Bay Area

PDF link to referenced grand jury report. Via

The analysis by the Grand Jury of the email cache of messages to and from staff in the District Attorney’s Office reveals that more than 25 staff members used County owned computers and the County owned and operated email system to solicit funds for a District Attorney candidate, sometimes in coordination with police officer unions in other cities and counties, to request attendance at campaign events, and to discuss campaign strategy during the 2018 campaign for District Attorney.

tl;dr basically O'Malley had staff campaigning on the taxpayers' dime. Also apparently folks were specifically worried that they would lose their jobs if a progressive DA was elected:

The 2018 District Attorney election was the first, in recent memory, in which a sitting District Attorney was challenged. The Grand Jury learned that many staff of the Office of the District Attorney had very strong concerns about the outcome of the election.

The fear that the election of a new District Attorney, who had hinted at staff layoffs or terminations, was so overwhelming that staff failed to recognize their disregard of policies regarding campaign-related behavior as potentially illegal

Interesting since DA elections have become such a flashpoint in local politics in/around the Bay Area as center-right folks throw money at recalls etc.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/475599

Oakland Animal Services has too many dogs and will be euthanizing several on 6/27. Please consider fostering or adopting one of these cuties.

I have three rescues and cannot add another.

Statement from OAS Director: https://www.oaklandanimalservices.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Public-statement_final-06222023.pdf

Hi all! I'll be visiting with my family soon. I go to San Jose/Santa Clara often for work, but this will be my first time in the area as a tourist in 20 years. Were have 3 days planned for San Francisco on the trip, from a hotel near SFO. We have a rental car, and are 5 people, so it may make sense to drive. The hotel isn't walkable to BART or Caltrain, so if we were going to take those into the city we'd have to park at the station anyway. (South San Francisco would probably be the closest station).

I'm planning to park the car for the day and take the MUNI most places, since it's free for teens. Any suggestions on safe garages? I don't mind paying to make sure the car is secure. If there's a good garage around Union Station, that may be the best bet because we can get anywhere. But it might be nice to park closer to the Presidio for the day we do things there.

Any suggestions? My coworkers who live in the Bay Area think I'm crazy to take a car into SF at all, but surely there are some safe places to park?

We're a bunch of nerds, and will hit up the Exploratorium. (We have a fourth day planned at the Chabot Center and Berkeley, and other days further afield). Any other suggestions for nerdy things to see would be appreciated. (We already have the Wave Organ on the list....)

Thanks!

The new Van Ness bus lane that the 49 uses is super nice. I personally use both the 49 and 22.

Gotta say, other than the headline and main message, there's some shitty parts of this article:

But we will yuck on your yum, Muni fans, because the reason for these bus lines’ touted rebounds may be a depressing flip side. As the Chronicle points out, “Neither route serves San Francisco’s downtown core.” So these anomalies do not indicate any kind of broader ridership recovery across the Muni system.

In case you weren't reminded that San Francisco is in a "doom loop," SFist is here to remind you and hopefully scare you into clicking on more of their links.

Another myth the study attempts to dispel is that most homeless people flock to California cities because of warm weather, liberal policies and generous services. In reality, 90% of the people surveyed said they were last housed in California, and 75% live in the same county as where they lost their housing.

That’s important to remember, Wolch said, because it’s easy to disregard unhoused people who we think “aren’t from here” and haven’t paid taxes here.

“People who are homeless are your neighbors,” she said. “People who are homeless live in the same city that you do and they possibly have lived there longer than you have.”

To solve the homelessness crisis, the main problem California needs to address is the lack of housing that’s affordable for extremely low-income residents, according to the researchers. The state has just 24 affordable and available homes for every 100 extremely low-income households, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/201616

One of my fav local roasters. They were hosting a pop-up by Tacos Sincero serving "Cumin Fermented Plum Congee, sous vide egg, pickled tindora, carrot, cherry chili jam, scallion, sesame, lemongrass chili salsa" (which was delicious)

Coffee-wise had a pourover of a natural Kenyan coffee which was interesting, as Mother Tongue mostly does washed coffees. And a very good iced latte.

• Mother Tongue
• Tacos Sincero's

Not sure if anyone else was following this, but looks like there finally moving ahead with the Castro Theatre.

A lot of conditions. Kind of a reflection of local politics today IMO.