Civic

Some 80% of calls the fire department responds to are medical emergencies. Emergency medical workers with the San Francisco Fire Department, with help from dispatchers, are implementing distancing where possible on calls, including by asking callers to meet first responders outside, said SFFD Public Information Officer Lt. Jonathan Baxter. First responders are also wearing protective equipment and...

City officials explained their efforts to place homeless people in hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic at a press conference April 13. Mayor London Breed explained the multiple challenges to quickly placing vulnerable unhoused people in hotel rooms — an especially pressing goal after a COVID-19 outbreak at a homeless shelter last week. By Sunday, the city had placed approximately 750 homeless...

In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, two leaders of the Elder Abuse Prevention Program at the Institute on Aging and San Francisco’s district attorney describe how authorities handle reports of scams and fraud, and answer listener questions about preventing web-based and phone scams.

The MSC South homeless shelter is being turned into a medical facility for COVID-19 patients after 68 of its residents and 2 staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, San Francisco officials announced Friday. Around 100 residents were at the shelter, down from its usual capacity of 340, when residents and staff were tested. Those who did not test positive have been moved into hotels, said...

San Francisco firefighters are still on duty, working shifts at the firehouse, responding to calls and conducting fire safety inspections. As part of an ongoing series of conversations with front-line workers, Civic spoke with local firefighter Adam Wood. He says that, among other things, firefighters are wearing protective equipment where possible, cleaning common areas and equipment three times...

Now more than 850 members strong, the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group is made entirely of volunteers and was sparked by just one person’s post offering to pick up groceries for those unable to leave their homes. In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, full-time artist and Sunset resident Bianca Nandzik, her husband Stefan and former printing industry worker Frank Plughoff...

Some San Francisco bookstores carry a colorful magazine that looks like the New Yorker of the west coast. This is the San Franciscan, a volunteer passion project. Amanda Legge and Erica Messner are two women living in San Francisco and working full time in non-media jobs who started the magazine purely for fun. Messner says part of the inspiration for the magazine came from a desire to reflect the...

City officials said Wednesday that the city would be leasing some 7,000 hotel rooms to house those who may have COVID-19 and cannot isolate themselves, and some vulnerable homeless people, and also announced new mental health support programs for frontline workers and city employees. Listen to the full press conference audio here for these and other updates.

As the SFMTA makes drastic cuts to service to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, drivers are afraid of being infected and are asking for masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and wipes. Five cases have been confirmed among Muni workers. Roger Marenco, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, which represents Muni bus drivers and some other transit workers, said the city has not been a...

San Francisco leaders announced at a press conference Monday, April 6, that changes would be made to the emergency shelter at Moscone Center West after 19 people there were found to have had contact with two former residents of another shelter who have contracted the coronavirus. Listen to the full press conference, including updates about testing, hospital capacity, and coronavirus data, here.

As of Monday, April 6 three people in San Francisco’s shelter system had tested positive for coronavirus. Chris Herring, a sociologist and doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, is among those who have been calling for homeless people to be moved into hotel rooms. Herring has studied homelessness and its governance for the past decade, and says the coronavirus crisis has int...

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: With extended shelter-in-place, officials also recommend wearing face coverings in public. Mayor London Breed lays out who will be placed in empty hotel rooms. SFPD begins to issue citations for noncompliance with shelter-in-place order. City College gets...

As the third week of sheltering in place came to a close in San Francisco, city officials said efforts to move homeless people into hotel rooms would be focused on the most vulnerable, and asked for trust and compliance as the city manages the coronavirus pandemic. Listen to the full briefing audio from 4/03 here.

In mid-March, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued what he called an eviction moratorium. But many tenant advocates say the term is misleading, because it postpones evictions rather than prevents them. Some landlords, too, are wondering how they’ll make ends meet, and to what extent the state will step in to help them if tenants just can’t pay. Advocates for both groups say landlords and tenants should start...

A request for comment from UCSF was not returned by broadcast time, but we will update this story with their responses if they become available. 

At this 4/01 press briefing, the mayor called again for compliance with the now-extended shelter-in-place order and responded to continued calls from advocates to house homeless people in hotels. Listen to the full briefing audio here.

Asked for comment on some of Ramos’ statements, Lyft referred to its coronavirus pandemic updates website and sent a written statement, which you can read here .

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S.F. officials offer an update on the shelter-in-place order, which is being extended to May 1, and on the COVID-19 outbreak at Laguna Honda hospital. Listen to the full briefing audio here.

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In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: Officials express alarm at San Franciscans not sheltering in place; Governor suspends evictions for two months; CCSF chancellor resigns; public transit reduces operations. Coming up: Three new coronavirus testing sites are expected to open this week.

Hear the full audio from a virtual press conference San Francisco officials held on March 27. Announcements include the closure of parking lots at some public parks to prevent crowds, that the public lab's testing capacity is expected to increase to 450 tests a day, and a warning from SFPD Chief Bill Scott that police may soon begin enforcing the shelter-in-place order.

Bay Area biotech companies are using their resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Warner Green is a senior biologist and clinician with Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. He and his colleagues are using techniques developed in AIDS research to understand the life cycle of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and how existing drugs that have already been tested could be used to treat pat...

Grocery stores have been deemed essential during the pandemic, and their employees are stationed on the front lines. One San Jose grocery store worker has died of COVID-19, said Jim Araby, strategic campaigns director at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5. The union, which represents some 30,000 workers at Bay Area stores such as Safeway, Walgreens, CVS pharmacy and even some cannabis disp...

One person has now died of COVID-19 in San Francisco and as of Wednesday the city had confirmed 172 cases. At a virtual press conference Wednesday, city officials urged San Franciscans to stay home and warned that the crisis has not yet reached its peak. Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax said he expects a surge in cases hitting in less than two weeks that will necessitate 5,000 additional...