News & Views

Findings of the 2008 State of Black San Francisco public conference predicted our present: "a combination of violence, economics and lack of Black leadership has contributed to a situation that could soon turn SF into a city with only a handful of very rich and very poor African Americans."

The Oakland Housing Authority is planning to sell off or demolish most of its public housing in the near future, and nonprofits have been involved in mixed income housing developments at public housing sites that have displaced poor public housing tenants in Oakland.

Lennar has used its multi-million dollar profits to buy off community groups, pay community residents as “consultants” and sell a set of wolf tickets that would have shamed even the wolf himself.

With San Francisco having climbed deeper into bed with Lennar thanks to Prop. G's passage, the bad news coming from Wall Street and beyond can't exactly be music to Mayor Gavin Newsom's ears.

I was sitting in San Francisco, something like halfway between England and its former convict colony, Australia, when I stumbled on news that the Queen of England had placed former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of President George Bush's closest allies, very near the top of her list of 458 Australian birthday honors on June 9, just eight days after Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd finally pulled the last of the Australian troops that John Howard had, in 2003, committed to our Iraq War.

The current plan to launch yet another environmental assault on Bayview Hunters Point, with three natural gas turbine combustion power plants, and yet another at the San Francisco International Airport, was tabled for two weeks by the Board of Supervisors.

Newsom and his political allies are backing the Proposition G transfer of City property to a private developer in what is likely the worst public-private partnership the Newsom administration has dreamed up.

Statistics cannot convey the intimidation, anxiety and anger that Black and Latin@ youth must live with on a daily basis, nor the effect this can have on them and their families.

That they were Black men – even unarmed Black men – was deemed sufficient to unload on them, because in America their color was crime enough.

The 94124 zipcode ranks in the 80th percentile for particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. It ranks in the 90th percentile for sulfur dioxide.

With passage of Prop F, 50 PERCENT OF NEW HOUSING BUILT AT CANDLESTICK POINT MUST BE AFFORDABLE – BY LAW.

Vieques is an exquisite white-sand-trimmed island, a jewel in the blue Caribbean, where the 10,000 Viequenses fight valiantly for cleanup of massive contamination left by the U.S. Navy.

In a state with the eighth largest economy in the world, it is a moral outrage that cuts to foster care, health coverage, cash assistance for children and food programs are even being considered.

There are only three medium-sized cities in Northern California that have withstood pressure from a powerful Sacramento lobby, an army of lawyers, consultants, bond brokers and land developers.

The ceremony was held to recognize the important role that informal childcare providers play in raising preschool age children and preparing them for Kindergarten.

“He represents taking the NAACP to the next level ... And he represents great promise and potential, not just for the organization, but for young people.”

I was devastated at how cold and heartless the judicial system can be when it comes to our Black babies.

“There was a such thing as society prior to this parasitical system of imperialism. People dealt with their contradictions, and people need to be clear on that. We can deal with our own contradictions.”

“Joseph White has made a fundamental shift in how ethnic minorities are viewed, understood and treated in American psychology.”

Sami Al-Hajj was released after spending more than seven years in U.S. custody. He was released without ever being prosecuted.