When it comes to public accommodations, maybe San Francisco authorities should pick up the phone and call Barberton.

The tips from the Midwest could save them about a million dollars – and that's just the cost of installing a toilet, like the one San Francisco planned to install in one of its neighborhoods earlier this year for $1.7 million.

Barberton showed Monday that it can be done for a fraction of the cost on the West Coast when the City Council approved the addition of two restrooms in McCafferty Park, accounting for about 7.1 percent of the total estimated cost of San Francisco's only luxury restroom.

Of course, the City by the Bay's costs weren't just driven up by the restrooms themselves. It also included $60,000 for site improvements unrelated to sanitation, $125,000 for project and construction management, $2,000 for plantings, and $27,600 for unforeseen expenses—because when it comes to public restrooms, you can never be sure.

Barberton's structure will cost about $120,000, with the city providing water and sewer services, said Don Patterson, city parks director.

Limiting toilet supplies

The cost to San Francisco attracted widespread attention earlier this year, as media outlets around the world mercilessly ridiculed officials. Even Governor Gavin Newsom got involved, threatening to withhold state funding for the project.

In Barberton, however, when it comes to public restrooms, typical Midwestern frugality and common sense prevail.

Patterson said he wasn't sure why the cost of a toilet in the Golden State was so high.

“That's a good question,” Patterson said. “I don't know who they're dealing with out there.”

“I don’t want to badmouth them”: Director of Barberton Parks works to keep costs down

Patterson said the city strives to be frugal in its projects.

“The spending of government money is a very sensitive issue for me,” Patterson said. “It's taxpayers' money.”

More:Will the new group revitalize downtown? Main Street Barberton organizers talk about their mission

The parks director said the city is also planning restrooms for another park this year. He expects the Decker Park project to go before the City Council in April. He expects installation to occur about six months after City Council approval.

He refused to criticize San Francisco for its toilet farce.

“I don’t want to badmouth them,” he said.

More:6 reasons why you should subscribe to the Akron Beacon Journal

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at ataashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.

The post Barberton exhibits San Francisco how to save cash on $1.7M public bathroom appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

KHARNAK, India — Nomad Tsering Angchuk vows to stay put in his remote village in India’s Ladakh region.

His two sons and most of his fellow villagers have migrated to a nearby urban settlement but Angchuk is determined to herd his flock of fine cashmere-producing goats in the treeless Kharnak village, a hauntingly beautiful but unforgiving, cold mountainous desert.

Dolma Angmo, wife of nomad Tsering Angchuk, attends her hardy Himalayan goats that produce cashmere in the remote Kharnak village Sept. 17 in the cold desert region of Ladakh, India.

Mukhtar Khan, Associated Press

The 47-year-old herds 800 sheep and goats and a flock of 50 Himalayan yaks in Kharnak. In 2013, he migrated to Kharnakling, an urban settlement in the outskirts of a regional town called Leh but returned a year later, not because his old home had become any better, he said, “but because the urban centers are getting worse and there are only menial jobs for people like us.”

Nestled between India, Pakistan and China, Ladakh has faced both territorial disputes and the stark effects of climate change. The region’s sparsely populated villages have witnessed shifting weather patterns that have already altered people’s lives through floods, landslides and droughts.

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Thousands of Ladakh nomads, known for their unique lifestyle in one of the most hostile landscapes in the world have been at the heart of these changes, compounded by border conflict and shrinking grazing land. The changes have forced hundreds to migrate to mainly urban settlements, while others work to make it a more habitable place.

Angchuk’s sons didn’t return — they don’t want to be shepherds, he said — and settled in Leh. One became a construction contractor and the other works at a travel agency, part of the region’s burgeoning tourism industry.

With 300-plus days of sunshine, the desert is in the rain shadows of the Himalayas and receives only about 4 inches of precipitation annually.

Nomad Tsering Angchuk, right, talks with a reporter as he sits with his wife, Dolma Angmo inside their mud and stone house in remote Kharnak village Sept. 17 in the cold desert region of Ladakh, India.

Mukhtar Khan, Associated Press

At an altitude of 15,000 feet, temperatures can fall to minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit during long winter months. But it’s getting hotter.

There is no word for mosquito in the local Ladakhi language, but the region has lots of these insects now, said Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer working on solutions for sustainability at his Himalayan Institute of Alternative Ladakh.

“These are all coming with the viability of climate for them,” he said.

Ladakh’s thousands of glaciers, which help give the rugged region its title as one of the water towers of the world, are receding at an alarming rate, threatening the water supply of millions of people.

“This year we had an unprecedented melting of glaciers,” said Prof. Shakil Romshoo, a leading glaciologist and earth scientist.

Romshoo said his team has been studying seven glaciers in the Kashmir and Ladakh Himalaya for nine years but “this year shows the maximum ablation,” referring to the amount of snow and ice that has disappeared.

Drung-Drung, Ladakh’s second largest glacier, melted 197 inches in its thickness this year compared to an average 39 inches annually in the past few years.

A nomad fetches water from a hand pump Sept. 17 in remote Kharnak village in the cold desert region of Ladakh, India.

MUKHTAR KHAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The melting, experts say, has been exacerbated by an increase in local pollution that has worsened due to the region’s militarization. Black carbon or soot from the burning of fossil fuels on the glaciers absorbs sunlight and contaminates waterways, threatening the region’s security of food, water and energy.

The pollution is “a huge environmental onslaught,” engineer Wangchuk said. “Most of it is due to heating shelters that can be easily replaced by non-carbon-based heating systems.”

He added Ladakh today is “probably the densest militarized zone where the civilian-soldier ratio is 1:2.”

The ongoing standoff between India and China has witnessed the deployment of tens of thousands of additional soldiers to the already militarized region.

“Climate change is a global mismanagement while the pollution is a local mismanagement. We’re witnessing devastating effects of the mix in Ladakh,” Wangchuk said.

“It’s not just any little conflict, it’s much more than that and whoever wins we all lose.”

Herders say with access to the usual breeding and birthing grounds blocked by militaries on either side, newborn goats and sheep are perishing in the extreme cold of higher elevations.

Shepherds roamed these pasturelands atop the roof of the world along the unmarked borders with China for centuries where the harsh winds cause the goats to grow their super-soft wool.

Cashmere takes its name from disputed Kashmir, where artisans weave the wool into fine yarn and exquisite clothing items that cost up to thousands apiece in a major handicraft export industry.

Nomad women weave carpets in remote Kharnak village Sept. 17 in the cold desert region of Ladakh, India.

MUKHTAR KHAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

“None of the other products get as much revenue as what they produce and they are the true generators of wealth in Ladakh,” Wangchuk said about Kharnak nomads. “They’re the most precious but they’re the most neglected lot.”

The nomads live a grueling life and follow a strict round-the-clock routine. They milk and shear their animals twice a day, maintain stone-walled pens, weave carpets, collect and sun-dry manure for fire and cook food. Shepherds also shuttle their animals from place to place more often than usual in search of greener grazing areas.

But there’s almost no health care, school or a proper irrigation system.

“It’s a whole year work here, no holidays. Even if you’re sick you’ve got to tend to animals,” Angchuk, the nomad, said. “In a decade or so I think there won’t be any Kharnak nomads although our people will be around. We’ll be history.”

Authorities say they’re doing everything they can to stop the flight of nomads. Today the village has solar panels for electricity, government-built prefab huts and water taps. Some parts have telecommunication coverage.

But the herders say it’s not enough.

Tundup Namgail, the Leh district head of sheep husbandry department, said all facilities notwithstanding, the nomads need to be “lured back on practical terms, not by romanticizing their life.”

The “only way to keep them there is to improve their profitability. Make them rich somehow,” he said.

The ‘urban heat island’ effect has made these 10 cities the most heat-intense in the US

The ‘urban heat island’ effect has made these 10 cities the most heat-intense in the US

Urban heat islands are areas within cities that are hotter than their outlying regions, largely due to albedo—the tendency of a material like asphalt or pavement to absorb, rather than reflect, heat from the sun. Lack of tree cover, an abundance of tall buildings, and population density can amplify this phenomenon as well.

These hot spots generally experience temperatures about 1-7 degrees Fahrenheit higher during the day and 2-5 degrees Fahrenheit higher at night than the surrounding areas. The rise in temperature increases the chances of air pollution and could prove dangerous for those without air conditioning. Urban heat retention isn’t just uncomfortable: it’s a serious public health threat.

More than 80% of Americans live in urban areas, according to Census data. But within these areas, it is almost always those in low-income and underserved neighborhoods that find themselves living in urban heat islands. This makes them not only economically disadvantaged, but also more at risk of the slew of health dangers urban heat islands pose.

Many of the most heat-intense cities in the U.S. are older cities in the Northeast. These are more compact and developed than other parts of the country. They also tend to have taller buildings, which adds to the heat island effect.

New Jersey Real Estate Network examined data from climate change nonprofit Climate Central to find which cities experience the most intense heat due to overbuilding, also known as the urban heat island effect. Out of 159 assessed cities, these 10 had the highest index.

Ryan DeBerardinis // Shutterstock

#10. Providence, Rhode Island

– Index score: 7.08

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface

Providence owes its high heat concentration in part to a large highway (Route 95) that cuts through the city, and its frequently used industrial port. Areas like Pavilion Avenue, which are sparsely covered in tree canopy, are particularly heavily affected.

This means that lower-income and minority members of Providence’s population bear the brunt of the urban heat island effects as is true in almost every other city. For instance, childhood asthma rates are highest in the parts of the city where heat island intensity is also highest. To combat this, the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program is offering citizens the opportunity to have free trees and greenery planted in their areas.

ESB Professional // Shutterstock

#9. Baltimore, Maryland

– Index score: 7.08

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface

The worst of Baltimore’s urban heat island is in the east of the city, especially the neighborhood of Patterson Park. In these areas, temperatures are as much as 20 degrees higher than elsewhere in the city, with heat-hoarding roofs and roads largely to blame.

To lower temperatures, the city is hoping to implement “cool roofs,” which would have collateral benefits for the local economy, flood damage prevention, and public health. The B’More Cool initiative, started in 2014, is investigating where Baltimore’s urban heat islands are the worst and how to best mitigate the damage. Among their sustainable solutions is an unexpected tactic the entire community can help with: composting.

Sean Pavone // Shutterstock

#8. Miami, Florida

– Index score: 7.24

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface

Miami broke new ground in addressing urban heat islands when it inaugurated the world’s first chief heat officer. Since taking the role, Jane Gilbert is devising solutions to dissipate the strength of urban heat islands, and the class inequities in health they dole out. Among these are climate resilience hubs, which will offer relief for residents suffering through a heat spell.

Additionally, Keep Safe Florida is stepping in to assist low-income residents in these hot pockets of the city. The program provides funding for low-income properties to install and update infrastructure to protect against urban heat islands, as well as other effects of climate change.

Mia2you // Shutterstock

#7. Chicago, Illinois

– Index score: 7.24

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface, population density

Chicago’s heat concentration is quite skewed, thanks to the city’s position on Lake Michigan. With the lake’s waters cooling downtown, it is the city’s western suburbs that are heating up disproportionately. The fact that these areas are also increasingly developing, with additional heat-absorbing buildings and structures being constructed, only adds to the intensification.

To fight against this, Chicago’s city government has developed a series of building codes and green infrastructure projects. These include plans to install reflective roofing and rooftop gardens; requiring that newly built flat roofs meet EPA standards; and offering funding for projects that will encourage greenery and other heat island mitigation.

ezellhphotography // Shutterstock

#6. Boston, Massachusetts

– Index score: 7.24

– Main contributors: Building height, population density

Boston’s neighborhoods with high concentrations of pavement, asphalt, dark roofs, and high buildings are where urban heat islands can be found. These include the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Roxbury, and Mattapan.

The city’s Heat Resilience Solutions for Boston is a plan designed to counteract these heat-gulping hot spots, especially during the summer. Strategies laid out include a grant program to fund the installation of cool roofs, as well as plans to distribute cooling kits to the public during outdoor summer gatherings. The Extreme Temperatures Response Task Force has been directed to design action plans to put these ideas into motion.

Marcio Jose Bastos Silva // Shutterstock

#5. San Francisco, California

– Index score: 7.37

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface, population density

San Francisco’s environmentally friendly reputation makes it a receptive city to try solutions for urban heat islands. The Next Generation Urban Greening Project hopes to expand preexisting sustainability programs from the city’s affluent neighborhoods to its poorer ones, where urban heat islands are concentrated. Plans are being considered to redesign sidewalks and buildings to accommodate greenery and reflective materials, even if strategies must be fitted uniquely block by block.

In January 2017, San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. to require at least 15-30% of roof space to have solar panels or greenery. The city’s Clean Air Plan also suggests implementing a “cool parking ordinance,” which would pay particular attention to planting and installing shade materials in parking lots, which are major culprits for absorbing heat.

Daily Travel Photos // Shutterstock

#4. Houston, Texas

– Index score: 7.46

– Main contributors: Impermeable surface, surface color/reflectivity

The Houston Harris Heat Action Team, or H3AT, attempted to map the city’s urban heat islands in 2020 and found that areas close to Richmond Avenue and Chimney Rock Road were noticeably hotter than others. Many of Houston’s hot spots are not random, but the result of past patterns of socioeconomic inequality.

The city’s Third Ward neighborhood has found itself an urban heat island largely because of historical bureaucracy and systemic decision-making that sidelined the community from programs to develop parks and green spaces. Overall, only 18% of the city is shaded. The city would need to plant 2.4 million trees to provide adequate shade for all residents.

Nate Hovee // Shutterstock

#3. New York, New York

– Index score: 7.62

– Main contributors: Building height, impermeable surface, population density

It is perhaps not surprising that the “concrete jungle” is also the third-worst urban heat island in the country. There are over 6,000 high rises and more than 270 skyscrapers in New York City, all of which suck in the sun’s rays and heat up the city. The NYC CoolRoofs project paints urban rooftops around the city white, which lessens the extent to which they absorb heat. The initiative focuses on providing this service to nonprofits, low-income residential areas, community centers, and schools.

Cool Neighborhoods NYC, established in 2017, has dedicated $106 million to reverse the city’s heat-hungry infrastructure—$82 million alone will be used to plant trees in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. New York’s one saving grace is Central Park, which cools the areas around it. However, as the park’s surrounding neighborhoods are some of the wealthiest in the city, low-income residents are once again disproportionately affected by urban heat.

Andriy Blokhin // Shutterstock

#2. Newark, New Jersey

– Index score: 7.71

– Main contributors: Impermeable surface, building height, population density

Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood suffers significantly from heat hoarding, in part because of its population density: It is home to around 50,000 people within 4 square miles. It doesn’t help that the neighborhood is also slated for construction projects that will increase its tall, heat-absorbing structures, including a six-story apartment building, a 13-story retail space, and an 11-story building near Penn Station.

To understand why Newark’s urban heat islands exist where they do, one can look as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, when funding was allocated to other neighborhoods of the city. This led to many Newark residents—including a disproportionate number from lower income and minority neighborhoods—lacking heat-deflecting green spaces while other areas in the wealthier North Ward received more investment, more trees—and decades later, less heat.

quiggyt4 // Shutterstock

#1. New Orleans, Louisiana

– Index score: 8.94

– Main contributors: Surface color/reflectivity, impermeable surface

New Orleans’ lack of tall buildings may offer an aesthetic benefit, but it leaves the city with a climate disadvantage, lacking much shade from the sun. The city also has a high number of dark roofs and roads, in combination with a low amount of greenery. Hurricane Ida worsened the city’s ability to fight against intense heat, cutting residents off from power, and with it the ability to use fans or air conditioners.

The city government has pledged to reverse this and reach 30-40% of the city covered in green areas by 2030. Supplementing this, Sustaining Our Urban Landscape has planted 5,000 trees in the last five years alone, attempting to compensate for the 100,000 trees lost during Hurricane Katrina.

This story originally appeared on New Jersey Real Estate Network and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

Sean Pavone // Shutterstock

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The post Ladakh herders endeavor to avoid wasting future amid local weather disaster appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

NEW YORK (WPIX) – Police officers and a good Samaritan in New York City rescued a man who suffered a possible medical issue and fell onto the city’s subway tracks on Thanksgiving, police said.

NYPD Officers Brunel Victor and Taufique Bokth were conducting a transit sweep at the station, located at East 116 Street and Lexington Avenue, when officers were told by other riders that a man had fallen onto the tracks. Police immediately left the station to re-enter through the northbound side in order to reach the man, officials said.

Bodycam video released by the NYPD shows the officers rushing down to the subway platform and finding the victim on the track, where another rider was already trying to assist. Together with the good Samaritan, police were able to lift the 40-year-old man back to the platform and out of harm’s way.

One of the officers, however, was still on the track after helping to lift the man — even as the uptown 6 train approached, the footage shows.

He is soon helped back up the platform, with just seconds to spare before the train comes into the station.

Suspect hijacks city bus in San Francisco, smashes into cars, video shows

While waiting for medical help, another responding officer was able to help the victim using his prior medical training. The man was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted a video of the rescue on Friday, describing the responding officers’ actions as heroic.

“For the officers who rescued a man from an oncoming train after he accidentally fell on the subway tracks yesterday in Manhattan — courage is second nature. Join me in saluting these great cops,” the commissioner wrote.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber also issued a statement praising the officers and the good Samaritan as well as state and city officials.

“The joint commitment by [Gov. Kathy Hochul] other [Mayor Eric Adams] to have additional NYPD officers patrol in subway stations and on trains not only helps riders feel safer, but in this case, enabled brave officers and a good Samaritan — in the finest tradition of New Yorkers helping each other — to save a life,” Lieber said.

The post WATCH: NYPD, good Samaritan save man who fell on subway tracks moments earlier than practice approaches appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Inflation is at the highest point in over 40 years, the finance and tech sectors are suffering from a significant economic downturn, and the city’s tax base appears to be on a course of a collision with an iceberg.

These are the realities in San Francisco — and many economic forecast seminars indicate that the economy won’t come back fully until 2025. If we don’t act now, we are in for a bumpy ride.

There is a solution. If we double down on tourism, we can save our city.

To understand the importance of tourism, one must first look at the numbers. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, San Francisco welcomed more than 26 million visitors, who spent over $10 billion in our local economy. That spending generated over $819 million in taxes and fees for our city’s general fund, the majority coming from the hospitality industry. The industry employed more than 86,000 people in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

Additionally, unlike some sectors of our economy, tourism is a “consensus” industry: we all benefit when tourism does well. Specifically, it benefits our workers, our tax base, our restaurants, small businesses and it gives San Franciscans something to be proud of. The tax money we get from tourism pays for critical city services and programs.

Tourism in the modern era is significantly impacted by the global economy and geopolitical realities. When energy and food costs go up, or when a foreign country limits travel here, tourism is negatively impacted.

That is particularly why we must be proactive and surgical with our efforts to enhance tourism.

The good news is we have recently seen some steps in the right direction, particularly as it relates to cleanliness, public safety and with workers coming back to the office. Tourist destinations such as Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf are noticeably cleaner and safer than they were last year. City leadership, Business Improvement Districts (such as the Union Square Alliance), the hospitality industry and the broader tourism industry have collectively taken collaborative efforts to push forward with this positive momentum.

The most obvious example of that collaboration was the recent Dreamforce convention, where everything went incredibly well and gave San Francisco the opportunity to show the world that it is open again for large-scale conventions. In fact, speaking to people visiting the convention from other cities was eye-opening. Many people indicated that our city was in better shape than what they had seen in the news, and in some situations, in better shape than their own respective cities.

Nonetheless, there are still numerous challenges we all see daily on our streets and much more work to do.

Mayor Breed’s recent expansion of the Street Ambassador program is a good step in the right direction. We need to take additional action to ensure that the street conditions within the 1-mile radius around Moscone (the city’s convention center) are among the best in San Francisco. Although easier said than done, that requires increased resources dedicated to safety and cleanliness. It also includes low-cost improvements, such as an upgraded street sign system to help pedestrians get to Moscone.

We also need to start encouraging people to visit our city. In fact, now that Union Square is in noticeably better shape than last year, we can all help by visiting this holiday season (much like how people did before the pandemic).

Additionally, we have a special opportunity to change the trajectory of our city’s recovery if we continue to act in the coming year. San Francisco will have a competitive advantage to attract environmentally conscious tourists, because starting in January, we will be the most environmentally sustainable tourism destination in the country. The hospitality industry in San Francisco will be making massive strides in using renewable energy, expanding electric vehicle charging options, and producing close to zero waste. January is also when we have our JP Morgan Convention, a chance again to work collaboratively to ensure that the city’s tourism industry starts the year off right.

Our city has some of the most beautiful parks and views in the world. In fact, we recently made National Geographic’s top 25 best worldwide destinations for travelers. We have some of the best restaurants, coffee, and wine anyone could ask for. We just need to keep pushing forward on the recent positive momentum to reap greater rewards.

Some people left San Francisco during the pandemic, but many of you stayed. You stayed because this is your home, and because in some capacity, you believe in the magic of San Francisco.

As a native San Franciscan, I too believe in this city. It is why I moved back to the city from LA, even though I loved it there, even though where I lived there — Glendale, CA — also felt like home. Unlike the people who left San Francisco due to its challenges, I came back at this pivotal moment because I chose to bet on our city and its tourism industry.

I hope our city does the same — and doubles down on that bet as well.

Alex Bastian is the President and CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco.

The post It’s time to double down on tourism to avoid wasting San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

The post Switching to environment friendly, electrical HVAC home equipment might save Oregon $1.1B by means of 2050, research finds appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Odds are that most San Franciscans have never even heard of the Lake Merced Tunnel, but it’s a historic piece of 19th century infrastructure that’s critical to keeping the city’s sewers flowing without dumping filth straight into the Pacific Ocean.

It’s also in danger of being destroyed by that same ocean, as climate change sends the tides creeping ever inward, forcing the city to embark on a $150 million-plus preservation plan.

According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the Lake Merced Tunnel is a 14-foot wide drainage pipe that runs underneath the Great Highway and serves the Oceanside Treatment Plant and related pumping station on Ocean Beach.

The plant is one of three in SF responsible for sanitizing both stormwater and sewer discharges before dumping them, and handles about 20 percent of the city’s wastewater.

When there’s too much waste for the plant to take in all at once, like during big storms, the overflow goes into the Lake Merced Tunnel.

While being a giant sewer pipe may not sound very impressive, when it was built in 1896, the San Francisco Call hailed the tunnel as “one of the most difficult pieces of engineering work ever undertaken in the state” and gushed about its completion in just 17 months despite “many difficulties encountered in eddies of subterranean water.” (Note that the tunnel predates the treatment plant by nearly 100 years; the Oceanside facility wasn’t built until 1993, adapting the existing tunnel for its purposes.)

The tunnel was one of the crowning achievements of what you might call a sewer century in San Francisco.

“Back in the 1800s we built more sewers than anyone,” George Engel, an operations manager at the SF Public Utilities Commission, tells Curbed SF.

“We still have in the order of 100 miles of sewers” from the 19th century in operation in San Francisco today, Engels adds, tunnel included.

The Lake Merced Tunnel, like the entire apparatus that disposes of SF’s waste, is a bit of a hidden gem. In 2014 SPUR marveled at the “invisible infrastructure” that keeps the system moving but also out of sight of the beach-going public.

But this obscure bit of plumbing is important—and it’s also in serious danger. The Planning Department warns that erosion and sea level rise threaten to swamp the tunnel and related infrastructure in the near future.

The city has not said in so many words that the coastal water plant itself is in danger—SFist describes the facility as potentially being “flushed into the Pacific”—but there is important plumbing infrastructure inland of the tunnel, and it is plausible to imagine more elaborate problems in the future.

To counter this aquatic encroachment, the city has a $151.3 million plan to pushback the ocean.

In a November memo SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly laid out the two critical initiatives: removing several thousand feet of the Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline Boulevard (a stretch that is doomed to be eaten away), and creating a “multipurpose coastal protection/restoration /access system.”

That last one is a broad term consisting of actions ranging from “managed retreat” of the shoreline to “beach nourishment”—ie, carting in vast amounts of sand to replace eroded material (something the city already does every year).

The city hopes to begin actual construction work in 2023.

As the San Francisco Examiner notes, the current price tag has swelled some $60 million compared to previous estimates. The city blames “refinements” in the construction plan for increasing costs.

In 2015, environmental group Surfrider advised that the city consider relocating the Lake Merced Tunnel altogether, arguing that since “sea level rise and climate change‐driven storms are due to intensify in the years ahead” that keeping the tunnel where it is only delays the inevitable, but SFPUC will nevertheless move forward trying to preserve the tunnel at its original location.

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Efforts to address the dueling mental health and substance abuse crises on California’s streets have ramped up in recent years. The latest and showiest of these efforts is the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court, put forth by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Pitched as an “upstream diversion” to prevent people with severe mental illness from ending up incarcerated or conserved, CARE Courts would work like this: First, any family member, case worker, or first-responder, including police, who believes a person needs intervention for mental health or substance use issues, could make a referral to a civil court. The person in need of care would then receive a clinical evaluation by their county behavioral health system. A public defender and case manager would then be assigned, and a CARE plan would be drafted, which could include a 12-month plan for medication, housing , and behavioral health treatment.

The plan is flashy. It’s well-branded. But dig just a little under the surface, and things don’t look so shiny. For a bill centered around care, it’s remarkably careless. And if San Francisco officials were hoping CARE Courts will sweep in to solve our issues for us, consider that idea dead in the water.

San Francisco has long battled with the ethical quandary of whether it is more humane to force someone who is very ill into involuntary treatment or grant them the freedom to make their own decisions about their life and care. Much of the discussion around CARE Courts centers on this debate. And these are valuable conversations to have.

But it’s doubtful CARE Courts will even get that far.

The most glaring flaw is a lack of funding and key infrastructure. The bill creates an entirely new system that can be used to compel treatment but includes only $65 million to support court expansion. It relies on already oversubscribed county programs to somehow accommodate an influx of new patients in need of court-mandated drug abuse treatment, mental health care and housing.

That a lack of resources is available to accommodate these mandates is obvious. Our existing systems to address the intersection of mental health and substance use issues can hardly operate. People accepted to mental health diversion programs are languishing in the county jail for months waiting for a bed to open. The lead judge of San Francisco’s Adult Drug Court said at a March Board of Supervisors hearing that due to this shortage, his staff has abandoned hope of getting anyone with both diagnoses into a treatment program. And a Damning Board of Supervisors hearing last week discussed five people who have taken more than 1,700 ambulance rides in the past five years, costing the city upward of $4 million. When mental health professionals tried to preserve one person, there was nowhere to put them.

California — and in particular, San Francisco — is already suffering from a severe shortage of behavioral health workers. In interviews with employees from both nonprofit and city health programs, we were told repeatedly that there simply isn’t anyone to hire for a growing number of vacant positions.

Across the bay, it’s not much better. A civil grand jury report on Alameda County’s behavioral health found understaffing on crisis phone lines, and incarceration used in place of psychiatric treatment.

When asked about the lack of funding attached to this bill, Newsom’s senior counselor Jason Elliott said that, “The whole thing only succeeds if we massively expand the behavioral health clinical network.” He noted that since Newsom took office in 2020, $4.5 billion has been allocated for this purpose across the state. “I have a hard time with the argument that we haven’t invested enough sufficiently to be able to do CARE Court,” he said.

But the results have been slow to appear: In the past two years, San Francisco has added only 180 new psychiatric treatment beds. It currently has none to spare. And CARE Courts would be implemented next year.

With this lack of attention to resources, it’s almost certain that CARE Court will fall flat. If San Francisco, a city with a $14 billion annual budget, can’t find a single bed for someone racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in ambulance rides, how will smaller, less wealthy, counties fare with these new requirements?

This, of course, begs the question: If people could already access health resources, why would they even need a court order?

Until we provide more housing and treatment beds, train, hire and fund behavioral health workers, and improve access to care for people at every step of their journey to recovery, we may never find out.

Correction: An earlier version of this column misstated the amount the state had allocated for behavioral health.

This commentary is from The Chronicle’s editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.

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Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

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Good morning, Bay Area. It’s Thursday, April 21, and the Bay Area will get another round of wet weather by the weekend. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

A Sonoma County town is the guinea pig for a California project that will relocate buildings and roadways from a rapidly eroding coastline.

For years, state officials have opted to brace California’s sweeping cliffs to allow developers to build on the edge. They’re now also asking coastal towns to consider “managed retreats,” the relocation of beachfront homes and structures inland, before powerful waves do it for them.

It’s a contentious idea for locals who fear having their private property bought out, or are opposed to the imposition of a coastal management program. Policymakers and planners are watching Gleason Beach to see whether the controversial proposal will save that part of Highway 1 and the scenery there.

• More climate news: A marine “heat wave” forming in the North Pacific Ocean has the potential to get close to the California coast by fall.

Expert Opinion

Commuters with and without masks travel on a BART train in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

COVID guidelines are changing rapidly, the most recent of which was the rescinding of mask mandates on public transit. Should you still heed prior precautions?

If you ask Bay Area medical experts, the answer is yes. Much is still unknown about the long-term effects of a COVID infection. Plus, it’s possible advances in treatments and vaccines can further reduce the severity of sickness.

Not everyone can avoid the virus, one Stanford doctor said, so taking precautions to minimize community transmission can make things safer for people who are more vulnerable to the virus.

Read more from Danielle Echeverria on what experts recommend doing as mask mandates drop across the country.

• COVID hospitalizations are falling in California despite a rise in infections.

What to eat

Ishiyaki is a hot stone rice bowl mixed with different types of fish.

Justin Katigbak/Special to The Chronicle

The headline on Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho’s latest review baffled me at first: “Why the most unforgettable dish at this Japanese restaurant is a bowl of rice.”

It’s not simply a bowl of rice, it turns out — at San Mateo’s Yuzu, it’s a mishmash of crispy, seared grains mixed with whatever fish that chef-owner Yoichi Arima decides to add in that day. Toasted rice is the star of the show at Yuzu, influenced by a variety of other cuisines.

Can’t make it down to San Mateo? Whet your appetite for Japanese food with The Chronicle’s recommendations for the top Japanese and sushi in the rest of the Bay Area.

Around the Bay

Bay Area may get even more rain this month.

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

• Drought updates:
More rain is heading to the Bay Area, and more snow is bound for the Sierra Nevada this week.

• “We made it”
: A San Francisco man has walked free after 31 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction.

• New find: A “stunning” jellyfish species has been identified for the first time in Monterey Bay.

• More space: The Presidio’s historic Battery Bluff will be San Francisco’s next urban park, with nearly 40 acres of green space available to the public.

• Identified: The family of an Oakland woman who was shot dead in her home is “shocked” after the devastating incident.

• Over the rainbow: Join Chronicle arts and culture writer Tony Bravo on a walking tour of San Francisco’s preeminent gayborhood, packed with history, landmarks and tales of queer heroes.

• Election win: What happens to District 6 now that Supervisor Matt Haney is headed to the Assembly? Analysis: Here’s what Haney’s Assembly victory means for YIMBY activists making inroads into progressive factions.

• Opinion: Why are SF’s supervisory district boundaries set geographically? Here’s a better way to ensure fairness.

Breaking down the numbers

Admission policy for Lowell High School in San Francisco is still a contentious point.

Bronte Wittpenn / The Chronicle

San Francisco’s elite public high school, Lowell, is still embroiled in a public battle over competitive admissions.

Its next freshmen class will be the second selected largely by lottery rather than academic merit, after the school board permanently rehauled the process, arguing the old method was elitist and discriminated against underrepresented Black and brown students.

But how does the racial makeup of his student body compare to others around the city?

Asian American students have made up an image of the student body at Lowell for the past four decades. But the numbers show that two other high schools in the district have larger shares of Asian students, while several others have less diverse populations compared with Lowell.

See the data from Nami Sumida.

Bay Briefing is written by Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) and sent to readers’ email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writer at gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com.

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