Democrats in the Legislature threw a fiscal lifeline to public transit last week, bolstering financing for buses and trains at a time when the state is cutting just about everything else. But leaders of the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission saw the moment as a lost opportunity for fundamental change in the way California pays for public transit. They want a local sales tax on fuel.
Aurelio Duran has always known he is lucky to live in San Francisco. At first, it was because he loved the city and its music scene. Today, it is also because San Francisco offers universal health care.
The East Oakland Boxing Association is about more than boxing. The center also has a youth internship program that trains young people in skills that could help them get a job or start a business. Recently, a group of youth interns worked with another nonprofit to overhaul the center’s water use and improve its water conservation.
The overhaul of America’s health care system may be stalled in Washington, but in San Francisco, a new method of delivering health care is already in place. Known as Healthy San Francisco, it is designed to care for the poor and under-served. It provides universal access to health care, comes with a public option, and has no exclusion for prior medical conditions.
The Clean Slate Practice at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley aims to increase employment opportunities for individuals with prior convictions by dismissing their criminal records after they demonstrate rehabilitation. The group has urged lawmakers to ‘ban the box,’ or exclude inquiries on prior convictions, on employment applications. They argue that such remedies will make our communities safer by making it easier for people with criminal records to get jobs and re-enter mainstream society.
The Community Arts Program in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District offers free art studio space and supplies — as well as a place to get off the streets and get creative — to more than 30 people per day, five days a week. It is run by Hospitality House, a non-profit that has served the homeless and low-income populations of the Tenderloin since 1967.
Derrick Bedford spent his youth shuttling into and out of juvenile hall on drug charges. Now he runs a program that helps change the lives of troubled youth who are genuinely interested in change. He works in the same jail where he was once locked up.
The city of Richmond is close to adopting a new way of planning for the city’s future, adding a “health and wellness” element to its general plan that will force developers to address new concerns when they design neighborhoods or other projects. The city believes it would be the first in the nation with such a comprehensive requirement.
Gunfire is so common in Richmond, Calif., that residents of neighborhoods like the Iron Triangle no longer call 911 at the sound of shots fired, according to the city’s police department. In response, earlier this year, the city installed the ShotSpotter system. The sensors detect and pinpoint gunfire fired to a specific address, and call police to the scene less than a minute after shots are fired.
Ryan Nicole Peters is an Oakland spoken-word artist, youth counselor and aspiring politician. An idealistic young woman who wants to be a politician in these cynical times?