SFNext: Fixing Our City

Latest Episodes:

These Teens Love San Francisco, but They’re Leaving Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

Three local high school students who are active in their communities share their concerns and hopes for San Francisco: They’re frustrated with the high cost of living, lack of support for educators, distant politicians and persistent damaging narratives about race. We take a hard look at the city from their perspectives and hear why all three plan to leave. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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How Could San Francisco Defy a Doom Loop? Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

We’ve painted a grim picture of the future if Downtown doesn’t bounce back and San Francisco doesn’t reinvent itself. So we got some smart people together to come up with ideas to save the city. Panelists Desi Danganan from Kultivate Labs, Ixchel Acosta from Avenue Greenlight and Sujata Srivastava from SPUR share ideas for policies and personal civic engagement. The crowd at Manny’s chimes in with their own creative proposals. |Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Why You Should Care About Downtown Office Buildings Losing Value Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

The move to remote work has created a self-reinforcing phenomenon of empty downtowns and sluggish recovery. It has also led to office building depreciation. A group of New York economists are warning that this could spell disaster. The economic activity that office workers fuel, and the tax revenue their activities yield, are essential to the city’s budget. But cutting services may drive out even more workers, and the city could get caught in a “doom loop.” Arpit Gupta of the NYU Stern School of Business explains why it’s worse here than on the East Coast, and what might help steer us clear of the death spiral. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Soup With the Supes: Dean Preston Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

You know him for being a Democratic Socialist who is passionate about affordable housing. Did you also know his office has pored over the police budget item by item, and that he says he could cut millions out of it without any effect on public safety? The District 5 supervisor, who represents a diverse set of neighborhoods in the city’s center, digs into some phở and the details of his stances on development, public safety and a disconnect between the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Soup With the Supes: Supervisor Ahsha Safaí Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

In October, San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí was the victim of a home burglary. Thieves made off with his stove, of all things. What he took from that incident features prominently in this entry in our Soup With the Supes miniseries. Over tortilla soup, the representative for District 11 in the southern part of the city talks about what the task force dedicated to addressing retail theft has accomplished, how he handled constituents’ fierce opposition to a parking site for vehicle dwellers near Balboa Park, and what keeps him up at night. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Soup With the Supes: Supervisor Joel Engardio Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Joel Engardio was elected in November to represent District 4, which consists of a chunk of the west side: The Sunset, Parkside, and Outer Sunset. A moderate, he unseated progressive incumbent Gordon Mar. Over stewed lemongrass coconut chicken soup, he lays out his case for increasing the police department’s budget to help hire officers, critiques the city’s district supervisor system, and talks about how he would cut red tape to foster small businesses. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

SFNext: Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Soup With the Supes: Supervisor Myrna Melgar Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

What would San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar do if she were queen of San Francisco for a day? In this episode of SFNext: Fixing Our City, we kick off a new feature — Soup With the Supes. Members of the board talk about local issues while eating soup with host Laura Wenus and producer Cintia Lopez. Over pozole, Melgar explains why she wouldn’t put a safe consumption site in her district even though she supports them, how she’s working to get the certification of Laguna Honda Hospital sorted out, and whether she thinks San Francisco will actually reach its target of building 82,000 housing units in a decade. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

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At This Stanford Lab, Government Interventions Are the Experiments Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

Stanford’s RegLab designs real-world scientific experiments to test the outcomes of government interventions, figuring out what works — and what doesn't. Derek Ouyang is a research manager there and he also co-founded City Systems, an organization that explores potential fixes to municipal problems. From deploying Spanish-speaking contact tracers to developing a low-cost kit to turn garages into apartments, Ouyang is exploring equitable solutions to local cities’ most intractable challenges. And he has some ideas about how to fix San Francisco’s problems, too. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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Privacy for Safety Is a Bad Trade, Camera Foes Say Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

Last week, Fixing Our City probed whether giving police greater access to live monitoring of private security cameras has been a useful crime-fighting strategy. Now, we hear from privacy advocates who warn that any new surveillance capacity has the potential to be abused, and who also hold that it doesn’t actually work to reduce crime. A former beat cop cautions that cameras aren’t perfect witnesses. But those closest to the camera networks in question emphasize that the equipment does a good job capturing evidence, and the footage is in high demand. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project.

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Can SFPD Access to More Security Cameras Help Stop Crime? Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

A security camera mounted on a pole captured damning evidence of the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. San Francisco is blanketed by security cameras too. But unlike in other cities, police aren’t monitoring them around the clock. The network they once used is defunct, so law enforcement here often relies on privately owned cameras for footage. Their ability to monitor private feeds live was recently expanded. Will that work to curb crimes like theft and drug dealing? | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod

Fixing Our City is part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFNext Project

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