News
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Bids to Build SF Central Subway Are $100 Million Over City’s Estimates

04.29.2013
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By Isabel Angell, KALW
The bids are in to build San Francisco’s Central Subway project – and the price tag will be over $100 million more than the city expected. The Central Subway will be a 1.7-mile tunnel under the heart of the city for Muni’s T-Third light rail line. The subway will finally provide a connection from the up-and-coming South of Market neighborhood to densely populated Chinatown. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency says once the Central Subway is completed in 2019, the T-Third line will serve 43,700 daily riders. By 2030, the agency estimates that the daily ridership on just the subway will reach over 30,000 and that ridership for the full line will be 65,000.

City Hall
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Domestic Violence Record-Keeping Still Flawed, but Police Say Fix Is Near

04.29.2013
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Some cases were not referred immediately to Special Victims Unit
Nine months after the San Francisco Police Department fully implemented a new digitized case management system, inspectors were still finding as many as 20 domestic violence cases per month that were not immediately referred to the Special Victims Unit for investigation, said a lieutenant in charge of the domestic violence team. » Read more

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Which California Parks Should Stay Under State Control?

04.25.2013
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By Dhyana Levey, Bay Nature
In the wake of a high-profile report urging California State Parks to give up its antiquated management structure and shift some control over to local agencies, park officials and nonprofits called the recommendations realistic and tried to calm the public’s fears over potential changes to the park system. “We certainly don’t want any of the iconic parks with our redwoods, deserts and state beaches to pass out of state hands,” said Roy Stearns, deputy director of communications for California State Parks. “We’re just looking more strongly for creative ways to add revenue to sustain the system.”
The Little Hoover Commission, a bipartisan state agency appointed by the Legislature to evaluate the effectiveness of state programs, released a report in late March filled with recommendations to support the survival of state parks in the midst of the budget crisis. Read the complete story at Bay Nature.

News
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Big Update to S.F. Ethics Policies in the Works

04.24.2013
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By Nina Thorsen, KQED News Fix
The city of San Francisco might be in for a major update to its ethics policies. Board President David Chiu and City Attorney Dennis Herrera have unveiled a package of legislation that has taken them 10 months to craft. At a press conference before they introduced the legislation to the Board of Supervisors, Herrera listed the plan’s hoped-for effects. “First, to tighten rules and enhance transparency for City Hall lobbyists, permit expediters and influential developers,” Herrera said. “Second, to bring greater oversight and fiscal accountability to city contracting, procurement and grant-making practices.

Minimum Wage
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Indigenous People Face Obstacles Seeking Legal Pay

04.24.2013
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Few are more susceptible to the crime of wage theft than indigenous newcomers from Latin America, say labor experts, advocates for minority ethnic communities and immigrant workers themselves.
Indigenous people from Mexico and Central America, who make up as much as 30 percent of the population of immigrants from there, are less likely to be literate, to speak either Spanish or English proficiently or to have legal documentation, said Alberto Perez, the director of programs for Asociación Mayab. » Read more

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U.S. Safety Board Releases Blow-by-Blow Animation of How Chevron Richmond Fire Happened

04.22.2013
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By Dan Brekke, KQED News Fix
If you live downwind of Chevron’s Richmond refinery, you don’t need to be reminded of what happened there last Aug. 6: A huge fire started in a crude-oil processing unit at the facility, sending an immense plume of thick black smoke over adjacent neighborhoods and much of western Contra Costa County. In what seems like a miracle, no one in the refinery died when a fireball erupted around the affected processing unit. But the fire sent thousands of local residents to hospitals, mostly with respiratory complaints. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a draft interim report last week detailing its findings on the accident It’s a 68-page document that’s filled with technical descriptions and jargon: The incident occurred from the piping referred to as the “4-sidecut” stream, one of several process streams exiting the C-1100 Crude Unit Atmospheric Column.”

News
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Restaurant Worker Paid Below Minimum Wage for ‘Training’

04.22.2013
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Food-service sector among worst violators of wage laws nationally and in San Francisco
UPDATE 8/7/13:  See video version: “Less Than Expected: Minimum Wage Violations in San Francisco”
Last year, Mauricio Lozano found a job through a friend at a pizzeria in North Beach. » Read more

News
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Police Set Up LGBT Safe Zones as Refuge From Hate Crimes

04.18.2013
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By Tay Wiles, Mission  Local
San Francisco has become the first city in the country to launch citywide police station “safe zones” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, staffed with police liaisons trained to serve that community. All 10 police district stations in San Francisco now have signs that designate the station as a safe zone and state that “LGBT individuals will be treated with respect, compassion and honesty.” The signs are intended as a preventive measure against hate crimes and a way to encourage victims to report incidents. The police department’s LGBT Advisory Forum is leading the effort in partnership with the SFPD, community groups like the Castro Community on Patrol and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of charitable street performers who use high camp and satire to combat sexual intolerance. “This is a historical moment,” said Sister Pat N Leather, who appeared in her mock nun’s habit beside San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr at a kickoff event at Mission Station this week. In Washington state, Leather said, police have tried creating a room for LGBT community members within a police station, but she believes that San Francisco’s planned program is the country’s most extensive yet.

News
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S.F. Inches Toward Deal on ‘Tenants in Common’ Condo Conversions

04.17.2013
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By Sam Harnett, KQED News Fix
A compromise is in the works, after months of negotiations,  to resolve the controversy over San Francisco’s tenants-in-common (TIC) units. The new deal sticks to the original proposal to allow about 2,000 TICs to bypass the yearly conversion lottery and convert directly into condos. But it also adds a number of elements designed to protect the city’s rental stock. The two most significant are: Offsetting the units lost through conversion by halting the lottery for a minimum of 10 years; and preventing buildings with more than four units from converting in the future. Affordable housing advocates say these are some of the most significant reforms to the condo-conversion system since it was created in 1980.

News
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Conversation With Supervisor David Campos

04.15.2013
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By Tay Wiles, Mission Local
Editor’s note: This column is one of a series of biweekly conversations with District 9 Supervisor David Campos addressing issues and events in the Mission. If you have questions for Campos, send an email to [email protected]. Mission Local (ML): Wednesday was a national day of action to support immigration reform, which is being debated in Washington, D.C. What specifically would you like to see in an immigration reform bill? David Campos (DC): We have been working with the people who are focusing on this at the national level. We also introduced a resolution with the Board of Supervisors calling for comprehensive reform that includes the LGBT community, for example.