San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2015/04/)
By Laura Wenus, Mission Local
Lindsey Hoshaw, who lives near Treat and 24th, woke up in the early morning of March 11 to the sound of a woman screaming for help. She called 911. A recording told her to wait for a call taker. She did, for what she estimates was 30 seconds. Frustrated, Hoshaw hung up and ran outside.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Board of Supervisors president London Breed and police Chief Greg Suhr pledged Thursday to put a body camera on every officer who walks city streets.
That makes the city the latest of many nationwide where leaders are deciding that the benefits of outfitting police with body cameras outweigh the myriad costs. » Read more
By Zaidee Stavely, KQED News Fix
Oakland’s first homicide victim of 2014 was a boy named Lee Weathersby III. He was shot on New Year’s Eve and died early the next morning. Police say it appears he was not the intended target of the shooting. Lee would have turned 14 that year. His death hit his middle school, Alliance Academy, hard.
By Andrew Beckerman and Laura Wenus, Mission Local
In several recent meetings, activists have shouted down developers over the changes in the Mission and the displacement of low-income communities of color. Census data show how profound those changes have been. Long a working class neighborhood, the Mission has seen average earnings rise steadily since 2000, climbing from $54,000 (unadjusted) to $82,000 a year. Its foreign residents are still mostly from Latin America, but they are increasingly also Asian and European and the average level of education has risen.
Read the complete story at Mission Local.
By Dan Brekke, KQED News Fix
Activists have launched a new round in their long-running campaign to restore Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural condition by draining the reservoir that serves San Francisco and most of the Peninsula. In a lawsuit filed last week in Tuolumne County, the group Restore Hetch Hetchy renews arguments that featured prominently in a 2012 San Francisco ballot campaign — namely, that the water supply from the San Francisco’s Sierra Nevada reservoir can be readily and relatively cheaply replaced by altering management of the Tuolumne River. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
What: Rising Tides: Climate Challenges and Solutions for the Bay Area Waterfront
When: Tuesday, May 5, 2015 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Impact Hub, 925 Mission St., San Francisco
RSVP: Reserve tickets via eventbrite
Join us for a discussion about long-range planning and waterfront development around the Bay Area, and preview of our cover story for the next issue of the San Francisco Public Press. By the end of this century, scientists project the San Francisco Bay will rise by at least three feet – and possibly as much as eight in a bad storm. Rising bay water will threaten businesses along the Embarcadero, UCSF Hospital, AT&T ballpark and the thousands of homes currently being built in Mission Bay, Treasure Island and Hunters Point. City planners are currently discussing what can be done and at what cost, likely in the billions of dollars. Learn from an expert panel the anticipated effects on our natural ecosystem, existing and new development, and public utilities such as transportation and sewage. This solutions-focused discussion will help us all responsibly plan for the future of the Bay Area.
The Society of Professional Journalists has honored the San Francisco Public Press with a 2014 Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting.
SPJ recognized “Public Schools, Private Money” by lead writer and project editor Jeremy Adam Smith and the staff of the San Francisco Public Press as the winning entry for investigative reporting by a non-daily publication in the newspapers/wire service category. SPJ selected 85 national award winners from more than 1,600 submissions. For the winter 2014 print edition cover story, our reporters examined tax records from parent-teacher associations and compiled 10 years of budget and academic data from the city’s school district. The research focused only on elementary schools to make easy comparisons.
Crashes, assaults and other incidents involving drivers for Uber, Lyft and Sidecar — all based in San Francisco — have been well publicized. One rider accused his driver of groping and choking him.
It was enough to spur eight members of Congress to write a letter to those companies’ executives in March, demanding they beef up their screening. » Read more
By Guy Marzorati, KQED News Fix
Less than three months into implementation of an ordinance to legalize and regulate short-term rentals in San Francisco, city leaders and planners agree the law needs more work. The ordinance, which took effect Feb. 1, established a framework to register hosts and enforce limits on guest stays booked on popular services like Airbnb. Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.
By Jeremy Dalmas, KALW Crosscurrents
It is 8:08 a.m., the Friday before spring break, and under other circumstances Kathleen Byrnes would already be at work. “We would be in our classrooms preparing for the day, which is where we would rather be,” she said. But instead, she is out in front of Oakland’s Cleveland Elementary School with her fellow teachers — not working. They are waiting seven minutes until 8:15 a.m. exactly. Since February, teachers have been protesting low pay by working from only from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. — the minimum hours required by their contract.