Nuala Bishari

Columnist and Editorial Writer at San Francisco Chronicle

Columns and editorials at @sfchronicle | formerly @propublica @sfweekly | Raised in NM | It’s pronounced noo-lah 🏳️‍🌈

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Articles

Your Walgreens may be closing next month, but not for the reasons you think

Jan 25, 2025 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

The Walgreens at 4645 Mission St. shut down in 2021 when the chain closed five stores in the city. Walgreens plans to close 12 more San Francisco stores in February. Constanza Hevia H./Special to the Chronicle 2021Do you get monthly prescriptions at Walgreens in San Francisco? If so, you may soon be out of luck. Earlier this month, Walgreens announced it would shut down a dozen locations in the city, citing the rising costs of doing business.
San Francisco’s new mayor is a rich guy. That doesn’t mean the city is up for sale

Nov 7, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

On Thursday, San Francisco’s Department of Elections released another round of ballot results confirming what we already suspected: mayoral candidate Mark Farrell’s dismal fourth-place finish and the likely failure of Proposition D, which sought cap the number of city oversight commissions at 65 and increase the mayor’s authority.
Who gets to die with dignity in California and who doesn’t?

Aug 3, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

Last month, California released its annual report on terminally ill Californians who took aid-in-dying drugs to end their lives. All told, 884 people died in California by using end-of-life medication prescribed by their doctors. I knew one of them. My partner’s mother, Linda, chose to end her own life in this manner last year after learning her colon cancer was terminal. In the weeks before her death, she got her affairs in order and said goodbye to her friends.
This right-wing lawsuit against San Francisco is a preview of what’s to come under Trump and Project 2025

Jul 22, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

Three years ago, San Francisco launched an experiment to give 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for the duration of their pregnancy and six months after the birth. Half of all maternal deaths in San Francisco each year are Black women, even though they make up only 4% of births. The highest rate of infant deaths — more than 15% — are Black babies, while 10% are Pacific Islander American.
S.F.’s most important trans health clinic was at death’s door during COVID. Now it’s expanding

Jun 28, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

Since 1980, Lyon-Martin Community Health has been San Francisco’s most important health service provider to transgender, gender-nonconforming and intersex patients, and it is a refuge for people seeking gender-affirming care. It hasn’t been a smooth ride. For the past decade, every time I’ve heard about Lyon-Martin, it was accompanied by news that the organization was in financial trouble. The clinic nearly closed in 2011 when it buckled under $500,000 of debt.
The untold story of the struggle against HIV in Oakland

Jun 22, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

When people think of the history of HIV and AIDS on the West Coast, San Francisco is usually the first city to come to mind. Before the first case of HIV was discovered in the early 1980s, San Francisco had put itself on the map as the epicenter of California’s fight for gay liberation. The city held its first gay pride parade in 1970, and local activists successfully fought statewide anti-LGBTQ legislation.
This program gives some S.F. residents free alcohol. Why it’s not as controversial as it sounds

Jun 8, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

For 45 years, Bruce nearly stopped eating entirely. Instead, he drank his breakfast, lunch and dinner. Severe alcohol use damaged his brain, doctors said. His balance was off, and he regularly lost the ability to stand up. He cycled in and out of hospitals.
How climate change is impacting the Bay Area's 'kitten season'

Jun 5, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

It’s 6:30 a.m., and I’m standing in my garage blearily counting kittens. As I hover over their large pen, I tally one, two, three, four … but not five. As I count again, sure I’ve gotten it wrong, a striped blur flies across the room. Lemon, an 8-week-old tabby kitten, has escaped, again. I soon find him under a nearby sofa. As I shimmy underneath it, arm outstretched to grab him, he skitters out of reach behind a bookshelf. For the past three weeks, this has been my life.
As SF’s Breed touts recent successes, overdoses aren’t among them

May 18, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

Is San Francisco spiraling into a doom loop or emerging from the depths toward a bright and sunny future? It depends on who you talk to. On Thursday, a summary of the annual point-in-time count of the city’s homeless population, conducted in January, was released by the San Francisco Department of Housing and Homeless Services. The count identifies various homeless populations and trends and helps inform policy decisions. The results of this year’s count aren’t great.
What it’s like to watch AI colonize your old job

May 12, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Nuala Bishari

I got my first job in journalism in 2013 as a reporter for the hyperlocal news site Hoodline. The site had just launched by merging three small neighborhood blogs under one umbrella, and our mission was to publish stories that skated under the radar of larger publications — a mural going up on the wall of a local pizzeria or a rogue garden planted outside the DMV. This approach proved successful at finding an audience.