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

MICHAEL LIEDTKE, The Associated Press


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

Ellen Lee, San Francisco Chronicle


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

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

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.