This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco’s appalling homeless problem seemed to worsen only modestly compared to the rest of the Bay Area when the city released its preliminary homeless-count numbers in May. The first glimpse showed a 17% uptick — not great, sure, but not as bad as Alameda County’s 43% rise. Or Santa Clara’s 31% increase.Turns out the news wasn’t quite so rosy.The final report released Friday, in the middle of a holiday weekend, shows that the street-count increase would actually be 30% if the city had used the same standards for counting...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco’s appalling homeless problem seemed to worsen only modestly compared to the rest of the Bay Area when the city released its preliminary homeless-count numbers in May. The first glimpse showed a 17% uptick — not great, sure, but not as bad as Alameda County’s 43% rise. Or Santa Clara’s 31% increase.Turns out the news wasn’t quite so rosy.The final report released Friday, in the middle of a holiday weekend, shows that the street-count increase would actually be 30% if the city had used the same standards for counting...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco Mayor London Breed unveiled a plan Wednesday afternoon for stemming the appalling increase in neighborhood that has had residents there — and the homeless themselves — on edge for weeks as everyone crams in too closely on the sidewalks.Breed rolled out the plan just two days after and business owners in the Tenderloin, seeking to force the city to clean up the camping, garbage and brazen drug dealing that have radically worsened during the pandemic.The plan will try to address the problem street by street in the...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateSan Francisco Mayor London Breed unveiled a plan Wednesday afternoon for stemming the appalling increase in neighborhood that has had residents there — and the homeless themselves — on edge for weeks as everyone crams in too closely on the sidewalks.Breed rolled out the plan just two days after and business owners in the Tenderloin, seeking to force the city to clean up the camping, garbage and brazen drug dealing that have radically worsened during the pandemic.The plan will try to address the problem street by street in the...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe solution to what’s known as the 340 Cipher, one of the most vexing mysteries of the ’s murderous saga, has been found by a code-breaking team from the United States, Australia and Belgium.The cipher, sent in a letter to The Chronicle in November 1969, has been puzzling authorities and amateur sleuths since it arrived 51 years ago. Investigators hoped the in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, would reveal his name in one of his many ciphers, but there is no such name in the 340.According to code-breaking expert David Oranchak, the...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe solution to what’s known as the 340 Cipher, one of the most vexing mysteries of the ’s murderous saga, has been found by a code-breaking team from the United States, Australia and Belgium.The cipher, sent in a letter to The Chronicle in November 1969, has been puzzling authorities and amateur sleuths since it arrived 51 years ago. Investigators hoped the in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969, would reveal his name in one of his many ciphers, but there is no such name in the 340.According to code-breaking expert David Oranchak, the...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Tenderloin looks better than it has in months, now that the city has removed 65% of the hundreds of tents that had covered the troubled neighborhood since the coronavirus pandemic clamped down on San Francisco in March.The first phase of reducing the appalling crush of tent camps and moving their homeless occupants indoors ends Friday, city officials reported. It’s been one of the most intensive street-camp cleanups in city history.The all-out campaign by the city’s Healthy Streets Operations Center and city emergency workers...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Tenderloin looks better than it has in months, now that the city has removed 65% of the hundreds of tents that had covered the troubled neighborhood since the coronavirus pandemic clamped down on San Francisco in March.The first phase of reducing the appalling crush of tent camps and moving their homeless occupants indoors ends Friday, city officials reported. It’s been one of the most intensive street-camp cleanups in city history.The all-out campaign by the city’s Healthy Streets Operations Center and city emergency workers...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIf it seems like all the big homeless tent camps in San Francisco have suddenly vanished, that’s because it’s true. City officials are delighted, and street activists are livid.The transformation has actually been gradual, as a unified push by teams of street cleaners, police officers and counselors ramped up over the past year and a half to dismantle 30 of the city’s biggest camps. Since the last large camps were removed last week in the southern part of town, none with more than 10 tents has been allowed to spring up.Mayor Mark...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateIf it seems like all the big homeless tent camps in San Francisco have suddenly vanished, that’s because it’s true. City officials are delighted, and street activists are livid.The transformation has actually been gradual, as a unified push by teams of street cleaners, police officers and counselors ramped up over the past year and a half to dismantle 30 of the city’s biggest camps. Since the last large camps were removed last week in the southern part of town, none with more than 10 tents has been allowed to spring up.Mayor Mark...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateEarl Sanders, the stylish, tough homicide detective who became San Francisco’s first African American police chief and who championed the hiring of minority officers, died Monday after a lengthy battle with kidney failure.Sanders was a San Francisco cop for 39 years, working some of the most difficult murders in the city’s history, from the Zebra “Death Angels” killings of the 1970s to the 101 California mass murder of the 1990s. He was 83 and died at an assisted living facility in Burlingame.Known for showing up at homicide...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateEarl Sanders, the stylish, tough homicide detective who became San Francisco’s first African American police chief and who championed the hiring of minority officers, died Monday after a lengthy battle with kidney failure.Sanders was a San Francisco cop for 39 years, working some of the most difficult murders in the city’s history, from the Zebra “Death Angels” killings of the 1970s to the 101 California mass murder of the 1990s. He was 83 and died at an assisted living facility in Burlingame.Known for showing up at homicide...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateDavid Perlman got to spend nearly eight decades doing what he loved most: hanging out with scientists, chasing down big stories from earthquakes to moon landings, and writing newspaper articles about them eloquently and fast.He loved everything about newspapers, and he was intensely proud that most of his career was spent in San Francisco, covering science for The Chronicle.At the time of his retirement in 2017, at the age of 98, Perlman — known fondly by his colleagues as “Dr. Dave” — was believed to be the oldest full-time news...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateDavid Perlman got to spend nearly eight decades doing what he loved most: hanging out with scientists, chasing down big stories from earthquakes to moon landings, and writing newspaper articles about them eloquently and fast.He loved everything about newspapers, and he was intensely proud that most of his career was spent in San Francisco, covering science for The Chronicle.At the time of his retirement in 2017, at the age of 98, Perlman — known fondly by his colleagues as “Dr. Dave” — was believed to be the oldest full-time news...WW…

He is our Jack the Ripper.Fifty years ago this week, a psychopath with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol sneaked up on two high school students parked on a windswept lover’s lane in Benicia. Shot down as they scrambled in terror, the young couple died in a spray of gunfire. It was an unusually messy crime scene.The killing on Dec. 20, 1968, of David Faraday, 17, and his 16-year-old date, Betty Lou Jensen, marked the beginning of what became the twisted legend of the Zodiac Killer. By the time he was done, five more victims across the Bay Area would be shot or stabbed — three of them...…He is our Jack the Ripper.Fifty years ago this week, a psychopath with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol sneaked up on two high school students parked on a windswept lover’s lane in Benicia. Shot down as they scrambled in terror, the young couple died in a spray of gunfire. It was an unusually messy crime scene.The killing on Dec. 20, 1968, of David Faraday, 17, and his 16-year-old date, Betty Lou Jensen, marked the beginning of what became the twisted legend of the Zodiac Killer. By the time he was done, five more victims across the Bay Area would be shot or stabbed — three of them...WW…

San Francisco’s health department confirmed Wednesday that the city was administering alcohol, tobacco, medical cannabis and other substances in an effort to prevent a handful of people quarantined or isolating in city-leased hotels from going outside to get the substances themselves.The hotel residents are also receiving medications such as methadone — delivered by methadone clinics — to tamp down heroin cravings. It’s all part of a widely used “harm reduction” approach to helping addicts stay inside and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus while coping with the loss or reduction of...…San Francisco’s health department confirmed Wednesday that the city was administering alcohol, tobacco, medical cannabis and other substances in an effort to prevent a handful of people quarantined or isolating in city-leased hotels from going outside to get the substances themselves.The hotel residents are also receiving medications such as methadone — delivered by methadone clinics — to tamp down heroin cravings. It’s all part of a widely used “harm reduction” approach to helping addicts stay inside and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus while coping with the loss or reduction of...WW…

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWalnut Creek declared a citywide curfew Sunday night and asked businesses to shut down immediately in response to unrest and looting in the Broadway Plaza shopping area, one of several Bay Area suburbs where vandalism was reported.A woman was shot and wounded in the arm in connection with the Walnut Creek unrest, police told The Chronicle. Dozens of stores in the shopping district were vandalized, and officers eventually fired tear gas to disperse protesters.“Due to civil unrest in the Broadway Plaza area, the city of Walnut Creek...…This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateWalnut Creek declared a citywide curfew Sunday night and asked businesses to shut down immediately in response to unrest and looting in the Broadway Plaza shopping area, one of several Bay Area suburbs where vandalism was reported.A woman was shot and wounded in the arm in connection with the Walnut Creek unrest, police told The Chronicle. Dozens of stores in the shopping district were vandalized, and officers eventually fired tear gas to disperse protesters.“Due to civil unrest in the Broadway Plaza area, the city of Walnut Creek...WW…