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Thursday, December 31, 2015
FYI / Local News / SF Oddities Why San Francisco Has Had a Major Sinkhole Every Year Since 2011
Posted By Adam Brinklow on Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 1:05 PM
You didn’t think 2015 would end without our annual San Francisco sinkhole, did you?
We were seriously in danger of missing the deadline this time, but a 10-foot cavern (with a modest 2 by 4 surface opening) appeared beneath 24th and Church Streets in the wee hours of the morning today and kept our record secure. (It also snarled service on the J-Church Muni line.)
We’ve averaged a little over one large sinkhole per year since 2011, in case you haven’t kept score. See, for old time's sake, the craters that opened in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
This time the culprit is almost certainly a burst sewer line.
Government / Law & Order / Politics California Passed A Lot of New Laws This Year. Here Are the Ones You Should Know.
Posted By Jeremy Lybarger on Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 12:07 PM
It was a busy year for California’s legislature, which signed 807 bills into law in 2015. Some were almost laughably niche (Spanish moss was designated the state’s official lichen), while others were game changers (doctors can now prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients).
Today, the Los Angeles Times published a handy rundown of the new laws, conveniently sorted by category. You should check it out in its entirety, but in the meantime here are some of the most important, interesting, and relevant for us San Franciscans.
Today, the Los Angeles Times published a handy rundown of the new laws, conveniently sorted by category. You should check it out in its entirety, but in the meantime here are some of the most important, interesting, and relevant for us San Franciscans.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Transportation BART Raised Fares and Then Bored You Into Not Noticing
Posted By Adam Brinklow on Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 1:26 PM
Christmas may be over, but our friends at BART are gifting us with a fare hike on Friday. Just what you wanted, right?
Okay, it’s not quite a surprise; the increase was scheduled years ago, and details were announced in the spring. But unless you pay exacting attention to the opaquely labeled Title VI tab on the BART homepage, you might not have seen it coming.
It’s a relatively modest rise: 3.4 percent, rounded to the nearest nickel, 10 or 15 cents on most trips. Your longest possible trip, from SFO to Pittsburg/Bay Point, will go up 40 cents. In all, it’s an extra $50 to $75 for a year of round-trip commutes five days a week. Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but just enough to annoy some workaday riders.
Still, let it not be said that BART didn’t try to keep us up to date. They even launched a new, surreal YouTube channel back in April, exclusively to host a single five-minute video explaining the fare hike in painful detail.
Law & Order Mario Woods Protesters Crash, Cancel SFPD's "Secretive" Summit with Black Leaders
Posted By Chris Roberts on Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 11:52 AM
Some time ago, the San Francisco Police Department had what it called an "African American Community-Police Relations Board." Formed under then-Mayor Willie Brown — when, for 14 months between 2002 and 2003, the city had both a black police chief as well as a black mayor — the group consisted of black leaders, mostly from faith communities (Christopher Muhammad, the head of the local chapter of the Nation of Islam, was its chair for a time), who would issue periodic recommendations to police on how to interact with black people (rule no. 1, hopefully, was "don't kill us").
At some point under former Mayor Gavin Newsom's tenure, the board went away. It's still unclear when, how, or why; neither a police spokesman nor two black elected officials who spoke with SF Weekly could say. But now, in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods, police Chief Greg Suhr has convened another summit of black leaders, whose meeting yesterday was canceled after (mostly black) protesters heard about it and had the temerity to show up, as the San Francisco Examiner reported.
That led one black leader, local NAACP head Rev. Amos Brown, to blast the proceedings as "secretive." Which, in fairness, they appear to be.
At some point under former Mayor Gavin Newsom's tenure, the board went away. It's still unclear when, how, or why; neither a police spokesman nor two black elected officials who spoke with SF Weekly could say. But now, in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods, police Chief Greg Suhr has convened another summit of black leaders, whose meeting yesterday was canceled after (mostly black) protesters heard about it and had the temerity to show up, as the San Francisco Examiner reported.
That led one black leader, local NAACP head Rev. Amos Brown, to blast the proceedings as "secretive." Which, in fairness, they appear to be.
Say What? / Social Media / Tech Twitter Hires a White Dude to Lead Its Diversity Efforts
Posted By Jeremy Lybarger on Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 11:30 AM
You gotta wonder about the conversations (and rationalizations) that happen in Twitter’s corporate boardrooms. After a year in which the social media giant was widely and repeatedly condemned for its overwhelming whiteness, the company announced this week that it’s hired — brace yourself — a white man to lead its diversity initiatives.
It's one of those headlines that need the disclaimer: Not an Onion article.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Local News / Only in SF Is S.F.'s Homeless Problem Actually Improving?
Posted By Adam Brinklow on Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 4:21 PM
Here’s a mind-blowing proposition: What if San Francisco is actually doing a good job alleviating its homeless problem?
You’d be forgiven if you were briefly paralyzed with laughter at the idea. But this potentially stunning claim comes by way of the US Conference of Mayors’ annual report on hunger and homelessness, released Tuesday.
The Conference, a policy group composed of big cheeses from US cities with populations of more than 30,000, says that homelessness was on the rise all over the country in the last year — but that San Francisco has bucked the trend by reducing the number of homeless and providing exemplary service for those who remain.
No, really, this is the actual report. It’s not some kind of gag report they threw out on a holiday week assuming no one would read it.
Breaking News / Law & Order Black Lives Matter Protesters Briefly Shut Down US-101 Near SFO
Posted By Chris Roberts on Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 1:33 PM
Protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement are in police custody after briefly shutting down US-101 near San Francisco International Airport earlier today, according to reports.
On Twitter, protesters using the @BLMBAYAREA handle posted photos of women blocking 101 near SFO, with signs reading "Justice for Mario Woods."
Authorities with the California Highway Patrol and the San Francisco Police Department have yet to confirm the incident, but protesters report that they are currently in custody at the San Francisco Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street — and are in need of bail money.
On Twitter, protesters using the @BLMBAYAREA handle posted photos of women blocking 101 near SFO, with signs reading "Justice for Mario Woods."
Authorities with the California Highway Patrol and the San Francisco Police Department have yet to confirm the incident, but protesters report that they are currently in custody at the San Francisco Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street — and are in need of bail money.
Drugs / Marijuana Report: FDA Advises DEA on Reclassifying Marijuana — But to What?
Posted By Chris Roberts on Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 11:58 AM
The United States government still considers cannabis to be one of the deadliest substances known to man. Repeated efforts by drug reform advocates to remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of "Schedule I" controlled substances have thus far been repeatedly stymied.
Change may come from within. According to a letter from the Justice Department to Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, obtained by Marijuana.com's Tom Angell, the Food and Drug Administration — which would regulate weed if and when the magic plant ever becomes legal at the federal level — has given the DEA guidance on whether cannabis should be "reclassified under federal law."
That's exciting news. Because although it's unclear where the FDA thinks cannabis should be classified, the drug is in a good position in Schedule I: there's nowhere to go but down.
Change may come from within. According to a letter from the Justice Department to Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, obtained by Marijuana.com's Tom Angell, the Food and Drug Administration — which would regulate weed if and when the magic plant ever becomes legal at the federal level — has given the DEA guidance on whether cannabis should be "reclassified under federal law."
That's exciting news. Because although it's unclear where the FDA thinks cannabis should be classified, the drug is in a good position in Schedule I: there's nowhere to go but down.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
F-You, San Francisco / Local News / Only in California / Politics Why California Still Lacks an Earthquake Detector
Posted By Adam Brinklow on Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 1:33 PM
Earlier this month, Congress approved over $8 million in funding for the West Coast Earthquake Warning System. Once completed, the still-experimental system of sensors will provide advance warning about large earthquakes in progress and trigger a series of automated safeguards to minimize damage (slowing down trains, rerouting utilities, stopping elevators at the nearest floor, etc).
So: yay, Congress.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that this still leaves the system only halfway funded. Other countries, including Mexico, Japan, and Turkey, have had functioning earthquake warning systems for decades. And the proposal is almost 150 years old in California—in 1869, a San Francisco doctor proposed placing telegraph sensors connected to church bells along the coast. (Nobody took him up on it, but he was the first to correctly identify all of the necessary elements of an early warning apparatus.)
So what’s the hold-up? Lives are at stake here.
So: yay, Congress.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that this still leaves the system only halfway funded. Other countries, including Mexico, Japan, and Turkey, have had functioning earthquake warning systems for decades. And the proposal is almost 150 years old in California—in 1869, a San Francisco doctor proposed placing telegraph sensors connected to church bells along the coast. (Nobody took him up on it, but he was the first to correctly identify all of the necessary elements of an early warning apparatus.)
So what’s the hold-up? Lives are at stake here.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Environment / Uh-oh / Weather El Nino Begs Question: When Is Your Property Going to be Underwater?
Posted By Adam Brinklow on Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 4:10 PM
If you were driving northbound on US-101 toward San Mateo last week, you may have noticed a new billboard with an alarming announcement:
“IN THE NEXT SEVERE STORM, THIS FREEWAY WILL BE UNDERWATER.”
This disconcerting news is brought to you by Our Bay on the Brink, a public outreach campaign cooked up by environmental groups and big businesses anxious about the potential for devastating floods that will inflict tens of billions of dollars in damages throughout the Bay Area’s low-lying regions.
Sometime in the next couple of decades, a storm the likes of which California hasn’t seen in a century-and-a-half is going to swamp us. But this isn’t about climate change or rising sea levels (although those greatly exacerbate the risk). These kinds of storm are part of Mother Nature’s business as usual.
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BART Raised Fares and Then Bored You Into Not Noticing
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Report: FDA Advises DEA on Reclassifying Marijuana — But to What? 2
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