Category: Update

by Jesse Rogala : sfstandard – excerpt (includes video)

As the Bay Area heads into winter and prepares to face down the “tripledemic” of Covid, the flu and RSV, our reporting shows that patients are having to deal with longer and longer response times after calling an ambulance for medical emergencies.

In the video above, data reporter Noah Baustin breaks down exactly why those response times are increasing…(more)

RELATED:

Ambulance Response Times Are Increasing Dramatically—Here’s Why

In News by Patrick Range McDonaldApril 12, 2019 : housingisahumanright – excerpt

Before Scott Wiener became a state senator in 2016, he served as a San Francisco supervisor for six years. Known as a “corporate Democrat,” he aggressively pushed policies that benefited his campaigns contributors in the real estate industry — and left behind an appalling legacy. Today, he’s advancing the trickle-down housing bill SB 50, which will generate billions for his political patrons, but will fuel gentrification and displacement throughout California. The following is an excerpt from the Housing Is A Human Right investigation “Selling Out California: Scott Wiener’s Money Ties to Big Real Estate.”

An Appalling Legacy

When Scott Wiener ran, in 2010, for San Francisco supervisor in District 8, he was hardly a candidate to get excited about — unless you were a real estate hotshot. It was a time when African Americans were getting shoved out of San Francisco at a disproportionately greater rate than other ethnicities; a six-year, upward trend of evictions started slamming the city’s renters (from 1,372 in 2010 to 2,304 in 2015); and San Francisco was ranked the fifth most expensive metropolis in the entire nation. But Wiener, a 40-year-old deputy city attorney who ran as an openly gay candidate in a heavily LGBT district, didn’t showcase gentrification, tenant protections, or affordability issues on the campaign trail. Instead, he talked about the “basics” of government…(more)

One of the most important things we can do is to pick new representatives for California to send to Washington.

by Josh Koehn : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco is giving $1.4 billion to more than 600 nonprofits this year to help tackle some of its biggest crises, from housing and homelessness to helping people find jobs.

But a new report released Tuesday by city officials suggests quite a few organizations getting city funding were not complying with the terms set out in their contracts, and two bad actors, in particular, were tagged with “red flag status.”

The Controller’s Office released its annual report detailing the financial and operational health of 192 organizations that were tabbed for monitoring. Of this group, 21 were found to not be “in conformance with all standards.” After a period where organizations were able to resolve their issues, a total of nine were found to still be out of compliance, according to the Controller’s Office.

The two contractors placed on “red flag status,” which indicates severe challenges that not only need to be more closely monitored but also rectified, are PRC/Baker Places and the United Council of Human Services…(more)

By Annika Hom : missionlocal – excerpt

Sixty ‘tiny homes’ for the homeless could go up next to 16th St. BART — if the community abides.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen told Mission Local that she is considering 1979 Mission St. as a potential destination for city-funded “tiny homes,” shed-like structures with a bed, locks, and heat intended for homeless individuals. Tiny homes are meant to be lived in temporarily, with the hope that residents eventually move into permanent housing.

“I don’t want anybody sleeping on the streets of the Mission,” Ronen said. “The bottom line is, there are not enough spaces for all the people experiencing homelessness in the city. So we have to create more.”

The 16th Street tiny homes could take care of 60 of the 664 unhoused residents tallied in District 9 during the 2022 Point-In-Time count.

Tiny homes could be a win-win solution, the supervisor said, and she and the city are negotiating guarantees that the Mission’s unhoused gets first dibs. “The whole point is we are providing these life-changing services for [the homeless], but also improving street conditions.”

Plenty of characteristics made 1979 Mission St., known colloquially as the Monster/Marvel in the Mission, a favorable site: It’s large, vacant, and thanks to a 2021 development deal, owned by the city. …(more)

By Jessica Wolfrom : sfexaminer – excerpt

The contentious battle over the future of rooftop solar in California has come to a dramatic conclusion this week as the California Public Utilities Commission voted to approve changes to the way Californians generate and store solar energy in their homes.

Thursday’s vote locks in new rules for a policy known as net metering, or NEM 3.0, a billing mechanism that allows residents who generate power to receive financial credit for any surplus energy they send to the grid.

The updated policy will reduce payments that homes and businesses receive for sending excess energy to the grid, a move which has been seen as both a necessary adjustment of a two-decade-old policy and an outright attack on the rooftop solar industry that could disincentivize people from investing in solar panels in the future.

It also includes fresh subsidies for battery storage, which the CPUC says will bolster grid stability by encouraging residents to store excess energy generated during the day for nighttime use when demand for energy peaks…

“If you live in the Bay Area, about 11%, 12% of your bill goes to pay for NEM,” said Baker. “And given that it doesn’t quite have the carbon benefits it had in the past, we think that part of this ruling is really important.”…

There is also concern that the new ruling, which doesn’t go into effect until April, will create a run on solar panels before the deadline, with people scrambling to lock in the old rates.…(more)

By Adam Shanks : sfexaminer – excerpt

San Francisco’s Elections Commission quickly forfeited a game of chicken with the Board of Supervisors.

The six-member Elections Commission on Monday reversed its previous decision to open a broad search for an elections director, rather than hand the current director, John Arntz, a new five-year term at the helm.

After voting 4-2 last month to launch a full search for a director, the Elections Commission capitulated in the face of criticism Monday night and plans to offer Arntz the job after all. Mission Local reported Tuesday that Arntz intends to accept the offer, assuming the commission votes in January to approve his next term…(more)

By Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

Whenever a renter has to move, they always have to do the grim math: Bank up for whatever move-in costs a landlord demands for a desired home, which can easily run into the tens of thousands in a market like San Francisco.

San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney plans to make the process a little less stressful in an era of high rents.

“In San Francisco, an average apartment is $4,000, which means a person may need up to $12,000 just to move into an average apartment under current law. That’s egregious; it’s literally a down payment on a house in many places,” said Haney. “AB 12 will follow what states like New York and Delaware have done for years and cap a security deposit at one month of rent.”…(more)

Is this making property owners more or less likely to stay in the rental business?

and on the Fed side:

Senate Rejects Bill To Curb Money Laundering in Silicon Valley

By Matthew Kupfer : sfstandard – excerpt

Venture capital firms, investment managers and corporate lawyers in San Francisco are likely heaving a sigh of relief.

Just hours after the White House backed measures that would close holes in money-laundering restrictions, they were stricken from a U.S. Senate defense spending bill, setting back efforts at reining in foreign tycoons who pour their money into investments such as Bay Area startups and real estate.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on Dec. 6 that the Biden Administration “fully supports” the Establishing New Authorities for Business Laundering and Enabling Risks to Security (Enablers) Act during a speech at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Washington, D.C…(more)

If DC does not the care of money laundering, will Sacramento step up and do something? Ask your state representatives about that.

by Rachel Swan : sfchronicle – excerpt

A group of merchants on San Francisco’s Valencia Street abruptly canceled this weekend’s “Shared Spaces” road closure and outdoor festivities due to rainy forecasts — and a growing contention that banning cars is bad for business.

Among them is Valencia Cyclery bike shop owner Paul Olszewski, who sent a mass email to his neighbors late Thursday. Cutting off motorists from using the street lessens the chance of making a sale in inclement weather, Olszewski said…

“It is my belief that prospective customers who drive to our neighborhood are discouraged by the congestion and increased lack of parking,” Olszewski continued…

Several shop owners on the email thread echoed Olszewski’s frustrations, prompting restaurateur and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board director Manny Yekutiel to take action. He sent a text to a subcommittee of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association board that handles road closures, and by noon Friday, a Shared Spaces event set for the following day had been called off. It will still happen on Friday night..

Olszewski, the owner of Valencia Cyclery, is often a figure in these fights, usually siding with the motorists that he considers an important customer base. In February 2020 he tried to torpedo plans for a barricaded bike lane that would remove roughly half the parking spaces on his block. The plan, rolled out right before COVID, never came to fruition. A different iteration is now in the works, with support from the merchants association…(more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

The Board of Supes will consider a long-debated plan allowing the police to use military-style weapons—and in the latest version, the cops want to allow robots to shoot people.

Sup. Aaron Peskin has been working for months on developing a policy on police use of special military-style weapons, and it seemed a couple of weeks ago as if everyone was close to a deal.

But the latest red-line version of the proposal, with the SFPD’s proposed changes, includes a couple of stunning additions, including the ability of police robots to use lethal force “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.”

This has created a bit of a media fuss since MissionLocal reported it…(more)

By Ethan Kassel : sfstandard – excerpt

Though lights at St. Ignatius’ J.B. Murphy Field have brought nighttime football to the school’s Sunset District campus this season, the legal battles with neighbors aren’t over yet.

The SI Neighborhood Association sent out a press release Monday afternoon, claiming victory in a yearslong battle to have the lights looked into for their environmental impacts on the neighborhood.

The California State Appellate Court sided with neighbors, who claimed that the lights were not exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Both the school and the San Francisco Planning Commission had claimed the opposite. The San Francisco Superior Court previously sided with the school and Planning Commission.

The court has ruled that the lights’ lasting impacts on the neighborhood must be analyzed under CEQA regulations, which could result in new measures to reduce the lights’ impact.

The court also said that since the 90-foot-tall lights are significantly higher than other structures in the surrounding neighborhood, they cannot be classed as small structures with no impact…(more)