Feeling Archives - Los Gatos News And Events

San Francisco’s ‘Little Russia’ companies feeling main affect of the battle greater than 6,000 miles away from Ukraine

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 16:02:11 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — More than 6,000 miles from Ukraine, Alex Miretsky is feeling the waves of the war all the way in San Francisco.

“Some Americans call. Some angry people and they say something like ‘are you proud to be Russian now?’ Or ‘get all the Russian products off the shelves’,” said Miretsky.

His store “Europa Plus” is a safe haven for East Europeans in the Bay Area, but since the war, it’s also become a target for some people who are demanding that Russian products should be taken off the shelves.

“One was complaining about Saint Petersburg products. Another one was asking me if I’m proud to be Russian. I explained that I don’t feel like I’m Russian,” said Miretsky and added, “I’m a Jew who emigrated from Russia in 1987. I left Russia but I was raised in Ukraine for the first five years of my life.”

RELATED: San Francisco chef cooks up support for Ukraine, 6,200 miles away from home

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He walked us through his store and showed us the diversity in his products. Ironically, Ukraine and Russian sweets are next to each other. They’ve always been.

“It was not an issue at all. It was all in the same region. The same people. The families are interconnected and people live in both places like I did,” said Miretsky.

Two blocks down from “Europa Plus” is “Moscow & Tbilisi” Bakery. They are being asked to remove the word “Russian” from their advertising.

RELATED: Romanian family helps 600 Ukrainian refugees find shelter and food: Here’s how you can help

Turns out, the owner is from Georgia. Regardless of the name, several employees said the flag on the front window is clear. They support Ukraine.

“Business men who open business for example 20 years ago. They are not in charge. They move to the country and according to the Russian propaganda is the main enemy, America. If they live in the enemy state, how can they be representative for Russia right now? It’s completely different,” said Russian refugee, Daniel Korennoi.

Korennoi supports Ukraine. He fled Russia exactly a week ago in fear for his life.

RELATED: As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee country, Bay Area nonprofits prepare for refugees

“If I stayed there in my city, I would attend meeting, but it’s really dangerous because I can be caught easily by the police,” said Korennoi.

Miretsky said he doesn’t want to stop selling the Russian products at “Europa Plus” because he is buying them from local businesses in Eastern Europe who have nothing to do with the war.

Take a look at the latest updates on the Ukraine-Russia war.

Feeling the warmth: Enterprise not cooling anytime quickly for space HVAC corporations

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 06:05:56 +0000

Trevor Edis, a technician at Roper’s Heating and Air Conditioning in Carson City, works on an AC unit on Wednesday, June 9. Courtesy Photo

Each spring, when temperatures in Northern Nevada run mild, heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors usually see a slowdown in business as homeowners dial back the usage of their HVAC units.

Then summer hits and their phones light up.

Last year, however, many HVAC companies saw the summertime-like spike in inquiries sooner than usual — with people cooped up at home due to a novel virus proven to be transmitted through the air, suddenly air quality was fresh in the minds of homeowners.

Sierra Air Inc. has seen an increase in demand for all of its services — from air conditioning repair and installation to HVAC maintenance to duct cleaning, said Rickey Hayes, marketing manager at the Reno-based company.

“With people spending more time in their homes, people are more concerned about the air quality that they breath,” Hayes told the NNBW. “And with the coronavirus going around, that really affected people’s thought patterns about their indoor air quality and how good the quality of air they were breathing.

“So, it’s been really, really busy.”

UPTICK IN NEW EQUIPMENT INSTALLS

Busy, indeed. Hayes said Sierra Air had a “banner year” in 2020, noting the company’s revenue grew a whopping 26.5% compared to 2019. The company figured a tailwind of sales would last a few months early in the pandemic, but it didn’t anticipate the surge carrying through the rest of 2020 and into this year.

“We expected minimal growth — maybe 6% — if any,” Hayes said. “But we started picking up last May and then had a really strong summer … and it just continued through the rest of the year.”

In this 2018 photo, a Sierra Air Inc. employee uses a forklift to move around a shipment of new air conditioning units inside the HVAC company’s warehouse in Reno.

Along with repair requests, Hayes said Sierra Air has seen a significant increase in calls for new equipment. This, he said, is due to the fact that, 20 years ago, Northern Nevada experienced a housing boom — and those HVAC systems are on their last legs.

“All of those furnaces and ACs are turning 15 to 20 years old and that’s about the lifespan of a furnace,” he explained. “So, we’re seeing a boom from that — it plays a pretty large role.”

So much so that Sierra Air had to hire more technicians to meet the demand, said Hayes, adding that their team grew by about 4%.

This time of year, the company has nearly 150 technicians and a total of about 70 vehicles roving around greater Reno-Sparks for residential and commercial services.

‘TRYING TO KEEP UP’

Meanwhile in Carson City, Roper’s heating and air conditioning is also sending out technicians more frequently than ever, said owner Dirk Roper.

How much of it is because of the fear of COVID-19 and people taking extra measures? Roper said he isn’t sure. He does feel, however, that homeowners’ extended stays inside has stoked demand, especially for those who joined the work-from-home movement and realized their HVAC systems were lacking.

“I theorize, at least in part, it’s because people are spending a lot more time at home and they realize how uncomfortable their homes are when they’re trying to work there all day long without air conditioning or whatever,” said Roper, whose company saw a 7% boost in revenue in 2020. “So, we’ve been adding air conditioning and upgrading air conditioning. We’ve been very busy trying to keep up with the demand that’s out there.”

Demand has only cranked up for Roper’s Heating and Air Conditioning and Sierra Air after May brought multiple 80-degree days and the first week pf June ushered in a string of mid-90s scorchers in Northern Nevada. With temps in the upper-’90s forecast through mid-June, both Hayes and Roper don’t see business cooling anytime soon.

“If somebody calls, we’re booked out a week and a half,” Hayes said of Sierra Air. “It’s a blessing and a burden. We’re at a point now where I’m turning down marketing opportunities because I don’t know if we’ve got the infrastructure to handle even more.”

Meanwhile, Roper said his company is seeing “double digit” growth in 2021, adding: “So far, it’s turning out to be a blockbuster year.”

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Bay Space Residents Report Feeling Shaking From Sierra Earthquake – CBS San Francisco

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 08:48:00 +0000

PLEASANTON (KPIX) – People in the Bay Area reported Thursday afternoon that they felt the 6.0 magnitude earthquake between Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Everyone described it a bit differently. Some called it more of a rumble, others said it felt like waves, but those who felt it said it was enough to make their nerves rattle.

“Great potential for disaster here, right? You see all of these bottles. Those bottles are just there on the little shelves, ”said Eric Edgar, who runs the wine steward in downtown Pleasanton. He was working in the shop when the earthquake struck.

“Was trembling a lot, uplifting, and went on for a while,” he said. Eric’s first thought was the wine.

“I’ve been here for 22 years and we haven’t lost a bottle in an earthquake,” Edgar said.

CONTINUE READING: Aftershock expected for days after magnitude 6 earthquake hit the eastern sierra

Everywhere in the Bay Area, from Concord to Hayward to Daly City, people posted videos of swinging lights and swaying chandeliers.

“I was in my room and suddenly everything was shaking and I have these little clouds on my ceiling and they were moving back and forth. My brother and sister came running out of their rooms. They say, ‘Did you feel it, did you feel it, did you feel it?’ “Said Emma Nelson, who lives in Dublin.

“It just felt like my office was shaking a lot. It was about the longest earthquake I’ve seen here in 20 years, so I thought it was pretty significant, ”said Dave McMorrow of Pleasanton.

CONTINUE READING: Magnitude 6 earthquake hits the eastern Sierra Nevada

According to the USGS, people could feel the tremors hundreds of miles from the epicenter, from Redding to Sacramento to Fresno and all the way to San Jose and San Francisco.

“The earthquake is the result of a normal fault. It is a fairly well understood and anticipated mechanism for an earthquake on the eastern border of the Sierra Nevada, ”said Austin Elliott of the US Geological Survey.

There were dozens of aftershocks on Thursday afternoon that lasted into the evening. USGS made an aftershock prediction and said there is a 6 percent chance an aftershock will be bigger than the first.

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