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San Francisco Examiner
No wait: Hailing a robotaxi in The City is now as easy as Uber, Lyft
Getting a ride in an autonomous vehicle in San Francisco is now as simple as the tap of a finger. Waymo, the most prolific self-driving car company in The City, announced on Tuesday that San Francisco users no longer have to put their name on a waitlist to use its app. That means as soon as people download the Waymo One app, they will be able to order rides. The...
Why Enron pie-thrower sees herself in The City's Israel-Hamas protests
When Francine Cavanaugh pelted Enron’s then-CEO Jeff Skilling with a tofu cream pie 23 years ago during a speech in San Francisco, she was one in a long line of activists using comically disruptive acts to draw attention to her cause. “People see it as a violent act because it’s an object and in someone's face” said Cavanaugh, who now lives in Atlanta. “However, it is also an American tradition. So I think anytime you see that, it's very humorous. There's a lightness about it.” ...
SF Fed president warns of possible unemployment spike
When it comes to the unemployment rate, be prepared for pain ahead. That was the message from Mary Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, during a talk in The City on Monday at Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. Thus far, the Federal Reserve’s move to raise interest rates has reduced inflation without significantly increasing unemployment, Daly said. But the easy part of the fight...
The City's office-vacancy rate just inched to a new record high
San Francisco’s office-vacancy rate inched up to another record high of 37% in the second quarter of 2024 while showing signs of “stabilization,” including rising demand for office space, according to preliminary data released by commercial real-estate company CBRE. The new vacancy milestone — up from 36.7% the prior quarter — had been expected by real-estate experts as the local office market continues to adjust to a reality in which large numbers of employees who once came regularly to offices have been routinely working remotely. ...
Muni rider satisfaction at 20-year high in new SFMTA survey
Muni riders’ satisfaction in 2023 was its highest in more than 20 years, according to a survey released Monday. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said 72% of surveyed Muni riders rated service as “good” or “excellent,” an increase of six percentage points from 2022 and the highest rating since The City began conducting the annual surveys in 2001. Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA’s director of transportation, said in a statement that...
Yet-to-open elementary school’s future is uncertain as SFUSD plans closures
As the San Francisco Unified School District prepares to close school sites by fall 2025, the future of the still-under-construction Mission Bay School is uncertain. SFUSD’s Bond Program Communications Director Kate Levitt shared concerns that Mission Bay could be among the schools on the chopping block while speaking at a Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure meeting last week, at which district officials were asked to give updates on the project’s enrollment planning. ...
Palm founder Jeff Hawkins’ next big thing is an AI that learns like humans
Jeff Hawkins didn’t invent the PalmPilot because he passionately wanted to pioneer mobile computing, he said. It was just a means to get back to his true love — studying neuroscience. Hawkins, 67, quit a tech job in the mid-’80s to go back to graduate school to study how brains work. When he realized he couldn’t get funding for the research he wanted to do, he went back into the tech industry with the express purpose of making enough money to fund his efforts himself,...
San Francisco holds firm to abortion freedoms two years post-Dobbs
After the Supreme Court denied an appeal this month that challenged access to mifepristone, a drug that is widely used to help induce abortions, Bay Area advocates and health care providers breathed sighs of relief. But ultimately, some of them said, the victory felt hollow. “This was a tiny win for us this past week,” said Dr. Josie Urbina, an abortion provider at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. “With this...
How the LGBTQ+ voting bloc became rooted in San Francisco
It’s the fastest-growing voting bloc in the U.S., but here in San Francisco, it’s also one of the most established. The influence of the LGBTQ+ voting bloc is steadily gaining momentum in national politics, projected to represent one in five voters by 2040. But the notion that a gay voting bloc could wield real power in politics was born in San Francisco years before Harvey Milk — the first openly gay politician in California history — was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
San Francisco must redouble efforts to end youth homelessness
A recent editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle raised awareness about how young people in California continue to be negatively affected by the aftereffects of the pandemic. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, more than 10% of Californians ages 16-24 are not in school or participating in the labor market, and almost 75% are 20-24 years old. If this wasn’t concerning enough, these challenges are further compounded by...
David DePape convicted in state court of attacking Paul Pelosi
A state court in San Francisco convicted on Friday the man who struck longtime San Francisco Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s husband in the head with a hammer at their Pacific Heights home. The jury found David DePape, 44, guilty on charges of aggravated kidnapping, burglary, false imprisonment of an elder and threatening a family member of a public official. The jury began deliberating the case Tuesday and reached its verdict late Friday afternoon. ...
This is the story of Willie Mays, a North Carolina lumberyard and a sculptor’s dream
On a summer day in 1999, William Behrends was in Wilmington, N.C., a port city on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, when he was driving past a lumberyard and finally found what he had been searching for. A young worker — about 5-foot-10, 170 pounds — caught his eye, Behrends said. He was the one. Behrends approached him, he said, and asked, “Would you like to be Willie Mays?” ...
San Francisco overdose deaths increase in May, but on the decline from 2023
Accidental overdose deaths rose last month in San Francisco after falling in April, according to the latest preliminary data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. There were 66 overdose deaths in May, and the majority were caused by fentanyl. While this represents an increase from 59 overdose deaths in April, the total number of deaths so far in 2024 (327) is 6% less than this time last year (348). ...
CPUC judge approves $112,500 settlement with Cruise over SF accident
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday ordered Cruise to pay $112,500 to settle and end the agency’s inquiry into an accident last fall in which one of the company’s self-driving cars hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. Over The City's objection, CPUC Administrative Law Judge Robert Mason III approved Cruise’s settlement offer. The only change is that the company will pay more than the $75,000 it previously offered. The amount Cruise will have to pay is the maximum allowed by state law...
Laguna Honda hospital regains Medicare recertification after years of turmoil
More than two years after Laguna Honda Hospital lost its certification after federal regulators reported multiple violations, the facility has been approved for Medicare recertification, according to an announcement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health on Thursday. The hospital lost its certification in April 2022 after several inspections revealed violations, including staff hygiene issues and on-site smoking and drug use. Chaos ensued in the following months as nearly...
Lurie passes $1 million in spending, signaling expensive mayoral race
Daniel Lurie is quickly outspending his opponents in the mayoral race, passing $1 million in campaign expenditures more than five months before election day. Lurie’s abundance of resources is no secret — he is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and has an array of investments — but recent campaign-finance filings offer a glimpse into how heavily his effort plans to invest in the race. “Daniel is the only...
Mays’ death makes game held in his honor ‘that much more important’
The San Francisco Giants’ trip to Birmingham, Ala., was already bound to be emotional. But the gravity of the club’s special one-off game at Rickwood Field increased tenfold after the death of baseball legend Willie Mays on Tuesday. He was 93 years old. From the start, the entire event centered on Mays. The game was touted as a celebration of the most illustrious Giant of all-time, someone many had considered...
Mission neighbors envision future free of Central Freeway
San Francisco resident Nico Pitney said that as far as he’s concerned, The City could remove the Central Freeway tomorrow. “I’ve lived in the neighborhood for four years,” Pitney said. “My issue is less about removing the structure than turning it into a livable space. “You could have more parks, more walkable areas, more retail … It couldn’t happen soon enough!” he said. ...
Inherent contradictions define state of San Francisco art
San Francisco was named in the top three U.S. cities for art in recent years. So why doesn’t The City feel like one? Not only is San Francisco perceived as lesser than its peers, but it’s a place where it’s increasingly difficult for artists to make a living. Yet The City’s art scene, in many ways, is thriving. Economist Clare McAndrew ranked San Francisco as the No. 3 “art city”...
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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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