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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bi-monthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is coalescing the city’s upper crust to boost San Francisco’s rebound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say San Francisco needs every dollar it can get — as the city faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit — to make progress on scant affordable housing, rising overdose rates and a struggling downtown economy. Federal spending cuts threaten even more financial problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lurie’s power play has also raised eyebrows among some government ethics watchdogs who see a small but powerful business class gaining influence in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, several Lurie supporters announced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034942/billionaire-backed-nonprofit-fund-san-franciscos-downtown-recovery-projects\">Downtown Development Corporation\u003c/a>, a new nonprofit that will fundraise for projects aimed at improving street and business conditions. The group is led by David Stiepleman, co-president of the investment firm Sixth Street, and Sam Cobbs, CEO of Tipping Point Community, the anti-poverty nonprofit Lurie founded before becoming mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco’s comeback depends on the recovery of our downtown, and we are bringing every tool to the table to secure that future,” Lurie said in a statement. “The Downtown Development Corporation … will help bring to life our plans for downtown by driving investment, supporting small business, and partnering in our work to keep downtown safe, clean, and vibrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another newly formed initiative, the Partnership for San Francisco, aims to position San Francisco as a global innovation hub with a thriving economy. The effort is steered by Katherine August-deWilde, a First Republic Bank alum who also served on Tipping Point’s board, and the co-chairs are Laurene Powell Jobs and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Partnership for San Francisco is a private entity, but Lurie, who plans to work with the group, came up with the idea, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-city/partnership-for-san-francisco-springs-from-daniel-lurie-idea/article_6c8b4dbc-19de-4df9-b1be-81aef6f52a60.html\">according to the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie knows the business and philanthropy community well. Along with starting Tipping Point, he is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. Financial disclosures with the city show he holds at least $8 million in investments. Lurie has a blind trust to manage his assets while in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His latest fundraising push has raised concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032892/billionaire-influence-deepens-divisions-among-san-francisco-democrats\">among critics of private influence in politics\u003c/a>, including Sean McMorris, a program manager at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on government transparency and ethics.[aside postID=news_12034942 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-10_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that it’s not a worthy cause,” McMorris said about the DDC’s goals. “But it raises the issue of purchasing influence. I’m sure the people who are being solicited are pretty well-heeled and have their own interests with the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, San Francisco voters passed a law tightening restrictions on public officials soliciting private donations after a major corruption scandal that led to prison sentences for former city leaders, including ex-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Downtown Development Corporation, Lurie plans to seek a waiver allowing behested payments — donations requested by public officials for city projects or initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This effort is separate from the expanded authority that Lurie gained shortly after taking office through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">fentanyl emergency ordinance\u003c/a>, which allows him to accept private donations for programs and services related to homelessness and overdose response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s making moves there, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie announced the city will \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034214/san-francisco-ends-health-programs-for-drug-users-not-active-in-treatment\">scale back some harm reduction programs\u003c/a> and require more users to participate in treatment — a resource city officials admit is lacking. The city has added more than a hundred transitional housing beds in the last year, but not a single residential bed for addiction treatment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/treatment-beds-addiction-mental-illness-20244563.php\">according to the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The status quo has failed to ensure the health and safety of our entire community,” Lurie said in a release announcing the new requirements for overdose prevention efforts, which has many health providers wondering where money for additional counseling will come from. “Our new policy will connect individuals to treatment quickly, and that is a big step toward reclaiming our public spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "Lurie Taps City Elite to Fund San Francisco's Comeback",
"datePublished": "2025-04-10T07:00:40-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bi-monthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is coalescing the city’s upper crust to boost San Francisco’s rebound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say San Francisco needs every dollar it can get — as the city faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit — to make progress on scant affordable housing, rising overdose rates and a struggling downtown economy. Federal spending cuts threaten even more financial problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lurie’s power play has also raised eyebrows among some government ethics watchdogs who see a small but powerful business class gaining influence in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, several Lurie supporters announced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034942/billionaire-backed-nonprofit-fund-san-franciscos-downtown-recovery-projects\">Downtown Development Corporation\u003c/a>, a new nonprofit that will fundraise for projects aimed at improving street and business conditions. The group is led by David Stiepleman, co-president of the investment firm Sixth Street, and Sam Cobbs, CEO of Tipping Point Community, the anti-poverty nonprofit Lurie founded before becoming mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco’s comeback depends on the recovery of our downtown, and we are bringing every tool to the table to secure that future,” Lurie said in a statement. “The Downtown Development Corporation … will help bring to life our plans for downtown by driving investment, supporting small business, and partnering in our work to keep downtown safe, clean, and vibrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another newly formed initiative, the Partnership for San Francisco, aims to position San Francisco as a global innovation hub with a thriving economy. The effort is steered by Katherine August-deWilde, a First Republic Bank alum who also served on Tipping Point’s board, and the co-chairs are Laurene Powell Jobs and Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Partnership for San Francisco is a private entity, but Lurie, who plans to work with the group, came up with the idea, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-city/partnership-for-san-francisco-springs-from-daniel-lurie-idea/article_6c8b4dbc-19de-4df9-b1be-81aef6f52a60.html\">according to the \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie knows the business and philanthropy community well. Along with starting Tipping Point, he is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. Financial disclosures with the city show he holds at least $8 million in investments. Lurie has a blind trust to manage his assets while in office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His latest fundraising push has raised concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032892/billionaire-influence-deepens-divisions-among-san-francisco-democrats\">among critics of private influence in politics\u003c/a>, including Sean McMorris, a program manager at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on government transparency and ethics.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that it’s not a worthy cause,” McMorris said about the DDC’s goals. “But it raises the issue of purchasing influence. I’m sure the people who are being solicited are pretty well-heeled and have their own interests with the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, San Francisco voters passed a law tightening restrictions on public officials soliciting private donations after a major corruption scandal that led to prison sentences for former city leaders, including ex-Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Downtown Development Corporation, Lurie plans to seek a waiver allowing behested payments — donations requested by public officials for city projects or initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This effort is separate from the expanded authority that Lurie gained shortly after taking office through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025495/luries-fentanyl-response-clears-san-francisco-board-of-supervisors\">fentanyl emergency ordinance\u003c/a>, which allows him to accept private donations for programs and services related to homelessness and overdose response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s making moves there, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie announced the city will \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034214/san-francisco-ends-health-programs-for-drug-users-not-active-in-treatment\">scale back some harm reduction programs\u003c/a> and require more users to participate in treatment — a resource city officials admit is lacking. The city has added more than a hundred transitional housing beds in the last year, but not a single residential bed for addiction treatment, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/treatment-beds-addiction-mental-illness-20244563.php\">according to the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The status quo has failed to ensure the health and safety of our entire community,” Lurie said in a release announcing the new requirements for overdose prevention efforts, which has many health providers wondering where money for additional counseling will come from. “Our new policy will connect individuals to treatment quickly, and that is a big step toward reclaiming our public spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "inside-the-sailing-ships-that-carried-thousands-of-san-francisco-workers-to-alaska",
"title": "How Canned Salmon Became Big Business in Gold Rush San Francisco",
"publishDate": 1744279215,
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"headTitle": "How Canned Salmon Became Big Business in Gold Rush San Francisco | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk along San Francisco Bay near Ghirardelli Square, and it’s hard not to be intrigued by the three masts jutting into the sky at Hyde Street Pier. It looks like a pirate ship straight out of \u003cem>Pirates of the Caribbean\u003c/em>. But the 301-foot-long square-sailed ship isn’t a Hollywood prop, it’s a piece of history from a time when San Francisco was the largest and most consequential seaport on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known as the \u003cem>Balclutha/Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, the ship is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm\">San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, \u003c/a>and it’s one of the best physical reminders of a once-booming San Francisco industry — salmon canning. In the early 20th century, the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was part of the Alaska Packers’ Association fleet. It was the salmon canning industry’s largest and most influential company, and their headquarters were in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every summer, ships like the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> sailed to remote, wild southeastern Alaska, full of all the gear, material, food and people required to run a salmon cannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The start of fish canning in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two brothers, William and George Hume, moved out to California in the 1850s to seek their Gold Rush fortunes. They were from a fishing family in Maine and put those skills to good use when they arrived in the Golden State. They caught salmon in the Sacramento River. This was before widespread access to electric refrigeration, so the brothers sold the salmon either fresh or preserved in salt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034261\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12034261\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Balclutha/Star of Alaska in the San Francisco port on March 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their friend, Andrew Hapgood, was a tinsmith and had experimented with canning oysters back in Maine. When he followed the Humes out to California, the three men joined forces to open the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/first-pacific-coast-salmon-cannery-site.htm\">first West Coast salmon cannery\u003c/a> in 1864.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two years, they decided to move the cannery north to the Columbia River,” said James Chiao, an amateur historian who has spent years researching the \u003ca href=\"https://chinesecannerylaborers.home.blog/\">history of salmon canning\u003c/a>. Originally from Taiwan, Chiao worked in the Alaska canneries in the 1970s to earn money to pay his college tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiao said that back in the 1860s, the fishing was good in Oregon. Each of the three business partners soon opened his own cannery along the Columbia. In 1970, George Hume, who was white, hired 12 Chinese laborers to work in his cannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Hume] found their work satisfactory, better than his other workers,” Chiao said. “It became the success formula. If you want to be successful, you need to have the capital. You need to have the technology — how to make the cans. And number three, you need Chinese workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1874, there were 13 canneries along the Columbia River and 95% of the cannery workers were Chinese, Chiao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the rapid growth of the salmon canning industry was hard on the salmon populations in Oregon. Soon, the cannery operators had their sights set on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-cannery-cultural-landscapes.htm\">even bigger fishing grounds — Alaska\u003c/a>. *The Humes and several other big canning companies banded together to form the Alaska Packers’ Association, which operated out of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-800x501.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-1020x639.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-160x100.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">General locations of past and present canneries, based on descriptions provided in ‘Alaska Salmon Cannery Chronology, 1878 to 1950’ by Lewis MacDonald. \u003ccite>(National Park Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Immigrant workforce suffers poor conditions\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The salmon canning industry exploded once it moved to Alaska. \u003ca href=\"https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/history-in-a-can-2/\">According to the Alaska Historic Society\u003c/a>, Alaskan canneries shipped 36,000 cases of canned salmon in 1883. Just eight years later, that number had increased to 789,347 cases. It was one of the largest industries in Alaska at the time and had a huge economic and political impact on the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To produce that much salmon, the companies had to ship thousands of workers to Alaska and haul all the tin, machinery, food and other goods required to sustain a workforce in a remote location for several months. San Francisco was the first big shipping hub for the industry and later, Portland and Seattle would also become important departure points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, the sailing ship anchored in San Francisco Bay, is set up as a museum to showcase what the conditions would have been like for cannery workers traveling to the salmon fields. The boat was strictly divided based on class and occupation. The captain’s quarters were at the back of the ship to limit the rock and sway. His quarters had sumptuous furnishings designed specifically for a ship, made of exotic woods and decked out with plush cushions. He had his own kitchen pantry, bedroom, bathroom and sitting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034996\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034996\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Decorative woodwork in the captain’s quarters on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. Right: A portrait of Inda Francis Durkee, the daughter of a captain of the Balclutha/Star of Alaska, who was born aboard the ship in 1899 on a voyage from India to San Francisco. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the same level, but closer to the middle of the ship, were the sleeping quarters of the fishermen. The space is fairly large, with portholes that let in light and air along the sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fishermen for \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> would have mostly been Italian or Scandinavian men living and working in the Bay Area,” said Sabrina Oliveros, a park ranger at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said there were about 80 of them, and they were unionized workers employed directly by the Alaska Packers Association. They also doubled as sailors on the ship for the voyage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down below, on the tween deck and accessible by a narrow ladder, were the sleeping quarters for the cannery workers, commonly known as the “Chinese Gang” because in the early days of the industry, almost all the workers were Chinese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There would have been anywhere from 100 to 300 cannery workers who were transported on ships like this going up to Alaska,” Oliveros said. “And they came back down on the same ship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sabrina Oliveros poses for a portrait on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034985\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034985\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Part of the ‘Big Cargo’ exhibition on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their quarters were small and cramped. Bunks were stacked three high, each without enough room to sit up. There was no natural light or fresh air. Men would smoke and gamble by lamplight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was sweating from the heat of my companions, I was seasick, I was vermin-covered, and I must admit, I was downright homesick,” wrote Max Stern in a serialized account of going undercover as a cannery worker in 1922.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stern was a white newspaper reporter who had heard of the squalid conditions for cannery workers and set out to shine a light on them. He describes buying himself a job by promising to purchase a prescribed set of exorbitantly priced goods from an outfitter, most of which were subpar or nonexistent. His account is riddled with the many ways that labor contractors and cannery owners took advantage of the cannery workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034267\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of life for Chinese workers from the 19th Century on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Chiao, of Fremont, poses for a portrait on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. Chiao, originally from Taiwan, worked in a salmon cannery in the 1970s. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was sailing, it was not uncommon for the journey north to take close to 40 days. And when they arrived, Stern writes the conditions on land weren’t much better than those he experienced on the ship. He describes bunkhouses with walls so thin that an icy wind whipped through the boards while water lapped the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and the rest of the cannery workers first made the wooden crates and tin cans that the fish would be stored in. Then, when the fishermen started bringing in large quantities of fish, they worked long hours butchering, cleaning, chopping and canning the salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first 40 years of the industry, all this work was done manually and the Chinese workers gained a reputation for their fast and skilled butchering. The best could clean and butcher three fish per minute. But in 1903, things started to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035023\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1111px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035023\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1111\" height=\"818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped.png 1111w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-800x589.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-1020x751.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-160x118.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1111px) 100vw, 1111px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Butchering salmon in a canning establishment in Astoria, Oregon. \u003ccite>(Robert N. Dennis collection via Wikipedia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Salmon catch on the floor of an unidentified cannery, Alaska. Right: Sailing vessel ‘Star of Greenland’ at the dock of the Alaska Packers’ Association cannery, Wrangell, Alaska, in August 1918. \u003ccite>(John Nathan Cobb via Wikipedia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This machine is a central artifact of this exhibit,” Park Ranger Oliveros said while gesturing at an\u003ca href=\"https://mohai.org/collections-and-research/collections-search/?primaryKey=1970.4992&moduleName=collections&recordId=1226\"> 8-foot-tall iron contraption\u003c/a> on board the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>. “It was designed to start replacing human labor. The earliest versions of the salmon butchering machine could have done like 50, 60 fish in a minute.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advent of mechanization coincided with a shortage of Chinese workers due to the \u003ca href=\"https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration\">Chinese Exclusion Act, which was passed in 1882\u003c/a>. Already, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/asiancanneryworkers.htm\">canneries had been hiring more Japanese and Filipino workers\u003c/a>, but the salmon butchering machine signaled the end of a majority-Chinese cannery workforce. By the 1920s and ’30s, there were very few left.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Decline of the salmon canning industry\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cannery workers fought for and won the right to unionize in the 1930s. With unionization, there were fewer opportunities for labor contractors and other middlemen to take advantage of workers. Wages and conditions improved, but decades of overfishing meant salmon populations were on the decline. The peak of the Alaska salmon canning industry was in 1936.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canned salmon was an important provision for soldiers during World War II, but after the war, consumer tastes started to shift towards canned tuna and frozen fish. \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/alaska/seak/era/cfm/Documents/9.5_SalmonIndustry.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native Alaskans were fighting for more sovereignty and better fishery protections (PDF)\u003c/a>, making it more difficult for canneries to operate with impunity as they had done for much of the industry’s early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canneries still exist in Alaska today, and much of the salmon we eat is still caught in Alaskan waters. However, it’s far more common now for the fish to be flash-frozen and shipped around the world to be eaten fresh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cannery workers who pioneered the salmon canning industry have been largely forgotten, but historians like James Chiao and park rangers like Sabrina Oliveros at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park are working to preserve their legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown San Francisco, seen from on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*A prior version of this story stated that Andrew Hapgood was part of forming the Alaska Packers Association. He was not. We regret this error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. And you’re listening to Bay Curious. Nowadays, if you’re eating fish out of a can, it’s likely tuna. But in the early 20th century, canned salmon was far more popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Advertisement Sound: \u003c/strong>Whitneys the quality canned salmon from Alaska’s world famous waters. Serve Whitney’s salmon in baked seafood salad, salmon loaf, or molded salmon ring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This advertisement for Alaskan canned salmon is from the 1950s, but the salmon canning industry has roots in California, starting in the mid-1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Advertisement Sound:\u003c/strong> Whitneys, whitneys, whitneys … For a tasty dish with zing, a can of whitneys is the thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The biggest canning companies were headquartered in San Francisco. And seasonal workers boarded ships in San Francisco to get to those Alaskan waters. There’s even a piece of this history still floating out in the San Francisco Bay!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras:\u003c/strong> It’s not exactly a pirate ship, but if you let us tell you the story, there were some pretty nefarious things going on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today on Bay Curious, we trace the salmon connections between San Francisco and Alaska … and learn about the early workers who made the industry possible. Batten down the hatches; there are rough seas ahead! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sponsor message\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Starting in the mid-1800s, Salmon canneries were big business along the West Coast, stretching all the way up to Alaska. San Francisco played an outsized role in the industry — and especially in providing the workers who did the tough, dirty, low-paid work in the canneries. Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz starts us off in Bristol Bay, Alaska, in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Imagine a stretch of marshy ground in an isolated bay. A nondescript factory built on a pier hunkers near the shore surrounded by a few low bunkhouses and a smattering of cabins. Patches of melting snow dot the ground. It’s austere. Lonely. Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>Such a remote place. No radio. No newspaper, no TV. So you’re totally cut off from the outside world. My name is James Chiao, and I am an immigrant. I was born in Taiwan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James and his brother Philip worked at the salmon canneries in Alaska in the 1970s for several summers during college. James stood next to a machine that gutted and cleaned the salmon. A more seasoned co-worker stood next to him, pulling the eggs out of the fish. James took care of any that slipped by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: T\u003c/strong>he salmon, the fish would come in on a conveyor belt passing, I’d say maybe 60 to 80 fish per minute. So they were flying by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James would stand there clad in tall rubber boots and full rain gear, water flushing the fish carcasses down a conveyor belt, sometimes working a 16- or 18-hour shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>It was noisy. There’s water and blood everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> He says it was mind-numbing, repetitive work, but he didn’t mind. It was a nice change of pace from studying. The scenery in Alaska was fantastic. And the money was good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>When I was attending University of Washington, the tuition was probably over $1,000 a year. And I was able to make in two months enough money to pay my tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James remembers that time fondly. It was a unique experience, but not his real life. He went on to become an electrical engineer. And when he retired a few years ago, he began reflecting on his life, thinking back to those summers in Alaska in the ’70s. And he started to do a little research about the salmon canning industry, which dates back to the 1860s. He was interested to learn he wasn’t the only immigrant to find themselves canning salmon in Alaska. Far from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>I think we should go back, you know, to the Hume brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Brothers William and George Hume were fishermen originally from Maine. They moved to California, like so many others, to seek their fortune. When they arrived, they started catching and selling salmon. Now, these were the days before electric refrigeration was widely available … so they sold the salmon either fresh caught or preserved in salt. So when their buddy from Maine, Andrew Hapgood, moved out to California and brought materials to can and preserve fish with him, they knew they had a good business idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>In 1864, they founded the first salmon cannery in on the Sacramento River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> It didn’t take them long to realize runoff from mining was killing the salmon. So they moved their operations to the Columbia River in Oregon. The Humes, who were white, hired 12 Chinese workers to do the canning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>He found their work satisfactory. Better than his other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The Transcontinental Railroad was almost complete, and Chinese laborers who had immigrated to the U.S. were looking for more work. The Hume brothers hired them through the same contractors who found workers for the railroads and paid them a similarly low wage. Other salmon cannery owners along the Columbia copied the Humes business model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> Almost like it become the success formula. Look, if you want to be successful, you need to have the capital. You need to have the technology. How to make the cans. And number three, you need Chinese workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says by 1874, there were 13 canneries along the Columbia River and 95% of the cannery workers were Chinese. Pretty soon, the Humes, and most of the other cannery owners, moved their operations to Alaska, where the really big salmon runs were. San Francisco was the biggest city on the West Coast. Everything flowed in and out of its seaport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> The components are all in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The fishermen and cannery workers. All the supplies and provisions needed for the trip. And, of course, the vessels that carried it all to Alaskan waters. The Hume brothers’ company joined up with several other big canneries to form the largest salmon canning company, the Alaska Packers Association. It was headquartered in San Francisco and shipped canned salmon all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of creaking of ship\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras:\u003c/strong> We are we are right now around the main deck of the \u003cem>Balclutha/Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, right under the main mast. My name is Sabrina Oliveras, my title is Park Ranger Interpretation Exhibits and I work at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James and I meet Sabrina on board the Balclutha … a sailing ship built in 1886 … and known as the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> when it sailed as a cannery vessel. It’s one of the best physical reminders of the salmon canning trade still floating in the Bay. It was on a ship like this that salmon cannery workers would begin their long journeys. The \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was strictly divided based on social class and occupation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras (giving tour): \u003c/strong>So right now, we are where we call the Captain’s Saloon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The captain’s quarters are at the far back of the ship, where the rock and sway of the ocean is less noticeable. He would have had a private bedroom, bathroom, pantry and sitting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>This also was where a captain would hold office while in port. So you know he’d have to like entertain other merchants or captains or ship owners and all that, which is why it’s nice, and it has a skylight, detailed glasswork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Beautiful hardwood floors, plush seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>Yeah, plush seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Towards the middle of the ship, but still on the same level, were the fisherman’s quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>The fishermen for \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> would have mostly been Italian or Scandinavian men, you know, living and working in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> There were about 80 of them, and they were unionized workers for the Alaska Packers’ Association. They also acted as the sailors on the month-long journey up to Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>There’s probably like over 10 portholes that you can open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Portholes mean there was sunlight and fresh air. Once the ship arrived in Alaska, the fishermen would be in charge of catching the salmon. But the canneries also needed people to butcher, chop and can the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>There would have been anywhere from 100 to 300 cannery workers who were transported on ships like this going up to Alaska, and they came back down on the same ship. They would have lived below decks in the area. We now call the tween deck\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Walking downstairs\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> To get there, we take the stairs, thoughtfully installed by the park for visitors. Back in the day, the cannery workers would have used a ladder only about a foot-and-a-half wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>We are looking into an area where on either side of us, there are three levels of bunks. This is a representation of what they called at the time the Oriental Quarters or in some sources they call it Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The space is cramped. The bunks short, with not even enough room to sit up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> To me, this is amazing. I’ve never thought of someone stay here in this kind of condition for over four weeks, right? Takes about 30 days, 33 days to travel from San Francisco to Bristol Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says when he went to work in the Alaska canneries, he could travel there in one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>This place is so hot. And also, there’s no ventilation. And there’s no electricity. OK, we have a light here. So it was lit by candles or lamps. It’s just totally, you know, it’s not a very good experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Unlike the fishermen, who were mostly white, the cannery workers were not employed directly by the Alaska Packers Association. Instead, they were hired by independent labor contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>The APA really just let the labor contractors do what they want, essentially, which is why they had so much power and there was so much opportunity to exploit. Because the APA would just say, you set the terms, we just want so-and-so amount of crates delivered at the end of it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> At least two primary sources describe being forced to pay for passage on the ship, for specific clothes that often weren’t necessary, and for bedding as a condition of employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>A lot of them were, you know, they spent so much money on their clothing, on outfit, and then there’s also gambling, and also they have to pay some of the canned food. So, usually, by the time they come back to San Francisco, all those money were subtracted off of their wages. So they have very little left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Sometimes, workers would end the season in debt to the labor contractor, ensuring they’d come back for the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> And so these ships, laden with men and supplies, would sail out from San Francisco and make their way to remote, wild southwestern Alaska every summer. One of the most detailed first-person narratives comes from Max Stern, a white newspaperman who went undercover on assignment as part of the so-called “Chinese Gang” in 1922. It didn’t take long for him to feel the pain of being in the lowest social class on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading the writings of Max Stern:\u003c/strong> I was sweating from the heat of my companions, I was seasick, I was vermin-covered, and I must admit, I was downright homesick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> After arriving in Bristol Bay, the first task in the cannery was to turn the metal they brought with them into cans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading the writings of Max Stern: \u003c/strong>My job was testing cans. I would stand over a little tank of hot water, place a finished can into the basket, and with a foot lever immerse it. If there were any leaks, bubbles would appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800s, decades before Stern was on his undercover mission, skilled Chinese butchers would spend long hours butchering, cleaning, cutting and processing the fish. Sabrina says a skilled worker could remove the fins, head, tail and entrails of three fish per minute. But around 1903, times were beginning to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>This machine, it is a central artifact of this exhibit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Back on the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, Park Ranger Sabrina shows us an\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ak0330.sheet/?sp=5\"> 8-foot tall\u003c/a>, massive \u003ca href=\"https://mohai.org/collections-and-research/collections-search/?primaryKey=1970.4992&moduleName=collections&recordId=1226&searchQuery=Alaska&Stevens&Lumber_Co_&Puget_Sound_Navigation_Co_&modules%5B0%5D=item&modules%5B1%5D=collections&modules%5B2%5D=library&pageNum=5\">iron contraption\u003c/a>. Now called a “salmon butchering machine,” it was known by a more racist name when it was invented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>It was designed to start replacing human labor. The earliest versions of the salmon butchering machine could have done like 50, 60 fish in a minute. So as you can imagine, like this machine was welcomed by the industry for a variety of reasons, one of which was, you know, he needed to keep producing more and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Cannery owners were eager to replace the workers who had made the industry possible. James Chiao again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Chiao\u003c/strong>: Even in their advertisements, they said they wanted to replace all the Chinese Butchers. And by the 1920s and ’30s, it did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> By this time, the industry was feeling the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese labor was harder to find, and many roles were replaced by other Asian immigrants. First, Japanese … and later Filipino folks. Farmworkers in California would finish up the spring harvest and head to San Francisco to hop on a salmon boat bound for Alaska. When the summer fishing season was over, they’d return to California for the fall harvest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>Which is why eventually, in the 1930s, when they started unionizing, it wasn’t just a cannery workers union; it was a canary workers and farm laborers union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (during interview): \u003c/strong>Wow, because it was the same folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Once the union came in, there was less opportunity for labor contractors to exploit workers, and conditions at the canneries improved. James Chiao says he benefited from those changes by the time he arrived in Alaska in the ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> In general, I thought it was it was okay. It was decent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Much of the salmon we eat is still caught in Alaska, but canning isn’t the big business it used to be. The Alaska Packers Association eventually became part of the Del Monte conglomerate, which sold its last canneries in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> Oh yeah, there’s a huge change in how they process the salmon, how they just freeze the salmon and ship it to the supermarkets directly. So now, the canned salmon is no longer really something that we are familiar or used to. That’s a big change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says even in the ’70s, when he was working in Alaska, cannery workers rarely tried the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>In the mess hall, we never got to eat salmon. So, many years later, I went to the grocery store and tried canned salmon. My goodness, it was no good! (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> These days — few signs remain of the once booming salmon canning industry in San Francisco. Most of the companies have been sold off or moved elsewhere. But for James and the National Park Staff overseeing the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> — the hard work and sacrifice of the workers who once kept them running hasn’t been forgotten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz. Head to BayCurious.org to see photos from our trip to the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, plus archival photos from San Francisco’s salmon canning history. We’ll drop a link in our show notes, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love episodes like this one … they open my eyes to something about the Bay Area that … frankly, I had no idea about. That’s one of our big goals here at Bay Curious, actually. And if you think we’re the mark, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you might listen. Kind words keep us going and help other potential listeners find our program. It only takes moment, and we really appreciate it. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Jen Chien, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\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>I hope you have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Salmon canning was big business in San Francisco for a long time. In the early 20th century, sailing ships would head for Alaska each summer, carrying all the men, supplies and machinery needed for several months of remote work.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"#A\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk along San Francisco Bay near Ghirardelli Square, and it’s hard not to be intrigued by the three masts jutting into the sky at Hyde Street Pier. It looks like a pirate ship straight out of \u003cem>Pirates of the Caribbean\u003c/em>. But the 301-foot-long square-sailed ship isn’t a Hollywood prop, it’s a piece of history from a time when San Francisco was the largest and most consequential seaport on the West Coast.\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known as the \u003cem>Balclutha/Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, the ship is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/index.htm\">San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, \u003c/a>and it’s one of the best physical reminders of a once-booming San Francisco industry — salmon canning. In the early 20th century, the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was part of the Alaska Packers’ Association fleet. It was the salmon canning industry’s largest and most influential company, and their headquarters were in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every summer, ships like the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> sailed to remote, wild southeastern Alaska, full of all the gear, material, food and people required to run a salmon cannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The start of fish canning in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Two brothers, William and George Hume, moved out to California in the 1850s to seek their Gold Rush fortunes. They were from a fishing family in Maine and put those skills to good use when they arrived in the Golden State. They caught salmon in the Sacramento River. This was before widespread access to electric refrigeration, so the brothers sold the salmon either fresh or preserved in salt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034261\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12034261\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00013.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Balclutha/Star of Alaska in the San Francisco port on March 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their friend, Andrew Hapgood, was a tinsmith and had experimented with canning oysters back in Maine. When he followed the Humes out to California, the three men joined forces to open the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/first-pacific-coast-salmon-cannery-site.htm\">first West Coast salmon cannery\u003c/a> in 1864.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two years, they decided to move the cannery north to the Columbia River,” said James Chiao, an amateur historian who has spent years researching the \u003ca href=\"https://chinesecannerylaborers.home.blog/\">history of salmon canning\u003c/a>. Originally from Taiwan, Chiao worked in the Alaska canneries in the 1970s to earn money to pay his college tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiao said that back in the 1860s, the fishing was good in Oregon. Each of the three business partners soon opened his own cannery along the Columbia. In 1970, George Hume, who was white, hired 12 Chinese laborers to work in his cannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Hume] found their work satisfactory, better than his other workers,” Chiao said. “It became the success formula. If you want to be successful, you need to have the capital. You need to have the technology — how to make the cans. And number three, you need Chinese workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1874, there were 13 canneries along the Columbia River and 95% of the cannery workers were Chinese, Chiao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the rapid growth of the salmon canning industry was hard on the salmon populations in Oregon. Soon, the cannery operators had their sights set on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-cannery-cultural-landscapes.htm\">even bigger fishing grounds — Alaska\u003c/a>. *The Humes and several other big canning companies banded together to form the Alaska Packers’ Association, which operated out of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1300\" height=\"814\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map.jpg 1300w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-800x501.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-1020x639.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Cannery-Project-map-160x100.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1300px) 100vw, 1300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">General locations of past and present canneries, based on descriptions provided in ‘Alaska Salmon Cannery Chronology, 1878 to 1950’ by Lewis MacDonald. \u003ccite>(National Park Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Immigrant workforce suffers poor conditions\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The salmon canning industry exploded once it moved to Alaska. \u003ca href=\"https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/history-in-a-can-2/\">According to the Alaska Historic Society\u003c/a>, Alaskan canneries shipped 36,000 cases of canned salmon in 1883. Just eight years later, that number had increased to 789,347 cases. It was one of the largest industries in Alaska at the time and had a huge economic and political impact on the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To produce that much salmon, the companies had to ship thousands of workers to Alaska and haul all the tin, machinery, food and other goods required to sustain a workforce in a remote location for several months. San Francisco was the first big shipping hub for the industry and later, Portland and Seattle would also become important departure points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, the sailing ship anchored in San Francisco Bay, is set up as a museum to showcase what the conditions would have been like for cannery workers traveling to the salmon fields. The boat was strictly divided based on class and occupation. The captain’s quarters were at the back of the ship to limit the rock and sway. His quarters had sumptuous furnishings designed specifically for a ship, made of exotic woods and decked out with plush cushions. He had his own kitchen pantry, bedroom, bathroom and sitting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034996\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034996\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-4-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Decorative woodwork in the captain’s quarters on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. Right: A portrait of Inda Francis Durkee, the daughter of a captain of the Balclutha/Star of Alaska, who was born aboard the ship in 1899 on a voyage from India to San Francisco. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On the same level, but closer to the middle of the ship, were the sleeping quarters of the fishermen. The space is fairly large, with portholes that let in light and air along the sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fishermen for \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> would have mostly been Italian or Scandinavian men living and working in the Bay Area,” said Sabrina Oliveros, a park ranger at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said there were about 80 of them, and they were unionized workers employed directly by the Alaska Packers Association. They also doubled as sailors on the ship for the voyage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Down below, on the tween deck and accessible by a narrow ladder, were the sleeping quarters for the cannery workers, commonly known as the “Chinese Gang” because in the early days of the industry, almost all the workers were Chinese.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There would have been anywhere from 100 to 300 cannery workers who were transported on ships like this going up to Alaska,” Oliveros said. “And they came back down on the same ship.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00175-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">National Park Service ranger Sabrina Oliveros poses for a portrait on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034985\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034985\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-3-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Part of the ‘Big Cargo’ exhibition on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their quarters were small and cramped. Bunks were stacked three high, each without enough room to sit up. There was no natural light or fresh air. Men would smoke and gamble by lamplight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was sweating from the heat of my companions, I was seasick, I was vermin-covered, and I must admit, I was downright homesick,” wrote Max Stern in a serialized account of going undercover as a cannery worker in 1922.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stern was a white newspaper reporter who had heard of the squalid conditions for cannery workers and set out to shine a light on them. He describes buying himself a job by promising to purchase a prescribed set of exorbitantly priced goods from an outfitter, most of which were subpar or nonexistent. His account is riddled with the many ways that labor contractors and cannery owners took advantage of the cannery workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034267\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00128-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of life for Chinese workers from the 19th Century on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034268\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00130-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Chiao, of Fremont, poses for a portrait on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. Chiao, originally from Taiwan, worked in a salmon cannery in the 1970s. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was sailing, it was not uncommon for the journey north to take close to 40 days. And when they arrived, Stern writes the conditions on land weren’t much better than those he experienced on the ship. He describes bunkhouses with walls so thin that an icy wind whipped through the boards while water lapped the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and the rest of the cannery workers first made the wooden crates and tin cans that the fish would be stored in. Then, when the fishermen started bringing in large quantities of fish, they worked long hours butchering, cleaning, chopping and canning the salmon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first 40 years of the industry, all this work was done manually and the Chinese workers gained a reputation for their fast and skilled butchering. The best could clean and butcher three fish per minute. But in 1903, things started to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035023\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1111px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035023\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1111\" height=\"818\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped.png 1111w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-800x589.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-1020x751.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Butchering_salmon_cropped-160x118.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1111px) 100vw, 1111px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Butchering salmon in a canning establishment in Astoria, Oregon. \u003ccite>(Robert N. Dennis collection via Wikipedia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035024\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035024\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/Copy-of-KQED-side-by-side-downpage-image-5-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Salmon catch on the floor of an unidentified cannery, Alaska. Right: Sailing vessel ‘Star of Greenland’ at the dock of the Alaska Packers’ Association cannery, Wrangell, Alaska, in August 1918. \u003ccite>(John Nathan Cobb via Wikipedia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This machine is a central artifact of this exhibit,” Park Ranger Oliveros said while gesturing at an\u003ca href=\"https://mohai.org/collections-and-research/collections-search/?primaryKey=1970.4992&moduleName=collections&recordId=1226\"> 8-foot-tall iron contraption\u003c/a> on board the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>. “It was designed to start replacing human labor. The earliest versions of the salmon butchering machine could have done like 50, 60 fish in a minute.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The advent of mechanization coincided with a shortage of Chinese workers due to the \u003ca href=\"https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration\">Chinese Exclusion Act, which was passed in 1882\u003c/a>. Already, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/asiancanneryworkers.htm\">canneries had been hiring more Japanese and Filipino workers\u003c/a>, but the salmon butchering machine signaled the end of a majority-Chinese cannery workforce. By the 1920s and ’30s, there were very few left.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Decline of the salmon canning industry\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cannery workers fought for and won the right to unionize in the 1930s. With unionization, there were fewer opportunities for labor contractors and other middlemen to take advantage of workers. Wages and conditions improved, but decades of overfishing meant salmon populations were on the decline. The peak of the Alaska salmon canning industry was in 1936.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canned salmon was an important provision for soldiers during World War II, but after the war, consumer tastes started to shift towards canned tuna and frozen fish. \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/alaska/seak/era/cfm/Documents/9.5_SalmonIndustry.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native Alaskans were fighting for more sovereignty and better fishery protections (PDF)\u003c/a>, making it more difficult for canneries to operate with impunity as they had done for much of the industry’s early history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Canneries still exist in Alaska today, and much of the salmon we eat is still caught in Alaskan waters. However, it’s far more common now for the fish to be flash-frozen and shipped around the world to be eaten fresh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cannery workers who pioneered the salmon canning industry have been largely forgotten, but historians like James Chiao and park rangers like Sabrina Oliveros at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park are working to preserve their legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034263\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034263\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250321_Balclutha_DMB_00039-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown San Francisco, seen from on board the Balclutha/Star of Alaska. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*A prior version of this story stated that Andrew Hapgood was part of forming the Alaska Packers Association. He was not. We regret this error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. And you’re listening to Bay Curious. Nowadays, if you’re eating fish out of a can, it’s likely tuna. But in the early 20th century, canned salmon was far more popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Advertisement Sound: \u003c/strong>Whitneys the quality canned salmon from Alaska’s world famous waters. Serve Whitney’s salmon in baked seafood salad, salmon loaf, or molded salmon ring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This advertisement for Alaskan canned salmon is from the 1950s, but the salmon canning industry has roots in California, starting in the mid-1800s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Advertisement Sound:\u003c/strong> Whitneys, whitneys, whitneys … For a tasty dish with zing, a can of whitneys is the thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The biggest canning companies were headquartered in San Francisco. And seasonal workers boarded ships in San Francisco to get to those Alaskan waters. There’s even a piece of this history still floating out in the San Francisco Bay!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras:\u003c/strong> It’s not exactly a pirate ship, but if you let us tell you the story, there were some pretty nefarious things going on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today on Bay Curious, we trace the salmon connections between San Francisco and Alaska … and learn about the early workers who made the industry possible. Batten down the hatches; there are rough seas ahead! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sponsor message\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Starting in the mid-1800s, Salmon canneries were big business along the West Coast, stretching all the way up to Alaska. San Francisco played an outsized role in the industry — and especially in providing the workers who did the tough, dirty, low-paid work in the canneries. Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz starts us off in Bristol Bay, Alaska, in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Imagine a stretch of marshy ground in an isolated bay. A nondescript factory built on a pier hunkers near the shore surrounded by a few low bunkhouses and a smattering of cabins. Patches of melting snow dot the ground. It’s austere. Lonely. Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>Such a remote place. No radio. No newspaper, no TV. So you’re totally cut off from the outside world. My name is James Chiao, and I am an immigrant. I was born in Taiwan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James and his brother Philip worked at the salmon canneries in Alaska in the 1970s for several summers during college. James stood next to a machine that gutted and cleaned the salmon. A more seasoned co-worker stood next to him, pulling the eggs out of the fish. James took care of any that slipped by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: T\u003c/strong>he salmon, the fish would come in on a conveyor belt passing, I’d say maybe 60 to 80 fish per minute. So they were flying by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James would stand there clad in tall rubber boots and full rain gear, water flushing the fish carcasses down a conveyor belt, sometimes working a 16- or 18-hour shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>It was noisy. There’s water and blood everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> He says it was mind-numbing, repetitive work, but he didn’t mind. It was a nice change of pace from studying. The scenery in Alaska was fantastic. And the money was good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>When I was attending University of Washington, the tuition was probably over $1,000 a year. And I was able to make in two months enough money to pay my tuition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James remembers that time fondly. It was a unique experience, but not his real life. He went on to become an electrical engineer. And when he retired a few years ago, he began reflecting on his life, thinking back to those summers in Alaska in the ’70s. And he started to do a little research about the salmon canning industry, which dates back to the 1860s. He was interested to learn he wasn’t the only immigrant to find themselves canning salmon in Alaska. Far from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>I think we should go back, you know, to the Hume brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Brothers William and George Hume were fishermen originally from Maine. They moved to California, like so many others, to seek their fortune. When they arrived, they started catching and selling salmon. Now, these were the days before electric refrigeration was widely available … so they sold the salmon either fresh caught or preserved in salt. So when their buddy from Maine, Andrew Hapgood, moved out to California and brought materials to can and preserve fish with him, they knew they had a good business idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>In 1864, they founded the first salmon cannery in on the Sacramento River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> It didn’t take them long to realize runoff from mining was killing the salmon. So they moved their operations to the Columbia River in Oregon. The Humes, who were white, hired 12 Chinese workers to do the canning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>He found their work satisfactory. Better than his other workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The Transcontinental Railroad was almost complete, and Chinese laborers who had immigrated to the U.S. were looking for more work. The Hume brothers hired them through the same contractors who found workers for the railroads and paid them a similarly low wage. Other salmon cannery owners along the Columbia copied the Humes business model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> Almost like it become the success formula. Look, if you want to be successful, you need to have the capital. You need to have the technology. How to make the cans. And number three, you need Chinese workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says by 1874, there were 13 canneries along the Columbia River and 95% of the cannery workers were Chinese. Pretty soon, the Humes, and most of the other cannery owners, moved their operations to Alaska, where the really big salmon runs were. San Francisco was the biggest city on the West Coast. Everything flowed in and out of its seaport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> The components are all in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The fishermen and cannery workers. All the supplies and provisions needed for the trip. And, of course, the vessels that carried it all to Alaskan waters. The Hume brothers’ company joined up with several other big canneries to form the largest salmon canning company, the Alaska Packers Association. It was headquartered in San Francisco and shipped canned salmon all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of creaking of ship\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras:\u003c/strong> We are we are right now around the main deck of the \u003cem>Balclutha/Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, right under the main mast. My name is Sabrina Oliveras, my title is Park Ranger Interpretation Exhibits and I work at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James and I meet Sabrina on board the Balclutha … a sailing ship built in 1886 … and known as the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> when it sailed as a cannery vessel. It’s one of the best physical reminders of the salmon canning trade still floating in the Bay. It was on a ship like this that salmon cannery workers would begin their long journeys. The \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> was strictly divided based on social class and occupation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras (giving tour): \u003c/strong>So right now, we are where we call the Captain’s Saloon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The captain’s quarters are at the far back of the ship, where the rock and sway of the ocean is less noticeable. He would have had a private bedroom, bathroom, pantry and sitting room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>This also was where a captain would hold office while in port. So you know he’d have to like entertain other merchants or captains or ship owners and all that, which is why it’s nice, and it has a skylight, detailed glasswork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Beautiful hardwood floors, plush seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>Yeah, plush seats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Towards the middle of the ship, but still on the same level, were the fisherman’s quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>The fishermen for \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> would have mostly been Italian or Scandinavian men, you know, living and working in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> There were about 80 of them, and they were unionized workers for the Alaska Packers’ Association. They also acted as the sailors on the month-long journey up to Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>There’s probably like over 10 portholes that you can open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Portholes mean there was sunlight and fresh air. Once the ship arrived in Alaska, the fishermen would be in charge of catching the salmon. But the canneries also needed people to butcher, chop and can the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>There would have been anywhere from 100 to 300 cannery workers who were transported on ships like this going up to Alaska, and they came back down on the same ship. They would have lived below decks in the area. We now call the tween deck\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Walking downstairs\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> To get there, we take the stairs, thoughtfully installed by the park for visitors. Back in the day, the cannery workers would have used a ladder only about a foot-and-a-half wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>We are looking into an area where on either side of us, there are three levels of bunks. This is a representation of what they called at the time the Oriental Quarters or in some sources they call it Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> The space is cramped. The bunks short, with not even enough room to sit up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> To me, this is amazing. I’ve never thought of someone stay here in this kind of condition for over four weeks, right? Takes about 30 days, 33 days to travel from San Francisco to Bristol Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says when he went to work in the Alaska canneries, he could travel there in one day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>This place is so hot. And also, there’s no ventilation. And there’s no electricity. OK, we have a light here. So it was lit by candles or lamps. It’s just totally, you know, it’s not a very good experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Unlike the fishermen, who were mostly white, the cannery workers were not employed directly by the Alaska Packers Association. Instead, they were hired by independent labor contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>The APA really just let the labor contractors do what they want, essentially, which is why they had so much power and there was so much opportunity to exploit. Because the APA would just say, you set the terms, we just want so-and-so amount of crates delivered at the end of it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> At least two primary sources describe being forced to pay for passage on the ship, for specific clothes that often weren’t necessary, and for bedding as a condition of employment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>A lot of them were, you know, they spent so much money on their clothing, on outfit, and then there’s also gambling, and also they have to pay some of the canned food. So, usually, by the time they come back to San Francisco, all those money were subtracted off of their wages. So they have very little left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Sometimes, workers would end the season in debt to the labor contractor, ensuring they’d come back for the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> And so these ships, laden with men and supplies, would sail out from San Francisco and make their way to remote, wild southwestern Alaska every summer. One of the most detailed first-person narratives comes from Max Stern, a white newspaperman who went undercover on assignment as part of the so-called “Chinese Gang” in 1922. It didn’t take long for him to feel the pain of being in the lowest social class on the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading the writings of Max Stern:\u003c/strong> I was sweating from the heat of my companions, I was seasick, I was vermin-covered, and I must admit, I was downright homesick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> After arriving in Bristol Bay, the first task in the cannery was to turn the metal they brought with them into cans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading the writings of Max Stern: \u003c/strong>My job was testing cans. I would stand over a little tank of hot water, place a finished can into the basket, and with a foot lever immerse it. If there were any leaks, bubbles would appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800s, decades before Stern was on his undercover mission, skilled Chinese butchers would spend long hours butchering, cleaning, cutting and processing the fish. Sabrina says a skilled worker could remove the fins, head, tail and entrails of three fish per minute. But around 1903, times were beginning to change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>This machine, it is a central artifact of this exhibit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Back on the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, Park Ranger Sabrina shows us an\u003ca href=\"https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ak0330.sheet/?sp=5\"> 8-foot tall\u003c/a>, massive \u003ca href=\"https://mohai.org/collections-and-research/collections-search/?primaryKey=1970.4992&moduleName=collections&recordId=1226&searchQuery=Alaska&Stevens&Lumber_Co_&Puget_Sound_Navigation_Co_&modules%5B0%5D=item&modules%5B1%5D=collections&modules%5B2%5D=library&pageNum=5\">iron contraption\u003c/a>. Now called a “salmon butchering machine,” it was known by a more racist name when it was invented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>It was designed to start replacing human labor. The earliest versions of the salmon butchering machine could have done like 50, 60 fish in a minute. So as you can imagine, like this machine was welcomed by the industry for a variety of reasons, one of which was, you know, he needed to keep producing more and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Cannery owners were eager to replace the workers who had made the industry possible. James Chiao again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Chiao\u003c/strong>: Even in their advertisements, they said they wanted to replace all the Chinese Butchers. And by the 1920s and ’30s, it did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> By this time, the industry was feeling the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese labor was harder to find, and many roles were replaced by other Asian immigrants. First, Japanese … and later Filipino folks. Farmworkers in California would finish up the spring harvest and head to San Francisco to hop on a salmon boat bound for Alaska. When the summer fishing season was over, they’d return to California for the fall harvest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sabrina Oliveras: \u003c/strong>Which is why eventually, in the 1930s, when they started unionizing, it wasn’t just a cannery workers union; it was a canary workers and farm laborers union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (during interview): \u003c/strong>Wow, because it was the same folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Once the union came in, there was less opportunity for labor contractors to exploit workers, and conditions at the canneries improved. James Chiao says he benefited from those changes by the time he arrived in Alaska in the ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> In general, I thought it was it was okay. It was decent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Much of the salmon we eat is still caught in Alaska, but canning isn’t the big business it used to be. The Alaska Packers Association eventually became part of the Del Monte conglomerate, which sold its last canneries in the early 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao:\u003c/strong> Oh yeah, there’s a huge change in how they process the salmon, how they just freeze the salmon and ship it to the supermarkets directly. So now, the canned salmon is no longer really something that we are familiar or used to. That’s a big change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> James says even in the ’70s, when he was working in Alaska, cannery workers rarely tried the product.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>James Chiao: \u003c/strong>In the mess hall, we never got to eat salmon. So, many years later, I went to the grocery store and tried canned salmon. My goodness, it was no good! (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> These days — few signs remain of the once booming salmon canning industry in San Francisco. Most of the companies have been sold off or moved elsewhere. But for James and the National Park Staff overseeing the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em> — the hard work and sacrifice of the workers who once kept them running hasn’t been forgotten.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz. Head to BayCurious.org to see photos from our trip to the \u003cem>Star of Alaska\u003c/em>, plus archival photos from San Francisco’s salmon canning history. We’ll drop a link in our show notes, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I love episodes like this one … they open my eyes to something about the Bay Area that … frankly, I had no idea about. That’s one of our big goals here at Bay Curious, actually. And if you think we’re the mark, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you might listen. Kind words keep us going and help other potential listeners find our program. It only takes moment, and we really appreciate it. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Jen Chien, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\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>I hope you have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:51 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s newest park along the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/great-highway\">Upper Great Highway\u003c/a> will be called Sunset Dunes after city officials chose from a list of five finalists Wednesday afternoon — just days before the park officially opens on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other names up for consideration by the Recreation and Parks Commission were Fog Line, Great Parkway, Playland Parkway and Plover Parkway. Other options floated by commissioners at the meeting included Reopen the Great Highway Park and Playland Park instead of Playland Parkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the eight members of the public who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, both Sunset Dunes and Plover Parkway were popular options. But commissioners ultimately landed on Sunset Dunes at the nomination of president Kat Anderson, who said the name contained two of the three main themes identified by city staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[That name] does a great job of honoring the neighborhood and hitting the two primary benefits of the area: the fact that you can enjoy the dunes and the sunset,” said public commenter Ben Davis, who leads the arts nonprofit Illuminate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to land at those five choices to recommend to the commission, city staffers narrowed the field from over 4,000 submissions over the course of several stages since the beginning of March, outlined in a \u003ca href=\"https://sfrecpark.org/DocumentCenter/View/25804/Item-2-Great-Highway-Naming-Proposal---Staff-Report-040925\">staff report filed Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Houses line the Great Highway near Ocean Beach in San Francisco’s Sunset District neighborhood on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents used the submission process to air their grievances against District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, whose support for Proposition K to permanently close the section of the Great Highway to vehicles put him at odds with many people in his district. Among them were names like “Engardio’s Folly” and “Traitor Joel’s,” \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/04/sf-great-highway-ocean-beach-park/\">\u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 3,000 submissions remained even after weeding out unsavory ones that took aim at Engardio or those that could cause confusion with existing parks like Land’s End or Ocean Beach. Staffers identified top themes such as dunes, sunset and esplanade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The top 15 contenders were then selected for a trial by survey. Thousands of residents voted on their favorites from the shortlist and graded them on a rubric based on historical significance, natural and geographical importance, community relevance, placemaking impact, and appropriateness and clarity.[aside postID=news_12032868 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-33-BL_qed-1-1020x680.jpg']“As the space enters its next chapter, it’s great that San Franciscans got to have a say in the park’s name,” said Heidi Moseson, vice president of the nonprofit Friends of Ocean Beach Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all residents are as excited about the park’s grand opening. Although voters passed Proposition K by a narrow margin in November, a majority of westside residents voted in opposition, with many opponents calling the road a necessary throughway for neighborhoods like the Sunset District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner Larry Mazzola, a lifelong resident of the city’s westside, said Proposition K should never have gone to a citywide vote. During the meeting, he jokingly suggested the name Reopen the Great Highway Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I go into this vote today not feeling excited or proud. Instead, I feel pressured to name something I never wanted in the first place,” he said. “And a supermajority of the westside feels the same way I do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the section of the highway \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031300/this-stretch-san-franciscos-great-highway-now-permanently-closed-cars\">closed\u003c/a> on March 14, the park has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032868/sf-park-repeatedly-vandalized-after-great-highway-closed-cars\">vandalized multiple times\u003c/a> with graffiti — and, like the name suggestions, many of the tags called out Engardio specifically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anger toward the supervisor by his own constituents boiled over into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017070/sf-supervisor-faces-a-recall-campaign-over-great-highway-closure\">a recall campaign\u003c/a> launched against him shortly after the November election. Others also unsuccessfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030751/days-before-san-franciscos-great-highway-closure-opponents-aim-block-it\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> to block the highway closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite legal and cultural backlash to the project, the park is expected to have a grand opening Saturday under its new name. City staff compared the undertaking to the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway more than 30 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In 10, 20 years, everybody will be like, ‘I’m glad that that commission did that, I’m glad that that vote did that, I’m glad that that happened,’” said Commissioner Sonya Clark-Herrera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:51 p.m. Wednesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s newest park along the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/great-highway\">Upper Great Highway\u003c/a> will be called Sunset Dunes after city officials chose from a list of five finalists Wednesday afternoon — just days before the park officially opens on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other names up for consideration by the Recreation and Parks Commission were Fog Line, Great Parkway, Playland Parkway and Plover Parkway. Other options floated by commissioners at the meeting included Reopen the Great Highway Park and Playland Park instead of Playland Parkway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the eight members of the public who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, both Sunset Dunes and Plover Parkway were popular options. But commissioners ultimately landed on Sunset Dunes at the nomination of president Kat Anderson, who said the name contained two of the three main themes identified by city staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[That name] does a great job of honoring the neighborhood and hitting the two primary benefits of the area: the fact that you can enjoy the dunes and the sunset,” said public commenter Ben Davis, who leads the arts nonprofit Illuminate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to land at those five choices to recommend to the commission, city staffers narrowed the field from over 4,000 submissions over the course of several stages since the beginning of March, outlined in a \u003ca href=\"https://sfrecpark.org/DocumentCenter/View/25804/Item-2-Great-Highway-Naming-Proposal---Staff-Report-040925\">staff report filed Wednesday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240214-CoastalCommission-38-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Houses line the Great Highway near Ocean Beach in San Francisco’s Sunset District neighborhood on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents used the submission process to air their grievances against District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, whose support for Proposition K to permanently close the section of the Great Highway to vehicles put him at odds with many people in his district. Among them were names like “Engardio’s Folly” and “Traitor Joel’s,” \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2025/04/sf-great-highway-ocean-beach-park/\">\u003cem>Mission Local\u003c/em> reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 3,000 submissions remained even after weeding out unsavory ones that took aim at Engardio or those that could cause confusion with existing parks like Land’s End or Ocean Beach. Staffers identified top themes such as dunes, sunset and esplanade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The top 15 contenders were then selected for a trial by survey. Thousands of residents voted on their favorites from the shortlist and graded them on a rubric based on historical significance, natural and geographical importance, community relevance, placemaking impact, and appropriateness and clarity.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“As the space enters its next chapter, it’s great that San Franciscans got to have a say in the park’s name,” said Heidi Moseson, vice president of the nonprofit Friends of Ocean Beach Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all residents are as excited about the park’s grand opening. Although voters passed Proposition K by a narrow margin in November, a majority of westside residents voted in opposition, with many opponents calling the road a necessary throughway for neighborhoods like the Sunset District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner Larry Mazzola, a lifelong resident of the city’s westside, said Proposition K should never have gone to a citywide vote. During the meeting, he jokingly suggested the name Reopen the Great Highway Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I go into this vote today not feeling excited or proud. Instead, I feel pressured to name something I never wanted in the first place,” he said. “And a supermajority of the westside feels the same way I do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the section of the highway \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031300/this-stretch-san-franciscos-great-highway-now-permanently-closed-cars\">closed\u003c/a> on March 14, the park has been \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032868/sf-park-repeatedly-vandalized-after-great-highway-closed-cars\">vandalized multiple times\u003c/a> with graffiti — and, like the name suggestions, many of the tags called out Engardio specifically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The anger toward the supervisor by his own constituents boiled over into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12017070/sf-supervisor-faces-a-recall-campaign-over-great-highway-closure\">a recall campaign\u003c/a> launched against him shortly after the November election. Others also unsuccessfully \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030751/days-before-san-franciscos-great-highway-closure-opponents-aim-block-it\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> to block the highway closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite legal and cultural backlash to the project, the park is expected to have a grand opening Saturday under its new name. City staff compared the undertaking to the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway more than 30 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In 10, 20 years, everybody will be like, ‘I’m glad that that commission did that, I’m glad that that vote did that, I’m glad that that happened,’” said Commissioner Sonya Clark-Herrera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Bay Area Business Is Already Tough. After Trump’s Tariffs, Many Are Preparing for Pain",
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"content": "\u003cp>While President Donald Trump has defended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909473/the-fallout-of-trumps-expansive-tariffs\">his tariffs\u003c/a> as “medicine” for American industry during what he calls an economic emergency, many Bay Area small businesses that rely on imported goods are bracing for major upheaval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s aggressive trade policy unveiled last week sent shockwaves through the global economy and U.S. markets. In addition to a 10% baseline tax on all imported goods, the U.S. will impose “reciprocal” tariffs affecting dozens of trade partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those levies will increase costs for business owners — increases that many expect will be passed on to consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor Peliska, an employee at King Kog Bicycle Shop in downtown Oakland, estimated that roughly 90% of the goods in the store are imported. If Trump’s tariffs on goods from China and Taiwan remain, prices will definitely increase, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost everything that we make is from overseas,” Peliska said. “I personally don’t think tariffs are bad … but to do it in a sort of blanket way doesn’t really make sense, and to do it without having any domestic infrastructure to replace it also doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prices are going to go up, but for how long … we don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034834\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034834\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Peliska, a bicycle mechanic, works on a bike at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other small businesses face the same uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>China, which exported over \u003ca href=\"https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china\">$400 billion\u003c/a> worth of goods to the United States in 2024, faces a 34% tariff, which is set to take effect Wednesday. Trump also threatened this week to impose an \u003ca href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114297331052690348\">additional 50% tariff \u003c/a>on China after the nation announced plans to issue a 34% import fee on the U.S. in retaliation for Trump’s initial announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Bigglestone, who co-owns Games of Berkeley in the East Bay, said the store is already preparing for the worst. Nearly all of the board games and toys sold in the store are imported, and more than 90% of its products come from China, he said.[aside postID=news_12034730 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/iPhone16Getty-1020x680.jpg']Many manufacturers and store owners in the games industry are worried that the tariffs could put them out of business, Bigglestone said. Games of Berkeley, which has been in the community for nearly 45 years, is also at risk of going away, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppliers have warned him that some goods may go up 10% to 25% in price over the next few weeks. As a small business, Games of Berkeley will need to pass some of those additional costs onto consumers, which could deter them from shopping locally when companies such as Amazon will be able to eat more of those import taxes, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s already expensive to do business in the Bay Area,” he said. “When you start throwing more and more expenses on top of it, that can really make people think twice about whether they even want to try and weather that storm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bigglestone said he and the game store’s other owners have discussed raising prices preemptively so that they’re prepared for increased import costs moving forward. They’re also looking at increasing the store’s used games inventory and eliminating less popular options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a pain and trauma that is being inflicted without any thought to the actual real-world consequences,” Bigglesone said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034836\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bikes and bike frames for sale hang from the ceiling at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neale Mahoney, a professor of economics at Stanford University, said Trump’s tariffs will have sweeping effects across most industries. Businesses that rely on imported goods will be the first to increase their prices, but suppliers that import raw materials will also need to adjust, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As those businesses begin increasing the prices of their goods, even companies that don’t rely on imports will be incentivized to follow suit, driving up the expected price for certain items universally, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said it’s rare to see financial uncertainty that is so reversible. If Trump announced that the tariffs were canceled, a lot of the fear and anxiety driving the market would decrease, he said, referencing the sudden market downturn that followed Trump’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these tariffs stay where they are, we’re talking about destroying global supply chains and global value chains,” Cummings said. “If the tariffs stay in place, it will not only be a recession but a deep recession. But it’s avoidable. It’s completely avoidable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034835\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034835\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicycle for sale at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025, displays a “Made in Cambodia” sticker. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in Oakland, a few doors down from King Kog Bicycle Shop is Howden Market, a small corner store that sells artisanal wines, beers and other craft goods. Kanitha Matoury, the store’s owner, said she was drawn to the neighborhood because of the beautiful building and her passion for food, drink and community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Howden sources many of its products locally, several of its nearly 200 vendors get the raw materials for their cans and bottles from overseas, Matoury said, adding that the United States doesn’t have the infrastructure and the factories to keep up with demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, inflation has made it difficult to stay afloat, Matoury said, adding that Trump’s tariffs will make it even harder. In cities such as Oakland, where the small business sector is taking a hit from increased rent and petty crime, store owners can’t take much more, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe, like what Barack Obama said, that small business is the backbone of our economy and the cornerstone of our community,” said Matoury, who is running for Oakland City Council. “Small businesses all over America are literally just closing shop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While President Donald Trump has defended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909473/the-fallout-of-trumps-expansive-tariffs\">his tariffs\u003c/a> as “medicine” for American industry during what he calls an economic emergency, many Bay Area small businesses that rely on imported goods are bracing for major upheaval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s aggressive trade policy unveiled last week sent shockwaves through the global economy and U.S. markets. In addition to a 10% baseline tax on all imported goods, the U.S. will impose “reciprocal” tariffs affecting dozens of trade partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those levies will increase costs for business owners — increases that many expect will be passed on to consumers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor Peliska, an employee at King Kog Bicycle Shop in downtown Oakland, estimated that roughly 90% of the goods in the store are imported. If Trump’s tariffs on goods from China and Taiwan remain, prices will definitely increase, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost everything that we make is from overseas,” Peliska said. “I personally don’t think tariffs are bad … but to do it in a sort of blanket way doesn’t really make sense, and to do it without having any domestic infrastructure to replace it also doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prices are going to go up, but for how long … we don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034834\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034834\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-10-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Peliska, a bicycle mechanic, works on a bike at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other small businesses face the same uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>China, which exported over \u003ca href=\"https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/china-mongolia-taiwan/peoples-republic-china\">$400 billion\u003c/a> worth of goods to the United States in 2024, faces a 34% tariff, which is set to take effect Wednesday. Trump also threatened this week to impose an \u003ca href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114297331052690348\">additional 50% tariff \u003c/a>on China after the nation announced plans to issue a 34% import fee on the U.S. in retaliation for Trump’s initial announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Bigglestone, who co-owns Games of Berkeley in the East Bay, said the store is already preparing for the worst. Nearly all of the board games and toys sold in the store are imported, and more than 90% of its products come from China, he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Many manufacturers and store owners in the games industry are worried that the tariffs could put them out of business, Bigglestone said. Games of Berkeley, which has been in the community for nearly 45 years, is also at risk of going away, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suppliers have warned him that some goods may go up 10% to 25% in price over the next few weeks. As a small business, Games of Berkeley will need to pass some of those additional costs onto consumers, which could deter them from shopping locally when companies such as Amazon will be able to eat more of those import taxes, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s already expensive to do business in the Bay Area,” he said. “When you start throwing more and more expenses on top of it, that can really make people think twice about whether they even want to try and weather that storm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bigglestone said he and the game store’s other owners have discussed raising prices preemptively so that they’re prepared for increased import costs moving forward. They’re also looking at increasing the store’s used games inventory and eliminating less popular options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a pain and trauma that is being inflicted without any thought to the actual real-world consequences,” Bigglesone said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034836\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-13-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bikes and bike frames for sale hang from the ceiling at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neale Mahoney, a professor of economics at Stanford University, said Trump’s tariffs will have sweeping effects across most industries. Businesses that rely on imported goods will be the first to increase their prices, but suppliers that import raw materials will also need to adjust, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As those businesses begin increasing the prices of their goods, even companies that don’t rely on imports will be incentivized to follow suit, driving up the expected price for certain items universally, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said it’s rare to see financial uncertainty that is so reversible. If Trump announced that the tariffs were canceled, a lot of the fear and anxiety driving the market would decrease, he said, referencing the sudden market downturn that followed Trump’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these tariffs stay where they are, we’re talking about destroying global supply chains and global value chains,” Cummings said. “If the tariffs stay in place, it will not only be a recession but a deep recession. But it’s avoidable. It’s completely avoidable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034835\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034835\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250407-TARIFFSBAYAREASMALLBIZ-12-BL_QED-KQED-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicycle for sale at King Kog Bicycle Shop in Oakland on April 7, 2025, displays a “Made in Cambodia” sticker. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in Oakland, a few doors down from King Kog Bicycle Shop is Howden Market, a small corner store that sells artisanal wines, beers and other craft goods. Kanitha Matoury, the store’s owner, said she was drawn to the neighborhood because of the beautiful building and her passion for food, drink and community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Howden sources many of its products locally, several of its nearly 200 vendors get the raw materials for their cans and bottles from overseas, Matoury said, adding that the United States doesn’t have the infrastructure and the factories to keep up with demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, inflation has made it difficult to stay afloat, Matoury said, adding that Trump’s tariffs will make it even harder. In cities such as Oakland, where the small business sector is taking a hit from increased rent and petty crime, store owners can’t take much more, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe, like what Barack Obama said, that small business is the backbone of our economy and the cornerstone of our community,” said Matoury, who is running for Oakland City Council. “Small businesses all over America are literally just closing shop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> Supervisor Bilal Mahmood unveiled a resolution this week that would protect support services and inclusion efforts for the city’s neurodivergent community, an issue that hits close to home for the newly elected official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood often struggled with navigating social interactions growing up. It was difficult for him to maintain eye contact, shake hands and exchange hugs. and he was frustrated by abrupt changes to his schedule. He knew he was different from his peers, but didn’t know why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he began his political career in San Francisco a few years ago, Mahmood found himself in the spotlight. Despite a shy and introverted nature, Mahmood was required to “put [himself] out there more” as a politician, and he struggled with exhaustion and burnout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Mahmood was diagnosed with Level 1 autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects communication and other social behaviors. The diagnosis was liberating, Mahmood said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement announcing his diagnosis on Wednesday, Mahmood said learning about his autism helped him embrace his differences as strengths. He may be the first elected official in San Francisco to publicly disclose an autism diagnosis — a decision he hopes will help others feel less alone, Mahmood said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982582\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982582\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk along Market Street while Board of Supervisors District 5 candidate Bilal Mahmood speaks during a press conference about his strategy to end open-air drug markets in San Francisco on April 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In school, Mahmood was taught that autism primarily affects young white males — a widespread misconception that disproportionately affects people of color and women, he said. As a Muslim and South Asian man, Mahmood said he did not realize that some of his struggles could be a result of an undiagnosed neurological condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This resolution is about raising awareness and trying to destigmatize autism,” Mahmood told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood said he wants to advocate for vulnerable communities that rely on local government and organizations to provide them with essential services, such as specialized tutoring for students with neurological disorders and opportunities for community engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are lifelines for these communities, and I want to make sure we continue to advocate for them in the months ahead,” he continued.[aside postID=news_12027784 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/241119-SFHomelessArrests-17-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']Programs that Mahmood seeks to protect are in danger of being cut because of San Francisco’s ongoing budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Unified School District is facing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031347/san-francisco-schools-may-cut-staff-face-backlash-over-new-hiring-limits\">$113 million budget shortfall\u003c/a> in the coming year, which could jeopardize programs for children with developmental disabilities, although Mahmood said SFUSD committed to preserving them. In past years, cuts were made to the Department of Children, Youth and Family Services, a city agency that provides funding to these support services, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Service gaps remain for neurodivergent people in San Francisco. Lack of workforce inclusion, housing and health care access are major obstacles, and Mahmood said the city should consider the shortcomings ahead of budget negotiations with Mayor Daniel Lurie in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bird Sellergren, executive director of the Bay Area Autism Collective, said autistic adults experience extreme loneliness and isolation as they get older, a feeling that’s exacerbated by limited access to community-based services and neuro-affirming health care. Autistic people also face higher rates of unemployment, according to Sellergren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be able to actually address these issues in real time would be a significant move forward for the autistic community and having people in politics that are recognizing our struggle and willing to work with us to try to improve our circumstances is just a real gift,” they said, referencing Mahmood’s resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035013\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bus stop on 7th and Market streets in San Francisco on April 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sellergren said improving public understanding of autism and how it may show up in different populations could help address a lot of the issues the community faces. If autistic people had access to more support, it could even reduce rates of homelessness, they said, adding that neurodivergent people are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood recently visited The Arc San Francisco, a nonprofit that provides social, educational and residential services to people living with developmental disabilities. Esther Landau, The Arc’s senior director of advancement, said she appreciates city leaders who bring visibility to an underserved community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Trump administration\u003c/a> threatens to cut federal funding for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029294/california-has-a-lot-to-lose-if-trump-slashes-medicaid-seniors-kids-could-face-coverage-cuts\">Medicaid and other programs\u003c/a>, state and local representatives need to step up so that organizations like The Arc can continue flourishing, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a community that tends to be unseen,” Landau said. “A really big thing that needs to happen for this population to succeed is to not have to carry that load all themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Mahmood was diagnosed with Level 1 autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects communication and other social behaviors. The diagnosis was liberating, Mahmood said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement announcing his diagnosis on Wednesday, Mahmood said learning about his autism helped him embrace his differences as strengths. He may be the first elected official in San Francisco to publicly disclose an autism diagnosis — a decision he hopes will help others feel less alone, Mahmood said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982582\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982582\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-BilalMahmood-026-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk along Market Street while Board of Supervisors District 5 candidate Bilal Mahmood speaks during a press conference about his strategy to end open-air drug markets in San Francisco on April 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In school, Mahmood was taught that autism primarily affects young white males — a widespread misconception that disproportionately affects people of color and women, he said. As a Muslim and South Asian man, Mahmood said he did not realize that some of his struggles could be a result of an undiagnosed neurological condition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This resolution is about raising awareness and trying to destigmatize autism,” Mahmood told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood said he wants to advocate for vulnerable communities that rely on local government and organizations to provide them with essential services, such as specialized tutoring for students with neurological disorders and opportunities for community engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are lifelines for these communities, and I want to make sure we continue to advocate for them in the months ahead,” he continued.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Programs that Mahmood seeks to protect are in danger of being cut because of San Francisco’s ongoing budget crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Unified School District is facing a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031347/san-francisco-schools-may-cut-staff-face-backlash-over-new-hiring-limits\">$113 million budget shortfall\u003c/a> in the coming year, which could jeopardize programs for children with developmental disabilities, although Mahmood said SFUSD committed to preserving them. In past years, cuts were made to the Department of Children, Youth and Family Services, a city agency that provides funding to these support services, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Service gaps remain for neurodivergent people in San Francisco. Lack of workforce inclusion, housing and health care access are major obstacles, and Mahmood said the city should consider the shortcomings ahead of budget negotiations with Mayor Daniel Lurie in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bird Sellergren, executive director of the Bay Area Autism Collective, said autistic adults experience extreme loneliness and isolation as they get older, a feeling that’s exacerbated by limited access to community-based services and neuro-affirming health care. Autistic people also face higher rates of unemployment, according to Sellergren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To be able to actually address these issues in real time would be a significant move forward for the autistic community and having people in politics that are recognizing our struggle and willing to work with us to try to improve our circumstances is just a real gift,” they said, referencing Mahmood’s resolution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035013\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035013\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/240410-BilalMahmood-044-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bus stop on 7th and Market streets in San Francisco on April 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sellergren said improving public understanding of autism and how it may show up in different populations could help address a lot of the issues the community faces. If autistic people had access to more support, it could even reduce rates of homelessness, they said, adding that neurodivergent people are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood recently visited The Arc San Francisco, a nonprofit that provides social, educational and residential services to people living with developmental disabilities. Esther Landau, The Arc’s senior director of advancement, said she appreciates city leaders who bring visibility to an underserved community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Trump administration\u003c/a> threatens to cut federal funding for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029294/california-has-a-lot-to-lose-if-trump-slashes-medicaid-seniors-kids-could-face-coverage-cuts\">Medicaid and other programs\u003c/a>, state and local representatives need to step up so that organizations like The Arc can continue flourishing, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are a community that tends to be unseen,” Landau said. “A really big thing that needs to happen for this population to succeed is to not have to carry that load all themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is banking on San Francisco’s wealthy elite to finance downtown revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, several of Lurie’s supporters with backgrounds in finance, tech and philanthropy announced the Downtown Development Corporation (DDC), a new nonprofit that will raise money for projects aimed at improving street conditions and business opportunities \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034713/california-bill-would-let-cities-extend-last-call-4-a-m-some-downtown-areas\">downtown\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is the latest step in Lurie’s play to prop up major public-private partnerships to boost San Francisco’s economic comeback as the city faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit. It’s also raised eyebrows among some government ethics watchdogs who say that a small but powerful business class is gaining influence in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco’s comeback depends on the recovery of our downtown, and we are bringing every tool to the table to secure that future,” Lurie said in a statement. “The Downtown Development Corporation … will help bring to life our plans for downtown by driving investment, supporting small business, and partnering in our work to keep downtown safe, clean, and vibrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DDC is led by David Stiepleman, co-president of the investment firm Sixth Street, as well as Sam Cobbs, CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029619/luries-nonprofit-giving-san-francisco-11-million-prevent-family-homelessness\">Tipping Point Community\u003c/a>, the anti-poverty nonprofit that Lurie founded before becoming mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034954\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1920x1276.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former eBay CEO and one-time California gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, speaks during a debate with California attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown at UC Davis’ Mondavi Center on Sept. 28, 2010 in Davis, California. \u003ccite>(Jose Luis Villegas-Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other heavy hitters on the DDC board include cryptocurrency company founder Chris Larsen and former eBay CEO and one-time California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. SFMOMA board chair Bob Fisher, San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund CEO Rebecca Foster and SEIU Local 87 president Olga Miranda are also on the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re assembling the right team to raise funds and help execute on the mayor’s vision for downtown,” Stiepleman said. “We feel great urgency to convert the amazing resources of our community and to get to work revitalizing our city center.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s latest fundraising drive has set off alarm bells for some skeptics of private interest in politics, including Sean McMorris, program manager for transparency, ethics and accountability at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on government transparency.[aside postID=news_12032892 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250310-TRUMP-SF-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“It’s not that it’s not a worthy cause,” McMorris said about the DDC’s goals to improve downtown. “But it raises the issue of purchasing influence. I’m sure the people who are being solicited are pretty well-heeled and have their own interests with the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even simple beautification projects can be a concern, he said: “That has to do with housing and real estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco voters in 2022 passed a law making it harder for public officials to solicit private donations after a massive corruption scandal sent former city leaders, including Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the DDC, Lurie will seek a waiver for behested payments — essentially donations requested by public officials for city projects or funds. But this effort is separate from the expanded authority that Lurie gained shortly after taking office through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031581/first-look-sf-mayor-luries-yearlong-plan-homelessness-response\">fentanyl emergency ordinance\u003c/a>, which allows him to accept private dollars for programs and services related to homelessness and overdose response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DDC will primarily be focused on downtown recovery through “physical upgrades like trees and outdoor dining to economic tools like credit and small business support,” according to a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group could potentially fundraise to get housing projects off the ground faster as well, according to Stiepleman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12034961 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1020x674.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1536x1015.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1920x1268.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk past a banner reading ‘Chinatown celebrates Mayor Daniel Lurie’ at the intersection of Clay Street and Grant Avenue during Chinatown’s Night Market in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Shelter and housing are covered by an actual department of the city. And that’s where it ought to be. But to the extent we can be helpful in supplementing plans that bear on making downtown more economically viable, we will be open to that,” he said. “We’re not going to be prescriptive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stiepleman did not share what the group’s initial fundraising goals are or which of the city’s mega donors are tapping in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another question McMorris raised: What happens to these private fundraising streams once a new mayoral administration steps in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re constantly relying on the private sector to implement or buy into your policies, you become reliant upon them, then the efficacy of government becomes less,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stiepleman said the vision is to use private capital to move more quickly on essential projects downtown in the short term, but he hopes the efforts can eventually transfer over to public financing pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’ve done our job correctly, this becomes a sustained generational kind of effort. Eventually, that has to be generated from public funds,” he said. “But in the meantime, we’re going to get it going with a substantial private capital base.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The move is Mayor Daniel Lurie’s latest play to prop up major public-private partnerships to boost the city’s economic comeback, but it has raised concern among some government watchdogs.",
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"title": "Billionaire-Backed Nonprofit to Fund San Francisco’s Downtown Recovery Projects | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mayor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is banking on San Francisco’s wealthy elite to finance downtown revitalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, several of Lurie’s supporters with backgrounds in finance, tech and philanthropy announced the Downtown Development Corporation (DDC), a new nonprofit that will raise money for projects aimed at improving street conditions and business opportunities \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12034713/california-bill-would-let-cities-extend-last-call-4-a-m-some-downtown-areas\">downtown\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is the latest step in Lurie’s play to prop up major public-private partnerships to boost San Francisco’s economic comeback as the city faces a nearly $1 billion budget deficit. It’s also raised eyebrows among some government ethics watchdogs who say that a small but powerful business class is gaining influence in City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San Francisco’s comeback depends on the recovery of our downtown, and we are bringing every tool to the table to secure that future,” Lurie said in a statement. “The Downtown Development Corporation … will help bring to life our plans for downtown by driving investment, supporting small business, and partnering in our work to keep downtown safe, clean, and vibrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DDC is led by David Stiepleman, co-president of the investment firm Sixth Street, as well as Sam Cobbs, CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029619/luries-nonprofit-giving-san-francisco-11-million-prevent-family-homelessness\">Tipping Point Community\u003c/a>, the anti-poverty nonprofit that Lurie founded before becoming mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034954\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/104517976_qed-1920x1276.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former eBay CEO and one-time California gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, speaks during a debate with California attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown at UC Davis’ Mondavi Center on Sept. 28, 2010 in Davis, California. \u003ccite>(Jose Luis Villegas-Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other heavy hitters on the DDC board include cryptocurrency company founder Chris Larsen and former eBay CEO and one-time California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. SFMOMA board chair Bob Fisher, San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund CEO Rebecca Foster and SEIU Local 87 president Olga Miranda are also on the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re assembling the right team to raise funds and help execute on the mayor’s vision for downtown,” Stiepleman said. “We feel great urgency to convert the amazing resources of our community and to get to work revitalizing our city center.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie’s latest fundraising drive has set off alarm bells for some skeptics of private interest in politics, including Sean McMorris, program manager for transparency, ethics and accountability at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on government transparency.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s not that it’s not a worthy cause,” McMorris said about the DDC’s goals to improve downtown. “But it raises the issue of purchasing influence. I’m sure the people who are being solicited are pretty well-heeled and have their own interests with the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even simple beautification projects can be a concern, he said: “That has to do with housing and real estate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco voters in 2022 passed a law making it harder for public officials to solicit private donations after a massive corruption scandal sent former city leaders, including Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, to prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the DDC, Lurie will seek a waiver for behested payments — essentially donations requested by public officials for city projects or funds. But this effort is separate from the expanded authority that Lurie gained shortly after taking office through his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031581/first-look-sf-mayor-luries-yearlong-plan-homelessness-response\">fentanyl emergency ordinance\u003c/a>, which allows him to accept private dollars for programs and services related to homelessness and overdose response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DDC will primarily be focused on downtown recovery through “physical upgrades like trees and outdoor dining to economic tools like credit and small business support,” according to a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group could potentially fundraise to get housing projects off the ground faster as well, according to Stiepleman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12034961 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1020x674.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1536x1015.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250108_LurieInauguration_GC-32_qed-1920x1268.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People walk past a banner reading ‘Chinatown celebrates Mayor Daniel Lurie’ at the intersection of Clay Street and Grant Avenue during Chinatown’s Night Market in San Francisco on Jan. 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Shelter and housing are covered by an actual department of the city. And that’s where it ought to be. But to the extent we can be helpful in supplementing plans that bear on making downtown more economically viable, we will be open to that,” he said. “We’re not going to be prescriptive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stiepleman did not share what the group’s initial fundraising goals are or which of the city’s mega donors are tapping in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another question McMorris raised: What happens to these private fundraising streams once a new mayoral administration steps in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re constantly relying on the private sector to implement or buy into your policies, you become reliant upon them, then the efficacy of government becomes less,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stiepleman said the vision is to use private capital to move more quickly on essential projects downtown in the short term, but he hopes the efforts can eventually transfer over to public financing pipelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’ve done our job correctly, this becomes a sustained generational kind of effort. Eventually, that has to be generated from public funds,” he said. “But in the meantime, we’re going to get it going with a substantial private capital base.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-bill-would-let-cities-extend-last-call-4-a-m-some-downtown-areas",
"title": "California Bill Would Let Cities Extend Last Call to 4 a.m. in Some Downtown Areas",
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"headTitle": "California Bill Would Let Cities Extend Last Call to 4 a.m. in Some Downtown Areas | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The night is young — keep those drinks flowing!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s at least what San Francisco Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/matt-haney\">Matt Haney\u003c/a> is aiming to do with new legislation to allow venues in certain areas throughout the state to extend last call until 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB342\">AB 342\u003c/a>, co-authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a fellow San Francisco Democrat, would give local governments the option to create “hospitality zones” in their cities, allowing various nightlife establishments to keep the liquor flowing for up to two hours beyond the state-mandated 2 a.m. cutoff. It would take effect next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill comes amid ongoing efforts to lure more visitors to the many downtown districts across the state that have struggled to recover since the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need people in our downtowns. We need them to come here, not just during the day, but at night,” Haney told reporters at a press briefing in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning. “We know that when people come to our cities, whether for conventions, for basketball games, for big events, even to work or to live, they are often looking for not only thriving daytime opportunities, but nighttime opportunities as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034721\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034721\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblymember Matt Haney speaks during a press conference in Union Square, San Francisco, on Feb. 18, 2025, announcing legislation to increase nightlife in Downtown San Francisco to help the recovery of the neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the bill, local governments could also establish temporary “special events hospitality zones” for up to a month at a time to coincide with music festivals and other major events, including next year’s World Cup and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032881/oakland-coliseum-host-major-league-cricket-could-2028-la-olympics-be-next\">2028 Summer Olympics\u003c/a>, both slated to take place in L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ben Bleiman, founder of the SF Bar Owner Alliance and owner of Harrington’s Bar & Grill in the city’s downtown, said Haney’s most recent effort to extend last call is “near and dear” to his heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t believe that it’s OK for cities just to be clean and safe in California, though those are very important,” Bleiman said at Monday’s briefing. “We believe they also have to be fun. And we want California to be able to compete with other very fun places in the U.S. and in the world.”[aside postID=news_12032246 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/98579521_qed-1020x680.jpg']California cities, he said, need to “re-envision” their downtowns if they want to remain viable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe nightlife is going to be the catalyst,” he said. “It’s going to be the main engine for bringing activity and business and life and culture back to our downtowns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s amended bill, a more limited version than the one he introduced in January, requires cities that are interested in creating hospitality zones to consider public safety resources, access to transportation and hotels, walkability, and cultural appropriateness, among other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, there is a one size fits all, top down mandate that every single business in California stops serving at 2 a.m. It makes no sense,” Haney said. “It’s out of step with over 12 states across the country and most cities around the world that are world-class destinations. It is time that we have a pro-local control, pro-business solution that allows California cities to do what they need to do to recover and to attract the conventions, the visitors, the events that all of us can benefit from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation follows multiple failed efforts to challenge California’s blanket prohibition — \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020_CA_ABC_Act.pdf\">dating back to 1935\u003c/a> — on the sale of alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-08-24/california-lawmakers-reject-a-bill-to-extend-bar-hours-in-three-cities\">lawmakers rejected\u003c/a> Haney and Wiener’s bid to authorize weekend alcohol service until 4 a.m. at bars, nightclubs and restaurants in San Francisco, West Hollywood and Palm Springs, citing concerns about an uptick in drunk driving incidents. The Legislature also rebuffed Wiener’s 2019 bill to extend alcohol sales in 10 cities, a year after then-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill of his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem,” Brown wrote in his veto message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the only venue in the entire state where you can now legally buy booze until 4 a.m. is the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, home of the Los Angeles Clippers — following \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-30/newsom-signs-bill-to-push-last-call-until-4-a-m-but-only-for-vips-at-new-clippers-arena\">legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last year\u003c/a>. And that’s only for dues-paying VIP members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In the “hospitality zones,” venues could keep the liquor flowing for up to two hours beyond the state-mandated 2 a.m. cutoff as part of an effort to revitalize downtown districts.",
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"title": "California Bill Would Let Cities Extend Last Call to 4 a.m. in Some Downtown Areas | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The night is young — keep those drinks flowing!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s at least what San Francisco Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/matt-haney\">Matt Haney\u003c/a> is aiming to do with new legislation to allow venues in certain areas throughout the state to extend last call until 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB342\">AB 342\u003c/a>, co-authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a fellow San Francisco Democrat, would give local governments the option to create “hospitality zones” in their cities, allowing various nightlife establishments to keep the liquor flowing for up to two hours beyond the state-mandated 2 a.m. cutoff. It would take effect next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill comes amid ongoing efforts to lure more visitors to the many downtown districts across the state that have struggled to recover since the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need people in our downtowns. We need them to come here, not just during the day, but at night,” Haney told reporters at a press briefing in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning. “We know that when people come to our cities, whether for conventions, for basketball games, for big events, even to work or to live, they are often looking for not only thriving daytime opportunities, but nighttime opportunities as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034721\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034721\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250218-SFDowntown-12-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assemblymember Matt Haney speaks during a press conference in Union Square, San Francisco, on Feb. 18, 2025, announcing legislation to increase nightlife in Downtown San Francisco to help the recovery of the neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under the bill, local governments could also establish temporary “special events hospitality zones” for up to a month at a time to coincide with music festivals and other major events, including next year’s World Cup and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032881/oakland-coliseum-host-major-league-cricket-could-2028-la-olympics-be-next\">2028 Summer Olympics\u003c/a>, both slated to take place in L.A.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ben Bleiman, founder of the SF Bar Owner Alliance and owner of Harrington’s Bar & Grill in the city’s downtown, said Haney’s most recent effort to extend last call is “near and dear” to his heart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t believe that it’s OK for cities just to be clean and safe in California, though those are very important,” Bleiman said at Monday’s briefing. “We believe they also have to be fun. And we want California to be able to compete with other very fun places in the U.S. and in the world.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California cities, he said, need to “re-envision” their downtowns if they want to remain viable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe nightlife is going to be the catalyst,” he said. “It’s going to be the main engine for bringing activity and business and life and culture back to our downtowns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s amended bill, a more limited version than the one he introduced in January, requires cities that are interested in creating hospitality zones to consider public safety resources, access to transportation and hotels, walkability, and cultural appropriateness, among other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now, there is a one size fits all, top down mandate that every single business in California stops serving at 2 a.m. It makes no sense,” Haney said. “It’s out of step with over 12 states across the country and most cities around the world that are world-class destinations. It is time that we have a pro-local control, pro-business solution that allows California cities to do what they need to do to recover and to attract the conventions, the visitors, the events that all of us can benefit from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation follows multiple failed efforts to challenge California’s blanket prohibition — \u003ca href=\"https://www.abc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020_CA_ABC_Act.pdf\">dating back to 1935\u003c/a> — on the sale of alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-08-24/california-lawmakers-reject-a-bill-to-extend-bar-hours-in-three-cities\">lawmakers rejected\u003c/a> Haney and Wiener’s bid to authorize weekend alcohol service until 4 a.m. at bars, nightclubs and restaurants in San Francisco, West Hollywood and Palm Springs, citing concerns about an uptick in drunk driving incidents. The Legislature also rebuffed Wiener’s 2019 bill to extend alcohol sales in 10 cities, a year after then-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill of his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem,” Brown wrote in his veto message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the only venue in the entire state where you can now legally buy booze until 4 a.m. is the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, home of the Los Angeles Clippers — following \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-30/newsom-signs-bill-to-push-last-call-until-4-a-m-but-only-for-vips-at-new-clippers-arena\">legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last year\u003c/a>. And that’s only for dues-paying VIP members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "past-lives-fade-san-francisco-tattoo-removal-clinic",
"title": "Past Lives Fade at This San Francisco Tattoo Removal Clinic",
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"headTitle": "Past Lives Fade at This San Francisco Tattoo Removal Clinic | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The fluorescent lighting inside a hospital can be unforgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddie Gutierrez settles into a waiting room at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-general-hospital\">Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital\u003c/a>, wearing sleek, designer shades like the kind celebrities wear to avoid the public eye. Soon, he’ll swap his sunglasses for protective, medical-grade eyewear — still cool, but with more of a sci-fi edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guiterrez, 33, has kind, dark eyes. They could inspire pop songs. Etched between his ear and right eye is a small tattoo of an upside-down pitchfork. Above his left eye, he has a second tattoo of a crown, about an inch long. The designs refer to his past gang life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How’s school?” asked nurse Judy Wong as she prepared him for the exam room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a while since I’ve done a timed math test,” said Guiterrez, who is studying computer science at City College of San Francisco. “Sometimes, it’s eating up my life. When I’m done getting my bachelor’s, I’m gonna have gray hairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guiterrez braces for a painful procedure. Since September, he’s been undergoing laser treatment to remove his tattoos. The face is an especially sensitive area. He described the pain as similar to a rubber band snapping against the skin repeatedly, but he thinks the sessions, which last a few minutes, are worth the discomfort — a decision he made to start fresh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freddie Gutierrez says goodbye to clinicians after a session at the tattoo removal clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>April is Second Chance Month, which highlights the experiences of millions of Americans who are formerly incarcerated and the stigma they face for having a criminal record. As spring kicks off, patients like Gutierrez are grateful for SF General’s tattoo removal clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opened in 2009, the clinic, a partnership with UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, serves low-income people who have tattoos linked to incarceration, trafficking or gang affiliations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only the physical removal of tattoos is rewarding, but also just seeing people as they are in their journey of recovery — being a part of that and being a consistent face in that is really special,” said Dr. Matthew Pantell, who runs the clinic and is a researcher at UCSF on the social factors of health care.[aside postID=news_12034006 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250327_SoberHousing_GC-9-1020x680.jpg']Pantell took over the clinic from its founder, Dr. Pierre Joseph Marie-Rose. In 1998, he launched a similar effort, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/location--carecen-2nd-chance-tattoo-removal-clinic\">Second Chance,\u003c/a> for gang-affiliated youth in San Francisco (it’s still located at the Central American Resource Center on Mission and Cesar Chavez streets). While working at SF General Hospital, he applied for a grant to start a tattoo removal program at the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a thermal injury. I was humbled that [patients] would come back and ask me to do it again,” Marie-Rose said. “I’ve never taken that for granted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When patients enter the laser room, lo-fi hip-hop music plays. Wearing a baseball cap, jeans and fresh kicks, Pantell arms a long glass cylinder, which resembles a thin highball cocktail glass, at the tattoos. Over the music, it’s hard to hear anything noticeable as patients brace for the pain. The procedure can last anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour, depending on the tattoo size, complexity and location on the body, according to Pantell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors, such as ink color — red and green can be stubborn — and quality, can play a role, Pantell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want to do two lasers in the same day, so we’ll do the black ink first and then come back every six weeks till it’s gone,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030036 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF Dr. Matthew Pantell uses a laser tattoo removal machine during a session with Nikki at the clinic he runs at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since patients are required to return every six to eight weeks for treatment, the hospital setting helps connect patients with other health care services, according to Pantell. He pointed out that patients are linked to their primary care physician and other social needs, like housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For patients like Guiterrez, the tattoo removal visits are often the most consistent contact with the medical system that they have had. He said he has been “in and out of the [criminal justice] system” since he was a kid growing up in Santa Barbara. Last July, he was released from state prison after serving a nearly 13-year sentence for charges related to carjacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought about what I want to do for myself and being a two striker, meaning that if I catch another strike that will give me a 25-to-life sentence. So that makes me really think about every decision I make,” said Gutierrez, who said he sought self-help groups in prison and got support from Criminals & Gang Members Anonymous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said a contact affiliated with Jails to Jobs, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that supports re-entry to the workforce for formerly incarcerated people, referred him to the clinic. Jails to Jobs estimates there are around 300 similar tattoo removal clinics in the U.S. Just under half of them are located in California which, in recent years, has seen an increase in access to these services — inside prisons through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, at university health systems like UC San Diego and in cities, like Santa Rosa, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.srcity.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2829\">launched\u003c/a> a similar effort this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People typically seek tattoo removal to improve job prospects, but there’s also the societal stigma that can be as difficult to shed, said Mark Drevno, founder and executive director of Jails to Jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030034\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030034\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ana Navarro ices her tattoo to ease the pain before a session at the tattoo removal clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Simple things like traveling on the bus. I’ve had people tell me how they hide their hands on the bus because they don’t want anybody to see their hands,” he said. “Besides the practical stuff, there is inner work going on. They’re touching their soul when they’re removing these tattoos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the wider acceptance of tattoos in modern American society, their associations with prison life, gangs and violence persist. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5341544/ice-el-salvador-jerce-reyes-barrios\">reportedly\u003c/a> cited a tattoo of a Spanish soccer team as evidence for one of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. to El Salvador over their alleged allegiance to the Tren de Aragua gang, which has become a target of the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers with UC San Diego, where a free removal clinic was established in 2016, have studied motivations for tattoo removal among “justice-involved adults.” Their \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306624X221102807\">2023 study\u003c/a>, published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, found that over half of the participants cited reasons associated with “public or interpersonal stigma,” which included better perceptions among friends and family. The study also found that more than 80% of participants said they felt they had been discriminated against because of their tattoos.[aside postID=news_12026600 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/250214-Dream-Keeper-Returns-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Part of the appeal of clinics like the one at SF General is that there’s no cost to patients. The UC San Diego research cites cost as a significant barrier. Treatments at private establishments can cost thousands of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pantell estimates around a dozen patients visit the weekly clinic at SF General. Ana Navarro has a rose design on her right ankle. It’s hard to see it as the treatment appears to be working. She said she has had it since she was a teenager and has been trying to get it removed for almost a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was young, not in the right relationships,” Navarro, 32, said. “So, being able to remove them, it feels like I’ve been an opportunity to clear the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, Shannon Whiley, 53, has been trying to get two tattooed dots removed — marks that were placed as part of her breast cancer treatment. The dots, about the size of a freckle, help doctors accurately position patients during radiation therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nikki, a sexual violence survivor, has an arm sleeve filled with interwoven hearts and flowers. She described it as a “bad cover-up” in an effort to hide associations to her past life trafficked as a minor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of it was from some backyard tattoo artist who had no business really doing tattoos on a minor,” recalled Nikki, whose request to go by a nickname because of the stigma of sexual violence was granted under KQED’s anonymous sources policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been coming to the clinic since September and has started to notice her tattoos begin to fade. She has a long way to go until they’re erased, but she’s used to hard work paying off. She said she’s in nursing school, following in her mom’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I leave the clinic, I’m like, ‘God bless this doctor,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The tattoo removal clinic, run by a UCSF doctor at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, forges deep bonds with patients who are trying to mend old wounds.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fluorescent lighting inside a hospital can be unforgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Freddie Gutierrez settles into a waiting room at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-general-hospital\">Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital\u003c/a>, wearing sleek, designer shades like the kind celebrities wear to avoid the public eye. Soon, he’ll swap his sunglasses for protective, medical-grade eyewear — still cool, but with more of a sci-fi edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guiterrez, 33, has kind, dark eyes. They could inspire pop songs. Etched between his ear and right eye is a small tattoo of an upside-down pitchfork. Above his left eye, he has a second tattoo of a crown, about an inch long. The designs refer to his past gang life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How’s school?” asked nurse Judy Wong as she prepared him for the exam room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been a while since I’ve done a timed math test,” said Guiterrez, who is studying computer science at City College of San Francisco. “Sometimes, it’s eating up my life. When I’m done getting my bachelor’s, I’m gonna have gray hairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guiterrez braces for a painful procedure. Since September, he’s been undergoing laser treatment to remove his tattoos. The face is an especially sensitive area. He described the pain as similar to a rubber band snapping against the skin repeatedly, but he thinks the sessions, which last a few minutes, are worth the discomfort — a decision he made to start fresh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-23-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freddie Gutierrez says goodbye to clinicians after a session at the tattoo removal clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>April is Second Chance Month, which highlights the experiences of millions of Americans who are formerly incarcerated and the stigma they face for having a criminal record. As spring kicks off, patients like Gutierrez are grateful for SF General’s tattoo removal clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opened in 2009, the clinic, a partnership with UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, serves low-income people who have tattoos linked to incarceration, trafficking or gang affiliations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not only the physical removal of tattoos is rewarding, but also just seeing people as they are in their journey of recovery — being a part of that and being a consistent face in that is really special,” said Dr. Matthew Pantell, who runs the clinic and is a researcher at UCSF on the social factors of health care.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pantell took over the clinic from its founder, Dr. Pierre Joseph Marie-Rose. In 1998, he launched a similar effort, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/location--carecen-2nd-chance-tattoo-removal-clinic\">Second Chance,\u003c/a> for gang-affiliated youth in San Francisco (it’s still located at the Central American Resource Center on Mission and Cesar Chavez streets). While working at SF General Hospital, he applied for a grant to start a tattoo removal program at the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a thermal injury. I was humbled that [patients] would come back and ask me to do it again,” Marie-Rose said. “I’ve never taken that for granted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When patients enter the laser room, lo-fi hip-hop music plays. Wearing a baseball cap, jeans and fresh kicks, Pantell arms a long glass cylinder, which resembles a thin highball cocktail glass, at the tattoos. Over the music, it’s hard to hear anything noticeable as patients brace for the pain. The procedure can last anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour, depending on the tattoo size, complexity and location on the body, according to Pantell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors, such as ink color — red and green can be stubborn — and quality, can play a role, Pantell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t want to do two lasers in the same day, so we’ll do the black ink first and then come back every six weeks till it’s gone,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030036 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UCSF Dr. Matthew Pantell uses a laser tattoo removal machine during a session with Nikki at the clinic he runs at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since patients are required to return every six to eight weeks for treatment, the hospital setting helps connect patients with other health care services, according to Pantell. He pointed out that patients are linked to their primary care physician and other social needs, like housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For patients like Guiterrez, the tattoo removal visits are often the most consistent contact with the medical system that they have had. He said he has been “in and out of the [criminal justice] system” since he was a kid growing up in Santa Barbara. Last July, he was released from state prison after serving a nearly 13-year sentence for charges related to carjacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought about what I want to do for myself and being a two striker, meaning that if I catch another strike that will give me a 25-to-life sentence. So that makes me really think about every decision I make,” said Gutierrez, who said he sought self-help groups in prison and got support from Criminals & Gang Members Anonymous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said a contact affiliated with Jails to Jobs, a Bay Area-based nonprofit that supports re-entry to the workforce for formerly incarcerated people, referred him to the clinic. Jails to Jobs estimates there are around 300 similar tattoo removal clinics in the U.S. Just under half of them are located in California which, in recent years, has seen an increase in access to these services — inside prisons through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, at university health systems like UC San Diego and in cities, like Santa Rosa, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.srcity.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2829\">launched\u003c/a> a similar effort this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People typically seek tattoo removal to improve job prospects, but there’s also the societal stigma that can be as difficult to shed, said Mark Drevno, founder and executive director of Jails to Jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030034\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030034\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250227-UCSFTATTOOS-04-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ana Navarro ices her tattoo to ease the pain before a session at the tattoo removal clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco on Feb. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Simple things like traveling on the bus. I’ve had people tell me how they hide their hands on the bus because they don’t want anybody to see their hands,” he said. “Besides the practical stuff, there is inner work going on. They’re touching their soul when they’re removing these tattoos.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the wider acceptance of tattoos in modern American society, their associations with prison life, gangs and violence persist. Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5341544/ice-el-salvador-jerce-reyes-barrios\">reportedly\u003c/a> cited a tattoo of a Spanish soccer team as evidence for one of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. to El Salvador over their alleged allegiance to the Tren de Aragua gang, which has become a target of the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers with UC San Diego, where a free removal clinic was established in 2016, have studied motivations for tattoo removal among “justice-involved adults.” Their \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306624X221102807\">2023 study\u003c/a>, published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, found that over half of the participants cited reasons associated with “public or interpersonal stigma,” which included better perceptions among friends and family. The study also found that more than 80% of participants said they felt they had been discriminated against because of their tattoos.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Part of the appeal of clinics like the one at SF General is that there’s no cost to patients. The UC San Diego research cites cost as a significant barrier. Treatments at private establishments can cost thousands of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pantell estimates around a dozen patients visit the weekly clinic at SF General. Ana Navarro has a rose design on her right ankle. It’s hard to see it as the treatment appears to be working. She said she has had it since she was a teenager and has been trying to get it removed for almost a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was young, not in the right relationships,” Navarro, 32, said. “So, being able to remove them, it feels like I’ve been an opportunity to clear the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a while, Shannon Whiley, 53, has been trying to get two tattooed dots removed — marks that were placed as part of her breast cancer treatment. The dots, about the size of a freckle, help doctors accurately position patients during radiation therapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nikki, a sexual violence survivor, has an arm sleeve filled with interwoven hearts and flowers. She described it as a “bad cover-up” in an effort to hide associations to her past life trafficked as a minor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of it was from some backyard tattoo artist who had no business really doing tattoos on a minor,” recalled Nikki, whose request to go by a nickname because of the stigma of sexual violence was granted under KQED’s anonymous sources policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been coming to the clinic since September and has started to notice her tattoos begin to fade. She has a long way to go until they’re erased, but she’s used to hard work paying off. She said she’s in nursing school, following in her mom’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I leave the clinic, I’m like, ‘God bless this doctor,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sara Minnich woke up Tuesday to an email she’d been dreading for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was laid off from her job at the Health Resources and Services Administration — one of the federal agencies whose \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033968/san-franciscos-hhs-office-close-federal-health-cuts-pelosi\">San Francisco staff was gutted\u003c/a> as part of wide-ranging cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services’ workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We woke up one day and our jobs were gone,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minnich and hundreds of other HHS workers in the San Francisco regional office — which connects California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, six U.S. territories and more than 100 tribes to federal health resources — were shut out of their government emails, computers and offices just hours after getting the message around 2:30 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs and closure of the office came less than a week after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that HHS would reduce its staff by about 25% and shutter at least five of its 10 regional offices in the name of “governmental efficiency.” He said about 10,000 roles would be eliminated, on top of another 10,000 employees who had agreed to leave through early retirement and other means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three former employees in San Francisco’s office who lost their jobs spoke to KQED about what they did for the department and the holes their terminations will leave behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Historical knowledge thrown out the window\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The email was an impersonal form message: Minnich would be placed on 60 days of administrative leave before losing her job entirely. After she opened it, she quickly fired off a few emails to contacts in the department’s Denver office, one of the five she heard would remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minnich said she didn’t have time to hand off all of her work, but one of the documents she sent was vital: a 4,000-person contact list that included leads at primary care associations, employees in the region’s state offices for rural health, and organizations like the California Growers Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stand in line to enter the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building on April 2, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Layoffs began earlier this week at the Health and Human Service Administration offices after it was announced last week that the Trump Administration plans to cut 10,000 jobs at HHS. \u003ccite>(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Minnich described her role as two-pronged: helping people connect with HRSA grant money and programs and making the programs work better for their needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out in 2021, HRSA worked with the California Growers Association to vaccinate migrant farmworkers. It also regularly hosts grant workshops with community-based health centers that don’t have the bandwidth to hire an expert, and it connects primary care associations and clinics in rural areas with targeted health initiatives like the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program and another for all-inclusive elder care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are like ambassadors for the agency and liaisons between the general public, between HRSA grantees, [and] between health centers,” Minnich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also did public health surveillance and collected feedback about the efficiency of some of the federal HRSA initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This meant hearing: “‘Here’s the way that we feel like us in rural areas are being left out,’ or ‘Here’s a gap in policy where it doesn’t take into account these specific circumstances,’” she said. “We could relay those messages back to our leadership and to the different bureaus and offices that were in charge of coming out with the funding opportunities and with the policies surrounding these grants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the San Francisco office’s region, this work was especially important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When working with these Pacific Island jurisdictions and tribes, there’s so much knowledge and just so much trust that needs to be built before there’s any sort of successful partnership there,” Minnich said. “The amount of historical knowledge and experience and relationships that have sometimes taken decades to build … it feels like it’s all just being thrown out the window.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are the connective tissue’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fay Gordon was a regional administrator for the Administration for Community Living, an agency that ensures states and territories adhere to federal laws related to community health and services for older adults and people with disabilities. It \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/01/g-s1-57716/hhs-layoffs-seniors-disabled-liheap-acl\">coordinates Meals on Wheels\u003c/a>, which serves more than 216 million meals a year, and funds senior centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to oversight and data management, a big part of Gordon’s job was to be a point of contact for service providers and recipients and “the central voice for them within our headquarters in D.C.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11937354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11937354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Pre-packed meals in a fridge awaiting delivery.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dinners prepared by Meals on Wheels in the kitchen at the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center at the corner of Embarcadero and Beale Street in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are the connective tissue,” Gordon said. “We are the direct line from these local providers, from the senior centers, from the transportation providers, from the people who are doing respite … back to the complexity of the federal bureaucracy. And now that line is lost and that voice is lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Administration for Community Living is being completely overhauled. According to Kennedy’s March 27 directive, its “critical programs” will be integrated into other HHS agencies, like the Administration for Children and Families and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon said that not having dedicated staff for ACL programs worries her.[aside postID=news_12034478 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/FederalEmployeeLayoffsGetty-1020x680.jpg']“I think it has to do with capacity and relationships,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One part of the job that’s often overlooked is the role regional ACL employees play in disaster response, which often disproportionately affects older adults, according to Gordon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the deadly wildfires that devastated Los Angeles this year, she said her knowledge of California’s unique assisted living system was imperative in helping facilities and connecting residents with resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who work at the national level don’t realize that California has a very unique system of assisted living,” she said. “I was able to step in and say, ‘We’ve got to check on these smaller residential facilities, see if these business owners are OK, see where their residents are, what their emergency plan was.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon did similar work after a major typhoon in Guam in May 2023 and the fires in Maui that August, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extraordinarily concerned with what will happen when there is a major climate disaster, which, given the fact that we work in the Pacific Coast, as we have seen, is very likely to happen,” she told KQED. “What happens when there’s no leadership at the national level that understands the unique systems and programs for older adults in that state and in that locality?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And who will be there to elevate those needs and make sure that they get the supplemental programs and the funding and the resources in a timely manner?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preventing waste and abuse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around 55 of the 65 Administration for Children and Families workers based in San Francisco were also laid off, including regional administrator Pete Weldy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our entire Head Start team, our entire childcare team, our child welfare team, our child support team, the people that oversee the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, our people who do work on low income heating energy assistance programs” were all affected, he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1988px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12022566 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1988\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed.jpg 1988w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1920x1287.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1988px) 100vw, 1988px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play under a giant parachute at Lincoln Square Park in Oakland on Friday, May 24, 2024. Last year, the city of Oakland introduced their ‘Ready, Set, Go,’ vehicle, an RV converted into a Head Start classroom, which travels to homeless shelters, providing educational and social services to families experiencing housing instability. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the administration’s most well-known programs is Head Start, which provides early education, nutrition, health and other services for children from low-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, these are run through various entities, including cities like \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/head-start\">Oakland\u003c/a> and county offices of education. In Oakland, Head Start funds a preschool program, lends laptops, and trains educators to work with kids up to 5 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy said that ACF also funded San Francisco’s Larkin Street Youth Services and Huckleberry Youth Programs through its Runaway and Homeless Youth Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ACF’s job was to ensure the programs used funding correctly and provided imperative resources for low-income families and youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12033968 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/ap_19339517645312_wide-ffafd91c38d240cad446fa4a43ddd2ffbad7e6f0-1020x574.jpg']“Program officers are really the people who are supposed to be preventing waste, fraud and abuse, who are making sure the dollars are spent in the way that Congress intended them to be spent — those are the folks who were there, who were providing both technical assistance and oversight over taxpayer dollars,” he said. “That oversight is now gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy said the federal government was putting some “hurdles” in its payment management system, which would require grant recipients to get validation from an employee before using some of their funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With so many reductions yesterday, it’s hard to say if those programs are going to be able to get the money as quickly as they normally would,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy isn’t as worried about the states as he is the tribes and territories he worked with, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the U.S.’s largest tribes, the Navajo Nation, is within San Francisco’s region, he said. “You also have a bunch of really smaller tribes. You have landless urban tribes who are federally recognized. These are really complicated, delicate relationships that the federal government’s been trying to mend for a hundred years or more, and we were making really good progress,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I think you have to be here to do that kind of work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that there are also unique challenges that face the Pacific territories, like American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, since they are “treated like a state but not funded like one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing the community nonprofits and funding recipients in the many areas covered by the West Coast region is key to making sure the $12 billion that used to flow through the San Francisco office was spent and went to good use, Weldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regional offices like the front lines of the federal government,” he said. “We’re here in San Francisco because we’re closer to all of our partners in the region. We’re in the same time zone. They can come and visit us; we go visit them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three employees said they hadn’t been told how the department plans to redistribute their work — or whether any such plan exists. Some grant recipients might start working with people in farther regional branches, like Denver or HHS’s D.C. headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also aren’t sure whether their long-established regional networks will be maintained at all. Many contacts have already been wiped from their records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sara Minnich woke up Tuesday to an email she’d been dreading for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was laid off from her job at the Health Resources and Services Administration — one of the federal agencies whose \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033968/san-franciscos-hhs-office-close-federal-health-cuts-pelosi\">San Francisco staff was gutted\u003c/a> as part of wide-ranging cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services’ workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We woke up one day and our jobs were gone,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minnich and hundreds of other HHS workers in the San Francisco regional office — which connects California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, six U.S. territories and more than 100 tribes to federal health resources — were shut out of their government emails, computers and offices just hours after getting the message around 2:30 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The layoffs and closure of the office came less than a week after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that HHS would reduce its staff by about 25% and shutter at least five of its 10 regional offices in the name of “governmental efficiency.” He said about 10,000 roles would be eliminated, on top of another 10,000 employees who had agreed to leave through early retirement and other means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three former employees in San Francisco’s office who lost their jobs spoke to KQED about what they did for the department and the holes their terminations will leave behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Historical knowledge thrown out the window\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The email was an impersonal form message: Minnich would be placed on 60 days of administrative leave before losing her job entirely. After she opened it, she quickly fired off a few emails to contacts in the department’s Denver office, one of the five she heard would remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minnich said she didn’t have time to hand off all of her work, but one of the documents she sent was vital: a 4,000-person contact list that included leads at primary care associations, employees in the region’s state offices for rural health, and organizations like the California Growers Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12034562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12034562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/HHSGetty-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stand in line to enter the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building on April 2, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Layoffs began earlier this week at the Health and Human Service Administration offices after it was announced last week that the Trump Administration plans to cut 10,000 jobs at HHS. \u003ccite>(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Minnich described her role as two-pronged: helping people connect with HRSA grant money and programs and making the programs work better for their needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out in 2021, HRSA worked with the California Growers Association to vaccinate migrant farmworkers. It also regularly hosts grant workshops with community-based health centers that don’t have the bandwidth to hire an expert, and it connects primary care associations and clinics in rural areas with targeted health initiatives like the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program and another for all-inclusive elder care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are like ambassadors for the agency and liaisons between the general public, between HRSA grantees, [and] between health centers,” Minnich said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also did public health surveillance and collected feedback about the efficiency of some of the federal HRSA initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This meant hearing: “‘Here’s the way that we feel like us in rural areas are being left out,’ or ‘Here’s a gap in policy where it doesn’t take into account these specific circumstances,’” she said. “We could relay those messages back to our leadership and to the different bureaus and offices that were in charge of coming out with the funding opportunities and with the policies surrounding these grants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the San Francisco office’s region, this work was especially important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When working with these Pacific Island jurisdictions and tribes, there’s so much knowledge and just so much trust that needs to be built before there’s any sort of successful partnership there,” Minnich said. “The amount of historical knowledge and experience and relationships that have sometimes taken decades to build … it feels like it’s all just being thrown out the window.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are the connective tissue’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fay Gordon was a regional administrator for the Administration for Community Living, an agency that ensures states and territories adhere to federal laws related to community health and services for older adults and people with disabilities. It \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/01/g-s1-57716/hhs-layoffs-seniors-disabled-liheap-acl\">coordinates Meals on Wheels\u003c/a>, which serves more than 216 million meals a year, and funds senior centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to oversight and data management, a big part of Gordon’s job was to be a point of contact for service providers and recipients and “the central voice for them within our headquarters in D.C.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11937354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11937354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Pre-packed meals in a fridge awaiting delivery.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS41018_030_KQED_EmbarcaderoNavigationCenter_01302020_7939-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dinners prepared by Meals on Wheels in the kitchen at the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center at the corner of Embarcadero and Beale Street in San Francisco on Jan. 30, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are the connective tissue,” Gordon said. “We are the direct line from these local providers, from the senior centers, from the transportation providers, from the people who are doing respite … back to the complexity of the federal bureaucracy. And now that line is lost and that voice is lost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Administration for Community Living is being completely overhauled. According to Kennedy’s March 27 directive, its “critical programs” will be integrated into other HHS agencies, like the Administration for Children and Families and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon said that not having dedicated staff for ACL programs worries her.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I think it has to do with capacity and relationships,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One part of the job that’s often overlooked is the role regional ACL employees play in disaster response, which often disproportionately affects older adults, according to Gordon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the deadly wildfires that devastated Los Angeles this year, she said her knowledge of California’s unique assisted living system was imperative in helping facilities and connecting residents with resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people who work at the national level don’t realize that California has a very unique system of assisted living,” she said. “I was able to step in and say, ‘We’ve got to check on these smaller residential facilities, see if these business owners are OK, see where their residents are, what their emergency plan was.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gordon did similar work after a major typhoon in Guam in May 2023 and the fires in Maui that August, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extraordinarily concerned with what will happen when there is a major climate disaster, which, given the fact that we work in the Pacific Coast, as we have seen, is very likely to happen,” she told KQED. “What happens when there’s no leadership at the national level that understands the unique systems and programs for older adults in that state and in that locality?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And who will be there to elevate those needs and make sure that they get the supplemental programs and the funding and the resources in a timely manner?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Preventing waste and abuse\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around 55 of the 65 Administration for Children and Families workers based in San Francisco were also laid off, including regional administrator Pete Weldy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our entire Head Start team, our entire childcare team, our child welfare team, our child support team, the people that oversee the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, our people who do work on low income heating energy assistance programs” were all affected, he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12022566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1988px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12022566 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1988\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed.jpg 1988w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1020x684.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1536x1030.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/20240524_MobileHeadStart-14_qed-1920x1287.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1988px) 100vw, 1988px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play under a giant parachute at Lincoln Square Park in Oakland on Friday, May 24, 2024. Last year, the city of Oakland introduced their ‘Ready, Set, Go,’ vehicle, an RV converted into a Head Start classroom, which travels to homeless shelters, providing educational and social services to families experiencing housing instability. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the administration’s most well-known programs is Head Start, which provides early education, nutrition, health and other services for children from low-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, these are run through various entities, including cities like \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/head-start\">Oakland\u003c/a> and county offices of education. In Oakland, Head Start funds a preschool program, lends laptops, and trains educators to work with kids up to 5 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy said that ACF also funded San Francisco’s Larkin Street Youth Services and Huckleberry Youth Programs through its Runaway and Homeless Youth Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ACF’s job was to ensure the programs used funding correctly and provided imperative resources for low-income families and youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Program officers are really the people who are supposed to be preventing waste, fraud and abuse, who are making sure the dollars are spent in the way that Congress intended them to be spent — those are the folks who were there, who were providing both technical assistance and oversight over taxpayer dollars,” he said. “That oversight is now gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy said the federal government was putting some “hurdles” in its payment management system, which would require grant recipients to get validation from an employee before using some of their funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With so many reductions yesterday, it’s hard to say if those programs are going to be able to get the money as quickly as they normally would,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weldy isn’t as worried about the states as he is the tribes and territories he worked with, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the U.S.’s largest tribes, the Navajo Nation, is within San Francisco’s region, he said. “You also have a bunch of really smaller tribes. You have landless urban tribes who are federally recognized. These are really complicated, delicate relationships that the federal government’s been trying to mend for a hundred years or more, and we were making really good progress,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I think you have to be here to do that kind of work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that there are also unique challenges that face the Pacific territories, like American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, since they are “treated like a state but not funded like one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing the community nonprofits and funding recipients in the many areas covered by the West Coast region is key to making sure the $12 billion that used to flow through the San Francisco office was spent and went to good use, Weldy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regional offices like the front lines of the federal government,” he said. “We’re here in San Francisco because we’re closer to all of our partners in the region. We’re in the same time zone. They can come and visit us; we go visit them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three employees said they hadn’t been told how the department plans to redistribute their work — or whether any such plan exists. Some grant recipients might start working with people in farther regional branches, like Denver or HHS’s D.C. headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also aren’t sure whether their long-established regional networks will be maintained at all. Many contacts have already been wiped from their records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "a-generation-of-black-men-is-being-lost-to-overdoses-in-san-franciscof",
"title": "A Generation of Black Men Is Being Lost to Overdoses in San Francisco",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In San Francisco, Black men born between 1951 and 1970 accounted for 12% of overdose deaths between January 2020 and October 2024, despite representing less than 1% of the city’s population. The disparity in San Francisco is greater than any other major city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, we hear from Richard Beal, director of recovery services at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, about his personal story of addiction and recovery, and later talk with The San Francisco Standard’s David Sjostedt about what’s behind this trend of Black overdose deaths in the city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3650415089&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/20/san-francisco-losing-black-men-overdose-crisis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SF is losing a generation of Black men to overdoses. It’s worse here than anywhere\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While it has been reviewed by our team, there may be some errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:04] Today, we’re gonna talk about the San Francisco standards reporting on why this disparity is so bad. But first, we wanted to talk with someone from this generation who has personal experience with addiction and recovery. So we went to the Tenderloin to meet up with Richard Beal, who now leads the recovery program at the Tendloin Housing Clinic. But 30 years ago, he was in the throes of drug addiction. in the streets of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:01:49] My name is Richard Beal. I am known throughout the Tenderloin and the recovery community as the Ambassador for Recovery. I’ve been an ambassador for recovery for the last almost 30 years here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m currently the Director of Recovery Services for Tenderloin Housing Clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:09] You live in Antioch now, but where did you grow up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:02:12] I grew up in Richmond, California. I got three older brothers, I got two younger brothers, and I got four sisters. So I was born in the 60s. My heroes was Huey Newton. You got, you know, H. Rap Brown and Bobby Seale and Angela Davis and you know, this is the Black Power movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bobby Seale \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] It’s good to be here to see so many people trying to move and understand the revolutionary struggle that’s going on within the confines of racist decadent America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:02:50] Felix Mitchell, you know, Mickey Moore, they was ghetto legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newsreeel \u003c/strong>[00:02:55] 32-year-old convicted drug racketeer Felix Mitchell was convicted in San Francisco federal court earlier this year after allegations that he was the kingpin in an East Oakland heroin dealership that featured fancy cars…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:03:07] Back then, it was hard for a person of color, a Black person, to get a job that can pay enough. And so my father, because he made more money in the streets, you know, that’s what he gravitated to. People can only give you what they got. And so he gave us what he had, which was knowledge about how to survive in the street. You know, he sold weed. He did a lot of things. When I was six months old, my father went to prison for 19 counts of armed robbery. I was the youngest at that time. My three older brothers were born and my mother, she was 20 years old with four kids. She sent my father one of those Dear John letters in prison. Said she was going back to her mother in Mississippi. And my father said, yeah, I understand you’re going back to Mississippi, but leave my kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] I had a resentment against my mother. How could you leave your six-month-old baby? You know, it took me a long time coming into recovery, because my father never forgave her. He said, I’m never going back in Mississippi, and he never forgave my mother. Anyway, they let him out after the five years, and my father never went back to the penitentiary after. He didn’t do no more robberies or anything like that, but he started selling weed and gambling and he ran a gambling house and all that type of stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:34] That sounds like a pretty, I mean, intense childhood and you mention your addiction and your recovery. How did you, I guess, get caught up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:04:45] My father got out and I started stealing doobies out of my father’s ashtray. And so nine years old, I started smoking weed. My father found out we were smoking weed, me and my older brothers, they was already into it. At 12 years old he started giving it to us, to sell. And so at 12 years I was selling 50 cent joints, five dollar matchboxes and three finger lids. That’s what they called it back in the 70s. Joint is a joint, you know. Five dollar matchboxes, they would literally be a box of matches filled with weed, three fingers of marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:05:16] And so I smoked weed, just weed, for a long time. And I got kicked out of school, every high school I went to. And then, you know, I was caught up with crack. And when I got caught up crack, it was like, I smoked crack for like 10 years. That’s what led me to San Francisco. And so in the early 80s, I came out to San Fransisco. I went from Richmond to Berkeley. You know, and I went from, didn’t have enough dope, didn’t have enough money there. I went from Berkeley to Oakland, didn’t have enough money, didn’ have enough dope there. Then I went the San Francisco. And it was like, free drugs, drug heaven, you can use, you know, it was, like, you know. San Francisco, people up all night long getting high. You know sometimes the police would mess with you, sometimes they wouldn’t. But it was just a lot different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:06:10] I wanted to go back to the point where I could just smoke weed and not use those harder drugs. And every time I always ended up back with crack. It took me 12 years to get 30 days. I’m talking about from 83 to 95. The last day I used, I could remember laying down that night, just sleeping out in the alley right there by the entrance of the detox and a woman named Deborah Williams, she let me in and she tried, I was too tore up really still to be, you know, fully conscious and do an assessment. So she just told me to lay down on the mat and at that time I was tired. I said, I’m ready. I said I’m tired of this. I don’t want to do crack no more. I tried everything else and nothing has worked. And so that was the day I really surrendered. On July 20th, I went into a St. Anthony’s program right there at 55 Jones Street. I did the intake and everything, and I went to Seton Hall. You know, I graduated the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] How old were you then?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:07:15] I was 29 years old when I came into recall. So I’ve been out through my 30s and 40s and now 50s and been clean. So I’ll be celebrating 30 years clean on July 18th.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:28] When you were going through your own recovery, was it common to see other folks in the community going through what you were doing through, especially, and in particular, black men?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:07:39] Two of my brothers ended up dying from the disease of addiction. My brother Anthony, you know, he passed away. You know, I found him dead 2017. You know I tried to get him to come out and get clean and I let him come live with me. I found him in a room right next to me. I had a two, three bedroom in Hayward. And then my other brother, William, he went into a program and he tried to detox and off a crack. It wasn’t, he wasn’t an IV drug user. I tried it all, but he loved crack though and he loved, he used to smoke meth every now and then. He had a heart attack in the program, in treatment. And then he left the program at the hospital, didn’t go back and ended up dying. Two days before his 46th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] What have you learned over the last 30 years about what black men in particular need?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:08:36] They need people like me to talk to him and let him know that you can recover. The disease of addiction is addressed through applying treatment and talking about trauma and talking why did you use the exact nature of where all of that came from? What are you suffering from that let you, if drugs is the answer, what is the question? Why do you think that you need a drug to get through life, to deal with your emotions and your feelings? That’s the question! And a good counselor is not a person that has all the answers. A good counselor, a good case manager is the ability to ask the right question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:21] Twice a week, Richard leads a relapse prevention meeting. We followed him there. In a packed room on a Thursday morning with donuts and coffee, participants shared their stories and why having a group like this was important to their recovery journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] How’s everybody doing this morning? Good. All right, all right, y’all. And so I just want to say, you know, I really, really appreciate you. Each and every one of y’all. When y’all made the decision to come to New Horizons Transitional Housing, when you came here for being in custody, when you came here from going through residential treatment, everybody made a decision that they want to improve the quality of their life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:05] One thing I noticed that this program did build for everybody and. I know it may not seem important to everybody, but it really is. It’s bringing structure back into our life. Because we really didn’t have no structure. The 25th of this month, I’ve made three years clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:29] The drugs basically took away my youth, like I didn’t have an education before until I went to prison and got my high school diploma. But then ever since I’ve been to this program it gave me that safe haven to actually study and I go to San Francisco City College and my major is environmental science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:49] I can just tell you that, like, I grew up in most underprivileged areas around here, like around, you know, 3rd Street and Cortland, and I’ve been using since I was 12 years old. I’m 59 years old, but thanks to the program and thanks to being able to come to Horizons, like I got a job now as an SUD counselor at a methadone clinic, and I got a second job at Horizons in San Mateo in detox. And I go to school, I’m pursuing my B.A. and my certification for SUD Counseling. And I couldn’t do it without being here. You know what I’m saying? And I’m so grateful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] Recovery has done so much for me. I’m not a 9 to 5 recovery guy. Some people are just 9 to 5 people. I’m a one o’clock in the morning, two o’ clock in the mornin’ — if you call me, I’m a respond type of person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:49] Why is that? Why do you work it sounds like so hard beyond the 9 to 5, like what keeps you going, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:12:00] Because what God in this program has done for me and recovery has done to me, the gift of recovery is just priceless. Some of the places that I go to now, they used to put me out the crack house because I tweaked so hard. Now when I walk into places, they embrace me. And so I embrace the same suffering addict. The whole thing about the newcomer is the most important person at any meeting. I understand that, but then it says the old timer is invaluable to the group because it shows the newcomer that the program works. So we need each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:35] Thank you so much, Richard, for your time. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:12:38] Hey, thank you. I really appreciate y’all coming out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:22] In the first part of this episode, we paid a visit to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and heard from Richard Beal, who himself suffered from addiction for decades. Beal is part of a whole generation of Black men in San Francisco whose lives have been disrupted by drug addiction. And according to reporting by the San Francisco Standard, it’s worse here than anywhere. David Sjostedt is a staff writer for the San Francisco Standard. He reported this story with the Standard’s Noah Baustin and George Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:58] What exactly do the numbers show in terms of the impact of overdose deaths on this specific group of folks?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:14:08] The Black men born from 1951 to 1970 have died of overdoses at a higher rate than any other demographic group in dozens of U.S. counties. In San Francisco, that disparity was worse than anywhere else. So just between January 2020 and October 2024, there was at least 410 black men from this age group who died of overdoses in San Francisco. A lot of them are dying from fentanyl, but what we do know that is different between Black men in this age group and other races is that Black men are far more likely to have died with cocaine in their systems. And so there is some speculation based on that data that a lot of these deaths and a lot of this disparity is being caused by a laced cocaine supply in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:08] What did your reporting find about why it’s so bad for this cohort of men, and specifically this age group in particular?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:15:17] So we spoke with dozens of members of this community, including family members of people who were lost, people who have survived, people who are working in the city, around the city, advocates, researchers, and it’s a combination of factors. But one of the most striking is that this generation, many of them grew up during redevelopment in San Francisco that saw many black families torn apart, displaced. The community in the Fillmore, Western Addition, you know, there was this mass exodus of Black families from that neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:15:54] In the late 90s to the early 2000s, San Francisco saw this influx of tech jobs, but the city’s Black community did not see a corresponding increase in their employment in these sectors. In 2023, the median income for Black households in San Francisco was about $47,000. That’s less than a third of white household median and less than Black communities nationwide, which is wild considering how expensive it is to live in this city compared to other places in the country. Dr. Philip Coffin, the director of substance use research at the Department of Public Health said that when he went through the overdose death data and filtered out people who were recently homeless or still homeless, the disparity went away. From their eyes, this disparity is as much caused by economic factors as much as the health disparities that have happened for generations back to slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:06] Richard talked with us about how he had a really rocky childhood. I mean, his dad was incarcerated. His mother left their family when he was really young. He started selling drugs, I think at like somewhere between 9 and 12 years old. Was in and out of schools. I mean was that also similar to the other people that you talked with in this story?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:17:31] Yeah, I did a roundtable with, I think, about seven people in this cohort while I was reporting on this story. And when I was asking them, why do you think this disparity exists? That was the first answer I got from everybody was, well, we grew up around it. This is what our dad did. This is what our brother did. This is what everybody did. Then, of course, we had to ask the question, why was that happening? And yeah, I mean, there was just so much trauma. Back to the main family that we profiled, they watched their neighbors’ homes taken away on trucks. They stood in front of bulldozers to keep their community from being torn down. We ended up speaking with the family of Mary Helen Rogers, who was a storied activist in the Fillmore fighting against redevelopment and found that two of her sons had died of overdoses in this time period. They were both in this cohort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:18:29] There’s a lot of disagreement right now about the best way to tackle the overdose crisis. For years, San Francisco has promoted harm reduction, this idea of providing people tools to use drugs safely. But others want to see the city promote abstinence. Mayor Daniel Lurie recently ordered the city to cut back on harm reduction programs that offered safe smoking supplies such as pipes, foils, and straws. Some medical experts have spoken out saying that these programs save lives and that getting rid of them will make the crisis worse. And you could see this disagreement within the black community, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:18] What did you hear from Black folks in San Francisco, especially the surviving family members of those who’ve died of overdoses, and people like Richard even, about what they think is needed to address this problem?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:19:33] The thorough line that I heard from many people, there’s a lot of disagreement on nuanced policy choices and how the city should move forward, but one point of agreement is that there needs to be acknowledgement and inclusion of these Black community leaders. There are some Black service providers in the city who still feel as if the Department of Public Health doesn’t listen to them, and that even when decisions come down to work with. members of this group that is most affected by the overdose crisis, it comes from white leadership rather than coming from the community itself. And that leads to a huge distrust in public health but also in some of these strategies that many people say are effective at reducing overdoses such as fentanyl test strips and naloxone which is an overdose antidote. those strategies fall under this label of harm reduction, which many people in the Black community have no trust in and it’s seen as a white thought coming into their communities. What’s funny is even with all the political disagreement going on in the city, when you really get down to the brass tacks with a lot of these people who are outspoken against one approach or another, a lot them really are in agreement that there needs to be some of both. The city needs to continue investing in these communities in ways that give people purpose. Addiction, it doesn’t live and die by drug use. It’s a whole confluence of factors that are happening when somebody is suffering from addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:21:23] Well, David, thanks so much for joining us on the show. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:21:27] Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In San Francisco, Black men born between 1951 and 1970 accounted for 12% of overdose deaths between January 2020 and October 2024, despite representing less than 1% of the city’s population. The disparity in San Francisco is greater than any other major city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, we hear from Richard Beal, director of recovery services at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, about his personal story of addiction and recovery, and later talk with The San Francisco Standard’s David Sjostedt about what’s behind this trend of Black overdose deaths in the city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3650415089&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2024/12/20/san-francisco-losing-black-men-overdose-crisis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SF is losing a generation of Black men to overdoses. It’s worse here than anywhere\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While it has been reviewed by our team, there may be some errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:04] Today, we’re gonna talk about the San Francisco standards reporting on why this disparity is so bad. But first, we wanted to talk with someone from this generation who has personal experience with addiction and recovery. So we went to the Tenderloin to meet up with Richard Beal, who now leads the recovery program at the Tendloin Housing Clinic. But 30 years ago, he was in the throes of drug addiction. in the streets of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:01:49] My name is Richard Beal. I am known throughout the Tenderloin and the recovery community as the Ambassador for Recovery. I’ve been an ambassador for recovery for the last almost 30 years here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m currently the Director of Recovery Services for Tenderloin Housing Clinic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:09] You live in Antioch now, but where did you grow up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:02:12] I grew up in Richmond, California. I got three older brothers, I got two younger brothers, and I got four sisters. So I was born in the 60s. My heroes was Huey Newton. You got, you know, H. Rap Brown and Bobby Seale and Angela Davis and you know, this is the Black Power movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bobby Seale \u003c/strong>[00:02:38] It’s good to be here to see so many people trying to move and understand the revolutionary struggle that’s going on within the confines of racist decadent America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:02:50] Felix Mitchell, you know, Mickey Moore, they was ghetto legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Newsreeel \u003c/strong>[00:02:55] 32-year-old convicted drug racketeer Felix Mitchell was convicted in San Francisco federal court earlier this year after allegations that he was the kingpin in an East Oakland heroin dealership that featured fancy cars…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:03:07] Back then, it was hard for a person of color, a Black person, to get a job that can pay enough. And so my father, because he made more money in the streets, you know, that’s what he gravitated to. People can only give you what they got. And so he gave us what he had, which was knowledge about how to survive in the street. You know, he sold weed. He did a lot of things. When I was six months old, my father went to prison for 19 counts of armed robbery. I was the youngest at that time. My three older brothers were born and my mother, she was 20 years old with four kids. She sent my father one of those Dear John letters in prison. Said she was going back to her mother in Mississippi. And my father said, yeah, I understand you’re going back to Mississippi, but leave my kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] I had a resentment against my mother. How could you leave your six-month-old baby? You know, it took me a long time coming into recovery, because my father never forgave her. He said, I’m never going back in Mississippi, and he never forgave my mother. Anyway, they let him out after the five years, and my father never went back to the penitentiary after. He didn’t do no more robberies or anything like that, but he started selling weed and gambling and he ran a gambling house and all that type of stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:34] That sounds like a pretty, I mean, intense childhood and you mention your addiction and your recovery. How did you, I guess, get caught up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:04:45] My father got out and I started stealing doobies out of my father’s ashtray. And so nine years old, I started smoking weed. My father found out we were smoking weed, me and my older brothers, they was already into it. At 12 years old he started giving it to us, to sell. And so at 12 years I was selling 50 cent joints, five dollar matchboxes and three finger lids. That’s what they called it back in the 70s. Joint is a joint, you know. Five dollar matchboxes, they would literally be a box of matches filled with weed, three fingers of marijuana.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:05:16] And so I smoked weed, just weed, for a long time. And I got kicked out of school, every high school I went to. And then, you know, I was caught up with crack. And when I got caught up crack, it was like, I smoked crack for like 10 years. That’s what led me to San Francisco. And so in the early 80s, I came out to San Fransisco. I went from Richmond to Berkeley. You know, and I went from, didn’t have enough dope, didn’t have enough money there. I went from Berkeley to Oakland, didn’t have enough money, didn’ have enough dope there. Then I went the San Francisco. And it was like, free drugs, drug heaven, you can use, you know, it was, like, you know. San Francisco, people up all night long getting high. You know sometimes the police would mess with you, sometimes they wouldn’t. But it was just a lot different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:06:10] I wanted to go back to the point where I could just smoke weed and not use those harder drugs. And every time I always ended up back with crack. It took me 12 years to get 30 days. I’m talking about from 83 to 95. The last day I used, I could remember laying down that night, just sleeping out in the alley right there by the entrance of the detox and a woman named Deborah Williams, she let me in and she tried, I was too tore up really still to be, you know, fully conscious and do an assessment. So she just told me to lay down on the mat and at that time I was tired. I said, I’m ready. I said I’m tired of this. I don’t want to do crack no more. I tried everything else and nothing has worked. And so that was the day I really surrendered. On July 20th, I went into a St. Anthony’s program right there at 55 Jones Street. I did the intake and everything, and I went to Seton Hall. You know, I graduated the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] How old were you then?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:07:15] I was 29 years old when I came into recall. So I’ve been out through my 30s and 40s and now 50s and been clean. So I’ll be celebrating 30 years clean on July 18th.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:28] When you were going through your own recovery, was it common to see other folks in the community going through what you were doing through, especially, and in particular, black men?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:07:39] Two of my brothers ended up dying from the disease of addiction. My brother Anthony, you know, he passed away. You know, I found him dead 2017. You know I tried to get him to come out and get clean and I let him come live with me. I found him in a room right next to me. I had a two, three bedroom in Hayward. And then my other brother, William, he went into a program and he tried to detox and off a crack. It wasn’t, he wasn’t an IV drug user. I tried it all, but he loved crack though and he loved, he used to smoke meth every now and then. He had a heart attack in the program, in treatment. And then he left the program at the hospital, didn’t go back and ended up dying. Two days before his 46th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] What have you learned over the last 30 years about what black men in particular need?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:08:36] They need people like me to talk to him and let him know that you can recover. The disease of addiction is addressed through applying treatment and talking about trauma and talking why did you use the exact nature of where all of that came from? What are you suffering from that let you, if drugs is the answer, what is the question? Why do you think that you need a drug to get through life, to deal with your emotions and your feelings? That’s the question! And a good counselor is not a person that has all the answers. A good counselor, a good case manager is the ability to ask the right question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:21] Twice a week, Richard leads a relapse prevention meeting. We followed him there. In a packed room on a Thursday morning with donuts and coffee, participants shared their stories and why having a group like this was important to their recovery journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] How’s everybody doing this morning? Good. All right, all right, y’all. And so I just want to say, you know, I really, really appreciate you. Each and every one of y’all. When y’all made the decision to come to New Horizons Transitional Housing, when you came here for being in custody, when you came here from going through residential treatment, everybody made a decision that they want to improve the quality of their life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:05] One thing I noticed that this program did build for everybody and. I know it may not seem important to everybody, but it really is. It’s bringing structure back into our life. Because we really didn’t have no structure. The 25th of this month, I’ve made three years clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:29] The drugs basically took away my youth, like I didn’t have an education before until I went to prison and got my high school diploma. But then ever since I’ve been to this program it gave me that safe haven to actually study and I go to San Francisco City College and my major is environmental science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meeting participant \u003c/strong>[00:10:49] I can just tell you that, like, I grew up in most underprivileged areas around here, like around, you know, 3rd Street and Cortland, and I’ve been using since I was 12 years old. I’m 59 years old, but thanks to the program and thanks to being able to come to Horizons, like I got a job now as an SUD counselor at a methadone clinic, and I got a second job at Horizons in San Mateo in detox. And I go to school, I’m pursuing my B.A. and my certification for SUD Counseling. And I couldn’t do it without being here. You know what I’m saying? And I’m so grateful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] Recovery has done so much for me. I’m not a 9 to 5 recovery guy. Some people are just 9 to 5 people. I’m a one o’clock in the morning, two o’ clock in the mornin’ — if you call me, I’m a respond type of person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:49] Why is that? Why do you work it sounds like so hard beyond the 9 to 5, like what keeps you going, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:12:00] Because what God in this program has done for me and recovery has done to me, the gift of recovery is just priceless. Some of the places that I go to now, they used to put me out the crack house because I tweaked so hard. Now when I walk into places, they embrace me. And so I embrace the same suffering addict. The whole thing about the newcomer is the most important person at any meeting. I understand that, but then it says the old timer is invaluable to the group because it shows the newcomer that the program works. So we need each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:35] Thank you so much, Richard, for your time. Appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Beal \u003c/strong>[00:12:38] Hey, thank you. I really appreciate y’all coming out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:22] In the first part of this episode, we paid a visit to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and heard from Richard Beal, who himself suffered from addiction for decades. Beal is part of a whole generation of Black men in San Francisco whose lives have been disrupted by drug addiction. And according to reporting by the San Francisco Standard, it’s worse here than anywhere. David Sjostedt is a staff writer for the San Francisco Standard. He reported this story with the Standard’s Noah Baustin and George Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:58] What exactly do the numbers show in terms of the impact of overdose deaths on this specific group of folks?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:14:08] The Black men born from 1951 to 1970 have died of overdoses at a higher rate than any other demographic group in dozens of U.S. counties. In San Francisco, that disparity was worse than anywhere else. So just between January 2020 and October 2024, there was at least 410 black men from this age group who died of overdoses in San Francisco. A lot of them are dying from fentanyl, but what we do know that is different between Black men in this age group and other races is that Black men are far more likely to have died with cocaine in their systems. And so there is some speculation based on that data that a lot of these deaths and a lot of this disparity is being caused by a laced cocaine supply in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:08] What did your reporting find about why it’s so bad for this cohort of men, and specifically this age group in particular?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:15:17] So we spoke with dozens of members of this community, including family members of people who were lost, people who have survived, people who are working in the city, around the city, advocates, researchers, and it’s a combination of factors. But one of the most striking is that this generation, many of them grew up during redevelopment in San Francisco that saw many black families torn apart, displaced. The community in the Fillmore, Western Addition, you know, there was this mass exodus of Black families from that neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:15:54] In the late 90s to the early 2000s, San Francisco saw this influx of tech jobs, but the city’s Black community did not see a corresponding increase in their employment in these sectors. In 2023, the median income for Black households in San Francisco was about $47,000. That’s less than a third of white household median and less than Black communities nationwide, which is wild considering how expensive it is to live in this city compared to other places in the country. Dr. Philip Coffin, the director of substance use research at the Department of Public Health said that when he went through the overdose death data and filtered out people who were recently homeless or still homeless, the disparity went away. From their eyes, this disparity is as much caused by economic factors as much as the health disparities that have happened for generations back to slavery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:06] Richard talked with us about how he had a really rocky childhood. I mean, his dad was incarcerated. His mother left their family when he was really young. He started selling drugs, I think at like somewhere between 9 and 12 years old. Was in and out of schools. I mean was that also similar to the other people that you talked with in this story?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:17:31] Yeah, I did a roundtable with, I think, about seven people in this cohort while I was reporting on this story. And when I was asking them, why do you think this disparity exists? That was the first answer I got from everybody was, well, we grew up around it. This is what our dad did. This is what our brother did. This is what everybody did. Then, of course, we had to ask the question, why was that happening? And yeah, I mean, there was just so much trauma. Back to the main family that we profiled, they watched their neighbors’ homes taken away on trucks. They stood in front of bulldozers to keep their community from being torn down. We ended up speaking with the family of Mary Helen Rogers, who was a storied activist in the Fillmore fighting against redevelopment and found that two of her sons had died of overdoses in this time period. They were both in this cohort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:18:29] There’s a lot of disagreement right now about the best way to tackle the overdose crisis. For years, San Francisco has promoted harm reduction, this idea of providing people tools to use drugs safely. But others want to see the city promote abstinence. Mayor Daniel Lurie recently ordered the city to cut back on harm reduction programs that offered safe smoking supplies such as pipes, foils, and straws. Some medical experts have spoken out saying that these programs save lives and that getting rid of them will make the crisis worse. And you could see this disagreement within the black community, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:19:18] What did you hear from Black folks in San Francisco, especially the surviving family members of those who’ve died of overdoses, and people like Richard even, about what they think is needed to address this problem?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:19:33] The thorough line that I heard from many people, there’s a lot of disagreement on nuanced policy choices and how the city should move forward, but one point of agreement is that there needs to be acknowledgement and inclusion of these Black community leaders. There are some Black service providers in the city who still feel as if the Department of Public Health doesn’t listen to them, and that even when decisions come down to work with. members of this group that is most affected by the overdose crisis, it comes from white leadership rather than coming from the community itself. And that leads to a huge distrust in public health but also in some of these strategies that many people say are effective at reducing overdoses such as fentanyl test strips and naloxone which is an overdose antidote. those strategies fall under this label of harm reduction, which many people in the Black community have no trust in and it’s seen as a white thought coming into their communities. What’s funny is even with all the political disagreement going on in the city, when you really get down to the brass tacks with a lot of these people who are outspoken against one approach or another, a lot them really are in agreement that there needs to be some of both. The city needs to continue investing in these communities in ways that give people purpose. Addiction, it doesn’t live and die by drug use. It’s a whole confluence of factors that are happening when somebody is suffering from addiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:21:23] Well, David, thanks so much for joining us on the show. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Sjostedt \u003c/strong>[00:21:27] Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "SF’s Single-Family Home Neighborhoods Could See More Apartments, 65-Story Towers Near Downtown",
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"headTitle": "SF’s Single-Family Home Neighborhoods Could See More Apartments, 65-Story Towers Near Downtown | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco officials want to make way for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11992758/after-missing-housing-goals-sf-has-permit-process-slashed-under-new-state-law\">more housing\u003c/a>. Where to put it? In quiet neighborhoods on the west side, historically known for single-family homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, the city’s planning department will release details of a preliminary proposal to allow mid-rise apartment buildings, up to eight stories tall, along major streets in the Richmond and Sunset districts, along with some other neighborhoods in the northwestern part of the city. It’s also proposing to allow buildings up to 65 stories tall along certain major corridors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department will host an \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/planning-commission\">informational \u003c/a>hearing about the plan, \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/player/camera/50?publish_id=1783&redirect=true\">which will be livestreamed\u003c/a>, on April 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, city officials \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice\">concentrated\u003c/a> housing development on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">southeast side\u003c/a> of San Francisco, including the Mission District, South of Market and the Dogpatch, which \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/pim/map/?search=3574009&layers=Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts\">allow for taller buildings.\u003c/a> Meanwhile, large swaths of the Sunset, Richmond, Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods currently only allow for buildings \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/pim/map/?search=3574009&layers=Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts\">up to four stories tall\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As San Francisco faces pressure from the state to \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/housing-element-update-2022\">plan for more than 82,000 new apartments\u003c/a> by 2031, city officials are considering \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice\">opening these northern and western neighborhoods\u003c/a> to apartments six to \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6e0e399f9c82456dbda233eacebc433d/\">eight stories tall along major streets\u003c/a>, with some large boulevards, such as Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue, going up to 65 stories tall near the city’s downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033009\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12033009 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pedestrians cross the street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents several of the neighborhoods proposed to be rezoned, said the changes could help bring activity back to \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7086165/san-francisco-economic-recovery/\">once-lively areas\u003c/a> of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Post-pandemic, San Francisco has not rebounded in the way that other cities have, and we have an opportunity to really thoughtfully increase vibrancy in certain areas of the city,” Sherrill said. “By doing that with residents, we can be really effective in planning for the long-term future of the city that stays true with San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the city’s Principal Planner, Lisa Chen, the decision to add more apartments to the west side is thanks to a state mandate requiring the city to direct new development to well-resourced neighborhoods. People living in the \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/external_pages/unpacked/11484/index.html?t=1743463757#faq\">northern and western neighborhoods\u003c/a> have some of the highest incomes, home values, employment rates and better educational attainment rates than their eastern counterparts.[aside postID=news_12017695 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/IMG_3372_qed-1020x680.jpg']Chen said that if the city were to plan for housing in those areas, the people eventually living there would have access to better resources, such as public transit, parks, high-performing public schools, retail, and community facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is that we have already rezoned many parts of the southern and eastern neighborhoods,” Chen said. “While we can continue to look for more opportunities to add housing in those areas, the state is requiring that the emphasis of this rezoning and the majority of units be placed in the well-resourced neighborhoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This can be done sensitively, said San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, by focusing development along major corridors in the western and northern parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people are going to continue to want to work here and live here,” he said. “I think we do need to try as best we can to accommodate that. And I think we can do it without destroying what we love about San Francisco. I think we can balance those things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the plan is receiving mixed reactions from residents, some who want more activity in their suburban-style neighborhoods and others who worry it could displace vulnerable renters and small businesses if the properties they occupy are redeveloped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033008\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033008\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Houses line a street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I can see people being forced out of their homes, rent-controlled apartments and buildings being destroyed and luxury market-rate housing being built in its place,” said Don Misumi, a member of tenants’ rights group \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/richmonddistrictrising/\">Richmond District Rising\u003c/a>. “There’s not really much doubt in my mind unless things start to change and I see some concrete proposals that are going to provide tenant protections, that are going to provide protections for small businesses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s planning department has \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/11v8sWadgj-MTMLTLRZEBF3wmLc6-ZUxL/view?usp=sharing\">already approved roughly 58,100 new apartments\u003c/a>, largely to be built in the eastern part of the city, that are awaiting construction. However, to reach the state’s goal of planning for more than 82,000 new units, the department is proposing that \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/documents/citywide/housing-choice/RHNA-Primer.pdf\">some of the remaining homes\u003c/a> be built in the north and west sides.[aside postID=news_12018940 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/OceanTowerRendering2-1020x574.jpg']The city’s preliminary map proposes to \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6e0e399f9c82456dbda233eacebc433d/#data_s=id%3AdataSource_3-18d42c41053-layer-13%3A43743\">rezone commercial corridors\u003c/a>, including 19th Avenue, Geary Boulevard and Clement Street. The bulk of the proposed rezoning would stretch from Russian Hill to Parkside and could allow for taller buildings — up to 65 stories on certain commercial corridors — creating opportunities for thousands of new homes. The plan also includes increasing height limits in other neighborhoods throughout the city, including along Market Street in the Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After multiple informational hearings where residents can offer comments and voice concerns, the proposal will go to the planning commission, where it could be amended or changed. It will ultimately have to go before the Board of Supervisors before the end of January 2026, when the city faces a state-mandated deadline to approve a rezoning plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it misses that deadline, \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice#faqs\">it could lose\u003c/a> state funding for affordable housing and public transportation, risk lawsuits, fines and be subject to the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945744/california-building-boom-a-new-law-promised-big-but-has-yet-to-deliver-in-the-bay-area\"> builder’s remedy\u003c/a>, a mechanism that allows developers to circumvent local building rules if the city is out of compliance with state housing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process for our rezoning is a bit of a fait accompli — we already agreed to this,” said Jane Natoli, San Francisco Organizing Director for the pro-housing lobbying group, YIMBY Action. “All we’re trying to do is honor the commitments we told the state we were going to do, at the end of the day, to build the housing we need for San Franciscans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From sand dunes to suburban homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s decision to rezone the western part of the city marks a break from the area’s historically low-density character. Western neighborhoods were some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/richmond_arch.php\">last parts\u003c/a> of the city to be developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the mid-to-late 1800s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/sunset.php#:~:text=The%201894%20California%20Midwinter%20International,a%20sea%20of%20stucco%20homes\">the Inner Sunset\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/richmond_arch.php\">Richmond districts\u003c/a> were home to a handful of dairies, ranches, a chicken farm — even a dynamite factory — while the Outer Sunset stretched out in a yawning sprawl of sand dunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033006\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033006\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Sunset District and Ocean Beach in San Francisco on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/earthquakes/san-francisco\">devastating 1906 earthquake\u003c/a>, refugee camps sprang up on the city’s underdeveloped western side. Woody LaBounty’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/sw17.php\">great-grandparents even met at one of those camps\u003c/a> in the Richmond area, he said. The lifelong Richmond resident and president of the preservationist organization San Francisco Heritage said tract houses soon began popping up atop sand dunes to replace the temporary camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After World War II, most of the Sunset and Richmond districts had been developed into suburban-style neighborhoods with single-family homes, LaBounty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a yard for your family to play in, you have multiple bedrooms, you’ve got your own sort of little plot — your little estate,” he said, “even if it’s a 25-by-100-foot lot in the Sunset District.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s for that same reason why many westside residents enjoy this part of town today. Paola Soto said she moved to the Outer Sunset five years ago so she and her husband could raise their daughter in a rented single-family home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just loved the neighborhood and how family-oriented it is,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like part of the city, but you’re still in the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Soto said there aren’t many amenities or small businesses to patronize on her block. She welcomes the rezoning if it could bring more business activity to her neighborhood but said taller buildings could mean losing “this kind of neighborhood vibe” that she likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Picking and choosing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While residents like Soto are hoping the rezoning could bring new small businesses to the Sunset and Richmond, existing business owners are concerned they will be forced out. Yoland Porrata, an esthetician and board member of nonprofit Small Business Forward, owns a skincare studio in the Lower Haight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, she is trying to work with the city to establish new protections against displacement for small business owners, even if they do not own the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033010\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033010\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicyclist rides down the street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Do we have a right to return?” she asked. “We already have super vulnerable commercial leases that are not nice and tidy in the way that some of the residential leases are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with small business owners, tenants’ rights groups are equally concerned about the city’s plan. San Francisco offers a bevy of tenant protections, but local groups worry the rezoning might encourage landlords to pressure renters to move out or evict them unlawfully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dyan Ruiz, a member of Race & Equity In All Planning Coalition, said her organization wants to make sure developers are following the city’s laws and that it can make sure tenants aren’t displaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to increase the accountability and enforcement of existing laws and making sure that there aren’t gaps and loopholes that tenants are falling through,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LaBounty hopes the city can strike some kind of balance — allowing more housing while still retaining the neighborhoods’ quiet charm. Pointing out the coffee shop across the street from where he lives, he said he doesn’t want to see it go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You got a cafe, a dry cleaner and a bakery right in a row — everybody loves them, you know? Maybe don’t upzone those,” he said. “It feels to me like you could do some picking and choosing, and the neighborhood could totally help you with it too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, city officials \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice\">concentrated\u003c/a> housing development on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">southeast side\u003c/a> of San Francisco, including the Mission District, South of Market and the Dogpatch, which \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/pim/map/?search=3574009&layers=Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts\">allow for taller buildings.\u003c/a> Meanwhile, large swaths of the Sunset, Richmond, Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods currently only allow for buildings \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanninggis.org/pim/map/?search=3574009&layers=Height%20and%20Bulk%20Districts\">up to four stories tall\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As San Francisco faces pressure from the state to \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/housing-element-update-2022\">plan for more than 82,000 new apartments\u003c/a> by 2031, city officials are considering \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice\">opening these northern and western neighborhoods\u003c/a> to apartments six to \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6e0e399f9c82456dbda233eacebc433d/\">eight stories tall along major streets\u003c/a>, with some large boulevards, such as Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue, going up to 65 stories tall near the city’s downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033009\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12033009 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-15-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pedestrians cross the street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents several of the neighborhoods proposed to be rezoned, said the changes could help bring activity back to \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7086165/san-francisco-economic-recovery/\">once-lively areas\u003c/a> of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Post-pandemic, San Francisco has not rebounded in the way that other cities have, and we have an opportunity to really thoughtfully increase vibrancy in certain areas of the city,” Sherrill said. “By doing that with residents, we can be really effective in planning for the long-term future of the city that stays true with San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the city’s Principal Planner, Lisa Chen, the decision to add more apartments to the west side is thanks to a state mandate requiring the city to direct new development to well-resourced neighborhoods. People living in the \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/external_pages/unpacked/11484/index.html?t=1743463757#faq\">northern and western neighborhoods\u003c/a> have some of the highest incomes, home values, employment rates and better educational attainment rates than their eastern counterparts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Chen said that if the city were to plan for housing in those areas, the people eventually living there would have access to better resources, such as public transit, parks, high-performing public schools, retail, and community facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is that we have already rezoned many parts of the southern and eastern neighborhoods,” Chen said. “While we can continue to look for more opportunities to add housing in those areas, the state is requiring that the emphasis of this rezoning and the majority of units be placed in the well-resourced neighborhoods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This can be done sensitively, said San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, by focusing development along major corridors in the western and northern parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think people are going to continue to want to work here and live here,” he said. “I think we do need to try as best we can to accommodate that. And I think we can do it without destroying what we love about San Francisco. I think we can balance those things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the plan is receiving mixed reactions from residents, some who want more activity in their suburban-style neighborhoods and others who worry it could displace vulnerable renters and small businesses if the properties they occupy are redeveloped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033008\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033008\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Houses line a street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I can see people being forced out of their homes, rent-controlled apartments and buildings being destroyed and luxury market-rate housing being built in its place,” said Don Misumi, a member of tenants’ rights group \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/richmonddistrictrising/\">Richmond District Rising\u003c/a>. “There’s not really much doubt in my mind unless things start to change and I see some concrete proposals that are going to provide tenant protections, that are going to provide protections for small businesses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s planning department has \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/11v8sWadgj-MTMLTLRZEBF3wmLc6-ZUxL/view?usp=sharing\">already approved roughly 58,100 new apartments\u003c/a>, largely to be built in the eastern part of the city, that are awaiting construction. However, to reach the state’s goal of planning for more than 82,000 new units, the department is proposing that \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/documents/citywide/housing-choice/RHNA-Primer.pdf\">some of the remaining homes\u003c/a> be built in the north and west sides.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The city’s preliminary map proposes to \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6e0e399f9c82456dbda233eacebc433d/#data_s=id%3AdataSource_3-18d42c41053-layer-13%3A43743\">rezone commercial corridors\u003c/a>, including 19th Avenue, Geary Boulevard and Clement Street. The bulk of the proposed rezoning would stretch from Russian Hill to Parkside and could allow for taller buildings — up to 65 stories on certain commercial corridors — creating opportunities for thousands of new homes. The plan also includes increasing height limits in other neighborhoods throughout the city, including along Market Street in the Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After multiple informational hearings where residents can offer comments and voice concerns, the proposal will go to the planning commission, where it could be amended or changed. It will ultimately have to go before the Board of Supervisors before the end of January 2026, when the city faces a state-mandated deadline to approve a rezoning plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it misses that deadline, \u003ca href=\"https://sfplanning.org/project/expanding-housing-choice#faqs\">it could lose\u003c/a> state funding for affordable housing and public transportation, risk lawsuits, fines and be subject to the\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945744/california-building-boom-a-new-law-promised-big-but-has-yet-to-deliver-in-the-bay-area\"> builder’s remedy\u003c/a>, a mechanism that allows developers to circumvent local building rules if the city is out of compliance with state housing law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process for our rezoning is a bit of a fait accompli — we already agreed to this,” said Jane Natoli, San Francisco Organizing Director for the pro-housing lobbying group, YIMBY Action. “All we’re trying to do is honor the commitments we told the state we were going to do, at the end of the day, to build the housing we need for San Franciscans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From sand dunes to suburban homes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s decision to rezone the western part of the city marks a break from the area’s historically low-density character. Western neighborhoods were some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/richmond_arch.php\">last parts\u003c/a> of the city to be developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the mid-to-late 1800s, \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/sunset.php#:~:text=The%201894%20California%20Midwinter%20International,a%20sea%20of%20stucco%20homes\">the Inner Sunset\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/richmond_arch.php\">Richmond districts\u003c/a> were home to a handful of dairies, ranches, a chicken farm — even a dynamite factory — while the Outer Sunset stretched out in a yawning sprawl of sand dunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033006\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033006\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-10-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Sunset District and Ocean Beach in San Francisco on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/earthquakes/san-francisco\">devastating 1906 earthquake\u003c/a>, refugee camps sprang up on the city’s underdeveloped western side. Woody LaBounty’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.outsidelands.org/sw17.php\">great-grandparents even met at one of those camps\u003c/a> in the Richmond area, he said. The lifelong Richmond resident and president of the preservationist organization San Francisco Heritage said tract houses soon began popping up atop sand dunes to replace the temporary camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After World War II, most of the Sunset and Richmond districts had been developed into suburban-style neighborhoods with single-family homes, LaBounty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have a yard for your family to play in, you have multiple bedrooms, you’ve got your own sort of little plot — your little estate,” he said, “even if it’s a 25-by-100-foot lot in the Sunset District.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s for that same reason why many westside residents enjoy this part of town today. Paola Soto said she moved to the Outer Sunset five years ago so she and her husband could raise their daughter in a rented single-family home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just loved the neighborhood and how family-oriented it is,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like part of the city, but you’re still in the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Soto said there aren’t many amenities or small businesses to patronize on her block. She welcomes the rezoning if it could bring more business activity to her neighborhood but said taller buildings could mean losing “this kind of neighborhood vibe” that she likes.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Picking and choosing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While residents like Soto are hoping the rezoning could bring new small businesses to the Sunset and Richmond, existing business owners are concerned they will be forced out. Yoland Porrata, an esthetician and board member of nonprofit Small Business Forward, owns a skincare studio in the Lower Haight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, she is trying to work with the city to establish new protections against displacement for small business owners, even if they do not own the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12033010\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12033010\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250325-APARTMENTSONWESTSIDE-16-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bicyclist rides down the street in San Francisco’s Sunset District on March 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Do we have a right to return?” she asked. “We already have super vulnerable commercial leases that are not nice and tidy in the way that some of the residential leases are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with small business owners, tenants’ rights groups are equally concerned about the city’s plan. San Francisco offers a bevy of tenant protections, but local groups worry the rezoning might encourage landlords to pressure renters to move out or evict them unlawfully.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dyan Ruiz, a member of Race & Equity In All Planning Coalition, said her organization wants to make sure developers are following the city’s laws and that it can make sure tenants aren’t displaced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to increase the accountability and enforcement of existing laws and making sure that there aren’t gaps and loopholes that tenants are falling through,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LaBounty hopes the city can strike some kind of balance — allowing more housing while still retaining the neighborhoods’ quiet charm. Pointing out the coffee shop across the street from where he lives, he said he doesn’t want to see it go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You got a cafe, a dry cleaner and a bakery right in a row — everybody loves them, you know? Maybe don’t upzone those,” he said. “It feels to me like you could do some picking and choosing, and the neighborhood could totally help you with it too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is scaling back a core component of San Francisco’s approach to overdoses and outdoor drug use, putting many health experts on edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health providers across the city are being told to cease distributing safe smoking supplies in public spaces, according to the mayor’s Wednesday announcement. People must now participate in drug counseling or other services in order to receive any type of safer-use supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032239/overdoses-climb-lurie-orders-scaling-back-harm-reduction-programs\">overdose deaths have increased\u003c/a> in San Francisco since October. Mounting pressure from business and community members has challenged the city’s embrace of harm reduction, a public health approach the city helped pioneer during the HIV/AIDS crisis to improve the health and lives of drug users at any stage of use or recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can no longer accept the reality of two people dying a day from overdose. The status quo has failed to ensure the health and safety of our entire community, as well as those in the throes of addiction,” Lurie said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Our new policy will connect individuals to treatment quickly, and that is a big step toward reclaiming our public spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of having outreach workers handing out safer smoking supplies to users on the street, Lurie is ordering all health providers to move that distribution indoors. For those who do make it in person to pick up any safer use supplies, Lurie is now requiring that they also participate in drug treatment, counseling or other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city will maintain its safe needle exchanges and distribution of Narcan, which can reverse an opioid overdose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health advocates cried foul over the recent update, saying it goes against research and current trends in San Francisco’s overdose epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12032239 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240903-OverdoseResponse-42-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, more people consume fentanyl through smoking rather than injecting. While overdose rates remain at devastating levels, research shows that smoking is less likely to lead to an overdose or soft tissue infections that can come from using needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Safer smoking supplies, for me, are really the best possible solution to prevent someone from injecting their drug of choice,” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “My fear — the fear of many harm reductionists in the city — is that if we are to tailor back safer smoking suppliers, that folks will begin injecting their drug again. And injection does then lead to potential rise in HIV infection, rise in hepatitis infection and rise in soft tissue infection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large body of research shows that safe needle exchanges have historically been a powerful tool to prevent overdose and disease while also connecting drug users to health services and treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in more recent years, the drug supply has shifted towards fentanyl, an opioid about 50 times more potent than heroin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the drug supply changed in our city, as we entered a fentanyl crisis and as folks started smoking fentanyl, we began providing safer smoking supplies,” TerMeer said. “The reason we’ve made such significant progress in this city (cutting down on HIV infections) is because we have leaned into many different approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research supporting safe smoking supplies is smaller than the decades of research that exists for needle exchanges. But it is growing and state guidelines have already adopted safe smoking supplies as a pillar of addressing the current drug overdose crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, California’s health law was amended to expand the scope of harm reduction supplies so that health providers can distribute safer smoking supplies as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie stressed the city’s current approach is not working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fentanyl has changed the game, and we’ve been relying on strategies that preceded this new drug epidemic, which ends today,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Public Health Director Dan Tsai said the city is basing its directive in science and underscored that clean needle exchanges will remain unchanged. When asked at Wednesday’s press conference, he could not identify research showing that requiring counseling in order to obtain safe use supplies could lead to decreased overdoses or increased connections to treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are committed to proven, evidence-based health interventions and safer-use supplies are most effective when paired with counseling, healthcare and access to treatment and recovery services to create meaningful change for an individual,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Public Health plans to monitor changes in overdose rates, HIV/Hepatitis C transmission “to ensure this policy aligns with overall public health goals,” a press release reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy goes into effect on April 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/daniel-lurie\">Mayor Daniel Lurie\u003c/a> is scaling back a core component of San Francisco’s approach to overdoses and outdoor drug use, putting many health experts on edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health providers across the city are being told to cease distributing safe smoking supplies in public spaces, according to the mayor’s Wednesday announcement. People must now participate in drug counseling or other services in order to receive any type of safer-use supplies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move comes as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032239/overdoses-climb-lurie-orders-scaling-back-harm-reduction-programs\">overdose deaths have increased\u003c/a> in San Francisco since October. Mounting pressure from business and community members has challenged the city’s embrace of harm reduction, a public health approach the city helped pioneer during the HIV/AIDS crisis to improve the health and lives of drug users at any stage of use or recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can no longer accept the reality of two people dying a day from overdose. The status quo has failed to ensure the health and safety of our entire community, as well as those in the throes of addiction,” Lurie said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Our new policy will connect individuals to treatment quickly, and that is a big step toward reclaiming our public spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of having outreach workers handing out safer smoking supplies to users on the street, Lurie is ordering all health providers to move that distribution indoors. For those who do make it in person to pick up any safer use supplies, Lurie is now requiring that they also participate in drug treatment, counseling or other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city will maintain its safe needle exchanges and distribution of Narcan, which can reverse an opioid overdose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health advocates cried foul over the recent update, saying it goes against research and current trends in San Francisco’s overdose epidemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, more people consume fentanyl through smoking rather than injecting. While overdose rates remain at devastating levels, research shows that smoking is less likely to lead to an overdose or soft tissue infections that can come from using needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Safer smoking supplies, for me, are really the best possible solution to prevent someone from injecting their drug of choice,” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “My fear — the fear of many harm reductionists in the city — is that if we are to tailor back safer smoking suppliers, that folks will begin injecting their drug again. And injection does then lead to potential rise in HIV infection, rise in hepatitis infection and rise in soft tissue infection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large body of research shows that safe needle exchanges have historically been a powerful tool to prevent overdose and disease while also connecting drug users to health services and treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in more recent years, the drug supply has shifted towards fentanyl, an opioid about 50 times more potent than heroin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As the drug supply changed in our city, as we entered a fentanyl crisis and as folks started smoking fentanyl, we began providing safer smoking supplies,” TerMeer said. “The reason we’ve made such significant progress in this city (cutting down on HIV infections) is because we have leaned into many different approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research supporting safe smoking supplies is smaller than the decades of research that exists for needle exchanges. But it is growing and state guidelines have already adopted safe smoking supplies as a pillar of addressing the current drug overdose crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, California’s health law was amended to expand the scope of harm reduction supplies so that health providers can distribute safer smoking supplies as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lurie stressed the city’s current approach is not working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fentanyl has changed the game, and we’ve been relying on strategies that preceded this new drug epidemic, which ends today,” Lurie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Public Health Director Dan Tsai said the city is basing its directive in science and underscored that clean needle exchanges will remain unchanged. When asked at Wednesday’s press conference, he could not identify research showing that requiring counseling in order to obtain safe use supplies could lead to decreased overdoses or increased connections to treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are committed to proven, evidence-based health interventions and safer-use supplies are most effective when paired with counseling, healthcare and access to treatment and recovery services to create meaningful change for an individual,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Public Health plans to monitor changes in overdose rates, HIV/Hepatitis C transmission “to ensure this policy aligns with overall public health goals,” a press release reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy goes into effect on April 30.\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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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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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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"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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"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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"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.",
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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.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"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.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
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