Visitors, commuters and office workers returning to downtown San Francisco are greeted warmly by ambassadors in bright orange jackets with the words “Welcome Ambassador” on the back of the jackets.

Monday, officially launched, kicked off the $ 12.5 million biennial welcome ambassador program that city guides said had a “welcome presence” in many of the city’s business areas, including Moscone Center, Pier 39, Embarcadero and Union Square will bring back.

Once the program is fully operational, 50 ambassadors will be dispatched across the city. The program had a soft start on October 7th with 25 ambassadors working in different locations. Officials said ambassadors had registered 92,000 crossings with the public by Friday.

Jerold Chinn / SFbay The Mayor of San Francisco London Breed helps launch the Welcome Ambassador program in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. (Jerold Chinn / SFBay)

Mayor of London Breed said at a press conference at Yerba Buena East Garden on Tuesday that the ambassador program is designed not only to welcome the people of the city but also to make people feel safe:

When people move in San Francisco they know those bright orange jackets mean they are getting help. “

Jerold Chinn / SFbay District 6 supervisor Matt Haney helps launch the Welcome Ambassador program in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. (Jerold Chinn / SFBay)

District 6 supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes many of the areas visited by tourists as well as the hotels they stay in, said the program will benefit both visitors and residents of the area:

It’s not just about a better place for visitors, it’s also about a better place, a safer place, a cleaner place for the people who live here. “

Many museums in the South of Market Neighborhood also look forward to the Ambassadors taking visitors to the many art institutions in the area, including the San Francisco Museums of Modern Art, the Jewish Contemporary Museum, and the Children’s Creativity Museum.

The Executive Director of the Museum of African Diaspora, Monetta White said:

Our museums and cultural institutions can only thrive and enrich our city further if we have visitors. We are therefore pleased that the welcome ambassadors are now helping visitors to find their way around the city and discover new experiences in Yerba Buena and beyond. “

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MENDOCINO (AP) – Tourists flock to the seaside town of Mendocino by the thousands for its Victorian homes and cliff walkways, but visitors this summer will also find public portable toilets and signs on picket fences asking, “Severe drought. Please save water. “

Hotels closed their lobby toilets and residents stopped watering their gardens in the misty outpost about 150 miles north of San Francisco after two years of little rain drained many of the wells Mendocino depends on for drinking water.

Mendocino’s water problems were exacerbated in recent weeks when the town of Fort Bragg a few miles further north – its main reserve water supplier – notified officials that its drinking water reserves had also plummeted after the Noyo River reached its lowest flow in decades.

“This is a real emergency,” said Ryan Rhoades, superintendent of the Mendocino City Community Services District, who helps manage the water in the city’s aquifer.

Eric Hillesland and his wife would normally not have to buy water until the end of July or August to supply the Alegria Inn, their 10-room bed and breakfast right on the ocean. But the estate’s well began pumping little water earlier in the year, and by February they were ordering 3,500 gallons (13,250 liters) a week.

Then the couple stopped watering the gardens and switched from glass to paper plates to serve welcome cookies. You plan to use microfiber sheets that use less water to wash.

“We also ask our guests to be aware of the severity of our water shortage and not to take the long showers they are used to at home,” said Hillesland.

Mendocino relies on groundwater, accessible through a network of around 400 private wells, many of which were hand dug when the former mill town was founded in the 1850s. Local residents and business owners keep their water in storage tanks, including some on historic redwood water towers.

Signs warn visitors of the severe drought in Mendocino on Wednesday 4th August 2021. Tourists flock to the quaint seaside town of Mendocino for its Victorian homes and cliff walkways, but visitors will also find portable public toilets and dozens of picket fences this summer announcing the quaint Northern California hamlet: “Severe drought, please save water.” (AP Photo / Haven Daley)

The city has about 1,000 residents, but its economy depends on about 2,000 people visiting daily during the high season from May to October, Rhoades said.

Traditionally, companies had to fetch water in autumn. But after a second dry winter, many had to order much earlier than before.

Due to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders, there were few visitors last year when townspeople noticed their fountains were producing less. The Bay Area and Sacramento weekend getaway is now teeming with guests.

This has forced local residents and business owners to find sources of drinking water further away, which has doubled the price of water. Some restaurants are reducing their opening hours to save costs.

In February, Hillesland paid $ 300 for a delivery of 3,500 gallons (13,250 liters). Now it costs $ 600.

If things get worse and they need to start closing rooms, “then we are in a situation like the beginning of the pandemic – no income but still plenty of mortgages and insurance,” he said.

Many longer-term solutions are being considered, including providing water by barge, plane, and train, and adding community storage tanks up to 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters), with the U.S. National Guard or Army Corps of engineers are being asked to set up a mobile desalination plant and even mist detection. But all of them are expensive, and the city needs state and federal government support, Rhoades said.

A company that had developed a new technology to detect moisture in fog suggested setting up a free test site in Mendocino and selling the water to the community. However, Rhoades said the infrastructure would detract from the city’s scenic views and getting a permit would be a challenge. A desalination plant would face similar licensing and environmental hurdles.

“Transporting treated water from an inland source could be a faster solution, even if it is expensive,” he said.

Robert Pinoli, president of the Mendocino Railway, which operates the historic Skunk Train, said he was ready to help. The Willits train has been traveling through redwood forests and river canyons to Fort Bragg since 1885.

Pinoli said he could quickly find tank cars, attach them to the locomotive, and deliver up to 200,000 gallons (757,000 liters) per trip. He identified a source for tank trucks in 2015 when Fort Bragg was experiencing a water shortage and was considering buying inland water to transport it to the coast. Officials scratched these plans after it rained.

He said that if Willits decides to sell his water and Fort Bragg chooses to buy it, “we will become a logical vehicle for moving water on a fairly large scale.”

Willits officials recently decided against selling their water to the parched city.

Right now, Mendocino residents rely on people like Brian Clark, who sells water from his well outside of town and transports it by truck. Clark said he couldn’t keep up with demand.

“I really hide from the phone because I get a lot more calls than I have water and I hear from people I have never met, never heard from, and who I cannot help,” he said.

Clark, a longtime resident, said Mendocino hadn’t had such water retention issues since the 1970s, when California experienced the worst drought ever.

District officials’ short-term solutions include waiving the permit requirements for storage tanks that can hold up to 5,000 gallons (18,900 liters) and identifying wells with excess water near Mendocino. Officials are also asking the state to help fund the larger private tanks, Rhoades said.

“Now, while their wells are reasonably productive, I want residents to be able to store more water to survive the next four months. And when you have to buy water, you get the best bang for your buck, ”he said.

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OAKLAND (KPIX) – Months after closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Children’s Wonderland in Oakland finally reopened to visitors on Friday.

There is something magical about the fact that after 70 years and a serious financial struggle, having closed for most of 2020, Children’s Wonderland still exists in 2021.

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With 10 acres of land, the amusement park can accommodate 700 people under current Red Tier guidelines in Alameda County. Further changes are required for the COVID logs. Instead of selling printed paper tickets at the parking ticket office as in the past, tickets are now digital.

“Please have your digital tickets ready on your phone. When you have the printout, please have it ready. We will check in the guest shortly, ”said the guide of the entrance gate to the parents and their children who were lining up to enter the park.

Families said they’d had enough of staying home and are excited to bring the kids back outside to enjoy the family favorite near Lake Merritt.

“Have fun! It was amazing to go back to something normal after a year!” Enthused one mother.

“It was great! There weren’t too many people. It was really a fun day for the kids,” said another.

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Some parents told KPIX that they are watching the park handle sanitation. The families were still cautious, but they seemed satisfied with the precautions taken.

Ben Yates and his daughter Mai are long-time fans of children’s fairy tale land.

“It seemed to be working fine. I felt safe. There are hand washing stations where we can sit down for a snack and wash our hands. I think it’s okay, “said Yates.

Staff were wiping surfaces all over the park, but some things are still not open. Rides and service areas remain closed.

“The animals are so excited to have them all back in the park! Can you imagine? “Said Fairyland Executive Director Kimberly Miller.” No, really, it’s like that, the animals see everyone regularly every day, but it’s been a whole year just of the staff. Look at the same old face. They want that See the little ones. “

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For more information on the amusement park’s COVID-19 logs and tickets, please visit Children’s Fairyland’s website.

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