Jim Irsay appeared out of thin air.

Through a cracked-open side entrance at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, I saw a police escort pull up, followed by an expensive-looking RV that might house a billionaire who sometimes cosplays as a rock star. A few camerapeople opened the door wider, presumably hoping to get a shot of the man of the hour. A few minutes passed, and Irsay’s handpicked ragtag band of rock-and-roll legends, including R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Heart’s Ann Wilson and 86-year-old Buddy Guy — plus Indianapolis Colts great Edgerrin James — meandered to the nearby designated press conference area. 

And then poof — Irsay was on stage, like he’d done a Gob Bluth-style illusion. Did he come through the side door or somewhere else? I have no idea.

“I know my mind is sometimes hard to follow,” Irsay began, leaning hard on the podium. “I have trouble following it too, but if you just take a shot of Patron and settle in, I think you might understand what I’m about to talk about.”

I was already a drink deep. 

The stage area prior to the concert as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

SantaCon ruled the daytime hours in the city on Saturday. The night belonged to SantaCon attendees’ spiritual, and literal, predecessors: late Gen Xers and boomers who love Bruce Springsteen and our Founding Fathers.

Irsay, the 63-year-old goateed owner of the Indianapolis Colts, provided a gathering space for his chosen people at Bill Graham, the eighth leg of the Jim Irsay Collection tour (prior stops include Chicago, Nashville and New York City). There’s no possible way to succinctly describe the range of artifacts on show. It’s a free-of-charge fever dream combining Irsay’s expensive taste in sports memorabilia, musical relics, timeless American literature and concerningly indispensable historical pieces (the only signed copy of the Atlantic Charter!), followed by a totally separate hour-and-a-half concert featuring Irsay on the vocals that will leave you saying, “Goddamn, Buddy Guy is still shredding.”

Muhammad Ali’s boxing robe on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

Rocky Balboa’s boxing shoes on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

Irsay has valued his collection, which he takes from city to city as a traveling personal museum of sorts, at roughly $100 million. That’s an impressive amount, until you consider Irsay’s net worth has ballooned to an estimated $3.4 billion, almost entirely via the always growing valuation of the Colts, whom Irsay inherited from his father Robert, an air-conditioning magnate. 

John Lennon’s glasses on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

By the subterranean standards of NFL owners, the younger Irsay can be something of a breath of fresh air, if you filter it just right. A few months ago, at the league’s annual ownership meeting, Irsay tossed Worst Person Alive Dan Snyder under the bus, an obviously correct tactical move that no other owner had been willing to make. 

Irsay also frequently and openly discusses his past drug and alcohol addictions, and Saturday was no different as he ripped through cigarettes, cowboy hat on his head, while singing his favorite songs. Some people even find him endearing. 

“Maybe I’m a bit of a contrarian, but Jim himself, just the legend of Jim, I think he’s a lovable guy” is how Nick, a Colts fan and Indianapolis transplant, described him to me.

I could see it, if I squinted hard enough. His charm offensive honestly left me dumbfounded. Irsay’s name doesn’t crop up much in the parlor game of celebrities and billionaires potentially running for office, but why couldn’t he be a richer, more battle-scarred Matthew McConaughey?

Jim Irsay performs at the Jim Irsay Collection event at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on December 10, 2022, in San Francisco. 

Steve Jennings/Getty Images

Before the press conference, which Irsay was an hour late to — an outcome his PR team warned was inevitable — I checked out his collection of expensive s–t. There are clear pockets of interest for Irsay: bluesy white guys, beatniks, JFK and Abe Lincoln. Some of the items, like Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” scroll, are visually impressive. Others, like the pricey U.S. bank notes he had on display, were hilariously out of place. Here is a broadside of Edwin Stanton’s telegram announcing President Lincoln is dead. And here is a rare $2 bill. Here is Harry Truman’s top hat from his inauguration. Here is a rare Topps card.

President Harry Truman’s top hat worn during his inauguration, on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

Edwin Stanton’s telegram that Abe Lincoln was shot and killed, on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

I made it back to the press conference room with plenty of time to spare. Irsay apparated and captivated his audience. “When Bob Dylan came in and wrote ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ it was basically to England, telling them, how does it feel, you know, you tyrannical sons of bitches?’” Irsay said early on. 

The rest of Irsay’s speech garnered multiple applause breaks, including from the media members in the row in front of me, one of whom was legitimately moved by what she was hearing and kept throwing her pointer finger up in the air like she was hearing a church sermon. Her preacher was Irsay, doing a line-by-line annotated reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” Here’s a typical rumination: “To me, the song is so powerful when it talks about the soul and the spirit as the reasons that we exist. I talk about it all the time: Being up here, spiritually, and I think it’s really important, what we do, we do together. And what we do, we have to do with individual courage as well, to support each other. Because in the end, it’s about that feeling of a higher power of that love, of the bigger love. And that’s what brings us together and keeps us together and keeps us sane. But there’s a lot of insane people on the streets today. And I look at it as all of our responsibilities.” 

After the press conference, I wandered around the venue. The line to see Irsay’s collection was ridiculously long. The upper bowls of the auditorium were pretty full. Since Irsay was late to his press conference, the concert was delayed too. I made my way to the ground floor of the auditorium, jotting down some notes about our future president, when a man in his 50s or 60s approached me and pointed at my media pass. “That looks like a liquor pass to me. They’re only serving beer and wine out here,” he said, gesturing to the auditorium. Another boomer putting on a charm offensive. I went to the VIP area and got him some tequila on the rocks, per his request. He asked me what I was going to write about and made it clear he hoped this would be a complimentary piece, because Mr. Irsay is a generous and good man. 

Guitars formerly owned by famous musicians on display as part of the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

Around 8:40 p.m., the lights dimmed, and the show began. A spotlight shined on Irsay, seated in the middle of the stage, who fittingly led off with a slowed-down “Born to Run,” minus the tangents. Next was Irsay’s own rendition of Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” a song that seemed to have some personal meaning. He then wisely ceded the stage for a while to his assorted musician friends. Wilson, 72, performed a moving tribute to the late Christine McVie; later on, Buddy Guy put on an entrancing show. Other big names made appearances too, including John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Once again, the person who commanded the most attention was Irsay, who led an intermission of sorts where former Colts players tossed footballs into the crowd. When that was done, Irsay delivered another incomprehensible speech about drug addiction that nevertheless seemed to register hard with the crowd. 

Legendary musician Buddy Guy performing during the Jim Irsay Collection at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

“If you’re on molly, it’s OK by me,” he joked to the crowd at one point, attempting to contrast responsible recreational drug use, which he condones, with drug addiction, which requires an intervention. He transitioned from that riff by singing “Hurt,” the Nine Inch Nails song covered by Johnny Cash. It wasn’t bad. I was admittedly distracted by the older man standing in front of me, wearing a feather cap, who had successfully wooed a fellow attendee he had met a few songs earlier. They swayed back and forth when Wilson came back on to sing Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.” A couple of older Deadheads were laying on the floor with their shoes off, soaking in the vibes. 

The Jim Irsay Collection concert at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, on Dec. 10, 2022.

Alex Shultz/SFGATE

I left the show toward the end, maybe a few minutes early. It was a damp, cold evening in San Francisco. On the Muni bus back, I revisited another part of Irsay’s stream-of-consciousness press conference.

“I think that we have a responsibility in this country to give back what we’ve earned,” the billionaire who inherited a pro football team said to an adoring audience. “… At this point in my life, I try to be of service. It’s not being noble or because I want to be a saint; it’s because, you know, when I see a human being suffering, it gets to me.” 

The salt-of-the-earth routine seems earnest. Who knows, maybe that’s enough to take the Jim Irsay Experience into prime time. I had a nice night at Bill Graham, and I found Irsay to be disarming and fascinating. He’s had eminently relatable personal struggles. He’s certainly not hateable in the Bay Area like, say, Elon Musk.

On Saturday, Irsay acknowledged that he’s wealthy enough to hypothetically “spend $1,000 a day since Jesus Christ was born” and not run out of money. (Jim had clearly broken out the calculator for that one, as by my calculations, it would take until 2739 to run up a billion-dollar tab that way.) His broader point was that other billionaires aren’t doing enough to give back, and he’s different — hell, he’s blessing you with the contents of his very expensive man cave. 

I’m not so sure he took the right message from “Like a Rolling Stone,” though. The tyrannical England interpretation is novel, but parts of the song are straightforwardly about the ultra rich fetishizing the rest of us. “You never turned around to see the frowns / On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you / Never understood that it ain’t no good / You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you.”

Irsay might want to listen to that verse again.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Dec. 13 at 1:59 p.m. to note that Nine Inch Nails first released “Hurt,” which was later covered by Johnny Cash. We apologize to Nine Inch Nails for the error.

The post An odd San Francisco evening in Jim Irsay’s touring man cave appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

WEST LAKE, TX, Jan 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Friendly Group, a home services company, announced today its acquisition of Day & Night, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and plumbing services company located in Phoenix, AZ. The addition of Day & Night makes this Friendly Group’s second home services company located in Arizonaand the fourth company to join Friendly Group in the last year in the western region.

Friendly Group (PRNewsfoto/Friendly Group)

Day & Night will continue to operate under the Day & Night brand with owner, Jeff Martinand General Manager, Mike Littauleading the company in partnership with Friendly Group.

Comments on the news:

“We are excited to welcome Jeff, Mike, and the whole Day & Night team into the Friendly Group family. Their culture is a perfect fit with our employee-first philosophy and mission to unlock the latent potential of every member of the team.” —William J. Coughlin, Founder, Alchemy Capital Partners, Friendly Group Board Member

“Day and Night’s relationships with their customers and community are some of the best I have ever seen, and the people and culture behind that is the reason for the strength of this brand. We can’t wait to build on that legacy with Mike and his leadership team.” —Joe Bergman, CEO, Friendly Group

“Friendly Group’s unique culture and approach to supporting our operating companies continues to resonate in the market with people that share our principles.” – Michael RubelManaging Director, RFE Investment Partners, Friendly Group Board Member

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing
Day & Night is a reputable HVAC and plumbing company serving the greater Phoenix area. Their primary services are heating, cooling, plumbing, and drain clearing.

www.dayandnightair.com

Friendly Group
Friendly Group is a home services company focused on building a network of businesses that share a vision and values ​​which, at their core, focus on their employees.

Story continues

www.friendlygroup.com

Alchemy Capital Partners
A private equity firm focused on making investments in the lower-middle market located in NorthAmerica. www.alchemycap.com

RFE Investment Partners
A private equity firm focused on making control investments in established small market companies located in the United States. www.rfeip.com

Media and general inquiries:
Contact: Cooper Calhoun
Phone: 682-348-4900
Email: Cooper.Calhoun@friendlygroup.com

Inquiries on joining Friendly Group:
Contact: David Noseworthy
Phone: 682-348-4900
Email: David.Noseworthy@friendlygroup.com

surgery

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SOURCE Friendly Group

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“Chance nothing – gain nothing.” So said Helgi Tomasson in his typically succinct fashion as he stood onstage at the War Memorial Opera House surrounded by over a hundred cheering dancers, choreographers, artistic directors, musicians and other artists whose careers he has so profoundly impacted. The man clearly knows whereof he speaks. Way back in 1985, San Francisco Ballet took a huge chance of hiring Tomasson into his very first leadership position as Artistic Director. In turn, Tomasson perhaps took an even greater chance in coming to lead this well-established, if rather scrappy, regional ballet company that was ripe for a new direction. 37 years later, I think it’s safe to say Tomasson and SFB chanced everything and gained everything.

As he steps down as Artistic Director of SFB, Tomasson leaves behind a company of internationally renown. His transformation of the company is truly one of the great success stories in American arts. Back in the mid-80’s, even those of us who enjoyed SFB eagerly awaited the annual visits by American Ballet Theater or whatever Russian company was touring so we that we could get a fix of some “real” ballet. While we loved cheering on our home team, they just didn’t dance with the sophisticated technique of the higher-profile ballet companies. Within a few years of Tomasson’s tenure at SFB, it was clear that this was no longer the case. He had an uncanny knack for attracting promising young dancers from around the world and then developing their individual talents to help them become the supremely distinctive dancers they were meant to be.

On Sunday, April 24th, SFB hosted a gala, “Helgi Tomasson: A Celebration” to honor Tomasson for his astonishingly successful tenure at the helm. It was an evening of gratitude, congratulations, more than a few tears and above all spectacular, spectacular dancing. The program consisted entirely of works choreographed by Tomasson, but the focus throughout was squarely on the remarkable SFB dancers, and I presume this is as Tomasson would have it. While his choreography may indeed live on, his dancers and the immense pleasure they have given audiences around the world are his true legacy.

Frances Chung and Wei Wang in Helgi Tomasson’s “Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers”
(photo by Erik Tomasson)

The performances kicked off with Wei Wang moving in spotlight on a darkened stage to some glorious Handel music in “Chaconne for Piano and Two Dancers.” Wang is a shining example of a Tomasson discovery, one of so many we’ve been treated to over the years. The Chinese-born and trained dancer was visiting family in Northern California a dozen or so years ago when he auditioned for SFB on a whim and immediately accepted into the school. Wang soon became an apprentice and worked his way up through the company’s ranks to become one of its best all-around dancers. Wang danced the opening solo of “Chaconne” with such clean, unfussy technique and sensitive musicality that it took my breath away. Then the ever-sensational Frances Chung (another Tomasson protégée who rose through the ranks at SFB) took over and possibly raised the bar even higher. As the two danced together in the final section, perfectly matching each other beat for beat and seeming to float across the stage as they responded spontaneously to the music, the effect was heart-stopping. In a nutshell, this is exactly the kind of refined artistry and deep connection to music that Tomasson has brought to SFB for almost four decades.

Lonnie Weeks in Helgi Tomasson’s “Concerto Grosso”
(photo by Erik Tomasson)

And from there, the dancing continued at a spectacularly high level. One moment, we had Lonnie Weeks and Mingxuan Wang amazing us with their impeccable line, superior extension and perfect air positions in “Concerto Grosso.” The next, we had a beguilingly rakish Isabella Devivo and Esteban Hernandez romping through the astringently percussive “Two Bits.” And Sasha De Sola and Joseph Walsh saucily tearing through excerpts from “Blue Rose.” Then it was on to Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimets breaking our hearts with the sheer beauty of their tender, melancholic pas de deux from “The Fifth Season.” Throughout the evening, every dancer onstage seemed to be performing at the peak of their powers, perhaps not wanting to be the one who might let the proceedings down.

Tiit Helimets and Yuan Yuan Tan in Helgi Tomasson’s “The Fifth Season”
(photo by Erik Tomasson)

When the dancing was finished, Tomasson was escorted center stage by his senior ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan and then gradually surrounded by the entire company, plus many former SFB dancers who in no small part owe their remarkable careers to him. It was incredibly moving to see the amazing current SFB roster sharing the stage with much-missed stars from the past such as Tina LeBlanc, Gonzalo Garcia, Damian Smith, Joanna Berman and Gennadi Nedvigin. But perhaps the most heartfelt moment came earlier in the evening at the top of the show. Ashley Wheater, an especially gallant former SFB principal dancer who then apprenticed under Tomasson when his dancing career was over and eventually became Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet, broke down in the middle of his spoken tribute to Tomasson and struggled to regain his composure. Those of us in the audience could easily empathize with Wheater’s feeling of emotional overwhelm. After all, how do you adequately thank a person who has had such a profound impact on the trajectory of your life? How can you possibly put that into words? For me as a relative ballet neophyte who has who has come to cherish the artform so dearly, I would just like to say, “Bravo, Mr. Tomasson!” Because of what you brought to SFB, so many of our lives have been made all the richer these past 37 years.

San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson
(photo by Erik Tomasson)

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Note: GJEL Accident Attorneys regularly sponsors coverage on Streetsblog San Francisco and Streetsblog California. Unless noted in the story, GJEL Accident Attorneys is not consulted for the content or editorial direction of the sponsored content.

Kyle Grochmal, advocate and Streetsblog contributor, lives in the Mission and travels regularly to Alameda by bike and AC Transit bus, which he catches from the Salesforce Transit Center. His late evening bike rides home from the Center should be relatively stress-free, thanks to the protected bike lane on Howard. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, at least on the 500 block of Howard, as he explained on Twitter:

.@templenightclub opened a parklet then turned a protected lane into priority parking for a nightclub. This is insanity. It endangers our vulnerable street users – such a service worker in front of me – and encourages drunk driving. Fix this @sfmta_muni @SF311. cc @MattHaneySF pic.twitter.com/zNaIMNthZg

— Kyle Grochmal (@KCGrock) April 2, 2022

The bike lane has to wrap around the parklet and is unprotected on this block, except for some plastic safe-hit posts. However, as noted in the tweet, it’s often blocked by scofflaw parkers. The worst problems are “Friday and Saturday, biking back on Howard,” he told Streetsblog. “A number of times there are cars in the bike lane. It happens regularly.”

“The safe-hit posts are spaced so far apart that it’s quite easy to pull cars into it,” he said.

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” wrote Pearce Cleaveland, marketing director for Temple, in an email to Streetsblog. He stressed that he agrees it’s not safe for people to park there. “We’ve immediately addressed this with all of our employees, both daytime and nighttime (who are expressly told not to park there), as well as any vendors visiting our building regularly.”

Irene Hernandez, who was working at the Mirus Gallery in the same building as the Temple on Tuesday afternoon, said “no employee parks here. We all take BART or pay for parking.” That conforms to Grochmal’s observations. And the lane was empty when Streetsblog observed it in the afternoon, when only employees are present at the venues.

The lane on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick

Meanwhile, on the Temple Night Club web site there are no instructions from the club and bar about how to take transit to the Salesforce Transit Center-adjacent venue.

A shot of alcoholic beverages from the club’s website.

However, the website does encourage people to park on Howard.

Streetsblog reached out to Supervisor Matt Haney’s office. An official with his office said the Supervisor is aware of the issue and is consulting with SFMTA. Streetsblog also contacted SFMTA by email for more information and will update this post.

“We will also be reaching out to SFMTA and our local law enforcement reps, who we work closely with, to ask for some additional enforcement,” wrote Cleaveland. “Additionally, we are having some notices printed for our security to place on any vehicles who we DO discover might be blocking these lanes.”

In Streetsblog’s view, this is yet again a testament to the failure of SFMTA’s default quick-treatment demarcation of bike lanes, the plastic safe-hit post. The whole point of parking-protected bike lanes is the row of parked cars is supposed to keep cyclists physically safe from collision with moving automobiles. But if a parklet or anything else forces the bike lane to be right next to moving traffic, then there needs to be something that can actually stop a scofflaw motorist from parking on it. It also should be robust enough to directly and physically stop an errant motorist from running down a cyclist–that means SFMTA needs to install a Jersey Barrier or a similar barrier.

Grochmal was also frustrated by the lack of parking enforcement by SFMTA and the police. “It’s ridiculous that we don’t get enforcement at night,” he said. The Twitter thread is also pretty damning of SF 311, which had this to say:

So Grochmal tags 311 with photos of the violations and all the necessary details they need to tow the cars, but they tell him to call?

Meanwhile, Grochmal is especially concerned about essential workers who are forced to bike and scoot way out into traffic thanks to the combination of the parklet and the cars blocking a truly sub-par section of bike lane. “It’s these late-night service workers who have to scoot or bike and don’t have other options. Transit is reduced at night. And it’s during a time when they are most likely to encounter drunk drivers,” he said.

“Trust that we find this very concerning as well, and will continue to address with vendors, guests (where applicable) and employees,” wrote Cleaveland. “Safety of our employees, guests and whole community is of the utmost importance to Temple.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — After a three-night “sleep-in” inside San Francisco Unified School District offices, teachers demanding pay from the district said they reached an agreement with the district late Thursday.

On Monday, more than a dozen SFUSD educators began the sleep-in, calling for the district to pay more than 1,000 teachers and other staff members who have gone unpaid or only received partial paychecks since January.

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The educators have said because of the payment issue, they’ve been unable to pay rent, mortgages, medical bills, and other necessities.

District officials have said that while the majority of its more than 10,000 employees have been paid correctly, a portion of educators went unpaid due to a technical error attributed to the district switching to a new payroll system, replacing an older system that had been in place for the last 17 years.

Under the agreement, the district will pay all educators owed money, as well as interest for the late payments.

Additionally, the district has promised to address any payroll errors moving forward within 72 hours. Also, the district will reimburse the affected educators for any late fees and penalties incurred.

“This occupation was the result of months and months of trying to negotiate with the district and trying to ask that folks get paid what they’re due,” said teacher and United Educators of San Francisco member Frank Lara said during a Thursday evening rally outside the district offices.

“It’s been exhausting for all of us,” he said.

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“I cannot thank enough the families and the community partners who’ve come out and offered us their food, their support,” UESF president Cassondra Curiel said. “Your help and support got management to make moves and we know we’re on the same page. Now there will be less stress and people will be paid for the jobs that they’re doing.”

“We remain committed to ensuring every staff member receives all of the pay they are owed,” SFUSD Superintendent Vincent Matthews said in a statement. “I want to again extend my deepest apologies to every employee who has been impacted in any way as a result of our transition to a new payroll system.”

According to the district, the new agreement also ensures that all employees will be able to input COVID-19 sick leave, including any sick leave that COVID-19-related that has already been taken. Additionally, the district is also offering 10 additional COVID-19 sick days of leave for employees.

UESF officials are expected to hold a rally to celebrate the agreement on Friday at 5 pm at the SFUSD parking lot, located at 555 Franklin St.

The payment issues come as the district is dealing with other financial woes — a $125 projected budget shortfall — and considering laying off hundreds of teachers and other staff to balance the budget.

Also, on Friday, district officials announced enrollment preparations for the upcoming school year. So far, 14,127 families have submitted enrollment applications, slightly up from last school year when 13,917 families submitted applications.

MORE NEWS: San Francisco Teen Suspect Arrested for Multiple Brazen Armed Robberies

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San Francisco Unified School District update

San Francisco educators are spending a third night at district headquarters, demanding that the district pay them.

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco educators are spending a third night at district headquarters, demanding that the district pay them what they are owed.

Hundreds of teachers and other staff members have gone unpaid or only received partial paychecks since January.

The United Educators of San Francisco for months there have been ongoing issues with pay and benefits.

“January and February payroll cycles left hundreds of educators scrambling to cover rent, bills, and overdraft fees after they noticed that whole or partial checks went unpaid by SFUSD,” the labor union said.

Since Monday, several San Francisco Unified School District educators have been sleeping inside the district’s offices, and they are committed to staying as long as they have to.

Leslie Hu, a community schools coordinator at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, has spent the last two nights on the floor in her sleeping bag.

San Francisco teachers occupy district headquarters, demand their paychecks

San Francisco educators are occupying the third floor of the school district’s headquarters for the second day in a row. They are demanding their paychecks after a technical glitch with a new payroll system has held up their earnings since January.

“We shouldn’t have to be here. We should be at home with our families in our own beds, but we will continue to stay if that is what it takes to ensure that educators can pay their rent and bills on time,” Hu said. We have made it clear that we would pack up our bags and go home right now if we could get a guaranteed timeline that any future payroll issues will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time moving forward.”

SFUSD officials have admitted that hundreds of teachers and other staff members have not gotten paid since January but attributed the error to a recent change by the district to a new payroll system. Previously, the district had used the same system for the last 17 years.

Superintendent Vincent Matthews said in a statement on Monday the district is working diligently on correcting the issue, including adding at least ten more staff members to its payroll department to help investigate and solve the issue.

“In spite of a lot of preparation, there are serious payroll related issues that have arisen since transitioning to a new employee information system. This is inexcusable and should not have happened,” he said. “It is SFUSD’s responsibility to pay its employees accurately and on time. We deeply apologize to every employee who has experienced a delay in payment. I have asked our chief technology officer to move to this project 100 percent until further notice. We are committed to resolving this emergency as quickly as possible. Every staff member will be paid the money they are owed.”

The payment issues come as the district and the San Francisco Board of Education are mulling laying off hundreds of teachers and other staff to balance the budget for the upcoming school year as the district faces a $125 projected budget shortfall.

SFUSD officials said the while hundreds of staff members have been affected, the majority of the district’s more than 10,000 employees have been paid correctly.

UESF officials have said they plan to file a lawsuit if the payment issue isn’t remedied.

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At about 6:40 pm on a recent cold February evening, about 20 or so workers, bundled in hoodies under black and neon vests, and I gathered at the Urban Alchemy offices on Market Street. After pizza and refreshments, we shuffled into a meeting room to get our assignment for the night: part of the effort to count San Francisco’s homeless population.

I rode along for the Point-in-Time Count, a biannual survey that provides a snapshot of The City’s homeless population. The results are crucial because, though widely considered an undercount, they directly translate to federal funding for homelessness services.

This year’s point-in-time count is especially important, experts and advocates say, because the number of people experiencing homelessness is believed to have increased during pandemic-related lockdowns, layoffs and illness.

“I want this to be the most accurate count The City has ever done. We want to make it so these people can get help,” said one worker with Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that contracts with The City on a number of services ranging from overseeing safe sleeping sites for homeless residents to street outreach. Staff from Urban Alchemy, who hires people who have experienced homelessness or incarceration, received a grant for participating in the extra shift.

In the Urban Alchemy offices, our group was briefed on what to look for and how to record findings in a digital app.

Around 7:45 pm, recorders took off on foot and by bus and car. With maps and apps in hand, my team piled into a truck and headed to our assigned destination, Bayview-Hunter’s Point.

Brian Van Der Court, who works at Urban Alchemy, was driving while Kevin Lee, an Urban Alchemy director who works at the safe sleeping village at 33 Gough St., oriented the map and recorded our team’s findings in the app.

At 8:03 pm we arrived at the edge of our designated zone — one of 160 assigned spaces covering the entire city that nearly 200 individuals would scour over the night, street by street.

The neighborhood we were assigned is vast and the night was particularly chilly in the low 40s. Fortunately, most of our counting took place in the car. Unlike in dense neighborhoods such as the Tenderloin, homelessness is more sprawling and in some ways less visible in The City’s southeast corner.

In the Bayview, we were told to look for signs of life attached to cars, motorhomes, or the occasional tent-dwelling tucked between abandoned cars or dimly lit warehouses.

The Point-in-Time Count relies on estimations. It’s an imperfect process that almost certainly overlooks some individuals. We were not going to find people who were sleeping on friends’ couches or other unknown shared spaces to get through the cold snap, for example.

We kept our distance and avoided conversation to respect each person’s privacy as the evening got late. But that also meant our guesses — based on the physical appearances of people, tents or vehicles — were prone to error.

Still, it’s the best estimate anyone has of the scale of the largest issue facing The City.

Necessary numbers

The most recent tally in San Francisco occurred in 2019 when there was a recorded 8,035 people experiencing homelessness — the highest number since 2013. That figure led to $44.5 million in federal funding for San Francisco’s homeless services in 2019, the second-highest allocation in California behind Los Angeles.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development requires cities to count their homeless populations every two years to qualify for federal aid. But this year’s count came a year late. The 2021 count was canceled due to COVID-19, and it was further delayed from its original date in January to Feb. 23 to wait out the surging omicron variant.

In previous years, the Point-in-Time Count relied on up to 600 volunteers from across The City to spend one night canvassing every street in The City and gather information on people who live on the street or in a motor vehicle.

The count includes people living in transitional and temporary housing as well as shelters, such as the emergency cold weather shelter that opened at Gene Friend SoMa Rec Center for a recent cold night. It also aims to take the tally of those taking respite on public transit.

This year, San Francisco took a different approach by working with fewer individual volunteers and relying more on community-based organizations that work with The City, such as Urban Alchemy. Other organizations involved included Downtown Streets Team, Code Tenderloin, SF Homeless Outreach Team, Five Keys, Bay Area Legal Aid and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Part of the idea was to cut down on the number of people involved to be mindful of COVID-19, according to a spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. It also was intended to send groups familiar with local homeless communities into neighborhoods they already know.

How the strategy shift, and a significantly smaller number of volunteers, will impact the count will be hard to tell. Results are slated to be made available this summer after the data are processed and after follow-up interviews take place.

About a month after the single-night count, a survey contractor will do a follow-up assessment asking people who are homeless for more detailed information about their situations.

The 2019 survey found 37% of respondents were chronically homeless, 19% were veterans and 18% were unaccompanied youth. Nearly a third identify as LGBTQ+ and almost half are between ages 41 to 60, signaling an aging homeless population in San Francisco.

According to the 2019 Point-in-Time Count, about 70% of people counted became homeless in San Francisco.

Countless challenges

Back in the Bayview, Lee strategized as we pulled up to India Basin. “We’re going to start with the outskirts,” he said.

Lee knows the area well. He and Van der Court previously worked the overnight shift at a port-o-potty station set up by The City for homeless people in the area.

“Slow down, what that a tent?” our navigator chimed in as we drove down Cargo Way near Islais Creek.

“I think it’s trash,” Van der Court answered. We took a U-turn for a closer look. I rolled down my window and smelled the cement factory that towered above us.

A bike leaning on the tarp structure signaled it could be someone’s home. It was unclear how many people might be inside, and we were told not to disturb anyone living on the street. Lee marked one dwelling in the app.

We kept driving up and down every street, cul-de-sac and backroad lining empty warehouses and new housing developments.

In scanning sidewalks, we looked for signs of habitation such as music playing near tents, power cords or foggy windows on cars. We counted all of the motorhomes, even if we didn’t know who or how many people were inside.

Van der Court, who lives in the Bayview, has seen the area change and conditions ebb and flow.

“I grew up here all my life,” he said. “It’s cleaned up a lot more, but it’s still dangerous out here.”

Lee provided his own expertise.

“I never see anyone who is homeless in this area,” he said as we drove through one of the newest housing developments in the area. He went on to share stories about the graveyard shift at the bathroom station.

“It’s hard out here man. Just to see it every day is hard,” said Lee, who regularly has to de-escalate fights and fits of outrage on the job. “You’re not only a practitioner, you’re a doctor and a therapist.”

Lee still manages to carry hope and patience with him. “If you listen to someone long enough, their anger will go down from a 10, to a 9, 8, 7 and so on,” he said. “They might even thank you later on in the day.”

Near the end of the night, we slowed down as we approached a line of motor homes on Palou Avenue. We counted five RVs, plus a car without plates and with covered windows. As we continued driving, we spotted a dark shrubby area where the road ends.

“Do you think anyone’s back there?” I asked.

Van der Court pointed the car headlights toward the darkness. An old basketball court, an abandoned couch and some trash came into view. But there were no clear signs that anyone was there. The group agreed to keep driving.

Later, we spotted a woman walking alone. She wasn’t wearing shoes and wandering in the street. A ‘yes,’ everyone agreed, and Lee marked a note in the app. She was one of only a few individuals we saw outside and exposed to the frigid temperature that evening.

Around 9:26 pm, we got to the end of the last street on our map and Lee eventually directed us back to Market Street, where we called it a night.

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

Mike Anders, chief system engineer for Urban Alchemy, gives out maps to people before they go out for the Point-in-Time Count. (Craig Lee/The Examiner)

Volunteers spot a tent on Carroll Avenue during the Point-in-Time Count in the Bayview District. (Craig Lee/The Examiner)

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It’s a word that has expressed what many have been longing for since around March 2020: normalcy.

And it’s being used much more often now.

While the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is more contagious than previous ones, the share of severe cases has been lower, thanks largely to vaccinations. New cases have been declining in a growing list of places. Some governors say Americans will need to learn how to live with the virus.

But what will that mean? And when will it be? Is this moment different from previous glimmers of hope?

Hear the latest from two public health researchers and physicians, Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco. Gandhi and Wachter have done extensive work communicating the risks of Covid-19 to the public, particularly on Twitter, but their stances sometimes differ: Gandhi tends to embrace a quicker return to normal while Wachter is more cautious. They’ll take your questions live.

Does a possible new state of the world mean renewed levels of social interaction, relationships and even love? Daniel Jones and Miya Lee, Modern Love editors, and Anna Martin, host of the Modern Love podcast, will join us to explore optimism through our readers’ own Tiny Love Stories: short, true tales of love, with the theme of hope and renewal . Ariana DeBose, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story,” will read a selection of her and our editors’ favorite reader submissions.

We hope you’ll join us.

The post The Morning at Night time: a Digital Occasion on Covid, Love and Shifting Ahead appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

In the immortal words of Queen, “Bike, bike, bike… I want to ride a bike!”

Those were my thoughts as I pedaled out of Golden Gate Park from Outside Lands last night, past crowds of attendees saluting hundred-dollar Ubers and the enticing smell of bacon-wrapped hot dogs sizzling on grills. No disrespect to Lizzo’s “Squid Game” costume, but remembering the slow roads on the 30-minute drive home to the Lower Haight was perhaps the happiest thing I felt all weekend.

Unfortunately, not every ride in San Francisco is as breezy as the descent back to the Lower Haight. Of all the places I’ve ridden – including New York City – San Francisco is the most challenging. Sure, it deserves awards for Most Bike-Friendly City, the iconic Wiggle route looks like a spandex fashion show at the weekend, and the city boasts stats like 1.8 million bikeshare rides in 2019. We also probably have the highest per capita ratio of electric unicycles is a whole other topic. But even the most data-driven study can’t account for the fact that some bike lanes are blocked by a vehicle every minute or how many of my elbows have been broken from wheels skidding on cobweb-covered Muni tracks (one).

So even for a lifelong urban biker, driving in San Francisco can be stressful. Before the pandemic, commuting on the SOMA bike lanes was a gauntlet of pedestrians and potholes (although it accounted for 4.2% of San Francisco commuters in 2018). On leisurely drives to North Beach to eat pizza in the midst of the pandemic, I’ve been berated by Stockton Street drivers who wouldn’t give me the seat of a pool noodle. But now that it’s safe (for me) to dive back into the city’s nightlife, I’ve been able to resume the most relaxing type of bike ride there is: the midnight ride home.

Shortly before the official launch of the “Wiggle,” the city-wide mural is behind the Safeway at Church and Market.

Blair Heagerty / SFGate

San Francisco transforms into a different city after dark. In bars and dance clubs, inhibitions melt away as people explore the possibilities that indulgence can bring. But outside the city looks really naked. Stripped of traffic and pedestrians, the sepia-toned streetlight mutes the Painted Ladies, turning even the brightest of San Francisco streets into a dark noir set. And when you ride a bike, everything is yours.

Sure, I’m a curmudgeon who doesn’t want to pay for Ubers, and I’m happy to put in an extra half hour of cardio, but this sense of ownership is the real reason I love biking home at night. Walking down quiet neighborhood streets makes you feel like you’re the only person left awake in San Francisco. Instead of riding centimeters from a curb through littered bike paths, I swing out in wide arcs like a downhill skier. It’s not a time to be carefree, but it’s the most carefree you’ll feel on two wheels (as long as you remember your light, which you should definitely remove when parking).

For those who associate cycling with exercise and see exercise as something they definitely don’t want to do after a long night out, this all might seem a little counterintuitive. I’m not a particularly fit cyclist and my bike doesn’t cost as much as a used Prius (more like a 1995 Volvo with a dead engine). You won’t see me driving up the hills in Marin on Saturday morning. But once you get used to urban cycling, a 20-minute ride home is like a refreshing after-dinner drink. The slow drip of endorphins reactivates your body and warms your soul (a nice pair of gloves is recommended).

The main purpose of a night drive is to reflect on the city and your place in it. For all of San Francisco’s image problems, it’s objectively one of the most beautiful places in the world. That often gets lost when you consider how competitive it is to thrive here and how easily the city’s pace can make someone feel insignificant, like their personal history is the least interesting thing in the room. But at the end of a night of drinking while pedaling through empty city blocks, your story is the only one in sight.

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