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PREVIOUS OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

· Air Products and Chemicals Inc.’s chosen warehouse developer, Prologis Inc., will have to wait until July 13 for a final decision by Upper Macungie Township’s zoning hearing board on 2.61 million square feet of warehouses. 

· Chubby’s of Southside Easton has added Krispy Krunchy Chicken to its offerings and name.

· Curaleaf Holdings Inc., which operates in the U.S. and Europe, will open a medical-marijuana dispensary at 1801 Airport Road, Hanover Township.

· Habitat for Humanity, which has “ReStores” that sell new and lightly used furniture, has leased 30,000 square feet at the South Mall.

· Nat Hyman’s bid to convert an old warehouse at 938 Washington St. in Allentown into 48 apartments did not win zoning hearing board approval this week after neighbors said more housing would make an on-street parking shortage worse.

· Members 1st Federal Credit Union opened a new branch this week at 5605 Hamilton Blvd, Trexlertown. It’s one of five planned for the Lehigh Valley. 

· A Turkish restaurant has relocated from one downtown to another, taking its fresh ingredients and cozy atmosphere from Nazareth to 200 Main St., Tatamy.

· The Tennessee Titans have chosen Allentown-based Shift4 Payments to handle payments at Nissan Stadium.

· Wells Fargo Bank held ribbon-cutting at its downtown Allentown branch at 740 Hamilton St.

· The Wiz Kidz outlet at the Madison Farms residential/retail development in Bethlehem Township will hold a grand reopening and ribbon-cutting at noon on July 15.

· Bad Biscuit Company, which offered breakfast with scratch-made biscuits, freshly baked pastry and local, small-batch artisan coffee, said it will cease operations at 16 Columbia Ave. in Reading after its July 1 hours.

· FastBridge Fiber has announced it will build an all-fiber cable network that will offer ultra-fast internet in the Reading area.

· Hamid Chaudhry has said he no longer plans to move forward with pursuing a food truck park he previously proposed on the site of the former Sheetz convenience store and gas station in Exeter Township at 6600 Perkiomen Ave. (Route 422 East). 

· The Maxatawny Township Planning Commission has OK’d a proposal for a Mavis Discount Tire store in the Kutztown Road shopping center that features a Giant supermarket.

· Valentino’s Italian restaurant has gotten Maxatawny Township’s approval to remain open when the state transportation department takes one-third of its parking lot to build a traffic roundabout at the intersection of Route 222 and Long Lane.

· Pocono Mountain Harley-Davidson, under new ownership, will hold a “Grand Re-Opening Bash” July 9 and July 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

· Sauce West End plans to open in a former Rita’s Italian Ice, just off Route 209 across from the Tractor Supply store in Brodheadsville.

· The Surgery Center of Pottsville, which offered medical procedure services for 16 years in Cressona Mall. will close June 28.

· Wells Fargo has closed its branch office in Langhorne, near the intersection with Maple Avenue.

· The latest PrimoHoagies location in New Jersey held a grand opening at 1930 State Route 57, Hackettstown.

· A new Tractor Supply Co. store in Warren County will have its grand opening in the former Toys ‘R’ Us store in Pohatcong Plaza on July 9.

· Hunter Pocono Peterbilt plans to move Pocono Township operations to Stroudsburg.

· Coal Winery and Kitchen at 81 Broad St., Bethlehem, has closed as its owner searches for a new location for the business, according to its Facebook page. 

· Lowhill Township supervisors approved a 312,120-square-foot commercial warehouse and distribution center on a 43.4-acre tract on the west side of Route 100, south of the Kernsville Road intersection.

· The Mint Gastropub at 1223 W. Broad St., Bethlehem, announced that it has temporarily closed to undergo a merger with a “well-known restaurant group” from Bethlehem.

· The Slatington Farmers Market opened its 28,000-square-foot showroom, which includes space for 53 vendors, as well as a 4,000-square-foot event space.

· St. Luke’s University Health Network opened a new pediatric inpatient unit next to the eight-bed pediatric intensive care unit at St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem.

· 25th Asian House opened at the location of the former Tin Tin Chinese restaurant in the 25th Street Shopping Center in Palmer Township.

· The Chick-Fil-A in Broadcasting Square shopping center in Spring Township was razed to make way for a new, expanded facility for the popular chicken sandwich restaurant.

· Plans for drive-thru locations of a Chipotle and a Starbucks at the intersection of Ivy League Drive and Kutztown Road were rejected by Maxatawny Township planners.

· Cumru Township plannes reviewed preliminary plans for NorthPoint-Morgantown Commerce Center, a 738,720-square-foot warehouse to be built on 75.2 acres at Morgantown Road (State Route 10) and Freemansville Road.

· Kutztown University has plans to expand its historic Poplar House to 13,161 square feet with an addition around its side and back, but keep the 129-year-old structure intact.

· A wine store and beverage outlet could be coming to a new two-unit building along the commercial strip of Blakeslee Boulevard Drive East in Lehighton, Carbon County.

· ChristianaCare, a Delaware health care organization, has announced it will buy the former Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, Chester County.

· Garden of Health Inc. celebrated the opening of the food bank’s new warehouse at 201 Church Road, North Wales, in Montgomery County.

· Silverline Trailers Inc. opened its first location in Pennsylvania and in the Northeast at 223 Porter Road, Pottstown, where it sells utility, cargo, dump, equipment and car hauler trailers. 

· A new smoothie and bowl restaurant, Sips & Berries, opened at 285 Maple Ave., Harleysville, in Montgomery County.

· Terrain on the Parkway offers 160 new 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments at 1625 Lehigh Parkway East in Allentown. 

· Lehigh Valley native Don Wenner is moving his real estate investment and finance firm DLP Capital from Bethlehem to Allentown at 835 W. Hamilton St.

· While Wells Fargo has been the leader in closing banks lately, it will hold a ribbon-cutting for its new downtown Allentown office at 740 Hamilton St. on June 30.

· If you’re in the market for sterling silver jewelry, minerals and semi-precious gemstones, C& I Minerals is now operating at the South Mall at 3300 Lehigh St. in Allentown.

· The Allentown-based utility company PPL Corp. bought a major Rhode Island utility.

· Ownership at Martellucci’s Pizzeria in Bethlehem has changed, but Paul and Donna Hlavinka and their family are running the pizza place at 1419 Easton Ave., just as it has been operated for 49 years. 

· Dr. Jacob Kasprenski’s new Kasprenski Family Eye Care opened at 1088 Howertown Road, Catasauqua.

· Josie’s New York Deli in downtown Easton closed early in the COVID-19 pandemic, but a June 13 Historic District Commission meeting approved a request for a new sign at its building at 14 Centre Square. 

· Zekraft cafe has opened its second location in the Easton Silk Mill in Easton. The first Zekraft restaurant was opened in Bethlehem. The restaurants’ menus change frequently, with a focus on local ingredients. 

· Manta Massage at 319 Main St., Emmaus, will hold its grand opening on July 10 starting at 11 a.m. 

· The former Iron Lakes Country Club, constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, will operate at 3625 Shankweiler Road in North Whitehall Township under its new name, The Club at Twin Lakes. 

· Prologis, a titan in the logistics industry, will own and operate three warehouses proposed in Upper Macungie Township at the former Air Products headquarters campus at 7201 Hamilton Blvd. 

· Lehigh Valley Health Network ceremonially opened its first Carbon County hospital — a $78 million, 100,578-square-foot facility at 2128 Blakeslee Boulevard Drive East in Mahoning Township.

· Pocono Township commissioners voted to accept Swiftwater Solar’s preliminary final plan for the $111 million, 80-megawatt field on a private 644-acre site on top of Bear Mountain that would include about 200,000 solar panels.

· Firetree Ltd. wants to expand its in-patient rehab operation at the former Sands Ford auto dealership at 440 N Claude A Lord Blvd. (Route 61), Pottsville.

· A Dunkin’ in Schuylkill County located at 400 Terry Rich Blvd., St. Clair, has become just the fourth location of the donut and coffee chain to go entirely digital. 

· The Conservatory music school in Bucks County will close after 34 years, and school officials say the COVID-19 pandemic is the cause. The nonprofit, located at 4059 Skyron Drive, Doylestown, will close June 30.

· A Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Arby’s will be built on the site of the former Ahart’s Market on Route 22 in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

· Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce offices and the Unity Bank Center for Business & Entrepreneurship will be located at 119 Main St., Flemington. 

· Honeygrow opens Quakertown location, next to Chipotle on Route 309, on June 3.

· Dunkin’ reopens remodeled restaurant at 1174 MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township

· Muse Modern Med Spa at 325 Fifth St. in Whitehall Township  will hold a grand opening June 4.

· Around Again, a consignment store, opened at 154 S. Main St., Phillipsburg

· Steak and Steel Hibachi, a restaurant in the works at 44 W. Walnut St., Bethlehem, still plans on opening late this summer. 

· Take It Outdoors Recreation Hub has moved to a spot along the Schuylkill River Trail at Riverfront Park in Pottstown, Montgomery County

· Pedego Electric Bikes has a new outlet in Lambertville, N.J. at 13 N. Union St.

· Amanda Vachris has opened a new Keller Williams Real Estate office at 15 St. John St. in Schuylkill Haven.

· Easton’s new West Ward Market will open Wednesday and be open on Wednesday’s through the summer from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The market, created by the Greater Easton Development Partnership, will sell fresh produce on 12th Street, next to Paxinosa Elementary School.

· Ciao Sandwich Shoppe is adding a second location, this time on College Hill in Easton. Ciao plans to open at 325 Cattell St. in late summer. Ciao already operates in downtown Easton at 12 N. Third St

· Ma’s Crepes and Cakes will hold a grand opening and ribbon-cutting June 16 at 46 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe. The celebration starts at 5 p.m., with the ribbon cutting at 5:45 p.m. 

· Bethlehem’s Back Door Bakeshop will reopen as a wholesale operation at 7 E. Church St. in the city’s historic district. The business was open for nine years as a retail outlet at Broad and Center streets, before announcing in March that it would close the storefront April 3 and “go back to its origins as a wholesale business.”

·The Beef Baron on Catasauqua Road in Bethlehem is closed indefinitely for renovations

· The Brothers That Just Do Gutters are opening a new location in Allentown at 1302 N. 18th St.

· St. John Chrysostom Academy, an Orthodox school serving grades 1-9 starting this fall, held a grand opening at its St. Francis Center, Bethlehem, campus.

· Easton Commons, a shopping center anchored by Giant Foods at 2920 Easton Ave., Bethlehem Township, has a new name: The Shops at Bethlehem.

· Carbon County is getting a taste of Brazil at Uai Brasil BBQ at 315 Lehigh Ave. in Palmerton.

· The Keystone Pub in Bethlehem Township, at 3259 Easton Avenue, has reopened after a lengthy and expensive renovation. 

· The Trading Post Depot opened at 401 Northampton St., Easton. The rustic furniture store makes custom tables for dining rooms, desktops, conference centers and more.

· The Easton area has a new gym: Homemade Fitness at 444 Cedarville Road in Williams Township.

· Il Gaetano Ristorante opened at its 665 Columbus Ave., Phillipsburg, location. 

· Ciao! Sandwich Shoppe to open second location on College Hill in Easton, replacing The Kettle Room

· Rene and Grisellies Benique have opened Ezekiel 47 Cafe at 10 S. Fifth Ave., off Fifth and Penn avenues, in West Reading. 

· Alter Ego Salon and Day Spa in Emmaus is holding a grand opening Sunday, May 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at noon. 

· Origen Latin Fusion has opened at the site of the former Tomcat Cafe in Sinking Spring, Berks County. 

· Sellersville Senior Residences will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 24. The Bucks County affordable-housing community for adults 55 and older has 50 apartments, with eight allocated for people with behavioral health needs.

· The House and Barn in Emmaus has opened its Shed outdoor dining and cigar bar area. The House and Barn is at 1449 Chestnut St. in Emmaus.

· Realtor Amanda Vachris and the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon cutting at Vachris’s new Keller Williams Real Estate office at 15 St. John St., Schuylkill Haven, at 4 p.m. on May 24.

· Il Gaetano Ristorante will hold a grand opening on Friday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m. The 665 Columbus Ave., Phillipsburg.

· First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union will hold a grand opening at its new headquarters in Trexlertown, 6126 Hamilton Blvd., on May 18.

· Vinyl Press Signs & Graphics has relocated within Emmaus. The new site is 15 S. Second St., not far from the former Sixth Street location.

· Pedro’s Cafe in Emmaus to close

· SV Sports (formerly Schuylkill Valley Sports) to close Quakertown location

· Flemington DIY will host a Grand Re-Opening on May 14 at 26 Stangl Road, Flemington. The celebration will kick off at 10 a.m. 

· Elpedio’s Ristorante at Seipsville opened at 2912 Old Nazareth Road in Easton. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday.

· Uai Brazil opened at 315 Lehigh Ave, Palmerton, offering both a seated or buffet option. 

· Colombian Mex Restaurant opened at 107 E Union Blvd in Bethlehem, offering traditional Colombian cuisine. 

· Precision Ink opened at 161 W Berwick St. in Easton. 

· King Wing opened a location in Bethlehem at 129 E. Third St., serving wings and sandwiches.  

The post San Francisco property homeowners banned from parking automotive on it | Enterprise Information appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Belvedere Island, Marin County, $60mn

Where On the southern tip of Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco airport is a 45-minute drive via the Golden Gate Bridge, in clear traffic.

What A dramatically positioned three-bedroom home spread across four floors with a detached one-bedroom guest house. The building follows the contours of the site, with a large deck looking over the bay. There is a two-storey entertainment room, a wet bar and an outdoor pool.

why Uninterrupted views of Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco’s skyline.

Who Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty

Woodside, San Mateo County, $84mn

Where In the small town of Woodside. Central San Francisco and the city’s international airport are a half-hour drive away.

What A recently completed compound consisting of a villa-style main house, an office building, a guest house and a spa. Further amenities include a separate catering kitchen, 6,000-bottle wine room, golf-simulator lounge, 65ft pool and a 14.4 Atmos Dolby screening lounge.

why The property is within a 15-minute drive of the tech hubs Palo Alto and Menlo Park while also having easy access to nature. Plenty of hiking, mountain biking and horseriding trails are nearby, with the redwood trees and open meadows of Wunderlich County Park a five-minute drive away.

Who compass

Rincon Hill, San Francisco, $15mn

Where In north-eastern San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood, which lies on one of the city’s “seven hills”. The airport is 20 minutes away by car.

What An eight-bedroom house built in 2020, split into a main and guest residence. The property has marble kitchens and bathrooms, a temperature-controlled wine room, a media/fitness studio and a lift.

why A roof terrace offers views of the city skyline and has a built-in gas firepit.

Who Vanguard Properties

Mission Dolores, San Francisco, $5,995m

Where In the Mission Dolores district of central San Francisco, a 20-minute drive north of the city’s airport.

What A four-bedroom condominium on three floors, in a building that has been converted into a loft style with exposed brick walls, polished concrete and hardwood floors, and ceilings of up to 30ft. There is a shared garden.

why The property is in a domed church originally built in 1915, and across the street from the green space of Mission Dolores Park.

Who compass

Mill Valley, Marin County, $3,495mn

Where About 15 miles north of San Francisco — a 35-minute drive via the Golden Gate Bridge. Berkeley and its university are about 40 minutes’ drive via the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

What A three-bedroom main house and one-bedroom cottage on 3 acres. Both buildings have decks looking on to surrounding forests.

why The secluded property lies just east of Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Muir Woods National Monument, and is surrounded by hiking trails.

Who Sotheby’s International Realty

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The post Sizzling property: 5 houses on the market within the San Francisco Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Monday night though, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was on the offensive. He was the feature speaker at a town hall meeting at Manny’s in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Boudin addressed a crowd of nearly 200 San Franciscans as his recall election on June 7 is now less than three months away.

“I’m proud of the fact that in my two years in office we’ve increased our charging rate for sexual assault, we’ve increased our conviction rate for homicide cases, and we filed more than 10,000 new criminal cases,” said Boudin .

VIDEO: Bay Area DA’s meet with crime survivors to find solutions, better ways to support victims

The crowd inside at Manny’s was there to ask Boudin questions, but a pro-recall crowd of two dozen people were outside, making it known they aren’t happy with the district attorney. In fact we even saw drama between someone appearing to be a Boudin supporter, and another person in favor of the recall.

“This DA, his policies have failed!” said a recall supporter.

“How do you know if his policies have failed? If he hasn’t had a chance to do that and the police have been sabotaging him!” said a Boudin supporter.

“I haven’t really had a chance to govern properly. I’m not making excuses, I’m just stating facts here but I took office in January 2020, less than two months later I was told by the Department of Public Health that I and my staff couldn’t go into our office,” said Boudin.

RELATED: Anger among San Francisco’s Asian American voters may influence DA Boudin recall, report says

But over the course of the last two year’s San Franciscans have seen vehicle theft property crimes continue to plague the city and thefts continue to hurt businesses.

Boudin though refusing to answer our questions about that as he left Monday’s town hall.

“I’m really late for another event. Happy to talk about it, really late for another event,” said the district attorney as he walked away from our camera.

Homelessness was a main focus at the town hall along with diversion programs instead of incarceration in certain cases. Boudin making reference to a successful program in Eugene, Oregon where social workers respond to calls instead of police.

“I think if we’re serious about reducing violence, reducing the police clearance rate, about building public safety, then we’ve got to invest in programs like that one,” said Boudin.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin defends his insurance policies as metropolis makes nationwide headlines with highest property crime price appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Peter Holewinski, former owner of a home care business, opened the doors to a North Bay location for City Wide Facility Solutions, a national franchise for commercial and public building janitorial and maintenance services.

The local operation is based out of 1400 N. Dutton Ave., Suite 9, in Santa Rosa.

Holewinski began his career in multi-national banking and corporate finance, where he managed business organizations and teams in the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe and the United Kingdom, according to Kansas-based City Wide.

“By working with teams in diverse cultures, I learned a lot about patience and how to solve problems,” Holewinski said in the announcement. “That experience helped shaped my skills in client management and support which will prove to be very fruitful as I continue to build the City Wide brand here in the Northern Bay area.”

Correction, April 18, 2022: City Wide Facility Solutions maintains and cleans commercial and public facilities, not homes.

The post Business, public property upkeep enterprise expands to San Francisco North Bay appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Supervisor Dean Preston announced the initiative at a press conference Tuesday morning. It would need about 9,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The goal is to incentivize property investors who leave homes vacant until the market is in their favor to list or rent the property.

“These are folks who are buying and selling housing in San Francisco as if they’re buying and selling stocks on the stock market. They couldn’t care less about providing homes for anyone, and we are going to put an end to it with the empty homes tax,” Supervisor Preston said.

He estimates the tax could bring in about $38 million dollars a year. He proposes that the money go toward preventing homelessness and affordable housing.

RELATED: SF considers taxing vacant apartments to help with housing crisis; new report shows 40K empty units

The tax rate would be based on the property’s size and how long it has been vacant. For instance, a unit smaller than 1,000 square feet would be taxed $2,500 for one year, $10,000 for three years. A home that is 20,000 or more square feet would be taxed $20,000 for its third year of sitting vacant.

Exemptions would include a property being remodeled, a natural disaster or a landlord who is in long term care or has died.

VIDEO: SF metro area remains most expensive place to live in US

“If it’s a legitimate, good faith reason that there’s some kind of vacancy, this tax is not going to tax. But if you are in the business of holding units off the market for prolonged periods of time, we’re not only going to tax you but each year of that vacancy that tax is going to go up,” Preston said.

Some critics call this proposed tax a distraction and say what city leaders really need to focus on is building more affordable housing.

“When we look at the size of our shortage and how many houses we need to build, this is a drop in the bucket. San Francisco has a history of not building enough housing and the Board Of Supervisors is trying to avoid actually fixing the problem ,” said Corey Smith, the deputy director of the Housing Action Coalition.

RELATED: Wealthy Bay Area city pushes back against new housing proposal

The Board of Supervisors recently voted down a plan to build an apartment building on the valet parking lot of a Nordstrom Department Store.

Preston’s office says it isn’t an either/or situation.

Preston says the city of Vancouver implemented a similar tax and saw vacancies decrease by 20%.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post San Francisco supervisor seeks poll initiative to tax property house owners who depart housing items vacant appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — A San Francisco affordable housing project is moving forward after a developer gave the city a piece of property in the Mission District.

The deal that resulted in the city’s acquisition of 1979 Mission Street was finalized Friday and is part of housing developer Crescent Heights’ affordable housing requirement for its 10 South Van Ness Ave. project, according to Mayor London Breed’s office.

READ MORE: Ban On Avocado Imports From Mexico Could Mean Higher Prices At Bay Area Grocery Stores

The Board of Supervisors approved the South Van Ness Avenue project, which will result in 966 market-rate units, in 2020 along with a requirement that the developer provide a property large enough to accommodate 330 affordable units, according to the mayor’s office.

Over the next year, the city will work with Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s office and other community groups through the Calle 12 Cultural District to draft a plan for the property, which is near the 16th Street BART station.

READ MORE: Protest Outside SF Federal Building On National ‘Day Without Immigrants’

“Since 2018, six new affordable housing developments have opened in the Mission, including 509 homes for families and 140 homes for seniors, with another housing development currently under construction that will provide an additional 130 homes for families.

Two other affordable housing projects are currently in the predevelopment stage,” according to the mayor’s office.

MORE NEWS: Morgan Hill Neighbors Blame Wild Pig Problems on Local Construction Project

© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Boarded up shop windows. Brazen robberies. proliferation of tent camps. To outsiders, San Francisco sounds more and more like the dystopian Detroit from the 2028 sci-fi classic RoboCop. But here’s the rub: Many San Franciscos who have survived the pandemic are wealthier than ever. Instead of fleeing the city, they’re doubling down on larger, more modern homes that fit the lifestyle of Zoom rooms.

The numbers are frightening. Home sales by volume in every price bracket increased 41 percent in 2021 from pre-pandemic days, according to Compass data. Luxury home buyers were even more voracious, snapping up 85 percent more homes that sold for between $3 million and $5 million. Sales of homes over $5 million more than doubled. Single-family homes are selling for nearly $1,100 per square foot, compared to about $900 in early 2019.

According to Compass chief market analyst Patrick Carlisle, new San Francisco residents tend to be wealthier than those leaving, and many who were already wealthy before the pandemic are now wealthier thanks to a buoyant stock market. Although average home prices have risen nearly $200,000 over the past year, the percentage of homes that find them “affordable” has remained unchanged at 19 percent.

“Who would have thought that a pandemic, that wild card out of nowhere, with all its weird implications, would result in one of the wildest markets in history?” said Carlisle.

Wealthy buyers have typically committed to staying because they either have ties to school communities or simply prefer city life to the slower pace of the suburbs, said realtor Nina Hatvany, who often handles high-end sales. They mostly earn two incomes while working at home, so they need space for two offices and a home gym. They also seek a private outdoor space where their children can play and entertain guests.

The amenities add up, especially given that “they tend to buy fully renovated homes, which are by definition more expensive,” Hatvany said.

All of this upsizing comes against a grim backdrop.

“Who would have thought that a pandemic, that wild card out of nowhere, with all its strange implications, would result in one of the wildest markets in history?”

– Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle.

An East Coast couple visiting their new grandchild in the mission had their rental car broken into twice in two days. A family in NoPa, as the North of Panhandle neighborhood is known, didn’t realize their dog had scared off a robber until they found a crowbar he’d left behind. In response, a neighbor installed a deadbolt in her garage to protect against burglaries – the first since she moved in 10 years ago.

According to SFPD data, property crimes such as burglary, theft and auto theft rose 11 percent this year to nearly 42,000 cases by mid-December. But that’s down from 54,000 in 2017, when the city had the highest per capita rate of property crime among the 20 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas, the FBI says.

Yet perceptions are everything. When stronger fortifications aren’t enough, some residents have turned to private security firms to keep an eye on their expensive homes. The city just passed a law allowing storekeepers to hire off-duty proxies in hopes of stopping retailers from citing theft as a reason for closing even more stores.

More help can’t come soon enough.

In a coordinated attack just before Thanksgiving, thieves ambushed Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana. Within minutes, they had jumped into getaway cars and driven off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in designer goods. Video images of the brazen smash-and-grab in Union Square, where many businesses have already closed during the pandemic, went viral.

Mayor London Breed, a lifelong resident who grew up in council housing, is furious.

It’s time, she told reporters at a recent press conference, to “become less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.”

Breed announced a series of measures to combat shoplifting and the sale of stolen goods, as well as a push to combat open-air drug sales and use. She even declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood hit hard by theft and drug overdoses.

The liberal city deserves its reputation for compassion, she said. Acknowledging her push for a tougher stance on crime will anger people, she added, “I don’t care.”

“We’re not a city where anything goes,” she said. “We’ve passed the point where what we’re seeing is even remotely acceptable.”

Even before the mayor’s announcement, some residents of the Tony Marina neighborhood had hired private security guards. A security guard told KPIX his neighborhood customers more than doubled from 70 to 150 during the pandemic.

“We don’t feel safe in our neighborhood,” Katie Lyons, a marina resident, told the TV station. “We have an alarm, we have cameras on our property, but we want the added security of someone keeping an eye on our apartment.”

Hatvany, the high-end realtor, says there’s some truth to the notion that quality of life issues are forcing some longtime residents to reconsider life in the city.

Vendors bemoan what they call an “epidemic of car and home burglaries, parcel theft, the visible homelessness problem and the number of people on the street who are obviously mentally ill and can be unpredictable and therefore alarming,” she said.

High-visibility crimes like the events in Union Square happen throughout the Bay Area, not just in San Francisco, she said. “But they don’t make the city look good for people who are considering moving here or who need one last excuse to go to another state,” she said.

It’s time to “become less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city”

– Mayor London Breed

Low-level crime was at the heart of the 2019 district attorney dispute, which was won by former assistant public defender Chesa Boudin, whose progressive vision included no prosecution for offenses such as public camping, public urination and begging. His main rival was longtime law enforcement officer Nancy Tung.

“Property and low-level crimes shrink the space for ordinary people and expand it for the people who commit them,” Tung told City Journal ahead of the election. “As we continue down this path, we will see more people leaving San Francisco.”

While Tung’s vision of a mass exodus has yet to materialize, Boudin faces a recall vote in June over what critics are calling his inaction in prosecuting crimes.

Meanwhile, the rich could just keep buying bigger houses.

The less affluent, who exited when they lost service jobs last year, may not be able to afford rent-controlled housing that has been reset to market prices, said Carlisle, the Compass analyst. People who have managed to cling to homes could also be displaced after evictions for non-payment are back on the table following a pandemic-related moratorium.

“Will this lead to further exodus of low-income residents from the city?” he said. “I hope not, but I fear so.”

The post San Francisco Dwelling Costs Soar Regardless of Rising Property Crime appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Energy efficiency is an important factor in making decisions about HVAC properties | 2021-10-26 | ACHR news

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SAN JOSE (KPIX) – The crews began the final cleanup on Thursday at one of the Bay Area’s most famous homeless camps in South Bay.

The warehouse is located on 55 acres of vacant land in North San Jose owned by Apple.

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Green flyers were posted informing camp residents that the site would begin closing at 7 a.m. on September 2. The flyers warned that any remaining materials would be removed. Valuables would be stored for 90 days, the rest will be transported to the landfill.

Crews worked much of the day, using bulldozers to scrape the debris into large trash cans and throw up noxious clouds of dust that reeked of human waste and raw sewage.

On August 13, Apple announced a partnership with HomeFirst and said the company would give the nonprofit “several million dollars” to clean up the website and provide shelter for the more than 60 people in the camp.

The residents were offered three types of interim accommodation: a motel room, an emergency bed or a secure parking space. Apple would cover the costs for the case for nine months and the case management for twelve months.

HomeFirst CEO Andrea Urton described Apple’s offer as “generous” and referred to recent major donations from local technology giants. Google and Facebook have donated $ 1 billion, and Apple has pledged $ 2.5 billion to build affordable housing and fund homeless initiatives.

“I don’t think American companies are doing enough. I think there are good people in America. I meet a lot of them every day. And yet I think companies could lean more to be part of the solution. And that means providing resources, financial resources, be it land, whether it’s working with developers to build affordable housing for their employees. Whatever it is, they have to be part of the solution with the city and county, ”said Urton.

She pointed out that funding from the private sector is needed as local government agencies are under budgeted.

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“The city and the district are currently doing everything they can, and have been doing so for two years. They are underserved and tired, just like all of us. So if big corporations step in and provide the resources that nonprofits need to be part of the solution, together we can actually end homelessness effectively, ”said Urton.

HomeFirst response teams had offered accommodation to Robert Carlson, who has been on site for several months. But with several large vehicles including an RV, Carlson declined the housing and chose to go solo.

“It’s part of life, isn’t it? Trials and trials, man, ”Carlson said. “Well, we were all one big family here. We were a big family. I already miss everyone. “

Deborah Kempkoble, who has also lived on the premises for several months, accepted the offer for a motel room on the Monterey Highway and said her story “may have a happy ending”.

“You will help me get teeth. Because I don’t have any, do you understand? They will help me get teeth, ”said Kempkoble. “It’s easier to find a job when you have teeth.”

The new construction of a 2.70 meter high black metal fence now surrounds part of the property, which is guarded by a sizeable contingent of Apple’s private security guards.

Regarding Thursday’s cleanup, Apple referred to an earlier statement posted in August:

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“Apple has long been focused on tackling the housing crisis across California and working with partners to support communities at risk and provide new affordable units. As the challenges for tenants and potential homeowners continue to increase, we have accelerated our support and have already allocated over $ 1 billion to new projects since early 2020. In San Jose we have been working closely with local partners for several months to identify alternative housing options and to support families who will leave the Component Drive location. We are contracting with HomeFirst – a leading local provider of services, accommodation and accommodation – to provide resources directly to ensure that those currently on that location have access to a range of accommodation, Have resources for casework and other support services. “

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Debate over development in the Cleveland National Forest is raging again, the latest in a long history of struggles about land use in an area that stretches across San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties.

A proposal that will eventually go before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is inflaming tensions between supporters of denser construction and conservationists, who for more than 100 years have viewed the Cleveland forest as the last frontier in preserving open space in the region.

The measure would amend the county’s general plan to allow more building on thousands of privately held acres within the national forest. The number of dwellings permitted on these properties would increase from about 4,300 to roughly 6,250. Under a citizens’ initiative that expired in 2010, the minimum lot size for a private parcel in the forest was 40 acres. No changes have been approved since.

“Planning the future landscape of rural East County is often a balancing act involving economic growth, community needs and the preservation of our backcountry character,” Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose District 2 includes much of the region in question, said in a statement. “I’ll weigh these factors, along with any other input I get, before making a decision.”

Over the decades, urban sprawl in the county has bulldozed natural landscapes and reduced habitat for many plants and animals. It has also provided affordable homes for families and allowed people to enjoy rural living a relatively short drive away from grocery stores, hospitals and town centers.

Long before government restrictions came into place, fur traders, loggers, ranchers and miners dramatically affected the backcountry. Wildfires were attributed to overgrazed lands, and mining of gold and other precious metals threatened to pollute rivers and creeks.

By the late 1880s, government officials recognized the need to better manage the forest, specifically to safeguard sources of drinking water there. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt consolidated existing protected lands and created the Cleveland National Forest.

Once spanning nearly 2 million acres, the forest now covers about 440,000 acres, stretching in a patchwork from state Route 94 in San Diego to state Route 91 in Orange County. Regulations allow for a variety of recreational uses in designated areas, including hiking, camping and off-roading. The forest also hosts a number of commercial uses, such as cellphone towers and electric utility lines.

But for the most part, the territory is left as open space and natural habitat.

In the early 1990s, a group of backcountry environmentalists successfully spearheaded the Forest Conservation Initiative, which limited development on more than 71,000 acres of privately held land within the national forest.

When the measure sunset in 2010, elected county officials had been dealing for more than a decade with disgruntled residents who wanted the option to subdivide their parcels so they could build more structures on them. In response, county leaders are moving forward with a proposal to update the zoning for private lands within the forest.

With more than half of the plan’s envisioned higher density concentrated just east of the unincorporated town of Alpine, efforts have in part responded to residents who feel squeezed by urban development on the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians reservation.

As the reservation has built out its casino, nearby homeowners have lamented the loss of a once-quiet lifestyle. Perhaps ironically, many residents now believe their best hope to escape the lights, noise and ongoing construction in the area may be to allow increased density so they can offload land to commercial developers.

Leaders of the tribe declined to comment for this story.

Two characters central to this rezoning fight, Duncan McFetridge and Larry Freeland, offer unique perspectives on differing priorities in the backcountry. Both moved to East County decades ago, attracted by the area’s natural beauty. Now the land-use proposal has set them on divergent paths.

Duncan McFetridge, a woodworker in Descanso, is a major voice for backcountry conservation.

— Peggy Peattie / San Diego Union-Tribune

DUNCAN MCFETRIDGE

When Duncan McFetridge moved to rural East County about 30 years ago, he had little idea that he’d become one of the region’s foremost advocates for open space.

Over the years, the carpenter by trade and lifelong student of philosophy has taken on many of the county’s most powerful government planning agencies, launching two nonprofits and winning a series of legal battles that have curbed urban sprawl.

Kicking off this second career as a conservationist, McFetridge championed a ballot measure in the early ’90s called the Forest Conservation Initiative, which dramatically curtailed development on private lands within the Cleveland National Forest.

In a move that would presage his dedication to hard-nosed environmentalism, he took out a mortgage on his bucolic Descanso home to help fund the effort. In later campaigns, he would spend as much as half a million dollars from an inheritance to try to contain urban development.

“I’m in love with the beautiful,” said McFetridge, sitting in his dining room-office with walls seemingly made of books. “Money, for whatever reason, it’s meaningless to me.

“Other foundations all focus on fundraising. While they’re out fighting for grants, guess what we’re doing here? We’re literally on the battlefield.”

The Forest Conservation Initiative’s stipulations sunset in 2010, and county officials have since proposed upzoning certain areas inside the national forest. The change would mark the end of an era for those who’ve toiled to limit development in the backcountry.

“The forest initiative was the best thing that ever happened,” said Jeff Rozendal, initially a Descanso and now San Diego-based chimney sweep who partnered with McFetridge on the initiative and other campaigns. “It’s the only thing that has worked. You keep politicians out of it, and you’ve got a chance to preserve things.”

McFetridge and his allies waged two other campaigns related to preservation of the forest, but those measures failed at the ballot box.

Today, he vows to fight the county’s upzoning plan to the end. Asked if he would file a lawsuit to block the proposed density increases, the Descanso woodworker responded without hesitation in a high-pitched tone: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.”

He’d have to scrape together the funds. His nonprofits typically generate less than $50,000 a year in revenue, with his and one other paid staff member’s modest salaries often getting cannibalized by the groups’ expenses.

“I’m adorned, as the Chinese say, with poverty,” McFetridge said, sipping well water out of a wine glass.

The usually lean years have alternated with big fundraising efforts for specific campaigns, such as in the early 2000s when he and others pushed in vain for a ballot measure that would’ve create a so-called “urban-growth boundary.”

McFetridge said this model of operating on a shoestring budget hasn’t held him back. Rather, he said, refusing to take money from government agencies helps preserve the ideological pureness of his campaigns.

“All these groups beg for grants, and then they have ties,” he said. “And I found out very quickly that money is rotten here. I see it everywhere. Everyone gets compromised. So I said f— you people. I’m going to be free.”

At 75 with a white beard and a ponytail, he flutters about his property talking metaphysically about everything from the Buddha-like state of his Guinea hens to an impressive sculpture of a frog he carved from an enormous boulder on a hill in his backyard.

He adores his forest, but he remarks that he’s also a “connoisseur of cities.” He especially admires Paris, Seattle and San Francisco. He thinks the city of San Diego has potential, but he’s rather blunt with his assessment of its current state.

“Plato says the most beautiful thing on the face of this earth is a well-run city because it is the work of the city to educate the citizens,” he said. “Here we take a city and make it a market place to make the citizens worse.”

This all translates back to his distrust of many local government officials. Specifically, he fears the county’s plan for upzoning private lands within the national forest is harbinger for much unseen development to come.

Under the current proposal, more than half of the increased density allowed would be contained in an area east of Alpine. As the Viejas tribe has built out a casino and mall, local residents have asked that their properties be rezoned to conform to this adjacent urbanization.

McFetridge said he has sympathy for some residents who have seen their rural setting succumb to increased traffic and noise from ongoing construction. But he worries the county’s proposal sets a dangerous precedent for future upzoning throughout the backcountry.

If the proposal goes through, zoning in the area outside of Alpine wouldn’t be set in stone. Under a yet-to-be-funded study, county planners are expected to assess whether further density would be needed in the area to help pay for basic services such as new roads and water and sewer pipes.

Asked how significant the county’s plan would be for San Diego’s woodland areas, McFetridge responded rather solemnly with a laconic summation: “Urbanization is in conflict with forest values.”

Forest at the forefront

Leading the push against a proposal to increase development in parts of the Cleveland National Forest is just the latest crusade for Descanso resident Duncan McFetridge and two nonprofit groups he co-founded.

Save Our Forest and Ranchlands and the Cleveland National Forest Foundation are hardly household names in San Diego County. But during the past two decades, they have played a central role in controversies ranging from backcountry conservation to climate change to the environmental effects of widening Interstate 5.

Here’s a look at the issues they’ve taken on:

1990: Save Our Forest and Ranchlands, or SOFAR, was launched by McFetridge and nearly a dozen of his like-minded neighbors. The group’s mission is to prevent efforts by San Diego County to allow development on land in and around the Cleveland National Forest.

1992: SOFAR blocked in court a county zoning update for the Central Mountain area of East County, which is within the Cleveland National Forest and Cuyamaca State Park. A developer had proposed to build a 125-home community on more than 700 acres known as Roberts Ranch. Eventually, the forest service bought the ranch land.

1993: A citizen-approved ballot measure called the Forest Conservation Initiative, drafted by McFetridge and SOFAR, changed the minimum lot size on private lands within the Cleveland forest but outside of backcountry towns from as little as four acres to 40. McFetridge took out a mortgage on his home to pay for signature gatherers.

1995: McFetridge and others created the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, which aims to preserve open space in the forest.

1996: SOFAR prevailed in a lawsuit that forced the county to implement minimum lot sizes on nearly 200,000 acres of agricultural preserve lands. Following the ruling, the group continued to wrangle with the county for several years over the proper density for those lands.

1997: SOFAR stopped two developments in court, including a project that could have cut off the last mountain-lion corridors connecting the Santa Rosa Mountain Range in Orange County and Palomar Mountain in San Diego County. With support from other groups, SOFAR also halted a sizable RV park planned for Descanso.

1998: SOFAR failed to win passage of a ballot measure called the Rural Heritage and Watershed Initiative, which would have created an urban-growth boundary and increased minimum lot sizes in some unincorporated areas to 40 or 80 acres.

2002: SOFAR reached an agreement with the county for zoning on roughly 200,000 acres of agricultural preserve lands that called for a 40-acre minimum lot size. The state attorney general at the time, Bill Lockyer, had joined the lawsuit in support of SOFAR.

2004: For the second time, SOFAR failed to get voters to approve a ballot measure restricting development on thousands of acres of unincorporated land. The Rural Lands Initiative would have imposed minimum lot sizes of 40, 80 or 160 acres on nearly 700,000 acres in the county.

2007: After threatening litigation, SOFAR reached a settlement agreement with the city of San Diego over its Downtown Mobility Plan, which lays out the transportation plan for the city’s urban core. McFetridge and others argued that the plan needed to focus more heavily on transit, bicycle and pedestrian options.

2011: The Forest Conservation Initiative sunset, prompting county officials to begin looking at updating land-use designations for more than 71,000 acres of private lands within the Cleveland National Forest.

2012: The Cleveland National Forest Foundation prevailed in a lawsuit against the San Diego Association of Governments concerning the municipal planning agency’s regional transportation plan for the county. The foundation said the agency failed to properly account for state-mandated reductions to greenhouse gases. The case is now pending at the California Supreme Court and is expected to have broad implications.

2013: The foundation sued Caltrans over its proposed expansion of the Interstate 5 corridor from La Jolla to Camp Pendleton, which would add four new express lanes. The case is expected to yield a settlement this year.

2016: The foundation has threatened to sue the county over its proposed upzoning of thousands of acres of private lands within the Cleveland National Forest.

Larry Freeland, who lives across from Viejas Casino east of Alpine, supports the up-zoning proposal.

— Peggy Peattie / San Diego Union-Tribune

LARRY FREELAND

When Larry Freeland bought a small patch of land just east of Alpine about 37 years ago, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians’ reservation down the road didn’t make much noise.

A decade later, the native tribe put in a bingo parlor, and traffic quickly started to pick up along the road that Freeland lives on.

Today, the Viejas reservation features a large casino, an outlet mall, an outdoor food court and several 24-hour parking lots. Cars and buses routinely roar up and down the once-quite country road just north of Interstate 8.

“You got car alarms going all night long and people who sit in their cars and turn their bump-bump music up,” the 62-year-old said. “I mean, it’s not a residential area anymore. It really isn’t.”

Freeland’s not your typical cranky homeowner frustrated with loud neighbors. In fact, he’s not bitter with the tribe at all. He even said he voted for the statewide ballot proposition in 2000 that allowed Indian gaming to expand.

“They were wrongly treated in history, so I supported them,” he said. “What can you do?”

Still, Freeland and others in the area are desperate to change their situation. Since the 1990s, the county of San Diego has faced pressure from landowners like him to allow greater development that would fit with the commercial growth on the reservation.

“It would hedge our bet in the future about being able to get a reasonable price for the property,” said Jim Phillips, a 61-year-old homeowner who lives across the street from the casino’s parking lots. “The property is no longer desirable for someone to live and raise a family.”

For a long time, the county’s hands were tied. The folks east of Alpine live within the boundary of the Cleveland National Forest, where a citizen’s initiative had for nearly a decade capped development to one lot for at least every 40 acres.

With long hair and a graying handlebar mustache, Freeland’s blue eyes sparkle from under a cowboy hat as he explains how he would’ve already fled the area if he could have found someone to buy his property for the right price.

“Worst-case scenario, now that the tribe’s this far out, I take a big loss and I get the heck out of here,” he said.

On roughly 4.5 acres, Freeland and his wife own a home as well as a western-style novelty shop called the Lost Trails Trading Post. The funky little store sells clothes, hats, old movie posters and other period-appropriate accoutrement. Next to the store, Freeland has built three 1820s-style tent cabins that are open for public viewing.

When Freeland’s not hawking cowboy merchandise or giving tours of his cabins, he’s working as an actor in small-budget western movies and television shows. Recently he played Wild Bill Hickok, he explains proudly, adding that he’s also performed with a Lakeside-based performance group called The Hole in the Wall Gang.

While the increased traffic from the casino and mall has brought him a few more customers, he’d have to expand his commercial business or sell to a developer to really capitalize on the growth — neither of which are a viable options unless the county updates the land use for the area.

“I had one guy very interested, but everyone wanted to see the final zoning,” he said. “Developers want to do something here.”

After the Forest Conservation Initiative sunset in 2010, the county proceeded with a plan to rezone thousands of acres within the forest. The proposal would specifically permit mixed-use commercial development east of the Viejas reservation and up to one residential lot per acre on lands south of I-8.

This could be a bonanza for homeowners in the region, especially those willing to sell to their property. For those who stay on, density could bring amenities such as municipal water and sewer lines from Alpine, another fire station and a high school.

“It gives us a little (security) if we ever want to sell in the future,” said Jim Thomson, 66, who moved to the area in 1999 and has six children. “Nobody wants to buy a house across from all this excitement.”

But it’s far from a done deal. The proposal has infuriated conservationists, who have threatened to challenge the zoning changes in court — fearing a slippery slope of development in years to come.

If Freeland can sell his property, he said he would consider moving up to Grass Valley in Northern California and retire near his two children. But he’s not ruling out enlarging his commercial enterprise here.

“The only way to protect myself, my property rights, my monetary investment, is to turn it commercial,” he said.

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