The Guardsman, Vol. 171, Issue 7, City College of San Francisco

SILLY STORIES

INCREASE IN CRIME

NEW RECRUITING COORDINATOR

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Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 – May 11, 2021 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE | www.theguardsman.com

The empty hallways of the Creative Arts building on CCSF's Ocean Campus in April, preparing for partial reopening in the fall, with COVID-19 safety precautions. Photo by Carmen Marin/The Guardsman.

By Casey Michie

cmichie1@mail.ccsf.edu

As the vaccination effort offers a hopeful end to the COVID-19 pandemic, City College is tentatively plan‐ ning a partial return to campus for certain departments during the Fall 2021 semester.

The return to campus, which is not yet solidified in any plan, is constantly evolving and based around var‐ ious metrics and health guidelines from both the state and city of San Francisco.

At an open forum hosted on April 22, Chancellor Vurdien referenced California's colored tier reopening plan as a way to measure potential future in-person activities. This plan, however, is set to expire on June 15 by orders of Governor Newsom, more than a month before the start of City College’s fall semester.

When asked about the end of the color tiered plan and what that means for the fall return to campus, Chancellor Vurdien said the June 15 reopening date is not a certainty, stating, “the ending [of the colored tier

plan is] predicated on several other metrics that need to reach a certain level.”

The two metrics that must be met for reopening, laid out in the Beyond the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, are listed as, “Equitable vaccine availability: If vaccine supply is suffi‐ cient for Californians 16 years or older who wish to be inoc‐ ulated,” and “Consistently low burden of disease: Hospital‐ izations are stable and low, and specifically, hospitalizations among fully vaccinated individuals are low.”

According to recent data on COVID-19 cases and vacci‐ nations, it seems very likely that these two metrics will be met.

As of last week, California has been reporting the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate of any state in the continental US, according to data from John Hopkins University. This promising trend comes as the state is administering an aver‐ age of 364,236 vaccine doses a day as reported by the Cali‐ fornia Department of Public Health.

Vaccine administration across the country is equally encouraging. Data sourced from the CDC and presented by the New York Times vaccine tracker, shows current trends as

of April 24 estimate that all Americans over the age of 16 will be at least partially inoculated by July 27, 2021.

A majority of San Franciscans may be inoculated even sooner, as San Francisco far outpaces the rest of the nation in vaccinations. Data sourced from the California Immuniza‐ tion Registry (CAIR2) shows San Francisco leads the national vaccine effort by 19%, with 60% of San Franciscans having received at least one shot, compared to the national average of 41% as of April 24.

These promising trends towards herd immunity indicates the June 15 reopening of California will likely be met. If so, the plan states that “schools and institutions of higher educa‐ tion should conduct full-time, in person instruction, in com‐ pliance with Cal/OSHA emergency temporary standards and public health guidelines.”

School systems across the state have expressed optimism with the current data, and many expect a full return to cam‐ pus in the fall.

In an April 6 statement, Chancellor of the California State University (CSU) system Joseph I. Castro said, “As

Classes continues on p. 3

By Annette Mullaney amullan4@mail.ccsf.edu

With deadlines for layoffs looming, Interim Chancellor Rajen Vurdien announced that City College has submitted a request for $30 million to City Hall, and revealed an untapped

source of up to $10 million a year as part of the college’s ongoing efforts to address its $33 million budget deficit.

According to Vurdien at the April 22 Chancellor’s Forum, the city’s Free City program currently pays up to $10 million for students who qualify for federal and

state aid but don’t apply. That money, al‐ ready earmarked by the city for the col‐ lege, would be freed up if students filled out FAFSA. The request asks San Francisco for $15 million a year for the next two years and could be introduced to the Board of

Supervisors and would have to be introduced soon to impact the Fall and Summer sched‐ ules. The proposal includes $5 million to keep 500 sections of high-demand, high-cost classes related to workforce training serving 12,000 students, $4.8 million in direct

Emergency continues on p. 3

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

By Shayna Gee

sgee23@mail.ccsf.edu

When City College shifted to distance learning a year ago, the journalism department was faced with the challenge of how to im‐ merse students into the world of journalism, one that typically en‐ courages students to be in the field gathering information.

Journalism department Chair Juan Gonzales, who has built a substantial network of profession‐ als, has been inviting guest speak‐ ers such as acclaimed journalists Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and A.C. Thompson to his digital classroom.

Gonzales serves as adviser to The Guardsman and also founded El Tecolote, the longest bilingual newspaper in California serving news and information to the Latino communities in San Fran‐ cisco since 1970.

Gonzales’ Internet Journalism 35 class was joined by former stu‐ dent Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, a producer and reporter at San Francisco’s KQED who has been reporting in the San Francisco Bay Area for about 8 years. Rodriguez talked to students about how he uses social media to report stories, most notably on his Twitter plat‐ form which has garnered nearly 20,000 followers.

“I think it's important that stu‐ dents make professional connec‐ tions,” Rodriguez said. “In fact, it was a program that Juan hooked me up with, a summer journalism program, that had a guest speaker that led to my first journalism job.”

Rodriguez was a student at City College for six years, two of which he spent as a writer and a multimedia editor for The

Former City College student Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez is a popular San Francisco journalist who now works at KQED. Photo courtesy of Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.

A.C. Thompson is an investigative journalist with ProPublica. Photo courtesy of A.C. Thompson.

Guardsman, all while working two jobs.

He transferred to San Francisco State University (SFSU) where he con‐ tinued his study in journalism and par‐ ticipated in Bay News Rising’s summer program. Guest speakers Tim

Redmond and Steve Jones who were the editor and news editor of the San Fran‐ cisco Bay Guardian eventually helped him land a job writing for the Bay Guardian.

Rodriguez credits Gonzales, “I

Staff Editors-in-Chief Eleni Balakrishnan Alexa Bautista News Editor John Taylor Wildfeuer

Culture Editor Hannah Asuncion Opinion Editor Tim Hill Sports Editor Kaiyo Funaki

would not have gotten my first journalism job if Juan had not been making connections for all the students.”

City College’s journalism department continues to reel in working professionals as guest lecturers. However, Ro‐ driguez says he’s been speak‐ ing to students a lot less during the pandemic, citing the com‐ mon “Zoom fatigue.”

“It’s been harder to get people’s attention … I’m very energetic, but on Zoom calls, it's much harder to grab peo‐ ple’s attention,” Rodriguez said.

Before the pandemic, Ro‐ driguez often ran into his old professors at journalism gath‐ erings. A few years ago, he at‐ tended a celebratory gathering for the anniversary of El Te‐ colote when he bumped into one of his old professors from SFSU who then invited him to speak in his class.

“And then because I spoke in his class, I spoke in three other SF State classes … and it just snowballed like the serendipity of life. There’s less opportunity [to interact with students during the pan‐ demic],” Rodriguez said.

Despite the pandemic, Gonzales has consistently

Photo Editor Carmen Marin Copy Editors Tobin Jones Sadie Peckens Design Director Manon Cadenaule

invited guest speakers like Ro‐ driguez. Other local guests have included Victor Tence of KALW, Saul Sugarman of San Francisco’s Examiner, and Ryan Singel of Wired (for‐ merly) now founder of Con‐ textly. Gonzales paves a path for students to hear from new voices and engage with profes‐ sional journalists working jobs they may want to do someday.

Most recently, Gonzales brought on guest lecturer A.C. Thompson in his Investigative Reporting class (JOUR 36).

Thompson spent a decade working on alternative week‐ lies in San Francisco and about 15 years as an investiga‐ tive reporter for ProPublica and a correspondent for PBS Frontline.

“To me, investigative jour‐ nalism is that excavation of buried history, it's the archae‐ ology of now, it is telling the stories that do not want to be told, it is communicating truth that people do not want to hear. The best investigative stories always have some sort of impact component, that the journalism creates material change in the real world,” Thompson said.

He carried on a personal and fruitful conversation with

Social Media Editor Annette Mullaney Staff Writers Colton Webster Ava Cohen Angela Greco Garrett Leahy

students about his career and gave advice on covering stress‐ ful topics and “tips and tricks” for developing stories and starting conversations.

“So much of it is practice, you know, so much of it is just doing it and making calls and visiting people and knocking on their doors, and doing it over and over again,” Thomp‐ son said.

“Because what I would do when I was younger — and like I said I didn't go to college, I barely got out of high school — I would look at the story. I'd be like, ‘oh, wow, that's an amazing story.’ And I would just be dazzled by it,” Thomp‐ son reflected on his youth.

Thompson noted that pri‐ vate investigator Ed Oasa taught him that journalism and investigation are very identical as well as how to communicate with people.

Thompson lends his per‐ spective to students on dissect‐ ing stories by asking critical questions. “I would say, oh, how did they do that story?

What was the reporting line?

What kind of how did they write the story? And what other stories is this like?”

Shayna Gee Casey Michie Samya Brohmi Illustrators Daina Medveder Koziot Erin Blackwell

Serena Sacharoff Photographer Melvin Wong

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

Emergency continued from p. 1 enrollment incentives for students, and over $2.5 million in various other measures to increase enrollment.

However, even if passed, this package will not impact layoffs, according to City College Board of Trustees President Shanell Williams. “Negotiations are number one for determination over layoffs. This proposal will help in the long term to boost our enroll‐ ment,” she said.

Enrollment, a substantial factor in the state’s funding formula, has plummeted at City College over the last decade. At its height, in AY 2008-09, there were over 100,000 students. Ten years later, there were just over 65,000 students, with enrollment de‐ clining even more during the pandemic.

A report by the state’s Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Team earlier this month underscored the severity of City College’s financial crisis. The report, made public by the Chronicle, says structural deficit spending, stemming from “excess staffing, ex‐ cess learning sites, and lack of internal con‐ trols,” raised “substantial doubt about [the college’s] ability to continue.”

Under the five-year budget plan adopted by the Board of Trustees in November to address the deficit, courses will be cut by 20% for credit classes and 24% for noncredit. Lay‐ offs of 163 full-time faculty, which the union calculates would also mean layoffs for 477 part-timers, will take effect May 15 if addi‐ tional funding or concessions with the faculty union AFT2121 are not reached.

All-day hearings, in which faculty can contest their layoff notices on procedural grounds, began Monday April 23 with clos‐ ing arguments expected April 27. According to AFT2121 President Malaika Finkelstein, six layoffs were dismissed out of hand. For others, the presiding judge will make recom‐ mendations, with ultimate decisions falling to the City College Board of Trustees at a spe‐ cial board meeting on May 10.

Meanwhile, negotiations continue.

AFT2121 Vice President Mary Bravewoman said that while an official offer has not been made, the administration has been discussing reducing the number of full-time layoffs to 52

in exchange for $5 million in salary conces‐ sions. The union calculated that under this scheme there would also be 269 part-time layoffs.

“They need faculty to give up $20 mil‐ lion. How that happens doesn’t really mat‐ ter,” Bravewoman said. “Our position is that really there has to be a better way.”

The City College administration did not respond to requests for comments.

Students and faculty have been protesting layoffs and class cuts for months. They have also lobbied the city for emergency funding, culminating in an April 9 hearing before the Youth, Young Adult, and Families Commit‐ tee, and are running campaigns urging peo‐ ple to voice their support for City College.

“The state of California is not providing for the college that the city needs. San Fran‐ cisco deserves a real community college,” Finkelstein said.

“There’s clearly a need for immediate financial support for City College to avert the widespread layoffs and resultant reductions in classes and programs,” said District 4 Su‐ pervisor Gordon Mar, who has been in talks with senior administrators, trustees, and the union about securing funding.

Bravewoman said the union and super‐ visors including Mar have discussed city funding of up to $30-40 million a year over the next couple of years, but could go as low as $10 million in an attempt to secure wider support.

Mar and District 9 Supervisor Hilary Ronen also invited City College administra‐ tors, Williams, Vice President Tom Tem‐ prano, and Trustee Thea Selby to an April 15 meeting to discuss securing city funds for the college. Based on that discussion, City College administrators formulated the $10 million request.

The city has approved emergency fund‐ ing for the college previously. In late 2019, then-Chancellor Mark Rocha rejected $2.4 million from the Board of Supervisors to re‐ store cut classes. Last year Mar spearheaded the creation of the Workforce Education and Recovery Fund (WERF). Originally slated to provide $20 million per year, the fund was scaled back considerably during the

Table assembled by Annette Mullaney with data from The City College of San Francisco Request for Supplemental Aid.

Illustration by Erin Blackwell/The Guardsman. Instagram: @blackwelldrawingfool

pandemic, providing $200,000 for Spring 2021.

Almost all parties emphasized the need for longer term support to address the college’s structural budget deficit.

Mar cited the Public Education Enrich‐ ment Fund (PEEF), approved by San Francisco voters in 2004, which currently provides over $70 million yearly to the San Francisco Unified School District, as a possible template for sustained city funding. Establishing a similar fund for city college would require a city ballot measure, which Mar said he is working on bringing to the voters in 2022.

“I think all of my colleagues recog‐ nize the importance of City College,” said Mar, but added, “city government is facing financial challenges and its own deficit.”

“We’re going to need all or at least a supermajority of the Board of Supervi‐ sors to support it,” Mar said. “I would encourage people to reach out to their district supervisor.”

Williams agreed that people should contact their supervisors. “Now is the time to support City College.” she said.

“We are an anchor institution in the city of San Francisco.”

Infographic by Annette Mullaney with sourcing from a spreadsheet presented by Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Tom Boegel at a recent faculty negotiation.

Classes continued from p. 1 regions throughout California continue to make significant progress in our collective effort to defeat COVID-19, I am increasingly optimistic about the California State University's ability to return to delivering a majority of classes and activities in person in the fall.”

San Francisco State University, part of the CSU system, expressed optimism about Chancellor Castro’s remarks and announced on their news page that “The CSU expects its campuses (including San Francisco State University) to return to primarily in-person instruction for the fall 2021 semester.”

City College, conversely, does not plan on implementing a full return to campus for the fall semester.

Director of Media for City College Rosie Zepeda noted, “[City College] will operate the same way in the summer and fall semesters as we are currently operating now in the spring. However, we are creating a plan to potentially have up to 25% of students come

back to campus in the fall.”

Zepeda said that departments that require in-person learning, such as science labs and nursing, will be prioritized over departments that can successfully continue to teach remotely.

Directives from the San Francisco Department of Public Health were cited by Zepeda as the main reason for not implementing a full return to campus. “[City College’s] return to campus has to be approved and evaluated by the [San Francisco] Department of Public Health,” Zepeda said.

Details on which classes may return to campus this fall will be published on May 17, according to an April 15 update from City College.

For more information on City College’s current return to campus plan, visit COVID19 Updates and Plans to Return to Campus page on the school’s website.

Vol. 171, Issue 7 |April 28 - May 11, 2021

Book cover of "Sillypants: How to Dress for a Pandemic" by Madigan Kent and her 4th grade daughter Belle Kent. Photo courtesy of Madigan Kent.

By Manon Cadenaule

manoncadenaule@gmail.com

M

adigan Kent is a psychotherapist who is used to hearing about a wide range of problems, but in 2020, the trouble was more significant. The world spoke about the same problem, the worldwide pandemic known as COVID-19.

Kent began to write for fun to process this absurd situation and release emotions. Her writ‐ ing journey started in March 2020 as a therapeu‐ tic way to exorcise the bad and keep the good during this dark, introspective period. It was a moment of non-verbal therapy until she decided to show to the world her work since it might help people.

1. Can you speak a little more about your journey as a new writer since you started?

“Exploded out of nowhere. I hadn't done any arts or writing for maybe 20 years, within a week of lockdown and all my kids being sent home from school, a lot of visual and emotional content started pouring out of me and so I started to write it down. Some images started coming to me, sort of like dreams. It was very unclear.”

2. Which specific event made you click and start writing? Why write now and not before?

“I remember having a story written and sit‐ ting on my porch and telling a friend I had written a story about the lockdown and about people not wearing pants.

“I have been that week in my bedroom draw‐ ing and writing, and I remember laying every‐ thing out. Things bubbled up during the remote school days because [the kids] came home full time and we were just told that they weren't going back to school on Monday and I had no experi‐ ence teaching or anything. We didn't have com‐ puters. We were just stunned.

“The school week would start and I was like, ok I can do some school work and then I am gonna go hide, I am gonna write and I am gonna draw. It must have been my way of releasing ev‐ erything that was happening inside because it was just so choking.”

3. How was it to write your first book?

What did you want to achieve?

“I was trying to express the feelings that I was having, and I wanted to communicate what it felt like; this sort of Dadaist upside world that it was.

It was funny but also dark and sweet because

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Therapist and author Madigan Kent and her 4th grade daughter smiling for the camera, along with sketches of their silly pants. Photo courtesy of Madigan Kent.

Crayon version of the farmer in the book "Sillypants: How to Dress for the Pandemic," by Madigan Kent and Belle Kent.

Digitized version of the farmer in the book "Sillypants: How to Dress for the Pandemic," by Madigan Kent and Belle Kent.

everybody was trying to make it work. It was just absurd.

“It was therapeutic to draw these absurd pic‐ tures and joke about the different people in our lives that were going through it.”

4. How do you connect therapy and writing? Did you try to use your therapy skills to fix things?

“As a therapist, the situation was absurd and humbling. My clients were doing therapy in bunk beds and closets, and laundry rooms. Couples sat on bedroom floors talking about feelings.

Therapy is verbal right? And non-verbal by communicating with somebody. It is sharing an experience, being there with somebody and hold‐ ing that space, so nobody is alone, and parenting is not so different. We have all this time together, and none of this situation is making sense cogni‐ tively — but emotionally, we are going through this very big wave of scary stuff and uncertainty, and we don't know what one day to another is going to look like. All we have is right now when we are sitting together — drawing solved that problem to a degree.

“It was less important for me to be a good therapist for my kids than it was to stay regulated myself and above water myself so they would not pick up on all my stress. I noticed so quickly that if I was overwhelmed, then they were over‐ whelmed. Being a therapist to them is really not what they needed; they needed me to hold a lot of space for them, so we weren't falling apart.”

5. Why did you also choose to illustrate your work? Which illustration is your fa‐ vorite? Why? What does it mean for you?

“Because I was doing it for fun, if I was a pro‐ fessional at it and I wanted to create the best prod‐ uct then I would have chosen the part I was best at but it would have changed the vision I guess. I was trying to send a message, and the message included the visuals. The illustrations I like the most are portraits. I like the piano teacher portrait, and I like the farmer, I like the grandma in the third book, I like Sammy in the bathtub, Sammy as a cowboy going down the stairs. They are all conveying something emotional. They are com‐ forting and funny.”

6. What can you say about the self-pub‐ lishing journey? What is it like for you? Do you find more liberties? Or more restrictions?

“I am still in the process of turning it into the final product. It's an extensive process, and I am

Silly Stories continues on p. 5 YouTube theguardsmanonline

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Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

By Samya Brohmi sbrohmi@gmail.com

In the early 2000s, Bay Area hip hop and the inseparable hyphy move‐ ment began to garner national attention when radio hits like E-40’s “Tell Me When to Go” and Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle” made it on Billboard’s charts.

Yet there was a clear absence of San Francisco representation, with the city’s MCs preferring to “knock underground.”

One of the city’s greatest rap lyri‐ cists, Ilyich Yasushi Sato — better known as Equipto — has been a mainstay in the scene since the late ‘90s. In 1999, he dropped his first solo album, “Vintage Volume Won,” which became one of the most coveted collector’s items for under‐ ground hip hop fans from the Bay Area to Japan. Today, he balances running Solidarity Records, creating his own music, and serving his community through political action.

The ‘90s was a formative time for hip hop nationwide. One of the premier groups to come out of San Francisco was Bored Stiff in 1992.

The group’s roots lie between the Fill‐ more and Lower Haight neighborhoods and consisted of 12 members, including Equipto. Bored Stiff came from different parts of the city and became friends over their shared love for hip-hop music.

“There’s a lot more to it, but it would take forever to explain how the connections happened,” Equipto explained. “I think what sets us apart from other Bay Area MCs or whatnot is that we’re from San Francisco. One of the main metropolitan cities and

tourist attractions in the U.S. I think it gives us Frisco artists that are still around surviving, a bit of a chip on our shoulder, and that can go many places creatively.”

Equipto’s artistry is a balancing act between pen wielder and advocate for the people. He doesn’t shy away from calling out local politicians or address‐ ing evident social problems in his music.

“I would say it probably gives a homegrown feel to the music I create.

Being in touch with what’s happening in your own community is integral. Not just being informed, being active,” he said.

However, Equipto admitted that artists should be mindful of how they approach tackling social problems in the studio and on the frontlines. “I do think we need more political education offered to the people before we speak or sing on some of these issues. Passion is good, but I believe being educated on the issues we are fighting will make the art that much more significant.”

In addition to honing his craft, Equipto runs Solidarity Records, a San Francisco-based independent label focused on releasing underground hip hop cuts. Under his direction, Solidar‐ ity does things a little differently than other labels.

“I’ve always considered Solidarity Records more like a platform for younger and older artists to feel free to do what they wanted. Bridging the generations but in tradition of what the culture embodies,” Equipto said. “No artist is signed to Solidarity. We release projects that we feel fit the criteria of what Solidarity reflects. It could be old or new. It’s important for artists to feel the freedom to create, and being able

Bay Area hip hop artist Equipto poses for a portrait on Oct. 9, 2018 in San Francisco, CA. Photo courtesy of George Eduardo Barahona/El Tecolote.

to assist with that is beautiful.”

Equipto’s 1999 album “Vintage Volume Won” has built a strong reputation as a collector’s item in underground hip hop listening circles. Finding the prized 12” vinyl LP is near impossible, sold out on online records stores as far as in Japan and Germany.

When asked about the demand for his first solo project, he was genuinely surprised. “Collector’s item?” he asked.

“Wow. That’s humbling.”

However, the event that led to the fruition of the project holds an emotional heaviness. Equipto’s good friend from Bored Stiff was murdered in 1996, inspiring him to finish the solo project.

“I remember talking with Jo Jo and he told me I should do some solo music and release it. Then he got killed,” Equipto said. “It changed all our lives. I think I hid and just pushed through creatively during that time. The result was ‘Vintage Volume Won.’” To find out more about what Equipto’s working on, follow him on Instagram and support his projects on Solidarity Records’ Bandcamp.

Silly Stories continued from p. 4 proud of myself for having a fi‐ nal creation and pushing myself to make that happen, not giving up on the technical side of it. It's very freeing, it's kind of cool these days you can have some‐ thing in mind you want to share with the world, and without bankrupting yourself, you can share it.

“And I don't know if it would have been the same case if I would have sent the manuscript to an editor and have a different person illustrating it. I don't know if I would have been proud of that process, they would cut various things, and by self-pub‐ lishing, I don't have to fit into a category.”

7. Who is your favorite character and why?

“The joy that Sammy experi‐ ences when he is happy is conta‐ gious. He is so raw, and every emotion that he feels is very unedited, very pure; you feel it when you are with him, and you want him to succeed because

The piano teacher in the book "Sillypants: How to Dress for the Pandemic" by Madigan Kent and her 4th grade daughter Belle Kent. Photo courtesy of Madigan Kent.

The piano teacher in the book "Sillypants: How to Dress for the Pandemic" by Madigan Kent and her 4th grade daughter Belle Kent. Photo courtesy of Madigan Kent. Crayon version.

Bay Area hip hop artist Equipto poses for a portrait on Oct. 9, 2018 in San Francisco, CA. Photo courtesy of George Eduardo Barahona/El Tecolote.

when he does, he feels so good about it. So, I think it's Sammy.”

8. What are your upcom‐ ing plans? Where do you see your writing career in a few years?

“I will keep doing it. I think I will wait for an emotional moment that strikes me. The life journey with my son is probably where the most emotional processing hap‐ pens because it's just so raw, and the way he sees the world is unique, charming, and creative.

“Continuing to process really difficult emotional material with kids by being there with them in a hard moment. Continuing to con‐ vey strong feelings and emotions that's where things bubble up for me and I do use them as tools to connect with my kids and to talk.

Just to conclude, I will be working with more Sammy, more school, and more absurd.”

Kent is currently working on the remaster of her first book, "Sil‐ lypants Goes to Remote School," and will release "Sillypants: How to Dress for a Pandemic" and "Sil‐ lypants: Which Do You Like Best?" in the next month or so. The books will be soon available on Amazon.

You can follow the author on Instagram @sillypantsbook or her website www.madigankent.com.

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin faces backlash for supposed increased crime rates

By Ava Cohen

avaocohen@gmail.com

In recent months, San Francisco residents have become the US National Library of Medicine on the issue of addic‐ Boudin’s way of thinking. I’m sure they also hate the fact concerned about a supposed increase in crime rates in the tion. But unsurprisingly, the budget for the 2019-20 fiscal that Boudin helped release 40% of incarcerated people in city, and formal mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg went year for the San Francisco Health Service System was only the pandemic because this intrudes on their bubble of safety so far as to create a change.org petition attempting to recall $12,087,904, and $54,998,356 for the Homelessness and that uses violence to keep others out.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The peti‐ Supportive Housing department.

It seems that most of why Boudin has received so much tion surpassed its goal with 15,000 signatures.

These numbers seem high until you compare it to the backlash recently is because SFPD and much of the white It’s not entirely clear where this scuttlebutt derived police department budget and how SFPD does absolutely upper and middle class have had some level of comfort from, but the speculation over a rise in crime is present even on neighborhood apps such as Nextdoor, where people love to make their laments behind a shield of anonymity, mak‐ ing statements that they cannot express elsewhere.

However, these rumors of increasing crime rates are only a method of fear mon‐ gering. Stop Crime SF went so far as to claim that homicide rates went up by 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year, but provides no concrete evidence of this. Recent data shows that violent crime in the city is actually the lowest it’s been since 1975, and San Fran‐ cisco had a significantly smaller population than it does now. A quick glimpse at this graph clearly shows not only a decrease in violent crimes in 2020 but a decrease in prop‐ erty crimes as well.

The assumption that theft from vehicles has increased is clearly invalid according to the second graph shown here. Theft from ve‐ hicles allegedly lessened from 24,805 in 2019 to 17,146 in 2020.

What I find most concerning is that this conjecture might allow for more residents to call the police in unnecessary circumstances, and the police are always prone to causing more violence and chaos than actually help‐ ing to decrease it.

This powerpoint shows that the police department budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year was a whopping $692,937,316, which re‐ sulted in a budget of an incredulous $747,646,708 for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Part of the requests that the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) made was for another hundred patrol cars, and the only logical rea‐ son for that is so SFPD would have more ac‐ cess to harassing homeless people and other marginalized groups. The graphs clearly show that there was a noteworthy decrease in crime in 2020, so I’m not sure why they’d need a larger budget otherwise.

Another request they made was more funds for lab equipment to reopen the drug Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/The Guardsman. Instagram: @dmkoziot section, and that fact alone sets off red flags considering police intervention has always been more nothing to help actually solve problems of addiction and taken away. They rely on the carceral system to preserve harmful to addicts, and rehabilitation as well as other men‐ substance abuse. their bubbles of utopia, free from poverty and other factors tal and physical health resources always prove to be much Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco district attorney, has that “invade” their way of being. more helpful. received much of the blame for this supposed uptick in Boudin himself has an incarcerated parent, and the But this reopening of the drug section makes me won‐ crime. He spoke about it on 60 Minutes, but SFist wrote a other served 22 years. der, is this because of the uptick of substance use and ad‐ short recap.

“It is not rehabilitating people. It is warehousing them,” diction since the start of the pandemic? Not only this, but “We need to do more than simply arrest street-level Boudin said on the topic of mass incarceration on 60 Min‐ often when police murder people in cold blood, the argu‐ dealers. If all you're doing is taking a couple grams off the utes. “And in the process, it is bankrupting state and local ment is “they were on drugs,” as if this made their death street, great. But it has never made a difference,” said governments; it is destroying communities and families. It any more justified.

Boudin. While I don’t necessarily agree that anyone should is contributing to an intergenerational cycle of incarceration.”

“Social and economic changes caused by the pandemic, be incarcerated for substance use or dealing, I think along with the traditional difficulties regarding treatment Boudin’s approach is a good start. access and adherence — will certainly worsen during this Police Chief Bill Scott says that SFPD does have prob‐ period, therefore aggravate their condition,” according to lems with the DA’s office right now, that they disagree with

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

COVID-19CreatesMassive New Waste CSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFCCSFC An unintended consequence of Covid-19safety procedures has created a surgein trash, from masksto gloves. Since masksbecame compulsory, there are billions of masksbeing worn by the general public and now surfacingaround the globe-and right here in San Francisco.

Whether you are workingremotely from home, or workingon CCSFcampus,“hopefully” you are using a mask for your safety. It is important to ask, is this waste being disposed of appropriately, and really, where does it all go? As essential workers the CCSFRecycle and Custodial Departments having been managingthis waste stream throughout the District since the beginningof the pandemic.

Millions of used masksare piling up in landfills or being burnedin incinerators, dependingon your local waste companyʼs practices. Here in San Francisco, masksand glovesgoto landfill.

However, not all of these items are endingup in landfill. Countlessfacemasksare makingtheir way into our streets and oceans, campuswalkwaysand other places they do not belong.

Plastics are already a major pollution problem choking our oceans. The single-use or disposable facemasks are made from a variety of plastics, including polypropylene, polyethylene and vinyl. It can take up to 450 years for these plastics to break down in the environment, with the tiny micro plasticslastingeven longer.

These plastics hurt and kill wildlife. During the past year, we all have read articles and seen reports worldwide on the increase of fish, seabirds and wildlife -caughtand tangled in these single-usefacemasksin our oceans and parks.

We know masks save lives, and the benefits outweigh our concerns of newly generated waste. However, canwe reduce our impactson our environmentwhile protecting our health?

The CCSFRecycling Dept. offers a few tips on how to do both, and reminderson how you can responsibly disposeof your used maskand gloveshere on campus, centers, and at home.

CarlitaMartinez CCSFRecycle Department 2021 Sustainable Waste Management

What canyoudo?

1 CarlitaMartinez

2021CCSFSustainable Waste Management

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

Vol. 171, Issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

Brandon Younger becomes part of the Ram’s football family

By Angela Greco

a_greco511@yahoo.com

City College has welcomed new defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator Brandon Younger to the Ram’s football staff, and his exuberance for the 2021 season may just be the energy everyone needs this year.

A product of the junior college system, Younger is a Bay Area native with coaching experience from Alameda to San Jose. Excited to be a part of the Ram’s coaching program, Younger spoke on the legacy of City College, dubbing it the “football mecca” of junior colleges. He has hit the ground running in his new role, looking to exceed expectations this upcoming season or as he says “build our program from a 10 to an 11.”

Associate head coach Eduardo Yagues Nuno, who has been a part of the Ram’s coaching team since 1993, is familiar with the bittersweet rotation of players and coaches that accompany the flux of a junior college program. He high‐ lighted the natural progression of the sport when he said, “you need a new influx of new blood every once in a while, to renew and refresh. [To bring] new ideas, new ways of looking at things. I think he’s going to bring all that to the table.”

Although Younger joked that head coach Jim Collins and Younger’s predecessor Larry Grant had recruited him, he emphasized the importance of being recognized.

“When you work as hard as I feel like I’ve worked and you’ve got people that recognize that and understand how much of a value you can be, and how much of a value they can be to you, that really stood out to me.”

Younger’s love for the game stemmed from his early ado‐ lescence into high school and then spanned into college, where he attended Langston University on a scholarship to play. Upon graduating, he found he still had an itch for the game. His first coaching job for Alameda High School brought him back into the Bay Area before he went on to coach at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, then Foothill College in Los Altos.

While coming off of a pandemic and the lack of a season may present challenges for the Rams, Younger is familiar with uphill battles, historically thriving in those situations. During his time with Foothill College, the team improved with a 6-4 season to 10-0, the first undefeated season in the school’s history.

Younger noted the significance of such a remarkable year with the Owls. “Going undefeated for the first time in school history, feeling like I had a hand in building up the roster and to get it to where it was, it was pretty difficult walking away from that.”

But his move to join the Rams was done with as much consideration as a play; he wasn’t ready to commit unless the timing was right.

“I started to really feel like San Francisco City College is a place I could come to and continue to grow my coaching career, and also being able to provide value to the program and really continue the legacy that has already been built there.”

Just one of the many promising qualities that Younger brings to the table as a recruiting coordinator is the wide‐ spread network of connections he has made over the years.

Credit due to his integrity and the bonds that people have formed with him.

Nuno acknowledged that Younger “developed a big net‐ work because people trust him. His recruiting abilities and his network over the years is probably what made him most attractive.”

While at Alameda High School, Younger had the pleasure of coaching Keelan Doss, who eventually went on to play with the Las Vegas Raiders. Doss proudly shared that Younger believed in him to such an extent that he put together

highlight tapes and sent them out to multiple coaches, demonstrating Younger’s value for genuine relationships.

Doss reflected on how Younger contributed to his success when he said, “I think personally he gave me confidence. Every day we’d talk and go over ways to improve my game, and on top of that, if I’m having a bad day or a bad week in my personal life, he was able to relate to you. He was someone you could trust.”

As a coach, Younger is not only a leader but a role model and friend. He wants players to excel in everything they do, academically and athletically.

Younger is pumped for the season, looking back at what brought him here while also moving forward full speed. “We’re going to embrace all the challenges and I’m super excited to be a part of this program...ex‐ cited to bring in not only the best athletes in the Bay Area but across the country and have them be a part of the Rams.”

Coach Brandon Younger poses for a portrait in front of the Wellness Center at City College Ocean Campus. San Francisco, CA. April 23, 2021. Photo by Melvin Wong/The Guardsman.

Vol. 171 issue 7 | April 28 - May 11, 2021

By Colton Webster

cwebster1963@gmail.com

Three teams in City College’s athletics department have decided to resume competi‐ tion as part of the late spring schedule.

Department chair Dan Hayes said only swim, tennis, and badminton have resumed compe‐ tition for the spring semester.

Hayes said that some teams at City Col‐ lege decided not to compete because, “a lot of other schools weren't ready to compete, there were some teams where schools were slow to get approval from their DPH (Department of Public Health).” In addition, the schools did not have the infrastructure to test all of their players.

To return to play, teams had to abide by a tiered phase system that was performed in conjunction with the San Francisco Depart‐ ment of Public Health. The first few phases began with Zoom meetings focusing on pro‐ viding COVID-19 education to athletes,per‐ forming workouts virtually as a team, and working in small pods. Phase three includes competition.

After wrapping up the water polo season on April 14, Rams’ swimmers are still in high spirits, “We’re just excited to be back in the pool,” water polo player and swimmer Melanie Beavan-Szabo said in an interview.

Due to the spacing between lanes BeavanSzabo said that the whole team can practice simultaneously, unlike water polo which re‐ quired the team to practice in different time slots to abide by COVID-19 precautions.

The first scheduled swim meet for the Rams will be competing virtually against the College of Marin over a Zoom video call on April 23. The decision to host the competition remotely is due to travel complications, but future competitions will be in-person, BeavanSzabo said.

Tennis has played two of their scheduled five scrimmages which span into the middle of May. Head tennis coach Kelly Hickey said that the team is “lucky because [unlike sports such as volleyball] we’re an outdoor sport so we have less limitations and we don’t have full contact … like football, soccer or basketball.”

Rams tennis’ upcoming match against Cañada College is scheduled for April 30 with no in-person attendance permitted. The team has had to cancel their April 23 match against Mission College due to a shortage of players.

Hickey said that spirits are high for the team. “I can tell they’re smiling under their masks, it's a good feeling, having been away from each other [physically] for 11 months,” adding, “getting to practice our sport has been a huge lift for everybody, including myself.”

In closing Hickey said, “It’s just nice for these athletes to have an opportunity to get back in practice, but then it’s icing on the cake to get them in a match versus another team.”

However, even without games scheduled, teams are still gearing up for the fall season.

Basketball is practicing in person five days a week in addition to football resuming full-con‐ tact practices.

Baseball has yet to resume in-person prac‐ tice, however Hayes reassured that “baseball will be back full blast in the fall.”

Although some teams are unable to com‐ pete Hayes focused on the positives, saying that, “our students love being back doing what we do; training, practicing, and getting bet‐ ter,” adding “just being with each other again, being with your teammates again.”

The women's tennis team of the 2020 season smiling at their 10-0 record. They are expected to return in May for five scrimmages. Photo courtesy of CCSF Athletics.

A CCSF badminton player plays during the 2018 season. The team is expected to return to competition this spring. Photo courtesy of Eric Sun.