In 1964, Dick Van Dyke played the role of chimney sweep Bert in the popular film “Mary Poppins” alongside his good friend and legendary actress Julie Andrews. Based on the popular novel series by Australian writer Pamela Lyndon Travers, the film has entertained generations with its imaginative portrayal of the magical Mary, an English nanny who must help two children and their neglectful father.

However, the highly entertaining and entertaining film found itself in some controversy in 2019 when Daniel Pollack-Pelzner criticized the film for perpetuating racist stereotypes in a story for The New York Times. He particularly pointed to a scene in which Mary and Bert dance with chimney soot on their faces, which he said resembles “blackface” – a callback to 19th-century minstrel shows in which white performers imitated black people.

He wrote about the racist undertones in the film and drew a connection to Travers' novel series, which featured multiple uses of blackface and racial slurs. The author claimed that black children who read her book liked the fact that some of the characters spoke in a stereotypical Southern American dialect. However, when the San Francisco Public Library banned the book, citing its alleged racially offensive material, Travers rewrote the questionable passages in 1981 so that her books would not be hidden from potential readers.

The post Dick Van Dyke’s Most Controversial Moments Over The Years appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When Che Fico opened in San Francisco in 2018, it was an immediate hit. People waited as long as four hours to eat wood-fired pizza and handmade pasta in the gorgeous, second-floor restaurant overlooking Divisadero Street. In less than six months, Bon Appetit named Che Fico one of the 10 best new restaurants in the country.

Inside, though, Che Fico was crumbling, the restaurant’s owners said. The restaurant could barely keep up with the demand, despite everyone working overtime. Owners David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer felt overwhelmed by the pressure, and the restaurant was losing money. Their stress trickled down to an overworked, unhappy and underpaid staff. It came to a head one day in the kitchen, when a sous-chef overcooked $1,000 worth of octopus for the second time. Nayfeld lost it. He started screaming and cursing at the employee.

It was a turning point for the young restaurant, and planted the seeds for deeper change that’s now under way at Che Fico. Like other Bay Area restaurateurs, the owners of Che Fico seized the opportunity of a pandemic-forced closure to reimagine their business model.

The Che Fico of today is a vastly different place. Kitchen staffers are earning 28% more than pre-pandemic — full-time prep cooks earn close to $60,000 a year and line cooks make $72,000 a year in an industry where minimum wage is common. Instead of servers taking home the majority of tips, the kitchen’s nightly tip distribution has increased fourfold. Dining room employees and managers also got substantial pay bumps. The owners sacrificed sales for a more sustainable pace, taking significantly fewer reservations instead of packing the restaurant.

Conversations with staff about finances, growth and self-care became the norm instead of long hours and yelling in the kitchen. Nayfeld talks often and openly about his own self-improvement through therapy, and urges staff to access free mental health support provided through Che Fico’s health plan. It’s a dry restaurant, meaning staff aren’t allowed to drink on the job unless it’s to taste wines, and Che Fico hosts a weekly substance-abuse support group for industry workers in recovery. The restaurant’s chef de cuisine and general manager recently became partners in the business, while the owners started profit sharing for managers and hourly staff who have worked at Che Fico for at least one year. The latter has already resulted in bonus checks. Other benefits Che Fico offers that are rare in the industry include 401(k) matching, paid parental leave and special COVID sick pay — expenses paid for through a 10% dining-in charge.

Che Fico co-owner David Nayfeld and daughter Helena in the kitchen before dinner service on July 8. Nayfeld is trying to make the Italian restaurant a healthier, more equitable place to work.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Welcome to Redefining Restaurants: a four-part series examining how Bay Area restaurants are working to transform the industry, from removing tips and increasing wages to establishing worker ownership. Read the first story here and look out for the next installments, published every week this month.

Editor’s note: This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, text HOME to 741741 to reach a trained Crisis Text Line counselor or call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.

See MoreCollapse

At a time when many Bay Area restaurants are replacing tips with service charges to sustain more equitable wages, Che Fico took a different approach. At the urging of most employees, they decided to keep tips and distribute them more equitably with kitchen staff, but add the 10% charge. The fee — which diners pay in addition to, not in lieu of, leaving a gratuity — is meant to educate customers about the “true cost” of operating a restaurant in San Francisco in 2022, from paying all employees a living wage to the surging cost of ingredients. The idea was born during the pandemic, when the more casual Che Fico Alimentari located downstairs was open for takeout only, requiring a skeleton crew and far fewer expenses than it takes to staff and pay for a large, busy restaurant.

The goal is to have everyone who’s a part of Che Fico, from bussers to diners to investors, buy into a new way of thinking about restaurants. It’s been life-changing for many employees: A line cook finally made enough money to bring his family to the United States from Honduras. A server in the throes of a mental health crisis says his life was saved by the therapy and rehab he accessed through his work health insurance. A talented but disillusioned cook stayed in the industry after feeling scarred by abusive, toxic kitchens.

It also means that eating at Che Fico is more expensive than ever before. When the restaurant emerged from its pandemic hibernation last fall, it raised prices by 15% to 20%. The restaurant’s popular, Parmesan-dusted sourdough pizzas now go for $30 and entrees range from $44 to $175. The tab for a diner who orders one appetizer, pizza and pasta, with the dine-in charge and a 20% tip, easily breaks $100. (The owners also invested $120,000 in new glassware, chairs, hand-stitched Italian napkins and other upgrades to create a higher-end dining experience.)

Many customers are supportive, staff say, and continue to tip generously in addition to the dine-in charge. But others bristle at the steep prices and added fee, circling it on their receipt and leaving a small tip, according to employees. One diner wrote on Instagram that she got up and left after seeing the “next level gauge” menu prices. Despite explaining the fee on the Che Fico website, reservation system, menu and check presenter, servers often encounter confusion and even aggression.

“You cannot have culture without compensation,” Nayfeld said.

The Chronicle spoke with five employees about their experiences at Che Fico and their perspectives on change happening within the industry. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Jazmine Fenton

The executive sous-chef has worked at Che Fico since 2018. Previously she worked at San Francisco restaurants including Al’s Place, RN74, Bluestem Brasserie and Pabu.

The owners of Che Fico have invested heavily in helping Jazmine Fenton, executive sous chef, advance in the restaurant.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

I’m 32. Between 2008 and 2012, there was a really big influx of young people wanting to cook. I think that had a lot to do with Anthony Bourdain, with things like “Top Chef” really exploding.

I really got distracted and entrenched in the whole partying, rock-star chef lifestyle. I started to lose sight of my goals and aspirations. I bounced around a couple of places, and then I ended up at a great San Francisco restaurant. Great food. Really talented people. But the environment there was incredibly toxic. I was in a fragile place in my life. I decided to quit cooking. I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I don’t find joy in this anymore.

I told Che Fico my whole story and how I had fallen off course. What really attracted me to Che Fico was how they promoted a healthy lifestyle physically and mentally for their employees. It’s a dry restaurant. No one is drinking here. They’re encouraging people to have hobbies and interests outside of work. There are myriad health benefits that you can utilize for anything that you need: mental health, physical health, if you have addiction issues. That was four years ago. I really feel like I have become the best version of myself that I have ever been.

Che Fico executive sous chef Jazmine Fenton, left, walks through the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco with chef de cuisine Evan Allumbaugh, center, and line cook Matt Tillquist. She said working at Che Fico and going to the farmers market helped restore her love of cooking after working in toxic kitchens.

Constanza Hevia H./Special to The Chronicle

A lot of places, when they promote you to management, they are like, “Go figure it out. Good luck.” I had told Che Fico I feel like I’m not sure what I’m doing. I’m not good at communicating with people. I’m not good at processing my emotions. I’m very reactive to things. They invested ($8,000) in this executive coach for me, who mostly works with people in tech and bioengineering. We’ve been meeting every two weeks and she has been giving me different tools for how to deal with certain situations. It honestly has made such a difference.

A lot of this stems back to how I was treated when I was a young cook. I think that Che Fico is working really, really hard to change generational kitchen trauma because there is a lot of it. A lot of older cooks were mentally and physically abused in the kitchen and talked down to and (were) encouraged to be that way with their teammates as well. Now we have all of these younger cooks who never had to experience that trauma and are only learning healthy ways of working.

I feel very positive that it will spread, but I think it will take time and it will take people really wanting to make the change. But I feel optimistic that within the next decade, kitchens and restaurants as a whole will function in a healthier way for the people that work in them.

Tom Folsom

The lead sommelier and server has worked at Che Fico since 2018. Previously he worked at San Francisco restaurants including Mister Jiu’s, Cotogna, Wayfare Tavern and Farallon.

Che Fico lead sommelier and server Tom Folsom has long worked in tipped restaurants, but dislikes the practice.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

What we could have done when we came back from quarantine is just up the prices of everything, but the 10% dine-in charge was meant to start a conversation with people and say, “This is part of the true cost of running a restaurant in the city. Our owners care greatly about the entire staff here. This goes to provide a ton of stuff for us. It’s the best restaurant I’ve ever worked in, and I’ve worked in a few in San Francisco.” But there is pushback by the guest, and I think a lot of it has to do with the verbiage. People don’t read the fine print. But then a conversation is meant to take place, and that’s why we put it on the menu. We want people to know why this isn’t just a super-expensive restaurant. Here’s what your money is going toward.

Some diners are like, “We’re behind it 100%.” Other people are like, “We feel like we’ve been swindled or blindsided by this.” And in those cases we offer to remove it. The hardest is when the conversations don’t take place or when people just leave 10% because they’re like, oh, half the gratuity is taken care of already. We’re an entirely pooled house — everybody who works here gets a percentage of the tip pool — so a 10% tip hurts everybody.

I don’t like tipping. In a restaurant like this where we’re food-service professionals, where this is a career path for people, I don’t think that my value should be determined by someone based on some unspoken thing. There’s no really good answer.

Pre-pandemic, servers made a little more than we’re making now. But it’s also very cool to know that you’re working in a place where everybody’s taken care of.

This is the only restaurant that I’ve been able to see myself at long term. Already this is the longest I’ve worked in any one place. I can see a career path forward.

Alexis Moreno

The line cook has worked at Che Fico since 2019. Previously he worked at Bistro Boudin in San Francisco.

Alexis Moreno cooks in the Che Fico kitchen. The line cook was able to help his family immigrate from Honduras after the restaurant raised his wages.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

(This interview has been translated from Spanish.)

I love working here. In other jobs, I’m Latino, and I would experience a lot of discrimination. In this job, I haven’t seen anything like that. They have respect for employees.

We have a lot of opportunities. There’s support that isn’t offered in other jobs. For example, I started out as a dishwasher, and I asked if I could cook. They told me, “Of course; here’s the opportunity if you want it.” They motivate us to keep learning, to keep advancing. It’s totally different. In other restaurants, we don’t have a lot of opportunities. I started washing plates for three months, then I was a pizza cook for three years. First pizzas, now pastas.

Alexis Moreno hugs his younger sister, Cindy Flores. He said Che Fico’s pay increase allowed him to bring his family from Honduras to the U.S. after trying to do so for eight years.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

I was in a legal process to bring my siblings and my mother to the United States from Honduras. Thanks to this job, I have a better salary. I was able to finalize and pay for all the paperwork. I have my family here with me. They arrived in January. (The process took eight years.)

One of my dreams is to be chef or sous-chef, here or at another restaurant. I love to cook. I want to learn as much as possible for a better future for my family.

Kyle Quinn

The server has worked at Che Fico since 2019. Previously he worked at San Francisco restaurants Presidio Social Club, Coqueta and Al’s Place.

Che Fico servers Kyle Quinn, left, and Kira Brizzi prepare the dining room on July 8, 2022. Quinn said mental health therapy he accessed through his work insurance plan helped save his life.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

During the pandemic, I fell into a very deep depression where I felt like my work was my only safe place. I was trying to manage my sobriety, but I just didn’t have the tools. I got really suicidal. I didn’t really see any way out.

Che Fico shut down from the second week of December until after the first week of January. On Dec. 29, 2021, I was alone and drinking. I drank a lot that night and I snorted a lot of ketamine. I just couldn’t imagine doing this for another year. I wrote a suicide note in my phone and I had a plan. I woke up the next day, and I was out of ideas. So I called this behavioral health number on the back of our insurance card, and was connected to an outpatient rehab program and a therapist. Just having that little bit of hope, like, I have an appointment. Jan. 10 was my first day of rehab. (The insurance provided by Che Fico covered 75% of the cost of rehab.)

I emailed Matt and David and Bryn (Barone, general manager), and I was like, “I have been heavily addicted and abusing alcohol and drugs and I’m entering a rehab. I would like to keep on working because it’s an outpatient rehab and I need this kind of structure and support.” Bryn immediately emailed back and was like, “Do you need time off? Do you need financial support? What do you need from us?” My therapist with Carbon Health, who came through Che Fico, is the one that allowed me to center myself and focus on what I needed to do in order to achieve my goals.

Being a server, I’ve managed to make a very stable life for myself and I’ve benefited greatly from the tipping culture that I think is changing. But in some ways, I’ve always felt a certain amount of guilt because I have friends in the back of the house and I know that they’re not compensated in the tipping structure equally.

It sucks because our restaurant is really expensive: $30 pizza, $38 pasta, $19 glasses of wine. It would be really hard for me to eat there without a discount. But at the same time, this is a movement that I can get behind and that I want to be a part of. I wasn’t on board right away with the pay structure changes. I thought, I’m going to see how this goes.

We are definitely making less as servers. Granted, I am also putting into a 401(k) that is being matched. I do not skimp on health insurance. I see my therapist once a week. That’s $400 a month that would be out of pocket. Thinking about it in that cost-benefit analysis makes it way easier to be a part of this model. Some people would rather have a little bit more money in an abusive environment than less money in a much more nourishing environment. I tell everyone that this is the most nourishing work environment that I’ve ever worked in.

Casey Rebecca Nunes

The event manager has worked at Che Fico since April. Previously she was the executive chef at Media Noche in San Francisco, and later worked at Smitten Ice Cream and Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco.

Casey Rebecca Nunes, event manager at Che Fico, works in the private dining room before dinner service.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

I left as executive chef at Media Noche three weeks before COVID hit. I’d been there for almost three years and I was like, OK, I think it’s time for me to do something new. As COVID carried on and we saw our industry crumble in places where it was already crumbling, it really gave me pause. Do I want to go back to that? And I was dead set on not doing it.

Maybe a year into it, I was like, I wouldn’t go back to any restaurant. It would have to be a really good restaurant or a restaurant I really believed in.

This is probably the first time maybe in any industry that I’ve worked in, in any job, where I had extensive training. In a lot of jobs, if they catch a whiff that you’re competent, they’re like, “OK, I did my job. I told you what to do and then you can figure it out because you’re smart.” But here, accountability is really woven into the fabric of this company. No one’s perfect. We’re constantly checking on one another to see how we’re doing, first and foremost as people. But also just like, “Hey, I saw that you’re struggling with this. Do you want to talk about it?”

The precedent is set from the top down that everyone is a person and everyone has lives to live outside of the restaurant. It’s something that I’ve seen only in a few restaurants, really.

We have financial education meetings. Being able to share in the wealth of the business and actually feel some sort of ownership of it through profit sharing — very few other places do that. I can only give one other example: Reem’s, which I also worked at. They’re also two businesses that are structured very differently, a co-op versus healthy capitalism, which is great. I’ve seen both examples of leaders who genuinely care about their workers. Reem’s is in a totally different category, but the throughline for me between here and there is definitely about investing in your workers — in time, with money, with care, with kindness.

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com

The post Why San Francisco restaurant Che Fico added a controversial charge on prime of suggestions appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Traffic in New York City near the Port Authority Bust Terminal bus ramp on 8th Avenue. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Raidarmax.

New York City is moving forward with its plan to enact the very first congestion pricing law in the country, driving vehicles south of 60 million people.

Construction Drive reports that the city government will renew public hearings next week on the plan, which has been debated since the bloom of the Bloomberg administration.

The controversial move was first approved by the Albany state legislature in 2019 with a goal of generating over $ 1 billion a year in revenue, which in turn would help support a now-suspended MTA capital project of $ 51 billion -Dollars to pay.

The move is only beginning to move forward now after it was blocked for a period of years by the Trump administration amid an apparent dispute between the executive branch and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Related on Archinect: The War on Cars celebrates another victory in New York City

New York hopes to follow cities like Stockholm in implementing the directive, which will also help increase the number of subway riders, which have remained low after the pandemic and recent increase in crime.

The measure is not without notable opponents who claim that congestion prices are just a factor for middle- and low-income drivers who could be charged up to $ 3,000 a year in tolls depending on where their commute starts and ends .

Still, if introduced, the toll could open up an easier path for other cities like San Francisco (which is currently working on its own plan), which Kate Slevin, executive vice president of the Tri-State Regional Plan Association, says: important to that Development of urban life in the 21st century.

“We want the MTA and the city to get it right,” she told Construction Drive. “We need these types of solutions across the country to meet the challenges ahead. Many eyes were on New York and will continue to be. “

Related Articles About Archinect You May Be Interested In …

The post New York is transferring ahead with its controversial congestion pricing plan | Information appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Between June 2020 and June 2021, San Francisco passed 679 “camp resolutions” used by city officials to describe the evacuation of homeless camps in the city.

The department that implements these “resolutions” is known as the Healthy Streets Operations Center (HSOC), a multidisciplinary multi-agency effort that is highly controversial among homeless rights activists in the city.

“What we have seen over and over again is that HSOC operations are not followed,” wrote Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco, in a recent Street Sheet article titled “When Tents Are Removed There.” there is no way “. Home. “” But even if they were, the HSOC’s approach is highly problematic, traumatic and likely to make homelessness worse.

Friedenbach said that while HSOC says it won’t do sweeps unless it has enough services to serve the people, “that’s just not the case”.

“They may have protective beds … but living in a common room doesn’t work for a lot of people,” she said. “These people may not want to share an interior space with hundreds of people.”

In Street Sheet, Friedenbach calls for the dismantling of HSOC, arguing that a “compassionate alternative response to homelessness that is not an institutional answer,” “fully equipped to work with people and try to meet their needs,” should take their place should kick.

The city now has HSOC. SFGATE wanted to understand what exactly its goals are and how it wants to achieve them. To understand the controversial agency, SFGATE spoke to Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the emergency management department that coordinates the city’s response to the camps of the homeless.

What is the aim of the “liquidation of the camp”?

Carroll said the primary goal of “camp resolutions” is to provide services to people on the street, but that is not the only goal.

“We also try to create security, which also means hygiene and cleanliness,” she added.

The overall purpose, especially during COVID-19, is to “make the road safe for everyone. … Children deserve safe access to school or business, and it is important to us to ensure safety for all of us. “

Who usually clears stores?

The Healthy Street Operations team is clearing the warehouse. The team consists of the Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department, Public Health Department, Emergency Management Department, Public Works Department, San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and San Francisco Recreation and Park. The fire brigade is also on duty when a paramedic is needed.

Who exactly will order the evacuation of an area?

The HSOC arranges warehouse clearings in cooperation with the above-mentioned offices.

Who decides where and when a warehouse is cleared?

HSOC regularly conducts tent and vehicle counts and examines camps with six or more tents, Carroll said.

“With this information, we will develop a schedule for developing inventory releases,” she said.

She said “there are all sorts of things” that determine where camps are on this schedule, including whether a school or daycare center opens nearby and is “at risk” or a construction project is about to break.

“In general, we look at the greatest and those that pose the greatest risk to people in the area,” said Carroll.

Carroll said HSOC is also tracking 911 and 311, “so in a way we are tracking hotspots around the city and seeing if they match the list we have and what we know from our road operations.”

Are those involved specially trained?

Mostly yes. The team consists of members of EMS-6, the main paramedic unit for the ambulance service, including a paramedic who is trained in street medicine. Clinical social workers from the San Francisco Department of Public Health are also involved.

All other non-clinical workers have training that includes police officers and people from public works on the street.

“Everyone in this field has experience at different levels,” said Carroll.

How big is the team that clears a warehouse on a particular call?

The size of the team depends on this, but usually ranges from four to eight people. Typically it is a core group of a paramedic and homeless team members (two to four people).

Later, a group comes to remove any items left behind, usually made up of two to six people with two policemen.

Which places are evacuated most often?

Carroll said there are “certain areas” that require frequent attention, including the alleyways on Van Ness Avenue.

“There are certain areas where we’ve gone back more than 20 times,” she said. “We were able to successfully keep some areas free from camps, but not others.”

When does the city not get away with a “dissolution”?

“One [scenario] We’re going to a solution with say 10 beds, but there are 12 people who want these services. Then we would stop the breakup, ”said Carroll.

Friedenbach denied this claim. “It’s just not true,” she said.

“When we looked at the FOIA inquiries, we found that they had a number of people in the camp and not the right number of accommodations. We also know that from observations, ”she said.

Carroll said it was “important to understand that we must obey the law, which means we cannot find a solution without having an alternative option for the person on the street.”

What if people don’t want the services offered?

Carroll said if there are 10 beds and only five people show interest, the remaining people will be asked to pack their belongings and move out of the area. This was confirmed by Friedenbach.

Currently, people can stay in shelters “indefinitely,” according to Deborah Bouck of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

“We have been subject to an automatic residence extension policy since the beginning of the pandemic,” she said via email.

Will people’s property be taken away during the trial?

Carroll said the people’s property will not be taken from them; However, if they go to emergency shelters, they will be asked to leave tents.

If someone declines to provide services, their tent won’t be taken away, Carroll said.

Friedenbach told SFGATE that this is not always the case. Sweeps are typically done between 7am and 10am or 11am, and during this time not everyone is able to pack fast enough, forcing them to leave their belongings behind.

“You have to crawl and pack quickly,” she said. “We often see people who are older and cannot move as quickly, or they have a limited mental function, a developmental disorder. … You can imagine how difficult it is to get everything together so quickly. ”

What resources are available for HSOC?

“I think some of that isn’t that much money, but the challenge was having the resources that people are more likely to love,” said Carroll. “Safe sleep [city-sanctioned tent sites] while COVID was created and we still have, and that is a very popular resource for people. Collective accommodation is probably the least popular. It’s not a secret. “

The resources that flow into the HSOC include beds in emergency shelters, safe sleeping places, navigation centers and treatment beds, among others. There is staff in every department.

Aside from one HSOC manager, “there isn’t a big budget or really a dedicated budget,” Carroll said.

In the 2020-2021 budget proposed by Mayor London Breed, she called for the HSOC to be allocated US $ 4 million over two years to “maintain existing services in the participating departments, with substantial new funding for additional staff at HSH and the Ministry of Health to be provided”.

Do you have any questions about homeless sweeps? Send them to SFGATE reporter Michelle Robertson at michelle.robertson@sfgate.com.

The post An interview with the controversial San Francisco company answerable for conducting homeless sweeps appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The ailing San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is considering selling its iconic Diego Rivera mural The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City from 1931 to complement its foundation, which reportedly came in at just $ 10 million in June . Allegedly, Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas is said to have expressed interest in the $ 50 million mural that is said to have work for his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is currently under construction in Los Angeles.

The SFAI, one of the oldest and most prestigious art schools in the country, has had difficulty staying open home and laying off faculty and staff since March. The school reversed an announced closure decision in July but has yet to find a way to pay off the debt while raising approximately $ 19 million in operating costs.

The site-specific Rivera tableau, which shows workers on a trompe l’oeil scaffolding, which shows a fresco depicting a city under construction, is only one of three in the city by the renowned Mexican muralist. The plant is located on the school’s campus on Chestnut Street, which was acquired by the University of California’s Board of Regents when it bought nearly $ 20 million of SFAI debt last fall to help keep the school from collapsing maintain. Should the SFAI fail to pay this debt by 2026, the campus and mural will become the property of the University of California after the lease expires.

The mural could be saved on-site through a foundation that SFAI is alleged to be actively seeking, or through a plan that has the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art buy the work and leave it on campus.

ALL PICTURES

The post San Francisco Artwork Institute Explores Controversial Sale of Diego Rivera Mural appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SACRAMENTO (CBS / AP) – California’s workplace regulators have withdrawn a controversial pending mask ordinance while considering a rule more in line with Governor Gavin Newsom’s promise that the state will reopen fully on Tuesday after the pandemic.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised rule, passed last week after its initial rejection, would have only allowed workers to forego masks if every employee in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This is in contrast to the state’s broader plan to abolish virtually all masking and social distancing requirements for vaccinated individuals in line with the latest recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hours earlier, California Minister of Health and Welfare, Dr. Mark Ghaly announced that beginning June 15, the state will follow the Centers for Disease Control’s masking guidelines. Under CDC guidelines, those fully vaccinated can go to most outdoor and indoor locations without masks, except for public transportation exceptions, K-12 classrooms, health facilities, and homeless shelters.

UCSF epidemiologist Dr. George Rutherford believes Cal / OSHA has taken the right action from a medical standpoint.

“They were more conservative and basically said if everyone on a construction site isn’t vaccinated, everyone has to wear a mask and I think that’s probably too restrictive,” Rutherford told KPIX 5.

The board’s decision late Wednesday to repeal this workplace regulation before it goes into effect allows the board to review changes at its June 17 meeting and possibly bring them into effect by the end of the month.

But some business leaders maintained pressure on Newsom on Wednesday to override the board.

“After the confusion and ambiguity over reopening policies at the Cal / OSHA hearing tonight, the nationwide business community must urge the governor again before the 15th, California Business Roundtable President Lapsley, said in a post-vote statement. That, he said, “will be the catalyst for a full economic reopening and create a powerful incentive to vaccinate even more Californians.”

The goal of the unanimous vote, said Chairman David Thomas, is to amend the Workplace Ordinance “so that it is in line with the CDC and the California Department of Health, so that we are all on the same page. That’s what this is about, so we’re not out of step with everyone else. “

The safety committee staff did not provide any indication of the changes it will recommend next week other than that it will try to bring workplace rules closer to public health guidelines.

However, Eric Berg, deputy chief of health for the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal / OSHA, said that public health guidelines generally allow anyone who is vaccinated to wear a mask indoors. According to these rules, he said, “a vaccinated person does not have to wear a mask at work”.

The reversal came after the state health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón had reaffirmed to board members at a hastily scheduled special meeting that the state will lift most of the masking rules for vaccinated people next week, while continuing to require face coverings for unvaccinated people in indoor public spaces and businesses.

Exceptions, where everyone must remain masked, include public transportation, indoor school classes, health and correctional facilities, and places like homeless shelters and cooling centers, Aragón said. Individual companies are also free to require that everyone remain masked under the general rules, he said.

Helen Cleary, director of the Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable, a coalition of large corporations with major California offices, was among many business leaders calling on the board to adapt its rule to public health needs.

“Employers cannot plan with this high level of uncertainty,” she said. “We are disappointed and frustrated with the confusion, the process, the substance and the lack of leadership.”

The Workplace Board’s more restrictive approach left Newsom in an uncomfortable position as it battles an impending dismissal despite reluctance to override a board he has appointed.

“The public makes no distinction between this board of directors and the rest of the Newsom administration,” Michael Mueller, director of government relations for the California Association of Winegrape Growers, told board members prior to the vote. “What you hear is the Newsom administration saying that wearing masks at work may stay here.”

Pressure built on the board ahead of the meeting when a dozen corporate groups, including the California Retailers Association and organizations representing manufacturers, farmers, tourism interests, and other industries, sent a letter to Newsom asking it to revise the regulations of the board of directors.

Requiring masks when everyone in a workplace is not vaccinated would “create another barrier to reinstatement and reopening” at a time when “we need to provide incentives to bring people back,” they said. Additionally, they said the need for masks for people who are fully vaccinated could lead the public to believe that the vaccine isn’t actually effective.

Board member Laura Stock said it was important to continue protecting employees who have no realistic choice but to go to work.

For example, government data shows that there have been “70 outbreaks in retail in the past 30 days, more than two a day,” said Stock, who directs the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. “Outbreaks still happen.”

Corporate groups also want the board to withdraw its proposal to require employers to provide the most effective N95 masks for voluntary use by employees who work indoors or at major outdoor events and who are not fully vaccinated, starting July 31. That would be costly and competitive with the needs of health workers, they said.

But “the N95 is the one that checked all of these boxes,” Stock said.

The Cal / OSHA Board of Directors regulations apply to almost every workplace in the state, including workers in offices, factories, and retail outlets. The pandemic rules apply to all employees, except for those who work from home or have a single employee who has no contact with anyone else.

Even ahead of Wednesday’s vote, the board members stressed that their revised rules were temporary and they appointed a subcommittee to continue working on the revisions.

© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post Cal/OSHA Withdraws Controversial Work Masks Guidelines – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco loves a good mural. But in the case of the artwork on the SF LGBT center side, the city might as well hate a good mural.

The saga of the purple wall in Octavia and Market Streets has become one of the most controversial public art subjects of late. The wall stayed empty for more than 100 years until the street artist fnnch, who is responsible for honey bear art in San Francisco, approached the LGBT center with an idea for a mural for the 50th year of pride in 2020.

Fnnch’s popularity led him to raise $ 293.00 for charity in 2020, according to the California News Times. Fifty percent of the sales of many of his bear pictures go to charitable organizations. For every $ 600 painting by Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence that you see in a window, for example, the organization received $ 300. In a statement on Instagram, he said $ 20,000 was raised specifically for the LGBT center. But the ubiquity of his artwork sparked a citywide backlash, and his transplant status in San Francisco led to allegations of gentrification. The problem was compounded when a confrontational video appeared on social media about repainting the LGBT center mural after it was destroyed. In the video, he claimed to be an immigrant and stated that he was from Missouri.

Now, a week before Pride starts, the mural has been replaced with a new piece of art by queer artists Juan Manuel Carmona and Simón Malvaez, whose artwork has been on display in El Rio, Blondies and next to the Painted Ladies. The new work of art was created through a union of one of the city’s most legendary drag queens, Juanita MORE !, who introduced the two artists to the LGBT center. They expressed an interest in painting the wall with a collection of strange historical icons and local guides, and conceived not only a work of art, but also an educational series on the characters depicted that will run throughout the year.

“We decided to use the colors of the flag of progressive pride and turn each color into a character that means something important to both of us in our queer history,” says Malvaez.

The artists Juan Manuel Carmona (left) and Simón Malvaez in front of their newly unveiled mural in the Castro entitled “Queeroes”.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

“We picked characters who were masters in town. We wanted locals who did something for the community and especially for San Francisco, ”says Carmona, who quotes living legends like Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany, and of course MORE !, as well as historical figures like Harvey Milk and Frida Kahlo.

Malvaez grew up in Tijuana and spent time in Mexico City before moving to San Francisco three years ago. Carmona was born in Texas, then lived in central Mexico before moving to San Francisco about 10 years ago and working in a bar at Castro while attending art school. Her greatest influences come from the rich tradition of political art in Mexico.

A close-up of the newly unveiled “Queeroes” mural shows Sister Roma in detail.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

“As a team, I would say that our biggest influences are the Mexican mural. It may sound a little clichéd, but the style that Frida Kahlo made, and Diego Rivera, and [David Alfaro] Siqueiros and how they represented their reality and were political with their art. I think we do similar things in today’s society and who we are and who we represent, ”says Malvaez.

“We are queer Latino artists in San Francisco. If we wanted to define what our style is, it is exploration between LGBT communities. All of our murals have rainbows or a drag queen or some kind of representation of those communities that we belong to. And our interface to our Latin American heritage, ”says Carmona.

Their identity as immigrants shapes the new art, as does their reaction to the viral video by fnnch defending the previous mural.

“I’m an immigrant, so I took it a little more personally. As someone who has experienced immigration, I find that disappointing, ”says Malvaez.

“We have nothing against the previous artist. It’s very unfortunate what happened, but it’s also an opportunity to have more eyes on us and a wider audience to deliver a message of love and the strange heroes, ”says Carmona.

The newly unveiled mural in the Castro with the title “Queeroes” by the artists Juan Manuel Carmona and Simón Malvaez.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

Fnnch doesn’t seem to have any malice about replacing his artwork. In an email to SFGATE, he announced that he had recently spent time with Carmona and Malvaez before he knew they were going to paint the mural. “They are both wonderful people and I am a fan of them and their art. I look forward to seeing your mural at the SF LGBT Center. I am honored to have contributed to the start of this rotating wall program, ”he wrote. He also addressed the controversy in an Instagram post.

As for the future of Carmona and Malvaez’s work, they hope that their emphasis on community personalities will prevent them from facing the same vandalism that the honey bears committed. But in addition to providing a visual reminder of the city’s strange history, hopefully the mural will serve as an educational tool.

“The mural is the first step in this project. It’s bigger than that. The center will keep reporting on these characters we wanted to celebrate, but we’re also inviting the people who see these murals to show us their own strange symbols and influences, ”says Malvaez.

“To celebrate this during pride, it is important that we show people that they are not alone. I think part of the Centre’s identity is this sanctuary where you can actually be free and be who you are. We hope this mural will evoke this in people. We also have heroes, we are not alone, ”says Carmona.

The post The story of San Francisco’s latest and most controversial mural within the Castro appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The San Francisco School Board has put controversial plans to rename 44 schools on hold until students are back on campus after more than a year of virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Jeff Chiu / AP Hide caption

Toggle labeling

Jeff Chiu / AP

The San Francisco School Board has put controversial plans to rename 44 schools on hold until students are back on campus after more than a year of virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Jeff Chiu / AP

The San Francisco Board of Education will ultimately retain the names of dozens of public schools when it comes to high stakes.

The board had advanced a controversial plan to change the names of 44 schools honoring those associated with historical racism or oppression. However, on Tuesday the board unanimously voted to suspend efforts when it passed a resolution saying “avoid the distraction and wasteful spending of public funds in frivolous litigation”.

The reversal met with relief and enthusiasm from various critics, who agreed in their opposition to the project. Conservatives called the effort a culture rampage, while Liberals criticized the extremely poor research by the Blue Ribbon Panel that resulted in the long list of school names being changed.

For example, President Abraham Lincoln, whose legacy is defined by the emancipation of black slaves, was put on the list because it was decided to permit the execution of 38 Santee Sioux convicted of the rape and murder of white settlers. However, critics say the panel failed to consider that the state of Minnesota would have executed 300 Santee Sioux if Lincoln had not intervened and commuted their sentences on their behalf, sparing all but the 38 who were hanged.

SFist also reported, “The Board Committee mistakenly assumed that the Alamo Elementary School was named after the battle of Texas, rather than the Spanish word for” poplar tree, “Maine Penobscot people – the 1779 Penobscot expedition he participated in was actually an unsuccessful battle with the British who landed on Penobscot territory and “captured” it a month earlier. “

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been reprimanding the board for months for prioritizing the project in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

“What I fail to understand is why the school board is pushing a plan to rename all of these schools by April if there is no plan to have our children back in the classroom by then,” Breed said in a January statement.

“Our students are suffering, and we should talk about getting them into classrooms, helping them with mental health, and giving them the resources they need during this challenging time.”

Other critics, including Attorney Paul Scott, who filed a lawsuit against the district on behalf of the SFUSD Alumni Association’s Abraham Lincoln High School, said the board did not involve the community in the process.

“That approach of basically suggesting that they have the corner of morality and dictating everyone else top-down … that’s not an acceptable approach,” Scott told NBC News.

Board chairwoman Gabriela López took note of the complaints in February, saying the process started in 2018 and preceded the pandemic.

I want to make sure that as many people as possible can see my statement about the board’s focus on reopening our schools. pic.twitter.com/8aJvMdNNPT

– Teacher and President Gabriela López @ (@ lopez4schools) February 22, 2021

“I acknowledge and accept responsibility for mistakes made in the renaming process,” she said in a statement.

López added that the board will “pursue a more deliberate process that includes the involvement of historians at nearby universities”. She also noted that the renaming committee had been suspended indefinitely. She said the school board will use its energies to get students back into personal study.

Elementary school students are expected to return starting this month. The board of directors passed a resolution on Tuesday in which a personal full-time class for all K-12 students will be determined at the beginning of the next school year in August.

The renaming will not be carried out again until this happens.

The post San Francisco Faculty Board Rescinds Controversial Faculty Renaming Plan : NPR appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.