Local News & Views

San Francisco – ​In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, San Francisco Mayor London Breed has refused to use executive powers to house San Francisco’s 9,000 homeless residents living in the City’s streets and shelters.

by Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu Day 4 “All people have a right to a safe and nurturing environment, and OUSD is jeopardizing the lives and futures of these students by not providing teachers with the support they need.” – Jed...

Alamo Square, San Francisco – Terry Williams has seen many changes to his neighborhood in the historically Black Fillmore, and one of them is the whitening of Alamo Square Park along with parks all over San Francisco and the subsequent pushing out of Black dog owners who don't feel safe going to the parks.

“25 shots from the racist cops” and “Indict! Convict! Send these killer cops to jail!”

The medical necessity for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program for residents living within a one mile radius of the federal Superfund site at the Hunters Point Shipyard is met by understanding the scope of contamination of this property placed on the National Priorities List in 1989 and assigned Hazard Ranking Scores of 80-100 percent based on risk of exposure, number of toxins and proximity to sensitive receptors, including over 20 schools and daycare centers, vulnerable neighborhoods and San Francisco Bay.

Public Defender and dedicated activist for criminal justice Jeff Adachi has passed. Jeff began in 1987 as a deputy public defender and, through his drive and dedication, became a five-time elected Public Defender for San Francisco. He set a goal to create an agency that would become a guiding light for all other offices around the country. It worked.

I often tell people to imagine if someone came into your home and snatched the roof off your bedroom, dorm room or home, leaving you exposed, over-seen, no longer covered. In other words, no longer “safe” to be messy, unorganized, unclean or just human, because now you no longer were living with what housed people live with every day and take completely for granted, the privilege of privacy.

No matter the turnout of Sunday’s vote, whether we continue to strike or not, we as teachers, students, families and community members will continue to demand justice and quality education for public school students.

We are calling for Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco to partner with the financial community to help save Bryant Mortuary, a 55-year-old family-owned business at 645 Fulton St. that recently fell victim to a predatory loan. The business is one of the last remaining representations of a once-thriving Black community in San Francisco.

Hundreds gathered last night for a candlelight vigil and march to City Hall in honor of Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s beloved public defender who died suddenly last week.

Marcus Book Store, at 1712 Fillmore St., San Francisco, is packed with knowledge it has purveyed since 1960, for 53 years. Now the oldest Black book store in the country has been ordered out. But the community is REFUSING to let Marcus Books close. The Sweises, who bought the property, want the judge to evict Marcus Books. Everyone is urged to BOYCOTT their businesses, Big Dog City Cab and Royal Cab companies. On Tuesday, July 2, 3 p.m., the community will caravan to the Sweis home in South City for a PROTEST RALLY at 4 p.m.

Every day we have been blessed with people (some returning and some new) coming in to read to the children, play music with them, create art with them, race, jump rope and play basketball, color, play games and just sit with the students who are having a tough time navigating a difficult situation. Finally, a tentative agreement has been reached.

On July 3, 2011, at 9:45 p.m., a 45-year-old scruffy looking man of European descent — only identified eight days later through his driver’s license picture as Charles Blair Hill, described ad nauseam by the corporate press as a “wobbly drunk” and a “crazy hippy” — met a violent fate on a San Francisco Civic Center BART platform at the hands of two BART thugs in blue, one white and one Asian.

Frustrated parent: “So what is it that teachers want? Is this just for more pay?” Teacher: “The district is sitting on $30,000,000 and there are times teachers don’t even have paper and toner for the printers. We don’t have paper towels in the staff lounge. Classrooms don’t have textbooks.”

To date, Mayor Breed has appointed or re-appointed 75 commissioners to help address the issues facing San Francisco. Over 60 percent of her appointees are women, and a majority are people of color. Four of the commissioners sworn in April 19 are from the LGBT community.

You’re invited! Please join us at the Coleman Medical Center on Tuesday, March 26, for an open house from 4:30-6:30 p.m., 6301 Third St. (at Ingerson), San Francisco 94124. Visit this landmark center for Black health! Meet the staff and board of the Bayview Hunters Point Clinic. RSVP please to health@bayviewclinic.org. The event is free.

Contrary to Mayor Ed Lee’s claim in a press release issued yesterday by the Mayor’s Office, the Superior Court issued an important victory for Bayview environmental health advocates by blocking the proposed early transfer of the toxic parcels of the Hunters Point Superfund site.

“Police are some of our best customers,” stated Diamond, 29, as we sat and talked. Diamond is one of the many names she goes by while working as a prostitute now in cities throughout the Bay Area. With the recent Bay Area police sex scandal, involving the sexual exploitation of Celeste Guap, much of it when she was a minor, it is important for victims of sexual violence to speak out! Here is Diamond’s story.

Hundreds of young San Franciscans and their supporters rallied on the steps of City Hall Tuesday as a majority of the Board of Supervisors prepared to introduce legislation at the board meeting to require the closure of San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall by December 2021.

Supervisor Shamann Walton, African American Chamber Chairman Fred Jordan and homeowner Albert Johnson Jr. met at the Roadhouse Café Feb. 21 on Third Street to discuss ways to help stop or reverse the out-migration of African Americans from San Francisco. We are constantly losing so many Black families that San Francisco’s Black community will be extinct if we don’t do something about it now.