Examiner Connect

Opinion

Are you as smart as San Francisco fifth-graders?

By: Richard A. Carranza 04/08/13 10:14 PM

Hard to believe it, but it’s April and time again for our students to take the California Standardized Testing and Reporting tests. Teachers and education officials use the results of STAR tests to identify individual student progress, as well as trends in how well groups of students are learning the standards in order to improve educational programs. Read More

Funding helps ensure justice for the public

By: Examiner readers 04/08/13 10:12 PM

➤ “Public Defender Jeff Adachi is the boy who cried broke,” Melissa Griffin, Local News, Thursday Funding helps ensure justice for the public Melissa Griffin’s recent column overlooks key facts about the budget process as well as the criminal justice system. Read More

Attacks on CEQA distort the truth

By: Rebecca Evans and Quentin L. Kopp 04/08/13 10:10 PM

Forty-three years ago, California adopted one of the nation’s most foresighted environmental protection laws, the California Environmental Quality Act, which is known as CEQA. The law encourages our elected officials to “look before they leap” and make decisions based on an objective analysis of a proposed project’s impacts on the environment. Read More

It is time for a proper CEQA process in SF

By: SF Examiner Editorial 04/04/13 8:52 PM

The California Environmental Quality Act is a good law too often used in bad ways. At its root, the law, typically known as CEQA, requires that state and local governments study the impacts of projects to mitigate, when possible, their negative effects. But while CEQA-type laws around the nation typically only come into play in the case of genuine environmental objections to a project, the law in California is far too often co-opted by anyone with a “not in my backyard” objection. Read More

Bankruptcy could complicate your lawsuit

By: Christopher B. Dolan 04/04/13 7:08 PM

This week’s question comes from Sarah C. in Daly City: Read More

It is time for San Francisco to act on CEQA reform

By: Bob Linscheid 04/03/13 6:38 PM

San Francisco’s planning approval process is notoriously difficult, often taking months — and sometimes a decade or more — to approve a project. The City’s lengthy process can add significantly to a developer’s costs. These costs are impacting the pace of development and the type of projects that get built in The City. Read More

Jerry Brown’s proposed fees for public information are a dreadful idea

By: SF Examiner Editorial 04/03/13 6:36 PM

A few ideas in Gov. Jerry Brown’s recent budget proposal would be so damaging to the free flow of information in California that they should be scrapped immediately. Read More

All kinds of families celebrated in SFUSD

By: Richard A. Carranza 04/01/13 9:59 PM

As the legal status of gay families is debated nationally, I assure you that here in the San Francisco Unified School District, we continue to see all families as equally important and celebrate that our families come in all forms. Last week, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy talked about the fact that as many as 40,000 children in California live with same-sex parents, and he posed that children may be adversely affected by their parents not being allowed to marry. Read More

Tenancy-in-common legislation would benefit middle class

By: Joel P. Engardio 04/01/13 9:54 PM

Today’s price to live in San Francisco is $1 million for a modest home or thousands a month for a market-rate apartment. That’s the reality of supply and demand when 800,000 people want to live on a tiny peninsula where Tartine scones and Bi-Rite Creamery can be found on the same Mission district block. It’s especially tough on middle-class families fleeing San Francisco. We have fewer children than any major American city, and the ones we have are often relegated to sleeping in converted closets. Read More

Banning plastic water bottles in Bay Area parks is overdue

By: SF Examiner Editorial 04/01/13 9:52 PM

Supporting a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles on federal parkland in San Francisco, surrounding counties and Yosemite National Park seems like a no-brainer for a city that regards itself as the epicenter of environmental consciousness. Read More