Law & Justice
WeCopwatch trainer David Whitt teaching a copwatch college session in San Francisco in 2018. Now, due to social distancing guidelines, the curriculum that is normally taught in person during copwatch college has been made available online.

Interest in Community Police Watch Training Soars as Courses Go Online

09.02.2020
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Berkeley Copwatch is one of several Bay Area organizations that instruct observers in how to record interactions between the public and law enforcement officials that are seeing a surge in demand for their services. The groups have shifted their tactics and focused more resources on online course delivery in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the surge in protests. They’re also ramping up misconduct tracking efforts and social media campaigns as the public focus on police brutality heightens.

Economy & Business
Shayla Jamerson, founder of events company SoOakland, launched a fundraiser for black-owned businesses in Oakland that has brought in more than $300,000. It's just one of several such community efforts; collectively, local groups have raised more than $1 million. Courtesy SoOakland

Community Efforts Raise Nearly $1 Million for Black-Owned Oakland Businesses

06.12.2020
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As damage from looting and property destruction added to the financial pain of black-owned businesses already hurting from the coronavirus shutdown, Oakland nonprofits, business leaders and community members swung into action, collectively raising almost $1 million to help those businesses recover. Two of the biggest fundraisers were launched by black women – one a business owner and one a community member acting on her own initiative – who together raised almost $400,000.

Social Justice
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Oakland Lifts City Curfew After Thousands Defied It Wednesday

06.03.2020
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Oakland’s City Council ended the city’s contentious curfew order Thursday afternoon, Mayor Libby Schaaf announced in a tweet. “Effective immediately, Oakland is lifting the curfew. We will continue to facilitate safe spaces for our residents to demonstrate and express themselves peacefully and passionately,” Schaaf wrote. The decision came hours after the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office rescinded its curfew order following days of demonstrations lasting well past the curfew.

Education
Buena Vista Horace Mann school is the site of a San Francisco school district program that provides temporary shelter for homeless students and their families. It also offers meals and instruction while the city’s shelter-in-place order is in force. Norman Clevenger / San Francisco Public Press

School Doubles as Home for Some S.F. Students

05.22.2020
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The San Francisco school district’s Stay Over Program has played a major role in sheltering homeless students and their families and helping them move to more stable situations since the shelter-in-place rules were implemented. Service providers worry they may be joined in a few months by many more newly homeless students as job losses mount and more families get evicted.

Transportation
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Cable Car Bells Silenced as Crews Focus on Maintenance in Pandemic

04.16.2020
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At San Francisco’s cable car barn on Mason Street, the large looms of wire that power one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions used to produce a loud, uninterrupted whirring. Now, the building’s interior is so quiet it’s unnerving.