Category: News

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California’s second-largest home insurer to raise rates this fall

By Megan Fan Munce : sfchronicle – excerpt
White picket fence photo by zrants
Farmers Insurance Group, the second-largest home insurer in California, is set to raise overall policy rates for homeowners by 1.5% this fall.
Its rate hike, approved Monday, will take effect for the insurers’ nearly 915,000 homeowners at their next renewal date following Sept. 15, 2026, according to a filing with the California Department of Insurance. While increases across the state will average out to 1.5%, Individual customers could see their rates rise by much more than 1.5% or may see their premiums decrease. Data on the exact range of rate changes or which areas may see the largest hikes wasn’t available on Monday.
Farmers covers approximately 11% of all insured homes in California, second only to State Farm General. As part of its filing, the insurer said it will up its home and auto bundling discount from 15% to 22% and increase the discounts homeowners can get for reducing their wildfire risk.
This is Farmers’ first filing under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a set of regulatory reforms finalized last year that altered the way insurance companies price wildfire risk. The request was first submitted last November for a 6.99% increase but was approved by regulators at just 1.5%…(more)
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Signature gatherers are out in force across S.F. Here’s why this year feels different

By Rachel Swan, Sara DiNatale : sfchronicle (audio)

In some parts of San Francisco, it’s virtually impossible to exit a grocery store without getting ambushed by people waving clipboards.

They are a familiar sight each election season, collecting signatures to put policy ideas before voters, lecturing anyone who will listen on why we need to fund buses or libraries, tax the rich and cut through the red tape. We’ve all heard versions of these speeches before, and we generally tolerate them, accepting ballot initiatives as an expression of the popular will. But this year the signature gatherers showed an unusual ferocity that crescendoed last week, when the state hit a suggested deadline for measures to qualify for November.

And still the gatherers refused to pack up. Now the focus has shifted to local and regional campaigns, including roughly a dozen would-be ballot measures circulating in San Francisco. People who wrap up petition drives in Southern California cities caravan to the Bay Area and quickly memorize scripts about the importance of bailing out BART and Muni, streamlining city contracts in San Francisco, and the proposed expansion of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s executive power. Voters can’t catch a break… (more)

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As S.F. pivots to mandatory drug treatment, DPH cuts counselor training at City College

by XUEER LU : Missionlocal – excerpt

End of free mental health training part of shift in CA towards housing, treating worst addiction cases

At his inauguration, Mayor Daniel Lurie promised to dedicate his time in office to tackling the city’s drug use and mental health crisis, even in the face of the city’s looming budget deficit.

In practice, cuts to programs that help tackle that crisis are coming anyway. Among them: City College’s Community Mental Health Certificate Program, a one of a kind 18-month program, training frontline mental health workers to use their lived experience for peer counseling with a chance to be licensed by the state.

The city’s Department of Public Health recently announced that its funding will end after its current five-year $2.15-million contract comes to an end. If it can’t find funding elsewhere, its last class will graduate in June 2027… (more)

Let me get this straight. SF just spent 14 million dollars on 25 sobering up chairs, but they are cutting 2.15 million to educate mental health workers. What are they going to do? Strap troubled people into the chairs? How long will they sit quietly while coming down? Who is running this outfit?

 

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A federal ‘naughty list’ is making some California condo sales nearly impossible

By Christian Leonard : sfchronicle – excerpt

The additional layer of checks adds yet another complication for the California condo market, which historically has been much softer than that for single-family homes.

Buying a condo is tricky enough. But a federal database of problematic condo buildings — which some lenders are calling a “blacklist” — is making it even harder to get a mortgage for some.

The database was created by Fannie Mae, a government-sponsored corporation that buys mortgages from lenders and sells them to investors as securities. The system frees up lenders’ funds for additional loans and lessens their risk, generally resulting in lower rates for buyers…

But not for every buyer. More than 700 California condominium complexes are flagged in Fannie Mae’s database as being “unavailable,” meaning the company won’t purchase loans for units there, according to data provided by condo law firm Alcock Marcus. The number of affected condos has skyrocketed in the past few years.

The impact of being on the list could be severe. A bank often won’t lend money for a condo that’s on that list, said Kevin Casey, a Bay Area loan officer with Guarantee Mortgage. That means the buyer has to either get a non-qualified mortgage, which is a riskier type of loan that comes with higher interest rates, or back out of the deal entirely….

Condo owners and sellers were already struggling to find insurance, with providers either leaving the state or significantly raising rates. Those insurance woes have also resulted in the Bay Area having some of the highest HOA fees in the country. And in the Walnut Creek retirement community of Rossmoor, most buyers have to pay in cash after Fannie and Freddie announced they would no longer back mortgages there unless it was funded for a complete loss. Rossmoor is one of 35 flagged condo complexes in Walnut Creek, according to the Mercury News.

Casey, the Guarantee Mortgage agent, said buyers who are considering bidding on a condo should make sure it’s in a well-run association, as that can determine how much time they spend navigating issues later in the deal.

You’re buying two things,” Casey said. “You’re buying what’s between the walls, and you’re buying the management company. So you have to spend … a good amount of time looking at that HOA.”… (more)

 

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Please Help the landowner of the four undeveloped lots at 1230 – 1240 Twin Peaks Blvd. donate his property

The lot owner would like to donate the property to either the city, the RPD and/or a nature conservatory.  He does not want to sell the property and have it developed for housing units.  He has asked the surrounding neighborhood, Midtown Terrace Home Owners Association (MTHOA) to take the lead in helping him donate his property.  To sign the “Donate the Land” petition contact: Midtownterrace.org

If the property were to be donated, it would remain in its natural state and probably be planted with California native plants.  The landowner would also donate $50,000 towards property maintenance.

This property is at the gateway of the Panorama Drive side of Twin Peaks Blvd.  If the donated lots were kept in a natural state, they would greatly compliment the entrance of the new Promenade that is being built on the top of Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks is the second-highest natural point in San Francisco (922+ feet), surpassed only by Mount Davidson.  Unofficially the number two (2) tourist destination by volume, Twin Peaks is a premier, world-famous attraction renowned for offering the best 360-degree, panoramic views of the City and Bay.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE:If the landowner cannot donate his property, it will be sold to a developer. This will lead to prolonged construction, an unattractive building, public safety issues, parking problems, traffic congestion, noise, quality of life concerns for surrounding residents and increases in crime. Please Contact: MidtownTerrace.org and Myrna Melgar 415-554-6516 or MelgarStaff@sfgov.org

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S.F. supervisors, past and present, arrested at SFO anti-ICE protest

By  Marina Newman : missionlocal – excerpt

Board President Rafael Mandelman and congressional candidate Supervisor Connie Chan among those arrested at May Day protest.

San Francisco city officials, including Board President Rafael Mandelman and Supervisor Connie Chan, and a California state senator were arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Friday during a May Day protest against conditions for airport workers and federal immigration agents’ presence in airports across the country.

The airport workers’ union picketed for higher wages and fully funded healthcare. Activist groups who joined the protest on Friday decried Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence at airports…

Chan, Mandelman and other city and state officials, including state Sen. Josh Becker and former supervisor Jane Kim, blocked the street to the international terminal, holding a banner in support of the union…

At 1 p.m., approximately one hour after Chan and other city officials were arrested, the San Francisco Police Department released a statement saying that there are “no arrests or reports of injuries at this time.”…(more)

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New state bill aims to cancel medical debt for low-income Californians

: sfexaminer – excerpt (audio track) 

The state would purchase and forgive many Californians’ medical debt under a legislative proposal announced Monday.

Around 40% of Californians are struggling with some kind of medical debt regardless of whether or not they have some form of health insurance, said Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who authored Assembly Bill 2123, during a press conference Monday.

“Many people do have coverage,” she said, but they “still end up with bills they can’t afford, high deductibles, copays, denied claims — [it] can leave families owing thousands of dollars, and they never expected [it] would happen.”…

The Medical Debt Relief Act of 2026 is based on an existing pilot program launched in Los Angeles County in 2024, where the Board of Supervisors invested $5 million to purchase debt for pennies on the dollar and erase it for people whose household incomes are at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, or have medical debt that equals 5% or more of their annual income…(more)

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Break up PG&E?

By Sam Maslin : sfchronicle – excerpt

We should first try fixing the California Public Utilities Commission

As we gear up for the 2026 election season, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is in the crosshairs. Tom Steyer is running for governor and loudly vowing to “break up” the electric utilities. Meanwhile, in the San Francisco congressional race to replace Nancy Pelosi, all three major candidates — Scott Weiner, Saikat Chakrabarti and Connie Chan — support a takeover of the city’s electric system.

Politicians and voters have every right to be upset at PG&E. Rates have gone through the roof as the company has presided over a string of deadly failures and costly outages. But moves to take over the grid should give us pause. San Francisco City Hall, with pressing challenges and its own history of mismanagement, seems ill-equipped to launch an electric utility, and advocates of municipal power are often unrealistic about what would be involved. There are better ways to get the electric system we want.

Here’s the thing: The large investor-owned utilities are already publicly controlled. As state-sanctioned monopolies, they are comprehensively regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, which has the responsibility to approve their actions. So if we’re unhappy with the utilities, why don’t we just try regulating them better?

We should be asking much more of the five members of the commission, who are appointed by the governor. As a developer of solar and energy storage projects in California, I have seen firsthand how our regulators have failed to produce effective energy policy or to provide even a modest check on the utilities.

The truth is, the commission has not been meeting the moment…

Now’s the time for a fresh start. Leadership is turning over at the commission, and we’ll soon elect a new governor who will appoint new regulators. As voters, we should be asking pointed questions and demanding better results.

Can we unpack the rate increases? How are costs categorized, and do we agree? What returns are utilities receiving on their investments, and are they appropriate? Are there more cost-effective solutions to grid challenges that aren’t being considered? How can we empower communities to develop the next generation of energy assets?…

Let’s organize with our neighbors — using existing groups and forming new ones. Let’s take a hard look at utility profits and, in this era of budget cuts and hard choices, insist that they do belt-tightening just like the rest of us. Let’s increase the pace of energy development and fight for the right to develop local resources to prevent future blackouts, just as PG&E has.

We should be unabashed about these goals with the incoming governor’s administration. We want a transformed utility system and intend to work effectively across the different stakeholders to effect real change. Of course, we can always keep a city takeover in our back pocket…

Ultimately, there isn’t one solution to our energy woes. The grid is a large, multilayered system, and we have to do many things at scale to ensure that we have the energy we need over the coming years. But having regulators who recognize the urgency of the situation is a must, and right now, we don’t.

So we can keep talking about a long-term breakup with PG&E, but let’s recognize that we have the opportunity to demand better outcomes now… (more)

Sam Maslin is CEO of Eddy Energy, a developer of community energy storage projects, and the president of the Noe Valley Democratic Club in San Francisco.

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An update from Los Altos Hills

By Lynn La : calmatters via email:

Horses are welcome in Los Altos Hills, among other communities in the Peninsula that appreciate a rural lifestyle, where some vineyards and orchards struggle to survive.

Last fall, CalMatters covered the saga of the well-to-do Silicon Valley suburb that set aside some land for denser development in compliance with state housing law, only to scale back its plans once a developer proposed a major apartment project for the site. Since then, regulators with California’s Housing Department signed off on the town’s about-face.

Now, the California Housing Defense Fund, a pro-development legal advocacy group, is suing the town, arguing that its housing plan violates state law — even if the state’s own regulators don’t see things that way.

Is it possible the legal YIMBY arm is reaching too far as it attacks the root of its support? How much is too much and when is it time to retreat? The peninsula is known for its excellent local food sources that feed fine restaurants in the Bay Area.