It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was ugly.

Really ugly.

It was a good old-fashioned beat down of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the hands of a rookie, third-string quarterback, Brock Purdy, and a talented San Francisco 49ers team.

The very first drive of the game resulted in a Deebo Samuel touchdown, which if anything was a sign of things to come. Earlier on that opening drive, a fantastic safety blitz by Keanu Neal was negated for a helmet–to–helmet hit on San Francisco’s quarterback, Brock Purdy. This ended up being costly, and although Keanu Neal’s aggressiveness has been a welcome addition for a banged-up Bucs’ secondary these past couple of weeks, there was no need for Neal to go high on the play considering he had a free run at Purdy .

7-0, 49ers.

With the Bucs’ first chance to respond on offense, after a solid drive consisting of several first downs, Brady threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans which was called back due to a Donovan Smith holding penalty. Shortly thereafter, on third down, Bucs’ head coach, Todd Bowles, inexplicably opted to send out his accurate but light-footed kicker, Ryan Succop, to attempt a 55-yard field goal. It didn’t come anywhere close to the uprights.

READ MORE: Jaelon Darden Sends Cryptic Message on His Way Out of Tampa

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On the following possession for San Francisco, an eight play 62-yard drive by Brock Purdy resulted in the quarterback putting an exclamation mark on the drive with a rushing touchdown.

14-0, 49ers.

The Bucs responded with a drive that consisted of a predictable screen pass to Chris Godwin, a check down to White, and an incompletion on third down with the pocket collapsing before another punt by Jake Camarda.

READ MORE: Cam Newton Says He’s Better Than Current Quarterbacks in NFC South

The man with the illustrious title of ‘Mr. Irrelevant’, Brock Purdy picked up right where he left off on the next drive, eventually connecting on a 27-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey, which upon video review, revealed that McCaffrey bobbled the ball. It didn’t appear to be clear whether he was able to regain possession prior to getting both feet in bounds. It was an impressive recovery by Logan Ryan who was initially burned on the play, but managed to knock the ball loose. After the review, the officials ruled it a touchdown.

21-0, 49ers.

With five minutes remaining in the first half, and the 49ers just passed midfield, Deebo Samuel took a handoff up the middle, and was folded up awkwardly when gang tackled by Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Devin White. Unfortunately, Samuel had to be carted off the field, and it appeared to be serious injury suffered by the San Francisco star.

The play resulted in a fumble, which was recovered by the Bucs, who then took over at their own 40-yard line.

With just under four minutes left in the game, Tom Brady connected on a 30+ yard pass to Chris Godwin to bring the Buccaneers into the red zone. Two plays later, on third down, Brady was furious with the officials after Godwin appeared to be dislodged from his route illegally, without a flag. On 4th and one, the Bucs stayed in shotgun to go for it from the San Francisco 9-yard line, and Brady missed a wide open Mike Evans in the endzone – firing the ball at his feet – resulting in a turnover on downs.

With San Francisco marching down the field yet again, Buccaneers’ defensive end Anthony Nelson dropped into coverage and picked off Purdy. But in a cruel twist of fate, and true to the way things have gone for the Bucs’ this season, the play was called back for a terrible defensive holding call on Carlton Davis – one that the announcers and officials expert all agreed was a bad call on the broadcast.

On the very next play, Purdy delivered a 32-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk who was wide open after burning Jamel Dean on a double move.

28-0, 49ers.

The best way to summarize what was a first half from hell for the Buccaneers is to take a quick look at Brock Purdy’s numbers heading into the locker room.

The last pick in the 2022 NFL draft went 14/18 for 185 yards passing, with 2 passing TD’s, a rushing TD, and a quarterback rating of 146.5 against the Buccaneers’ top-5 scoring defense.

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half time.

One bright spot for the Bucs was Deven Thompkins. He was effective as a punt and kick returner for most of the game. Bringing some juice to a role that had previously been nothing but vanilla.

Thompkins started the second half off with a big return, taking the ball all the way to the San Francisco 44-yard line.

Just a few plays later, under duress in the pocket, Brady overshot Mike Evans on another poorly delivered pass attempt which resulted in an interception. To make matters worse, Brady appeared to have suffered a hand injury on the previous play.

San Francisco responded quickly, with Christian McCaffrey taking a handoff to the house from the Buccaneers’ 39-yard line.

35-0, 49ers.

On the Buccaneers’ ensuing drive, they were able to march the ball into San Francisco territory. With Scotty Miller streaking down the far sideline on third down, Brady under shot the speedy receiver, forcing a fourth down. The Bucs converted 4th down on a pass from Brady to Fournette over the middle. On the next play, Brady threw an interception to 49ers linebacker, Dre Greenlaw, in the middle of the field.

With 2:48 left in the third quarter, the Buccaneers finally found the end zone. That said, it was more of an accident than a well executed play. Godwin couldn’t secure a pass in the front of the end zone, which popped into the air, and Russell Gage found himself in the right place at the right time, plucking the ball just before it hit the turf, and rolling into the end Zone.

35-7, 49ers.

After the Buccaneers’ traded ugly possessions with a mostly second string San Francisco 49ers team for the majority of the fourth quarter, the clock eventually struck zeros. For Bucs fans, the final whistle more than likely resulted in a feeling of relief, knowing it wouldn’t be possible for their team to experience any more embarrassment at the hands of a team that is expected to be a suitor for Tom Brady’s services next season.

For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this season has seen a lot of really poor play and execution. Their quarterback had not been a source of that poor play, by any means.

Until today.

Tom Brady was inconsistent, inaccurate, and very shaky throughout the vast majority of this football game. His two interceptions, and countless missed throws throughout the contest clearly support this claim.

That said, it’s not Tom Brady’s fault that the Buccaneers are collapsing before our very eyes. Considering what’s gone on around him, whether it be the litany of injuries, penalties, or terrible coaching decisions that have plagued this team, he’s been fighting an uphill battle all year. Although Tom Brady did not play well today, he’s played more than well enough for this Buccaneers’ team to have a lot more wins than they do.

The craziest part about all of this? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still sitting in first place in the NFC South, and are set to host a home playoff game at Raymond James Stadium within next month or so.

If the playoffs started today, the Bucs would host the 10-3 Dallas Cowboys in that first-round wild card game.

Although it feels like the football gods want to see Tom Brady play at least one more postseason game in his illustrious career, the Bucs are going to have to correct an extensive list of issues if they have any hope of not being embarrassed in that game.

And if today’s performance in San Francisco is any indication of what is to come, then I wouldn’t put my money on the Buccaneers’ hanging onto their current spot atop the NFC South.

I guess they’ll have to take it one week at a time, and work to build some positive momentum to close out the season. Hopefully that process won’t be as ugly as what we saw today at Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco.

For continued coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, make sure to follow Collin Haalboom on Twitterand subscribe to the Buc’s Banter YouTube channel!

Stick with BucsGameday for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the 2022 season.

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The post RECAP: Buccaneers Fall Flat in San Francisco for Tom Brady’s Homecoming – Tampa Bay Buccaneers | BucsGameday appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Cleve Jones, the LGBTQ activist whose possible eviction from his rent-controlled Castro apartment became a symbol of San Francisco’s housing issues, said he has decided to move out of the flat he’s called home for 12 years by the end of April.

“My physician, my family, my friends all said to me that this is not worth it, this fight to hang onto a place that … doesn’t feel safe” because of a contentious relationship with the new landlord, who will be living upstairs, Jones, 67, said. “I have limited energy and important work that brings me joy. I’m not going to spend the next, who knows how many months, fighting against this woman.”

The situation began when a new owner, Lily Pao Kue, 30, bought the Castro duplex in February for $1,585,000. After installing security cameras, Kue said she had determined that Jones no longer lived there as a primary dwelling because he only showed up briefly over the course of a month. She said Jones’ flatmate Brenden Chadwick appeared to be the sole occupant and termed him an illegal subletter.

Kue invoked the state’s Costa-Hawkins law, which lets landlords raise rent on vacant units to market rate, and notified Jones that she was more than doubling his $2,393 rent to $5,200 as of July 1.

Jones, who is HIV-positive, said he had been protecting his health by spending time in isolation during the pandemic at a house he owns in Guerneville.

San Francisco remains the center of his work, medical care and community, Jones said.

After moving out of the disputed duplex, he will continue to live with Chadwick in the city, Jones said. Chadwick, who shared the Castro apartment with Jones for the past 3½ years, has already found another place.

“He and his dog are my family,” Jones said.

Jones and Kue each accuse the other of harassment, and each said they thought they would prevail if the case went before the San Francisco Rent Board.

Kue, who came to the US as a toddler when her Hmong family was admitted as refugees, said she’s dismayed as being perceived as a rich, entitled real estate speculator, noting that she worked hard to get where she is. She said she wants to live in the upstairs unit and move her mother and grandmother into the downstairs one.

Kue said she is both “mistrustful” and “hopeful” after receiving Jones’ notice to move out, noting that he had previously changed his mind about whether or not to stay.

“I will only be relieved when I’ve gotten my key back without damage done to property,” she said in an email.

Kue says her claim that Jones had already vacated the flat is backed up by Jones’ social media posts about Guerneville and mortgage refinance documents signed in March 2021 in which Jones committed to occupy the Guerneville house as his “principal residence” for at least one year .

Jones said the refi document’s intent was to ensure that he would not rent the Guerneville house to others or list it on Airbnb. He said he has satisfied those conditions while maintaining his residence in the Castro, where he votes, pays utilities and keeps his furniture and possessions. He recently started moving out some items of archival importance to gay history because he feared they could be damaged by construction work Kue is having done upstairs.

Sonoma County property tax records reviewed by The Chronicle show that Jones has never claimed a homeowners exemption on the Guerneville property.

Jones said that he’s among many San Franciscans who cannot afford to purchase in the city, so he turned to a less-expensive area to accumulate some housing security and build some equity. He bought the house in 2018 for $500,000, per public records. He said a little bit of money he made from his memoir, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, enabled him to do so.

Jones’ situation became a cause celebre, attracting more than 200 supporters, including many well-known politicians, to a rally in his support late last month at Harvey Milk Plaza.

As an organizer with Unite Here Local 2, Jones said he now has additional empathy for the members of the hotel and restaurant workers’ union, who are largely women of color and immigrants, if they were to experience the catastrophe of eviction.

“The only real thing that’s important about my story is not me, it’s not even her (Kue), it’s the reality that with all my unearned advantages of race, gender, the fact that I am politically connected and I do have access to good legal advice, none of that is sufficient to protect me” from the prospect of eviction, Jones said.

As pandemic protections expire, “we’re going to see a small tsunami of evictions coming up,” he said. “Most of those people do not have the resources or support that I have.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

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December 24, 2021

Good morning, Mission, and welcome to Virus Village, your (somewhat regular) Covid-19 data dump.

As infections and positivity rates take off, local hospitalizations remain relatively subdued, mostly flat for the week. R Number models show substantial and increasing transmission rates.

Wow. What a weird winter solstice. How weird? Take a peek into the mind of local covid guru, University of California, San Francisco doctor Bob Wachter. He’s done a lot of 25-tweet threads during the pandemic, but none as revealing as this. Not to worry, omicron hasn’t dulled Wachter’s sense of humor.

The post Covid-19 Tracker: Hospitalizations Flat | San Francisco, CA Patch appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Gdansk, Poland’s Trupa Trupa just released their new album B FLAT A, that, according to frontman Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, explores “the wasteland of human nature where hatred and genocide are not just distant reverberations of Central European history but still resonate in contemporary reality,” and does so via visceral comical and post-punk inspired rock.You can listen to the whole album below.

The album’s opening salvo, “Moving,” has gotten two separate video treatments that complete a cycle of videos that started with “Twitch” and “Uniforms.” “The album B FLAT A tells about the mechanism of decay and the end of this cycle is not just one, but two stories,” explains Grzegorz. “The video for the song “Moving” has its two versions – B FLAT directed by Keesan Nam, refers to the story from the first two clips, and the version of FLAT A directed by Aleksander Makowski, acts as its reverse submerged in the subconscious and psychedelic.”

We’ve got the premiere of the “Moving (FLAT A)” video, and you can watch that, along with the “Moving (B FLAT)” video, “Twitch” and “Uniforms,” ​​below.

Trupa Trupa will be on tour in the US this spring, including a NYC show at Mercury Lounge on April 29. All dates are listed below.

Trupa Trupa – 2022 Tour Dates
Feb 11 PL, Gdansk, Drizzly Grizzly
Feb 16 Luxembourg, Rotondes
Feb 18 France, Paris, Supersonic
Feb 19 UK, London, Lexington
Feb 20 UK, Bristol, Crofters Rights
Feb 21 UK, Brighton, Green Door Store
Apr 28 US Philadelphia PA PhilaMOCA
Apr 29 US, New York NY Mercury Lounge
Apr 30 US, Washington DC DC9
May 03 US, Detroit MI Third Man
May 04 US, Chicago IL Schubas
May 05 US, Minneapolis MN 7th St Entry
May 07 US, Portland OR Doug Fir
May 08 US, Seattle WA Barboza
May 11 US, San Francisco CA Cafe du Nord
May 12 US, Los Angeles CA Moroccan Lounge
8-9 July SK, Pohoda Festival
Sep 28 Netherlands Utrecht ACU
Sep 29 Netherlands Nijmegen Merleyn

The post Polish band Trupa Trupa touring for brand new LP ‘B FLAT A’: watch their “Transferring” movies appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Amid a record spike in luxury home sales.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The San Francisco market is dominated by condominiums. In the past few decades, almost all of the residential construction for apartment buildings – apartments and condominiums – and almost no single-family homes has been built, which makes sense for a city enclosed on three sides by the water.

For condominiums, sales have been around 450 units per month for the past four months, excluding new condominium sales that are handled directly by the developers’ sales offices and not reported to the MLS. Home sales were in the range of 300 units per month. So that’s the size of the market, with condominium sales generally being higher than home sales. And this market has totally split in two.

For the past four months, which peaked in June, there has been a historic surge in luxury home sales in San Francisco. Luxury in San Francisco starts at $ 3 million. In June, Compass closed 70 luxury home sales, nearly double the previous highs.

A good part of this surge in luxury home sales has to do with the fact that the wealthy bought luxury homes in this pandemic thanks to the Fed’s asset price inflation strategy – for the infamous “wealth effect” – and some of them.

Median prices are sensitive to changes in the mix. And that record number of luxury home sales, completed in the past four months, changed the mix of total home sales and skewed the median price upward (a sharp drop in the number of luxury home sales in the coming months would cushion some of that price hike).

According to MLS data from Thomas Stone, a retired real estate agent in Sonoma County, the average price for single-family homes rose to $ 2.1 million in June, after having tripled since 2012, for a lovely WTF moment:

But condos are different.

While the median price of condos has been volatile and like the median prices fluctuated up and down, it hasn’t gone anywhere in over three years.

In June, the average condominium price was $ 1.28 million, roughly what it was in March 2018. While the average home price has tripled since 2012, the average condominium price has only doubled since then. OK, that sounds kind of weird, something that “only doubled” in nine years, I mean, what kind of rinky dink market is San Francisco?

Condos had their share of insane price hikes, but before March 2018. Since then, the median price has bounced up and down but has essentially gone nowhere. And there have been a variety of condos on the market for years, with new ones arriving all the time.

During the real estate crisis, the average house price and the average house price were not that far apart; but since 2015 the spread has started to widen, and now the average home price is $ 900,000 above the average condo price:

“All markets are fear-driven and none of them are rational,” said Thomas Stone, the retired real estate agent, of the situation (he is happy to send readers an MLS report on housing trends for all of the Northern California counties, free of charge; Mail can be found here).

Similar situation in the wider Bay Area.

Similar trends are playing out in the Bay Area, which has five counties covered by the Case-Shiller Home Price Index – San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Marin. But the Case-Shiller methodology avoids the problem of a change in the mix that skews the median price because it does not use the median price; It uses the “Sales Pairs” method, which compares the selling price of a house in the current month to the selling price of the same house when it was previously sold. That’s a big advantage.

The downside is that it is about four months behind the time the actual deals were closed compared to the median price index, which is about a month behind the actual deals.

This graphic shows the house price indices by price level and the condominium price index (red) in the Bay Area with five counties. San Francisco is the most expensive housing market among the five counties, but it also has the largest proportion of condominiums.

Property prices in all price ranges began to rise last year, while condominium prices continued to go nowhere. The last reading of the price index for condominiums (“April”) was the first status in mid-2018:

The San Francisco Bay Area entered the pandemic with a flat housing market. According to the Case-Shiller indices, house prices were down or up slightly year-on-year for all of 2019, depending on the month. The median prices showed similar trends. The prices for condominiums fell slightly in 2019 compared to the previous year.

What changed everything in terms of house prices was the pandemic – the wealth effect – and house prices suddenly exploded. But the pandemic hasn’t significantly changed condominium prices.

Stuff for empty thoughts: Condominium prices also flattened in the years before the housing crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the Case-Shiller chart above.

Have fun reading WOLF STREET and would you like to support it? Using ad blockers – I totally understand why – but want to support the site? You can donate. I appreciate it very much. Click on the beer and iced tea mug to learn how:

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Great information on installing a metal roof on an existing building.

Product information is available from Classic Metal Roofing Systems, the manufacturer of beautiful metal roofs.

The post Housing Market Splits: San Francisco Home Costs do Holy-Moly Spike, Condominium Costs Flat for three Years appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SANTA ROSA (AP) – The country’s largest utility company has long vowed to change its ruthless ways. After leaving a trail of death and destruction through Northern California in less than three years, the fifth CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric has renewed promises that the future will be “easier” and “brighter”.

But the promises CEO Patricia “Patti” Poppe made in her first letter to shareholders sound a year after PG&E emerged from one of the most complex bankruptcies in US history, an act of desperation followed by a series of devastating forest fires that was triggered by its long-neglected power grid.

The bankruptcy, PG & E’s second in less than 20 years, was billed as an opportunity for a utility company that powers 16 million people – a population larger than all but a handful of states – to finally reset Button to press.

So far, however, it has looked more like a reminder of problems that have led to tragedy after tragedy over the past six years, including a 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people and the town of Paradise, about 274 kilometers northeast of, San Francisco was destroyed.

PG&E is already a twice convicted felon and has been charged with another round of arson crimes which it denies commission. The utility was also reprimanded by California regulators and a federal judge overseeing his parole for breaking promises to reduce the dangers of trees near his power lines.

And most of the 70,000 or so victims who have made claims of devastation from PG & E’s past misdeeds are still awaiting payment from a $ 13.5 billion trust created during bankruptcy. The Trust faces a deficit of nearly $ 2 billion because half of its funding comes from company stocks, though critics say it’s foolhardy to hold an interest in a utility company with such a poor record.

These stocks have slumped in a rising stock market. A stroke of luck could still come if PG & E’s shares rebound, as several analysts have forecast, but confidence would find itself in an even deeper hole if the stock fell any further.

There are legitimate concerns that if the utility stirs another deadly wildfire in the next four months, stocks will collapse as most of PG & E’s sprawling service area has sunk into extreme drought and climate change, worsening fire conditions in western America USA contributes.

“Of course I’m nervous. My biggest fear is what will happen to the stock, ”said John Trotter, head of the Forest Fire Victims Trust, which owns almost one in four PG&E shares – far more than any other investor.

Trotter, a retired federal judge who serves as a trustee on $ 1,500 an hour, has other headaches as well. He and over 300 workers have come under heavy criticism for slow payments to victims who lost their families, homes and other property nearly three to six years ago.

In the first six months of its operation last year, the Trust paid out just $ 7.2 million to victims while incurring nearly $ 39 million in operating expenses, which, according to its financial records, reduced the amount available for disbursement .

“I look at it like a locomotive that starts slowly, but we’re blowing the steam off now and we’re starting to roll now,” Trotter said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I just wish I had a wand and could make it go faster, but I can’t. We do everything we can. “

Trotter said he has a plan to eventually sell the stock without paying taxes on potential gains but would not disclose his price target. Stocks, which last hovered around $ 10, must rise to about $ 14 per share for the trust to hit $ 13.5 billion.

Wall Street analysts predict that PG & E’s stock could hit $ 13-17 in the next 12 months, which would mark a dramatic turnaround. The stock is down 17% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 14%.

The trust has made some progress. By June 30, it had paid out $ 436.4 million. That’s still only 3.2% of the $ 13.5 billion earmarked for fire victims, a sign of “designed dysfunction” built into the utility’s bankruptcy regimes, said Will Abrams, a victim of a PG&E caused wildfire that terrorized his hometown of Santa Rosa in 2017.

“I was really disappointed,” said Abrams. “The bankruptcy was being sold as something that would hold PG&E accountable, and it wasn’t. Bankruptcy is not a reorganization process. It is a process of dividing the dollars. “

But nearly 45,000 victims voted for the plan, with only 6,109 opposed to it according to court documents, paving the way for US bankruptcy judge Dennis Montali approval.

Many victims were influenced by attorneys who participated in settlement negotiations, arguing that the plan was the best option. Eight of those attorneys are now part of a nine-member supervisory committee on the victim’s trust, an arrangement that Abrams believes was a conflict of interest.

Amy Bach, the only member of the Fiduciary Committee who was not involved in PG & E’s bankruptcy negotiations, insists that everyone tries to ensure that all forest fire victims receive money as soon as possible. The attorneys involved are motivated to achieve this because their fees are dependent on their clients being paid.

“We put as much pressure on the claims team as possible,” said Bach, executive director of United Policeholders, a nonprofit group she founded nearly 30 years ago to fight insurers on behalf of fire victims. “You seem to be hearing us, it feels like things are speeding up.”

Frank Pitre, another member of the oversight committee and one of the attorneys representing burn victims, admitted that things have turned out more slowly than he had hoped. That is one of the reasons why he rates Trotter and his team with a “B” for their commitment to date.

“There is a lot of room for improvement,” said Pitre, but added that “I have no doubt that the effort is there.”

PG&E believes it has already done its part in helping fire victims.

“We financed the trust according to our reorganization plan,” the utility company said in a statement to the AP. “PG&E is not involved in the distribution of trust funds.”

PG & E’s Chief Risk Officer, Sumeet Singh, enumerated a wide range of improvements, including using more advanced technology to prevent forest fires from starting and detect them more quickly.

Although PG&E did not live up to expectations, Singh said, “I am very encouraged by the new leadership, (a) new playbook, rigor and discipline that we are on the right track. We know we can do better and we will do better. “

Trotter, meanwhile, holds his breath as the weather warms and the Northern California landscape dries up.

“We are dealing with the hand that was dealt to us,” said Trotter. “(PG&E) says the right things. Now we just have to see if they are doing the right things. “

© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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