#philmatier

[socialsf]

#honesttruth #lifeduringcovid19 via @sfchronicle #philmatier #openingcalifornia2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/B_2sXiHhoEC/?igshid=i1eypdprgl5g

[citymaus]

“Built at cost of $4 million, the 200-bed Embarcadero Navigation Center takes about up half of a 2.4-acre parking lot along the city’s picturesque waterfront near Beale and Bryant streets.

Unlike the city’s other Navigation Centers, which are in mixed-use areas, the Embarcadero shelter sits next to some condominium buildings where units start at $1 million each.

“In addition to sending more Homeless Outreach Teams into the area, police are setting up a two-block “safety zone” around the center. The SFPD has also committed four beat cops — probably two at time — to the safety zone seven days a week to deal with loitering, drug use and sales, and keeping campsites out of the zone.

“We like to keep it focused on a small area so that we have the physical presence that the public is looking for,” said Deputy Chief Greg McEachern.

Police plan to monitor the area’s crime stats and revisit the safety plan if the number of incidents rises.”

read more: sfchronicle, 15.12.19. previously: “in san francisco, a fight over a homeless shelter shines a harsh light on a conflicted population.” techcrunch, 29.03.19. 

[sfmuniverse]

San Francisco’s new transit chief, Jeffrey Tumlin, has never managed a transit system.

Nor has he ever overseen the building of a major transit project, like the Central Subway.

Nor has he managed a public agency, let alone one with rail and bus lines that move 709,000 passengers each weekday and has an annual operating budget of $1.2 billion and 6,046 employees.

Nor has he managed an agency operating cable cars. Nor has any SFMTA CEO managed the SFMTA before they did.

Lack of hands-on experience, however, was no cause for pause from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who called Tumlin “exactly the type of forward-thinking, results-oriented leader that the SFMTA needs” when she announced his appointment to lead the Municipal Transportation Agency on Wednesday.

It is not uncommon for a company (or a public agency in this case) to hire executives with a different background, or from a different industry entirely.

What Jeffrey Tumlin has is 25 years of experience in the transportation sector. Everything from operating a submarine at Disneyland to developing parking management systems to setting up Oaklands Department of Transportation to planning multi-modal transportation systems around the world.

He was also willing to take the job.

[makistar2018]

49ers add second Taylor Swift show at Levi’s Stadium, and everyone takes a bit of a bath

Phil Matier March 31, 2019

Ticket sales were so hot for Taylor Swift’s Levi’s Stadium show in May that the 49ers gave the green light for a second show, only to wind up giving away 20,000 tickets to fill the stands.

“They call it papering the stadium,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said.

The ticket giveaway resulted in a loss of $2 million in potential ticket sales, according to a recent report by the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, and added fuel to the rift between the city and the NFL team over management of Levi’s Stadium.

Here’s the story:

Swift’s “Reputation” stadium tour was the highest-grossing U.S. tour of 2018, taking in $266 million, according Billboard magazine. So it was no surprise when the first show on Friday, May 11, sold a whopping 50,503 tickets.

Given that demand, the 49ers allowed concert promoter Louis Messina to add a second show a day earlier. But the Thursday night show sold only 29,333 tickets, leaving the stadium about half empty.

According to city officials, Swift’s contract called for the stadium to be filled to an acceptable level, so those 20,000 tickets were given away.

“We don’t know who got the tickets,” Gillmor said.

Because the tickets were handed out for free, the city lost out on the $4-per-ticket surcharge used to cover police and traffic control costs, which added to the loss.

“We made over $3 million on the first show and lost over over $2 million on the second show,” Gillmor said.

Rahul Chandhok,the 49ers’ vice president of public affairs, said even with the ticket giveaway, the Swift shows still netted a cool $1 million for the stadium — of which $500,000 went to Santa Clara.

As for the mayor’s criticism?

“It’s exactly this deceptive approach, her lack of transparency and fuzzy math that make Mayor Gillmor difficult to trust,” Chandhok said.

Nonetheless, the Swift shows’ roller-coaster ticket sales highlight some of the challenges of booking big events at Levi’s.

Chandhok laid part of the blame on the booking slump to Santa Clara’s 10 p.m. curfew for weekday concerts.

“The largest promoters in the world forecasted the consequences of the music ban, and now we are seeing it play out.” Chandhok said.

That’s showbiz.

San Francisco Chronicle

[hackernewsrobot]

Rampant shoplifting leads to another Walgreens closing in S.F

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Rampant-shoplifting-leads-to-another-Walgreens-15654730.php Comments

[angrybell]

I’d like to thank DA Chesa Boudin, AG Xavier Becerra and the Calfirornia Democratic Party in general for their tireless work to decriminalize criminal acts. Without them, two pharmacies would still be providing services to people in San Francisco and dozens of people would still have their jobs.

Restorative justice that Boudin is pushing seems to be restoring the old version of the Tenderloin, a Wild West of heroin deals, shooting gallieries, and crime. Congratulations!

[ohnooooonedirection]

According to city officials, Swift’s contract called for the stadium to be filled to an acceptable level, so those 20,000 tickets were given away.

“We don’t know who got the tickets,” Gillmor said.

Because the tickets were handed out for free, the city lost out on the $4-per-ticket surcharge used to cover police and traffic control costs, which added to the loss.

“We made over $3 million on the first show and lost over over $2 million on the second show,” Gillmor said.

Rahul Chandhok, the 49ers’ vice president of public affairs, said even with the ticket giveaway, the Swift shows still netted a cool $1 million for the stadium — of which $500,000 went to Santa Clara.

[gsie]

Former public defender and San Francisco District Attorney-elect Chesa Boudin says he has no plans to clean house.

[420jobsboard]

California craving more tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales   San Francisco Chronicle California's high cash expectations from recreational marijuana are going up in smoke as most people are opting to buy their weed on the cheaper, more ...

[sfmuniverse]

BART and Amtrak are teaming up on assessing the possibility of building a second Bay Area crossing, one that would give passengers a “one-seat” ride on the Capitol Corridor train from downtown San Francisco to Sacramento.

The idea is to build a Second Transbay Tube (or tunnels) with four tracks.

One pair of tracks would be dedicated to BART, using the wider gauge track and short trains so it can connect into the existing system, even allowing BART to reroute trains from one tube to the other.

The other pair of tracks would be the standard-gauge conventional rail tracks used by Caltrain, Capitol Corridor, and Amtrak.

One plan under consideration would be to add a new Capitol Corridor line that would run through the East Bay and then feed directly into San Francisco, possibly into the Transbay Transit Center at Mission and Beale streets.

This doesn't need to be limited to the Capitol Corridor.

Going the other direction, Caltrain could continue on from San Francisco to Oakland, Berkeley, or all the way to Sacramento on those same standard-gauge tracks.

[post-post-its]

San Francisco has more drug addicts than it has students enrolled in its public high schools, the city Health Department’s latest estimates conclude.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/San-Francisco-where-street-addicts-outnumber-13571702.php

[420jobsboard]

California craving more tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales   San Francisco Chronicle California's high cash expectations from recreational marijuana are going up in smoke as most people are opting to buy their weed on the cheaper, more ...