August 15, 2019
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Cable Car 19, The City’s oldest operating cable car, has been repaired and tested in preparation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s annual Muni Heritage Weekend. Built in 1883 without a roof, its center seats are originals, its ceiling has patched-up holes from where kerosene lanterns were hung and marks from its original fare register are still visible. It last operated in 1942. San Francisco Examiner
The SFMTA Board of Directors will vote again on naming the Central Subway’s Chinatown station after the late community organizer Rose Pak — this time with a tie-breaking seventh vote. San Francisco Examiner
“It’s time for us to implement ethnic studies districtwide, and address values, cultural competence, and relevance to guide all curricular decisions.”
The San Francisco Board of Education may have the Unified School District create an equity studies team to evaluate current curriculum and make structural racism, identity and social justice part of every lesson plan. There would be mandatory professional development opportunities for teachers focusing on implicit bias. San Francisco Examiner
Salesforce, The City’s largest employer, will cool its use of Hawaiian terminology and imagery after employees raised concerns of cultural appropriation. The Daily Beast
Despite the Navy’s promise to clean the toxic Hunters Point shipyard to the highest standards after it stored contaminated ships there for World War II, a newly published report states that the Navy instead installed covers as thin as soil or asphalt over contaminated areas. City voters and officials demanded two decades ago that the Navy clean the site to avoid exposing people to cancer-causing substances. The shipyard is slated to become homes, businesses and parks.
A state law passed this year allowed a judge to vacate the first-degree murder charge of a man serving life in jail for being the accomplice of a robbery resulting in a death. Following an evidentiary hearing on Monday, Superior Court Judge John K. Stewart ended the life sentence of defendant Emmitt Lewis as he served his 16th year in prison, ruling that physical evidence proved Lewis wasn't responsible. KTVU | San Francisco Chronicle
An officer with a history of excessive force charges was cleared of all alleged wrongdoing once again in a case where he shot a fleeing man in the back in a crowded street after the man threw his gun into a gutter. Mission Local | San Francisco Examiner
“I know of no American journalist that was more targeted and didn’t go to jail than Bryan Carmody. I dare to say that if this has happened here, it can happen anywhere else.”
Bryan Carmody, the journalist whose home and office was illegally raided by San Francisco police in May, spoke on a panel alongside his attorney and the president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Tomorrow, the fifth warrant targeting Carmody to determine who leaked a report to him about the death of the late public defender Jeff Adachi is expected to be quashed.
“We won’t always have the same sheriff in place. We need laws on the books that say a third party will investigate.”
On Monday, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy announced that the Department of Police Accountability would handle serious misconduct investigations of Sheriff’s Department deputies. On Wednesday, Supervisor Shamann Walton announced plans for a June 2020 ballot measure that would create an oversight board to enforce accountability. San Francisco Examiner
This week, the Department of Elections gave the identifying letters to ballot initiatives on the November ballot. Here’s a rundown of all six. San Francisco Chronicle
After an Associated Press expose revealed multiple women have accused opera star Placido Domingo of sexual misconduct, San Francisco Opera canceled a sold-out performance set for October. A misconduct investigation has been launched by the Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo has been the general director for more than 15 years.
Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne donated $25 million to UCSF and $10 million to Stanford to enable the institutions to study the human microbiome, the complex ecosystem of trillions of foreign bacteria. “We’ve reached a point where there’s enough evidence that the microbiome really matters for human health that people are ready to support and accelerate the field of study,” the director of UCSF’s new program studying the microbiome said.
Treasure Island
“Visitors can step into the ring and experience soft pulses of light from the signal lamp and a low, cyclical vibration calibrated to mimic a foghorn.”
Three 12-ton girders from the Bay Bridge’s east span are being crafted into a 25-foot-long ring-shaped sculpture named Signal by conceptual artist Tom Loughlin. The work will be unveiled on Sept. 22 as part of the new neighborhood’s public art plan.
Mission
Small shipping companies that send packages to Central American countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico used to be commonplace, serving the Mission’s immigrant population. Now, as gentrification has set in, only three or four are in operation. The recent opening of a new independent shipping company seems to point to a rise in demand.
Tenderloin
After 11 years, a nine-story, 113-unit low-income apartment building designed by David Baker Architects has debuted at 222 Taylor Street. The nonprofit Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. obtained approvals to begin construction in 2009, but the Great Recession waylaid financing the project.
Embarcadero
Safe Embarcadero For All, a group opposed to City Hall placing a temporary homeless center on a parking lot, has seized on an incident in which a homeless man assaulted a woman trying to enter her apartment near the site of proposed homeless center. The man was arrested.
Richmond
The San Francisco Board of Education voted 4-to-3 to cover Depression-era frescos considered offensive to some Native American and African-American students inside George Washington High School. The board originally voted to paint over the 13-panel fresco by Russian émigré Victor Arnautoff. The move garnered widespread and celebrity criticism.
Ingleside
“Ingleside’s lack of a single adult-use cannabis shop gives more affluent neighborhoods an advantage. We need at least one to really be competitive.”
Ocean Avenue has been without an operational cannabis dispensary — for medical or adult-use — for eight months and counting after both of its shops closed last year while grappling with red tape and landlord issues.
Mission
A 25-unit single-room occupancy hotel on 16th Street that long housed indigent people has been remodeled, and appears to be another casualty of the luxury rental boom. Since 2013, some 5,000 SRO units have been lost, and the remaining units have had rents increase 74.5 percent.
Broke-Ass Stuart, Broke-Ass City: Gun Control: We Have to Start Somewhere And Now
Robyn Purchia, Green Space: PG&E Is Holding Up Energy Improvements in San Francisco
Phil Matier: Gas Station Sleuths Put San Francisco’s Red-Paint Transit Lanes On Hold
Heather Knight, On San Francisco: San Francisco’s New Fire Chief Talks About A ‘Crisis’ On Streets Stretching Resources
What I'm Reading: Politico on How San Francisco’s Wealthiest Families Launched Kamala Harris.
Have a great weekend!
This edition was curated and written by Alex Mullaney and edited by David Mamaril Horowitz.The newsletter is designed by Marquee and published on Proof.
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