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St. Mary’s, St. Francis hospitals officially joining UCSF
St. Mary’s Medical Center and St. Francis Memorial Hospital are officially going to join the UCSF fold next month. Nearly a year after UCSF Health announced its intent to acquire the hospitals from Dignity Health, the health-care giant announced Tuesday that a cooperative settlement agreement had received judicial approval that day in San Francisco Superior Court. The deal, crafted in collaboration with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, aims to preserve...
Officials, experts emphasize rarity of recent SF coyote attack
A coyote bit a 5-year-old girl just before 11:30 a.m. on June 28, during a summer-camp visit to the San Francisco Botanical Garden. U.S. Agriculture Department trappers, working alongside California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials, shot and killed three coyotes in the garden during the subsequent weekend. DNA testing conducted Monday identified one of the killed coyotes as the animal that bit the child. Captain Patrick Foy, a member...
‘Ticking time bomb’: Suit claims ‘egregious’ failures in SF shipyard cleanup
An environmental advocacy group is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Navy for “egregious violations” during its cleanup of radioactive toxins at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and the UC Berkeley Law Clinic filed the lawsuit Friday, calling for, among other demands, 100% of the land to be retested for radioactive contaminants. They claim the Navy was obligated to do so, but never did. ...
Measure cutting number of SF commissions expects ballot qualification
TogetherSF Action, the political group backed by billionaire Michael Moritz, turned in nearly 80,000 signatures to elections officials Monday in an effort to qualify a November ballot initiative that would slash the number and authority of The City’s citizen commissions. The “Cut The Dysfunction Bureaucracy Initiative,” which would reduce the number of such bodies roughly in half to a maximum of 65, is a city charter amendment that advocates argue is an antidote to a sprawling bureaucracy of unelected functionaries that has diluted the power...
Measure cutting number of SF commissions expects ballot qualification
TogetherSF Action, the political group backed by billionaire Michael Moritz, turned in nearly 80,000 signatures to elections officials Monday in an effort to qualify a November ballot initiative that would slash the number and authority of The City’s citizen commissions. The “Cut The Dysfunction Bureaucracy Initiative,” which would reduce the number of such bodies roughly in half to a maximum of 65, is a city charter amendment that advocates argue is an antidote to a sprawling bureaucracy of unelected functionaries that has diluted the power...
Officials warn of fire risk ahead of SF heat wave, July 4 revelry
Officials are asking San Franciscans to leave firework displays to the professionals ahead of the Fourth of July, citing warming temperatures and dry conditions that will put The City at a high fire risk. Weather officials and emergency responders are advising residents to exercise caution while outside, particularly when it comes to celebrating the holiday. “We are straight-up asking people to not do fireworks this year because the fire danger...
Supes table plan for $5 pickleball, tennis court reservations
San Francisco lawmakers have tabled a proposal to charge $5 to reserve select public tennis and pickleball courts in The City after hearing pushback from players. For now, reserving a public court will remain free, after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Appropriations committee unanimously voted late last month to postpone consideration of the proposal. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission unanimously passed a proposal in May...
Low-income San Franciscans scramble to deal with internet subsidy’s end
Millions of Americans — including tens of thousands of San Franciscans — recently received some unwelcome news: Their internet bills are set to go up. The effective rate hike was the result of the end of a federal subsidy program that has its roots in the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubbed the Affordable Connectivity Program, the initiative was designed to close the long-lingering digital divide by providing significantly discounted internet access to low-income families, even allowing some to get broadband service for free. ...
SF ‘truly in a new era’ as it must fast-track housing projects
With San Francisco still lagging behind its state-mandated housing targets, The City has now become the first in California where a recently passed streamlining law will take effect — meaning that most new developments that meet planning standards will be allowed to move forward without additional public review. State housing officials announced the determination Friday that San Francisco had missed its 2023 development goals, activating the streamlining provisions of Senate Bill 423, a housing measure written by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and passed...
Fans showing up for Valkyries 'in a big way' amid WNBA's ascent
Fans and employees of the Golden State Valkyries say they are ready to capitalize on both the surging national interest in the WNBA and the longstanding support women’s basketball has enjoyed locally. Tipoff is a little less than a year away for the Valkyries, the first WNBA team to call San Francisco home and the first to play in Northern California since the Sacramento Monarchs folded in 2009. The league’s final season without them is already historic. ...
Movie-theater concert embodies a thriving music scene in the Richmond
For generations, San Francisco’s neighborhoods have long defined its music scene. But the Richmond, a sprawling residential neighborhood known for its proximity to Golden Gate Park and (relative) affordability, has never boasted of a distinct musical legacy. Until the last few years, that is. A new cohort of musicians has proudly set up home in the neighborhood, and the advent of venues with unique and exciting programming have suddenly made...
Public election financing in SF hustles to keep up with outside spending
Despite The City’s many efforts to discourage it, big money is finding ways into the 2024 San Francisco mayoral election. Billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg and Jan Koum — the former CEO and co-founder of WhatsApp — have already put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race. Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has decided to self-finance his campaign, paving the way for him to sink...
SF pro-housing advocates, opponents battle for rhetorical high ground
Even their harshest critics acknowledge that in the decade since pro-housing advocates first began organizing in support of new developments under the YIMBY banner in San Francisco, they’ve had massive success in changing the shape of The City’s housing conversation. As one telling moment, supporters of the “yes, in my backyard” movement point to an answer Mayor London Breed gave during the first major debate of the mayor’s race earlier this month. ...
SF YIMBYs hope to win big in November as political influence grows
After four years of rapid ascendence in San Francisco city politics, the November 2018 elections delivered a stunning rebuke to The City’s nascent YIMBY movement, made up of advocates for more housing development who organize under the banner of “yes, in my backyard.” YIMBY-endorsed candidates — including Sonja Trauss, the movement’s most visible standard-bearer, who came in a distant third in the race for District 6 supervisor — lost nearly all their races in that election. ...
How Supreme Court homelessness ruling impacts San Francisco
Legal experts said the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on Friday that gives cities across the country the green light to conduct homeless-encampments sweeps could have wide-ranging implications in San Francisco. Meanwhile, city leaders celebrated the decision, but they were largely coy when describing how the decision could change their approach to removing people experiencing homelessness off the streets. By a 6-3 vote, the high court on Friday overturned a...
As temperatures rise, here’s how San Franciscans can stay cool
As summer in the Bay Area begins in earnest and temperatures are expected to rise next week, city officials have resources available for those who need to beat the heat, particularly for The City’s unhoused population. Fortunately, the rising temperatures in the rest of the Bay Area will be tempered in San Francisco by its proximity to the coast, NWS meteorologist Nicole Sarment told The Examiner. The agency’s seven-day forecast...
U.S. Supreme Court justices cite The City in homelessness ruling
San Francisco was cited multiple times in the opinions written by U.S. Supreme Court justices in a ruling issued Friday that will affect an ongoing lawsuit on homelessness involving The City and the ability of municipalities to address the problem in general. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, a case that effectively tested the constitutional limits cities and states face in punishing people for behaviors associated with homelessness, such as sleeping in public parks. ...
San Francisco's working families need support from state, feds
It’s time for us to tackle poverty head-on. With the cost of living skyrocketing across the country, many cities like San Francisco are grappling with how to help working families. San Francisco has pioneered more policies than many cities nationwide. Yet, these initiatives fall short of truly supporting The City's working families because of a broken national system far too outdated to adapt to the challenges the Bay Area is...
Great Highway closure emerges as a wedge issue in 2024 election
The proposal to permanently close Great Highway to cars has opened a divide between west-side elected officials and their constituents in San Francisco. Supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents the Sunset district, is leading the charge to turn the sometimes-sunny, often-sandy four-lane stretch of upper Great Highway between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way into a permanent park for pedestrians, cyclists, roller skaters and that random neighborhood resident who dresses up like Mario and rides around the neighborhood on a go-kart. ...
East Palo Alto's groundwater risk has vital lessons for The City
New research further magnifies the growing risk rising groundwater poses to San Francisco and other low-lying Bay Area cities. The nonprofit think tank San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association and the East Palo Alto community organization Nuestra Casa released a study earlier this week analyzing the impacts groundwater rise could have on East Palo Alto. The research centered on the Peninsula city because of its proximity to...
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