Sunday, June 17, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
SFO to open three international gates
South
This means more revenue for the airport and some additional space for a number of airlines, including JetBlue, Aer Lingus, Southwest, and, most likely, Virgin America, that are expanding or adding service to SFO this year.
Of the International Terminal’s 24 gates, these three, located in Boarding Area A, were the only ones that were out of commission, airport spokesman Mike McCarron said. Airport officials hope to have the gates up and running by October, when the $3.6 million project is expected to wrap up, according to McCarron.
This year, the airport demolished the former Boarding Area A, at a cost of $5.3 million, in anticipation of the gate-opening project. This leftover structure was blocking the new gates, but, given the fiscal outlook, officials had previously postponed even the demolition of the project.
The International Terminal, which opened in late 2000 to great fanfare, can accommodate up to 5,000 arriving passengers per hour, according to airport figures. But the travel downturn following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, left it emptier than expected and forced the airport to put off other large projects and make budget cuts.
However, airport figures compiled recently forecast a brighter picture, with an estimated 13 percent growth in passenger load estimated for 2008.
Officials are dusting off other projects and plans, which include remodeling domestic Terminal 2 — the former international terminal.
“We didn’t have the passenger loads to do these projects, but it looks like we can now,” McCarron said.
McCarron said the airport collects a $66 per-use fee when airlines use the SFO-owned passenger boarding bridges to funnel passengers in and out of planes. In addition, the airport collects landing fees that amount to approximately $15 per airplane passenger.
Traveler Dianne Jenson, heading from San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last week, said that adding gates seemed like a logical choice for a major airport.
“It may even make [travelers’] lives easier, that would be nice,” Jenson said.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Earth Day 2007
A few months ago, Taylor Francis went to Nashville. It wasn't for the music.
Taylor, a 15-year-old from Menlo Park, is one of 1,000 "climate change messengers" around the country. Trained in Tennessee by Al Gore, they are taking up where his Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," left off, giving slide-show presentations about what global warming is doing to us and how we can fight back.
They are popping up everywhere -- in churches, synagogues, Rotary Clubs, ski lodges, design firms, museums, senior centers -- and California, with 111 trainees, leads the pack.
They include Wal-Mart employees, a winemaker from Carmel, actress Cameron Diaz, biologists, housewives, a circus juggler, football player Dhani Jones of the Philadelphia Eagles, a beauty queen, Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr and teenagers such as Taylor, one of the three youngest trainees.
"I think that the climate crisis is going to be the defining issue of our generation because it defines the world we live in and every element of the way that we live," Taylor recently told about 400 students and teachers at Hillsborough's Crystal Springs Uplands School, where he is a freshman. "But this is also an issue we can define, because what we do every day can contribute to the solution."
Roaming the stage of the school theater for 35 minutes, he showed 167 slides and spoke with depth and eloquence -- without a note in his hand. He talked about glaciers, hurricanes and droughts, and threw in the Sierra snowpack, too. When he finished, he got a standing ovation from the 350 students -- grades 6 through 12 -- and their teachers.
"There was much greater interest than usual," said theater manager John Hauer. "Being one of them is a huge part of connecting with the audience. This is a nerdy scientific topic."
Seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" was a "life-changing experience," Taylor said.
"Global warming had been just another distant problem," he said. "It didn't seem super-urgent. The movie was a catalyst."
When Gore was asked what he'd do next after the film's premiere in May, he came up with the idea of training messengers to spread the word about the climate crisis. More than 10,000 people applied.
"They found us -- we didn't have a chance to look for them," said Jenny Clad, executive director of Gore's nonprofit, the Climate Project. "We were overwhelmed and awestruck. People are on fire."
Those who were chosen arrived from 50 states and at least 16 countries. They paid their own transportation and lodging, and sometimes used vacation time, for three days of intensive training by the Climate Project, which covered meals and the cost of materials. The first session was in September; the sixth and final one was earlier this month. Trainings also took place in Australia and the United Kingdom, and are planned for Spain, India and China.
Clad said diversity helped determine who was picked. "We wanted to have the people out there looking like America," she said. "We wanted grandmothers giving presentations to their garden clubs."
When Diane Demee-Benoit left for Nashville on New Year's Day, she wasn't sure what she'd encounter. "I wondered, 'Will there be all these green people with stringy hair and no deodorant?' " recalled the 48-year-old ecosystem biologist, who lives in Corte Madera. "But I met a mortgage broker from Michigan and an interior decorator from Texas."
The messengers share a sense of mission that borders, at times, on obsession.
"You have to keep doing homework," said Demee-Benoit, as she packed up her kit after a presentation at Oakland's Chabot Space & Science Center in late March. "It becomes all-consuming. I'm learning more and more. It really sucks you in -- you realize the amount of misinformation that's out there."
This afternoon, in a live Internet broadcast for Earth Day, Gore will address all 1,000 Climate Project participants. Each of them must do 10 presentations during the year. Carey Stanton, senior director for education and integrated marketing at the National Wildlife Federation, estimated that at least 5,000 have been given so far.
So why shouldn't people just rent "An Inconvenient Truth," if they haven't seen it already, and save everybody a lot of time and trouble?
"It's a totally different experience interacting with a person and with your peers. I think of the movie as a launching pad," said Stanton, whose organization helped train the messengers.
Demee-Benoit said there is also the issue of Gore himself.
"On the one hand, he being the messenger has brought attention to the subject. But some people think it's a political agenda rather than a scientific agenda. A mortgage broker talking about this is going to have a different effect. They're going to speak to their own kind in language that resonates with them."
Stanton said the presentations change as new reports on global warming surface and as the Climate Project provides regular updates. Many trainees also have formed Internet support groups so they can trade information and sustain the camaraderie they enjoyed in Nashville.
"It's been a wonderful online community," said Ellie Cohen, executive director of Petaluma's PRBO Conservation Science, founded as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. She said the West Coast network of trainees has at least 148 members.
The San Anselmo resident went to Nashville to share what she's discovering about the impact of climate change on wildlife. She also wanted to learn about the expertise of the other trainees. There was another reason as well.
"With the scope and scale of the impending disaster, if we continue business as usual, what will our children say? They'll say, 'You knew this was happening, and you didn't do anything about it,' " said Cohen, 50.
The messengers encounter all kinds of questions, depending on their audience, and tailor the talks to what they know best.
Rafael Reyes, 39, gave a presentation in Spanish at a community center in Redwood City.
"They were primarily Latina mothers," said the San Mateo resident, who works for San Francisco nonprofit As You Sow and is a national director of the Sierra Club. "One woman asked, 'How about using the dryer less and hanging clothes?' Another woman asked about cleaning supplies. They were trying to move toward less manufactured products."
Oakland real estate agent Paul Valva, 48, said Bay Area audiences are focused on solutions, not evidence.
"By far, the most common question is, 'What can we do as an individual?' In this area, it's a lot less about, 'How can you prove to me that global warming exists?' "
Inevitably, the messengers talk about carbon offsets, driving less, purchasing hybrids and biodiesel vehicles, turning off appliances and lights, walking and taking public transit, recycling and buying locally grown foods. After Taylor Francis returned from Nashville, he and his father installed 60 fluorescent lightbulbs in their home.
If people mention Gore's higher-than-average energy consumption in his Nashville mansion, messengers are likely to say that he and his wife, Tipper, also use the house as an office and have equipped it with green power.
"It's kind of insignificant in terms of the work he's doing," said Michael Lin, a 26-year-old trainee who lives in San Francisco and teaches a course on green design at Stanford University.
Some questions are hard to anticipate. Valva recalled one: "Is there any evidence that other planets are heating up? This would support some people's theory that the sun is actually getting hotter."
At Demee-Benoit's talk to science teachers at Chabot, three people persisted in challenging what she was saying. "I think temperature goes up, and then carbon dioxide goes up," one said. "The science doesn't really add up," said another. "Global warming is cyclical," insisted the third.
It turned out they were infiltrators -- youth organizers from the Lyndon LaRouche movement. The followers of the controversial political activist, a perennial presidential candidate, have been showing up at presentations around the country.
"It tells us our work is cut out for us," Demee-Benoit said.
Although Stanton, of the National Wildlife Federation, emphasized that the trainees make it clear "the debate is over" about whether global warming is real and what its effects are, Cohen said, "You still have to convince people. There are still people who say, 'Is it really human-caused?' That's the point of contention."
Taylor Francis has given nine slide shows so far, some aimed at young people and others at adults.
"Fourth-graders asked a lot of questions about spaceships -- and I hadn't talked about that at all," he said during a phone interview. "Since then, I've had to do some research."
Taylor, whose birthday is in late March, was 14 when he was trained in Nashville.
"He's like Johnny Carson," Stanton said. "It's like, 'How old are you, really?' "
After the presentation Thursday at his Hillsborough school, there was plenty that students wanted to know: Does America need to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol and, if so, will it threaten our economy? What about the batteries that hybrids use? Won't emissions in China and India be higher than ours as they get more industrialized? When will ozone-creation technologies be financially available? Should the United States switch to nuclear power? What about ethanol?
Afterward, the reviews were good.
"He talked about California," said Eric Allen, an 18-year-old junior from San Jose. "And he brought up skiing. He really did a good job of bringing it close to home."
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The tax man cometh
SAN FRANCISCO - Tuesday is the deadline to file federal and state income taxes, the Internal Revenue Service said in a reminder release this week. Those who owe money but cannot afford to pay it in a lump sum may apply for a deadline extension or an installment arrangement, or may pay by credit card, the agency said.
More information is available at www.irs.gov.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
No more ‘paper or plastic?’
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco continued to ride the “green wave” Tuesday by becoming the first city in the nation to ban plastic checkout bags from large grocery and pharmacy chains.
Opposed by grocers, legislation banning the plastic bags was widely supported by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, blaming the petroleum-based bags for littering city streets, harming wildlife, gumming up recycling machines and eating up fossil fuels.
The City’s estimated 54 large grocery chains will have to switch to recyclable paper, compostable plastic bags or durable reusable bags within about six months and large pharmacy chains, such as Walgreens and Rite-Aid, within a year.
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi drafted the legislation after he and other city officials accused the large grocery store chains of failing to live up to an agreement to reduce the use of the bags by 10 million last year. The agreement was struck with the stipulation that The City would not pursue a 17-cent tax per plastic bag.
The California Grocers Association maintain the agreement was successful in cutting the usage of plastic bags by 7.6 million in 2006, but city officials claim that number is unreliable.
The ban would help move The City closer to its goal of diverting 75 percent of all waste produced from its landfills by 2010, said Jared Blumenfeld, head of the Environment Department.
“After 10 years of plastic bag recycling in The City, we have a 1 percent recycling rate. So it’s a 99 percent failure of the bags,” Blumenfeld said.
It is estimated that San Francisco’s 54 large grocery stores account for 100 million to 150 million plastic checkout bags a year, according to city officials, and that 430,000 gallons of oil is used in the production of 100 million plastic bags.
“We still don’t think that it’s the most effective way of dealing with the environmental issue,” California Grocers Association spokesman Dave Heylen said.
Instead, the grocers association advocates continuing efforts to recycle and reuse plastic bags. Heylen also said the plastic bags are “the most economical from a retail standpoint,” costing a “couple of pennies” each while the compostable plastic bags would cost anywhere between 6 and 10 cents each.
Supervisor Ed Jew, the only naysayer in the 10-1 vote, agreed the ban would hamper recycling efforts.
“We still have about 95,000 small businesses in San Francisco that will continue to use plastic bags, as well as the city and county of San Francisco,” Jew said.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to give final approval to the legislation at its next meeting on April 10.
Shoppers critical of prohibition
On a windy day when loose plastic, paper and garments were noticeable, many shoppers said they understood the desired environmental effect in the ban but that the plastic bags provided a convenience otherwise unfulfilled by the cumbersome and geometric paper bags.
“When you’re running around with plastic bags, you can put a ton on your hand. You can’t do that with paper,” said Mark Quessey, a design student popping out of the Walgreens at Broadway and Polk streets.
“It’s politicians trying to make themselves sound important; it’s just a gimmick,” Quessey said.
The ban only affects The City’s largest chain supermarkets — 54 in all — and pharmacy chains such as Walgreens, leaving plastic bags with smaller businesses, such as corner grocers.
Others lamented the loss of plastic bags for around-the-house duties such as garbage or, ahem, dog duty.
Matt Campbell, who drives to the Safeway in the Marina from the Presidio, said he used the bags around his house for just such reasons.
When asked about compostable bags, Campbell along with shoppers, questioned what they were made of and how similar they were to plastic.
H.O. Salimi said that while his wife would miss the plastic bags for household uses, it was a good idea to cut down on the amount of plastic that is out there.
Shopping at the Whole Foods at Franklin and California streets three times a week, he said he noticed the omnipresence of plastic bags when they would be tucked into each other for support.
Devian McEvoy, walking up the hill from the Marina Safeway with two plastic bags in hand, called the ban “pointless” because paper pollutes, too, and the board was “just asking for perfection.”— David Smith
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Cingular Wireless to refund $18.5 million to unhappy customers
SAN FRANCISCO - Cingular Wireless will refund $18.5 million to thousands of former California customers who were penalized for canceling their mobile phone service because they had trouble making and receiving calls.
The settlement announced Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission ends a lengthy battle revolving around Cingular's treatment of dissatisfied subscribers from January 2000 through April 2002.About 115,000 unhappy customers who left Cingular during that time will receive average refund checks of $160 to cover the fees that they were charged for prematurely ending their contracts. The refunds include interest.
Cingular expects to issue the refunds within 60 days, spokeswoman Lauren Garner said. An unknown number of other former customers who paid early termination fees to outside vendors who sold Cingular service will have to file claims that are reviewed by an independent claims administrator.
Besides spelling out the size of the refunds, the truce upholds a $12.1 million fine that state regulators imposed on Cingular in September 2003. At that time, the regulators had ordered Cingular to issue refunds without specifying an amount.
Regulators lashed out at Cingular after concluding the carrier didn't give its subscribers an adequate chance to change their minds about a service that was frequently swamped with more calling traffic than it could handle. The traffic on Cingular's mobile network nearly doubled to 3 million subscribers during that period, straining the system until the company completed extensive upgrades.
Cingular, recently renamed AT&T Mobility, had been unsuccessfully fighting in court to overturn California's regulatory ruling. The company had filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court shortly before deciding to settle.
"While we have a strong case for appeal, it is time to move forward," Cingular said in a statement. "Cingular's business practices have changed significantly since the period in question, and the company is now the industry leader in customer-friendly initiatives."
Among other things, Cingular said it now offers all customers up to 30 days to return their phones and drop their service without penalty.
That option wasn't available in California during 2000, 2001 and the first part of 2002, according to state regulators.
Back then, Cingular insisted on penalizing exasperated customers even though its management knew congestion problems were causing many calls to be blocked or dropped, according to company testimony cited in the case.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Area residents prefer regional over local Wi-Fi
SAN FRANCISCO - By nearly 2-to-1, Bay Area residents favor a regional wireless network rather than a collection of individual city and county Wi-Fi networks spread across the area, a new survey said.The survey, commissioned by theBay Area Council, showed that 52 percent of the 600 residents questioned preferred a single network that residents around the Bay could tap into.
Twenty-eight percent said they’d like to see individual cities and counties provide blanket Wi-Fi access for their jurisdictions, such as those officials in The City are considering.
Los Angeles is working on plans for wireless Internet and has an advantage over the Bay Area, which has nine counties and 101 cities, said John Grubb, spokesman for the Bay Area Council, a business-oriented public policy advocacy group. In Silicon Valley, meanwhile, Peninsula cities are developing their own area-wide Wi-Fi network, now being tested in San Carlos.
“If there’s one thing and only one thing that we envy about Los Angeles it’s that they have a huge physical footprint served by one government body,” Grubb said.
Grubb said the council was working with the “biggest companies” in the area — he couldn’t name names — on rolling out “something big” on a regional wireless effort.
“These polling results certainly point to the need for one network for the whole region,” he said.
The survey found the number of residents using computers has stayed flat since 1999, when 79 percent said they used a PC at home, work or school. In 2007, that number is 81 percent.
The survey, conducted by Field Research Corporation during the second week of January this year, also detected a “digital divide” in the Bay Area — a link between Internet and computer use and income levels.
Of individuals making more than $80,000, 97 percent regularly use a computer whether at work or home, but just 62 percent of those earning less than $40,000 do the same. Similarly, 95 percent of those in the top income group access the Internet, compared with 52 percent in the lower income bracket.
Ray Hartz Jr., a 57-year-old resident of The City and manager at Barnes & Noble who took part in the survey, said having a regionwide Wi-Fi network would be beneficial, allowing every resident to access the Internet if they had a computer.
Computers need to be recycled like hearing aids or eyeglasses to provide people with the best chance of accessing the educational, social or professional opportunities the Internet provides, Hartz Jr. said.
“Having it available for everybody would be a great equalizer,” Hartz Jr. said.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Minor earthquake shakes Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO - A 3.4-magnitude earthquake about two miles east of Berkeley briefly shook the Bay Area late Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.The earthquake, which rumbled at 3:46 p.m., apparently caused no damage in The City but was felt there. Both the San Francisco Fire and Police departments said no emergency calls came in following the quake.
BART followed usual protocol and stopped trains for five minutes to make sure there was no damage, which there wasn’t, and then resumed service.
The quake originated from the active Hayward Fault, which was responsible for a series of other quakes felt in the Bay Area in December.
Stephanie Hanna, spokeswoman for the USGS, said it was a “little quake,” but should remind people of the need to prepare for larger ones. She said experts predict the Hayward Fault will result in a major quake about every 150 years and the last one was in 1876. The fault is often described these days as “locked and loaded,” she said.
Steve Sarver, owner of San Francisco Soup Company, said employees and customers at their location in the Westfield San Francisco Centre never knew a quake occurred. “We didn’t feel it.
There was business as usual,” Sarver said.
Leilani Lynch, who was eating a sandwich at Café Corbis on Hayes Street at the time of the quake, said the shaking was barely detectable. “It was only a couple of seconds. A small rumble and that was it. I wasn’t even sure it was an earthquake,” Lynch said.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Beautiful S.F. has a few notably ugly buildings
SAN FRANCISCO - A group of American citizens recently weighed in with their thoughts on the top architectural gems in America, and San Francisco was rightly honored with some of their monumental achievements on the list, notably the Golden Gate Bridge, City Hall and the Fairmont hotel.
Of course, the Hyatt Regency hotel on Market Street also made the cut, showing that taste is a relative thing and that the difference between the Eiffel Tower and a towering eyesore can be the configuration of a few large beams.
But all the best lists in the world can’t compare to the compilations of the worst, and for every Jefferson Monument there is a monument to bad taste. In that regard San Francisco’s landscape is particularly rich, for while Chicago may be the cradle of architecture in the United States, San Francisco is more of a modern footstool, scarred by a generation of poor planning and unsightly structures that fail to stand the test of time and any other test.
I am hardly an arbiter of architectural taste — I have always thought that the Transamerica Pyramid was a distinctive gem, putting me in the group that did the recent survey by the American Institute of Architecture. But that would probably place me near the bottom of the pile among my fellow San Francisco-philes — the late Herb Caen couldn’t resist a regular slam of the building and many people view it as a towering geometric mistake.
I would have voted for the Conservatory of Flowers as one of the finest structures in America, but either the survey participants weren’t shown a picture of it or it somehow didn’t make the cut based on other criteria, such as “no Victorian greenhouses allowed.”Yet a “worst of’’ list would probably have more of a consensus among the locals, where the primary differences would focus not on which well-known buildings qualified for public condemnation, but in which order. While most people will have a pet peeve on their roster of offending structures, I’ll bet these would be near the top of many lists.
SUTRO TOWER: This metallic pox on San Francisco’s landscape is not only The City’s highest-reaching structure, it’s also the ugliest. How this humongous erector set ever got placed right in the middle of our graceful city of hills should be the topic of a book someday on the worst planning gaffes in American history. Built to hold television and radio transmitters, this unsightly behemoth actually ruined airwave signals prior to the advent of cable. Residents near the tower have been fighting additions to this beast for years, and one can only hope that future generations will one day see the light — not the blinking ones near the top of the tower — and hold the biggest civic demolition party ever when they take it down.
HALL OF JUSTICE: It seems somehow fitting that a concrete slab used to process and hold law-breakers should itself be a crime, and this is one of the most egregious offenders in a lineup of losers. The building at 850 Bryant is so dark and dreary and downright ugly that it makes you wonder how the architectural design managed to slip through the handcuffs of city planners to blight the South of Market area. In terms of its sheer aesthetic appeal, the hall is strictly an emergency response.
FEDERAL BUILDING: Consider this the Hall of Justice’s more-evil twin, another big, unsightly box built by and for bureaucrats without any regard to form or function. Over the years this building has been the focus of nearly every form of protest imaginable — but the biggest protest should have taken place when this building was under consideration by the city fathers. The new federal building has received early praise for its “green’’ aspects, and while the jury is still out on its overall likability, anything would be an improvement on the original.
FOX PLAZA: This civic misfire makes the list for two reasons — for the objectionable structure that it is, as well as for the beautiful one that it replaced. Our more recent arrivals probably don’t know that this development got its name from the old Fox theater, which at one time was one of the most ornate and expensive show palaces built in the United States. Mention this theater to old-timers here and you will likely get a rueful, teary-eyed response. The Fox Plaza’s only saving grace is that it’s just far enough from the Civic Center to not mar the graceful synergy of our beaux arts showcase.
There are many other qualified candidates — and some too obvious (Candlestick Park) to include. But it’s the only list these sad structures should be on, besides the endangered one.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Mayor honors same-sex marriage anniversary
SAN FRANCISCO - Although a recently revealed affair with a married woman has been a public setback for Mayor Gavin Newsom’s political career, on Monday he was able to redirect press attention to the widely lauded move he made three years ago this week on behalf of gay civil rights.
At a press conference held in his office, Newsom, along with three same-sex couples, went back in time to remember the firestorm of excitement and controversy that ensued in 2004, after Newsom authorized The City to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Feb. 12.
After an injunction to stop the marriages was granted on March 11, 2004, San Francisco’s city attorney filed a lawsuit against the state, challenging the constitutionality of laws prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying.
That case is now before the state’s Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the matter by the beginning of next year.
Although in March 2005 a California trial court ruled that to deny marriage to homosexual couples violated their constitutional right to equal protection, in October of last year, the state’s appellate court upheld a law approved by voters in 2000 that limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman.
Nationwide, 26 states have legal bans against gay marriage. On Monday, conservative groups in New Jersey launched a petition drive to amend that state’s constitution to limit marriage to heterosexual couples.
Massachusetts is the only U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage; it is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and South Africa.
Two attempts have been made to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, in 2004 and 2006, but both efforts failed to garner the legislative votes to move forward.
Newsom said it was President Bush’s words against gay marriage, in his January 20, 2004, State of the Union address, that inspired him to authorize same-sex marriages in San Francisco.
Kate Kendell, the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said that when she received a call from Newsom’s office saying he wanted to enlist the group’s help in giving out marriage licenses, that it launched “a transformative and powerful series of events.”
The organization is now representing 11 couples who are plaintiffs in the California marriage case.
The first same-sex couple married in San Francisco on Feb. 12, 2004, was Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, an elderly lesbian couple who had been together for 50 years.
Newsom said they were specifically chosen for the honor.
“What we intended to do ... was put a human face on this issue,” he said. “A narrative of a life of 50 years dedicated to constancy and love and devotion, which was the life of those two.”
Newsom said he has never regretted the controversial action, which some people say caused a backlash that resulted in gay marriage bans across the country. Newsom pointed out that in that same time frame, civil unions and domestic partnerships — which offer gay couples some of the rights provided within marriage — are gaining mainstream acceptance.
“I don’t think there’s ever a wrong time to do the right thing,” Newsom said.
Couples go to court seeking nuptials
Paula Cooper and Jeanne Rizzo had already been together for 18 years when they walked into San Francisco’s City Hall three years ago, with friends and family in tow, for their March 11 appointment to get married.
“We live as a family, little league games, preparing for college, the death of loved ones,” Cooper said.
Nonetheless, Cooper said she was “overwhelmed” by the feelings inside of her.
But when the couple, with the teenage son they had raised together, got to the appropriate city clerk’s counter, they saw a sign announcing that the state’s Supreme Court had just put a stop to San Francisco’s gay marriage spree.
Cooper and Rizzo are now plaintiffs, along with 11 other couples, in a case facing the state’s Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the state laws that limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. Three of the couples spoke at a press conference Monday about their relationships and their desires to be married.
John Lewis and his partner of 20 years, Stuart Gaffney, were one of the first couples to be married, and proudly held up their pink and blue city-issued marriage license.
Jewelle Gomez, 58, said she’s old enough to remember the civil rights movement for African-Americans and compared the struggle to the fight for gay marriages. Sitting next to her partner of 14 years, Diane Sabin, she was dismissive of domestic partnership laws that offer same-sex couples many of the same provisions as marriage.
“Just as it was then, separate is not equal,” Gomez said.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
San Francisco Mayor admits affair with staffer, apologizes
SAN FRANCISCO - It was a quick and somber statement that lasted two minutes but put to rest months of rumors and 24 hours of drama that had seized the corridors of City Hall. Facing a crush of cameras and reporters at a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Gavin Newsom admitted that he had an affair with a former secretary — the wife of one of his top advisers.
Newsom’s confession confirmed media reports that surfaced Wednesday of his sexual relationship with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of Alex Tourk, who until resigning Wednesday was Newsom’s re-election campaign manager and is his former deputy chief of staff.
Although the affair reportedly occurred about a year and a half ago, Rippey-Tourk, 34, had recently confessed the affair to her husband as part of a rehabilitation program she’s going through for alcohol and substance use, according to a friend of the family, Sam Singer, who is also acting as her spokesman. Since Newsom was out of town last week in Davos, Switzerland, Alex Tourk waited until this week to confront the mayor and quit the Newsom re-election campaign Wednesday afternoon.
Tourk, 35, was part of Newsom’s inner circle of advisers, having run his election campaign four years ago and then ascending to deputy chief of staff. Often referred to as a dedicated and loyal Newsom aide, Tourk had designed and implemented one of the most successful programs of the mayor’s term, Project Homeless Connect, which allowed one-stop shopping of services for homeless individuals. The program is being copied on a national level.
In addition to working together, Alex Tourk and Newsom were friends, having known each other for 10 years.
“They were friends. They went to dinner together. They went to ballgames,” said political consultant Eric Jaye, who is also working on Newsom’s re-election campaign.
The mayor’s press office released a statement Wednesday afternoon in which Tourk said he was leaving for “personal reasons,” but the affair had not been a secret to some City Hall insiders who leaked the full story to members of the media upon hearing of Tourk’s resignation.
“I’m deeply sorry that I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, his friends and family. That’s something I have to live with and something I am deeply sorry for,” Newsom said on Thursday at the press conference.
After making his statement, Newsom walked out of the room, without taking any questions from reporters.
News of Newsom’s confession, notably, did not fuel a fire under his political critics, who responded to questions about the affair with restraint.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin called the situation a “very sad, unfortunate, personal matter.”
Supervisor Chris Daly said the incident has put a spotlight on the issue of Newsom’s integrity.
“No one was more loyal to Gavin Newsom than Alex Tourk. The most important things in politics are trust and respect,” said Daly, who also expressed concern about the legality of Newsom’s actions, since Rippey-Tourk was a subordinate.
Although others within City Hall echoed Daly’s thoughts that Newsom’s former appointments secretary had grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit, Singer said she had no intention of pursuing any legal action against Newsom or The City.
“She considers this a personal matter,” Singer said.
If the relationship was consensual, there are no legal grounds for a sexual harassment claim, said Art Hartinger, a former deputy city attorney who now works in private practice. According to San Francisco Administrative Code, although consensual romantic relationships between a supervisor and a subordinate “may create a potential for conflict or an appearance of impropriety,” they are not prohibited.
Nonetheless, Newsom’s relationship with Rippey-Tourk, which reportedly occurred during the breakup of his own marriage, was not just personally reckless, it was politically rash, said Corey Cook, a political science professor at San Francisco State University.
“There are affairs, and then there’s cheating on your close friend who’s directing your re-election effort,” said Cook. “Everyone in City Hall knew all three of the people involved. The bigger story on this, is how does he be mayor tomorrow? How does he deal with the Board of Supervisors? How does this affect his ability to do his job and interact with his staff?”
After the press conference, his spokesman, Peter Ragone, said the mayor’s top advisers are united in their support of Newsom. He also said the mayor has no intention of resigning and will move ahead with his re-election campaign.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Fighting our way out of plastic bags
The San Francisco Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner SAN FRANCISCO - Plastic bags, ubiquitous plastic bags, unsightly plastic bags — everyone uses them and everyone has an opinion about them. It’s not surprising, then, that these symbols of consumerism have evolved into yet another political issue in The City, betokening the long if oversimplified war between the Board of Supervisors and the business community.
The clash has been oversimplified because, no doubt, some businesses will comply with Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s effort to ban stores from including the convenient little carrying bags in their shopping experience. Many merchants, after all, have complied with a similar ban on Styrofoam-style containers.
Mirkarimi’s frustration is understandable. A pact Mayor Gavin Newsom struck two years ago with large grocery stores to cut plastic bags from their transactions by 10 million — 95 tons of waste, by some estimates — failed to be completed by its December 2006 due date. The supervisor’s impulse is to make it mandatory, requiring merchants to convert to “environmentally friendly” bags.
It’s a pity, though, that the board might leap to the bag ban without considering alternatives. This could be less environmentally friendly than it seems. The “paper or plastic?” query, so often mouthed by the baggers at the checkstands, goes back at least two decades.
That courtesy was the merchants’ voluntary response to mounting concerns about our overwhelmingly plasticized society. And it was true: Plastic bags did lots of nasty things. They clogged sewage systems, they piled up in nonbiodegradable and costly ways, and they harmed small animals on land and water. They also, on the plus side, found their way into thrifty household uses.
Environmentalists’ hopes that the problem would go away by the 21st century, obviously, came to naught. Still, the first law of ecology is that you cannot change just one thing. Intricate interrelationships change as a consequence, sometimes less desirably.
The issue prompted the late economist Warren Brookes to investigate what would happen if grocers converted entirely to paper, a prospect that even now excites the anti-plastic lobby. What he found, not too many steps into his research, was a tree-to-pulp-to-paper industry that fouled the environment no less than plastics.
Almost certainly, those revoltingly polluting saw mills have cleaned up measurably since Brookes reported on them. But imagine what would happen if, by political fiat, paper bags supplanted plastic everywhere. Some shoppers did so contemplate, leaving the callow checkstand baggers befuddled when they answered: “Plastic, please. Let’s save a tree.”
Meanwhile, the grocers, also understandably, convinced Sacramento to prohibit cities from levying taxes on plastic bags. Mirkarimi’s forced conversion, nonetheless, would exact yet another cost on merchants in The City — a tax in kind just when business is reeling from the health care and sick leave impositions.
If plastic bags are piling up on the sidewalks, at least maybe those foot patrols can enforce the anti-litter laws.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Net Flix to be delivered on the Internet
LOS GATOS, Calif. - Netflix Inc. will start showing movies and TV episodes over the Internet this week, providing its subscribers with more instant gratification as the DVD-by-mail service prepares for a looming technology shift threatening its survival.
The Los Gatos-based company plans to unveil the new "Watch Now" feature Tuesday, but only a small number of its more than 6 million subscribers will get immediate access to the service, which is being offered at no additional charge.
Netflix expects to introduce the instant viewing system to about 250,000 more subscribers each week through June to ensure its computers can cope with the increased demand.
After accepting a computer applet that takes less than a minute to install, subscribers will be able to watch anywhere from six hours to 48 hours of material per month on an Internet streaming service that is supposed to prevent piracy.
The allotted viewing time will be tied to how much customers already pay for their DVD rentals. Under Netflix's most popular $17.99 monthly package, subscribers will receive 18 hours of Internet viewing time.
The company has budgeted about $40 million this year to expand its data centers and cover the licensing fees for the roughly 1,000 movies and TV shows that will be initially available for online delivery.
Netflix's DVD library, by comparison, spans more than 70,000 titles, one of the main reasons why the mail is expected to remain the preferred delivery option for most subscribers.
Another major drawback: the instant viewing system only works on personal computers and laptops equipped with a high-speed Internet connection and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. That means the movies can't be watched on cell phones, TVs or video iPods, let alone computers that run on Apple Inc.'s operating system.
Despite its limitations, the online delivery system represents a significant step for Netflix as it tries to avoid obsolescence after the Internet becomes the preferred method for piping movies into homes.
"This is a big moment for us," Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings as he clicked a computer mouse to quickly call up "The World's Fastest Indian" on the instant viewing service. "I have always envisioned us heading in this direction. In fact, I imagined we already would be there by now."
Besides preparing Netflix for the future, the instant viewing system also gives the company a potential weapon in its battle with Blockbuster Inc. As part of an aggressive marketing campaign, Blockbuster has been giving its online subscribers the option of bypassing the mail and returning DVDs to a store so they can obtain another movie more quickly.
Since its 1999 debut, Netflix has revolutionized movie-watching habits by melding the convenience of the Web and mail delivery with a flat-fee system that appealed to consumers weary of paying the penalties imposed by Blockbuster for late returns to its stores.
After first brushing off Netflix as a nettlesome novelty, Blockbuster has spent the past few years expanding a similar online rental service that provoked a legal spat over alleged patent infringement.
Netflix has been able to maintain its leadership so far, building so much momentum that the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., abandoned its efforts to build an online DVD rental service in 2005.
In the last three years, Netflix has signed up nearly 5 million more subscribers to become increasingly profitable. Although Netflix won't report its 2006 earnings until later this month, analysts believe the company made about $44 million last year, up from $6.5 million in 2003.
Despite the company's growth, Netflix's stock price has dropped by more than 40 percent over the past three years, shriveling to $22.71 at the end of last week.
The erosion largely reflects investor misgivings about Netflix's long-term prospects.
Once it becomes more practical to buy and rent movies within a few minutes on high-speed Internet connections, few consumers presumably will want to wait a day or two to receive a DVD in the mail. If that happens, Netflix could go the way of the horse and buggy.
Online movie delivery already is available through services like CinemaNow, MovieFlix, Movielink, Vongo and Amazon.com Inc.'s recently launched Unbox. Apple Inc. also is emerging as major player, with hundreds of movies and TV shows on sale at its iTunes store and a new device that promises to transport media from a computer to a TV screen.
But none of those online services have caught on like Netflix's mail-delivery system, partly because movie and TV studios generally release their best material on DVDs first. The studios have had little incentive to change their ways because DVDs still generate about $16 billion of highly profitable sales.
Like already existing online delivery services, Netflix's "Watch Now" option offers a lot of "B" movies such as "Kickboxer's Tears." But the mix also includes critically acclaimed selections like "Network," "Amadeus," "Chinatown" and "The Bridge On the River Kwai."
The studios contributing to Netflix's new service include NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Lion's Gate and New Line Cinema.
"We are going into this with the knowledge that consumers want to watch (media) in various ways and we want to be there for them," said Frances Manfred, a senior vice president for NBC Universal. "For now, though, we know television is the vastly preferred option."
With its eight-year-old service on the verge of mailing out its billionth DVD, Netflix has been in no rush to change the status quo either.
But Hastings realizes Internet delivery eventually will supplant DVD rentals shipped through the mail, although he thinks it will take another three to five years before technological advances and changing studio sentiment finally tip the scales.
By then, he hopes to have 20 million Netflix subscribers ready to evolve with the service.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Apple wants a bigger bite
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has ushered in a new era at the Cupertino technology company, jumping into the cell phone market with the highly anticipated iPhone and cementing the company's role in the rapidly changing digital media landscape.
Jobs, speaking at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, unveiled the iPhone, which combines the iPod, a cell phone and an Internet handheld device into one slim, portable gadget. He also announced Apple TV, a set-top box that will allow consumers to move music, photos, television shows and movies from their computer to their living room televisions.
Both products underscore the broad shift the company has made in recent years from computers to consumer electronics as it aims to become a core element in the digital future. To emphasize this philosophical shift, Jobs even said the company was dropping the word "computer" from its corporate moniker.
"From this day forward, we're going to be known as Apple Inc.," Jobs said before a roaring crowd.
Much of the symbolic importance of Jobs' words was overshadowed by the introduction of the iPhone. About 21/2 years in the making, the sleek little device is poised to make a big impact in the mobile digital marketplace.
"It's the best iPod we've ever made," said Jobs. "No matter what you like, it looks pretty doggone gorgeous."
Weighing in at less than 5 ounces, with a 31/2-inch screen, the iPhone looks like an iPod without its well-known scroll wheel. It has no conventional buttons and instead uses touch-screen technology for navigation. It runs Apple's Web browser, Safari, and operating system, Mac OS X.
The iPhone, which also features a 2-megapixel camera, will be available in June through an exclusive, multiyear partnership with AT&T's Cingular Wireless, pending approval by the Federal Communications Commission. The 4 GB version will cost $499 and the 8 GB version $599.
Those prices could be prohibitive in the cutthroat mobile phone market, analysts said.
Consumers will have to purchase a two-year cell phone service plan to even buy an iPhone, said Glenn Lurie, Cingular's president of national distribution. They might also want to purchase a monthly data plan to take advantage of the iPhone's Internet tools, although the Internet features also are available wherever there is wireless Internet access. Current Cingular data plans cost between $9.99 and $39.99 per month.
Cingular CEO Stan Stigman, appearing alongside Jobs, said the cell phone carrier entered into an agreement without even seeing a design for the iPhone. The two have been partners in the past, introducing a Motorola cell phone that incorporated Apple's iTunes software. But that phone, like other cell phone and digital music player combinations so far, was not popular because it proved difficult to use and held a small number of songs.
Jobs also brought Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Google CEO Eric Schmidt onto the stage, though not at the same time. The Internet companies will supply e-mail, mapping, search and other Internet services to the iPhone.
Yahoo will supply a special e-mail service that acts like a BlackBerry and "pushes" the e-mails to the iPhone, so that the user receives the latest message instantly. With Google, whose CEO sits on Apple's board, the iPhone will have Internet search functions and mapping -- including satellite images.
Jobs called the iPhone a revolutionary device that will leapfrog current technology. He said the company expects to sell about 10 million of them next year, which would account for 1 percent of the 1 billion cell phones sold each year around the world.
"Even if they get an itty-bitty share of the market, it translates into" a large number of cell phone sales and opens a new, large market opportunity for the company, said Van Baker, an analyst with research firm Gartner. "It's not just a computer company anymore."
But unlike the MP3 player market, which the iPod has dominated even with the entrance of rivals such as Microsoft Corp.'s Zune two months ago, the cell phone market is much more fragmented. "There is not one device that everyone buys," said telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan.
Jobs used all his showmanship skills to give the iPhone a good first-day boost from the stage of Macworld. In an Alexander Graham Bell moment during his keynote speech, Jobs made the "first" call on his iPhone to Apple's famed designer, Jonathan Ive.
"I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make the first public phone call with iPhone," Jobs said to Ive.
Jobs also used the iPhone's Google mapping feature to find Starbucks coffee shops near the Moscone Center, where Macworld is being held. He prank-called one of them, ordering "4,000 lattes to go," and then hung up.
Wall Street lapped it up. Shares of Apple rose more than 8.3 percent Tuesday to $92.57 per share. Meanwhile, among its competitors, Palm, the Sunnyvale maker of the Treo smart phone, fell nearly 5.7 percent to $13.92 per share, and Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry handheld device, dropped 7.85 percent to $131 per share.
Before it is released, the iPhone still must clear a few hurdles. It must be approved by the FCC, which reviews all wireless phones sold in the United States. Apple also will have to settle a name dispute with Cisco Systems, which last month introduced a family of Internet phones it called the iPhone, a name it trademarked.
In a statement, Cisco said it had been negotiating with Apple for several years over the iPhone name and that it expects Apple to sign an agreement to use the name shortly.
An Apple executive said that the company felt it could use the iPhone name because Apple's product applies to a cell phone, while Cisco's product refers to its Internet phones.
The iPhone announcement was the crowning moment of Jobs' keynote at Macworld, an annual event at which he kicks off his company's biggest trade show and also uses the podium to launch new products.
The other product he introduced, Apple TV, is a set-top device that wirelessly beams content from the computer to the television, allowing consumers to download movies and music via the Internet and enjoy them on their home entertainment systems. Users will be able to stream content live from up to five computers as well as program a computer to transfer material automatically onto the Apple TV's 40 GB hard drive.
Apple TV will cost $299 and arrive in stores in February.
In other news, Jobs said that Apple has reached 2 billion music downloads since introducing its popular iTunes music service, selling 58 songs a second. It has also sold 1.3 million movies since launching the movie download service with Disney last fall.
To keep those numbers rising, Jobs announced a new partnership with Paramount to include the studio's movies on iTunes. Also, the number of films available on iTunes will be increased from 100 to 250.
"This is a day I've been looking forward to for 2 1/2 years," Jobs said Tuesday. As he wrapped up the keynote with a live performance by rock musician John Mayer, he added, "I didn't sleep a wink last night. I was so excited about today."
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Bay Area soars above rest of nation in recreational drug use
Eleni Economides, The Examiner SAN FRANCISCO - Bay Area residents use more drugs than any other metropolitan area in the country, and medical marijuana could be part of the reason, according to officials.
The percentage of people interviewed who had used marijuana, cocaine or heroin in the Bay Area, which included Fremont and Oakland, was 12.7 percent — 3 percent higher than Seattle, the second highest-ranking area with 9.6 percent.
The study, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, surveyed people ages 12 and older in 15 major metropolitan areas such as New York and Chicago and asked if they had participated in drug use, cigarette smoking or binge drinking a month prior to being interviewed.
The Bay Area’s drug results were higher than expected, according to Jim Stillwell, San Francisco County’s Alcohol and Drug Program administrator.
“San Francisco has always been high, but I’m surprised that it’s that much higher than the others,” Stillwell said.
One of the reasons the percentage might be so high, according to Alice Gleghorn, deputy director of behavioral health services in San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, may be medical marijuana.
“The numbers could be high because of medical marijuana, which the federal government would still classify as illicit drug use,” Gleghorn said.
She added that the survey failed to get any more specific on the types of drug being used by those who were interviewed.
Gleghorn said another reason for the high numbers might be related to the excellent growing conditions for marijuana in California.
“You can’t use what you don’t have,” she said.
While the Bay Area may be pro-marijuana, it isn’t crazy about cigarettes. The region tied with Los Angeles with the lowest percentage of cigarette smokers, 17.9 percent. The national average is 25.3 percent.
John Newmeyer, epidemiologist for the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, said he has watched marijuana become part of The City’s cultural norm the last 35 years. And when it comes down to it, he said, smoking pot is safer than cigarettes.
“There is a low level of people reporting to hospitals and treatment facilities because of it,” he said, adding that the real problem to watch for might be within methamphetamine use.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Santa Clara prepares for 49ers
Bonnie Eslinger, The Examiner SAN FRANCISCO - Santa Clara is gearing up to compete with San Francisco for the 49ers, saying it has the tax revenue to help fund a new state-of-the-art football stadium, as formal discussions between the Silicon Valley city and the team begin next week.
On Thursday, 49ers co-owner John York sent a letter to Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan and the council asking the city officials to “begin a cooperative, good-faith effort to develop a conceptual development plan and preliminary financing plan for the stadium project.”
The letter included a list of guiding principles that would shape the process, with a goal of completing the preliminary feasibility study within six months. It also promised that the team would continue to be called the San Francisco 49ers, even if it were playing in Santa Clara. The team is eyeing land adjacent to the Great America amusement park for the new stadium.
On Tuesday, the Santa Clara City Council will have its first formal discussion on the 49ers proposal. A report from Santa Clara Assistant City Manager Ron Garratt, released Friday along with the meeting agenda, recommended that City Council members vote to proceed with a stadium feasibility study.
Key Santa Clara city leaders, including Mahan and Vice Mayor Kevin Moore, have spoken publicly in favor of the idea, said Garratt, but no official steps have yet been taken.
“It requires a majority of the council to say they want to go forward,” Garratt said.
In its letter to Santa Clara, the team calls for the stadium to be financed through a public-private partnership and promises that the stadium would have no negative impact on the city’s general fund and will not result in a tax increase.
The 49ers offered no concrete suggestions on how the stadium — projected to cost between $600 million and $800 million, according to estimates the team worked out with San Francisco — would be financed in Santa Clara, other than to say that the city and the team would collaborate on creating a financing package for the development, operation and maintenance of the stadium.
Possible revenue could include the sale of naming rights, corporate sponsorships, concession rights, user fees, parking and rent the 49ers would pay for use of the stadium.
Under The City’s proposal, revenue generated from a development project at Candlestick Point with housing and commercial development would have also contributed $100 million to the cost of the stadium.
According to Garrett, Santa Clara has some incremental tax revenue from the redevelopment area where the stadium would be built that could be used for public purposes, including a stadium and land is available within one-third of a mile to the proposed stadium site where a revenue-generating development could be built.
Although for nearly a decade, officials for the NFL team have been in negotiations with San Francisco to rebuild the new stadium at Candlestick Point, in November York called Mayor Gavin Newsom to say that they were not happy with The City’s proposed plan and so the NFL franchise was pulling out of the deal to move south to the Silicon Valley. Official documents later revealed that Santa Clara had been courting San Francisco’s football team for quite some time.
Friday, January 5, 2007
San Francisco finalizes Wi-Fi deal with EarthLink, Google
EarthLink Inc. and Google Inc. have finalized a four-year deal to provide free wireless Internet service throughout San Francisco after seven months of sometimes-tense negotiations that stalled the city's effort to ensure all its residents, visitors and businesses have easy access to the Web.San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed off on the contract Friday, but the details still require the approval of the city's Board of Supervisors and Public Utilities Commission.
A five-member panel picked EarthLink and Google Inc. to build the project in April, with the goal of having the system running by the end of 2006. It now appears that the wireless, or Wi-Fi, service won't be available throughout San Francisco until early 2008, although limited access may be available as early as April.
Google launched a free Wi-Fi service in August in its home town of Mountain View, making the 11.5-square-mile city of 72,000 people the largest U.S. community with free Wi-Fi throughout its borders.
Those bragging rights presumably will belong to San Francisco, with a population of roughly 800,000, once its Wi-Fi service is finally up and running.
More than 250 communities nationwide either are preparing or have deployed Wi-Fi services, but most of those include access fees. The list of big cities pursuing major Wi-Fi projects include Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Chicago.
The estimated $14 to $17 million cost of building and maintaining the Wi-Fi system will be shouldered by EarthLink. The Atlanta-based company will try to recoup its investment by charging $21.95 per month to surf the Web at speeds three to four times faster than the free service, which will still be quicker than using a dial-up modem.
Online search leader Google will sell ads to help subsidize the free service. About 3,200 low-income residents will be able to subscribe to the faster Wi-Fi service for $12.95 per month.
San Francisco will get 5 percent of the subscription revenue — a cut estimated to be worth about $300,000 annually. That figures indicates EarthLink expects the Wi-Fi service to generate about $6 million in annual sales.
EarthLink also will pay the city $600,000 for right-of-way access and $40,000 annually to place Wi-Fi equipment on street poles.
The contract contains options that could extend the deal's initial four-year duration by another 12 years.
Newsom began his push for a free Wi-Fi system in 2004, touting his vision as a way to keep San Francisco on the cutting edge of technology while making it more feasible for poor households to get online. San Francisco estimates about 30 percent of its residents don't have Internet access at home.
"This agreement to bring free universal wireless internet access to San Francisco is a critical step in bridging the digital divide that separates too many communities from the enormous benefits of technology," Newsom said.
San Francisco's original timetable for launching the service was delayed as city leaders with EarthLink and Google over privacy concerns, the contract's length and financial arrangements.
EarthLink and Google addressed the privacy concerns by giving users the choice to block the service from tracking their precise location. Google believes the ability to pinpoint a user's location might help the company deliver more useful ads about nearby merchants.
At one point in the talks, Google publicly vented its exasperation with San Francisco's bureaucracy, saying it had far less difficulty gaining approval to build a free Wi-Fi service in Mountain View.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Homicide rewards not working to solve murders
Joshua Sabatini, The Examiner SAN FRANCISCO - Mayor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged that offering $100,000 rewards to help solve homicide cases has failed and represents an unsuccessful attempt in trying to reduce San Francisco’s high homicide rate.
As San Francisco was experiencing its third consecutive year of a historic number of killings and community members were calling on city officials for relief, Newsom announced in September 2006 that he had put up $100,000 rewards in 15 unsolved homicide cases, 10 times the usual reward amount offered.
“I won’t say that this was one of the success stories of the year,” Newsom said Tuesday. It was hoped that the sizable reward bounty would produce leads in the murders and arrests of killers on city streets.
Newsom said he did not regret the effort and he is willing to try a variety of strategies to help reduce the number of killings. The City tallied decade-high homicide rates in recent years, with 88 in 2004, 96 in 2005 and 85 last year.
Newsom, who was thumbing through the $100,000 reward bulletins Tuesday, said there have been no significant leads or captures resulting from the reward money.
“That continues to be somewhat frustrating,” said Allan Nance, the acting director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
The fact that the $100,000 rewards have not yielded results highlights the Police Department’s challenge of getting witnesses to talk.
“The reality is we have known for quite a while now that the community has been somewhat reluctant to come forward with information,” Nance said. Fear of retaliation and “mistrust of the system” are two leading factors that keep witnesses silent, according to Nance.
Last year’s fatal shooting in the Bayview district of a primary eyewitness to a gang shooting does not help the situation, Nance said. “That doesn’t encourage people to come forward when they see an incident like that,” he added.
But the $100,000 amount was expected to have results. It was enough money that a witness could “start a new life, move out of the neighborhood,” Nance said.
“It’s somewhat perplexing that even at $100,000, it’s not resulted in significant arrests,” Nance said.
The Police Department’s Web site lists 15 homicide cases where a $100,000 reward is being offered for the arrest and conviction of the offender. Nance said an award was offered in these cases because the “trail has gotten cold.”
“Inspectors have gotten to the point when they really don’t have any leads in the cases and the community is frustrated that these cases have not been solved,” Nance said.
The cases range from the 2002 killing of a 24-year-old pregnant woman, Evelyn Hernandez, whose remains were found floating in the Bay near the Embarcadero and Folsom Street, to the 2005 shooting of popular tattoo artist Brian Marquez, who was killed near the corner of 24th and Alabama streets.
Police Department spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens said he would not call the $100,000 rewards unsuccessful.
“When we issue rewards like that, we do generally get calls and they are helpful,” Gittens said. “There’s a whole lot happening in between an arrest and information coming in.”
The reasons witnesses refuse to come forward “need to be explored and we need to find ways to counter that,” Nance said.
