According to a ranking from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, all San Francisco residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, but residents of neighborhoods where most people identify as people of color have access to 56% less park space per capita than residents in neighborhoods that are predominantly white. Alejandra Chiesa, Bay Area program director for the Trust for Public Land, and Maya Rodgers, senior project manager at the SF Parks Alliance, talk about the health benefits of parks and the significance of inequities in parks access.

While California is set to fully reopen on June 15, the unemployment rate appears to be holding steady. Businesses are opening positions, but residents are also dropping out of the workforce entirely. And the state’s Employment Development Department, which handles unemployment claims, is still working to resolve thousands of backlogged cases and battling fraud. Emily Hoeven, who writes the daily WhatMatters newsletter for the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters, returns with an update on what's happening at EDD.

Every city is special in some way to the people who call it home, but as author Gary Kamiya writes, San Francisco is a more potent touchstone than most thanks to the unique place it occupies in the American imagination. In the new anthology “The End of the Golden Gate,” writers including W. Kamau Bell, Margaret Cho and Michelle Tea reflect on a city in flux. Kamiya and writer and artist John Law talk about gentrification, rents and the message newcomers often hear that San Francisco peaked just before their arrival.

City College’s Board of Trustees recently voted on a plan to reduce teacher pay instead of laying teachers off, a plan that members of the teachers union had also voted on and approved. But this is only a short-term fix to one of the college’s financial problems. Alan Wong, a member of the Board of Trustees and a legislative aide to Supervisor Gordon Mar, shares his take on the bigger picture.

Aging is often obscured from movies, or portrayed in ways that perpetuate stereotypes about what aging is. The films at thetheLegacy Film Festival on Aging counter that by exploring more fully what it means to get older. The festival will showcase films about themes often associated with aging, like memory, disability and caring, but also includes stories about how people have shown and still show courage in the face of hate or how they have advanced civil rights. Arlene Reiff, film curator for the festival, talked with “Civic” about representation of seniors in cinema and how she helped select works to screen.

Janitors have been taking to the streets in San Francisco for weeks to advocate for better working conditions during the pandemic, even going on a three-day strike in mid-March. They’ve advocated for improvements like better ventilation in buildings, better protective gear for workers, health insurance coverage, and a wage increase. Juan Hernandez, a janitor with decades of experience who works at an office tower, gives a sense of the day-to-day reality of this work during the pandemic.

Before coronavirus cases were confirmed in San Francisco, paramedic Alfredo Banuelos and his colleagues were watching case numbers in other cities, still at a distance. Then he got his first patient. When the virus arrived in San Francisco and the city locked down and everything changed, procedures on the ambulance changed too. He reflects on how the pandemic unfolded for emergency medical responders.

San Francisco’s school district and board of education have been in the spotlight for a variety of controversies. Those include school reopening, a member of the board suing the district, an effort to recall some members, and an initiative to rename certain schools. Putting the controversies aside, two education reporters — Jill Tucker with the San Francisco Chronicle and Ida Mojadad with the San Francisco Examiner — give an overview of the responsibilities of the school board as a body and the process of electing its members.

Under a new health order, San Franciscans no longer need to wear a mask while doing outdoor activities like walking or biking when they’re alone or with members of their household. Unvaccinated people should wear a mask if social distancing can’t be maintained. Fully vaccinated people can almost entirely forgo masks outdoors, with some specific exceptions. Dr. Susan Philip, San Francisco's health officer, explains the details of the new order and how these decisions are made.