Category: Crisis updates

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PG&E says its equipment may have led to 30,000-acre Dixie Fire

By Adeel Hassan, NYTimes News Service : sfexaminer – excerpt

Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, said on Sunday that blown fuses on one of its utility poles may have sparked a fire that has burned through 30,000 acres in Northern California.

The blaze, known as the Dixie Fire, has spread through remote wilderness about 100 miles north of Sacramento, in an area close to the burn scars of 2018’s devastating Camp Fire, which itself was caused by PG&E equipment failures…(more)

What will it take for the CPUC and state officials to see that the way forward is to rely less on long-distance power lines and promote more local rooftop solar production?

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California Communities Are Bracing for Drought

By Peter Drekmeier, Tuolumne River Trust : westsideobserver – excerpt

Does This Mean We Should Panic in the Bay Area?

Listening to news about the current drought, one might wonder how long we have before we run out of water. Fortunately, for those of us who live in San Francisco and other communities served by Hetch Hetchy, we can rest a little easier than just about anyone else.

The SFPUC, which manages our water supply, has a lot of reservoir storage capacity. Hetch Hetchy makes up only a quarter of it, and at full storage, the SFPUC has enough water to last six years. Right now they’re sitting on enough water to last four-and-a-half years. That’s like driving with your gas tank three-quarters full – hardly time to panic.

The SFPUC also has a long history of inflating demand projections. Just a few months ago they got caught trying to cook the books in their Urban Water Management Plan. When forced to use actual demand projections, potential rationing decreased by 27%.”

Despite being in an enviable position, the SFPUC wants you to believe our water security is far from certain. They want you to support their lawsuits against the State Water Board. The Board is in the process of requiring more water to be left in the Tuolumne River – the source of Hetch Hetchy – to help restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta and rivers that feed it.

In an average year, the SFPUC is entitled to three times as much water as is needed, so if next year is close to average, all of their reservoirs will fill. The drought will be over, at least for San Francisco…(more)

 

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Fire commissioner says Safe Streets SF program could put community at risk

By Andre Senior : ktvu – excerpt

Fire Commissioner criticizes continuing Safe Streets SF program

SAN FRANCISCO – There’s been a lot of support for the Safe Streets SF project, which began in April of 2020 to give residents of San Francisco more elbow room to physically distance outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safe Streets SF led several streets across the city to be closed to cars to emphasize pedestrian activity…

San Francisco’s Fire Commission devoted much of Wednesday’s meeting to the topic where during public comment, a resident commented that he welcomed the continuation after previously being hit twice while on his bicycle. He said he can now safely navigate from one end of the city to the other through the network of Safe Streets converted roads…

Was he perchance one of the cyclists joy-riding through the stop signs or swirling in and out of traffic?

But during the meeting, one issue took center stage following a report from Fire Marshal Dan de Cossio who said that there has been a delay in response times on average of five to 30 seconds over the last year…

The revelation drew a sharp response from Fire Commissioner Francee Covington, who expressed concern that the Safe Streets project could put the community at risk.

“When you talk about a delay of five seconds or 30 seconds, you have to really if your house is on fire, that’s a lifetime to you that is not just a stopwatch period of time,” said Covington…(more)

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Not one dollar of state rent-relief money has arrived in SF

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Hundreds of millions in federal funding is available — but tenants aren’t getting it.

Governor Gavin Newsom is talking about spending $12 billion on housing for homeless people and rent relief for tenants. It’s a great picture.

But in reality, the existing state program to help tenants who can’t pay rent because of the pandemic has not sent a single check for a single dollar to a single tenant or landlord in San Francisco, public records show.

It’s not much better on a statewide basis: Of the $403 million requested by landlords and tenants, only $4 million – that’s one percent – has actually been paid out.

“It’s just unacceptable,” Molly Goldberg, staff director for the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, told me. “The state of the need is huge.”

The story is a complex issue of federal, state, and local agencies, but the bottom line is simple:

California is leaving vast sums of federal money on the table because Newsom’s administration can’t seem to get it together to send the money where it’s needed…(more)

Too much talk and not enough positive action out of Sacramento. What is the hold up? Who are what is to blame?

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Good News for SF’s Homeless

by  : beyondchron – excerpt

City Adopts New Strategy, Leadership

Last week brought some very welcome news to San Francisco’s roughly 6000 unhoused people living in tents, shelters and on the street.

First, a new referral strategy for filling vacancies in the city’s master leased SRO hotels has finally begun. Nonprofits began raising alarms about excessive vacancies and inadequate referrals in fall 2019. I described this as part of San Francisco’s “failed homeless strategy;” yet until very recently HSH made no material changes to the process.

The new referral process has already increased the number of unhoused who the city is allowing to move into permanent housing…

Starting April 1 a block rental system will sharply increase placements. Sending groups a large block of unhoused applicants as opposed to a few at a time is not rocket science; it gives the nonprofit provider the chance to offer options to potential tenants and ensures units do not sit vacant due to declines.

Hundreds of vacancies in city-funded, nonprofit master leased hotels will soon be filled. The new referral program will not end homelessness in San Francisco  but it will maximize the use of city funds for reducing the numbers…

It takes time for the city to purchase hotels as many agencies are involved…(more)
“It takes time for the city to purchase hotels as many agencies are involved…” This is a problem that needs streamlining. Which agencies can be cut out of the process? There is no end to streamlining for developers. Let’s see some of the focus shift from building new expensive “affordable” housing to purchasing existing affordable housing and keeping it permanently affordable. One might even consider offering permanently affordable units as rent-to-own to help the tenants move into the middle class rather than remain on the public dole. That would allow the city to purchase more permanently affordable housing and extend the offer to more families of a secure future.
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Vaccine Information

Posted on District 5 Newletter:

It is critical that everyone in San Francisco get vaccinated as soon as it is their turn. It is not mandatory, but vaccinating most people is critical to stop COVID-19 from mutating and continuing to impact our world. Information is constantly changing, and we suggest checking the latest here.

There is also a COVID-19 Vaccinations Tracker that provides information on the number of people who live in San Francisco who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and the number of doses administered within San Francisco to anyone. We also encourage you to sign up to be notified when you’re eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Right now, we do not have enough vaccines for mass vaccination sites, but those will be set up as soon as we receive a shipment. Unfortunately, we have not received a timeline on the arrival of further vaccines, though it is coming. You can learn about future prioritization groups here.

To get your vaccine, contact your primary care physician. Please remember that the vaccine is in short supply so you may not be able to book your appointment today. If you do not have a physician, contact the SF Health Network.

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Neighborhood Notes: New funding for Latino Task Force and online events happening soon

by Juan Carlos Lara : missionlocal – excerpt

DPH pandemic grants

The Department of Public Health announced $5.25 million in grants to neighborhood organizations for pandemic-related community assistance.

The funds are meant to support contact tracing, outreach efforts, mobile testing and community care for residents with Covid-19, according to a press release by the Department of Emergency Management.

In the Mission, the Latino Task Force and the Mission Language Vocational School will receive the grants, totalling about $500,000, according to Jon Jacobo, health committee chair for the Latino Task Force…

The community care component consists of workers bringing food or supplies to residents quarantining with Covid-19. If a quarantining community member lives in a crowded home, they will be connected with quarantine hotels in the city to prevent spread within the household.

The Latino Task Force also provides financial support to encourage residents to stay home rather than going to work sick…

Residents hoping to seek out the services mentioned above can do so here, or show up to 701 Alabama Street any Monday and Wednesday through Friday during regular business hours. …(more)

RELATED:

Department of Public Health opens Covid-19 popup community testing  site on Barlett Street

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Homeless crisis: Newsom proposes ditching environmental review when converting hotels into housing

By Kevin Fagan : sfchronicle – excerpt

Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing that state environmental regulations be waived for cities and counties that want to convert hotels into homeless housing using federal coronavirus relief funding.

His plan was sent to the California Legislature on Friday to be added to the state budget negotiations, and if it remains intact it would eliminate a key tool opponents use to fight projects they don’t want in their neighborhoods. By law, the budget is supposed to be passed by June 15.

Before the pandemic hit this winter, the governor had said he wanted regulations under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) eased for many types of homeless housing, and this current plan — sent in the form of a “trailer bill” addition to budget talks — narrows that ambition… (more)

A few people may explode over this, but, it sounds like the perfect karmic solution. Sort of a boomerang effect, correcting a major flaw in that turned housing into hotels and through many people out onto the street who were previously housed in those hotels. It could be like a happy homecoming to some, moving back into recently repaired rooms they were kicked out of. There are all kinds of possibilities here. Who might object?

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Employers Can Let Workers Change Health Plans Without Waiting

By Margot Sanger-Katz and Ron Lieber : nyt – excerpt (via linkedin editor)

The I.R.S. is giving companies flexibility to allow those decisions, and on pretax accounts for medical expenses and child care, outside an enrollment period.

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday made it easier for employers to allow workers to make adjustments to their health insurance plans and flexible spending accounts in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Normally, strict rules prevent employees from changing health insurance plans in the middle of a year. But the I.R.S. is giving employers a way to let workers make changes without waiting for the usual enrollment period.

Under the new guidance, employers can let their workers drop out of their health insurance if they have another option, or sign up if they failed to earlier in the year. Workers could also be allowed to add more family members to their plan, or switch from one workplace plan to another.

The change doesn’t require employers to offer these options; they must opt in if they want to give their employees the added flexibility…(more)

 

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The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them

By Erin Bromage : 

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

Please read this link to learn about the author and background to these posts

It seems many people are breathing some relief, and I’m not sure why. An epidemic curve has a relatively predictable upslope and once the peak is reached, the back slope can also be predicted. We have robust data from the outbreaks in China and Italy, that shows the backside of the mortality curve declines slowly, with deaths persisting for months. Assuming we have just crested in deaths at 70k, it is possible that we lose another 70,000 people over the next 6 weeks as we come off that peak. That’s what’s going to happen with a lockdown.

As states reopen, and we give the virus more fuel, all bets are off. I understand the reasons for reopening the economy, but I’ve said before, if you don’t solve the biology, the economy won’t recover.

There are very few states that have demonstrated a sustained decline in numbers of new infections. Indeed, as of May 3rd the majority are still increasing and reopening. As a simple example of the USA trend, when you take out the data from New York and just look at the rest of the USA, daily case numbers are increasing. Bottom line: the only reason the total USA new case numbers look flat right now is because the New York City epidemic was so large and now it is being contained… (more)