Ellen Mattesi with her 3D creation “Evil Clown” on Montford Avenue. (Photo by Mary Ann Hogan)

The Urban Dictionary defines Mill Valley as “a town in Marin County, California, that served as the basis for the South Park episode 'SmugAlert!' The people there… are generally smug, spoiled recluses who live in tiny, 800-square-foot shacks for which they paid $1.2 million.”

The “generally complacent” people tend to make everyone else grumpy. Or so the story goes. If only life were that easy here. As one dinner host recently said, “I get grumpy at people who get grumpy when they hear about what happened to Mill Valley.”

Just look around and you might find an old-fashioned village with a small-town atmosphere and a big-hearted soul. Here's a potpourri of the real Mill Valley:

Terribly good

At the bend in the road where Molino Avenue meets Montford Avenue, you'll find artist and designer Ellen Mattesi's Halloween Valentine's Day gift. For the past eight years, Mattesi, an “inventor of fantasy environments,” has decorated her front yard with elaborate 3D bodies, torsoless arms and hands, skulls, teeth, skeletons, strange bones and a whole lot of clowns, including the giant evil clown with 12-inch-long teeth. Mattesi says, “All the other clowns have to constantly feed him body parts.”

Every year, people honk and wave, give a thumbs up or scream like the dead as they pull off Molino, a funnel for the crowds from Mount Tam and the beaches, as well as for the neighbors who live up the hill.

A few years ago, Mattesi injured her knee and couldn't put up her decorations. She apologized on social media. The neighbors didn't hesitate for a second: “Would you like to help put them up?” “I would help too. We've enjoyed our Halloween fun since we lived here…” Her teenage daughter stepped in and saved the holiday.

This year, the mayor of Mill Valley left a business card with a note in Mattesi's mailbox: “Thank you for bringing Halloween back to Mill Valley.”

Yes, you can

One day last week, a lost bird flew into Scott Snyder's chimney in Tam Valley. Snyder and his wife could hear the helpless fluttering.

First they called a chimney sweep. “They said they didn't know anything about animals,” says Snyder, a data engineer, voice actor and animal lover. Then they called Marin Humane, which sent someone to search. “They thought it might be an owl.” The organization transports animals but doesn't release them from chimneys. So Snyder called WildCare. But they only receive and treat the animals. They don't release or transport them.

Snyder asked neighbors for suggestions. Several offered to help. One suggested the Southern Marin Fire District, which covers Tam Valley. “It had just rained the night before,” Snyder says, “so I didn't feel too bad.”

Within a few hours, a three-man team showed up. They climbed the steep roof of the Snyder. Removed the top of the stovepipe. Lowered a rope down the chimney. The bird climbed about halfway up the rope. Then it took to the skies. It wasn't an owl. “Probably a Florida jay.”

Neighbors cheered on social media. “What a happy ending! … Cats in trees, birds in chimneys, our Southern Marin firefighters can do it all!”

Yes, you can.

And he did.

Signs of optimism

The sign on the wall of Two Neat, a long-standing, funky art and dog gift shop downtown, reads: “Unsupervised children receive an espresso and a free puppy.”

One Friday afternoon, a group of middle school students walked in and told store owner Bob Bijou, “We're unsupervised 12-year-olds. Can we have our free puppy?” Bijou gave them each a free piece of 10-cent taffy instead. The kids gobbled it up. Soon, regular Mill Valley Fridays became Free Toffee Fridays for the original gang of “unsupervised” and their friends. Even if the taffy isn't free, Bijou says, it's a bargain. “Where else in Mill Valley can you get something for 10 cents?”

There are numerous notable signs:

• At the organic produce stand on the corner of Shoreline Highway and Tennessee Valley Road, a roadside sign reads: “Peace, Love and Pickles.”

• The sign at the Book Depot & Café reads: “I say a town is not a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but if it has no bookstore, it knows it is not fooling anyone.” (From Neil Gaiman's “American Gods”)

Make friends with the parks

Next Thursday night, November 2nd, there will be a fundraiser for Friends of Parks and Recreation from 6:30-11:00 p.m. at Sweetwater Music Hall. Tickets are $100 and include wine, beer, appetizers and rock music from Mustache Harbor. Sponsors include the Mill Valley Soccer Club and the Southern Marin Lacrosse Club.

Among the beneficiaries is the city's planned new skate park, a project by and for a savvy group of Mill Valley middle school students.

So, have a nice Mill Valley day.

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DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for “illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues that DoorDash misclassified its employees and thereby engaged in unfair labor practices.

“Misclassification of workers results in the deprivation of the employment protections to which they are entitled by depriving workers of, among other things, minimum wage and overtime pay, unemployment insurance and protection from discrimination,” Boudin said in a press release. “[…] Now more than ever, given the COVID pandemic, we need to protect our workers, especially the essential workers who deliver food to us every day.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, DoorDash noted how it has supported its employees during the pandemic by providing them with safety equipment, telemedicine and more.

“Today’s action aims to disrupt Dashers’ essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it harder for consumers to prepare “Food, groceries and other essentials are safe and reliable,” said Max Rettig, global head of public policy at DoorDash, in a statement. “We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when gig worker rights groups have called on companies like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart to comply with AB 5. AB 5, which went into effect earlier this year, determines what type of workers can and cannot be classified as independent contractors.

The law codifies the ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles. In this case, the court applied the ABC test and held that Dynamex misclassified its employees as independent contractors.

Under the ABC test, for a hiring company to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must demonstrate that the worker is not subject to the hiring company's control and direction, performs work outside the scope of the company's business, and does so on a regular basis independently founded business or a similar company. In the lawsuit, Boudin describes DoorDash as failing to meet the standards of the ABC test.

“DoorDash’s misclassification of its Dashers was not a mistake, but rather a calculated decision to reduce the cost of doing business at the expense of the workers who provide the company’s core service of delivering goods from merchant to customer,” the lawsuit says Conditions.

The lawsuit seeks to have DoorDash stop classifying its employees as independent contractors and be fined up to $2,500 for each violation and up to $2,500 for each violation involving a senior or disabled person.

DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Postmates and Instacart are sponsoring a ballot measure aimed at allowing them to classify workers as independent contractors. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft face a misclassification lawsuit from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

This lawsuit argues that Uber and Lyft deprive workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks a $2,500 penalty for each violation, possibly per driver, under California's unfair competition law and an additional $2,500 for violations involving seniors or people with disabilities.

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San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin today filed an unfair business practices lawsuit against food delivery service DoorDash, which has consistently classified its employees as independent contractors rather than employees, contrary to California law.

“I assure you that this is just the first step of many to fight for worker safety and equal enforcement of the laws,” Boudin said at the virtual press conference today. This lawsuit is being led by Assistant District Attorney Scott Stillman's White Collar Crimes Against Employees Unit – “and I did not bring ADA Stillman into the office to file a single lawsuit,” Boudin continued.

No messages were returned for DoorDash as of press time.

Today's lawsuit was filed at Section 17200 of the State Business and Professions Codewhat applies to ““Any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent commercial act.” Either a prosecutor or a prosecutor can take action under this code – and in fact, in May, Attorney General Dennis Herrera, along with colleagues in Los Angeles and San Diego, filed a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft for their Employees had allegedly miscategorized.

According to the California Supreme Court decision: “Dynamex” decision of April 2018, a three-point test was established to determine whether workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors.

No reasonable interpretation of this ruling could result in Doordash workers—or Uber and Lyft drivers, or many others—being classified as anything other than employees.

In April 2019, it was revealed that DoorDash was applying the tips DoorDash had given its employees to their base wages instead of serving as tips – which led to this A complaint is filed against the company with the city's Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.

In September 2019, the “Dynamex” decision was essentially codified as law under AB5, authored by Rep. Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego).

“When you think of theft, you don’t often think of wage theft,” said Gonzalez, who took part in today’s virtual press conference. “If an employee stole from his boss, he would go to prison. But employers steal from their employees in large quantities every day.”

By misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees, companies can avoid paying the minimum wage, providing mandatory breaks, and providing health care or sick days. Workers in such conditions are subsidized by the social safety net, which in turn is subsidized by taxpayers and law-abiding corporations.

“DoorDash has a long history of being an exploitative employer,” Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at UC Hastings, told Mission Local. “Like Uber, the company’s business model is based on the fiction that its employees are independent contractors. This means that the people whose work led to the company’s sky-high valuation will not have access to a wage floor, workers’ compensation in the event of an injury, or unemployment insurance if they are fired through no fault of their own.”

During the ongoing pandemic, Dubal continued, these workers have continued to be classified as “essential” and have “risked their lives to deliver food from restaurants to families in lockdown.”

“DoorDash has vigorously fought the employment claims of its delivery drivers,” Dubal said. “This lawsuit today – filed by the San Francisco District Attorney – puts the state’s weight behind these allegations.”

DoorDash Complaint by Joe Eskenazi on Scribd

Update, 2:20 p.m.: A statement from Max Rettig, DoorDash Global Head of Public Policy:

More than ever, Californians from all walks of life are looking to DoorDash for flexible earning opportunities, working an average of a few hours per week. Throughout the pandemic, DoorDash has supported Dashers on and off the road with free safety equipment, telemedicine, wage replacement and more. Today's action aims to disrupt Dashers' essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food Store groceries, groceries and other essentials safely and reliably. We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.

If you would like to continue to employ us – and have not already done so – support us now.

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin sues DoorDash for ‘unlawful misclassification’ of employees as unbiased contractors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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Photo credit: DoorDash / File Photo

DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for “illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues that DoorDash misclassified its employees and thereby engaged in unfair labor practices.

“Misclassification of workers results in the deprivation of the employment protections to which they are entitled by depriving workers of, among other things, minimum wage and overtime pay, unemployment insurance and protection from discrimination,” Boudin said in a press release. “[…] Now more than ever, given the COVID pandemic, we need to protect our workers, especially the essential workers who deliver food to us every day.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, DoorDash noted how it has supported its employees during the pandemic by providing them with safety equipment, telemedicine and more.

“Today’s action aims to disrupt Dashers’ essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it harder for consumers to prepare “Food, groceries and other essentials are safe and reliable,” said Max Rettig, global head of public policy at DoorDash, in a statement. “We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when gig worker rights groups have called on companies like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart to comply with AB 5. AB 5, which went into effect earlier this year, determines what type of workers can and cannot be classified as independent contractors.

The law codifies the ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles. In this case, the court applied the ABC test and held that Dynamex misclassified its employees as independent contractors.

Under the ABC test, for a hiring company to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must demonstrate that the worker is not subject to the hiring company's control and direction, performs work outside the scope of the company's business, and does so on a regular basis independently founded business or a similar company. In the lawsuit, Boudin describes DoorDash as failing to meet the standards of the ABC test.

“DoorDash’s misclassification of its Dashers was not a mistake, but rather a calculated decision to reduce the cost of doing business at the expense of the workers who provide the company’s core service of delivering goods from merchant to customer,” the lawsuit says Conditions.

The lawsuit seeks to have DoorDash stop classifying its employees as independent contractors and be fined up to $2,500 for each violation and up to $2,500 for each violation involving a senior or disabled person.

DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Postmates and Instacart are sponsoring a ballot measure aimed at allowing them to classify workers as independent contractors. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft face a misclassification lawsuit from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

This lawsuit argues that Uber and Lyft deprive workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks a $2,500 penalty for each violation, possibly per driver, under California's unfair competition law and an additional $2,500 for violations involving seniors or people with disabilities.

The post San Francisco DA sues DoorDash for classifying supply staff as unbiased contractors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

RICHMOND — Can you ferry a boat, sling delicious hors d’oeuvres, tidy up bedsheets and make guests feel at home in a five-room inn in the middle of San Pablo Bay?

If so, the picturesque East Brother Light Station may have a job for you.

Applications are open for two new innkeepers to keep the nearly 150-year-old lighthouse up and running for two years, starting in April 2023.

“People who typically apply have been in the hospitality industry and they like working with the public; they’re people who have worked on boats for a long time,” said Tom Butt, Richmond’s outgoing mayor and president of the East Brother Light Station Inc., which runs the lighthouse. “It’s very attractive for those type of people: Boats and lighthouses are like peanut butter and jelly.”

Perched on a rocky mound near Point Molate and visible from the Richmond Bridge, the iconic bed-and-breakfast offers beautiful panoramic views of the San Francisco and San Pablo bays.

In addition to seasonal day visits and special events, visitors on the island can enjoy rented-out rooms inside the goldenrod California Victorian structures — surrounded by miles of shimmering salt water and the occasional harbor seal — Thursday through Sunday for $475 to $525 a night.

While it’s a dream job for some, the role is not an breeze or some cushy, luxury getaway.

“It’s a really cool place, but the one thing the job doesn’t allow you to do is sit around and drink piña coladas while enjoying the view,” Butt said. “It’s hard work.”

Innkeepers must assume the role of maid, boat captain, gift shop attendant, tour guide, host and chef with “high-quality culinary experience” to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. Applicants who are smokers, live with children or have pets will not be selected.

Additionally, at least one of the innkeepers must have a Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Credential boat operator’s license, in order to safely ferry guests from the launch at 1900 Stenmark Drive in Richmond to East Brother Island and back.

Two previous innkeepers, Tiffany Danse and Tyler Waterson, estimated they worked at least 80 to 90 hours each week to maintain East Brother Light Station, which is a registered California Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The current innkeepers, Bryan and Stephanie Wesolek, will be leaving after their two-year commitment comes to a close at the end of March.

RICHMOND, CA – JAN. 27: A barge is pushed through the narrows between the East Brothers Light Station and Point San Pablo, part of the coastline of Richmond, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

The newly chosen duo, which does not have to be a romantic couple, will be compensated with a majority portion of the profits of the inn, after the expenses of operation are subtracted. On top of benefits like a health care plan, two weeks of vacation and onsite living quarters on the nearly three-quarters of an acre island, the keepers’ gross pay in 2021-22 was $140,000 split between them.

Butt said there are other perks, too, such as tips and networking opportunities to land future gigs. “You might make me your future employer while working,” he said.

Butt said the staff is supported by volunteers who help out with maintenance of the facilities, such as painting and repair jobs around the grounds. While the $300,000 nonprofit has a list of 300 volunteers, there is a core group of a dozen stewards who work the grounds weekly, Butt said.

And without access to Wi-Fi, reliable cell service and plumbing — aside from a rainwater catchment and cistern system — the job takes the concept of “remote work” to another level.

The nonprofit, which Butt founded, has leased the island from the Coast Guard and run the business, primarily as a means to afford costly repairs and upkeep.

The restored inn was opened in 1980, a few decades after the Coast Guard decommissioned the island’s historic lighthouse keepers in favor of automatic boat beacons.

More information about East Brother Light Station and the innkeeper job can be found at www.ebls.org, and questions may be emailed to EastBrotherLightStationJOBS@gmail.com.

IJ reporter Adrian Rodriguez contributed to this report.

The post $140,000 job comes with San Francisco waterfront views, room and board — however there’s a catch – Marin Impartial Journal appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

RICHMOND — Can you ferry a boat, sling delicious hors d’oeuvres, tidy up bedsheets and make guests feel at home in a five-room inn in the middle of San Pablo Bay?

If so, the picturesque East Brother Light Station may have a job for you.

Applications are open for two new innkeepers to keep the nearly 150-year-old lighthouse up and running for two years, starting in April 2023.

“People who typically apply have been in the hospitality industry and they like working with the public; they’re people who have worked on boats for a long time,” said Tom Butt, Richmond’s outgoing mayor and president of the East Brother Light Station Inc., which runs the lighthouse. “It’s very attractive for those type of people: Boats and lighthouses are like peanut butter and jelly.”

Perched on a rocky mound near Point Molate and visible from the Richmond Bridge, the iconic bed-and-breakfast offers beautiful panoramic views of the San Francisco and San Pablo bays.

In addition to seasonal day visits and special events, visitors on the island can enjoy rented-out rooms inside the goldenrod California Victorian structures — surrounded by miles of shimmering salt water and the occasional harbor seal — Thursday through Sunday for $475 to $525 a night.

While it’s a dream job for some, the role is not an breeze or some cushy, luxury getaway.

“It’s a really cool place, but the one thing the job doesn’t allow you to do is sit around and drink piña coladas while enjoying the view,” Butt said. “It’s hard work.”

Innkeepers must assume the role of maid, boat captain, gift shop attendant, tour guide, host and chef with “high-quality culinary experience” to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. Applicants who are smokers, live with children or have pets will not be selected.

Additionally, at least one of the innkeepers must have a Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Credential boat operator’s license, in order to safely ferry guests from the launch at 1900 Stenmark Drive in Richmond to East Brother Island and back.

Two previous innkeepers, Tiffany Danse and Tyler Waterson, estimated they worked at least 80 to 90 hours each week to maintain East Brother Light Station, which is a registered California Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The current innkeepers, Bryan and Stephanie Wesolek, will be leaving after their two-year commitment comes to a close at the end of March.

RICHMOND, CA – JAN. 27: A barge is pushed through the narrows between the East Brothers Light Station and Point San Pablo, part of the coastline of Richmond, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

The newly chosen duo, which does not have to be a romantic couple, will be compensated with a majority portion of the profits of the inn, after the expenses of operation are subtracted. On top of benefits like a health care plan, two weeks of vacation and onsite living quarters on the nearly three-quarters of an acre island, the keepers’ gross pay in 2021-22 was $140,000 split between them.

Butt said there are other perks, too, such as tips and networking opportunities to land future gigs. “You might make me your future employer while working,” he said.

Butt said the staff is supported by volunteers who help out with maintenance of the facilities, such as painting and repair jobs around the grounds. While the $300,000 nonprofit has a list of 300 volunteers, there is a core group of a dozen stewards who work the grounds weekly, Butt said.

And without access to Wi-Fi, reliable cell service and plumbing — aside from a rainwater catchment and cistern system — the job takes the concept of “remote work” to another level.

The nonprofit, which Butt founded, has leased the island from the Coast Guard and run the business, primarily as a means to afford costly repairs and upkeep.

The restored inn was opened in 1980, a few decades after the Coast Guard decommissioned the island’s historic lighthouse keepers in favor of automatic boat beacons.

More information about East Brother Light Station and the innkeeper job can be found at www.ebls.org, and questions may be emailed to EastBrotherLightStationJOBS@gmail.com.

IJ reporter Adrian Rodriguez contributed to this report.

The post $140,000 job comes with San Francisco waterfront views, room and board — however there’s a catch – Marin Impartial Journal appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

For every homeless person in San Francisco who becomes housed with the help of government, four more people become homeless, according to a new report. This Sisyphean track record offers important lessons for other cities. Unfortunately, measures on the city’s November ballot ignore proven solutions and double down on misguided policies.

San Francisco’s first mistake is misdiagnosing the problem. The city’s political class thinks homelessness is primarily caused by insufficient housing. In truth, homelessness is more often caused by substance abuse and mental illness. That mistake has caused the city to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into “affordable” or “permanent” housing programs.

In 2016, city leaders created the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). Since its inception, HSH has received $3.5 billion, while the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city annually has increased by 63 percent. About 50-60 percent of HSH’s funding in a typical year supports various permanent-housing programs.

Up to 20,000 people experience homelessness in San Francisco over the course of a year. San Francisco is the most expensive place on Earth to build, according to construction consultant Turner & Townsend. One “affordable” unit costs developers an average of $750,000 to build in the city. It’s cheaper to buy units, but not by much. For example, San Francisco recently bought two buildings for permanent supportive housing containing 252 units for $162.3 million, or $644,000 per unit.

Even if the city had $15 billion to build 20,000 units, it would not solve the problem, as the services draw new homeless people to the city: another 20,000 homeless people would emerge the next year, followed by 30,000 the next, and so on. The inflow of people experiencing homelessness greatly exceeds the number of people who become housed. The “Housing First” vision of giving every homeless person a permanent home is an expensive fool’s errand.

City officials helped to put two measures, D and E, on the November ballot, which proponents claim will increase the production of affordable housing by streamlining permitting when a project meets certain thresholds of affordability and tenant income (the measures differ on those thresholds). But to appear union overlords, both measures require builders to pay construction workers higher “prevailing [union] wages” on projects of 10 units or more, which could drive up total project costs by more than 35 percent. That won’t make housing more affordable.

San Francisco needs more housing, but giving HSH more money will not solve the homelessness problem; doing so would ignore the actual causes of homelessness. And in a desperate attempt to salvage a morsel of legitimacy for HSH, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors put Measure C on the ballot, asking voters to create a seven-member Homelessness Oversight Commission to oversee HSH, adding another layer of government bureaucracy.

San Francisco has compounded its homelessness problems by recklessly handing out cash assistance, effectively subsidizing self-destructive behaviors. After just one month of residency, people can receive benefits up to $869 a month for food and general assistance.

In a 2022 viral video, a self-described “old-school junkie” from Louisiana explains how “they pay you to be homeless here [in San Francisco]… it’s free money.” He uses assistance to pay for Netflix and Prime Video on his cell phone as he lives in a tent on a sidewalk and uses fentanyl. More housing development won’t solve this problem. People experiencing homelessness will continue to stream into the city, lured by permanent homes at taxpayer expense, generous cash benefits, and, perhaps most importantly, tolerance from political elites.

While San Francisco pursues its impossible dream of permanent housing for every homeless person, incentivizing more people to come to the city with cash assistance and the promise of housing, its political class tolerates neighborhood decay. Officials uncaringly sacrificed certain neighborhoods (but not Nancy Pelosi’s Pacific Heights) to the street problems accompanying homelessness. The epicenter of San Francisco’s homeless population is the tenderloin, a nightmare of concentrated violence, theft, encampments, fires, drug dealing, drug use, and overdoses, which kill about two people a day in San Francisco. The Tenderloin, Mission District, South of Market, and other neighborhoods have become dangerous shelters of first resort, unsafe for housed and unhoused residents alike.

The root cause of this neighborhood decay is an unwillingness by government officials to enforce “the public purposes of public spaces” throughout the city. Parks, sidewalks, alleys, nature areas, and land along freeways and near transit systems have well-established public purposes that don’t include residential living. Since the city doesn’t preserve public spaces for their intended uses, unhoused people live in those areas, evading difficult choices such as receiving treatment, moving to designated safe sites, going to jail, or moving to another town.

Homelessness should never be a crime, but specific actions by an individual experiencing homelessness—or anyone else—should be crimes. That includes defecting in public, open drug use, littering, trespassing, assault, battery, and living on sidewalks and roadways. Residents of the Tenderloin—or any neighborhood—deserve a safe, clean community in which to raise their kids, where parks are used for recreation, not drug injection.

That leaves the question of where unhoused people should go. Housing First addresses the symptom of homelessness but leaves the root causes of homelessness—personal trauma, substance abuse, mental-health issues, disaffiliation—largely untreated, with deadly consequences.

From 2016 to 2021, 869 homeless people died in San Francisco, according to a 2022 study by medical researchers. The highest number of yearly deaths, 331, occurred during the peak of the Covid lockdowns, from March 2020 to March 2021, when people experiencing homelessness were shunted into their Housing First rooms. A full 82 percent of the 331 deaths were due to overdoses, the majority involving fentanyl, because underlying causes weren’t addressed. Without treatment, “Housing First” too often becomes ‘Death Second.’

In contrast, San Antonio, Texas, provides a proven compassionate model that focuses on the root causes of homelessness. Moreover, it can be scaled up relatively cheaply, compared to San Francisco’s approach.

Haven for Hope, which opened in 2010, is the vision of San Antonio business leader Bill Greehey, who raised $103 million to build the nonprofit facility. Most of the money came from private sources, and the City of San Antonio donated the land. Haven for Hope is an integrated “one stop” 22-acre campus for the safe housing and treatment of homeless people in Bexar County. It collaborates with 183 partners, 70 of whom are on-site, and it provides transportation to off-site providers.

The 17-building complex offers a low-barrier emergency shelter called The Courtyard, where meals, showers, toilets, laundry, medical care, and case management services are provided. The complex also has a transformational campus of long-term housing with no time limit and individualized services for addiction recovery, mental health care, life skills, and job training. The staff are well-trained, and around-the-clock security ensures the safety of the 1,700 residents and the surrounding neighborhoods. The operating budget for fiscal year 2021 was $24.7 million.

Since 2010, more than 40,000 people have been helped at Haven for Hope. Almost 6,000 people have found permanent housing through the transformational program, with 92 percent remaining stable and housed after one year. Judges in Bexar County offer many individuals facing criminal charges who have mental-health or substance-abuse problems a choice: jail or a recovery program at Haven for Hope. Results for individuals entering Haven for Hope through courts are reportedly as good as those for individuals entering without court intervention. The results are impressive.

In 2009, San Antonio and San Francisco had similar levels of homelessness, but during the decade that followed, the homeless population in San Antonio decreased 11 percent (including 77 percent fewer homeless downtown), while the homeless population in San Francisco surged nearly 80 percent . San Antonio is committed to getting people off the streets and into safe facilities dedicated to healing underlying traumas and tackling the true causes of homelessness through personalized treatment and job training. A similar commitment is needed in San Francisco.

For starters, the State of California should donate the underused 62-acre Cow Palace for a Haven for Hope-style campus for San Francisco. It should be staffed by trained professionals who collaborate with nonprofit service providers with proven track records of success. Business leaders should raise private funds to build the facility.

San Francisco should preserve its public spaces and revitalize its neighborhoods by directing people experiencing homelessness to designated, safe, state-of-the-art campuses that combine a low-barrier shelter with transitional housing and personalized treatment for substance abuse, mental illness, and job training. A campus is cheaper to build and scale than the permanent housing approach. Enforcement of the public purposes of public spaces must be consistent and citywide. Selective neighborhood enforcement will only push problems to other parts of the city.

With few exceptions, San Francisco should stop providing cash payments, debit cards, or anything that can be easily converted into cash. Assistance from governments and nonprofits should consist of services. Cash should come from employment.

San Francisco’s policy mistakes have turned the city into a national theme park for human misery. Cities should learn from those mistakes. As demonstrated by San Antonio, a holistic, integrated approach that tackles the root causes of homelessness can prevent communities from sliding into an abyss.

The post How San Francisco Can Clear up Its Homelessness Drawback: Information: The Impartial Institute appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Golden Gate corridor refers to all means of travel between Marin and Sonoma counties to downtown San Francisco.

It’s served by Highway 101 and the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. The world-famous bridge is the most prominent portion of the route. While most travel the corridor by auto, the Bridge District’s bus and ferry services play a major role in facilitating corridor mobility.

I recently spoke with Dennis Mulligan, the district’s general manager. The San Francisco native is one of the top public-sector managers in the Bay Area.

Much work has been accomplished installing a wire rope netting for the state of the art suicide barrier in a project now predicted to cost at least $206 million. It’s expected to be completed in November of 2023. Crews are working 24/7, including double shifts in the evenings. To see an already erected barrier segment, go near the bridge’s northwest end and find the Marin Headlands parking area overlooking the bridge.

In 2021, 223 people tried to commit suicide by jumping off the 1.7-mile span. Of those, 198 were dissuaded due to Bridge District staff’s valiant efforts. The barrier is expected to save 30 lives a year. Past experience indicates of those dissuaded from suicide, few make a second effort whether by jumping, pills, gunshot or other easily available means.

Transit patronage, bridge traffic and related revenue were decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the coronavirus hit in March 2020, most of us were terrorized. The idea of ​​going to a downtown San Francisco office, dining out, meeting friends or attending cultural and recreational events seemed foolhardy.

Bridge traffic immediately decreased by 70%, ferry patronages dropped by 99% and bus ridership declined by 90%.

With the introduction of lifesaving vaccines, the “when” and “how” of work is slowly moving toward a new post-pandemic reality.

Along the corridor, auto traffic within Marin has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Likewise, midday and weekend Golden Gate Bridge auto traffic is back to its pre-pandemic volume. It’s the traditional morning and evening commute that’s dramatically declined, particularly on Monday and Friday.

Twenty percent of San Francisco office space is vacant. The other 80% tends to be underutilized. Office denizens – particularly finance and technology – have multiple workplace options. Many have opted to work from home at least two or three days each week, leaving the old Financial District and South of Market’s high-rise buildings desolate.

That trend is reflected by bus and ferry ridership. Like most urban transit systems, the pillar of Golden Gate ferries and buses was the five-day-a-week peak commute from the suburbs to the city center and back.

On pre-pandemic weekdays, the Golden Gate ferry’s Larkspur to SF Ferry Building route ran 42 trips per day. Mid-pandemic, that was down to 14. Even now, only 22 trips are scheduled.

As Mulligan says, “People are not lining up to go to San Francisco.”

Another example is the Route 4 express commuter bus from Mill Valley to downtown San Francisco. Until early 2020, it made 25 trips a day. The line was terminated during the pandemic. Now, under Golden Gate’s new renumbering scheme, Route 114 makes just four runs each weekday. The decline is similar for all Marin and Sonoma express bus commute routes.

While work habits changed, the recreation-based travel market is returning. That’s reflected on Golden Gate ferry routes from the San Francisco Ferry Building to Sausalito and Angel Island.

If the shift to remote working becomes permanent, its financial impact will be disruptive. Bridge District toll and transit revenue is down by $1 million a week. Even with right-sizing bus and ferry trips to cut costs, Golden Gate was dependent on one-time federal pandemic relief to balance its books.

Until the workplace’s new normal becomes clear, transit management, employees and passengers will have to wait two or three more years to learn how they’ll emerge from the (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime global epidemic.

Resources: Marin’s suicide prevention and crisis hotline is 415-499-1100. Grief counseling is available at 415-499-1195.

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It’s like old times, or at least like the Before Times. Every Fourth of July, the San Francisco Mime Troupe premieres a new musical comedy political satire that tours Bay Area Parks for the rest of the summer, with donations encouraged to keep the show going.

Only for the last couple of years that hasn’t happened. Though SFMT has kept its hand in during the COVID-19 pandemic with a few radio serial podcasts, the theater collective has held off a return to parks until now.

Now the Mime Troupe is back in parks with a new show appropriately titled “Back to the Way Things Were,” though, of course, the nostalgic title is tongue in cheek. It’s the troupe’s first touring show in Bay Area parks since 2019’s “Treasure Island.”

Written by Michael Gene Sullivan with Marie Cartier, “Back to the Way Things Were” does feature a family attempting to go out and do things after being cooped up at home because of the pandemic, but the show’s not really about COVID at all. It’s about voracious capitalists profiting off human misery and destroying the environment, and basically everything being terrible and getting worse.

Small wonder that Zoe, the teenager at the center of the play, has become so nihilistic. Played with scowling exasperation by Alicia MP Nelson, Zoe volunteers at an unhoused placement center, but she also doesn’t believe there’s any hope for the future and doesn’t pretend otherwise.

By contrast, her parents are blithely optimistic, cheerily singing that things are at last getting “back to the way things were.” Norman Gee and Lizzie Calogero keep up a comically sunny, old-timey mom-and-pop demeanor as Ralph and Alice — yes, like “The Honeymooners.” Ralph is even an ex-bus driver who’s now an Uber driver, while Alice just got a new job as a package sorter at a fulfillment center. Of course, the world outside their door turns out to be a parade of horrors giving just a small sampling of how messed up our society is today.

Aside from Nelson as Zoe, all of the actors play multiple roles. Calogero portrays a harried but dedicated social worker, while Gee shows up as a patient but endlessly delayed client waiting for housing help with his volumes of paperwork.

Andre Amarotico is a smooth and smarmy venture capitalist looking to privatize social services, the glad-handing guy who’s obviously going to become the villain of the piece. He also plays an overworked fast food employee, a helpful street protestor, a predatory cop and a shattered idealist.

Like 2018’s Mime Troupe show, “Seeing Red,” this one involves time travel. Keiko Shimosato Carreiro appears as Book, a seemingly crazed visitor from who-knows-where in a cowboy hat, long duster and coveralls (fun costumes by Brooke Jennings). Book is jumpy and paranoid about all the surveillance devices that we all routinely carry and install that allow a mysterious “Them” to track our movements. (The show’s weakest running gag is about whether to call them “They” or “Them,” as if that were a point of legitimate confusion.) And she keeps trying to draw Zoe into her mission to save the future.

Directed by longtime collective member and frequent performer Velina Brown, it’s a lively show showcasing the Troupe’s trademark quick shifts of scene and character, aided by Carlos Aceves’ versatile set. With music and lyrics by Daniel Savio, who leads the three-piece SFMT Band, the songs in a variety of styles are fairly catchy, especially the chipper title tune.

At 100 minutes without intermission, it’s actually one of SFMT’s longer musicals, as some other recent ones have been just a little over an hour. It’s fast-paced enough that it doesn’t feel overlong so much as meandering, less focused on a particular issue than sampling a smorgasbord of social woes that capitalism has wrought. Like Zoe, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all and conclude that we’re doomed — at least in the absence of fanciful sci-fi solutions like the ones she stumbles into. But even so, kudos to the Mime Troupe for calling out America’s broken and sabotaged systems and demanding that we somehow collectively do better.

Sam Hurwitt is a Bay Area arts journalist and playwright. Contact him at shurwitt@gmail.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/shurwitt.

IF YOU GO

What: “Back to the Way Things Were”

When: Through Sept 5; various locations and times, including at 7 pm July 20 at the Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley

Admission: Free, donations accepted

Information: 415-285-1717; sfmt.org

Rating (out of five stars): ★★★★

The post San Francisco Mime Troupe battles robber barons onstage within the parks – Marin Unbiased Journal appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

• Marin’s Henry Vare winging it on the San Francisco Bay. Vare and Morgan Headington are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

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  Redwood High sophomore Morgan Headington wings foils around the buoys on the San Francisco Bay. Headington and Henry Vare are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

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  Marin’s Henry Vare makes wing foiling look easy on the San Francisco Bay. Vare and Morgan Headington are set to participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Photo by Bryan McDonald)

The infamous SailGP event hits San Francisco Bay this weekend showcasing the world’s best foiling sailors on the F50 foiling catamaran. The event, now in its second season, continues to create drama and magic on the water in the world’s best sailing venues for a winner-takes-all-prize.

The F50 is a further iteration from the AC 50 launched early in 2017 for use in the 35th America’s Cup in 2017 in Bermuda and has been a boost to the huge and growing interest in foiling watersports anywhere there is breeze and water. Perfect for kids like Marin groms Henry Vare (13) and Morgan Headington (15) who thrive on fast and exciting.

The pair will be flying high on the Bay along with six other youth wing foilers when they participate in a wing foiling freestyle exhibition and slalom racing events between the official SailGP races which take place between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz starting at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, with a practice session for all fleets on Friday afternoon.

Henry’s dad, Michael Vare, spearheaded the opportunity for the youngsters, reaching out to SailGP Inspire, the League’s community outreach program, to coordinate a youth event as part of the San Francisco SailGP stopover. He said the kids are ecstatic to be involved in such a high-profile event doing something they love and excel at. As part of the program, the kids will meet with the SailGP teams and be a big part of the action this weekend.

“The kids put together their bios including their favorite tricks and who they ride for, so they’re very excited,” Vare said. “SailGP Inspire will provide them with bright colored jerseys, they’ll have numbers on their wings and there will be commentary shoreside about this growing sport of wing foiling,”.

Vare and Headington followed their dads into wing foiling some 2 1/2 years ago and now the dads are taking a bit of a back seat as the kids’ passion for wing foiling grows. But that’s okay, says Geoff Headington, a long-time competitive water sports enthusiast, who loves being out on the water with his son.

“I feel like it takes some of the pressure off me from a competitive standpoint,” Headington laughed. “It makes me happy to support him and make sure he’s on the right gear, watch him go and give him tips and instructions, I’m becoming more of a coach than a competitor. I get a lot of joy seeing Morgan improve.”

The boys dialed in some pre-event training when they raced a wing foil regatta several weekends ago on the Bay, the first ever to be raced in the US and hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club. They’re stoked for this weekend.

“I’m really excited to have the great opportunity to race between the F50 races because of the novelty that it has,” Morgan, a sophomore at Redwood High said. “Some of my sailing idols are skippers of these boats and being able to sail alongside them, especially in the same event, is awesome. I’m also excited for the freestyle exhibition because that style of winging is my favorite part of the sport and its super fun to try tricks, even if you fly uncontrollably through the air and bellyflop into the water.

“I’ve been working on my 360 spins for the freestyle event, as well as tactics and mechanics for the slalom racing. For the racing I’ve been practicing speed gybes and my VMG (velocity made good) angle downwind.

Henry, an eighth grader at Del Mar Middle School, was a regular at the St Francis Yacht Club wing foiling race events last year and at just 12 years old placed 3rd overall at the end of the season. He’s been an inspiration for both his peers and adults wanting to get into the sport and is psyched for this weekend.

“I am really looking forward to performing in front of an audience!” Henry said. “I’ve been practicing my racing skills and freestyle tricks leading up to the event.”

Supporting activities that are on the pathway for the next generation of sailing athletes to become inspired and involved in SailGP is as important to the event as staying at the leading edge of technology which ultimately benefits the kind of foiling watersports, like winging, that we regularly see on San Francisco Bay.

“The F50 is constantly being updated, with new wingsails in Season 2 and new T foils being built now,” Russell Coutts, co-founder of the SailGP circuit said. “With the new foils (expected in October) they are predicted to exceed 55 knots of boat speed. The new wings are modular which allow us to use a smaller (faster) configuration in strong winds. The next development will be new rudders. We are also increasing the ‘righting moment’ by making adjustments to the rudder settings which will also make the boats faster.”

Coutts continued, “The F50 is a very good boat for what we are doing because they can now sail both in very efficiently light winds and very strong winds which opens a lot of additional venue possibilities. They are also transported in containers which is essential for this League.”

Catch the foiling action from Crissy Field or the City Front this weekend, info at: https://sailgp.com/races/22/united-states-sail-grand-prix-san-francisco/overview/

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