San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2017/12/page/2/)
CALmatters
The electorate is a politician’s ultimate boss. If voters don’t like what their representatives are up to, they can throw the bums out — really. But in recent weeks, as a wave of sexual harassment and assault allegations hits politicians in several statehouses and the nation’s Capitol, another force is proving to be as powerful as the electorate: peer pressure. Read the complete story at CALmatters.
KQED News Fix/The California Report
Edwin M. Lee, San Francisco’s first Asian-American mayor, died suddenly early Tuesday morning after suffering an apparent heart attack while grocery shopping. He was 65 years old. London Breed, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became acting mayor upon Lee’s death. “Ed was not a politician,” Breed said at a City Hall press conference Tuesday morning. “He did not always deliver the best sound bite.
We’ve gathered excerpts and links about London Breed becoming the acting mayor of San Francisco after Ed Lee, the city’s first Asian-American mayor, died early Tuesday after suffering a heart attack.
Updated Dec. 16
San Francisco Examiner:
Supervisors mull ‘caretaker’ mayors to replace London Breed in January
Acting Mayor London Breed may not hang onto her gig very long, if some members of the Board of Supervisors have their way. » Read more
Mission Local
A lot of confusion still exists about Ford GoBike’s 7,000 bicycles in places like the Mission. As part of a regional public bike-sharing system, it has been linked to gentrification. Although the company has reached out with plans for low-income residents, some believe the bikes are there only for higher-income residents. It is a problem that sparked vandalism and then calls for the program to withdraw or slow its expansion.
Read the story at Mission Local.
EdSource
Last year, more than 1 in 10 students were chronically absent, according to data released by state education officials this week. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10 percent of school days for any reason. The data, which the state released for the first time, shows that 1 in 4 foster children was chronically absent from California schools last year as were about 1 in 5 homeless, Native American and African-American students. Read the story at EdSource.
Mission Local
It might be an uphill effort to find out what police are up to in your neighborhood.
Getting frequent communications from the San Francisco Police Department in a newsletter, or nothing at all, depends on where you live and who your local captain is. Bayview residents, for example, get a weekly comprehensive newsletter emailed to them, but until November, if you live in the Mission, you have not seen a newsletter since 2009. Read the story at Mission Local.
CALmatters
California’s Air Resources Board had good news about emissions reported by companies covered under the state’s cap-and-trade system. Its recent report showed that greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 5 percent in 2016. According to analyses from the air board and independent experts, last year’s emissions drops were caused not by technological breakthroughs or drastic pollution reductions from oil refineries or other industries, nor did the cap-and-trade program make a signifiant difference. It was the rain. Read the story at CALmatters.
For more information about California’s cap-and-trade program, read the San Francisco Public Press (in collaboration with Earth Island Journal and Bay Nature magazine) special report on climate change.
Mission Local
With an increase in calls and a shortage of people to answer them, San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management instituted a new campaign, Make the Right Call, aimed at reducing unnecessary — and accidental — 911 dials. “A large portion are, for lack of a better word, ‘butt dials,’ ’’ said Francis Zamora, the agency’s director of external affairs. Around 30 percent of all calls to 911 in San Francisco are unintentional. Read the story at Mission Local.