San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area - Spoken Edition

A federal judge in Oakland ruled Wednesday that the city can oust a group of 10 men and women, and three children, from a city-owned site where they’ve been camping for a month — as long as it offers them shelter beds and stores their belongings. The group began camping in October within the fenced-off site at Clara Street and Edes Avenue, a mile and a half southeast of the Coliseum.

For decades, City Hall politicians have struggled to make the grand plaza just outside their front door a place to linger and enjoy rather than one people rush through, clutching their belongings tighter and quickening their pace. Finally, Civic Center Plaza has come to life, and people actually want to be there. The key? A surreal mix of attractions that, like San Francisco itself, screams weird, whimsical and just plain fun.

What could be the last pleasure boat to depart downtown Petaluma left very carefully the other afternoon. Exactly 5 feet of water was beneath the hull of the Sea Witch as it inched away from the dock for a 20-minute voyage nearly as treacherous as the rounding of Cape Horn. “There’s a big bump of mud over there,” said captain Bob Boynton, his hand firmly on the tiller. “And another big bump of mud over there.

Year after year, Patti Medina answered the phone at the Oakland unemployment office. She filled out forms for strangers laid off from work. Helping strangers was her job. She never figured she’d be the next person needing a stranger’s help. Until she was. In April, Medina’s 10-year-old daughter, A.F., came back from a school camping trip complaining of being tired. She was short of breath. She needed to lie down, and she wouldn’t get up. Something was wrong.

Alonzo Carter tinkered with the transmission of his getaway vehicle, a minivan that he also sleeps in. It’s drivable, but it only goes in reverse. Carter, who lives in an encampment of mobile homes in a privately owned lot on Wood Street in West Oakland, was getting ready for an expected eviction attempt by the property owner. I went there on Sunday afternoon to see what it’s like in the tension-filled hours before police show up to clear people out.

This is the week to give thanks, and of course I’m grateful for my family, my friends and my home in one of the most fascinating cities in the world. I’m also thankful for the legions of people who keep San Francisco — in all its weirdness and whimsy — rolling along for the rest of us. Like Val Lupiz, who in July will celebrate his 20th year as a cable car gripman.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has directed the Police Department to ramp up foot patrols around the Mid-Market corridor — it’s the latest incremental step in the city’s effort to rejuvenate the area and rid it of the drug pushers that have long congregated there. On Wednesday, Breed is expected to announce that 10 additional officers, two sergeants and a lieutenant will be reassigned to the SFPD’s Tenderloin Station.

MAGALIA, Butte County — Matthew Schlegel hauled a singed bicycle up the front steps of the Paradise Pines RV park’s recreation building and leaned it against another one. “I got your bike,” he hollered to his wife, Tosha Sumrall, who was inside the center with her part Dachshund and pitbull dog, Toad. The bicycles were Schlegel’s and Sumrall’s only mode of transportation.

More than a million visitors a year come from all over the world to marvel at the magnificent redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument, an untouched old forest only a dozen miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. People wandering through Muir Woods cannot help but notice an ominous sight: dozens of trees bearing the blackened scars of old fires.

CHICO, Butte County — Tents sprawled in a parking lot. Cots jammed side by side in a fairgrounds. Desperation on the faces of the parents and children with nothing but smoking ruins to go home to. The devastating Camp Fire that wiped out the town of Paradise and savaged neighborhoods for miles around in Butte County has shoved 52,000 people out of their homes.

David Pearson, who was hailed as NASCAR’s Silver Fox for his cunning behind the wheel that propelled him to three top-series championships and acclaim as perhaps the most brilliant driver in the history of stock-car racing, died Monday. Pearson, who had lived in Spartanburg, S.C., in his retirement years collecting classic cars, was 83. His death was announced by NASCAR, which did not provide details. It said that Pearson’s family announced in 2014 that he had suffered a stroke.

At 1 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, 1918, San Francisco held one of the greatest celebrations in its history. Shouting and singing, an army of men and women flowed up and down Market Street, waving flags and banging on drums. Tens of thousands massed in public places to attend religious services and hear dignitaries give patriotic speeches. Exuberant drivers careened through the streets, honking their horns and dragging tin cans. The bash didn’t run out of steam until well into the next night.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi nailed it when she predicted a week before the election that Democrats would win back the House. Even the doubters now have to admit: She knows her stuff. President Trump, of all people, acknowledged that her hard work had earned her the right to be the next speaker. I’m not sure how much weight a Trump endorsement is going to carry with Democratic lawmakers. But I’m going out on a limb and predicting that when the caucus votes Nov.

Sunday is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the war that was supposed to end all wars. A solemn day, often forgotten, mixed up with other observances and holidays. They called it the Great War back then. It changed the world, and for years people paused for a minute of silence to remember the moment the war ended — the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918. The United States sent a million soldiers to France.

Twenty years ago, when M.R. Rangaswami moved to San Francisco, there were only a few East Indians in the city. “There were hardly any of us here then. Maybe a thousand or so,” he said. Now, there are 10 times as many in the city, and thousands more in the Bay Area, said Rangaswami, a software engineer who founded a nonprofit leadership organization, Indiaspora, in 2012 to unite Indian Americans and showcase their success on the global stage.