SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KABC) — As Southwest Airlines continues to sort out stranded passengers and unclaimed baggage, a reporter in San Francisco said her child’s car seat ended up at a stranger’s home.

Megan Cassidy, a reporter at the SF Chronicle, tweeted Tuesday night telling Southwest, “Please tell me you’re guarding the stranded luggage. Because I’m tracking my kid’s car seat and today it moved from the STL airport to a random house in Riverview Gardens.”

A representative with Southwest Airlines responded to Cassidy with a tweet shortly after, telling the mother, “Hi, Megan. We have delayed luggage sectioned off, and we require the baggage tag in order to release any items. Please DM us so we can discuss this situation further.”

According to a tweet posted by Cassidy, she is tracking her luggage using AirTag, a tracking device developed by Apple.

Cassidy is among thousands of Southwest travelers whose luggage remains unclaimed.

At Hollywood Burbank Airport on Wednesday, a pile of unclaimed luggage sat outside baggage claim carousels and in a change from regular operations, Southwest staff individually called out names and personally handed each passenger their luggage.

“Everybody has just been talking about how crazy this entire thing was,” said traveler Sydnee Roddy. I definitely got like the better end of it because I was visiting my family, but there are people in the airport talking about they were on their last day of medication, and how, like, they were splitting their family up and I felt really bad about the whole thing.”

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan issues video apology

Jordan apologized to passengers and employees in the video released on Tuesday evening.

“We’re doing everything we can to return to a normal operation, and please also hear that I am truly sorry,” Jordan said.

He said with large numbers of airplanes and flight crews “out of position” in dozens of cities, the airline decided to “significantly reduce our flying to catch up.”

While Jordan acknowledged problems with the company response, the statement suggested that he did not foresee massive changes to Southwest’s operating plans in response to the mass cancellations.

“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99% of the time, but clearly we need to double-down on our already-existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now, said Jordan.

Meanwhile, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken the airline to task. He’s pulling no punches, referring to the situation as a complete “meltdown” of the system.

An official for the union representing Southwest pilots said they expect to have their flight schedules almost back to normal by the end of the work week.

But it’s not just Southwest dealing with issues.

On Wednesday, Eyewitness News found stranded passengers at John Wayne Airport flying Frontier and Spirit Airlines.

However, at 4 pm Wednesday, FlightAware reported more than three quarters of those with canceled flights at John Wayne Airport were flying Southwest Airlines.

The airline accounted for more than half of the 4,600 flight cancellations nationwide. The second highest was China Eastern, making up 13% of cancellations in the US

So what should customers do who are stranded do?

“First things first, travelers who are still stuck waiting on Southwest and need to get somewhere should try to book a flight with another airline as soon as possible … right now, really,” said Kyle Potter, executive editor at the travel advice website Thrifty Traveler, in an email to CNN Travel on Tuesday.

“Every airline in the country is jam-packed right now, so your odds of even finding a seat — let alone at an even halfway decent price — get smaller by the hour,” Potter said.

Phil Dengler, co-founder of travel advice site The Vacationer, said stranded Southwest passengers should get their heads out of the clouds.

“I recommend searching for alternative forms of transportation. While Southwest may get its act together over the next few days, I would not take the risk,” Dengler said. “It is legally required to provide you with a full cash refund if your flight was canceled, so it is in your best interest to have a solid backup plan.”

He also suggested looking for cheap car rentals from services such as AutoSlash.

“I also recommend checking Amtrak to see if any available trains are going to your destination,” he said.

He said if renting a car or taking a train are not options, you should use Google Flights to search for cheap flights from other airlines.

And “if all else fails, Southwest will eventually get you to your destination, but it may not be until the weekend or early next week. Travelers in the thick of this should be sure to save all their receipts,” Potter said.

Southwest itself has urged the same thing on receipts.

“If you’ve already left, take care of yourself, do what you need to do for your family, keep your receipts,” Southwest spokesperson Jay McVay said in a news conference earlier this week. “We will make sure they are taken care of, that is not a question.”

If you’ve been left in the lurch and your efforts to reach a customer service agent are going nowhere, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights suggests trying an international number.

“The main hotline for US airlines will be clogged with other passengers getting rebooked. To get through to an agent quickly, call any one of the airline’s dozens of international offices,” Scott Keyes said.

CNN contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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The purchase of Twitter for $44 billion by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk on Monday fueled worry by Twitter employees and others that the company could be moved out of state, or at least out of San Francisco, where the company has been headquartered since its founded in 2006.

https://californiaglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/44-Billion-Twitter-Sale-to-Elon-Musk-Ignites-Fears-Company-May-Be-Moved-Out-of-San- Francisco-California-Globe-042522.mp3

Press play to hear a narrated version of this storypresented by AudioHopper.

Neither Musk nor any Twitter executive said anything about a potential move on Monday, with Musk focusing solely on the sale and assuming fears to users that he would use the platform as a way to limit-free speech despite being an advocate of free speech expansions on Twitter, would reinstate former President Donald Trump to Twitter, or other actions that would greatly change the platform. In a statement on Monday, Musk maintained his commitment to free speech, as well as improving the social media platform.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said on Monday. “Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

Musk’s words quieted some critics, with the buyout causing Twitter’s stock to jump up over 5% before the bell on Monday. Other fears were also lessoned following the Twitter boards announcement that they rigorously assed Musk’s offer, with Twitter Board chair Bret Taylor noting on Monday that “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The deal was best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”

However, for many Twitter employees, the question about Musk’s commitment to California remained in the air.

“There’s no way we’re moving to a hellhole like Texas,” said a group of four Twitter employees in a Globe interview on Monday. “Everyone here is completely on edge after it was announced today. I mean, we’ve been this way for a while with Musk coming in and out of being on the board or trying to buy us. But now that it has happened, and considering that Musk has moved so much he had in California out of state, we are very concerned.”

Concern of a move outside of San Francisco

In the past, Musk has had a mixed relationship with California. He personally moved from California to Texas in 2020, moving Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin late last year and SpaceX expanding into Texas. However, he has also shown remarkable commitment to the state, keeping the Space X headquarters in Hawthorne, improving the Tesla plant in Fremont, and building a new factory in Lathrop. Many in the tech industry have noted that Musk has hinted about moving Twitter out of San Francisco in the past.

“Musk has said before that he wants to turn Twitter’s HQ into a homeless shelter,” said Anthony Ferry, a San Francisco tech consultant, to the Globe on Monday. “He even reiterated on Twitter that he was serious. That’s not exactly concrete, but it is a red flag.”

“Plus many in Texas are trying to get Musk to move them in. Governor [Greg] Abbott tweeted to Musk earlier today to move them to Texas. So this isn’t just speculation. This is an active movement. If I was someone in power here in San Francisco I would be incredibly worried. Twitter is one of the main companies here for tech. If they were gone, many would start panicking.”

.@elonmusk. Bring Twitter to Texas to join Tesla, SpaceX & the Boring company.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 25, 2022

Twitter employees were also concerned.

“Beyond Musk taking over here, we’re worried just what he will do here now,” said “Saanvi,” one of the four Twitter employees interviewed, to the Globe. “We all have lives here now and like living here. No one really wants to go.”

Another employee, “David,” immediately added, “It may sound like we’re just exaggerating things, but we aren’t. We aren’t in some bubble. No one wants a move. And you can bet that the city doesn’t want them to go too. There’s a lot of taxes riding on Twitter here, as well as Twitter being an important part of the economy. California loose Twitter, there goes another big company as well as a lot in taxes and many well-paid employees.”

“If we don’t quit before,” added a third employee. “If there is a move, some of us might just move on elsewhere here rather than go there. This is something no one wants but Musk might. And if he does, well, remember when Boeing was moved out of Seattle and then tanked in Chicago because of the brain drain and all the mistakes with it? A lot of parallels here is all I’m saying.”

As of Monday, Musk nor anyone else in Twitter has mentioned a possible move, with no other city reporting on a move outside of speculation.

The post $44 Billion Twitter Sale to Elon Musk Ignites Fears Firm Could Be Moved Out of San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A homeless man in California recently admitted that he moved to the West Coast from Texas because he knew it was easier to live the homeless lifestyle in San Francisco.

“If you’re gonna be homeless, it’s pretty f***ing easy here,” he said of the Bay Area city. “I mean, if we’re gonna be realistic, they pay you to be homeless here.”

What are the details?

The homeless man, identified only as James, went on to say that he receives $820 in welfare and food stamps every month and added that living on the street is easier in San Francisco because the progressive city simply doesn’t enforce anti-camping laws.

James’ frank admission came as part of a series of street interviews conducted by best-selling author Michael Shellenberger. The author, who is known for “Apocalypse Never” and “San Francscko,” posted some of the interviews in a Twitter thread Wednesday.

“People are surprised by these interviews because much of what we’ve read is propaganda put forward by activists with an agenda [and] reporters who are also ideological but also lazy [and] too scared to ask direct questions of street people,” he said in one of the tweets.

People say lack of housing forces local residents into the streets, but James says he came from Texas to San Francisco for the drugs, the non-enforcement of anti-camping laws, and the $820/month in welfare & food stamps. James says he sold fentanyl, 2 weeks ago, to a 15-year-old.pic.twitter.com/5qMr6tmlWs

— Michael Shellenberger (@Michael Shellenberger) 1644416763

James said he started receiving the government assistance with nothing more than a phone call.

“Why wouldn’t I do it, it’s f***ing free money,” he said, adding, “This right now is literally by choice, literally by choice.”

Then, offering a window into the rampant drug abuse customary in and around homeless encampments, James went on to claim that just a couple of weeks ago, he sold fentanyl to a 15-year-old.

what else?

In another interview, a homeless man identified as Ben claimed that only a small fraction of the homeless in San Francisco are actually from there. More than 90% he alleged, are from outside the city.

He also pushed back against the prevailing progressive narrative people are predominantly driven to homelessness by poverty. Rather, he said crippling drug addiction is by far the primary cause.

It’s reasonable to ask whether I’m seeking out outliers, but I met James 5 minutes after parking my car and he was the first person I interviewed, and Ben, below, was the 4th person we interviewed after ~20 minutes on the street doing interviewshttps://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1490130669875253250?s=20&t=8wpXy2kh64brr9LxvYb06gu00a0u2026

— Michael Shellenberger (@Michael Shellenberger) 1644416990

Ben told Shellenberger he supports his drug addiction by engaging in petty crimes like “boosting” (shoplifting and then reselling the items) and breaking into cars.

Both Ben and James said violence and overdoses are commonplace in homeless encampments. James also said that law enforcement officers have no chance of stopping the drug cycle since San Francisco is a sanctuary city. Immigrant dealers who are back on the street within days, he claimed.

anything else?

Last year, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom caught heat for inviting homeless people from across the country to come pursue “new beginnings” in the Golden State.

“To the extent that people want to come here for new beginnings and all income levels, that’s part of the California dream,” Newsom said as he rolled out his California Comeback Plan.

Rampant homelessness and crime have been growing problems in San Francisco, in particular, for years. The city’s inability to solve the problems is a source of fear for residents. Last summer, a whopping 40% of residents indicated they planned to leave the city over the next few years due to the rapidly deteriorating quality of life.

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For a long time, researchers at the University of Florida included a question in their ongoing, decades-long survey of Floridians: If you weren’t born in this state, why are you here?

The answers remained a constant for so many years that in 2019 they stopped asking.

“‘The weather’ or ‘I moved here for my job’ were the two primary reasons. Considerably lower down, in third place, was ‘family,’” said Scott Richards, associate director at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “It was remarkably stable, even through severe economic disruptions.”

Experts say no one knows if those reasons have changed, like so many other facets of American life have, during the coronavirus pandemic. But Florida’s elected leaders contend that something different is luring residents. Gov. Ron DeSantis touts the state as a destination for those fleeing COVID-19 restrictions. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has suggested northeasterners are escaping “tax hell” for the income-tax-free Sunshine State.

What we do know is the state had 221,000 more residents arrive from other U.S. states than leave from July 2020 to July of last year, according to the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau. That’s Florida’s largest gain in residents from within the U.S. since 2005.

The state’s net gain of approximately 260,000 residents, which includes 39,000 international migrants, is up a little over the previous two years, “but it’s not exceedingly high,” said Stefan Rayer, director of the population program at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Two recently released reports, one using data compiled by Zillow and Allied Van Lines, and the other analyzing new Florida driver’s licenses, show New York is the No. 1 supplier of new residents to Florida and Tampa Bay, as per usual. Other metro areas sending a lot of people to Tampa Bay specifically, according to that data, are Atlanta and Chicago.

“It’s New York pretty much every year, but if you look at No. 2 for people coming to Florida overall, it’s always Georgia,” Rayer said, referring to historic Census data. “And No. 1 for people who leave Florida is Georgia. So distance matters.”

The demographics of residents flowing in and out can affect the state’s economy and politics. For instance, the number of active voters registered as Republicans in Florida surpassed Democrats for the first time in modern history last year. Susan MacManus, a professor emerita at the University of South Florida and expert on Florida politics, believes that’s mostly due to Democrats suspending in-person voter registration efforts during COVID. But she said migration could also be a factor.

“It’s hard data to get,” MacManus said. “My big question is, ‘Were (new Florida arrivals) typical northeasterners who just want better weather and bring Democratic voting patterns with them, or more affluent people who were upset with lockdowns and who may vote Republican?’”

“If anyone tells you they know definitively,” MacManus said, “they’re lying.”

While experts say big-picture data is lacking, new arrivals and recent departures from Tampa Bay were happy to discuss personal reasons for moving. The Tampa Bay Times received more than 250 responses to recent social media posts seeking their stories.

Those responding to the survey, which wasn’t scientific, often cited lower taxes and more affordable homes, along with the sunny weather, as reasons for moving to Florida. A few mentioned COVID-19 restrictions. Many said they chose Tampa Bay because of fond vacation memories. After the weather, the most common reason for moving was job-related. Some had been offered a better salary to relocate, yet more cited the ability to work remotely. For those leaving Florida — hundreds of thousands move out of the state every year — many mentioned politics, but more mentioned a feeling that they could find better schools and more robust services somewhere else for the same cost.

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Here’s what some respondents had to say.

Moved to Florida

Harshneel More, 30, Tampa (via San Francisco)

Harshneel More, 30, looks onto Sparkman Wharf from a deck of Industirous, a shared office building where he works from as a senior applications security engineer for tech company Fast, while waiting for programs on his computer to load to start his workday on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. More and his wife moved to the area last summer from San Francisco. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

When his San Francisco-based employer announced in 2020 that employees could permanently work remote from anywhere, the newly married More started thinking it might be time to branch out.”

He booked a trip to check out Tampa and Miami last summer. He ended up skipping South Florida after he and his wife, the founder of an architecture jobs marketplace startup, fell in love with Sparkman Wharf and Armature Works. They moved in July, trading a small one-bedroom for a two-bedroom apartment with a workout area in a new luxury tower in Tampa’s Water Street district.

“We were able to get a bigger space, with a dedicated home office,” while keeping his San Francisco salary, More said. “I really liked the amenities, like swimming pools, gyms, things you couldn’t get back home.”

He said the area was on his radar because of Tampa’s growing reputation as a hub for tech work. A senior application security engineer for Fast, an online payment services startup, More said he was especially impressed when he realized the publicly traded cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 is based in Clearwater. “I knew them,” he said. “Silicon Valley is always seen as the place to be, but I’ve been encouraging people I know to consider Tampa.” He said he feels even more rooted in Tampa since, a month after he moved, Fast announced it was opening a second headquarters where their CEO would be based, in Tampa.

He’s enjoying less expensive groceries and meeting a lot of other young professionals who’ve recently moved from places like Denver, New York City and southern California. His one peeve: “I did notice San Francisco had less traffic. It was small streets, so everyone drove small sedans. Here you see bigger cars, big pickup trucks, and they’re all moving at high speed — I had to get used to that.”

Rayellen Griffin, 48, St. Petersburg (via Independence, Ky.)

Rayellen Griffin, 48, walks her dog Rembrandt on the St. Pete Pier on Monday, Feb. 21, 2022 in St. Petersburg. Griffin moved to St. Pete from Northern Kentucky last March. [ DIRK SHADD | Times ]

Griffin had been vacationing in Tampa Bay for years from her home state of Kentucky. She had a series of life-changing events. She lost her parents and older sister within a couple of years. She watched the last of her three grown children leave home in rural Independence, about 15 miles south of Cincinnati. She separated from her husband after realizing their plans for the future were “very different.” So she wanted a fresh start.

Tampa Bay “felt less touristy than other places in Florida, and even the touristy areas didn’t seem so bad,” she said. She considered Bradenton first, but a coworker who’d moved to St. Petersburg suggested she visit. Describing herself as “actually very liberal, even though I’m from Kentucky,” Griffin liked the city’s political makeup and LGBTQ inclusiveness. “And there’s no freezing rain.”

She moved into an apartment in the Gateway neighborhood with her dog and cat “just before prices really started going up.” The only downside, she said, has been the cost of living. She’s watched her neighbors’ rent go up 30 percent and anticipates a big increase when her lease expires. “I’m having a hard time finding a job that pays me enough to stay in St. Petersburg,” she said. She does not have a degree but has experience doing administrative work and working in call centers. For now, she’s working temp jobs and living off savings. “I hope I can stay. … Kentucky was depressing. There’s plenty to do here, like the beach or the Pier, even if I’m broke.”

Julianne Recine, 49, Westchase (via New York City)

A lifelong resident of New York City, Recine relocated to Florida in July 2021 with her young son and husband, who works remotely for a defense contractor. “I didn’t come down here for the weather. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but I miss the winter and snow,” she said. “Quite frankly, it was freedom.”

Recine’s family began mulling a move as New York schools remained closed last spring due to COVID-19. “I didn’t want my son going to school on Zoom … and there was a high level of fear that made it hard to get together with people,” said Recine, who kept her remote job as a financial consultant.

Tampa had long been on her husband’s radar, but more as a retirement destination, until “the pandemic accelerated everything.” Recine said they were able to compete in the challenging housing market because they bought a home from owners who didn’t plan to move out for five months. The Recines did not sell their house in the Bronx.

An appreciation for DeSantis also factored in. “Do I agree with everything he says? No. But mostly.” Recine had once prided herself as being a “gritty, liberal New Yorker,” she said, “but the term ‘liberal New Yorker’ has been so distorted by where the left has taken it that I can no longer be associated with it.” Recine said she was specifically referring to New York being soft on criminals.

As for Tampa life, “I’ve been pleasantly surprised. … You hear there’s no good Chinese outside of New York, but (Tampa’s) Yummy House is excellent.”

Katherine La Rochelle, 48, Tampa (via Denver)

Katherine La Rochelle attends her first Gasparilla parade. She moved to Tampa in 2021 from Denver. [ Courtesy of Katherine La Rochelle ]

Last year, La Rochelle, a vice president at a San Francisco-based startup, and her husband, a software engineer, realized their 110-year-old Craftsman home in Denver was worth about 50 percent more than they’d paid a few years earlier and wondered: “What if this all blows up?” They’d limped through the 2008 housing crash as homeowners in Phoenix. They did not want to get stuck in Denver where, La Rochelle said, they were disillusioned by rising costs, homeless people in their neighborhood and what they characterize as an unchecked increase in violent crime.

“We wondered where can we do better on taxes,” La Rochelle said, “after being bled dry and seeing no improvements.” Florida made sense. They’d loved living near the water when they had lived in France years ago, and “we lean Libertarian, so we liked the personal freedom aspects.” Tampa became the top candidate when La Rochelle found a gifted private school for her daughter — one of only a handful in the state — and discovered a burgeoning girls’ youth hockey scene. “She and my husband play hockey, so that was very important to them.”

Their home on the western edge of Hillsborough County cost about what they paid in Denver five years ago, and La Rochelle kept her job. “I haven’t really looked at what jobs pay here,” she said. One thing she misses: public transportation in the form of light rail and frequently running buses.

Getting out of Florida

Adam Kuhn, 41, Asheville, N.C. (via St. Petersburg)

Adam Kuhn moved from St. Petersburg to Asheville, North Carolina. [ Courtesy of Adam Kuhn ]

After 16 years in St. Petersburg, Kuhn and his wife headed to the mountains in late 2020 in what he called a recent “mass exodus” of his family to Asheville. That included a sister who had spent 20 years in St. Pete and his parents in Pinellas Park. They visited the area often after some Florida friends moved first. They decided to make the move while their two children were doing school remotely, thinking it would be less of a “social impact” on them.

Kuhn, a web engineer for a Silicon Valley startup, said the other big factors included the desire to experience a new climate and environment and a desire to get away from Florida’s “shifting political landscape.” He said he appreciates living in a politically diverse state, as it gives him an opportunity to teach his children to accept other viewpoints and coexist with people they disagree with. He felt that was no longer the case in Florida. “I think there’s a lot of hay made about Florida being a purple state,” he said, “but my feeling was that it was deeply red when we left.”

The family chose to keep their home in St. Petersburg and rent it out, while also buying in Asheville. The somewhat higher cost of living was a bit of a shock, Kuhn said, but so far they’re happy with the move. Kuhn does worry about some of the same changes that he saw in St. Petersburg happening there. “I was a big fan of the 600 block, the Local 662, Fubar,” he said referring to St. Petersburg’s shuttered live music venues. “The same gentrification that happened there could happen here.”

Harrison Aquino, 29, Buffalo via Pensacola

Harrison Aquino moved from Florida to Buffalo, New York in 2021. [ Courtesy of Harrison Aquino ]

Aquino, an accountant, and his wife, a law student, decided it was time to look outside of Florida after having their first son.

“The poor school systems in Florida were, for us, a huge thing,” he said. “If you track the schools in New York, even in Buffalo, they’re ranked near the top every year.” Another big factor, which may come as a surprise, is the weather. “Yes, it’s freezing, but we don’t have hurricanes or really any natural disasters here. … We had a hurricane, with a newborn baby, and lost power for like a week.”

After getting priced out of their preferred neighborhoods in West Palm Beach, Tampa Bay and Pensacola, Aquino started considering Buffalo, where he had lived for a while in high school.

“Even in the best neighborhoods (in Buffalo), you can afford a house almost anywhere if you’re a married couple with a decent middle-class income,” he said. “I was making like $65,000 when we moved here and was able to buy a two-unit house for $250,000.” The second unit now has tenants and generates rental income. Aquino also found a new, higher-paying job, in software consulting.

“I like Florida,” Aquino said, “but it just didn’t make sense to stay. Maybe someday we’ll be back as snowbirds.”

The post Shifting to Florida? New arrivals clarify why they moved to Tampa Bay appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

How do you move a hippopotamus across the country? In a special heavyweight box, according to the zoo.

RELATED: Monterey Bay Aquarium like you’ve never seen it before – through the eyes of a clumsy penguin

In this specially built container is Tucker – better known as Bruce to visitors to the SF Zoo.

The hippopotamus received this nickname in honor of former Giants skipper Bruce Bochy, but is referred to as “Tucker” when it becomes part of his new Hippo-Pod.

Bruce moves to Cincinnati to team up with a potential buddy, Bibi.

“It certainly took an entire village to move, and we thank all of our employees, the DHL and SFO team for their help in making this move smooth,” said SF Zoo in a tweet.

How do you move a 4,500 male hippopotamus across the country? In a special heavyweight box! We said goodbye to Bruce yesterday morning when he moved to his new home at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens! pic.twitter.com/lXQIKUVLzc

– San Francisco Zoo (@sfzoo) September 7, 2021

Copyright © 2021 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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I left San Francisco on a suitably foggy morning – my items, acquired in my 25 years in the Bay Area, were jammed in a U-Haul – in the summer of 2019.

I moved to Southern California, Long Beach, to be precise, to do my PhD in English at UC Irvine. But I also wanted to get away from it, as Joan Didion says when she wrote about her exodus from New York. It was my first move from the Bay Area since I was born, other than a six-month stay in Europe during college.

During my three years at SFGATE before I left, the Exodus became my bread and butter, so to speak. I became the de facto Exodus reporter for the website that recorded people’s journeys from the Bay Area to Austin, to Portland, to the most remote places anywhere else than here.

Exodus has become ingrained in my memory after so many interviews, people keep telling about their familiar problems with the place: it’s too expensive, too technical, too busy. I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe there was something about this Bay Area exodus. Maybe I should try somewhere else for a change.

“Choosing whether or not to leave the Bay Area is not the same as answering a yes / no question,” I wrote at the time. “I knew that as a PhD student in the Bay Area I couldn’t survive without accumulating limitless debt… and finally I realized that I wanted that degree badly enough to leave my home from birth. I had to fill the scales and see which way they leaned. “

“After living in the Bay Area all my life, I’m scared of leaving,” I wrote. “But I am also encouraged by the many come and go stories that I have been able to tell over the past few years.”

So I moved to Long Beach with my two cats and my boyfriend. And so began the adjustment phase.

I am hardly the only person to leave San Francisco in the pre-pandemic and during the period. Big tech started to go – and so did people. According to U.S. Postal Service data received by the Chronicle, churn “rose rapidly” in March 2020 after California was forced to stay home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned from Hearst, but work independently). In March 2020 alone, the Chronicle reported, there were more than 4,300 address changes out of the city – more than double the previous March.

Although I didn’t move during the pandemic, I suspect my reasons for leaving weren’t dissimilar to those who left when COVID moved through the US – and like those who went after me, there was a major adjustment period going on life across the bay.

SFGATE Feature Reporter Michelle Robertson returned to San Francisco from Southern California in December 2020.

Immediately after the move, everything in Los Angeles seemed to sparkle like it had a brilliant movie – perhaps because it was too close to Hollywood for too many years. I dug up the kitsch and pomp. The 50s bar with the 70-year-old lounge-singing duo. The disguised girls post Instagram of their boozy brunches. The roller-skaters whiz down the beach path in Long Beach. The friendliness of strangers on the sidewalk.

But there were things that felt too different for a longtime Bay Area resident that sometimes I felt like I was suffocating. Driving, for example. An hour and a half from Long Beach to Irvine on a bad day. Two hours to Echo Park. Twenty minutes to the motorway entrance.

And then there was the flatness of it all. The town felt small without the hills. It sounds like a minor criticism, but without any bump, the city felt like it slumped, like I couldn’t see where I was going.

For the first year I couldn’t bring myself to return to San Francisco. Even visits to my parents in the East Bay were too much for me.

I told myself that after so many years I was overwhelmed. Who needed San Francisco, a place where I could never buy a home or put down roots in it? The complaints my sources shared with me while writing “weed is greener” stories suddenly became my complaints. The traffic was bad. Tech culture was tiring. And what about these rents?

At least that’s what I said to myself.

Then the pandemic came and things suddenly took on a different shine. To see my parents in the East Bay, I had to drive for six hours without stopping – careful to avoid the germ-infested toilets and restaurants – and then we spent our visits outdoors, crossing the paths only indoors with great care and attention.

I returned to San Francisco on this visit. Just to check things out, I told myself. Just to look around. But really, I knew I was looking, “Could we maybe come back here?” I wondered. It felt too painful to know that I would be moving to a place where it is so financially difficult to live even to ask.

But the seed was sown. In tears, I waved goodbye to my parents, went back to Los Angeles and noticed that the SoCal shimmer was starting to stink.

There was not a moment that cemented my sudden dislike of Southern California. Rather, it was an accumulation. I started to loathe the little things in LA: the cheesy palm trees, the hot summer nights, the smell of sewage wafting from the garbage-strewn ocean, the driving and the driving and the driving.

However, it wasn’t so much what I didn’t like, but what I missed. For one thing, I missed living close to my parents. Missed my friends who saw me grow up from childhood to adulthood. I missed the smells, salty sea mixed with taqueria mixed with flowering box trees. And I missed the way I knew it, so deep and deep, like a worn out sweater that I had run down – holes and everything.

It happened in December 2020. My current fiancé, cats, roommate, and I moved back to San Francisco, I invited myself in with a new Masters degree and an additional U-Haul of things I had acquired along the way.

Leaving Los Angeles wasn’t a difficult decision. We actually hardly discussed it. It just felt like going back to San Francisco, like it was the right thing and natural, like there was no need to think about it at all.

Despite the masked faces on Valencia Street and the closure of many local shops amid the pandemic, San Francisco welcomed us with open arms. At least that’s what it felt like. The rents were the lowest I’d seen in years. In July, for example, rents fell by 11.8% across the board. Two-bedroom apartments in the mission no longer cost $ 4,000 a month, but were much more manageable at around $ 3,000. We got a month for free in our current apartment, which looks out onto an alley where children ride bicycles and a dog sniffs at the foot of our stairs almost every hour.

It’s not perfect. I wish we had as much space as we did in Southern California. The rents are rising steadily again. Sometimes people throw trash over our entrance. I’ve already got four road tickets. But in the six months we’ve been back, I haven’t regretted coming back once, despite the fact that I miss the friends I made in LA.

It’s a strange time to be in San Francisco. It feels like the city has changed big and small since I left. My favorite bar is closed. I have lost my rental price-controlled apartment. My two best friends moved to New York.

But despite everything that feels so new, it still has that cozy, old sweater feeling. For now, I’ll take it as it is.

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I arrived in San Francisco in late June 2020. Covid-19 by that time had resulted in the country and much of the world being completely closed. I had the option to stay in Seattle until the situation stabilized, but when I saw rents dropping across the area, I wanted to take advantage of it. (I also wanted to start my new life sooner rather than later.)

I knew that in the middle of a pandemic I would face challenges of moving to a new place as I don’t know many people in the area or in the area itself. But this immersion into the unknown was kind of exciting, with a touch of horror – something that turned on the masochistic part of me.

Except for a handful of foreign friends who came to visit to acclimate me, I was completely alone now.

Being kind of a gay mecca, I was thrilled with the dating prospects again. A couple of weeks before moving, I downloaded the usual suspects, spiced up my profiles, uploaded my tastiest photos, and moved my location to San Francisco.

If anything, I was hoping to get in touch with some guys in the area who might become friends. As I got older and with every move, it became more and more difficult for me to penetrate into a social environment. Covid-19, as I suspected and turned out to be the reality, would only make it worse.

Growing up queer in the Midwest and feeling a little out of place, I heard that San Francisco was kind of a gay mecca.

My first few weeks in San Francisco were pleasant, if strange.

When I wasn’t busy with work, I would spend a lot of time with a guy I started chatting with before moving downstairs. He showed me the neighborhoods, the restaurants that were worth checking out (that had al fresco or take out), and other sights and sounds in the area. I fell in love with San Francisco quickly, even though the city is only a fraction of its usual speed.

Unfortunately, the time with this guy ended as quickly as it began. I think we were both a little bit desperate for human connection after being isolated, so we hurried and then it fizzled out. Except for a handful of foreign friends who came to visit to acclimate me, I was completely alone now.

The post I Moved to San Francisco From Throughout the Nation appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A 141 year old Victorian house was picked up and moved six blocks from Franklin Street to Fulton Street.

“It’s phenomenal to see this huge seven-bedroom house move into,” said Wanda Ramos, who lives near the home’s original location.

Gary Carter lives near the new location and was repeating the same thoughts. “That’s pretty big, pretty amazing,” said Carter.

Sebastian Luke was one of many who watched the entire procession and only said, “It’s a beautiful building.”

And this beautiful historic building quickly took San Francisco and the internet by storm. Every nook and cranny was captured by hundreds of San Franciscans, many of whom compared it to the Pixar animated film Up, in which a house was moved by balloons.

There’s nothing to see here, just a historic San Francisco Victorian house coming down the street! Today it moves 6 blocks for more than $ 400,000. The old location near Turk and Franklin will soon accommodate more than 60 apartments. @ abc7newsbayarea
Courtesy: Lehoa Nguyen pic.twitter.com/3ztOAtaVRU

– JR Stone (@jrstonelive) February 21, 2021

This house, known as Englander House, was towed six blocks. Six blocks in about six hours.

“There were a few mishaps along the way. Trees getting in the way, stop signs, lights and signs and what not,” said Lana Costantini of the San Francisco Historical Society

“They met a light pole right there on the corner of Golden Gate and Franklin, and also some trees,” said Eddie Ramos, who was watching the movement closely.

But don’t worry, there were loggers, roads were closed and the police were there to show the way, even if it didn’t always look so perfect and even into the night.

“I was scared when they tried to turn into Golden Gate Street. I was surprised, I thought there was no way, but they made it,” said Saron Eyob, who lives nearby.

Historical Society says this is the first time since 1974 that a Victorian house like this has been relocated in San Francisco.

Huge dollys carry it at about a mile an hour and it cost $ 400,000. More than a dozen city agencies approved the relocation.

The Englander house is converted into single-family houses. A former morgue next door and the old property will also be converted into residential buildings. As a result of the move, between 50 and 60 new units will ultimately be available and of course the historic house will be restored and saved.

RELATED: Historic San Francisco Victorian Home Ready To Be Converted To Apartments Blocks Away

“I was up on the 11th floor at the time, looking down and I just couldn’t believe what was happening. I thought this was one for the history books,” said Eddie Ramos.

Moving was not an easy task. Power lines, parking meters and street lights were removed for the move. and Muni had to reroute some bus routes

The six bedroom, three bathroom house still has the original wood and 19th century “anchor bolts”.

The moving worker says houses like this are worth preserving instead of tearing them down.

Copyright © 2021 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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The post Historic San Jose Condominium Constructing Set to Be Moved Sunday – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Residents fled New York City and San Francisco following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but cell phone data shows they didn’t go too far.

A new study shows that many of the residents who have moved from Manhattan and the City by the Bay have changed their address to the outskirts or neighboring suburbs, which are within a 100-mile radius.

Almost two in five – or 37 percent – of those who moved out of Manhattan settled in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Long Island and Westchester.

According to a study by analyst Placer.ai, only 2 percent of Manhattan residents migrated to Miami-Dade County, Florida, while roughly the same percentage moved to Palm Beach County.

The study analyzed cell phone data from the 12 months leading up to January 2021.

The largest percentage – 14 percent – of former Manhattans withdrew to Suffolk County, where many are believed to have second homes in the Hamptons and nearby hamlets along the south coast of eastern Long Island.

A new study shows that many of Manhattan residents who have moved have changed their address to the outskirts or neighboring suburbs

Similar trends have been observed in San Francisco. According to the study, many who left the city stayed in the Bay Area. One in ten Franciscans moved across the bay to San Mateo County, while slightly fewer – 9.2 percent – moved to Alameda County

A U-Haul moving truck can be seen in this 2016 file photo up in San Francisco. New York and San Francisco were two of several major cities that experienced negative net migration between January 2020 and January 2021

Another 15 percent moved together to Nassau County, Queens, Brooklyn, and The Bronx.

Fairfield, Connecticut; Westchester County, New York; and Monmouth County, New Jersey, made up 7.4 percent of Manhattanites transplanted.

Similar trends have been observed in San Francisco.

According to the study, many who left the city stayed in the Bay Area. One in ten Franciscans moved across the bay to San Mateo County, while slightly fewer – 9.2 percent – moved to Alameda County.

The third most popular destination for those leaving San Francisco was Contra Costa County, home of Berkeley.

The study also found that New York, California, and Massachusetts were among the states that experienced the highest negative migration between January 2020 and January 2021. Meanwhile, low-population states like Montana, Idaho, Delaware, and Hawaii saw population growth over the same period

Around 6.3 percent of San Francisco residents moved south to Los Angeles, while 5.2 percent stayed a little closer to home and settled in Santa Clara County.

Overall, around 15 percent moved to various locations including Sacramento, Orange County, San Diego, Sonoma County, and Marin Counties.

“The clear finding is that even large communities with high rates of migration outside of the state have lost a large percentage of their residents to nearby inland and neighboring out-of-state counties,” concluded the authors of the Placer.ai study.

“While cities lose population in the short term, they don’t necessarily lose their center of gravity.

“This information can have a significant impact on local office and retail sales decisions.”

The study also found that New York, California, and Massachusetts were among the states that saw the highest negative migration between January 2020 and January 2021.

New York State had negative net migration of 1.8 percent, while California’s net negative migration was 1.1 percent.

Massachusetts net negative migration was 1.4 percent.

In cities, San Francisco had the largest negative net migration (2.4 percent), followed by Los Angeles (1.9 percent), Boston (1.7 percent), New York (1.2 percent) and Chicago (0.7 percent) Percent).

In sparsely populated states such as Montana, Idaho, Delaware, and Hawaii, there was population growth over the same period.

Idaho’s population grew nearly 4 percent, while Montana saw positive net migration of 3.7 percent.

In cities, San Francisco had the largest negative net migration (2.4 percent), followed by Los Angeles (1.9 percent), Boston (1.7 percent), New York (1.2 percent) and Chicago (0.7 Percent).

The cities with the highest positive net migration in 2020 include Tampa (1.5 percent), Charleston (1.5 percent), Austin (1.3 percent), Phoenix (1.3 percent) and Las Vegas (0.8 Percent).

Despite the grim news, recent developments such as the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine and falling infection rates offer hope.

In the past few days, New York City has shown signs that the coronavirus pandemic has been brought back to life a year later. Tourism slowly increased and more pedestrians frequented Times Square.

Although activity in the city is still well below pre-pandemic levels, tourism officials say visitor traffic is increasing in yet another sign of New York bouncing back.

The Times Square Alliance, a nonprofit group that oversees the area, told the Wall Street Journal last week that 115,000 people a day recently passed through the iconic area.

On March 12th, people gather in Times Square for a performance. Recently, around 115,000 people a day have been walking through the cult area, a 15% increase over the winter numbers

People wear face masks as they walk the Mall in Central Park amid the coronavirus pandemic in New York City on March 11, 2021

Mobility data from Apple shows that pedestrian activity in New York City is 35 percent below the pre-pandemic baseline

That’s a 15 percent increase over daily traffic in Times Square since September – but less than a third of the 365,000 daily visitors the tourist Mecca saw before the pandemic.

Hotel occupancy in the city hit 47 percent for the week ended March 13, according to STR, a data firm that tracks the hospitality industry. This is the highest weekly value since June last year.

That’s a 38 percent increase in January, but well below the city’s hotel occupancy rate of 87 percent for the same week in 2019.

Tourism is a major engine of the New York economy, and in 2019 the city had a record 66.6 million visitors, according to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau.

Last year the number fell to 22.3 million, but the agency estimates it will climb to 36.4 million this year.

Mobility data from Apple shows that pedestrian activity in New York City is 35 percent below baseline before the pandemic, up from 80 percent below baseline a year ago.

The data shows that driving activity is roughly in line with baseline, while transit activity remains 48 percent below baseline.

Transit data from the MTA shows that NYC’s daily subway count is still more than 60 percent lower than last year as New Yorkers eschew public transportation in favor of other modes of transportation or working from home.

This is a caveat on Big Apple’s relief as New York State plans to end a two-week quarantine mandate for overseas visitors on April 1st.

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