Joe Eskenazi

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

Not long into his brief wondrous life as a San Francisco building inspector, Onaje Boone was taken aside by a higher-up. It was, to Boone’s recollection, a strange and terrible discussion. Boone, 47, a former carpenter, a licensed contractor and a building inspector in both the public and private sector for more than a decade, was last year told there were issues with his report writing. Specifically: They were too detailed. If the rebar is good, just write Rebar Good.

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Maura Corkery |Joe Eskenazi

In a last-minute and somewhat shocking reversal of a budget-cutting measure, the San Francisco Unified School District reversed the impending layoffs of 34 school counselors and 117 paraeducators — instructional aides, student and family resource personnel, security aides, and other staffing personnel. The district employees had received preliminary termination notices in late February and March in a cost-cutting bid to cover the SFUSD’s $114 million deficit. Very few expected a reprieve.

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

Sending District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to an ethics diversionary program would be pointless, according to a pair of appeals filed this month. “Jenkins has accepted no responsibility for her own actions,” reads a lengthy appeal submitted to the State Bar this month by retired judge Martha Goldin.

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

One of the many legacies of Mayor Ed Lee is that, after even the most apparently straightforward statement, San Francisco journalists are forced to ask elected officials, “Okay, for real?” That’s because after then-mayor Gavin Newsom decamped for Sacramento, the Board of Supervisors in 2011 elevated Ed Lee to be the ostensible caretaker mayor following his unambiguous, explicit pledge that he would not run in the 2012 mayor’s race. Lee ran in the 2012 mayor’s race. He won.

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

A long time ago, an eventual colleague of mine at the Hearst-era San Francisco Examiner — who could be described as dumb as a box of hammers, but this would necessitate discussing the relative intellects of varying types of hammers — had a problem at work. In this bygone era, information still traveled into newsrooms via tickertape. And this newspaperman simply couldn’t keep up with the flow of near-constant updates. So, he devised a solution: He turned off the newsroom tickertape machine.