How has life in the Bay Area changed over the last 20 years? These stories straight from our Bay City News archives capture news of the day from 5, 10, and 20 years ago – as originally published at the time. Explore these history snapshots and ponder how today’s news compares to that of years past.
MAY 22, 2021
San Francisco announced a new response team to address overdoses on city streets. The program remains relevant to current public-health debates over fentanyl, behavioral health outreach, emergency response, and how cities intervene before overdoses become fatal.
Bay City News Reported:
“San Francisco Announces Street Overdose Response Team“
San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday announced plans to create a new Street Overdose Response Team to address drug overdoses happening on city streets as overdose deaths linked to fentanyl have reached an all-time high. The Street Overdose Response Team, or SORT, is the third program the city has announced within the last six months to address people having health-related crises on city streets.
Just last week, Breed announced the new Street Wellness Response Team, or SWRT, for responding to well-being checks and situations that require medical or social assistance, but are not extreme enough to warrant police, including calls regarding people sleeping in the street or having obvious physical injuries. If funding is approved, SWRT could be implemented as early as January 2022. In addition, the Street Crisis Response Team, or SCRT, launched in late 2020 and responds to non-violent mental health crises on city streets. Both SWRT and SCRT aim to serve as alternatives to police responses to 911 and 311 calls for non-violent behavior.
The latest program, SORT, would address non-fatal overdoses through a holistic approach, with an immediate response from the San Francisco Fire Department, followed up with clinical team members from the city’s Department of Public Health, including both medical specialists and behavioral health specialists. “The overdose crisis on our streets requires a wide range of approaches, including meeting people where they are in the moment when we can get them the help they need,” Breed said in a statement. “By getting to people immediately and then being consistent with our follow-up, we hopefully can get them on the path to stabilization and to recovery. This, of course, needs to be paired with broader efforts to prevent overdoses from happening in the first place, and that is why we are continuing to increase the number of treatment beds and outreach efforts for people in crisis.”
“This is a critical window of time when we can offer people life-saving medicine, show them that we care and have services on hand which they can access right then and there, and use it as an initial point of engagement in ongoing clinical services,” SFDPH Director Dr. Grant Colfax said. SORT would cost the city $11.4 million over two years, and if approved by the next budget cycle at the end of July, the program could be piloted as early as August. The announcement to create SORT comes as last year the city saw 699 overdose deaths — a historic high — with synthetic opioids like fentanyl playing a major role in overdose deaths both locally and nationally.
MAY 22, 2016
Residents and city leaders discussed priorities with San Francisco’s new police chief after a leadership change at the department. The meeting remains tied to debates over police reform, community confidence, and whether public engagement can shape departmental priorities.
Bay City News reported:
“Residents And Leaders Welcome New San Francisco Police Chief’s Ideas“
About 100 people from the NAACP and Brothers Against Guns, a San Francisco organization that aims to end violence, met this afternoon in San Francisco to hear from the city’s interim police chief. Chief Toney Chaplin took the helm Thursday when Chief Greg Suhr resigned following the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Jessica Williams in the city’s Bayview District, San Francisco’s third officer-involved shooting since December. Chaplin got good marks from at least two leaders of the black community after the 3 p.m. meeting at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. “He has the character, the competency, the chemistry and the courage to lead this department,” NAACP San Francisco president Rev. Amos Brown said. Chaplin also has the level head to step into a crisis situation, according to Brown.
NAACP San Francisco vice president and executive director of Brothers Against Guns Shawn Richard said he was very impressed with the new chief’s ideas and plans. Richard said he expects a great outcome as the new chief implements Suhr’s ideas and his own. Richard said Chaplin has a solid track record with no hiccups and is honest, compassionate and direct. The meeting was held so that residents could meet the new chief and get to know his ideas and plans. It lasted about two hours. Brown offered support for the outgoing chief, who he said was a scapegoat for the problems police officers in San Francisco are facing. Brown said it was a mistake to blame one person for the problems. The issue was making the reforms and Suhr was doing that, he said.
MAY 22, 2006
California Chief Justice Ronald George was selected for a national award recognizing distinction as a state judge. The recognition draws attention to enduring concerns about public confidence in courts, judicial independence, and the role of state courts in major civic disputes.
Bay City News reported:
“California Chief Justice To Receive National Judicature Award“
California Chief Justice Ronald George has been selected to receive an annual award from the American Judicature Society for distinction as a state judge. Society President Allan Sobel announced earlier this month that George was chosen to receive the Third Annual Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence.
The American Judicature Society, based in Des Moines, Iowa, was founded in 1913 and is a national organization that works to improve the administration of justice and public confidence in the American legal system. The award, named after a former legal publisher, honors a current judge of a state trial or appellate court. The award will be given later this year on a date to be determined, the society said.
George was appointed chief justice of the seven-member California Supreme Court, which has its headquarters in San Francisco, in 1996. As chief justice, he also heads the California court system, which is the largest in the nation, with more than 2,000 judicial officers. Sobel said that George had shown “outstanding leadership” during his decade as chief justice and had spearheaded several reform measures despite chronic underfunding for California courts. The measures include merger of all municipal and superior courts into a single trial court, known as superior court, for each county; transferring responsibility for funding trial courts from counties to the state; and transferring ownership of California’s 451 courthouses from the counties to the state.
George was nominated for the award by Justice Richard Mosk of the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. Mosk wrote in his nomination letter, “Chief Justice George has done a magnificent job in helping ensure that the judiciary in California can perform its mission for the people of California.”
Editor’s Note: All the reporting, writing, and editing of this content was done by human journalists at the time of initial publication. AI tools were used to surface these stories from our internal Bay City News archives and provide the introductory context.