San Francisco, CA
10-year anniversary: ‘Batkid’ saves City of San Francisco from villains
SAN FRANCISCO – Ten years ago, the City of San Francisco was under attack by the Riddler and the Penguin and needed not only the help of Batman but also his sidekick, Batkid.
The then-5-year-old Miles Scott stepped up to the plate and saved San Francisco, earning him a key to the city from late Mayor Ed Lee and words of encouragement from then-President Barack Obama.
Through Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area, Miles could fulfill his dream of being a superhero. Miles, now 15, was diagnosed with leukemia at just 1 year old. He has been in remission for the last 10 years, the foundation shared.
On Nov. 15, 2013, San Francisco turned into Gotham for the day, and thousands showed up and out for the child, cheering him on as he battled villains and thwarted crime. The event also inspired a documentary by New Life Cinema and Warner Bros. titled, “Batkid Begins.”
Driving around with Batman in his Batmobile, Miles rescued a damsel in distress who was tied down onto the city’s iconic cable car tracks, disabled a plastic bomb,” and stopped the Riddler from robbing a bank in the Financial District. He also saved San Francisco Giants mascot Lou Seal from the Penguin, before turning the villain over to police.
Miles Scott (middle) being honored with a key to the city by late Mayor Ed Lee (left) after saving the day with Batman.
Miles currently lives with his parents, Nick and Natalie Scott, along with his younger brother Clayton, who played the part of Robin that day, and his youngest brother Ben, who was born after his “wish.”
Reminiscing on the event, it “wasn’t just about [him] that day,” Miles said.
Miles Scott with his parents Nick and Natalie Scott and his younger brothers Clayton and Ben.
“I feel like it brought hope to more than just a couple people. They came out and were happy…it was about getting all together and just having fun,” he said.
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The family stays in a small town in Siskiyou County near the Oregon border. He plays football for his high school and drives a tractor helping out on his family’s farm.
As far as his Batkid costume, he doesn’t quite fit in it anymore, but his youngest brother does and wore it last Halloween.
Natalie Scott has since become a volunteer with the foundation and helps grant wishes to Siskiyou County children.
“I remember being impatient with Miles and just—we would do laps and laps in the hallway, and we’d push him in this little car with his IV pole,” she shared with the foundation. “I remember seeing all the other kids that maybe were in worse shape than him…I just wanted to be able to help other kids and their families have some sort of positive ending to their story or, you know, to start their new beginning.”
She called her son’s wish the “ending of a chapter” in their family so that they could “move on and continue.”
Miles shares with his fans that he’s doing amazing.
As far as his cancer experience goes: “I feel normal, but every time I think about it, it’s like, ‘Wow, that actually happened.’”
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco non-alcoholic bar seeing shift in drinking culture
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San Francisco, CA
Excitement and expectations as preparations are underway for the inauguration of SF Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie
Preparations are underway for the inauguration of San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie at Civic Center Plaza and the festivities to follow in Chinatown. Community leaders talk about their support and hope for the future.
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San Francisco, CA
San Francisco supervisor presses city departments to clean up Sixth Street
Over the last few months, San Francisco has been cracking down on open-air drug markets that have taken root on several street corners in the city’s South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods.
Some progress has been made, but Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents South of Market, is fed up with what’s happening on one particular street in his district: Sixth Street.
On Sixth Street on any given day, one can see some of the city’s issues with drug use, drug dealing and mental health all out in the open.
Dorsey is pressing city departments to take swift action.
“Just on the Sixth Street corridor, if we were to affect 100 arrests per night with an eye toward making those life-saving, medically-appropriate interventions, getting people into detox and drug treatment,” he said.
Dorsey has sent a formal letter of inquiry to all city departments that are responsible for law enforcement, public safety and public health to ask what they would need to make his 100-arrests-per-night proposal a reality.
He acknowledges there has been improvement on drug use and sales on several street corners in SoMa and the neighboring Tenderloin, but not on Sixth Street.
He said the issues on Sixth Street have not just remained the same. He said they’ve gotten worse
“This is not COVID-19 or something that we can expect to get better once we get over the hump,” he said. “The reality is that we are now in the era of synthetic drugs.”
For that reason, he believes mandated treatment after an arrest is needed.
But not everyone agrees, in part, because right now there is a lack of treatment available in the city.
“We have very little treatment for women, for example,” Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach said. “We have very little for the Spanish-speaking population. We have literally no free trauma therapy that’s extensive. These are the places that have been identified as what we really need to do to address the crisis. Criminalization isn’t even on the list.”
Freidenbach said the city also needs some kind of detox facility.
She and Dorsey seldom agree on many issues, but they both said they have high hopes for Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie. Dorsey said he’s on the same page as a lot of Lurie’s public safety proposals, and Friedenbach said Lurie has a long history of funding projects aimed as solving the root causes of problems in the city.
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