My latest column: The Saleh family fled war-torn Yemen seeking peace and prosperity in San Francisco. They've found neither living a tiny, pricey studio at Turk and Hyde in the Tenderloin with misery on the streets outside.

This time, they see no way out.
sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl… .@sfchronicle readers might remember the Saleh family. Their daughter, Raghad, then just 10, was stranded alone in Egypt when the rest of her family received visas to travel to the U.S., but she didn't. It's still unclear why.

sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

My latest: Remember Jason Yu and his nightmare trying to open an ice cream shop in the Mission? After nearly two years and $200,000, he’s given up. Meanwhile, Prop. H, passed in November, has led to just two small business hopefuls getting permits to open. sfchronicle.com/local/heatherk… Here’s my original column from October about Jason Yu and his dream to open Matcha n’ More on 20th Street. The city allowed one neighbor to complain and thwart the opening for months — in this case, a competing ice cream shop. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…

BREAKING: San Francisco school board vp Alison Collins is under fire for racist tweets targeting Asian Americans and their "white supremacist thinking to assimilate and get ahead."

A third of students in SF public schools are Asian.

Via @jilltucker.

sfchronicle.com/local-politics… Collins did not apologize for her tweets or delete them as of early afternoon.

🍀A St. Patrick’s Day song for San Francisco. The Pied Piper of the Castro, who serenaded his neighborhood from his rooftop throughout the #COVID19 pandemic, played Irish tunes tonight. Hal Wilkes is fully vaccinated and optimistic about the city’s future. #TotalSF 🍀 One of my favorite columns from dreadful 2020 was introducing San Francisco to Hal Wilkes, who began playing the bagpipes on his rooftop March 17, the first day of the city’s shelter-in-place orders. He vowed to play every night to console his neighbors. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…

My latest: Follow along as Julie Nicholson runs a half-marathon in San Francisco 14 months after a car slammed into her, breaking her neck and back. Her miraculous run highlighted senseless traffic deaths in a city making little progress on Vision Zero. sfchronicle.com/local/heatherk… 29 people died in traffic in San Francisco in 2020 despite roads being more empty than normal. Every day, three people are injured on SF streets. Every 15 hours, someone is hurt so badly they’re taken to SF General Hospital in an ambulance.

My latest: San Francisco’s beloved cable cars are in trouble. They haven’t run in nearly a year due to the #COVIDー19 pandemic, and the @sfmta_muni won’t promise they’ll run in 2021 either. Saving them likely depends on a planned tax measure next year. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… I’m with you! San Francisco isn’t San Francisco without its cable cars.

https://twitter.com/esscalper/status/1363150464703819777

Six days until our #ILoveTheRichmond celebration plus #TotalSF virtual movie night. Spend the day supporting small businesses and then press play on “Always be my Maybe” at 7 pm. Got the party started today with a visit to @GreenAppleBooks. 📚 Great small businesses. Slow Lake Street. Mountain Lake Park with a 2,000-year-old natural lake. (In 1996, an alligator was spotted in the lake, and the Chronicle and Examiner waged an unsuccessful battle to capture it first. Only in San Francisco.) #ILoveTheRichmond #TotalSF

✏️SCOOP!✏️

It's San Francisco vs. San Francisco. City Attorney @dennisherrera today will sue the San Francisco Unified School District and the Board of Education for failing to craft a plan to reopen its schools. "So far, they have earned an F," he says.

sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… Mayor @LondonBreed supports the city's lawsuit to reopen public schools.

“This is not the path we would have chosen, but nothing matters more right now than getting our kids back in school," she said. "This is hurting the mental health of our kids and our families."

BREAKING: Anybody visiting San Francisco from outside the Bay Area or returning to the city after travel must quarantine for 10 days under new health order. Non-essential travel of any kind and of any distance is strongly discouraged per Mayor Breed and Dr. Colfax. Dr. Colfax will hold a press conference with more info momentarily.

And a compromise with the school board to name every public school in SF after a drag queen. Honey Mahogany High would be the new it school. 💄💋💃

https://twitter.com/brokeassstuart/status/1339430765671587840

I’ve never roasted anybody, and I’ve definitely never roasted anybody via Zoom. But that was fun! (If my public schools named after drag queens idea takes off — and it SHOULD — @SisterRoma Elementary would be 🔥🔥🔥.)

My latest: An open letter to @bchesky, the CEO of @Airbnb who’s worth $11.2 billion after last week’s IPO, on how he could use some of that money to help suffering San Francisco. On my list? Small businesses, public schools and food banks. What’s on yours? sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… Wow, lots of people sticking up for billionaires this morning!

My latest: Why does San Francisco have a profession called “permit expeditor”? Why has the Department of Building Inspection been caught up in City Hall’s corruption scandal? Why does it take so freaking long to get a building permit? Read on for answers! sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… After diving into the incredibly complex, tangled, confusing San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, I told my editor I needed a column expeditor to help me write this. 🤪

BREAKING: Bay Area counties to adhere to Gov. Gavin Newsom's phased statewide shutdown starting at 10 pm Sunday. Dr. Grant Colfax says we have one week to slow the #coronavirus in San Francisco before hospitals reach capacity. San Francisco will run out of ICU beds on December 26 at the current rate of hospitalization. Santa Clara will run out of beds by next week. "We will not have enough nurses and doctors to adequately care for people," Colfax says.

My latest: Jeffrey Choate was trained in prison to fight fires, but now that he’s been released, he’s not allowed to become a firefighter because of his criminal record. Even as wildfires rage in his home state. It’s a ridiculous Catch-22 that must end. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… Readers may remember Jeffrey Choate from a column last year tracing his sad journey from a Tenderloin sidewalk to a San Quentin prison cell. Today’s column continues to follow Jeffrey’s story through a Fort Bragg fire camp and home to his mom. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…

My latest: San Francisco’s 55,000 public school kids will learn mostly from home on the computer this year. Distance learning didn’t go well in the spring, but the district has given teachers no additional guidance on how to make it successful since March. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… The San Francisco school district and teachers’ union haven’t even begun talking about major issues like how many hours teachers will work per day and how much teaching they’ll need to do in real-time versus videos and links. And this is with 5 weeks to go before school starts.

BREAKING: San Francisco Mayor London Breed announces 70 people at the city's largest shelter, MSC South, have tested positive for Covid-19. She called it an outbreak. This is why it's been so problematic that City Hall hasn't come up with a quick, decisive plan for its homeless population during the #CoronavirusPandemic. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…

Dr. Grant Colfax says San Francisco’s ICU beds have increased from 277 to 530, a 91% increase. He says the city still expects a surge in #coronavirus cases and that the shelter-in-place rules have bought time to prepare. Regular hospital beds have increased by 52%. Dr. Colfax also said the SF Dept. of Public Health will start providing more #coronavirus data, including the demographics of patients with Covid-19, on its website within days. Here's our story on how Bay Area data has fallen short: sfchronicle.com/bayarea/articl…

My latest: A lot of Bay Area life has ground to a halt. Is that really necessary? Yes. San Franciscans living in Milan are pleading with their friends and family here to take the #coronavirus seriously to avoid the fate of Italy, now on total lockdown. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… “People have to stop thinking about this as an economic crisis. It’s life or death.” — @amandakfried, whose dream Italian sabbatical was ended by the #coronavirus. Listen to her crucial report from Milan before her family opted to leave the country. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/san…

At @SPUR_Urbanist's annual awards luncheon where Mayor @LondonBreed and Salesforce CEO Marc @Benioff are giving speeches about the importance of solving the city's homeless problem. Breed, who opposes Prop. C, says it's a regional problem and doubling the money won't help. .@Benioff, who's giving millions to back Prop. C, says safe streets and cleanliness are essential for successful businesses. "Is this who we really are? That's what I'm asking each one of you."