Thought it would be hard to leave your heart in San Francisco? Try your appendix.

Everyone figuratively leaves a part of themselves behind when they move, but one Antarctic city requires prospective residents to have their appendix literally removed before settling there.

That’s right, an appendectomy is one of the requirements for anyone – including children – to live in Villas Las Estrellas, one of two civilian settlements on the frozen continent where people can live for years instead of weeks or months, the BBC reported.

The outpost is located in the Chilean Frei base on King George Island and has a maximum of 100 residents, mostly researchers and military personnel. Those on longer-term contracts, however, often bring their entire family — excluding dependents — to the spartan settlement, which consists of a post office, small school, bank, and other rudimentary facilities.

The preventive appendectomy may sound like a sadistic initiation ritual, but it was performed for good reason, the Mirror reported. The nearest hospital is 625 miles from the island’s northernmost tip, which could mean bad news for anyone suffering from appendicitis – a condition that requires immediate surgery to prevent it from becoming life-threatening. The limited health care options are also the reason why people are discouraged from getting pregnant during their stay.

And these are not the only precautions people take when staying at Villas Las Estrellas. As temperatures can drop below -100 degrees Fahrenheit, citizens must remain indoors or risk freezing to death.

“We couldn’t leave our homes for weeks this winter,” said Sergio Cubillos, the Chilean commander of the local air base.

Because of this, most people only reside in the colony during the summer, when the mercury reaches a “bald” 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

And don’t forget to bring your pooch to keep warm: dogs are banned on the island to prevent them from spreading disease to local wildlife.

Despite the austere environment, Villas Las Estrellas offers many tourist-friendly attractions, most notably its penguins, known for their flocks due to their protected status.

Tourists are also invited to take part in ski and snowmobile expeditions, as well as travel to nearby Bellingshausen to learn more about the aurora and glaciology, Atlas Obscura reported. The base even has Internet access, although it is reserved for the school’s three computers.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – Many San Francisco restaurants and bars report feeling blind after receiving warnings and notices of code violations due to their outdoor parklets.

The city made the parklets permanent earlier this year, but also issued new rules that could force some restaurants to tear down their parklets entirely.

Some restaurants say the notices have been coming in for weeks from various departments warning owners that they will be fined heavily for not complying with their parklet.

However, a city guide says that this is actually not allowed, at least until June. He says this is a disorganization by the local government and the city needs to do better.

After spending thousands of dollars building outdoor parklets, some San Francisco restaurants and bars say they are now considering demolishing them. Many of them were made aware of these changes when they received warnings of Code violations.

“Many of these violations were incredibly frightening and clumsy. They listed the fines you would have to pay on the first and second days for not following the rules and requested that things be done by December 31st, like finding a contractor in the month of December as if they were there not, ”said Ben Bleiman.

Ben Bleiman owns several bars in the city and is president of the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance.

He says he received a notification and personally knows nearly 30 other bar owners who have received these alerts.

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Bleiman says there has been a major misunderstanding among many owners and a major misunderstanding between city departments.

“The fact is, many of the buildings that have been built do not meet basic city regulations. The second thing that happened is that they started interpreting the permanent legislation and several different departments made interpretations that we did not expect. One thing we didn’t see coming was we had to get them 3 feet from the parking lot hashtags, ”Bleiman said.

Laurie Thomas of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association adds that this is just the beginning of these new rules that have emerged from a new 66-page document.

“Three meters from the ends? The first time I saw this was on September 9th. I have emails that go to people, like what? No, obviously you are built in a red zone or in an intersection. Nowhere did we know you had to move your parklets 20 feet from an intersection, ”said Thomas.

San Francisco made the parklets permanent earlier this year, and according to board-enforcement laws, business owners must comply with the Code by June 30th before they can be fined despite these warnings.

“All the permits, the restaurants, bars, and everything you have, breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that a number of city departments that have not coordinated, have not even obeyed the law that the board of directors Adopted unanimously, issued rectifications and violations with the threat of fines, and fines are not approved or allowed until mid-2022, “said supervisor Aaron Peskin.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin recently enacted law to move that deadline to March 2023, saying the city needs to treat these small businesses better after what they’ve been through for nearly two years.

Supervisor Peskin says the legislation will go to the full board early next month.

He is confident that this will happen, one reason the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance is telling its members not to make any decisions until the city comes together and gives a clear picture of how the rules are moving forward.

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