During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco’s Latinx residents experienced higher rates of infection and deaths, and greater losses of income and homes compared with other ethnic groups. Widespread depression and anxiety resulting from the trauma led to a grassroots effort to heal the community. That’s when a UCSF psychiatrist asked t…

San Francisco’s proposition K is the most heated issue in this year’s local election. It asks whether the city should close a segment of the Great Highway, a coastal thoroughfare, to car traffic, so it could later become a park. Residents are divided: some welcome the idea of a park for families and community gatherings, while others worry that it …

Berkeley’s Measure Z — also known as the soda tax — is an initiative that aims to extend the 2014 ballot measure to continue the tax on sugar sweetened beverages.By Erin Lim

Affordable housing is too expensive for many in San Francisco, leaving people in untenable living situations: rentals they can’t afford, overcrowded single room occupancy hotels, or tents on the street. Proposition G tries to combat that issue by proposing the creation of a fund to subsidize 550 to 600 units of affordable housing for extremely low …

Oakland’s Measure OO is a new initiative to change the structure of the Oakland Public Ethics Commission.By Yosmay del Mazo

Oakland’s Measure NN is a new proposal aimed at funding public safety through a tax on property owners.By Anthony Ivy

Oakland Measure MM is a new initiative that aims to fund wildfire prevention in parts of the city with high fire risk.By Eliza Peppel

Richmond’s Measure J and Measure L both focus on election reform.By Demetrius Johnson

Proposition O would strengthen access to abortions in San Francisco.By KALW

Proposition N would create a fund to help police officers, firefighters, paramedics, sheriffs, nurses and 911 dispatchers employed by the city pay off their student loan debt.By KALW

SF Prop M would overhaul SF Business Tax System . The city would rely less on taxing a company’s payroll for staff working here, and more on revenue that businesses earn within the city.By KALW

Proposition L would tax ride-hail companies, including those that operate self-driving cars.By KALW

Proposition K would start a process that could permanently close part of San Francisco’s Great Highway to traffic.By KALW

Proposition J would create an oversight body to monitor city government spending on programs helping children and young people.By KALW

Proposition I would improve retirement packages for 9-1-1 dispatchers, as well as nurses who transition from temporary to full-time roles.By KALW

Proposition H would lower the retirement age for San Francisco firefighters from 58 to 55.By KALW

Proposition G would reduce rent in hundreds of units serving extremely low-income seniors, families and people with disabilities.By KALW

Proposition F allows retirement eligible police officers to stay on the job while receiving both their salary and pension for up to five years.By KALW

Proposition E would create a five member task force to assess San Francisco’s many commissions and recommend whether any should be altered or eliminated to improve local governance.By KALW

Proposition D would dramatically alter governance in San Francisco, slashing City Hall commissions from the current 130 to a maximum of 65, retaining 20 major commissions.By KALW

Proposition C aims to fight corruption in the San Francisco government by creating an inspector general to investigate fraud, waste and abuse.By KALW

Proposition B would let San Francisco borrow up to $390 million to build new infrastructure and upgrade existing buildings, roads, and public spaces.By KALW

Proposition A would let the San Francisco Unified School District borrow up to 790 million dollars to upgrade, repair and retrofit its properties.By KALW

If passed, California Proposition 36 would enforce harsher penalties for certain crimes to address concerns about shoplifting and drug possession.By KALW

If passed, California Proposition 35 would require the state to use money from a tax on health insurance plans towards payments to doctors who serve Medi-Cal patients.By KALW

If passed, California Proposition 34 would require some California health providers to use profits from prescription drug sales to directly fund patient care.By KALW

If passed, California Proposition 33 would let cities remove current limits on rent control.By KALW

In the November, 2024 election San Francisco voters are being asked to decide whether to approve a wide range of issues in the form of 15 local ballot propositions, including ones on a major overhaul of the city’s commission system, bond measures and other program funding, changes to the business tax system, and incentives to bolster the ranks of p…

If passed, California Proposition 32 would mandate a higher statewide minimum wage.By KALW

San Francisco commission reform is on the November 2024 ballot. If either Proposition D or E passes, they will change the city’s commissions in different ways, which have had a vital role in how the combined city and county of San Francisco has been governed since 1898. Civic speaks to John Monson, the co-author of a civil grand jury report “Commis…

If passed, Proposition 6 would end California’s practice of forcing incarcerated people to work.By KALW

California Proposition 5 would lower the threshold of voter support required to pass certain local bond measures.By KALW

California Proposition 4 would fund projects across the state to pay for climate and environmental projects.By KALW

If passed, Proposition 3 would enshrine the right to same-sex marriage in the California constitution.By KALW

There’s a glimmer of hope in San Francisco’s overdose crisis as the rate at which people are dying appears to be slowing down. But the city’s health director warned the public that the death rate may not have peaked yet. Meanwhile, health and city officials who once advocated for a place where people could safely consume substances in case of overd…

If California Proposition 2 passes, it would pay for repairs and upgrades at thousands of K-12 schools and community colleges across California.By KALW

Decisions by local and state governments have major impacts on our daily lives. But as transparency about those decisions decreases, and underfunded newsrooms struggle to get answers, many affected citizens are taking matters into their own hands. San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood spoke with award-winning journalist Miranda …

Increases in the number of migrants arriving in San Francisco have stress-tested the city’s shelter system, revealing the dire need for more housing and support for families. We talk to migrant parents driven out of their homes by violence and political upheaval about navigating San Francisco’s homeless response system and its impacts on their fami…

The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic led to a rise in fatal overdoses among the tens of thousands of Indigenous Maya living in the Bay area. That alarmed Latinx advocates and officials at the Mexican consulate in San Francisco. Indigenous Latin Americans are categorized as Latinx even though many speak limited Spanish. That means vital information, …

The first years of the COVID-19 pandemic are behind us and it’s time for an early reckoning of our successes and failures. An epidemiologist shares how a lack of public trust led to unnecessary deaths. AIDS activists discuss the importance of facing trauma and a woman who lost her father to COVID is fighting for a memorial for those who died.…

Three years ago, when violence against Asian Americans spiked, local organizations took action to improve public safety. One group, the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice in San Francisco, is still doing that work. In this episode, we join them for one of their recurring community visits in the Richmond District. Outreach workers share how …

Lila LaHood, publisher of the San Francisco Public Press, talks with Nuala Bishari from the San Francisco Chronicle, Sydney Johnson from KQED, and Sylvie Sturm from “Civic” and the San Francisco Public Press about their reporting on drug use, public policy and and substance use disorder treatment in San Francisco. They discuss the harm reduction ph…

Election Special: Voters in San Francisco registered with the Peace & Freedom, Green, Republican or Democratic parties have extra choices in the March 5th election that only come around once every four years — the party county central committees. We talk to a political strategist to discuss the power dynamics of these committees in San Francisco an…

March 2024 Election Special: Mayor London Breed is facing one of the most pivotal moments of her political career as she campaigns for reelection amidst a dual crisis of addiction and homelessness. Her solution is a ballot measure that would compel welfare recipients to submit to drug addiction screening and treatment in order to get cash benefits.…

March 2024 Election Special: Why are San Francisco residents being asked to vote on County Superior Court Judges? We talk to University of San Francisco professor of politics Keally McBride about the slate of candidates, how the process works, and what people should be thinking about when considering their vote.…

*Audio fixed - Previously uploaded episode was the wrong audio and has been fixed* Fentanyl-related deaths among teens more than tripled across the U.S. from 2019 to 2021. And the CDC reports that two thirds of teens who died had someone nearby who didn’t provide an overdose response. Now San Francisco high school students are signing up for traini…

Fentanyl-related deaths among teens more than tripled across the U.S. from 2019 to 2021. And the CDC reports that two thirds of teens who died had someone nearby who didn’t provide an overdose response. Now San Francisco high school students are signing up for training sessions on how to recognize drug abuse and reverse overdoses. And it’s not just…

The Fight for Safe Consumption Sites: San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis Part 5 As overdose fatalities reach two to three deaths a day in San Francisco, demands for supervised consumption sites are getting more urgent. But city leaders are increasingly reluctant. And health officials who once campaigned for them are now conspicuously silent. We …

The War on Drugs Revisited: San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis Some San Francisco city officials are advocating jail for unhoused people who use drugs and murder charges for people who sell drugs. Critics say their approach mirrors the abysmal failure of the 50-year-old war on drugs. In the fourth episode of our series on San Francisco and the o…

San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis Part 3 *Content Warning: Explicit language and a description of an overdose experience.* San Francisco city officials have decided that arresting unhoused people for using drugs is the way to get them into treatment programs. Critics say jails are no place to get clean. And besides, forcing people into rehab do…