On June 22, the Public Press printed a pilot newspaper! It’s 28 pages, with two sections, three investigative reports, a full-page graphic novel and 50 other articles by our staff and an array of public media and civic organizations, including KALW, KQED, Commonwealth Club, World Affairs Council, California Watch and Consumers Union. Buy a copy at one of 35 retail locations ($2). Or mail-order a paper via PayPal ($5).

Select articles from the print edition will go online through July.

Treasure Island, in depth
For our summer print pilot newspaper, seven reporters, one photographer and a graphic artist produced an eight-page section on Treasure Island. They interviewed the developers, city officials and architects, and pored over documents about the financing, development and environmental remediation. Funding for this project was made possible through micro-donations through our partner Spot.us.  Graphics by Shawn Allen, Stamen Design.
 

 

Summer 2010

University of California invests $53 million in two diploma mills owned by a regent

Peter Byrne, Jul 14 2010 - 5:48pm

A year ago, Richard C. Blum, then the chairman of the Regents of the University of California, spoke at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference 2009, held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The corporate confab was hosted by Michael Milken, the “junk bond king” who went to prison in the aftermath of the savings and loan fiasco in the 1980s. Milken, who is barred from securities trading for life by federal regulators, has since recreated himself as a proponent of investing in for-profit educational corporations, an industry which regularly comes under government and media scrutiny in response to allegations of fraud made by dissatisfied students.

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Macy’s sells rubies ‘filled’ with glass

David V. Johnson, SF Public Press — Jul 13 2010 - 9:39am

Despite two lawsuits and some media attention, Macy’s continues to sell gemstones that are composites of natural stones and leaded glass. The San Francisco Public Press conducted an independent investigation of Macy’s gems, and found that salespeople at all three San Francisco-area locations did not accurately describe its products and sold lead-ruby composites as bona fide rubies, without disclosing their true nature.

Reforms aim at saving shelter beds

T.J. Johnston, SF Public Press — Jul 12 2010 - 3:47pm

San Francisco’s adult homeless shelter system is seeing fresh attempts at reform on two fronts: one through the settlement of a lawsuit, the other through new legislation. Since July 2004, more than 400 shelter beds have been eliminated, and the lawsuit settlement between the city of San Francisco and the Western Regional Advocacy Project will spare further reduction from budget cuts for this fiscal year.

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HIV, AIDS gap widens between blacks and other ethnic groups in East Bay

Danielle J. Brown, SF Public Press — Jul 9 2010 - 10:33am

As overall AIDS rates fall in Alameda County, the rate in the black community has hardly budged in the past 10 years, making African Americans in this part of the East Bay increasingly overrepresented among sufferers of the disease.

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Mid-Market mogul: How Urban Realty quietly cornered San Francisco’s troubled main drag

Angela Hart, SF Public Press — Jul 7 2010 - 5:16pm

San Francisco-based developer Urban Realty has been sitting on valuable, mostly vacant real estate on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth for almost six years. Urban Realty principal David Rhoades is waiting for the Planning Commission to approve the proposed CityPlace this month before he unleashes all of his plans.

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Homebuilder Lennar uses federal taxpayer funds to balance its books

Christopher D. Cook, SF Public Press — Jul 6 2010 - 2:20pm

In 2006, things were looking good for Lennar, America's second-biggest homebuilder. That year, before the U.S. housing market's epic collapse, the Miami-based giant pulled down $15.6 billion in revenues and closed sales on 29,568 homes. The ink was just drying on a massive and potentially lucrative deal to transform Treasure Island with new housing complexes, and the well-connected Lennar already had secured a deal to develop the Hunters Point Shipyard that the Navy was turning over to San Francisco.

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Treasure Island timeline

Jerold Chinn, SF Public Press — Jul 6 2010 - 2:08pm

This is a version of the timeline that appeared in the print edition special report on San Francisco's Treasure Island.

Treasure Island residents face choices for relocation

Katy Gathright, SF Public Press — Jul 6 2010 - 2:00pm

Residents of Yerba Buena and Treasure islands are divided on the relocation plan city officials have presented to the public. While many Yerba Buena residents expressed concern over maintaining their quality of life through more than a decade of construction, Treasure Island residents tended to express more support.

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Why the Bay? Because it’s nuts

Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, SF Public Press — Jul 6 2010 - 1:50pm

As the BART train exited the east side of the Transbay Tube, I looked back at the skyline of San Francisco. I couldn’t help but smile. Although it’s been almost five years since I moved to the Bay — after living 40 years in Arizona — there’s not a time that I don’t feel at one with it. But not everyone understands my affinity for the “City by the Bay” and all that surrounds it.

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Financial upside for developers is long-term and risky, city says

Victoria Schlesinger, SF Public Press — Jul 1 2010 - 12:34pm

The developers of Treasure Island stand to earn a potential 20.6 percent return on their investments if the 18-year, phased construction plan and land sales proceed as they predict. That does not include possible future real estate sales.

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