SAN FRANCISCO — Residents fed up with crime, homelessness, drug use and sales, and mental health issues in San Francisco’s District 2, which includes the Marina and Cow Hollow, aired their concerns in a public safety Q&A town hall at Marina Middle School Tuesday .

Supervisor Catherine Stefani, Police Chief Bill Scott, Northern Station Captain Derrick Jackson and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins took questions from the audience. City representatives from Healthy Streets SF, Homeless and Supportive Housing, and the Department of Public Health were also among the panelists.

Marina resident Sam Chehrazi shared a video with KPIX 5 of an attempted break-in in broad daylight at his home in May.

Home surveillance video showed a man scraping his front door with a tool, before kicking the door multiple times as he yelled threats and obscenities. Chehrazi was on the other side of that door on the phone with 911. He barricaded the door with his body.

It’s the kind of daily crime that brought concerned residents to the meeting, which at times got heated.

Long-time residents told the panelists crime has never been worse in their neighborhood.

“I too don’t feel safe and my wife when she’s walking around, I also feel concerned,” said Chehrazi. “And we all kind of walk around with our finger on our pepper spray around here.”

Chehrazi was victimized just a month after he moved to San Francisco from the Peninsula. He said former district attorney Chesa Boudin committed to charging the case as vandalism, stopping short of attempted burglary.

Following the incident, Chehrazi started a neighborhood petition called Saving San Francisco, asking city officials – including the mayor, district attorney and SFPD – for stricter enforcement of laws. He said he’s gathered 100 signatures.

“The fact that we’re witnessing criminal activity on a daily basis in broad daylight and we’re calling the police, we’re writing to our supervisor, we’ve written to the district attorney, we’ve written to the police caption , and we’ve also written to the mayor and nobody’s responding, it really makes it feel more unsettled,” he said.

The police department said it now has a strong working partnership with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. SFPD encouraged residents to keep reporting concerns so the department can collect data and prioritize calls for service.

Scott acknowledged the department’s staffing crisis, saying it is at least 500 officers short. Jenkins promised accountability and pushed for a collective effort.

“As California residents, I think we have to look at the laws and see do we need to make changes,” she said. “Right now, misdemeanor laws don’t really hold any serious consequences at this point, and it’s because of things that have happened over the course of years to the laws.”

Jenkins told the audience she is making progress when it comes to cracking down open-air drug markets.

She said 400 narcotics cases have been submitted to her office and she filed 379 cases, more than double the amount filed by the office during the same time period last year.

Of those 379 cases, Jenkins filed motions to detain 16 drug dealers with the most egregious cases.

As for Chehrazi, his greatest concern is how the community is dealing with known individuals in the Marina, who don’t accept city services.

“So where does that put us having to walk down the street, and go to the grocery store, or go to the bank, or run errands and being integrated with people that need help,” he said. “They need stricter intervention, something more than just ‘do you need help?’ Those people say ‘no,’ and then the city walking away.”

Betty Yu

Betty Yu joined KPIX 5 in November 2013 as a general assignment reporter. She spent two years at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami, as a reporter before moving to San Francisco.

The post San Francisco Marina District residents demand crackdown on neighborhood crime appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

CBS San Francisco Employee Report

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – With the rise in new coronavirus cases and the increasing demand for vaccinations, the information you need to know is coming fast and furious. Here is a recap of the COVID stories we’ve posted over the past 24 hours.

CONTINUE READING: The San José School District is securing the vaccine for the entire workforce

Newsom is hammering its way back to school deal with state lawmakers
SACRAMENTO – As Marin County students return to classrooms on Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a deal with state lawmakers to get most public school children back to classrooms nationwide by the end of March. Marin County, which moved into the Red Tier last week, is among the fastest-running school systems in the state when it comes to getting students back into class. Newsom wants other districts across the state to follow the lead of the Marin and Long Beach Schools.
Monday’s deal is an important step in that direction. Under the deal, school districts could receive up to $ 6.6 billion if they reopen classrooms by March 31. Read more

Victims of EDD Bank of America debit card fraud could be taxed on benefits they never received
SAN FRANCISCO == For months, KPIX has been reporting the frustrations and devastating economic effects of debit card fraud leading to unemployment. Approximately 11 million Californians receive their unemployment benefits on Bank of America debit cards. You have lost thousands of dollars in fraudulent transactions. Now we are learning that they could be affected by taxes on income that they never received. “I was really excited,” said Scott Wheeler. At first, Wheeler thought the employment development letter was finally the money he had been waiting for almost a year. But not like this. It was a 1099-G tax form from EDD. “They said they paid $ 14,000. And obviously I didn’t see any of that. So someone has it, but I don’t, ”said Wheeler. Continue reading

SF restaurants use high tech tools to make eating indoors safe
SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco restaurants are ready to welcome guests again with the help of new technology. The city is expected to announce the move to the Red Steps on Tuesday. When guests return to La Mar at the Embarcardero, the food and space look familiar. However, there is a patented technology hidden in its HVAC system that can safely clean the room air. It’s called NPBI from Global Plasma Solutions. The technology uses an electronic charge to create a plasma field filled with ions. They attach themselves to particles in the air. Continue reading

Some students are returning to Marin County classroom study
MILL VALLEY – As San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose public schools continue to provide distance learning, Marin County is accelerating its reopening for high schools as well. Tamalpais High School is one of several that will welcome students and teachers back for face-to-face learning this week. Marin County is one of two in the Bay Area to join the Red Tier as more schools reopen without vaccinating all staff. Outdoor tents have been set up for more space as thousands of students return to the classroom. Around 90% of Marin County’s schools will be open for face-to-face learning in the coming days. Continue reading

CONTINUE READING: Golden Gate Fields races to make up for missed vaccine appointments

The Healdsburg family leaves California on an overland trip in search of a new home
HEALDSBURG – With the pandemic bringing normal life to a standstill, more and more people are moving out of the Bay Area and California in general. Monday morning a family from Healdsburg joined the Exodus, but they have decided to make their move the trip of a lifetime. Ben and Brianne Holt removed the last items from their home in Healdsburg. Her daughters Mackenzie, Madison, Maebel and Maliya were already in the car. It was time for the journey to begin and even though they know where to go they have no idea where to end up. “I know there is a place for us and I don’t know where it is,” said Ben. “We picked out a few ideas, but that’s part of the journey to find out. Oh, we think we want to live in North Carolina, but what if we like Wyoming, what if we like Arkansas? ” Continue reading

Santa Clara County debuts vaccination center for teachers, educators on the fairgrounds
SAN JOSE – Santa Clara County is trying to make it easier and faster for educators to get vaccinated and is calling for schools to reopen. “As soon as we make it safely, I can’t wait to see her,” said Steven Teleky, music teacher at Orchard Middle School in San Jose. Teleky was one of the first educators to use a newly created vaccination center on the district’s exhibition grounds for teachers on Monday. The site was previously intended for first responders and is still manned by firefighters who administer the vaccine. Teleky says the vaccine means a return to normal and hopefully a return to the classroom after a year of online classes. Continue reading

Twitter is taking action against coronavirus misinformation with ‘Strike System’ to remove violations
SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter says it has started flagging tweets containing misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and using a “strike system” to remove accounts that repeatedly violate its rules. The company announced Monday that it has begun using human reviewers to assess whether tweets violate its guidelines on misinformation from COVID vaccines. Ultimately, the work will be done by a combination of humans and automation, it said. Twitter had banned some COVID-related misinformation back in December, including falsehoods about how the virus spreads, whether masks are effective, and the risk of infection and death. Continue reading

Group calls Berkeley Teachers’ Union Leader a hypocrite who takes a child to a private preschool
BERKELEY – An East Bay teacher and union leader comes under fire on Monday. He is accused of being a hypocrite in the fight to reopen schools after teachers were vaccinated. The video “Guerrilla Momz” released by the anonymous advocacy group shows a man the group says is Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, who is taking his child to a private preschool. Meyer and the union have fought vigorously to ensure that students do not return to full-time classes until teachers have received the COVID vaccine. While not commenting on the video, Meyer confirmed to the East Bay Times that his two-year-old daughter is attending a private preschool, adding that there are no public options for children her age. Continue reading

CVS receives 200,000 cans of newly approved Johnson & Johnson Shot
SAN FRANCISCO – CVS announced it will receive the recently approved COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson in the coming days as the pharmacy chain tries to improve vaccine adoption. A pharmacy spokesman told KPIX 5 on Monday that they are expecting the doses of the one-shot vaccine this week. California is one of the 17 states in which the pharmacy offers in-store recordings to those entitled. Shipments of the vaccine began Monday after the Food and Drug Administration received approval for the emergency over the weekend. Continue reading

MORE NEWS: Study shows Stockton’s universal basic income experiment resulted in an increase in employment

Santa Rosa officials receive vaccines for teachers before the school reopens
SANTA ROSA – Santa Rosa school officials say they received an additional 1,500 doses of the COVID vaccine for their staff to vaccinate the district staff before the K-6 personal primary schools reopened April 1st in Taken at risk after Sonoma County’s Education Bureau announced a vaccination deficiency that it would temporarily close its vaccination clinic in the first week of March. An announcement from Santa Rosa City Schools on Sunday said that district officials had worked with Senator Mike McGuire to get the extra doses of vaccine. Continue reading

The post Tax Shock For EDD Fraud Victims; Twitter Coronavirus ‘Strike System’ Crackdown; College Reopening Plan Faces Legislature Vote – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.