To Griffin Dunne, she is Aunt Joan. He received first editions of her books as Christmas presents and went to her parties as a teenager, where one met “homicide detectives next to Warren Beatty next to Christopher Isherwood.” She let him drive her banana yellow Corvette Stingray.

“It was pretty easy to pick up chicks with this thing,” Dunne, 62, tells the Post.

To everyone else, she is Joan Didion, the acclaimed author whose grief memoir “The Year of Magical Thinking” won a National Book Award in 2005 and whose essays on California culture, particularly “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” chronicled its destructiveness San Francisco's aimless hippie scene made her a celebrity. Born in Sacramento, a descendant of pioneers who crossed Donner Pass in the 19th century, she helped redefine journalism in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Dunne, who is also an actor (“After Hours”) and son of writer Dominick Dunne (“The Two Mrs. Grenvilles”), convinced his aunt to sit in her Manhattan apartment and talk about her early successes and their devastating long-term consequences speak. Life tragedies. The result is a moving documentary, “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” premiering Friday on Netflix and also showing at the Metrograph Theater.

Harrison Ford helped build this patio at Joan Didion's house. Also seen in the photo are Didion's daughter Quintana and her husband John Gregory Dunne.John Bryson/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Didion's penchant for cool, to-the-point observation may make her seem like an intimidating subject, but Dunne says she was cooperative.

“Her answer to my question was, 'Oh, sure, go ahead.' There was no real arm twisting,” he says. “Then I had [this] Great responsibility: I can’t screw this up.”

As Didion's nephew (she was married to Dominick's brother), Dunne had access to anyone who really knew her. Anna Wintour discusses Didion's employment at Vogue, where she worked during her senior year at UC Berkeley after winning the magazine's 1956 Prix de Paris writing competition. Didion's 1961 essay “On Self-Respect” first appeared in Vogue magazine and was later included in her collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” published to great acclaim in 1968.

“I was struck by the charisma of this 23-year-old girl, a woman in training,” says Dunne, “and all the personal choices she talks about, being a person you can live with .”

Harrison Ford talks about her work as a carpenter for Didion and her husband John Gregory Dunne, whom she married in 1964 and with whom she wrote five screenplays. They wanted to build a deck for their home in a remote part of Malibu, where they moved in 1971 with their adopted daughter Quintana.

“I had a young family and became their carpenter for the same reason I became their friend,” says Ford. “I was overwhelmed. I didn't know where I wanted to go. But they always made me feel welcome.”

Griffin Dunne with Didion earlier this month.Getty Images

There was no question in Dunne's mind that Ford was destined for something much bigger than building bookshelves. “I met him when I was 16. He smoked Marlboro cigarettes. “He was the most charismatic guy I ever met,” he says.

Didion and her husband's early success as screenwriters of 1971's “Panic in Needle Park” created a lucrative source of income beyond magazine writing, drawing the likes of Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese to their home .

“They had great dinner parties,” Dunne says. “People were getting stoned and drinking, and it was a harrowing ride home.”

Of all the parties Dunne, who grew up in Beverly Hills, was invited to, he remembers best the one celebrating the release of Tom Wolfe's “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” in 1968 at the Didion Dunne House in Hollywood . Janis Joplin was on the guest list.

“I was 12 years old and obsessed. “I didn’t want Janis to know that I was there with my mother,” he says. “She gave a concert at the Palladium. I left just before she arrived.”

It was pretty easy for Didion and her nephew to talk about the good times in California, where she lived with her family for 24 years, but she lost her breath in 2003 when her husband died of a fatal heart attack at the dining room table in their apartment in the Upper East Side. At the same time, Quintana was in a medically induced coma after suffering septic shock during a bout with pneumonia.

Didion received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012.Getty Images

“One of the downsides for me as her relative was asking her to relive those moments,” said Dunne, who was at his home in the northern part of the state when it happened. “I got a call in the middle of the night. It was the last thing I saw coming.”

The only way for Didion, now 82, to survive the experience was to write the book that became her masterpiece: The Year of Magical Thinking. Quintana recovered and was able to fly to LA in 2004, but fell on the airport sidewalk and suffered a massive hematoma, requiring six hours of surgery at UCLA Hospital and another long recovery period. In August 2005, Quintana died of acute pancreatitis at age 39 while Didion was on a book tour for Magical Thinking.

“It was a situation that was getting worse and worse,” said Dunne, who was 10 years older than his cousin. “It’s been a long decline and very sad to see.”

These days, Dunne says, Didion, who was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2012, is “doing very well” with a core group of friends with whom she has dinner several nights a week. “She just got a dog,” Dunne says.

To what does he attribute her strength of character? “It is made of robust, local material,” he says. “That’s why she outlived so many of her friends.”

And her husband and her daughter.

The post Harrison Ford was Joan Didion’s handyman earlier than he hit it large appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A growing number of people have been stopped by a peculiar abode with a stark purple paint job on the corner of 47th Avenue and Cabrillo Street in the Outer Richmond. But not all of them show up because they’re in the market for a new home — they want the chance to go inside the oldest house in their San Francisco neighborhood for the first time.

And 806 47th Ave. isn’t just any old house.

I found myself in front of the property on a recent Wednesday morning, peering up at an aging plaque with an inscription that denotes its unusual history. Built in 1878 at its original location three blocks away on the Great Highway, it was previously part of the Golden Gate Park lifesaving station, a rescue service led by a crew that braved the churning ocean waters to save sailors and fishermen who found themselves shipwrecked or at risk of drowning along Ocean Beach, Seal Rocks and Lands End. When Congress established the United States Life-Saving Service in 1871, the station was the very first in the state of California.

The staircase inside 806 47th Avenue.

Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas

An interior view of 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas

An interior view of 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas

A view of the kitchen inside 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas

Some of the newly remodeled rooms inside 806 47th Ave. (Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas)
Some of the newly remodeled rooms inside 806 47th Ave. (Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas)

“There’s been a lot of curiosity about this house,” real estate agent Liz Scheidl tells me as I follow her up a speckled staircase to the front door of the home, which is constructed with old-growth California redwood. “Now that it’s open every weekend to show, many, many people are telling me they’ve always wanted to see the inside of this house, people who are interested in coming to see what it looks like.”

She pauses and grins. “And a few people that are looking to buy a house, too.”

Scheidl shows me around the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, which is on the market for roughly $1.3 million — a far cry from the $75 the original owner and former lifesaver Carvel Torlakson paid for it when he bought the property in 1923 and moved it to the once-vacant lot where it stands today. It’s a fascinating place that still offers glimpses of its past. A chipped banister lines the carpeted stairwell. A curiously tiny closet is tucked away in the corner of one bedroom with a sloped ceiling. Medallions adorn the corners of door frames with intricate hinges. The original floorboards and wainscotting are still preserved on the upper level, and a small, sunny deck overlooks a shared backyard and garden as the Sutro Tower looms on the horizon.

The house originally served as the keeper’s quarters — a modest government-allocated residence where the head of the station ate and slept after leading the crew on miles of beach patrol and dusk-to-dawn rescue missions. When I find a forgotten seashell on a shelf in one of the rooms upstairs, I can’t help but imagine him shuffling in late at night, exhausted from hours of battling the unrelenting ocean current.

Details views from inside 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE

Details views from inside 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE

Details views from inside 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE

Details views from inside 806 47th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE

Some of the architectural details inside 806 47th Ave. in the Outer Richmond. (Photos by Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE)
Some of the architectural details inside 806 47th Ave. in the Outer Richmond. (Photos by Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE)

Following its inception, the Golden Gate Park lifesaving station was lauded as “the most perfect example of a life-saving station in America,” according to an 1886 article published in the Examiner, though a few others dotted the coast near San Francisco Zoo, Point Bonita and Baker Beach, and they often coordinated rescue efforts.

At the time, the crew of six was divided into northern and southern beats, with three members patrolling the beach as far north as Point Lobos while the rest trekked about 4 miles south of the station. Each crew member wielded hand lights to search capsized vessels in the dark and small clocks locked into leather cases to record that they had walked the entire length of their beat.

A plaque on the side of the home at 806 47th Ave. commemorates its historical significance in San Francisco.

Johnny Racusin/Aerial Canvas

The keeper made the call as to how each rescue would be performed, and if one method didn’t work, they’d resort to the next. The lifesaving service often relied on carts equipped with cannons that would fire a projectile with a rope that spun through the air, unreeled and landed just beyond a sinking boat so the people inside could grab onto it and make their way back to shore, author and historical consultant John Martini told SFGATE. The crew also used surf boats that were drawn by horses and launched into the water to save a ship in distress. You can see one of these boats in the photograph below — the keeper’s residence is the structure just behind them.

Lifesaving service crew members maneuver a rescue boat on a horse-drawn carriage circa 1900. Such surf boats were launched into the water to save ships in distress.

OpenSFHistory/wnp70.0243

Rescues required extensive training, and the lifesaving crew’s drills made Ocean Beach a popular destination for crowds of people hoping to see it in action. The lifesaving service crew members had to be prepared for emergencies around the clock and were paid just $40 or $50 a month each — roughly $1403 by today’s standards — while the keeper made about $75, or $2339.

Martini told SFGATE that many of the men died affecting rescues and are still buried today in the US Life-Saving Service Cemetery at Point Reyes National Seashore.

“It was backbreaking, life-threatening work,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing what these fellows did.”

In 1914, the station became part of the new US Coast Guard, and by the 1920s, the original lifesaving service buildings started to get replaced by new structures. Torlakson, a former lifesaver, purchased the keeper’s residence — he was the only bidder — and had it transported three blocks inland to an empty lot (the garage level was added later on.) While moving an entire house might seem like a challenging endeavor, it was a frequent occurrence at the time. All you had to do was cap off utilities like indoor plumbing before jacking up the house and placing it on a platform made of massive timbers. Then, a team of horses or mules, aided by a steam-powered winch, would slowly move it through the city streets. The process would usually take days to complete, Martini said.

A crowd observes life-saving drills at Ocean Beach circa 1910.

OpenSFHistory/wnp26.735

Meanwhile, as technology improved and new methods like helicopters were used to perform rescues, the lifesaving service was rendered obsolete and ended sometime in the 1950s. Other buildings at the station were eventually demolished, but the keeper’s quarters remained in Torlakson’s family for a number of years. It was his daughter Vivian Goodwin, the former chief librarian of San Francisco, who had the plaque made for the house. She lived there until her death in 2009, according to an article published by the Western Neighborhoods Project in 2019.

“People who were born and raised in this neighborhood have come by and told me she was their teacher growing up,” Scheidl said. “She really loved this place and was passionate about its history.”

Records show the home was last sold in 2018 for $810,000. View the current $1.3 million listing on Coldwell Banker’s website.

An aerial view shows 806 47th Ave. in the Outer Richmond near Ocean Beach.

Courtesy of Liz Scheidl/Coldwell Banker

The post One of many oldest properties in San Francisco simply hit the market appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A Bay Area chef dedicated to Cajun gumbo with California twists is opening a permanent restaurant in San Francisco.

Dontaye Ball of Gumbo Social, whose steaming pots of chicken-sausage and smoked turkey gumbo have drawn a following at the Outer Sunset’s weekly Sunset Mercantile on Sundays, will open his first restaurant at 5176 Third St. in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. The space was previously home to longtime soul food restaurant Frisco Fried, which closed in late August.

The restaurant will open early next year with Ball’s popular gumbo, lauded by San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho, who declared Ball’s gumbo one of the region’s best for its unapologetically Californian additions, like local okra and chicken brined in kombu. Ball wants diners at the new restaurant to be able to “hack” the Gumbo Social menu, with a melange of add-ons in homage to the build-your-own gumbo bars he hosted in the early days of the business. People can opt to add pork belly or lobster to the chicken-sausage gumbo, or roasted jackfruit to a vegan gumbo that will always be available.

“If you want the smoked turkey gumbo with scallops, crab and shrimp, you can do it,” Ball said.

Gumbo Social will serve several kinds of po’boy sandwiches, including shrimp, above.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

The restaurant will also serve more po’ boys than the single sandwich offered at the Gumbo Social farmers’ market stand (there, it’s either grilled shrimp, chicken or sausage). Ball plans to come up with new, seasonal vegetable dishes using produce sourced from the farmers he’s connected to at the Outer Sunset market. To start, dessert will also come courtesy of another popular market purveyor: Yes Pudding, known for its luscious banana pudding. That and bottled lemonades from Oakland’s Gourmonade will also be sold in a retail section.

Ball plans to apply for a beer and wine license; if he gets it, expect to see local producers like Harmonic Brewing, Speakeasy Ales & Lagers and the Bayview’s Gratta Wines. He hopes to decorate the space with art from Bayview artists, including possibly a mural.

Gumbo Social will be open during the day to start, with the possibility of dinner based on demand, Ball said. He’s envisioning banquette seating and a sit-in counter to enable the kind of interaction he’s able to have with customers at the farmers’ market stand. (Even after the restaurant opens, Gumbo Social will continue serving food in the Outer Sunset.)

Gumbo Social owner Dontaye Ball is bringing his gumbo to a permanent Bayview restaurant.

Felix Uribe/Special to The Chronicle

Ball is launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for renovations. “It’s challenging for Black-owned businesses to get funding through traditional banking and lending services,” he said in an announcement. “This Kickstarter is a way for us to negate some of those challenges.”

Ball, a San Francisco native who calls himself “Mr. Gumbo,” learned to make the dish from his grandmother. He went on to work at restaurants in France and San Francisco, including Italian institution Delfina, before devoting himself to what he’s called “the most important food to American culture.”

Despite Gumbo Social’s popularity, he said, he realized he needed to expand beyond pop-ups to keep the business going. He’s excited to open in the Bayview, where he started his gumbo pop-ups, and hopes his food will draw more people to the neighborhood.

“It gives us a foothold,” Ball said. “It gives me an opportunity to start building something special in the community.”

Gumbo Social. Opening spring 2023. 5176 Third St., San Francisco. gumbosocial.com

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany

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Nemesio Isorena’s smile is what his family says they will always remember most about him.

The man died a day before his 63rd birthday on Halloween night after he was hit by a SamTrans bus in South San Francisco.

“We were actually going to celebrate his birthday,” his niece Alyssa Isorena said. “Like he was getting ready for that. Maybe he was going to buy something at Trader Joe’s for his birthday.”

Nemesio was not married and had no children, but was loved by his siblings, nephews and nieces. He also recently became a naturalized United States citizen – a proud American. The family has opened up a GoFundMe account to help pay for funeral services.

Family members also are waiting for more answers to answers on what happened the night of his death.

“We really don’t know what happened to him,” Alyssa said. “We’re still looking for answers.”

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office deferred NBC Bay Area to SamTrans when seeking comment on Nemesio’s death.

SamTrans issued the following statement Friday:

“We are sending our deepest sympathies and most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Isorena, who was fatally injured in an incident involving a SamTrans bus on October 31. We have reached out to the family to see how we can assist them “During this very difficult time. The safety of our community members, passengers and employees is always our top priority, so anytime an incident of this nature occurs, we are deeply concerned. We are currently working with all respective law enforcement and safety agencies regarding the incident, and in light of these pending investigations, we cannot provide any additional details.”

Meanwhile, the family continues trying to heal.

“We really don’t know what happened and it’s really hard for us to think about it,” Alyssa said. “We still can’t believe this happened. I’m still waiting for him to come home. But he’s never going to be here.”

The post Household Looking for Solutions After Man Fatally Hit by a SamTrans Bus in South San Francisco – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Google’s anticipated program to promote local service providers in search ads is coming out of the woodwork. The company has confirmed a beta test for the program just launched in the San Francisco market.

Buzzfeed first reported the home services solution was in the works in April. Taking on the likes of Yelp, Angie’s List and Amazon Home Services, Google’s home services ads promote pre-qualified home service professionals and enable users to submit requests to the providers straight from the search ads.

Pete Meyers of Moz tweeted a screenshot of the test on Wednesday.

New paid local entity in testing on Google last night (search for “plumbers”) – potential game-changer, IMO — pic.twitter.com/ehlLfs9MOw

— dr Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) July 29, 2015

I am seeing the ads on some searches for “San Francisco plumber” and “San Francisco locksmith,” the two services included in the beta.

For comparison, below is a typical desktop search results page for “San Francisco plumber.” Local Google My Business listings, which are free for businesses, are located at the bottom of the screenshot in this case, and a Google Maps link to the business locations is in the upper right. Text ads appear at the top of the page and along the right column. Notice the organic results are dominated by Yelp.

A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “We’re testing a new experience for local searches in the San Francisco Bay Area. We regularly test different options to deliver better results in search.”

Here’s a look at the beta Home Services Ads experience for users.

Ads feature three home service professionals

Three listings for professional service providers appear in the Home Services Ads block when Google thinks a user is trying to find a service professional based on the search query.

The ads include a photo of the professional, their location and phone number, along with any ratings and what look like callout ad extensions that detail qualifications and service qualities and offers such as 24/7 services and free estimates. Users can click the profiles for more details — more on that below. Earlier this month, Recode reported that Google hired a team of former Homejoy engineers to build the search matching technology for the service.

How Is Google Qualifying Providers?

User trust that these providers are safe and reliable is going to be a pivotal factor in whether this beta takes off. Clicking the drop-down icon on the Home Services ad box brings up an explainer stating that to be eligible for inclusion in the listing ads , the professionals must pass a background check, be licensed and insured and have a strong track record.

What constitutes a “strong track record?”

The “Learn more” link in that drop-down goes to a support page detailing how businesses qualify for business services ads. Google says it conducts a “reputation assessment” on all providers, including reviews from users who’ve found and used them through the ads and mystery shoppers:

“We collect ratings and reviews from people who hired home service professionals through our home service ads, and use mystery shoppers — customers who communicate and hire professionals on our behalf without mentioning any affiliation with Google — to help us learn more about the customer experience. ”

The background checks also include cross-checks against national sex offenders, terrorist and sanctions registries.

Select Up To Three Professionals For Responses

If you’re comfortable with that vetting process, the next step is to find a provider — or three — that might suit your needs.

Here are two ways to do it:

1. Click to view an individual profile featured in the ad block like the one below and contact them directly, or click the Send request button.

2. Click the “More [locksmiths or plumbers] to view or contact” link at the bottom of the ad.

This is where the real power of this new service lies for users looking to get multiple quotes. From here, you can view a slew of profiles to learn more about each service provider listed. Then you can narrow down your choices to up to three providers to request a follow-up after entering your contact info and details about the job you’re looking to have done.

The process is similar to Google Compare, which allows users to request quotes from credit card, auto insurance and home mortgage vendors right from ads in the search results in the US and UK.

Once you submit the request, Google sends it to each professional, and Google’s role in the referral process ends until a job is completed. Unless:

• Your request is declined because the provider is too busy or can’t do the job requested: Google will email you and include any notes from the professional about why they declined it.
• If a provider doesn’t follow up within one business day: You can either move on and find another provider or contact Google. There is a consumer contact page for Home Services Ad Support that includes phone and email contact information.
• If a provider cancels and the appointment and can’t reschedule: Google invites you to contact it to find another professional.
• If you’re not satisfied with the work done, and can’t resolve it with the provider first: Contact Google for help finding someone else to do the work.

Once a job is finished, Google will email you a ratings and review request. (It’s not clear if the professionals submit a job completion notice to Google.) Professionals that get repeat negative reviews could get suspended or kicked out of the program entirely.

At this time, we don’t know much about how the process works for advertisers in terms of the ad auction, managing the ads, and so on. Google is aiming to have more details on the program to share later this summer.

Google’s entry into this market could have big implications for home services professionals and the other companies vying for their attention online. Locksmiths and plumbers are just the beginning. Yelp appears to stand to lose the most, just in terms of lost organic visibility on Google.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

New on Search Engine Land

About The Author

Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

The post Google Residence Companies Adverts For Locksmiths, Plumbers Hit San Francisco Market appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

For $13.9 million, a house in San Francisco could be yours.

Listed this week, the peculiar mansion at 1969 California Street is unique due to its seemingly incomplete shape and storied history. The 9,000 square-foot, five-bedroom home features four levels, diamond-patterned lead windows, and a lofty 11.5′ ceiling the blurb describes as delivering “a gravitas rarely seen in today’s market.”

The historic Tobin House was built by one of the most important men in San Francisco at the time, Michael Henry de Young, and is one of the few surviving homes on the block from a century ago.

1969 California St, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

As a young journalist from St. Louis, de Young and his brother Charles moved to San Francisco and founded what would become the San Francisco Chronicle in 1865. In the 1910s Michael purchased two lots next to each other adjacent to his ornate Victorian mansion on California Street.

Initially planned as one of two twin homes for his daughters, Constance and Helen, de Young employed famed architect Willis Polk to design what would have then been a very modern housing complex for the time.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

Polk’s ambitious idea for the Tobin House (named after Constance’s husband, Joseph Tobin) and its neighbor was that they mirror each other and share an archway, which would form a tunnel leading to the giant mansion owned by Michael. But this plan would never be fully realized after Helen decided not to move to San Francisco near her sister and father, and instead remain on her estate on the Peninsula. Some old newspaper stories report on a “serious falling out” between the sisters, and this story has become part of the half-arch lore, though it’s hard to confirm.

The left side of the tall arch didn’t find its twin, leaving the striking architectural incongruity, with the half-arch slamming into the red brick wall of its modern neighbor, rendering it useless.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

From the street, the tall archway and roof loom large, with an almost medieval look. Its design was considered very modern at the time — the steep slate-clad Tudor style roof and a stark gray facade replacing the ornate Victorian intricacies of the era. A single gargoyle (technically a grotesque as no water runs through it) of a lion adorns the front, and the building has somehow never been painted.

The half-arch continues deep into the block with several repeated half-arches butting up against the neighbor’s home down the narrow alley that should have been a tunnel.

Michael died in 1925, and his mansion was razed in 1941, leaving the half house (now San Francisco Historic Landmark 260) as the only vestige of a time when the de Youngs’ owned the entire block.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

The Tobin House was purchased in the 1940s by an eccentric opera singer named Gualtiero Bartalini who reportedly hosted lavish parties there. More recently it was home to the Anthony Meier Fine Arts Gallery.

1969 California is being listed by Joe Lucier and Stacey Caen of Sotheby’s International Realty. Read our full history of the building and the block here.

The post One in every of San Francisco’s strangest properties simply hit the market appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Google’s anticipated program to promote local service providers in search ads is coming out of the woodwork. The company has confirmed a beta test for the program just launched in the San Francisco market.

Buzzfeed first reported the home services solution was in the works in April. Taking on the likes of Yelp, Angie’s List and Amazon Home Services, Google’s home services ads promote pre-qualified home service professionals and enable users to submit requests to the providers straight from the search ads.

Pete Meyers of Moz tweeted a screenshot of the test on Wednesday.

New paid local entity in testing on Google last night (search for “plumbers”) – potential game-changer, IMO — pic.twitter.com/ehlLfs9MOw

— dr Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) July 29, 2015

I am seeing the ads on some searches for “San Francisco plumber” and “San Francisco locksmith,” the two services included in the beta.

For comparison, below is a typical desktop search results page for “San Francisco plumber.” Local Google My Business listings, which are free for businesses, are located at the bottom of the screenshot in this case, and a Google Maps link to the business locations is in the upper right. Text ads appear at the top of the page and along the right column. Notice the organic results are dominated by Yelp.

A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land, “We’re testing a new experience for local searches in the San Francisco Bay Area. We regularly test different options to deliver better results in search.”

Here’s a look at the beta Home Services Ads experience for users.

Ads feature three home service professionals

Three listings for professional service providers appear in the Home Services Ads block when Google thinks a user is trying to find a service professional based on the search query.

The ads include a photo of the professional, their location and phone number, along with any ratings and what look like callout ad extensions that detail qualifications and service qualities and offers such as 24/7 services and free estimates. Users can click the profiles for more details — more on that below. Earlier this month, Recode reported that Google hired a team of former Homejoy engineers to build the search matching technology for the service.

How Is Google Qualifying Providers?

User trust that these providers are safe and reliable is going to be a pivotal factor in whether this beta takes off. Clicking the drop-down icon on the Home Services ad box brings up an explainer stating that to be eligible for inclusion in the listing ads , the professionals must pass a background check, be licensed and insured and have a strong track record.

What constitutes a “strong track record?”

The “Learn more” link in that drop-down goes to a support page detailing how businesses qualify for business services ads. Google says it conducts a “reputation assessment” on all providers, including reviews from users who’ve found and used them through the ads and mystery shoppers:

“We collect ratings and reviews from people who hired home service professionals through our home service ads, and use mystery shoppers — customers who communicate and hire professionals on our behalf without mentioning any affiliation with Google — to help us learn more about the customer experience. ”

The background checks also include cross-checks against national sex offenders, terrorist and sanctions registries.

Select Up To Three Professionals For Responses

If you’re comfortable with that vetting process, the next step is to find a provider — or three — that might suit your needs.

Here are two ways to do it:

1. Click to view an individual profile featured in the ad block like the one below and contact them directly, or click the Send request button.

2. Click the “More [locksmiths or plumbers] to view or contact” link at the bottom of the ad.

This is where the real power of this new service lies for users looking to get multiple quotes. From here, you can view a slew of profiles to learn more about each service provider listed. Then you can narrow down your choices to up to three providers to request a follow-up after entering your contact info and details about the job you’re looking to have done.

The process is similar to Google Compare, which allows users to request quotes from credit card, auto insurance and home mortgage vendors right from ads in the search results in the US and UK.

Once you submit the request, Google sends it to each professional, and Google’s role in the referral process ends until a job is completed. Unless:

• Your request is declined because the provider is too busy or can’t do the job requested: Google will email you and include any notes from the professional about why they declined it.
• If a provider doesn’t follow up within one business day: You can either move on and find another provider or contact Google. There is a consumer contact page for Home Services Ad Support that includes phone and email contact information.
• If a provider cancels and the appointment and can’t reschedule: Google invites you to contact it to find another professional.
• If you’re not satisfied with the work done, and can’t resolve it with the provider first: Contact Google for help finding someone else to do the work.

Once a job is finished, Google will email you a ratings and review request. (It’s not clear if the professionals submit a job completion notice to Google.) Professionals that get repeat negative reviews could get suspended or kicked out of the program entirely.

At this time, we don’t know much about how the process works for advertisers in terms of the ad auction, managing the ads, and so on. Google is aiming to have more details on the program to share later this summer.

Google’s entry into this market could have big implications for home services professionals and the other companies vying for their attention online. Locksmiths and plumbers are just the beginning. Yelp appears to stand to lose the most, just in terms of lost organic visibility on Google.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

New on Search Engine Land

About The Author

Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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A potential recession could hit San Francisco’s tech-centered economy hard.

Though the city’s record low unemployment figure of 1.9% in May is “a pretty clear sign that we’re not in a recession at the moment,” there are potential risks, said Ted Egan, San Francisco’s chief economist.

Egan sees the Federal Reserve’s plan to raise interest rates as the likeliest trigger for a recession.

“Tech is probably the sector of the economy that’s more sensitive to interest rates,” Egan said. “That places us at greater risk.”

Higher interest rates could discourage venture capitalists from investing in startups, dampening job growth and demand for other services. Global venture capital fundraising dropped around 27% in the second quarter compared with the first, according to preliminary data last week from research firm CB Insights.

A prolonged downturn would be a major setback for San Francisco’s nascent economic recovery from the pandemic, which has already lagged other major cities, Egan said. “The tech industry has been the strongest hirer of people since the start of the pandemic, even if most of them are working from home,” Egan said. “A downturn in tech would hit us worse than other places.”

A 2012 Bay Area Council Economic Institute study found that each high-tech job supports the creation of 4.3 additional jobs, though that number is lower if many tech workers are remote, Egan said.

San Francisco’s percentage of workers back in the office has been consistently among the lowest among major US cities at around 35%, according to security firm Kastle. Office vacancy, or the amount of space available for lease, is more than 20%. Those figures could get worse during a recession, as companies seek to cut more real estate costs and workers are discouraged from paying for a commute and lunch at the office.

Commuters make their way to work down Sutter Street in San Francisco. Though the city had a record low unemployment rate in May, a recession could hurt the city’s economy.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

In May, the storied Menlo Park venture capital firm Sequoia Capital told startup founders that it funds that it was at a “crucible moment,” with a market downturn and longer recovery period compared with 2020. The stock market had its worst first half of the year since 1970, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling more than 30% from its all-time high in November.

“Capital was free. Now it’s expensive,” Sequoia’s team said in a presentation. “Growth at all costs is no longer being rewarded.”

The venture firm encouraged startups to increase revenue from customers if possible, cut costs and, if necessary, raise equity or debt.

In the past two months, tech layoffs have totaled around 32,000 people globally, according to tracker layoffs.fyi — the highest number in two years, when the pandemic started.

In the Bay Area, electric car firm Tesla, video game company Unity and e-commerce firm Bolt have each laid off hundreds in recent months. Los Gatos firm Netflix, one of the earlier winners of the pandemic, has seen its stock slide around 70% this year and laid off another 300 employees last month.

Tech giants such as Facebook parent Meta and Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, said they are still hiring but doing so more selectively.

The huge balance sheets and continued growth of the biggest names in tech will be a bulwark against a severe downturn, Egan said.

“There are more layoffs in tech now, and the ratio of job listings to hires is trending downward. But for the industry as a whole, there are still more job postings than hires, which is a positive sign,” Egan said. “I don’t think this is dot-com crash 2.0,” or a sequel to the 2001 recession.

A recession is generally defined as at least two consecutive quarters of shrinking gross domestic product output and rising unemployment.

The Commerce Department said GDP shrank 1.6% in the first quarter because of lower consumer spending of 1.8% and a record trade deficit. The agency’s second-quarter GDP estimate will be reported in late July.

Scott Anderson, chief economist of Bank of the West, wrote in a research note in late June that the country is “still a ways away” from the economic contraction that marks a recession, citing low weekly initial jobless claims that are around 45% below the levels seen last summer. National new home sales also rebounded in May, a surprise for economists.

Anderson forecasts US GDP growth of 1.8% in the second quarter, which he expects to slow to around 1% in the second half of the year, because of slowing consumer spending and flat investment growth.

“I can envision many things that could put the US in recession by next year, including further aggressive interest rate hikes from the Fed, another extensive equity and bond market selloff from current levels, a sharper than expected drop in US home prices, and a business investment retrenchment as corporate profits struggled under rising input costs and softening demand,” Anderson wrote.

A storefront remains vacant on Kearny Street in San Francisco’s Financial District. Experts suggest rising federal interest rates could hurt the city if a recession hits.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Although the Bay Area real estate market is showing signs of cooling as mortgage rates rise, experts say the situation isn’t comparable to the apocalyptic housing crash of 2008. But buying a home is getting more challenging.

Patrick Carlisle, Bay Area chief market analyst for real estate brokerage Compass, said rising interest rates, a plunging stock market and the surprise of tech layoffs are all dampening the housing market. Consumer sentiment has also hit a record low in June amid soaring inflation. Compass itself laid off 10% last month, or 450 employees, citing “slowing economic growth.”

“All of it adds together to create a psychology of caution, and fear of what may be coming, which, naturally, is covered by the media, which reinforces that fearful or pessimistic psychology,” Carlisle said. “And besides the very real economic changes impacting people’s ability to buy, psychology is always an enormous factor in real estate and financial markets. Optimism and confidence fuel markets, pessimism and fear throw cold water on markets.”

But decades of underbuilding homes in the Bay Area and a bleak prospect for new residential supply, particularly in San Francisco, means that the local housing market is not inflated and not at risk of a bubble, Egan said.

And unlike the pandemic crisis of 2020, the housing crash of 2008 and the dot-com burst of 2001, Egan said he believes the potential recession of 2022 will be triggered by federal monetary policy with a goal of taming inflation. If inflation falls faster than expected, that could mean a smaller interest rate increase and less of an impact on tech and the local economy, he said.

“The Fed deliberately cooling something off is not popping a bubble,” Egan said. “It’s turning down the heat.”

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf

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San Francisco’s commercial real estate vacancy hits 24% as companies such as Splunk downsize

Data analytics company Splunk is not moving its headquarters, but it is downsizing its office space in downtown San Francisco. The move is part of a larger trend as commercial real estate vacancies have increased and become a big challenge for the city as companies adjust to more work-from-home hybrid models.

SAN FRANCISCO – It was 2016, when Splunk moved its San Francisco headquarters into the shiny, new South of Market building at 270 Brannan Street. Now, the data analytics company has decided to downsize, giving up its lease at the 215,000-square-foot space.

“San Francisco remains Splunk’s headquarters. We are consolidating our operations to a newly renovated office space at 250 Brannan, where Splunk began,” said a Splunk spokeswoman in a statement to KTVU.

That building at 250 Brannan where Splunk first started operations is less than half the size of the current headquarters space next door.

“We’re close to 24% vacancy for office space in the city,” said Matt Regan, Vice-President of the Bay Area Council. Regan says that is a new high for San Francisco, “We didn’t see numbers that high after the financial collapse or after the dot-com bust, so these are pretty unchartered, unprecedented times.”

Throughout downtown San Francisco, the impact of work-from-home pandemic policies is evident in the number of for lease and rent signs in the windows.

“Things are not at 100% capacity. We’re on a hybrid schedule and things are definitely not what they were pre-pandemic,” said Sridhar Akkapeddi, a San Francisco resident who works downtown, “I think that this notion of needing to be in a certain place to do certain types of work is going to change.”

“My office started three days a week as a requirement to get in the office and be there,” said Shivali Naik of San Francisco, “I’d say not every company has opened up yet, but things are opening up slowly.”

Along with commercial office space, there are also vacancies where retailers and small businesses that depended on foot traffic from office workers have felt the pain.

The Sutter Station Tavern one of the businesses that has survived, a fixture on Market Street for 25 years. Happy hour crowds, though, are far lower than pre-pandemic levels.

“Right now it’s like 30%,” said the owner Barbara Alessi. She says she’s happy to see people returning and hopes for more, “I’m hoping the businesses come back. I think the real estate in SF is so high and hopefully goes a little lower, there’s so much vacancy right now.”

The Bay Area Council says office rents have come down recently from pre-pandemic levels of about $90 per square foot.

“It’s now down to about $76 a foot, which is still relatively high both historically and compared to peer markets,” said Regan.

“There’s definitely still some optimism in the commercial real estate world that things will return to normal, so there aren’t as many bargains out there to be had as one would expect given the size of the vacancy rate,” said Regan.

“Abandoning downtown areas is not a trend that we are seeing, it’s more of a pause as companies assess their needs. Most companies strongly believe in the role office workplaces provide for collaboration, innovation and company culture,” said Colin Yasukochi, Executive Director of the real estate firm CBRE’s Tech Insights.

“San Francisco still has a long way to go to fill its 20 million sq. ft. of currently vacant office space. CBRE estimates that at least 100,000 new workers are needed to accomplish this,” said Yasukochi.

The Bay Area Council says while some jobs might remain remote, there are signs from the organization’s surveys that tech workers who tend to be younger might be inclined to return to offices in the future.

“Younger workers do tend to want to come back to the office as well, because mentorship opportunities are not really possible when you’re working remotely. The camaraderie, the social aspect of working in an office with teammates and colleagues is something younger workers seem to miss a lot more,” said Regan.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco Police responded to this sideshow scene at 12:41 in the morning Sunday. Drivers were speeding in circles and a crowd of spectators had their cell phone cameras up at Harrison and Maine Street.

Residents in San Francisco’s South Beach neighborhood say this isn’t the first time a sideshow has happened there. If burning rubber and squealing tires continue, they’re moving out.

“People were parking and walking up, it was a madhouse,” resident Will Decker said. “It was a very scary situation for someone like me who didn’t know what was going on.”

Tire marks are still visible in middle of the intersection, but the stunt drivers didn’t stop there

Police responded to a side show at Geneva Ave and Germany just after 1:00 am on Sunday. Then, another hour later on 13th St. and South Van Ness Ave.

“Just to do that in the middle of San Francisco where we have a lot of residential people trying to get a goodnight sleep after a work week, not the place to do that,” Decker said.

One in critical condition after Santa Rosa shooting

Dozens of vehicles and spectators were dispersed at all three locations. A marked police car was even vandalized by a vehicle fleeing the scene at 13th St. and South Van Ness.

“Little reckless to do it on a public street in the middle of the city especially,” Bence Lazar of San Mateo said.

Sirens can be heard in the background of a sideshow near the Bay Bridge and right next to the Gabby Market and Deli.

“Everybody is talking about it,” Sam Habash the owner Gabby Market and Deli said. “Some people are saying right now we might have to sell and leave. We thought this neighborhood was supposed to be one of the best neighborhoods.”

He says wants more of a police presence around his store to stop the sideshows before they start.

“We need a small police station in this neighborhood at least to protect this neighborhood,” Habash said.

San Francisco Police say no arrests have been made, but officers are still working to investigate all three sideshows with the goal of arresting the suspects and seizing their vehicles.

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