Calm, the meditation and relaxation tech startup featuring a medley of celebrity voices, has laid off a fifth of its staff. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and employs around 400 people, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The affected employees were laid off Thursday, a company spokesperson told SFGATE. Laid-off employees were notified in one-on-one meetings, according to a company-wide message.

“While some of you will be impacted, all of you will be affected,” Calm CEO David Ko said in the message Thursday. “I can assure you that this was not an easy decision, but it is especially difficult for a company like ours whose mission is focused on workplace mental health and wellness.”

Calm, like direct competitor Headspace and digital therapy services like BetterHelp and Talkspace, capitalized on the recent uptick in demand for mental health care and wellness — a demand that was only intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Calm’s big draw over its competitors was its reliance on mega-celebrities, from boy-bander turned pop dreamboat Harry Styles to actor Matthew McConaughey, to read “sleep stories” on the platform.

By 2020, it was valued at $2 billion — making it one of the largest unicorns in the mental health tech space. But it, too, has been forced to pare back as a more-constrained tech industry has seen demand drop after profits — and hiring — soared during the pandemic.

“We did not come to this decision lightly, but are confident that these changes will help us prioritize the future, focus on growth and become a more efficient organization,” Ko said.

A spokesperson did not provide additional details on laid-off employees’ severance packages.

The post Calm, San Francisco wellness unicorn, lays off 20% of workers appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

I think we have to go back to holding repeat offenses and repeat violent offenses accountable. I think that has been lost in this system and that cost us many lives over the past two years, having repeat offenders go out and reoffend in lethal ways. And so I am committed to making sure that those who decide to live a life of crime and chronically commit crime in this city [are held] accountable. As well as, as I said, balancing that need for reform.

So would it be fair then to say one metric by which the public should judge you would be to see if police arrest rates go up?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I think a lot of it is how people feel. If people start to see more action on the part of the police and more action within the DA’s office to hold offenders accountable, I think they should hopefully start feeling different as they walk about the streets. There will also be data, of course, they can look to.

How do you measure that feeling?

Can you walk outside and not be robbed? Right. Repeatedly, because I think that’s a part of what’s happening. Can we get the number of hate crimes to decline in this city? Can we stop people from feeling that this is a place where you can come and walk out with bags of goods from our convenience stores with no consequence? And I’m hoping that we can see numbers of those situations decline.

By when? We’ve got a few months until November, when you’re going to be up [for election]. Potentially, former DA Boudin would run against you. We don’t know who else may. Do you expect that people should be able to see the effect of your work by November?

Myself and the attorneys in my office are going to work tirelessly to make sure that we start seeing those effects immediately, and we’ve already begun that work. And so I am hoping that each and every day people see slow progress in that respect.

Political Breakdown

SCOTT SHAFER: We were talking about what drew you into working in the DA’s office. And you quit last year. You were a prosecutor in the homicide unit, and then you helped lead this recall of Boudin. Is it fair to say that as it became clear that he was going to lose, maybe post-June 7th, you lobbied for the job? Did you want it?

BROOKE JENKINS: No, I wouldn’t say that’s fair at the time that the recall was going on.

SCOTT SHAFER: What about after?

BROOKE JENKINS: After it passed, I did express interest in the job, in part because I wanted to make sure that whoever took over what somebody who was truly passionate and dedicated to this work. Who didn’t see it as a stepping stone to something else political, had experience doing the work. And so that meant a lot to me.

MARISA LAGOS: What was the interview process like? My understanding is that the mayor made pretty specific demands of all the folks she talked to about what she wanted to see done. Did you make promises to the mayor and how did you present yourself?

BROOKE JENKINS: It was a very intense process. I will say that. I think I had three interviews with her. I would not say she made demands of me during that interview, but she did have a laundry list of questions about certain topics, certain issues, I assume, based on conversations she had had with members of the public and what was significant to them. And so she wanted to make sure that whoever took over, it appeared to me, had a concrete understanding of the office and of what it was going to take to help get this city turned around.

MARISA LAGOS: I’m curious, though. You’ve talked about people needing to be patient. That one prosecutor, one DA, isn’t going to change crime trends overnight. And yet the construct of the recall was very much putting the problems of the city on one person’s back. Why should voters give you a different sort of opportunity to prove yourself? And how much time do you think we should give?

BROOKE JENKINS: I think what I was saying was that I can’t snap my fingers and make crime disappear. And I made that clear every time that I talked about the recall that I didn’t think everything was Chesa’s fault. I never could have put that through.

MARISA LAGOS: A lot of the people who supported the recall did, though.

The post After Firing Extra Than a Dozen Workers, New SF DA Brooke Jenkins Says She Will Restore ‘Legislation and Order to San Francisco’ appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Hotel staff like Laverne Taylor can relate to the guests. She says she was addicted to drugs as a teenager, and lived on the street. She remembers getting high just to stay warm.

Taylor was in and out of prison before receiving a life sentence for murder. After serving 26 years behind bars, she was released in 2019 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown commuted her sentence. Soon after that she was working at Hotel Whitcomb.

Taylor says her heart broke watching guests struggle to adjust to living inside after years on the streets.

“You had people you took off the street, literally, and you put them all in a [three]-star hotel,” Taylor said. “You’d see the room and it was like it was demolished, tents in there. We couldn’t understand. ‘Why do you have a tent in there?'”

She said some people needed help even for mundane tasks like turning on showers, or using television remote controls.

Taylor has used CPR on guests more than a dozen times, and has attempted to revive people after overdoses—usually successfully, but sometimes not.

She was working at Hotel Whitcomb the day Sterling Ulrich died. She’d grown close to Ulrich, who was just beginning to open up around staff.

When Taylor heard the emergency call on the hotel radio along with Ulrich’s name, her heart started racing. When she found Ulrich, she began CPR, tag teaming the mouth breathing and chest compressions with another colleague, until it became clear that they couldn’t save Ulrich.

“It’s like a scene from a bad movie where people are trying, and trying, and trying until someone pulls them off,” Taylor said.

Staff need ongoing counseling for trauma

Soon after Hotel Whitcomb opened to vulnerable residents, an organization called the Harm Reduction Therapy Center began providing counseling for staff who were seeing overdoses.

Harm Reduction Therapy Center’s leadership team at a holiday gathering. Left to right: Nathan Kamps-Hughes, program coordinator and staff therapist; Abigail McMorrow, staff therapist; Maurice Byrd, director of training and business operations; Maxx Malloy, staff therapist; Irina Alexander, staff therapist; Jason Brown, program coordinator and staff therapist; and Anna Berg, director of programs. (Courtesy Anna Berg)

Anna Berg is a clinical social worker for the center. She says Hotel Whitcomb became a microcosm of the city’s multiple social crises. The same mental health and substance use issues playing out every day on the streets were now happening under one roof, and seeing that took a toll on staff. She said staff there need long-term support rather than only after overdoses and other emergencies.

She said staff trauma has been a major unintended consequence of these hotels.

“Seeing somebody go through a trauma is still a trauma — these repeated exposures that staff are having to incredibly traumatic events where it’s life or death and you feel responsible for that, even if you’re not,” she said.

Brandi Marshall took a job with Five Keys in November specifically to address the need for staff support. She says it’s hard to work at Hotel Whitcomb, where guests continue to use lethal drugs after overdosing.

Marshall served in the military, and volunteered to go back to Iraq soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She said because of the trauma she experienced seeing people die while in the military, she knows how to block out some of the emotional aspects of her job at the hotel.

“I have mastered that art from Iraq,” she said. “[My co-workers] really absorb a lot, coming out of prison. They absorb all of what is happening around them.”

Monique LeSarre, executive director at Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, a nonprofit aimed at reducing health inequities in underserved communities, said her therapists have counseled Hotel Whitcomb staff in crisis.

“[Staff are] reviving people, [people] who then turn around and die the next day,” said LeSarre. “Their own mental health is suffering. It’s really unethical, really, really, really unethical, to not provide the appropriate level of support.”

Dawn Koch, a guest at Hotel Whitcomb, talks to a Five Keys staff member (not pictured) at the Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco on Feb. 18, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

LeSarre said she sought funding for mental health support from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. But, she said, the agency turned down the grant proposal.

When asked about this, Denny Machuca-Grebe, a spokesperson with the agency, responded in a written statement.

“As agencies that day in and day out provide support and services for individuals with many challenges around mental health, substance use and housing, we are very attuned to how difficult it could be to serve vulnerable communities while caring for ourselves as individuals,” he wrote.

Machuca-Grebe did not respond to KQED’s question about any efforts that might be underway to support the mental health of staff at shelter-in-place hotels.

He said to connect with Five Keys for steps the nonprofit has taken to support their staff.

Marshall says she and other employees are beginning to open up more about some of the trauma they’re facing. Five Keys has started support groups for employees, including a group for women. At first only one or two people would attend these sessions. Now, dozens of people show up, Marshall said, talking about everything from their own children who have passed away to reversing overdoses.

Steps toward stability

Dawn Koch has lived at Hotel Whitcomb since last August, and she wants to start a group for residents living at the hotel to support each other. She carries Narcan with her everywhere, and says building a sense of community is an important part of harm reduction, too.

“There’s too many people that are so lost they don’t even know themselves anymore. Unless you have somebody to help you from that point, you feel like you’re always lost,” she said.

“I’ve really seen too many people here one minute and then gone the next,” she said.

Teddy Melendez, another resident at the hotel, uses fentanyl at the curb so people are nearby to save him if he overdoses. People regularly gather in crowds outside the hotel and use drugs.

Melendez said he’s been using less fentanyl because he’s taking medication to reduce cravings and ease withdrawal pain.

“I want to have my own spot, have my own apartment. For me to do that, I have to stop using,” he said.

San Francisco officials plan to end the city’s emergency hotel program in September. So far, a little more than half of guests who are considered eligible for housing through the program have found it, and it’s mostly permanent housing. Eligibility is based on a number of factors, such as a person’s health or how long they’ve been unhoused.

Eldridge Cruse, the hotel supervisor, tells staff to focus on the overdoses they’ve reversed rather than the people they couldn’t save.

“You’ve got to have an X-ray vision or cameras in every room, and monitor every room to catch what’s going on. But you can’t,” Cruse said. “We were dealt the hand, and we played it the best we could. No loss of life is acceptable. But we couldn’t stop what was going to happen. We couldn’t.”

This article was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2021 Data Fellowship.

The post Employees at a San Francisco Lodge Battle an Overdose Disaster appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A restaurant that denied service to three San Francisco Police Department officers because their weapons made staff “uncomfortable” has apologized.

The restaurant, called Hilda and Jesse, said staff politely asked the armed officers in uniform to leave on Friday shortly after seating them, according to the post. Hilda and Jesse said the restaurant is a “safe space,” and the presence of weapons prompted his staff to deny the service officers, the business said in a social media post.

“We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do,” the post wrote. “We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons.”

The restaurant said its actions are not a political statement, stating it did what it thought was best for its staff.

Substitute teacher who sang Britney Spears on karaoke machine ‘relieved of duty’

Police Chief William Scott tweeted a response, saying community engagement is a “core principle” of police reform and officers are asked to shop and eat at small businesses in order to “support local businesses and get to know those they’re sworn to safeguard. ”

“The San Francisco Police Department stands for safety with respect, even when it means respecting wishes that our officers and I find discouraging and personally disappointing,” Scott continued. “I believe the vast majority of San Franciscans welcome their police officers, who deserve to know that they are appreciated for the difficult job we ask them to do — in their uniforms — to keep our neighborhoods and businesses safe.”

On Sunday, Hilda and Jesse apologized for the way the incident was handled.

“We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times,” the restaurant said. “We hope this will be a teachable moment for us as we repair and continue to build bridges with the SFPD. These are stressful times, and we handled this badly.”

The restaurant has faced backlash on Yelp since the incident, receiving so many negative reviews that it’s been left with an average one-star rating. Yelp has temporarily paused the ability to leave reviews for Hilda and Jesse as it sorts through which posts are based on first-hand experiences and which are in response to the incident involving SFPD.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3:05 pm to include an apology issued by the restaurant.

The post San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made employees ‘uncomfortable’ appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – A restaurant that denied service to three San Francisco Police Department officers because their weapons made staff “uncomfortable” has apologized.

The restaurant, called Hilda and Jesse, said staff politely asked the armed officers in uniform to leave on Friday shortly after seating them, according to the post. Hilda and Jesse said the restaurant is a “safe space,” and the presence of weapons prompted his staff to deny the service officers, the business said in a social media post.

“We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do,” the post wrote. “We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform, and without their weapons.”

The restaurant said its actions are not a political statement, stating it did what it thought was best for its staff.

Substitute teacher who sang Britney Spears on karaoke machine ‘relieved of duty’

Police Chief William Scott tweeted a response, saying community engagement is a “core principle” of police reform and officers are asked to shop and eat at small businesses in order to “support local businesses and get to know those they’re sworn to safeguard. ”

“The San Francisco Police Department stands for safety with respect, even when it means respecting wishes that our officers and I find discouraging and personally disappointing,” Scott continued. “I believe the vast majority of San Franciscans welcome their police officers, who deserve to know that they are appreciated for the difficult job we ask them to do — in their uniforms — to keep our neighborhoods and businesses safe.”

On Sunday, Hilda and Jesse apologized for the way the incident was handled.

“We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times,” the restaurant said. “We hope this will be a teachable moment for us as we repair and continue to build bridges with the SFPD. These are stressful times, and we handled this badly.”

The restaurant has faced backlash on Yelp since the incident, receiving so many negative reviews that it’s been left with an average one-star rating. Yelp has temporarily paused the ability to leave reviews for Hilda and Jesse as it sorts through which posts are based on first-hand experiences and which are in response to the incident involving SFPD.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3:05 pm to include an apology issued by the restaurant.

The post San Francisco restaurant denies service to three law enforcement officials who made workers ‘uncomfortable’ | KTAB appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN JOSE (KPIX) — The deadline for some emergency workers in Santa Clara County to vax up or stay home is fast approaching, and if they don’t show up, there could be gaps in critical staffing positions.

A health order takes effect on Tuesday for all workers in so-called “high risk” occupations to provide proof of vaccinations and boosters, or they can’t report for work. That includes medical workers and firefighters.

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“We very, very much hope that people will go ahead and get their booster shot, it’s simple to do,” said James Williams, Santa Clara County Counsel.

The order has been looming for months, and fire departments and other agencies have been working to verify that their employees comply, but gaps remain.

“We did see over a 90 percent vaccination rate originally, and so we are expecting our booster rates to be similar,” said Erica Ray, a San Jose Fire Department spokesperson.

The department says 634 firefighters have been fully vaccinated which leaves 42 who are not according to published staffing levels of 676. The department doesn’t know precisely how many vaccinated, but not boosted firefighters there are.

To take up the slack if firefighters cannot report to work, the city plans to cover shifts with overtime.

READ MORE: Heated Debate Expected At Meeting to Discuss Proposed Oakland School Closures

“We have been reyling on our members to fill in with extra hours. So we are very
confident in our ability to offer those critical services to our community,” Ray said.

Last week, firefighters from several agencies voiced concerns that relying on overtime to cover shifts is dangerous and called on supervisors to override the health department and respind the mandates.

“We have a critical staffing crisis in our EMS system and the hospitals. The public is now in jeopardy,” said San Jose Firefighter Barry Arata.

The county is making firefighter’s employers responsible for complying with the mandate, not the firefighters themselves.

“We will be proactive in reaching out and making sure that folks have complied with the order,” Williams said.

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Consequences for non-compliance could range from misdemeanor charges to monetary fines.

The post Crucial Workers Shortages Doable When Santa Clara Co. Vaccine Mandate Takes Impact – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Saikat Chakrabarti had a solid run in DC

After leading Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s underdog campaign for the U.S. Congress in 2018, Chakrabarti became her chief of staff in Washington and oversaw the drafting of the original Green New Deal legislation. Justice Democrats, the organization he co-founded to support progressive candidates for Congress, helped recruit and elect Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley – the women of color who, along with the AOC, came to be known as The Squad. ”

But now Chakrabarti has returned to San Francisco, where he worked in engineering before going into politics.

“The simple answer is, I just fell in love with The City,” he said when asked why he was withdrawn. “In my head, all the time that I was away from San Francisco, I always thought of it as a kind of short-term sabbatical that turned into a long-term sabbatical.”

In the new world of remote work, Chakrabarti still works in DC, so to speak, and serves as the president of the progressive think tank New Consensus. However, because the Police Shop is focused on long-term plans rather than ongoing laws, Chakrabarti and his wife plan to stay in San Francisco long-term to raise their toddler.

New Consensus is currently thinking beyond the recently passed Infrastructure Act and even the Green New Deal to “envision a world where there is the political will to tackle climate change as much as possible,” Chakrabarti said. In this roughly two-year project, he and his colleagues will present a detailed action plan for the decarbonization of all major greenhouse gas sources, from heavy industry to urban transport.

“Ideally, we’re writing a playbook for a president or executive who will either come into office with a mandate to do whatever is necessary to solve climate change, or maybe a disaster happens and you suddenly have the political capital to do it to do, ”he called. “Here’s the playbook to get it done.”

The Infrastructure Bill, which adds about $ 600 billion in new spending over 10 years, is “a pretty modest reform” compared to the work it takes to truly rebuild America’s infrastructure, let alone climate change fight, says Chakrabarti. It would cost about $ 50 billion to replace all of the lead pipes in the country, he offers as an example, but the bill only calls for $ 15 billion. “The whole bill is like a 20 percent bill. It’s not transformative, ”he says.

When he settles back in San Francisco, Chakrabarti begins to get involved in local politics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he attracted a relatively unknown political upstart.

In September, he went to Twitter to support startup founder Bilal Mahmood in the upcoming special election for State Assembly District 17 against better-known candidates such as supervisor Matt Haney, former supervisor David Campos, and City College board director Thea Selby. “Why I like Bilal and why I like new candidates is that we need people who come with no political baggage, who are willing to say real things without fear that the group or group will withdraw their support.” he said. “That was my experience of why AOC was able to sit in on Pelosi’s office (in support of the Green New Deal). It was because she still had nothing to lose. “

Mahmood is open to “radical ideas” and has detailed, concrete plans for their implementation, said Chakrabarti. “The big problem in San Francisco, which I think has to do with national politics, is that no one is proposing the plan that will solve it. So everyone fights over the leftovers. And I think that’s how living is here. “

Housing has become a major focal point in the gathering race, embodied in the case of a 500-unit SoMa apartment building that the board of directors postponed two weeks ago. Campos defended his demand with a majority on the board of directors who said that market interest rate developments such as these are the main cause of gentrification and displacement. The other three candidates, including Haney, who voted to continue development, all said they support the project and imply that they believe building housing at market prices is an important part of solving the city’s housing crisis.

“You can support evictions and universal rent control, social housing and market-price housing,” Chakrabarti said. “We all concentrate on it, bit by bit, and fight for every plot to solve a crisis.”

Despite his focus on national politics, Chakrabarti sees San Francisco as “a beacon of progressivism that much of the rest of the country pays attention to. And I think the successes and failures of SF are the successes and failures of the national progressive movement. “

San Francisco is in a unique position where “everyone agrees that climate change is a problem, everyone agrees that we shouldn’t have a system of great inequality,” said Chakrabarti. If a place can indeed produce transformative government policies, it should be here.

Chakrabarti knows firsthand that in local politics “a motivated group of people can achieve something”. He recalls how during their first campaign the New York City Bicycle Coalition got AOC to come to multiple meetings to talk about bike lanes. The challenge for local political activists is to motivate people to fight for “a government that actually works well and implements progressive ideals” and for “competent bureaucracies that handle smart regulations,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not a succinct slogan.”

bschneider@sfexaminer.com

The post AOC’s former chief of employees weighs in on San Francisco politics appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Saikat Chakrabarti had a solid run in DC

After leading Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s underdog campaign for the U.S. Congress in 2018, Chakrabarti became her chief of staff in Washington and oversaw the drafting of the original Green New Deal legislation. Justice Democrats, the organization he co-founded to support progressive candidates for Congress, helped recruit and elect Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley – the women of color who, along with the AOC, came to be known as The Squad. ”

But now Chakrabarti has returned to San Francisco, where he worked in engineering before going into politics.

“The simple answer is, I just fell in love with The City,” he said when asked why he was withdrawn. “In my head, all the time that I was away from San Francisco, I always thought of it as a kind of short-term sabbatical that turned into a long-term sabbatical.”

In the new world of remote work, Chakrabarti still works in DC, so to speak, and serves as the president of the progressive think tank New Consensus. However, because the Police Shop is focused on long-term plans rather than ongoing laws, Chakrabarti and his wife plan to stay in San Francisco long-term to raise their toddler.

New Consensus is currently thinking beyond the recently passed Infrastructure Act and even the Green New Deal to “envision a world where there is the political will to tackle climate change as much as possible,” Chakrabarti said. In this roughly two-year project, he and his colleagues will present a detailed action plan for the decarbonization of all major greenhouse gas sources, from heavy industry to urban transport.

“Ideally, we’re writing a playbook for a president or executive who will either come into office with a mandate to do whatever is necessary to solve climate change, or maybe a disaster happens and you suddenly have the political capital to do it to do, ”he called. “Here’s the playbook to get it done.”

The Infrastructure Bill, which adds about $ 600 billion in new spending over 10 years, is “a pretty modest reform” compared to the work it takes to truly rebuild America’s infrastructure, let alone climate change fight, says Chakrabarti. It would cost about $ 50 billion to replace all of the lead pipes in the country, he offers as an example, but the bill only calls for $ 15 billion. “The whole bill is like a 20 percent bill. It’s not transformative, ”he says.

When he settles back in San Francisco, Chakrabarti begins to get involved in local politics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he attracted a relatively unknown political upstart.

In September, he went to Twitter to support startup founder Bilal Mahmood in the upcoming special election for State Assembly District 17 against better-known candidates such as supervisor Matt Haney, former supervisor David Campos, and City College board director Thea Selby. “Why I like Bilal and why I like new candidates is that we need people who come with no political baggage, who are willing to say real things without fear that the group or group will withdraw their support.” he said. “That was my experience of why AOC was able to sit in on Pelosi’s office (in support of the Green New Deal). It was because she still had nothing to lose. “

Mahmood is open to “radical ideas” and has detailed, concrete plans for their implementation, said Chakrabarti. “The big problem in San Francisco, which I think has to do with national politics, is that no one is proposing the plan that will solve it. So everyone fights over the leftovers. And I think that’s how living is here. “

Housing has become a major focal point in the gathering race, embodied in the case of a 500-unit SoMa apartment building that the board of directors postponed two weeks ago. Campos defended his demand with a majority on the board of directors who said that market interest rate developments such as these are the main cause of gentrification and displacement. The other three candidates, including Haney, who voted to continue development, all said they support the project and imply that they believe building housing at market prices is an important part of solving the city’s housing crisis.

“You can support evictions and universal rent control, social housing and market-price housing,” Chakrabarti said. “We all concentrate on it, bit by bit, and fight for every plot to solve a crisis.”

Despite his focus on national politics, Chakrabarti sees San Francisco as “a beacon of progressivism that much of the rest of the country pays attention to. And I think the successes and failures of SF are the successes and failures of the national progressive movement. “

San Francisco is in a unique position where “everyone agrees that climate change is a problem, everyone agrees that we shouldn’t have a system of great inequality,” said Chakrabarti. If a place can indeed produce transformative government policies, it should be here.

Chakrabarti knows firsthand that in local politics “a motivated group of people can achieve something”. He recalls how during their first campaign the New York City Bicycle Coalition got AOC to come to multiple meetings to talk about bike lanes. The challenge for local political activists is to motivate people to fight for “a government that actually works well and implements progressive ideals” and for “competent bureaucracies that handle smart regulations,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not a succinct slogan.”

bschneider@sfexaminer.com

The post AOC’s former chief of employees weighs in on San Francisco politics appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

About 200 employees at a major hospital in San Francisco and the University of California, San Francisco’s health system, most of them fully vaccinated, tested positive for the coronavirus this month and most had the highly contagious Delta variant, according to a hospital official.

Some of the cases were asymptomatic, most included mild to moderate symptoms, and two required hospitalization, officials said. The infections were found to be Delta-related because most of the samples in San Francisco were tested for the variant that is now prevalent in the city.

About 75 to 80 percent of the 50+ infected employees at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are fully vaccinated, said Dr. Lukejohn Day, the hospital’s chief physician, in an interview on Saturday. The University of California, San Francisco, in a statement released Friday, said 153 of the 183 cases were reported in their hospitals, clinics and on campus was fully vaccinated. [Update: On Aug. 2, the university clarified that 146 of the cases were among staff members in its health system, and that 37 were among U.C.S.F. researchers, other university staff and students. It also reported that, of the two people hospitalized, one was vaccinated and the other was not.]

None of the infected San Francisco General staff members were hospitalized, and most had mild to moderate symptoms, said Dr. Day. The asymptomatic cases were discovered through contact tracing.

With no vaccinations, said Dr. Day, the hospitalization rate would be much worse.

“We’re worried right now that we’re seeing an increase here in San Francisco and the Bay Area,” said Dr. Day. “But what we’re seeing is exactly what the vaccine data showed us: you can still possibly get Covid. But when you get it, it’s not serious at all. “

On July 11, San Francisco ordered that workers in high-risk workplaces, including hospitals, should be vaccinated by September 15. This includes that all employees and trainees must adhere to the new UC system-wide Covid-19 vaccination mandate, with limited exceptions for medical or religious exceptions. ”

Staff at both hospitals continue to wear personal protective equipment, said Dr. Day. But the number of personal infections reported in July is about as high as it was during the height of the winter wave.

“We are nervous that we could possibly exceed it,” said Dr. Day.

The post 233 Employees at 2 San Francisco Hospitals Check Optimistic in July appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

By Sydney Johnson

Examiner employee author

The last San Francisco public library finally reopened near Lake Merced this week, but not without some challenges.

“There was so much to do, we couldn’t even walk around the branch. There were boxes that were piled to the ceiling and boxes of books that we had to process. We had tables all over the place, ”said Briana Campbell, a library page for the branch, which reopened Tuesday. “It’s been hectic in the last few weeks; it felt like I was moving. “

Library page Briana Campbell, left, and librarian Laura chat at the main counter of the Merced branch of the San Francisco Public Library on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

The city’s library system, which has 28 locations, closed its presence in March 2020 and has gradually reopened its doors over the past few months. But a hiring freeze during the pandemic combined with turnover in a chaotic year has created a large staffing gap required to support a full system recovery.

“There are around 81 vacancies in the branches alone,” says City Librarian Michael Lambert. “That really affects our ability to have up and service hours.”

According to Lambert, the San Francisco Public Library currently has 141 vacancies, which makes up about 15% of the workforce.

While the centers were closed, nearly two-thirds of the city’s library staff were relocated and assigned to COVID-19 emergency services, which range from filling hotel accommodations for homeless residents to contact tracing.

Fifteen of those employees are still on long-term emergency medical contracts as the San Francisco pandemic continues. But many have returned to their regular library jobs and are working hard to get things back in shape while they wait for vacancies to be filled.

During the pandemic, Campbell was assigned to various emergency functions around the city, including working in pantries and the Moscone Center’s vaccination center. But for the past few weeks she has been one of the tense library staff preparing for the library’s final reopening this week.

“We need people. We have two days a week that we’re closed because we need more processing time so we can open the amount we have, ”said Campbell of the Merced store. “We are a really small branch.”

Library site Briana Campbell is assembling book packages at the San Francisco Public Library Merced branch on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

Merced is not yet up and running like most stores in the pre-pandemic times. The mission branch remains closed for renovation work. Although the main library is expected to be full again after Labor Day, other branches will have to wait for staff to be replenished to help with processes and other on-site work.

To get more libraries back to full service, it is important to resume services like adult digital literacy and to provide technologies like Wi-Fi and printing services that many low-income San Francisco residents rely on.

“The hardest part (in providing services during the pandemic) was not being able to offer internet. So many people rely on the library for connectivity and printers and scanners, ”said Lambert. “They were closed until we started to resume service.”

Although libraries offered roadside collection during the pandemic, the numbers show that users want a more personalized experience and are more likely to use services if they can walk indoors.

“Whenever we switch a site from a to-go service to a personal service, we see a huge increase in traffic,” said Lambert. “Last week we had 1,130 people a day in the main branch and 3,225 people in other branches. That is significantly higher than what we only saw with the door-to-door service. “

Jennie Quinn and her granddaughter Ella Koepsell check out the new book department in the San Francisco Public Library Merced branch on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.

Despite the big boost that came with the reopening this week, Campbell is excited to be back at the library.

“They didn’t have enough work for us in the libraries, so we moved a lot,” she said. But when she got back on Monday she continued, “We had some of our regulars who were excited to be back and see our doors open. It was really cool. “

Lambert sees the staffing gap as an opportunity to grow and usher the city’s libraries into their next chapter, one that will eventually regain personal programming as well as the continuation of the online services and programs created during the on-site placement.

“We look forward to adding some new talent to our ranks,” he said, “and rewarding people who have worked their way up.”

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

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