• CHP is searching for 38-year-old Coretta Gibson who was last seen in San Lorenzo around 8 pm on August 29. [KRON4]
• State lawmakers passed a bill Saturday that would provide safeguards surrounding the state’s vaccine policy to prevent interference by the federal government. [KGO]

• San Francisco held the ribbon-cutting for Cityside Park on Treasure Island Saturday, which will start out as a 6-acre park and then grow to eventually extend along the entire west side of the island. [KPIX]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Homeless mom panhandles on Market Street with newborn baby: “I’m not harming her in any way.”https://t.co/nSmkszW1qZ via @hknightsf pic.twitter.com/2NItA9gsLe

— SFChronicle (@sfchronicle) July 30, 2017

Pitchforks aplenty were brought out in comment-section condemnation two weeks ago when we covered the story of a homeless mom panhandling with an infant on Market Street. But deep in the reeds of that story was the fact that the “homeless mom” was not technically homeless. 34-year-old Megan Doudney and her infant daughter did have a private room at the Tenderloin’s Hamilton Family Shelter. Certainly there is a fair semantic debate over whether someone staying at a shelter is, in fact, “homeless” — that particular shelter offers private rooms and three square meals a day for up to six months, not as a permanent arrangement.

But that debate is totally irrelevant to the demonstrable fact that many “homeless moms” are not actually homeless. Some are not even the mothers of the children they tote. Chronicle writer Heather Knight, who wrote the original piece that brought national attention to Doudney and her baby, follows up by speaking with several City Hall and law enforcement officers on their experience with the women who panhandle with children in tow.

Former SFPD Central Station captain David Lazar told the Chronicle he often encountered panhandling moms with ‘Need Help’ signs. “I would say, ‘Well, are you staying in a shelter?’ Nine times out of 10, they would say, ‘Oh no. I have a home. I live in Union City or Fremont, and I’m just here for the afternoon,'" Lazar said.

He added that many of the children were not even the panhandler’s children, but essentially ‘borrowed kids’. “They have the children with them in an effort to get people to donate money or other items to them thinking they’re homeless with a child, and they’re not,” he added.

We should note that San Francisco Child Welfare Services will not remove children from panhandling parents. They remove children only in the case of abuse, malnourishment, or health issues — panhandling with a kid does not qualify. And we should also note that there are indeed homeless youth in San Francisco, with the most recent homeless point-in-time count finding that there are 1,363 children and transitional-age youth on the streets of the city.

Related: Lady Gaga Passed Out Money To Homeless People After Her SF Concert

Well, would you look at this. A photo captured by Twitter user David Bellona, himself a designer at Twitter, is making the rounds for its perfect evocation of San Francisco's much-ballyhooed incipient class war. Posted with the pithy "current status of SF," the photo juxtaposes a man with a cardboard sign that reads "HUNGRY," sitting outside a Porsche 911 Carrera S with the vanity license plate reading "DRUNK."

Sure, it looks like it could be photoshopped, but SF Citizen tracked the car down and yes, it does exist. The car is named Sally Carrera, and and she and her owner do not care what you think of them: "I realize many people feel this says bad things about me. I feel that says bad things about them." Jason Weisberger of Muir Beach is the owner of the car (and the publisher of Boingboing): SF Citizen reports that there may be an unpaid ticket for blocking a street sweeper in the mix as well.

Perfect approximation of San Francisco's social climate or just a typical evening commute? You decide.

[@DavidBellona/Twitter]
[h/t SF Weekly]
[SF Citizen]

For people likes Fox News' John Stossel, who believe panhandlers are really raking it in for upwards of $80K/year, here's a news flash: according to a survey funded by the the Union Square Business Improvement District, San Francisco panhandlers make less than $25 a day.

According to the survey, which involved 146 people over a two-day period around Union Square, "the typical panhandler is a disabled middle-aged single male who is a racial minority and makes less than $25 per day despite panhandling seven days a week for more than five years." Contrary to popular suspicions, 94 percent said that they use the money they glean for food (44 percent use it for drugs or alcohol).

Other findings:

• 83 percent are men


• 48 percent are African American


• 31 percent are white


• 69 percent are single


• 26 percent served in the military


• 70 percent are 40 to 59 years old


• 58 percent have been panhandling for at least five years


• 53 percent panhandle seven days a week


• 60 percent make $25 a day or less


• 94 percent use the money for food


• 44 percent use it for drugs or alcohol


• 62 percent are disabled


• 25 percent are alcoholics


• 32 percent are addicted to drugs


• 82 percent are homeless

Researchers also surveyed 400 people who had given money to panhandlers in the past year, and found that the majority were young working-class Bay Area residents (not tourists or tech workers). Meanwhile, a New York Times article notes that Twitter's payroll tax break will save them at least $22 million over six years in their new nearby mid-Market offices.

[Think Progress]
[NYT]

On Friday, June 1, Occupy Bernal (the tiny Occupy group that, despite its size, somehow gets shit done) plans to stop the auction of Alberto Del Rio's house by making noise to drown out the auctioneer at City Hall, among other ideas. Why all the fuss? Occupy Bernal explains:

"Alberto Del Rio is a Bernal Heights resident who grew up in his family home. He lives there with his wife and 3 kids. To help his mother have a decent retirement, the Del Rio family took equity out of the home and refinanced. But their loan from World Savings was a Pick-a-Payment loan. Lawsuits have found these sorts of loans to be predatory. World Savings sold the loan to Wachovia, which was then acquired by Wells Fargo. “Wells took advantage of me. Like they did so many other people. They promised us the moon,” says Alberto, who has been trying to get a loan modification since 2000. The bank has continually lost his paperwork, and refused to negotiate in good faith. The bank even advised him to stop making payments in order to qualify for a loan modification, which triggered the foreclosure process. Now, Wells Fargo is scheduled to auction his home on June 1. But we won’t let them."

On the flip side, Wells Fargo Bank did donate a whopping $25,000 to aid the more than 20 small businesses that protesters vandalized during a May demonstration on Valencia. So, you know, there's that. Anyway, if you would like to join in on the Occupy Bernal action, it all goes down at 1:45 p.m. on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Friday. Just please stop chanting "Hella, hella, Occupy." Find something new. Because you'll sound like a .... well, you'll sound like a dipshit.

For more details, please visit www.occupybernal.org.

The Chronicle's Victoria Colliver penned a fascinating story in today's issue, one that mentions an "online report card on the health of San Franciscans" that's being introduced today "by a consortium of public and private health groups." The report will, ideally, help improve parts of the city when it comes to public health.

A few interesting tidbits:

"Suicide is the fourth-leading cause of early death among whites in San Francisco, but the eighth-leading cause among Latinos."

"San Franciscans who live in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood can expect to live 14 fewer years on average than people who live on Russian Hill."

"Pedestrian accidents are most likely to occur in Chinatown, the Financial District, South of Market and Civic Center."

In response to a Census Bureau report yesterday preceding the release of the 2010 Census stating that poverty levels in 2009 were the highest they'd been since 1951, the San Francisco Food Bank issued a statement saying that 150,000 people in the city live at or below the 150% mark of the federal poverty line (adjusted for CA cost of living). The Food Bank saw a 25% increase in requests for food assistance last year, and they distributed more than 37 million pounds of food in 2009, up from 32 million pounds in 2008. [Bay City News/Appeal]

While some have declared the recession over, more or less, California's job rate might disagree. In August, we witnessed the jobless figure "climb to 12.2 percent last month, the highest on records dating back to the 1970's,"n according to CBS5/AP. But California wasn't the only state to see crowds converge at unemployment offices. "Forty-two states lost jobs last month, up from 29 in July, with the biggest payroll cuts coming in Texas, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio." Sigh.

So, the Old Gray Lady hauled out the printing press to publish a story about how "cool-hunting hipsters" love Valenica Street. Sure, it's a dated piece. Wildly so, it seems. The article goes on and on Valencia Street faves: terrorist hangout Ritual Coffee Roasters, the macabre plant/carcass retailer Paxton Gate, and the God-we-love-this-place-so-much-but-wish-half-of-you-who-go-there-would-head-to-Casanova-instead Amnesia.

But the Times article also mentions new-ish restaurant Spork, sits in the same building as the old KFC. Whimsically, the restaurant nods at the implements used by its former occupant, while only serving food that is financially out of reach for its former customers. Which? Makes us feel squeamish inside. Right or wrong, it just does. ("Spork turns out slow-food favorites like grass-fed beef burger ($14), Kona Kampachi sashimi ($13) and mussels and slow-roasted pork ($18)," NYT breathlessly reports.)

While the adoption of "comfort foods" is a pleasant (albeit increasingly twee) trend, and a nice break from more dining, when does that line go from nostalgic to camp to mockery of not just the food, but of the class that consumes it?

This letter was found in 2004 by SFist reader smallerdemon. It was posted near a window of a downtown bookstore that had books by black authors on display.

Some Thoughts

Is it my hyper-sensitive poverty of imagination or is your book display "racially" segregated? Are you trying to make the window resemble the community? --

How radical would it be to mix it up?

Ms. Alex __________

Friend of SFist judy b. is moderating a discussion about San Francisco's criminalization of poverty at the Little Roxie tonight, which is co-sponsored by the People of Color Coalition of the SF Green Party, POOR Magazine, and the SF People's Organization. Sup. Ross Mirkadreamy is scheduled to speak, as is PD Jeff A-Hotty-dachi. 6:30 p.m. and $5-15, but since it's about poverty, no one will be turned away for lack of funds). (Note: the Roxie website says it might be at the regular Roxie theater, but judy b. told us the Little, so just check when you get there).

Other events:

--Liberals crack wise at the Make-Out Room. 7:30 p.m., 3225 22nd Street (x Mission), $8.

--Beethoven string quartets with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble at the War Memorial Green Room. $20, 8 p.m., 401 Van Ness, x McAllister. If that stuff's too old for you, there's also a free performance of contemporary chamber music by the group Earplay an hour earlier (7 p.m.)and downstairs (Herbst Theater).

--There's a free showing of Team America at 12 Galaxies! 8 p.m., 2565 Mission (x 22nd).

--And Japanese all-girl shriek-metal guitarrorists Bleach03, at 7 p.m. for free at Amoeba SF (Haight x Stanyan).