After much back and forth on the subject, and despite acknowledging it may not be financially feasible any time soon, the South San Francisco City Council indicated it is now ready to place a question on November’s ballot that could allow the city to own and operate public housing.

The measure, spearheaded by Councilmember James Coleman, would permit the city to build or buy low-income housing with public dollars, something that requires voter approval as a result of Article 34 of the state Constitution.

Coleman’s argued the move could not only allow the city to bypass the 1950 amendment that’s been widely criticized as racist, but allow the city to more efficiently provide below-market-rate apartments. The prevailing method in the state is for jurisdictions to subsidize nonprofit developers to carry out the task.

During previous meetings, however, his colleagues have been less enthusiastic, both pointing to untenable cost projections and lost funding for schools that would not receive property tax revenue from city-owned developments.

But while those concerns were largely maintained this week, the council appeared swayed by impassioned input from residents, many of whom pointed to the state law’s beleaguered legacy.

“If we want to move forward with progressive, inclusive and equitable [policies] … it starts with changing laws that were just unjust, that were not supposed to be,” Councilmember Eddie Flores said. “These numbers, right now, don’t pan out, I’m fully aware of that, but we’re not building right now.”

The ballot question will request permission to add the equivalent of 1% of the city’s housing stock, roughly 225 units, annually over the course of the next eight years. The numbers would roll over and not expire, meaning the city could build all 1,800 units at any point in the future.

However, Councilmember Mark Addiego said the housing may not be built within the current council’s tenure, the measure, more importantly, would gauge public interest and allow the city to be ready to build if state funding became available.

“Even if it’s not right for today, things change,” he said.

A city study found that in current conditions, a 150-unit apartment building, with rents set at $1,713 to $2,375 depending on bedrooms (considered affordable for “very-low income” residents, per the state) would cost the city roughly $84.8 million to construct and operate. That cost could be reduced to $47.1 million with the use of low-income housing tax credits — federal and state assistance for which the city would need to compete.

The council also looked at the potential of a mixed-income project, with half the apartments affordable and the others set at market rates. That project wouldn’t qualify for the state assistance, and would still cost the city $53.8 million, according to the report. The market-rate units would also cost $463,000 in lost property taxes, $320,000 from school district earmarks (The below-market rate units would similarly not pay taxes, though, it was noted that would be the case even if provided by a private developer) .

“The taxes that would not be going to the school district, those are the things that scare me,” said Vice Mayor Buenaflor Nicolas, who also conceded her support after recognizing the “racial tone.”

At the time of its passing, Article 34 was backed heavily by the real estate industry, with proponents arguing taxpayers should have a say on low-income housing projects, as they were publicly funded. But ads at the time also played heavily into fears of neighborhood integration and socialism. The law also came on the heels of a 1949 federal law that outlawed segregation in public housing.

Constitutional amendments require two-thirds voter approval, a threshold not met during at least three attempts to change the rule, most recently in 1993. While there have been efforts more recently, it’s unclear when repeating the rule could again land on the state ballot.

A bill that would create a state authority for public housing, however, made its way to the Senate, where it fell one vote short of passage out of the Governance and Finance Committee. Assembly Bill 2053, authored by South Bay Assemblymember Alex Lee, would not repeal Article 34, but would support public housing construction. It will likely be reintroduced.

“There has been an unprecedented amount of movement in the state Legislature to pass pro-social housing bills,” Coleman said. “If South San Francisco passes Article 34, guess what, we’re first in line to access that funding.”

The council will ultimately vote on whether to place the question on the ballot during a future meeting, ahead of an Aug. 12 deadline for items to make it to the Nov. 8 election.

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In California overall, prices dropped year-over-year, as sales collapsed, supply more than doubled. No dear, this isn’t just a seasonal dip.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

San Francisco and Silicon Valley are now in the solid leadership role of the housing bust playing out in California with sales collapsing and prices heading south from the peak in April at an astonishing pace.

Just about everything that could come together came together. After a two-year outflux of workers due to working from anywhere, there came the collapse of the startup and crypto scenes, starting in 2021 and continuing unabated, leading to the early entries into my pantheon of Imploded Stocks. In early 2022 came the spike in mortgage rates. In mid-2022 came the downturn in employment at Big Tech. By that time, the Fed had been hiking its policy rates relentlessly, and Quantitative Tightening had kicked off. This was punctuated over the past two months by the chaotic dismantling of the workforce at Twitter and its ecosystem.

Local budgets have fallen into deep deficits – although most are still flush with cash from the pandemic funds received from the federal government and the state.

Vacant office space that is on the market for lease and sublease continues to balloon, while landlords have started to file for huge reductions in assessment values ​​to lower their property taxes, which is going to cut revenues further.

This comes garnished by stories in the New York Times that Twitter stopped paying rent on its leased office spaces, and that it was instructed not to pay vendors. At least one of those unpaid vendors – a Silicon Valley company whose software Twitter had licensed – filed a lawsuit last week in the San Francisco Superior Court for nonpayment. It stated, “shortly after Musk’s purchase of Twitter closed, Twitter refused to pay the outstanding quarterly invoice, which was due on November 30, 2022, and Twitter disclaimed any obligation to pay any future invoices…”

These are all signs that the housing market is going to get a lot messier. Prices have plunged the most in San Francisco, followed by the Silicon Valley counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara.

In San Francisco.

The median price of single-family houses sold in November in San Francisco plunged by 11.4% from October to $1.50 million, and by 27% from the peak in April, according to the California Association of Realtors. A nasty-looking chart:

Condo prices plunged by 4.3% from the prior month to $1.15 million, and by 9.5% year-over-year. Since the peak in April, the median condo price is down by 15.5%. Condo sales in November have collapsed by 49%.

Seasonally, the lowest months are December and January. So that’s still to come.

But who is going to buy in the spring selling season? Prices normally rise as demand picks up in the spring; but who will be the exuberant tech workers that will want to overpay for a house by borrowing against the collapsed value of their stock options? Those lucky ones that still have jobs and stock options?

The housing markets in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are tied to the boom-and-bust cycles of the startup scene – now combined with the crypto scene and cryptos – and they’re tied to the stocks of startups and big tech and social media companies in the area, to the jobs that have to be done locally, and to the value of the stock options. All of them are puking.

Year-over-year, the median price of single-family houses in San Francisco plunged by 21%, the sixth month in a row of year-over-year declines. It was the biggest year-over-year plunge since the peak of Housing Bust 1:

Silicon Valley, San Mateo County.

The median price of single-family houses in San Mateo County, which forms the northern part of Silicon Valley, plunged by 6.2% from October to $1.78 million, and by 26% from the peak in April.

Year-over-year, the median house price plunged by 20%.

Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County.

Santa Clara County, which forms the southern part of Silicon Valley and includes the Bay Area’s largest city, San Jose, is lagging behind but is moving right along. The median price of single-family houses dropped by 1.5% in November from October to $1.60 million, and by 19% from the peak in April:

Year-over-year, the median house price dropped by 5.5%, the first significant year-over-year decline in this cycle. Prices had already undergone significant year-over-year declines in 2018 and 2019, and were on a downward path until the trillions in money-printing, the surge in the stock market, and the interest rate repression began to boost prices again.

Currently, Santa Clara County lags San Francisco and San Mateo by a few months, it seems.

In all of California.

Sales of single-family houses in California collapsed by 47.7% in November, compared to a year ago, the biggest decline since 1980, according to the California Association of Realtors. Condo sales collapsed by 46%.

Unsold inventory more than doubled year-over-year to a supply of 3.3 months, and days on the market also more than doubled – before sellers pulled the unsold homes off the market again.

For all of California, the median price of single-family houses plunged another 3.0% in November from October, which pushed the price down year-over-year (-0.6%). The median condo price fell 2.1% in November from October, which whittled down the year-over-year gain to just 2.7%.

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A Bay Area chef dedicated to Cajun gumbo with California twists is opening a permanent restaurant in San Francisco.

Dontaye Ball of Gumbo Social, whose steaming pots of chicken-sausage and smoked turkey gumbo have drawn a following at the Outer Sunset’s weekly Sunset Mercantile on Sundays, will open his first restaurant at 5176 Third St. in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. The space was previously home to longtime soul food restaurant Frisco Fried, which closed in late August.

The restaurant will open early next year with Ball’s popular gumbo, lauded by San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho, who declared Ball’s gumbo one of the region’s best for its unapologetically Californian additions, like local okra and chicken brined in kombu. Ball wants diners at the new restaurant to be able to “hack” the Gumbo Social menu, with a melange of add-ons in homage to the build-your-own gumbo bars he hosted in the early days of the business. People can opt to add pork belly or lobster to the chicken-sausage gumbo, or roasted jackfruit to a vegan gumbo that will always be available.

“If you want the smoked turkey gumbo with scallops, crab and shrimp, you can do it,” Ball said.

Gumbo Social will serve several kinds of po’boy sandwiches, including shrimp, above.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

The restaurant will also serve more po’ boys than the single sandwich offered at the Gumbo Social farmers’ market stand (there, it’s either grilled shrimp, chicken or sausage). Ball plans to come up with new, seasonal vegetable dishes using produce sourced from the farmers he’s connected to at the Outer Sunset market. To start, dessert will also come courtesy of another popular market purveyor: Yes Pudding, known for its luscious banana pudding. That and bottled lemonades from Oakland’s Gourmonade will also be sold in a retail section.

Ball plans to apply for a beer and wine license; if he gets it, expect to see local producers like Harmonic Brewing, Speakeasy Ales & Lagers and the Bayview’s Gratta Wines. He hopes to decorate the space with art from Bayview artists, including possibly a mural.

Gumbo Social will be open during the day to start, with the possibility of dinner based on demand, Ball said. He’s envisioning banquette seating and a sit-in counter to enable the kind of interaction he’s able to have with customers at the farmers’ market stand. (Even after the restaurant opens, Gumbo Social will continue serving food in the Outer Sunset.)

Gumbo Social owner Dontaye Ball is bringing his gumbo to a permanent Bayview restaurant.

Felix Uribe/Special to The Chronicle

Ball is launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for renovations. “It’s challenging for Black-owned businesses to get funding through traditional banking and lending services,” he said in an announcement. “This Kickstarter is a way for us to negate some of those challenges.”

Ball, a San Francisco native who calls himself “Mr. Gumbo,” learned to make the dish from his grandmother. He went on to work at restaurants in France and San Francisco, including Italian institution Delfina, before devoting himself to what he’s called “the most important food to American culture.”

Despite Gumbo Social’s popularity, he said, he realized he needed to expand beyond pop-ups to keep the business going. He’s excited to open in the Bayview, where he started his gumbo pop-ups, and hopes his food will draw more people to the neighborhood.

“It gives us a foothold,” Ball said. “It gives me an opportunity to start building something special in the community.”

Gumbo Social. Opening spring 2023. 5176 Third St., San Francisco. gumbosocial.com

Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany

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$ 64 million for San Francisco council housing vote

A measure to provide US $ 64 million for social housing was approved by the city’s board of directors 8-3 on Tuesday. after 48 hills. As part of the measure, the money will be channeled into a municipal program called the Small Sites Housing Acquisition Program, which will buy apartments whose tenants are threatened with eviction and keep the building affordable over the long term. Mayor London Breed rejected the measure on the grounds that the Small Sites program was problematic. Breed has yet to approve spending on the program, but approving the measure gives advocates more leverage. Once the move was passed, Breed announced a plan to reform the small site program by adding an additional $ 10 million in funding, possibly a sign that she will work with the board of directors to spend the money.

The money was raised through a property transfer tax on property sales valued at more than $ 10 million confirmed by voters last year. The money from this tax goes to the city’s general fund, and the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, has been reluctant to use it for affordable housing. Proponents of the development disagree with spending on social housing, saying that given the city’s supply problem, money should be poured into building rather than renovating housing. Proponents of the measure assume, however, that the city could use the income from an expanded housing stock in the long term to eventually build new units.

The vote, supported by a coalition of tenants, workers’ and community organizations, was a huge win for proponents of housing. The program’s ability to buy property on a large scale, keep it affordable and build new units will be a test of the viability of social housing as a sustainable solution to current housing pressures.

In one tweeted, wrote the council of municipal housing organizations: “Next step: quickly buy apartments in each neighborhood and secure the political commitment to permanent allocation of the annual income.”

Developers are building more mass-produced “granny apartments”

In response to new statewide laws making it easier to build additional residential units on private land, some property developers are experiencing a boom in the production of mass-produced “granny flats”. A company that makes mass-produced homes, HomeQuest, tThe old OC register had increased its business by 300 percent after the legal changes. ADUs do not always contribute to the housing stock – it can be home offices or guest houses, but ADUs that are operated as rental apartments are usually cheaper than market-driven apartments in an apartment building.

California Flunks Housing ‘Report Card’

Downsizing California’s Housing Landscapes: The Southern California News Group released a “Housing Permit Report” showing the state is lagging behind in affordable housing. According to the OC Register – owned by the News Group – the state’s cities and counties combined issued 109,000 housing permits in 2020, 73 percent of which were for building units for high-income earners and only 16 percent for low-income earners. That does not correspond to the demand, which according to the News Group amounts to around 41.5 percent for low and high earners and the remaining 17 percent for middle earners. According to the certificate, only 20 of the state’s 538 jurisdictions are on track to fulfill their housing mandate for each income bracket.

St. Louis may charge a conversion fee to obtain apartment buildings

A St. Louis city council is working on a bill to impose a fee on developers converting apartment buildings into single-family homes St. Louis Public Radio. The city lost 400 residential units as a result of these renovations. Although the legislation has not yet been written, it is based on the legislation passed in Chicago, which only applies to the Pilsen district and the area of ​​hiking trails 606. Chicago’s legislation was enacted this April and expires in April 2022; The cost of demolishing an apartment building to be replaced by a single family home is $ 5,000 per unit and demolishing a two-family or townhouse is $ 15,000. It’s unclear whether such a low markup would deter deconversion in Chicago, which hasn’t released data on the ordinance’s success, or in St. Louis, but lawmakers are under increasing pressure to try different tactics to deliver apartment buildings in.

Roshan Abraham is Next City’s Housing Correspondent and a former Equitable Cities Fellow. He is based in Queens. Follow him on Twitter at @roshantone.

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Democrats abruptly postponed an expected House vote on Friday on their $ 1.85 trillion ten-year social and environmental measure as the struggle between progressives and moderates re-emerged as the pillar of the president’s domestic agenda Distracted Joe Biden.

To give him the victory he needed, leaders were still preparing to push an accompanying package of $ 1 trillion in road and other infrastructure projects through the chamber and to his desk. But even the fate of this popular bill designed to create jobs in all states was questionable.

The messed up plans put a new face on a party that has been struggling for weeks to take advantage of its control of the White House and Congress by advancing its top priorities. That was difficult, in part because of the low Democratic majorities as bitter internal divisions are forcing House leaders to miss several self-imposed deadlines for voting.

“Welcome to my world,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told reporters, adding, “We are not a lock-step party.”

TO UPDATE: House of Representatives Approves $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate

Democratic leaders had hoped the House of Representatives would approve both measures on Friday, bringing double triumphs to a president and a party that recover from this week’s deflationary elections and want to show they can rule.

The party’s gubernatorial candidates were defeated in Virginia and squeaked through in New Jersey, two blue-leaning states. Democrats can hardly afford to be in disarray a year before the midterm elections, which could result in Republicans regaining control of Congress.

The president and first lady Jill Biden delayed their plans to travel to their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Friday night so he could try to break the traffic jam. He spoke to House leaders, moderates and progressives, said a White House official, who described the talks on condition of anonymity.

Instead of approving the Infrastructure Bill to give Biden a chance at a winning lap, a group of progressives threatened to vote against it. They have long been calling for the two bills to be voted on jointly in order to put pressure on the moderates to support the larger, more expansive social measure.

With the Democrats only losing three votes and able to prevail in the narrowly divided house, Pelosi said she would move forward anyway, saying she “felt pretty good” about the support.

Pelosi has refused to vote on bills for years unless she had any certainty that they would go through to avoid embarrassing defeat.

Democrats’ day shattered when, after hours of discussion, half a dozen moderates insisted they would vote against the massive package of health, education, family and climate initiatives unless the congressional bipartisan budget bureau first put forward its cost estimate for the measure.

Democratic leaders said it would take days or more. With Friday’s delay and legislators’ plans to leave town for a week-long hiatus, it could mean budget estimates are ready by the time the vote is taken.

Adjusted the party’s timetable for the final passage of the $ 1.85 trillion measure to reflect political reality, Pelosi said that once the CBO numbers are in, “we will have a Thanksgiving present for the American people” .

In a letter to her colleagues announcing the new voting plan, she wrote: “The agenda we are advancing is transformative and historic, and therefore challenging.”

The infrastructure move smoothly cleared the Senate in August with bipartisan support including support from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The package would allocate huge sums to each state for freeway, mass transit, broadband, airport, drinking and sewage, power grids, and other projects.

But it became a pawn in the long struggle for leverage between the progressives and moderates of the Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Who heads the 95-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the bipartisan joint White House and Congress tax committee provided all the tax information lawmakers needed to draft the sweeping bill.

“If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would give them this time – after that we can vote on both bills together,” she wrote. That strongly suggested that at least some progressives would vote against the infrastructure bill on Friday.

Early Friday, when Biden met reporters to present a strong monthly job report, he said he would “make some calls” to lawmakers. He said he would ask them “to vote yes to these two laws now”.

The House’s approval of Biden’s larger measure would send her to the Senate, where she would face certain changes and more democratic dramas. This is mainly due to the demands of Sens. Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona to contain the costs of the measure and to curb or stop some of their initiatives.

Pelosi met with Hispanic lawmakers late Thursday who wanted the immigrants to stay in the US as much as possible. However, your chances of taking bold action are limited by the strict regulations of the Senate. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, DN.Y., said Friday that they had discussed other bills to move the issue forward and saw Pelosi as an ally.

Pelosi’s strategy seemed to be geared towards getting the most robust social and climate legislation possible, leaving it to the Senate to change or drop parts that its members disagree with. Because of Manchin and Sinema, the 2,100-page size was cut to about half the original $ 3.5 trillion.

Republicans reject the measure as too expensive and harmful to the people.

The package would help large numbers of Americans pay for health care, child-rearing, and home care for the elderly. There would be lower prescription drug costs as Medicare would be able, for the first time, to negotiate lower prices for some drugs with drug companies, a long-term Democratic priority.

The package would provide about $ 555 billion in tax breaks to promote cleaner energy and electric vehicles. The Democrats added important provisions in the last few days and re-established a new program of paid family vacations and work permits for immigrants.

Much of the cost of the package would be covered by higher taxes for wealthier Americans and large corporations.

Manchin has planned the new family vacation program, which is expected to include four weeks of paid time off, less than the original 12 weeks.

The Senators are also likely to remove a just-added immigration rule that would allow 7 million immigrants in the country to apply for up to two five-year work permits.

© Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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CONCORD (KPIX) – After nearly 20 years, the United States officially left Afghanistan on Tuesday. But it leaves a nation in turmoil and thousands of refugees who are looking for new homes in America and for some in the Bay Area.

Over the weekend, volunteers met at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Concord to start planning relief efforts for Afghan refugees. This includes food, shelter, interpreters, social services and assistance for families with children from infants to teenagers.

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“They left the country with nothing but what they were wearing. So we plan to provide everything for them, ”said Sadique Popal, chairman of the board of the Islamic Center.

On Tuesday afternoon, local Afghans met with Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, who says the state is ready to do its part despite the cost of living in California.

“We have relocated more people from around the world who came here as refugees than in any other state,” said DeSaulnier. “And so we have a good infrastructure. Is it perfect No, but we’re getting better and better. “

But the Afghans also want the federal government to put international pressure on the Taliban to end their brutal oppression of the Afghan people, especially their women, which has made so much progress over the years.

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“They had an education to which they previously had no access. They had prestige that they had no access to before, ”said Popal. “That’s why – we’ve brought them this far, it hurts so much right now! It’s so sad to just leave them there. “

“It just feels like everything that has moved forward in the last 30 years has somehow crumbled,” said Henah Akbar, a young Afghan American who lives in Clayton. “People ask, why has the US been there for 20 years when the Taliban are still there? So it almost feels like a failure. “

But unlike when the Russians left, few Afghans wanted to see the Americans leave, according to Fazel Adiani.

“You have withdrawn a lot of problems,” he said. “They couldn’t bring peace, they couldn’t bring a solution, and they couldn’t decide what to do. But they left the country, left great unrest in the country. “

With the US going as it did, there is little military influence left, but DeSaulnier said the Taliban must be careful or risk isolation from the global community. But will the Taliban even care? Many Afghans believe that they are less interested in building a nation than simply demolishing it.

MORE NEWS: Oakland Police arrest 2 suspects, restore firearms

The organizers say the relief efforts in the Bay Area will encompass every aspect of life for Afghan refugees. For more information on the required requirements, visit noorislamicandculturalcommunitycenter.com.

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SAN FRANCISCO – Democrats across the country say there is a solution that can help resolve the housing affordability crisis, which is what is known as social housing.

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From the state capital’s dome to the San Francisco City Hall, 2021 has sparked all sorts of conversations about the concept of social housing, but there is one problem: most people don’t really know what it is.

“How do I explain this as simply as possible?” State Assembly member Alex Lee thought out loud before landing: “Social housing is a publicly serviced housing estate.”

“Basically, social housing is human-controlled housing,” said Dean Preston, a supervisor for San Francisco.

Both Preston and Lee recently passed laws promoting social housing. Both also point to the success of social housing in Vienna, where 62 percent of the population live in this type of housing, and in Singapore, where that figure is 82 percent.

“It’s something in Europe and Asia that they have had for a very long time. We can derive successful models from it,” said Lee.

It can take many forms, but at its core, social housing means removing a property from the speculative real estate market so that it either belongs to the building’s tenants as a collective or to the government.

Supervisor Preston says San Francisco voters made social housing a reality by passing Proposition I in November.

“What we have taken upon ourselves in San Francisco is that people are not fighting for the same pot of money to actually grow that pot, generate new income and dedicate it to social housing,” said Preston.

Prop I doubles the transfer tax on commercial and residential real estate valued at over $ 10 million, so the fee for transferring ownership of a property to a new buyer goes into a residential stability fund.

This year, that money will be split between the COVID-19 rent relief and a social housing fund. By 2023, 100 percent of the funds will go into social housing. San Francisco’s controller estimates this could generate $ 196 million annually.

To live in social housing in San Francisco, renters would have to earn less than $ 71,700 a year, on average, or less than 80% of AMI.

“I’m 100 percent for social housing,” said Kristen Panti, an educator who lives in the San Francisco Mission District.

Panti is a unicorn in that she has lived in her building since 1989, taught on the street and just had her first second-generation student.

“I’ve been in my job since ’91, my first year I had a child whose son was in my class 2 years ago,” said Panti.

When her landlady decided to sell her building a few years ago, she thought she would be evicted.

“I was a wreck,” said Panti.

Instead, the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), a nonprofit organization, stepped in and bought them with the help of the city’s small site program. If the city owns the building instead of a not-for-profit, this would be an example of public housing.

“For teachers, something has to be done for all workers who are low-income people,” said Panti.

Many people have a bad relationship with what was formerly called “The Projects,” a form of public housing in the United States. Public housing failed because it was largely defused and extremely separate.

“Many homes were designed for the storage of color communities and the storage of the poor, and they were doomed to sabotage,” Lee said.

Preston and Lee say that public housing is not doomed, it just needs to have a variety of incomes and enough money to make it work.

“Fund it to start with, right? I mean, part of the reason people have a negative relationship with public housing is that it has been underfunded for generations, ”said Preston Said.

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A Republican senator, concerned that the Federal Reserve is going beyond its Congressional mandate, asks the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank for documents on its growing focus on climate and social issues.

In a letter to the regional Fed bank, Senator Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) Said he was concerned that the bank’s new focus of research could destabilize the central bank’s apolitical profile, which could undermine its independence.

Some of the Fed’s regional banks, including San Francisco, “have become increasingly concerned with sociopolitical issues that reflect the political and normative leanings of unelected Federal Reserve Bank officials,” wrote Toomey, senior Senate banking committee member. “That approach has put the Federal Reserve in the emotionally charged political arena – a place the Federal Reserve has seldom ventured into for good reason.”

Mr Toomey wants the San Francisco Fed to provide him with documents by April 9th, outlining bank planning for upcoming public climate seminars, documents and emails related to shifts in the bank’s research focus, and spending over the past decade in Related to research and community development are listed work. He is also seeking a briefing with Glenn D. Rudebusch, Senior Policy Adviser at the bank.

A San Francisco Fed spokesman said, “We have received the letter from Sen. Toomey and are reviewing it. We look forward to discussing the contents with Sen. Toomey’s office.”

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North Bay residents have been spending slightly more time at home and significantly less time commuting to transit stations, retail and recreational facilities, and parks since January and February 2020, before home stay orders took effect. This is based on data compiled by the Google COVID-19 community on the mobility report.

The mobility report compares the frequency and time spent visiting common places from January 13 to March 14, 2021 with the baseline data from January 3 to February 6, 2020, before most shelter-in-place assignments have been implemented. Google uses data from its location services such as Google Maps to analyze how social distancing guidelines are followed around the world.

Less protection at home

Residents of the area are spending more time at home than they did before the pandemic started, but the time they spend at home has decreased since the first home orders were placed in mid-March 2020.

Sonoma County’s residents spend approximately 7% more time at home than they did prior to the pandemic, Solano County’s 5%, Marin County 8%, Mendocino County 6%, and Lake County 4%.

However, the time people spend at home decreased from March 2020 to March 2021. According to data from February 16 to March 29, 2020, residents of Sonoma County spent 15% more time in their homes (8 percentage points higher than current data), Solano County 13% (+8 points), Marin County 17% (+ 11 points), Mendocino County 17% (+11 points) and Lake County 16% (+12 points).

Google found that some Lake County data was below quality standards a year ago, meaning the data was too sparse for a few days.

Where do North Bay residents go who spend less time at home? The Google data suggests that more people are turning to workplaces, stores, stores, salons, restaurants and other entertainment options, as well as parks. However, the large drop in transit use during the pandemic has barely improved.

Commute more to work

People are commuting to work more now than in March 2020. When home lodging started last year, Sonoma County’s people were 41% less commuting than they did before the pandemic and now commuting 18% less. In Solano County, commuting has increased from 34% below pre-pandemic levels a year ago to 16%, Marin to 42% to 19%, Mendocino to 32% to 14%, and Lake to 33% to 9%.

More time to shop

Google divides pandemic mobility into two segments for retail. Groceries and pharmacies include markets, grocery stores, farmers markets, specialty grocery stores, drug stores, and pharmacies. Retail and entertainment include restaurants, cafes, shopping malls, theme parks, museums, libraries, and cinemas.

North Bay theaters and museums opened briefly in June, and recently when local counties moved into the red (“significant” spread) of California’s pandemic reopening system late last month and early this month. The North Bay’s only major theme park, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, has been open for limited tours since July. The rides are expected to reopen on April 1st.

Groceries and pharmacies are a retail category that is widely viewed as “essential” services during the pandemic. Data from Google showed that these stores saw less of a decline in customer travel declines than the rest of the retail and entertainment stores in the sector compared to the past.

In Sonoma County, food and pharmacy mobility rebounded from 22% in the early days of shelter orders to 18% below pre-pandemic levels. In Solano County, visitor traffic increased from 18% to 16% and from 30% to Marin to 22%.

For general retail and entertainment, Sonoma County’s residents spend 27% fewer visits to such facilities than before the pandemic, up from 53% fewer last year. Solano 20% less than 45%; Marin 29% less, compared to 61%.

Mendocino and Lake counties in North Bay have done best with residents returning to retailers whose numbers are closer to prepandemic. Mendocino residents shop 5% less than 29%. and lake, 7% less, from 13%. In restaurants and entertainment establishments, Mendocino residents go 11% less from 47%. and lake, 2% less, from 38%.

More time in parks

Park visits have decreased by more than a third in pre-pandemic Marin and Sonoma counties (up from a decrease of about 60% a year ago from pre-pandemic levels). But Solano County’s residents are back outdoors, 20% below pre-pandemic visits. However, residents of Mendocino and Lake Counties are almost back to normal, with decreases of 4% and 11%, respectively.

Less time in transit

Transit is hardest hit in the North Bay. Transit station visits continue to decline more than half in Marin and Sonoma counties and more than a third in Solano and Mendocino counties.

Lake County’s data this year was deemed too sparse, but was 11% below pre-pandemic levels, down from -42% last year, even with spotty data.

Click here to view data from counties across California.

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TORONTO – People are changing their profile pictures on social media to honor a San Francisco senior who died after being knocked to the ground in an allegedly racially motivated attack on his family.

Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, died on January 31 at San Francisco General Hospital “from injuries sustained a few days earlier during his morning walk in the Anza Vista neighborhood,” according to GoFundMe, organized by family member Eric Lawson.

Lawson describes Ratanapakdee as originally from Thailand and as an “almost blind, gentle person loved by his family” who was “forcibly taken from them”.

“Our family has seen several verbal anti-Asian attacks since the pandemic started … this time it was fatal. Racism has again proven deadly. Anti-Asian racism has become a very serious threat to all Asian Americans, especially in San Francisco, ”Lawson wrote.

The San Francisco District Attorney has filed charges of murder and elder abuse against the 19-year-old suspect in the Antoine Watson case, calling the crime a “brutal murder”.

The charges against Watson have not been proven in court. Local media reports said he pleaded not guilty when he first appeared in court.

In a surveillance video showing the attack, a man is seen walking in from the right side of the frame and violently knocking Ratanapakdee to the ground, where the senior remains vulnerable. The man then seems to calmly walk away.

“At around 8:30 am on January 28, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was violently and abruptly attacked by a man in the Anza Vista neighborhood,” said the district attorney’s release.

“The murder of Mr Ratanapakdee … was particularly painful for the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, which has been the victim of numerous cases of violence, hatred and racism since the beginning of the pandemic,” the press release said District Attorney Chesa Boudin further describes it as a “terrible, pointless” attack.

Los Angeles-based illustrator Jonathan D. Chang paid tribute to Ratanapakdee on Monday with a stylized portrait and wrote in an Instagram post about his “condolences to the family” and his hope that “justice will be served”.

“After watching the video, I expressed (my friend Sarah) how frustrated I was that this was going to be another sweep under the carpet attack on an Asian American,” Chang wrote in an email to CTVNews.approx.

“It gave me the idea to make a sketch of him to give the incident a face and to raise awareness of how terrible and widespread the anti-Asian crimes were.”

In response, social media users changed their profile pictures to Chang’s portrait of Ratanapakdee in a show of solidarity.

“People like Mr. Ratanapakdee should take it easy and enjoy the rest of their lives at their old age without being murdered on the street for no reason,” wrote Chang. “There have been so many attacks on the elderly in Asia and outside of Asia-facing social media sites that they are not being reported.”

“If we don’t show that we care about injustices that happen to our own community, why should anyone care?”

A message attributed to Ratanapakdee’s daughter on the GoFundMe page stated, “There are no words that can describe how our family feels about this overwhelming loss. Our father goes on his morning walk following his daily routine of preparing his young grandchildren for their day after. I just survived his recent heart surgery and then kept coming back to our family. It’s that pointless [sic]. ”

The GoFundMe raised more than $ 35,000 for the family to cover funeral arrangements.

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