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San Francisco Examiner
Tesla still hasn't talked to state robotaxi regulators
Tesla still lacks approval to operate autonomous vehicles in California amid CEO Elon Musk seemingly confirming reports saying the company had postponed its highly anticipated robotaxi launch. Some industry experts aren’t holding their breath for the rescheduled date, either. Both the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Department of Motor Vehicles told The Examiner on Monday that Tesla has not applied for a driverless-testing permit or a deployment permit. ...
SF overdose deaths down in first half of ’24
Drug-overdose deaths in San Francisco fell 27% in June, with The City recording fewer fatalities through the first six months of 2024 than the same time last year, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. But San Francisco’s six-month total is its second-highest since The City began recording that information in 2020, putting it on pace to record more overdose deaths than in any year but 2023. There...
SFMTA says cable-car shutdown could end this week
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency crews are working to restore service to two of San Francisco’s three cable-car lines, with service indefinitely replaced by bus shuttles in the meantime. SFMTA officials suspended service on the Powell/Mason and Powell/Hyde cable car lines over the weekend due to what the agency termed a “machinery issue” in the agency’s cable-car barn that ended up affecting both lines. Bus shuttles are being provided on both lines until crews can resolve the issue, which the agency said it hopes to...
Chinatown leaders say bike-lane idea ‘blindsided’ them
San Francisco Chinatown leaders say they are frustrated by a city project that could install the neighborhood’s first-ever bike lane. The new lane is being considered as part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Biking and Rolling Plan, an initiative to revamp and bolster The City’s bicycling infrastructure, which hasn’t been updated citywide since 2009. The agency’s main goal is to create a biking network that’s accessible within a quarter-mile of every San Franciscan. ...
‘This is the year’: SF labor unions prepare for hectic elections
San Francisco is still a union town. And as long as San Francisco is a union town, labor will influence The City’s politics — but 2024 has thrown some interesting wrenches into the mix. Five prominent candidates in a tightly contested race for mayor are vying for organized labor’s support, but it appears increasingly likely that unions’ support will be splintered across the field. ...
Power tools replace pens, paper at this SF high-school internship
Woodwork and auto-shop classes waned in popularity when most millennials were in high school, but shop class isn’t dead in San Francisco public schools. In fact, research shows that Generation Z students are more interested in skilled-labor trades than their predecessors. Current students and recent high-school graduates are flocking to vocational schools more than their predecessors, so much so that Generation Z has been nicknamed “the Toolbelt Generation” for its willingness to embrace trades-job training over traditional four-year colleges. ...
X has put most of its SF HQ up for sublease
Social media company X has put about 70% of the space it leases in its San Francisco headquarters complex — including about half in its iconic headquarters building — up for sublease. Since last year, the Elon Musk-owned business has been seeking to offload two floors at 1355 Market St. totaling about 158,000 square feet, a source familiar with X’s listing told The Examiner. It recently added a third floor to the mix, bringing the total it’s put up for sublease to about 236,000 square...
SF restaurateurs say Michelin Guide nods mean 'everything to us'
Three San Francisco restaurants are among the 13 eateries joining the Michelin Guide California this month. Inspectors for the Michelin Guide announced Wednesday that Azalina’s, Hed 11 and Tiya represented The City in the tire company’s directory of the state’s best restaurants. Owners of all three restaurants told The Examiner their inclusion in the guide gave them tremendous senses of accomplishment and pride in their journeys sharing cuisine that shaped their lives with San Franciscans. ...
San Francisco Democrats back Harris — if Biden steps aside
A contingent of prominent San Francisco Democrats is calling on national party leaders to choose Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate to replace President Joe Biden should he elect to drop out of the race. Seven members of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) signed a letter this week pitching Harris as the most viable candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election. Biden...
Emporium Centre manager, vacating tenant battle over mall conditions
American Eagle, the clothing retailer suing former operators of the Emporium Centre San Francisco over allegedly neglectful management and criminal activity at the mall, said in a letter filed in court that it would surrender its recently closed store Friday. The company, which had nearly 3½ years remaining on its lease at the giant half-empty mall at Fifth and Market Streets, alleged in a blistering “Notice of Termination” letter that it had been “constructively evicted” as a result of continuing and increased security incidents and...
$10B state climate bond’s effect on SF projects unclear
San Francisco officials and environmental advocates say a $10 billion climate bond will help The City withstand damage associated with the warming planet’s changing weather patterns, but it’s not yet clear what local projects the money will fund. Californians will vote in November on Proposition 4, a bond measure seeking to fund climate and environmental programs such as improving communities’ access to clean drinking water and protecting them from increasingly extreme floods and wildfires. ...
New at-home health-care pilot debuts at Tenderloin SRO
A new pilot program will offer around-the-clock health care to residents of a single-room-occupancy hotel in the heart of the Tenderloin in an effort to provide more comprehensive support to those who’ve struggled with chronic homelessness and suffer from a variety of medical issues. “We want to really make sure that we have all of the interventions that people need to live the best lives that they can in our system,” said Shireen McSpadden, the executive director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and...
New SF art registry seeks artists with ‘real connection’ to Chinatown
Chinatown leaders say they want to showcase more public artwork by those with actual ties to the historic neighborhood. They gathered Thursday alongside San Francisco officials and artists in front of the Chinese Culture Center’s Grant Avenue headquarters to announce the launch of the first ever Chinatown Artist Registry. Maylor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin — who represents Chinatown and is currently running against Breed in...
Why this Stanford expert isn’t worried about AI starting a nuclear war
Stanford launched its Human-centered Artificial Intelligence institute five years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that the center’s founders tried to narrow down what they actually meant by “human-centered AI.” At first, leaving that definition open seemed like a good idea, because it allowed people coming to the institute from different disciplines to explore different directions, said James Landay, a co-founder of Stanford HAI. But more recently, it became clearer the institute needed to have more of a standard definition to guide its overall direction...
New BART report paints dire financial picture
A BART-commissioned report found that, absent a new funding model, the agency would have to reduce service, with cuts imperiling transit access and the Bay Area’s climate goals. The 62-page “Role in the Region” report published Tuesday claimed riders’ post-pandemic travel patterns have shifted away from commuting in favor of recreational trips, hampering the ridership-revenue-dependent agency. The study’s authors said cutting BART’s operating expenses by 30% would reduce service by...
Supes’ rent-control resolution roils San Francisco housing debate
What does it mean to be pro-housing in San Francisco? Who is truly on the side of renters? These questions came up again and again as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors settled their latest knock-down, drag-out fight over a nonbinding resolution. This time, the dispute centered on rent control. Supervisors voted 8-2 on Tuesday to pass a resolution in support of a November statewide ballot measure to repeal Costa-Hawkins,...
SF high schoolers ahead of state’s financial-literacy curve
San Francisco high schools are a few years ahead of the state’s financial-literacy curve. The City’s high schools have offered personal-finance courses for three years, well before California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation late last month requiring financial literacy to graduate beginning with the class of 2031. Assembly Bill 2927 requires all high schools to offer a standalone, semesterlong personal-finance course by 2027. Palo Alto-based nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance,...
The Tenderloin remains a haven for LGBTQ+ San Franciscans
LGBTQ+ San Franciscans say the Tenderloin remains a haven for young queer people looking to make a fresh start in The City, even as the neighborhood has become a flashpoint for issues such as drug abuse and homelessness. “It’s what makes people feel the most welcome — you can be anybody there,” said Curtis Bradford, the community organizing manager for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. “I just can’t think of a better example of what diversity and inclusion looks like.” ...
Measure to lower some SF business taxes qualifies for November ballot
A business-tax reform measure that qualified this week for the November ballot would see San Francisco initially forego some revenue by lowering levies for some companies while raising them for others in an effort to support and retain businesses in The City. The committee supporting the tax proposition, which was worked out with the mayor and other top city officials, had already received $770,000 in contributions by the end of June, according to a disclosure filing. Proponents had spent $553,743 of the money raised. ...
How SF keeps drinking water ‘pristine’ amid statewide cleanliness issues
Thanks to Hetch Hetchy, The City has some of the cleanest tap water across California. But for nearly 1 million people statewide, healthy drinking water remains out of reach. That’s according to the California Water Resources Control Board’s fourth annual Drinking Water Needs Assessment report, which evaluated the health of the state’s drinking water. The...
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