San Francisco City Insider
This podcast has merged into Fifth & Mission, the flagship newscast of the San Francisco Chronicle. Please subscribe to Fifth & Mission on your favorite podcast app.Old description: From the back rooms of City Hall to the chaotic streets of downtown, the San Francisco City Insider provides insight into the biggest news stories and most pressing issues facing one of the most interesting cities in the world. Chronicle columnist Heather Knight hosts, with regular appearances from The San Francisco Chronicle’s City Hall team – Trisha Thadani and Dominic Fracassa. They ask the tough questions of our city’s leaders to find out what’s going right and what needs to change.
51
Total SF: Warriors president Rick Welts interview
Warriors president Rick Welts joins the San Francisco Chronicle's #TotalSF team Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight for a The Big Event/SF City Insider podcast crossover. Welts makes the case to add the Chase Center to the new 49 Mile Scenic Route being created by Knight and Hartlaub, and talks about living in San Francisco, his friendship with NBA legend Bill Russell and submits to Knight's City Insider lightning round.. Produced by Peter Hartlaub.
28 min
52
Taking a Shot at the NRA
Supervisor Catherine Stefani made national news when her resolution calling the National Rifle Association "a domestic terrorist organization" passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously. She talks about her reasons and the fallout.
20 min
53
DA Tuesday: Chesa Boudin
The most progressive candidate in the race for San Francisco district attorney is a public defender who's been visiting his father in prison since he was a baby. He discusses the major changes he'd like to see in our broken criminal justice system.
32 min
54
A Little Dignity for the Homeless
Doniece Sandoval, the founder of Lava Mae, which brings mobile showers and toilets to the streets, discusses City Hall's sluggishness, how parents can explain street misery to their kids, and what average San Franciscans can do to help.
24 min
55
DA Tuesday: Suzy Loftus
The front-runner in the race discusses what she'd do about San Francisco's biggest problems, including untreated mental illness on our streets, drug dealing and car break-ins.
43 min
56
DA Tuesday: Nancy Tung
33 min
57
Why San Francisco's Vision Zero Isn't Working
Janice Li, a Bicycle Coalition staffer and BART director, talks about how San Francisco's program to eliminate traffic deaths is big on marketing and short on actual answers. Plus: What's in store for BART, and Li’s favorite and least favorite stations.
42 min
58
DA Tuesday: Leif Dautch
In the first of four interviews with the candidates for San Francisco district attorney, Leif Dautch talks about how he'd remake the troubled office and his plans for a 150-bed mental health center. Plus: He plays his fiddle, a first for SF City Insider.
35 min
59
An Attack, a Video and the Fallout
The harrowing viral video of an attack on a woman trying to enter her waterfront condo has reignited debate over how San Francisco ought to balance helping those in crisis with ensuring public safety.
13 min
60
S.F.’s First Openly LGBT Fire Chief
Jeanine Nicholson talks about her cancer battle, what San Francisco should do about its homeless epidemic and whether we’re really prepared for a massive earthquake. Plus: Her favorite burrito spot.
33 min
61
An Epidemic of Untreated Mental Illness
San Francisco is compelling far fewer mentally ill people into mandated treatment. Columnist Heather Knight and City Hall reporter Dominic Fracassa discuss the rise in clearly untreated mental illness on the city's sidewalks.
15 min
62
Living on the Cheap in One of the World's Most ...
As his name implies, Broke-Ass Stuart's whole shtick is living a big life with little cash. But that's become harder than ever in San Francisco. The city character explains how he does it and offers tips for others.
27 min
63
Treating San Francisco Homelessness Like a Real...
If San Francisco experienced a major fire or earthquake and thousands of residents were suddenly homeless, would the city form task forces and appoint an expert to study the problem? Kara Zordel, CEO of Community Assessment and Treatment Services, says it's time we treat homelessness like a real emergency too.
33 min
64
Into the Weeds with SF's Cannabis Czar
As director of San Francisco's cannabis office, it's former prosecutor Marisa Rodriguez's job to grow the city's legal pot economy. One of her top priorities? Ensuring victims of the War on Drugs get the first chance to benefit as business-owners now that cannabis is legal in California.
45 min
65
What Does London Lack That SF Has in Abundance?...
In talking to friends and colleagues who’ve done their own recent traveling, it’s clear to columnist Heather Knight that many cities around the world and the U.S. maintain a better quality of life for residents of all income levels, as well as create a better experience for visitors.
16 min
66
Breaking Down the Budget
How does a city with a $12 billion budget still have so many problems? City Hall reporters Dominic Fracassa and Trisha Thadani break down how the $12 billion budget isn't actually as much as it seems.
12 min
67
The Fight Over the Embarcadero Navigation Center
Everyone agrees San Francisco must address its homelessness problem, but the fierce debate over the Embarcadero navigation center highlights how hard that is to do. Trisha Thadani and Dominic Fracassa on the city's struggle.
15 min
68
Poverty and Financial Justice in San Francisco
For the past two years, San Francisco's Financial Justice Project has been working to eliminate government fees and fines that are particularly painful, and in some cases, ruinous, to the city's poorest. Anne Stuhldreher, who leads the project, sat down with Chronicle reporter Dominic Fracassa to talk about her team's accomplishments and how to keep the government from enriching itself on the backs of its most vulnerable. For more on the project: https://sftreasurer.org/financialjustice.
33 min
69
Making Sense of the Affordable Housing Mess
The mayor and a few members of the Board of Supervisors are battling over the best way to build more affordable and teacher housing. Both sides have proposals for the November ballot. We try to untangle the issues.
16 min
70
Taxing Wealthy Companies to Solve SF's Problems
Should San Francisco raise taxes on prosperous companies to help pay for the city's most gripping problems? Between a tax on IPO's, Uber and Lyft and exorbitantly paid CEO's voters will have plenty of options to choose from in November. We break down the three business tax proposals headed to November's ballot, focusing on the most recent one that would raise money for a new mental health care system.
14 min
71
Finding the Tipping Point on Homelessness
Daniel Lurie is the CEO and founder of Tipping Point, an anti-poverty nonprofit in San Francisco. He tells Heather Knight that the solution to homelessness is homes, but also that we can all help the homeless by simply treating them as people.
35 min
72
Total SF Live! with Amanda Guest, Emily Silverm...
A crossover episode of The Big Event and San Francisco City Insider podcasts, recorded live on May 16, 2019, at the Betabrand Podcast Theater in the Mission District. San Francisco Chronicle pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub and San Francisco columnist Heather Knight interview BFF.fm online radio founder Amanda Guest, The Nocturnists podcast host Dr. Emily Silverman and Muni Diaries co-hosts Tara Ramroop and Eugenia Chien. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Music is "The Tide Will Rise" by the Sunset Shipwrecks on the album "Community."
72 min
73
Opioid Addiction: One Family's Story
When 33-year-old Jeffrey Choate’s parents saw their son, homeless and addicted to heroin and meth, in Heather Knight's San Francisco Chronicle column, they wanted to tell her about how he ended up that way. We also hear from Choate, now in jail.
39 min
74
I Left My Heart - and Wallet, iPhone and Sanity...
Joe D’Allesandro, director of S.F. Travel, took City Hall to task a year ago for doing so little to improve safety and quality-of-life on the city’s streets. Between poop, needles, tent camps and car break-ins, tourists are often shocked and disgusted and vow to never return. And that’s a problem for a city that relies on tourism. We’re talking to him again to see what, if anything, has changed and what tourists are saying now.
29 min
75
Mid-Market: Vision and Reality
We're sharing this episode of the Chronicle's flagship Fifth & Mission podcast about the expiring “Twitter tax break,” created by San Francisco in 2011 to draw companies to the downtrodden Mid-Market neighborhood. Reporters Trisha Thadani, J.K. Dineen and Roland Li discuss its impact and effects, both good and bad. Subscribe to Fifth & Mission wherever you get San Francisco City Insider.
21 min