San Francisco Chronicle

Dropbox is cutting its workforce by approximately 20%, a move prompted by a slowdown in growth within the cloud storage sector, the company announced Wednesday.

Would you pay $700 for this? A housing startup has won approval for 30 sleeping pods in downtown San Francisco. The small cubic spaces with mattresses stacked across two levels is for rent now.

More than four years later, San Francisco is struggling to regain the jobs that were lost in the wake of the pandemic. The city, hit hard by remote work, tech layoffs and strict public health orders, had a labor force in the first quarter that was 7.3% below its 2019 levels, or more than 45,000 fewer jobs. Use our interactive graphic to see employment trends in California by county: https://lnkd.in/gtvX87SU

EXCLUSIVE: Airbnb is extending the lease on its San Francisco headquarters for another decade, putting to rest speculation that the tech company would be exiting the last remaining building of its once sprawling campus. Prior to the pandemic, Airbnb’s campus spanned five buildings, but the company has steadily relinquished its office space in recent years. Airbnb will be taking slightly less space than the roughly 280,000 square feet it previously occupied in the building. Still, the lease renewal represents a “commitment to our hometown,” Airbnb said. 

An outdated Department of Motor Vehicles office in San Francisco is expected to become one of the city’s largest affordable housing complexes, after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan to transform the site Thursday.

The developer behind a soaring housing tower that was approved to rise on the edge of San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood months after the start of the pandemic, but has been frozen ever since, is planning a redesign in a bid to advance the stalled redevelopment plan — with 10 additional stories.

The San Francisco school district is scrambling to bring on board scores of special education teachers and aides after officials bungled their hiring, leaving hundreds of vulnerable students in the lurch. Now, officials, who had sought to save money by not hiring the legally required staff, are facing additional costs such as legal fees, more staff time and costly learning remedies. The price tag doesn’t include the costs the district could face if families wind up leaving the district over the error. 

Assembly Bill 796, which Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Monday to sign, would catch California up to other states by creating a regulatory board to oversee the licensing and certification of athletic trainers, but it doesn’t address the overall shortage in schools.

Today, we launched the Kamala Harris News Assistant, an AI-powered tool designed to answer your questions about Harris’ life, her journey through public service and her presidential campaign. Drawing from thousands of articles written, edited and published by Chronicle journalists since 1995, this tool aims to give readers informed answers about a politician who rose from the East Bay and is now campaigning to become one of the world’s most powerful people. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gk_c4FQg

California just banned plastic bags – again. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Sunday that closes a loophole in the state’s landmark 2014 plastic bag ban that contributed to an increase in plastic bag waste. Here’s what to know about the law, including why it was needed and how it affects California shoppers.