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Mayor London Breed Expands CityBuild to Support San Francisco’s Local Workforce and Economic Recovery

Mayor London N. Breed and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) announced the expansion of CityBuild, a nationally recognized construction training program that provides career pathways for historically underserved San Francisco residents into the building and construction trades, to now serve 600 local residents over the next two years.

Published

4 years ago

September 12, 2021

Christy Price

San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Photo courtesy of the Mayor’s office.

The expansion, which doubles the number of participants, will provide more opportunities for workers to learn in-demand skills, receive wraparound services and job placement assistance in the City’s growing construction industry.

“As we look to our economic recovery and focus on getting people back to work, it is critical that we invest in providing our local workforce with the skills necessary to succeed. That is why we are doubling the number of CityBuild participants and creating more well-paying jobs for local San Franciscans,” Breed said on September 1. “Training our city’s workforce and placing them in meaningful careers will support those that were most impacted by the pandemic and help drive equitable employment opportunities for our city’s residents.”

The expansion will double CityBuild’s capacity to train 600 participants through CityBuild Academy, Special Trainings, and CityBuild-Building Trade Partnerships, including funding through Mayor Breed’s Women & Families First Initiative.

The construction industry anticipates significant growth due to the local hiring requirement that is part of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package. In August, the U.S. Senate approved Biden’s $1.2 trillion proposal to invest in the nation’s roads, bridges, public transit, broadband, and essential infrastructure, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide, including goals for local community hiring.

“Local Hire has led to more job opportunities for historically underserved communities. The expansion of CityBuild capitalizes on those opportunities to ensure that local residents have access to livable wages and long-lasting careers in a growing industry,” said Kate Sofis, director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “CityBuild is vital to San Francisco’s equitable economic recovery—serving as an example of how we can meet the moment, strengthen our local workforce, and get San Franciscans back to work”

San Francisco’s Local Hire Ordinance requires 30% of all project hours on City-funded construction to be performed by local residents. CityBuild assists in providing a pipeline of qualified workers to meet the requirements of the Ordinance and the demands of the industry.

In the years since the Local Hire Ordinance’s adoption, local residents have performed 33% of a total of 8.2 million work hours on covered projects, with 48% of apprentice hours worked by local apprentices.

Biden’s infrastructure deal builds on the success of local hiring policies to create economic opportunity for disadvantaged residents by implementing a resident hiring requirement in federal infrastructure construction projects for the first time, creating a significant demand for San Francisco residents in the construction industry.

Congress will resume consideration of the proposal upon returning from recess on September 20.

CityBuild was the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s first training program, providing the foundation for future workforce initiatives in healthcare, tech, hospitality, and emerging industries,” said Joshua Arce, director of Workforce at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “CityBuild’s many years of success in providing underserved communities access to opportunities to raise a family, buy a home, and have a successful career is intertwined with our partnership with the Building Trades, who offer graduates the chance to become a Union apprentice and turn out as journey-level construction workers, perhaps eventually becoming superintendents or apprenticeship coordinators.

“This unique collaboration between labor, contractor, educational, and community-based organizations has made CityBuild a national model to advance equity,” Arce said.
CityBuild began in 2006, under then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, as an effort to coordinate citywide construction training and employment programs and is administered by OEWD in partnership with City College of San Francisco and the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, community non-profit organizations including Mission Hiring Hall, industry employers, and City agencies.

CityBuild trainees represent neighborhoods from across the City, including Bayview Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, the Mission, the Excelsior, Ingleside, Bernal Heights, and the Western Addition.

“Today we celebrate 15 years of CityBuild providing opportunities for SF residents right here in the Southeast Sector of San Francisco. I want to acknowledge all of the individuals who have completed the program and gone on to become leaders in the field of construction. The partnerships that have developed through this training program have made it possible to employ hundreds of community members,” said San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, who represents District 10. “I want to thank San Francisco City College, OEWD, and all of the community-based organizations that make the connections for our residents. Looking forward to many more years of making opportunities real!”

Over the past 15 years, CityBuild’s Training Academy has graduated 1,350 participants, including 146 through partnerships with projects such as the Chase Center, Gleneagles, and Alice Griffith. Graduates of the program represent the diversity of San Francisco’s disadvantaged job seekers with 30% Black, 19% Latino, and 36% Asian- Pacific Islander. In an industry that is nationally comprised of less than 1% women, CityBuild graduates are comprised of 12% women.

“At the core of CityBuild’s success are our partnerships,” said CityBuild Director Ken Nim. “Thanks to the support from labor organizations, construction contractor community, inter-agency and government collaboration, and community-based organizations providing services on the ground, we developed a strong foundation to deliver a program for all San Franciscans to prosper. These four pillars continue to be the strength of helping the City recover and build stronger.”

“The San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council and all our affiliates are proud of our partnership with CityBuild since its inception. Thanks to CityBuild’s services to the community, the program had prepared San Francisco residents with core skills to be successful in the industry,” said Rudy Gonzales, the secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council. “Graduates of the program are more equipped for the rigors of construction and become strong apprentices. Our employers and apprenticeship coordinators all believe that the pathway CityBuild has provided for graduates is the model for what a pre-apprenticeship program has to offer.”

CityBuild has evolved into a network of training programs, employment services, and policy administration. With its dual-service approach to training and job placement, CityBuild has taken advantage of the growing pipeline of workers to become a valuable resource for contractors and employers while continuing to monitor local hiring compliance on all major construction projects within the City. For more information, please visit www.oewd.org/citybuild.

“Wraparound services are critical to the successful outcomes of a workforce training participant. These services will help us identify and address the personal and social needs of participants that may impact their transition to gainful employment,” said Michelle Leonard-Bell, executive director of Mission Hiring Hall and CityBuild program coordinator. “The human touch of empathy and compassion demonstrates our commitment to focus on each person’s unique circumstances. These coordinated services will lead to greater success as participants begin careers in the construction industry.”

“Swinerton is proud to be a partner of CityBuild since its inception 15 years ago. The quality of graduates and the success of the apprentices coming out of the program has helped our company retain great employees,” said Lori Dunn-Guion, Vice President – Division Manager, Swinerton. “Part of the mission of our company is to ensure that we have a long and lasting impact on the communities in which we live, serve, and belong. We recognize jobs and career opportunities promote sustainable economies. Our partnership with CityBuild has helped us achieve that goal.”

The San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Communications provided this report.

Christy Price

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Oakland Post: Week of May 14 – 20, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 14 – 20, 2025

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2025

Oakland Post

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High Court Opens Door to Police Accountability

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a judicial doctrine that for years shielded law enforcement officers from civil liability in police shooting cases by allowing courts to assess force based only on the final moments before an officer pulled the trigger.

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a judicial doctrine that for years shielded law enforcement officers from civil liability in police shooting cases by allowing courts to assess force based only on the final moments before an officer pulled the trigger. In Barnes v. Felix, the high court struck down the Fifth Circuit’s “moment-of-threat” rule, which had been used to justify the 2016 killing of Ashtian Barnes, a Black man shot during a traffic stop outside Houston. Officer Roberto Felix fired two shots into Barnes’s moving car after stepping onto the doorsill. The lower courts determined that only the two seconds before the shooting—when Felix was holding onto the vehicle—mattered in deciding whether the use of deadly force was reasonable. The Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the unanimous Court, Justice Elena Kagan made clear that determining whether an officer’s use of force is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment requires an analysis of the totality of the circumstances, including all events leading up to the shooting. “A court deciding a use-of-force case cannot review the totality of the circumstances if it has put on chronological blinders,” the Court ruled.

The victim’s mother, Janice Barnes, brought the case under Section 1983, alleging that Felix violated her son’s constitutional rights. The ruling sends the case back to the lower courts for reconsideration under the broader standard set by the Supreme Court. According to the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC), the Court’s ruling solidifies that police do not have special constitutional status and should be held to the same accountability standards. “The moment-of-threat rule is entirely unsupported by the Constitution’s text and history,” said Nargis Aslami, a fellow at CAC. Chief Counsel Brianne Gorod added, “The Court took a small but important step toward greater accountability for police officers who violate the Fourth Amendment by inflicting unnecessary violence during their encounters with the public.” The ruling comes as data continue to show disproportionate police encounters and violence against Black Americans. A NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet revealed that a Black person is five times more likely than a white person to be stopped without just cause. Black men are twice as likely to be stopped as Black women. Meanwhile, 65% of Black adults say they have felt targeted because of their race.

Each year, between 900 and 1,100 people are shot and killed by police in the United States. Since 2005, at least 98 non-federal law enforcement officers have been arrested for fatal on-duty shootings. Still, only 35 have been convicted—and just three have been convicted of murder with the convictions upheld. Recent data from the Prison Policy Initiative show that while white residents are most likely to initiate contact with police—for reasons like reporting crimes or seeking help—Black, Hispanic, and Asian individuals are more likely to be on the receiving end of police-initiated contact, including street stops, traffic stops, and arrests. Traffic stops, which remain the most common form of police-initiated contact, are also among the most lethal. According to Mapping Police Violence, over 100 police killings occurred during traffic stops in 2023. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 62% of Black people whose most recent police contact in 2022 was initiated by officers were drivers in traffic stops. That compares to 56% to 59% among other racial groups. Black drivers were searched or arrested at a rate of 9%—more than double that of white drivers and significantly higher than Hispanic or Asian drivers. “The Supreme Court’s decision in Barnes v. Felix is crucial not only for police accountability but also for broader constitutional protections,” the North Star Law Group wrote in a post. “If the Court upholds the ‘moment of threat’ standard, it could make it even harder to hold officers accountable for excessive force. However, if it reinforces the ‘totality of circumstances’ standard or adopts a hybrid approach, it could create a fairer system that protects both civilians and responsible police officers.”

Stacy M. Brown

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Workplace Inequity Worsens for Black Women

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Meanwhile, they remain underrepresented in high-wage fields like tech, law, and executive management—even when they hold the degrees and credentials to qualify.

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Black women remain the backbone of the U.S. labor force—working more, earning less, and bearing greater burdens across nearly every sector. Even as the country added 177,000 jobs in April, Black women lost 106,000 positions, the steepest decline of any group. Their unemployment rate jumped to 6.1%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the losses go far deeper than a single month of data. Research shows Black women are not only overrepresented in low-wage industries like care, cleaning, education, and food service—they are also consistently denied advancement and paid significantly less than white male peers, even with the same credentials. In its July 2024 report, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) found Black women working full-time, year-round earned just 69.1 cents for every dollar paid to white men. That figure drops to 49.6 cents in states like Louisiana. “Black women consistently have higher labor force participation rates than other demographics of women,” officials from the National Partnership for Women and Families wrote. Yet those higher participation rates have not translated into pay equity or job security.

The earnings gap grows wider with age. For example, Black women aged 56 to 65 working full-time, year-round, earn just 59.3 cents for every dollar paid to white men in the same age group. Those in leadership roles report disproportionately high dissatisfaction with pay and access to advancement, with 90% of women of color in management saying systemic barriers hinder workplace progress. Additionally, according to a 2022 Health Affairs report, more than one in five Black women in the labor force are in health care—more than any other group. However, nearly two-thirds of them work as licensed practical nurses or aides, and 40% are in long-term care. These roles are among the lowest-paid and highest-risk in the industry, often involving grueling schedules, poor benefits, and unsafe conditions. Beyond health care, the National Employment Law Project found that more than half of Black women work in jobs where they are overrepresented, such as childcare, janitorial work, and food preparation. Meanwhile, they remain underrepresented in high-wage fields like tech, law, and executive management—even when they hold the degrees and credentials to qualify.

In Boston, Charity Wallace, a 37-year-old biotech professional, and Chassity Coston, a 35-year-old middle school principal, both say they’re leaning heavily on community and mental health strategies to cope with workplace challenges. “It’s a constant fight of belonging and really having your girlfriends or your homegirls or my mom and my sister,” Wallace told NBC News. “I complain to them every day about something that’s going on at work. So having that circle of Black women that you can really vent to is important because, again, you cannot let things like this sit. We’ve been silenced for too long.” Limited opportunities for promotion and sponsorship compound the isolation many Black women feel in their workplaces. In 2024, writer Tiffani Lambie described the “invisible struggle for Black women” at work. “The concept of ‘Black Girl Magic’ contributes to the notion that Black women are superheroes,” she wrote. “Although the intent of this movement was to empower and celebrate the uniqueness of Black women, the perception has also put Black women at greater risk of anxiety and depression—conditions that are more chronic and intense in Black women than in others.”

She warned that workplace conditions—marked by fear, lack of support, and erasure—threaten to push more Black women out of leadership and career pipelines. “If left untouched, the number of Black women in leadership and beyond will continue to decline,” Lambie wrote. “It is incumbent on everyone to account for these experiences and create an equitable and safe environment for everyone to succeed.” The Urban Institute recently spoke with a Black woman who transitioned from part-time fast food work to a full-time data entry role after completing a graduate degree. The job offered her better pay, health insurance, and stability. “It gives you a sense of focus and determination,” she said. “Now, I can build my career path.”