Advertise on podcast: Civic

San Francisco was once a national leader in protecting residents from government surveillance. Today, hundreds of license plate readers scan passing cars, police drones patrol the skies, and an expanding network of cameras tracks activity across the city. How did that happen? In Part 2 of Somebody's Watching You, Civic traces San Francisco's decades-long struggle to balance public safety with privacy and civil liberties. From the sweeping expansion of government intelligence gathering after 9/11 to the city's landmark 2019 surveillance restrictions and their subsequent weakening, we examine how political pressure, concerns about crime and advances in technology transformed the city's approach to policing.

Who's watching us, what does it mean for our privacy and civil liberties, and how did we get here? In Somebody's Watching You, a three-part investigative series from Civic and the San Francisco Public Press, we explore America's long-running struggle over government surveillance. How did a country founded on protections against government intrusion develop such extensive powers to watch its own people? And what happens to constitutional rights when national security becomes the justification? In Part One, we go back to the nation's founding and the fight to protect individual freedoms from government tyranny. We follow the centuries-old tug-of-war between expanding surveillance powers and demands for civil liberties, through the Red Scare, McCarthy-era investigations, FBI surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the targeting of anti-war activists. And we set the stage for the government crackdowns and public resistance that followed September 11, 2001, and the battles over surveillance that continue today.

This episode of “Civic” explores the history of displacement among San Francisco's technology booms and busts. Today, major job losses are coinciding with increasing rental prices and evictions — a “treacherous” paradox — and tenants are fighting back.

The League of Women Voters organized this panel discussion on money in San Francisco’s November election, held at the Internet Archive on Oct. 8. Lila LaHood, executive director of the San Francisco Public Press, moderated. panelists were Joe Rivano Barros, executive editor of Mission Local; Darius Kemp of California Common Cause; and Patrick Ford of the San Francisco Ethics Commission.

Make sense of the numerous November 2026 San Francisco and California ballot measures, with these one-minute explanations by reporters from the San Francisco Public Press and CalMatters. Visit SFPublicPress.org and CalMatters.org for more quick, no-nonsense and nonpartisan voter guides.

he November 2026 election is pivotal at the national, state and local levels. San Francisco voters will weigh local races and propositions on Muni funding, housing, the Great Highway, taxes and how City Hall and the mayor operate, along with statewide candidates and propositions. San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Lila LaHood, KALW Executive Producer Ben Trefny and CalMatters Politics Editor Juliet Williams, outlined the issues and the candidates at a public forum at the San Francisco Main Public Library on Sept. 16.

For nearly 60 years, San Francisco built a pioneering system to care for young people in crisis. What began during the Summer of Love with the nation's first runaway youth shelter and the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic evolved into a network of specialized clinics that combined medical care, mental health treatment, sexual health services and connections to housing and social support under one roof. Now, that model is being dismantled as San Francisco shifts young patients to larger primary care clinics and expands telehealth services. Supporters say the city risks losing more than two clinics, it may be abandoning a philosophy of care built around meeting vulnerable young people where they are. In this episode of Civic, we trace the history of San Francisco's groundbreaking approach to integrated youth healthcare and examine the city's plan to close two specialized youth clinics in the Tenderloin and Haight neighborhoods. Through archival recordings, former patients, frontline clinicians, nonprofit leaders, union representatives and city officials, we explore how a nationally influential model of integrated care collided with budget pressures driven by deep federal and state Medi-Cal funding cuts.

June 2026 San Francisco Public Press Election Guide Yes on D campaign Chamber of Commerce Voter Guide

After at least 19 women in San Francisco’s county jail alleged they were subjected to a mass strip search while deputies recorded on body-worn cameras, advocates, attorneys and city officials demanded answers. This investigative documentary examines what women say happened inside the jail’s B-pod — and the broader conditions women describe inside the facility, including prolonged lockdowns, overcrowding, lack of sunlight and untreated trauma. Through public hearings, legal records, interviews with formerly incarcerated women and advocates, and statements made by sheriff’s officials during oversight hearings, the story traces how a jail intended for temporary detention became a place where many women spend months or years awaiting trial.

Read the story in The San Francisco Public Press.

About the panelists Diana Greene Foster is a demographer and professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She studies the causes and consequences of unwanted pregnancy and is part of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health — commonly known as ANSIRH — which is a research program at UCSF. Foster was named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and is the author of the 2020 book “The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women and the Consequences of Having — or Being Denied — an Abortion.” She has recently published a study updating her earlier research. Mariana Horne is the Outreach and Education Coordinator at ACCESS Reproductive Justice, California’s statewide abortion fund. Her work has been recognized by large institutions for its impact in reproductive health education. As part of the movement-building team, Horne works at the intersection of community education and direct service support, removing barriers to abortion care and advancing reproductive justice teachings across California and nationwide.

In this episode of Civic, reporter Sylvie Sturm examines how federal policy — through executive orders, funding threats and regulatory pressure — is reshaping access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth across the United States. The debate is unfolding even though no new federal law has passed and no final rules have taken effect. Yet hospitals, clinics and families are already making decisions in response to the possibility of federal penalties. Through the story of Eric, a 15-year-old high school student in Oakland, we follow how those policy battles land in real life. The episode also explores the broader policy fight: • Federal officials who argue the treatments are unsafe and should be restricted • Medical associations and clinicians who say the care can be life-saving when carefully managed • Lawyers challenging whether federal agencies even have the authority to impose such limits We hear from community health leaders, legal experts, and families navigating the uncertainty, including Dr. Tatyana Moaton Santiago of the San Francisco Community Health Center, who warns that policy threats alone can make providers afraid to offer care. Subscribe to Civic from the San Francisco Public Press for investigative reporting on the policies shaping life in San Francisco and beyond.

What’s on the ballot this coming June and November? The San Francisco Public Press and The Frisc hosted a panel discussion to discuss the key issues. These included: the “Overpaid CEO Act,” which would modify and boost the top executive pay taxa major charter reform measure that would restructure city governmentthe family zoning plan, which encourages more housingand the race to win the Congressional seat being vacated by Speaker Emeritus Nancy PelosiThe panelists were Jason McDaniel, associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University; Jeremy Lee, president of the Rose Pak Asian American Club; and Sin Wang, vice president of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission and founding board member of the West Side Family Democratic Club.

Formerly Incarcerated Perform at Berkeley Rep