San Francisco Archives

Home San Francisco

People vote at city hall in San Francisco, California, in the 2018 mid-term election.

Social Justice

Non-Citizens Used to Vote Regularly in America. Should More Elections Be Open to Them Today?

The Constitution doesn't bar non-citizens from voting, but when San Francisco opened up school elections to all residents, a conservative firestorm followed.

Spenser Mestel

Electronic cigarettes and pods by Juul, the nation's largest maker of vaping products, are offered for sale at the Smoke Depot on September 13th, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois.

San Francisco Is Set to Ban Vape Sales. What Other Restrictions Have Places Tried?

City and state governments are responding to skyrocketing youth vaping rates, which went up 78 percent between 2017 and 2018.

Francie Diep

Viewfinder: Activists Rally in San Francisco in Support of Protections for Asylum Seekers

A protester holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the James R. Browning United States Courthouse on June 11th, 2019, in San Francisco, California.

Pacific Standard Staff

San Francisco police cars sit parked in front of the Hall of Justice on February 27th, 2014, in San Francisco, California.

San Francisco Police Raided a Freelance Journalist’s Home. Was It Legal?

An expert on First Amendment rights weighs in on what happened to Bryan Carmody last Friday.

Leah Dunlevy

A 3-D facial-recognition program is demonstrated during the Biometrics 2004 exhibition and conference.

San Francisco Is Voting Today to Ban the City’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology

The vote comes amid concerns that the technology violates civil liberties and is subject to racial biases.

Brianna Provenzano

A San Francisco city worker holds a sign as workers march during a rally outside of the City and County of San Francisco Human Resources office on March 7th, 2019, in San Francisco, California. Hundreds of San Francisco city workers staged a rally to demand a fair contract that addresses pay equity for women.

Viewfinder: San Francisco City Workers Demand Equal Pay For Women

Workers march during a rally outside of the City and County of San Francisco Human Resources office on March 7th, 2019, in San Francisco, California.

Pacific Standard Staff

Viewfinder: Ushering in the Year of the Pig

Miss Chinatown USA Jasmine Lee holds a piglet while ushering in the Chinese New Year on February 5th, 2019, in San Francisco, California.

Pacific Standard Staff

Economics

Tech Titans Battle Over San Francisco’s Proposed Tax to Benefit the Homeless

Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, has pitted himself against Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter and Square, by spending millions of dollars to fund campaigns promoting the passage of a homelessness benefits initiative in the city.

Sarah Holder