Civic

San Francisco was once a national leader in protecting residents from government surveillance. Today, hundreds of license plate readers scan passing cars, police drones patrol the skies, and an expanding network of cameras tracks activity across the city. How did that happen? In Part 2 of Somebody's Watching You, Civic traces San Francisco's decades-long struggle to balance public safety with priv...

Who's watching us, what does it mean for our privacy and civil liberties, and how did we get here? In Somebody's Watching You, a three-part investigative series from Civic and the San Francisco Public Press, we explore America's long-running struggle over government surveillance. How did a country founded on protections against government intrusion develop such extensive powers to watch its own pe...

This episode of “Civic” explores the history of displacement among San Francisco's technology booms and busts. Today, major job losses are coinciding with increasing rental prices and evictions — a “treacherous” paradox — and tenants are fighting back.

The League of Women Voters organized this panel discussion on money in San Francisco’s November election, held at the Internet Archive on Oct. 8. Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press, moderated. panelists were Joe Rivano Barros, executive editor of Mission Local; Darius Kemp of California Common Cause; and Patrick Ford of the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

Make sense of the numerous November 2026 San Francisco and California ballot measures, with these one-minute explanations by reporters from the San Francisco Public Press and CalMatters. Visit SFPublicPress.org and CalMatters.org for more quick, no-nonsense and nonpartisan voter guides. 

he November 2026 election is pivotal at the national, state and local levels. San Francisco voters will weigh local races and propositions on Muni funding, housing, the Great Highway, taxes and how City Hall and the mayor operate, along with statewide candidates and propositions. San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood, KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny and CalMatters Politics E...

For nearly 60 years, San Francisco built a pioneering system to care for young people in crisis. What began during the Summer of Love with the nation's first runaway youth shelter and the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic evolved into a network of specialized clinics that combined medical care, mental health treatment, sexual health services and connections to housing and social support under one roof. N...

June 2026 San Francisco Public Press Election Guide Yes on D campaign Chamber of Commerce Voter Guide

After at least 19 women in San Francisco’s county jail alleged they were subjected to a mass strip search while deputies recorded on body-worn cameras, advocates, attorneys and city officials demanded answers. This investigative documentary examines what women say happened inside the jail’s B-pod — and the broader conditions women describe inside the facility, including prolonged lockdowns, overcr...

Read the story in The San Francisco Public Press.  

About the panelists Diana Greene Foster is a demographer and professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She studies the causes and consequences of unwanted pregnancy and is part of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health — commonly known as ANSIRH — which is a research program at UCSF. Foster was named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and is the author of the 2020 book “The Turnaway S...

In this episode of Civic, reporter Sylvie Sturm examines how federal policy — through executive orders, funding threats and regulatory pressure — is reshaping access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth across the United States. The debate is unfolding even though no new federal law has passed and no final rules have taken effect. Yet hospitals, clinics and families are already making de...

What’s on the ballot this coming June and November? The San Francisco Public Press and The Frisc hosted a panel discussion to discuss the key issues. These included: the “Overpaid CEO Act,” which would modify and boost the top executive pay tax a major charter reform measure that would restructure city government the family zoning plan, which encourages more housing and the race to win the Congres...

Formerly Incarcerated Perform at Berkeley Rep    

As part of an effort to meet state mandated housing requirements, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has introduced a "Family Zoning Plan" that would increase building height limitations along transit corridors. Supervisors have introduced amendments to the legislation which is being voted on December 2nd, 2025. SF Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood and KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny mo...

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, started with a homemade zine, listing cheap eats, drinks and events. Along the way he became a TV travel host, publisher and mayoral candidate. He became an influencer offline before social media made influencer viable a career choice.

“ No Place to Grow Old ” San Francisco Public Press

When federal science budgets are gutted, the fallout reaches far beyond labs. From Alzheimer’s trials at the University of California San Francisco to cancer studies at the Veterans Administration, critical research is stalling, science students are losing opportunities to train and launch careers, and veterans are left without lifesaving care. Hear how universities, courts, and Congress are scram...

President Trump calls it “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but critics say the latest federal budget will slash more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid over the next decade — cutting coverage for an estimated 12 million people. In San Francisco, more than 250,000 residents rely on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, along with tens of thousands of caregivers who support them. This episode of Civic...

If you’ve experienced issues with Social Security — missed checks, delayed responses, or inaccessible services — you can file a complaint with the California Department of Justice at oag.ca.gov/socialsecurity . APPEARING IN THIS EPISODE: Kelly Dearman – Executive Director, San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services Paul Aguilar – Social Security disability beneficiary, long-term HIV...

About the ‘Silent Killer’ Series The San Francisco Public Press examined recent efforts to step up diagnosis, vaccination and treatment for hepatitis B. Chronic hepatitis B affects an estimated 305,000 people in California, with the vast majority of cases affecting people in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Deep racial and cultural disparities in illness caused by the hepatitis B v...

Veterans and advocates are sounding the alarm as massive federal job cuts and plans to eliminate 83,000 positions at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — championed as “efficiency reforms” by the Trump administration — threaten to strip away critical services. In this episode, we take an in-depth look at the human toll of sweeping layoffs and the privatization push at the VA. And we spotlight...

The San Francisco Public Press on April 30, 2025, hosted a fireside chat recorded for this “Civic” episode about attacks on diversity, democracy and media with Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the public editor at PBS, and Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press. In addition to discussing how journalists can do better covering issues their audiences care about in a political envir...

San Francisco's mayor and police department are facing praise and scorn for cracking down on homelessness and visible substance use amidst shelter and treatment bed shortages and jail overcrowding.