San Francisco City Insider
132 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 72 ratingsThis podcast has merged into Fifth & Mission, the flagship newscast of the San Francisco Chronicle. Please subscribe to Fifth & Mission on your favorite podcast app.Old description: From the back rooms of City Hall to the chaotic streets of downtown, the San Francisco City Insider provides insight into the biggest news stories and most pressing issues facing one of the most interesting cities in the world. Chronicle columnist Heather Knight hosts, with regular appearances from The San Francisco Chronicle’s City Hall team – Trisha Thadani and Dominic Fracassa. They ask the tough questions of our city’s leaders to find out what’s going right and what needs to change.
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Episodes
San Francisco City Insider Is Moving
April 11, 2020 08:00 - 2 minutesThis podcast's timeline is ending, but the show will go on! Host Heather Knight is joining Audrey Cooper as co-host of the Chronicle's flagship podcast, Fifth & Mission, where she'll continue to interview newsmakers. And her patented Lightning Round is going with her. Subscribe to Fifth & Mission to keep listening. podfollow.com/fifth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
BART's Coming Off the Rails
April 10, 2020 08:00 - 43 minutesBevan Dufty, a member of the BART board of directors, discusses how the already struggling transit agency has seen a 94 percent plunge in ridership during the coronavirus pandemic and how it will ever recover. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to Combat Shutdown Loneliness
April 08, 2020 08:00 - 23 minutesMadeline Dangerfield-Cha, the co-founder of Mon Ami, a service that matches volunteers with isolated seniors, talks to Heather Knight about the epidemic of loneliness during our new coronavirus reality and gives tips on how to build connections. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Glide in the Time of COVID-19
April 07, 2020 08:00 - 30 minutesKaren Hanrahan, CEO and president of Glide, the famous Tenderloin church and social service provider, tells Heather Knight about the livestream church services and what coronavirus is teaching us about poverty. | Unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Homeless and Desperate
April 03, 2020 20:41 - 21 minutesKristie Fairchild, executive director of North Beach Citizens, talks about how more homeless people are seeking help since food and spare change from tourists and other passersby have dried up due to the coronavirus shutdown. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
San Francisco After COVID-19
April 01, 2020 16:48 - 25 minutesCities have long weathered public health crises and emerged stronger because of them. Benjamin Grant, urban design policy director at SPUR, talks with Heather Knight about the ways San Francisco will be permanently changed by coronavirus. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Is the Coronavirus Surge Still Coming?
March 31, 2020 00:41 - 24 minutesHave we flattened the curve? Dr. Allison Bond, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, gives Heather Knight an inside view of San Francisco hospitals — which, so far, seem like a calm before a storm. | The latest on coronavirus: sfchronicle.com/coronavirus | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Inside San Francisco's Emergency Command Center
March 27, 2020 08:00 - 23 minutesIvy Lee, a legislative aide, is among the hundreds of City Hall staff members who've been spending long days inside Moscone Center to prepare for the expected surge in coronavirus cases. She talks to Heather Knight about San Francisco's readiness for a potential disaster. | Get unlimited Chronicle access: sfchronicle.com/pod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Coronavirus: A Disaster for Small Businesses
March 24, 2020 22:49 - 27 minutesThe shutdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak has already destroyed some small businesses, including the one owned by Sharky Laguana, president of San Francisco's Small Business Commission, who talks to Heather Knight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Treating Victims of S.F.’s Traffic Violence
March 13, 2020 08:00 - 30 minutesDr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital, regularly treats pedestrians and bicyclists mowed down by cars. He speaks with host Heather Knight about the uptick in mayhem on the streets and what can be done to reduce it. | For more: Doctor Campbell on the Coronavirus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“This Is Going to Be Catastrophic”
March 12, 2020 08:30 - 20 minutesSan Franciscan Amanda Kahn Fried is on sabbatical in Italy, a coronavirus hot spot where events seem to be a few weeks ahead of the Bay Area. She tells Heather Knight what it’s like to live under lockdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fifth & Mission: A Top S.F. Doctor on the Coronavirus
March 12, 2020 08:00 - 27 minutesDr. Andre Campbell, a longtime trauma surgeon and ICU doctor at San Francisco General Hospital, tells Heather Knight on the Chronicle’s flagship podcast what to expect with COVID-19 in the weeks ahead and how the hospital is preparing. | Subscribe to Fifth & Mission Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Bart Board President's Big Dreams
March 03, 2020 09:00 - 31 minutesLateefah Simon, a legally blind single mom who commuted on BART for years before she was elected president of its board of directors in December, talks with Heather Knight about her plans for the beleaguered transit system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Race, Power and Inequity in San Francisco
February 28, 2020 09:00 - 30 minutesShakirah Simley, director of the new Office of Racial Equity, talks with Dominic Fracassa about rooting out and repairing the racial harms caused by city policies. | Get unlimited Chronicle access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
There's a New Sheriff in Town
February 27, 2020 09:00 - 37 minutesPaul Miyamoto was sworn in at a pivotal moment for criminal justice reform in San Francisco. He tells Dominic Fracassa about the future of the city’s crumbling Hall of Justice and his vow to protect the city’s sanctuary policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vilaska Nguyen: Comedian, Public Defender and S.F. Supervisor Candidate
February 13, 2020 09:00 - 37 minutesIn a crossover episode with Total SF, Nguyen joins hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight to announce his candidacy for District 7 supervisor, talk about how Jeff Adachi inspired his comedy and why he lives in San Francisco, and to face the City Insider lightning round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Young, Homeless and Alone on the Streets
February 11, 2020 09:00 - 25 minutesSherilyn Adams, director of Larkin Street Youth Services, talks about youth homelessness and debunks myths about the crisis in San Francisco. | Help Chronicle Podcasts serve you better! Take our survey at sfchronicle.com/podcastsurvey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Corruption in the Public Works Department
February 07, 2020 09:00 - 33 minutesSupervisor Matt Haney has long been frustrated by the filthy streets and lack of trash cans and public restrooms in his district. He was outraged by Public Works chief Mohammed Nuru's alleged corruption and is calling for major changes in the department. | Get unlimited Chronicle access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fifth & Mission Live: Primaries 2020
February 06, 2020 07:19 - 1 hourIn this episode of the Chronicle's flagship news podcast, Fifth & Mission, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper, politics writer Joe Garofoli and columnists Heather Knight and Phil Matier talk about Iowa, the upcoming primaries, and local politics at a Chronicle Talks event at Manny's in San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Rare San Francisco Trump Supporter
February 04, 2020 09:00 - 24 minutesJohn Dennis, waging his fourth campaign against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, discusses what it's like to be among the 6.6% of city residents registered to vote as a Republican and why he backs President Trump. | Get unlimited Chronicle access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Super Excited for the Super Bowl
January 29, 2020 18:35 - 21 minutesSupervisor Shamann Walton, City Hall's No. 1 49ers fan, talks about his Super Bowl party and plans for a victory parade up Market Street if the Niners win their first ring in 25 years. Plus: Cable car No. 49, all decked out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fifth & Mission: Bombshell Arrest of "MrCleanSF"
January 29, 2020 02:03 - 18 minutesSan Francisco City Insider host Heather Knight joins Audrey Cooper and Evan Sernoffsky in this breaking news episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast from the San Francisco Chronicle, which we're presenting on the City Insider feed. San Francisco Director of Public Works Mohammed Nuru and Lefty O'Doul's owner Nick Bovis are charged with fraud after a months-long federal corruption probe. | Get unlimited Chronicle access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why San Francisco Needs a Safe Injection Site
January 28, 2020 09:00 - 33 minutesFor years, drug addiction expert Alex Kral has been studying a secret safe injection site in an undisclosed American city. He says San Francisco has to open its own site to cope with its drug crisis. | Get unlimited Chronicle access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
No Love for the Haight
January 24, 2020 09:00 - 24 minutesEndless construction, high rents and increasing labor costs are harming businesses in the Haight. Booksmith owner Christin Evans, president of the neighborhood's merchant association, tells Heather Knight about the hardships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Public Defender Makes His Case
January 21, 2020 09:00 - 30 minutesMano Raju has big shoes to fill in replacing the late Jeff Adachi. He talks about the election of his fellow public defender Chesa Boudin to the district attorney's office and his efforts to make jury duty a regular job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Three Years of Rage
January 14, 2020 09:00 - 26 minutesRaveena Rihal and Palak Sheth co-founded the Post March Salon (PMS) after the first Women's March three years ago. Their anger over President Trump's policies and commitment to change has only deepened since then. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Spending San Francisco's Big Bucks
January 07, 2020 09:00 - 40 minutesTreasurer Jose Cisneros talks about the city's whopping $12.3 billion budget and why he's directing more of it to kindergarteners, airport workers and low-income people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Best of City Insider: New Muni Director
January 03, 2020 09:00 - 39 minutesJeffrey Tumlin took over on Dec. 16. In case you missed it, you can hear him talk in November about his plans to chart a new path for San Francisco that will prioritize buses, bikes and pedestrians over private vehicles and "subsidized car storage" — parking spaces. First published Nov. 23. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Best of City Insider: Chesa Boudin
December 30, 2019 09:00 - 33 minutesHe came on the podcast as one of four candidates. Now he's the district attorney-elect. Hear how he'll operate as San Francisco's top prosecutor. First published Sept. 17. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Best of City Insider: Vision Zero Isn’t Working
December 27, 2019 09:00 - 44 minutesJanice Li, a Bicycle Coalition staffer and BART director, talks about how San Francisco's program to eliminate traffic deaths is big on marketing and short on actual answers. First published Aug. 30. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Most Loved Librarian in America
December 23, 2019 09:00 - 19 minutesSan Francisco Public Library reference librarian Janet Tom has just won a national award for, yes, being loved. She tells us about her job and why the city's libraries are so well-liked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Drug Crisis, Firsthand
December 20, 2019 09:00 - 21 minutesThomas Wolf was an employed, married father of two when he got hooked on painkillers after surgery. He fell into homelessness and heroin addiction in the Tenderloin before pulling himself out. He talks about how City Hall can do better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Rocky Year at City Hall
December 18, 2019 09:00 - 36 minutesColumnist Heather Knight and reporters Dominic Fracassa and Trisha Thadani discuss the major stories of 2019 and preview what's to come in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sacred sleep
December 10, 2019 09:00 - 23 minutesShannon Eizenga, executive director of the Gubbio Project, discusses why it's so hard for homeless people to sleep and how offering them church pews for rest makes a difference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Talking Trash
December 06, 2019 09:00 - 26 minutesJohn Porter, vice president of Recology, discusses changes the garbage collection agency is making to help clean up San Francisco's notoriously dirty streets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dean Preston’s Big Plans
December 02, 2019 09:00 - 24 minutesThe supervisor-elect who beat London Breed ally Vallie Brown in November talks to reporter Trisha Thadani about his plans to shake up the status quo when he joins the Board of Supervisors in December. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hungry in San Francisco
November 27, 2019 20:29 - 21 minutesPaul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank, talks about how food pantries are cropping up at local colleges because students are broke after paying tuition, and how he scrapes together 48 million pounds of food each year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Byron Cobb: Cable Car Bell Ringing Champion
November 26, 2019 09:00 - 39 minutesA crossover The Big Event and S.F. City Insider episode. Hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight interview Byron Cobb, the reigning Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest champion and eight-time winner. Produced by Peter Hartlaub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meet Your New Muni Director
November 23, 2019 09:00 - 39 minutesJeffrey Tumlin, who will start one of the city's hardest jobs on Dec. 16, plans to chart a new path for San Francisco that will prioritize buses, bikes and pedestrians over private vehicles and "subsidized car storage" — parking spaces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Effort to End Domestic Violence
November 19, 2019 09:00 - 21 minutesEsta Soler, founder of Futures Without Violence, talks with Heather Knight about the 25th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act and her plan for a new Courage Museum in the Presidio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SF Takes Big Step Toward Mental Health Care Reform. What's next?
November 14, 2019 20:13 - 18 minutesAfter months of political bickering, San Francisco's leaders have united behind an ambitious, expensive plan to fix the city's broken mental health care system. Chronicle City Hall reporters Trisha Thadani and Dom Fracassa break down what's happening and what's yet to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Making San Francisco's Streets Safer
November 08, 2019 09:00 - 34 minutesBicycle Coalition executive director Brian Wiedenmeier discusses the new car-free Market Street plan, his dream of a car-free Golden Gate Park, and why he's always polite while bicycling around the city Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Too Close to Call: Election Night Recap
November 06, 2019 21:31 - 23 minutesWith the ballots still being counted, Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and City Hall reporter Dominic Fracassa talk about the district attorney's race, the neck-and-neck competition for district 5 on the Board of Supervisors and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Celebrating Transgender Awareness Month
November 05, 2019 09:00 - 26 minutesClair Farley, director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives, talks about her own transition and the importance of pushing progressive LGBTQ policies while the White House spreads transphobia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonathan Moscone: 41 Years Without Dad
October 18, 2019 08:00 - 28 minutesThe late Mayor George Moscone’s son recalls the horrible day his father was assassinated alongside Supervisor Harvey Milk. Moscone, chief producer for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, also discusses the importance of promoting artists in a city where they can't afford to live. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Should 17-year-olds get to vote?
October 15, 2019 11:00 - 25 minutesElla Yitzhaki, a senior at Lowell High, has become an advocate for amending the California constitution to allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they'll be 18 by the general election. She talks about the reasons for the change and what it's like being a kid in San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Losing Summer
October 11, 2019 08:00 - 11 minutesTen months. Nearly 30 visits to the psychiatric ER. And a suicide. Summer’s story reveals the weaknesses in San Francisco’s mental illness and addiction treatment system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Off to the Races” Already
October 05, 2019 17:01 - 18 minutes(Originally published March 4, 2019.) With the election nine months away, nearly $200,000 has already been poured into the race for the District Five seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Vallie Brown, who was appointed by Mayor London Breed following Breed’s ascension to Room 200, faces stiff competition for her reelection. Tenant Attorney Dean Preston, who narrowly lost to Breed in 2016, is running as a Democratic Socialist. That could be a problem for Brown, who’s associated with...
San Francisco's New Political Spot
October 03, 2019 08:00 - 28 minutesManny Yekutiel looks back on the first year of Manny's, discusses the importance of civic engagement and talks about why he'd never let Donald Trump — or any other Republican — speak there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fifth & Mission: Rocks and Hard Places
October 01, 2019 18:48 - 14 minutesWe're sharing this episode of The Chronicle's Fifth & Mission podcast, in which SF City Insider host Heather Knight joins Kevin Fagan and Demian Bulwa to talk about the infamous boulders on Clinton Park alley, which have become a symbol for San Francisco's inability to provide basic services for its homeless population or to enforce laws when street behavior turns dark and violent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices