News
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S.F. Study: Childhood Trauma Lasts Into Adulthood, Leading to Public Health Crisis

11.18.2014
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By Anna Challet,  New America Media
Past experiences of childhood trauma are common among California adults, and those experiences correlate with harmful behaviors and chronic disease at a level that constitutes a “public health crisis,” according to a new study. The report by the Center for Youth Wellness, a health organization that serves children and families in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point area, demonstrates that “the effects of early adversity on lifetime health are astounding,” according to the center’s founder and CEO Nadine Burke Harris.  
Read the complete story at New America Media.

News
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2014: The Most Expensive S.F. Election in Years

11.17.2014
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By Rigoberto Hernandez, Mission Local
When it comes to ballot measures, this has been the most expensive election cycles since at least 2011, and that year does not even come close in spending. Proponents and opponents of 12 city ballot measures, which ranged from a tax on sodas to approval of soccer fields in Golden Gate Park, have poured a whopping total of $16,724,644 million (not including third party expenditures). That is more than the total money spent on all ballot measures in 2013, 2012 and 2011 combined — with $3 million to spare. Read the complete story at Mission Local. 
 

Climate Change
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New Virtual Reality Installation Reveals How Sea-Level Rise Will Affect Bay Area Shoreline

11.17.2014
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A San Francisco technology company is helping Bay Area residents visualize in 3-D how their neighborhoods could look under three feet of water when sea-level rise accelerates later this century.
The company’s virtual reality device is cleverly encased inside a viewfinder similar to the old-style coin-operated contraptions found at historical landmarks and national parks. » Read more

News
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811: The Number to Call Before You Dig

11.13.2014
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By Ngoc Nguyen, New America Media
Wolfgang Gordillo recalls the day when a fellow worker, digging on a construction site in Seattle, accidentally struck and ruptured a gas pipeline with a pickax. “The fire department showed up, evacuated the area [and] closed off the gas line,” said Gordillo, who works as a contractor in construction and home remodeling in the Bay Area. The accident did not cause an explosion or fire — a possible risk when gas from a leak comes into contact with air and a spark, but it disrupted service to the area and prompted an evacuation. 
Read the complete story at New America Media. 

City Hall
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How San Francisco Places Homeless Into Supportive Housing

11.13.2014
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INFOGRAPHIC: Two city departments run similar programs focused on getting people off the streets and into housing. Audits of San Francisco’s homelessness programs say that the demand for permanent supportive housing far outstrips supply. More than 7,000 people are homeless today; only a few hundred spaces in housing become available each year. » Read more

City Hall
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Promise of Supportive Housing for Homeless Faces Reality of Short Supply

11.13.2014
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Part of a special report on homelessness and mental health in San Francisco, in the fall 2014 print edition. Stories rolling out online throughout the fall.
For a decade, San Francisco’s answer to homelessness was “housing first.” Get people off the streets and out of shelters, the theory went, and their lives would improve dramatically. » Read more

News
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Californians Will Soon Have More Time to Turn in Mail-In Ballots

11.12.2014
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By Lisa Pickoff-White, KQED News Fix
Late voters will have more opportunity to mail in their ballots, thanks to a new law that goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The law stipulates that vote-by-mail ballots will need to be postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later, rather than the current requirement that ballots must actually be in the hands of election officials by Election Day. Election officials hope the date change will help alleviate voters’ concerns about mailing in their ballots. Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, for example, says she’s seen trays of ballots go uncounted because they were mailed in too late.

City Hall
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Housing Solution: Build Manhattan-Style Towers in Candlestick Park

11.12.2014
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Candlestick Park will soon go out with a bang, when developer Lennar Corp. razes it as part of the Hunters Point Shipyard project. In its place, retail, offices and hotels will rise, in addition to new housing.
But David Cay Johnston has a different idea: The city could use those 83 acres entirely for high-density apartment towers. » Read more

News
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SF Green Cab Pulls Taxis Off Street, May Shut Down

11.11.2014
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By Jon Brooks, KQED News Fix
We have been covering the woes of the San Francisco taxi industry for some time now, and here’s another one for you: SF Green Cab, a small worker-owned taxi cooperative founded in 2007, has stopped operating and could be out of business for good. Green Cab pulled its 16 cabs off the street late Thursday night just before the midnight expiration of its insurance, says Mark Gruberg, a member of the company’s board and one of its founders. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. 

City Hall
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KQED Tackles Junction Between Homelessness, Mental Illness

11.10.2014
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KQED Public Radio’s “Forum” hit the airwaves this morning with a conversation with Robert Okin, the former chief of psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital, who recently published a new book on homelessness and mental illness. He said the common belief that the homeless choose to reside on the streets, from his experience profiling them, is false. » Read more