The Petaluma fixer-upper bought by one of the wealthiest men in the Bay Area doesn’t really need fixing up, some of his new neighbors say.

Not if it means letting 80 dump trucks haul away 10,000 cubic feet of dirt for the next year or so to allow the home to double in size and to enable construction of a 4,200-square-foot underground garage and basement, two large walk-in closets and a dining room that can seat 25 guests.

The historic 115-year-old house on Sixth Street, just south of downtown, was bought four years ago by Peter Haas Jr., an heir to the Levi Strauss pants empire, and his wife, Ginnie. Nipping and tucking may run in the family genes, but the alterations to the property have got some of his neighbors feeling bluer than a pair of the family’s iconic trousers.

“We worked hard to come up with a plan to bring a historic house back to its glory,” Haas said. “We want to live in it for the rest of our lives. Petaluma is such a vibrant, thriving community.”

“This project proposes a complete transformation of the original structure to suit the extravagant desires of its new owners,” said Elsa Beatty of Preserve Petaluma, a group opposing the plan.

More from Steve Rubenstein

Posters and flyers proclaiming “Stop the Big Dig” are popping up all over town, in advance of a Dec. 21 meeting of the City Council. There the plan — already approved by planners and the city’s historical preservation committee — faces a final vote.

A peek at the blueprints filed with the city shows the ambitious changes Haas has in mind for the elegant gray two-story Victorian designed more than a century ago by legendary Petaluma architect Brainerd Jones.

Gone will be four of the home’s six bedrooms. Scheduled for demolition are fireplaces, balustrades, roofs, staircases, a chimney and a dormer roof window.

In their place are to be a pair of 10-foot-by-10-foot closets (labeled “Pete’s closet” and “Ginnie’s closet”), a 25-seat dining room, an 11-seat breakfast room, an elevator, a wine cellar, a mudroom, a powder room, a barbecue porch with two grills and a turntable to enable four cars to maneuver into the new basement parking garage.

A proposed top-floor deck that will replace the dormer will offer “unimpeded views into at least six neighboring backyards,” complained Preserve Petaluma on its website.

Haas, 73, grandson of the late Levi Strauss president Walter A. Haas and himself a former president of the company, said he worked closely with his architects and with the city on his plans and cannot understand the controversy.

“Most people look at this and say they support it, or they say what’s the big deal,” he said. ”I understand that a neighbor wouldn’t be happy with construction going on next to his house for a period of time. But when it’s done, it will be consistent with the look and feel of the neighborhood. If you stood in the street, you wouldn’t see anything different.”

Bill Wolpert, the project’s architect, said he suspected that opposition to the renovations, which mystified him, was driven by fears that the house will be “some sort of corporate entertainment house — and it’s not.”

He has already altered his blueprints, he said, to accommodate critics who objected to the sunroom and to the proximity of the barbecue grills to the neighbors’ property.

The renovations, he said, would cost “over $1 million, which is not really a lot of money for a project with this much work.” And he said he knew of no rules against big dining rooms or big closets, if that’s what the client asks for.

In a statement, Preserve Petaluma maintained that the preservation committee and city planning department showed a “complete lack of support for historic and cultural preservation” in approving the Haas plans, which, it said, would “essentially gut and forever change the character of this home and surrounding environment.”

Preserve Petaluma founder Margie Turrel, who is also the Haases’ next-door neighbor, said she and others started the group in July after she and Peter Haas differed over his plan for the barbecue deck that directly adjoined her property.

“I believed smoke and odors would permeate from the cooking area,” she said. “I asked him politely if he would move it and he unpolitely said he would not.”

Turrel added that the plans for the barbecue deck called for it to be raised 5 feet off the ground. That meant, she said, that the feet of the Haases and their guests would be directly opposite the heads of the Turrels on the other side of the fence.

Turrel said she “welcomed the Haases as neighbors,” but believes the size and scope of the renovations are “out of scale with adjacent homes.”

Neighbors seemed divided about whether to let the pants magnate do his thing.

“Some of my customers are for it and some are against it,” said Don Gossage, whose barbershop is two blocks from the project site. “A lot of people don’t care. Some say this guy’s got more money than brains. Most of the time we talk sports around here, not old houses.”

Restaurateur Tara Williams, proprietor of the nearby Cafe Zazzle, said whatever Haas wants to do is OK with her. She said the architect’s drawings for the project don’t appear to alter the house’s looks.

“I feel a lot of the people who are against it are just freaked out by change,” she said. “I don’t live in that neighborhood so it doesn’t really matter to me. And digging to build the underground garage isn’t any deeper than digging to build a swimming pool.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF

The post One of many Bay Space’s richest residents purchased a fixer-upper. However neighbors say it does not want fixing appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO — As city leaders, attorneys and police debate how to curb the practice of blatant downtown drug trafficking, a local is said to have offered his opinion to police on the issue when they asked him – again – on suspicion of distributing Fentanyl arrests .

“You can grab me a million times and we’ll get out quick,” 28-year-old Jackson Torres reportedly told a San Francisco police officer when he was arrested on March 26 for allegedly selling fentanyl on 7th Street. Torres added that he was not concerned about the arrest.

But for now, at least, Torres is behind bars, where he faces two separate counts — one accusing him of selling fentanyl on March 26, when he was arrested in San Francisco, and another for violating his supervised release from a 2020 conviction for selling fentanyl in San Francisco. Prosecutors are now using that earlier case and his apparent lack of concern about future prosecutions to argue that Torres should remain in prison until his case is resolved.

The indictment alleges that an officer using binoculars remotely spotted Torres in three separate drug transactions. When officers arrested him, he allegedly ran away, throwing three bags of drugs in the air as he escaped. When police caught up with him and arrested him, they claimed he was carrying six ounces of the deadly drug.

According to court documents, following his most recent arrest by federal agents, Torres was charged with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. The indictment carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, but when Torres was last charged with fentanyl trafficking, he received a much shorter sentence of 12 months and a day in prison and three years of supervised release. This time, if convicted, federal guidelines recommend a sentence of between 57 and 71 months, with the decision resting solely with the judge.

For years, state and federal officials have raised concerns about downtown drug markets, particularly in the Tenderloin neighborhood, but no one seems to be able to agree on a solution. Mayor London Breed noted at a recent press conference that “compassion kills people” while calling for more arrests, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took advantage of the spectacle of the open-air drug markets during a trip to the Bay Area this month as a campaign slot, arguing that California’s approach to fighting crime softly caused the problem.

On the other hand, many city officials and advocates have argued that an approach focused on arrests and prosecutions would be akin to the so-called War on Drugs, which sapped law enforcement resources but did little more than cut cocaine use – and heroin production and methamphetamine sales from coast to coast. In 2020, the US Department of Justice announced the creation of the Federal Initiative in the Tenderloin (FIT) to aggressively prosecute suspected drug dealers. At the same time, then-district attorney Chesa Boudin urged the opposite, arguing that street drug dealers were being quickly replaced and police should instead focus on identifying large drug dealers.

For Torres, the federal charges are just the latest misadventure in a difficult life. Court records show he was born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but escaped gang violence alone at the age of 17 by boarding a northbound freight train. He was arrested and detained by federal agents in Arizona and stayed with a relative in Louisiana while seeking asylum in the United States, briefly residing in El Salvador before immigrating back to the United States in 2014 and settling in Oakland.

According to prosecutors, he began selling drugs in the Bay Area that same year and caused the first of 10 arrests between 2014 and March 26 last year. In March 2020, he was charged in federal court with selling fentanyl, secured bail, then arrested just three months later in an SFPD covert operation. By the time he pleaded guilty and received his 12-month sentence, he had already served about half of it in custody.

Torres’ attorney said in 2020 he expects Torres to be deported sometime in early 2021 after his release from prison. Court records don’t say if that was the case or not, but on January 12, 2023, he was back in San Francisco. That day, a police officer arrested him on suspicion of possessing 10 ounces of fentanyl for sale, among other drugs.

It was his first of three drug arrests in San Francisco in 2023.

The post San Francisco fentanyl supplier allegedly advised arresting officer he would not ‘give a f—‘ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Community Youth Center members perform dragon dance while celebrating the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

The rain and wind couldn’t stop thousands of spectators from ringing in the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco on Saturday.

Dozens of dancers and floats paraded the 1.3-mile parade route from Second Street and Market Street through Union Square to Chinatown as firecrackers exploded in the damp streets and the wind blew people’s umbrellas upside down.

Dating back to the 1860s, the annual parade has grown into the largest Lunar New Year parade outside of Asia. Performers included the West Coast Lion Dance Troupe, Matsu Temple USA, Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy, the San Francisco Police Department Lion Dance Team, and many others.

“We didn’t let the rain stop us from having a good time and celebrating Lunar New Year in San Francisco. This is amazing and one of the best parades happening here,” said San Francisco parade attendee London Breed.

Click Here if you cannot see the photo gallery on your mobile device.

A group of children celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Firecrackers light up a dragon dance performance by members of the San Francisco Police Department’s Lion Dance Team as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. The ( Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Members of Matsu Temple USA celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Firecrackers light up a dragon dance performance by members of the San Francisco Police Department’s Lion Dance Team as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. The ( Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A marching band performs during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A lion dance troupe performs during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A woman performs a dance as people celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Members of Matsu Temple USA celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Hyundai Motor America’s car celebrates the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Participants wear a dragon’s head as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A group of children celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A spectator fights against wind and rain. People celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A woman on a float waves to the crowd as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A woman holds a rabbit plushie as spectators watch floats and performers celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area Newsgroup)
Members of Matsu Temple USA celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Spectators watch floats and performers celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Women on the Caesars Entertainment float wave to the crowd as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A woman performs a dance as people celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, California on Saturday February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A group of youth celebrate the Year of the Rabbit during the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, February 4, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

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The post Pictures from Rain would not dampen San Francisco’s Chinese language New 12 months parade appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

I could always tell how late it was by the cold and the sound. Like clockwork, the chilly San Francisco air would creep into my family’s one-bedroom apartment in the Tenderloin by 10 pm The breeze would slip through the slits of the rotting wooden window frames, rustling the newspapers we used for insulation.

But one November night, the sound was different. I heard scratching—it had to be a mouse.

I dashed to the bathroom and slumped onto the toilet seat cover. I looked upward and cursed the God that would allow people to live in these conditions. It was only then that I noticed threads of gray and black mold decorating the bathroom walls like strings of Christmas lights.

Our home was a biohazardous wasteland.

Moving around the apartment, I saw my mom in the kitchen cooking pho for the next day. The floor started to give beneath her as she carried scallions the few feet from the refrigerator to the sink. It was only a matter of time before it caved in.

She lit a piece of paper and transferred the flame onto the stove. I watched the steam from the boiling water travel up the wall to the kitchen vent, in front of a patchwork of orange and black mold.

At the time, I was in high school. My immigrant parents didn’t see anything wrong with our apartment — it was no different from many of the ones they’d seen in their home country of Vietnam. They did not know or care about the possible health complications from inadequate insulation and chronic rodent and mold exposure. They accepted our lot — even as our daily commutes would take us past the pristine marble floors and chandeliers of the Olympic Club hotel, just a couple blocks from our building.

But I couldn’t.

San Francisco, supposedly the most progressive city in the country, didn’t give a damn about us.

It was naive to assume that these problems were isolated to our fifth-floor apartment. Older residents lamented in Vietnamese to my parents about the infestations in their homes. Occasionally, I was invited into their units. They, too, were cramped dungeons with cracks in the walls wide enough for mice to travel through. Sticky mouse traps lined countertops and floor perimeters, but the mice grew wise and found other routes throughout the building. Some residents eventually grew tired of constantly cleaning the mouse droppings. Pellets began to accumulate on furniture and crevices, outlining the edges of living space.

We all generally understood that we had the legal right to a safe home. But no one in our immigrant-rich apartment complex knew how to advocate for themselves; they could barely speak English, and their English-speaking children were not old enough to take on the burden.

It was past my bedtime. I returned to the bathroom and splashed my face with water. Before I could dry off, I felt something grace my feet. Maybe it was another mouse — or maybe it was the same one I’d heard before.

I sighed, headed back to bed, and cried myself to sleep.

Our apartment was a death trap but we couldn’t move out. It was my low-income family’s only affordable option. With rent control, my parents paid less than $1,000 per month. Even then, they barely made enough to pay for rent and food, so an exterminator was out of the question.

My parents wouldn’t take action, so I contacted the apartment owners and pleaded for help. They responded by telling me I shouldn’t have been living in my parent’s apartment in the first place.

The owners were aware of our living conditions. They made periodic inspections, presumably dismissing the unit’s numerous health and safety code violations. They did the same with the other apartments in the building as well.

After a few years, some younger residents grew frustrated and moved out. They had graduated from college and had incomes that could support more expensive, safer apartments. Although they were aware of their right to a safe home, they knew that a lengthy legal battle with the building owners was not worth the time and stress, especially when they had the means to get out.

It only took the owners a few months to transform those vacant units into luxury-style apartments that they could charge double or triple the rent for.

Two years ago, a full college scholarship got me out of that place too — and out of the Bay. I would like nothing more than to leave that squalid apartment behind, just like those other young people did before me.

But I can’t.

My parents still live there, as do so many of my childhood neighbors and friends. They all deserve better.

Danny Nguyen is a writer who grew up in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. He recently received his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, where he studied molecular and cellular biology, and medicine, health and society.

The post I used to be born and raised within the Tenderloin. San Francisco doesn’t give a rattling about us appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The 14-year-old girl was facedown on the top bunk bed, arms splayed out. It was just after 5 pm Maybe my daughter is just really tired, Hazel Mayorga thought. Paris is not usually a late napper. I’ll just give her a shake.

Climbing up the bed frame to get a better look, Mayorga saw that the teenage girl who’d visited Paris the night before was also on the top bunk bed, asleep. She jostled them both. The other girl woke up.

Paris did not. Her lips were purple.

After the screaming and the 911 call and the frenetic paramedics’ best efforts were over, there was nothing more to be done. On March 9, 2021, Paris Serrano became the youngest person in San Francisco to the last year of a fentanyl overdose.

While more than 1,300 people died from drug overdoses in San Francisco over the last two years, many from the powerful opioid fentanyl, few of them were teenagers. In 2021, 645 people died of fatal overdoses, and at least 3, including Paris, were under the age of 21, according to the most recent data, which provides demographic details for only 469 of those overdoses. In 2020, at least four of the 711 fatalities were teens.

The rate of teenagers overdosing nationally is also very small — but it’s growing. The nonprofit Families Against Fentanyl estimates that fentanyl overdose deaths among American teenagers tripled in the past two years.

Paris Serrano, who died of a drug overdose last year, is seen in photos on her mom’s kitchen wall at home in San Francisco.

Provided by Hazel Mayorga

Paris is a vivid face of that trend. Her death highlights how the devastation of drug overdoses is spreading along with the prevalence of hyper-deadly fentanyl. And how families sometimes never find out how their child got ahold of the drug — or unknowingly took it.

In the year since that awful day, Mayorga, 39, has wrestled with feelings of helplessness and guilt. She said her daughter would not have knowingly taken fentanyl, and that the drug was not present in her home.

However, because of the circumstances around the overdose, her other child, a 12-year-old girl, was placed in a temporary foster home, and Mayorga has been undergoing counseling.

The mere mention of Paris, a bubbly kid who liked to sing, whose favorite song was “Invéntame” (Imagine Me) by Marco Antonio Solis, and who liked to cook potato pancakes for her mother, chokes up Mayorga. Last month, on the first anniversary of Paris’ death, she spent the morning sitting in the living room of her tenderloin flat with friends, staring at pictures of her daughter. And crying.

“Today is the worst day, just the worst day,” she said.

Hazel Mayorga gets emotional as she talks on the first anniversary of the day her daughter Paris Serrano died of a drug overdose.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Graciela Cortez, a close friend for many years, put an arm around Mayorga.

“Oh my God, that girl was special,” Cortez, 54, told her. “She was a good, clean-hearted girl, and so much magnetism. She was one of those girls who wanted to eat the world in one day. Remember her like that.”

At the time of her death, Paris was a freshman at June Jordan School for Equity, a small public high school named after the renowned American poet and activist. Though just a teenager, Paris dreamed of becoming a police officer or a lawyer, her mother said.

Mayorga came to San Francisco after fleeing violence in Nicaragua 16 years ago to find a better life in America. She had her two daughters with a man she met on the journey, she said, and started to build a solid life, taking house-cleaning jobs while she lived in subsidized housing on Treasure Island.

But the children’s father was violent and abusive, she and her friends said, and he did short stints in jail for it but always came back home. An eviction followed because of the disruptions, punctuated by periods of homelessness and, for Mayorga, stints in a domestic violence shelter.

The girls, she said, were sent to temporary foster homes before. But she said she found some stability about four years ago as a single mom in the supportive housing apartment where she now lives. Then came Paris’ death.

During one of the worst times for Mayorga and the girls, she pitched a tent in the Mission. Former city Supervisor David Campos found the family living there years ago while making rounds with street outreach counselors, and helped route them toward the housing she eventually landed in.

“I remember this mother being very protective of her kids and doing her best to take care of them,” Campos said recently after hearing from Cortez of Paris’ death. “She was in a tough spot and really trying to get back on her feet — she was even working. It’s very tragic.

“To me, it seems like there was a system failure here,” he said.

For Mayorga, that years-old dream of a good life in America feels in tatters.

“God is with us, but why such sadness?” she said. “Nothing in life is more important than your daughter. Why would he take her?”

Paris Serrano, who died of a drug overdose last year, is seen in photos on her mother’s kitchen wall in San Francisco. Her mother suspects Paris may have smoked a fentanyl-laced joint.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Luis Tolbar, Mayorga’s 42-year-old boyfriend, was with her when she found Paris. They wonder if the 17-year-old girl Paris was hanging out with had something to do with how fentanyl wound up in the apartment, and then in her system.

The two were smoking marijuana, Mayorga said, “but my daughter never did hard drugs, never, and I don’t do them either.”

Mayorga believes her daughter smoked a joint that she didn’t know was laced with fentanyl, which is about 50 times more potent than heroin.

Lawyers, police and child welfare officials contacted by The Chronicle said they could not comment on the circumstances of the case because it involved a juvenile. The Chronicle could not locate Paris’ friend.

Mayorga said she called a child welfare social worker from the city Human Services Agency to remove the second girl when she showed up the night before, because Mayorga wasn’t able to make her leave and thought she would be a bad influence.

She said the worker, who like others at the agency told The Chronicle he could not comment because it was a juvenile matter, told her he had no authority to remove the girl.

Sources familiar with the situation — who also declined to be identified because they were not authorized to comment, and were granted anonymity by The Chronicle — said the social worker acted correctly.

A police report showed that heroin and fentanyl were found in a jacket in the room where the girls were, but with inconclusive evidence about its origins, officers did not file charges against anyone.

Paris’ death is a reminder that the fentanyl epidemic ravaging the city is not merely a street-life problem.

“Most of the coverage around fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco has been focused on homeless single adults in the Tenderloin,” said Trent Rhorer, director of the Human Services Agency, which overees child protective services but could not comment on Paris’ death. “But the reality is fentanyl is touching more than that — it touches families, too.”

dr Allanceson Smith, an adolescent addiction specialist with the city Department of Public Health, said it was “pretty rare for a minor to be using opioids,” but added that such use is growing.

The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics reports that drug overdose death rates among children 15 or younger are about 0.3 per 100,000, compared with about 22 per 100,000 overall.

“When you look at the US as a whole, the vast majority of kids tend to see opioids as dangerous,” Smith said. “Over 60% of high school students disapprove of opioid use. And it’s not uncommon for kids to be unintentionally exposed — taking it without knowing they’re taking it.”

Paris’s writing at home on Wednesday, March 9, 2022 in San Francisco, California.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Hazel Mayorga’s guinea pig named Paris is seen on the one-year anniversary of the day her daughter Paris Serrano died of a drug overdose on Wednesday, March 9, 2022 in San Francisco, California. The pet was named after her daughter.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

A sample of Paris’ writing and drawing and the guinea pig that Hazel Mayorga named after her deceased daughter. Photo by Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
A sample of Paris’ writing and drawing and the guinea pig that Hazel Mayorga named after her deceased daughter. Photo by Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Slumped in a chair on the anniversary of Paris’ death, Mayorga said she had no idea how common it was for children to overdose. There was only one loss she was focused on — her daughter.

She hummed a little from Paris’ favorite song, remembering how the two of them used to sing it together in her tiny kitchen. “Imagine me, Imagine what one day we could have been,” the lyric goes. Mayorga hung her head and burst into sobs.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron

The post San Francisco’s youngest drug overdose sufferer final yr was 14. Her mom nonetheless doesn’t know what occurred appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office on Friday unveiled a new section of its website that includes a wide range of statistics on how often District Attorney Chesa Boudin and his staff file criminal charges. The announcement comes as Boudin continues to face harsh criticism from city leaders and even his own former prosecutors, who believe the recent release of data does little to exonerate Boudin’s office of what they describe as failing and dangerous policies.

According to Boudin’s office, the new digital dashboards provide current and historical data on the number of arrests and prosecutions for a variety of crimes.

New digital dashboards released on the district attorney’s office website show prosecution rates for a range of offences.

Members of the public can easily track San Francisco crime data over time, number of incidents, and arrest and prosecution rates for more than 60 types of incidents from 2011 to present.

Sara Yousuf, Deputy Director of Communications at the District Attorney’s Office

“The public will be able to easily track San Francisco crime data over time, the number of incidents, and arrest and prosecution rates for more than 60 types of incidents from 2011 to the present,” wrote Sara Yousuf, deputy Communications Director for the District Attorney who issued a statement on behalf of the office announcing the new feature. The district attorney’s office said the dashboards are designed to help residents see the relationship between incidents, arrests and law enforcement.

The overall prosecution rate in SF remains largely the same under Boudin

According to the new dashboards, Boudin’s overall prosecution record mirrors that of his predecessor, now Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. Of all the arrests made by the city’s police force this year, Boudin’s office has filed charges in about 56 percent of the cases, according to the office’s website.

“Simply stating the fee percentage doesn’t capture the full scope of the problem,” said Brooke Jenkins, a former assistant district attorney in Boudin’s office. Jenkins, who resigned last month and joined efforts to recall Boudin, spoke to the investigative unit shortly after Boudin’s new dashboards were released and expressed skepticism about using the data to draw any concrete conclusions about Boudin’s performance.

Prosecutors Brooke Jenkins and Don Du Bain tell the investigative unit that they have quit their jobs at the San Francisco DA’s office and have joined efforts to recall their former boss, Chesa Boudin. Bigad Shaban reported.

Former SF prosecutors accuse DA of making the city more dangerous

Last month, in her first on-camera interview since retiring, Jenkins accused Boudin of making San Francisco more dangerous by reducing criminal charges for violent offenders and at times not prosecuting them at all.

“The fact that killers can be released just doesn’t sit well with me,” Jenkins told the Investigative Unit in October.

While Boudin declined to be questioned about the allegations, his office flatly denied the allegations, calling them “politically motivated.”

3) Prosecutor Don du Bain says he considers District Attorney Chesa Boudin a friend but firmly believes he must be recalled.

“I’ve seen decisions in this office … since Chesa took over, it has shaken my conscience, and I’ve been a prosecutor for 30 years.”

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/vMky6xHY51

– Bigad Shaban (igBigadShaban) October 24, 2021

Longtime prosecutor Don du Bain, who also resigned from the district attorney’s office last month, joined Jenkins in expressing doubts about the ability to glean legitimate insight from the newly released data.

He says it’s not enough for the public to know whether charges have been filed. He argues that it is crucial to know what the exact charges were and whether those were the actual charges that would remain in the final resolution of the case. Just because charges have been filed in a case does not mean that those charges ultimately stand.

#EXCLUSIVE:
1) Two San Francisco prosecutors have just resigned, telling us they have joined efforts to oust their former boss, District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

In their first TV interviews, they explain why they think Boudin is making the city more dangerous.https://t.co/OJabSfIxHS

– Bigad Shaban (igBigadShaban) October 24, 2021

We undercharge cases and sometimes don’t charge them at all.

Don du Bain, longtime prosecutor and former assistant district attorney in San Francisco

“There is a huge discrepancy between what a defendant is accused of and what they ultimately plead guilty to or were convicted of,” he said. “We undercharge cases and sometimes don’t charge them at all.”

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit recently reported on a man originally charged in San Francisco with assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment and multiple other charges in a domestic violence case. However, the district attorney’s office ultimately allowed the defendant to plead a misdemeanor count of vandalism, which also included one year of domestic violence counseling and 3 years of probation.

While Boudin’s overall rate of charges hasn’t strayed much from the city’s rates over the past decade, his willingness to prosecute differs when he focuses on specific types of crimes. Lower-level offenses, such as “disturbing the peace” and “disorderly conduct,” which may include loitering, begging, and being intoxicated in public, reflect a lower rate of fees in Boudin’s administration. According to the District Attorney’s Office website, Boudin’s staff only file new charges about 10 percent of the time in such cases. The year before Boudin took office, the fee rate had more than doubled.

In a statement, Boudin said the new online features reflect his dedication to transparency.

My office is committed to transparency and data-driven policies, and these new dashboards encourage greater public access to criminal justice data.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin

“My office is committed to transparency and data-driven policies, and these new dashboards encourage improved public access to criminal justice data,” he wrote. “I commend the hard work of our data team in creating these new, lightweight dashboards to improve transparency and access to information, and we’re proud to share them with the public.”

The announcement of the new website comes amid efforts to recall Boudin. His opponents recently submitted more than 83,000 signatures to force him to hold a new election next June. The San Francisco Department of Elections has yet to certify the signatures, but organizers submitted about 32,000 more signatures than they need to get the recall question on the ballot.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who represents San Francisco’s Marina District, said the new dashboards don’t provide full transparency into how Boudin’s office is prosecuting violent crime.

“It certainly doesn’t show the big picture,” she said. “You have to deliver what’s happening in the backend.”

It certainly doesn’t tell the whole story.

Catherine Stefani, San Francisco Supervisor, referring to prosecution statistics just released by the prosecutor

9) @SupStefani hopes their legislation will force the prosecutor’s office to increase transparency. She says San Francisco deserves to know how often violent criminals are released.

Yesterday marks 139 days since we first requested an interview with DA Chesa Boudin.@nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/tUK76l62Qh

– Bigad Shaban (igBigadShaban) October 29, 2021

The proposed law would require DA, Police Dept., to regularly disclose details of the prosecution and arrest of violent offenders

Stefani says the public deserves to know how cases are ultimately resolved and not just how they are initially charged, which can often be wildly different.

On Tuesday, San Francisco’s board of directors is expected to vote on an executive order written by Stefani that would force prosecutors and police to issue quarterly reports detailing how often domestic abusers are arrested and prosecuted. The district attorney’s office would also need to record exactly what types of verdicts are handed down for each of these cases.

San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani is trying to force District Attorney Chesa Boudin to release details of how his office is prosecuting some of the city’s most violent offenders. Bigad Shaban reported.

In a letter sent to lawmakers last week, Boudin noted “important concerns” about “restrictions on proposed reporting requirements.”

“The requested statistics detailed in the ordinance overlook the wide range of victim services and advocacy that my office provides to survivors of domestic violence, whether or not a criminal case is pursued,” Boudin wrote. “These services include, but are not limited to, assistance with applying for civil protection orders, crisis support services and counseling, guidance in navigating the criminal justice system, referrals to local resources and services, court hearing assistance, and a variety of both short term and ongoing care.”

The San Francisco Police Department expressed support for the legislation during a committee hearing on the ordinance last week.

Stefani tells the investigative unit she’s confident her law will pass.

“I know I have the six votes,” she said.

If approved, the new reporting requirements would come into effect in the first quarter of 2022.

“If you don’t explain what’s happening after the indictments, you’re not getting a full picture of what’s happening,” Stefani said. “It certainly doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Contact the investigation unit

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My very intelligent and talented husband retired from a government job about 10 years ago. He has a modest pension and social security income. I am 10 years younger and still working. We own our home and our cars and we have no debt. We’re not wealthy at all, but I’ll be inheriting from a family estate in a few years.

Here is my dilemma. He has skills that are in great demand; he was once a master electrician, but has let his license expire. He has a thorough understanding of construction, plumbers, roofers, etc., and loves doing odd jobs and generating extra income.

I guess he feels stimulated by the variety of jobs that are available to him and people are so grateful that he does manual work that he is in constant demand – so much so that we can’t go on vacation in the summer.

He’s built bathrooms, tiled kitchens, and rewired lights. Today he installed an electric awning. His reputation is great and his name has spread through word of mouth, especially among friends and neighbors.

“
“If there is a fire in a house where he worked, he will be held responsible. I’m scared because if that happens we could be held financially responsible. ‘
”

He charges a flat rate of $ 20 an hour and provides his own tools. All materials for the job are debited to our personal account at a hardware store, and he’ll hand over the receipts and invoices to the customer when the job is finished so there is no material surcharge. So far, he has never had a problem collecting payments from his grateful customers.

He doesn’t take any of that money as income from our taxes. He does not have a building contractor license and does not receive any permits. It is not bound or insured in any way. He says he always tells people in advance that he is not a contractor, but he will work for them by the hour if they tell him what to do. In other words, they are the contractor and he only works for them.

Someday something will go wrong. He can fall off a ladder and injure himself, or a pipe can break and flood a house. Even if it’s not his fault, if there is a fire in a house where he worked, he will be blamed. I’m scared because if that happens we could be held financially responsible. I’m also concerned that someone will report him for contracting without a license or notifying the Internal Revenue Service. So much can go wrong.

When I try to point out that he threatens both my financial security and his own, he says I am paranoid and only help people.

Please advise me on how I can protect myself and our common property in the event that he is sued. I just want to retire one day and not have to work until I die. I really don’t want a divorce, but I don’t see any way to get him to stop working that way until something really bad happens.

Thank you very much.

Worried woman

Dear Concerned,

Your husband enjoys helping people and feels useful in retirement. He does his job well and he enjoys finding out the source of the problems.

I have a lot of respect for contractors and people who have the patience and the brains to figure out how things work. Sometimes it’s a simple solution that can save the customer hundreds or thousands of dollars. And these other times? It can be complex, complicated and, yes, fraught with bigger problems and risks, especially when it comes to electricity.

Regarding the risks: your husband underestimates his services by far. Even a cursory glance at the prices of similar services on platforms like TaskRabbit reveals that craftsmen and contractors charge multiples of your husband’s fees. Even hanging a picture can cost $ 50 or $ 60 an hour or more.

Given the risk and opportunity involved, its clients should be willing to sign a disclaimer. This agreement is designed to protect you and him. You cannot quantify rest and restful sleep. Tell him that.

“
“Hire a third party, preferably a lawyer, who can explain to you what it is about: fines, refunds of tax back payments or even criminal charges.”
”

Disclaimers, however, are not tight. There are two types of cases: simple negligence and gross negligence. The former deals primarily with “unintentional” problems, while the latter typically applies to “deliberate disregard for the safety of customers or attendees,” according to the Frickey Law Firm of Lakewood, Colorado. The waiver cannot replace state law or public order.

Even after signing such a waiver, it is usually possible to sue for the above-mentioned gross negligence, misrepresentation and / or defective products, adds the law firm.

The IRS problem will prove to be more difficult. I expect he is doing these “under the table” jobs, in part because of its low rate which makes him popular with his customer base, but increasing his price would help reduce the amount of work and risk of being discovered to reduce. For this and the previous issue, call in a third party, preferably a lawyer, who can explain to you what it is about: fines, reimbursement of back tax payments and even criminal charges. This can give your man the wake up call he needs.

He can feel defensive if you approach him about his liability and tax evasion. Maybe he’s scared and avoiding a difficult conversation seems like the easiest way to go. But speaking to him in a supportive way and offering solutions could help him.

You could start with something non-confrontational like this: “I want you to keep doing what you love and help people, but I also want to make sure we tick all the boxes.”

The idea is to help him see what he can do to help himself, not what you think he is doing to you. Both points are valid, but the former may be more effective.

Also read: Jamie Dimon insists that his employees return to the office – so that’s a bit rich

You can email The Moneyist at qfottrell@marketwatch.com with any financial and ethical issues related to the coronavirus and follow Quentin Fottrell on Twitter.

By emailing your questions, you consent to their being posted anonymously on MarketWatch. By submitting your story to Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of MarketWatch, you agree that we may use your story or versions of it in all media and platforms, including through third parties.

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Thousands of SEIU supervisors on strike in Philadelphia in 2019. Cory Clark / AP

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More than 700 San Francisco janitors represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) quit their jobs yesterday morning and launched a three-day strike for improved COVID protection and working conditions after months of contract negotiations collapsed.

Hundreds of workers waved protest signs and sang in front of the Salesforce Tower – Salesforce chairman, CEO and billionaire Marc Benioff’s passion for skyline capping – in San Francisco’s high-dollar SoMA district, home to the offices of Silicon Valley giants Amazon, Airbnb and Facebook are located, Google and Twitter. The companies enter into contracts with custodians through facility management companies such as ABM and Able Services.

“These buildings won’t be safe until the janitors have a fair contract,” Olga Miranda, a striking janitor, told local CBS subsidiary KPIX – and if the janitors aren’t sure, Miranda said, “others will definitely not be safe be.”

“Strike”
Hundreds of SF caretakers are on STRIKE today.
The caretakers – mainly women, colored people and migrant workers – fight for a fair trade union contract with protection from sexual harassment and security measures!
Boost @Ableserve & @ABM_Industries #JusticeForJanitors pic.twitter.com/KR8bGd0P4A

– Justice for Janitor (@JusticeforJans) March 24, 2021

Since the pandemic began, over 3,000 caretakers, mostly black migrants, have been laid off and at least 26 workers have died of COVID-19, according to SEIU Local 87 members. With their eight-month struggle for a new contract at a dead end, the union janitors are demanding not only better ventilation and protective equipment, but also a raise in salaries, health insurance coverage, improved sick pay and protection from sexual harassment in the workplace.

When the pandemic hit in March last year, the precarious conditions for low-wage workers were exposed – and a series of strikes sparked, which led the calls related to COVID to a wider struggle for improved working conditions. All over the west coast similarly endangered farm workers Strikes – with and without the support of the trade unions – not only because of insufficient cover-ups of PPE and COVID, but also because of wage cuts and insufficient sick pay during the pandemic. As my colleague Julia Lurie reported in December:

When some pickers and packers hit this breaking point, there were COVID-related slips on the west coast … Hundreds of fruit packers in the Yakima Valley in Washington left production lines to protest a lack of safety and hazard payments. In Santa Maria, California, strawberry pickers left work to protest falling wages, just as many families were particularly financially stricken. Blueberry pickers near Fresno also encountered a wage cut and stood beside the red and black waving fields [United Farm Workers] Flags.

As in San Francisco, these strikes were not limited to masks and hand sanitizer. Workers who have mobilized over imminent threats to their health and safety have expanded their demands to include working conditions exacerbated by the pandemic – particularly in Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon warehouse workers are casting their final votes in the most serious attempt to date, the company to merge into trade union organizations. (Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, saw his net worth grow by $ 58 billion during the pandemic.)

These efforts were supported by, among others, President Joe Biden and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. And, according to Gallup, two-thirds of Americans are in favor of unions – their best poll in more than a decade.

STRIKE ALERT

26 caretakers have died of # COVID19 in San Francisco. We’re in the pandemic for a year – but janitors still don’t have the PPE and ventilation they need.

As SF moves to the orange plane today, @ SEIU87’s janitors have started a ULP strike to demand safety at work. # 1u pic.twitter.com/3IqeDKgaXO

– UNITE HERE Local 2 #PROAct (@ UniteHereLocal2) March 24, 2021

Caretaker strikes across town are not new. In 2018, SEIU 87 caretakers struck outside the offices of troubled cooperating startup WeWork with a mariachi band playing in support. In 2019, the union fought for a fairer contract on the steps of the fitness company Equinox, both times drawing attention to the divide between the treatment of higher-level employees by startups and their essential employees. Elsewhere, the union is fighting for more than 10,000 airport workers pushing for health care in New York and New Jersey, as well as immigrant domestic workers struggling for permanent residence.

“I deserve to feel safe at work,” said Ramiro, another caretaker for the SEIU, during the strike. “But almost a year after the pandemic, and we’re still collecting trash without masks or hand sanitizer.”

The post San Francisco Janitors Are on Strike for COVID Security—and the Struggle Doesn’t Finish There – Mom Jones appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

There have been wide reports of the mass exodus from the Bay Area during the pandemic, but a new business letter from Jerry Nickelsburg of the UCLA Anderson School of Management says the data does not support the claim. Instead, he sees a temporary change due to the pandemic and believes the market contraction could reverse once the pandemic subsides.

“I wanted to ask if the dates of a mass exodus in the Bay Area contain any evidence that technology is moving out and that Silicon Valley and San Francisco are no longer what they were before. The data say no; That’s not the case, ”Jerry Nickelsburg, faculty director and associate professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management, told GlobeSt.com.

Apartment rents in San Francisco fell dramatically during the pandemic, indicating difficult market conditions. However, Nickelsburg contrasts current market conditions with the 2000-2001 exodus from the Bay Area after the tech bubble. “The data cited for the mass exodus is the dramatic drop in rents. However, the percentage decline in rents was less than in 2001 when there was an exodus, ”says Nickelsburg. “House prices fell in 2001, but they are rising today. So this looks different from this event, and that’s because there is not a mass exodus, but a pandemic. “

Nickelsburg doesn’t have a crystal ball to predict how rents will react after the pandemic, but he predicts that both students and remote workers will return to the market, which could reverse the current trend. “This is not a prediction of what will happen to rents, except for the following: When students return to campus, they will increase the demand for rental housing, and when people return to the office, at least some will move back closer to their work to avoid the long commute, ”he says.

When asked about the exodus of companies from the region – both HPE and oracle have announced plans to move, along with a handful of smaller businesses – Nickelsburg doesn’t think these trends will have a significant impact on the market or that the pandemic has catalyzed them. “Some mature companies have decided to move their headquarters. The question you want to ask is, “Is this unusual?” If you look back over the past 30 years, this is not uncommon. If you look at relocations in the past 30 years, it’s for reasons that usually make sense, ”he explains.

For investors, Nickelsburg doesn’t mean this won’t be a challenging market in the short term, but there are still good reasons to stay in the market. “Investors always have to worry about changes in rental prices and occupancy rates. San Francisco rents are down 20%, but they’re still among the highest in the nation. So this could represent a loss of capital for apartment building owners, but it is not necessarily a discouragement for new rental properties. that remains to be seen, however. It’s an open question, ”he says, adding that California hasn’t resolved the housing shortage problem.

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