Local News & Views

You are invited to celebrate Dr. Willie Ratcliff's 93rd birthday - then stay for a brainstorming session on how we can keep the SF Bay View newspaper alive and kicking! It's this Wednesday, Sept. 24, 6-8 p.m., at the Ruth Williams Opera House, 4705 3rd St., San Francisco. Your ideas are needed.

“This is very serious. Please do not consider Prologis!" Rachelle Holmes told the SF Planning Commission. On Sept. 25, the Commission may vote on whether to grant a Special Use District that allows this project to bypass key environmental protections.

By celebrating independent and underrepresented filmmakers worldwide, OIFF not only uplifts diverse voices but also strengthens Oakland’s reputation as a destination for the arts, tourism and innovation.

“Gone are the days we looked to other people to take care of us,” said Kenisha Roach. “We need the community to buy back into itself. It’s unity or death.”

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials face renewed scrutiny as former inmates and advocates allege systemic abuse of authority — including the routine use of chemical agents, surveillance, and punitive policies that critics say originated in prisons and later spread as tools of public control — while expanded mail restrictions, disciplinary rules, and lockdowns have intensified tensions and deepened concerns about accountability.

With little more than determination and hope, they raised families, built churches and created communities.

The Kings of Cali motorcycle club marked its 21st anniversary with a weekend Meet and Greet in Oakland that drew more than 300 riders, members and guests from cities including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles; the event featured a barbecue hosted by the club’s Road Queens, participation from Oakland Harley‑Davidson and veterans’ outreach activities as leaders touted two decades of growth and community service.

A press conference organized by advocacy groups saying the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections delayed critical eye care for longtime political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal drew renewed public pressure, and his attorney said Sept. 2 that Abu-Jamal received left-eye cataract laser surgery after widespread calls for action; advocates urged continued vigilance to ensure follow-up treatment for diabetic retinopathy, which they say still threatens his vision.

Tyrone Perry, a 46‑year‑old inmate at South Carolina’s Perry Correctional Institution, faces alleged chronic medical neglect for serious conditions including pulmonary hypertension and cerebrovascular disease; advocates say prison medical staff repeatedly denied prescribed medications, obstructed specialist visits and ignored dangerously high blood‑pressure readings on July 18, raising concerns that retaliation and systemic indifference are putting his life and cognitive health at risk.

A protest that shut down the Buchanan Street Mall renovation in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood highlighted long‑running disputes over exclusion of Black contractors and demands for meaningful local hiring, as community leaders and contractors said pledged inclusion has not produced real contracts or opportunities and urged stricter enforcement of equity agreements to preserve neighborhood history and economic power.

Formerly incarcerated advocate Dorsey Nunn said his memoir "What Kind of Bird Can't Fly" has been placed on California’s list of disapproved publications and banned from delivery to people in state prisons, a move Nunn and supporters decried as censorship that undermines rehabilitation and access to literature for incarcerated readers; the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation cited portions of the book as posing a “serious threat to institution security” under Title 15 mail rules, and the publisher may appeal.

A first-person account republished for Black Agenda Report’s 20th‑anniversary Katrina coverage, Malik Rahim’s “This Is Criminal” says government failures and racial neglect — from faulty levees to withheld rescues and armed vigilantes — turned Hurricane Katrina’s devastation into a manmade catastrophe for Black and poor New Orleanians, and Rahim’s update recalls how grassroots volunteers and the Common Ground Collective mobilized thousands to provide lifesaving aid amid official abandonment.

San Francisco’s once proud maritime edge is unraveling — one pier, piling and wharf at a time. Now, even the youth are feeling the fallout.

Dorsey Nunn’s memoir "What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly" recounts his journey from illiteracy and decades behind bars to activism and advocacy, blending candid reflections on incarceration, racial injustice and forced prison labor with personal scenes of family, recovery and mentorship; Nunn frames his life as testimony and a call to recognize the humanity and rights of people impacted by the criminal justice system.

Black officers and soldiers have at times refused federal orders to police Black communities, citing duty to disobey unlawful commands.

This is a fundraising/advocacy announcement and service‑oriented news release focused on environmental justice — specifically a campaign to raise funds for a medico‑legal defense fund supporting toxic exposure screening, medical referrals and legal representation for residents and workers near the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund area.

“I’m a union painter,” said Tory Carpenter. He had worked on the 2007 renovations under AIMCO. “That job was union. This one isn’t. They’re using the cheapest labor and cheapest materials.”

Black Americans who identify with Palestinians say their shared experiences of racial oppression inform solidarity, but activists and visitors report that Israeli authorities often target and mistreat Black supporters — a pattern critics say underscores how race shapes both solidarity and state repression in the Israel‑Palestine conflict.

A houseless and Indigenous coalition in Oakland unveiled a “Liberation Easement” to permanently remove a small parcel of land from the real‑estate market, the organizers said, a move they described as an act of decommodification and long‑term stewardship that binds residents and descendants to caretaking rather than ownership and prevents future sale, rent or eviction; the document was created with Sogorea Te Land Trust and legal counsel and will be publicly filed at a ceremony Oct. 23.

Bred in the Bay, Lisa Tealer is not new to this – she is true to this! It is by no coincidence that after 30 years in the biotech field she would find herself as the executive director of the extremely impactful nonprofit in San Mateo County, Bay Area Community Health Advisory Council (BACHAC), focused on improving health in the African American community.