Mayor shakes up Treasure Island development board, ousts only resident
As one of his parting acts before leaving for higher office in January, Mayor Gavin Newsom is overhauling the board in charge of overseeing the massive redevelopment of Treasure Island.The decision to...
View ArticleMuni: In elusive quest for 85% on-time performance, computers are displacing...
Multimillion-dollar vehicle-monitoring technology installed at Muni headquarters is at the heart of a new initiative aimed at solving the transit system’s never-ending performance problems. By...
View ArticleCity College students struggle to break into biotech firms
With his ponytail and goatee, Kiel Copeland looks like your average lab geek almost as much as TV’s gleaming “CSI” laboratory resembles one in real life. Then again, he never aimed to be a lab nerd....
View ArticleSupervisor wants to see results of new Muni contract
An arbitrator-imposed labor contract for the city's Muni operators went into effect on Friday and is expected to save the city $41 million over the next three years. One city supervisor wants the...
View ArticleBehind the protest signs: The voices of Occupy San Francisco
“I think we’re witnessing possibly the biggest left populist rebellion since the populist movement of the 1890s.”On a recent warm early morning in downtown San Francisco, veteran organizer David Solnit...
View ArticleA candidate for S.F. prosecutor makes human trafficking an issue in campaign,...
The reorganization of the San Francisco Police Department’s Special Victims Unit has become an issue in the November vote for district attorney — at least for one contender in the race. But in doing...
View ArticleChange starts at neighborhood corner store
Cookies, sandwiches, salads: Every afternoon, neighbors and visitors stop at Tony’s Market at 24th and Hampshire to buy food or pick up lunch at Pal’s Takeaway, inside the store. Only a few years ago,...
View ArticleMuni operators deserve payout from settlement, says Mayor Lee
San Francisco transit workers got an unexpected holiday bonus, of sorts, after winning back a contested $8 million in health care payouts that the city initially refused to give because it was trying...
View ArticleAs work conditions shift, inhumanity of immigrant labor becomes human rights...
Gabriel Thompson worked alongside immigrants in the back of restaurants in New York City and in factories that produced some of the most basic foods in the American diet: lettuce and chicken.Not an...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Bay Area's human trafficking problem: KPFA News interviews...
The Public Press’ latest cover story, on California’s uncoordinated attack on the problem of human trafficking, has been picked up in a variety of media since the publication of the special team...
View ArticleCitizen petition claims more than 800,000 signatures for anti-trafficking...
A nearly three-year effort to put a strong anti-human-trafficking law before voters succeeded this week, organizers said, when they counted 873,000 signatures on their petition to put the proposed...
View ArticleMuni chief takes aim at swollen overtime budget
City transportation director Ed Reiskin says he hopes to control Muni’s overtime spending in the next fiscal year by budgeting it at $42 million. After budgeting $32 million for this fiscal year, the...
View ArticleMuni asks drivers to hold it in while new bathrooms get approvals
Bus operators looking for a toilet after hours sitting in the driver’s seat will have to hold it just a little longer. That’s because Muni’s plans to build seven new free-standing bathrooms needs to be...
View ArticleWithout long-term support, human trafficking survivors at risk of...
Some who flee captive labor conditions end up with low-wage jobs, insecure housingWhen Lili Samad was hired to work as a nanny for an Egyptian government official in the Bay Area, she thought it was an...
View ArticleTech Boom Will Spin Off Thousands of S.F. Jobs: Q&A With Supervisor David Chiu
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...
View Article‘I Don’t Think You Can Survive in This City on the Minimum Wage’
At S.F.’s largest soup kitchen, working adults say full-time work no longer pays the rentOn a recent lunch hour in the bustling cafeteria at St. Anthony’s Church in the Tenderloin, where free meals are...
View ArticleEconomists Say City Minimum Wage Means Big Boost for Working Class
Backers say it helps recruitment and retention, but opponents say it kills jobs“Job killer” is a common refrain from businesses in opposing wage increases and other worker benefits. But some...
View ArticleS.F. Lacks Data to Set Minimum Wage Policies
Estimates of low-wage workers range from 20,000 to 55,000With President Barack Obama proposing to increase the federal minimum wage, local policy experts say fully understanding the economic effects of...
View ArticleRestaurant Worker Paid Below Minimum Wage for Training
Food-service sector among worst violators of wage laws nationally and in San FranciscoLast year, Mauricio Lozano found a job through a friend at a pizzeria in North Beach. The pay was $8 an hour, in...
View ArticleIndigenous People Face Obstacles Seeking Legal Pay
Mayas from Yucatán find work in food service, but face language, immigration barriersFew are more susceptible to the crime of wage theft than indigenous newcomers from Latin America, say labor experts,...
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