News

Despite all the public attention focusing on the harmful emissions that come from the automotive sector, the dirty little secret is that buildings are actually the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy reports that two-thirds of all carbon dioxide emissions come from stationary sources. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings account for 65 percent of electricity consumption, 36 percent of energy use and 30 percent of raw materials use.

by Mara Benitez

On Tuesday, Dec. 11, the San Francisco Unified School District voted unanimously to open the Bayview Essential School for Music, Art and Social Justice (BES) as a district small school by design. It will be the first high school to open in Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) in close to 30 years.

By Francine Brevetti, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND — In the larger of a two-room West Oakland apartment, three young men lie asleep, two on sofas, the youngest on the floor. It's 6 a.m., and in the other room, their parents, Mohammed Asif and Dhalid Shaheen, have finished praying.

Asif weaves through the bodies of his sleeping sons to make his tea in the cubbyhole kitchen before he leaves his home to drive to the trucking company where he parks his diesel truck each night.

by Francisco Da Costa

by Robert Ewing

Since The John Stewart Co. took over management, residents of Alabama Manor in San Diego are constantly finding notices on their doors and are afraid to leave because of how often their apartments are entered while they’re away. The anxiety has led to deaths, suicide attempts and panic attacks.

By Katherine Tam STAFF WRITER

After a five-week hiatus, Chevron resumed its appeal Monday to change how the county calculates its property tax at its Richmond refinery, a bid that could affect millions of dollars that public agencies receive every year.
The hearing before the three-member Contra Costa Assessment Appeals Board began in late November with the county's opening statement and picked up where it left off Monday. It resumes Wednesday and continues for at least six more days this month.

By Momo Chang

OAKLAND COMMERCIAL SPACE in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza, located in the heart of Chinatown, sold for about $40 million to a group of local investors this week, according to general partner John Loh.

Montclair Acquisition Fund LLC — which includes about 35 investors — purchased 88,000 square foot of space and 90 parking spaces from Larry Chan. The sale excludes the Asian Branch Library, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 200 condominiums and 50 rental housing units.

By Jesse McKinley

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal panel of judges granted San Francisco the right on Wednesday to put in place a key part of its universal health care program as legal arguments about the first-in-the-nation plan continue.

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took on two of the city's most intractable problems in its first meeting of the year - and handed victories to a plan to set aside an unprecedented sum of money to finance affordable housing and a measure to streamline enforcement of laws against sleeping in the parks.

C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle

When asked about the homeless people on the street, Mayor Gavin Newsom's office used to have a quick response. Staffers trotted out reams of numbers, charts and data that trumpeted all the progress they'd made.

But not everyone agrees.