San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2018/03/page/2/)
If you’re into comparing the charms of San Francisco to those of New York City, a burg with more than 10 times the population of our fair city, take a look at a N.Y. transplant’s tale of the two cities. » Read more
By Lee Romney, EdSource
Ever since the Oakland Unified School District launched its African-American Male Achievement office eight years ago people have been asking, “What about the girls?”
Among them were community leaders like Nzingha Dugas, who under contract to the district for many years ran academic enrichment programs and a basketball league that she says kept more than a few girls out of trouble — and in some cases out of the grasp of sex traffickers. Read the complete story at EdSource.
California officials are taking their first, tentative steps toward requiring cities to plan for severe sea level rise that scientists now say could conceivably elevate high tides by up to 22 feet by the middle of the next century. Such a deluge would overtake much of San Francisco’s southeastern waterfront, submerge huge swaths of West Oakland and Alameda, and inundate large portions of cities along the Peninsula and in the South Bay. » Read more
By Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED/CALmatters
Amparo Cid traces her work as an attorney helping recent immigrants and their families in the Central Valley fight injustices and potential deportation to her experience as a child in 1994. That was when California voters passed Proposition 187, an initiative that denied undocumented immigrants access to publicly funded services. Back then, many California officials blamed the federal government for not doing more to keep people from crossing the border illegally. Today, the roles are reversed. Read the complete story at KQED/CALmatters.
By Matt Weiser, KQED News Fix/Water Deeply
California is well behind the curve on groundwater regulation. With a few exceptions, groundwater extraction has never been regulated in the state or even monitored with any precision. However, a 2014 law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, at last will require groundwater basins in the state to reverse longstanding overdraft problems. This will mean metering individual groundwater wells for the first time, as well as collecting fees from groundwater users to fund management efforts. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/Water Deeply.
By Carolyn Jones, EdSource
Most teachers are embracing California’s new science standards, but the rollout has been hampered by teacher shortages, lackluster elementary science education, lack of supplies and other obstacles, according to a new report. The report by the Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 204 school districts across California at the end of the 2016-17 school year about their progress in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards, which were adopted in 2013 and which schools are currently introducing. Read the complete story at EdSource.
From her office in the Mission District, Yanira Arias organizes immigrant communities throughout the United States, winning some campaigns, losing others. Through it all, she has known the day would come when she would be organizing to hold onto the life she has created in San Francisco. » Read more
By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local
At some point on Wednesday, the meeting’s going to careen off the rails. “S**t-show breaks out” isn’t a Police Commission agenda item, but it might as well be. Various members of the public will recriminate one other and members of the government; members of the government will recriminate various members of the public and one other. Demonstrations will break out. That guy who shows up and sings during public comment will show up and sing during public comment.
By Julian Mark, Mission Local
Nearly three years have passed since Dora Mejia filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco that exposed the barriers many monolingual sexual assault victims experience when interacting with the San Francisco Police Department, but advocates say the problems still remain. Mejia was arrested after her ex-partner sexually assaulted her in a Mission District apartment in 2014. He left the apartment, called the police, accused Mejia of attacking him. When officers arrived, they refused to offer her an interpreter, insisting that she use the best English she could. Read the complete story at Mission Local.
San Francisco has begun rolling out a new technology platform that officials say will better help the homeless population by giving priority for shelter and housing to those with the greatest need. But by formalizing who has priority — and who doesn’t — the system also functions as a form of rationing of the city’s scarce affordable housing. » Read more