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San Francisco Examiner
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...
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. ...
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...
Planet Labs comes down to earth, cutting 17% of staff
Satellite-imaging provider Planet Labs is laying off 17% of its staff, including 98 people based at its San Francisco headquarters. The layoffs, which amount to 180 people across the company, are part of a broader effort to cut costs at the money-losing business, it said in a Wednesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Planet Labs plans to let go affected San Francisco staff Aug. 26, said Thomas...
What current COVID-19 spike could mean for wildfire season
California wildfire season has kicked off this year with several blazes throughout the state, with one in the Bay Area, the Point Fire in Sonoma County, reaching 100% containment in late June after burning more than 1,200 acres. The 2024 season also coincides with an earlier spike in COVID-19 cases than in previous summers, and experts say they are concerned about the impact particulate matter in wildfire smoke will have on those struggling with respiratory illness. ...
Pride Guide: How to celebrate and get around The City today
Pride is descending upon San Francisco, with a plethora of events celebrating and uplifting the LGBTQ+ community Sunday. Transportation officials are expecting traffic reroutes and service changes for public transit. Whether you’ve already set up your itinerary or need a few more recommendations, here’s what you can expect as you navigate The City. The Parade ...
Pride Guide: How to celebrate and get around The City this weekend
Pride weekend is descending upon San Francisco, with a plethora of events celebrating and uplifting the LGBTQIA+ community packed into just three days. Transportation officials are expecting traffic reroutes and service changes for public transit. Whether you’ve already set up your itinerary or need a few more recommendations, here’s what you can expect as you navigate The City. Laser Rainbow Flag Grand Lighting Ceremony (Friday) ...
Plans to replace beloved temporary downtown park put off
The thwack of pickleballs punctuated the buzz from courtside onlookers while people conversed over drinks in a nearby covered beer garden. A squad of children played soccer on artificial turf, while others on bean bags watched a movie on a big screen. It was an ordinary Thursday evening at The Crossing at East Cut, a temporary downtown park south of Market Street on the site of a former bus station that has become a treasured community gathering spot. ...
Why SFUSD will weigh equity above all when closing schools
San Francisco public-school officials vowed Tuesday to avoid repeating the mistakes of the mid-2000s and prevent forthcoming school closures and mergers from primarily affecting sites that mainly serve Black and brown families. Members of the San Francisco Board of Education said equity and inclusion will be weighed above all else when the San Francisco Unified School District decides which locations to close or consolidate next year. Closures in 2005 and...
BART suspends line connecting SF to East Bay all day
A key public transit connector between The City and the East Bay was down all of Wednesday. Service on BART’s red line, which runs through San Francisco between Richmond and ends Millbrae, was suspended for all of Wednesday after one of the transit agency’s maintenance vehicles was derailed near the 19th Street station in Oakland and blocked a set of tracks early in the morning. There were no injuries from...
Opponents say Farrell using ‘loophole’ to boost mayoral bid
San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Farrell’s opponents say he is leveraging a pair of November ballot measures to boost his profile with major contributions from wealthy benefactors that would otherwise exceed contribution limits. The committee Farrell formed to support two proposed ballot measures this November is sharing expenses with another committee Farrell formed to run for mayor in the same election, according to a disclosure filed with The City’s Ethics Commission on Thursday and first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle last week. ...
In mayor’s race, Safai stands alone on overdose prevention sites
It wasn’t long ago that overdose-prevention sites were a cornerstone of San Francisco’s plan to combat the fentanyl crisis. But as mayoral candidates address The City’s dramatic rise in opioid-related deaths on the campaign trail, few are willing to even raise the subject of overdose-prevention centers, let alone outline how they’d open one, and such facilities have only received a passing mention in the first two mayoral debates. Only Supervisor...
UCSF ultrasound study adds to growing body of abortion-medication research
A new UCSF study published Monday found no difference in outcomes between patients who received abortion medication via telehealth appointments and those who received ultrasound examinations prior to their abortions. Medication abortion is approved for patients who are up to 10 weeks pregnant, and ultrasound exams are typically performed to assess what stage they’re at in their pregnancies before the drugs are prescribed. But more recent research has shown that they’re not necessary, said UCSF epidemiologist and associate professor Lauren Ralph, the lead author of...
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