News
photo-620x465.jpg

The Danger Zone of South Van Ness

09.30.2013
|
By

By Heather Mack, Mission Local
When Mark Morey wanted to know how often people were speeding past his South Van Ness home, he didn’t rely on mere estimates. The 49-year-old Mission resident equipped himself with a cheap radar gun, posted up near a few busy intersections and took aim. “Almost everyone who drives down that street is driving too fast,” said Morey. “And anyone who has to cross the street is fear-stricken. It’s no surprise that there are so many accidents there.”
So many, in fact, that South Van Ness is among the worst of the worst when it comes to dangerous streets in San Francisco.

News
biohacking.jpg

Biohacking Project a Glowing Controversy

09.26.2013
|
By

By Holly J. McDede, KALW
When we think of garage scientists, eccentric, gray-haired Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future might come to mind. But these days, garages seem a little old-fashioned — especially when you can work in a tricked out DIY Bio Lab. 
DIY, or Do It Yourself, labs are for citizen scientists to collaborate. Rather than for profit, the projects are for learning — things like building robots and printing live cells from 3-D printers. Collective membership dues make the fancy lab equipment affordable. And that’s the goal: make science more accessible, and less intimidating.

News
l_flynn_crowdfunding_500x279.jpg

New Funding Models Kick-Starting Solar Energy Use

09.25.2013
|
By

By Laura Flynn, New America Media/KALW Crosscurrents
Fly low over California, and you’ll see a patchwork of black and shiny rooftops fitted – with solar panels. It didn’t always look like this. Just over a decade ago, there were fewer than 500 solar rooftops in the state. By last year, that jumped to over 160,000. Much of that growth has happened in just the past few years.

News
kalw.jpg

A Love Supreme in San Francisco

09.24.2013
|
By

By Kristina Loring, KALW
The Church of John Coltrane has always put the man’s music at the center of its services. “I hear John Coltrane say that when you discover the possibilities of music, you want to help humanity and free people from their hang ups and make the world a better place,” says Wanika King-Stephens, the church’s pastor. “And so that’s the kind of intention that he had behind his music.”
Her father, Franzo King founded the church decades ago after he took his wife Marina to see Coltrane play. San Francisco was a hotbed for jazz at the time, filled with smoke-filled clubs and a rotating cast of musical greats. The Kings were at a popular club in North Beach, the Jazz Workshop.

News
pass-300x199.jpg

Give California Cyclists 3 Feet – It’s the Law

09.23.2013
|
By

 By Olivia Hubert-Allen, KQED News Fix
A bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown Monday requires drivers to give cyclists 3 feet of space while passing on the left or else face a fine. The law says that the distance will be measured between “any part of the motor vehicle and any part of the bicycle or its operator.” In many situations, that calls for 3 feet between the cyclist’s shoulder or handlebars and the vehicle’s side mirror. 
It’s been a long road for the “Three Feet for Safety Act” to make it to state law. Earlier laws proposing similar regulations failed to pass the Legislature in 2006 and 2008. Brown also vetoed two earlier versions of the bill, based on recommendations from Caltrans.

News
ccsf.jpg

San Francisco Measures Value of CCSF

09.19.2013
|
By

By Sara Bloomberg, KQED
With the deadline for City College of San Francisco to lose its accreditation less than 10 months out, city officials are questioning its economic impact on the city. The answer appears to be at least $311 million. At a Budget and Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, Supervisor Eric Mar called an evaluation he had requested on the college’s economic impact “groundbreaking.” “I think this report is groundbreaking because it quantifies a huge economic impact to the city and county of San Francisco and so many families and people of San Francisco, young and old, that have improved their lives” by taking classes there, Mar said. CCSF is the largest community college in the state, with 80,000 students enrolled in the 2012-2013 academic year.

News
strand.jpg-300x200.jpg

S.F. Artistic Community Wants Piece of Mid-Market St.

09.18.2013
|
By

By Cy Musiker, KQED News Fix
The American Conservatory Theater plans to break ground Oct. 2 on the restoration of San Francisco’s Strand Theatre. The $30 million project will be a dramatic moment for arts companies that have been trying to remake mid-Market – one of the city’s funkiest neighborhoods – into a theater and arts district. Market Street at night was once ablaze with the well-lit marquees of vaudeville houses, movie theaters and dance halls like the Gaiety, the Hub, the Odeon and the Paris. “This street used to be like the Great White Way in the ’50s, lit up with theaters up and down Market Street,” says Carey Perloff, artistic director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

News
dogs.jpg

How San Francisco’s Economy Has Gone to the Dogs

09.17.2013
|
By

By Casey Miner, KALW
Dogs are a big business in San Francisco. And let’s say right now: we don’t know how big. We know that a Yelp search turns up more than 650 dog-related businesses; we know that dog walking can net you 80 grand a year. But there are actually no hard numbers on how big this economy is here. As far as we can tell, no one keeps track.

News

Support what’s brewing at the Public Press

09.17.2013
|
By

I’m pleased to tell you that we will be publishing the fall edition of the San Francisco Public Press — Issue No. 12 — in just two weeks, featuring an in-depth report on the effectiveness of San Francisco’s workforce development programs. 
As always, we want to say thank you to our current members. We appreciate your support. If you need to join or renew your membership, now is the time! Today we are kicking off our fall membership drive.

News
timthumb.jpeg

Ospreys Cozying Up to S.F. Bay

09.16.2013
|
By

By Claire Mathieson, Bay Nature
 Although ospreys can be found worldwide, until recently there had been no record of their using the San Francisco Bay for anything other than wintering grounds. This nesting season, however, dozens of young ospreys took their first dives through the bay air and caught their first fish in its waters. Ospreys go south for the winter and spend the breeding season in higher latitudes. In the past, they would pass up the bay to nest farther north. “If you look at the range route for ospreys now it looks like ospreys come down the Pacific coast and the nesting and breeding range stops somewhere just north of San Francisco,” said Allen Fish of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory.