News From Our Partners

S.F. Muni paid bonuses tied to inflated on-time rate

Submitted by MCAnderson on Wed, 07/18/2012 - 12:41

By Zusha Elinson, Bay Citizen

Muni paid thousands of dollars in bonuses to top executives for meeting or exceeding on-time performance goals, even as the agency inflated its on-time rates by as much as 18 percent.

The agency's two previous chief executives, Michael Burns and Nathaniel Ford, received the bonuses. Both men have denied knowing about the on-time rate inflation.

Ed Reiskin, the current Muni chief, does not have any performance bonuses written into his contract.

Read the complete story at Bay Citizen

 

S.F. supervisors deliberate on housing trust fund

Submitted by MCAnderson on Mon, 07/16/2012 - 12:09

By Noah Arroyo, Mission Local

The Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee will continue its deliberations Monday on a measure to establish a Housing Trust Fund, which would give the city an independent funding source for affordable housing. If the measure passes the committee and the full board, voters will have the final say when it appears on the ballot in November.

Mayor Ed Lee has proposed the fund as a replacement for the city’s defunct Redevelopment Agency, which was dissolved in November 2011.

At last week’s Rules Committee meeting, everyone agreed that the city is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, but committee members were at odds over the particulars of this potential solution.

Read the complete story at Mission Local. 

Could you live in an apartment the size of one S.F. parking space?

Submitted by MCAnderson on Wed, 07/11/2012 - 16:56

By Jon Brooks, KQED News Fix

No, that's not a rhetorical question, as KQED's Ian Hill has Storified what it might be like to live in an apartment nearly as tall as it is wide. Check out what people are saying about the newest wrinkle in the San Francisco housing market. 

Read the complete story at KQED News Fix. 

 

Former Facebook executive funds anti-trafficking initiative

Submitted by MCAnderson on Mon, 07/09/2012 - 11:52

By Ryan Gabrielson, Bay Citizen

Facebook’s former chief privacy officer is bankrolling an anti-human trafficking ballot measure that would dramatically expand how California monitors sex offenders.

The initiative – called the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act – would toughen penalties for sex trafficking and add those convicted of the crime to the state’s sex offender registry. Most significantly, it also would require all registered offenders to surrender their “Internet identifiers” to law enforcement, including user names and e-mail accounts.

Read the complete story at Bay Citizen. 

Read additional coverage of human trafficking at sfpublicpress.org/trafficking.

S.F. police don't have budget for smartphones for touted mobile phone app

Submitted by MCAnderson on Wed, 07/04/2012 - 21:22

By Matt Smith, Bay Citizen

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, his police chief, Greg Suhr, and his top political fundraiser, Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, announced plans to develop a mobile phone application to make it possible for police officers to file reports from the field, allowing them to spend more time on the streets and less time at their desks.

But the S.F. Police Department does not actually have plans or a budget to buy smartphones or other devices that would allow officers to use the app, according to Susan Giffin, the department’s chief technology officer. The city has no contractual relationship with mobile app developer ArcTouch, according to the company's Chief Operating Officer Adam Fingerman. 

Read the complete story at Bay Citizen. 

California owed up to $20.8 million but neglects to collect, auditor says

Submitted by MCAnderson on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 16:21

The state may have failed to recover up to $20.8 million lost to waste, fraud and other problems, according to data provided by the California state auditor.

The money represents a tiny fraction of California’s $91.3 billion budget. But given the state’s financial straits, government watchdogs say officials should do more to collect the funds.

“Any dollar that has been wasted should be recovered,” said Bob Stern, former president for the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.

Read the complete story at Bay Citizen. 

Drop in immigration clouds future of S.F. school for Spanish speakers

Submitted by MCAnderson on Wed, 06/27/2012 - 12:52

By Grace Rubenstein, California Watch

English and Spanish alternate seamlessly in the classrooms at the Mission Education Center in San Francisco. Decorative signs identify objects that in other schools would seem too basic to name: “clock” and “door.”

This public elementary school has for 40 years served children who have just arrived from Latin America and speak only Spanish, who beyond its walls are out of their element in almost every way.

Those students are dramatically fewer now. As the flow of immigrants from Mexico has dwindled in recent years, the school’s enrollment has plummeted from a high of 264 students in the mid-2000s to 72 this past spring.

Read the complete story at California Watch.  California Watch, the state’s largest investigative reporting team, is part of the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. For more, visit www.californiawatch.org.

Accrediting agency questions S.F. culinary school's job placement rates

Submitted by MCAnderson on Mon, 06/25/2012 - 15:53

By Erica Perez, Bay Citizen

One of the agencies that accredits San Francisco's California Culinary Academy is questioning the veracity of the college's reported job placement rates – ordering the school's parent company to provide audited placement data by September in order to maintain its accreditation status.

The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges issued the order to Career Education Corp., a Schaumburg, Ill.-based for-profit college company, earlier this month. California Culinary Academy is one of 10 schools included in the directive, according to a recent company filing.

Read the complete story at Bay Citizen. 

 

Battles with urban wildlife in the Bay Area — meet the raccoon

Submitted by MCAnderson on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 14:31

By Hadley Robinson, KALW News

You don’t have to be outside for long to realize that here in the Bay Area, we are surrounded by wildlife. Long before houses and roads and cities popped up, wild animals reigned supreme. As we negotiate our relationship to the remaining members of that wildlife, there’s bound to be some tension.

One particularly sneaky animal is on the prowl in almost every neighborhood – digging up garden beds, living in attics, scavenging through garbage …

They’re raccoons, one of the most common urban animals in America. But just because they’re everywhere doesn’t mean our relationships with them are peaceful. KALW’s Hadley Robinson has more.

Read the complete story at KALW News. 

Mission St. businesses losing their leases

Submitted by MCAnderson on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 16:58

By Rigoberto Hernandez, Mission Local

Eduardo Reyes realized a longtime dream back in 2001 when he bought a Guatemalan restaurant on Mission Street.

Now, after 11 years in business, Reyes, the owner of Acaxutla, will close his Mission Street restaurant at the end of the month after failing to negotiate a new lease with his landlord. Reyes isn’t the only one having to pack up his business.

At least two other struggling businesses left Mission Street this year. Mil Colores, a clothing store, and General Merchandise, an electronics store, left this year after their respective landlords declined to sign a new lease. Gaby Salas, the owner of Charanga, told Mission Local last year that she had to close because her landlord also declined to renegotiate a lease.

Read the complete story at Mission Local.