Scott Davis has been a fan of the San Francisco Giants since 1986.

He wears his orange and black gear proudly and, more importantly, was thrilled this year to be affiliated with his favorite Major League Baseball franchise.

The City of Manteca partnered with the Giants Community Fund – a non-profit program that promotes health, education and character development to propel youth in underserved areas to be positive forces in their communities – on an eight-week schedule consisting of youth baseball and softball teams as part of the City’s Recreation and Community Services.

Recreation Supervisor Eric Culpepper was the force behind bringing the Junior Giants to Manteca, having established a connection after working with two other cities.

“Our goal was to get as many kids involved,” he said on Wednesday.

The signups for the inaugural season exceeded his initial numbers of 150 participants.

The Junior Giants were involved in the Little League program at Northgate. The local underserved youngsters not only sported the team colors and logo but played for free in Major, Minor and T-Ball divisions, according to Culpepper.

He’s hoping to do likewise later this year with the City of Manteca partnering with NFL and NBA in flag football and basketball, respectively.

The non-competitive Challenger division, meanwhile, was near and dear to those such as Culpepper, Davis and John Barrera. The latter two are volunteer coaches for the special needs players.

No score is kept as players learn more than just baseball.

Along with leadership, integrity and teamwork – pillars of the Junior Giants program – the players in the Challenger division, ranging in age from 5 to 20, receive important lessons in education, health and violence prevention.

Davis, who is involved locally with Give Every Child A Chance and works with special needs of the San Joaquin County Office of Education, just wrapped coaching this past week with his team, The Say Hey Kids.

“I chose the name because not only is Willie Mays’ the Say Hey Kid but the song (Say Hey! Willie Mays), at one point – ‘That Giants kid is great,’” he noted.

Davis added: “I truly believe and want everyone to know that each and every Challengers player I work with is great.”

Like the parent club, the Junior Giants also recognizes a distinguished player with the Willie Mac Award.

Davis’ summer school student in the SJCOE program, Matteo Orlando, was the recipient of the award for the Say Hey Kids. The two were honored to attend the Home of the Giants’ Oracle Park in San Francisco not too long ago for the special event.

Those involved with Junior Giants program throughout Northern California are scheduled for another special event at Oracle Park this weekend.

Barrera, who coaches the Bad News Bears, is an Oakland A’s fan. He was able to put his team allegiances aside for the program. “We do it for the kids,” said Barrera, who is a longtime Little League coach.

The Bad News Bears and the Say Hey Kids played six games this summer at Lincoln Park, with each player receiving free glove hat, and asked to name a few.

Funding for the Junior Giant program is made possible by contributions from individuals, businesses and foundations via a number of special partnerships and fundraisers – included is the 50/50 raffle during home games at Oracle Park.

Since its inception in 1991, the Giants Community Fund has donated over $34.5 million to community efforts.

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What started out as a North Bay effort to coordinate rebuilding after the devastating 2017 wildfires has turned into a national effort to take lessons learned locally to help burned communities elsewhere quickly organize in the aftermath.

In recent months, Rebuild NorthBay Foundation has become After the Fire USA.

But the transition has been underway for the past few years as megafires have raged across the West, according to Jennifer Gray Thompson, CEO.

“Our name makes a lot more sense,” she said. “We worked with the county (of Sonoma) on COVID response. We do more than build houses.”

That expansion started in 2018 with helping Paradise and Malibu organize after the Camp and Woolsey fires, respectively. Then the group was called in to help after blazes local and distant in 2019 and 2020, from Santa Cruz into southern Oregon. And last year, help was sought for Greenville in California’s Plumas County after the nearly 1 million-acre Dixie Fire in November near Paradise.

“There are a thousand Greenvilles and a thousand Paradises in the American West,” Thompson said. “There is a huge need out there for convening hubs for long-term recovery. What usually happens in a disaster is that a small group stands up to help and then stands down after three years. With megafires, we can get people across a line much faster if we share lessons.”

That’s why the organization focuses on coaching local leaders and doesn’t get involved directly with individual property owners. One frequent partner in its community responses is United Policyholders, a San Francisco-based group that helps homeowners navigate insurance claims after disasters.

“We don’t do insurance at all,” Thompson said.

Since insurance is a big part of any recovery, drawing on United Policyholders’ experience is a good match with After the Fire’s efforts, she said.

The coronavirus pandemic was partly responsible for the Sonoma County-based effort’s transformation into an organization with a growing staff and an increasing toolkit of online resources for far-flung, hard-hit communities, Thompson said.

“With COVID, we were deciding whether we should ramp down or up,” Thompson said about discussions she, the main employee as of early 2020, had with the organization’s board of directors, which includes former Kaiser Permanente Marin-Sonoma executive Judy Coffey and Napa Valley vintner Michael Mondavi.

In the past year, the group has recruited veterans of local organizing efforts to its staff.

A key hire is Pamela Van Halsema, once president of Coffey Strong, which formed after the Tubbs Fire in 2017 to help residents of Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa. She came to After the Fire to ramp up its online presence and now is director of community and digital programs. The group got permission from Coffey Strong to trademark recovery-effort organizational terms such as “block captain” and “zone captain,” to prevent what Thompson said have been attempts by some companies to profit from trauma. That’s why the organization doesn’t charge for its services to communities.

And three years after Thompson helped guide the creation of Rebuild Paradise Foundation, homeowner Charles Brooks late last year handed off leadership of the Paradise group as rebuilding there had accelerated to 25%. He started working with After the Fire on helping other communities and was set to come on to lead operations. But in early January following work with survivors of the Dixie Fire, which erupted to the east of Paradise, Brooks decided to quietly step back from the role, Thompson said.

Brooks told the Business Journal that seeing the plume of smoke from the Dixie Fire from his driveway and knowing fellow Paradise survivors who had moved to an area threatened by the new fire made him realize that he needed to heed advice he heard about taking care of himself after a disaster.

“If I can share anything with other people is to be very, very focused on that and setting time aside and being intentional about personal recovery,” Brooks said.

After the Fire USA now is gearing up for a trip next month to help local residents and officials in Boulder County, where Colorado’s costliest fire destroyed over 1,000 homes around the end of last year.

Previously, Thompson, board members and partner organizations had been the ones primarily hitting the road to visit California and Oregon communities for initial and follow-up help. Now the effort is taking flight via an agreement announced this month with Alaska Airlines, which flies to Western states out of Sonoma County airport. The arrangement includes a $25,000-a-year travel credit with the airline.

The board approved an expansion of the staff last year, and it now numbers seven, including contractors. The organization is looking to raise $2.5 million to cover three years of operating costs, Thompson said. That would allow the group to dedicate more staff to more communities, such as a request from Boulder County to dedicate one staff member half-time to get that effort kick-started.

“We’ve learned from our four years of experience that most communities are well on their way after three years, but we ask communities to then mentor other communities,” Thompson said. It’s what the group calls the Wildfire Resiliency Network.

That funding would also go toward at least three years’ use of a civil-engagement online platform called Social Pinpoint that community leaders and residents can use to see best practices used by burned communities across multiple states to rebuild, recover and build resiliency against future fires .

Until wildland-urban interfaces — where forests meet neighborhoods — are hardened and woodland fuel loads are brought into balance, communities in the West will likely need more help with recovery from megafires, Thompson said.

“We have a really rough decade ahead of us,” she said.

The organization has received a $4.9 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture to work with Cal Fire, Clear Lake Environmental Resource Center and resource conservation districts in Colusa, Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Lake and Yolo counties on land-management practices that help prevent forest fires.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – San Francisco is taking steps to keep essential services up and running amid the surge in Omicron-fueled COVID cases, Mayor London Breed told Tuesday.

During a virtual press conference Tuesday morning, Breed said the city’s health department is expanding COVID testing to more than 25,000 tests per week, almost double the capacity three weeks ago. During the tests, disaster service employees and symptomatic persons as well as first aiders and the most vulnerable persons such as residents and employees of qualified care facilities are prioritized. The tests will arrive in weekly deliveries from mid-January.

“Right now we are learning to live with COVID,” said Breed. “The consequences today are not catastrophic. The good news is that this variant is much less dangerous than Delta, but much more contagious. “

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According to Breed, 81% of San Franciscans are vaccinated and 54% are vaccinated. While all city workers are vaccinated, the Omicron variant leads to breakthrough infections, increasing the likelihood that those working for essential city services will be infected and have to stay at home.

“It affects our workforce, especially among the frontline workers,” said Breed. “We saw this before our New Years Eve event, which we had to cancel because we didn’t have enough security … San Francisco’s workforce is well protected. We prioritize essential urban services. The transit will operate, but we ask for your patience. We don’t close anything. We don’t close stores. That’s not 2020. “

While the city’s hospitalization rates are expected to be lower as the omicrones rise, the sheer number of new infections means demand for hospital beds is rising even at a time when health care workers are becoming more infected due to its high prevalence in the community.

We’re in the middle of an Omicron spike in SF, with our average cases more than doubling than last winter.

Our hospital admissions are on the rise, but they are below previous levels and we have the capacity to handle the expected increase.

Here we are. pic.twitter.com/V9UUtsHiuy

– London Breed (@LondonBreed) January 4, 2022

The city’s health director, Dr. Grant Colfax, said the next few weeks would be crucial in limiting the impact of the recent COVID surge and urged the San Franciscans to reduce their risk of exposure to help protect critical infrastructure.

“We are going to see major outbreaks and many people we know and love are getting COVID. However, it is in our control to limit the damage, Colfax said. “And then a hopeful hint, in these cases we expect a peak relatively quickly. Again, our projections show these situations where cases will peak within the next two weeks.

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“Let yourself be improved – it’s not too late,” said Colfax. “And for God’s sake, get vaccinated if you haven’t already.”

People are also encouraged to update their masks, work from home whenever possible, and limit the time they spend in crowded indoor spaces.

On December 27, an average of 829 San Franciscans contracted COVID-19 per day, more than twice as many as last winter with 373 cases per day. Meanwhile, 186 San Francisco police officers – including 167 sworn officers – along with 135 fire fighters and 85 SFMTA employees are in quarantine on Tuesday after being exposed to COVID. These departments prioritize essential operations and create contingency plans to minimize service disruptions.

Further measures required by the city:

• Have anyone aged 5 and over have their COVID-19 vaccine and a booster vaccine if they are eligible.
• Anyone developing symptoms of COVID-19 should isolate themselves and get tested as soon as possible.
• Get retested before you travel, when you return, and 3-5 days later.
• Take advantage of quick and easy home test kits available from pharmacies and stores.
• Outdoor gatherings are safer than indoor gatherings. Limit the number and size of indoor gatherings.
• Take all precautions, including vaccinations, booster vaccinations, and testing, when meeting with others without a mask – especially the elderly or immunocompromised, and those who have not been vaccinated or have not yet received their booster.
• Wear a well-fitting mask indoors and in crowded areas. For optimal protection, wear an N95 or double mask with a cloth mask over a surgical mask to improve the seal. If possible, avoid wearing just a cloth mask during this climb.
• Unvaccinated adults should avoid travel and gatherings outside their home.
• Wash hands or use hand sanitiser frequently.

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A new law proposed by San Francisco supervisor Aaron Peskin on Tuesday aims to prevent laundromat closings, which Peskin said has declined significantly in the city over the past decade.

During Tuesday’s board meeting, Peskin said the closure of laundromats, which mainly serve low-income people in densely populated neighborhoods, “is undoubtedly a social and racial issue.”

Citing data from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, one in three laundromats in the city has closed its doors in the past decade, with only 204 laundromats left, compared with 288 in 2013.

“It’s an issue that affects seniors and people with disabilities and everyone in the neighborhood who doesn’t have access to an on-site washer and dryer,” he said. “The steep decline in the number of laundromats in the city is something we should take note of and be concerned about.”

In order for another company to take over a laundromat or dry cleaning, the proposed law would require the city’s planning committee first to hold a public hearing to determine whether replacing the laundromat with another use is necessary and desirable.

Legislation would also require landlords to replace washing machines and dryers in residential buildings when they are removed to create an additional housing unit.

Peskin says his office has been working on the bill for a year and has found neighborhoods like Tenderloin, Lower Nob Hill, Mission District, and Chinatown to have the highest concentration of laundromats in the city.

“Laundromats are a profitable business, but that doesn’t mean they can always compete for rents with high-volume businesses and tourism-oriented businesses from bubbles. Tons of Bubbles has three locations across town.

“My customers live in neighborhoods where it is necessary for their daily life to have important services within walking distance. A laundromat fits that need, ”she said.

Planning Commissioner Deland Chan supports the bill.

“From a city-wide perspective, laundromats tend to be concentrated in apartment buildings and apartment buildings, and they disproportionately serve color communities,” she said. “That is a needs-based service and part of the social infrastructure of our city.”

Peskin’s office expects to hold a hearing in the Board’s Land Use and Transportation Committee on the matter sometime in September.

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A South San Francisco City Council resolution last week in support of a payer healthcare system sparked a major national conversation about the importance of accessible and affordable care.

“Every year in our country tens of thousands die from a lack of health care and many more go bankrupt. Every other developed country except the United States guarantees health care to all of its citizens, ”said Councilor James Coleman, who put forward the resolution in support of the council.

Payer health insurance, also known as Medicare for All, is defined as a system in which a single public or quasi-public body is charged with financing health care. In the United States, supply is currently largely in private hands. With a pay-in system, all US citizens would be insured for all medically necessary services. According to 2018 US Census data, 8.5%, or 27.5 million people, have no health insurance. Opponents of the payer system, however, say it will require tax hikes and higher government spending, while causing longer waiting times for patients and reducing benefits.

Much public comment came with a request to vote yes to this resolution.

Jennifer, a South San Francisco resident, shared how a single payer healthcare system could have prevented her recovery from being delayed and saved the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Without that [Affordable Care Act] and taking Medicaid would not have recognized my condition in time. I would probably be dead already, “she said.

She was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and was covered by Medicaid. She was relocated by a doctor who specialized in her type of condition and from a specialty pharmacy because she was off the network. For most of the time, she was taking one of the most expensive drugs for her condition, which costs about $ 220,000 a year, she said.

After moving to South San Francisco, she was able to find a better doctor and is now back on the very first drug she was given after her diagnosis that said it worked.

“That’s five extra years of lost time and wages and at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional costs to the state that could have been avoided if we had single-paid health care,” she said. “I’m not alone in this type of experience.”

Other community members, nurses, and advocates shared their stories and support.

“The reality is that our current health care system is so broken and for-profit that many of our patients and their constituents are delaying treatment because they cannot afford it,” said a 12-year-old nurse at Kaiser Medical Center in South San Francisco.

The pandemic has also exacerbated problems in the health system and the loss of jobs for many has included loss of coverage, Coleman said.

“I had family members contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic,” said Denton Murphy, a resident of South San Francisco. “Conversations I had to have with them were reluctance to go to the hospital because they weren’t sure they could afford it. I don’t think we could make it any more dystopian than we are right now. People are worth more than dollars and cents. I think this resolution helps to assert that. “

Vice Mayor Mark Nagales pondered how the COVID vaccinations could bring some form of health care into the community, even for those who do not have health insurance.

“I will support this resolution because I have seen firsthand the inequalities in health care with some of our residents,” he said. “It is important for us to make a declaration that we will not appear as a city or state, but also as a federal government. As a country there are people who have no health care and who suffer. “

Mayor Mark Addiego said he thought this was something to strive for, but didn’t think the solution will turn around for anyone at any level – be it the state or federal level.

He first said he would not vote in favor of it because he did not understand the language of this particular resolution enough to move forward. But after Coleman shared why this resolution was personal to him, Addiego changed his vote to yes.

“I would like to put this resolution to the vote because I am not comfortable being an accomplice or being silent about the broken health system,” said Coleman.

Coleman shared how his father suffered a traumatic injury when he was 5 years old, paralyzing him from the waist down. His mother had two jobs to make ends meet. He also looked after his father so that his mother wouldn’t be out of work for too long to still have health insurance.

The city council unanimously approved the resolution.

Alex Walker, Senior Field Representative for Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, and Jordan Grimes, Political Director of the Peninsula Young Democrats, also called for strong support for this resolution. Coleman also mentioned support from the office of State Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and State Senator Josh Becker, D-San Mateo.

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) – The city has acquired two buildings that house people with mental illness and substance abuse.

The buildings – 1140-1142 Florida Street in Mission and 139-145 Dore Street in the South of Market neighborhood – are being converted into cooperative housing for 26 adults as part of the city’s Cooperative Living for Mental Health Program.

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The Florida Street building will accommodate 8 adults in separate bedrooms, with access to communal kitchens, bathrooms and a large garden.

The building on Dore Street will consist of six three-bedroom apartments that can accommodate 18 adults. City officials said Conard House will provide services and case management to residents to ensure successful lives in their new homes.

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Mayor London Breed announced the takeover in a press release on Friday.

“These buildings are part of our long-term strategy to transform the way we support people with mental health problems and drug problems,” said Breed. “We’re focused on a whole range of solutions that cover everything from improving roadwork to providing safe, supportive housing for our most vulnerable residents. All of this is part of our commitment to making San Francisco a safer, healthier place for everyone. “

No schedule was given as to when the buildings would be available for new residents. The city council plans to add a total of 140 beds by the end of 2021.

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SACRAMENTO (CBS) – A Sacramento-based company is getting a lot of attention after successfully moving a Victorian mansion in San Francisco last weekend.

Cameron Scott is in the spotlight after driving the truck that hauled the 139-year-old Victorian Englander House seven blocks down the streets of San Francisco last Sunday.

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“One of my dreams was to move a building across San Francisco,” said Scott. “It was amazing to see all the people who came out.”

The 27-year-old told CBS Sacramento that there is a lot of pressure to be the one behind the wheel.

“Before you take the first train, you keep thinking through your head: ‘Did I do that? Are the blocks out of the way of the tires? ‘ You know, you are thinking about everything that could happen next, ”Scott explained.

This is nothing new for his family business Scott Heavy Movers. The Sacramento-based company has existed since 1959 and is known for moving massive objects such as buildings and bridges.

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“It’s crazy because that happens every day, the only difference between this one and a normal one is that we were in San Francisco,” he said.

In the Sacramento area, Scott Heavy Movers is currently working on a FEMA-funded project to build houses out of the floodplain.

“We probably did six or eight last year and that’s great because it really helps a lot of people,” said Scott.

The move cost the owner more than $ 400,000. Moving Victorians around town was common during the 1960s redevelopment, but it got more difficult over time, making Englander House the first San Francisco Victorian to move since 1974.

The Scott family feels proud to know that their work helps save history.

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“If not, this building would have been demolished, which is a terrible idea because it’s a beautiful building inside and out,” said Scott. “To know that we have moved is a great feeling.”

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OAKLAND (BCN) – A coalition is pushing a campaign to recall Alameda District Attorney Nancy O’Malley after she has decided not to seek re-election.

O’Malley announced Tuesday that she will not seek a fourth term in 2023.

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The Justice 4 Oscar Grant Coalition continues the recall campaign after O’Malley decided not to prosecute BART cop Anthony Pirone for his part in the death of Oscar Grant III. Grant died after BART policeman Johannes Mehserle shot him dead on New Year’s Day 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.

“O’Malley did not deserve to be considered for the district attorney’s office because she has shown her willingness to disregard the law and moral standards in police killing black people,” said Rev. Wanda Johnson, Grant’s mother made a statement.

“There is a mountain of evidence to prove this criminal murder case, but O’Malley has refused to put that evidence to a jury,” said Johnson.

Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for murder. Pirone kneeled at Grant before shooting and used a racist bow multiple times while holding Grant to the ground. Pirone later said he was repeating what Grant said to him.

A 2009 report by former Oakland City attorney Jayne Williams and then attorney Kimberly Colwell of the law firm Meyers Nave, published a decade later, stated, “The overly aggressive and unreasonable acts and behaviors of officers Pirone, violating guidelines and acceptable standards, contributed significantly to the escalation of the hostile and volatile atmosphere as the incident progressed. “

It was this report that led Grant’s family to ask O’Malley to reopen the case. The Grant family claims Pirone played a bigger role in the death of their family member than just holding the young man to the ground.

Pirone brutally attacked Grant and held him on the BART platform so Mehserle could shoot him in the back, according to the coalition.

The charge against Pirone would have to be a premeditated murder as the statute of limitations for the lesser murder charges has expired.

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“While Pirone’s overly aggressive behavior contributed to the chaotic nature of what was happening on the BART platform,” prosecutors said in a report of their decision not to prosecute Pirone, “there was no evidence that Pirone knew in advance Mehserle would go. ” Shoot Mr. Grant. “

Elected officials from across the Bay Area have called on O’Malley to bring charges, including Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland and now Attorney General Rob Bonta.

O’Malley told Johnson April 29 that prosecutors would not bring charges against Pirone.

Once O’Malley’s term expires, her successor could bring premeditated murder charges against Pirone as the statute of limitations for first degree murder does not expire.

Additional support for an investigation into Pirone came from Keith Carson, the Alameda County’s board member who is now president of the board and the board himself, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Commission and its own board of directors by BART.

Still, the coalition said, O’Malley will not weigh a jury.

The coalition believes that O’Malley is not fit for office and does not want her to retire with benefits and possibly ordain her successor.

“Nancy O’Malley’s recall will not only guarantee that O’Malley will never be able to obstruct the judiciary again, but will also send a strong message to anyone who wants to become Alameda County DA that the people of this county that Oakland headquarters will not vote for anyone who has not committed to taking the Oscar Grant case to justice, ”said Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and longtime supporter of the Justice for Oscar Grant movement, in a statement.

The coalition said the recall efforts are gaining ground.

MORE NEWS: COVID: Low case numbers, reduced restrictions have San Francisco on the way to normal

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Organizers seeking to recall three members of the San Francisco School Council have been cleared to collect signatures in the hope of making the subject available to voters in a special election.

The couple, Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj, are expected to launch the signature drive today to recall Education Committee President Gabriela Lopez and Members Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins after receiving approval from the Electoral Department earlier this week.

While Looijen and Raj are keen to overturn the entire school board for their inability to reopen schools quickly during the pandemic, four board members won’t be eligible for a recall until July as they took office earlier this year.

“Nobody has a successful recall campaign and we want to be the first to do so,” said Looijen. “We have serious concerns as to whether those in power will be able to control the ship.”

Looijen and Raj are technicians who moved to The City last December and enrolled two children in the San Francisco Unified School District. The couple say the board has been distracted by trying to rename 44 schools with problematic names instead of focusing on reopening.

Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj filed one of three petitions to call back members of the San Francisco Unified School Board outside City Hall on Wednesday March 31, 2021. (Kevin N. Hume / SF Examiner)

In February, the school board suspended the renaming process to focus on reopening schools.

“We have been fully focused on returning to face-to-face learning and supporting distance learning for students who choose to continue,” Lopez said in response to the campaign. “During this time, too, my attention will be focused on these efforts and the support of our school district.”

The campaign is expected to hand out individual petitions for Lopez, Moliga and Collins and has until September 7th to submit signatures. The question would appear on the ballot when at least 51,325 signatures, representing 10% of the city’s registered voters, are validated.

Collins has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks after supporters of the recall resurfaced her 2016 tweets criticizing Asian Americans for “using white supremacist thinking to get ahead.” The controversy divided The City as most of the power structure urged Collins to resign.

Jim Stearns, a political advisor, said Collins would likely become the “flagship” for the recall but doubted the campaign could garner enough signatures to qualify for an election.

“You’re not going to qualify this with a base effort,” Stearns said. “You will only qualify if you have the pro-charter billionaire money that was active in the previous cycle. Once they take that money, they’ll simply disqualify themselves from the San Francisco electorate. ”

Collins did not return a request for comment in time for publication.

Supporters of the callback said they debated not pushing efforts against Moliga after he helped Collins remove her title as Vice President and Committee last week, but decided that his vote results warranted continuation of the effort.

Like Lopez and Collins, Moliga helped rename and change the admissions process for Lowell High School.

Moliga defended his record, which included writing laws to increase teacher retention through the construction of teacher housing.

“The recall shows that there is a group of parents who are frustrated by the school board,” said Moliga. “I am the first Pacific Islander ever elected to office in San Francisco and this is my first time giving my marginalized community a voice in local government.”

Should voters remember members, Mayor London Breed would appoint their successors.

imojadad@sfexaminer.com

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Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj, whose children are enrolled in public schools, are trying to recall members of the San Francisco Unified School Board. (Kevin N. Hume / SF examiner)

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Terry Hill (right) receives her first dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from Patrick Sorensen, RN, a nurse at UCSF Medical Center, at a San Francisco vaccination transit clinic offered by UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health at City College . Photo by Susan Merrell

As the COVID-19 vaccine supply increases, UC San Francisco is expanding its vaccination efforts to include the most vulnerable – the elderly and community health workers.

Since the first batch of vaccine was shipped in mid-December, UCSF teams have worked diligently to vaccinate UCSF staff and learners by giving those at the highest risk of contracting the virus while on-site.

The implementation of this complex, multi-phase vaccination program required a tremendous amount of team effort, while vaccine doses were administered for several days and uncertainty about future deliveries was uncertain. The multidisciplinary team meets daily to assess current vaccine supplies and decide who will be included in future rounds of vaccination based on state and federal guidelines

UCSF leaders emphasize that all members of the UCSF community will have the opportunity to get vaccinated in the coming months. All faculties, staff, students, and patients are encouraged to get vaccinated when it’s their turn. It is important that everyone continues to follow public health instructions such as: B. wearing face covering, washing hands, maintaining physical distance, and completing daily health screening before coming to campus.

To date, UCSF has offered vaccination appointments to more than 21,600 employees and learners whose on-site duties pose a high risk of exposure to COVID-19. Almost 18,000 of them have received their first dose, and almost 16,500 have their second scheduled. It has also vaccinated more than 6,300 patients, starting at age 75 and above. In total, it delivered nearly 35,000 vaccines in the first six weeks of vaccination. So far, UCSF has seen very few side effects in its vaccination program.

Truc Nguyen (far left), RN, and Rossana Segovia (far right), NP, speak to Karen Whalen, a retired parole officer in the San Francisco adult probation department, to make sure she doesn’t get any after the Moderna COVID-19 vaccination Has symptoms at the vaccination center at UCSF’s William J. Rutter Center on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus. Photo by Susan Merrell

UCSF has responded to an urgent request from the city for help in vaccinating the estimated 88,000 frontline health workers who are not affiliated with a medical center, e.g. B. Dentists, paramedics, and home health workers. To date, UCSF has vaccinated more than 1,380 of these members who are listed in the Centers’ first priority for Disease Control and Prevention, along with UCSF staff and patients.

“Our vaccinations have resumed rapidly,” said Josh Adler, chief clinical officer of UCSF Health, in a message to the UCSF community. “As we continue to schedule vaccinations for the rest of our workforce and learners at the highest risk of exposure, we have begun inviting additional staff and our patients by age group in accordance with state guidelines.”

The latest developments in UCSF’s ongoing vaccination program include:

• This week, the vaccination site on the Mission Bay campus was moved from Mission Hall to the Rutter Center to allow UCSF to increase the number of vaccine doses administered from about 600 to more than 1,000 per day and improve the experience for patients.
• At the vaccination site on the Parnassus Heights campus, UCSF will deliver the vaccine to employees, learners and healthcare workers.
• And on January 22nd, UCSF partnered with the City of San Francisco to open the city’s first high-volume, drive-through vaccination facility at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF).

Partnership with the city

In the four days since the CCSF site opened, UCSF clinicians and staff have administered more than 3,000 vaccines to elderly members of the community, 80 percent of whom live in the city, including about 60 percent who are not UCSF patients. This website is vaccinated on 1,000 patients per day and aims to reach 3,000 people per day as the vaccine supply increases. Currently, anyone 75 years of age or older who is either a UCSF patient or a San Francisco resident can schedule vaccination with CCSF.

“With the launch of this mass vaccination program, Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Department of Health are taking on the critical leadership that has made the city a model for fighting the pandemic,” UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood told MBBS. “As our community waits for vaccine supplies to become more widely available, UCSF stands ready to assist San Francisco in vaccinating the city’s residents, with an initial focus on those most susceptible to the disease.”

With the launch of this mass vaccination program, Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Department of Health are taking on the crucial leadership role that has made the city a model for fighting the pandemic.

UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS

The goal of UCSF and the city’s vaccination effort is to vaccinate as many people as possible, depending on the availability of vaccines. To this end, we are looking for volunteers who can help at both the CCSF site and the UCSF campus in Mission Bay and Parnassus Heights.

While some have questioned why those living outside the city were vaccinated in front of San Francisco residents, public health officials point out that the virus knows no geographic boundaries when people travel across the Bay Area. The initial online registration system for vaccinations with CCSF allowed non-San Francisco residents to schedule an appointment. However, the city plans to introduce a new online system for city residents only. Public health officials agree that it is advisable to vaccinate as many people as possible to combat this one-off public health crisis.

Josh Adler (far right), MD, Executive Vice President of Medical Services at UCSF Health, gives Mayor London Breed (second from left) and Grant Colfax (far left) a tour of the COVID-19 vaccination center at City College, San Francisco. , MD, the director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Photo by Susan Merrell

“The opening of the City College site marks an important milestone in our mass vaccination effort that will in time end this terrible pandemic,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the San Francisco Department of Health Mayor’s press release. “While vaccine supplies in San Francisco remain extremely limited, this site and the other high volume vaccine sites opening in the coming weeks will provide the physical space, medical staff and logistical processes to efficiently deliver the vaccine when it is available it will be available. ”

Adler recognizes that the inconsistent and inadequate supply of vaccines across the country and the Bay Area can be frustrating, but is optimistic about the national vaccination strategy announced by President Joseph Biden. “With a greater federal focus on COVID-19 management and vaccines, we hope the supply becomes more stable and the spread increases,” he said.

“Enormous vaccination effort”

While the first day of vaccination at CCSF began on a cold and rainy day, with the arrival of sunshine, the weather warmed and lifted the spirits of those who worked outdoors.

More than 60 UCSF Health clinicians and staff participated in the effort, including Susan Pappas, General Manager of the UCSF Health Experience Excellence Division. She drove up and down in a golf cart, delivering bottles of vaccine to the tents in the CCSF parking lot.

For Pappas, the experience was on the verge of happy tears with the thought that this “enormous vaccination effort could be the beginning of the end of this devastating pandemic”.

“I can tell you with confidence that all of our hearts were warm after we had the opportunity to attend,” said Pappas. “The team performance was efficient, exhilarating and simply excellent. It has been so rewarding to work with colleagues who have carried the burden of this COVID pandemic over the past year and to see their excitement part of something so positive. “

The team at the city’s first major vaccination site also included Adler, who provided medical assistance and answered a flurry of questions from news reporters, as well as Kim Murphy, director of the UCSF Health Administration, and Wayne Little, RN, director of perioperative patient care, both of whom Site director served.

Many patients thanked UCSF for responding to the challenge and for running the drive-through vaccination center at short notice. A woman from San Rafael was literally dancing a stencil in the parking lot and was so excited to receive the vaccine.

Another patient, who preferred to remain anonymous, told staff how grateful she was to the UCSF team involved in the effort. “I received my first dose of the COVID vaccine at CCSF today after receiving an invitation yesterday to make the appointment,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect as people on the news were having all sorts of problems with the vaccination passages, but for me this passage was unexpectedly easy. I arrived about 15 minutes early and got vaccinated quickly. It was top notch. “

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