News
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DACA, Newest Addition to Discussion on U.S. Immigration Reform

01.31.2013
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By Esther Honig, Crosscurrents, KALW
When you are undocumented in this country, it usually means you carry around a very big secret. So naturally, even when the president says he’s getting serious about immigration reform – as he did recently in Nevada – it’s still hard for undocumented people to believe they might find a legal place in society. In June, the Obama administration issued an executive order called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). “It’s a way from undocumented you to really come out of the shadows to ideally be able to put their education and their experience to use in a productive setting,” President Obama said. Marillia Zelner helps students apply for DACA in California, which basically gives young people a chance to get a temporary work permit.

News
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The Thrill of the Hive: San Francisco Beekeeping

01.30.2013
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By Courtney Quirin, Bay Nature
Eye-level with the eucalyptus canopy of Golden Gate Park, Charlie Blevins stands on his San Francisco rooftop and begins to “suit up.”
He slips on a white jacket, then pulls a spacesuit-like hood over his head that masks his face with a netted veil. A pair of thick, white gloves drawn on and Blevins is ready for “inspection.” He gently pulls a honeycomb frame from the hive. This is from one of 35 beehives that the San Franciscan beekeeper maintains in the backyards and rooftops of Bay Area properties. Is the queen laying eggs? Is the colony in tip-top shape?

News
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S.F. Bar Owners Want to Keep Liquor Flowing During Super Bowl

01.28.2013
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By Laird Harrison, KQED News Fix
When the San Francisco Giants won the World Series, the celebration turned ugly with cars overturned, a bus set on fire and 36 arrests. Now S.F. Mayor Ed Lee is running into challenges as he tries to prevent similar violence if the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl. Last week, Lee suggested that establishments serving alcohol switch to something softer, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The mayor said Thursday that next week he and Police Chief Greg Suhr will tour neighborhoods hit by vandalism after the World Series and during Occupy Wall Street protests last year to offer support to business owners and “also to suggest that they serve something (other) than heavy alcohol during times of celebration, because that inebriation sometimes doesn’t help with people who want to maybe go beyond the bounds of acceptability in their celebration.” Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.

Community
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Homeless People of San Francisco Speak Out

01.28.2013
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The discussion of homelessness in San Francisco assumes many viewpoints: tales of woe that evoke pity, illustrations of social inequities, homilies on the moral obligations to the less fortunate and tirades on homeless people’s perceived faults. Often that discussion is led by policymakers, service providers, business people and media. » Read more

City Hall

As Long Lines Form Daily Outside Homeless Shelters, City to Eject Disorderly Clients

01.25.2013
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Frequent calls to the police to respond to disturbances outside a South of Market homeless shelter have prompted the city to crack down on misbehavior and make it easier for shelters to summarily reject clients seeking a bed.
Practically every day at the Multi-Service Center South shelter, the police are called to break up a fight or quell acts of violence. » Read more

News
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Oakland Residents Plead: Pay Attention to Killings

01.24.2013
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By Mina Kim, KQED News Fix
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., has opened a new national dialogue about guns and gun violence. In Oakland, where a recent violent crime surge has residents anxious, a group of committed demonstrators are pleading to be heard by the police, policymakers, and their own community. “Somebody died here, we need to care! Somebody died here, we need to care!” was the cry rippling through a busy intersection near Oakland’s Lake Merritt on a recent chilly January morning.

News
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Cleaning the Concrete Jungle

01.23.2013
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By Mateo Hoke, Mission Local
The idea for this story started with a single line in an article on SFGate: “The Department of Public Works has a policy to respond promptly to calls about hazardous waste such as feces and hypodermic needles.”
Immediately I wanted to embed with a hazardous waste crew from the Department of Public Works. I wanted to clean up the Mission with the people who are out there scouring the neighborhood every day. I wanted to work. I wanted to pick up trash and throw it in the back of a truck. I wanted to catch a glimpse of what it’s like to work, day after day, just to keep this city from devouring itself in a sea of hazardous waste.

City Hall
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Tech Boom Will Spin Off Thousands of S.F. Jobs: Q&A With Supervisor David Chiu

01.23.2013
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All politicians these days have to have a jobs plan. David Chiu, who was re-elected this month to an unprecedented third term as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is putting his political stock in high tech.
The proof of the strategy, Chiu said, is in San Francisco’s low unemployment rate — 6.7 percent, far below the 9.8 percent rate for California overall, according to state employment numbers from last fall. » Read more

Housing
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San Francisco’s Most Urgently Needed Retrofits

01.22.2013
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There are three types of construction in San Francisco that pose hazards to occupants during a major earthquake. Here is a composite look at the present state of efforts to correct the problem around the city.
A: CURRENT PLANS: Soft-story buildings
San Francisco has identified 2,929 buildings whose “soft” first stories appear to be — at least from a drive-by assessment from the outside — vulnerable to collapse during a quake. » Read more

News
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Health Reform Proving a ‘Lifeline’ for the Uninsurable

01.22.2013
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Video by Min Lee, Text by Viji Sundaram, New America Media
After having had private health insurance since he was 24 years old, Doug Ogden noticed in 2009 that his premiums “were spiking at a crazy rate,” pricing him out of the market. That aside, he said, Blue Shield was chipping away at his benefits, “decreasing coverage dramatically.”
“I was getting little value for what I was paying,” he asserted. So Ogden dropped his Blue Shield coverage and went on his partner’s employer-based group insurance plan. Five years earlier, though, Ogden, a small business owner, had been diagnosed with central sleep apnea, a condition that if left untreated could lead to such serious medical conditions as heart disease and strokes. Then in 2010, his partner lost his job, and Ogden found himself uninsured.