SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk may want to send “tweet” back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay — at least for now.

For one, the word is still plastered all over the site formerly known as Twitter. Write a post, you still need to press a blue button that says “tweet” to publish it. To repost it, you still tap “retweet.”

With “tweets,” Twitter accomplished in just a few years something few companies have done in a lifetime: It became a verb and implanted itself into the lexicon of America and the world. Upending that takes more than a top-down declaration, even if it is from the owner of Twitter-turned-X, who also happens to be one of the world’s richest men.

A worker removes a character from a sign on the Twitter headquarters building July 24 in San Francisco.

Godofredo A. Vásquez, Associated Press

“Language has always come from the people that use it on a day-to-day basis. And it can’t be controlled, it can’t be created, it can’t be morphed. You don’t get to decide it,” said Nick Bilton, the author of “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal” about Twitter’s origins.

People are also reading…

Twitter didn’t start out as Twitter. It was “twttr” — without vowels, which was the trend in 2006 when the platform launched and SMS texting was wildly popular. The iPhone only came out in 2007.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams “went one day and purchased the vowels, two vowels for essentially $7,500 each,” when he bought the URL for twitter.com from a bird enthusiast, Bilton said.

At the beginning, people didn’t “tweet” — it was “I’m going to twitter this,” Bilton recalled. But “twittered” doesn’t roll off the tongue and “tweet” soon took over, first in the Twitter office, then San Francisco, then everywhere.

We’ve been tweeting for well over a decade. World leaders, celebrities and athletes, dissidents in repressive regimes, propaganda trolls, sex workers and religious icons, meme queens and actual queens. Former President Donald Trump’s incendiary use of the bird app quickly punted “tweet” into near-constant headlines during his presidency. People who never signed up for Twitter knew what the word meant.

For now, we still tweet, retweet and quote tweet, and sometimes — perhaps not often enough — delete tweets. News sites embed tweets in their stories and TV programs scroll them. No other social network has a word for posting that’s entered the vernacular like “tweet” — though Google did the same for “googling.”

An index card shows the entry “tweet” Aug. 24, 2011, at Merriam-Webster headquarters in Springfield, Mass.  

Charles Krupa, Associated Press

The Oxford English Dictionary added “tweet” in 2011. Merriam-Webster followed in 2013. The Associated Press Stylebook entered it in 2010.

“Getting into the dictionary is an indication that people are already using it,” said Jack Lynch, a Rutgers University English professor who studies the history of language.  

As Twitter grew into a global communications platform and struggled with misinformation, trolls and hate speech, its friendly brand image remained. The blue bird icon evokes a smile, like the Amazon up-turned-arrow smile — in contrast to the X that Musk has imposed.

Martin Grasser was two years out of art school when Twitter hired him for the logo redesign in 2011. His wasn’t the first bird logo for Twitter, but it would be the most enduring.

“They knew they wanted a bird. So we weren’t starting completely over, but they wanted it to be on par with Apple and Nike. That was really the brief,” he said.

Twitter launched Grasser’s design in May 2012; the company went public on Wall Street later that year.

It was Noah Glass, another co-founder who never quite got the credit he deserved for his role in hatching Twitter, who had the winning idea.

Elon Musk’s Twitter page on July 24 shows the new X logo that he introduced a day before.  

HONS

Glass, Bilton said, “had been thinking about, like, heartbeats and emotions. He was going through a divorce and he literally went through the dictionary word by word until he came across the word twitter. And he just knew instantly that was it.”

“He was one of the four founders who had the emotional intelligence to be able to understand that this was about connecting with humans,” Bilton said. “It was inviting, it was emotional. It was about connecting with humans and your friends and your loved ones.”

Musk began his quest erasing Twitter’s corporate culture and image in favor of his own vision as soon as he took over the company in October 2022. He lost three-quarters of the company’s staff through firings, layoffs and voluntary departures, auctioned off furniture and décor, and upended policies on hate speech and misinformation. The rebranding to X was no surprise.

Twitter’s rebranding is rooted in ambition that Musk began to pursue nearly a quarter century ago after he sold his first startup, Zip2, to Compaq Computer. He set out to create a one-stop digital shop for finance called X.com — an “everything” service that would provide bank accounts, process payments, make loans and handle investments.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., introduces the Model X car Sept. 29, 2015, at the company’s headquarters in Fremont, Calif.  

Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press

He has not given up on the dream. Twitter is now X, falling in line with Musk’s other X-named brands, SpaceX and Tesla’s Model X. Not to mention his young son, whom he calls “X.”

His goal for X is to turn it into an “everything” app — for video, photos, messaging, payments and other services, although he has given few details. For now, X.com is still, essentially Twitter.com, even as the blue bird and other playful tidbits start to disappear.

“There used to be a saying inside Twitter that Twitter was the company that couldn’t kill itself. I think that still rings true, whether it’s called Twitter or X,” Bilton said.

“I think that it’s kind of become a fabric of society. And even Elon Musk may not be able to break it.”

Elon Musk and Twitter: A timeline

January 31: Musk begins building up his Twitter stake

Musk starts quietly buying up Twitter shares, building his stake in the company. But it would be months before he disclosed this fact to the public.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

March 14: Musk’s Twitter stake tops 5%

Musk’s stake in Twitter tops 5%, but that fact is not disclosed until the following month. Musk was obligated to disclose his stake within 10 days of crossing the 5% threshold, but waited 21 days to do so. During that time, he continued building up his stake.

Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

March 24: Asking whether Twitter should change

The billionaire begins to make pointed statements about the platform from his account. “Twitter algorithm should be open source,” he wrote, with a poll for users to vote “yes” or “no.”

The following day, Musk tweets out another poll to his followers: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”

Christian Marquardt/Getty Images

March 26: Musk reaches out to Jack Dorsey

Musk reaches out to Twitter cofounder and former CEO Jack Dorsey to “discuss the future direction of social media,” according to a company filing later put out by the company. The two tech founders are known to have a bit of a billionaire bromance on and off Twitter.

AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

April 3: Twitter leadership meets to discuss Musk

Twitter’s board and some of its leadership team meet with representatives from Wilson Sonsini, a law firm, and J.P. Morgan to discuss the possibility of Musk joining the company’s board, according a later securities filing. Dorsey is said to have told the board that “he and Mr. Musk were friends,” according to the filing.

In the meeting, the Twitter board discussed wanting Musk to agree to “‘standstill’ provisions”,” according to the filing. This would effectively “limit his public statements regarding Twitter, including the making of unsolicited public proposals to acquire Twitter (but not private proposals) without the prior consent of the Twitter Board.”

AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File

April 4: Surprise! Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder

Musk is revealed to be Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, with a more than 9% stake in the company.

News of the purchase sends shares of the social media company soaring more than 20% in early trading and kicks off a wave of speculation about how Musk might push for changes on the platform.

AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File

April 5: Musk agrees to join the board

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces Musk will join Twitter’s board of directors. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Agrawal says in a post on Twitter.

As part of the appointment, Musk agrees not to acquire more than 14.9% of the company’s shares while he remains on the board. His term on the board is set to go through 2024, according to a regulatory filing.

AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File

April 10: Just kidding. Musk ditches the board

Agrawal announces that Musk has decided not to join the board after all. “I believe this is for the best,” Agrawal writes in a letter to the Twitter team.

The reversal opens the door for Musk to pursue a greater stake in the company — and frees him to tweet his many thoughts about the company.

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File

April 14: Musk offers to buy Twitter and ‘unlock’ its potential

Musk stuns the industry by making an offer to acquire all the shares in Twitter he does not own at a valuation of $41.4 billion. The cash offer represents a 38% premium over the company’s closing price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed that he had become the company’s biggest shareholder.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Musk writes in his offer letter. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”

AP Photo/Eric Risberg

April 15: The poison pill

Twitter’s board of directors adopts a “poison pill” provision, a limited-term shareholder rights plan that potentially makes it harder for Musk to acquire the company.

AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn

April 21: Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing

Musk lines up $46.5 billion in financing for the deal, including two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley and other unnamed financial institutions and one equity commitment letter from himself, according to a regulatory filing.

The billionaire also reveals that he has not received a formal response from Twitter a week after his acquisition offer. He said he is “seeking to negotiate” a definite acquisition agreement and “is prepared to begin such negotiations immediately” — an apparent reversal from his statement in his acquisition offer letter that it would be his “best and final” offer.

Although he is the richest person in the world, much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, and some followers of the company speculate that it could be challenging for Musk to raise debt against the historically volatile stock.

AP Photo/Richard Drew

April 25: Twitter agrees to sell itself to Elon Musk

Twitter announces that it has agreed to sell itself to Musk in a deal valued at around $44 billion. At a conference later in the day, Musk describes his offer to buy Twitter in characteristically sweeping terms as being about “the future of civilization,” not just making money.

At an all-hands meeting that afternoon, Twitter employees raise questions about everything from what the deal would mean for their compensation to whether former US President Donald Trump would be let back on the platform.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

April 29: Musk cashes out billions in Tesla stock

Filings reveal Musk sold $8.5 billion of his Tesla stock in the three days after Twitter board agreed to the sale for an average of $883.09 per share. The filings did not disclose the reason for the sale, but Musk appeared to be raising funds to buy Twitter.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

May 4: With a little help from his billionaire friends

Musk raises another $7 billion in financing for the deal. The new investors include Oracle founder Larry Ellison, cryptocurrency platform Binance and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, according to a filing.

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

May 10: Musk says he would reinstate Trump’s account

Musk confirms what many have assumed for weeks: he would reverse Twitter’s Trump ban if his deal to buy the company is completed.

“I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,” Musk said. “I would reverse the perma-ban. … Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice, it will amplify it among the right and this is why it’s morally wrong and flat out stupid.”

Alex Brandon/AP

May 6: Musk’s lofty goals for Twitter, revealed

Musk aims to increase Twitter’s annual revenue to $26.4 billion by 2028, up from $5 billion last year, according to a New York Times report, citing Musk’s pitch deck presented to investors. To achieve that lofty goal, Musk intends to bolster Twitter’s subscription revenue and build up a payments business while decreasing the company’s reliance on advertising sales, according to the report.

AP Photo/John Raoux, File

May 12: A partial hiring freeze and executive departures

Twitter confirms to CNN Business that the platform is pausing most hiring and backfills, except for “business critical” roles, and pulling back on other non-labor costs ahead of the acquisition. In addition, Twitter says general manager of consumer, Kayvon Beykpour, and revenue product lead, Bruce Falck, are leaving the company.

AP Photo/Gregory Bull

May 13: Twitter deal ‘temporarily on hold’

Musk tweets that the deal is on hold, linking to a Reuters report from nearly two weeks earlier, about Twitter’s most recent disclosure about its amount of spam and fake accounts. The figure cited in the report, however, is in line with prior quarterly disclosures.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk tweeted.

Shares of the social media site plummet after Musk’s announcement, dropping more than 10% at market open. Two hours after announcing the hold, Musk says he remains set on purchasing Twitter. “Still committed to acquisition,” he wrote.

Later in the day, Musk says his team is testing Twitter’s numbers and “picked 100 as the sample size number, because that is what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate.”

AP Photo/Gregory Bull

May 14: Oops. NDA problems?

Musk tweets out that Twitter’s legal team accused him of breaking a nondisclosure agreement when the billionaire revealed the platform’s sample size for automated user checks is allegedly just 100 users.

“Twitter legal just called to complain that I violated their NDA by revealing the bot check sample size is 100! This actually happened,” wrote Musk.

Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo via AP, File

May 16: Poop emoji

The standoff over bot accounts continues as Musk exchanges a series of tweets with Agrawal over the issue. After Agrawal carefully explains how Twitter attempts to combat and measure spam accounts, Musk responds with a poop emoji.

Musk follows up with a somewhat more thoughtful question. “So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money?” Musk asked. “This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter,” he added.

AP Photo/Eric Risberg

May 17: Musk says Twitter deal ‘cannot move forward.’ Twitter disagrees

Musk announces that his acquisition of Twitter “cannot move forward” until he sees more information about the prevalence of spam accounts, claiming that the social media platform falsified numbers in filings. Without citing a source, he claims in a tweet that Twitter is “20% fake/spam accounts” and suggests Twitter’s previous filings with the SEC were misleading.

Later in the day, Musk posts a poll to his Twitter followers: “Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience?” before calling on the SEC to evaluate the platform’s numbers. “Hello @SECGov, anyone home?” Musk tweets, in an apparent attempt to get the regulator to look into the matter.

In a statement, Twitter says it remains “committed to completing the transaction on the agreed price and terms as promptly as practicable.” Later, the company says it intends to “enforce the merger agreement.”

AP Photo/Martin Meissner

Be the first to know

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

The post Elon Musk desires to show tweets into ‘X’s’ — however altering language not fairly so easy appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk may want to send “tweet” back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay — at least for now.

For one, the word is still plastered all over the site formerly known as Twitter. Write a post, you still need to press a blue button that says “tweet” to publish it. To repost it, you still tap “retweet.”

But it’s more than that.

With “tweets,” Upending that takes more than a top-down declaration, even if it is from the owner of Twitter-turned-X, who also happens to be one of the world’s richest men.

“Language has always come from the people that use it on a day-to-day basis. And it can’t be controlled, it can’t created, it can’t be morphed. You don’t get to decide it,” said Nick Bilton, the author of “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal” about Twitter’s origins.

Twitter didn’t start out as Twitter. It was “twttr” — without vowels, which was the trend in 2006 when the platform launched and SMS texting was wildly popular. The iPhone only came out in 2007.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams “went one day and purchased the vowels, two vowels for essentially $7,500 each,” when he bought the URL for twitter.com from a bird enthusiast, Bilton said.

At the beginning, people didn’t “tweet” — it was “I’m going to twitter this,” Bilton recalled. But “twittered” doesn’t roll off the tongue and “tweet” soon took over, first in the Twitter office, then San Francisco, then everywhere.

We’ve been propaganda trolls, sex workers and religious icons, meme queens and actual queens. Former president Donald Trump’s incendiary use of the bird app quickly punted “tweet” into near-constant headlines during his presidency. People who never signed up for Twitter knew what the word meant.

For now, we still tweet, retweet and quote tweet, and sometimes — perhaps not often enough — delete tweets. News sites embed tweets in their stories and TV programs scroll them. No other social network has a word for posting that’s entered the vernacular like “tweet” — though Google did the same for “googling.”

The Oxford English Dictionary added “tweet” in 2011. Merriam-Webster followed in 2013. The Associated Press Stylebook entered it in 2010.

“Getting into the dictionary is an indication that people are already using it,” said Jack Lynch, a Rutgers University English professor who studies the history of language. “Dictionaries are usually pretty tentative or cautious about letting new words in, especially for new phenomena, because they don’t want things to be just a flash in the pan.”

As Twitter grew into a global communications platform and struggled with misinformation, trolls and hate speech, its friendly brand image remained. The blue bird icon evokes a smile, like the Amazon up-turned-arrow smile — in contrast to the X that Musk has imposed.

Martin Grasser was two years out of art school when Twitter hired him for the logo redesign in 2011. His wasn’t the first bird logo for Twitter, but it would be the most enduring.

“They knew they wanted a bird. So we weren’t starting completely over, but they wanted it to be on par with Apple and Nike. That was really the brief,” he said.

Twitter launched Grasser’s design in May 2012; the company went public on Wall Street later that year.

One early in-house design shown to Grasser looked like “a flying goose with a tail. It looked kind of like a dragon. It was crazy,” he said. Jack Dorsey, another co-founder (and twice-CEO) wanted something simpler.

The bird represented a vision of Twitter as a friendly place “where everyone can weigh in and chat,” Grasser said.

“The round form evokes a sense of optimism, the bird even being sort of turned upward, as corny as that sounds, I think is different than a bird flying down or flat,” he said. “We wanted to give it this idea of like soaring.″

The word “Twitter” itself is playful, as is “tweet.” This was no accident, Bilton said.

Other names that floated as the platform started out included “Status” and “Friend Stalker.”

It was Noah Glass, another co-founder who never quite got the credit he deserved for his role in hatching Twitter, who had the winning idea.

Glass, Bilton said, “had been thinking about like heartbeats and emotions. He was going through a divorce and he literally went through the dictionary word by word until he came across the word twitter. And he just knew instantly that was it.”

“He was one of the four founders who had the emotional intelligence to be able to understand that this was about connecting with humans,” Bilton said. “It was inviting, it was emotional. It was about connecting with humans and your friends and your loved ones.”

Musk began his quest erasing Twitter’s corporate culture and image in favor of his own vision as soon as he took over the company in October 2022. He lost three-quarters of the company’s staff through firings, layoffs and voluntary departures, auctioned off furniture and décor, and upended policies on hate speech and misinformation. The rebranding to X was no surprise.

Twitter’s rebranding is rooted in ambition that Musk began to pursue nearly a quarter century ago after he sold his first startup, Zip2, to Compaq Computer. He set out to create a one-stop digital shop for finance called X.com — an “everything” service that would provide bank accounts, process payments, make loans and handle investments.

He has not given up on the dream. Twitter is now X, falling in line with Musk’s other X-named brands, SpaceX and Tesla’s Model X. Not to mention his young son, whom he calls “X.”

His goal for X is to turn it into an “everything” app — for video, photos, messaging, payments and other services, although he has given few details. For now, X.com is still, essentially Twitter.com, even as the blue bird and other playful tidbits start to disappear.

“There used to be a saying inside Twitter that Twitter was the company that couldn’t kill itself. I think that still rings true, whether it’s called Twitter or X,” Bilton said.

“I think that it’s kind of become a fabric of society. And even Elon Musk may not be able to break it.”

—

AP Technology Writers Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, and Michael Liedtke contributed to this story.

Follow @ktar923

The post Elon Musk needs to show tweets into ‘X’s’. However altering language just isn’t fairly so easy appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney 2023 today announces the latest from the growing lineup of speakers from around the world attending the conference as part of the new futuristic event.

Alongside the Expo, networking parties, activations, music, games and film festivals, the SXSW Sydney Conference provides a platform for the world’s leading speakers in their fields and offers thought-provoking sessions at the multi-faceted event in Harbor City.

Today’s list includes leading speakers from the fields of advertising and marketing, Christian Juhl, Global CEO of the world’s leading media investment firm Group M; and marketing legend Roxy Young, Reddit’s Chief Marketing & Consumer Experience Officer.

“We are also joined by Ronald Akili, founder of Bali’s acclaimed Potato Head and leading thinkers in the generative AI and technology space,” said Fenella Kernebone, Head of Conference Programming at SXSW Sydney.

The conference will feature featured speakers from local and global creatives and pioneers, including:

• Christian Juhl (Global CEO, Group M): Passionate about making advertising work better for everyone and CEO of the world’s leading media investment firm.
• Genevieve Bell (ANU), renowned anthropologist, technologist, futurist and Director of the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University and Vice President and Senior Fellow of Intel Corporation
• Jamila Gordon (Lumachain), a global technology executive, is on the BBC’s “100 Women” list, leading the way to “reinventing our society, culture and world”.
• Mikaela Jade (Founder and CEO, Indigital Edutech); proud Cabrogal woman and recognized technology leader
• Noelle Russell (Accenture), distinguished technologist and advocate for data and AI skills, Russell is Industry Lead for Global AI Solutions, Generative AI and LLM (Large Language Model) at Accenture, based in Miami
• Ronald Akili (Potato Head, Bali), Entrepreneur operating at the forefront of hospitality and creative industries, bringing Indonesian contemporary art, architecture and food to the global stage, with entertainment companies in Singapore, Jakarta and Bali
• Roxy Young (Reddit), Global Chief Marketing Officer, Reddit and the first Latinx woman to join San Francisco-based Reddit’s C-Suite

SXSW Sydney brings together Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent creative industries in a stacked week-long program across the thematic pillars of Technology & Innovation, Gaming, Music, Screen and Culture. ID is required to access the SXSW Sydney 2023 offer. SXSW Sydney 2023 Platinum and Industry badges are now available for purchase.

Previously Announced Keynote and Featured Speakers

In addition to the Session Select sessions announced last week, previously announced keynote and featured speakers include:

• Keynote Speaker and Futurist Amy Webb – SXSW 2023 speaks here
• Andrew Pask, Professor School of Biosciences University of Melbourne
• Ben Lamm, Founder and CEO Colossus – SXSW 2023 speaks here
• Chris Lee, Chief A&R Officer and Former CEO, SM Entertainment (Sung-su Lee)
• Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, Canva
• Jack Reis, co-founder of Baidam Solutions
• Kyas Hepworth, Head of NSW Division
• Larissa Behrendt, Professor at the University of Technology Sydney
• Manal Al-Sharif, women’s rights activist
• Michael J. Biercuk, CEO and founder of Q-Ctrl
• Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment
• Que Minh Luu, Content Director Netflix (ANZ)
• Robyn Denholm, Chair of the Technology Council of Australia
• Rohit Bhargava, Founder of The Non-Obvious Company – SXSW 2023 speaks here
• Sam Barlow, game master and owner of Half Mermaid
• Sean Miyashiro, Founder and CEO 88 Rising
• Sheila Nguyen, Head of Sustainability AUS and NZL at the FIFA Women’s World Cup
• Sung-Eun Youn, film critic
• Tom Verrilli, Twitch Chief Product Officer
• Yiying Lu, Adobe Global Creative Ambassador
• Yoomin Yang, Co-Founder and CEO WOW POINT

More information on the previously announced line-up of speakers can be found here. The first Session Select sessions to attend the first SXSW conference in Sydney can be found here.

From Sunday 15 October to Sunday 22 October 2023, SXSW Sydney will bring together Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent creative industries in a stacked week-long program across the content pillars of Technology & Innovation, Gaming, Music, Screen and Culture.

Please sign in with LinkedIn to post a comment

The post SXSW Sydney Reveals The Voices Altering Our World With All New Featured Audio system appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Transgender people born in Kansas could be barred from altering their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity if the conservative Republican prosecutor succeeds in a legal action he launched late Friday.

Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a motion in federal court asking a judge to reverse the requirement in Kansas to allow transgender people to alter their birth certificates.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in 2019 imposed a requirement to settle a lawsuit filed by four transgender residents of Kansas against three officials at the state’s Department of Health and Human Services over a policy that critics said prevented transgender people from doing so even after the transition Make changes, legally change their name, and get a new driver Driver’s licenses and social security cards.

It wasn’t clear if Kobach’s efforts would succeed, as a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This year, federal judges in Idaho and Ohio overturned rules against transgender people changing their birth certificates, but on Thursday a federal judge in Tennessee dismissed a lawsuit challenging one of the country’s few remaining state measures against such changes.

Kobach’s move appears to be in line with a new, sweeping Kansas law that goes into effect July 1 and rolls back transgender rights. It was enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature due to the veto of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. A memo filed electronically with Kobach’s application just before midnight cited the law as reason for a re-examination of the 2019 settlement.

The memo argued that Crabtree’s order made it “impossible” to follow the new state law and that the state health department, which administers birth certificates, was now “obligated to execute the law as written” since the legislature had “spoken.” .

Kobach had already scheduled a press conference at the Statehouse for Monday afternoon to discuss the enforcement of the new law.

Crabtree’s 2019 order blocked a policy imposed by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration that was among the harshest anti-birth certificate changes in the United States. Kelly is a strong supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and her government agreed to settle the lawsuit less than six months after taking office.

That decision came nearly a year after Crabtree said the Kansas policy violated the constitutional right of transgender people to due process and equal treatment before the law. His order notes that federal courts in Idaho and Puerto Rico had rejected the no-change policy. Kobach’s memo called those judgments outdated.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and the LGBTQ+ rights group Lambda Legal, which represents the four Kansas residents, condemned Kobach’s move. Lamda Legal’s Omar Gonzalez-Pagan called it “unnecessary and cruel”.

Kansas ACLU executive director Micah Kubic added in a statement, “Mr. Kobach should reconsider the wisdom — and the sheer lewdness — of this attempt to weaponize his office’s authority to attack transgender Kansas just trying to get on with their lives.”

Kansas’ new law aims to prevent transgender people from using restrooms, locker rooms and other same-sex facilities related to their identity. At least nine other states have such laws, mostly focused on public schools.

Kobach said he believes Kansas’ new law will also prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s license, although the law does not provide specific enforcement mechanisms. Legislators drafted the bill so they can prevent transgender people from changing their birth certificates, except for the 2019 federal court order, without specifically mentioning birth certificates or driver’s licenses.

For weeks, a project by Kansas Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm, encouraged transgender people from Kansas to change their driver’s licenses before the new law went into effect. Kelly’s administration, which is responsible for licensing drivers, hasn’t said whether it thinks such changes would still be allowed under the new law.

Ellen Bertels, the attorney who led the effort, said that while a transgender person could sue after the law went into effect to protect people’s right to change their driver’s licenses, a lawsuit by a state official against Kelly’s government could be aimed at prevent such changes.

“That’s sort of the obvious place they would end up,” Bertels said.

As for birth certificates, the number of states that don’t allow transgender people to alter birth certificates has decreased due to challenges in federal courts like the one in Kansas. In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt is being sued over his 2021 executive order banning such changes.

According to Alex Rate, one of their attorneys, the Montana ACLU plans to challenge a rule enacted there last year that prohibits people from changing the gender on their birth certificates. The state has tightened its rules since GOP Gov. Greg Gianforte took office in 2021.

Previously, since 2017, when Democrat Steve Bullock was governor, Montana allowed transgender people to alter their birth certificates by filling out an affidavit.

Advocates of LGBTQ+ rights say that changing birth certificates, driver’s licenses and other records to reflect a transgender person’s gender identity is key to confirming their identity and often vastly improves their mental health.

Policies against altering birth certificates and other documents also have practical implications for transgender residents. For example, Kansas requires voters to show photo identification when voting or obtaining an absentee ballot.

Critics of the new Kansas law say it aims to legally exclude transgender people.

It explains that state law recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and defines them based on a person’s “biological reproductive system” at birth. A woman is someone whose system is “designed to produce eggs,” while a man is just someone with a system “to fertilize a woman’s eggs.”

The law then states that “important government objectives” to protect people’s health, safety and privacy justify the establishment of gender-segregated spaces consistent with these definitions.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Hanson of Helena, Montana contributed to this story.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

The post Kansas’ lawyer normal is shifting to dam trans individuals from altering their beginning certificates appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

As Bay Area audiences return to their beloved venues, they’ll be hearing a lot about upgrades to HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning). Many venue managers tout their use of 100% outside air, for instance, to assure visitors’ COVID fears.

But all that air pumping comes with complications that homes and office buildings don’t have to deal with.

“Performance areas are really tough, because you blow more air and it’s louder. Curtains can ripple,” said Matt Suidan, a senior product manager at Enpowered Solutions, who has consulted with War Memorial Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and American Conservatory Theater. Or any theater haze, used for a special effect, could get blown away.

Or, in the case of Davies Symphony Hall, at a certain fan speed, the acoustic dishes that hang from the ceiling can start moving and eventually bang into each other.

Matt Suidan, the senior project manager at Enpowered Solutions, stands on the roof of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco before inspecting an HVAC system. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

More outside air also means less control over temperature, and the Opera House doesn’t have air conditioning, which isn’t just a patron comfort issue.

“When it comes to the dancers in the ballet and the members of the orchestra, they have stipulations in their collective bargaining agreements about what the temperature can be,” said John Caldon, who manages the War Memorial Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and the Veterans Building, three San Francisco venues each the size of a city block.

Performing is physical, and if the temperature in the War Memorial’s pit exceeds a certain range, for instance, orchestra members are allowed to take their jackets off so they don’t overheat. (It hasn’t come to that so far this season.)

In the old days, whenever Caldon thought about a space’s HVAC, his primary concern was energy efficiency—how much indoor air he could recycle. More outside air meant more heating and cooling, which would mean more energy and higher costs for the city-owned venues.

“The overnight switch — once the CDC figured out that (the coronavirus) was an airborne infectious disease — was to run everything at 100% outside air,” he recalled, noting that the directive meant environmental concerns became secondary. “The concern is how many times can you turn that air over in a room?”

Individual HVAC ventilation fan systems that lead to various spaces inside American Conservatory Theater’s Geary Theater are seen from the roof of the San Francisco venue. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

For Caldon and other venue managers, the pandemic has meant an immersion into HVAC. In May 2020, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, a nonprofit organization, issued its first pandemic guidance for all indoor spaces in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They were later modified, as many buildings in extreme climates found their machinery couldn’t handle 100% outside air. Despite the Bay Area’s milder climate, more outside air poses a risk here, too. For instance, the San Francisco fog can make equipment more vulnerable to corrosion.

Still, many of ASHRAE’s initial core recommendations remain, including:

• Using air filters with an efficiency of at least MERV-13, which means they can catch not just pollen, dust and pet dander but also smaller particles such as those from wildfire smoke as well as airborne bacteria and some viruses.
• In between a room’s occupied periods, flushing its air supply three times, which should eliminate 95% of contaminants.

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services checks the filters of a HVAC system leading to the auditorium of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

For local venues — some of which were built a century ago — these guidelines first meant finding out if their existing systems could meet the new standards. After months of assessing equipment produced an affirmative, Caldon recruited a stagehand to use a laser distance measure in all his buildings’ rooms to calculate volume, so he’d know how much air he’d have to move.

Venue managers who wished to exceed minimum requirements, perhaps so that they could prove to timid audiences that they were going above and beyond, quickly learned that only specially built facilities such as labs and hospitals can filter air much more finely and efficiently.

“Some of the ideas that have been suggested from different sources ask for things the building systems literally cannot do without completely ripping out an HVAC system and effectively almost tearing down the building,” said Suidan. “Your ducts can only handle a certain amount of airflow.”

Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the San Francisco Symphony during the symphony’s Re-Opening Night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Photo: Laura Morton / Special to The Chronicle

and a capital campaign for an entirely new HVAC system would be an unlikely fundraising scheme during a pandemic, especially when staff may have been laid off or furloughed.

Perhaps for related reasons, Alyse Falconer, who is a board member of ASHRAE’s Golden Gate Chapter as well as an associate principal at San Francisco engineering firm Point Energy Innovations, hasn’t seen a surge of HVAC business since the pandemic hit.

“The problem is that nobody’s going into offices,” she said, which means some clients figure they can delay improvements. Still, Falconer said of the pandemic, “everybody instantly became an indoor air quality specialist, which is kind of funny. It’s interesting to explain what a MERV filter is to someone like my mother.”

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services adjusts and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

With many entertainment venues, high ceilings can be a virtue, but the tight seating of theaters, auditoriums and stadiums means that HVAC interventions can only help so much to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Vaccinations and masking are still key.

“You can have amazing airflow, and somebody right next to you coughs in your face,” Suidan posited. “(The HVAC) doesn’t matter. You’re not going to be able to engineer that away.”

That doesn’t mean that HVAC can’t help reduce the risk of airborne transmission during a pandemic, but it’s difficult to quantify its role in practice, according to William P. Bahnfleth, a professor of architectural engineering at Penn State and chair of ASHRAE’s pandemic task force.

“We know that poorly ventilated facilities and ones that don’t have other ways of cleaning the air have been the places where there have been clusters of infections, super-spreading events,” he said. “We know more what doesn’t work than how well things actually work, and that’s a hard concept to get across to the public.”

The Warriors’ Stephen Curry lobs a pass to a teammate in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center in San Francisco. Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

Venues still have other industry-specific concerns.

Chase Center, which marked its opening in September 2019 with a sold-out concert by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, has much greater HVAC capacity than many older performing arts venues. The facility has 16 air handlers that regulate and circulate air; 12 smaller ones about the size and shape of a truck’s box trailer, approximately 20 feet in depth; and four larger ones, for the bowl, that could fit multiple San Francisco apartments. By contrast, ACT’s Geary Theater has six air handlers, and its largest is about the size of one of Chase Center’s smaller ones.

But the home of the Golden State Warriors still has its limitations.

“I’m sure Steph Curry doesn’t want to be shooting into headwinds,” said Ian McDoom, Chase’s director of engineering. Not only must the center keep the temperature between 65 and 72 degrees for guest and talent comfort, it must also maintain relative humidity below 55% or the basketball court’s wooden floorboards might start to warp.

Chase Center is seen ahead of a game between the Warriors and the Pelicans in November. Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

McDoom’s task has been to flush the air in the facility, which occupies a little more than 1 million square feet, with 100% outside air at least four times per hour. Accomplishing that, he estimates, has meant the arena’s electricity bills have increased by 10%, though pre-pandemic comparisons for the young facility are hard to come by.

For Bahnfleth, pandemic-era upgrades might have the virtue of furthering industry experts’ longer-term HVAC goals. He’s part of a group of advocates who have been pushing for better indoor air standards for decades.

“We’ve known for a long time that buildings that have higher ventilation rates, which means lower contaminant levels indoors, generally tend to have fewer sick building syndrome symptom complaints,” he said, referring to the well-documented phenomenon by which poor ventilation in offices and schools causes a variety of health problems, including headaches, fatigue and respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems. Well-ventilated buildings, he said, “have a positive effect on the learning of schoolchildren, higher worker productivity. The economic impact of that is hundreds of billions of dollars per year in the US, but it’s fallen on deaf ears for a long time.”

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services adjusts and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

His hope, he said, is that “the desire to do something about diseases like the COVID epidemic or the seasonal influenza” can spur action to “step up the standards for indoor air quality.” Pre-pandemic standards, he noted, were focused on disease and odor.

“That’s a different approach than saying we’d like to have indoor air quality that promotes the best levels of productivity and cognitive function and reduces other types of illnesses.”

The post How the pandemic is altering HVAC requirements in Bay Space leisure venues and past appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The new bars in San Francisco are not headed downtown.

Liquor license data from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control shows bars and restaurants with full-sale liquor licenses in San Francisco are popping up in different neighborhoods than before. A bar or restaurant must have a full-sale liquor license to sell beer, wine and liquor.

In 2021, the number of liquor licenses obtained by establishments in neighborhoods like Chinatown, the Marina, the Castro/Upper Market and the Inner Richmond all doubled compared to 2019. For example, Chinatown went from no licenses acquired by establishments in 2019 to six in 2021. In contrast, the Financial District and South of Market both saw a 40% decrease in the number of liquor licenses obtained in 2021 compared to 2019. The Financial District alone saw six fewer licenses in 2021 than in 2019.

We compared 2021 to 2019 because there were just 55 licenses obtained by new establishments in 2020 during the period of the strictest lockdowns, compared to 77 in 2019 and 87 in 2021. The state’s liquor license data does not include establishments that acquired a liquor license in 2019 and then subsequently closed, so our estimates are likely slightly underestimating the number of establishments acquiring licenses in 2019.

Between June 2020 and June 2021, only 11 new full-sale liquor licenses were actually distributed throughout the city, according to ABC data. The total number of on-sale licenses is currently capped around 1,050 due to a 1939 law that linked liquor licenses to a county’s population. However, existing licenses are bought and sold among businesses, which changes the geography of the bar scene within San Francisco. These transfers are causing a shift in the density of full-sale licenses in neighborhoods away from downtown.

“Downtown is a dense area of ​​office spaces that used to be the main area where people congregated to work, have lunch, enjoy a cocktail and have dinner meetings,” President and CEO of LiquorLicenseAgents.com Rob De La Torre said. “Since the change of environment has caused more people to work from home in local neighborhoods, the licensed locations that were successful before have lost business and opted to open new locations elsewhere or sell their liquor licenses to new establishments opening in the communities.”

Our analysis shows that prior to the pandemic, the Financial District and South of Market were seeing growth in license numbers. The Financial District added 9 more liquor licenses in 2019 than in 2017 and South of Market also more in 2019 than 2017. With both neighborhoods now trending downward, the data suggests the pandemic has played a role in shifting bars away from downtown San Francisco.

“Licenses go where the customers are,” CEO of Future Bars Group Brian Sheehy said. “And the customers-for the past years- have not been downtown.

However, Sheehy says downtown will see its comeback and soon. He says, although licenses have not come into the Financial District and South of Market in the last few years, things are already beginning to change. With the recent announcement of the end of California’s statewide mask mandate, Sheehy is confident this will help return full-sale liquor licenses to downtown San Francisco.

“Those types of licenses are needed in this part of town, and we are very confident that business is going to come back,” Sheehy said. “It is going to take a few months, but there is massive pent-up demand and we are seeing that, especially over the past week with the word getting out that the mask mandate is going to go away.”

The demand for liquor licenses is also showing up in the market. Prior to the start of the pandemic, liquor licenses in San Francisco county cost anywhere from $250,000 to $280,000. In the fall of 2019, these prices dropped about 30% to $190,000. However, with recent prices coming in anywhere from $220,000 to $250,000, De La Torre is optimistic about what this means moving forward.

Regardless of neighborhood, business owners who want full-sale liquor licenses have the same high price to pay. That is about the only thing they have in common, Sheehy says, as a neighborhood bar and high-traffic downtown bar provides two completely different experiences, though he notes the importance of both. Full-sale liquor licenses are always in demand, he says, leaving the future of neighborhood bars unknown if downtown rebounds as he predicts.

“The limitation on licenses- it frustrates a lot of people. But, I really think it is a system that works and it maintains a good balance. Every corner of San Francisco cannot have a license, and so you need to be a pretty good operator to be able to make it, because of the cost of doing business these days,” Sheehy said. “And of course, you cannot do it without these licenses, which are a very very valuable commodity, and the cost of these licenses is only going to go up as the economy comes back.”

Amy Coval is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: amy.coval@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @amy_coval

The post The geography of San Francisco’s bars is altering appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

PIX now:Tuesday morning headlines from the KPIX 5 newsroom

14 minutes ago

TODAY forecast: The latest forecast from the KPIX 5 weather teamSunny and warm for the rest of the week

19 minutes ago

Stay Home: Sonoma Health Officer Urges Residents to Stay Home amid the Omicron SurveSonoma County’s health officials are announcing restrictions on some large gatherings and urging people to travel only if necessary for the next month.

27 minutes ago

COVID Testing: Software issues are forcing multiple COVID testing sites to temporarily closeNationwide computer problems forced health officials to completely close six test centers on Monday afternoon, and the service could be suspended for even longer.

30 minutes ago

Daly City woman meets Mountain Lion face to faceResidents from the peninsula to Daly City are on high alert after numerous mountain lion sightings. Maria Cid Medina spoke to a woman who described a close encounter with a puma in her garden.

7 hours ago

COVID: Bay Area health experts complain about changing guidelinesChanges to coronavirus guidelines create uncertainty about what is allowed. Andrea Nakano asked health professionals what we should and shouldn’t do.

7 hours ago

Mountain lion spotted near Westmoor Park in Daly City on Monday afternoonElizabeth Cook Announces Some Daly City Residents Who Are Nervous About Sighting Mountain Lions (1-10-2022)

12 hours ago

PIX nowKPIX 5 Evening News headlines for Monday January 10, 2022.

12 hours ago

COVID: Bay Area Schools strive to keep classrooms open during the Omicron SurgeSchools in the Bay Area struggled with the dilemma of keeping classrooms open amid the surge in COVID. Team coverage with Devin Fehely in Milpitas, Juliette Goodrich in Fremont and Shawn Chitnis in West Contra Costa County.

12 hours ago

Staff shortages, computer problems make COVID tests difficult in San FranciscoAndria Borba reports on computer problems and employees suffering from the Omicron variant, which leads to reduced working hours, and tests site closings in SF (1-10-2022)

13 hours ago

Healdsburg residents are not optimistic that it will rain well into springJohn Ramos reports that many residents in Healdsburg are skeptical that more rain will come after the record dry summer (1-10-2022)

13 hours ago

Tile falling from homes is creating safety concerns in the San Jose neighborhoodMaintenance teams are working again to test and secure the tiles on the sides of homes in the Communications Hill community of San Jose after several pieces came loose and fell to the ground during the recent rain. Len Ramirez reports. (1/10/22)

13 hours ago

Weather forecast for Monday night with Paul HeggenExpect clear and cold conditions on Monday evening with lows falling into the upper 30s and 40s. On Tuesday, the highs should range from the upper 50s to the mid 60s. The next week should be mostly dry. Paul Heggen has the forecast. (1/10/22)

13 hours ago

Patients seeking tests, COVID help puts a strain on the healthcare systemPeople dealing with COVID symptoms and the rise in omicrons are putting a strain on the healthcare system. Wilson Walker reports on the effects at San Francisco General Hospital.

13 hours ago

COVID overload of health systemsInterview with Dr. Maria Raven, head of emergency medicine at UCSF.

13 hours ago

House Democrats are suing former President Trump and others for inciting the January 6 uprisingSkyler Henry reports on a federal judge hearing civil claims by members of the Democratic Parliament against former President Trump over the January 6 riots (October 1, 2022)

14 hours ago

Website glitch testing results in long lines and premature closings in HaywardKiet Do Reports Issues With COVID Color Testing Laboratory Website Leading To Issues At Hayward Test Site (1-10-2022)

14 hours ago

When to perform a rapid PCR or antigen testAnne Makovec from KPIX 5 asks Dr. Abraar Karan, Infectious Disease Specialist at Stanford Health Care, on whether in the Omicron era it is better to do a PCR or rapid antigen test

18 hours ago

Milpitas school district is evading the distance learning plan for COVID SurgeJocelyn Moran Reports on Milpitas School District Officials Reversing Course on Distance Learning Plan Amid Current Spike in Omicron-Fueled COVID Case (1-10-2022)

19 hours ago

Gov. Newson presents spending plan for the 2022 state budgetJustin Andrews reports on Forest Fire, Robbery, COVID and More Funding in Gov’s 2022 Budget. Newson (1-10-2022)

19 hours ago

PIX nowNews update on Monday lunchtime from KPIX 5

19 hours ago

Real estate heir and convicted murderer Robert Durst dies at Stockton Prison HospitalAnne Makovec reports on the death of convicted murderer Robert Durst in a Stockton prison facility (1-10-2022)

19 hours ago

Klay Thompson returns long awaited: “It was a very special moment that I will never forget”Charlie Walter reports from the Chase Center after Klay Thompson’s first game since the 2019 NBA Final. (1-10-22)

21 hours ago

Matchday: 49ers make the playoffs after a 17-point comebackPostgame reaction from Los Angeles after the 49ers won 27-24 in extra time. Vern Glenn and Lorenzo Neal explain San Francisco’s comeback win over the Rams. (1-10-22)

21 hours ago

The post Bay Space Well being Consultants Weigh In On Altering Tips – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When the Bay Area audience returns to their beloved venues, they will hear a lot about upgrades to HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning). For example, many event managers are promoting the use of 100% outside air to allay visitors’ fears of COVID.

But all that air pumping comes with complications that homes and office buildings don’t have to deal with.

“Performance areas are really tough because you blow more air and it’s louder. Curtains can pucker, ”said Matt Suidan, a senior product manager at Enpowered Solutions who has consulted with the War Memorial Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and the American Conservatory Theater. Or any theater fog used for a special effect could be blown away.

Or, in the case of the Davies Symphony Hall, at a certain fan speed, the acoustic shells hanging from the ceiling can start moving and eventually crash into one another.

Matt Suidan, Senior Project Manager at Enpowered Solutions, stands on the roof of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco before inspecting an HVAC system. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

More outside air also means less control over temperature, and the opera house has no air conditioning, which isn’t just a guest comfort issue.

“As far as the dancers in the ballet and the orchestra members go, they have regulations in their collective agreements on how the temperatures can be,” says John Caldon, who runs the War Memorial Opera House, the Davies Symphony Hall and the Veterans Building, three venues in San Francisco each the size of a city block.

The performance is physical, and if the temperature in the war memorial pit exceeds a certain range, for example, orchestra members are allowed to take off their jackets to prevent them from overheating. (It hasn’t got that far this season.)

When Caldon used to think about a room’s HVAC, his main concern was energy efficiency – how much indoor air he could recycle. More outside air meant more heating and cooling, which would mean more energy and higher costs for the city’s own venues.

“The overnight switch – once the CDC found out that (the coronavirus) was an airborne infectious disease – should run everything in 100% outside air, ”he recalled, noting that environmental concerns were becoming secondary. “The concern is how many times you can turn that air in a room?”

Individual HVAC fan systems can be seen from the roof of the San Francisco venue, leading to various rooms in the Geary Theater of the American Conservatory Theater. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

For Caldon and other venue managers, the pandemic meant a dive into HVAC. In May 2020, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, a not-for-profit organization, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued their first indoor pandemic guidelines. They were later modified as many buildings in extreme climates found that their machines couldn’t handle 100% outside air. Despite the milder climate in the Bay Area, more outside air poses a risk here too. For example, San Francisco fog can make equipment more susceptible to corrosion.

Still, many of ASHRAE’s original core recommendations remain, including:

• By using air filters with an efficiency of at least MERV-13, you can catch not only pollen, dust and animal hair, but also smaller particles such as from forest fire smoke as well as airborne bacteria and some viruses.
• Flush the air supply three times between occupancy times of a room, which should remove 95% of the impurities.

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services checks the filters on an HVAC system that leads to the auditorium of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

For local venues – some of which were built a century ago – these guidelines initially meant finding out whether their existing systems could meet the new standards. After months of positive results from the devices, Caldon hired a stage worker who used a laser rangefinder to calculate volume in every room in his building so he knew how much air to move.

Event managers who wanted to exceed the minimum requirements, perhaps to prove to a shy audience that they were going above and beyond, quickly learned that only purpose-built facilities like laboratories and hospitals can filter the air much finer and more efficiently.

“Some of the ideas that have been suggested from various sources ask about things that the building systems literally cannot do without completely ripping out an HVAC system and practically nearly demolishing the building, ”Suidan said. “Your ducts can only process a certain flow of air.”

Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the San Francisco Symphony during the symphony’s re-opening night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Photo: Laura Morton / Special on The Chronicle

And a Fundraising an all-new HVAC system would be an unlikely means of raising funds during a pandemic, especially if employees have been laid off or on leave.

Perhaps for similar reasons, Alyse Falconer, who is a board member of ASHRAE’s Golden Gate Chapter and an associate principal at San Francisco engineering firm Point Energy Innovations, has not seen a surge in the HVAC business since the pandemic broke out.

“The problem is, no one goes into the offices,” she said, which means that some customers think they can delay improvement. Still, Falconer said of the pandemic: “everybody immediately became an indoor air quality specialist, which is kind of funny. It’s interesting to explain to someone like my mother what a MERV filter is. “

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services fits and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

In many entertainment venues, high ceilings can be a virtue, but the tight seating of theaters, lecture halls, and stadiums means that HVAC interventions can do only limited things in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Vaccinations and masking are still important.

“You can have amazing airflow and someone right next to you coughs in your face,” Suidan suggested. “(The HVAC) doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to construct that away. “

That doesn’t mean HVAC can’t help reduce the risk of airborne transmission during a pandemic, but it’s difficult to quantify its role in practice, according to William P. Bahnfleth, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State and Chair of the ASHRAE Pandemic Task Force.

“We know that poorly ventilated facilities and those with no other means of purifying the air were places where infections were piled and super-spreading events,” he said. “We know more about what isn’t working than how well things actually work, and that’s a difficult concept to convey.”

Stephen Curry of the Warriors throws a pass to a teammate at the Chase Center in San Francisco during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

Venues also have other industry-specific concerns.

The Chase Center, which opened in September 2019 with a sold out concert by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, has much larger HVAC capacity than many older performing arts venues. The system has 16 air handling units that regulate and circulate the air; 12 smaller ones the size and shape of a truck box trailer, approximately 20 feet deep; and four larger ones for the bowl that could fit several San Francisco apartments. In contrast, ACT’s Geary Theater has six air handling units, and its largest is about the size of one of the smaller ones in the Chase Center.

But the home of the Golden State Warriors still has its limits.

“Steph Curry doesn’t want to face headwinds,” said Ian McDoom, director of engineering at Chase. For the comfort of guests and talents, the center not only has to keep the temperature between 65 and 72 degrees, but also keep the relative humidity below 55%, otherwise the wooden floorboards of the basketball court could warp.

Chase Center can be seen ahead of a game between the Warriors and the Pelicans in November. Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

McDoom’s job was to purge the air in the facility, which occupies just over 1 million square feet, at least four times an hour with 100% outside air. Achieving this, he estimates, has seen the arena’s electricity bills rise 10%, although pre-pandemic comparisons are difficult for the young establishment.

For Bahnfleth, pandemic-era upgrades could have the benefit of fueling longer-term HVAC goals from industry experts. He belongs to a group of proponents who have campaigned for better indoor air standards for decades.

“We have long known that buildings with higher ventilation rates, ie lower indoor concentrations of pollutants, are generally prone to fewer symptoms of sick building syndrome,” he said, referring to the well-documented phenomenon of poor ventilation in offices and schools cause a variety of health problems, including headaches, fatigue, and respiratory, skin, and gastrointestinal problems. Well-ventilated buildings, he said, “have a positive effect on student learning, higher work productivity. The economic impact of this amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars a year in the US, but has long fallen on deaf ears. “

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services adjusts and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

His hope, he said, is that “the desire to do something about diseases like the COVID epidemic or seasonal influenza” can inspire action to “raise indoor air quality standards.” He noted that pre-pandemic standards focused on diseases and odors.

“This is a different approach than saying that we want indoor air quality that promotes the highest levels of productivity and cognitive function, and reduces other types of disease.”

The post How the pandemic is altering HVAC requirements in Bay Space leisure venues and past appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When the Bay Area audience returns to their beloved venues, they will hear a lot about upgrades to HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning). For example, many event managers are promoting the use of 100% outside air to allay visitors’ fears of COVID.

But all that air pumping comes with complications that homes and office buildings don’t have to deal with.

“Performance areas are really tough because you blow more air and it’s louder. Curtains can pucker, ”said Matt Suidan, a senior product manager at Enpowered Solutions who has consulted with the War Memorial Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and the American Conservatory Theater. Or any theater fog used for a special effect could be blown away.

Or, in the case of the Davies Symphony Hall, at a certain fan speed, the acoustic shells hanging from the ceiling can start moving and eventually crash into one another.

Matt Suidan, Senior Project Manager at Enpowered Solutions, stands on the roof of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco before inspecting an HVAC system. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

More outside air also means less control over temperature, and the opera house has no air conditioning, which isn’t just a guest comfort issue.

“As far as the dancers in the ballet and the orchestra members go, they have regulations in their collective agreements on how the temperatures can be,” says John Caldon, who runs the War Memorial Opera House, the Davies Symphony Hall and the Veterans Building, three venues in San Francisco each the size of a city block.

The performance is physical, and if the temperature in the war memorial pit exceeds a certain range, for example, orchestra members are allowed to take off their jackets to prevent overheating. (It hasn’t got that far this season.)

When Caldon used to think about a room’s HVAC, his main concern was energy efficiency – how much indoor air he could recycle. More outside air meant more heating and cooling, which would mean more energy and higher costs for the city’s own venues.

“The overnight switch – once the CDC found out that (the coronavirus) was an airborne infectious disease – should run everything in 100% outside air, ”he recalled, noting that environmental concerns were becoming secondary. “The concern is how many times you can turn that air in a room?”

Individual HVAC fan systems can be seen from the roof of the San Francisco venue, leading to various rooms in the Geary Theater of the American Conservatory Theater. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

For Caldon and other venue managers, the pandemic meant a dive into HVAC. In May 2020, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, a not-for-profit organization, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued their first indoor pandemic guidelines. They were later modified as many buildings in extreme climates found that their machines couldn’t handle 100% outside air. Despite the milder climate in the Bay Area, more outside air poses a risk here too. For example, the San Francisco fog can make equipment more susceptible to corrosion.

Still, many of ASHRAE’s original core recommendations remain, including:

• By using air filters with an efficiency of at least MERV-13, you can catch not only pollen, dust and animal hair, but also smaller particles such as from forest fire smoke as well as airborne bacteria and some viruses.
• Flush the air supply three times between occupancy times of a room, which should remove 95% of the impurities.

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services checks the filters on an HVAC system that leads to the auditorium of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

For local venues – some of which were built a century ago – these guidelines initially meant finding out whether their existing systems could meet the new standards. After months of positive results from the devices, Caldon hired a stage worker who used a laser rangefinder to calculate volume in every room in his building so he knew how much air to move.

Event managers who wanted to exceed the minimum requirements, perhaps to prove to a shy audience that they were going above and beyond, quickly learned that only purpose-built facilities like laboratories and hospitals can filter the air much finer and more efficiently.

“Some of the ideas that have been suggested from various sources ask about things that the building systems literally cannot do without completely ripping out an HVAC system and practically nearly demolishing the building, ”Suidan said. “Your ducts can only process a certain flow of air.”

Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the San Francisco Symphony during the symphony’s re-opening night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Photo: Laura Morton / Special on The Chronicle

And a Fundraising an all-new HVAC system would be an unlikely means of raising funds during a pandemic, especially if employees have been laid off or on leave.

Perhaps for similar reasons, Alyse Falconer, who is a board member of ASHRAE’s Golden Gate Chapter and an associate principal at San Francisco engineering firm Point Energy Innovations, has not seen a surge in the HVAC business since the pandemic broke out.

“The problem is, no one goes into the offices,” she said, which means that some customers think they can delay improvement. Still, Falconer said of the pandemic: “everybody immediately became an indoor air quality specialist, which is kind of funny. It’s interesting to explain to someone like my mother what a MERV filter is. “

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services fits and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

In many entertainment venues, high ceilings can be a virtue, but the tight seating of theaters, lecture halls and stadiums means that HVAC interventions can do only limited things to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Vaccinations and masking are still important.

“You can have amazing airflow and someone right next to you coughs in your face,” Suidan suggested. “(The HVAC) doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to construct that away. “

That doesn’t mean HVAC can’t help reduce the risk of airborne transmission during a pandemic, but it’s difficult to quantify its role in practice, according to William P. Bahnfleth, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State and Chair of the ASHRAE Pandemic Task Force.

“We know that poorly ventilated facilities and those with no other means of purifying the air were places where infections were piled and super-spreading events,” he said. “We know more about what isn’t working than how well things actually work, and that’s a difficult concept to convey.”

Stephen Curry of the Warriors throws a pass to a teammate at the Chase Center in San Francisco during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

Venues also have other industry-specific concerns.

The Chase Center, which opened in September 2019 with a sold out concert by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, has much larger HVAC capacity than many older performing arts venues. The system has 16 air handling units that regulate and circulate the air; 12 smaller ones the size and shape of a truck box trailer, approximately 20 feet deep; and four larger ones for the bowl that could fit several San Francisco apartments. In contrast, ACT’s Geary Theater has six air-handling units, and the largest is about the size of one of the smaller ones in the Chase Center.

But the home of the Golden State Warriors still has its limits.

“Steph Curry doesn’t want to face headwinds,” said Ian McDoom, director of engineering at Chase. For the comfort of guests and talents, the center not only has to keep the temperature between 65 and 72 degrees, but also keep the relative humidity below 55%, otherwise the wooden floorboards of the basketball court could warp.

Chase Center can be seen ahead of a game between the Warriors and the Pelicans in November. Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

McDoom’s job was to purge the air in the facility, which occupies just over 1 million square feet, at least four times an hour with 100% outside air. Achieving this, he estimates, has seen the arena’s electricity bills rise 10%, although pre-pandemic comparisons are difficult for the young establishment.

For Bahnfleth, pandemic-era upgrades could have the benefit of fueling longer-term HVAC goals from industry experts. He belongs to a group of proponents who have campaigned for better indoor air standards for decades.

“We have long known that buildings with higher ventilation rates, ie lower indoor concentrations of pollutants, are generally prone to fewer symptoms of sick building syndrome,” he said, referring to the well-documented phenomenon of poor ventilation in offices and schools cause a variety of health problems, including headaches, fatigue, and respiratory, skin, and gastrointestinal problems. Well-ventilated buildings, he said, “have a positive effect on student learning, higher work productivity. The economic impact of this amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars a year in the US, but has long fallen on deaf ears. “

Craig Lichtle of Legacy Mechanical and Energy Services adjusts and repairs various elements of an HVAC system on the roof of ACT’s Geary Theater in San Francisco. Photo: Jessica Christian / Die Chronik

His hope, he said, is that “the desire to do something about diseases like the COVID epidemic or seasonal influenza” can inspire action to “raise indoor air quality standards.” He noted that pre-pandemic standards focused on diseases and odors.

“It’s a different approach than saying that we want indoor air quality that promotes the highest levels of productivity and cognitive function, and reduces other types of disease.”

The post How the pandemic is altering HVAC requirements in Bay Space leisure venues and past appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

“Do you want to know what my Halloween costume is? I’ll be there tomorrow because the mask mandate ends, ”said Michael Freed.

Freed probably waited months to say that line. He owns the Bogies 2 restaurant in downtown San Rafael. From Monday, vaccinated customers and employees no longer have to wear a mask.

“I’m excited to see the end, even more concerned about the customers. They don’t want to sit inside, some still want to go outside,” Freed said.

RELATED: “Test Case”: UCSF Doctors Eye Santa Cruz After County Drops Inner Mask Mandate

Marin County is the first in the Bay Area to remove mask requirements from most indoor public spaces – including Jeff Brusati’s long-running sports business.

“We are making progress, but we will be watching closely and if they ask us to wear masks again, we will wear masks again,” said Brusati.

Marin County’s health officials hope things don’t go backwards. Numbers have now been reached for the penetration into the moderate spread category for the virus.

RELATED: “We Disagree”: SF In-N-Out sends a strong message against the COVID vaccine mandate

“The vaccination rates for all residents are over 80%, the hospital rates have declined. In fact, there are only two people with COVID-19 in the hospital today, none in the intensive care unit … a four-month low, “said Marin District Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis.

Ernest Owusu is still uncomfortable taking off his mask.

“I’m not ready yet so I’ll still be wearing a mask. I’m uncomfortable with it, I won’t be doing it for a while,” said Owusu.

In the East Bay, Contra Costa and Alameda counties will ease mask requirements on some indoor facilities, such as gyms, on Monday as long as you are vaccinated.

RELATED: CDC Updates Vacation Policies, Calls for Vaccines, and Masking

“I prefer not to wear a mask when training. I just got my booster, so I’m pretty excited,” said Christine Cabras of El Sobrante.

“I think it’s a little early to change the rules with the flu season starting. Even if it’s not about preventing COVID, I think it’s nice not to be exposed to other people’s germs, ”said Georgie Ziff from San Pablo.

Back in Marin, masks are still needed in facilities such as schools and hospitals. Private business owners can choose to maintain mask guidelines.

VACCINE TRACKER: How California is doing when you can get a coronavirus vaccine

Having trouble loading the above tracker? Click here to open it in a new window.

RELATED STORIES & VIDEOS:

Copyright © 2021 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post ‘Transferring ahead’: Indoor masks guidelines altering at the moment for a number of Bay Space counties appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.