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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s latest recall campaign, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053978/california-recall-fever-hits-san-franciscos-quiet-westside\">targeting Supervisor Joel Engardio\u003c/a> over his support for removing cars from part of the Great Highway to open a beachside park, has put a spotlight on deep tensions in the Sunset District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters and opponents of the recall come from diverse backgrounds and ideologies. But in this district, one of the city’s most densely populated Chinese American neighborhoods, a common refrain among recall proponents is that their voices aren’t being represented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that we’ve just not been heard,” said Albert Chow, a business owner in the Sunset and one of the most vocal recall supporters. “In fact, a lot felt betrayed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The park at the center of the debate, Sunset Dunes, was approved by voters citywide in 2024 through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1995182/proposition-k-victory-closing-part-of-the-great-highway-sparks-debate-and-delight\">Proposition K\u003c/a>. Some residents who live closest to the park and voted against it were furious to see it pass, and some continue to fight the road closure in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow and others say the park has increased car traffic on nearby avenues, although \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/reports/outer-sunset-traffic-report-spring-2025\">an SFMTA study\u003c/a> found minimal impacts. Above all, they were stunned to find out that their supervisor had backed Proposition K.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors are seen during the grand opening of the Sunset Dunes Park along the former Upper Great Highway, in San Francisco, on April 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Many of us only found out that this would be on the ballot by Sen. Scott Wiener’s Twitter. That is not transparency, that is betrayal,” said Sunset resident Julia Quon at a recent Democratic Party meeting, where the party \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/sf-democratic-party-no-endorsement-joel-engardio-recall/\">voted not to make an endorsement\u003c/a> in the recall. Quon is a member of the Chinese American Democratic Club, one of the biggest backers of the recall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sense of betrayal, particularly among the neighborhood’s Chinese American residents, is rooted in history, said Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has a long history of disenfranchising, redeveloping and evicting Asian American communities. The mayor of San Francisco called for the expulsion of Chinese (people) overall in the 19th century and wanted to get rid of Chinatown,” said Jeung. “That history isn’t forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engardio stands by his support for the park, saying he simply gave voters a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you boil it down, my recall is over putting something on the ballot. I don’t have the power to close a road or create a park,” Engardio said while going door-to-door on a recent Saturday. “I supported democracy. I supported giving people a choice. I supported letting people vote on an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Engardio is recalled, the highway won’t automatically reopen to cars — that would require another ballot measure. If he is removed from office, Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has not endorsed either side of the recall, would appoint an interim supervisor.[aside postID=news_12054762 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250412_SunsetDunesGrandOpening_GC-1_qed.jpg']To help get his message across, Engardio said he has a team of “WeChat warriors” — Chinese-speaking volunteers who clarify recall information on the popular messaging app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone who dares to counter some of the loudest voices on WeChat will be targeted and harassed to no end,” Engardio said. “We have some seniors in their 70s who are old enough to not really care anymore. They just want to speak the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sense of disempowerment among some residents dates back decades for Asian communities in the city, Jeung said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For Asian Americans, we haven’t had that community control — we were segregated in certain neighborhoods like Chinatown, like Japantown, but we didn’t even have control over those small neighborhoods,” Jeung said. “That’s why there’s that heightened sense of disempowerment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Chinese American community isn’t united on the recall. Many residents testified at the same Democratic Party meeting in support of the supervisor and the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the Chinese American community here is saying, ‘If you don’t vote for the recall, you don’t want Chinese voices to be heard.’ I think that’s crazy because I’m Chinese and I want my voice to be heard,” Sunset resident Albert Lam told KQED. The recent college graduate grew up in the neighborhood and now lives with his parents, and said he supports the park for its environmental benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Joel Engardio speaks during the Sunset Dunes Park grand opening on the Upper Great Highway in San Francisco on April 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the road closure was necessary. The lower portion of the highway is already closed due to coastal erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really important that we provide perspective and remember that we’re talking about a road that’s lost its greatest utility, and we’re talking about a park that is increasingly popular,” said Engardio. “People of all ages and backgrounds are benefiting from it, and the road was literally falling into the ocean. So, we had to do something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash Guay, a Chinese American westside resident, said she visits Sunset Dunes several times a week and was walking her dog there on a recent Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get to bike, be along the beach, enjoy the weather, see lots of people with dogs and families,” said Guay, who voted to open the park. “I know people who voted No on [Proposition] K, like friends of mine, but now that they’ve come out here and we all enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several local businesses, like the owners of Andytown Coffee and florist Bright Moments, told KQED they’ve seen increased sales since the park opened, as more people from across the city and the Bay Area visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An underlying theme among the recallers is wanting to keep San Francisco in the past and not being willing to accept change or welcome new people,” Engardio said. “But to me, it’s really important to welcome new people.”[aside postID=news_12055309 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250412_SunsetDunesGrandOpening_GC-16_qed.jpg']Engardio is now backing a rezoning proposal that could bring more housing to the westside as part of an effort to meet a statewide mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lam said he likes the supervisor’s stance to bring more affordable housing to the Sunset, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Sunset belongs to everyone, not just a few loud and angry voices,” Lam said. “I’d love to stay here, but it’s just wildly unaffordable to live in San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow said Engardio’s position on the park and housing threatens the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants new people here, a new demographic, a different type of people with a whole different set of values and visions for this part of the city and probably the city in general. I think that is very dangerous,” Chow said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvBqZkf57A&t=69s\">promotional video\u003c/a> supporting the recall. “You have not asked our opinion, and at the same time, you want to make essential changes to our neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engardio said he’s focused on protecting existing residents while making the neighborhood more inclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rhetoric Albert Chow and others are using about not wanting new people in the Sunset is the antithesis to what San Francisco is about,” he said. “Every new immigrant, every new LGBTQ person, every new artist and every new innovator benefits our city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Chow, a business owner of Great Wall in the Sunset District, walks through Taraval Street in San Francisco on September 3, 2025. Chinese voters in the Sunset are split on whether to support the recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio, who backed the proposal to close off the Great Highway to cars and open up a new park. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have to remember that 100 years ago, we took sand dunes and developed it into housing for a lot of immigrants and working families to live in the Sunset. We should continue to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balancing residents’ concerns over the neighborhood will be challenging for whoever represents District 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people [in the Sunset] have multiple cars and inter-generational households. So how do you balance that with the needs of an evolving urban city?” said David Ho, a political consultant who grew up in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Jeung, this recall underscores a bigger question: Who gets to shape a neighborhood, in a city with changing demographics and needs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that people should be arguing and complaining about is not whether politicians are betraying us or not, but who should have decision-making over local community decisions,” Jeung said. “This was a citywide election and a popular vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s latest recall campaign, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053978/california-recall-fever-hits-san-franciscos-quiet-westside\">targeting Supervisor Joel Engardio\u003c/a> over his support for removing cars from part of the Great Highway to open a beachside park, has put a spotlight on deep tensions in the Sunset District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters and opponents of the recall come from diverse backgrounds and ideologies. But in this district, one of the city’s most densely populated Chinese American neighborhoods, a common refrain among recall proponents is that their voices aren’t being represented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The most important thing is that we’ve just not been heard,” said Albert Chow, a business owner in the Sunset and one of the most vocal recall supporters. “In fact, a lot felt betrayed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The park at the center of the debate, Sunset Dunes, was approved by voters citywide in 2024 through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1995182/proposition-k-victory-closing-part-of-the-great-highway-sparks-debate-and-delight\">Proposition K\u003c/a>. Some residents who live closest to the park and voted against it were furious to see it pass, and some continue to fight the road closure in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow and others say the park has increased car traffic on nearby avenues, although \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/reports/outer-sunset-traffic-report-spring-2025\">an SFMTA study\u003c/a> found minimal impacts. Above all, they were stunned to find out that their supervisor had backed Proposition K.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040913\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040913\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/SunsetDunesGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors are seen during the grand opening of the Sunset Dunes Park along the former Upper Great Highway, in San Francisco, on April 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Many of us only found out that this would be on the ballot by Sen. Scott Wiener’s Twitter. That is not transparency, that is betrayal,” said Sunset resident Julia Quon at a recent Democratic Party meeting, where the party \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/08/sf-democratic-party-no-endorsement-joel-engardio-recall/\">voted not to make an endorsement\u003c/a> in the recall. Quon is a member of the Chinese American Democratic Club, one of the biggest backers of the recall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sense of betrayal, particularly among the neighborhood’s Chinese American residents, is rooted in history, said Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco has a long history of disenfranchising, redeveloping and evicting Asian American communities. The mayor of San Francisco called for the expulsion of Chinese (people) overall in the 19th century and wanted to get rid of Chinatown,” said Jeung. “That history isn’t forgotten.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engardio stands by his support for the park, saying he simply gave voters a choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you boil it down, my recall is over putting something on the ballot. I don’t have the power to close a road or create a park,” Engardio said while going door-to-door on a recent Saturday. “I supported democracy. I supported giving people a choice. I supported letting people vote on an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Engardio is recalled, the highway won’t automatically reopen to cars — that would require another ballot measure. If he is removed from office, Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has not endorsed either side of the recall, would appoint an interim supervisor.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To help get his message across, Engardio said he has a team of “WeChat warriors” — Chinese-speaking volunteers who clarify recall information on the popular messaging app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone who dares to counter some of the loudest voices on WeChat will be targeted and harassed to no end,” Engardio said. “We have some seniors in their 70s who are old enough to not really care anymore. They just want to speak the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sense of disempowerment among some residents dates back decades for Asian communities in the city, Jeung said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For Asian Americans, we haven’t had that community control — we were segregated in certain neighborhoods like Chinatown, like Japantown, but we didn’t even have control over those small neighborhoods,” Jeung said. “That’s why there’s that heightened sense of disempowerment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Chinese American community isn’t united on the recall. Many residents testified at the same Democratic Party meeting in support of the supervisor and the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the Chinese American community here is saying, ‘If you don’t vote for the recall, you don’t want Chinese voices to be heard.’ I think that’s crazy because I’m Chinese and I want my voice to be heard,” Sunset resident Albert Lam told KQED. The recent college graduate grew up in the neighborhood and now lives with his parents, and said he supports the park for its environmental benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042031\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20250412_SUNSETDUNESGRANDOPENING_GC-9-KQED-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Joel Engardio speaks during the Sunset Dunes Park grand opening on the Upper Great Highway in San Francisco on April 12, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the road closure was necessary. The lower portion of the highway is already closed due to coastal erosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really important that we provide perspective and remember that we’re talking about a road that’s lost its greatest utility, and we’re talking about a park that is increasingly popular,” said Engardio. “People of all ages and backgrounds are benefiting from it, and the road was literally falling into the ocean. So, we had to do something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash Guay, a Chinese American westside resident, said she visits Sunset Dunes several times a week and was walking her dog there on a recent Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get to bike, be along the beach, enjoy the weather, see lots of people with dogs and families,” said Guay, who voted to open the park. “I know people who voted No on [Proposition] K, like friends of mine, but now that they’ve come out here and we all enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several local businesses, like the owners of Andytown Coffee and florist Bright Moments, told KQED they’ve seen increased sales since the park opened, as more people from across the city and the Bay Area visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An underlying theme among the recallers is wanting to keep San Francisco in the past and not being willing to accept change or welcome new people,” Engardio said. “But to me, it’s really important to welcome new people.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Engardio is now backing a rezoning proposal that could bring more housing to the westside as part of an effort to meet a statewide mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lam said he likes the supervisor’s stance to bring more affordable housing to the Sunset, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Sunset belongs to everyone, not just a few loud and angry voices,” Lam said. “I’d love to stay here, but it’s just wildly unaffordable to live in San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow said Engardio’s position on the park and housing threatens the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants new people here, a new demographic, a different type of people with a whole different set of values and visions for this part of the city and probably the city in general. I think that is very dangerous,” Chow said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvBqZkf57A&t=69s\">promotional video\u003c/a> supporting the recall. “You have not asked our opinion, and at the same time, you want to make essential changes to our neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engardio said he’s focused on protecting existing residents while making the neighborhood more inclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rhetoric Albert Chow and others are using about not wanting new people in the Sunset is the antithesis to what San Francisco is about,” he said. “Every new immigrant, every new LGBTQ person, every new artist and every new innovator benefits our city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250903-SUNSETCHINESERECALL00096_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Chow, a business owner of Great Wall in the Sunset District, walks through Taraval Street in San Francisco on September 3, 2025. Chinese voters in the Sunset are split on whether to support the recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio, who backed the proposal to close off the Great Highway to cars and open up a new park. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have to remember that 100 years ago, we took sand dunes and developed it into housing for a lot of immigrants and working families to live in the Sunset. We should continue to do that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balancing residents’ concerns over the neighborhood will be challenging for whoever represents District 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people [in the Sunset] have multiple cars and inter-generational households. So how do you balance that with the needs of an evolving urban city?” said David Ho, a political consultant who grew up in the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Jeung, this recall underscores a bigger question: Who gets to shape a neighborhood, in a city with changing demographics and needs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that people should be arguing and complaining about is not whether politicians are betraying us or not, but who should have decision-making over local community decisions,” Jeung said. “This was a citywide election and a popular vote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The planned makeover of one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s oldest parks is facing a six-month delay due to tariff-induced increased construction prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renovations to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/portsmouth-square\">Portsmouth Square\u003c/a>, in Chinatown, were projected to cost around $43 million but because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on global trading partners, ongoing supply chain challenges and widespread construction inflation, all bids on the city project have exceeded that estimate by over $10 million, with the lowest at $54.7 million, according to the Recreation & Parks department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To stay on budget, the project will undergo another bidding process in September, with an anticipated groundbreaking in March 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the delay, community members said they are glad the development is still underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d say the department is still on track. A five-month delay is nothing, the community has waited for years,” said Vanita Louie, a Rec and Parks commissioner, in a statement. “This is the most major park renovation project in Chinatown’s history. The department will take the extra time in finding cost-saving ways without changing the approved design.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973426\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11973426\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Birds fly above a pedestrian bridge connecting a Hilton to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood on Jan. 22, 2024.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Birds fly above a pedestrian bridge connecting a Hilton to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on Jan. 22, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Rec and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton, rebidding will protect public funds, preserve access to time-sensitive state funding and add an emphasis on avoiding a full redesign that could delay the project further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll adjust the more ancillary or unseen parts of the project, like finding a less expensive material for something or adjusting things like fencing, to bring down the cost while keeping the heart of the project intact,” said Aparton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “heart of the project in question” is the needs and cultural preservation of Chinatown, where Portsmouth Square resides, Aparton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anni Chung, the president and CEO of Self-Help for the Elderly, a nonprofit that runs classes and workshops from the Portsmouth Square Clubhouse, emphasized that many of Chinatown’s 15,000 residents live in single-room occupancy apartments. Without living rooms, many rely on public spaces like parks to form community.[aside postID=news_11973503 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-35-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“It’s really part of our life. We work in Chinatown. Some of us live in Chinatown. The elderly and immigrant families live in Chinatown,” said Chung. “I know how important it is for our community to have a functional, viable, safe park where all our residents, young and old, can go and enjoy lunch there and just sit and relax for a few minutes before the hectic day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While developments are in motion, the removal of the pedestrian bridge that connects the Hilton Financial District hotel and Kearny Street, which borders the park, poses a challenge for the project — as there isn’t an agreement as to who will cover the expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hotel also hosts the neighborhood’s Chinese Culture Center, where community members have expressed concerns about the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As part of the park design, the majority of the community supported the removal of the bridge,” said community member Allan Low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louie added that all the new bid proposals include plans for demolition of the Hilton bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city attorney’s office is currently in negotiations with the Hilton hotel. Construction and completion of the development are now expected to begin in the summer of 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The planned makeover of one of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s oldest parks is facing a six-month delay due to tariff-induced increased construction prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renovations to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/portsmouth-square\">Portsmouth Square\u003c/a>, in Chinatown, were projected to cost around $43 million but because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on global trading partners, ongoing supply chain challenges and widespread construction inflation, all bids on the city project have exceeded that estimate by over $10 million, with the lowest at $54.7 million, according to the Recreation & Parks department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To stay on budget, the project will undergo another bidding process in September, with an anticipated groundbreaking in March 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the delay, community members said they are glad the development is still underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d say the department is still on track. A five-month delay is nothing, the community has waited for years,” said Vanita Louie, a Rec and Parks commissioner, in a statement. “This is the most major park renovation project in Chinatown’s history. The department will take the extra time in finding cost-saving ways without changing the approved design.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973426\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11973426\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Birds fly above a pedestrian bridge connecting a Hilton to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco's Chinatown neighborhood on Jan. 22, 2024.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240122-PORTSMOUTHSQUARE-11-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Birds fly above a pedestrian bridge connecting a Hilton to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on Jan. 22, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Rec and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton, rebidding will protect public funds, preserve access to time-sensitive state funding and add an emphasis on avoiding a full redesign that could delay the project further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll adjust the more ancillary or unseen parts of the project, like finding a less expensive material for something or adjusting things like fencing, to bring down the cost while keeping the heart of the project intact,” said Aparton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “heart of the project in question” is the needs and cultural preservation of Chinatown, where Portsmouth Square resides, Aparton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anni Chung, the president and CEO of Self-Help for the Elderly, a nonprofit that runs classes and workshops from the Portsmouth Square Clubhouse, emphasized that many of Chinatown’s 15,000 residents live in single-room occupancy apartments. Without living rooms, many rely on public spaces like parks to form community.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s really part of our life. We work in Chinatown. Some of us live in Chinatown. The elderly and immigrant families live in Chinatown,” said Chung. “I know how important it is for our community to have a functional, viable, safe park where all our residents, young and old, can go and enjoy lunch there and just sit and relax for a few minutes before the hectic day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While developments are in motion, the removal of the pedestrian bridge that connects the Hilton Financial District hotel and Kearny Street, which borders the park, poses a challenge for the project — as there isn’t an agreement as to who will cover the expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hotel also hosts the neighborhood’s Chinese Culture Center, where community members have expressed concerns about the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As part of the park design, the majority of the community supported the removal of the bridge,” said community member Allan Low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louie added that all the new bid proposals include plans for demolition of the Hilton bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city attorney’s office is currently in negotiations with the Hilton hotel. Construction and completion of the development are now expected to begin in the summer of 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "The Transamerica Pyramid: From ‘Architectural Butchery’ to Icon | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article originally published December 8, 2022. It has been updated to reflect recent changes to the building.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay Bridge. Sutro Tower. Coit Tower. Perhaps even (whisper it) the Salesforce Tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to instantly recognizable structures, San Francisco suffers no shortage. But if asked to pick their favorite, many people might go for a classic: the Transamerica Pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pyramid — officially known as the Transamerica Pyramid Center — first opened back in 1972, making it more than 50 years old. At over 850 feet high, back then it was the tallest building San Francisco had ever seen. It has over 3,000 windows, an exterior of white quartz, and an illuminated spire at its very top, like the star on top of a Christmas tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934440\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934440\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid as seen from Pier 7 in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Pyramid is no longer the tallest building in San Francisco; that honor now goes to the Salesforce Tower, at 1,070 feet. But the story of how it came to be might surprise you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because what is now an architectural icon was once quite controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934146\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view from the bottom of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco before the Pyramid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like a pin in a map, the Transamerica Pyramid marks the spot where the communities of Chinatown, North Beach, Telegraph Hill and the Financial District converge. And historically speaking, the Pyramid is built on hallowed ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first half of the 19th century, this area of San Francisco wasn’t several blocks away from the bay, like it is now. It was the Barbary Coast, right on the water. A whaling ship called the Niantic even ran aground here in 1849 after the crew jumped ship to make their fortunes in the gold fields. Like many ships around this time, instead of being removed or torn down, the Niantic was instead absorbed into the fabric of the city: It was retrofitted into a hotel and ultimately became part of the landfill as the city expanded into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844073\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11844073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of San Francisco looking toward the bay, by Frank Marryat, ca. 1850. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back during the Gold Rush, Montgomery Street was at the center of city life. In 1853, workers constructed a massive building — appropriately known as the Montgomery Block — on the exact spot where the Transamerica Pyramid would later be built. “At the time, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi at a towering four stories,” said author \u003ca href=\"https://hiyaswanhuyser.wordpress.com/\">Hiya Swanhuyser\u003c/a>, who is currently writing a book about the history of the building. “[It was] built, famously, on a foundation made up of redwood logs interlaced that were floated across the bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Franciscans, Swanhuyser says, even called the Montgomery Block “a floating fortress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many spaces through San Francisco’s history, the Block — and the people inside it — lived many lives. Originally, the space was built to be law offices and a hangout spot for San Francisco’s high society. But when the city’s business folk started to migrate south to Market Street, artists moved in. The Montgomery Block entered its creative era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934444\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934444\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Montgomery Block in 1856, by photographer G. R. Fardon (1807–1886) \u003ccite>(Google Art Project/Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They were writers and sculptors,” said Swanhuyser, “people who were inventing journalism in the mid-1860s. People like Ambrose Bierce, who, according to some, was America’s first newspaper columnist, and Mark Twain and Bret Harte. And Ina Coolbrith, who was California’s first poet laureate.”[aside postID=news_12045917 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ATK6-KQED.jpg']This area of Montgomery Street was known for its bohemian ways, a scene that attracted freethinkers from near and far. Just a block to the north, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco\">now-iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived and worked here in the 1930s\u003c/a>. But the Montgomery Block’s influence was also ideological, says Swanhuyser, a “hotbed of painters and political people”: \u003ca href=\"http://www.tenderloinmuseum.org/public-programs-2019-1/2019/5/23/the-history-of-the-1934-general-strike\">The massive General Strike of 1934, which shut the city down for four days\u003c/a> and brought class struggles to a head, was organized, in part, right here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lights went out on the Montgomery Block’s creative chapter in 1959. That year, explained Swanhuyser, “a man named S.E. Onorato bought it and tore it down, claiming he was going to make a parking structure.” But Onorato never got to build his parking garage, and the space remained a single parking lot for almost a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the Transamerica Corporation — and the Pyramid — came into the picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934143\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view from the bottom of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Path to the Pyramid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Transamerica is now a financial services company, concerned with insurance and investments. Its story starts back in 1904 with the founding of the Bank of Italy in San Francisco — the brainchild of San José’s A.P. Giannini. That bank would become the Bank of America in the 1930s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transamerica began as the holding company for Giannini’s various financial ventures, which had by then become legion. The original “Transamerica Building” is actually still standing — it’s \u003ca href=\"http://playfoursquare.s3.amazonaws.com/pix/7871784_ficuEsfM_7kskU64jWPZTlip36tZCTyeSNJ1tkepH4A.jpg\">that flatiron-looking building\u003c/a> that forms a junction between Montgomery Street and Columbus Avenue, just across the street from where the Pyramid now stretches into the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s the San Francisco headquarters of the Church of Scientology, but in 1969, it was home to the corporation that wanted a new headquarters. And it turned out Transamerica wanted to build … a pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corporation had brought in a Los Angeles architect named \u003ca href=\"https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/william-pereira\">William Pereira\u003c/a> who had worked as an art director in Hollywood. His brief was, apparently, to create something that allowed sunlight to filter down to ground level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934144\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934144\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The moon rises near the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pereira envisioned a pyramid more than 850 feet tall, with two wing-like columns running up either side to allow for an elevator shaft on one side and a stairwell on the other. Even with its pyramid structure, it would have a capacity of 763,000 square feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Transamerica Corporation shared the design with the public, the critics hated it. The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture writer Allan Temko called it “authentic architectural butchery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it wasn’t just local critics. The Washington Post said the Pyramid proposal was “a second-class World’s Fair Space Needle.” Los Angeles Times critic John Pastier called the design “antisocial architecture at its worst,” capturing a broader unease at how Transamerica was trying to smear its corporate vision on San Francisco’s skyline. “Corporations that are far more important to the city have exercised considerably more restraint in their architecture than Transamerica,” wrote Pastier, “which is blatantly attempting to put its ‘brand’ on the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1969, San Franciscans protested against the Pyramid plans in the street, carrying signs that bore slogans like “Corporate Egotism” and “Stop the Shaft.” Some protesters even donned pyramid-shaped dunce hats. (You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Transamerica-Pyramid-sf-17154748.php\">see more photos from the protests in the San Francisco Chronicle’s archives\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1539\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-1020x818.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-1536x1231.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protestors at the old Transamerica Building march against the new Transamerica Pyramid, announced in 1969 and built in 1972, on July 23, 1969. \u003ccite>(Stan Creighton/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those protesters included Hiya Swanhuyser’s mother. “She was a community-minded hippie and she didn’t think that a neighborhood was the right place for a skyscraper,” Swanhuyser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was even a lawsuit filed by nearby residents. At a City Hall hearing about the proposal, an attorney for the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association spoke for those residents, in language that echoed the burgeoning environmentalism of the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The curse of this country is the worship of material things,” the residents’ attorney told City Hall. “We’ve polluted our rivers, our harbors, and our lakes, and our air — and we’re now about to pollute the skyline of San Francisco, one of its greatest treasures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet at that same hearing, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto made his support for the Pyramid — and its design — clear. Alioto urged those assembled to acknowledge the subjectivity of taste, proclaiming that the real issue was whether the Pyramid “is so bad that all reasonable men must agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The design, Alioto said, wasn’t that bad. On the contrary, it would “add considerable interest and beauty to the San Francisco skyline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s Planning Commission ultimately signed off. The Pyramid was officially coming to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid seen from Montgomery Street in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Darkness and light in a most strange year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Construction on the Transamerica Pyramid started in 1969. And this was no ordinary year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer\">The Zodiac Killer\u003c/a> murdered three of his four confirmed victims in 1969, in Vallejo, at Lake Berryessa and, finally, in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood. That same year, Bay Area residents would open their morning papers to see strange symbols — ciphers that someone claiming to be the Zodiac Killer sent to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was also the summer that \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/manson-cult-kills-five-people\">Charles Manson’s so-called “family” murdered five people in Los Angeles\u003c/a>, co-opting the visual language of the occult in their heinous acts. Then, the very same month construction on the Pyramid began, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-altamont-festival-brings-the-1960s-to-a-violent-end\">Altamont Speedway Free Festival\u003c/a> outside Livermore turned from a celebration of the counterculture into violence, mayhem and murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY8Jrp_L7jM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the backdrop against which San Franciscans were now watching a gigantic, mysterious pyramid start to stretch into the sky: the same ancient symbol that’s loomed large in the worlds of magic, alchemy and superstition for millennia — appearing, that year of all years, between North Beach and Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some may have found it creepy. But Larry Yee, who grew up nearby, remembers it as exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yee is now president of the historic Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (also known as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Six_Companies\">Chinese Six Companies\u003c/a>), and serves on the San Francisco Police Commission. But back in 1969, growing up in \u003ca href=\"https://landezine-award.com/everyone-deserves-a-garden-ping-yuen-public-housing-rehabilitation/\">Chinatown’s Ping Yuen housing development\u003c/a>, Yee was a basketball-obsessed teen running around this part of the city with his friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We challenged ourselves to go into some of these vacant buildings that they developed,” Yee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934393\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1656px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934393\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1656\" height=\"1007\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut.jpg 1656w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-1020x620.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-1536x934.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1656px) 100vw, 1656px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction progresses at the Transamerica Pyramid Building, on June 3, 1971. \u003ccite>(Joe Rosenthal/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yee recalls how different San Francisco looked before the Pyramid. “Yeah, it was flat!” he said, adding that it was rare to see “buildings like this, that pop up through the skyline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and his friends were getting a front-row seat to the construction of San Francisco’s most talked-about landmark, and one of his most enduring memories is of the constant construction noise. Far louder than the rattle of the California Street cable car that ran nearby, Yee said, was workers “pounding down on the pillars: ‘bom, bom, bom, bom.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, he and his friends didn’t even know it was a pyramid being built down the street. They just saw a building being built up, and up … and then up even further, getting narrower. He laughs recalling how he and his friends worried the strange new building “could tip over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yee has still kept his enthusiasm for the Transamerica Pyramid, decades after he watched it being built. He likes what it represents, and its place in the visual fabric of the city — and the neighborhood — he’s always called home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is, he says, still “magical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934142\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934142\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid can be seen reflected in the front window of a 1 California Muni bus in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The more things change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is a place of relentless change, and the Pyramid’s reputation is no exception. For a building that’s literally built on the site where creative genius flourished — a structure whose design was so fiercely contentious — the Transamerica Pyramid Center is now thoroughly uncontroversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s good about the Pyramid overwhelms what’s bad about it,” architect Henrik Bull told The San Francisco Chronicle on the building’s 40th anniversary. Once a loud opponent of the plan, he’d changed his mind. “It’s a wonderful building,” he said. “And what makes it wonderful is everything that we were objecting to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934441\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid, a 48-story skyscraper in San Francisco’s Financial District, on Nov. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Transamerica Pyramid is no longer the headquarters of its namesake — the corporation moved to Maryland — but its offices are still leased to financial services companies. Among insurance, wealth management and private equity, a 21st-century Montgomery Block artist’s haven this is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s another thing: For the most public, visible local icon you could imagine, the Transamerica Pyramid is also not very public. First-time tourists might naturally assume that a trip up the Pyramid is one of the City’s must-see attractions — like climbing the Empire State Building in New York City, or Seattle’s Space Needle. But you can’t go inside the Pyramid Center beyond the lobby, let alone climb to the top to see the view, unless you’re visiting one of the offices inside. There used to be an observation deck up there, but it closed in the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Aaron Peskin (from left), state Sen. Scott Wiener, Deutsche Finance America partner Jason Lucas, SHVO Chairman and CEO Michael Shvo, Mayor London Breed and former Mayor Willie Brown break ground at the Transamerica Pyramid during a 50th-anniversary celebration of the building and a groundbreaking ceremony for a $400 million redevelopment of the site in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building recently underwent a $400 million-dollar renovation by Norman Foster’s architectural firm. The Pyramid’s owner, Michael Shvo, says he’s in talks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/A-members-only-luxury-club-with-fees-up-to-16799906.php\">bring three restaurants to the building\u003c/a>, which apparently will be open to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But among other interior changes, the renovation will also see a\u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2022/01/25/just-what-downtown-sf-needs-a-new-private-club-for-the-ultra-rich/\"> high-end club moving into the Pyramid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll be private, for members only.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Present meets past\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For all this site’s corporate credentials, the ghosts of the original Montgomery Block and this area’s Barbary Coast roots still linger here — if you know where to look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A grove of redwood trees grows at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Architect Pereira’s design includes a small park at the east side of the Pyramid’s base: the Transamerica Redwood Park, which was planted with 80 redwood trees shipped north from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Next to those redwoods you’ll find Mark Twain Place, named for one of the Montgomery Block’s most iconic figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When excavation began in the late ’70s for the plaza complex adjacent to the park, construction workers found none other than the remains of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/nianticpainting.htm\">the Niantic, that whaling ship that docked in 1849\u003c/a>. The vessel hadn’t been lost to time after all. Instead, it was pushed down over the decades by a city that has been compulsively remaking itself in all directions since European colonizers arrived, buried deep underground. It’s said that champagne bottles were even found resting in the ship’s hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934151\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934151\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man stops to look at the view of the Transamerica Pyramid at dusk in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And just steps away from these markers of our past is the once-hated Pyramid. It may still be a symbol of the city’s money and power. But it’s an icon that’s finally found acceptance here — even affection — nonetheless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The Transamerica Pyramid is one of the most recognizable parts of the San Francisco skyline, and was groundbreaking in many ways when it opened in 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did you know all of the building’s windows rotate nearly 360 degrees? CBS demonstrated in this news clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CBS newsclip: \u003c/b>Because of the building’s unique shape, architects designed windows that could be cleaned from the inside. “Yeah but you missed a spot” spritz spritz 3,676 to go…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The pointed peak of the building is a 212 foot spire, reinforced by aluminum grating. KRON4 climbed to the top to check it out in 1998.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KRON4 newsclip: \u003c/b>This is the spire … oh my god…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The now famous building just got a $400 million dollar makeover and in the process builders uncovered something surprising\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>But deep within its steel bones there, construction crews discovered a time capsule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>There was always this tradition of putting time capsules in buildings under construction. I’m John Krizek and I was the public relations manager of Transamerica Corporation from 1968 to 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> John and his friend Bill Bronson, who was the editor of the California Historical Society, planted the capsule back when the Transamerica Pyramid was being built in the early 70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>I think it was our intent at the time that this was going to be locked up and not looked at for 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> They put in cassette tapes, photos, maps, recipes, and newspaper articles that would show whoever found the capsule how the spot where the building stands has played an important role in San Francisco history since the Gold Rush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>We needed to save that history. And on top of that, on this sacred site, we come along with this shocking plan for this unusual building, which went through an enormous amount of controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Theme starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> Today on Bay Curious, we’re digging into the history of the Transamerica Pyramid. It’s one of the most iconic San Francisco buildings and yet there’s a lot I didn’t know about it. We first aired this episode in December of 2022 in honor of the pyramid’s 50th birthday. I’m Katrina Schwartz, filling in for Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Theme ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The Transamerica Pyramid is iconic now, but you will not be surprised to learn when it was new, people \u003ci>hated\u003c/i> it. KQED reporter Carly Severn takes us back in time to the birth of a legendary landmark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Like a pin in a map, the Transamerica Pyramid marks the spot where the communities of Chinatown, North Beach, Telegraph Hill and the Financial District all converge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in terms of the city’s history, the site that the Pyramid is built on is hallowed ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1849, the year the Gold Rush began, this part of San Francisco was right on the water. So close, that a whaling ship called the Niantic was deliberately run aground right here after the crew abandoned ship to seek their fortunes in this wild, wily town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coast didn’t stay “the coast” for long. Landfill was used to rapidly swell the San Francisco streets further out into the Bay – swallowing that shipwreck with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back when this part of Montgomery Street still bordered the bay — in 1853 — it was a good place to construct a huge building, one that spanned the entire block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They called it the Montgomery Block. And the history of this building has long fascinated San Francisco writer Hiya Swanhuyser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. At a towering four stories, it was famously built on a foundation of a so-called raft of redwood logs that had been floated across the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Like so many places in San Francisco, the Montgomery Block, and the people inside it, lived many lives. This space was originally built to be law offices, with a hangout spot for high society, but when the city’s business folk started to migrate to Market Street, the creatives moved in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>They were writers and sculptors, people who were inventing journalism in the mid 1860s. People like Ambrose Bierce, who according to some, was America’s first newspaper columnist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Amrose Bierce writing: \u003c/b>Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>And Mark Twain and Bret Harte.\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Bret Harte writing: \u003c/b>The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>And Ina Coolbrith, who was California’s first poet laureate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Ina Coolbrith writing: \u003c/b>Were I to write what I know, the book would be too sensational to print, but were I to write what I think proper, it would be too dull to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Just a block to the north, now-iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived and worked here in the 1930s. It was \u003ci>a scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>It sort of stayed a scene for most of its life, which ended in 1959 when someone bought it and tore it down to make a parking structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>But the garage never materialized. And so the space remained a single parking lot for almost a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enter the Transamerica Corporation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This business actually started in San Francisco back in 1904 as the Bank of Italy, courtesy of a local man called A.P. Giannini. Later, in the thirties, it would become known as Bank of America. Ever heard of it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giannini had a lot of financial schemes and he soon needed more than a bank to contain them. That’s when the Transamerica Corporation was born. By 1969 the Corporation was ready to make its mark on San Francisco with a new headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They brought in a Los Angeles architect named William Pereira to design it. He was told to create something that would still allow light to filter down to street level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when the design for the 763 thousand square foot pyramid dropped, the critics hated it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture writer Allan Temko called it\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic reading of Allan Temko: \u003c/b>Authentic architectural butchery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> And it wasn’t just local critics. The Washington Post said Pereira’s Pyramid proposal was:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Washington Post voice over: \u003c/b>A second-class world’s fair space needle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pastier voice over: \u003c/b>Antisocial architecture at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Said Los Angeles Times critic John Pastier. He captured a broader unease about Transamerica trying to smear its corporate vision on the San Francisco skyline:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pastier voice over: \u003c/b>Corporations that are far more important to the city have exercised considerably more restraint in their architecture than Transamerica, which is blatantly attempting to put its ‘brand’ on the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> People protested against Pereira’s pyramid design, carrying signs that bore slogans like “Corporate Egotism” and “Stop the Shaft.” They even wore pyramid-shaped dunce hats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These protesters actually included Hiya Swanhuyser’s own mother:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>She was a community minded hippie and she didn’t think that a neighborhood was the right place for a skyscraper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carlyn Severn:\u003c/b> Neighborhood residents even filed a lawsuit. At a City Hall hearing about the proposal, an attorney for the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association spoke for those residents, in language that echoed the burgeoning environmentalism of the sixties:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>THDA Attorney: \u003c/b>The curse of this country is the worship of material things. We’ve polluted our rivers, our harbors, and our lakes, and our air. And we’re now about to pollute the skyline of San Francisco, one of its greatest treasures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carlyn Severn: \u003c/b>But at that same hearing, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto quoted the classics in support of the pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Joseph Alioto: \u003c/b>We have to recognize that the Latinists used to say ‘De gustibus non est disputandum’ – that there simply is no disputing tastes, and the only question is whether it is \u003ci>so \u003c/i>bad that all reasonable men must agree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> And this pyramid, Alioto said, wasn’t \u003ci>that \u003c/i>bad. On the contrary:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Joseph Alioto: \u003c/b>It will add considerable interest and beauty to the San Francisco skyline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>The city’s Planning Commission signed off on the project and the pyramid was officially coming to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction on the Transamerica Pyramid started in 1969, a dark year in many ways. This was the year in which three of the four confirmed murders by the Zodiac killer took place – the last one in San Francisco itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>School children are nice targets, I shall wipe out a school bus one more and then pick off the kiddies as they come bounding out. That was the threat of the zodiac killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>The year that you could open the Chronicle and read the Zodiac’s cryptic letters full of codes and symbols right there at your breakfast table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>They are weighing advice from astrologers on the theory that the killer who calls himself the Zodiac may be planning his next victim based on astrological signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>‘69 was also the year of the gruesome Manson Family murders in LA, with all their Satanic imagery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>One officer summed up the murders when he said, “in all my years, I have never seen anything like this before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sneak up Rolling Stones set at Altamont Festival\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Of the disastrous Altamont Festival outside Livermore\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rolling Stones: \u003c/b>Hey People!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Crowd noise\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>A celebration of counterculture that devolved into violence, mayhem and murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rolling Stones: Why Are we fighting? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>So I can’t help thinking how it would have felt to be living in San Francisco at the start of the 70s, bombarded with so much occult-inflected darkness in your morning paper – and seeing one of the most ancient and mysterious symbols, a pyramid, being summoned in your backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many, watching a skyscraper go up was also exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>My name is Larry Yee, born and raised in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Now, Larry is the president of the historic Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also known as the Chinese Six Companies. He also serves on the San Francisco Police Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back in 1969, growing up in Chinatown’s Ping Yuen housing development, Larry was a basketball-obsessed teen, running – or often skating – around this part of the city with his friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>Play hide and seek — you know, we challenge ourselves and go into some of these vacant buildings that they developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Walking around the base of the Pyramid over 50 years later, with the sound of traffic and tourists echoing off the street corners, Larry says the San Francisco he remembers from childhood, pre-pyramid, looked quite different:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>Yeah. It was flat! You know, there weren’t many buildings like this that pop up through the skyline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>This part of town was hopping, and full of the kinds of characters that had frequented the Montgomery Block years back. It was home to famous nightclubs like the Hungry I and the Purple Onion comedy cellar, where folks like Lenny Bruce were playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lenny Bruce: \u003c/b>Where I’m goin’ kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>But when the Pyramid was being built, all Larry and his friends could get was a sneak peek through the holes in the plywood fencing that hid the rapidly-rising behemoth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he still remembers the sheer, constant construction noise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>You come home from school and you know they’re pounding down on the pillars. Bam, bam, bam, bam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Initially, he and his friends didn’t even know it was a pyramid. They just saw a building being built up, and up, and then up even further, getting narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>We had concerns too, how far it’s going to go, whether it could tip over and then once they finished we said “Ah, this is a pyramid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>When it was finished, Pereira’s pyramid had over 3,000 windows, an exterior of white quartz, and an illuminated spire at its very top, like the star on top of a Christmas tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subtle, the pyramid is not. But decades on, Larry’s still a fan of this building. He says for him, it represents progress — the meeting of the old and the new. And he’s fond of its place in the visual fabric of the city, and the neighborhood, he’s always called home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>I don’t know. It’s magical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>And it’s funny. For a building that’s literally built on the site of the Montgomery Block, where creative genius flourished; a building whose design was so fiercely contentious, the Transamerica Pyramid Center is now thoroughly uncontroversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its silhouette on our skyline has become symbolic of San Francisco. Even several of those early critics changed their minds. Henrik Bull, an architect who originally opposed the pyramid — publicly, and loudly -– told the San Francisco Chronicle on the building’s 40th anniversary that like many others, he’d switched course in the intervening decades:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Henrik Bull voice over: \u003c/b>What’s good about the Pyramid overwhelms what’s bad about it. It’s a wonderful building. And what makes it wonderful is everything that we were objecting to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>What started out as a corporate symbol has stayed, well, corporate. In a Financial District full of office buildings, the pyramid is in many ways just another one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Transamerica Pyramid isn’t even the Transamerica headquarters any more — those officially moved to Maryland. These offices are primarily leased by financial services companies dealing in wealth management and private equity. There’s even a high-end members club moving in soon. A 21st-century Montgomery Block artist’s haven this is \u003ci>not\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s another thing: For the most visible local icon you could imagine, the Transamerica Pyramid is not very public. Tourists might naturally assume that a trip up the pyramid is one of the City’s must-see attractions — like climbing the Empire State Building or the Space Needle. But you can’t go inside the Pyramid Center, let alone climb to the top to see the view, unless you’re visiting one of the offices inside. There used to be an observation deck up there, but it closed in the nineties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the ghosts of this site’s previous inhabitants linger here, if you know where to look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you go to the Pyramid today, and walk into the small park at its base, you’ll find Mark Twain Place, named after one of the Montgomery Block’s most iconic inhabitants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember that old ship that ran aground here in the Gold Rush, back when all this was bayside? The Niantic?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t lost to time after all. Later in the ‘70s, way after the pyramid was built, a construction team working in the park discovered what was left of that ship, right here. Pushed down over the decades by a city that has been remaking itself since Europeans arrived, buried deep underground. It’s said that champagne bottles were even found resting in its hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just steps away from these markers of our past is the once-hated pyramid. A symbol of the city’s money and power, but an accepted icon nonetheless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can go see the items preserved in the time capsule in the lobby of the renovated building. And checkout the redwood park while you’re there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Katrina Schwartz. With extra support from Alana Walker, Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Holly Kernan and everyone at KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Curious team is taking next week off for Juneteenth, but we’ll be back with a brand new episode on June 26th!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks for listening! Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Transamerica Pyramid recently got a makeover. And construction crews unearthed a time capsule hidden for more than 50 years. Even after half a century, there's much about the backstory of this surprisingly controversial architectural icon that you still might not know.",
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"title": "The Transamerica Pyramid: From 'Architectural Butchery' to Icon | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article originally published December 8, 2022. It has been updated to reflect recent changes to the building.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay Bridge. Sutro Tower. Coit Tower. Perhaps even (whisper it) the Salesforce Tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to instantly recognizable structures, San Francisco suffers no shortage. But if asked to pick their favorite, many people might go for a classic: the Transamerica Pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pyramid — officially known as the Transamerica Pyramid Center — first opened back in 1972, making it more than 50 years old. At over 850 feet high, back then it was the tallest building San Francisco had ever seen. It has over 3,000 windows, an exterior of white quartz, and an illuminated spire at its very top, like the star on top of a Christmas tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934440\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934440\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61504_001_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid as seen from Pier 7 in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Pyramid is no longer the tallest building in San Francisco; that honor now goes to the Salesforce Tower, at 1,070 feet. But the story of how it came to be might surprise you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because what is now an architectural icon was once quite controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934146\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934146\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61484_016_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view from the bottom of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco before the Pyramid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like a pin in a map, the Transamerica Pyramid marks the spot where the communities of Chinatown, North Beach, Telegraph Hill and the Financial District converge. And historically speaking, the Pyramid is built on hallowed ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first half of the 19th century, this area of San Francisco wasn’t several blocks away from the bay, like it is now. It was the Barbary Coast, right on the water. A whaling ship called the Niantic even ran aground here in 1849 after the crew jumped ship to make their fortunes in the gold fields. Like many ships around this time, instead of being removed or torn down, the Niantic was instead absorbed into the fabric of the city: It was retrofitted into a hotel and ultimately became part of the landfill as the city expanded into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11844073\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11844073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/1-10-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of San Francisco looking toward the bay, by Frank Marryat, ca. 1850. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back during the Gold Rush, Montgomery Street was at the center of city life. In 1853, workers constructed a massive building — appropriately known as the Montgomery Block — on the exact spot where the Transamerica Pyramid would later be built. “At the time, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi at a towering four stories,” said author \u003ca href=\"https://hiyaswanhuyser.wordpress.com/\">Hiya Swanhuyser\u003c/a>, who is currently writing a book about the history of the building. “[It was] built, famously, on a foundation made up of redwood logs interlaced that were floated across the bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Franciscans, Swanhuyser says, even called the Montgomery Block “a floating fortress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like so many spaces through San Francisco’s history, the Block — and the people inside it — lived many lives. Originally, the space was built to be law offices and a hangout spot for San Francisco’s high society. But when the city’s business folk started to migrate south to Market Street, artists moved in. The Montgomery Block entered its creative era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934444\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934444\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Montgomery-Block-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Montgomery Block in 1856, by photographer G. R. Fardon (1807–1886) \u003ccite>(Google Art Project/Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They were writers and sculptors,” said Swanhuyser, “people who were inventing journalism in the mid-1860s. People like Ambrose Bierce, who, according to some, was America’s first newspaper columnist, and Mark Twain and Bret Harte. And Ina Coolbrith, who was California’s first poet laureate.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This area of Montgomery Street was known for its bohemian ways, a scene that attracted freethinkers from near and far. Just a block to the north, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco\">now-iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived and worked here in the 1930s\u003c/a>. But the Montgomery Block’s influence was also ideological, says Swanhuyser, a “hotbed of painters and political people”: \u003ca href=\"http://www.tenderloinmuseum.org/public-programs-2019-1/2019/5/23/the-history-of-the-1934-general-strike\">The massive General Strike of 1934, which shut the city down for four days\u003c/a> and brought class struggles to a head, was organized, in part, right here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lights went out on the Montgomery Block’s creative chapter in 1959. That year, explained Swanhuyser, “a man named S.E. Onorato bought it and tore it down, claiming he was going to make a parking structure.” But Onorato never got to build his parking garage, and the space remained a single parking lot for almost a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when the Transamerica Corporation — and the Pyramid — came into the picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934143\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61480_011_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view from the bottom of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Path to the Pyramid\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Transamerica is now a financial services company, concerned with insurance and investments. Its story starts back in 1904 with the founding of the Bank of Italy in San Francisco — the brainchild of San José’s A.P. Giannini. That bank would become the Bank of America in the 1930s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transamerica began as the holding company for Giannini’s various financial ventures, which had by then become legion. The original “Transamerica Building” is actually still standing — it’s \u003ca href=\"http://playfoursquare.s3.amazonaws.com/pix/7871784_ficuEsfM_7kskU64jWPZTlip36tZCTyeSNJ1tkepH4A.jpg\">that flatiron-looking building\u003c/a> that forms a junction between Montgomery Street and Columbus Avenue, just across the street from where the Pyramid now stretches into the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s the San Francisco headquarters of the Church of Scientology, but in 1969, it was home to the corporation that wanted a new headquarters. And it turned out Transamerica wanted to build … a pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The corporation had brought in a Los Angeles architect named \u003ca href=\"https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/william-pereira\">William Pereira\u003c/a> who had worked as an art director in Hollywood. His brief was, apparently, to create something that allowed sunlight to filter down to ground level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934144\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934144\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61483_017_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The moon rises near the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pereira envisioned a pyramid more than 850 feet tall, with two wing-like columns running up either side to allow for an elevator shaft on one side and a stairwell on the other. Even with its pyramid structure, it would have a capacity of 763,000 square feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Transamerica Corporation shared the design with the public, the critics hated it. The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture writer Allan Temko called it “authentic architectural butchery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it wasn’t just local critics. The Washington Post said the Pyramid proposal was “a second-class World’s Fair Space Needle.” Los Angeles Times critic John Pastier called the design “antisocial architecture at its worst,” capturing a broader unease at how Transamerica was trying to smear its corporate vision on San Francisco’s skyline. “Corporations that are far more important to the city have exercised considerably more restraint in their architecture than Transamerica,” wrote Pastier, “which is blatantly attempting to put its ‘brand’ on the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1969, San Franciscans protested against the Pyramid plans in the street, carrying signs that bore slogans like “Corporate Egotism” and “Stop the Shaft.” Some protesters even donned pyramid-shaped dunce hats. (You can \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Transamerica-Pyramid-sf-17154748.php\">see more photos from the protests in the San Francisco Chronicle’s archives\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934436\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934436\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1539\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-800x641.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-1020x818.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/Chron-image-1536x1231.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protestors at the old Transamerica Building march against the new Transamerica Pyramid, announced in 1969 and built in 1972, on July 23, 1969. \u003ccite>(Stan Creighton/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those protesters included Hiya Swanhuyser’s mother. “She was a community-minded hippie and she didn’t think that a neighborhood was the right place for a skyscraper,” Swanhuyser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was even a lawsuit filed by nearby residents. At a City Hall hearing about the proposal, an attorney for the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association spoke for those residents, in language that echoed the burgeoning environmentalism of the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The curse of this country is the worship of material things,” the residents’ attorney told City Hall. “We’ve polluted our rivers, our harbors, and our lakes, and our air — and we’re now about to pollute the skyline of San Francisco, one of its greatest treasures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet at that same hearing, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto made his support for the Pyramid — and its design — clear. Alioto urged those assembled to acknowledge the subjectivity of taste, proclaiming that the real issue was whether the Pyramid “is so bad that all reasonable men must agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The design, Alioto said, wasn’t that bad. On the contrary, it would “add considerable interest and beauty to the San Francisco skyline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s Planning Commission ultimately signed off. The Pyramid was officially coming to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934148\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934148\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61493_023_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid seen from Montgomery Street in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Darkness and light in a most strange year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Construction on the Transamerica Pyramid started in 1969. And this was no ordinary year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer\">The Zodiac Killer\u003c/a> murdered three of his four confirmed victims in 1969, in Vallejo, at Lake Berryessa and, finally, in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood. That same year, Bay Area residents would open their morning papers to see strange symbols — ciphers that someone claiming to be the Zodiac Killer sent to the press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was also the summer that \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/manson-cult-kills-five-people\">Charles Manson’s so-called “family” murdered five people in Los Angeles\u003c/a>, co-opting the visual language of the occult in their heinous acts. Then, the very same month construction on the Pyramid began, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-altamont-festival-brings-the-1960s-to-a-violent-end\">Altamont Speedway Free Festival\u003c/a> outside Livermore turned from a celebration of the counterculture into violence, mayhem and murder.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/xY8Jrp_L7jM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/xY8Jrp_L7jM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This was the backdrop against which San Franciscans were now watching a gigantic, mysterious pyramid start to stretch into the sky: the same ancient symbol that’s loomed large in the worlds of magic, alchemy and superstition for millennia — appearing, that year of all years, between North Beach and Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some may have found it creepy. But Larry Yee, who grew up nearby, remembers it as exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yee is now president of the historic Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (also known as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Six_Companies\">Chinese Six Companies\u003c/a>), and serves on the San Francisco Police Commission. But back in 1969, growing up in \u003ca href=\"https://landezine-award.com/everyone-deserves-a-garden-ping-yuen-public-housing-rehabilitation/\">Chinatown’s Ping Yuen housing development\u003c/a>, Yee was a basketball-obsessed teen running around this part of the city with his friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We challenged ourselves to go into some of these vacant buildings that they developed,” Yee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934393\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1656px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934393\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1656\" height=\"1007\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut.jpg 1656w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-800x486.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-1020x620.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61501_GettyImages-1206186630-qut-1536x934.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1656px) 100vw, 1656px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Construction progresses at the Transamerica Pyramid Building, on June 3, 1971. \u003ccite>(Joe Rosenthal/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yee recalls how different San Francisco looked before the Pyramid. “Yeah, it was flat!” he said, adding that it was rare to see “buildings like this, that pop up through the skyline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and his friends were getting a front-row seat to the construction of San Francisco’s most talked-about landmark, and one of his most enduring memories is of the constant construction noise. Far louder than the rattle of the California Street cable car that ran nearby, Yee said, was workers “pounding down on the pillars: ‘bom, bom, bom, bom.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, he and his friends didn’t even know it was a pyramid being built down the street. They just saw a building being built up, and up … and then up even further, getting narrower. He laughs recalling how he and his friends worried the strange new building “could tip over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yee has still kept his enthusiasm for the Transamerica Pyramid, decades after he watched it being built. He likes what it represents, and its place in the visual fabric of the city — and the neighborhood — he’s always called home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is, he says, still “magical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934142\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934142\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61473_003_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid can be seen reflected in the front window of a 1 California Muni bus in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The more things change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is a place of relentless change, and the Pyramid’s reputation is no exception. For a building that’s literally built on the site where creative genius flourished — a structure whose design was so fiercely contentious — the Transamerica Pyramid Center is now thoroughly uncontroversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s good about the Pyramid overwhelms what’s bad about it,” architect Henrik Bull told The San Francisco Chronicle on the building’s 40th anniversary. Once a loud opponent of the plan, he’d changed his mind. “It’s a wonderful building,” he said. “And what makes it wonderful is everything that we were objecting to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934441\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934441\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS60290_010_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11182022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Transamerica Pyramid, a 48-story skyscraper in San Francisco’s Financial District, on Nov. 18, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Transamerica Pyramid is no longer the headquarters of its namesake — the corporation moved to Maryland — but its offices are still leased to financial services companies. Among insurance, wealth management and private equity, a 21st-century Montgomery Block artist’s haven this is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s another thing: For the most public, visible local icon you could imagine, the Transamerica Pyramid is also not very public. First-time tourists might naturally assume that a trip up the Pyramid is one of the City’s must-see attractions — like climbing the Empire State Building in New York City, or Seattle’s Space Needle. But you can’t go inside the Pyramid Center beyond the lobby, let alone climb to the top to see the view, unless you’re visiting one of the offices inside. There used to be an observation deck up there, but it closed in the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934438\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61516_015_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supervisor Aaron Peskin (from left), state Sen. Scott Wiener, Deutsche Finance America partner Jason Lucas, SHVO Chairman and CEO Michael Shvo, Mayor London Breed and former Mayor Willie Brown break ground at the Transamerica Pyramid during a 50th-anniversary celebration of the building and a groundbreaking ceremony for a $400 million redevelopment of the site in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building recently underwent a $400 million-dollar renovation by Norman Foster’s architectural firm. The Pyramid’s owner, Michael Shvo, says he’s in talks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/A-members-only-luxury-club-with-fees-up-to-16799906.php\">bring three restaurants to the building\u003c/a>, which apparently will be open to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But among other interior changes, the renovation will also see a\u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2022/01/25/just-what-downtown-sf-needs-a-new-private-club-for-the-ultra-rich/\"> high-end club moving into the Pyramid\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’ll be private, for members only.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Present meets past\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For all this site’s corporate credentials, the ghosts of the original Montgomery Block and this area’s Barbary Coast roots still linger here — if you know where to look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934439\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934439\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61509_008_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_12062022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A grove of redwood trees grows at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco on Dec. 6, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Architect Pereira’s design includes a small park at the east side of the Pyramid’s base: the Transamerica Redwood Park, which was planted with 80 redwood trees shipped north from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Next to those redwoods you’ll find Mark Twain Place, named for one of the Montgomery Block’s most iconic figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When excavation began in the late ’70s for the plaza complex adjacent to the park, construction workers found none other than the remains of \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/nianticpainting.htm\">the Niantic, that whaling ship that docked in 1849\u003c/a>. The vessel hadn’t been lost to time after all. Instead, it was pushed down over the decades by a city that has been compulsively remaking itself in all directions since European colonizers arrived, buried deep underground. It’s said that champagne bottles were even found resting in the ship’s hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934151\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11934151\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/RS61498_030_KQED_TransamericaPyramid_11302022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man stops to look at the view of the Transamerica Pyramid at dusk in San Francisco on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And just steps away from these markers of our past is the once-hated Pyramid. It may still be a symbol of the city’s money and power. But it’s an icon that’s finally found acceptance here — even affection — nonetheless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The Transamerica Pyramid is one of the most recognizable parts of the San Francisco skyline, and was groundbreaking in many ways when it opened in 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did you know all of the building’s windows rotate nearly 360 degrees? CBS demonstrated in this news clip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CBS newsclip: \u003c/b>Because of the building’s unique shape, architects designed windows that could be cleaned from the inside. “Yeah but you missed a spot” spritz spritz 3,676 to go…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The pointed peak of the building is a 212 foot spire, reinforced by aluminum grating. KRON4 climbed to the top to check it out in 1998.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KRON4 newsclip: \u003c/b>This is the spire … oh my god…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The now famous building just got a $400 million dollar makeover and in the process builders uncovered something surprising\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>But deep within its steel bones there, construction crews discovered a time capsule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>There was always this tradition of putting time capsules in buildings under construction. I’m John Krizek and I was the public relations manager of Transamerica Corporation from 1968 to 1977.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> John and his friend Bill Bronson, who was the editor of the California Historical Society, planted the capsule back when the Transamerica Pyramid was being built in the early 70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>I think it was our intent at the time that this was going to be locked up and not looked at for 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> They put in cassette tapes, photos, maps, recipes, and newspaper articles that would show whoever found the capsule how the spot where the building stands has played an important role in San Francisco history since the Gold Rush.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Krizek: \u003c/b>We needed to save that history. And on top of that, on this sacred site, we come along with this shocking plan for this unusual building, which went through an enormous amount of controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Theme starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> Today on Bay Curious, we’re digging into the history of the Transamerica Pyramid. It’s one of the most iconic San Francisco buildings and yet there’s a lot I didn’t know about it. We first aired this episode in December of 2022 in honor of the pyramid’s 50th birthday. I’m Katrina Schwartz, filling in for Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Theme ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> The Transamerica Pyramid is iconic now, but you will not be surprised to learn when it was new, people \u003ci>hated\u003c/i> it. KQED reporter Carly Severn takes us back in time to the birth of a legendary landmark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Like a pin in a map, the Transamerica Pyramid marks the spot where the communities of Chinatown, North Beach, Telegraph Hill and the Financial District all converge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in terms of the city’s history, the site that the Pyramid is built on is hallowed ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1849, the year the Gold Rush began, this part of San Francisco was right on the water. So close, that a whaling ship called the Niantic was deliberately run aground right here after the crew abandoned ship to seek their fortunes in this wild, wily town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coast didn’t stay “the coast” for long. Landfill was used to rapidly swell the San Francisco streets further out into the Bay – swallowing that shipwreck with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back when this part of Montgomery Street still bordered the bay — in 1853 — it was a good place to construct a huge building, one that spanned the entire block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They called it the Montgomery Block. And the history of this building has long fascinated San Francisco writer Hiya Swanhuyser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. At a towering four stories, it was famously built on a foundation of a so-called raft of redwood logs that had been floated across the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Like so many places in San Francisco, the Montgomery Block, and the people inside it, lived many lives. This space was originally built to be law offices, with a hangout spot for high society, but when the city’s business folk started to migrate to Market Street, the creatives moved in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>They were writers and sculptors, people who were inventing journalism in the mid 1860s. People like Ambrose Bierce, who according to some, was America’s first newspaper columnist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Amrose Bierce writing: \u003c/b>Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>And Mark Twain and Bret Harte.\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Bret Harte writing: \u003c/b>The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>And Ina Coolbrith, who was California’s first poet laureate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic read of Ina Coolbrith writing: \u003c/b>Were I to write what I know, the book would be too sensational to print, but were I to write what I think proper, it would be too dull to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Just a block to the north, now-iconic artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera lived and worked here in the 1930s. It was \u003ci>a scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>It sort of stayed a scene for most of its life, which ended in 1959 when someone bought it and tore it down to make a parking structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>But the garage never materialized. And so the space remained a single parking lot for almost a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enter the Transamerica Corporation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This business actually started in San Francisco back in 1904 as the Bank of Italy, courtesy of a local man called A.P. Giannini. Later, in the thirties, it would become known as Bank of America. Ever heard of it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giannini had a lot of financial schemes and he soon needed more than a bank to contain them. That’s when the Transamerica Corporation was born. By 1969 the Corporation was ready to make its mark on San Francisco with a new headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They brought in a Los Angeles architect named William Pereira to design it. He was told to create something that would still allow light to filter down to street level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when the design for the 763 thousand square foot pyramid dropped, the critics hated it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture writer Allan Temko called it\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dramatic reading of Allan Temko: \u003c/b>Authentic architectural butchery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> And it wasn’t just local critics. The Washington Post said Pereira’s Pyramid proposal was:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Washington Post voice over: \u003c/b>A second-class world’s fair space needle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pastier voice over: \u003c/b>Antisocial architecture at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> Said Los Angeles Times critic John Pastier. He captured a broader unease about Transamerica trying to smear its corporate vision on the San Francisco skyline:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pastier voice over: \u003c/b>Corporations that are far more important to the city have exercised considerably more restraint in their architecture than Transamerica, which is blatantly attempting to put its ‘brand’ on the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> People protested against Pereira’s pyramid design, carrying signs that bore slogans like “Corporate Egotism” and “Stop the Shaft.” They even wore pyramid-shaped dunce hats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These protesters actually included Hiya Swanhuyser’s own mother:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Hiya Swanhuyser: \u003c/b>She was a community minded hippie and she didn’t think that a neighborhood was the right place for a skyscraper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carlyn Severn:\u003c/b> Neighborhood residents even filed a lawsuit. At a City Hall hearing about the proposal, an attorney for the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association spoke for those residents, in language that echoed the burgeoning environmentalism of the sixties:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>THDA Attorney: \u003c/b>The curse of this country is the worship of material things. We’ve polluted our rivers, our harbors, and our lakes, and our air. And we’re now about to pollute the skyline of San Francisco, one of its greatest treasures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carlyn Severn: \u003c/b>But at that same hearing, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto quoted the classics in support of the pyramid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Joseph Alioto: \u003c/b>We have to recognize that the Latinists used to say ‘De gustibus non est disputandum’ – that there simply is no disputing tastes, and the only question is whether it is \u003ci>so \u003c/i>bad that all reasonable men must agree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn:\u003c/b> And this pyramid, Alioto said, wasn’t \u003ci>that \u003c/i>bad. On the contrary:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Joseph Alioto: \u003c/b>It will add considerable interest and beauty to the San Francisco skyline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>The city’s Planning Commission signed off on the project and the pyramid was officially coming to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction on the Transamerica Pyramid started in 1969, a dark year in many ways. This was the year in which three of the four confirmed murders by the Zodiac killer took place – the last one in San Francisco itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>School children are nice targets, I shall wipe out a school bus one more and then pick off the kiddies as they come bounding out. That was the threat of the zodiac killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>The year that you could open the Chronicle and read the Zodiac’s cryptic letters full of codes and symbols right there at your breakfast table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>They are weighing advice from astrologers on the theory that the killer who calls himself the Zodiac may be planning his next victim based on astrological signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>‘69 was also the year of the gruesome Manson Family murders in LA, with all their Satanic imagery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>News clip: \u003c/b>One officer summed up the murders when he said, “in all my years, I have never seen anything like this before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sneak up Rolling Stones set at Altamont Festival\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Of the disastrous Altamont Festival outside Livermore\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rolling Stones: \u003c/b>Hey People!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Crowd noise\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>A celebration of counterculture that devolved into violence, mayhem and murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rolling Stones: Why Are we fighting? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>So I can’t help thinking how it would have felt to be living in San Francisco at the start of the 70s, bombarded with so much occult-inflected darkness in your morning paper – and seeing one of the most ancient and mysterious symbols, a pyramid, being summoned in your backyard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many, watching a skyscraper go up was also exciting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>My name is Larry Yee, born and raised in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Now, Larry is the president of the historic Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also known as the Chinese Six Companies. He also serves on the San Francisco Police Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back in 1969, growing up in Chinatown’s Ping Yuen housing development, Larry was a basketball-obsessed teen, running – or often skating – around this part of the city with his friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>Play hide and seek — you know, we challenge ourselves and go into some of these vacant buildings that they developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Walking around the base of the Pyramid over 50 years later, with the sound of traffic and tourists echoing off the street corners, Larry says the San Francisco he remembers from childhood, pre-pyramid, looked quite different:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>Yeah. It was flat! You know, there weren’t many buildings like this that pop up through the skyline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>This part of town was hopping, and full of the kinds of characters that had frequented the Montgomery Block years back. It was home to famous nightclubs like the Hungry I and the Purple Onion comedy cellar, where folks like Lenny Bruce were playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lenny Bruce: \u003c/b>Where I’m goin’ kill it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>But when the Pyramid was being built, all Larry and his friends could get was a sneak peek through the holes in the plywood fencing that hid the rapidly-rising behemoth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he still remembers the sheer, constant construction noise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>You come home from school and you know they’re pounding down on the pillars. Bam, bam, bam, bam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>Initially, he and his friends didn’t even know it was a pyramid. They just saw a building being built up, and up, and then up even further, getting narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>We had concerns too, how far it’s going to go, whether it could tip over and then once they finished we said “Ah, this is a pyramid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>When it was finished, Pereira’s pyramid had over 3,000 windows, an exterior of white quartz, and an illuminated spire at its very top, like the star on top of a Christmas tree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subtle, the pyramid is not. But decades on, Larry’s still a fan of this building. He says for him, it represents progress — the meeting of the old and the new. And he’s fond of its place in the visual fabric of the city, and the neighborhood, he’s always called home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Larry Yee: \u003c/b>I don’t know. It’s magical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>And it’s funny. For a building that’s literally built on the site of the Montgomery Block, where creative genius flourished; a building whose design was so fiercely contentious, the Transamerica Pyramid Center is now thoroughly uncontroversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its silhouette on our skyline has become symbolic of San Francisco. Even several of those early critics changed their minds. Henrik Bull, an architect who originally opposed the pyramid — publicly, and loudly -– told the San Francisco Chronicle on the building’s 40th anniversary that like many others, he’d switched course in the intervening decades:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Henrik Bull voice over: \u003c/b>What’s good about the Pyramid overwhelms what’s bad about it. It’s a wonderful building. And what makes it wonderful is everything that we were objecting to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carly Severn: \u003c/b>What started out as a corporate symbol has stayed, well, corporate. In a Financial District full of office buildings, the pyramid is in many ways just another one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Transamerica Pyramid isn’t even the Transamerica headquarters any more — those officially moved to Maryland. These offices are primarily leased by financial services companies dealing in wealth management and private equity. There’s even a high-end members club moving in soon. A 21st-century Montgomery Block artist’s haven this is \u003ci>not\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s another thing: For the most visible local icon you could imagine, the Transamerica Pyramid is not very public. Tourists might naturally assume that a trip up the pyramid is one of the City’s must-see attractions — like climbing the Empire State Building or the Space Needle. But you can’t go inside the Pyramid Center, let alone climb to the top to see the view, unless you’re visiting one of the offices inside. There used to be an observation deck up there, but it closed in the nineties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the ghosts of this site’s previous inhabitants linger here, if you know where to look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you go to the Pyramid today, and walk into the small park at its base, you’ll find Mark Twain Place, named after one of the Montgomery Block’s most iconic inhabitants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember that old ship that ran aground here in the Gold Rush, back when all this was bayside? The Niantic?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t lost to time after all. Later in the ‘70s, way after the pyramid was built, a construction team working in the park discovered what was left of that ship, right here. Pushed down over the decades by a city that has been remaking itself since Europeans arrived, buried deep underground. It’s said that champagne bottles were even found resting in its hull.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just steps away from these markers of our past is the once-hated pyramid. A symbol of the city’s money and power, but an accepted icon nonetheless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can go see the items preserved in the time capsule in the lobby of the renovated building. And checkout the redwood park while you’re there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is made by Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale and me, Katrina Schwartz. With extra support from Alana Walker, Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Holly Kernan and everyone at KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Curious team is taking next week off for Juneteenth, but we’ll be back with a brand new episode on June 26th!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks for listening! Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Trump administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036939/san-francisco-chinatown-businesses-survival-mode-trade-war\">trade war\u003c/a> with China could prove to be even more devastating to businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown than the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to Donald Luu, president of the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce, who told KQED \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">the administration’s\u003c/a> steep tariffs on Chinese goods — of up to 145% — are creating a nearly impossible situation for the more than 1,000 mostly small businesses in this historic immigrant community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking at a Tuesday press event on Clay Street, in the heart of Chinatown, Luu said about 90% of goods sold there are from China, and the tariffs have already forced many merchants to raise their prices by at least 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With this economic trade war, we feel that the effect’s going to be long-lasting and it’s going to threaten the very fabric of Chinatown,” said Luu, flanked by local business leaders and state Assemblymember Matt Haney, who represents the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magan Li, the owner of Lion Trading, which sells religious and spiritual items, said nearly all the products lining her shelves come from China. As costs skyrocket, she said she can only increase prices so much before customers refuse to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a very, very big blow to our small business,” said Li in Cantonese. “We’re at risk of losing the traditions that the community has spent so much time protecting. And so I hope that the government will work something out and help small businesses like us to continue to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese exports to the U.S. have plummeted amid the administration’s outsized tariffs (and China’s reciprocal 125% import duties on U.S. products), prompting major U.S. retailers and small businesses alike to sound the alarm about imminent \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-exports-to-us-drop-sharply/\">supply shortages\u003c/a>. The Port of Los Angeles, a major entry point for Chinese goods, has seen that drop firsthand, leading its director to recently predict that cargo shipments to the port will drop by 35% within a few weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of that bodes well for businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the oldest and largest of its kind in the country, which has been reluctantly thrust onto the frontlines of Trump’s escalating trade war.[aside postID=news_12036939 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-32-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“I think Chinatown is at the center of why these tariffs are so harmful and how devastating they’re going to be — not to another country’s government, but to us here, in our country,” Haney said on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many products sold here can’t be found anywhere else in the city, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a direct attack on these businesses, and it’s a direct attack on our residents who rely on this community,” Haney said. “This is where they get their medicine. This is where they get their clothing. This is where they get their goods to cook.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney said that if the administration refuses to relent on the tariffs, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> has indicated he would begin negotiating directly with China on a California trade agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate that California is increasingly having to act like our own country, negotiating trade agreements with countries and trying to find ways to reduce the cost of these imports,” said Haney, who noted California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036199/trumps-tariffs-could-wreck-californias-economy-the-state-is-suing\">recent lawsuit\u003c/a> against the administration over the tariffs. “Because our businesses, our economy, cannot survive without these imports, especially coming from Asia.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trade war has pushed Chinatown merchants into an existential crisis, Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036939/san-francisco-chinatown-businesses-survival-mode-trade-war\">told KQED\u003c/a> for a recent story profiling several local business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This has always been a community that has been built around trade,” he said, noting the resiliency of the district throughout its long history. “Trade created an opportunity for upward economic mobility for people through owning stores, or by leveraging relationships that they have back in China.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/camiiddominguez\">\u003cem>Cami Dominguez\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adahlstromeckman\">\u003cem>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Trump administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036939/san-francisco-chinatown-businesses-survival-mode-trade-war\">trade war\u003c/a> with China could prove to be even more devastating to businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown than the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to Donald Luu, president of the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce, who told KQED \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">the administration’s\u003c/a> steep tariffs on Chinese goods — of up to 145% — are creating a nearly impossible situation for the more than 1,000 mostly small businesses in this historic immigrant community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking at a Tuesday press event on Clay Street, in the heart of Chinatown, Luu said about 90% of goods sold there are from China, and the tariffs have already forced many merchants to raise their prices by at least 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With this economic trade war, we feel that the effect’s going to be long-lasting and it’s going to threaten the very fabric of Chinatown,” said Luu, flanked by local business leaders and state Assemblymember Matt Haney, who represents the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Magan Li, the owner of Lion Trading, which sells religious and spiritual items, said nearly all the products lining her shelves come from China. As costs skyrocket, she said she can only increase prices so much before customers refuse to pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a very, very big blow to our small business,” said Li in Cantonese. “We’re at risk of losing the traditions that the community has spent so much time protecting. And so I hope that the government will work something out and help small businesses like us to continue to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese exports to the U.S. have plummeted amid the administration’s outsized tariffs (and China’s reciprocal 125% import duties on U.S. products), prompting major U.S. retailers and small businesses alike to sound the alarm about imminent \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-exports-to-us-drop-sharply/\">supply shortages\u003c/a>. The Port of Los Angeles, a major entry point for Chinese goods, has seen that drop firsthand, leading its director to recently predict that cargo shipments to the port will drop by 35% within a few weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of that bodes well for businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the oldest and largest of its kind in the country, which has been reluctantly thrust onto the frontlines of Trump’s escalating trade war.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I think Chinatown is at the center of why these tariffs are so harmful and how devastating they’re going to be — not to another country’s government, but to us here, in our country,” Haney said on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many products sold here can’t be found anywhere else in the city, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a direct attack on these businesses, and it’s a direct attack on our residents who rely on this community,” Haney said. “This is where they get their medicine. This is where they get their clothing. This is where they get their goods to cook.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney said that if the administration refuses to relent on the tariffs, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> has indicated he would begin negotiating directly with China on a California trade agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate that California is increasingly having to act like our own country, negotiating trade agreements with countries and trying to find ways to reduce the cost of these imports,” said Haney, who noted California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036199/trumps-tariffs-could-wreck-californias-economy-the-state-is-suing\">recent lawsuit\u003c/a> against the administration over the tariffs. “Because our businesses, our economy, cannot survive without these imports, especially coming from Asia.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trade war has pushed Chinatown merchants into an existential crisis, Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036939/san-francisco-chinatown-businesses-survival-mode-trade-war\">told KQED\u003c/a> for a recent story profiling several local business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This has always been a community that has been built around trade,” he said, noting the resiliency of the district throughout its long history. “Trade created an opportunity for upward economic mobility for people through owning stores, or by leveraging relationships that they have back in China.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/camiiddominguez\">\u003cem>Cami Dominguez\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adahlstromeckman\">\u003cem>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San Francisco Chinatown Businesses Enter Survival Mode During Trade War",
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"content": "\u003cp>Business owners like Mei Zhu in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Chinatown say they’re struggling to stay afloat, facing declining sales and an uncertain future, as the U.S.-China trade war drags on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With tariffs increasing so drastically, it’s very difficult to keep it going,” said Zhu, who has owned Mei’s Grocery on Stockton Street for the past 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 90% of the goods at her store are imported from China — now subject to \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ensures-national-security-and-economic-resilience-through-section-232-actions-on-processed-critical-minerals-and-derivative-products/\">tariffs\u003c/a> as high as 245%. Her inventory includes sauces, dry noodles, candies and cookies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Zhu, wholesalers have absorbed some of the price hikes associated with the tariffs, so she’s raised her prices by 50% for certain items. However, some products now cost 145% more, so she’s stopped stocking them. For the remaining stock, higher prices are driving customers away, and sales are down 30%, Zhu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If things continue like this for another month or two, the only option is to end the business and stop operating,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mei Zhu stocks items in her grocery store, Mei’s Grocery, in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several Chinatown business owners, interviewed by KQED through a Cantonese interpreter, echoed Zhu’s concerns. They say that if the trade war persists, they’ll be forced to shut down or retire early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation has pushed San Francisco’s Chinatown — which has served as an immigrant gateway and economic hub for more than a century — into an existential crisis, according to Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center.[aside postID=news_12035335 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250415_BIKETARIFF_GC-3-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“ This has always been a community that has been built around trade,” he said. “Trade created an opportunity for upward economic mobility for people through owning stores, or by leveraging relationships that they have back in China.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeung said the tariffs signal that this way of life is cut off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since taking office, President Donald Trump has deployed tariffs as a tool to pursue his policy agenda, which is meant to encourage domestic manufacturing and reduce trade deficits between the U.S. and its largest trading partners. China, in particular, has retaliated by raising its tariffs on all U.S. goods to 125%. As of Friday, China \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/business/china-us-tariffs-semiconductors-exemptions-hnk-intl/index.html\">reportedly\u003c/a> appeared to roll back some of the tax on U.S.-made semiconductors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Bachman, a professor of China studies at the University of Washington, said Trump’s tariff policies could be better defined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If [the Trump administration] is out to re-establish American manufacturing, they could have confined those tariffs to manufactured products and ignored agricultural products or other areas where it was extremely unlikely that the U.S. would establish production lines,” Bachman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Consumers of Chinese imports are likely to feel the impacts of the tariffs, too, according to Bachman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Young lives in Antioch and travels to the Chinatowns in San Francisco and Oakland to get things he can’t get anywhere else. He had a grocery bag full of Chinese products, including “Spanish ham” and lamb-flavored potato chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ These bags were $11 a piece. They used to be $7. It’s ridiculous,” Young said, referring to a bag of fortune cookies he had bought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Liang, owner of Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal in San Francisco’s Chinatown, sells ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine, including Tangerine peels, ginseng and chrysanthemum flowers. He said his suppliers have raised their prices by $3 to $4 a pound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owner Sam Liang weighs medical herbs at his shop, Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal Inc., in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The impact is already becoming apparent now. When we go to suppliers to get goods, they’re often out of stock or have shortages,” Liang said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liang has operated Chinese medicine businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown for the past eight years. He said his business was already struggling, but with the latest tariffs, revenue and profit have decreased by around 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that some products might not appeal to his customers if they are manufactured in other countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about running out of inventory,” Liang said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owner Sam Liang at his shop, Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal Inc., in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These merchants may experience relief from the economic pressures soon. On Tuesday, Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/business/trump-china-trade-war-reduction-hnk-intl/index.html\">signaled\u003c/a> that the “tariffs will come down substantially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to predict; we’re just taking it one day at a time,” said Liu, owner of Beijing Shopping Center, which specializes in specialty clothing from China, such as hand-embroidered wedding dresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lui added that if the tariffs continue, she’ll consider pivoting to sell more clothing produced domestically — or close the store entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Imported items fill the wall at Beijing Shopping Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeung said business owners in the neighborhood are feeling an “emerging sense of powerlessness,” but he’s confident the community will weather the storm, given its history of surviving adversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the community has overcome discriminatory policies, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034009/angel-island-exhibit-aims-shine-light-border-surveillance-american-exclusion\">Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>, urban redevelopment and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent rise in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961693/californias-anti-asian-hate-crimes-decline-but-long-term-pattern-persists\">hate crimes targeting Asian communities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ That’s actually the Chinatown story more than virtually anything else,” Yeung said. “We’ve found ways to just be here through thick and thin. I think we’re entering into a thin period, but this community in many ways is built for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Small business owners in San Francisco’s Chinatown have long relied on imports from China, but this economic connection could be in jeopardy under the current trade war. ",
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"title": "San Francisco Chinatown Businesses Enter Survival Mode During Trade War | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Business owners like Mei Zhu in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Chinatown say they’re struggling to stay afloat, facing declining sales and an uncertain future, as the U.S.-China trade war drags on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With tariffs increasing so drastically, it’s very difficult to keep it going,” said Zhu, who has owned Mei’s Grocery on Stockton Street for the past 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 90% of the goods at her store are imported from China — now subject to \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ensures-national-security-and-economic-resilience-through-section-232-actions-on-processed-critical-minerals-and-derivative-products/\">tariffs\u003c/a> as high as 245%. Her inventory includes sauces, dry noodles, candies and cookies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Zhu, wholesalers have absorbed some of the price hikes associated with the tariffs, so she’s raised her prices by 50% for certain items. However, some products now cost 145% more, so she’s stopped stocking them. For the remaining stock, higher prices are driving customers away, and sales are down 30%, Zhu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If things continue like this for another month or two, the only option is to end the business and stop operating,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-24-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mei Zhu stocks items in her grocery store, Mei’s Grocery, in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several Chinatown business owners, interviewed by KQED through a Cantonese interpreter, echoed Zhu’s concerns. They say that if the trade war persists, they’ll be forced to shut down or retire early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation has pushed San Francisco’s Chinatown — which has served as an immigrant gateway and economic hub for more than a century — into an existential crisis, according to Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“ This has always been a community that has been built around trade,” he said. “Trade created an opportunity for upward economic mobility for people through owning stores, or by leveraging relationships that they have back in China.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeung said the tariffs signal that this way of life is cut off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since taking office, President Donald Trump has deployed tariffs as a tool to pursue his policy agenda, which is meant to encourage domestic manufacturing and reduce trade deficits between the U.S. and its largest trading partners. China, in particular, has retaliated by raising its tariffs on all U.S. goods to 125%. As of Friday, China \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/business/china-us-tariffs-semiconductors-exemptions-hnk-intl/index.html\">reportedly\u003c/a> appeared to roll back some of the tax on U.S.-made semiconductors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Bachman, a professor of China studies at the University of Washington, said Trump’s tariff policies could be better defined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If [the Trump administration] is out to re-establish American manufacturing, they could have confined those tariffs to manufactured products and ignored agricultural products or other areas where it was extremely unlikely that the U.S. would establish production lines,” Bachman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Consumers of Chinese imports are likely to feel the impacts of the tariffs, too, according to Bachman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel Young lives in Antioch and travels to the Chinatowns in San Francisco and Oakland to get things he can’t get anywhere else. He had a grocery bag full of Chinese products, including “Spanish ham” and lamb-flavored potato chips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ These bags were $11 a piece. They used to be $7. It’s ridiculous,” Young said, referring to a bag of fortune cookies he had bought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam Liang, owner of Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal in San Francisco’s Chinatown, sells ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine, including Tangerine peels, ginseng and chrysanthemum flowers. He said his suppliers have raised their prices by $3 to $4 a pound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037237\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-06-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owner Sam Liang weighs medical herbs at his shop, Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal Inc., in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The impact is already becoming apparent now. When we go to suppliers to get goods, they’re often out of stock or have shortages,” Liang said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liang has operated Chinese medicine businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown for the past eight years. He said his business was already struggling, but with the latest tariffs, revenue and profit have decreased by around 30%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that some products might not appeal to his customers if they are manufactured in other countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about running out of inventory,” Liang said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-09-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Owner Sam Liang at his shop, Run Feng Hai Wei Chinese Herbal Inc., in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These merchants may experience relief from the economic pressures soon. On Tuesday, Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/business/trump-china-trade-war-reduction-hnk-intl/index.html\">signaled\u003c/a> that the “tariffs will come down substantially.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult to predict; we’re just taking it one day at a time,” said Liu, owner of Beijing Shopping Center, which specializes in specialty clothing from China, such as hand-embroidered wedding dresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lui added that if the tariffs continue, she’ll consider pivoting to sell more clothing produced domestically — or close the store entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12037245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12037245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-CHINATOWNTARIFFS-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Imported items fill the wall at Beijing Shopping Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Yeung said business owners in the neighborhood are feeling an “emerging sense of powerlessness,” but he’s confident the community will weather the storm, given its history of surviving adversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the community has overcome discriminatory policies, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034009/angel-island-exhibit-aims-shine-light-border-surveillance-american-exclusion\">Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>, urban redevelopment and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent rise in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961693/californias-anti-asian-hate-crimes-decline-but-long-term-pattern-persists\">hate crimes targeting Asian communities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ That’s actually the Chinatown story more than virtually anything else,” Yeung said. “We’ve found ways to just be here through thick and thin. I think we’re entering into a thin period, but this community in many ways is built for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-celebrates-the-lunar-new-year-with-iconic-chinatown-parade",
"title": "San Francisco Celebrates the Lunar New Year With Iconic Chinatown Parade",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Celebrates the Lunar New Year With Iconic Chinatown Parade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Thousands of revelers from throughout the Bay Area and beyond converged on San Francisco’s Chinatown Saturday for Lunar New Year celebrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official first day of the Year of the Snake was in late January, but this weekend brought the peak of festivities, culminating in Saturday night’s annual parade along Market Street. The NBA All-Star Weekend also takes place in San Francisco this year, making for a lively weekend in the city at a time when concerns over its revitalization following the COVID-19 pandemic are front of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027371\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Two people dressed in decorative outfits walk on stilts in the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Asian Performing Arts Program of San Francisco perform in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Year of the Snake symbolizes rebirth and renewal,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. “Every year the snake sheds its scales, it puts on new skin and it’s reborn…this was particularly important because this is a moment in which San Francisco and California could always use some rebirth and renewal and we’re really hoping the energy from the Year of the Snake is captured by the city as a whole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027370\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A headshot of a Black woman wearing glasses and a red jacket.Right: Colorful masks and decor piled together on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"790\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-800x316.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1020x403.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1536x607.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1920x758.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Lanai Windsong, of Castro Valley, wears earrings for the Year of the Snake on her way to see the Chinese New Year Parade for her first time in San Francisco. (right) Masks and decor with the Ma Tsu Temple rests on the sidewalk ahead of the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027369\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A man wearing a red suit poses for a photo while another person holds the camera. Right: A young girl wearing a red and white outfit sits atop a man's shoulders.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Daniel Callejas, of Pacifica, poses for a photo taken by his friend Jaden De La Cruz, of Visitation Valley, in a Northeast China Big Flower suit on Grant Street in San Francisco. (right) Ziyan You and her father Xuehe You watch the parade on Market Street. \u003ccite>((left) David M. Barreda/KQED; (right) Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12024779 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/240224-ChineseNYParade-38-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg'] The parade route began on Second and Market streets and continued for over a mile through Chinatown on Kearny Street. The celebrations continue on Sunday with a street fair on Grant Avenue until 5 p.m. Nearly 100 organizations participated in the parade, with colorful floats, signs and other decorations displayed as onlookers cheered and waved at the performers and dancers. Banners flying over Grant Avenue also acknowledged that this is the first year under new Mayor Daniel Lurie, who ran a campaign as an outsider to local government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027368\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg\" alt=\"A fire truck flashes headlights with a man waving from the top of the vehicle on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the San Francisco Fire Department turn the corner from Kearney Street to Columbus Ave at the end of the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027366\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Several women dressed in dance costumes perform on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of Xiaopei Chinese Dance perform in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027367\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg\" alt=\"Two people wearing yellow and holding stands to raise a decorative snake walk in front of a crowd.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yau Kung Moon Kung Fu performers walk around holding a snake, for year of the snake, during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A portion of Grant Avenue — where the parade was held until the 1970s — was closed to cars Saturday for the annual Community Street Fair. Attendees completely filled the street for several blocks, filtering in and out of neighborhood shops and stopping at the scores of booths selling snacks and holiday goods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027365\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027365\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian man and woman sit in a car with flags behind them.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grand Marshal Joan Chen rides in a car during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027364\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Fireworks explode in the night sky while people on the street look.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fireworks go off in Chinatown during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s great, especially with the NBA All-Star weekend, there’s a lot more people coming in,” said Evan Wong, a local content creator and videographer selling merchandise from a booth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, it’s kind of like a full circle moment because when we were younger, we used to watch the parade,” Wong said of himself and his business partner. “Then years later, we would be in the parade as lion dancers, and now we’re here at the booth meeting the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027363\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowd behind metal gates on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crowds pack Kearney Street in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027360\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2020px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027360\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: The remains of empty fireworks on the ground. Right: A snake-printed cape.\" width=\"2020\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg 2020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2020px) 100vw, 2020px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Fireworks on the street near the end of the parade. (right) A snake skin-printed cape nods to the Year of the Snake. \u003ccite>((left) Beth LaBerge/KQED; (right) David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Simon Huong grew up in the city and regularly attended the fair and parade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I moved to the East Bay about seven years ago,” Huong said. “I’m taking my son out to our second fair together just to see and expose him to the culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huong said they planned to watch the parade on television as he’s worried it will be too loud for his 3-year-old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027361\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027361\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman wearing a crown and sash sits next to a man in a red car with several people in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miss Chinatown USA 2024 Tara Wong Nash passes in a convertible during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027362\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd behind a metal gate reach out to touch a yellow decorative costume on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Coast Lion Dance Troupe dancers approach the crowd during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some visitors expressed hope that the new year will bring new opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to be graduating from university this semester, and that’s going to be a bit nerve-wracking,” said Tricia Nguyen, who went to the fair with her mother and her film camera to capture the festivities. “I’m really hoping that a lot of things turn out well, especially with the job market and all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027359\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027359\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Fireworks are seen above a string of red lanterns.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fireworks go off in Chinatown during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The festivities will continue in San Francisco with events and street fairs in accordance with the moon’s 12 phases through March 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Bay Area residents ushered in the Year of the Snake at San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade on Saturday, with actress Joan Chen as grand marshal.",
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"title": "San Francisco Celebrates the Lunar New Year With Iconic Chinatown Parade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Thousands of revelers from throughout the Bay Area and beyond converged on San Francisco’s Chinatown Saturday for Lunar New Year celebrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official first day of the Year of the Snake was in late January, but this weekend brought the peak of festivities, culminating in Saturday night’s annual parade along Market Street. The NBA All-Star Weekend also takes place in San Francisco this year, making for a lively weekend in the city at a time when concerns over its revitalization following the COVID-19 pandemic are front of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027371\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Two people dressed in decorative outfits walk on stilts in the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-04-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Asian Performing Arts Program of San Francisco perform in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco on Feb. 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Year of the Snake symbolizes rebirth and renewal,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. “Every year the snake sheds its scales, it puts on new skin and it’s reborn…this was particularly important because this is a moment in which San Francisco and California could always use some rebirth and renewal and we’re really hoping the energy from the Year of the Snake is captured by the city as a whole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027370\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A headshot of a Black woman wearing glasses and a red jacket.Right: Colorful masks and decor piled together on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"790\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-800x316.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1020x403.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1536x607.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-8_duo-1920x758.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Lanai Windsong, of Castro Valley, wears earrings for the Year of the Snake on her way to see the Chinese New Year Parade for her first time in San Francisco. (right) Masks and decor with the Ma Tsu Temple rests on the sidewalk ahead of the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027369\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: A man wearing a red suit poses for a photo while another person holds the camera. Right: A young girl wearing a red and white outfit sits atop a man's shoulders.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-9_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Daniel Callejas, of Pacifica, poses for a photo taken by his friend Jaden De La Cruz, of Visitation Valley, in a Northeast China Big Flower suit on Grant Street in San Francisco. (right) Ziyan You and her father Xuehe You watch the parade on Market Street. \u003ccite>((left) David M. Barreda/KQED; (right) Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> The parade route began on Second and Market streets and continued for over a mile through Chinatown on Kearny Street. The celebrations continue on Sunday with a street fair on Grant Avenue until 5 p.m. Nearly 100 organizations participated in the parade, with colorful floats, signs and other decorations displayed as onlookers cheered and waved at the performers and dancers. Banners flying over Grant Avenue also acknowledged that this is the first year under new Mayor Daniel Lurie, who ran a campaign as an outsider to local government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027368\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg\" alt=\"A fire truck flashes headlights with a man waving from the top of the vehicle on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_02000-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the San Francisco Fire Department turn the corner from Kearney Street to Columbus Ave at the end of the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027366\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Several women dressed in dance costumes perform on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-09-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of Xiaopei Chinese Dance perform in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027367\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg\" alt=\"Two people wearing yellow and holding stands to raise a decorative snake walk in front of a crowd.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-29-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yau Kung Moon Kung Fu performers walk around holding a snake, for year of the snake, during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A portion of Grant Avenue — where the parade was held until the 1970s — was closed to cars Saturday for the annual Community Street Fair. Attendees completely filled the street for several blocks, filtering in and out of neighborhood shops and stopping at the scores of booths selling snacks and holiday goods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027365\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027365\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian man and woman sit in a car with flags behind them.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-11-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grand Marshal Joan Chen rides in a car during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027364\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Fireworks explode in the night sky while people on the street look.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-14-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fireworks go off in Chinatown during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s great, especially with the NBA All-Star weekend, there’s a lot more people coming in,” said Evan Wong, a local content creator and videographer selling merchandise from a booth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us, it’s kind of like a full circle moment because when we were younger, we used to watch the parade,” Wong said of himself and his business partner. “Then years later, we would be in the parade as lion dancers, and now we’re here at the booth meeting the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027363\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowd behind metal gates on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_04105-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crowds pack Kearney Street in the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027360\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2020px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027360\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg\" alt=\"Left: The remains of empty fireworks on the ground. Right: A snake-printed cape.\" width=\"2020\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo.jpg 2020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-800x264.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_Lunar-Parade_DMB_03050_duo-1920x634.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2020px) 100vw, 2020px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(left) Fireworks on the street near the end of the parade. (right) A snake skin-printed cape nods to the Year of the Snake. \u003ccite>((left) Beth LaBerge/KQED; (right) David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Simon Huong grew up in the city and regularly attended the fair and parade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I moved to the East Bay about seven years ago,” Huong said. “I’m taking my son out to our second fair together just to see and expose him to the culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huong said they planned to watch the parade on television as he’s worried it will be too loud for his 3-year-old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027361\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027361\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian woman wearing a crown and sash sits next to a man in a red car with several people in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-35-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miss Chinatown USA 2024 Tara Wong Nash passes in a convertible during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027362\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd behind a metal gate reach out to touch a yellow decorative costume on the street.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250215_ChineseNewYearParade_GC-39-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">West Coast Lion Dance Troupe dancers approach the crowd during the Chinese New Year parade. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some visitors expressed hope that the new year will bring new opportunities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to be graduating from university this semester, and that’s going to be a bit nerve-wracking,” said Tricia Nguyen, who went to the fair with her mother and her film camera to capture the festivities. “I’m really hoping that a lot of things turn out well, especially with the job market and all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12027359\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12027359\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Fireworks are seen above a string of red lanterns.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250215-ChineseNewYear-25-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, 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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:45 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> teachers unions joined a statewide bargaining campaign Tuesday, kicking off coordinated negotiations with more than 30 school districts across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traditionally, teachers’ unions negotiate individually with their districts. This statewide campaign, dubbed “We Can’t Wait,” aims to align the bargaining sessions for more than 77,000 educators — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">in San Francisco\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland\u003c/a> and San José — to demand smaller class sizes, more resources, better wages and benefits for teachers and improved mental health support for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us to be coordinating our fight at the same time right now is a unifying effort and a really powerful statement that we represent what the community of California needs, what students and families need,” said Cassondra Curiel, the president of United Educators in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, unions across the state saw that they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014795/fewer-kids-are-going-to-california-public-schools-is-there-a-right-way-to-close-campuses\">faced similar challenges,\u003c/a> such as understaffing and frequent changes to curriculum and school resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really also allowed us to see where and how many of our issues in our districts are so similar and what the benefit would be for us to put ourselves together on it. That’s essentially when we decided” to unify bargaining timelines, Curiel told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco, speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In both San Francisco and Oakland, budget shortfalls spurred plans to close or merge some schools last fall — proposals that were scaled back, delayed or called off amid intense controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the unions are mostly aligned on their overarching demands, how that looks in each district will be different, according to Curiel. She joined parents and other UESF members who traveled by motorized cable car to schools across the city to speak about their demands — like having Chinese-speaking parent liaisons, full-time school site nurses and dedicated social workers — at campuses from Chinatown to Hunter’s Point on Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I chose Gordon J. Lau for my students because of their teacher retention, strong leadership and low turnover rate,” said Brittany Cuartelon, a parent of three students at the elementary school. “I also chose Lau because of the access to enrichment programs and specialty teachers like arts, teachers, special ed teachers, speech pathologists and others … but we are seeing less and less of this as teachers are being let go, and these programs are being cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UESF has sparred with the San Francisco Unified School District in recent years, accusing it of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002125/as-san-francisco-school-closures-loom-frustrated-teachers-say-hiring-has-hit-a-wall\">incompetence in hiring\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908196/sfusd-teachers-protest-missed-paychecks-and-payroll-glitches-at-headquarters-overnight-sfusd\">botching a payroll system\u003c/a>, and sowing confusion and fear as it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010008/sf-schools-crisis-is-spiraling-with-top-official-to-resign-heres-all-thats-happened\">considered closing schools\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12025664 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perry Siniard, a fourth-grade teacher, speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the start of this school year, there were about 100 classrooms across the district without permanent teachers. In 2022 and 2023, many educators went without proper pay and had insurance and tax-filing issues after the district introduced a new payroll system that proved a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD is now preparing its 2025–2026 budget in the face of a massive deficit. While it shelved the controversial school closure plan in the fall, officials have said that without consolidations, school services will be pared down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, officials shared a version of a sparse new staffing formula with school principals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t look like the school sites we all work at, the school sites that our families and students expect,” Curiel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independence High School Principal Anna Klafter asked SFUSD board members last week to address why there were no mental health providers, social workers, nurses or counselors included in the plan. Other speakers on Tuesday’s UESF school tour noted that assistant principals weren’t budgeted in the model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district also announced a buy-out option for some staff, aimed at reducing layoffs and saving money spent on higher salaries for more experienced teachers, in December. The deadline for educators to take the deal is Feb. 21, but if fewer than 314 sign up, it will be voided. Curiel said if that’s the case, the union expects union members to receive pink slips this spring and is prepared to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017631/embattled-sf-school-district-offer-hundreds-buyouts-potential-layoffs\">fight layoffs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025665\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parent Blanca Fabiola Catalan speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UESF has called for necessary funding cuts to come from the district’s administration, pointing to high-salary positions in what it calls a “bloated” central office. But SFUSD said it has made the cuts it can away from children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Darcie Chan Blackburn, an English learning specialist at Sheridan Elementary School, said the draft staffing formula includes cutting one teacher and adding a third combined class from her campus. She doesn’t know if her position will be budgeted for at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sheridan already has combined second-third grade and fourth-fifth grade classes and will add a kindergarten-first grade combo next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12024772 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250130_SSUTownHall_GC-5-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The third-grade students who are getting second-grade English language arts curriculum now are going to go up to a fourth-fifth class [next year],” Chan Blackburn said. “Well, the fourth-fifth is looping to the fifth-grade curriculum next year, so this third grader is going from second-grade English language arts to fifth-grade English language arts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That just pushes our enrollment lower because what family really wants their child to be in a split grade level?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is in a similar situation, facing a $150 million budget deficit while its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">board refuses to vote on a school consolidation plan\u003c/a>. Last month, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">certified a negative budget\u003c/a> for the first time in more than 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These districts are in these positions because they didn’t listen to us in the first place,” Curiel said. “We’ve been saying that central offices should prioritize spending on students — really centering families and students at school sites — and if they were doing that, then they wouldn’t be sitting on the millions and millions and millions of dollars in reserve that they currently have in their bank accounts right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Educators Association said it is seeking livable wages for the Bay Area, more paraeducator and mental health support, and keeping community schools open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OEA and UESF leaders will join Berkeley and West Contra Costa union members and Jeff Frietas, the president of the California Federation of Teachers, for a rally in the East Bay on Tuesday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really hoping that this campaign … will bring a light to the circumstances that we work under to achieve what is the foundation of our democratic society every day,” Curiel said. “And what it needs to survive moving forward and how that represents what the families and the citizens of one of the biggest states in the country should really be expecting in public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:45 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> teachers unions joined a statewide bargaining campaign Tuesday, kicking off coordinated negotiations with more than 30 school districts across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traditionally, teachers’ unions negotiate individually with their districts. This statewide campaign, dubbed “We Can’t Wait,” aims to align the bargaining sessions for more than 77,000 educators — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">in San Francisco\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-unified-school-district\">Oakland\u003c/a> and San José — to demand smaller class sizes, more resources, better wages and benefits for teachers and improved mental health support for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For us to be coordinating our fight at the same time right now is a unifying effort and a really powerful statement that we represent what the community of California needs, what students and families need,” said Cassondra Curiel, the president of United Educators in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, unions across the state saw that they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014795/fewer-kids-are-going-to-california-public-schools-is-there-a-right-way-to-close-campuses\">faced similar challenges,\u003c/a> such as understaffing and frequent changes to curriculum and school resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really also allowed us to see where and how many of our issues in our districts are so similar and what the benefit would be for us to put ourselves together on it. That’s essentially when we decided” to unify bargaining timelines, Curiel told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-13-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco, speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In both San Francisco and Oakland, budget shortfalls spurred plans to close or merge some schools last fall — proposals that were scaled back, delayed or called off amid intense controversy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the unions are mostly aligned on their overarching demands, how that looks in each district will be different, according to Curiel. She joined parents and other UESF members who traveled by motorized cable car to schools across the city to speak about their demands — like having Chinese-speaking parent liaisons, full-time school site nurses and dedicated social workers — at campuses from Chinatown to Hunter’s Point on Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I chose Gordon J. Lau for my students because of their teacher retention, strong leadership and low turnover rate,” said Brittany Cuartelon, a parent of three students at the elementary school. “I also chose Lau because of the access to enrichment programs and specialty teachers like arts, teachers, special ed teachers, speech pathologists and others … but we are seeing less and less of this as teachers are being let go, and these programs are being cut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UESF has sparred with the San Francisco Unified School District in recent years, accusing it of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12002125/as-san-francisco-school-closures-loom-frustrated-teachers-say-hiring-has-hit-a-wall\">incompetence in hiring\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11908196/sfusd-teachers-protest-missed-paychecks-and-payroll-glitches-at-headquarters-overnight-sfusd\">botching a payroll system\u003c/a>, and sowing confusion and fear as it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12010008/sf-schools-crisis-is-spiraling-with-top-official-to-resign-heres-all-thats-happened\">considered closing schools\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12025664 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-05-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perry Siniard, a fourth-grade teacher, speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the start of this school year, there were about 100 classrooms across the district without permanent teachers. In 2022 and 2023, many educators went without proper pay and had insurance and tax-filing issues after the district introduced a new payroll system that proved a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD is now preparing its 2025–2026 budget in the face of a massive deficit. While it shelved the controversial school closure plan in the fall, officials have said that without consolidations, school services will be pared down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, officials shared a version of a sparse new staffing formula with school principals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t look like the school sites we all work at, the school sites that our families and students expect,” Curiel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independence High School Principal Anna Klafter asked SFUSD board members last week to address why there were no mental health providers, social workers, nurses or counselors included in the plan. Other speakers on Tuesday’s UESF school tour noted that assistant principals weren’t budgeted in the model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district also announced a buy-out option for some staff, aimed at reducing layoffs and saving money spent on higher salaries for more experienced teachers, in December. The deadline for educators to take the deal is Feb. 21, but if fewer than 314 sign up, it will be voided. Curiel said if that’s the case, the union expects union members to receive pink slips this spring and is prepared to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017631/embattled-sf-school-district-offer-hundreds-buyouts-potential-layoffs\">fight layoffs\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025664\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025665\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250204-WeCantWait-08-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parent Blanca Fabiola Catalan speaks during a press conference at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 Community School in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UESF has called for necessary funding cuts to come from the district’s administration, pointing to high-salary positions in what it calls a “bloated” central office. But SFUSD said it has made the cuts it can away from children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Darcie Chan Blackburn, an English learning specialist at Sheridan Elementary School, said the draft staffing formula includes cutting one teacher and adding a third combined class from her campus. She doesn’t know if her position will be budgeted for at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sheridan already has combined second-third grade and fourth-fifth grade classes and will add a kindergarten-first grade combo next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The third-grade students who are getting second-grade English language arts curriculum now are going to go up to a fourth-fifth class [next year],” Chan Blackburn said. “Well, the fourth-fifth is looping to the fifth-grade curriculum next year, so this third grader is going from second-grade English language arts to fifth-grade English language arts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That just pushes our enrollment lower because what family really wants their child to be in a split grade level?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland is in a similar situation, facing a $150 million budget deficit while its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017719/oaklands-school-merger-plan-stalled-districts-huge-deficit-remains\">board refuses to vote on a school consolidation plan\u003c/a>. Last month, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023461/ousd-on-track-run-out-of-cash-after-avoiding-hard-decisions-scathing-letter-says\">certified a negative budget\u003c/a> for the first time in more than 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These districts are in these positions because they didn’t listen to us in the first place,” Curiel said. “We’ve been saying that central offices should prioritize spending on students — really centering families and students at school sites — and if they were doing that, then they wouldn’t be sitting on the millions and millions and millions of dollars in reserve that they currently have in their bank accounts right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Educators Association said it is seeking livable wages for the Bay Area, more paraeducator and mental health support, and keeping community schools open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OEA and UESF leaders will join Berkeley and West Contra Costa union members and Jeff Frietas, the president of the California Federation of Teachers, for a rally in the East Bay on Tuesday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really hoping that this campaign … will bring a light to the circumstances that we work under to achieve what is the foundation of our democratic society every day,” Curiel said. “And what it needs to survive moving forward and how that represents what the families and the citizens of one of the biggest states in the country should really be expecting in public schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "At SF Mayor Lurie’s Chinatown Party, Dancing, Fireworks and a Promise of Unity",
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"headTitle": "At SF Mayor Lurie’s Chinatown Party, Dancing, Fireworks and a Promise of Unity | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>After a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020422/san-francisco-mayor-elect-daniel-lurie-launches-political-career-cable-cars-chinatown-market-prayer\">day of inaugural celebrations\u003c/a>, San Francisco’s newly sworn-in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> spent Wednesday night dining with Chinatown community leaders while residents celebrated on Grant Avenue with music, fireworks and dragon dances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s decision to spend his first official night in office with Chinatown residents and community leaders reflected his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12003096/public-safety-takes-center-stage-as-sf-mayoral-hopefuls-court-chinese-american-voters\">promises on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to the city’s Asian American voters. He pledged to increase public safety, boost police department staffing following upticks in anti-Asian violence and bring more staffers with Asian backgrounds to City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s task will be to prove he can stay in touch with the diverse needs of Asian San Franciscans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we speak, the San Francisco Police Department and sheriff’s department are rapidly shifting resources and personnel to bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets,” Lurie said in his inaugural address on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese Americans have long played a critical role in San Francisco politics and the city’s identity as a bastion of progress and compassion, advocating for integrated schools, affordable housing and public safety, especially after the pandemic when anti-Asian hate crimes spiked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021091\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A banner hangs over Grant Avenue welcoming Mayor Lurie at the Chinatown Night Market on Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s also a fast-growing electorate. The Asian population had the highest growth rate of any ethnicity in San Francisco from 2010 to 2020, according to U.S. Census data. Chinese residents account for nearly 22% of the city’s population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has already hired several staffers to help him bridge cultural divides, including Han Zhao, a political strategist for Lurie’s campaign who will be the director of public affairs; Paul Yep, a former San Francisco police commander who will be the director of public safety; and Kit Lam, who was the Asian American and Pacific Islander political director for Lurie’s campaign and who was previously an organizer of the school board recall in 2022. He will serve as a press liaison between the mayor’s office and AAPI communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie, founder of the nonprofit Tipping Point and heir to the Levis Strauss clothing fortune, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020420/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-sworn-in-today-heres-what-to-know\">campaigned as a political outsider\u003c/a> fed up with dysfunction and corruption in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had never held elected office before but convinced voters that his background in nonprofit work would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001601/city-hall-outsider-daniel-lurie-wants-to-clean-up-local-government\">position him well to bring new ideas to City Hall\u003c/a>. Campaign contributions \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017551/is-san-francisco-a-bellwether-for-cryptocurrency-influence-on-local-elections\">soared past $62 million\u003c/a>, topped by Lurie, who raised roughly $16 million — about half of which was self-funded — making his run the most expensive in the city’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021095\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie addresses supporters inside Far East Cafe, a Cantonese restaurant, during a visit to Chinatown’s Night Market on his Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Wednesday’s night market, hundreds of residents packed the streets of Chinatown to eat and dance to electronic music by San Francisco-born electronic music producer, Zhu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just got off of work over at Equinox and came because Zhu was performing, but I also came here to support our new Mayor Daniel Lurie,” said Mason Maes, who lives in Noe Valley. “It’s great to see all these residents get together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elizabeth Wang, a Marina resident, came because she was hoping to learn more about Lurie and to have fun with friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just here for the vibes. I can’t say I know much about [Lurie] since he’s new to government,” Wang said. “But having a party here in Chinatown means a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021092\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crowds fill Grant Avenue for the Chinatown Night Market on Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others at the event, who didn’t vote for Lurie and had skepticism about his wealthy background, said they’re waiting to see what type of change his administration will bring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We weren’t Daniel Lurie fans, but we love this city and hope it gets better,” said Tiny Harris, who was chasing her toddler around the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she voted for Aaron Peskin partly because he opposed sweeps of homeless encampments and supported housing and behavioral health solutions over law enforcement to address street homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But out of all the mayoral candidates, we could have done worse, so I’m thankful for that,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12020848 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInaugurationDay_GC_00196-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the festivities in Chinatown, Lurie spent the day flanked by family and friends as he walked through the Tenderloin, rode a cable car to Ghirardelli Square and took his oath of office from City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his inaugural address, the new mayor was blunt about the challenges facing the city — from a nearly $900 million budget deficit to homelessness and clean streets — and implored residents to respond with hope and action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A problem of this magnitude requires us to make some painful decisions and rethink the way we operate. We need to stop spending more than we can afford,” Lurie said on Wednesday during his address. “We need to prioritize essential services and make the investments that are critical to getting San Francisco up and running again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020848/now-sf-mayor-lurie-unveils-emergency-plans-drug-homelessness-crises\">unveiled emergency plans to tackle drugs and homelessness\u003c/a>, among other policy announcements. He said that the package of emergency ordinances will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and with an expedited approval process, certain plans could go into effect in about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s emergency plans would also increase nighttime operations for law enforcement targeting outdoor drug use and sales, particularly around United Nations Plaza and Market Street, according to a policy brief from Lurie’s communications team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is also asking the supervisors to ease restrictions around procurement and grant-making and to authorize the use of private funding to help finance his plans to build over 1,000 emergency shelter beds and open up a new 24/7 crisis drop-in center during his first six months in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is truly a new era of cooperation and mutual respect between City Hall, the Board of Supervisors, law enforcement and the thousands of city employees working on the front lines,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "After campaigning to win over San Francisco’s Chinese American voters, Daniel Lurie will next have to stay in touch with the diverse needs of Asian San Franciscans.",
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"title": "At SF Mayor Lurie’s Chinatown Party, Dancing, Fireworks and a Promise of Unity | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020422/san-francisco-mayor-elect-daniel-lurie-launches-political-career-cable-cars-chinatown-market-prayer\">day of inaugural celebrations\u003c/a>, San Francisco’s newly sworn-in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> spent Wednesday night dining with Chinatown community leaders while residents celebrated on Grant Avenue with music, fireworks and dragon dances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s decision to spend his first official night in office with Chinatown residents and community leaders reflected his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12003096/public-safety-takes-center-stage-as-sf-mayoral-hopefuls-court-chinese-american-voters\">promises on the campaign trail\u003c/a> to the city’s Asian American voters. He pledged to increase public safety, boost police department staffing following upticks in anti-Asian violence and bring more staffers with Asian backgrounds to City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s task will be to prove he can stay in touch with the diverse needs of Asian San Franciscans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we speak, the San Francisco Police Department and sheriff’s department are rapidly shifting resources and personnel to bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets,” Lurie said in his inaugural address on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chinese Americans have long played a critical role in San Francisco politics and the city’s identity as a bastion of progress and compassion, advocating for integrated schools, affordable housing and public safety, especially after the pandemic when anti-Asian hate crimes spiked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021091\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00553-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A banner hangs over Grant Avenue welcoming Mayor Lurie at the Chinatown Night Market on Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s also a fast-growing electorate. The Asian population had the highest growth rate of any ethnicity in San Francisco from 2010 to 2020, according to U.S. Census data. Chinese residents account for nearly 22% of the city’s population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie has already hired several staffers to help him bridge cultural divides, including Han Zhao, a political strategist for Lurie’s campaign who will be the director of public affairs; Paul Yep, a former San Francisco police commander who will be the director of public safety; and Kit Lam, who was the Asian American and Pacific Islander political director for Lurie’s campaign and who was previously an organizer of the school board recall in 2022. He will serve as a press liaison between the mayor’s office and AAPI communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie, founder of the nonprofit Tipping Point and heir to the Levis Strauss clothing fortune, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020420/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-sworn-in-today-heres-what-to-know\">campaigned as a political outsider\u003c/a> fed up with dysfunction and corruption in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had never held elected office before but convinced voters that his background in nonprofit work would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12001601/city-hall-outsider-daniel-lurie-wants-to-clean-up-local-government\">position him well to bring new ideas to City Hall\u003c/a>. Campaign contributions \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017551/is-san-francisco-a-bellwether-for-cryptocurrency-influence-on-local-elections\">soared past $62 million\u003c/a>, topped by Lurie, who raised roughly $16 million — about half of which was self-funded — making his run the most expensive in the city’s history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021095\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-49-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Daniel Lurie addresses supporters inside Far East Cafe, a Cantonese restaurant, during a visit to Chinatown’s Night Market on his Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Wednesday’s night market, hundreds of residents packed the streets of Chinatown to eat and dance to electronic music by San Francisco-born electronic music producer, Zhu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just got off of work over at Equinox and came because Zhu was performing, but I also came here to support our new Mayor Daniel Lurie,” said Mason Maes, who lives in Noe Valley. “It’s great to see all these residents get together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elizabeth Wang, a Marina resident, came because she was hoping to learn more about Lurie and to have fun with friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just here for the vibes. I can’t say I know much about [Lurie] since he’s new to government,” Wang said. “But having a party here in Chinatown means a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021092\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021092\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20250108_LurieChinatownMarket_DMB_00645-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crowds fill Grant Avenue for the Chinatown Night Market on Inauguration Day in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others at the event, who didn’t vote for Lurie and had skepticism about his wealthy background, said they’re waiting to see what type of change his administration will bring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We weren’t Daniel Lurie fans, but we love this city and hope it gets better,” said Tiny Harris, who was chasing her toddler around the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she voted for Aaron Peskin partly because he opposed sweeps of homeless encampments and supported housing and behavioral health solutions over law enforcement to address street homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But out of all the mayoral candidates, we could have done worse, so I’m thankful for that,” Harris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the festivities in Chinatown, Lurie spent the day flanked by family and friends as he walked through the Tenderloin, rode a cable car to Ghirardelli Square and took his oath of office from City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his inaugural address, the new mayor was blunt about the challenges facing the city — from a nearly $900 million budget deficit to homelessness and clean streets — and implored residents to respond with hope and action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A problem of this magnitude requires us to make some painful decisions and rethink the way we operate. We need to stop spending more than we can afford,” Lurie said on Wednesday during his address. “We need to prioritize essential services and make the investments that are critical to getting San Francisco up and running again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12020848/now-sf-mayor-lurie-unveils-emergency-plans-drug-homelessness-crises\">unveiled emergency plans to tackle drugs and homelessness\u003c/a>, among other policy announcements. He said that the package of emergency ordinances will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and with an expedited approval process, certain plans could go into effect in about a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s emergency plans would also increase nighttime operations for law enforcement targeting outdoor drug use and sales, particularly around United Nations Plaza and Market Street, according to a policy brief from Lurie’s communications team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie is also asking the supervisors to ease restrictions around procurement and grant-making and to authorize the use of private funding to help finance his plans to build over 1,000 emergency shelter beds and open up a new 24/7 crisis drop-in center during his first six months in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is truly a new era of cooperation and mutual respect between City Hall, the Board of Supervisors, law enforcement and the thousands of city employees working on the front lines,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-school-closures-will-hurt-chinese-immigrant-communities-city-leaders-say",
"title": "San Francisco School Closures Will Hurt Chinese, Immigrant Communities, City Leaders Say",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco School Closures Will Hurt Chinese, Immigrant Communities, City Leaders Say | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>City leaders rallied Thursday morning to urge the San Francisco Unified School District to halt its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008714/parents-sf-schools-named-for-closure-fight-keep-campuses-open\">effort to close as many as 11 campuses\u003c/a>, which they say will have a disproportionate impact on the city’s immigrant population and communities of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, whose district includes three elementary schools that could close, said Jean Parker Elementary, in particular, is integral to the Chinatown community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is more than just a school site,” Peskin, who is a candidate for mayor, said during the rally outside Spring Valley Science Elementary School, which is also on the list of potential closures. “This is an intimate part of the fabric of this community. This is the densest part of San Francisco, and that’s why we have this many school sites in San Francisco. It is also the heartland of the Chinese-American community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a hectic and agonizing few months of waiting and confusion for parents, Superintendent Matt Wayne on Tuesday released \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008405/these-san-francisco-schools-could-close-list-isnt-final\">a list of 11 campuses that could close\u003c/a> at the end of this school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list includes a few schools with special programs geared toward Cantonese-speaking families, one of which is in Peskin’s District 3 near Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe title=\"Student Demographic Makeup at SFUSD Schools Slated to Merge or Close\" aria-label=\"Multiple Donuts\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-rz3JE\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rz3JE/5/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"481\" data-external=\"1\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cscript type=\"text/javascript\">!function(){\"use strict\";window.addEventListener(\"message\",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r=0;r\u003ce.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();\u003c/script>\u003cbr>\nJean Parker, which serves students from Chinatown along with Nob Hill and Russian Hill, has a Cantonese biliteracy program, and about 65% of its students identify as Asian or Pacific Islander. More than 80% of students at both Gordon J. Lau and John Yehall Chin elementary schools, where Jean Parker’s general education students could go next year if it closes, also identify as Asian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond and Presidio, said that it “seems like [the closures are] targeting Chinese Americans and Asian American families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutro Elementary, the only westside elementary school on the district’s initial list, is the only bilingual and immersion school in the Richmond, Chan said, and many of its students have family members who are monolingual Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008939\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008939\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs cover the fence in front of Spring Valley Science Elementary School in San Francisco during a press conference on Oct. 10, 2024, to push for city intervention in SFUSD’s school closure plans. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Students who are enrolled in Sutro’s Cantonese biliteracy program would move to the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila Elementary next year, but Chan said an immersion program would be very different from the support they get at Sutro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chinese [Immersion School at] De Avila is really an immersion program where your primary language doesn't have to be Chinese — or in this case, Cantonese — to be part,” she told KQED. “For Sutro Elementary, though, it’s not just about the language itself, but also many of [the students] are actually what we would call newcomer immigrants. They typically would be first generation, newly arrived immigrants, or their family, are typically monolingual.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that while the goal of an immersion program is often for students to become bilingual, the biliteracy program at Sutro is geared toward families whose first language is Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other speakers at the event got emotional discussing the school communities affected by the list of potential closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin speaks during a press conference outside Spring Valley Science Elementary School in San Francisco on Oct. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a similar situation for me because … during my senior year of high school, we were told our school was cutting a bunch of teachers because we didn't have money because enrollment was down,” said Queena Chen, an alumna of Spring Valley Elementary. “Does that sound familiar?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD last \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/MANY-S-F-SCHOOLS-TO-CLOSE-OR-MERGE-In-front-of-3237431.php\">closed schools in 2005 and 2006\u003c/a>. Those consolidations drew criticism for disproportionately affecting schools with higher percentages of Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four schools in the Western Addition neighborhood shuttered in those two years, along with a K-8 school in the Bayview. The Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program was merged with Rosa Parks Elementary School in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district has made a point to center equity in this round of cuts, citing an equity audit and weighing equity heavily in the “composite scores” it is giving schools to guide its decisions. In Wayne’s announcement sharing the initial list of campuses that qualify for closure under the district’s criteria, he said that elementary schools with under 260 students and composite scores in the lower 50% — which weigh equity, academic performance, school culture and use of resources — could be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12008405 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/SFUSDStudentsGetty-1020x681.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sfusd-releases-list-sf-schools-facing-closure-19752856.php\">Data\u003c/a> from the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the demographic split of students affected by the closures aligns pretty closely with the demographic makeup of the district. Still, there’s a lot of concern over where the schools getting cut are located and which communities will be the most heavily affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that there is a general sense that the list of schools proposed to be merged and closed is unequitable,” said Vanessa Marrero, the executive director of Parents for Public School Students of San Francisco. “The three schools that are proposed for closure are all schools that have a high incidence of Asian populations and or bilingual education programs in the Chinese language, so that seems problematic to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan and Peskin are calling on the district to hold off on the consolidation plan and focus instead on remediating the district’s budget crisis, which puts it at risk of state takeover if it can’t cut an additional $113 million to balance the books by December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up as an immigrant who attended Galileo High School, Chan said that school communities can be a lifeline for families arriving in the city and added that budget solutions should be more thoroughly examined before turning to closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you really think about a school community — especially for immigrants and new immigrants — those are the very critical community spaces … so that they can actually take root and stay here and thrive as part of the larger San Francisco community,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Connie Chan joined others in a rally urging a halt to the SFUSD closures, which they say will have a disproportionate impact on immigrants.",
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"title": "San Francisco School Closures Will Hurt Chinese, Immigrant Communities, City Leaders Say | KQED",
"description": "Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Connie Chan joined others in a rally urging a halt to the SFUSD closures, which they say will have a disproportionate impact on immigrants.",
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"headline": "San Francisco School Closures Will Hurt Chinese, Immigrant Communities, City Leaders Say",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>City leaders rallied Thursday morning to urge the San Francisco Unified School District to halt its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008714/parents-sf-schools-named-for-closure-fight-keep-campuses-open\">effort to close as many as 11 campuses\u003c/a>, which they say will have a disproportionate impact on the city’s immigrant population and communities of color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, whose district includes three elementary schools that could close, said Jean Parker Elementary, in particular, is integral to the Chinatown community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is more than just a school site,” Peskin, who is a candidate for mayor, said during the rally outside Spring Valley Science Elementary School, which is also on the list of potential closures. “This is an intimate part of the fabric of this community. This is the densest part of San Francisco, and that’s why we have this many school sites in San Francisco. It is also the heartland of the Chinese-American community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a hectic and agonizing few months of waiting and confusion for parents, Superintendent Matt Wayne on Tuesday released \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12008405/these-san-francisco-schools-could-close-list-isnt-final\">a list of 11 campuses that could close\u003c/a> at the end of this school year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The list includes a few schools with special programs geared toward Cantonese-speaking families, one of which is in Peskin’s District 3 near Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe title=\"Student Demographic Makeup at SFUSD Schools Slated to Merge or Close\" aria-label=\"Multiple Donuts\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-rz3JE\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rz3JE/5/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"481\" data-external=\"1\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cscript type=\"text/javascript\">!function(){\"use strict\";window.addEventListener(\"message\",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(\"iframe\");for(var t in a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"])for(var r=0;r\u003ce.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data[\"datawrapper-height\"][t]+\"px\";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();\u003c/script>\u003cbr>\nJean Parker, which serves students from Chinatown along with Nob Hill and Russian Hill, has a Cantonese biliteracy program, and about 65% of its students identify as Asian or Pacific Islander. More than 80% of students at both Gordon J. Lau and John Yehall Chin elementary schools, where Jean Parker’s general education students could go next year if it closes, also identify as Asian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond and Presidio, said that it “seems like [the closures are] targeting Chinese Americans and Asian American families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sutro Elementary, the only westside elementary school on the district’s initial list, is the only bilingual and immersion school in the Richmond, Chan said, and many of its students have family members who are monolingual Cantonese speakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008939\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008939\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-11-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Signs cover the fence in front of Spring Valley Science Elementary School in San Francisco during a press conference on Oct. 10, 2024, to push for city intervention in SFUSD’s school closure plans. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Students who are enrolled in Sutro’s Cantonese biliteracy program would move to the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila Elementary next year, but Chan said an immersion program would be very different from the support they get at Sutro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chinese [Immersion School at] De Avila is really an immersion program where your primary language doesn't have to be Chinese — or in this case, Cantonese — to be part,” she told KQED. “For Sutro Elementary, though, it’s not just about the language itself, but also many of [the students] are actually what we would call newcomer immigrants. They typically would be first generation, newly arrived immigrants, or their family, are typically monolingual.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that while the goal of an immersion program is often for students to become bilingual, the biliteracy program at Sutro is geared toward families whose first language is Cantonese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other speakers at the event got emotional discussing the school communities affected by the list of potential closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008914\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241010-SFUSDClosures-01-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin speaks during a press conference outside Spring Valley Science Elementary School in San Francisco on Oct. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a similar situation for me because … during my senior year of high school, we were told our school was cutting a bunch of teachers because we didn't have money because enrollment was down,” said Queena Chen, an alumna of Spring Valley Elementary. “Does that sound familiar?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFUSD last \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/MANY-S-F-SCHOOLS-TO-CLOSE-OR-MERGE-In-front-of-3237431.php\">closed schools in 2005 and 2006\u003c/a>. Those consolidations drew criticism for disproportionately affecting schools with higher percentages of Black students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four schools in the Western Addition neighborhood shuttered in those two years, along with a K-8 school in the Bayview. The Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program was merged with Rosa Parks Elementary School in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school district has made a point to center equity in this round of cuts, citing an equity audit and weighing equity heavily in the “composite scores” it is giving schools to guide its decisions. In Wayne’s announcement sharing the initial list of campuses that qualify for closure under the district’s criteria, he said that elementary schools with under 260 students and composite scores in the lower 50% — which weigh equity, academic performance, school culture and use of resources — could be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sfusd-releases-list-sf-schools-facing-closure-19752856.php\">Data\u003c/a> from the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> shows that the demographic split of students affected by the closures aligns pretty closely with the demographic makeup of the district. Still, there’s a lot of concern over where the schools getting cut are located and which communities will be the most heavily affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that there is a general sense that the list of schools proposed to be merged and closed is unequitable,” said Vanessa Marrero, the executive director of Parents for Public School Students of San Francisco. “The three schools that are proposed for closure are all schools that have a high incidence of Asian populations and or bilingual education programs in the Chinese language, so that seems problematic to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan and Peskin are calling on the district to hold off on the consolidation plan and focus instead on remediating the district’s budget crisis, which puts it at risk of state takeover if it can’t cut an additional $113 million to balance the books by December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up as an immigrant who attended Galileo High School, Chan said that school communities can be a lifeline for families arriving in the city and added that budget solutions should be more thoroughly examined before turning to closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you really think about a school community — especially for immigrants and new immigrants — those are the very critical community spaces … so that they can actually take root and stay here and thrive as part of the larger San Francisco community,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"order": 5
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
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