Colossal wildfire plumes that can be spotted from space have erupted on several California wildfires in the past months.

The Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties produced torrents of smoke that soared tens of thousands of feet into the air. The cloud of soot and debris could be seen 60 miles away. Smoke from the blaze blanketed large swaths of Northern California and western Nevada, resulting in hazardous-level air quality.

Wildfire plumes in the western US are reaching greater heights than ever, a recent study reports — especially in California’s Sierra Nevada.

“The higher the plume reaches, the more likely it is to be transported rapidly over large distances,” said David Peterson, a meteorologist with the US Naval Research Laboratory-Monterey who was not part of the new study.

That means smoke, carrying a hodgepodge of chemical compounds, wafts farther distances and impacts more people. Wildfire smoke can irritate lungs and even cause wider health issues, especially for vulnerable populations like older adults, children and those with underlying health conditions.

A pyrocumulonimbus cloud from mosquito fire as seen from the air of a commercial airline flight over Sacramento, September 8, 2022. Video: Courtesy Gregory Van Acker

“Once these particles enter our bloodstream they can pretty much affect our entire bodies,” said Rosana Aguilera Becker, an environmental health scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

The study, out of the University of Utah, used mathematical models to simulate plume heights for about 4.6 million wildfires. The analyzes examined burned areas detected by satellite in the western US and Canada from 2003 through 2020, during August and September. The researchers found that over those years, plume top heights increased hundreds of feet across much of the mountainous western US

But not all areas saw the same amount of growth.

“Sierra Nevada definitely stands out,” said study author John Lin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah. In the Sierra, the researchers found that plumes grew about an additional 750 feet per year. On wildfires like the Mosquito, that’s meant intense plumes have soared to some 40,000 feet.

Firefighters watch a smoke column from a distance during the Mosquito Fire in unincorporated Placer County.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Other regions, like the Southern Rockies and Eastern Cascades, increased by over 300 feet per year.

This upward trend increased even more after 2015, although the results weren’t statistically significant.

This uptick in plume top height was accompanied by increases in wildfire emissions that cause poor air quality, especially in the Sierra Nevada region. As the plumes explode in height, smoke can surge above the planetary boundary layer, the layer of the atmosphere closest to the ground.

You’ve encountered this boundary any time you’ve been on a plane descending to land.

“If you’re going into SFO, you probably are familiar with the times when it suddenly gets really rocky,” Lin said, “That’s a pretty good indication of where the (planetary boundary layer) starts.”

Smoke that makes it to these altitudes — about 3,000 feet above the ground — disperses more readily due to strong winds.

The researchers propose that the increase in wildfire plume height is due in part to climate change: Drier conditions and warmer temperatures enable fires at higher elevations. This vertical shift gives wildfire plumes a head start toward sending smoke particles higher into the atmosphere, above the planetary boundary layer.

Some plumes make it even farther, past the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere. These are pyrocumulonimbus clouds, also known as pyroCbs.

“A pyroCb generally reaches the typical cruising altitudes of jet aircraft and beyond,” Peterson said. “So we’re talking 30,000 feet or higher.”

PyroCbs are similar in appearance to thunderstorm-producing cumulonimbus clouds: puffy and towering. A recent example is the immense plume produced by the Mosquito Fire, which soared to heights observed from airspace.

These clouds act like chimneys, funneling smoke up into the stratosphere.

“It’s a thunderstorm that’s ingesting smoke at the cloud base,” Peterson said. “And then it gets accelerated through that thunderstorm cloud and ejected through the top of it.”

The researchers identified increasing pyroCb activity within the Colorado Plateau over the study period. They also found a slight uptick in pyroCbs in the Sierra Nevada in recent years. Additional research is needed to get a clear picture of what’s happening with these extreme plumes, which are still a developing research area.

What is known, however, is that smoke that makes it to these altitudes can linger for months and spread over vast distances, potentially causing health issues for many.

“There is a great concern that wildfires will be — and are already — a major source of air pollution,” Aguilera Becker said.

Jack Lee (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jack.lee@sfchronicle.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — With two kids attending school from home, Simonia Clifton saw her energy bill skyrocket during the pandemic.

Clifton said her bill was “Between $75 and $100 more than usual and that just kind of made it difficult to budget, especially having lost my job from COVID and being on unemployment at the same time.”

She began cutting back elsewhere in order to cover her family’s growing energy costs, including on running heat.

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Clifton isn’t alone, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey from last July through this August, which measures the pandemic’s social and economic impact.

The ABC7 News data team analyzed the survey’s findings for San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley and found that one-fifth of households reduced or forwent basic necessities, such as food or medicine, to pay an energy bill.

App users: For a better experience, click here to view the graph in a new window.

These struggles didn’t fall equally on all residents. Race and ethnicity, education level, income, and households with children all played a factor in higher percentages.

Forty-seven percent of those who identified as Hispanic or Latino reduced or forwent basic necessities, such as food or medicine, to pay an energy bill. Thirty-seven percent of individuals surveyed who identified as Black also forwent basic necessities to pay an energy bill. More than half of those who have less than a high school education faced the same circumstances, along with almost a third of households with children under 18.

App users: For a better experience, click here to view the graph in a new window.

Dennis Osmer, the executive director of the Central Coast and San Francisco Peninsula Energy Services, said the situation could become worse with the moratorium on power shutoffs ending.

“I think it adds numbers to those numbers, this is a lot worse in its effect,” he said.

Help exists. Arthur Higgins receives assistance from the low income home energy assistance program.

“The program made all of the difference in the world. It kept the power on. They made my house more energy efficient,” Higgins said.

Households with a member who lost employment income in the previous month were more than three times as likely to be unable to pay their energy bills as those without income loss.

App users: For a better experience, click here to view the graph in a new window.

Gabriela Sandoval, the director of Race & Equity Policy with The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said, “We went into the pandemic with customers owing in California about $500 million and we know that right now the big four utility company customers owe about $2 billion .”

The big four includes PG&E customers here in the Bay Area, making up approximately $900 million of that debt, according to Sandoval.

By email, a PG&E Spokesperson told ABC7 News customers who are having difficulty paying their bills can be put on a payment plan or possibly qualify for the CARE program which offers a monthly discount of 20% or more on gas and electricity. The Family Electric Rate Assistance Program offers a monthly discount of 18% on electricity only.

“It’s stunning to look at how these costs have increased and the impact on the people who can least afford it is really heartbreaking,” Osmer said.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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Triple digit temps have us running inside to beat the heat, but many people don’t acknowledge their A/C until it stops working. Now is a terrible time for your system to break down. Not only is it the middle of summer, but repair shops are busy and the cost of service is rising.

Marcus Fauth, owner of Great Guys Heating and Cooling in Littleton, says repair requests keep coming.

“Last Saturday the phone didn’t stop ringing. I had 76 individual emails requesting service in addition to the phone nonstop,” said Fauth. “A service tech generally runs anywhere between four and six service calls per day. The challenge is most HVAC companies, including my competitors, just can’t service as many requests that come in a timely manner.”

Fauth says they’ve spent a lot of time and money recruiting workers to do the job. He says skilled laborers across home service fields have been hard to come by.

He says many of the calls he gets for repairs could’ve been avoided by doing preventative maintenance.

“If there’s a lack of preventative maintenance done on a system, and then you experience exorbitantly high temperatures, of course that takes a toll on the system. It’s like driving a car without changing the oil frequently. You’re going to experience breakdowns if you don’t do proper maintenance,” said Fauth.

The pandemic created supply issues nationwide that made getting certain parts needed for repair difficult. Fauth says it’s a problem some customers are still running in to.

“Most of the manufacturers are resolving their post COVID supply chain issues on the residential side. Commercial is a different story,” said Fauth. “I’ve got one particular customer who owns a large restaurant and he’s going to have to wait till the second quarter of next year to get his new rooftop unit.”

The supply that is available is becoming much more expensive. Inflation has hit the HVAC industry hard. Material costs are rising with the temps and it’s trickling down to customers.

“We had one of our manufacturers actually had about a 23% price increase in a matter of less than 90 days. It drives the cost up not just repairs, but also of replacement of equipment as well,” said Fauth.

Chris Van Meter, a project manager for Golden West Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, has seen dramatic price increases on certain parts.

“This piece used to be $4 to $5 each. Now it’s $33. It really ripples through the rest of the pricing,” said Van Meter. “The biggest trick is trying to keep our level of quality high and still delivering the price point that our customers need.”

Van Meter recommends having a professional contractor come out and evaluate your systems before the summer starts. They might find ways to bring down your energy consumption and prevent you from paying thousands for a fix down the road.

“This is the kind of think people forget about until it breaks. Then it’s a rushed situation. So just like anything you own, the preventative maintenance will help it last longer, run better, be more efficient, hopefully break down less,” said Van meters.

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NEW YORK, May 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The ductless HVAC system market size is set to grow by USD 15.36 billion from 2021 to 2026, progressing at a CAGR of 7.58% according to Technavio. 55% of the market’s growth will originate from APAC during the forecast period. China, Japan, and South Korea are the key markets for ductless HVAC systems in APAC. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in other regions. The rapid growth in construction activities and rise in population in countries such as China, Japanand India will facilitate the ductless HVAC system market growth in APAC over the forecast period.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Ductless HVAC System Market by Type and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026

For more insights on the market share of various regions – request a sample report

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis

The ductless HVAC system market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as technological innovation, packaging, and promotional activities to compete in the market. AB Electrolux, Carrier Global Corp., Daikin Industries Ltd., Fujitsu General Ltd., Haier Smart Home Co. Ltd., Hanon Systems, Hitachi Ltd., Lennox International Inc., LG Electronics Inc., MAHLE GmbH, MIDEA GROUP, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Panasonic Corp., Rheem Manufacturing Co., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sanden Holdings Corp., Sharp Corp., Subros Ltd., Trane Technologies plc, and Valeo SA are some of the major market participants.

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026 : Scope

Our ductless HVAC system market report covers the following areas:

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026: Drivers & Challenges

The key factor driving the global ductless HVAC system market growth is the rapidly rising commercial and residential construction globally. The global construction market is expected to grow by USD 4.5 trillion between 2020 and 2030 and reach USD 15.2 trillionwith emerging markets accounting for USD 8.9 trillion in 2030. However, region-wise, the construction market in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to have the highest growth, followed by emerging economies in APAC. Further, in 2020, China, Indiathe US, and Indonesia accounted for 58.3% of growth in the global construction sector. Furthermore, the residential construction sector accounted for 44% of the total global construction industry in 2020, making it the largest sub-sector and a key driver of the global construction market’s growth. This growth will be fueled by emerging economies that are looking to develop energy, transport networks, sewage and waste systems, and other large-scale projects, in the forecast period.

Story continues

However, the key challenge to the global ductless HVAC system market growth is the stringent government regulations. For instance, the New Efficiency Standard for Residential Heating and the Cooling United States of America and the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act (NAECA) went into effect in 2006 and 2015, respectively. The new standards that come into effect in 2023 require a seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), a measure of a systems cooling performance, of no less than 14 for residential systems in the northern parts of the US and a SEER of 15 in the southern parts (states) of the US. In addition, the new standards require an increase in the heating efficiency of air-source heat pumps, which is measured by the equipment heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF). The minimum HSPF will be 8.8 when compared with the HSPF of 8.2 required by the current standard, which went into effect in 2015. Such factors would hamper the market growth in the forecast period.

To know about the other drivers & challenges – Download a sample report now!

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026 : Segmentation Analysis

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026 : Revenue Generating Segment

The ductless HVAC system market share growth by the single-zoned segment will be significant for revenue generation. The significant increase in the demand for HVAC systems applications, owing to growth in household incomes and changing expenditure patterns of consumers in emerging economies, will drive the growth of the segment in focus in the coming years.

To gain further insights on the market contribution of various segments – Download a sample report now!

Ductless HVAC System Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights

• CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026

• Detailed information on factors that will assist ductless HVAC system market growth during the next five years

• Estimation of the ductless HVAC system market size and its contribution to the parent market

• Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

• The growth of the ductless HVAC system market

• Analysis of the market’s competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

• Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of ductless HVAC system market vendors

Related Reports:

• The HVAC terminal units market size is expected to be valued at USD 1.41 billion by 2026 with a progressive CAGR of 5.05%. Download a sample report now!

• The energy-efficient HVAC systems market share is expected to increase by USD 24.37 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market’s growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 11.02%. Download a sample report now!

Table Of Contents:

1 executive summary

2 Market Landscape

3 Market Sizing

4 Five Forces Analysis

5 Market segmentation by type

6 Customer Landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

9 Vendor Landscape

10 Vendor Analysis

11 Appendix

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio’s report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio’s comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research
Jesse Maida
Media & Marketing Executive
US: +1 844 364 1100
UK: +44 203 893 3200
Email: media@technavio.com
Website: www.technavio.com/

Technavio (PRNews photo/Technavio)

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SOURCE Technavio

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DUBLIN (KPIX 5) – As interest rates creep up, many thought it would mean some potential home buyers would back off. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the Bay Area’s red-hot market.

March was another record month for California and Bay Area real estate. The median single-family home price in California, in March, was $849,080, according to the California Association of Realtors.

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Here were the median sale prices for single-family homes in the nine Bay Area counties:
• Alameda: $1,430,000
• Con Costa: $965,900
• Marine: $1,737,500
• Napa: $998,000
• San Francisco: $2,060,000
• San Mateo: $2,280,000
• Santa Clara: $1,950,000
• Sonoma: $833,750
• Solano: $604,000

“The headlines are screaming historically high sales prices. The finer print is, people still want to buy homes,” said David Stark, with the Bay East Association of Realtors. “If you look at how long a home was on the market, it’s at historically low levels, which tells us that buyers are not only willing to pay those prices, but they’re willing to pay those prices quickly.”

Mortgage interest rates are rising. However, that phenomenon doesn’t seem to have had an effect on the market yet, according to John Levine, the VP & Chief Economist of the California Association of Realtors.

“Even as rates have really, surged over the course of the last eight weeks or so, we haven’t seen that affect buyer demand for several reasons,” Levine told KPIX 5. “But the bottom line is, we still have ultimately too many buyers and not enough homes to put them in, that’s keeping the market relatively strong.”

In March, for the first time in about two years, the inventory of available homes did not shrink, according to the latest figures.

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“It is significant that we actually have more for the first time in a very long time. We still have a long way to go to get back toward something that looks normal,” Levine said. “But, I think for those buyers in particular who really do want to move forward with those transactions and get in while the gettin’ was good as it were with rates, that’s good news in the sense that they might have a few more options moving forward.”

Bay East President and Realtor Sheila Cunha tells KPIX 5 while the market is still “crazy,” it’s not quite as crazy as it was a few months ago.

“We’re not seeing quite as many offers right now as we did four or five months ago,” she said.

Cunha believes the rising interest rates will ultimately lead to some potential homebuyers backing off, but doesn’t think that’ll happen until the summertime.

“I think it’s coming. I think as the Fed continue to raise the interest rates you’ll see buyers not being able to afford what they once could,” she said.

As for the inventory, she thinks that will slowly start to increase as well.

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“Spring is usually our busiest season,” she said. “I think we’ll start seeing more homes coming on the market.”

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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.”

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SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – As the ongoing drought caused some to replace their lawns, thieves were caught on camera stealing an expensive roll of artificial turf from the front of a house in San Jose.

Security cameras in a house on Eastridge Drive captured a suspicious white SUV at around 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 25, as it slowly drove by with the headlights off.

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Two minutes later, two men are walking towards the property from the left and walking straight towards a large roll of artificial turf in the front yard of Rick Telly’s house.

The thieves struggled with the weight of the roll, but then they picked it up and walked away. It was gone in seconds.

Surveillance videos allegedly showing two thieves stealing artificial turf from a house in San Jose on September 25, 2021. (CBS)

“It was worth about $ 4,000,” said Telly, who owns a small construction company.

Telly told KPIX 5 that he plans to use the lawn for a client’s work and install lawn in his own front yard.

“I think it’s a shame,” he said. “I find it pretty sad that people have to resort to these kinds of measures to steal other people’s property, especially people who are just trying to make a living doing these kinds of services.”

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Neighbor Lourdes Walker said she was surprised the thieves took the turf. “People suffer for money and they are just too lazy to work,” she said.

But then she said it made sense because of the drought.

“That’s what I think for my garden to be replacing the grass,” said Walker.

In fact, one plumber said the demand for turf is at an all-time high, ranging from $ 12 to $ 18 per square foot.

Troy Scott, co-owner of Heavenly Greens, also said project latencies have now been months behind.

“You can imagine that there is an advantage when someone has a part-time job and discovers some lawn. But it’s a bit extreme, I have to say, ”Scott told KPIX 5.

Telly said it’s thousands of dollars out of his pocket but hopes to get the lawn back if he can catch the thieves.

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“Little did I know anyone would resort to these measures to take the weed,” he said.

The post Synthetic Turf Stolen From San Jose Residence As Drought Drives Rising Demand – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – As the ongoing drought caused some to replace their lawns, thieves were caught on camera stealing an expensive roll of artificial turf from the front of a house in San Jose.

Security cameras in a house on Eastridge Drive captured a suspicious white SUV at around 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 25, as it slowly drove by with the headlights off.

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Two minutes later, two men are walking towards the property from the left and walking straight towards a large roll of artificial turf in the front yard of Rick Telly’s house.

The thieves struggled with the weight of the roll, but then they picked it up and walked away. It was gone in seconds.

Surveillance videos allegedly showing two thieves stealing artificial turf from a house in San Jose on September 25, 2021. (CBS)

“It was worth about $ 4,000,” said Telly, who owns a small construction company.

Telly told KPIX 5 that he plans to use the lawn for a client’s work and install lawn in his own front yard.

“I think it’s a shame,” he said. “I find it pretty sad that people have to resort to these kinds of measures to steal other people’s property, especially people who are just trying to make a living doing these kinds of services.”

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Neighbor Lourdes Walker said she was surprised the thieves took the turf. “People suffer for money and they are just too lazy to work,” she said.

But then she said it made sense because of the drought.

“That’s what I think for my garden to be replacing the grass,” said Walker.

In fact, one plumber said the demand for turf is at an all-time high, ranging from $ 12 to $ 18 per square foot.

Troy Scott, co-owner of Heavenly Greens, also said project latencies have now been months behind.

“You can imagine that there is an advantage when someone has a part-time job and discovers some lawn. But it’s a bit extreme, I have to say, ”Scott told KPIX 5.

Telly said it’s thousands of dollars out of his pocket but hopes to get the lawn back if he can catch the thieves.

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“Little did I know anyone would resort to these measures to take the weed,” he said.

The post Synthetic Turf Stolen From San Jose Residence As Drought Drives Rising Demand – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Sales tax is increasing across California, including San Francisco County.

Most of these tax changes were approved by voters in the November 2020 election, the California Tax and Fees Authority said. The changes will take effect on Thursday for the beginning of July.

There is a slight difference between sales tax and use tax. The former is collected from retailers. Every time a retailer sells tangible goods, they typically owe sales tax to the state.

A usage tax is levied on the buyer. The law requires buyers to pay use tax on some tangible goods if the retailer does not pay California sales tax, such as: Both tax rates have the same percentage.

Where does the money go? According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, tax revenues will be distributed among “various state and local funds,” the agency’s website said. About half of the taxes collected go to the state’s General Fund and “can be spent on any state program such as education, health care and criminal justice.”

Another 1% – the Bradley Burns Rate – goes to cities and counties for “general purposes”.

Here are the other cities and counties where sales tax is increasing across California:

The post Gross sales tax is rising in San Francisco and these Bay Space cities this week appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Jon Jacobo, a rising political star in San Francisco and an influential affordable housing advocate, resigned from his building inspection commission seat late Friday and took a leave of absence from his nonprofit work after a woman accused him of raping her in a tweet and an extensive online post.

Sasha Perigo, a 26-year-old tenant rights advocate, said she had visited Jacobo at his apartment in the Mission one evening in early April when he forcibly groped and kissed her that night and raped her the following morning. Perigo said she told Jacobo “no” dozens of times during both encounters, and tried to push him off her and block his advances, but that he repeatedly ignored her pleas and persisted.

In a series of tweets on Friday night, Jacobo, 32, said, “My memory of these events is different than her memory. I believed then, as I do now, that our relationship was completely consensual.” He wrote that “every woman needs to be heard” and that he was “deeply saddened by the deep pain being experienced by Sasha Perigo, which she says I caused.”

Jacobo did not respond to requests seeking comment other than to refer reporters to his tweets.

(TW: sexual assault)

I’m heartbroken to share that the man who raped me in April is @Jon_Jacobo.

Prior to my rape, I considered Jon a great friend and a great person, which is why it’s so important for me to come forward.

Please RT and share widely!https://t.co/rKatrJkCuk

— Sasha Perigo (@sashaperigo) August 6, 2021

In the hours and days following the incident, Perigo said she began telling her friends and family that Jacobo had sexually assaulted her and went to San Francisco General Hospital to have a rape kit conducted. Perigo said she didn’t file a police report because of her fundamental opposition to law enforcement and her prior friendship with Jacobo.

But she said that when a friend told her in June about an unsettling experience with Jacobo, she felt compelled to detail her account publicly.

A hospital spokesperson declined to comment on the case, citing patient privacy laws. A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department also would not comment beyond acknowledging that the special victims unit “is aware of the social media posting and is looking into the matter. Due to the sensitive nature of the allegation, we cannot comment further.”

“I chose to come forward to protect other women from being victimized,” Perigo said. “And to lift the weight of bearing this secret off of my shoulders.”

Jacobo’s response on Twitter included an announcement that he was resigning his position on the Building Inspection Commission and that he was taking a leave of absence from “work.” A Mission District native, Jacobo is a policy director with the South of Market nonprofit Tenants and Owners Development Corporation, known as TODCO.

I believe every woman needs to be heard. I believe every victim of trauma needs to be heard, and the process of speaking out is a part of healing and justice. And I am deeply saddened by the deep pain being experienced by Sasha Perigo, which she says I caused.

— Jon Jacobo (@Jon_Jacobo) August 7, 2021

Last year, he worked as a press secretary in the Latino community for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, and rose to greater prominence as the chair of the health committee on the San Francisco Latino Task Force, helping to lead coronavirus testing efforts in the Mission and drawing attention to racial disparities in infections and aid.

He said he was stepping away from his work “for the sake of the community, which I owe so much, and to avoid distraction from the important work of addressing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 which has been my mission this past year.”

His response came as the allegations spread quickly through the tight-knit affordable housing advocacy community and City Hall, where Jacobo had been widely expected to run for a Board of Supervisor seat in 2024, when District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen termed out.

“My thoughts go out to the victim for her courage and bravery for speaking out on this awful situation that no one should ever experience,” tweeted District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton prior to Jacobo’s resignation. “These are very serious allegations against a City Commissioner. My office is conferring with the City Attorney on legal options.”

My thoughts go out to @sashaperigo for her courage and bravery for speaking out on this awful situation no one should ever experience. I have asked @Jon_Jacobo to immediately resign from the DBI Commission, which he was already planning to do, or the BOS will take swift action. pic.twitter.com/rypsTXgZ4g

— Shamann Walton (@shamannwalton) August 7, 2021

The Chronicle interviewed Perigo Friday and spoke to two friends who Perigo told about the alleged assault in the ensuing hours and days. Reporters also reviewed contemporaneous journal entries in which Perigo described the alleged assault and her efforts to work through the emotional trauma it had caused, as well as text messages between Perigo and Jacobo and Perigo and her friends and other documentation that was consistent with her account.

Perigo publicly posted portions of these documents, including a part of her discharge paperwork from the hospital following the rape kit and a letter from the Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, in a Google Doc she shared online Friday titled “A Prominent San Francisco Politico Raped Me. He Can’t Have Any More Victims.”

Perigo told The Chronicle she met Jacobo in November 2019 when she was writing a column for the San Francisco Examiner focused on the housing crisis and interviewed TODCO head John Elberling.

Perigo, who does communications and organizing for Tenants Together, a statewide tenants rights organization in San Francisco, said she had admired Jacobo’s reputation in the housing advocacy world. That day, Perigo said, she and Jacobo struck up a conversation about Marin County and how affordable housing could be built on parking lots. Perigo, who grew up in Marin County, was passionate about trying to improve the enormous housing disparities in that area. She said she instantly felt a connection to Jacobo.

“It was really cool to meet Jon, who I had admired a lot, and to hear him talking about the issues I cared about so much,” Perigo said. “I looked up to him.”

Perigo said their initial connection turned into a friendship. The pair had sex in November 2020 once, and “sexted off and on for a while afterwards,” Perigo wrote in her online post. But Perigo said she broke it off in February, telling Jacobo that she preferred to be platonic friends.

Jon Jacobo at the Latino Task Force Resource Hub in San Francisco in November.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle 2020

Perigo said she had remained friends with Jacobo when, on April 3, he invited her to hang out. Perigo agreed, but she emphasized that she did not want to engage in anything sexual. They decided to meet at Jacobo’s apartment that night to talk and have some drinks, according to a text thread shared with The Chronicle.

“(Also I don’t think this was your expectation but just to be sure, I started seeing someone so I’m not looking to hook up!)” Perigo texted Jacobo around 10 p.m. Jacobo hit a heart button in response and texted back, “Thanks for the heads up! That’s important and sad news.” He followed up with a laughing emoji.

An Uber receipt provided to The Chronicle indicates Perigo arrived at Jacobo’s Van Ness apartment at 11:51 p.m. She also texted her friend Rebecca Peacock that night before she left, saying she was going to meet up with Jacobo but had established that their relationship was platonic.

Perigo said that after she arrived at Jacobo’s apartment they talked for hours, sharing personal stories, while having a few drinks. At around 4 a.m., Perigo said, she told Jacobo she was going to get an Uber home, but he offered to have her sleep over.

Perigo said she agreed to sleep in a bed with Jacobo and told him they could cuddle. But she said she reinforced that she did not want anything sexual to occur.

Almost immediately upon laying down, however, Perigo said Jacobo forcibly kissed her and put his hands inside her shirt and pants, forcibly groping her breasts and buttocks while she told him “no,” and that she was uncomfortable. She said she tried to push his hands away from her but that Jacobo persisted for around 45 minutes, ignoring her demands that he stop. She said she was so stunned by what was happening that she remained in the bed.

“I said ‘no’ dozens of times,” Perigo told The Chronicle. “I knew he was assaulting me, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want to rock the boat … and I didn’t want to think that about him.”

Perigo said she then brought up her boyfriend, and that she didn’t want to cheat on him. She said Jacobo finally stopped, but asked if he could masturbate. Perigo said she told Jacobo “no,” and that he would have to go into the bathroom, or she would leave. She said he didn’t and they both fell asleep.

In the morning, Perigo said, they woke up around 8:30 a.m. She said Jacobo again started forcibly kissing her and groping her breasts and buttocks as she told him “no” and tried to push him off her.

Perigo said she continued to tell Jacobo “no” while he pulled her pants off, forced oral sex on her and then raped her. Perigo said she froze in shock.

“A few minutes in, my emotions caught up with me, and I could no longer deny what was happening,” Perigo wrote in her online post. “I told him I was uncomfortable and that I wanted to stop. He ignored my request, and proceeded to finish inside of me. At no point had he asked if I wanted to use a condom.”

Perigo said she went to the bathroom and then came back and laid next to him. “I think I was looking for some warmth in that moment because I didn’t want it to be this moment where my friend was so vicious to me,” Perigo told The Chronicle. But she said Jacobo exclaimed, “That was fun!” and asked her if she wanted to go on vacation with him to Cabo San Lucas.

Perigo took an Uber back to her apartment at about 10 a.m. that morning, according to a receipt she provided The Chronicle. Once at home, she said she fell asleep for several hours. When she woke up, Perigo said she began telling her friends and family about what had happened, as well as writing about the incident in a journal.

“Jon Jacobo raped me this morning,” she wrote in a handwritten diary entry dated April 4 that she shared with The Chronicle. “I feel completely empty and very, very alone.”

At around 5 p.m. on April 4, Perigo texted a friend: “So I took my friend Jon up on an offer to hang out last night to get my mind off things and slept over, making very clear that I was just crashing there and was 0% interested in hooking up because I was seeing someone.”

“He raped me this morning,” Perigo wrote in the text thread she shared with The Chronicle, which she partially redacted.

“That’s disgusting,” the friend wrote back. “What the f***.”

As of early Saturday, The Chronicle had not been able to speak to the friend.

Peacock told The Chronicle that Perigo confided on April 4 that Jacobo had sexually assaulted her after she went to his apartment to hang out.

“She described this relentless experience of saying, ‘No, no, no. The things you’re trying to do with me, I’m not interested in it,’” Peacock said. “She got so overwhelmed with it all.”

On April 5 at around 3 p.m., Perigo texted Jacobo, confronting him about the alleged sexual assault, according to a text thread Perigo posted online and a more extensive version that she shared with The Chronicle.

“You ignored dozens of nos — you literally made eye contact with me and took my pants off AS I WAS TELLING YOU NO … I’m not sure what you think rape looks like, but it looks like this,” she wrote.

“Reading this hurt deeply, that you even feel this way is heartbreaking,” Jacobo texted back, adding that he had tried to call her.

Later that day, after consulting with Peacock and other friends, Perigo went to San Francisco General Hospital for a sexual assault examination, allowing medical personnel to take samples to analyze for DNA evidence, according to Perigo, Peacock and discharge paperwork that Perigo provided The Chronicle.

Perigo, who said she is a part-time student at Stanford finishing a degree in computer science, said she did not file an accompanying police report because her work in advocacy and tenants rights has given her a deep distrust of law enforcement as a path toward justice. She also said she had no interest in enduring a retraumatizing reporting process and a potential legal case.

“A lot of the work I met Jon through was also anti-police brutality work,” Perigo said. “I consider myself an abolitionist and support defunding the police.”

In the following weeks, Perigo experienced worsening depression and had trouble getting out of bed and going to work or any events where she might encounter Jacobo, according to Perigo, Peacock and Perigo’s journal entries.

Peacock said the change in her friend was noticeable. “It really debilitated her,” Peacock said. “She’s had a difficult time getting out of bed most mornings. It’s been really, really hard. I wish I could just snap her out of it.”

On April 15, Perigo agreed to meet Jacobo in person in Golden Gate Park the following day to discuss the incident, according to text messages she shared with The Chronicle and friends she later told about the meeting. Perigo said another friend accompanied her to the meeting, but Perigo declined to provide the friend’s identity, saying the friend had requested anonymity.

“The conversation seemed to go well,” Perigo wrote in her online post. “He cried his way through it, admitted wrongdoing, and told me he’d started therapy. We said our goodbyes and have not talked since.”

In his tweet on Friday, Jacobo wrote, “In April, we attempted a restorative process and I will continue to work to understand why and how she feels I caused her harm.”

On April 22, a San Francisco police sergeant with the Special Victims Unit wrote a letter to Perigo saying they had “developed a DNA Profile” from the swabs that were collected during her medical examination. “The DNA was entered into a national DNA Data Bank and may identify the involved suspect,” the sergeant wrote.

The sergeant said that as of that date, Perigo had not followed up with an investigator about the incident, but referred her to the Special Victims Unit address if she wanted to proceed.

At the time, Perigo said, she was still grappling with the emotional trauma from the incident. She said she was regularly going to therapy and unable to go to work. “In some ways it feels like Jon ripped apart and dismantled me as a person,” Perigo wrote in a journal entry dated April 23. “Who am I? How do I relate to the world? I’m floating.”

Then, shortly before her birthday in early June, Perigo said she told a younger friend that Jacobo had raped her. Perigo said the friend relayed that she, too, had a concerning experience with Jacobo. Perigo said she did not ask the woman for more details. Perigo referenced the conversation with the younger friend in her online post.

Perigo said she resolved to pull together her allegations about Jacobo and post them online to warn other women. Perigo said she wrote a draft of the public post in June, but was unable to fill out the details of the sexual assault because it was too traumatizing to relive.

In early August, Perigo completed the post, and she tweeted it out on Friday at 8:59 a.m.

“One of the reasons I kept this story to myself for so long is that I didn’t want to hurt Jon by coming forward. I cared about him deeply, and I’ll forever be heartbroken that someone I once admired could violate me in this way,” Perigo wrote. “But moving on means accepting that Jon isn’t the person I thought he was. I need to free myself from the burden of shielding him from consequences.”

Cynthia Dizikes and Matthias Gafni are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: cdizikes@sfchronicle.com, matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @cdizikes @mgafni

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