“A new Voice to cut through the noise.” That’s what our editorial director, Susan Dyer Reynolds, envisioned when The Voice of San Francisco launched last April.
Since then, The Voice has published over 250 articles covering the issues we hope matter most to San Franciscans. We have endeavored to force what our publisher, John Zipperer, called “a fearless exploration of what is really wrong with the city.”
Here are some of the stories we and our readers liked in the past year. As we add new talent to our editorial team, expect The Voice to continue shaking things up in 2025, a year that promises seismic changes for the city’s governance. Together, we’ll see if those promises are kept.
Susan Dyer Reynolds, July 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom may have seen Rob Bonta’s appointment as attorney general as a political groundbreaker. Still, Bonta and his wife have questionable financial ties, including those contributing to Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s recent downfall.
Politically motivated dark money news websites outpaced ethical local news outlets
Patricia Brooks, July 2024
While much attention was placed on tech industry ties to 501(c)4 political advocacy fronts, fewer eyes were on left-establishment groups using the same tactics, such as the Phoenix Project and the curious “pink slime” fake news sites run in service of Supervisor Dean Preston.
Susan Dyer Reynolds, August 2024
In December 2020, two women were killed in a hit-and-run by an armed felon with over a hundred arrests in San Francisco, driving a stolen car from the scene of a burglary he had just committed. Public outrage over the case eventually led to the movement to successfully recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, but the offender has yet to face trial.
Macy’s Union Square: Loss prevention agents speak out
Erica Sandberg, October 2024
An on-the-ground look at the often Sisyphean job of keeping the city’s landmark department store safe as it faces closure and how it exemplifies the caustic effects of the city’s petty crime problem.
The Voice has published over 250 articles covering the issues we hope matter most to San Franciscans.
Elisabeth Statmore, October 2024
San Francisco’s public schools prioritize college and career readiness. However, deference politics in grading are making it harder for high school graduates to launch into adulthood.
Expected Trump executive order may return San Francisco to birthright citizenship fight
John Trasviña, November 2024
In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution means what it says about citizenship— that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens. That case involved a San Franciscan, Wong Kim Ark. The Trump administration wants to restrict birthright citizenship to the offspring of citizens and legal residents. San Francisco will likely become a battleground in resisting any such executive order.
Police commissioner, spouse implicated in campaign of harassment
Mike Ege, November 2024
HOA disputes can often be bad enough, but when the antagonists are a San Francisco police commissioner and his deputy public defender spouse, it’s a whole new level of abuse — especially when you try to help police when another neighbor tries to burn someone’s hair off with a blowtorch.
Proposition L fails, raising fears of future Muni cuts
Jerold Chinn, November 2024
Proposition L was a Hail Mary from transit boosters that couldn’t win against a required supermajority for passage. It also faced a poison pill from a concurrent business tax reform measure. Supporters struggled to focus public attention on Muni’s fiscal cliff, resulting in fare hikes and service cuts.
Will Durst, November 2024
“NorCal and SoCal are two totally different states and the two regions already have their capitals in place, which do not like each other. Although admittedly, L.A. can be awfully pretty, especially in the spring, when the smog turns green.”
San Francisco schools’ plan to pay teachers to retire in latest effort to avoid state takeover
John Trasviña, December 2024
We scooped the dailies with the news of San Francisco’s financially beleaguered school district offering older, higher-paid teachers the opportunity to retire and receive 60 percent of their pay to reduce layoffs.