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San Francisco Examiner
$5 fee fight erupts across The City’s pickleball courts
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department calls it a reservation fee, but pickleball players call it a use tax. Whichever way you slice it, the $5-per-hour ‘pay-to-play’ fee that commissioners unanimously approved last week has pickleball players up in arms. It now goes to the Board of Supervisors for approval in June, and pickleballers are protesting with petitions and letters to elected officials in an effort to keep court access free. ...
SF neighbors organize donation drive for dog walker whose home burned
Alamo Square residents are continuing to rally around Terry Williams, the longtime San Franciscan and dog walker who has received racist and threatening mail in recent weeks and whose home was gutted in a fire Tuesday. Forty San Francisco Fire Department crew members responded to the one-alarm blaze, which broke out Tuesday shortly after 11:30 a.m. on the 900 block of Grove Street between Steiner and Fillmore streets. Williams’ parents — his 79-year-old mother and 82-year-old father — were rescued from the blaze and treated...
SF overdose deaths decline amid new push to expand treatment access
Fatal drug overdoses in San Francisco declined for the second time in three months this year, according to preliminary data released by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Wednesday. The City recorded 56 overdose deaths in April, down from 68 in March, 63 in February and 71 in January. Officials last month had tallied 66 deaths in February and 61 in March. It also represented a decline from the 71 deaths reported in April 2023, the year in which San Francisco recorded more...
Israel-Hamas war sparks strife at San Francisco museums
San Francisco boasts a proud history of political protest and radical art, so it’s no surprise that local artists have been outspoken in their calls for a cease-fire in Gaza — and for the museums where they exhibit to join them. But those calls have largely gone unacknowledged by The City’s major art institutions. These local tensions mirror the strained discourse throughout the art world around the ongoing Israeli offensive...
This court-appointed expert is tasked with righting Emporium Centre mall
The huge Emporium Centre San Francisco mall that dominates the intersection of Market and Fifth streets is like a large, half-empty ocean cruise liner crashing through stormy seas, with retailers as recently as this month getting ready to jump ship amid the economic headwinds. At the wheel, working to keep the ship aright through the gale, stands Gregg Williams, a receiver appointed in October by a San Francisco Superior Court after the mall’s owners said in June that they would walk away from their mortgage,...
SF, public-health nurses tentatively agree to new contract
San Francisco’s public-health nurses union reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with The City to avoid a possible strike. SEIU Local 1021, which represents the nearly 2,300 nurses who work for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said that 99.5% of its members voted nearly in favor of authorizing the strike due to the lack of progress in bargaining sessions. Union officials said the new contract, which...
CCSF names historic interim chancellor as permanent search continues
City College of San Francisco will have a new chancellor next week, bringing a temporarily end to a search that began when the current chancellor, David Martin, announced his resignation in September. Mitchell Bailey was chosen by the CCSF Board of Trustees and will be the first openly gay man to lead the institution — albeit in an interim role over one academic year — until the college finds a permanent replacement. ...
Battle over Prop. 22 heads to California Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case on Tuesday that could have big implications for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and the workers who drive for these companies. At issue is Proposition 22, an initiative passed by state voters in 2020 that designated drivers as independent contractors rather than employees of such companies. A group of drivers and the Service Employees International Union argue that the move unconstitutionally stripped the state legislature of the ability to include such workers in California’s workers-compensation system. ...
Why 'moderate' and 'progressive' are words of choice in SF politics
When Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin entered the mayoral race in April, it was assumed that San Francisco progressives could breathe a sigh of relief. After all, Peskin was the first — and to date, only — progressive candidate to run against incumbent Mayor London Breed, who is widely considered a moderate in a field full of ideologically like-minded candidates. But in San Francisco, what is a progressive, and...
SF General treats patients by considering ‘whole life story’
As mental health increasingly becomes a statewide priority, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital is embracing a more inclusive treatment method for those struggling with addiction and their mental and physical health. The nearly 7-year-old social medicine program — which its website claims has served more than 6,000 patients since it was founded by Dr. Hemal Kanzaria in 2017 — looks at how every aspect of a patient’s life can play a role in their health outcomes. Factors such as housing, family and food insecurity can...
Paul Pelosi attacker still due in SF court amid resentencing drama
It remains unclear how David DePape’s federal resentencing, stemming from his conviction of striking the husband of longtime San Francisco congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in the head with a hammer, will impact his looming state trial. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley reset DePape’s federal sentencing hearing Saturday after realizing she didn’t give the 44-year-old a chance to speak during his sentencing hearing the previous day. She wrote in court filings that neither the prosecution nor the defense brought attention to the initial omission, which she...
Could this California grant ease school counselors’ workloads?
California is rolling out a certified wellness-coach program with the hope that these non-clinicians will ease the workloads of school counselors and social workers to address a rise of children’s behavioral disorders. California youth are experiencing longstanding mental-health issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which can manifest in behavioral problems at school and can lead to chronic absenteeism, poor academic performance and even suicide. Meanwhile, the need for school counselors,...
SF AAPI leaders lament decline in City Hall representation
Ten years ago, San Francisco City Hall was brimming with Asian American representation, the culmination of years of progress from a generation of political and civic leaders knee-deep in the community. Not only was Ed Lee in his first term as The City’s first Asian American mayor, but five of the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors were Asian American. Three were of Chinese descent (David Chiu, Katy Tang and Norman Yee), one was Korean (Jane Kim) and another was part-Japanese and part-Chinese (Eric...
Brooke Jenkins makes her case for a full term as district attorney
As part four of my special Meet the 2024 Candidates series — currently airing on the WE ARE SAN FRANCISCO podcast and YouTube show — I chatted with San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who is currently running for reelection. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation. You came into office in unusual circumstances after the recall of the prior district attorney. What is the first thing you did to restructure the office? I had to make sure that we had experienced prosecutors...
From bubonic plague to COVID-19, SF Chinese Hospital has seen it all
In its 125-year history, San Francisco’s Chinese Hospital has weathered three of the most infamous diseases in human history: COVID-19, influenza and bubonic plague. “The bubonic plague hit San Francisco in the early 1900s,” said Dr. Jian Zhang, CEO of Chinese Hospital, referring to the 1900-04 epidemic that preceded the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19. “So at that time, when bubonic plague hit San Francisco, the government built walls around San Francisco Chinatown.” ...
Breed officially launches reelection campaign, vowing to 'do the work'
For the first time in a long time, San Francisco Mayor London Breed might have momentum. Fresh off her strongest poll numbers in recent memory, Breed formally kicked off her reelection campaign in front of throngs of supporters at the Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday. Breed rejected the “doom loop” narrative that has clouded The City in recent years, instead painting a picture of progress on The City’s most pressing problems,...
TogetherSF Action cancels Monday mayoral debate after three candidates bail
And then there were none. TogetherSF Action canceled its planned mayoral debate for Monday, finally ending a flurry of controversy over the event. The political organization opted not to move forward with the debate after three of the top five mayoral candidates declined to participate, citing concerns that included ties between TogetherSF and candidate Mark Farrell. ...
In a mostly-male SF mayoral field, campaigns tout equality in staff
Mayor London Breed, who is attempting to secure a second full term, is running against four prominent challengers, all of whom are men. The dearth of female candidates this year stands in contrast to the most recent competitive mayoral race — when Breed won a 2018 special election to replace the recently deceased Mayor Ed Lee, four of the top five vote-getting candidates were women. Research has shown that campaign...
Here's how to get around The City during Bay to Breakers
Bay to Breakers, the annual 7½-mile dash from the Embarcadero to Ocean Beach, returns to San Francisco this weekend and so, too, do a number of street closures and transit detours. Transportation officials in The City said the event will cause major reroutes and delays. Other Bay Area public-transit agencies are offering extra service to get participants and spectators to the race. The first wave of racers will take off...
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The San Francisco Examiner, founded in 1863 as the Democratic Press, examines politics, crime, sports and culture in The City with a focus on solutions-based journalism.
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