Features

Lincoln cafeteria is going green with less plastic waste.

By: Manuel Diaz

 

Utensils used to be distributed in plastic packages at the cafeteria

 

    According to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) about 258 million tons of waste was generated in 2014 in America alone, with plastic making up about 12.9% of that. In an effort to combat this excessive waste, the Lincoln High cafeteria has taken the first step towards a “clean Lincoln” by reducing plastic waste with the elimination of unneeded utensils.

By no longer serving the traditional pack that included a single napkin, spork, and straw, the cafeteria is no longer forcing students to pick up a whole package of utensils. In most cases, students would have to get the pack of utensils even though they would only be using one of them and disposing of the rest.

In the past, plastic sporks and straws have been incorporated in school lunches because of their logical efficiency. Now Lincoln has decided to change that by separating the utensils from the original package. If you want to grab a fork, you must grab it from the tray. I you want napkins, you must get them from the dispenser. Plastic straws are on their way out after the Green Academy’s petition to ban them.

This small change makes a huge difference. Reducing the material that is thrown away is better for the Earth. Lincoln’s goal is to become a more environmentally-friendly school.

What’s next for Lincoln? Is it moving in the direction of Northampton High School, where they have gotten rid of all plastic utensils and incorporated silverware and reusable trays in their cafeteria? By getting rid of the whole plastic variable they have not only reduced their waste but also their annual spending on plastic utensils. Is this a baby step towards reusable materials or just less trash? We shall wait and see.

Lincoln Votes: a brief guide to the 2018 mayoral race

By: Dimitri Zlatev

 

 

 

With Mayor Ed Lee’s sudden passing this past December, San Francisco is getting ready to hold a special election this coming June 5th to see who will fill the city’s executive office for the remaining 18 months of Lee’s term. With a total of eight candidates running, ranging from Democratic Socialist Amy Farah Weiss to business-oriented Republican Richie Greenberg, the election is predicted to be the first where San Francisco’s Ranked Choice Voting system will play a crucial role in determining the victor.

Whomever ends up winning the title of ‘mayor’ will inherit a city with a variety of ailments including a widespread housing shortage, rising wealth inequality, an ever growing homeless population, roads repeatedly deemed ‘America’s worst,’ and a $10 billion annual budget to try and fix it all.

Come election time many Lincoln students will be eligible to cast their first ballot and help determine the path America’s 12th largest city goes down. We at the “Lincoln Log” believe that an informed voter is a better voter, and to facilitate this we have selected the three candidates with the largest lead in the polls to analyze. For a more in-depth investigation about these three, as well as their competitors, additional information is available on Ballotpedia.org and the individual campaign websites.

London Breed

The representative of San Francisco’s fifth district and current president of the Board of Supervisors, Breed was the acting mayor for a total of 42 days between December and January before being voted out by the Board’s progressive wing and replaced by interim Mark Farrell.

Breed is a self-proclaimed moderate and has been described as ideologically similar to Ed Lee with her comparatively more market-friendly approach towards matters. Like Lee, Breed has set the goal of building 5,000 units of housing annually, both via the private sector and by utilizing city funds. In her housing manifesto published on Medium.com, she states that “Supply and demand is real, and we will see rents continue to climb if we don’t address it.”

In line with this thinking, Breed has lifted regulations requiring developers to set aside portions of their lots for parking and seeks to streamline the permit process for new and existing constructions. In the past she has passed legislation requiring affordable housing complexes to give priority to neighborhood residents. Breed has sponsored Prop A and Prop C, which together brought in a total of $571 million in affordable housing bonds and has promised to raise the tax on commercial rents in order to generate a further $1 billion to provide 10,000 homes for middle income families.

On the issue of San Francisco’s 7,500 homeless residents, Breed emphasizes that prevention is the most effective cure, citing that 69% of San Francisco’s current homeless population was already living in the city when they became homeless. Breed has previously fought for the right to civil counsel for all tenants facing eviction and the restoration of existing public housing. She calls for the creation of positions in the City Attorney office who specifically deal with mentally ill homeless people as well as their compulsory participation in treatment centers. Additionally, Breed has put forth a proposal for the creation of safe injection sites and a factory dedicated to making inexpensive prefabricated modular housing for the city’s homeless.

To combat the high number of property crimes and car break-ins Breed promises to increase the number of police officers and crackdown on repeat offenders. She has said that she supports police use of tasers.

Breed has managed to garner the support of both Senator Kamala Harris as well as Supervisor turned State Senator Scott Weiner. On a more local level, she is endorsed by The San Francisco Chronicle, the Firefighters Local 798 union, and activist group YIMBY Action.

Jane Kim

Presiding from the city’s sixth district, Jane Kim gained prominence when her propositions making City College free to all city residents passed with a 2/3rds majority of the vote.

A staunch opponent of gentrification, Kim believes that the city should be doing more to protect low to middle income residents, specifically by requiring that new developments devote a higher percentage of units to below-market rate housing. Replying to a questionnaire sent by the San Francisco Housing Coalition, Kim stated that she intends to mandate that a minimum of 33% of all new housing units be reserved for low to middle income families, and that 50% must be affordable for moderate income residents. In an effort to help free up the take-home salary of low-income earners, she has put forward Proposition C which, if approved by voters, would raise taxes on commercial property leases to pay for early education programs and childcare for families making under $61,000 annually.

Kim believes that the best plan of action to combat rampant homelessness is to invest greater resources into bettering the shelter system, both by improving quality of care at existing shelters as well as building new ones. She advocates for the extension of hours of operation at homeless shelters to allow homeless individuals to have a place to stay during the day and the streamlining of the process to access shelter. Additionally, she aims to employ more doctors, nurses, and psychologists at new shelters and work with hospitals to see if a greater number of beds may be given to homeless individuals who require medical attention. Recognizing that shelters alone will not fix the problem, Kim backs the idea of creating street cleaning teams comprised entirely of the formerly homeless in order to keep neighborhoods pristine and prevent homeless recidivism.

Kim has said little on how she will tackle crime, only insisting that the growing number of car break-ins is a problem, and that she recommends the installation of bright lights and cameras in problem areas.

During her unsuccessful 2016 run for State Senate Kim was able to gain the attention and eventual endorsement of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who briefly came to the city to campaign on her behalf. While Sanders has not commented on her current run for mayor, Kim has been able to gain the backing of Our Revolution, a PAC spun off from Sanders’ presidential campaign, and environmentalist organization The Sierra Club. Furthermore, she has won the support of the SF Tenants Union, the SF Bicycle Coalition, and the joint sponsorship of the SF Green party.

Mark Leno

The candidate with the longest career in politics, Leno was a one-term Supervisor turned Assemblyman turned State Senator. Like Kim, Leno is a self-styled progressive that has lobbied for left-wing causes for a majority of his time in Sacramento, including statutes requiring developers to build affordable housing in all large projects and pushed to have California’s minimum wage to gradually go up to $15/hour by 2023. In fact, the two have endorsed one another with both recommending that voters list the other as their second choice.

Seeking to carry on with the principles that brought him to the capitol, Leno plans to continue his efforts necessitating that new developments rent out a certain percentage of units at below market-rate prices. During his time in the State Senate Leno had fought against the 1986 Ellis Act, which allowed landlords to freely evict tenants as they pleased so long as they exit the rental market completely. Leno has said that he aims continues to continue this fight by offering free legal assistance to evicted tenants and clampdown on land speculators. In an effort to prevent further displacement of longtime residents, Leno’s housing platform states that he is intent on greatly expanding the city’s Small Sites Acquisition program, which currently subsidizes the rent of low income citizens or in rare cases outright buys a property to prevent evictions, as well as encouraging local businesses to hire San Franciscans over out-of-towners.

On his website Leno puts forth the ambitious goal of ending street homelessness in its entirety by 2020. He says that the current $300 million budget set aside to address homelessness issues is being wasted, and that he intends to audit the city to locate inefficient programs and cut their funding. With that money he then means to build new shelters. In order to target the roots of the problem, Leno proposes both the establishment of a separate justice center for those with mental health issues and for the expansion of the city’s current universal health system to better include mental health support.

Leno’s anti-crime strategy puts a strong emphasis on community policing and supports large-scale gun buyback programs. He seeks to crackdown hard on car break-ins, suggesting that each and every police car be equipped with fingerprint kits just for such occasions. Leno supports the expansion of de-escalation training for police officers.

Like Kim, he has gained the co-endorsement of the SF Green party, the SF Tenants Union, and the SF Bicycle Coalition. Leno was also able to gain the backing of various union and LGBT groups, ranging from the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121 to the Harvey Milk Democratic Club.

Like Breed, he has won the approval of Kamala Harris and Scott Wiener.

 

 

Do Lincoln teachers actually enjoy the fan pages students made for them?

By: Donna Li

 

 

 

Lincoln students have created fan pages on Instagram for their teachers. It may seem like a fun and cute way to connect with our teachers, but in reality, do teachers actually enjoy these fan pages that their students have made for them?

Mr. Crotwell, Mr. Bates, and Colonel Ishikata are all some of the teachers that

have fanpages at our school.

“Colonel is like our dad/grandpa in JROTC,” says Elaine Hang, “He teaches us and helps us grow so we are really thankful for him. Which is why we thought it would be funny to make this fan account for him.”

Most of the photos on these fan pages are mostly memes that students have made out of headshots of the teachers. Students see it as a way to connect with each other because they are able to laugh and relate with each other about the teachers they share in school.

“A fanpage?!” exclaimed Ishikata, “I had no idea. I feel a little irritated and flattered at the same time. I feel irritated because I know that the purpose of this fan page is to mess with me. The cadet in our program seems to enjoy screwing around with me.”

Some teachers such as Arturo Rovo are not too excited about these fanpages. Since the students who created these fan pages are in their class the students prefer to stay anonymous and stay out of trouble. Which bring us to the question, “Are these really fanpages to our teacher?” If they truly are “fan pages,” then why are the students scared of getting in trouble and why are our teachers not too happy about it?

“When it was first brought to my attention,” says Rovo, “I equate it to cyberbullying. I don’t feel personally bullied, but when I see the other accounts, I notice that the teachers weren’t presented in an authentic or positive light.”

Teachers and students agree that although these accounts are called “fan pages”, they dont look like fan pages. The students who created these accounts could possibly risk breaking defamation laws and are spreading false information. When other students or teachers see and follow these accounts, they might actually believe the things being said on the account. These teachers could risk getting a bad reputation, which is why Rovo believes that students should ask for permission before being allowed to create these accounts on social media.

“What were posted on the pages [as captions] are things that these teacher would never or have actually said in person” says Colton Ryan.

“Mr. Crotwell actually banned phones from class because of [the fanpages],” says the anonymous owner of Mr. Crotwell’s page. “But he realized that we aren’t trying to make fun of him, just trying to have some laughs in class.”

Although the teachers seems to think otherwise, students did create these fanpages out of love, but we also love to poke fun at our favorite teachers.”

 

History Teacher plans on retiring

By: Elizah Lopez

 

 

 

U.S history teacher Gordon Robertson also known as Mr.Rob has been working at Abraham Lincoln High School since 2002, but has been teaching since 1990. Robertson is planning on teaching for one more year, then retiring. He has been working since he was 13 years old trying to take the roll of his father. In his high school years he wasn’t apart of any school activities or clubs due to the fact that he had to work right after school. He’s about to turn 67 and believes that it’s finally the right time for him to retire and finally get the chance to relax.

“Just living life is going to be my vacation,” says Robertson.

      After retirement he is planning on getting out of San Francisco and moving up north where he won’t be so far from his family.

“I will miss my students, because I actually do believe that you have to love your kids. I’m rough and gruff, I get mad, but I do that out of love.”

            Robertson explains that the hardest part about being a teacher is dealing with so many different people.

          “You’re not just a teacher, you need to raise all these kids, you’re a counselor, you need to put kids aside and work out their problems, there’s so many things you do on this job and no one gives us the credit for it,” Robertson explains.

           Rob has helped many students, and tried to push all his students to their full potential.

“Rob is a gangsta and always pushed me to do my best, and always wanted me to graduate” says Lucky Fenton, a senior at Lincoln that is now on his way to graduate.

 

Lincoln Improv Troupe performs for patients at UCSF

By: Gordon Liang

 

 

 

On February 1st, the Lincoln Mustang Funny Actors Organization paid a visit to UCSF to do a performance. Ian Enriquez, the teacher for the club, received an invitation from a parent to perform at the hospital. After checking the availability of the actors, Enriquez gladly accepted the invitation. Along with Enriquez, many others were excited for the opportunity.

 

“I definitely wanted to go. I thought it was a good experience but I also had to make sure that students going understood where we were going,” said Enriquez about visiting the hospital.

 

Raziel Ruiz, an actor for the troupe said, “Whenever there’s an opportunity for me to perform in front of an audience, I take it. But this performance was much more special to me because I was able to perform for people who need some joy in their life due to their circumstances.”

 

Ruiz commented, “[The performance] made me feel happy and warm inside knowing that although there are people with illnesses and diseases, they still find a way to laugh in life.”

 

Familiar faces were seen at the performance as some of the audience members happened to be former Lincoln High School teachers. The audience members were very intrigued but were glad to see new people as most of them were staying in the hospital for a long term.

 

“Performing in front of [the teachers] meant to me that even though they haven’t been at Lincoln for a while, we represented the school in a positive way, hopefully how they remembered it the last time they went there,” Ruiz said.

 

“For [the patients, the show] was a nice break in their routine to have comedy shared with them,” Enriquez commented.

 

This was the first year that the troupe has performed at the hospital.

 

“I hope we the left the patients feeling happy and delighted that we came to perform just for them as a way of entertainment. I hope it shows that not all teenagers are glued to their phones and out partying, but going out of their way to spread happiness and joy,” stated Ruiz.

 

Usually, in an improv performance, the actors play fun games and ask the audience to help set the setting.

 

Enriquez expects that the troupe will be invited next year and is looking forward to it.

 

Seniors give academic advice to underclassmen

By: Emily Cai

 

Isaiah Rand

Natalie Garcia

Joyce Wu

Donna Li

Valarie Li

 

Carlos Leiva
 

Senior year is something everyone looks forward to. It is the last of your high school career. Some people say it is going to be stressful because of all the college applications, scholarship deadlines, and AP classes. Some people get “senioritis” - a well-known excuse for not coming to school or doing work. Here are some pieces of advice the class of 2018 has to offer to the class of 2019 and beyond:

What was stressful about senior year?

    “Applying for college, staying motivated, being bombarded with homework,” said Valerie Li.

    “College application and scholarships,” said anonymous.

    “College app was a lot of work, it was hard staying focused.” said Joyce Wu.

    “Getting all the deadlines were stressful and the choice of college. I just made sure I didn’t miss any deadlines,” said Donna Li.

    “By sleeping early and remembering that no matter what happened it won’t last forever,” said Valerie Li.

    “I played sports to forget about it or take my mind off of it,” said anonymous.

    “Coming to class was the most stressful thing but I slept in some classes,” said Isaiah Rand.

     “Getting caught up with my work and making time for homework/assignments was stressful. Mr. Doyle taught me to time manage. Sometimes I manage my time effectively and it plays out,” said Natalie Garcia.

    Should students take more AP classes?

    “Yes, because it will be a better challenge if you find your classes too easy,” said anonymous.

    “Yes, but don’t try to do more than you can handle. Doing enough is more than enough,” said Joyce Wu.

     “Yes, but only if they think they can handle it,” said Donna Li.

     “If they want to, AP classes aren’t for everyone and we should not force them,” said Carlos Leiva.

    How did you find a balance between your academics and extracurriculars?

    “Honestly, I am still struggling trying to balance the two. But if I were to give advice it would be for you to do things one step at a time and know what you can handle,” said Valerie Li.

    “You might have to sleep really late at times, but you will get used to it,” said anonymous.

    “I did homework before practice and after,” said anonymous.

    “I was in Dum Crop the past three years and I made sure I do all my homework before I do anything else,” said Donna Li.

    What is one thing you regret you didn’t do in senior year?

    “I regret not getting my drivers license over the summer,” said anonymous.

    “One thing I regret about senior year is not getting closer to people,” said anonymous.

    “One thing I probably regret was not joining the clubs I wanted to join,” said Valerie Li.

    “I really wish I joined more clubs and continued being a part of BSA. I was in BSA all three years. It was sad I didn’t do BSA this year,” said Donna Li.

    “I regret not joining clubs to gain different experiences and not going to the boat dance. It was the only dance I didn’t go to,” said Isaiah Rand.

    “I regret not taking a free period to just chill,” said Carlos Leiva.

General Advice:

    “Do your best on everything so you have no regrets,” said Joyce Wu.

    “Don’t skip too much your senior year,” said anonymous.

    “Do the SAT at the end of junior year and beginning of senior year. Don't get senioritis because you will procrastinate a lot more and get no work done. Don’t get lazy during senior year. Finish off strong,” said anonymous.

    “Don’t ditch class. Make sure you keep up with work. It may seem it doesn’t matter but it will become a consistent thing,” said Donna Li.

    “If you are not good with tests, go to class and finish your homework,” said Isaiah Rand.

    “Don’t get lazy senior year,” said Carlos Leiva.

    “For juniors, don’t slack, don’t fall behind year classes. I don’t even remember sophomore year but just take it seriously. The more you know about college and financial aid, the smoother the process will be when it comes,” said Natalie Garcia.