California Has Got This, America

Kamala Harris Survived San Francisco and the Golden State. She’s Ready for Three Months Against Trump

Don’t worry, America.

We got this.

By “we,” I mean California.

By “this,” I mean this presidential election.

And by “got,” I mean that we are sending you the best possible candidate to weather whatever the next three-plus months hold.

Now let’s be honest about Kamala Harris. We’re not giving you our most charismatic public speaker. Harris’ sentences are sometimes as awkward as Joe Biden’s. She has a bad habit of fusing her talking points into word salads.

We’re not giving you our most disciplined politician. She’ll crack a joke when she shouldn’t or make a …

by Joe Mathews | July 23, 2024

Willie Mays smiles at the camera. He wears a black cap with the letters "SF" and a white baseball uniform with the large letters "Giants."

How Television Made Willie Mays a Star

His Astonishing Play Coincided With the Early Years of the Medium—And Made This White, Rural Georgia Boy a Lifelong Fan

by James C. Cobb | July 18, 2024

Except for a fortunate few who got to see Willie Mays play in person, most Americans of my generation fell under his almost mesmerizing spell while watching him on TV.

Mays’ …

Can the Real San Francisco Airport Please Stand Up?

SFO and OAK Both Want to Claim the Bay Area City, but Neither Is Actually Located There

by Joe Mathews | May 7, 2024

I’ve never much cared for San Francisco International Airport—until SFO decided to take a courageous stand for truth and accuracy in airport names.

Last month, SFO’s leaders filed a lawsuit to …

How San Francisco Became a Labor Enforcement Laboratory

Community Partners Are Helping Local Government Protect and Empower Low-Wage Workers

by Seema N. Patel | March 27, 2024

In the U.S., there is a chasm between what the labor laws say and what workers experience as their everyday realities. That’s because employment here is based on private contractual …

Beyond the ‘Dark Fog of Disdain,’ San Francisco Is Still There

How Revisiting a Children’s Book Helped Me See the City by the Bay, On and Off the Page

by Larry Gordon | December 6, 2023

For a young bookworm like me in 1960s New Jersey, almost nothing was more exciting in elementary school than ordering my own paperbacks from the Scholastic Book catalog. I would …

My Boss Owes Me Over $12,000

A Bay Area Restaurant Worker Recounts His Fight Against Wage Theft

by Eder Juarez | October 18, 2023

This piece was published alongside the Zócalo/Irvine Foundation program “How Can Workers Make Sure They’re Treated Fairly in the Workplace?” Read the Takeaway of …

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