covid

04 Apr 2023

Why Downtown SF’s Decline Feels Like Karma

It’s not a secret that San Francisco sacrificed nearly everything for tech. There were tax breaks for companies like Twitter in an attempt to “revitalize” the Tenderloin/Mid-Market area, but there was little local intervention when landlords increased rent prices to levels even six figure earners couldn’t afford in historically low

Abraham Woodliff - Bay Area Memelord 0
A hand with a ring.
03 Apr 2023

San Francisco’s Downtown And Middle Earth Might Be Saved In The Same Way

On the first day of April — and not as a gag or trick — the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board gave readers a look of what might be to come for the Paris of the West. A budget deficit of $728 million, low transit use, and red tape mummifying

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08 Oct 2024

The November 2024 BAS Voter Guide

A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But

BAS Editorial Team 0
Firefighters spraying down a building.
20 Mar 2023

San Franciscans Rallied Together After Hardship Before. They Could Do It Again.

On April 18, 1906, five-foot-deep holes cracked through Market Street and ate people whole like cavernous maws to hapless anchovies. Author David K. Randall recounts in Black Death at the Golden Gate how Howard Street’s American Hotel collapsed on firefighter James O’Neill, crushing him beneath. And, when the first intense

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22 Feb 2023

California Says It Can No Longer Afford Aid for Covid Testing & Vaccinations for Migrants

by Don Thompson All day and sometimes into the night, buses and vans pull up to three state-funded medical screening centers near California’s southern border with Mexico. Federal immigration officers unload migrants predominantly from Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, and Peru, most of whom await asylum hearings in the United States. Once

Guest Writer 0
01 Feb 2023

Long COVID and the Journey Back

by Matt Barkin I spent most of the pandemic sick and rotting away in bed. It became my all-purpose piece of furniture. If you watched a sped up version of that time you’d see me there windmilling my arms around like a madman between my computer, phone, books, plates of

Guest Writer 0
13 Dec 2022

Can The Drought Teach Us About San Francisco’s Housing Crisis?

I’m sure you’ve seen the weather lately. It’s been raining on and off since mid-November. Soaking rains washed over the Bay Area these past couple weekends, reminiscent of wet seasons past. Forecasters say another storm system should move in this Friday. It is hoped this seemingly plentiful rainfall will reduce

Jake Warren 0
03 Jul 2022

Four Reasons Not To Celebrate the Fourth of July

The Fourth of July supposedly symbolizes freedom. It means liberty, self-governance. Independence from tyranny. July 4th is supposed to be fun, because living in America was supposed to be fun. The ruling fathers wove opulence into the foundational documents of this nation. They killed and enslaved for extravagant wealth, for

Jake Warren 0
29 Jun 2022

PTSD: A Breakdown

Post- You might’ve pictured a grizzled veteran, head in his hands in a gloomy V.A. hospital on the outer edge of town. I know him well. He drinks more than he used to, enough for people to notice. The man is on medications that extinguish his sex life. He’s gained

Jake Warren 0