In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: More details emerge in corruption arrest, sobering center planned for the Tenderloin, and the POA votes on leadership. Coming up: Supervisors to consider property purchase and tenant buyout law, and a 100-unit building proposed for California and Polk is expected to go before the Planning Commission.

San Francisco has rent control – rents can only go up by a certain percentage a year in buildings constructed before 1979 – but there are some costs that landlords can pass on to tenants. Tenants, in turn, may apply for an exemption by showing that the cost creates a financial hardship for them. A report from the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office indicates that the pass-throughs individually may not seem like they amount to much, but they can add up to substantial rent increases, up to 13% in some cases.

Decades of explicitly and implicitly racist policies have left the Bay Area not just unaffordable, but deeply segregated, according to panelists at a gathering of regional government administrators, nonprofit staff and community advocates. They convened recently at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Building to talk about the future of fair housing in California and how governments and community advocates could implement new laws to undo the wrongs of the past.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Jackie Fielder details her platform and shares insight into her background. Fielder is an indigenous organizer who co-founded the San Francisco Public Bank coalition. She calls for increased taxation of corporations and billionaires to build and preserve affordable housing, universal rent control, and single-payer healthcare.

As part of Civic’s series of interviews with candidates for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, Erin Smith tells her story and lays out where she stands on policy issues. She calls for reforms of policies like Proposition 47, a state ballot measure passed by voters in 2014 that reduced six nonviolent felonies including drug possession to misdemeanors, and AB 5, the “gig worker” law that makes it harder for companies to label workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: FBI arrests a top city employee, City College gets a funding boost, and the CA governor demands changes at PG&E. Coming up: Workshops to determine the future of public transit, supervisors to weigh naming part of City Hall after Buck Delventhal, and a proposed resolution to return a deported asylum seeker.

The FBI this week arrested Mohammed Nuru, now on administrative leave from his position as director of the Department of Public Works, on corruption charges and other charges relating to failing to keep the investigation secret. Joe Eskenazi, managing editor and a columnist at Mission Local, explains why Nuru’s alleged behavior likely isn't the sole focus of this investigation – and how this same behavior is part of a pattern in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance has joined several legislators in calling for the California Public Utilities Commission to allow at least some public access to ride-hailing safety data, which are kept hidden. Safety data about taxis is available to the public through records requests. Mark Gruberg, a taxi driver and a member of the Taxi Workers Alliance’s executive board, explains how this disparity affects taxi workers and why the alliance is calling for action.

In some countries, legal representation in civil cases is a right. Not so in the U.S., which means low-income people facing a civil legal proceeding may not be able to afford an attorney. One organization looking to change that is Open Door Legal. With the help of a million-dollar city grant, the nonprofit has just cut the ribbon on two new locations in the Excelsior and Western Addition. Director Adrian Tirtanadi lays out the organization's history and vision.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. This week: San Francisco all but ends cash bail, mental health advocates deliver a letter to the Department of Public Health, Supervisors will vote on banning gas in new buildings, and Muni service changes and car-free Market Street will take effect this week.