San Francisco News

Mayor Faulconer on Wednesday announced he is directing all vacant city property to be used to support an expected surge in COVID-19 patients. “Hospitals will need all the help our community can offer,” he said. “We need all hands on deck.” The properties involved could include city recreation centres, libraries, which are all closed, and even city parking lots, he said. They could be used as field hospitals, space  San Francisco News to conduct tests, and anything the state, county or hospitals need, Faulconer said. An example of this is the SDCCU Stadium parking lot being used by the county Health and Human Services as a mobile testing center, the mayor said. Earlier Wednesday, the Convention Center opened as a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Some 400 people have moved there from the city’s downtown bridge shelters. The next step is to move more homeless individuals downtown from other bridge shelters, Faulconer said. The mayor said he was i...

The March 16 letter, written by Denis McComb, district manager for Cal/OSHA’s San Francisco office, ordered the city to investigate the allegations and report findings to Cal/OSHA. San Francisco General responded on Tuesday, with Ehrlich saying the hospital investigated the allegations and determined that it’s  satisfying all regulations designed to protect its workers. “During our investigation, we did not find anything that constituted a violation of (regulations),” she wrote. “Should you have or obtain additional information with regards to the alleged failure to meet ... requirements, we will be happy to investigate further.” Cal/OSHA is not investigating the hospital over the complaints, and it  San Francisco News is not issuing any citations, the letter to the hospital said. If the hospital’s inquiry into the investigation or its response is deemed inadequate, an inspection could be conducted, said Frank Polizzi, spokesman for the state Department of Ind...

The coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for many businesses to operate. But an industry that hasn’t been forced to totally shut its doors is the marijuana industry. When San Francisco Mayor London Breed shut down the city and all non-essential businesses last month, Drakari Donaldson and other dispensary owners fought to remain open. They won that battle. As for the war? It’s still an ongoing battle. “Trying to do this whole transition from a store that was made to give off an in person experience that’s suppose to be warm and welcoming for the novice smoker all the way up to the expert smoker,” Donaldson said. “We are trying to figure out how to transition to San Francisco News people so they can see what we have and learn about stuff without actually being in the store. California Street Cannabis has since updated its pick-up policy to adhere to city rules and make it easier for consumers to enjoy their products. “Our menu is categorized to acces...

you create enough disruption, it’s not so easy to go back,” Mitchell said. “So you could be looking at a very prolonged period here in California where the underlying economy is not good.” Under a moderate recession scenario modelled by state finance officials — larger than the dot-com bust of 2001 but not as bad as what happened in 2008 — California would lose $50 billion in tax revenue over two years. Declines of $15 billion to $20 billion would continue for several more years as the economy clawed back to recovery. “Conditions are incredibly fluid and dynamic,” said H.D. Palmer,  San Francisco News a spokesman for the Department of Finance. “We’re going to have a better sense four to five weeks from now what the world looks like than we do today.” Gabriel Petek, the nonpartisan legislative analyst, warned in a memo last week that “abrupt and nearly across-the-board curtailment of spending that now underway sets it apart from previous downturns.” His office expects...

CORONAVIRUS NEWS IN SAN FRANCISCO She knows San Francisco’s program managers are planning to radically expand the number of homeless beds in the city soon, but she’s afraid that by then she’ll catch the coronavirus at the very place that’s supposed to protect her from the dangers of living outside. Hers is a fear rippling through homeless populations — and the people working to help them — throughout the Bay Area as officials scramble to add shelter spaces to isolate the sick and safely harbour those most at risk. get a shelter bed during the crisis.“Oh my god, I don’t know how we’re supposed to be protecting ourselves,” Richmond, 27, said as she took her pitbull/pointer mix, San Francisco News Duchess, out of the Navigation Center at Fifth and Bryant streets for air the other day. “I tell people to cover their mouths, and they just tell me to f— off. I’m glad to have a shelter, and I know a lot of these guys are trying hard to make it safe here. But I can’t help it — at night it...