🔥🏠💰🔍👀💻🙇♀️✍️🎨 / climate, crisis, capital / @APFFoundation fellow / writing THE END OF THE WEST for @RandomHouse 2025 / secagle@protonmail
Sep 27, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A new Napa County fire is off to a fast morning start today, and high winds and heat are expected through this evening. Follow @Sarah_Stierch for local info and updates.
And it’s still just September.
Sep 11, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I feel like I've held it together pretty well the last six months of pandemic pregnancy but this may be my undoing. COBRA says they sent my payment, my insurer says they haven't received anything. They're both shrugging while I still don't have coverage.
Now they both agree that somehow my former employer has delayed the process. I'm supposed to call HR.
The last conversation I had with HR, as I was making suggestions about what they could improve in my exit interview, they interrupted me to tell me I was wrong. So.
Aug 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I’m seeing a lot of folks who live in Bay Area urban flatlands quite a ways from any wildfire risk suddenly feeling very nervous about their safety. If you want something to do to quell your anxiety, make an evacuation plan - but also get your home/rental insurance in order.
I’ve spoken to so many fire survivors over the years with double horror stories — of the initial flames and of the bureaucracy and costs afterwards when they tried to rebuild their lives. Polls show most renters who lost homes in recent fires were uninsured.
Aug 19, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I was so optimistically thinking we had at least until October to worry about widescale wildfires in northern California this year -- at least one looming disaster that we didn't have to deal with just quite yet.
I'm recalling how @Weather_West warned of this devastating upcoming fire season all the way back in our record-dry February -- that it could come harder and faster than expected this year. theguardian.com/us-news/2020/f…
Aug 15, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
A new apparent third party restaurant delivery scam:
For the last two weeks, Billy has been getting phone calls from Postmates, GrubHub and Uber drivers and customer service workers claiming to be waiting to pick up an order at Eli’s. But Eli’s doesn’t use any of those services.
The orders were never placed with Eli’s — if they existed, they were only placed with the third party services.
Today two delivery drivers showed up asking where the food was. Their order receipts showed out of date prices and menu items, stuff Eli’s hasn’t sold in years.
Aug 10, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
It's incredible that so many people have been getting by for so long with zero benefits. No doubt many have gone into personal debt to cover costs in the meantime. There's no way this is sustainable for another 7 months.
Related: I'm looking to talk to folks anywhere in the US who have used or are currently using EarnIn Unemployment for advance payments on benefits. DMs are open.
Jul 31, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My personal EDD holdup is one I’ve seen in many comments here and on Reddit, of claims stuck in indefinite “pending” for weeks, months at a time. Some fortunate people report that after finally reaching EDD, the problem is immediately resolved, their claims approved.
I haven’t yet seen any explanation for this mass “pending” purgatory. The lucky people who get their claims resolved are just happy to be paid of course. Personally I don’t just want my benefits, I really want to know what‘s happening here.
Jul 31, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Another day gently laying my head into the maw of the California EDD.
I have called over 300 times total and still have not spoken to a person.
Jul 22, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Gonna fuck around and try to get through to EDD right when the lines open this morning.
This feels kind of like trying to time it right to win concert tickets on KROQ in the 90s except now the concert tickets are government benefits in a pandemic and KROQ is the failing social safety net.
Jul 21, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
An anecdotal data point for current Bay Area housing price weirdness: After management showed the back unit in our duplex to dozens of people week after week, the spot finally rented. Our new neighbor tells us she's paying 23% less than the advertised price.
Her rent is less than anyone's paid for the place since 2014. Unclear if all those people -- again, many, many showings, many, many people -- didn't actually apply or want the place, or were rejected by management.
Jul 11, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
More reclosing for so many small businesses that can’t take it right now. Goddamn.
Places staffed and stocked up and are now again told to shut immediately. More workers back on unemployment, more wasted product, more debt.
Jul 5, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I’ve been thinking about cooling centers for weeks — the large public spaces set up to provide AC access in hot cities for those who don’t have it at home. With everything we know about how the virus spreads, they’re massive public health risks. And so are heat waves.
Extreme heat kills more people in the US each year on average than hurricanes or floods. Cooling centers are a major part of many cities’ response to that public health hazard. The choice this summer will be incredibly bleak.
Jun 26, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I found out I was pregnant a week before the Bay Area's shelter-in-place order. It was obvious we didn't yet know how Covid really impacted pregnant people, but the health guidance was all exceedingly optimistic. I'm glad I've stayed paranoid. usatoday.com/story/news/hea…
jfc
Jun 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The undercurrent of wishing there were more policing of quality of life issues in this current fireworks discourse is bumming me out.
So this is a protest demanding more policing?
Today is the last day my old employer is paying for my health insurance -- and tomorrow is the first day I'm starting new regular posts/newsletters at my Patreon. patreon.com/susie
I went back through nine years (!) of archives and dug up some of my old art from protests and demonstrations across the country.
Jun 10, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Reminder to everyone sharing their freelance writing rates to please add them to @WhoPaysWriters! It’s a super valuable resource and totally anonymous. whopayswriters.com
Personally I don’t take assignments for less than $1/word. My lowest in 2018-2019 was $.80/word, highest $1.50. Sometimes rates are supplemented by reporting grants, which I usually factor in to the total.
May 31, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Also ask for them to provide you with a press pass with the publication and editor’s names - many police won’t respect “freelancer” (though a few departments will issue police dept press passes to some independent reporters, but that takes time).
This happens all the time and isn’t a big deal, it’s just funny in the context of “appreciate workers.”
May 13, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
[thread]
Today is my last day at the Guardian -- I’m back on the freelance market (and job market? is there a job market?), and I have some new stories and projects already in the pipeline. But first, these are a few of my favorite pieces I reported over the last year.
I spent a week with cultural fire practitioners along the Klamath river for this feature -- beautifully photographed by Alexandra Hootnick -- on the struggle to retain and practice traditional ecological knowledge. theguardian.com/us-news/2019/n…
Apr 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Only learned today that my dad's editorial cartoon site is a beneficiary of @Cloudflare's important Project Galileo, helping him keep things up and running despite recently mounting DDoS attacks during this pandemic. cloudflare.com/galileo/case-s…
Weathering these attacks is just an additional cost of the cartoon business, but at an especially brutal time for newspapers -- that's hurt little syndicate services like my dad's in turn. It's really nice to see this support.
Apr 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Our back neighbor threatened to call the police on Billy using our BBQ in our backyard. Taking BBQ Betty to whole new heights.
Becky not Betty. Whatever, I’m pissed.
