SF News FEMA Tries to Renege on $114M In Reimbursements to San Francisco For Homeless Hotel Rooms The federal government appears to be trying to get out of a large chunk of its promised reimbursements to California cities for shelter-in-place hotels that were rented out to house the unhoused in the first two years of the pandemic.
SF News Death at Burning Man Under Investigation As Thousands of Festival Attendees Still Trapped in Muddy Desert Amid the chaos at Burning Man, the Pershing County Sheriff's Office confirmed that a person has died and their family has been notified, but details about the victim and the circumstances haven't been released.
SF News Burning Man Doused by Rare Desert Rains, Turning Festival Into Muddy Nightmare for 70,000+ Festival-Goers Trapped in Playa Organizers shut down the festival's entrance gate and airport on Friday night amid stormy weather, effectively isolating everyone within the playa, who they urged to "shelter in place" and ration resources.
SF News SF Agrees to Pay Hotel Whitcomb $19.5 Million for Shelter-In-Place Damages, In Largest Hotel Settlement Yet Who says SF hotels can’t make money these days? The still-shuttered mid-Market Hotel Whitcomb was just awarded $19.5 million in a damage settlement over the facility’s use as a shelter-in-place hotel.
SF News It’s the Three-Year Anniversary of Our COVID-19 Lockdown, San Francisco On the three-year anniversary of the Bay Area’s stunning shelter-in-place announcement, which would be duplicated within days around much of the country, we look back on these three bad years, and the order that was originally only supposed to last for three weeks.
SF News City's Bill For Shelter-In-Place Hotel Damages Rises With $2.9M Settlement For Hotel Tilden While the City of San Francisco continues to negotiate with hotel owners over what the costs of turning their hotels into ersatz homeless shelters during the pandemic turned out to be, one more hotel has just walked away with a considerable damage settlement.
SF News SF Hotels That Served as Pandemic Homeless Shelters Continue Seeking Millions In Damages From City The full accounting of what it cost the city of San Francisco to provide emergency shelter in the form of hotel rooms to homeless individuals during the height of the pandemic is still likely many months away.
SF News With Shelter-In-Place Hotel Program Winding Down, Some Hotels Are Suing the City for Damages The owners of multiple hotels that were leased by the city for its pandemic housing program are reportedly filing or planning to file lawsuits over damages they claim were done to their buildings as a result of the program.
SF Politics With FEMA Funding Assured, SF Supervisors Approve 400 More Hotel Rooms for Homeless The SF Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an expansion of the shelter-in-place hotel program for the homeless, adding 400 more hotel rooms to the 1,800 currently in use.
SF News SF Supervisors Propose Expanding SF's Hotel Program to Shelter 500 More Homeless After FEMA's announcement that approved shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels would be entirely reimbursed with federal funds, five SF supervisors have now introduced legislation to expand the City's SIP hotel program and house some 500 more homeless San Franciscans.
SF Politics Fox News Apoplectic That FEMA Will Fund SF Homeless Hotels, Unaware This Started Under Trump The right-wing news network’s outrage that “Biden may force American taxpayers to foot bill” for shelter-in-place hotel rooms fails to acknowledge that Trump forced taxpayers to foot the same bill.
SF News Amid Spike In COVID Cases Among Homeless, Supervisors Extend Hotel Room Program San Francisco will continue ushering people off the streets and into shelter-in-place hotel rooms for at least two months, after the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an extension of a program that would have expired in just two more weeks.
SF News SF Updates Stay-at-Home Order to Allow People to 'Meet With One Other Person' Outside Their Household San Francisco's original stay-at-home order was lambasted by residents and some local government officials for being over-restrictive. Before the weekend, it was loosened slightly to allow for meeting one person outside of your immediate household — but only for outdoor activities.
SF News Hallelujah! Liquor Stores Can Resume Normal Hours Just As Bars Get Paused Your corner convenience store no longer has to close before sundown every night, as the 8 p.m. closure order has been quietly rescinded.
SF News SF Street Sweeping Tickets Set to Resume on June 15 You’ve still got 10 days to move your car, but street sweeping tickets will resume their weekly nuisance to your routine on June 15.
SF News [Updates] Hundreds Rally at UN Plaza To Stand Against Police Brutality; Protesters Continue Crisscrossing San Francisco Hundreds convened at the United Nations Plaza this afternoon to protest the killing of George Floyd and call for an end to police brutality. The nonviolent crowd practiced social distancing — the vast majority wearing face masks — with many protesters still marching through SF.
SF News As Shelter-In-Place Restrictions Relax, Traffic Returns to San Francisco With "Phase 2A" of the City’s reopening plan beginning Monday — after weeks of marginal lifts on its shelter-in-place order — another reality of urban life is slowly, but surely, making a comeback: downtown traffic.
SF News Black Bay Area Ministers Hold 'Socially Distanced Sermon' In Support of Church Closures, Call for More Testing On the steps at San Francisco City Hall, ten of the Bay Area's leading black ministers held a "socially distanced sermon" Memorial Day afternoon, advocating for churchgoers to uphold social distancing practices — and continue "worshiping in place."
SF News Racist East Bay Letter Writer Arrested By San Leandro Police; Released Due to Backed-Up Bail Schedule 52-year-old Nancy Arechiga was apprehended by San Leandro police in relation to a number of xenophobic notes posted at the homes of East Bay Asian Americans, as well as in nearby public places, though she was later released due to the state’s backed-up bail schedule caused by the pandemic.
SF News Curbside Retail Begins in SF With Noted Lines at Sex Shops, Bookstores Curbside retail sales and pickup began in SF on Monday. But because of the tight restrictions placed on local retailers by the city, it was met with a muted drum roll and short, sparse lines — for some merchants, if any at all — across the seven-by-seven.
Arts & Entertainment Openhouse, SF Queer Nightlife Fund, and TL Museum Will Host Digital Drag Show To Honor LGBTQ Elders San Francisco's queer seniors are reeling from the pandemic, as many continue struggling to find financial respite — for some, even sustenance — amid shelter-in-place. But a live-streamed drag show in support of them this coming Friday aims to offer both levity and monetary relief.
SF News LA Likely Extending Shelter Orders Three More Months; Will That Happen Here? A Los Angeles County health official says stay-at-home orders will stick through August 1, while Twitter employees just got a pass to work at home through forever.
Arts & Entertainment Street Artist Behind Coronavirus-Inspired Honey Bear Murals Raises Over $125K for COVID-19 Charities SF-based creative fnnch, the artist behind our city's beloved honey bear and pink flamingo murals, has raised more than $125K for two COVID-19 charities from sales made through his online store. And those now donated funds will go toward bolstering local communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
SF News Staff and Residents at All 21 San Francisco Nursing Facilities Will Soon Be Tested for Coronavirus The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and Mayor Breed announced Friday that the City will soon order all 21 of its skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to have their staff and residents tested for COVID-19, a part of SF's "next phase" to expand coronavirus testing.
Arts & Entertainment Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Welcomes Bay Area Artists To Submit Works for 125th Anniversary Show The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is welcoming submissions from creatives across all nine Bay Area counties for its upcoming exhibit, “The de Young Open,” with chosen pieces being included as part of the de Young Museum’s 125th-anniversary showcase later this year.
