by JR Valrey, the People’s Minister of Information

The fight for police accountability in Oakland, like most cities that Black people inhabit, has been an age-old fight that dates back to the establishment of Oakland. A century ago, in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan were bringing record numbers of racists together in the Henry J. Kaiser Center for ritualistic hate rallies. After they traded in their pointed hats for black police uniforms, the agenda to kill, scare and contain Blacks continued behind a badge, backed by white supremacy. When the turbulent ‘60s rolled in, starting in Oakland and spreading like an inferno, the Black Panther Party got famous after addressing the police terror epidemic with: police accountability patrols, observing the police and informing people of their rights in real-time during police confrontations, as well as armed self defense and resistance. 

Cathy Leonard is a frontline activist when it comes to addressing police murder and abuse of Black people in the Town, Oakland. With Oakland City Councilman Ken Houston pushing for vast changes, which many believe weaken police accountability, I wanted to talk to a veteran in the police accountability movement who could share experience and organizational history with the people.  

JR Valrey: What is the purpose of the Oakland Police Commission? 

Cathy Leonard: The Oakland Police Commission provides oversight of the Oakland Police Department, independent of The City. It also oversees the Community Policing Review Agency (CPRA) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). It ensures that OPD’s policies, practices and customs meet national standards of constitutional policing.

In 2016, Oakland voted by 83% to pass Measure LL, which created the Police Commission and the Community Police Review Agency (CPRA). Measure S1 was a follow-up to Measure LL and in 2020 was approved by 83% of Oakland voters. Measure S1 strengthened the OIG’s office, provided professional staff, including an attorney not associated with the City Attorney’s Office.

After Measure LL was supported by the voters, the Police Commission was formally created by the City Council in July 2018 through a Charter, a voter approved document sort of like the City’s Constitution, and an Enabling Ordinance, a local law enacted by the City Council to regulate specific matters, here the Police Commission and the bodies it oversees.

JR Valrey: Why was it established? 

Cathy Leonard: Oakland citizens were frustrated by the long history of OPD’s systemic civil rights abuses, controversial police shootings, failure to discipline officers, the policy of the highest levels of OPD ignoring the abuses. OPD was under federal oversight due to a class action lawsuit, and compliance was supposed to be completed in 2008. 

By 2016, the court was still overseeing OPD and Oakland residents realized that we needed a permanent, local oversight system to ensure ongoing compliance with these reforms after the federal court vacated the order.

JR Valrey: How does the Police Commission work exactly?

Cathy Leonard: The Police Commission completes its work through ad hoc committees, which also consist of community members. As a body, it approves or rejects proposed changes to OPD policies, procedures, customs and General Orders, especially those related to use of force, profiling, First Amendment assemblies, and compliance with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement.

JR Valrey: How does the community play a part? 

Cathy Leonard: The community played an initial part by seeking out two councilpersons to work with them on creating Measures LL and S1 and later by attending meetings of the Selection Panel, the Police Commission and/or joining an ad hoc committee and City Council and committee meetings where police accountability matters are agendized. 

JR Valrey: Why did you start doing police accountability work?  

Cathy Leonard: I attended a Community Police Review Board, predecessor to the Community Police Review Agency, meeting and commented on their bylaws. Rashidah Grinage, founder of the Coalition for Police Accountability (CPA) was also commenting. Then Executive Director Anthony Finnell asked me if I would work with Mrs. Grinage on editing the bylaws. Mrs. Grinage gave me a history lesson and talked about the CPA. 

I had always been aware of police accountability issues in my neighborhood and across Oakland and thought it would be a great organization to join. Happy to say, I was right. I attended meetings, became a member, a Steering Committee member, and eventually the president of the Coalition for Police Accountability. My work on this issue continues today.

JR Valrey: When did you become a part of the Police Commission? 

Cathy Leonard: I was never a part of the Police Commission, but I do serve on its Discipline Matrix Ad Hoc Committee.

JR Valrey: Can you talk about the recent proposal by Oakland City Councilmember Ken Houston to create a ballot measure that some say may overthrow the Police Commission? What are your thoughts? 

Cathy Leonard: His proposal weakens the entire structure of the Police Commission and the bodies it oversees. Councilmember Houston’s proposed ballot measure seeks to rob the Police Commission and the Selection Panel of its voter mandated independence. Despite his proposal’s claims to strengthen the independence of the Office of the Inspector General, the proposal would weaken the OIG’s office by folding it into the City Auditor’s Office and giving the authority to appoint the IG to the Auditor. Voters made their intentions clear at the ballot box that they wanted transparency and bodies independent of City Hall, and Houston’s proposal strikes against that.

JR Valrey: How has the current mayor Barbara Lee and the current Oakland City Council been on the topic of police accountability? 

Cathy Leonard: So far they have voiced support for police accountability, but it remains to be seen whether they will accept Houston’s proposed measure to weaken the Police Commission, the Selection Panel and the OIG’s office. It also remains to be seen whether they will fund police accountability appropriately and pass an updated ordinance, which is needed.

MOI JR: The Oakland Police Department has been receiving federal oversight since the conclusion of the Oakland Riders trial in 2003 because of its accountability issues and the fact that it has been run like a mafia that is above the law. What are your thoughts on the Oakland Police Department, one of the most corrupt departments in the country, still requiring federal oversight continuously after 23 years and numerous leadership shuffles? 

Cathy Leonard: My thoughts are that the department needs a complete overhaul to change its entire culture. They need to take ownership of their conduct and stop blaming the requirements imposed by increased oversight and accountabilty as reasons why they can’t do their jobs. 

MOI JR Valrey: How can concerned community members get involved with the Oakland Police Commission?  

Cathy Leonard: Familiarize themselves with the Charter and Enabling Ordinance, attend Police Commission meetings and join an ad hoc committee. Community members can also seek to join the Selection Panel and/or the Police Commission. Community members can also attend City Council or council committee meetings via zoom or telephone or submit an eComment before the meetings when police accountability items are on the agendas. 

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5 FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

The post Do Oakland Councilman Houston’s proposed sweeping changes wreck police accountability? appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

Washington, May 23, 2026 – On Friday, May 22, 2026, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued a letter demanding that President Trump and Secretary Rubio end the oil blockades imposed on Cuba in light of the accelerating humanitarian crisis on the island.

In the letter, the Congressional Black Caucus urges the Trump administration to relieve the economic pressure on the island, which has led to an increase in infant mortality rates, the threat of starvation, and a declining standard of living for innocent Cuban civilians.

“Under the administration’s oil blockade and tightening of sanctions, Cubans are dying,” the chairwoman writes. “The New York Times has reported that, as a result of the sanctions, the infant mortality rate in Cuba has more than doubled since 2018. With food shortages leading to more underweight pregnant mothers and their newborns, too many Cuban children are unable to make it out of the hospital and home to their families.”

The Congressional Black Caucus, which has long encouraged the United States to be a leader on the global stage in supporting peace and justice, admonished the administration for its harsh policies that have led to the dire situation facing the Cuban people.

Chairwoman Clarke continued: “Enough is enough. The Congressional Black Caucus will not stand by and allow this administration to continue this barbaric policy that generates unimaginable human suffering in Cuba. We are demanding that you end the oil blockade, lift the sanctions on Cuba, and allow the Cuban people access to the most basic resources they need to sustain life on the island.”

Read the full letter here.

To contact the Congressional Black Caucus, call 202-226-9776 or email info.blackcaucus@mail.house.gov. To learn more, visit https://cbc.house.gov/. 

The post Congressional Black Caucus demands Trump administration end the oil blockades on Cuba appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Ericka Scott

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is getting ready to vote on a 13-month lease that would hand programming at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center over to Shakirah Simley, the executive director of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center. The deal, pushed by District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and Mayor Daniel Lurie, is being marketed as a summer rescue. To the Fillmore families with the deepest history and most at stake, it feels like something else entirely: a hostile takeover. 

Ella Hill Hutch sits on McAllister Street in the heart of the Fillmore, blocks from where 15-year-old Jayda Mabrey was killed in a triple shooting near a public playground at Golden Gate and Laguna in late January. Mabrey, a 10th-grader at Gateway High School, was a bystander caught in crossfire. With summer — historically the most dangerous season for young people in the neighborhood — bearing down, the urgency of keeping Ella Hill Hutch open could not be greater.

That urgency is precisely why the process matters. Collective Impact, which ran programs at Ella Hill Hutch for more than a decade, vacated this year after its longtime executive director, James Spingola, was arrested in March on felony charges of aiding and abetting financial conflicts of interest in city contracts. Spingola was charged alongside Sheryl Davis, former executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and former head of the City’s Dream Keeper Initiative, who faces 17 felony counts including misappropriation of public funds. Prosecutors allege the two shared a home and intertwined finances while Davis steered millions of dollars in city money to Spingola’s nonprofit.

Simley worked closely with Sheryl Davis for years at HRC and was appointed to a series of positions during that regime, including her current role at Booker T. Washington. Placing the same circle of leadership in charge of two of the Fillmore’s most prominent community centers, while the corruption probe is still unfolding, is a recipe for disaster all over again.

I grew up on Golden Gate and Steiner. As a UC Berkeley freshman, I walked past Ella Hill Hutch every day on my way to BART. Years later, I came back to teach business classes there at the invitation of then-executive director Lefty Gordon. For me — as for so many with generations of family ties to the Fillmore — Ella Hill Hutch is not a building to be leased. It is a community institution, and decisions about its future must be made with the community, not dictated by City Hall.

That is not what is happening. I sit on the Fillmore Community Action Plan Committee, and I asked Supervisor Mahmood and Mayor Lurie’s Director of Community Affairs Ernest Jones in numerous meetings that any decision about Ella Hill Hutch be brought back to residents. Those requests were not honored. At a recent public meeting, Simley said there was no room on her board for new members, that she and her team alone would make decisions for the direction of Ella Hill Hutch and we should let her steer the ship without any additional input. 

The Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, pastor emeritus of Third Baptist Church, was blunt about Simley: “She aspires to this position in the community, but she is not connected with it. She has not communicated with people nor demonstrated a sense of the history of this community or any knowledge of the collective values that truly make for strong minority communities.”

Parents with children at the center describe meetings with Simley and the City as feeling like a hostile takeover. When I asked neighbors why they were going along with it, the answer was a quiet, defeated, “We didn’t think we had a choice.”

There is another path. Renard Monroe, founder and executive director of Youth 1st—a nonprofit that has served San Francisco youth for more than 25 years through year-round after-school and summer programming—has been showing up. He attends public meetings, listens to longtime residents, and has earned broad community support for taking on leadership of summer programming at Ella Hill Hutch. He has done what no one currently making decisions at City Hall has done: come to the neighborhood and asked. 

“Ella Hill Hutch is a community space that needs to be held in community,” Monroe said. “That means having a genuine community process to determine its direction.”

Julian Davis, a San Francisco attorney and former board president of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, agrees. “The Booker T. Washington and Ella Hill Hutch centers are both vital and traditionally independent community resources in the neighborhood,” Davis said. “Even if Shakirah Simley were a popular choice, and even without the public corruption scandals involving her longtime patrons, it has never been a well-received idea to have Booker T. Washington running Ella Hill Hutch. The City’s wiser course is to pursue the available and more popular option with an open community process.”

Whoever is entrusted with Ella Hill Hutch this summer, the arrangement should be temporary — a bridge through the urgent summer months while permanent leadership is identified through a genuine community process. The proposed lease runs 13 months, not three. The plan was hatched without the community. The leadership being installed was groomed by an administration now under criminal indictment. None of this is “rescue.” It is the same back-door playbook that has long defined the worst of San Francisco politics — the kind of process that perpetuates the very conditions in which Jayda Mabrey died.

The Fillmore is not asking to be rescued by so-called leaders we don’t support. We are asking that those of us with the history, the ties and the most at stake be at the table when our institutions are reshaped. We are asking the supervisors to listen and to back the leader the community is already standing behind, and we are asking City Hall to remember what it keeps forgetting: Ella Hill Hutch belongs to the community. 

Ericka Scott is a third-generation San Franciscan and Fillmore native, owner of Honey Art Studio, and a longtime community advocate. She serves on the Fillmore Community Action Plan Committee. 

The post Hold Ella Hill Hutch in community: Why City Hall must back the Fillmore’s choice appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information

Within the last few weeks, the US government has issued a myriad of threats in the international corporate media – threats that include military aggression against the people of Cuba, on top of the illegal U.S. government-imposed total oil blockade since January, on top of the genocidal US government-imposed 67-year-old general blockade against Cuba, because Cuba was determined to guide its own destiny instead of remaining a U.S. colony. 

With all this propaganda spewing about Cuba from government-agenda-supporting mainstream corporate media, I talked to Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández, who is based in Havana, fights with her microphone, and works for Belly of the Beast, a U.S.-based multimedia platform. I wanted her to set the record straight on what’s happening on the ground of where she was raised, and still lives. 

People’s journalism, which we practice, gives voice to the people being affected, rather than just to intellectuals and academics who study stats and data about issues in our world. This is our way of being in journalistic solidarity with the people of Cuba, who the US government is genocidally killing with the imposition of their multiple blockades funded by U.S. taxpayers.

JR Valrey: Who created Belly of the Beast? What is the story behind how Belly of the Beast was created?

Liz Oliva Fernández: That’s a question for Reed Lindsay, who is actually the creator and director of Belly of the Beast. He and a group of friends were thinking about creating a media outlet. It took some time, but he finally did it back in 2020.

I think it’s a dream for filmmakers and journalists around the world to have your own media outlet with your own rules and your own political editorial line. That’s the dream, because it means that, in some way, your work will reflect who you are and your expectations as a journalist.

JR Valrey: How did you become involved with Belly of the Beast? Did you have a journalism career prior to Belly of the Beast?

Liz Oliva Fernández: I became involved with Belly of the Beast in the summer of 2020. We were in the middle of the pandemic, and someone told me that a U.S. group of documentary filmmakers and journalists were looking for a journalist who could speak English to work on a film about the impact of the sanctions on the Cuban people. And I said yes.

I received a call from Reed Lindsay to participate in a kind of casting process, so I went through a long series of interviews about the whole project in order to try and get the job.

The funny thing is that it was only supposed to be a three-month job, from August to October, because they were planning to release the documentary, “The War on Cuba,” before the elections. So, it was meant to be just this one thing I was doing — a one-time project — and that was all.

So far, though, I’ve been working for Belly of the Beast for six years now.

JR Valrey: It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. In looking at the 67-year-old U.S.-imposed blockade on Cuba, and the complete oil blockade of Cuba, how would you compare your coverage of Cuban society to the coverage given by corporate media in the U.S. over the last year?

Liz Oliva Fernández: It’s like el día y la noche — “day and night.” I don’t know if that’s the right phrase in English, but yes, both sides have nothing in common.

The perspective that Belly of the Beast offers about Cuba is so different from the perspective being showcased not only in U.S. corporate media, but around the world. I don’t think there is a fair take about Cuba in these big media outlets because, to begin with, they just portray us as victims: “Oh, poor Cubans. They’re so poor. There are so many crises. They’re failing,” whatever.

But I don’t think they actually see Cuba and Cubans for what we really are. We are resilient people. We are hardworking people. We are people who have achieved a lot. We are people from the Global South who were able to accomplish so many goals in science and technology, like no other countries with similar characteristics.

That’s a story about Cuba that hasn’t been told enough in mainstream media, and there are almost no positive perspectives about Cuba in the coverage they produce. But this is not something strictly related to Cuba.

Journalists from the Global North often come to the Global South, spend a week here, and then say: “Yeah, I understand what is happening here. I’m telling everyone the story because I get it, and I will explain it to the world.” But most of the time, that’s not accurate.

OK, there is some truth in that, but it’s not the whole context, and it’s not the whole country. I don’t like the lack of interest for so many other topics they could address during that same amount of time.

That is one of Belly of the Beast’s biggest achievements: We actually have Cuban journalists talking about Cuba, explaining Cuba, explaining the phenomena occurring in Cuba and the stories happening in Cuba while living through them at the same time.

That’s why sometimes this job can be depressing. I’m living through a crisis, and then I spend the rest of my time working around that crisis, trying to create content about it and explain it to people. What does this crisis have to do with U.S. policy? What does it have to do with them?

So, I spend most of my day talking about how difficult and saddening it has become to live and survive in Cuba. I used to love being here. I used to love being Cuban. In some ways, I still do. I’m still proud of that.

But it’s difficult. It’s hard. We are tired and frustrated, and most of the time we are trying to create a positive story while enduring entire nights without electricity — sweating through blackouts because it’s unbearably hot.

We are trying to create something beautiful out of that. And when I say “beautiful,” I don’t mean we are trying to put makeup on the reality of our country. I mean beautiful in the sense that we can decide how to tell our story.

That’s another strong point of Belly of the Beast: cinematography. It’s how we can tell even sad stories in a beautiful way.

JR Valrey: Who exactly is Belly of the Beast’s target audience? Why does Belly of the Beast target an English-speaking audience?

Liz Oliva Fernández: Well, Belly of the Beast is a U.S. independent media outlet, so naturally our primary audience is English-speaking viewers, especially people in the United States.

That’s intentional. U.S. policy plays an enormous role in shaping life in Cuba, yet many Americans only encounter Cuba through outdated narratives or politically motivated coverage.

Of course, we want to reach the people whose perceptions — and whose government — directly influence Cuba’s future.

JR Valrey: With the U.S. government imposing illegal blockades and threatening to invade the island in the near future, from your perspective how are the masses of Cuban people’s mental and physical health affected by this decades-long economic war and the threat of military invasion?

Liz Oliva Fernández: I can’t speak for all Cubans because I don’t represent the entirety of the Cuban people. I can only speak from my own experience.

As I said before, sometimes we are frustrated and sometimes we are sad. The danger of a real military intervention in Cuba is something I think about when talking with my coworkers. It’s beginning to feel real.

I think for us as journalists, it can feel even more tangible because we already know what U.S. military intervention can mean. If you look back at history and the countries the United States has invaded, what has been the result? They do not leave behind a better country than the one they found.

So yes, I think we are living with fear too.

But from my perspective, people are so busy trying to survive day by day that most don’t seriously think about it unless the time comes when it actually happens. We need to survive first.

So, life becomes one day at a time. We can’t really think too far ahead. It is a real danger, of course, but I don’t think people are consumed by that fear yet.

JR Valrey: What do you want people in the United States to get out of your journalism specifically?

Liz Oliva Fernández: I think my goal working at Belly of the Beast is to help educate people about what the U.S. government is doing to Cuba and the impact the sanctions have on the Cuban people.

I want audiences to understand what is happening and the real effects of U.S. policy so they can realize that the sanctions amount to collective punishment, and that they are unfair.

JR Valrey: How have people in the U.S. responded to you being a young Black Cuban woman journalist?

Liz Oliva Fernández: I wouldn’t really know. You would have to ask people in the United States.

There are people who supposedly feel some kind of empathy towards me, my story, and my reporting on Cuba. I suppose there are also people who hate me. You could go and read through social media comment sections.

Of course, there are many Black women and other people in the United States who can relate because, even though our backgrounds are very different, they understand the pain that the U.S. government can cause and the damage it is capable of creating. Because they have been suffering through it before we did, and for a longer time too.

So, they can genuinely empathize, and they know, just as we do, how far this system can go.

But maybe there are also people who simply think I’m a communist. It’s a different opinion. Some people judge me based on one video we made instead of trying to understand our work more broadly by watching the rest of the content we’ve created.

Another thing people love to say is that I work for the Cuban government. But I don’t. I don’t work for any government. We don’t work for the Cuban government, and we don’t work for the U.S. government either, thank God.

Most of the time, I try not to pay attention to what people think about me or my work.

The way I see it is this: I am doing my best to give visibility to the pain of the Cuban people and to reach individuals who can actually do something to help solve these issues.

Is this my favorite kind of journalism to do? No. I would rather talk to Cubans about the issues we face inside Cuba itself. But the sanctions are so large and so impactful that they have kept me busy for six years now.

The longer I have to live under sanctions, the more I want to explain to people the damage they are causing to our population.

I don’t have many privileges as a Black Cuban woman, but if I have the privilege of speaking another language and reaching a U.S. audience, then I’m going to use it to put the reality in front of them — the reality they need to see.

Because I don’t think many people truly realize the damage the United States government is causing, not just in Cuba, but around the world.

JR Valrey: Where can people view Belly of the Beast? 

Liz Oliva Fernández: Anyone can access Belly of the Beast’s work across all of our major platforms. Our main home is our website: https://www.bellyofthebeastcuba.com. 

That’s where we publish articles, project updates and background information on our documentaries and investigations. It’s the best place to explore our work in a more curated, organized way. 

Our full documentaries and investigative series are available on our YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/@BellyofTheBeastCuba. 

This is where most people discover us, and it’s where we release our long‑form reporting, short films and serialized investigations. And of course, for people who want to stay connected, we share regular updates on Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok. 

We also run a newsletter where we break down our reporting, share context, and highlight stories we’re working on. You can sign up directly through our website.

And for those who want to support independent journalism from Cuba, we have a Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/cw/BellyoftheBeastCuba. Our Patreon community helps sustain our reporting and allows us to keep producing work that challenges mainstream narratives. 

SF Bay View Editor-in-Chief JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5 FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

The post Belly of the Beast: Reporting from inside the US government-imposed genocidal blockades on Cuba appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

“Be yourself, belong in community and become your best…” is the motto that the YMCA follows. The Y encourages people to recognize their value as individuals, have a sense of belonging, and to become the best version of themselves. Although this saying is quite inwardly focused, the Y creates an environment for personal development to be done in a collaborative way, a place where physical, emotional, financial and spiritual growth can be accomplished as one big family. The YMCA of Bayview Hunters Point is no exception to this motto of growth. But how do they accomplish this? 

A brief history of the Y 

The YMCA was originally founded during 1844 in London by a man named George Williams. When Williams worked as a draper, he saw the terrible working conditions for young men during the time and decided to create the Young Men’s Christian Association. Williams original intention for the Y was to create a place where young men wouldn’t be tempted by sin. However, since its inception, the Y has evolved immensely to become the oldest but also the largest youth charity in the world. 

The Y emphasizes youth development and provides programs for youth to grow in many different areas. Some of these resources include: 

• Sports and physical wellness: swimming, flag football, basketball etc. 
• Career development: workshops, employment opportunities
• Mental health and physical health: groupwork, guest speakers, one on one therapy

and many more. The YMCA also takes advantage of their global presence to provide services at each location that are tailored to fit the needs of the people around them, creating a place for everyone that truly feels like home. 

Y the Bayview? 

So, what’s unique about the Bayview Y? There is no better place for answers than from the people who work in the community every day. The YMCA in the Bayview is also a recipient of the Kaiser Permanente’s Voices for Mental Health and Wellness Campaign grant that allows them to expand on critical programs that help the community.

First, I spoke with Associate Executive Director Drew Kodelja to get more information about the Bayview YMCA. When I asked him, “Why Bayview Hunters Point?” He told me a number of things that stood out to me, one of which being truancy. He says: “In Bayview Hunters Point, we know truancy is an issue in our communities and we run alternative education and truancy prevention programs. Not every YMCA does that.” 

Truancy has to do with kids having unexcused absences at school. This prevention is done through their C.A.R.E. (Center for Academic Re-entry and Empowerment) program, which utilizes case management and opportunities to earn credits for truant students. This is all with the intention of eventually getting kids to re enroll in traditional schooling.

Along with this, since the Bayview Y’s opening in 1996, it has been a place of safety for all of those who wanted to access their services. Although crime fluctuates in the area and is on a downward slope since 2025, assault and battery still represent the majority of crime incidents that happen in the area, accounting for 30.8% of all incidents. Even when violent crime isn’t a factor, people still need a place to get away from the drama and fear and the YMCA provides that for the community. 

I also talked to two former recipients of the YMCA’s services, now workers, Desiree Isles and Ashlee Garvin. Desiree works in the African American Holistic Wellness Department as the Active Older Adult Coordinator, while Ashlee is a Prenatal Family Advocate. They both had positive experiences growing up with the Y. 

Desiree grew up in the Bayview, and after attending the Y’s summer camp during the 5th grade decided later to become a youth camp counselor when she was a teenager. Her experience at the YMCA really made a lasting impression on her and after she came back from college, she started looking for job opportunities there and eventually was employed. Ashlee received case management services from the Y and her mother used to work there. Similarly, after graduating to become a community health worker, she found an opportunity with the organization. 

Both Desiree and Ashlee expressed how the Y of the Bayview is important for not only benefitting them but also all of those in the community. 

If you are looking for a positive community or even a career as Drew, Desiree and Ashlee were, consider the Y. The YMCA is truly paving the way for the next generation! 

Landon Willis is a writing and media intern with the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. He is a second-year marketing student at San Francisco State University and a special reporter on the San Francisco Kaiser Permanente Voices for Mental Health and Wellness Campaign. In addition to school, Landon enjoys exercise, music, and hanging out with friends. He is very passionate about film and acting and is currently working on creating his own feature film.

The post Why the Y? Being at the YMCA feels like home appeared first on San Francisco Bay View.

by Asé Mora

Bounce Back Generation (BBG) is an organization making an impact in the lives of youth based in the Potrero Hill and Bayview Hunters Point communities. A third time grant recipient of Kaiser Permanente’s Voices for Mental Health and Wellness Campaign, grant recipient organization BBG works to give agency to youth experiencing adverse childhood trauma. 

According to Jennifer Dhillon, founder and CEO of Bounce Back Generation, in 2011, some of the initial programs started by BBG were food programs for children in the neighborhood, student escorts to school, and collaborations with entities such as the local police department to help residents organize their own neighborhood watch. There was also Bridge Housing, a housing developer and manager that preserves existing affordable housing properties in the West Coast. 

Today, the organization’s main work happens over social media, educating youth on overcoming adverse childhood trauma and giving them and their families the coping skills and education necessary to do so. Dhillon shares, “I think in the last few years, and particularly what we see on social media, there’s a lot of using trauma as a way to feel constantly victimized. I think that’s really unhealthy for kids in the long run.” 

The six main principles of BBG used to empower youth growing up in adversity and building resilience to it include physical safety, meaningful relationships, healthy coping skills, confidence and storytelling. These principles are based on the scientific findings and research of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, award-winning physician and founder of Bayview Child Health Center and Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco. Dr. Harris pioneered the study and treatment of adverse childhood trauma (ACE) amongst youth based in San Francisco’s Southeastern neighborhoods. she went on to serve as the surgeon general of california between 2019 and 2022.

According to Dhillon, the award from Kaiser Permanente’s Voices for Mental Health and Wellness Campaign, derived from the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Mentoring for Health and Wellness Initiative, goes toward funding podcast courses for students. The podcast course initiative was established in partnership with Success Center, a nonprofit organization that offers job readiness training in construction, art and podcast creation as well as GED prep and is designed to teach youth to turn their own experience with ACE into narratives and stories that teach resilience and help with the process of working through those traumas. Dhillon affirms, “It’s basically giving the microphone to young people and saying, talk about your mental health, from your perspective.”

The content that BBG produces is designed to equip underserved communities with the tools to overcome ACE and build resilience towards it. According to Dhillon, the BBG’s biggest contribution has been establishing a foundation for a stronger community through empowering community members to play a more active role in protecting their neighborhood youth. 

Dhillon further explains, “There was almost a sense of panic for a lot of adults in the community that they could see where their kids were headed and didn’t know how to stop it. There are so many things that they had no control over. They couldn’t control their housing. They couldn’t control how they were treated. They couldn’t control discrimination, couldn’t control over-policing in the neighborhood. What they could control was, can we build a more loving and protective environment for the children.” 

Dhillon stated that BBG’s work is centered around fueling youth to break those cycles and teaching youth not only how to process trauma from childhood, but also cultivate it into a productive motivation for positive change. Dhillon reminds us, “We need to acknowledge trauma, we need to heal from trauma, we need to know that it’s very painful and difficult. But we also need to know that you have a right to grow from it because you have a right to [a] good life. So that’s essentially what we’re trying to do is really help a whole generation to bounce back from trauma.” 

Asé Mora is a writing and media intern with the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper and a freelance journalist based in the Bay Area. She is a special reporter on the San Francisco Kaiser Permanente Voices for Mental Health and Wellness Campaign. Asé is a senior at San Francisco State University studying journalism with a minor in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts and Deaf Studies. She is also a staff reporter for Xpress Magazine, SF State’s student-run publication.

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by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information

About time we get a new and unexplored story in US cinema that hasn’t been told before – one that has not been reimagined, remixed, reworked, interpolated or updated. 

Boot’s Riley’s sophomore film, “I Love Boosters,” is a surreal political comedy, worth paying to see, starring well known actress Keke Palmer, whose character is the head of a theft ring that targets high end clothes, like those sold by a filthy rich corporate fashion tycoon, played by actress Demi Moore. The film centers around humanizing the lives of boosters, people who steal clothes from corporate stores to resell at a discount on the streets; in contrast to US media’s normalization of humanizing corporate and government war criminals and environmental and ecological terrorists. 

“I Love Boosters” is a tale set in today’s time, depicting what class struggle looks like to many struggling to survive in the police surveillance state ghettos of the United States. “I Love Boosters” takes its name from the song by the legendary Oakland based rap group, The Coup.

Actor Lakeith Stansfield from the political thriller “Get Out,” who also starred in the classic “Sorry to Bother You,” plays a mystical sex monster in “I Love Boosters,” whose character gives the film a comedic and more mature dynamic, in contrast to how bright colors are used in the film, which is similar to their use in children’s cinema. 

In light of the Bay Area’s revolutionary history and Bay Area-based writer and director Ryan Coogler being validated with an Oscar for his most recent film, Boots Riley should be the most celebrated voice in Bay Area and Black cinema because the themes of his films, including “I Love Boosters,” always center around pointing out political contradictions in society from the perspective of regular everyday people, and confronting those contradictions with organizing. In other words, Riley’s cinematic work pushes that we can be active participants in changing society, just like the music he makes. 

The narratives of Riley’s films differ greatly from those of Coogler, whose work regularly includes themes of Black people knowingly working within the system which they know is committing genocide against the masses of Black people. For example, in his film “Black Panther,” Black Panther gives the vibranium aka vital minerals to the CIA; in “Black Panther II,” Black Panther saves the CIA agent’s life in battle; and in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Coogler humanizes the FBI operative who assassinated Illinois Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party, as well as Defense Captain Mark Clark. 

Whether Boots Riley is behind the camera as the writer and director of films “Sorry to Bother You” and “I Love Boosters” or in the booth rapping, he always has a politically provocative anti-system message that critically questions wealth and resource distribution within society. I’ll be the first to say it: Riley’s cinematic work so far is iconic, and it is what the world expects out of Oakland. “I Love Boosters” is the must-see film of the summer. 

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

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by Barry Hermanson

Although two previous universal healthcare bills (CalCare) had failed to advance out of the California State Assembly during the last four years, I had hopes that the 2026 version, AB 1900, would fare better. 

Democrats nationwide have expressed outrage at the massive cuts to healthcare spending by Republicans, who also gave enormous tax breaks to wealthy people. Not only will tens of millions of people lose access to healthcare, hundreds of hospitals all across the nation will be forced to close. By design, the full impact of the healthcare cuts will not be felt until after the mid-term congressional elections this November. 

I was encouraged by a new poll commissioned by the California Nurses Association (CNA) that found 86% of California Democrats support single payer universal healthcare. With such strong support, I expected AB 1900 would receive a fair hearing this year. I was wrong. It was never referred out of the Assembly Rules Committee for an initial hearing by the Health Committee. Once again, Democrats have killed any debate on how we might improve healthcare access and delivery to all Californians. 

In the past, President Trump has promised to introduce a replacement for Obamacare and has been mocked by Democrats because he has no plan. Now, it appears that Democrats don’t have a plan either other than to maintain the totally inadequate and deadly status quo. The main cause for this sad state of affairs is the reliance on campaign contributions to politicians from the for-profit healthcare industry.

In a press release, CNA members condemned “the California State Assembly’s failure to advance A.B. 1900, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, also known as CalCare, at a time when health care is needed more urgently than ever before. The failure to advance A.B. 1900 shows a lack of leadership and a capitulation to corporate health care interests.” 

The nurses expressed appreciation “to the 25 legislators who are joint authors or coauthors of CalCare.” In a legislature of 80 members of the State Assembly and 40 members of the Senate where a supermajority are Democrats, 25 seems like a very small number. It is even smaller when you consider the following statement by the organization Health Care for US.

“HC4US questions the timing and sincerity of Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Rick Zbur, who both signed on as AB 1900 co-authors a few days before April 17th when the Speaker’s Office said CalCare wouldn’t be referred to the Rules Committee. Instead of signing on sooner after CalCare was introduced on Feb. 12, did they become co-authors, knowing the bill would crash a few days later? This gives Wiener and Zbur the appearance of supporting single-payer when they don’t have a track record of actually working to help it become law.”

I had a similar concern in 2022. All three of San Francisco’s representatives in Sacramento, Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymen Phil Ting and David Chiu, were Principal Coauthors of the original CalCare bill (AB 2200). As a constituent, I never received information from my representatives announcing their support or asking for help in moving it through the Legislature. Phil Ting was my representative in the Assembly. Friends who were represented by David Chiu told me they also never heard anything. 

In March of this year, healthcare activists held a rally and lobby day in Sacramento. A fellow advocate from San Francisco and I stopped by the office of our current representative in the Assembly, Catherine Stefani. We were told by her staff that Stefani was supportive and would be waiting until the Assembly Health Committee hearing to ask to be added to the list of coauthors. At the time, we were encouraged. As I write this, I have serious doubts Stefani ever intended to become a coauthor. She has no history of advocacy for universal healthcare. In San Francisco, many consider her to be a “Corporate Democrat.” She may have known that AB 1900 would not be referred to the Healthcare Committee. 

How many of the 25 legislators who were authors or coauthors of AB 1900 actually worked to help it pass? How many supported the bill in name only? It seems clear that Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Rich Zbur signed on at the last minute just for show. How many more of their colleagues did nothing to help AB 1900 move forward?

With Democrats blocking any discussion of AB 1900, what is next in the long fight to achieve universal healthcare? Green Party candidate for governor, Butch Ware, who made universal healthcare a central issue in his campaign, will not appear on the ballot due to a disputed minor filing error identified by the California Secretary of State. Leading Democratic candidate Tom Steyer has been advertising his strong support for single payer universal healthcare and has been endorsed by the Nurses (CNA). But even if he is elected, I have serious doubts that members of the Senate and Assembly will pass a new version of CalCare. Next year, there is little evidence that a different outcome can be expected.

I’d like to suggest a different path forward. I’ve long thought that even if the Legislature did pass universal healthcare legislation, those who profit from the status quo would place an initiative on the ballot to repeal it. At some point, voter approval will be needed.

What is needed is a massive voter identification campaign. Since CNA’s poll showed 86% of Democrats support single payer universal healthcare, campaign staff should be hired to knock on doors of every registered Democrat in the state. A ballot initiative that is placed on the ballot by supporters or opponents will still require an extensive voter identification effort. The benefit of doing it before an initiative qualifies for the ballot is that we will be able to communicate with and organize supporters to counter the massive amount of campaign funds our opponents will spend. The potential of losing billions of dollars in profits will prompt unprecedented campaign spending in an effort to keep the profits flowing. Identifying voters and supporters throughout the state will also put pressure on legislators to become active supporters.

We need campaign organizers in each of the 80 Assembly districts in California. That will require a lot of money. If Tom Steyer really is a champion for universal healthcare, he should be asked to help fund this effort. A challenge grant from him could bring in financial contributions from universal healthcare advocates throughout the country. 

In the June 2^nd election this year, San Francisco voters will cast their ballots for a candidate to replace Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring at the end of the year after “representing” the City since 1987. A primary architect of Obamacare, she and most of the rest of the leadership of the Democratic Party have steadfastly opposed all universal healthcare bills. Since her constituents overwhelmingly support universal healthcare, she does not represent us on this issue. Unfortunately, it is possible that Pelosi’s opposition is partially responsible for the failure of AB 1900 to move forward. 

As a long-time advocate for universal healthcare, I will not be voting for Sen. Scott Wiener. I have seen nothing from him or his office during his time in Sacramento that indicates he is a champion of universal healthcare. I believe he is a supporter in name only. If I can’t trust him on what is, for me, a key issue, he does not deserve my vote.

I will also not be voting for Saikat Chakrabarti. He is a leading candidate for Congress even though he has no history of advocacy or involvement in San Francisco politics before becoming a candidate. He has spent millions of dollars of his personal wealth in an attempt, in my opinion, to buy a seat in Congress. It is difficult to trust what he says when he has not been involved in the community.

I am voting for Supervisor Connie Chan. As a member of the Green Party, there are few Democrats who have earned my support. San Francisco politics are currently dominated by Corporate Democrats. The mayor and a majority of the Board of Supervisors are prime examples of what it means to be a Corporate Democrat. Connie is not one of them. She has deep roots in the community and stands out as a champion for working people and for those who are poor. It is important to note that the Nurses (CNA) have endorsed Connie and not Sen. Wiener. Full disclosure: I have donated funds to and am volunteering on her campaign for Congress. 

Barry Hermanson is a member of the San Francisco Green Party County Council. Before he retired, he owned and operated a small business and was a leader in the small business community in San Francisco.

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Sacramento, Calif. – The Butch Ware for Governor 2026 campaign has filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit and an emergency motion in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, demanding that Senior District Judge William B. Shubb issue a Temporary Restraining Order restoring Dr. Butch Ware to the gubernatorial primary ballot. Filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal civil-rights statute, the case alleges that the California Secretary of State’s disqualification of Dr. Ware over alleged tax-return paperwork defects violated the First and 14th Amendments.

The lawsuit, captioned Ware v. Weber and assigned Case No. 2:26-cv-01643 WBS SCR, names California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber as defendant in her official capacity. Lead counsel is James E. Tyrrell III of Dickinson Wright PLLC in Washington, D.C., joined by Eric R. McDonough of the firm’s San Diego office as local counsel.

The federal court is treating this as an emergency

Within 48 hours of the campaign’s filing, the Court issued a briefing order placing Ware v. Weber on an expedited emergency schedule. The Secretary of State’s opposition is due May 4, 2026, seven days after filing rather than the customary 21. The campaign’s reply is due May 6. The Court will then take the motion under submission and rule, with the earliest possible ruling date May 6 and the latest realistic date around May 12.

The schedule reflects a federal court moving as quickly as it can while still affording the State an opportunity to be heard. May 4 is also the day, under California Elections Code § 3001, that county election officials must begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots for the June 2 primary. The Court’s pace is the clock against the state’s own.

A landmark civil-rights case

The complaint advances three constitutional claims, all under 42 U.S.C. § 1983: First and 14th Amendment ballot-access violation under the Anderson-Burdick framework; 14th Amendment procedural due process; and 14th Amendment equal protection. The campaign argues that the Secretary of State’s office issued shifting and contradictory deficiency notices about Dr. Ware’s tax-return submissions over a 10-day window in March, culminating in a final notice at 4:50 p.m. on the March 16 statutory deadline that demanded cure by 5:00 p.m., a 10-minute window. Of the 61 candidates appearing on the gubernatorial primary ballot, several have tax submissions with the same alleged deficiencies the Secretary cited against Dr. Ware. They were not disqualified.

The campaign’s experience is itself the proof that California Elections Code §§ 8902 and 8903, the gubernatorial tax-return-disclosure law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in July 2019 as part of Senate Bill 27, cannot be administered fairly. The statute was unilateral in its drafting and selective in its application. What was sold as a principled disclosure rule has operated, in our case, as an administrative weapon used to thin the gubernatorial field.

A statute with a twin already struck down

This case is the first major federal challenge to the gubernatorial half of Senate Bill 27, the 2019 California statute requiring both presidential and gubernatorial primary candidates to disclose five years of federal tax returns as a condition of ballot access. The presidential half was struck down unanimously by the California Supreme Court in Patterson v. Padilla in November 2019, in litigation responding to a federal challenge originally brought by Donald J. Trump. The Court held, in language that speaks directly to this case:

“Ultimately, it is the voters who must decide whether the refusal of a [presidential primary candidate] to make such information available to the public will have consequences at the ballot box.” California Supreme Court, Patterson v. Padilla, 9 Cal.5th 1, 19 (2019)

The gubernatorial half, identical in design, has remained on the books, untested, for seven years. Ware v. Weber carries that same constitutional question into the federal courts. A ruling in Dr. Ware’s favor would complete the constitutional reckoning that Patterson began and would foreclose any future use of §§ 8902 and 8903 against gubernatorial candidates of any party.

“Voters have a right to choose between every candidate the Constitution makes eligible. The Secretary of State does not get to thin that field through arbitrary procedural traps. This case is about every Californian who believes ballot access should not depend on whether a candidate can navigate a 10-minute deadline.” Dr. Butch Ware, Candidate for Governor

About Butch Ware for California Governor 2026

Dr. Rudolph “Butch” Ware is running for Governor of California with the Green Party. He is a longtime organizer and movement builder, and is a tenured professor of African and Islamic history at University of California, Santa Barbara. He ran as the Vice Presidential candidate alongside Jill Stein in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. His campaign is fully grassroots and does not accept corporate or super PAC donations. His platform includes guaranteed affordable housing, single payer healthcare, free community and state colleges for California residents, fully funded and expanded public transit, and more.

To learn more, go to his website,  butchware4gov.org , Instagram: @butchware, Twitter: @ButchWare, Facebook: ButchWare4Gov2026

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Black leaders say record campaign spending is bypassing their communities

by Sacramento Observer President and Publisher Larry Lee

Billionaire Tom Steyer has spent more than $132 million trying to become California’s next governor. Advertising tracker AdImpact shows he has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio alone — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival. His face is inescapable on television sets from Sacramento to San Diego.

Not one dollar, according to Black community leaders, has gone to Black-owned media.

That contradiction — a self-described progressive pouring a historic fortune into the California airwaves while bypassing the outlets that serve the state’s Black communities — has become a flashpoint in the most consequential governor’s race in a generation. And it is not just about one candidate. It is also not just about the broad advertising spend that falls flat among Black voters. 

Black leaders across California are ringing the alarm because this election cycle represents a missed opportunity. Many have said they want intentional engagement, real investment and accountability to their priorities. They say campaigns are missing the chance to build meaningful relationships with the Black community and it is a pattern that has gone on long enough.

“The frustration of the Black community is at a fever pitch,” said Kendra Lewis, chair of the California Democratic Black Caucus. “Leaders and community members have had enough. They are tired of working for and with nothing and feel disrespected.”

A race drowning in dollars, starved of equity

Steyer is on track to run the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in state history, having personally poured $105 million into the race from January through mid-April. By contrast, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond raised just $62,000 in the most recent fundraising period — a fraction of what Steyer has spent in a single week — underscoring the brutal financial reality facing candidates who don’t arrive with personal fortunes or Silicon Valley backing. According to KPI’s 2026 Political Media Forecast, as reported by Axios, California is projected to see $773 million in total political ad spending this election cycle — third in the nation. That flood of money has gone largely to mainstream broadcast television. Black-owned newspapers, radio stations, and digital outlets — the trusted voices that reach Black voters where they live — have been left out.

Lewis, who fields calls from across the state as chair of the Black Caucus, says the gap between what campaigns spend and where they spend it is impossible to ignore.

“People reach out to me on a weekly basis wanting to know if we have resources for education and outreach,” she said. “Our community is being taken for granted.”

The data backs her up. California is home to the fifth largest Black population in the country. Black voters have consistently delivered for Democratic candidates cycle after cycle.

“If you look at the data for each cycle, it’s clear that we show up,” Lewis said. “The investment in campaigns, hiring consultants, and using Black businesses doesn’t match how we show up at the polls.”

‘Punching above our weight’

Pastor Michael McBride, co-founder of the Bay Area’s Black Church PAC, has watched this dynamic play out for years — and says this cycle may be the breaking point.

“It continues to be a point of great frustration that the California Democratic Party and the candidates running for statewide offices do not invest in voter engagement in Black communities,” McBride said. “We are always punching above our weight in elections, and are never given the resources to increase our turnout when voting day arrives. We demand transparency and equitable investment and call for campaigns to commit to this in the upcoming primaries and midterm elections.”

The warning carries real electoral stakes. With Republican voters largely coalesced around two candidates and Democrats divided across a crowded field, there is a real risk that two Republicans could advance to the November general election. If Black turnout drops due to disengagement, that risk grows considerably.

Lewis was direct about where the blame would fall.

“If Black voters don’t show up at the polls, it’s because these campaigns have not invested in the Black community,” she said. “The results (in California) are going to mimic what’s going on nationally.”

‘It’s about value’

Brandon Lamar, President of the Pasadena NAACP, draws a careful but important distinction — and it sharpens the indictment.

“I wouldn’t say Black voters are being ignored outright, but I do believe our priorities are being overlooked,” Lamar said. “There’s a difference. Campaigns may acknowledge the Black vote symbolically, but when you look at where resources are actually being invested, it often doesn’t reflect a real commitment to engaging our communities in meaningful ways.”

For Lamar, the issues are not abstract. In communities like Altadena and Pasadena — still recovering from devastating wildfires — equitable disaster recovery sits alongside housing, economic mobility, public safety, and education as urgent, daily concerns that candidates have largely failed to address directly.

“Candidates should be articulating specific plans that speak directly to these realities and showing how resources will follow those plans,” he said. “What candidates owe Black voters this cycle is simple but significant: intentional engagement, real investment, and accountability to our priorities.”

Lamar pointed to his community’s own record to make the stakes plain. The Pasadena NAACP chapter reports a 75 percent voter turnout rate among its membership.

“It’s not about visibility alone — it’s about value,” Lamar said. “And right now, many Black voters are still waiting to see that their priorities are being taken seriously. Campaigns owe us more than symbolic outreach. They owe us presence, partnership, and policy that reflects our lived experiences.”

‘Not an afterthought’

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, who represents the East Bay in Congress, put the stakes in stark terms.

“California is home to one of the largest Black populations in the country, and yet cycle after cycle, Democrats spend millions on everything but Black-owned media, Black-owned consultants, or Black-owned small businesses and partnerships,” Rep. Simon said. “Black Californians have been raising the alarm for decades, and we’ve made progress. But I hope we continue to increase how we politically organize, involve, and energize around Black communities so that we’re not an afterthought.”

With ballots arriving in mailboxes next week, the window is closing.

“If candidates are serious about earning our support, they need to invest in Black-owned media, show up in our neighborhoods, and speak directly to the issues impacting our lives, not just spend millions on broad messaging that never truly reaches us,” Lamar said.

Black leaders have delivered their message clearly. The question now is whether any campaign is listening.

Mail ballots begin arriving May 4. The last day to register is May 18. Election Day is June 2.

Larry Lee is the President and Publisher of the Sacramento-based Observer Media Group. This op-ed is republished with permission.

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The simultaneous demolition of radiation contaminated buildings at the Hunters Point Superfund Site and the Islais Creek Bridge threatens to transform Bayview Hunters Point into ‘LITTLE GAZA!’

by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai MD, aka Politico MD

The Islais Creek Bridge Project proposes to demolish and replace the historic Levon Hagop Nishkian Bridge (locally known as the “silver bridge”) that carries Third Street across the Islais Creek channel in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point. The existing bridge was designed in 1945 by structural engineer Leon Hagop Nishkian and named after his grandson, Levon. Described as a side double leaf bascule with three girder lines, two on the edges and one in the center, the Islais Creek Bridge features futuristic metal covers that provide both protection and decoration. [See https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=california/3rd south/]

The replacement bridge would meet structural and seismic standards and be resilient to projected sea level rise to the year 2100. Project construction is expected to take up to two years. There would be no public access for vehicles, light rail or pedestrian traffic once the bridge is closed to the public. Light rail operations will shut down up to 19 months after the bridge closes. 

Many Bayview Hunters Point neighbors accept the need to replace the structurally deteriorating and eroding drawbridge. However, most residents have no idea the City is planning to demolish the seismically unstable bridge this year and that the total duration of the project is estimated to be 30 months.

At a Town Hall meeting hosted by congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti in January, the cumulative impacts of the proposed demolition of the Islais Creek Bridge on a timeline simultaneous with the proposed demolition of six radiologically impacted buildings at nearby Hunters Point was discussed. Saikat visited the Parcel G Demolition Zone in September of 2025 and later filmed a sternly worded video at Parcel G affirming as a policy statement he will not build houses on property “with radiation signs on it!”

The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency has proposed mitigation measures to address traffic impacts and to develop a community engagement and mobility strategy for residents and businesses impacted by the demolition and closure of the Islais Creek bridge. The Department of Public Works will construct the new bridge with new T-Third light rail tracks that SFMTA believes will ensure a more reliable and efficient transit line.

The ancient history of Islais Creek

The Ramaytush Ohlone cultivated the rich tidal wetlands of what became San Francisco’s largest watershed draining from Mount Davidson and Twin Peaks. The Yelamu tribe gave name to the Islais Creek wetlands that sustained them with an abundance of salmon, trout and edible fruit. The creek’s name, Islais, is derived from the native word for the hollyleaf wild cherry: Islay. 

The Indigenous American gathering site became a heavily polluted industrial channel by the early 20th century – filled with rubble and debris from the 1906 earthquake. It was called the “sewer-choked channel” when Islais Creek was encircled by meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses and came to be known as Butchertown during the 1860s.

Islais Creek Channel remains a tidal waterway emptying into San Francisco Bay. While Islais Creek is not listed on the National Priorities List as a Federal Superfund site, it has a long history of industrial contamination and federal enforcement actions. State regulators designated Islais Creek a “toxic hot spot” due to elevated levels of PCBs, heavy metals and bacteria.

Islais Creek sediment contains elevated concentrations of persistent pollutants like mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorines. The proximity of Islais Creek to the northern piers of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard federal Superfund site increases the likelihood of radiation contamination of the contiguous shoreline sediments.

Islais Creek acts as a culvert for sewage and storm water management causing heavy rain overflows that release and disperse chemicals hazardous to public health. In 2005, 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from a SFMTA facility into Islais Creek, leading to a Clean Water Act violation settlement.

In May 2024, EPA filed a complaint against the City and County of San Francisco for unauthorized discharges of billions of gallons of sewage into tributaries of the Bay. While not a Superfund site, the Islais Creek Bridge Rehabilitation Project received $90.8 million in federal grant funds.

Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation Board of Directors unanimously adopts four-point platform resident protection measures on March 18, 2026

1.Measure 1 in HP Biomonitoring’s Four Point Platform for Resident and Worker Safety and Resident Protective Measures is the build out of the SF Shipyard Neighborhood Watch to include photo and video documentation of demolition activities that endanger community safety. HP Biomonitoring proposes NAVFAC install one or more 24/7 live cams overlooking the Demolition Zone for Phase I and Phase II Building Demolitions. HP Biomonitoring invites neighboring businesses and residents to install live cams on properties facing the eastern shoreline of HPNS. Historical precedent for construction site monitoring in Bayview Hunters Point is memorialized in the naming of Youngblood Coleman Playground. Rubin Youngblood and Wardell Coleman were 10 years old who died when a dirt wall collapsed on them while playing at a negligently maintained housing construction site in 1974.

2. Fence line fortifications as required by the Draft Final Remedial Action Work Plan for the Parcel G Building Demolition are called for in Measure 2. The Federal Superfund site has historically lacked basic fence line fortifications, signage and public notifications of exposure to chemicals proven to cause cancer and reproductive harm — as required by State of California Proposition 65. 

3. Measure 3 requires the community-led creation of a Community Notification Plan (CNP) modeled after the CNP developed by the Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board in the aftermath of the August 2000 Parcel E-2 landfill fire. The CNP was demanded by community leaders following attempts by the Navy to conceal a chemical fire that erupted in clear view of Hunters Point hilltop residents and shipyard workers. On June 7, 2001, EPA announced a $25,000 penalty against the Navy for the two week delay in notifying the community and lead regulators of the landfill fire that erupted on the southern border of the base. The failure in notification violated the Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA). The Navy violated the FFA in October 2024 when it failed to notify regulators and the public that airborne Pu-239 was detected by air monitors downstream from a Radiation Staging Yard operated by the Navy on Parcel C — next door to the Parcel G Demolition Zone.

4. Measure 4 is a Temporary Emergency Relocation Plan — TERP — created to offer provisions for urgent relocation to residents with documented injuries, associated illness and/or property damage due to demolition activities. The TERP includes community education about the right to file a Federal Tort Claim within a year of injury, illness or property damage using SF95.

SF Bay View Health and Environmental Science Editor Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD, PD, founder and principal investigator for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program, founding chair of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board’s Radiological Subcommittee and contributor to the 2005 Draft Historical Radiological Assessment, can be reached at AhimsaPorterSumchaiMD@Comcast.net. Dr. Sumchai is medical director of Golden State MD Health & Wellness, a UCSF and Stanford trained author and researcher, and a member of the UCSF Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors.

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by Aïda Jones

On Monday, April 20, in San Francisco Hall of Justice Courtroom 13, Judge Brian Ferrall denied Kevin Epps bail pending appeal. What followed was more than an hour of a judge explaining himself.

Earlier this year, a jury found Epps — filmmaker and Executive Editor of the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper — guilty of manslaughter. Ferrall sentenced him to six years and eight months, saying his hands were tied.

But in Monday’s hearing, reviewing his own conduct, Ferrall demonstrated just how untethered to constraint he has been all along. He equated the dissatisfaction of both defense and prosecution as proof of his fairness. He spent considerable time explaining why his own rulings could not possibly lead to dismissal or resentencing.

Then he turned to the defense’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and called them barely above frivolous. This would be unremarkable, except for the prosecutor in question. As noted by Tim Redmond in 48Hills, Jonathan Schmidt is the same attorney whose conduct in United States v. Blueford helped establish Ninth Circuit precedent on prosecutorial misconduct. The case is cited in appellate guides nationwide as a textbook example of what not to do. That the word “frivolous” would appear in any sentence about Schmidt’s conduct requires a certain confidence.

Ferrall went further. He questioned the judgment of two District Attorneys — who declined to prosecute Epps — and declared that Epps should have faced a jury long ago and must now begin serving his sentence immediately. He added, more than once, that if an appeal is granted, he is certain his rulings will be affirmed. 

After two-plus hours in Ferrall’s courtroom, I walked away thinking: The lady doth protest too much.

San Francisco writer Aïda Jones can be reached at info@thejonesinstitute.com. 

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by Nicholas Mwangi

Across the African continent, progressive movements, grassroots organizations and Pan-African networks are rallying in renewed solidarity with Cuba at a moment of deepening crisis. While global media narratives often reduce Cuba’s situation to internal failure (a narrative activists and many Cubans claim is imperialist propaganda), African movements are advancing solidarity rooted in history and shared struggle. International solidarity with the people of Cuba is rising, with caravans of medicines and food supplies being mobilized to support the island in the face of the ongoing siege.

Cuba today faces severe shortages of fuel, energy and essential goods. These hardships are real and deeply felt. They are the direct outcome of a prolonged economic war by the United States’ decades-long embargo, now intensified into new levels of inhumanity.

Since the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Cuba has stood as a defiant example of resistance to imperial domination. Its continued commitment to a socialist path, despite immense external pressure, has made it both a symbol of sovereignty and a target of sustained aggression.

Cuba and Africa: a history of shared struggle

Cuba, a nation of roughly 11 million people, has played an outsized role in supporting liberation struggles across the Global South. Its contributions have never been symbolic alone; they have been material, strategic, decisive and often made at great sacrifice.

From the early years of African independence, Cuba provided weapons, training and political support to liberation movements. Its role in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau was particularly significant. In Angola, over 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African liberation movements against apartheid South African aggression, contributing to decisive victories, such as the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. This turning point weakened apartheid South Africa militarily and politically, accelerating the independence of Namibia and contributing to the eventual collapse of apartheid.

A continental call

In a statement endorsed by multiple organizations, Pan-Africanism Today has articulated a clear and uncompromising position of solidarity from Africa.

The statement situates Cuba’s crisis within the global context of intensifying imperialism:

“We write to you at this crucial moment in history, characterized by the increasing barbarism of United States imperialism and the equally growing anti-imperialist resistance of the peoples of the world. We write not only to offer words of comfort, but to reaffirm active solidarity and internationalism forged through decades of shared struggle against a common enemy.”

Linking Cuba’s situation to global struggles from Palestine to Iran, the statement puts it clearly the blockade is not an isolated policy but part of a wider system that has “abandoned all pretence of legality, morality and human decency.”

And, “a persistent act of war against an entire people … one of the gravest ongoing crimes against humanity in the modern era.”

Recent escalations, including new measures under US policy, have intensified this reality, particularly through restrictions affecting fuel supplies, with devastating implications for hospitals, food systems and daily life.

Internationalism vs. imperialism

African movements contrast Cuba’s global role with that of imperial powers. Where dominant states deploy sanctions and military force, Cuba has historically deployed doctors, teachers and technical support.

From sending medical brigades across Africa to training thousands of African students in medicine, Cuba has embodied a form of internationalism rooted in solidarity rather than extraction.

As the statement affirms: “You have not lectured us; you have shown us.”

This distinction is central. Cuba’s internationalism is not charity; it has been a political commitment grounded in a shared struggle against domination.

Solidarity is our responsibility

For African progressives, supporting Cuba is not about gratitude; it is about political responsibility in the face of a common enemy.

The statement unequivocally declares:

• We condemn the criminal blockade of Cuba with contempt and pledge to intensify every effort to end it – politically, diplomatically and in the court of international public opinion.
• We commit to strengthening our solidarity with the Cuban people and to ensuring that the truth about Cuba’s revolutionary achievements, and the crimes against it, reaches the widest possible audiences across our continent and the world.
• We salute the leadership of the Cuban Revolution for its steadfastness in the face of an ongoing US-led imperialist siege.
• We honor the memory of the revolution’s giants – such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Haydée Santamaría and others – by dedicating ourselves to upholding their example in our own struggles.
• We stand with the Cuban people as you withstand the latest tightening of the imperialist stranglehold.

“You do not face this alone. An injury to Cuba is an injury to all of us.”

Cuba’s experience stands as living proof that another world is not only imaginable, but possible. As the statement concludes, “The task now, as African progressives insist, is to fight to make that world a reality. We commit ourselves to doing precisely that: building the organized power of workers, peasants, women and youth; deepening the anti-imperialist consciousness of our peoples; and forging continental and international unity in action. This can break the chains of capitalism and imperialism – our ability to work together and construct the socialist world that the people of Cuba have dared to demonstrate is necessary. A world for the many, built by the many!”

Nicholas Mwangi writes for People’s Dispatch, where this story first appeared.

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by Tabari Morris

SF Bay View is unequivocally in solidarity with Minister X and those joining him in his fight to bring about a new way of thinking regarding the intersection of labor activism, human dignity and re-entry into society in California. His proposed paradigm calls for those coming out of incarceration to be viewed not as expendable labor or perpetual subjects, but rather as workers and organizers.

The heart of such an approach would be an initiative within CDCR that incorporates elements of legal literacy, reentry preparedness, organizing skills training and cultural education. Such initiatives are presented as the California Coalition for Worker Power initiative and the Workers Power Assembly, which includes fair chance rights, non-retaliation policies, sector-based career paths, and an agreement to end hostilities.

Minister X is presented in the report as an important link between internal organizing and external labor power. In terms of art, political education, media work and the 5-2-A curriculum, he plays a vital role in elevating the voices of those who have been and are currently incarcerated.

That matters to SF Bay View because this newspaper has long stood with imprisoned, formerly imprisoned and working-class people whose voices are too often erased from public debate. The report’s emphasis on shared humanity, collective agency, family unity, real rehabilitation and protection from exploitation reflects the same struggle for justice that community media has a responsibility to document and defend.

Moreover, the paper highlights that the movement is practical rather than symbolic. The paper provides real-world solutions to be taken in construction, healthcare, green infrastructure, logistics, and manufacturing industries, along with warm hand-off reentry assistance that could link returning individuals with legal help, housing, health care, mentoring and job opportunities.

SF Bay View understands that solidarity is not just about paying lip service. Solidarity means understanding that workers’ rights, the rights of our people behind the walls, and re-entry rights cannot be separated from each other, and that the voices and guidance of those who suffer the most under the system must stay in the foreground. Minister X is bringing this message with clarity and vision.

Tabari Morris, a journalism student at City College of San Francisco and news editor of The Guardsman, City College’s student newspaper, is managing editor of the Bay View and can be reached at tabari@sfbayview.com.  

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by Minister of Information JR Valrey

A disappointment. Save your money and watch it for free in a couple of weeks. The story was poorly written. At no time did it pull me in. 

The story line was the same script we always saw: MJ leaving the Jacksons, getting burned on the set, and him funking with Joseph. The movie makes Joseph the bad guy, when Black people know without Joe, the Jacksons would have been blue collar steel mill workers. Joe was a necessary evil, abusive, opportunistic and all. 

We know that US media has problems with the existence of Black fathers leading their families to greatness – look at how they talk about Beyonce’s pops, Venus and Serena’s pops, and Lavar Ball – so this was no disguise. 

The US wants Black talent without anyone around protecting it. Obviously the film left out MJ’s beef with Tommy Mottola, him owning a huge catalog of white and Black music, the Epstein smearing of MJ’s name as a pdf file, the CIA following him in Moscow, him working with Biggie and other rappers. In fact, the characters playing the Jackson brothers don’t even have speaking parts. 

The white record execs are so “helpful” to Mike in the movie, we do not get to see that Mike was a shrewd businessman. The movie has no soul or Blackness in it, when at one time MJ was the epitome of Black music and dance. 

The characters are very one dimensional. The script was very vanilla. It seemed like a white man from Hollywood was trying to write about the lives of Black people who rose from the ghetto without a lick of understanding of Black life and love in the eras depicted. F+

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

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by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information

Hundreds of supporters of the Cuban Revolution arrived in Cuba in March, as part of the Nuestra America Convoy, whose goal was to show solidarity with Cuba’s right to self-determination amidst a complete oil blockade and 67-year general blockade sponsored by the US government, operating with US taxpayers’ money. 

Because Cuba refuses to bow to the Monroe Doctrine, aka the US government’s imperial project, US sanctions have sentenced the island to a slow genocide, which is playing out in real time currently with Cubans encountering on a daily basis: food shortages, blackouts that last for days and that have led to patients dependent on ventilators dying in hospitals, epidemics of diseases spread by mosquitos and more. 

Longtime organizer Brenda Lopez of US Hands Off Cuba Committee recently returned, and is reporting back on how critical it is for people in the US to fight to end the blockades against Cuba, since our taxes are fueling this genocide. 

JR Valrey: You recently were part of a delegation that went to Cuba. What was your mission?

Brenda Lopez: March 20th I headed from Miami to Cuba with the CODEPINK delegation as part of the Nuestra America Convoy, a global coordinated mission delivering humanitarian supplies for homes, hospitals, schools and families in need. This act was an act of solidarity but also an act of defiance against the cruel blockade that the US has upheld for 67 years and that is now being escalated with Trump’s most recent oil blockade starting in January of this year. So together, we broke the siege, saved lives, and stood up for the cause of Cuban self-determination. 

JR Valrey: Now that we are four months into the US government’s criminal oil blockade and 67 years since the beginning of the general blockade, what did you see people lacking?

Brenda Lopez: The Cuban people and government are lacking sovereignty above all. Without that, they do not have access to the world market like the rest of the world does, limiting their buying autonomy. Now with the oil blockade it adds a whole other layer of obstacles of people not being able to go to work, get to appointments, access basic needs. People are out of power for hours, since, unfortunately, Cuba’s power grid is still heavily reliant on oil. Without power, water pumps don’t work, so that also means no water for hours and sometimes days. One million Cubans rely on water transportation, severely affected by the lack of diesel.

JR Valrey: What was the general sentiment of the Cubans that you encountered?

Brenda Lopez: “Esta duro pero ya estamos acostumbrados,” which translates to “It’s hard but we’re used to this.” That is the indomitable Cuban spirit – dignified, creative and resilient. Some of the folks shared that on days when there is no electricity, they set up a wood fire and a big pot so they can make sure their whole neighborhood eats. Others told me how even in the dark they can hear joy happening: people singing in the dark in the distance, kids still playing outside in the dark; and they remember that despite the darkness and scarcity, life continues.

JR Valrey: Under the US imposed blockade, what is the condition of the world renowned Cuban healthcare system?

Brenda Lopez: They have continuously faced the obstacle of accessing material stuff like medications and equipment and now this is exacerbated. Ambulances are struggling to find fuel to respond to emergencies. Persistent outages have plagued deteriorating hospitals, more than 96,000 surgeries are pending, and thousands of babies have not been vaccinated.

Something we heard from multiple doctors was that without power doctors are having to manually do a lot of things to keep patients alive, like manually pumping air to patients that are on ventilators that stop working with no power and no oil in the back-up generators. The oil blockade has severely impacted neonatal hospitals in Cuba, as well, leading to increased infant mortality rates. Hospitals are struggling to operate due to limited electricity and resources, resulting in preventable deaths among newborns and other vulnerable populations.

JR Valrey: Can you talk about the food shortages caused by the blockade?

Brenda Lopez: There is food but access to it is limited since the prices are very high compared to the income that Cubans make. This means tourists, like myself, can still access a lot of food and food services, but the regular Cuban is very limited and restrained. 

Tourism is a way that Cuba fuels its economy, and since the COVID pandemic Cuba has not been able to go back to its tourism numbers from before. In addition, with the oil blockade it means that Cuba’s airport cannot provide fuel for planes to go back to their original destination, this has also limited tourism from Canada and other countries.

However, the government says it is prioritizing available fuel for essential services like public health and food production. While I was there I was able to walk around a plaza that had a lot of farmers selling directly to the local communities at relatively affordable prices.

JR Valrey: Would you regard the US policy towards Cuba as an act of genocide? Why is that word appropriate?

Brenda Lopez: US sanctions are no longer just crippling the island’s economy, they’re threatening basic human safety. So yes, I would consider this a slow and cruel suffocation of basic human needs that the revolution has had to fight so hard to maintain and the cost of it has at many times meant lives. Sanctions kill, because they block access to essential materials to save lives, like life-saving medications and vitamins.

Another current example is the current chikungunya and dengue epidemic in Cuba. Something as simple as having access to mosquito repellent or medications could have avoided thousands of deaths. So yes, US policy toward Cuba is a cruel and sick act of genocide against the Cuban people and their ideologies.

JR Valrey: What are your thoughts on a number of Latin American and Caribbean governments kicking Cuban doctors out of their countries, due to US government pressure? 

Brenda Lopez: I’ve seen that many of their people have protested these actions. They must listen to their people and communities. To be against Cuba is to be against humanity. Moreover, all these countries are part of Latin America, which has suffered greatly from oppression and the exploitation of labor and natural resources by the United States and its corporations for so much of their history. Cuba has time and time again been there to offer support wherever it is needed most. They have even offered medical aid to the United States during environmental crises because, for them, people and lives come before politics and ideologies. So I believe more countries should also center on keeping people alive instead of being afraid of the big bully that is clearly losing its grip.

JR Valrey: What can people do if they want to get involved or donate? 

Brenda Lopez: Well, first I want to continue to push for people to go to Cuba to experience and see the cruelty of the blockade and the scarcity it has created for over 60 years. But also so they can feel and experience the strength of the Cuban people, their creativity and resilience that is beyond inspiring. And also to remind folks that it is not illegal to go to Cuba. Going is an act of solidarity. Folks can hit up Not Just Tourists and receive a free medical bag that they can take and make an impact that way as well.

Additionally, there are amazing organizations like Global Health Partners that have continuously organized incredible campaigns to give Cuba medical supplies that they have asked us for. Last year GHP was able to fundraise enough to send over 900 pacemakers to Cuba. This year they are focusing on a year long campaign to give Cuba surgical sutures, necessary for basically any surgical procedures. And they are currently working on launching a neonatal campaign that will cost millions of dollars and go to the heart of the impact of the blockade. People can support all of these life-saving efforts by visiting and donating to ghpartners.org. They are also active on instagram and facebook @ghpartners.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

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by Danielle Smith

Six thousand San Francisco educators won fully funded health care, sanctuary schools and an up to 8.5% raise over two years by walking out for the first time in nearly 50 years.

After just four days on strike, Feb. 9 to 12, they won their top demands — some of which the district had previously refused even to bargain over.

“It was hard and it was joyful and we f-ing beat them,” said Ilan Desai-Geller, a high school teacher who served on the bargaining committee and as a regional strike captain. “They found the money all of a sudden.

“They found the money for the things they said they couldn’t. They agreed to the language they said they couldn’t.”

Workers in classified roles, such as paraeducators, will get a raise of 8.5% over the two years of the contract; workers in certificated roles, such as teachers, will get 5%.

Next up will be Los Angeles, where 35,000 educators are poised to strike on April 14 alongside 30,000 members of SEIU Local 99, such as cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers and special ed assistants.

In San Francisco, other union workers including principals, custodians and lunchroom staff joined educators on the picket line in a sympathy strike.

United Teachers Los Angeles and United Educators of San Francisco are part of We Can’t Wait, a statewide campaign by more than 30 California Teachers Association locals, with a shared platform calling for smaller class sizes, more resources for schools instead of layoffs, and competitive wages and benefits to address the thousands of vacancies in California’s public schools.

The locals also agreed to escalate along a common timeline. Across the bay from San Francisco, Richmond Teachers United also struck this year, for the first time ever, and won 8% raises over two years. Two locals in the Sacramento area also struck; one of them, Twin Rivers Educators United, stayed out for 12 days and won 7% raises over two years.

Years in the making

The San Francisco strike success was five years in the making, as the union worked to develop an elected committee at each school. The committee focused on problems within the school, but also kept in touch with the larger union.

There were meetings bringing together all the elementary school committees, for instance, and all the middle and high school committees, and a citywide general assembly. Activists from different schools got to know each other and saw what issues they had in common.

“Once we start getting more sites with union building committees, then there’s more conversations happening at each site, there’s more information getting shared to each member,” said Alanna Merchant, who teaches sixth- and seventh-grade science.“I feel like that was how all of this started.”

From these building committees came many of the strike captains and 120 members of the bargaining committee, Merchant among them.

Paraeducator Faith Avalos said that building to a strike took a lot of conversations with her co-workers, asking questions like, “How do you feel about the district right now?”

“It was issues-based, but a lot of it was just, do you feel supported at your job by the district? Do you feel they could be doing a better job?” said Avalos, who would become a strike captain.

Schools held their own strike votes and practice pickets. The union asked rank and filers who were organizing in their own schools to go help out other worksites too, Merchant said, and this developed into a network of regional strike captains like her, who helped support the strike captains.

Outside the bargaining room

The strikers picketed at schools in the mornings, then gathered for larger community actions in the afternoons.

Strike captains were responsible for turning out members to picket and keeping track of participation. Each picket also had an attendance person, a communications person and chant leaders — everyone had a role.

At Avalos’s middle school in northern San Francisco, art teachers made custom banners and painted the sidewalks. Two workers made custom signs with a picture of Superintendent Maria Su crying that said: “Boo Su.”

When middle school students came out to show support, the strikers taught them how to lead chants and walk the picket line and explained why they were taking action.

“Middle school students don’t do anything unless you tell them they have to do it, but we had a bunch of students show up [on their own initiative],” Avalos said. “They were the most energetic. They drew hopscotch, but you were jumping on Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s faces. They made signs that were like ‘Teachers can’t survive on only apples.’”

Avalos’ middle school was one of the sites where the district chose to send scabs from human resources, so small groups of strikers covered the back entrances. However, the strikers at her school mainly focused on getting support from the community. Out of a staff of about 500, only one person, who was non-union, crossed the picket line, she said.

The afternoon rallies and marches drew up to 15,000-20,000 participants, according to the union. One day they marched from a rally in Mission Dolores Park to City Hall. Another day, thousands gathered on the beach to spell out “Strike” and “For Our Students,” an impressive turnout given the “schlep to the beach,” said bargaining committee member and regional strike captain Michelle Cody.

Though the bargaining committee couldn’t always attend them, those actions gave them the morale boost they needed to keep going and the leverage to win their demands, said special education paraprofessional Diana Mueller, another regional strike captain and bargaining committee member.

“We filled the streets; it was incredible,” Mueller said. “And it really is true when you hear folks talk about how what happens outside the bargaining room really has an impact on what happens inside the bargaining room.”

Love letter to the city

Even though San Francisco has fewer children and parents than many other cities, the community support for the strike was strong. Local businesses provided free food, coffee and restrooms. Desai-Geller said he heard from a lot of people that it felt like a version of San Francisco they hadn’t seen for a long time.

He said gentrification and an influx of transplants in A.I.-related jobs are pushing the working class out of the city to the East Bay. Meanwhile educators were being told there was no money for public schools.

The school district had initially refused to negotiate over union demands that it claimed weren’t legally mandatory subjects of bargaining: sanctuary schools to protect immigrant students and families and extending an in-school shelter program for students who need housing, according to Desai-Geller. But ultimately, the district agreed to these demands during the strike.

Cody, who was born and raised in the city, said the strike felt like “a love letter back to San Francisco.” She got to lead chants at two of the actions and said that “one day longer, one day stronger” became like the soundtrack of the strike. She loved seeing people say “The rain be damned!” and fill the streets together, singing.

“In that moment, it was like everyone believed in what we were doing,” she said, “because it wasn’t just about us, it was about what this could mean for our city, our government. Everyone could connect with something that we were asking for. Everyone at some point had a teacher, an educator, a social worker, a para, a counselor that has impacted their lives.”

Danielle Smith is a staff writer and organizer at Labor Notes, where this story first appeared.

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by Carol McGruder

April 8, 2026, was a painful day in the packed courtroom of Judge Brian L. Ferrall.  We were there to hear the sentence the judge would hand to Kevin Epps, who in December was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter for a tragic 2016 incident.

Listening to the impact statements of the now adult children of the victim, Mr. Marcus Polk, was heart wrenching. When Polk’s children described the events of that day, some of them were in the house and witnessed their father dying.  His children described the profound and ongoing effect that this terrible trauma has had on their lives. 

I understood more than most in that courtroom because I can vividly recall my own grandmother sitting in her San Francisco kitchen painfully describing the childhood trauma of her father being killed by his brother-in-law in Mississippi.  That event forever changed the trajectory of two families, starting the family migration from Mississippi to Chicago and for my branch eventually, San Francisco.  I lived my grandmother’s pain through the stories of a tragedy from decades before I was born. 

That day in court, I wished I could have put my arms around Polk’s children and consoled them. I wish I could have told them that, somehow the “first cousin” children of these two men could possibly manage to remain a family — that my favorite aunt, and a woman who profoundly influenced my life, was the granddaughter of the man who had killed my great-grandfather. 

But I had come to court that day to lend moral support to Kevin Epps, the defendant. Kevin is a man I have known for 30 years.  I watched him grow from a budding filmmaker, documenting the harsh realities of the neighborhood where we grew up, to a humble, transformative community leader and activist.

The circumstances of his tragic family event were quite different from mine.  His was an urban story of two imperfect men, who in my eyes were brothers-in-law — as they each had children and long-term relationships with two sisters who were the mothers of their respective children. 

These two men came of age in an era of violence, drugs, societal neglect and, of course, racism. The struggles in their life trajectories were, unfortunately, in many ways predictable. Indeed, they were quite intentional, as the US government was flooding the Black community with crack cocaine in conjunction with a mass incarceration campaign, utterly decimating the Black community.

During those decades, the public health addiction model did not exist for Black people, as our communities endured first heroin and then the catastrophic crack epidemic. The lack of education and economic opportunities primed a whole generation of Black boys and men to engage in self-destructive activities that destroyed lives, families and community. Trauma, violence, substance abuse and untreated mental health issues plagued our community.  

Unfortunately, when Black people face mental illness and substance abuse, the standard treatment of care is incarceration.  They bounce back and forth between jail and the community with family members trying to fill in the gaps that the greater society should address.  One need only look at the many homeless Black men in San Francisco. Our men fill the streets of the Tenderloin and homeless shelters.  

Mr. Polk unfortunately was such a man. His painful past was well documented. The court ruled this history inadmissible and prejudicial, so the jury was not allowed to truly understand the totality of that history. Mr. Polk was portrayed as harmless, and perhaps at one time he was, but he was far from that at the time of the incident.  

I never met Mr. Polk, but I have lived through the painful mental, physical and moral deterioration of a loved one who was never able to surmount the hurdles that many Black men face, simply trying to survive. These are all very pertinent facts that the jury should have been made aware of; this information was the reality of their lives, but it was judged prejudicial and kept from jury knowledge and deliberations. 

Kevin Epps was aware of Polk’s criminal history, mental health and substance abuse issues. There was testimony at the trial that there was friction between the two men and that Kevin did not want Mr. Polk in the home.  In the prosecutor’s summation, he said Mr. Polk was only armed with the television remote, but the true dynamics and history of what happened were not discussed. The prosecutor cannot judge the volatility of the situation nor the fear or danger that Kevin might have felt.  It is interesting to see those members of our society who can assert the right to self-defense and those who are not allowed to. 

During the sentencing, Kevin expressed profound remorse. He took responsibility for his actions. He apologized to Polk’s family and the community.  He regrets the events of that day.  Kevin Epps was sentenced to over six years — six critical years away from his young children, his elderly mother, and a diverse community that has stood firmly with him.  Kevin is appealing the verdict for issues of prosecutorial misconduct that include withholding the history and background of Mr. Polk. A history that was certainly front and center in his demise. 

Kevin was taken into custody the day of the sentencing and now the court must decide if he will be released on bail during the appeal process.  We pray that Kevin be allowed to raise his children and do his vital work in the community pending appeal.  Kevin has been a model citizen during the 9-plus-year ordeal since the shooting and has proven he is neither a flight risk nor a threat to public safety.  He is a powerful and credible man who is creating hope, changing lives and contributing to society. I pray for grace and mercy for all of us. 

Carol McGruder grew up in Bayview Hunters Point. She is a nationally recognized activist and Co-Chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, fighting to remove mentholated tobacco products from the US market and to end the Tobacco Industry’s racist predatory targeting of the Black community. To learn more, visit www.SavingBlackLives.org. She can be reached at cmcgruder@usa.net.

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by Aïda Jones

On April 8, in Department 26 of San Francisco Superior Court, Kevin Epps, Executive Editor of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, was sentenced to six years and eight months in state prison. 

You can read that in KQED or Mission Local. Or in the SF Chronicle’s article that was filed by a climate reporter and cited KQED as its source — where you’ll also learn that two district attorneys refused to file charges against Mr. Epps before a third did, nine years after the killing.

What you cannot read there is how that sentence was arrived at. 

Judge Brian Ferrall claimed he was bound by the penal code to sentence Mr. Epps to three, six or 11 years. He acknowledged Epps’s trauma, his community contributions, the mitigating weight of a nonviolent criminal history and the fact the single prior felony offense was nearly two decades earlier. He dismissed the three-strikes enhancement, the prior prison term enhancement, and the prosecution’s most aggressive arguments. 

The record suggests a balanced proceeding.

It was not.

What the transcript cannot convey is the quality of the judge’s skepticism — applied exclusively in one direction. Every mitigating factor offered on behalf of Epps was diminished, including the defense’s trauma expert whose assessment the judge dismissed as “cursory.”

Meanwhile, the prosecution’s portrait of Marcus Polk went unchallenged from the bench: a canonization of a man who, by the court’s own record, was high on methamphetamine, had been sent away earlier in the day after being in an altercation, and returned — uninvited — to a home full of children, the home of a man he knew didn’t like him.

Judge Ferrall remarked that Polk was “probably the least empowered” person in the room that day in 2016. That may be true in a narrow material sense. But the burden of moral clarity — of making the right decision in a moment of mortal threat — was placed entirely on Kevin Epps, not on the man who chose to trespass his way into someone else’s home while high on meth.

The judge asked why Epps had an illegal gun. He did not ask why Polk was there at all.

That asymmetry is the story. And the only way to know it is to have been in that courtroom, to have heard the timbre of the rulings, and to have watched the prosecutor theatrically mourn a man he spent the trial flattening into a symbol. 

The reporters who filed their dispatches by calling the attorneys after the fact or from prior coverage missed it entirely — though credit goes to SF Bay View, California Black Media and Mission Local reporters for attending and covering almost every proceeding.

They missed the judge twice referring to Epps as “Mr. Polk” in the last moments of the trial, and after condemning Epps to six years and eight months, lecturing how he knows Epps “will do good for the community when you come out.” 

The system failed Kevin Epps. The media, the institution designed to hold our systems accountable, failed one of its own. Not by covering the verdict incorrectly, but by treating presence as optional when presence is everything.

San Francisco writer Aïda Jones can be reached at info@thejonesinstitute.com. 

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by JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information 

Ninety miles from the shores of Florida, the US government imposed a policy of economic strangulation via a Blockade on the economy of the Caribbean nation of Cuba nearly seven decades ago, all because the Cubans want to practice sovereignty – to maintain the right of Cubans to determine what happens in Cuba. 

In January of ’26, the US government imposed a complete oil Blockade on Cuba, after abducting Venezuelan President Nicoloas Maduro, a close ally of Cuba, completely depriving the island’s 11 million people of oil and greatly hindering social life, where food distribution, transportation, the pumping of water and general electricity among other aspects of life, depend on oil. 

With the resilience of the Cuban people being displayed at this critical time, doing what they can to fight off the US goverment imposed “slow genocide,” Russia has also recently broken through the US military’s oil blockade of the island to deliver a much needed shipment of oil, and thousands of people recently descended on the island from around the world with the Nuestra America Convoy, to show person to person solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. An enormous amount of solidarity is also coming from the Black Liberation struggle in the US and the Pan African struggle in the greater world. 

As the call for the end of the Cuban Blockade grows louder and louder within the United States and throughout the world, I wanted to talk with Second Secretary of the Cuban Embassy in the US Gabriella Castillo about what is happening on the island and within international geo-politics during this crucial time.

JR Valrey: How has the US government’s inhumane and criminal oil Blockade, since the beginning of the year, affected the Cuban people and different sectors of society on the island? 

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: First of all, thank you very much for providing this space. To discuss the current situation in Cuba, it is vital to understand that we are not looking at an isolated phenomenon. While the Executive Order of Jan. 29, 2026, has escalated the crisis to unprecedented levels, this is a history of energy siege that intensified in 2019 and is entirely tied to the policy of the US Blockade that Cuba has faced for nearly 70 years. What we see today is also the cumulative impact of years of persecution against every ship and every fuel transaction attempting to reach the island.

Today, the absence of oil is not just a statistical problem; it impacts the life of a nation. With an unstable power grid and blackouts that can sometimes exceed 20 hours a day, every aspect of daily life — from water pumping to education — is impacted. But where this Blockade becomes especially cruel is in the healthcare sector, a field that the Cuban Revolution has defended and maintained for years as a fundamental human right.

The healthcare system faces challenges that defy humanitarian logic. Currently, we have a surgical waiting list of over 96,000 patients. The most painful part of these figures is the human face behind them:

• Over 11,000 children and nearly 5,000 cancer patients are waiting for surgeries that are being postponed due to a lack of supplies or stable energy.
• Vital services such as hemodialysis (on which nearly 3,000 people depend) and radiotherapy (for 16,000 patients) are at constant risk due to electrical instability.
• The Maternal and Child Health Program is suffering directly: 32,000 pregnant women are struggling to access diagnostic ultrasounds, and more than 30,000 children face delays in their vaccinations because the cold chain for the doses cannot be guaranteed.

However, it is fundamental to highlight that if our healthcare system has not collapsed, it is thanks to the titanic effort of our doctors and scientists, and a national contingency strategy. Cuba has not stood idly by:

• We are accelerating a sovereign energy transition. We have already installed solar panels in 282 polyclinics, 15 hospitals, and dozens of maternal and nursing homes. Power supply for hospital centers is strategically prioritized over any other economic sector.

To summarize, what we are facing is a siege designed to suffocate the survival logistics of a people. Despite limited resources, the state’s priority remains saving lives, but the human cost of this policy of energy persecution is, quite simply, incalculable.

JR Valrey: With the Russian oil tanker reaching a port in Matanzas days ago, is the end of the US imposed oil blockade in sight?

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: This is an excellent question, but difficult to answer with a simple yes or no. To analyze the impact of the Russian tanker’s arrival in Matanzas, we must view it through three fundamental dimensions:

First, what Russia did is extremely significant, especially given the critical context Cuba faces today regarding fuel and electricity generation. We cannot underestimate what this means for the functioning of our hospitals, water pumping systems, and the daily lives of Cuban families who have been suffering through prolonged blackouts. It is a gesture of solidarity that arrives at a moment of extreme necessity.

Furthermore, this event brings a debate of principles to the table. Under international law, no country has the right to threaten another to prevent it from trading with or sending solidarity aid to a third nation. Trade and cooperation are the sovereign prerogatives of every state. The fact that this tanker has reached our shores is, in essence, an act of affirming that sovereignty in the face of external pressures that seek to dictate who we can or cannot associate with.

However, it would be premature to say that we are seeing the end of the oil Blockade. I cannot predict what will happen after this, but the facts are clear: The Executive Order of Jan. 29 remains in effect. The unilateral legal framework that sustains the energy persecution against Cuba has not changed; the unilateral threat of sanctions and tariffs against any shipping company or country attempting to establish a regular flow of fuel remains present. Although this specific shipment is a victory for solidarity, the U.S. policy of economic strangulation remains intact.

As long as that Executive Order and the laws of the Blockade remain in force, we cannot speak of an end to this criminal policy. What we are seeing is a constant struggle between international solidarity and a siege that attempts, day after day, to turn off the lights of an entire country.

JR Valrey: How does Cuba respond to the US government and corporate media saying food shortages and blackouts are evidence that socialism has failed on the island, without addressing the enormous economic and political impact of the criminal and unjust 67-year general Blockade that the US government imposed on the island?

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: That is a vital question because, in reality, it contains its own answer. To honestly analyze what is happening in Cuba today, it is impossible to separate our economic challenges from the context of the external siege the island has faced for nearly 70 years.

How can one judge the viability of a social or economic model when it is subjected to such brutal and prolonged external pressure? The intent of this policy is neither a secret nor a matter of interpretation; it was explicitly stated as far back as the 1960s in the Lester Mallory Memorandum, which established with total clarity that the objective of the Blockade was to provoke discontent and disenchantment through “hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of the government.”

To speak of shortages or blackouts without mentioning that every fuel ship, every financial transaction, and every attempt to acquire basic supplies is being hounded, is to omit the primary variable of the equation. The question we should be asking ourselves is not whether socialism has failed, but rather: What country in the world, regardless of its political system, would survive a siege of this magnitude for seven decades?

What we see in Cuba today is not evidence of internal failure, but evidence of extraordinary resilience. We Cubans have done much more than just survive: We have maintained a priority on healthcare, education, science, and innovation — reaching the standards of “developed” nations — even while the logistics of basic survival are attacked day after day.

 Furthermore, we have been an example of a different model of international cooperation and solidarity, sharing what we have rather than what we have to spare with other nations. To judge the results without acknowledging the siege is, quite simply, to ignore the reality of what it means to defend sovereignty under conditions of total economic warfare.  

JR Valrey: How does Cuba respond to Trump saying in the media that he is considering “taking” the island? 

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: Look, Cuba is a sovereign and independent nation, with a seat at the United Nations and very active participation in the international arena. We maintain diplomatic relations with the vast majority of the world’s countries and we defend the United Nations Charter and the rules established by International law — among them, and most importantly, peaceful coexistence between nations.

The reality is that Cuba’s destiny is decided, and will continue to be decided, by the Cuban people. Our history, especially over the last 70 years, is proof of an unbreakable will to defend our independence.

While some sectors stir up discourses of domination or intervention, Cuba continues to champion a model of international cooperation and solidarity. We have always — even in the most tense contexts — expressed our willingness to engage in dialogue with different United States governments across various fields, sitting at the table as equals, as two sovereign nations, which I consider fundamental for any honest process of engagement. Our response to hostility has always been the building of bridges with other peoples and the defense of multilateralism. Our priority will always be the well-being of our people, the updating of our model, and creative resistance against the Blockade. Cuba’s sovereignty is not negotiable nor subject to external considerations; it is a historical and legal fact

JR Valrey: Would you equate the US government’s current policies on Cuba as a scripted genocide, that is being carried out in real time? Why or why not?

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: Well, according to the 1948 UN Convention, genocide includes the “deliberate inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.”

The Blockade fits this definition for three reasons:

It has the intent: The 1960 Mallory Memorandum explicitly stated the objective of breaking Cuba through “hunger and desperation.” That is a roadmap for the destruction of a people.

The method of suffocation: Unlike tragedies such as Gaza, where we see immediate physical destruction, what is happening in Cuba is a “silent genocide.” Bombs are not falling, but medicines, food, and the fuel necessary for hospitals to function are being blocked.

Therefore, using the deprivation of the basic means of life as a political tool for 70 years is, by definition and by impact, a genocidal act.

JR Valrey: Recently thousands of people arrived in Cuba to show their solidarity with the island nation. What was their purpose?

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: You are referring to the Nuestra América Convoy, an immense gesture of solidarity that recently brought people from all over the world to Cuba, including a very significant representation from the people of the United States. This experience was fundamental for three main reasons:

First, showing that Cuba is not alone in this struggle

Second, these people did not arrive empty-handed. They brought much-needed solidarity aid: medicines, food, solar panels — resources that directly help mitigate the shortages we face due to the energy and economic siege.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, these individuals were able to see with their own eyes the reality of Cuba. They didn’t rely on media narratives; they witnessed firsthand the consequences of this blockade on the Cuban people and, above all, the day-to-day resilience on the island.

Many of those participants have used their platforms to give visibility to what they witnessed, breaking the wall of information silence regarding the human impact of these sanctions.

JR Valrey: Do you think that people only calling for an end to the oil Blockade, while the nation has been getting economically strangled for 67 years by the US in a general Blockade, is a benefit or detriment to the long term cause of Cuban sovereignty? 

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: Focusing solely on ending the oil Blockade — while it is an immediate urgency due to the Executive Order of Jan. 29 — can be a double-edged sword if the bigger picture is lost. The energy siege is only the tip of the iceberg of a policy of economic strangulation that has lasted 67 years.

Calling only for an end to the oil Blockade, without questioning the general Blockade, could give the false impression that once the electrical crisis is resolved, the rest of the sanctions are “tolerable” — and they are not. Respect for Cuba’s full sovereignty will only be complete when the entire framework of laws preventing us from developing normally is eliminated. Therefore, any call to action must be comprehensive: Ending energy persecution is an urgent step, but the ultimate goal must be the total and unconditional lifting of the Blockade.

As for how everyday people can help, anyone from their own community, anywhere in the world, can make a real difference.

I can tell you that I have seen many individuals and organizations break the wall of silence and misinformation regarding Cuba by sharing real information about the human impact of these policies—much like the members of the Nuestra América Convoy have done. This has contributed to providing a more nuanced narrative.

In the case of U.S. citizens, they possess a unique capacity: requesting that their representatives put an end to a policy that not only harms the Cuban people but also violates the rights of Americans themselves to travel and trade freely.

As we saw with the recent Convoy, sending medicines, medical supplies, and technology for the energy transition (such as solar panels) is a form of shared resistance. Every syringe or solar panel that reaches the island is an act of sovereignty in the face of the siege.

JR Valrey: Where can people go to get up to date news in English about Cuba?

Second Secretary Gabriella Castillo: Well, as always, I recommend following the social media accounts of the Cuban Embassy in the United States; we are on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as ‘Embassy of Cuba.’ I also suggest following the work of Belly of the Beast, as well as other outlets like BreakThrough News, DropSite or The Final Call, which provide objective coverage of what is happening. Additionally, I recommend looking at the work of influencers like Vic Mensa and Hassan Piker, who were recently in Cuba as part of the Nuestra América Convoy and created content regarding their visit.

Furthermore, you can hear about the reality of Cuba on programs like Make It Plain with Rev. Mark Thompson on WURD Philadelphia and, of course, on Block Report Radio and WPFW in Washington, D.C.

JR Valrey is a veteran journalist who can be heard weekly on Wednesdays on 89.5FM KPOO or KPOO.com from noon to 3 p.m. His work can also be heard on www.blockreportradioworld.com. 

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