After national pushback from journalists and advocates citing a disturbing precedent for press freedom, Mayor London Breed partially backtracked on her initial support of an SF Police raid on a journalist Bryan Carmody’s home in a series of tweets Sunday. While reiterating her belief that the raids were carried out legally, she stated that “... I am not okay with police raids on reporters. We need to do better.”

Meanwhile, at a District Attorney debate hosted by the Latino Democratic Club, candidates Suzy Loftus, Chesa Boudin, Leif Dautch, and Nancy Tung, offered varied condemnation of the raids.

A recently released report form USF suggests that San Francisco dramatically reduce or eliminate MUNI fares to keep the service competitive with private ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft. The report, written after a three-month study submitted to the Local Agency Formation Commission, comes as MUNI is intending to raise fares to $3 beginning in July.

As the Department of Building Inspection seeks to address the squalid living conditions and lack of timely response from owners of a Mission District SRO, Mission Local provides a rundown of the unclear building ownership, baffling back-and-forth between City agencies and Paul Pelosi, Jr., and allegations of an intentional lack of response by ownership in order to clear the space for later repair and future wealthier tenants.

A rise in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities have complicated San Francisco’s plan, Vision Zero, to eliminate pedestrian deaths by 2024. While planned safety improvements continue to be made, efforts to reduce speeding at the State level have largely stalled over privacy concerns.

While Senator Scott Wiener's controversial SB50 has been shelved for the year, the Chronicle looks at housing-related bills still winding their way through the California legislature, including Assemblymember David Chiu’s AB1763, which would remove density and adjust height limits for affordable housing construction near transit. 

The Guardian provides a deep dive into the debate and history surrounding the proposed removal of controversial Depression-era murals at George Washington High School.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on the lookout for facilities in the Bay Area and other parts of California to house thousands of detainees. Perhaps expecting pushback from local governments, ICE’s definition of the San Francisco region is broad, seeking locations within 75 to 180 miles of cities covering most of Northern California between Bakersfield and Redding.

Senator Scott Wiener’s transit-housing bill won’t be getting a vote until next year after the Senate Appropriations Committee decided they would hold SB50 for the rest of the year.  Committee Senator Anthony Portantino (D-LA) said of the postponement, “It was the time to take a breath. We took a breath.  Sen. Wiener expressed his disappointment at the delay, but said he is “one hundred percent committed” to keep pushing the bill forward as the state’s housing crisis won’t wait.

Governor Gavin Newsom, who had not endorsed the bill, offered this food for thought: “This is serious stuff, and I admire and applaud Sen. Wiener for his doggedness and leadership.  Those who oppose it, I appreciate, but what are they promoting as an alternative to address this issue with the kind of certainty and aggressiveness that is required at this moment?”

Data released Thursday from a recent point-in-time count shows there are 17% more homeless individuals in SF now - 8,011 - than in 2017, when the same count had the number of unhoused residents at 6,858.  The largest increase - 68% - is people living in their vehicles, while the numbers of veterans and youth living on the streets has decreased.

A more comprehensive report is expected in July, which could show a number significantly higher than 8,011 because this count did not include homeless currently in hospitals, jails, or mental health centers.

Last Thursday, City officials and community leaders celebrated the opening of the first residential development of the Hope SF Potrero Hill Master Plan - 71-units of affordable housing at 1101 Connecticut Avenue. HOPE SF, described as “the nation’s first large-scale community development aimed to disrupting intergenerational poverty, reducing social isolation, and forming vibrant mixed-income communities without mass displacement,” aims to rebuild 619 units of “distressed” public housing and build 1,000 new affordable units.  

HOPE SF is a partnership between BRIDGE Housing, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and the San Francisco Housing Authority.

Thomas Burke, the attorney representing journalist Bryan Carmody, has filed a motion to unseal the search warrants used by SFPD and return the items taken from his home and office, saying the “plainly invalid warrants” violated state and federal laws.  

Burke wrote in the motion that the SFPD “carried out an egregiously overbroad and intrusive search, violently breaking into Mr. Carmody’s home, threatening him with drawn guns, and seizing dozens of communications devices after rummaging through his residence and home for hours while he sat in handcuffs despite posing no conceivable threat.”  The motion is scheduled to be heard in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday.  

Pacific Gas & Electric power lines sparked the Camp Fire, investigators with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have concluded. The utility, which had already acknowledged its likely culpability as it filed bankruptcy earlier this year amid claims that it did not take the need to prepare for wildfires seriously enough, is now seeking an additional six months to reorganize its business. Governor Gavin Newsom has blasted the request in a filing to the court, writing that the request “reflects no sense of urgency in addressing the serious problems and issues” PG&E faces and is particularly concerning because it “encompasses the entirety of the 2019 wildfire season.”