If you’ve lived in San Francisco for a while, you may have gotten curious about the big red triangular tower at the top of Twin Peaks. Most of us know that it’s called Sutro Tower, and that it has something to do with broadcasting TV and radio for the Bay Area. I thought it would be nice to bring San Franciscans closer to our most prominent landmark with a really beautiful model of the tower that…
After 6 months of on-and-off-again labor, I released a feature-length film composed mostly of footage obtained by attaching a camera to the front of a BART train. You can watch the movie in its entirety for free on YouTube, as well as the impromptu panel Q&A I hosted at the Roxie premiere. The Roxie is an important San Francisco nonprofit theater and I want to thank them again for showing my film.…
I recently wrote a short piece about how a YC-funded cryptocurrency startup lost $46M of its customers funds by investing it all in what was effectively a ponzi scheme. You can read the piece on Business Insider ( archived ) as well as listen to some interviews I conducted with the victims.
Against my better judgment, and almost two years after my original reporting, I returned to the story of Lambda School once more. In the intervening time, the school had gone through many changes, most of which seemed to be for the worse. Subsequently to my reporting, the school changed its name to the “Bloom Institute of Technology.” Here are some artifacts from this go-around: The kickoff piece…
I recently concluded some investigative reporting on Lambda School, which basically accused the school and its chief officer of fraud. I won’t bother to summarize these claims here. Instead, I’ll just link to the artifacts this investigation produced: The original piece, which ran in New York Magazine . The audio recording of the interview I conducted with Austen Allred, their chief executive. An…
This piece originally ran on Medium and is reproduced here with some small formatting differences. How Aaron Peskin got his illegally merged $1.5M “monster” home San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin is back in the news, proposing legislation with the ostensible purpose of preserving rent controlled apartments by preventing them from being converted into “monster” homes. His legislation would…
On August 28th, the FPPC informed me that they would not take action on my previous complaint , and that if I disagreed, I could file an appeal. Naturally, I decided to take them up on that. Below, you’ll find the appeal I filed with the FPPC. As of October 9th, they have informed me that the case has been reopened. To: Galena West, FPPC Chief of Enforcement Division and Erin V. Peth, FPPC…
July 21st update: Rachel Swan wrote about this complaint for the Chronicle, which includes a short, unsatisfying response from Stearns. August 3rd update: The FPPC has responded that they need a few more weeks to judge whether they should pursue a claim. The letter indicates that Stearns has lawyered up. To whom it may concern at the California Fair Political Practices Commission, Jim Stearns, a…
This piece also ran as part of Heather Knight’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 23rd, 2017. A point that I should correct is that 501(c)(3)s actually do pay payroll tax. However, the nonprofit entity itself does not pay federal income tax, and of course donations are tax-deductible for donors, which is the main benefit. To the IRS and the public, 48 Hills is an independent publication…
I wrote an opinion piece for the SF Chronicle. They ran it with some great edits for length, so I figured I’d put my original, longer, and worse version here for posterity’s sake. San Francisco is one of the most progressive cities in the nation, especially when it comes to national immigration. We believe so much in the natural right of people to join us here in America that we fought to keep our…