By John Arensmeyer
Founder and CEO of Small Business Majority

California's small business owners, who employ over 50% of the private sector workforce, are fed up with our health care crisis; they want bold action now, and they are more than ready to be part of the solution. Other business groups, who focus their energies on opposing all meaningful health care reform, do not speak for the millions of California's entrepreneurs who know that the inability to obtain affordable health care for their families and their employees severely impedes California's economic progress and hampers their pursuit of the American Dream. Read more »

Earlier in the year ActLocallySF.org hosted an article in support of Bus Rapid Transit on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco. Below is another view for the proposed BRT line for Geary.

By Planning Association for the Richmond

The image of unimpeded, predictable and comfortable transit from the Richmond District to downtown described for a BRT System is attractive, even seductive. However, the reality is that there are many unanswered questions, including what service levels will be provided and how BRT would work at key intersections and east of Van Ness Avenue. Read more »

By Jane Meredith Adams
Chicago Tribune

As Democratic presidential candidates unveil proposals for universal or near-universal health care for all Americans, San Franciscans already are signing up for a new program that guarantees free or sliding-scale medical care to all uninsured adults. The program provides a network of care to city residents, regardless of existing medical conditions, immigration status or ability to pay. The plan began in pilot form in July. Expanding citywide this week, it is the first attempt by an American city to tackle the health-care crisis, with the assistance of state and federal funds. Unlike other universal health-care plans being proposed, Healthy San Francisco is not insurance -- because health coverage doesn't travel with the individual. Care is provided and paid for only at clinics and hospitals in San Francisco. Read more »

By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco's unique experiment in providing health care for all its residents took a significant step forward Monday - moving beyond its trial phase at two clinics in Chinatown and into 20 additional clinics around the city. The expansion comes as the national debate over how to solve the country's health care problem continues to rage. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday announced her national plan for universal health care should she be elected president, and California lawmakers are in a special session trying to hammer out a state plan for health care.

Read more »

By Kevin Sack
New York Times

The initiative, known as Healthy San Francisco, is the first of its kind in the nation, and represents the latest attempt by state and local governments to patch a broken federal system. It is financed mostly by the city, which is gambling that it can provide universal and sensibly managed care to the uninsured for about the amount being spent on their treatment now, often in emergency rooms. After a two-month trial at two clinics in Chinatown, the program is scheduled to expand citywide to 20 other locations on Sept. 17.

Read more »

By John DeStefano, Jr.
Mayor, New Haven, CT

Our American values are built upon a careful balance of individual rights and initiative weighed against shared community action and institutions.  In New Haven, we have chosen to accomplish that goal by engaging all of our residents and offering a resident card irrespective of immigration status.  Not all agree with this direction.  And, some ask “What part of ‘illegal’ doesn’t the City understand?”  But, they miss the point and they miss our American history.  The point is that by not acting, the Federal government is winking its eye and tacitly acknowledging and legitimizing the presence of some 13 million undocumented residents. Therefore, we must, for reasons of public safety and for reasons of building a strong community; implement our own solutions.

Read more »

By Rachel Gordon
San Francisco Chronicle

The number of injury collisions in San Francisco caused by red-light jumpers has dropped by more than half over the past decade, a dramatic decrease that officials attribute in part to cameras mounted at nearly two dozen treacherous intersections in the city.  In 1998 - the year after the first red-light cameras were mounted at a handful of intersections in San Francisco - the number of reported injury crashes involving red-light violations was 773. In 2006, the number was 374, according to data compiled by the city. Read more »

By John J. Donohue III and Jens Ludwig

It would be unrealistic to expect crime to continue dropping sharply as it did in the 1990s, but that is no reason to undermine the progress brought by successful policies. With recent FBI data showing crime on the rise, it is time to reconsider the massive de-funding of one of the most successful federal anti-crime measures of the 1990s: the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) program. The program, authorized by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, provides grants to state and local police to hire additional officers and adopt aspects of "community policing." Read more »

By Tamara Barak
San Francisco Examiner

Combining the fight against global warning with a Web-based community is a match made in the Bay Area. Although EarthLab.com was born in Seattle, local residents are flocking to it in record numbers since its launch on July 7, in conjunction with the Live Earth concert. The green-focused Web site, which is unique in its ability to calculate the environmental footprint and carbon output from each individual and compare scores across regions or zip codes, has attracted 38,000 users from the Bay Area in less than two months, said site founder Duane Dahl. Read more »