With Christian McCaffrey, the San Francisco 49ers have one of the strongest offensive weapons and arguably the best running back in the sport. But since he is one of the favorites for the Super Bowl, his top priority in training camp is to build the necessary depth behind him.

December 10, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) stands next to wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19) and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (11) after the 49ers gained a first down near the end zone against the Seattle Seahawks in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Photo Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

McCaffrey accounted for 2,023 yards from scrimmage, representing 29 percent of the 49ers' total offense during San Francisco's Super Bowl season.

McCaffrey completed 272 carries and ran for 1,459 yards, a career high, as the focal point of the 49ers' offense.

At the very least, it might be wise for the 49ers to strike a balance this summer and find a capable backup to limit McCaffrey's load during the regular season.

Where does the battle for the San Francisco 49ers backup RB stand?

December 31, 2023; Landover, Maryland, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) carries the ball as Washington Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne (94) looks on during the second half at FedExField. Mandatory Photo Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Last season, no other 49ers running back surpassed 300 yards, and head coach Kyle Shannahan seems to be wisely limiting Deebo Samuel's role in the running game.

It should not be too surprising that the 49ers invested a fourth-round pick in Isaac Guerendo as a possible replacement for McCaffrey.

However, ESPN's Nick Wagoner points out that Guerendo suffered an injury early in training camp, giving Cody Schrader the opportunity to get some important reps.

“After just the first practice of training camp, the competition for the 49ers' running backs has changed somewhat,” Wagoner writes. “Rookie running back Isaac Guerendo was forced to leave mid-practice with a hamstring injury, coach Kyle Shanahan said. Guerendo has been dealing with hamstring issues in Louisville, and if those issues persist, it could open up an opportunity for another rookie to make an impact.

“Undrafted rookie Cody Schrader has made a habit of overcoming adversity throughout his successful college career. With Guerendo out and star Christian McCaffrey taking on a limited workload to preserve him for the season, Schrader could have a chance to earn a spot on the roster in the coming days and weeks.”

Regardless of whether Guerendo recovers and improves his performance, Schrader takes his chance, or the 49ers look for reinforcements for their running back on the waiver list over the summer, San Francisco needs to make its running game more balanced.October 3, 2021; Santa Clara, Calif.; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan takes the field before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Photo Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

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The skyline of downtown San Francisco, seen from Potrero Hill in 2008. Photo: Andreas Praefcke

The second most valuable company in the world, Amazon has been gobbling up space throughout the southeast corner of the city, taking advantage of zoning meant to preserve blue-collar jobs in a market in which housing and office space have typically generated higher revenues. — The San Francisco Chronicle

Amazon bought a 510,000-square-foot former sanitation motor pool parcel in the Showplace Square section of the city for $200 million in December of 2020. It has since proposed an expansion of the site’s footprint into an over 725,000-square-foot distribution hub for 400 workers that neighboring tenants, including the diffuse California College of the Arts, say will create a “pedestrian nightmare” of around 2,900 vehicle trips a day.

Now, as a result of the company’s proposal, San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton is seeking legislation that would place an 18-month moratorium on any new parcel delivery services operating in the city. It has already picked up backing from the local Teamsters and UFCW unions. The legislative effort, which the paper sees as another flashpoint in the “war between organized labor and Amazon,” is also backed by more environmentally-minded Prothero Hill and Dogpatch inhabitants, who say the company “has the neighborhoods surrounded” with similar developments that combined with existing freeways and Caltrain stations negatively impact the air quality in the area.

Previously on Archinect: Amazon warehouses are wreaking havoc in California’s Inland Empire

The concern echoes those of residents in Southern California’s Inland Empire, who have been beset by a series of environmental and transportation headaches since buying into the jobs-centric development schemes starting around a decade ago.

“Hundreds of people now have come in to make this their neighborhood, and this just really turns the clock back to a massive usage that is antithetical to a livable neighborhood for people with children, seniors,” one Seventh Street resident told the Chronicle. “It’s contrary to that.”

Similar articles on Archinect that may interest you…

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Hotel staff like Laverne Taylor can relate to the guests. She says she was addicted to drugs as a teenager, and lived on the street. She remembers getting high just to stay warm.

Taylor was in and out of prison before receiving a life sentence for murder. After serving 26 years behind bars, she was released in 2019 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown commuted her sentence. Soon after that she was working at Hotel Whitcomb.

Taylor says her heart broke watching guests struggle to adjust to living inside after years on the streets.

“You had people you took off the street, literally, and you put them all in a [three]-star hotel,” Taylor said. “You’d see the room and it was like it was demolished, tents in there. We couldn’t understand. ‘Why do you have a tent in there?'”

She said some people needed help even for mundane tasks like turning on showers, or using television remote controls.

Taylor has used CPR on guests more than a dozen times, and has attempted to revive people after overdoses—usually successfully, but sometimes not.

She was working at Hotel Whitcomb the day Sterling Ulrich died. She’d grown close to Ulrich, who was just beginning to open up around staff.

When Taylor heard the emergency call on the hotel radio along with Ulrich’s name, her heart started racing. When she found Ulrich, she began CPR, tag teaming the mouth breathing and chest compressions with another colleague, until it became clear that they couldn’t save Ulrich.

“It’s like a scene from a bad movie where people are trying, and trying, and trying until someone pulls them off,” Taylor said.

Staff need ongoing counseling for trauma

Soon after Hotel Whitcomb opened to vulnerable residents, an organization called the Harm Reduction Therapy Center began providing counseling for staff who were seeing overdoses.

Harm Reduction Therapy Center’s leadership team at a holiday gathering. Left to right: Nathan Kamps-Hughes, program coordinator and staff therapist; Abigail McMorrow, staff therapist; Maurice Byrd, director of training and business operations; Maxx Malloy, staff therapist; Irina Alexander, staff therapist; Jason Brown, program coordinator and staff therapist; and Anna Berg, director of programs. (Courtesy Anna Berg)

Anna Berg is a clinical social worker for the center. She says Hotel Whitcomb became a microcosm of the city’s multiple social crises. The same mental health and substance use issues playing out every day on the streets were now happening under one roof, and seeing that took a toll on staff. She said staff there need long-term support rather than only after overdoses and other emergencies.

She said staff trauma has been a major unintended consequence of these hotels.

“Seeing somebody go through a trauma is still a trauma — these repeated exposures that staff are having to incredibly traumatic events where it’s life or death and you feel responsible for that, even if you’re not,” she said.

Brandi Marshall took a job with Five Keys in November specifically to address the need for staff support. She says it’s hard to work at Hotel Whitcomb, where guests continue to use lethal drugs after overdosing.

Marshall served in the military, and volunteered to go back to Iraq soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She said because of the trauma she experienced seeing people die while in the military, she knows how to block out some of the emotional aspects of her job at the hotel.

“I have mastered that art from Iraq,” she said. “[My co-workers] really absorb a lot, coming out of prison. They absorb all of what is happening around them.”

Monique LeSarre, executive director at Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, a nonprofit aimed at reducing health inequities in underserved communities, said her therapists have counseled Hotel Whitcomb staff in crisis.

“[Staff are] reviving people, [people] who then turn around and die the next day,” said LeSarre. “Their own mental health is suffering. It’s really unethical, really, really, really unethical, to not provide the appropriate level of support.”

Dawn Koch, a guest at Hotel Whitcomb, talks to a Five Keys staff member (not pictured) at the Hotel Whitcomb in San Francisco on Feb. 18, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

LeSarre said she sought funding for mental health support from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. But, she said, the agency turned down the grant proposal.

When asked about this, Denny Machuca-Grebe, a spokesperson with the agency, responded in a written statement.

“As agencies that day in and day out provide support and services for individuals with many challenges around mental health, substance use and housing, we are very attuned to how difficult it could be to serve vulnerable communities while caring for ourselves as individuals,” he wrote.

Machuca-Grebe did not respond to KQED’s question about any efforts that might be underway to support the mental health of staff at shelter-in-place hotels.

He said to connect with Five Keys for steps the nonprofit has taken to support their staff.

Marshall says she and other employees are beginning to open up more about some of the trauma they’re facing. Five Keys has started support groups for employees, including a group for women. At first only one or two people would attend these sessions. Now, dozens of people show up, Marshall said, talking about everything from their own children who have passed away to reversing overdoses.

Steps toward stability

Dawn Koch has lived at Hotel Whitcomb since last August, and she wants to start a group for residents living at the hotel to support each other. She carries Narcan with her everywhere, and says building a sense of community is an important part of harm reduction, too.

“There’s too many people that are so lost they don’t even know themselves anymore. Unless you have somebody to help you from that point, you feel like you’re always lost,” she said.

“I’ve really seen too many people here one minute and then gone the next,” she said.

Teddy Melendez, another resident at the hotel, uses fentanyl at the curb so people are nearby to save him if he overdoses. People regularly gather in crowds outside the hotel and use drugs.

Melendez said he’s been using less fentanyl because he’s taking medication to reduce cravings and ease withdrawal pain.

“I want to have my own spot, have my own apartment. For me to do that, I have to stop using,” he said.

San Francisco officials plan to end the city’s emergency hotel program in September. So far, a little more than half of guests who are considered eligible for housing through the program have found it, and it’s mostly permanent housing. Eligibility is based on a number of factors, such as a person’s health or how long they’ve been unhoused.

Eldridge Cruse, the hotel supervisor, tells staff to focus on the overdoses they’ve reversed rather than the people they couldn’t save.

“You’ve got to have an X-ray vision or cameras in every room, and monitor every room to catch what’s going on. But you can’t,” Cruse said. “We were dealt the hand, and we played it the best we could. No loss of life is acceptable. But we couldn’t stop what was going to happen. We couldn’t.”

This article was produced as a project for the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2021 Data Fellowship.

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It’s 9am in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district and sleeping bodies line the sidewalks as Felanie Castro sets out on her route in Glide Memorial church’s harm reduction van.

Along Ellis Street, hungry people queue up for the church’s daily breakfast of buns, hard-boiled eggs and plastic-wrapped muffins. Down the block, a fire department truck, part of a city response team, awaits the day’s first drug overdose call.

This neighborhood and the adjoining South of Market (SoMa) district have become ground zero in an opioid overdose crisis that is killing thousands of California residents, including many experiencing homelessness. In the past two years, more than 1,300 people have died of overdoses in San Francisco, a rise driven by the emergence of fentanyl, a super-potent synthetic opioid that’s 50 times stronger than heroin. Nearly half of those deaths have occurred in these two hard-hit neighborhoods alone.

Castro and Glide’s harm reduction team are fighting one front in the battle to keep people alive.

Glide, a nearly century-old church, has been advocating for the rights of the poor and disenfranchised communities since the 1960s. Today the church runs dozens of programs, including support for those struggling with homelessness and addiction. Armed with supplies such as clean syringes, glass pipes, alcohol wipes and bottles of water, their team aims to give people the health tools to make drug use as safe as possible, while working to build the trust that drug users may need to eventually seek help.

Among the most powerful tools in their arsenal are nasal spray bottles of Narcan, each containing 4mg of the life-saving opioid-reversal drug naloxone. Castro says she has already reversed 50 overdoses using Narcan, in the Tenderloin and around the city.

But she can’t save everyone alone. As part of a broader harm reduction strategy, providers are offering Narcan at clinics, meal programs and homeless drop-in centers and distributing it directly into the hands of drug users and anyone living around them, increasing the chances someone can act.

“The idea is to have Narcan available everywhere,” said Laura Guzman, a senior director at the National Harm Reduction Coalition. .

Left: The Tenderloin neighborhood. Right: Felanie Castro in front of Glide Memorial church. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

As the Glide outreach van pulls up to a collection of tarps and tents under the shadows of a freeway overpass that morning, Castro and her partner, Rizzy Spoer, call out to the occupants, who appear to be sleeping inside.

“Hi, sorry to bother you. We’re from Glide. We have harm reduction supplies and basic needs stuff. Do you need anything?”

A bearded young man in a baseball cap comes out and asks if he can have some “longs” and some “shorts”, referring to two different sizes of syringes.

Castro loads a paper bag with the supplies and offers some water. Then she calls to the soft-spoken young man as he turns to go back to the tent: “And also, do you have any Narcan in there?” The man gratefully takes a single-dose Narcan dispenser wrapped in foil packaging.

A historic neighborhood faces new crises

The Tenderloin, a historic neighborhood in the heart of San Francisco’s downtown, comprises roughly 50 square blocks, most built just after the 1906 earthquake. During the 20th century its gently sloping streets and residential hotels developed a reputation as the city’s seedy underbelly, known for drug dealing, sex work and vice.

Today the Tenderloin is grappling with the interlocking crises of homelessness, poverty and addiction. It’s home to hundreds of people trying to survive without housing, many living just steps from glitzy high-rise apartments, luxury brand shops, and the headquarters of tech companies such as Twitter and Uber.

The city supervisor Matt Haney, who represents and lives in the district, describes it as a place of last resort for people who have fallen through the social safety net.

“The Tenderloin is a place where people who have been pushed out, stepped on and who are struggling can find a home and refuge,” he said. “That’s a powerful and beautiful thing. It also brings with it a lot of need.”

Bar chart of opioid overdoses reversed trending up, overdose deaths climbing and then falling in San Francisco

In recent years, new forces have intensified those challenges. One is the rise of fentanyl, now the substance of choice for many illicit drug users in San Francisco. Another is soaring rents and a statewide housing crisis that experts say has pushed even more people on to the streets.

Resolving the situation has become one of the city’s most divisive issues. Facing mounting pressure to act, San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, declared a “state of emergency” in the Tenderloin in December 2021 – promising a crackdown on drug dealers, more interventions for users and cleaner streets.

The declaration reignited a debate at the heart of drug addiction treatment: should users be given “tough love” and urged to abstain from drug use? Or should the city make drug use safer and help people rebuild their lives at their own pace?

Opinions range, with some in favor of the abstinence-based approach, a philosophy often associated with America’s “war on drugs” era, and some who want the city to use a firmer hand to clear the Tenderloin of visible drug use and encampments.

People in the Downtown Streets program, which assists people who have experienced homelessness, clean the Tenderloin in March.Ramona De La Torres, a worker with the San Francisco Drug Users Union, a harm reduction organization that distributes syringes and other supplies to make drug use safer.

In contrast, harm reduction advocates say widely accepted scientific evidence shows this strategy is ineffective at reducing addiction in the long term. In addition to placing people in supportive housing, they believe the city should open supervised spaces for people to use drugs, so they can receive prompt medical attention in the case of an overdose. Slowly building relationships, they say, helps people get into treatment and ultimately heal.

“Harm reduction is sort of the flip side of criminalizing drug use,” said Glide Memorial church’s CEO, Karen Hanrahan. “We practice harm reduction to save lives and to reduce disease, but also because it builds relationships with people who we can then wrap our arms around and help them through a continuum of other services that they need.”

Harm reduction started as an underground movement distributing clean needles to drug users during the Aids epidemic of the 1980s, said Dr Daniel Ciccarone, a professor specializing in addiction medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The mantra, at a time “when injection drug users and men who had sex with men were not only ignored, but were vilified”, says Ciccarone, “was meeting people where they’re at – not judging them, not disciplining them, not telling them what they needed to do.”

Those principles now form much of what we think of as drug treatment, he said, from the use of medicines like methadone and buprenorphine to help wean people from opioids, to the counseling that helps people rebuild their sense of dignity. And for the first time, harm reduction became part of federal policy when the Biden administration included it as a pillar of its plan to stem national overdose deaths.

“It started scrappy; it started low-budget and it started underground,” said Ciccarone, who worked with street activists in the 1980s trying to stop the spread of Aids. “It has grown to become legitimate, accepted, funded and politically approved.”

‘I’m scared to death of fentanyl’

Proponents of harm reduction are putting their methods up against one of the greatest tests yet as fentanyl floods the US drug market.

In California, the number of fatalities attributed to fentanyl jumped by more than 2,100% in five years. In San Francisco, overdose deaths hit a new high of 711 during the first year of the pandemic, with those experiencing homelessness facing some of the highest mortality rates.

A man smokes fentanyl in the Tenderloin.

According to Alex Kral, who has been interviewing opioid users for decades as part of his work with the non-profit research institute RTI International, many heroin users have switched over to fentanyl – which is being both injected and smoked – because it’s a cheaper and quicker high. But the drug’s extreme potency means that even longtime opioid users can quickly go into a breath-stopping overdose.

That’s made distributing Narcan even more urgent. While there’s no silver bullet for the crisis, experts say many more would be dying without it.

For example, in 2021, after climbing precipitously for three years, the number of overdose deaths in the city decreased slightly to 650, a period that coincided with Narcan resuscitations ramping up significantly – from 4,300 in 2020 to 8,200 in 2021.

.

Several months ago, Laurie Rudner, a former Tenderloin resident, saw for herself just how fast fentanyl can take someone out.

A friend was sitting in front of her in a wheelchair when he took a hit of the drug. Almost instantly, she saw the drink he was holding drop out of his hand. Fortunately, Rudner had been given some Narcan. She pulled it out of her bag, and she and another friend rushed to their fallen companion and squirted the Narcan up his nose.

Arlen Fernandez, a Gulf war veteran, in the Tenderloin. Fernandez recently got housing with help from the city. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The GuardianMike Brodeur has been struggling with opioid addiction since his teens. He worked in a demanding position as a towing company manager for many years but is now unhoused and feels like there’s no help available for him. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

An ambulance arrived quickly and administered several more doses of the antidote and, pretty soon, Rudner’s friend was breathing again and on his way to the hospital.

“The main problem right now is fentanyl,” said Rudner. “There have been like two deaths a day.”

While the drug is killing everyone from Hollywood celebrities to high school teenagers, it has posed a particular threat to people experiencing homelessness, driving a doubling of deaths among this group during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a UCSF study.

One big difference between the late 1990s and now, said Kral, is that back then only about 30% of all injection drug users surveyed considered themselves homeless. Today, the figure is 75% to 80%.

He believes the difference is that much of the cheap, marginal housing – like $20-a-night hotels, warehouse spaces and abandoned buildings – has disappeared and been replaced by high-rise condominium buildings fetching top dollar from tech industry employees.

Laurie Rudner in the Tenderloin. ‘The main problem right now is fentanyl,’ she said. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

“People no longer have places to be,” he said.

Reginald Dillard Sr, 65, says what he sees happening on the streets now terrifies him. Born in San Francisco, he has lived in the Bay Area his whole life. After his family lost their West Oakland home in the 2008 housing crash, Dillard said, “I did a few too many drugs and I ended up on the sidewalk.”

Dillard spent years living on the streets in the Tenderloin before he got help from a city caseworker and, four years ago, moved into a subsidized one-room apartment in an old Tenderloin hotel. Now he surveys the street scene around Glide from a distance, looking sharp in a white and blue windbreaker, jeans and a baseball cap.

“I’m scared to death of fentanyl,” he said. “It don’t take but a match head’s worth of that stuff to put you out for good.”

Twenty-nine-year-old Eletise Niumata has experienced those dangers first hand. Sitting in a wheelchair a few blocks from Glide church, she places pink fentanyl powder on a square of tin foil and holds a lighter underneath, inhaling the rising fumes through a straw-like tube.

Left: Reginald Dillard Sr in the Tenderloin. Right: Luxury housing in high-rises sprouting on the edge of the Tenderloin. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

Between puffs, Niumata explains that her name means “electricity” in her ancestral homeland of Samoa, a place she visited twice while growing up in San Francisco. In recent years, both she and her younger sister have faced homelessness. She’s been trying to get into housing, but hasn’t managed to yet.

Niumata says she’s overdosed and been revived by naloxone two or three times. With Narcan, “everybody can help out. If you need some, probably somebody has it.”

Harm reduction on the frontlines

Recently, the city opened a “linkage center” in the Tenderloin, providing a place for those without housing to get respite and hook up with services such as treatment and housing referrals. The center offers hot meals, restrooms and showers – and people are allowed to use drugs in a fenced outdoor area, a decision that not everyone agrees with.

Since the linkage center opened in January, 35 drug overdoses have been caught and reversed with Narcan, according to a statement from the city’s health department.

Finding housing for people who visit the center has been a much slower process. The city’s website shows that as of 10 April, the linkage center has received 28,984 visits and provided 1,220 referrals to services, yet the city’s housing data for the project show only 99 people have gotten housing, with another 71 placed on a priority list. The linkage center made an additional 366 placements into temporary shelter beds.

In Glide Memorial’s outreach van, Felanie Castro is trying to make a difference one visit a time.

The van comes equipped to provide testing for Covid-19, HIV, hepatitis C and a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. The team also passes out lots of bottled water, feminine supplies, snacks, and self-heating meal kits, in varieties like “rotini and kielbasa sausage in a spicy sauce”.

Naaman Harris, left, and his friend Myrin. Harris moved to the Tenderloin from the east coast recently. He heard it was an easier place to live without housing. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

Smoking supplies, including tin foil, straws and glass pipes, are increasingly in demand. Distributing the materials has raised controversy at the federal level – after conservatives erroneously charged that federal money was going to be used to pass out “crack pipes”.

But no federal funding goes to glass pipes, and Castro dismisses criticism that her work encourages drug use. “We’re not just here to give out stuff,” she said. “Everything we do out here is public health. We want to lower the barriers to getting help. That’s my job: lowering the barriers to physical health or mental health.”

Once a week, a doctor from the city of San Francisco’s street medicine team rides along in the harm reduction van and offers medical services to anyone who wants them. The mobile doctors are even able to start people on drug-assisted treatment, a method favored by harm reduction specialists, that can help them get off opioids without the excruciating withdrawal symptoms.

Frank Vaccari, who now lives in a residence hotel in the Tenderloin, credits the earliest form of medication-assisted treatment available in the United States, methadone, with getting him off heroin and off the streets more than two decades ago.

“I couldn’t get off cold turkey,” he said “When I tried, it was horrible. You couldn’t eat. You couldn’t sleep. You’re throwing up. Your eyes are ready to pop out of your skull. The physical effects go on for weeks. Then there’s the mental effects.”

Frank Vaccari at the lobby of the Alexander Residence, a building that provides affordable housing. Photograph: Balazs Gardi/The Guardian

Vaccari, 63, goes to the methadone clinic three days a week to pick up his treatment, which comes in the form of a pink syrup, which he said “tastes nasty, but works real good” to stave off withdrawals.

Many other people he knows have died of overdoses. In January, Vaccari found his younger brother dead of a fentanyl overdose in his own apartment.

As Vaccari steps out on to the Tenderloin’s Eddy Street in his purple pajama pants to give his chihuahua, Cleo, a quick walk, he credits the harm reduction philosophy for keeping him alive.

“Methadone saved my life,” Vaccari said. “I would have been dead years ago.”

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SAN JOSE (KPIX) – The Santa Clara Valley Water District, the wholesaler for the South Bay, is making efforts to polish the image of purified wastewater and lay the groundwork for the replenishment of local aquifers.

At a press event at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center, Rick Callender, CEO of Valley Water, spoke about the need to keep saving while developing ways to increase supply.

At the event, employees distributed water bottles to elected officials and dignitaries with this message printed on the label: “That used to be wastewater #GetOverIt.”

“(Recycled water) may have an image problem, but I think once people are educated they will understand that if you look at the ecosystem, all water is recycled,” Callender said.

The cleaning center receives water from the regional sewage system San José-Santa Clara on the opposite side of the street, which is pumped through a microfiltration and reverse osmosis system and guided by UV light.

At this stage, the water is cleaner than what can be achieved with home filtration systems, the district said. However, it cannot legally be considered “potable” until it has undergone “advanced oxidation”. The district wants to upgrade the cleaning center and install the technology.

Currently the purification center produces 8 million gallons per day, the majority of which is diverted for industrial use, landscape irrigation, and agricultural crops, while the remainder is dumped into the bay.

Once classified as “potable,” it is up to the state Water Resources Control Board to approve the use of millions of gallons of purified water to recharge aquifers in Campbell.

Callender commented on the district’s efforts to get the water resources committee to act quickly.

“I think this is just the beginning of a conversation we need to have. We need to have it now, we need to finish it, and we need to be able to find ways to ensure that we can use advanced purified water for water supply. I think this is just the beginning of a very long conversation and hopefully the state will be able to step on the regulatory accelerator and figure out how to do this quickly, ”Callender said.

The district will decide whether to expand the current water treatment center on Zanker Road or build a new facility in Palo Alto. Callender said the district is reviewing options for both.

“We are in the worst drought since the 1970s. Our reservoirs will be empty if climate change doesn’t go away. Droughts won’t go away, ”Callender said.

Drinking the purified sewage, Shane Kent said in San Jose, it tasted “good.”

“It’s not like tap water or anything like that, but I don’t notice that much of a difference,” said Kent. “But if I saw a fresh bottle of water and something that was treated wastewater – although technically the same – I’d probably prefer the regular bottle of water to this. So it’s definitely a strange image problem. “

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Eine Gruppe von Technologen aus San Francisco stellt sich eine Arbeitswelt vor, in der es keine Bürokratien, keine Hauptquartiere gibt und – was am wichtigsten ist – niemand der Chef von jemand anderem ist.

Das Geschäftsmodell, durch das sie glauben, diese Welt erschaffen zu können, heißt DAO, was für Decentralized Autonomous Organization steht. DAOs basieren auf Blockchains oder transparentem, unveränderlichem Code, der für Online-Audits frei verfügbar ist. Es ist eine Organisationsstruktur, die es den Teilnehmern ermöglicht, mitzubestimmen, wie eine Organisation wächst und geführt wird.

Während es viele verschiedene Philosophien gibt, wie man DAO-Code am besten aufbaut und verwendet, sind DAOs weniger hierarchisch als traditionelle Unternehmen und benötigen keine Zentrale, Campus oder andere zentralisierte Arbeitsbereiche.

DAOs stellen vieles in Frage, wofür die Technologiekultur der Bay Area in den letzten 30 Jahren bekannt war. Und doch leben hier einige der visionärsten Baumeister in San Francisco.

„Es ist Evolution“, sagt Li Jiang, Chief Operating Officer beim Blockchain-Startup Harmony. „Die Generation unserer Eltern, die haben vielleicht 10, 20, 30 Jahre in einem Unternehmen gearbeitet. Unsere Generation, wir arbeiten drei, vier Jahre für ein Unternehmen. Aber dann wird die nächste Generation für drei DAOs gleichzeitig arbeiten.“

Die am besten zu verstehende Analogie ist, dass es sich um eine digitale Genossenschaft handelt, eine Art Online-Version von REI oder eine lokale Bauernkooperative. Eine Gruppe von Menschen mit gemeinsamen Interessen bildet gemeinsam eine Organisation und stimmt gemeinsam über wichtige Entscheidungen ab.

Im Falle einer DAO ist die Governance jedoch noch weiter dezentralisiert, dh es gibt keine Führungskräfte oder sogar einen Administrator mit der alleinigen Befugnis, die Stimmen bei Entscheidungen zu tabellieren. Entwickler programmieren stattdessen „intelligente Verträge“, die bestimmte Verhaltensweisen automatisch ausführen, sobald die Bedingungen erfüllt sind. Es gibt keine zentrale Macht, die vorgibt, was passiert, sondern ein theoretisch unvoreingenommenes und kompromissloses Stück Code.

Die häufigste Verwendung sind jetzt Gruppen von Personen, die DAOs erstellen, um in nicht fungible Token zu investieren. Dies sind einzigartige digitale Gegenstände – die wie Baseballkarten gehandelt werden – etwas, das nicht kopiert werden kann und im Laufe der Zeit innerhalb einer leidenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft an Wert gewinnt. Eine DAO ermöglicht es einer Gruppe von Personen, ihr Geld zusammenzulegen und gemeinsame Entscheidungen über ihre Investitionen zu treffen.

Aber die Hardcore-Leute, die Maximalisten genannt werden, argumentieren, dass das DAO-Modell schließlich für große und kleine Organisationen verwendet werden könnte. Nach ein paar Drinks bei lokalen Krypto-Konferenzen können Technikfreaks bei der Theorie erwischt werden, was passieren würde, wenn Uber ein DAO wäre und die Fahrer ein Mitspracherecht bei der Lohnstruktur oder Airbnb hätten, wobei Gastgeber und Reisende über die Kundensicherheit abstimmen. Twitter-CEO Jack Dorsey prüft mit dem Projekt BlueSky sogar die Schaffung dezentraler sozialer Medien, obwohl sich die Organisation nicht als DAO bezeichnet.

Enthusiasten glauben, dass DAOs die Art und Weise verändern werden, wie zukünftige Generationen arbeiten und leben können, wo immer sie wollen. (Kevin N. Hume/Der Prüfer)

Kritiker weisen darauf hin, dass sich die Blockchain-Technologie im Allgemeinen schneller entwickelt, als die Aufsichtsbehörden damit Schritt halten können. In einigen Fällen, wie bei Bitcoin, kann es in Bezug auf den massiven Energieverbrauch eine unvorhergesehene Belastung für die Umwelt verursachen. In anderen Fällen missbrauchen internationale Hacker Kryptowährung, um Zahlungen ohne Rückverfolgung zu extrahieren.

Auch DAOs sind Neuland, da sie schnell neue Methoden der Arbeitsorganisation mit unklaren Auswirkungen auf das Arbeitsrecht und die internationale Regulierungskooperation entwickeln.

Es ist schwer zu erklären, warum es so viele DAO-Innovationen in der Bay Area gibt, da DAO-Mitglieder nicht am selben Ort oder in derselben Zeitzone sein müssen, um online teilzunehmen. Einige sagen, das Phänomen sei nur ein Nebenprodukt der Entwicklung der DAOs – bis zum Beginn der Pandemie waren die meisten Leute, die an DAOs arbeiteten, Technikfreaks, die dies als Nebenbeschäftigung taten, nachdem sie ihren Campus in Valley und Financial District verlassen hatten. Eine weitere verbreitete Hypothese ist, dass DAOs nur die nächste Phase der Technologieentwicklung nach der Startup-Kultur sind und diejenigen ansprechen, die immer noch von der Idee der „Disruption“ begeistert sind.

Vielleicht ist es die Vielfalt der Gründe, die erklären, warum die führenden DAO-Visionäre der Region so stark unterschiedliche Herangehensweisen an die Technologie haben. Dies sind nur einige der San Franziskaner an der Spitze dieser Innovation.

Ein Vorschlag zu einem Stimmzettel, über den DAO-Benutzer im Blockchain-Startup Harmony abstimmen. Alle Benutzer tragen zur Entscheidungsfindung in einer DAO bei. (Kevin N. Hume/Der Prüfer)

Li Jiang, Chief Operating Officer bei Harmony

Jiang nennt Harmony eine Blockchain der „nächsten Generation“, die eine Erklärung wert sein könnte. Die Kurzversion ist, dass die erste Kryptowährung Bitcoin und ihr Hauptkonkurrent Ether auf zwei branchenbeherrschenden Blockchains abgewickelt werden. Eine der größten Hürden für Entwickler, die an beiden Blockchains arbeiten, besteht darin, dass jede dieser Codefolgen langsam Informationen überträgt und hohe Gebühren für die Ausführung von Transaktionen anfällt. Harmony hat eine eigene Blockchain erstellt, von der die Benutzer sagen, dass sie viel effizienter ist.

Harmony unterscheidet sich von anderen Startups in San Francisco dadurch, dass laut Jiang die Führungskräfte bereit sind, Macht abzugeben. Jiang möchte, dass Harmony ein DAO wird. Er und seine Kollegen haben den Prozess bereits begonnen, indem sie mehrere Mini-DAOs geschaffen haben, um den Ansatz des Unternehmens für mehrere heiße Themen wie Community-Building und soziale Fairness zu erarbeiten. Diese Mini-DAOs bestehen sowohl aus dem Gründungsteam von Harmony als auch aus Bürgernutzern der Blockchain.

Harmony war von dem Moment an, in dem es erstellt wurde, autonom und existierte dauerhaft im Internet wie eine Website, für die der Besitzer das Passwort vergessen hat. Das Gründerteam bildet stattdessen die Harmony Foundation, die diese Mini-DAOs auf der Harmony-Blockchain aufgebaut hat. Sobald die Mitglieder der Harmony Foundation das Vertrauen haben, dass die Mini-DAOs von der Community ohne die Hilfe des Gründers betrieben werden können, wird die Harmony Foundation selbst eine DAO, durch die die Mitglieder eine Rolle bei der Entscheidung haben, wie das Geld des Gründers in neue Startups investiert wird.

„Ich bin auf jeden Fall ein DAO-Maximalist“, sagt Jiang. „Es lohnt sich für jede Organisation, über den Übergang zu einer DAO nachzudenken.“

Ian Lee, Mitbegründer von Syndicate

Unike Jiang identifiziert sich Ian Lee nicht als Maximalist. Tatsächlich sieht er sich selbst als das Gegenteil und sucht nach klaren, identifizierbaren Problemen in der persönlichen Welt, die die Blockchain-Technologie lösen kann. Mit seinem Finanzhintergrund ist es daher sinnvoll, dass er Syndicate mitbegründet hat, um das Investieren zu demokratisieren.

Bei Syndicate bilden Menschen DAOs mit anderen, die daran interessiert sind, in dieselben, oft missions- oder identitätsgetriebenen Projekte zu investieren. Eine DAO beispielsweise investiert in schwarze und afrikanische Startup-Gründer, während eine andere in Frauen und nicht-binäre Gründerinnen investiert. Einige DAO-Mitglieder verwenden Pseudonyme, andere nicht. Am wichtigsten ist, dass DAO-Mitglieder darüber nachdenken und abstimmen, wen sie gemeinsam finanzieren möchten, und entscheiden, wie sehr ihre eigene Identität und ihr Hintergrund die Wahrnehmung anderer Mitglieder von dem, was sie zu sagen haben, beeinflussen sollen – und nicht die traditionell weiße, von Männern dominierte Welt Risikokapital, das für Hierarchien und Gatekeeping berüchtigt ist.

Kritiker weisen darauf hin, dass Syndicate immer noch ziemlich zentralisiert ist. Es gibt ein Kernteam von Leuten, darunter Jiang, die die Technologie selbst entwickeln und von institutionellen Investoren wie Andreessen Horowitz finanziert werden.

Lee sagt, das ist nicht der Punkt. Sein Ansatz beim Aufbau von DAOs sei der praktischste Weg, um das ultimative Ziel der Demokratisierung zu erreichen.

„Investieren ist eine wirklich kraftvolle Art und Weise, wie die Welt gestaltet und gebaut wird. Durch Investitionen werden Ressourcen zugewiesen, und bei diesem Prozess der Ressourcenallokation wird entschieden, wer was, für wen und wo baut“, sagt er. Das Syndikat könnte sich irgendwann dezentralisieren, sagt Lee, aber das erste Ziel ist es, Investitionen in die Gemeinschaft zu ermöglichen. „Wir sind die Infrastruktur – ein Tool-Anbieter für Gemeinden, die DAOs erstellen möchten.“

Gresshaa Mehta, Produktdesignerin bei Orca Protocol

Im Gegensatz zu Harmony und Syndicate ist Orca Protocol keine Blockchain. Vielmehr handelt es sich um eine dezentrale App (dApp genannt), die auf der Blockchain aufgebaut ist – eine Art App, die für den App Store entwickelt wurde, aber ohne dass ein zentrales Unternehmen wie Apple die Bedingungen festlegt. Die Hauptfunktion von Orca besteht darin, DAOs effektiver zu machen, indem Mitglieder in Teams aufgeteilt werden.

Das von ihnen geschaffene Produkt ist zwar technisch komplex, aber philosophisch einfach. Sie wurden von Dunbars Zahl inspiriert – einer Theorie, die besagt, dass Menschen nur die kognitive Fähigkeit haben, Beziehungen zu 150 Personen gleichzeitig aufrechtzuerhalten.

DAOs in ihrer einfachsten Form laden jedes Mitglied ein, über jedes Problem abzustimmen, obwohl es für die meisten Menschen unmöglich ist, Probleme mit großen Teams konstruktiv zu diskutieren. Orca hingegen ermutigt die Mitglieder der DAO, kleinere Pods zu bilden, in denen die Mitglieder über Themen abstimmen können, bei denen sie über entsprechendes Fachwissen verfügen. Auf diese Weise können Mitglieder entscheiden, sich nicht an Themen zu beteiligen, die ihnen egal sind oder die sie nicht kennen, ohne anderen Mitgliedern im Weg zu stehen, die es tatsächlich tun.

Als sie die Entwicklerin Gresshaa Mehta aus San Francisco fragt, warum sie von DAOs begeistert ist, verbindet sie schnell die Technologie mit ihrer persönlichen Erfahrung. Ursprünglich aus Indien kam sie als Studentin in die Bay Area, um hier Chancen zu nutzen, die sie zu Hause nicht finden konnte. DAOs ermöglichen es Menschen, in global verteilten Teams zu arbeiten, und sie sieht eine Zukunft, in der sie niemals ein US-Arbeitsvisum benötigt hätte, um an Projekten teilzunehmen, auf die sie sich freut.

„Ich könnte leicht ein US-Gehalt verdienen, ohne mir Sorgen machen zu müssen, ‚Was ist, wenn ich abgeschoben werde?’“, sagt Mehta.

Vervollständigen des Codes

Die Blockchain-Technologie und insbesondere DAOs können so gesehen werden, dass sie einige der Vorteile des Technologiebooms der Bay Area nehmen und einige der schlechten verwerfen. Trotz des drohenden Stereotyps des „Krypto-Bruders“ sind die Leute, die DAOs bauen, besessen davon, Hierarchien, individuelle Macht und Ruhm zu vermeiden.

„Ich hänge nicht an dieser Idee, ich muss Einfluss darauf haben, wohin dieses Projekt oder die Gemeinschaft geht“, sagt Jiang. “Ich persönlich möchte eine Milliarde Menschen beeinflussen, um in die Blockchain einzusteigen und diese ganze Branche gemeinsam zu evangelisieren.”

Es ist möglich, dass alles Gerede über das Wohlergehen der Gemeinschaft nur Rauch und Spiegel ist. Schließlich wäre es sicherlich nicht das erste Mal, dass ein hochgesinnter Tech-Manager Investoren und die Öffentlichkeit über ein Produkt in die Irre führt, von dem sie nicht wussten, dass es funktioniert. Aber diese Technologen stellen kein neuartiges neues Produkt vor, das Blut mit einem Nadelstich testen kann – sie versuchen, eine völlig neue Arbeitsweise zu evangelisieren. Wenn ihre offensichtliche Bereitschaft, Macht abzugeben, etwas beweist, dann ist es, dass sie wirklich glauben, dass sie es schaffen können.

virwin@sfexaminer.com

Bay Area NewsKalifornienSan FranciscoTechnische Industrie

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Still from a video showing a multi-person battle at the Miranda Bridge.

Under the Miranda Bridge, about two miles from South Fork High School, a prize pool attracts local youth to the hospital – one for eight-hour Bay Area surgery for a broken jaw to repair.

Amanda Gamble said, according to Amanda Gamble, the mother of the youngster whose jaw was broken, “It was senior digging day for both the children of South Fork and Fortuna [both groups] ended up in the Miranda River Bar. “

Gamble said, “Most of the time [the two groups being at the beach] went well. “

But, she said that she was told, “The Fortuna children have been irritating her all day.” (Please note that we did not hear any version of what happened from Fortuna youth.)

When the day got later, many of the students had left the area. “There were only a few kids left,” explained Gamble. Gamble thought that the physical clashes started around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. and continued for some time. She said as the clashes escalated, she believed several emergency calls were being made.

At around 5:30 p.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reported a patrol check in the area. Samantha Karges, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, told us on Friday: “When we arrived at the bridge … there were no injuries. The MPs contacted some people who could provide information about the incident, but the MPs did not find any victims. “

Later, according to Karges, “around 6:30 pm” the sheriff’s office received a call from a parent of one of the young people involved. According to the parents, the teenager suffered injuries to his jaw and hand after the incident. The youth had left the scene before the deputy arrived on the bridge. The youth was taken to a hospital outside the area for treatment for his injuries.

Gamble explained to us that their twin sons were both under the Miranda Bridge in the incident. She said she was told that some of the Fortuna teens started throwing stones at her son Cody’s friend.

Gamble said that Cody and his girlfriend went and went to the parking lot and about three of the Fortuna teens were aggressive towards them. “They threatened to take it [Cody’s girlfriend]“Said Gamble that she was told. She told us that Cody’s friend got in the car and tried to unlock it for him. “Before she could open Cody’s door, a child sucker hit Cody twice on both sides of his jaw. Cody swung onto the boy who hit him and then pushed him to the ground. And then the other two jumped at Cody. “

At that point, Gamble said that Cody’s brother John had arrived, pulled the kids off his brother, got him in the car, and told him to leave. Gamble said John “went back downstairs to try to end the fighting on the beach”. She says there were several clashes at this point.

She said that she was told that some of the students were drinking and that the Fortuna students were banding against individuals. “Neither of them fought one against one,” she said. “It was all a thrown up fight. If you’re too close, they’ll come after you. “

She said she heard: “[The Fortuna students] attacked a girl … She was small and caught one of the Fortuna children. “

Gamble says that when Cody got in the car and tried to speak to his girlfriend, “his jaw fell apart”. They went to the emergency room and Gamble said she got a call and said, “The Fortuna kids jumped on Cody.”

“When I heard that, I panicked,” she told us. She went to Garberville Hospital where she worked. “Cody hadn’t arrived when I got there,” she explained. Her colleagues were very helpful, she told us, and immediately started preparing for him. “They were ready and waiting for him when he got there,” she told us. “His jaw was broken in two places – one on each side of his face.”

The staff arranged a bed at the San Francisco General Trauma Hospital, Gamble explained. “Just as we were leaving, John came in with one of the girls who had been beaten up and dropped her off in the emergency room,” Gamble said. “She had a concussion.”

Still from a video of a Fortuna youth attacking a South Fork girl.

“My husband and I rushed Cody downstairs [to the Bay Area]”She said.” The entire facial reconstruction team was on site at the hospital. He was operated on at around 8:00 am. He was in the operation until about 5:00 am. “

She broke down sharing this part of her story and said, “It’s not something a parent or child should go through.”

The surgical team didn’t have to press his mouth shut, but they did have to put plates on either side of his jaw, Gamble said. “It will take 8 to 12 weeks for him to fully recover.”

Gamble wanted to repeat: “They weren’t all Fortuna children. It was only a select group of tyrants. Your moral code of ethics is wrong. “

She added, “We know the name of the attacker … and the sheriff’s department is investigating … The boy has a history of violent acts and behavior.” She said that the assistant assistant “has been very supportive and helpful … I feel like he’s really working with us …[but] There’s a process we have to go through … A lot of people want immediate justice, but it won’t be. “

HCSO spokesman Karges said: “The MPs have identified a possible suspect and are investigating the case.”

Gamble said they had a video of the events that were taking place. “I sent the deputy all the videos I have,” she told us, but she wanted to clarify with law enforcement agencies that if she shared it with us, it would not affect the attacker’s proceedings. She provided us with several stills from the video.

Gamble wanted to be sure and “thank the ambulance and radiology staff at Garberville Hospital.” And she said when she choked: “I want to thank the community for the huge support … The community came together and gathered around my child.”

UPDATE 7:30 am: According to Amanda Gamble, she spoke to the deputy sheriff who was handling her case and he told her she could share with us the videos she had collected from the fighting under the Miranda Bridge.

The post [UPDATE 7:30 a.m.] After Battle at Miranda Bridge Between College students From Completely different Colleges, One Boy Despatched to Out of Space Hospital for Eight Hour Surgical procedure, One Lady Despatched to E.R. appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The corner lot on 17th and Ord Streets in San Francisco’s Tony Corona Heights neighborhood doesn’t look like much. A nondescript, gray, three-story building stands next to a yard with a chain-link fence covered with poorly cared for ivy.

But this property has become a major focal point in San Francisco’s battle for housing – how much of it this city needs, where it should be, and who decides what will be built. When the owner suggested adding four more houses to the site – including two that would be affordable – the usual battles for neighborhood character, sunlight and diversity began.

The saga turned residents against each other with nasty emails, screaming matches and neighbors who no longer speak to each other. Call it the “real San Francisco homeowners,” and you could be producing a reality television show.

But the real bad guy isn’t the neighbors trying to block more apartments on the site. It’s the city’s outdated zoning regulations that turn small projects into explosive battles in a city with major housing problems.

Rich Hillis, the city’s planning director, also agreed with the assessment that the city’s own rules are to blame, which despite increased demand, a large homeless crisis, and a fleeing middle class severely restrict new housing construction in large parts of the city and dwindling diversity.

“There was a lot to like about that proposal,” said Hillis of the original plan for 4300 17th Street. “But our 1960s code doesn’t allow us to approve it.”

The drama began two years ago when Scott Pluta, a lawyer who worked in the Obama administration and now works for Google, bought the property. He lives on the third floor of the house with his wife Rosalind Pluta, who also works at Google. A tenant lives in a unit subject to rent on the second floor, while the garage, laundry room and workroom are on the ground floor.

Pluta examined his neighborhood and learned that it was 84% ​​white, had an average home value of nearly $ 2 million, and had no affordable housing units. He quickly forged ambitious plans for the property.

He suggested adding an affordable unit on the first floor of his building and adding three units in the garden, two at market prices and one at affordable prices. Both affordable units would be permanently handed over to the Mayor’s Office for Housing, and qualified tenants would be selected through the city’s lottery.

He wanted his property to serve as a kind of laboratory where an experiment could be conducted to find answers to the housing crisis in San Francisco. He knew adding four units was just a tiny piece of the city’s huge housing puzzle – the state has ordered San Francisco to build 80,000 new units by 2031 – but he hoped others could replicate that.

He envisioned six people or families living in small units nearby – maybe a public school teacher, he said, and families of color. It could become a paradise home to people who could have afforded the beautiful neighborhood just a short walk from Muni Castro train station. It could be a role model for similar projects in a city that says that it relies primarily on transit, needs affordable housing and wants more diversity.

Scott and Rosalind Pluta’s property, which is currently two units, is located on the corner of 17th Street and Ord Street in the Corona Heights neighborhood.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

“I wanted to do something that was in line with my progressive values,” said Pluta. “The ability to say, ‘I’ve built affordable housing in San Francisco.’ I know it’s cheesy, but it’s meaningful. “

For some of its neighbors, the garden is already a paradise, an open space that gives the surrounding houses more sunlight, air and a view. Pluta’s proposal is hellish in her opinion. Build too big and destroy the character of the block. And some of them say that Pluta pretends to be a social justice fighter when really he’s only there for the money. He said he would not make any money on the project.

At an irritable hearing in November, the planning commission continued the project, saying Pluta’s plan was not possible under the city’s current rules. So he scaled it down. It also lost an affordable unit.

At the request of Corbett Heights Neighbors, the hearing on the new proposal has been postponed for six weeks and is expected to take place in mid-October. The group said it needed more time to consider the new proposal but was also strongly against it.

Bill Holtzman, president of the neighborhood association, has just returned from the Paris apartment he and his wife own in Paris and said he was still in the process of catching up on the new proposal. But he said it was already clear that according to city rules, the new version was still devouring too much of the garden.

“Our association will always choose trees, grass, and shrubs because that’s what makes San Francisco San Francisco,” he said. “We consider backyards to be inviolable. Until the city or the state changes these rules, we will live by these rules and we will reject any violation of the codes. “

These codes are likely to change – one way or another. Hillis said Pluta would have a far better chance if he waited for Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s proposal to allow quadruples on corner lots to be passed.

This law should be heard by the Planning Commission next month. A separate proposal from Mandelman to allow fourplexes on every single-family lot is not there yet.

Some other housing promotion policies are well received by the state legislature, and other ways to approve Fourplexes are being pursued by regulators other than housing legislation and election action.

A public hearing notice will be posted at Scott and Rosalind Pluta’s property at 17th and Ord Streets. Two of the units would be affordable housing.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Mandelman remains largely neutral on Pluta’s proposal, although it gets to the core of what he has been advocating all year round. He said the project could end up on the board of directors, and there isn’t much he can say about it without looking biased ahead of that vote.

“This is the type of housing that I would like more of in the district,” he said, adding that his office would like to act as a mediator between the belligerent neighbors.

Maybe he wants to put on armor first. Pluta and several of his neighbors seemed to clash on both personal and political levels. Pluta thinks they are hypocritical NIMBYs. “It is this cartel that has restricted supply in order to maintain and increase the value of their properties,” he said.

His neighbor Casey Rando said Pluta initially outlined a much smaller proposal than the one he actually made. When Rando saw the plans, he lost his composure.

“I yelled at him and told him he lied to us,” he said. “He hasn’t been communicating with me since then.”

Rando, a gay man who moved to the neighborhood because of his proximity to Castro, said he hates being indicted by Pluta on “all of San Francisco’s racial problems” while Pluta has the money to hire a lobbyist and send one Create website.

“We’re literally three blocks from the rainbow flag and you won’t be lecturing gay men and women on diversity,” Rando said.

Pluta said he will keep trying the planning committee, but he doesn’t know if his shrinking project will ever fail. He never intended to make any money, but now he doesn’t know if he can break even. He could get approval, divide up the property, and hope the buyer would develop the garden.

Laura Foote, executive director of housing association YIMBY Action, said uncertainty is the problem. The outdated rules of the city lead to individual decisions, breaches of neighborhood and far too little living space.

“You could sit on the planning committee all day and those are all stories like this,” she said. “It’s all rich people yelling at each other and it’s the system as it was designed.”

It may be a popcorn worthy look, but it will never help us weather our housing crisis.

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this story, the number of units in the existing building was incorrectly stated.

The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

The post One housing challenge has become an epic San Francisco battle. The true enemy is metropolis crimson tape appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Posted: 09/24/2021 / 02:37 PM CDT
/ Updated: 9/24/2021 / 2:37 p.m. CDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Tall trees are revered across California, but a towering Monterey pine at the center of a heated argument in San Francisco’s wealthiest neighborhood is due to go, according to an appeals court ruling this week.

A state appeals court on Wednesday ordered a couple in the Pacific Heights neighborhood to remove the tree, which is at least 10 meters tall. A neighbor argued the tree blocked her view of San Francisco Bay and other city landmarks, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The neighbor is an 81-year-old woman who moved into the San Francisco home with her late husband in 1976. When the couple “saw the magnificent views, they were sold,” said Barri Bonapart, the woman’s attorney.

“You could see all the way from Marin Headlands to the Pacific Ocean and then the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of Fine Arts, Sausalito, Belvedere, Tiburon and Angel Island,” said Bonaparte. She said her client asked to withhold her name because she feared harassment.

The pine was planted by a previous resident in 1999 and by the time the case went to court in 2019 had grown dozens of feet tall with widening, dense branches. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 after the mediation failed.

The woman “tried everything to work with her neighbors to find a common solution,” said Bonapart. “Unfortunately, they have always been adamant that they would never agree to restore their views unless told to do so.”

Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ross visited the site before issuing a ruling to remove the jaws in December 2019, citing a San Francisco ordinance aimed at resolving treetop feuds. He decided that “the tree’s rapid growth in height and width blocked the view of landmarks and vistas that could once be seen”.

The first district appeals court upheld Ross’ order, ruling Wednesday that the only viable solution in the case was to remove the tree.

The pruning might have worked when the jaw was smaller, but it has now grown too much to thin or top it to restore the prospect, Judge Ioanna Petrou said in the 3-0 decision. She cited the statement by arborists that the tree provides little shade or privacy to homeowners and could be cut down without disturbing the ground. Under the ordinance, both households would split the cost of the removal, which an arborist estimated at $ 1,800.

The exclusive neighborhood of Pacific Heights, famous for its expensive mansions and breathtaking views, is no stranger to tree disputes.

Larry Ellison, the billionaire chief executive officer of Oracle Corp., sued a downhill neighbor in 2011 for the removal of three sequoia trees and an 80-year-old acacia that was blocking his view of the bay. The lawsuit was settled with an agreement to prune the trees.

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KYBURZ (CBS SF) – Gusty winds from the canyon lashed the Caldor fire along Highway 50 as firefighters lit flames near the mountainous community of Kyburz early Thursday in an attempt to keep the fire from advancing toward densely populated Lake Tahoe. Pelvis to slow down.

The winds and burning scaly wood and brush threw up clouds of embers well in front of the main fire and lit point fires beyond the containment lines. One of those larger point fires broke out along Wrights Lake Road north of the freeway and had grown to over 700 acres by Wednesday evening.

CONTINUE READING: UPDATE: 12-year-old killed, woman seriously injured after car tried to hit train at Oakley Crossing

“The wind was blowing from the southwest all day, challenging our lines,” said Eric Schwab, director of operations at Cal Fire, during a community update on Wednesday evening. “Unfortunately, one point fire threw another point fire over Wright Lakes Road. We are currently trying to contain it. It’s about 700 acres … We’re chasing this one. It moves sideways. “

Point fires were a challenge.

“Ninety out of 100 embers that go out and end up in the fuel will create an ignition that will cause us to mitigate this,” said Steve Volmer, the chief fire behavior analyst working on the fire.

The fire burns in an area that was not lit by a major fire or flames before the 1940s.

“We’re looking at very dense wood, trees that are very large in diameter – 40 inches in diameter,” said Volmer. “Heavy dead and run down fuels. That causes us some control problems. These dead and knocked down materials are very receptive. They are extremely dry … A very absorbent burning bed. ”

The most intense firefight was fought on the eastern edge of the fire. To the west, the crews used backfiring to gain better control of the fire and stop it from spreading along the northern and central bifurcation of the Cosumnes River.

By Thursday morning, the fire had grown to 136,643 acres with a 12 percent containment. It devastated the mountain community of Grizzly Flats and destroyed at least 465 homes in the fire zone.

Almost 3,000 firefighters were involved in the firefight, aided by a steady stream of helicopters and air tankers dumping flame retardants and water.

According to meteorologist Jim Dudley, firefighters will also be assisted by a change in wind conditions over the next three days. The gusty southwest winds in the afternoon will calm down.

“This southerly wind current, which was fed into the fire area and helps to drive the south to south-westerly winds in the afternoon, will cease,” he said. “We will have very light winds at high altitudes. On the ridge tops and the very critical east side of the fire, we will not have the supportive effect of the south-westerly winds. “

The wind shift will help thin the layer of smoke over Lake Tahoe.

South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe City on the west bank had the worst air pollution in the country on Wednesday lunchtime, scoring 334 in the “dangerous” category on the Air Quality Index 0-500, according to AirNow, a partnership between federal, state and local airline agencies.

Just south of Tahoe, Rick Nelson and his wife Diane had planned to hold a weekend wedding at Fallen Leaf Lake, where his daughter and her fiancé had met. However, the smoke caused most of the community to leave. The sun was an eerie blood orange and the swimmers and boats in the lake were obscured by mist on Tuesday.

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In the end, the Nelsons spent two days arranging the relocation of the wedding from Glacier Lake several hours southwest to the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Everyone is trying to escape the smoke. And I think it’s going to be a reality for us, unfortunately, ”said Diane Nelson. “I just think the smoke and fires got bigger, hotter and faster.”

While thousands of residents were forced to flee, a suspected looter was arrested on Wednesday while on patrol in the evacuation area.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said a suspicious man was found on the surveillance camera of a Pollock Pines resident.

“We received a call from a citizen who was actually watching one of their surveillance cameras,” said Sgt. Eric Palmberg of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.

MPs soon met in the field and stopped the man. He was found with items that MPs believed had been stolen.

This man, identified as 51-year-old Brandon Massey, has since been arrested and is now charged, among other things, with looting during the State of Emergency and possession of a controlled substance.

CALDOR FIRE: Information on incidents, evacuations, maps

Current mandatory evacuations include:

• Grizzly Flats: The areas on Grizzly Flats Road east of Kendra Way in Grizzly Flats Proper. The Diamond Railroad Grade, Old School House, Sweeney Road, Caldor Road, and Steely Ridge areas.
• Grizzly Flats Road east of Four Corners in Somerset in Grizzly Flats Proper.
• The areas of Myers Lane, Varmet Ridge Road, Rodwell Canyon Road, Snowbird Lane, and Mehwald Lane.
• East of Sly Park Road between Highway 50 and the Mormon Emigrant Trail to Ice House Road. These include the Pacific House and Fresh Pond communities.
• North of Highway 50, east of Forebay Road to Ice House Road.
• Junction of Perry Creek and Hawk Haven, the east side of Fairplay Road from Perry Creek South to Cedarville Road. These include Slug Gulch, Omo Ranch, and all roads away from Slug Gulch and Omo Ranch.
• All streets of Omo Ranch from Cedarville Road to Hwy 88.
• The area between Highway 88 and the Mormon Emigrant Trail
• South of Highway 50 from Snows Road to Ice House Road.
• Between Highway 50 and Slab Creek from Snows Road to Ice House Road.
• South of Highway 50 from Ice House Road to Silver Fork Road. This also includes the community of Kyburz.
• North of Highway 50 from Ice House Road to Silver Fork Road with the Ice House Reservoir, Union Valley Reservoir and Loon Lake.
• Silver Fork Road in Kyburz east to Twin Bridges.
• North and south in a line extending from Twin Bridges to the Placer County Line and south to the Amador County Line.
• Areas south of Farnham Ridge Road and east of Bridgeport School Road to the Amador County Line.

REMINDER: Highway 50 remains closed between Sly Park and Meyers due to #CaldorFire. Listen to your local authorities and know alternative routes. Check @ CaltransDist3 for the latest updates. https://t.co/uvpiHqQn5n pic.twitter.com/hjreey5n6p

– Cal JA (@Cal_OES) August 23, 2021

Evacuations Warnings for El Dorado County and Amador County along with Road closures You will find here.

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© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report

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