Noah Baustin

POLITICO Names Noah Baustin as California’s Energy and Environment Reporter

Exciting news: I've joined @politico.com to cover the CA energy and environment beat.

Are you working on these issues? Give me a shout. I'd love to hear what story lines you think I should cover.

www.politico.com/blogs/politi...

SF nonprofit went from $125M gift to fight for survival A mysterious $125M gift transformed the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually impaired. A decade later, layoffs, protests, and financial losses leave the nonprofit fighting to survive.

How an SF nonprofit for the blind squandered a $125 million windfall ➡️ sfstandard.com/2025/07/17/l... "LightHouse’s optimism outstripped its resources: More money, more problems."

SF nonprofit went from $125M gift to fight for survival A mysterious $125M gift transformed the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually impaired. A decade later, layoffs, protests, and financial losses leave the nonprofit fighting to survive.

A decade ago, a mysterious $125M gift transformed the SF LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Now, layoffs, protests, and real estate losses leave it fighting to survive. My deep dive into the saga at this keystone nonprofit on
@sfstandard.com: sfstandard.com/2025/07/17/l...

To meet its 2031 state housing goal deadline, SF would have to authorize 12,800+ units for construction each year. It has not authorized even half as many in a single year in the past two decades. My latest @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/04/25/s...

As of the end of December, San Francisco was not quite 9% of the way to meeting its January 2031 Housing Element goal of authorizing more than 82,000 units for construction — putting it far off pace and behind most cities in the region. 📝 @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/04/25/s...

In SF’s Asian American neighborhoods, Democrats face a reputation crisis Chinese immigrant communities, feeling “neglected,” are turning to the right at the city’s highest rates.

In SF’s Asian American neighborhoods, Democrats face a reputation crisis

'Devastating': Trump research funding cuts could cost the Bay Area billions New rules would strip upward of $138 million from UCSF in one year, according to The Standard’s analysis of federal data.

I analyzed NIH data to see the local impact of the Trump admin's directive to cut biomedical research funding. If it had come last year, federal funding for Bay Area education institutions would have been cut by $282M. ⬇️ with Jenn Wadsworth @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/02/14/t...

‘We risk it all’: Bay Area nonprofits reel from Trump funding cuts and chaos - The San Francisco Standard San Francisco’s nonprofit sector, the largest per capita of any California county, is in crisis mode with federal dollars at risk.

Trump’s now-rescinded funding freeze and executive orders have left Bay Area nonprofits scrambling and confused, with executives’ time consumed by tracking fast-moving news alerts to stay ahead of the president’s next shot at the sector. ⬇️ @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/02/10/t...

My cousin overdosed on fentanyl on an SF sidewalk. 3 lives were saved I knew Buddy all my life and watched him succumb to the horrors of addiction. Unemployed and unhoused, his last years were lonely and tragic. But just before the holidays, his organs gave three people...

Read this. Think of the countless families that have fought on behalf of loved ones gripped by addiction. Even in the darkest days, there may be moments of grace.

By Astrid Kane, who could not have possibly written any better than this:

sfstandard.com/2025/01/29/s...

Officials held up car registrations millions of times over unpaid bridge tolls Bay Area toll authorities locked down the registrations in an attempt to recoup debts as revenue plunged.

Officials held up car registrations millions of times over unpaid bridge tolls

Car registrations held up millions of times over unpaid bridge tolls With revenue down and many drivers not paying their tolls, Bay Area authorities locked down car registrations millions of times to pressure people to pay owed tolls.

If you don't pay your toll, authorities will lock down your vehicle registration until you pay up. They did this 6.1 million times from fall 2023 to 2024, frustrating fine recipients and illustrating how cash strapped bridge authorities are. @sfstandard.com ⬇️ sfstandard.com/2025/01/27/b...

Deserted: 65K San Franciscans to be left without a local pharmacy Residents of the Bayview and Ingleside won't have a pharmacy in their neighborhoods after 12 Walgreens stores close in February.

More than 65K San Franciscans will lose their neighborhoods' only pharmacy after upcoming closures. San Francisco will have lost nearly 40% of its licensed pharmacies over a decade, my analysis found for @sfstandard.com. Story with Garrett Leahy & Beki San Martin ⬇️ sfstandard.com/2025/01/23/s...

SF is losing a generation of Black men to overdoses. It’s worse here than anywhere San Francisco is losing a generation of elder Black men to the deadly fentanyl overdose crisis. It's worse here than anywhere.

Sit with this story. My colleagues @allaboutgeorge.com, Noah Baustin and David Sjostedt along with NYT, on how displacement, poverty, the war on drugs, and fentanyl led to the loss of nearly an entire generation of Black men.

sfstandard.com/2024/12/20/s...

How Drug Overdose Deaths Have Plagued One Generation of Black Men for Decades In dozens of cities, the recent rise of fentanyl has put older Black men in particular jeopardy.

This generation of Black men have died of overdoses at a higher rate than other demographic groups in dozens of counties. David Sjostedt, @allaboutgeorge.com, & I reported on this for a national collaboration led by @upshot.nytimes.com and @thebaltimorebanner.com www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/u...

SF is losing a generation of Black men to overdoses. It’s worse here than anywhere San Francisco is losing a generation of elder Black men to the deadly fentanyl overdose crisis. It's worse here than anywhere.

Black men born from 1951 to 1970 have represented 12% of all overdose deaths in SF in the past four years, but are less than 1% of the population. That makes them 32 times more likely to die of an overdose than the average American. @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2024/12/20/s...

How Drug Overdose Deaths Have Plagued One Generation of Black Men for Decades In dozens of cities, the recent rise of fentanyl has put older Black men in particular jeopardy.

This investigation was in partnership with The Baltimore Banner, Big Local News and nine other newsrooms across the country. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/u...

Driving SF city workers are hitting pedestrians at an alarming rate The Standard obtained 151 claims from pedestrians and cyclists who say a driving city worker hit them with their vehicle. The cases have cost the city $40 million, so far.

Lydia Tonozzi says she was struck by an SFMTA vehicle, injuring her so severely she spent months in a nursing facility. She's just one of numerous people who have landed in the hospital after being struck by a driving SF worker on the job recently. @sfstandard.com

sfstandard.com/2024/12/18/c...

SF's most arrested homeless man sleeps outside childhood home San Francisco police have arrested one homeless man five times since the city launched a crackdown on sidewalk encampments. But the man continues to return to the scene because it's next to his childh...

Earnest alert: Geoffrey Frye is the most arrested homeless person since San Francisco’s crackdown started this year.

He and his mom’s heartbreaking story is a microcosm of the crisis that keeps people on the city’s streets.

sfstandard.com/2024/11/21/h...