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What California Schools Learned From Recent Disasters

01.30.2018
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By Carolyn Jones, EdSource
California schools ravaged by fire, floods and mud this year have mostly reopened and are diving in to a new semester, but district leaders say they’ve learned some crucial lessons about handling natural disasters that all schools could benefit from. “A disaster could happen anywhere at any time in California,” said Steven Herrington, superintendent of the Sonoma County Office of Education, where two public schools were destroyed, nearly a dozen schools were damaged and hundreds of students and staff lost their homes. “We all have emergency plans. For us, overall, things went pretty smoothly. But nothing can really prepare you for a major disaster like what we experienced.”
Read the complete story at EdSource.

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The Mission District’s Foot Patrols — Where Are They?

01.29.2018
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By Julian Mark, Mission Local
Last August, the San Francisco Police Department announced plans to nearly double the number of foot patrol officers walking commercial corridors citywide from roughly 70 to 130. Moreover, Police Chief Bill Scott said the number of foot patrols would quadruple in the Mission District. But nearly five months later, merchants along the Mission District corridors that the foot beat officers are supposed to be patrolling say the foot-patrol presence has been inconsistent at best — and nonexistent at worst. Read the complete story at Mission Local. 

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North Bay Fires: What Took Authorities So Long to Warn People?

01.26.2018
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By Marisa Lagos, Sukey Lewis and Lisa Pickoff-White, KQED News Fix
Around 10 p.m. on the night of Oct. 8, 2017, an unidentified woman frantically called 911. “We are blocked, and we can’t get out of here,” she said. It was her second call of the night, and her voice sounded shaky. She was trapped behind a tree in the Franz Valley area northwest of Calistoga as a neighboring house went up in flames.

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Mark Farrell Is Your New Mayor — and Let the Games Begin

01.24.2018
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By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local
Moments after he provided the sixth and deciding vote to oust London Breed from the position of acting mayor and install Mark Farrell as caretaker, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, all 6-foot-4 of him, was sprawled out in a seat in his City Hall office. He looked spent. He was spent. He had voiced his “ayes” for Farrell in a willowy near-whisper, triggering an extended period of bedlam in the board chambers in which Breed’s largely African-American supporters noisily shut down the Tuesday night meeting, accused the board of reviving Jim Crow in 2018 and locked eyes with the District 8 Supe and charged him — yes, you, Jeff Sheehy — with wholesale racism. When livid members of the public leaned in, shouted his name, and unloaded vast quantities of vitriol, Sheehy did not return their gaze.

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How Trump’s Solar Tax Could Affect California’s Energy Plans

01.23.2018
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By Julie Cart, CALmatters
It’s too soon to say if the Trump administration’s decision to impose stiff tariffs on cheap Chinese solar panels will make it more difficult for California to dramatically ramp up renewable energy. But the move — which adds a 30 percent tax on imported solar components — will certainly make it more expensive. Read the complete story at CALmatters. 

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San Francisco Retools Its Relationship With Airbnb

01.22.2018
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By Joe Eskenazi, Mission Local
There’s a funny story about the ascension of Karol Wojtyla to Pope John Paul II. Upon hearing the news, a shell-shocked colonel in the Polish secret police uttered, “My God, from now on we’ll have to kiss his ass.” A savvier Party secretary replied, “Only if he lets us.”
At 12 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17, Kevin Guy became San Francisco’s pope of short-term rentals. Some 2,080 illegal Airbnb listings vanished into the ether in that very nanosecond. And they were, definitionally, illegal: As of that minute, a short-term rental host who proves he or she is following city laws and earns a license issued by Guy’s Office of Short-Term Rentals is legal, and a host who doesn’t have one is illegal and excommunicated — period.

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Public Press Weekly: Livin’ in the City, by the Numbers

01.22.2018
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Many city dwellers have a lot to complain about these days: sky-high rents and home prices, housing for the few, sketchy roommates, skimpy parking, hellish traffic, clutter, litter — you name it. And then there’s homelessness. The numbers of San Franciscans living on the streets are increasing, right? » Read more

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S.F. Police Dept. Won’t Cooperate During Expected U.S. Immigration Raids, Chief Says

01.18.2018
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Mission Local
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said at Wednesday’s Police Commission meeting that his officers will not cooperate with U.S. immigration agents during raids that are expected soon in Northern California. “Our instructions have been clear in terms of our policies … SFPD will not assist in any federal immigration enforcement,” he said. “That’s the message we’re putting forward to make sure all our members understand our policies in the spirit of the laws here in our city.”  
Read the story at Mission Local.

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Why Homelessness in San Francisco Seems to Be Growing When It’s Not

01.17.2018
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KALW/Crosscurrents
Many San Franciscans believe that homelessness has been growing. In 2016, residents called 311 to complain about encampments five times more than in the previous year. What’s confusing is — the population of homeless people in the city has  stayed relatively flat. So, if the numbers aren’t changing, what is? Three reasons.

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Schools Become ‘Safe Haven’ for Salvadoran Students in Wake of Crackdown

01.16.2018
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EdSource
California schools are bracing for the impact of the Trump administration’s decision to kick out thousands of Salvadoran immigrants. “It’s a calamity for families who’ve built their lives here, own homes, own their own businesses, pay taxes, are part of the community,” said Juan Rivera of Carecen SF, a nonprofit that helps Central American immigrants in the Bay Area. “Sending these families back to a situation of extreme violence and poverty — it’s horrible to put children in that position. While this moves forward, schools can provide a safe haven.”
Read the story at EdSource.