerns of his plan. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For months, a rooster living in a Tenderloin yard has been terrorizing the neighborhood with its all-day crowing. Longtime resident Adriel Lively wanted to do something about it, but she only found dead ends. Chronicle reporter Ryan Kost joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss Lively's ordeal and why a story about an annoying bird -- in a neighborhood riddled with serious problems -- still matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 16, 2021, a white gunman killed 8 people in Atlanta spas — including 6 Asian women. One year later, host Cecilia Lei and 4 Asian women in the Bay Area reflect on the tragedy, and how it's changed their ideas around work, personal safety and community. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An epidemic of fatal drug overdoses prompted San Francisco Mayor London Breed to declare an emergency in the hard-hit Tenderloin neighborhood. She promised to open a new aid center and increase street intervention by cops and others. But as the 90-day order ends Thursday, have things gotten any better? And what happened with Breed's threat that some drug users may be arrested? Chronicle reporter Susie Neilson joins host Demian Bulwa to break down what's happened. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A moldy apple. A jar of used masks. A small bottle of vodka. Bay Area residents are holding on to artifacts from the pandemic to help them remember how they — and the world — have changed since the first shelter-in-place order came down two years ago. Chronicle reporter Annie Vainshtein joins host Cecilia Lei to share their stories. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Monday marked the first time in two years that California students could go maskless inside their schools. Host Cecilia Lei and Chronicle reporter Annie Vainshtein visit a sixth-grade classroom at San Francisco's Hoover Middle School to see what has — or hasn't — changed after months of sometimes furious debates. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As lawmakers scramble to reverse a court-ordered enrollment freeze at UC Berkeley despite heavy demand, the debate is igniting the housing wars. The school and its neighbors are sparring over who is responsible for a central problem: just 22% of the school's students are housed by the university. In Berkeley, the failure to build housing goes back decades, but the politics have changed, with YIMBYs instead of NIMBYs ascendant. Chronicle reporters Sarah Ravani and J.K. Dineen join host Demian Bulwa to discuss the latest in the closely-watched battle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A photo of a woman and her two children killed by a Russian mortar captured the world's attention. The woman was 43-year-old Tatiana Perebeinis, a chief accountant at SE Ranking, a Palo Alto tech firm. Chronicle reporter Carolyn Said shares more details of her life with host Cecilia Lei, and SE Ranking's Ksenia Khirvonina shares what preserving Tatiana's memory means for the world. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her first state of the city address to a live audience since the start of the pandemic, the mayor strikes an optimistic tone and pledges to tackle the city's most pressing issues, including homelessness and a battered economy. Host Cecilia Lei talks to City Hall reporter Mallory Moench about the mayor's plans, and to health reporter Erin Allday about whether we really are past COVID-19. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. John Garamendi, who represents a district between San Francisco and Sacramento, tells It's All Political on Fifth & Mission host Joe Garofoli about Saturday's congressional Zoom call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Garamendi talks about Vladimir Putin's similarities to Adolf Hitler, how oil companies are using the crisis as cover to gouge prices, and how Americans should be willing to sacrifice by paying higher gas prices to protect democracy. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod For more Fifth & Mission coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, listen to the episodes dated Feb. 25 and March 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Recreation and Parks department has released a report advising that the Golden Gate Park roadway remain closed to vehicles permanently. Now the matter goes to the Board of Supervisors. Since the start of the pandemic, JFK Drive has been a car-free haven. But opponents argue that it impacts traffic and hinders access to the park for the elderly and disabled. Chronicle reporter Ricardo Cano and columnist Heather Knight join join host Cecilia Lei to discuss the latest development in this fierce debate. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California is the first state in the nation to have a reparations task force to explore compensating Black Americans for slavery, which caused generations of racial disparities. The group has been split over who should be eligible for restitution: all Black Californians or those who can trace their lineage to slavery. Columnist Justin Phillips joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss why requiring Black Californians to prove their ancestry might be unfair. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thousands of the salamanders die on Bay Area roads each year during breeding season. The toll in Los Gatos is one of the largest rates of reported wildlife roadkill deaths in the world. Two volunteer groups are on a mission to stop it. Chronicle reporter Tara Duggan joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss their efforts, and why protecting these delicate creatures is important for the environment. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America's intense fear of terrorism after the 9/11 attacks landed hard on the shoulders of Hamid Hayat, whose California upbringing was shattered when he was accused of being part of a terrorist sleeper cell. Wrongly convicted, he spent 14 years in "Little Gitmo" and other lock-ups. But now he's free, and he spoke exclusively to The Chronicle's Jason Fagone about his famous case and his difficulty reclaiming his life. Fagone tells host Demian Bulwa why Hamid's story is so crucial to our understanding of the post-9/11 world. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Read Hamid Hayat's story: sfchronicle.com/hayat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

City leaders and nonprofits are considering an approach that was rejected in the 1990s: abstinence. That model is reflected in a new coalition called the Urban Vision Alliance. Reporter Kevin Fagan joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss how this strategy differs from the city's decades-long harm-reduction approach, and why this get-tough method is being revived. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maksym Zubkov was working on his PhD at UC Berkeley when Russia invaded his native Ukraine. He talks to host Cecilia Lei about what it's like to watch the war from the Bay Area. Plus: Four Ukrainians share what they're witnessing in their homeland. For information on how you can help people in Ukraine, visit Maksym Zubkov's website: maksymzubkov.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday breaks down a wave of changes coming to the Bay Area due to the retreat of the omicron variant. The federal government is shifting its guidance, and California is poised to drop its school mask mandate. Also, reporter Chase DiFeliciantonio tells host Demian Bulwa about San Francisco's new push to get office workers off Zoom and back downtown to spend money. Has the ship sailed on in-person work?sailed on in-person work? | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The violence on the other side of the planet doesn’t seem far away to those with Ukrainian or Russian heritage, or their allies. UC Berkeley political science professor M. Steven Fish joins host Cecilia Lei to explain why there are larger consequences for all Americans, what Putin’s motives are and how he might be stopped. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fight is heating up as parents, teachers unions, district officials and public health experts all have different ideas about the best way forward. Education reporter Jill Tucker joins host Demian Bulwa to talk about the different views between and within districts. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearby city residents have leveraged an environmental law to try to cap the university's enrollment numbers and stop campus expansion projects. Now, the California Supreme Court will decide whether the school will have to slash undergraduate admissions by more than 3,000 slots. But state Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced a bill that might let the state's colleges skip the lengthy environmental review for housing. Chronicle reporters Dustin Gardiner and Nanette Asimov join host Cecilia Lei to explain the drama. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod An earlier version of this episode was published with an editing error. That version has been fixed, and we’ve also republished the corrected episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearby city residents have leveraged an environmental law to try to cap the university's enrollment numbers and stop campus expansion projects. Now, the California Supreme Court will decide whether the school will have to slash undergraduate admissions by more than 3,000 slots. But state Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced a bill that might let the state's colleges skip the lengthy environmental review for housing. Chronicle reporters Dustin Gardiner and Nanette Asimov join host Cecilia Lei to explain the drama. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The school board recall spotlighted how Asian Americans are flexing their political muscle, especially Chinese voters. Chronicle reporter Roland Li joins host Cecilia Lei to explain why. Later, activist Gaynorann Siataga shares how Pacific Islanders are often rendered invisible in discussions about the AAPI vote. She talks about the impact of the recall of Faauuga Moliga, the first Pacific Islander to serve in elected office in San Francisco. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Season 3 of the Chronicle's food podcast approaches, we want to share one of our favorite episodes. Writer Liana Aghajanian talks about the role places like Chuck E. Cheese, Sizzler and IKEA play in the immigrant experience. Join host Soleil Ho for Season 3 of Extra Spicy by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. Extra Spicy will stimulate your mind and your appetite. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, forcing the relocation of nearly 8,000 Japanese Bay Area residents into internment camps. Chronicle columnist and Total SF podcast co-host Peter Hartlaub joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about how the discovery of one archive photo led him to tracing the family history of Paul Miyamoto, San Francisco's sheriff. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The City Council votes Thursday on whether to certify the environmental review of the A’s $12 billion waterfront ballpark project near Jack London Square. The development has raised community concerns around displacement and environmental impacts. Chronicle reporter Sarah Ravani joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about the Howard Terminal project, which would be one of the largest developments in state history. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Voters overwhelmingly recall board President Gabriela López and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga. On It's All Political on Fifth & Mission, reporters Joe Garofoli and Jill Tucker and host Demian Bulwa talk about the surprisingly decisive result and what it means for the attempt to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The district attorney says his office has learned that a woman was connected to a property crime via evidence from a years-old rape exam. SFPD Chief Bill Scott says if an investigation confirms the allegation, "I’m committed to ending the practice,” which might be unconstitutional and could have a chilling effect on people reporting sexual assaults. Reporter Megan Cassidy talks to host Cecilia Lei about the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As city leaders and residents anguish over the growing annual homicide rate — from 69 to 124 in the past five years — reporter Raheem Hosseini finds lessons in a past rise and fall of bloodshed in Oakland. He tells host Demian Bulwa that a previous crime surge launched the innovative Ceasefire program, which uses a collaborative, carrot-and-stick approach to try to reach people most at risk of becoming shooters or victims. But the pandemic crippled such efforts, and the city is starting over. Note: This episode published in error Saturday, so if you have it twice, the two episodes are identical. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sensational news headlines about burglaries and thefts don't tell the whole story. Data reporting can help. Chronicle reporter Susie Neilson joins host Cecilia Lei to talk about how crime trends differ by neighborhood and why digging into data is a critical component of understanding trends in the city. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID eviction battles are moving to Bay Area suburbs, which don't have the same tenant protections as urban centers like San Francisco and Oakland. Chronicle reporter Lauren Hepler joins host Cecilia Lei to discuss how evictions are playing out in places like San Pablo and Palo Alto, and housing researcher Tim Thomas explains why tenant evictions in the suburbs are a civil rights issue that dates back decades. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The state has announced that its indoor mask mandate will end on Feb. 16. Health reporter Erin Allday chats with host Cecilia Lei about how the latest in a long line of recalculations was made on the heels of the omicron surge, and how the Bay Area is approaching its own local directives. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oakland school board will decide Tuesday night whether it will close or consolidate 16 of the district’s 80 schools. Chronicle education reporter Jill Tucker joins Cecilia Lei to discuss the controversial proposal touted as a cost-saving strategy by the district. We also hear from an OUSD employee who is on a hunger strike against the decision. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AB 1400 was supposed to be the nation’s first government-funded health care system, but the legislation didn't even get a vote in the state Assembly. Supporters of the bill are angry with its author, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, for pulling it from the floor. In this episode of It's All Political on Fifth and Mission, Kalra explains his decision to Joe Garofoli and responds to his critics. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The relationship between San Francisco's cops and its progressive district attorney was tense from the start. But on the eve of the brutality trial of a cop, an allegation of misconduct against Boudin's office has prompted a bitter legal and political battle. Chronicle reporters Megan Cassidy and Rachel Swan join host Demian Bulwa to dig into the accusation, Boudin's response, and the concern that the fight will set back efforts to reform the city police force, which gathered steam after the 2016 killing of Mario Woods. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco's death toll from fentanyl overdoses is nearly double the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chronicle reporter Trisha Thadani takes us into the center of the city's fentanyl crisis and introduces us to people who are suffering from addiction firsthand — and she explores the limits of the city's strategy to curb the deadly opioid. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it time to move away from school mask requirements in the Bay Area? Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker tells host Demian Bulwa why some previously pro-mask parents and doctors are urging health officials to make them optional — and why others call that effort too early and too dangerous. Also, reporter Annie Vainshtein explains the anger and the fallout over Oakland’s decision to close and merge some schools, which will disproportionately hurt students of color. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Gavin Newsom says hundreds of condemned men will be transferred as death row closes. But while Newsom opposes capital punishment, the practice remains popular among voters — and he's not setting aside sentences. Reporter Kevin Fagan digs into the news and the political calculations with host Demian Bulwa, while recalling the times he's witnessed executions in the death chamber. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lunar New Year is typically the busiest time in San Francisco Chinatown, but decreased tourism and the omicron surge are causing businesses to suffer. Chronicle reporter Janelle Bitker chats with host Cecilia Lei about how the neighborhood is surviving and what its future may look like. Then, Janet Chan shares her one-woman mission to save Chinatown, one business at a time, which she's documenting on the Instagram account sfchinatown2021. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The omicron surge has made it hard for restaurant owners to operate safely, and steep declines in revenue are threatening permanent closures. Workers are being sidelined because of COVID-19 exposures and risk losing their critical health care coverage. Producer Caron Creighton reports on the struggles of the food industry and how once-celebrated workers now feel forgotten, despite still being on the front lines of the pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco police say they're "closer than ever" to solving the case of the Doodler, a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco's gay community in the 1970s. They're identifying a probable sixth victim: Warren Andrews, a 52-year-old lawyer who was beaten and left for dead at Lands End on April 27, 1975. Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan, who has been investigating the slayings for years, tells host Demian Bulwa why police are doubling the reward in the case, hopeful they can finally nab their man. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Listen to The Doodler, the Chronicle's 8-episode true crime podcast reported and narrated by Kevin Fagan, produced in partnership with Ugly Duckling Films and Neon Hum Media: podfollow.com/1535882542 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices