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San Francisco Examiner
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...
San Francisco not alone in facing school-closure conundrums
The coastal California public-school districts with the highest costs of living are closing schools or exploring the option to do so, signaling a new trend that experts say is only partially tied to declining enrollment in those counties. For decades, California education officials have been reluctant to close schools as their districts lose students. The San Francisco Unified School District, like most districts, did not close its schools in recent years despite serving fewer students overall, according to enrollment records. ...
Breed backs Great Highway on ballot, opponents on hot seat
San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s proposal to permanently close Great Highway has been met largely with silence from her opponents. The proposed measure, currently slated for the November ballot, was introduced last month and comes as mayoral candidates delicately vie for votes from west-side residents. Breed, who is seeking a second full term in office, has all but locked up The City’s urbanist and pro-housing contingent, which is joining her...
SFMTA, BART lean into region’s 'healthy appetite' for public-transit merch
San Francisco’s market for public-transportation-branded merchandise is booming, just in time for the holidays. BART unveiled its holiday collection — headlined by the fourth iteration of its ugly sweater — Monday, nearly three weeks after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency unveiled its own cotton-acrylic jumper. Officials with the agencies told The Examiner riders have reacted positively to their seasonal offerings. The merchandise is effective at building camaraderie among riders...
Top chef makes a big bet on downtown SF with new French bistro
Chef Bruno Chemel likes a challenge, and he took on a big new one Monday by opening Le Parc Bistrobar, a French restaurant in a hotel in downtown San Francisco near Union Square, an area that has been grappling with office and retail vacancies. “I like risk,” said Chemel, a native of France who previously ran a Michelin-starred haute cuisine French restaurant in Palo Alto and later another restaurant in the same city offering less-formal French fare. ...
Mark Farrell raises nearly $1M to support charter reform he didn’t write
Mountains of money continue to pour into mayoral candidate Mark Farrell’s side effort to reform San Francisco government. The committee Farrell formed to back a controversial November ballot measure raised about $570,000 in the final two weeks of June, according to a disclosure organizers filed with The City on Friday, bringing its total haul to nearly $1 million. The two largest donations were $250,000 each from real-estate investors Thomas and...
Daniel Lurie: SF should bar alleged drug dealers from neighborhood of crime
A major drug-trafficking operation in the Tenderloin last month netted 57 arrests in one day. Focusing on fugitives who had outstanding arrest warrants, officers seized fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine. But such crackdowns aren’t enough to permanently shutter The City’s drug markets. Like all crime, the solution lies in ensuring dealers know they will be caught and face consequences every time, not just once in a while. The first major priority...
Federal court vacates part of SF homeless-sweeps injunction
A federal court on Monday struck down part of an injunction barring San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments without offering alternative shelter. It comes just over a week after the Supreme Court overturned a key ruling that its opponents said limited the use of encampment sweeps in western cities. A three-judge panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated part of District Judge Donna Ryu’s 2022 ruling following...
Record empty offices hurt SF firms, workers who tailor, repair spaces
The record-high office-vacancy rates plaguing San Francisco don’t just hurt landlords, real-estate agents and small-business owners who rely on commuter foot traffic — they also hurt contractors and laborers who do “tenant improvements,” or the work done to spaces that get leased. The valuation of the work permitted last year for office alterations and repairs in The City was at its lowest level since 2016, and only a little better in the first half of this year, according to data provided by the Department of...
How SF homeless-outreach workers respond to heat waves
Homeless-outreach workers in San Francisco were called into action as The City’s unhoused population contended with a Fourth of July heat wave. The City’s Homeless Outreach Team with the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing enacted its hot-weather protocol in an effort to provide additional resources and support to some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents, many of whom were in more dangerous circumstances due to the weather. Staff increased...
Child-care advocates press on after presidential debate snub
Amid staggering child-care costs in San Francisco and across the country, viewers of the first 2024 presidential debate late last month looking for answers from the two candidates competing for the nation’s highest office said they were left feeling empty-handed. CNN debate co-moderator Jake Tapper asked President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump how they would lower child-care costs for American families, citing a report that found that the average cost of child care for two children is now higher than the average cost...
A solution to Dems' Biden struggles? Make Harris the incumbent
How’s this for a plan to make Kamala Harris look presidential, pull the media’s attention from Donald Trump, create a nightmare scenario for House Republicans, and provide Democrats a 32-electoral vote swing in what promises to be a very close 2024 presidential election? When the Republican National Convention ends July 18, President Joe Biden could announce his resignation, effective immediately. In a speech from the Oval Office, he says that...
Pier 39 points to trio of summer openings as a sign of continued rebound
Pier 39 officials pointed to a trio of businesses opening this summer as another sign that the San Francisco waterfront shopping center and tourist attraction is rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic. Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria first welcomed customers through its Pier 39 outpost’s doors earlier this month, while Humble Sea Brewing Co. and Fire + Ice Grill and Bar are set to open later this summer. Officials with Pier 39 said that the trio of openings signals a new era for the popular tourist destination...
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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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