With three new San Francisco school board members tapped Friday following a historic recall, many families in the district want to know what the political shuffling will mean for Lowell High School and whether the new members could tip the scales back to a merit-based admission policy at the academically elite school.

The San Francisco Unified School District is expected to reopen the debate this spring over stripping the academically prestigious school of merit-based admissions in favor of a lottery, reviving arguments over equity, racism and achievement in public schools.

The three new board members say they want an open and deliberative process to consider restoring some kind of merit-based admissions at Lowell.

Mayor London Breed tapped Ann Hsu, an entrepreneur; Lainie Motamedi, a government policy analyst; and Lisa Weissman-Ward, an immigrant rights law professor, to replace the recalled commissioners.

Hsu is the most vocal of the three in her support for an academically based admissions process.

“Merit-based should be restored,” she said Friday after the swearing-in ceremony. “And things need to be done to prepare more kids from the underserved communities.”

Motamedi said she wants to embark on a public process to determine Lowell’s future but is focused on ensuring all high schools are able to offer what families want and need to make them feel confident about their child’s future.

Weissman-Ward said she is not opposed to merit-based admissions, but the real issue is increasing access to academically rigorous programs and looking at whether test scores are the best way to evaluate students.

Lowell was a key factor in the recall, according to a recent data analysis.

During the pandemic, the school board voted to switch Lowell’s admissions to a lottery-based system for one year to address concerns about the lack of grades and test scores.

The board then voted to make the switch permanent, sparking a lawsuit from opponents who argued that the school board failed to give the public adequate notice about the vote.

After a judge denied the board’s decision to switch to a permanent lottery system, the district adopted a short-term fix: a one-year extension of the lottery.

The new board is expected to decide on a permanent process moving forward.

Over the past few years, opponents of the academic admissions policy argued it was elitist and racist against Black and brown students, who were underrepresented in the school compared with their presence in the district. After switching to a lottery, the school saw diversity soar, with more Black and brown students enrolled.

But supporters said moving to a lottery would harm Asian American students, who are overrepresented at Lowell, and harm high-achieving students.

There’s also the question of whether merit-based admissions are legal: A 1990s state law generally prohibits the use of academic achievement for admission to regular public schools. The school’s alumni association recently sent a letter to the district arguing the policy is in fact legal.

Recalled board members Alison Collins, Gabriela López and Faauuga Moliga supported converting Lowell admissions to a lottery, largely to address the disproportionately low numbers of Black and brown students in the school. Current board members Matt Alexander and Mark Sanchez also supported the change. Jenny Lam, who is taking over from López as board president, and board member Kevine Boggess opposed the decision.

It’s unclear if the new board would want to keep the lottery-based process, revert to the old system of test scores and grades, or find a third, merit-based approach that might result in more diversity than the old system.

Lam said that while Lowell is a topic for the board to address, the priorities for the coming weeks and months will be hiring a new superintendent and taking a deep dive into achievement gaps and how to tackle them, using data.

“In San Francisco, we care deeply about our public schools,” Lam said after the mayor’s announcement and the swearing-in of the board members. “We have some core things we need to address first. We need to govern.”

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker

The post The place do the brand new San Francisco faculty board members stand on Lowell Excessive College admissions? appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

If you thought Democratic politicians were moving unusually almost this month to dismantle the same COVID-19 restrictions they spent two years erecting, just wait until they fully absorb the reality of yesterday’s historic landslide recall of three supervisors from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD ), largely over the issue of extended pandemic school closures.

Board of Education President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga, and controversial former Vice President Alison Collins were sent packing by margins of more than 44 percentage points each in the same Democratic stronghold that once launched the political careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We made history,” recall co-organizer and SFUSD parent Siva Raj told me shortly after the results came in. “This is the first time in a long time that the people of San Francisco have had a victory. That’s what this is— it is ‘The People: 3, Politicians: 0.'” Added Raj’s partner and co-organizer Autumn Looijen: “It’s a victory for competence, and for doing your job.”

The competence angle was clearly resonant in a city long on progressive rhetoric, short these days on tangible results.

“The voters of this City have delivered a clear message that the School Board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else,” Mayor London Breed, who backed the recall (including of one board member she had personally appointed), said Tuesday night in a statement. “San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well.”

The recall had its roots in a series of decisions that the SFUSD did and did not make in January and February 2021. The Board of Education had, the previous fall, set January 25, 2021 as the day to finally reopen a school system that had been fully closed since March 2020. But it then failed to hammer out a reopening agreement with the local teachers union (which, like teachers unions in many Democrat-dominated cities and states, persistently used its considerable local political leverage to delay school reopening long after most Republican-governed policies had gotten back to normal).

It was against this backdrop, with anguished public school parents pulling their hair out over the personal disruption, learning loss, and social dysfunction that comes with extended remote learning, that the SFUSD board made the fateful decision to rename 44 of its schools that were still ‘t open, on the ground that those names—including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, John Muir, Paul Revere, and Dianne Feinstein—were too culturally insensitive and/or unrepresentative.

“It was like you have this house on fire, and they’re basically painting the front door,” Looijen told me Monday.

The renaming decision was quickly scuttled after international ridicule. (López did not help her cause, then or now, by submitting herself to the Isaac Chotiner interview treatment at The New Yorker, where, when serially confronted by a myriad of stupid factual errors the board had based its original renaming on, offered up this buzzword salad: “The people who have contributed to this process are also part of a community that is taking it as seriously as we would want them to. And they’re contributing through diverse perspectives and experiences that are often not included, and that we need to acknowledge.”

Yet most San Francisco public middle schools and high schools remained closed throughout the first half of 2021, even as private schools all around them, and public schools in much of the Bay Area, were open.

“I was comparing…roughly similar, top-10, top-25 school districts, and it shocked me to see that San Francisco was the only school district that was so far behind on reopening,” Raj said Monday. “We were all virtual, in fact, whereas so many other school districts with higher rate of COVID prevalence were open. We had the lowest COVID prevalence across all these cities, and yet we were the furthest behind in terms of reopening schools.”

San Francisco now becomes the third major political shock nationwide generated by pissed-off K-12 parents seeking revenge on Democratic politicians who helped keep schools closed. First there was the upset victory last November of relatively unknown gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin over frontrunner Terry McAuliffe in (recently) reliably Democratic Virginia, then came the near-miss reelection that same day of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (who has since become the leading Democratic proponent of loosening statewide COVID restrictions, including in schools). As Reason’s Eric Boehm wrote Monday, “For once, we can be thankful that another election season is already upon us since politics is the last realm where the pandemic is dominating decision making.”

The local villains in San Francisco’s school/COVID governance are almost too cartoonish to be believed. Collins, who deservedly led the field in voter rebuke (with 79 percent of the vote choosing to fire), has at various points euphemized COVID-era learning loss as “learning change,” characterized Asian Americans who were insufficiently anti-Trump as “house n****r,” and then, when rebuked by the SFUSD board for such racism, filed a bizarre $87 million lawsuit against her own Board of Education that was dismissed by an incredulous judge as lacking any supportive facts, though in the process it cost the very district she represents nearly $200,000 in legal fees.

Collins, a definitional elite (her husband is one of the city’s most successful real estate developers; the two live in a Russian Hill complex valued in 2019 at $3.2 million), has refused at every step to apologize for her school-closing record. “I’m actually really proud of my work on the board,” she said last month to the San Francisco Examiner, which (like the San Francisco Chronicle) enthusiastically endorsed her ouster.

“People want us to say we were wrong, we regret doing what we did, we’re sorry,” López said similarly on a recent Latina Latino Latinx News podcast. “That will never be something I will do.”

In an unintentionally remarkable pre-election series of written responses to the Chronicle, the recall targets were alternately defiant (López: “I believe we were able to open schools for our priority students as soon as it was safe to do so”), delusional (Collins: “I filed the lawsuit because I needed to protect myself, my family, the work of the Board of Education. My position on the board and my right to free speech were affirmed”), and incoherent (Molinga: “Being the first Pacific Islander on the school board and elected in the city, I’ve taken up the charge of making sure the foundational pieces in place so that we can begin to see improvement in classrooms for Pacific Islanders”).

Parents and other governance-consumers coming face-to-face for the first time with the local political class because of the pandemic could be forgiven for wondering if they’d stumbled onto some strange new language. “I also have set up several protocols that truly center our students,” López wrote. “Across the country,” Collins claimed, “we are seeing a dramatic increase in attacks on public educators and school board members who are advancing COVID safety and racial justice in schools.”

One of the most definitive conclusions about the recall is that the “blame Donald Trump” strategy just will not work anymore for embattled Democratic politicians. Yes, it helped Newsom survive his recall last September, but it backfired on McAuliffe and proved to be an exploding cigar in San Francisco. When asked by the Chronicle why she should not be recalled, Collins immediately replied: “People need to follow the money and see that billionaires are coming in and trying to dictate how we should do democracy.” So much for that.

Mayor London Breed will now appoint the three new SFUSD board members to replace the recalled incumbents. Much of the city’s focus is already turning to the next recall election, that of controversial District Attorney Chesa Boudin. There is a palpable feeling that the aggressive, abstract, race-based jargon of progressive elites will no longer suffice in even democratic places where voters have become motivated to act on the very many governing shortfalls visible to the naked eye.

“I’ve always thought of myself as progressive, but I don’t use that label anymore to describe myself,” Raj told me Monday. “Because when I see the people who call themselves progressive, and I especially see the elected leaders calling themselves progressive, they don’t seem to stand for any of the values ​​that I believe what progressive should be. It is not progressive to stand back and do nothing while the most underprivileged kids in our city have struggled and suffered the most….It is not progressive to put your own political career above the interest of the people you’re supposed to serve.That is not progressive.All that I can see is that the movement that perhaps started with a lot of idealists in the ’60s and the ’70s and ’80s, is now filled with opportunists who only care about using progressive language to advance their careers, but have no interest, no desire , to actually solve the real problems that our kids are facing today.”

The post San Francisco Voters Fireplace 3 Faculty Board Members appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The recall election was the first in San Francisco in nearly four decades, but it may just be a warm-up. A recall of progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will be on the ballot in June, testing how many voters — who are increasingly fed up with rising crime — are willing to support his efforts to reduce the number of people in jails and prisons.

Story continues below advertisement

And these are not the only clouds of voter discontent in the not-so-Golden State. A raft of fresh polling by the Los Angeles Times found approval of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who easily beat back a recall effort in September, has dropped from 64 percent during the early months of the pandemic in the fall of 2020 to 48 percent. The chief reasons, according to the Times: “concerns about rising crime and California’s seemingly intractable homelessness crisis.”

The poll, which was conducted with the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, also showed approval of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) at an all-time low of 30 percent, and that Vice President Harris, the state’s former attorney general and US senator , has sunk to just 38 percent. “I was amazed at the disaffection for both of the women,” Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS poll, told the Times.

Follow Karen Tumulty’s opinionsFollowAdd

Among those turning thumbs down on Feinstein’s performance are voters who identify as strongly liberal, people under 40, Latinos and Asian Americans. In other words, core parts of the democratic base. “I’ve never seen those constituencies moving to the negative side in unison as we’re seeing now,” DeCamillo said.

Perhaps most strikingly, only one-third of female voters said they approve of Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor whose 1992 election to the Senate alongside fellow Californian Barbara Boxer (D) was emblematic of what became known as “The Year of the Woman. ”

Story continues below advertisement

Crime poses a serious challenge to Democrats. Seventy-eight percent of Californians say they have seen a rise in crime, and most told pollsters they would support changes to Proposition 47, which passed in 2014 and reduced some theft and drug felonies to misdemeanors. The measure, which voters approved overwhelmingly, was seen as a justice reform and a means of reducing overcrowding in prisons. Now, with a wave of smash-and-grab and other property crimes in the headlines in California, public sentiment is apparently building in favor of tough approaches to brazen offenders.

None of this is to suggest that the nation’s most populous state is likely to turn red or even purple any time soon. Republicans are in danger of becoming what is essentially a third party there, behind Democrats and voters who claim no party affiliation. But the signals suggest that Democrats across the map are likely to have trouble motivating their voters to turn out in an off-year election, especially since they do not seem to be listening to the concerns of a stressed-out electorate.

California was the epicenter of the Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm election, with the party picking up seven house seats. But they lost four in 2020, even as President Biden carried the state by nearly 2 to 1 over Donald Trump.

Story continues below advertisement

Some liberals try to reassure themselves that worries such as rising crime and inflation are merely being ginned up by the Fox News outrage machine. Consider the reaction of San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, who shrugged off the school board recall results as driven by “closet Republicans and most certainly folks with conservative values ​​in San Francisco, even if they weren’t registered Republicans.”

Really? In a city where nearly 9 out of 10 voted for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020?

California has a history of being a harbinger of anger-fueled national political trends, and one may be building there now. Denialism is always dangerous in politics, and this year, for Democrats, it could be fatal.

The post Opinion | San Francisco’s recall of three faculty board members is a dire warning for Democrats appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — In a special election, residents in San Francisco voted overwhelmingly to recall three school board members, Tuesday.

On the ballot was the recall of Alison Collins, Faauuga Moliga and Gabriella Lopez.

READ MORE: COVID: North Bay Businesses Owners Cautiously Excited Indoor Mask Mandate Is Lifted

This is the city’s first recall election since 1983. Only about 25-percent of people cast their ballots in early voting, a somewhat low voter turnout for an election that could drastically change the city’s school board.

“Every vote counts and I, myself, am a San Francisco native. I’ve seen this city change so much, so I definitely want my voice to be heard,” said San Francisco voter Derrick Ly.

The question voters had to answer was whether to recall the embattled trio after proponents say the board failed students during the pandemic by focusing on the idea of ​​renaming schools instead of plans to bring students back to class and changing the admissions policy at Lowell High School from merit based on a lottery.

“They are so egregiously incompetent,” says Paulina Fayer, who supports the recall. “We need to get them out now, and we have. The voters have spoken.”

The school board has seven members but only three were eligible to be recalled. By 9 pm on Tuesday night, it was apparent that all three candidates had lost.

But opponents say this was all a power grab, with funding from millionaires and billionaires looking to privatize public schools.

“This recall has not been about making sure all voices are being heard,” said Julie Roberts-Phung of No School Board Recalls.

They believe this entire exercise was a waste of time and money because the board members were up for re-election in November anyway, and if the three board members are recalled, Mayor London Breed will appoint their replacements.

READ MORE: COVID: Southbay Lawmakers Focus On ‘Children’s Roadmap To Recovery’

Parents say their priority is simply to be heard by whoever is on the board moving forward.

“What I’m hoping will happen tonight is that parents come more into the conversation when it comes to what the students are doing in school,” saud voter Jimmy Burnus.

Tuesday evening, Mayor London Breed released the following statement:

“The voters of this City have delivered a clear message that the School Board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well. I want to recognize all the parents who tirelessly organized and advocated in the last year. Elections can be difficult, but these parents were fighting for what matters most – their children. The days ahead for our public schools will not be easy.”

“Our kids have suffered tremendously during this pandemic, dealing with serious learning loss and significant mental health challenges. It’s time we refocus our efforts on the basics of providing quality education for all students, while more broadly improving how this City delivers support for children and families.”

Supervisor Scott Weiner, the first elected official to openly endorse the recall also released a statement:

“Today San Franciscans made a clear statement: We need a Board of Education focused like a laser on stabilizing our schools, keeping them open, and supporting students and families in the most effective possible way.”

Lopez, Collins and Moliga were the only board members on the ballot they were the only ones eligible for recall due to time served on the board.

Out of about a half million registered voters, nearly 120,000 vote-by-mail ballots were cast.

MORE NEWS: Police Arrest Suspect In San Francisco New Year’s Day Dognapping

The cost of the special election was $3.2 million dollars.

The post San Francisco Voters Recall 3 Embattled Faculty Board Members – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Two San Francisco school board members facing a recall squared off Wednesday night, with Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga publicly clashing over their plan to spend money on a new parent advisory committee as the district tries to pare back expenses.

It was a heated disagreement less than two weeks before an election day that could see both removed from office.

The conflict unfolded during a budget committee meeting looking at the impact of a resolution by Collins to create a Queer Transgender Parent Advisory Council and add a central office staff position to support the group.

Moliga, who chaired the meeting, questioned the financial impact of the measure, which would cost an estimated $260,000 in start-up costs as well as $220,000 annually for a district staff person.

The district faces a $125 million shortfall next year, which has resulted in the appointment of a state expert to help guide financial decisions, including a recent recommendation to freeze all but critical spending and hiring. The conflict reflects what’s at stake personally for these board members and how passionate commissioners have become on the issues facing the district from the budget crisis to equity to the role of families in public education.

With two of the three committee members present, Moliga declined to support moving the measure forward until further review, which meant it was not guaranteed to up for vote at the next school board meeting Tuesday — the last one before the Feb. 15 recall vote.

He wanted the board to consider several upcoming resolutions, including this one, in a committee of the whole meeting to prioritize spending and identify funding sources.

“We’re in a budget deficit,” he said Thursday. “I was trying to be really responsible in moving forward and making decisions. Our sole responsibility (on the budget committee) is to vet items, to figure out the fiscal impact.”

Collins took to Twitter during the meeting, writing “Commissioner Molinga said he could not support moving the resolution forward without ‘further fiscal analysis’. Make no mistake, this is a tactic.” She also retweeted a message that called him “spineless.”

Collins did not respond to a request for comment on the interaction.

Moliga said he did not see the tweets and preferred not to read them, adding he fully supports the queer and trans community and would not be pulled into a fight. His only goal, he said, was to “show leadership for the people.”

“We have to figure out how we pay for all these things so that it makes sense,” he said. “If (Collins) wants to have a conversation, she can give me a call.”

Collins had not identified funding sources for the measure.

Board President Gabriela López, who also faces a recall and has been aligned with Collins on many issues, tweeted Thursday that she would place the measure on Tuesday’s agenda despite a lack of support from the budget committee.

Collins also publicly criticized Moliga last year. She accused him of not respecting women when he was nominated for the vice presidency in 2021 after the board removed Collins from the position in the wake of the rediscovery of her offensive tweets comparing Asian Americans to “house n****r[s].”

Collins was also stripped of committee assignments, including her seat on the budget committee.

Collins’ resolution, which seeks “Equitable Representation and Services for Two-Spirit Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex Asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) Parents and Families,” is among several measures adopted or considered by the board in the past two years to support specific demographic groups, including African Americans, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and English learners.

The school board currently hears from 14 advisory councils and committees, and four of them have central office staff liaison.

Collins’ queer and transgender resolution would require leadership of the associated parent advisory council to be parents or caregivers who identify as “2SLGBTQIA+,” even if their children who are students in the district don’t.

Heterosexual parents or caregivers and those who are not transgender would not be able to hold leadership positions despite the gender or sexuality of their children.

District staff recommended adopting the queer transgender resolution only if the board identified funding or budget cuts to pay for it given the district’s financial crisis. The board recently adopted a budget balancing plan to cover the deficit, which included $50 million in cuts to schools.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Jilltucker

The post As election nears, two San Francisco faculty board members going through recall conflict appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Erin Rank

Erin Rank, President and CEO, Habitat for Humanity, Greater Los Angeles

Erin Rank, President and CEO, Habitat for Humanity, Greater Los Angeles

Nikki A Beasley

Nikki A Beasley, Executive Director, Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services

Nikki A Beasley, Executive Director, Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is pleased to announce the appointment of Nikki Beasley and Erin Rank to its Affordable Housing Advisory Council (Advisory Council) and the reappointment of five current members to new three-year terms.

The Advisory Council provides the Bank with expert guidance on affordable housing and economic development issues and advice on FHLBank San Francisco’s community grant and credit programs.

New AHAC members are:

Nikki A Beasley
Executive Director, Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, Richmond, California

Nikki A. Beasley is the Executive Director of Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc (RNHS). She joined the organization in 2016 after retiring from a 25-year career in banking and financial services. Although new to housing, she had a strong affinity for community and service. Because of her leadership, RNHS has doubled its property management rental portfolio for low- to moderate-income families through multifamily acquisition; established the organization’s Changing the Narrative of Homeownership Initiative; started the Lender Ready program in 2017, assisting over 200 new first-time homebuyers secure ownership; established the RNHS Money Matters Series, which the organization hosts monthly; and became a small-site infill developer in 2018. RNHS has also become a staple in the housing conversation throughout the Bay Area and Region, advocating for tenant and landlord rights, consumer affairs, fair housing, and working with municipalities to address zoning and create equitable programs for its residents. Nikki serves on the Board of California Reinvestment Coalition and serves on several working groups including Black Cultural Zone, Black Developers Forum, and Oakland Preservation Collaborative.

Story continues

Erin Rank
President and Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Erin Rank is the President & CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA). Under her more than two decades of leadership, Habitat LA has helped build new affordable homes in partnership with thousands of volunteers each year. Habitat LA also helps people with critical home repairs, and recently Habitat LA helped families rebuild after the California wildfires. Rank has led the organization to become the top nonprofit residential home builder in Los Angeles as listed by the Los Angeles Business Journal four years in a row. She has held several leadership positions for Habitat for Humanity International, served as the Board Chair of Housing California, and is a licensed REALTOR and Mortgage Loan Originator. Erin was named among the “Top 100 Irish Americans” by Irish American Magazine and “Alumni of the Year” by Pepperdine University. Erin has built homes in countries all around the world, and this year she celebrates her personal 1,000th home completed in Los Angeles County.

Members reappointed to new three-year terms on the Advisory Council are:

Holly Benson
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Abode Communities, Los Angeles, California

Diana Yazzie Devine
President and Chief Executive Officer, Native American Connections, Phoenix, Arizona

Hilary Lopez, Ph.D.
Senior Associate, Praxis Consulting Group, Reno, Nevada

Takao Suzuki
Director of Community Development, Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles, California

Tyrone Williams
Chief Executive Officer, Fresno Housing Authority, Fresno, California

Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco delivers low-cost funding and other services that help member financial institutions make home mortgages to people of all income levels and provide credit that supports neighborhoods and communities. The Bank also funds community programs that help members create affordable housing and promote community economic development. The Bank’s members are headquartered in Arizona, California, and Nevada and include commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies, and community development financial institutions.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3ad32910-dd26-421f-8227-e3850ce39dd6

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/10547006-7dc4-496d-a0be-930b7be49bc5

CONTACT: Contact: Mary Long, (415) 572-6717, longm@fhlbsf.com

The post FHLBank San Francisco Names Nikki A. Beasley and Erin Rank to Reasonably priced Housing Advisory Council and Reappoints 5 Present Members appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – Horrible moments for a Chicago family who were smash-and-grave while visiting San Francisco this week.

Several family members and two small children were sitting in the car when it happened near Lombard Street – these photos of the suspects were shot by a witness during the break-in.

Victims say that big city crime is nothing new to them, but what shocked them most was the fact that all of this happened while having young children in the back seat.

What also sets this Smash & Grab apart from many others is that one of the victims had something in the stolen bag that has followed the thieves’ every move since the robbery.

“I was in the car when it happened. All I could hear was a pop and then I said no, I jumped out of the car but it was quick. It was five seconds. “

Kimberly Balde and her sister Katherine stopped their rental car near Lombard Street Monday when they were smash-and-grab victims.

“You could see people were in the car so every seat was taken and my two daughters were in the back, a two and a four and it was behind the 4 year old and like I said she saw him. He wore all black with a black ski mask and she said, “This ninja took this bag.”

A neighbor witnessed the break-in and took photos of the suspects, alleging that three cars were circling the area and were involved in the crime.

Kimberly says her bag was stolen, along with her computer, headphones, Katherine’s passport, children’s birth certificates, and more.

“It’s an organized crime for sure, you thought it through well. It was a five-second deal, and if you can get away with it in five seconds, why shouldn’t you keep doing it. “

The family were visiting from Chicago, another city where they see a lot of crime. That’s why Kimberly says she has a GPS device like an Apple Air Tag on her laptop. That’s actually why she’s been able to track down the robber’s whereabouts since the break-in.

Surveillance and cell phone videos show smash and grabs happening in the same spot over the past year.

The sisters were aware of all of these break-ins before visiting town, but they didn’t expect it to happen that quickly while they were inside.

“But my cousin said it from the start: ‘You have to see it. You got smashed here and grabbed. ‘ Your friend said so. We have been extra careful, as if we were trying to be extra careful, but when you aren’t and you let your vigilance down. We slept. We slept. We definitely did. “

The sisters reported to the police at the SFPD and gave them information about the tracker on the laptop. The site was still in motion until tonight, but no arrests were made.

The post Automotive damaged into with relations, toddlers inside close to San Francisco’s Lombard Road appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The San Francisco Opera is in the middle of its month-long festival dedicated to Wagner’s “Ring Cycle”. In the coming weeks, Lois Silverstein will explore her experience not only of repeating the 2018 opera production, but also of some of the events and panels presented by the company.

Matthew Shilvock, San Francisco Opera Director, hosted an excellent panel on the World of the Ring Orchestra. Getting the prospect of playing the glorious score of this cycle of four operas was instructive and filled a dimension we longed for.

Rufus Olivier (bassoon solo), Kevin Rivard (co-solo horn), Thalia Moore (associate principal cello) and Dian Zhang (first violin) were the four orchestra members who shared some of their experiences with Shilvock, including their first exposure and experience with Wagner before during her tenure as the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and especially during this intensive musical collaboration from 2018.

Each of the musicians expressed their strong attachment to the music and an obligation to do a long preparation before playing the score. Moore took the Greyhound Bus from the east coast and played the tapes for The Ring in the 1980s when she came out to audition for the orchestra. Olivier said he didn’t realize the depth and breadth of the music when he first signed up, even in the 80s. After Rivard and Zhang accepted the challenge, Zhang described the process as a process of demystifying the awe of doing so, much like climbing the mountain. Everest, Rivard, who distinguishes it from the familiar melody of the main horn’s leitmotifs and delves deep into the full music of the score. He said he prepared for a full year before even starting orchestral rehearsal.

Perseverance was a necessary challenge for everyone from the start. While the singers have a 16 hour performance, of course, most of them have a break during the course. But that’s not the case for the musicians who have to play all the time. As Olivier said, even if you may be “Gung-Ho” at the beginning of “Das Rheingold”, you have to monitor your enthusiasm if you are to get through this. You want the audience to feel the excitement, but you can’t stick with that intensity all the time. Hence, you need to mitigate your own excitement and monitor parts where you are pulling out the throttle and at other times when you are playing at a lower intensity. The other three were absolutely in agreement.

“It’s epic,” said Rivard, “and because I love it so much, I have to make sure I don’t miss out on over-emphasizing a part too soon.”

It’s unlike anything else he’s played – he has to give 100 percent over the entire performance.

Everyone spoke of the masterful writing of the music. Moore spoke of the extraordinary depth, variety and quality of the music for the cello created by Wagner.

“His music is rewarding to play,” she said, “especially in its idiomatic passages.”

Zhang talked about how he had learned to work with the gesture of the notes to create the texture Wagner wanted by working with his special string section to create an appropriate color, not too heavy or too light. Be it important to stay focused, but easy to play.

Olivier emphasized that his appreciation for music has grown significantly since he played in various productions of the San Francisco Opera Ring between 1985 and 2018. He loves playing bass in the middle of the orchestra, his highly talented colleagues everywhere; it makes the hair stand on end on the back of his neck. Moore, too, has grown to the depth of the music in her plumbers. She appreciates the immensity of the masterpiece. “You never get to the bottom of it.”

The real crowd of musicians huddled in the pit requires a little maneuvering, Zhang emphasized, especially since he is tall and has to “swing” his bow. He doesn’t mind, he said. The work brings everyone together spiritually and spiritually. Olivier said it was a bit like the Blue Angels in formation in the sky. “We always have to wobble a bit, but the result? Smooth and satisfying. “

As Shilvock pointed out, Wagner wanted bold colors in his orchestra, but didn’t want to cover up the singers.

Each of the musicians praised Sir Donald Runnicles for his particular mastery of the score. He’s got a big picture approach, but he’s very smart in every detail. Rivard also said that because Runnicles is a horn player himself, he knows exactly how to formulate the horn parts. He’s not at all averse to letting us play and sticking to the bigger picture. It’s a simple conversation between us as musicians and his senior leadership. Olivier adds, “Sir Donald uses us for what we were hired to do.”

As for the singers on stage, Olivier says he hasn’t seen what’s going on since 1995! Several comments followed on whether this was essential for the musicians. There was agreement that it was more than enough to follow their fellow musicians Runnicles and the score, especially since the professional performance “up there” was well under control. Overall, it was an informative and lively conversation.

The post The Ring in San Francisco – Orchestra Members on Performing Wagner’s Magnus Opus appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

7 year old boy drops 3 stories from hotel window in RosevilleA 7-year-old boy is in critical condition after falling three stories out of a window in a Roseville hotel. Renee Santos got more on the investigation.

4 hours ago

Second suspect arrested in fatal attack in Oakland, robbery of 75-year-old Asian manKen Bastida reports on the second arrest in connection with a fatal attack and robbery of an elderly Asian resident last week (03/15/2021).

4 hours ago

How long does COVID-19 immunity last?We ask Dr. Maja Artandi of Stanford Health Care how long immunity to the coronavirus can last after receiving the vaccine and how long natural immunity can last for those infected with the virus

4 hours ago

SF Artist offers reward for returning his beloved paintingsA pair of paintings valued at $ 20,000 were from an artist colony in San Francisco. John Ramos spoke to the artist who created them about what is really lost when art is stolen.

5 hours earlier

Oakland Unified, teachers agree to return to the classroomAndrea Nakano reports that OUSD has come to terms with teachers from Oakland to return to school on March 30th (03/15/2021).

5 hours earlier

Members of the Biden Administration encourage the sharing of the stimulus packageSkyler Henry reports on the Biden Administration’s launch of the “Help is Here” tour to promote the COVID Aid Act (3-15-2021).

5 hours earlier

COVID reopening: Alcatraz Tours is reopening for the first time in a yearFor the first time since COVID-19 restrictions began a year ago, tourists boarded boats to tour Alcatraz. Andria Borba reports. (03/15/21)

5 hours earlier

COVID Vaccines: Bay Area transit workers become eligibleBay Area transit workers are the newest eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Kiet Do reports. (03/15/21)

5 hours earlier

Millions more Californians can get COVID vaccine if eligibility increasesDevin Fehely Reports On Persistent COVID Vaccine Shortage In Bay Area Even As More People Are Eligible For Shots (03/15/2021)

6 hours ago

Dan Belluomini picks his NCAA tournament sleepersAfter a year break, coach Dan B breaks the brackets on match day without a team from the Bay Area in the field. (3-15-21)

11 hours ago

49ers Beat Writer Cam Inman Optimistic about the team’s re-signing of Trent WilliamsEarlier this week on the NFL Free Agency, Bay Area News Group’s Cam Inman debated whether he believes 49ers who left Trent Williams will be back. (3-15-21)

11 hours ago

Vern Glenn: Warriors play the best 48 minutes of the season against jazzThe Golden State bank shines in a 131-119 win over Utah. Vern Glenn reports from the Chase Center. (3-15-21)

11 hours ago

East Bay Gyms are returning to indoor workouts and switching to Red TierEmily Turner reports on Contra Costa gyms allowing indoor workouts after the county is back in the Red Tier (3-15-2021).

11 hours ago

CONTRA COSTA IN THE RED: Gyms are open for indoor workouts while Contra Costa County is moving to the Red TierGyms are open for indoor workouts when Contra Costa County moves to the Red Tier

17 hours ago

TODAY FORECAST: The latest forecast from the KPIX 5 weather teamRain, wind in the Monday forecast

17 hours ago

STEM LEARNING: Foothill’s High STEM team talks about reaching the semi-finals of the national STEM competitionFoothill’s High STEM team talks about reaching the semi-finals of the national STEM competition

17 hours ago

Guard Returns Home: California National Guard Troops Sent to Washington DC Return HomeCalifornia National Guard troops posted to Washington DC return home

18 hours ago

GRAMMYS: Oakland’s Fantastic Negrito celebrates its third Grammy winOakland’s Fantastic Negrito celebrates its third Grammy win

18 hours ago

OAKLAND SIDESHOWS: Local residents are frustrated with the ongoing problem of sideshows and gunshots in OaklandLocal residents were frustrated with the ongoing problem of shows and gunshots in Oakland

18 hours ago

PIX nowHere’s the latest from the KPIX newsroom. (3-14-21)

1 day ago

Regulars at the restaurant welcome the return of indoor dining to ConcordThe districts of Contra Costa and Sonoma switched to the red row on Sunday, so that the restaurants can be reopened to limited indoor dining. Just because companies were able to open their doors doesn’t mean they did. John Ramos reports. (3-14-21)

1 day ago

Precise forecast for Sunday eveningGrab your brolly, here comes the rain, says meteorologist Darren Peck. (3-14-21)

1 day ago

The post Members of Biden Administration Promote Passage of Stimulus Package deal – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.