NEN Blog

by Elisa Chavez The last time I can remember visiting New York, I was sixteen years old and staying in the southernmost tip of Manhattan. The entire city seemed like a blur of fast walkers, overpriced boutiques, and homicidal taxis, and I decided then and there that I could never, ever, ever live someplace that was quite so overwhelming. Last week, I got on a plane and flew out to NYC [...]

                                                  Please use the arrows to navigate the slideshow. As construction of the new span of the Bay Bridge is well underway, we were able to get a visual tour of the progress and future outlines of what will become a new icon for the Bay [...]

Over the last century, astrophysicists encountered a major hurdle in their efforts to understand the fundamental nature of our universe.  As they began to build more powerful mathematical models and measurement instruments, the Universe seemed to become less and less predictable. In a nutshell, the visible bodies in space were not behaving in a way that was defendable by the great minds of earth. Their behavior reflected a universe with [...]

Author/lecturer Dale Carnegie once wrote that “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” My appreciation for knowing people’s names never stops growing. I’m steadily learning the names of neighbors on my street; and now Antoinette, John, Cynthia, Jesse, Ken, Judy, and Carl – among others – hear their names when we greet one another. Learning the names of local business owners [...]

Every month the Department of Public Works (DPW) dives into each of the eleven Supervisorial Districts around San Francisco to rally volunteers and partners to make San Francisco residential districts, commercial districts, schools, and parks safer and cleaner through our Community Clean Team program. Created over 10 years ago, by then Public Works Director, San Francisco’s current Mayor, Ed Lee, Community Clean Team has become a mainstay in the DPW’s operations. [...]

San Francisco’s Policy Thumb Gets Greener By Isabel Wade & Eli Zigas On a spring morning last week, Mayor Ed Lee signed a bill that places San Francisco at the forefront of major cities supporting urban agriculture.  The law, which changes the city’s zoning code, was the culmination of a year of collaboration between the Mayor, Supervisor David Chiu, the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance and supporters from across the city. The [...]

Chinatown SRO Disaster training Graduation from NENtv on Vimeo.   On April 17th, dozens of families in San Francisco’s Chinatown were celebrated for their involvement in a multiweek long disaster preparedness program. The program was designed to extend disaster training to non English speakers and provide assistance to at risk residents. The training was conducted by the Department of Emergency Management. If you would like more information on how you [...]

On May 7th, Shareable Magazine will be bringing together the Bay Area’s best and brightest for a day of connection, innovation, and action.  During our event called SHARE San Francisco, we will challenge you to discover new opportunities for impact, connect with leaders across sectors to boost your innovative potential, and explore the use of sharing as a powerful change strategy that addresses multiple social goals at once.  SHARE San Francisco is [...]

You probably understand community as knowing your neighbors, helping each other out, feeling a sense of commonality and connection, and so forth. But how does one actually begin building community? In this writing, I focus on one element – an element without which full community cannot happen: Bringing civic life back to the streets. Why is the street so important? Whereas the street was once the place for connection and [...]

Michael Pawluk –  San Francisco – 1/19/11  For both merchants and residents alike, maintaining a clean and aesthetically pleasing community is difficult enough without worrying about the constant blight of graffiti and vandalism. Community groups and city agencies spend thousands of dollars every year in order to help fight the barrage of spray painted tags and doodles strewn throughout the city. In order to help push back this unsightly trend, [...]