If you’ve ever witnessed Mark Dacascos in action, whether in movies or on cooking shows, you know that his fight scenes are nothing short of extraordinary. From his appearances as Zero in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum to his impressive moves as an Iron Chef, Dacascos always delivers a jaw-dropping performance.

Now, Dacascos has joined the highly anticipated third season of Warrior, the HBO series that explores the Tong Wars of 19th Century San Francisco. The show, also available on Sky Max in the UK, takes viewers to the heart of Chinatown during a power-struggle between rival gangs, delivering eye-popping fight sequences that were originally conceived by Bruce Lee for the 1970s TV series Kung Fu.

According to a report by Empireonline.com, Dacascos portrays Kong Park, the mentor of Li Yong (played by Joe Taslim), an enforcer for the Tong gang. Together, they are set to cause significant trouble for the show’s protagonist, Ah Sahm, played by Andrew Koji, throughout the third season.

Warrior Season 3 promises exciting new additions to the storyline, including a thrilling mayoral race in San Francisco. Moreover, an incoming police chief is determined to clean up Chinatown, adding chaos and tension to the already volatile situation. And of course, viewers can expect numerous intense fight scenes that will keep them on the edge of their seats.

If you’re a fan of the show or enjoy thrilling action-packed series, mark your calendars for Warrior Season 3, premiering on Sky and NOW later this summer. In the meantime, you can watch the exhilarating fight clip featuring Mark Dacascos on repeat, and anticipate an even bigger, badder, and brawlier season.

Credit: empireonline.com

ENND

Happy New Month

Ah SahmAndrew KojiBruce LeeCentury San FranciscoIron ChefJoe TaslimKeanu ReevesKong ParkKung FuLi YongLi Yong (JMark DacascosSan FranciscoSky MaxTong WarsTong Wars of San FranciscoWarrior SeasonZero in John Wick

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Hello, I’m Aarika!

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A seemingly endless series of storms devastated preparations for the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, which opened this week.

Each year, volunteer designers transform a large house in a matter of months to raise money for music programs like concerts at Disney Hall for fourth graders, instrumental competitions, and grants for other nonprofit organizations. For this year’s edition, real estate agent Matt McIntyre became the first man to serve as charity chair in the organization’s 75-year history. He notes that among their many challenges was painting the massive colonial-style mansion.

Supply chain delays and difficult weather

“[For] the cover of the show,” he recalls, “the shutters were removed on the day the picture was taken, just in time because it was the only day that week that it didn’t rain. So navigating through all the storms was quite a challenge, but we managed it.”

While the rain slowed preparations indoors, the volunteer designers also struggled with the same supply chain issues that have angered home renovators across the country. McIntyre advises people working on a kitchen or bathroom renovation to order their appliances and plumbing fixtures right away, as their arrival will be further away than they might expect.

About the property and its Indiana Jones type owner.

The 1933 property was designed by Marston & Maybury, one of the most celebrated architectural partnerships in Pasadena at the time.

The original owners were Ruth Stewart and her husband Arthur, a Union Oil executive. Designer Christopher Ward of Rosemary Home Design captures Ruth’s spirit in the artist’s retreat, which he calls the “Wunderkammer” or cabinet of curiosities.

“My research in newspaper archives shows that she was an artist,” says Ward.

“She loved nature, she loved science. She was kind of an Indiana Jones character who loved to learn all his life,” he says. “This room is a tribute to her [and] It also tells the story of part of the history of Pasadena and specifically about a woman who has contributed much through the Women’s League and through her own life, whose story deserves to be told. And so I think a big part of interior design when you’re working with historic homes is being able to articulate that to the public.

The spirit of original resident Ruth Stewart is evoked in this Christopher Ward-designed art and curiosity-filled upstairs room. His centerpiece is a custom-made table designed in the shape of a dragonfly, which he describes as the “Totem of Free Speech”.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

In the center of a blue-walled room, surrounded by displays of California art, geodes, fossils and instruments, is a custom-made table designed in the shape of a dragonfly, which Ward calls a “free speech totem.” On the table is a framed photo of a smiling Mrs. Stewart with garlands of flowers, taken on a cruise to Hawaii.

“When she came back from her travels, she started throwing Tahitian-themed parties here at the house,” says Ward. “Pasadena is so full of history, I just couldn’t help but focus on that and make that a part of the story.”

Original resident Ruth Stewart, who died in 1965, is seen in this photo with garlands of flowers during a Hawaiian cruise. She and her oilman husband Arthur raised two daughters in the home.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

A room designed by students

At the back of the two-acre Stewart estate is a guest house, the bedroom of which is the showpiece for five interior design students. These include Michelle Halabaso from UCLA and Missa Kato from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Halabaso learned of the opportunity through the Pasadena chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and invited other students she had met at events via email. As Kato notes, they were “essentially total strangers.”

Interior design students Michelle Halabaso (left) and Missa Kato joined three other students who were “essentially strangers” to tackle the guest house bedroom, most of which was furnished via Zoom.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

“What was exciting was that we could take our learning outside of the classroom,” says Halabaso. “Normally, the tasks at school are very individual. You can choose the furniture you want. Here we work with real world constraints, a student budget, no supplier partner relationships and sometimes begging for someone to donate or think things that were beautiful but we couldn’t afford to put them in a room.”

Homeowner approval and ever-present time pressures also presented challenges for the students, as did the need to meet via Zoom and rely solely on images on a computer screen to choose what they like. The result is a tranquil retreat in neutral tones and accented by a mobile by artist Monica Wyatt, who uses found objects in her work. It’s made of rusty nails in star patterns and paired mesh screens that resemble tiny Saturns, casting delicate shadows on the white walls.

The guest house bedroom features a mobile by artist Monica Wyatt composed of rusty nails and mesh shower drain covers.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

Kato admits there were many difficulties to overcome, “but I think at the end of the day we are very happy with the result. At the same time, we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is our first project… to find out what was possible and how we can make the best of it.”

Rachel Duarte Design Studio’s dining room has nature scenes painted on the walls that originally belonged to the house. They’ve been refreshed with color that makes the birds stand out and hides other, less appetizing, woodland creatures like squirrels.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

How to continue

The Pasadena Showcase House of Design is open for public tours through May 21st. Visitors park at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and take a shuttle bus to the house on a quiet Pasadena street on the San Marino border. Tickets are required for the house tour but not for the shops and restaurant.

The organization whose volunteers organize the annual event is the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts. It has supported local music and arts programs since 1948 when it was formed as the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee. His support of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra continues to this day.

Tocco Finale’s living room mixes animal prints with classic art. The 11,000-square-foot mansion was built in 1933 for $13,000, which was quite a sum during the Great Depression. The land was a wedding present from Arthur Stewart’s father.

(Susanne Welley

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LAist)

What questions do you have about Southern California?

ask a question

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After dealing with flooding, wind damage, downed trees and power outages during historic winter storms, Bay Area residents are reporting a different type of wet weather outcome: ant invasions.

“Long, irritating, invasive tapes of theirs,” a Bay Area resident said on Facebook.

“We had a full invasion,” said another.

“I’m from San Francisco and I don’t remember ever having ants in the house like we’ve had for the past few years,” Madison Smith, 37, told The Chronicle. “We find ants mainly in the front bedrooms, and then in the basement and bathroom.”

Experts say such unwanted incursions are common during the winter months — especially after heavy rains that soak the ground and drive ants out of their nests or ruin their food.

“Their invasions typically occur in winter, especially after heavy rains have inundated their outdoor nests, or in late summer when we’re having our hottest weather and they need to find cooler, wetter conditions,” said UC Berkeley professor and insect behaviorist Neil Durie Tsutsui .

Zach Smith, owner of Smith’s Pest Management in San Jose, said he’s definitely noticed a difference this season.

“It’s absolutely worse and we’ve had more calls than ever about ants and rats,” he said. “Even during those first rains in December, the calls came in. It seemed such an unforgiving winter.”

Here’s what you need to know about the ants and how to stop them from taking over your home.

What types of ants come into my house?

The typical native invader in the Bay Area is the Argentine ant, or Linepithema humile, an invasive species that originated in South America, Tsutsui said. According to Zach Smith, these ants produce super colonies and work together harmoniously.

The smaller scented house ant is another common animal, said Matt Fisher of Omega Termite and Pest Control.

Why are ants invading now?

Ants are driven indoors by two things, Tsutsui said: bad conditions outside — like rain or heat — and food.

“The series of atmospheric flows this winter have saturated the soil and driven Argentine ants into unusual nesting sites, leading to many home invasions during the winter,” he said. “These invasions are usually temporary, and the ants return outside when the weather is more pleasant.”

If things dry up, the ants will be out and about again looking for new homes, which means fewer ants live with us, Tsutsui said. But if they find food indoors, they can become your new housemates.

How do they get in?

No matter how well built your home, ants can still likely find a way inside, experts said.

“Houses are so porous,” said Zach Smith. “There are a dozen ways into any well-built house…Anything a needle can pierce, ants can pierce.”

According to experts, ants enter through cases around windows, gaps between floor and wall or around doors, or through cracks in exterior stucco. They move through walls and emerge indoors from sockets or baseboards. Plumbing is associated with perforations around the house. So if you don’t have enough sealant, ants can get into those areas, too, Smith said.

Ants could sometimes move their entire colony into wall cavities, Fisher said.

“They don’t usually stay there very long, they’re just trying to escape the moisture,” he said. However, “Sometimes they move in and open a shop, so it’s a bit harder for people to get rid of them.”

Once indoors, their favorite rooms tend to be kitchens and bathrooms because they like areas with some moisture and natural food sources.

How to stop ant invasions?

When ants arrive, the best solution is to use ant baits with sugar and borax or boric acid, such as B. the Terro brand. Place the self-contained bait stations in areas where you’ll see ants invading or traveling — and most importantly, “Don’t mess with the ants that start taking the bait,” Zach Smith said.

The ants bring the bait back to the nest to share. So if you start spraying them, the bait will not be able to do its job.

Another good strategy is to trace the ants back to their outdoor source and place the traps there if possible, which Fisher says will lure them away and discourage them from congregating indoors.

Keep in mind that the process will likely take some time, the experts said.

“Allow the ants to feed on the bait, which could take weeks,” Fisher said. “Don’t put the bait on the kitchen counter unless you have the patience to watch ants for weeks.”

Also, resist the urge to spray the ants with over-the-counter products, he said. This temporary solution can keep them from going to a certain area, but not leaving it for good.

When do I need to call an exterminator?

Calls to pest control companies are typically reactive responses to ant invasions, Fisher said. He advised taking proactive steps to keep ants at bay before you have a problem.

This strategy worked for Madison Smith, who lives in San Francisco.

“This year we were able to overtake them early enough to avoid a major invasion,” Smith said. “Our tree outside has a root system that extends below the foundation of our house, and we think the ants got in through the rat screen in the basement.”

She said after an exterminator she hired a few years ago had success with Optigard ant bait gel, she now buys it from Amazon and uses it herself.

“While it doesn’t necessarily stop them from getting in, it stops the invasion within 36 hours and works better than any other baiting system we’ve tried,” she said.

But if what you’re doing isn’t helping, it might be time to call in a professional.

“Often people do it themselves but lack confidence and may be on the right track but give up,” said Zach Smith, owner of a pest control company in San Jose. “We can take care of it”

“We know our products and may need to come back a few times,” he said.

How do I prevent ants in the future?

Depending on the season or what is happening in their colonies, ants look for either sugar or protein. Tsutsui said Argentine ants generally have a sweet tooth and are particularly attracted to anything sweet, from soda to honey to leftover candy.

“However, in spring and summer, they need more protein to feed the large numbers of growing baby ants in their nests,” he said. “During these times of population growth, Argentine ants often swarm on higher-protein foods, such as: B. Pet food left unattended.”

Start repelling ants early to avoid infestations. Now is a good time to reduce the ant population before it gets warm. Also, keep your home as clean as possible, inside and out.

Zach Smith recommends clearing outdoor clutter, including tarps and stacks of firewood, which can attract ants and rodents. Old tree stumps are also a popular hiding place.

He also advises getting kitchen appliances, including the stove and dishwasher, out and cleaning behind them.

Reach Kellie Hwang: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @KellieHwang

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With two special people in mind, Thomas “Tommy” Taylor and John “JD” Norton have embarked on a bike ride that will take them from Santa Monica to Boston, with a special stop in Barstow.

During the drive, which began Friday, Taylor will honor his late wife, Thokozile “Thoko” Kesiilwe-Taylor, a nurse who served at Barstow Community Hospital. Thoko, 60, died two years ago after being diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an immune system disorder characterized by the growth of tiny clusters of inflammatory cells in parts of the body.

Taylor will be raising money for the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, the country’s largest nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.

Norton, 69, will be riding to raise awareness of organ donation and on behalf of his 8-year-old grandson, Broderick, who is in need of a new kidney.

reunion tour

The longtime friends, who grew up in upstate New York, have kept in touch via social media.

“In 1972, JD and I were a bunch of hippies hitchhiking from New York to San Diego,” said Taylor, 70, who lives in Barstow. “We haven’t seen each other for a while, so I guess you could call that a reunion tour.”

The duo plan to arrive at Barstow Community Hospital by 10am Tuesday, where the men can share their journey and celebrate Thoko’s time at BCH, hospital spokesman John Rader told the Daily Press.

“After leaving the Santa Monica Pier, we’re going east most of Route 66 towards the Midwest and then to Boston,” Taylor said. “We hope to spread our messages online and in person as we head to the East Coast.”

The hospital’s CEO, Adam Loris, said that when Taylor approached the hospital about the opportunity to host the reception, BCH jumped at the opportunity.

“Although I didn’t know his wife, Thoko, since I only recently started at Barstow Community Hospital, what I understand from our staff is that she was one of our beloved nurses,” Loris said. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Thoko while encouraging Tommy and his riding partner JD Norton in their purposeful cross-country ride.”

Memory of Thoko

“Tuesday would have been our 14th wedding anniversary,” Taylor said. “Thoko was a quiet, compassionate person who loved life and had a heart to serve others.”

Raised in “black oppressed” South Africa and under the cloud of apartheid, Thoko was politically active, voting in the first democratic vote in 1994, Taylor said. Thoko became a US citizen and worked hard to get her nursing license before working in Barstow. She would later buy a house, Taylor said.

I owned my own plumbing business and we had an account with the Barstow Community,” Taylor said. “I met Thoko while doing a job. We started talking and eventually got married.”

After being diagnosed with the disease, Thoko’s lungs were affected. The couple made numerous trips for treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

While the couple worked towards getting Thoko a lung transplant, her health continued to deteriorate.

“Thoko passed away in August 2021 and we brought her back to South Africa for her funeral,” Taylor said. “She has a wonderful family and a strong Christian faith. She loved South Africa and her homeland in the US very much.”

Two weeks before his wife died, Taylor’s 23-year-old son Jason, who had a heart transplant as a child, died suddenly. Taylor also mourned the loss of his sister’s son, Joshua, 41, who died in a motorcycle accident.

As the world came crashing down on Taylor, his nephew told him that as part of his healing, he needed to get out and “do something epic.”

“It was April 7, 2022 when I decided to write JD, who I hadn’t seen in 40 years,” Taylor said. “I asked him if he wanted to drive across America.”

Norton happily agreed to ride along, not just to accompany his friend, but to ride on behalf of Broderick and anyone in need of an organ.

“April is National Donate Life Month to encourage organ donor registration,” Norton said. “It’s a perfect time for riding.”

Norton rides for his grandson.

“Broderick had a traumatic birth, he was born prematurely, which affected his liver and kidneys,” said Norton, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs. “His liver recovered, but one kidney failed and the other remained partially functional.”

Broderick battled COVID-19, but the virus continued to damage his remaining kidney, Norton said.

“If we don’t get a kidney, the goal is for him to get into his teens before dialysis,” Taylor said. “My daughter is helping Broderick with medication and diet, but he is in Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease.”

Do something epic

In order to ride 3,000 miles, Taylor sold his business, bought a touring bike, and began long-distance training.

“Part of my training consisted of getting dropped off in Las Vegas and driving about 150 miles back to Barstow,” Taylor said. “The mindset on this journey is to ride 3,000 miles piece by piece.”

Before retiring, Norton was a dedicated bike commuter and worked in the semiconductor industry.

“I also love mountain biking, so I’m always up for a challenge,” said Norton. “I bought a steel frame touring bike and started riding 50 miles about three or four times a week.”

Taylor said he’ll be thinking of Thoko every inch of the way from California to Massachusetts.

“Thoko loved life and she was the love of my life,” Taylor said. “I will always remember our life together.”

To raise funds, Taylor created the Sarkoid Bike Tour GoFundMe account and online site, sarkoidbiketour.com.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz can be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

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San Francisco-based water reuse technology company Epic Cleantec announced that Fifteen Fifty – the luxury residential building in San Francisco by Related California, hosts the city’s first approved and operational greywater reuse system. Approved and operated by Epic, the system can recycle up to 7,500 gallons of gray water per day, or 2.5 million gallons per year.

According to Greywater Action, gray water is gently used water from sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines.

Epic Cleantec’s on-site water reuse approach captures and treats a building’s wastewater to purify it for reuse in nonpotable applications such as irrigation, cooling towers, toilet flushing, laundry and more. Epic’s approach can help reuse up to 95% of a building’s water, deliver significant savings on water and wastewater bills, and help cities conserve valuable regional water supplies, the company says. The Fifteen Fifty installation captures, filters and disinfects gray water from showers and laundry, as well as rainwater from the roof, and uses the ultra-pure water to flush toilets. That achievement comes as California grapples with a widespread mega-drought — the driest period in at least 1,200 years.

According to CNBC, U.S. water and sanitation rates “have outpaced inflation by nearly 300% over the past two decades, while growing urban populations strain aging municipal water infrastructure.” California is expected to spend approximately $4.3 billion on new treatment facilities, upgrades and expansions of existing reuse treatment facilities, and additional networks to distribute treated water to end users.

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It has the potential to become a snowmaker of epic proportions: A brutal winter storm sweeping through California is expected to bring rain, sleet and snow from the Oregon border to the deserts near Mexico.

Forecasters say “all eyes” are Thursday through Saturday, when even Southern California could see several feet of fresh powder in the mountains around Los Angeles. The National Weather Service has issued a snowstorm warning in the mountains of LA and Ventura County – only the second time since a similar storm in 1989.

“It’s bringing all that cold air to Southern California — we’re getting the full brunt,” meteorologist David Sweet said of the incoming system.

Temperatures were expected to be as much as 20 degrees below normal and snow was already beginning to fall in parts of Antelope Valley by Wednesday afternoon, while hail pounded the sidewalk in Highland Park and Pasadena. Local residents reported a snow drift in La Crescenta, and 50 mph gusts raged in Thousand Oaks and Agoura.

“It’s got the cold air, it’s got the humidity, it’s got high winds,” said Sweet, who works with the Oxnard Weather Service. “This is an ideal situation for a large weathermaker with enormous implications.”

In the Los Angeles area, snowfalls at elevations of 4,500 feet or higher could be as high as 5 feet, with some isolated instances of snow as high as 8 feet, according to forecasters. Areas at elevations of 2,500 to 4,000 feet — including Tejon Pass — could see up to 12 inches of snow, while areas at 1,500 to 2,500 feet could see up to 4 inches, including Antelope Valley.

The Weather Service also issued a flood warning for large parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, where up to 5 inches of rain is possible between Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon.

This week’s storm is unusual even in a winter of unusual events, climate experts say. The state was already defying forecasts for a dry La Niña-driven winter when a series of nine atmospheric river storms battered California in January — the wettest three-week period on record, state officials said.

Early February marked a notable return to drought, with less than an inch of rainfall across the country. Now local residents are being battered by winds and are faced with dangerous driving conditions and snow. Should projections materialize, the LA and Ventura County mountains could have the “greatest amount of 24- [to] 48-hour snowfall for decades,” according to the weather service, which rivals the 1989 winter storm.

Daniel McEvoy, a regional climatologist at the Western Regional Climate Center, said the rare system is part of a larger circulation pattern in the western United States that has lasted through most of the winter and has trapped a lot of cold air.

“This has been one of the coldest winters for many places in many decades,” McEvoy said, “so the fact that we’re having another cold storm this winter isn’t that surprising, but the magnitude — and what the ingredients are at the facility that.” particularly affecting Southern California looks pretty rare.

The depression formed off western Canada, he said. Within the system are several “waves of energy” driven by the flow of the jet stream, or air currents in the upper layer of the atmosphere that direct weather systems from west to east.

While not like the “classic” atmospheric flows that hit the state in late December and early January, the system will combine with moisture over the Pacific as it moves south, signaling heavy rain and snow.

The impact of the storm is expected to be widespread and potentially dangerous throughout California, including “large swaths of our freeways and freeways that are covered in snow,” said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist with the Sacramento Weather Service. The agency is advising people to avoid travel, especially between Thursday afternoon and Friday, and to prepare for hazards like fallen trees and power outages.

On Wednesday night, reports of snow and sleet — or giving way to hail — poured in from residents in several areas across the state, including downtown Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains, with officials warning of worse severe weather.

Around Sacramento, the main problem are the foothills and mountains, as well as the northern Sacramento Valley, where snow could lie at elevations of up to 500 feet — basically down to the valley floor, Chandler-Cooley said.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the best chances for accumulation are around the Santa Lucias on the Central Coast, according to NWS meteorologist Brayden Murdock. Though the storm has been relatively dry so far, it will soon gain some moisture as it makes its way south toward LA, he said.

“It’s a rare setup for us,” Murdock said. “If this whole system had been shifted a little more to the east, it probably would have been more of a dry, strong wind event, but since it has the ability to interact with the Pacific, that’s why we get all this moisture on top.”

High winds in the Bay Area have knocked over trash cans, basketball hoops and shopping cart holders. A gust of 73 mph was recorded on the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday afternoon, while an anemometer on San Francisco’s Twin Peaks measured one at 63 mph.

Firefighters and law enforcement responded to a series of downed trees and branches, including a eucalyptus, falling on the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 on the Bay Bridge, blocking the tunnel. And at least one building in San Francisco has had its roof partially blown off.

Power outages in Northern California and the Central Coast were also widespread — more than 172,000 at peak Tuesday night — and several communities, homes and businesses were still without power Wednesday. In Menlo Park, traffic lights from the 101 freeway to El Camino were mostly out of order.

Further inland, a six-mile stretch of Interstate 15 near California’s Nevada border was closed for about 12 hours in both directions on Wednesday due to icy road conditions as the onset of the storm moved into the region.

Meanwhile, Southern California is bracing for rain and snow to increase Thursday through Friday.

“All systems are headed for a large and unusual storm,” the weather service said in its afternoon update.

Tommy Perez, 41, of Palmdale, said he remembered seeing 2 feet of snow in the area about five years ago.

Perez, who picked up a meal from the California Fresh Grill, said he and his family heard about the approaching storm and decided to pack snow chains in case road conditions got tough.

“We have things for the car just in case,” said Perez.

California Department of Transportation spokesman Marc Bischoff said the agency already had 24-hour crews stationed on the Grapevine, where they deployed snowplows and sprinkled brine on the roads to keep them from freezing.

“We’re always worried about the mountain regions because that’s where the precipitation will fall first, and especially because the snow depth will be so low and the temperatures will be so cold,” said Bischoff. In addition to the Grapevine, CalTrans also focused on State Routes 14, 58 and 33 as well as State Routes 2 and 39 in the Angeles National Forest.

“If you don’t have to drive anywhere on one of these roads for the duration of the storm, then don’t drive — it’s the best choice you can make,” he said. He added that State Route 33 has been closed since January’s atmospheric river storms, so those tempted to take that road to view the snow “can save themselves a trip.”

Referring to last fall’s seasonal outlook, which predicted another dry winter, climatologist McEvoy said the wet system points to long-term forecasting challenges. Since about November, the jet stream has been carving out an area of ​​deep pressure that persists across much of the west coast.

“The atmosphere has locked into this pattern this winter and it doesn’t look like it’s going to break any time soon,” he said. “It’s a pattern we haven’t seen in the West in a long time.”

But on Wednesday afternoon the sky was still blue at the Tejon Pass where Jenifer Natto from Bakersfield was shopping. Natto said she wasn’t worried about the storm, although her home lost power Tuesday night due to high winds.

“I have plenty of food and a gas fireplace,” Natto said, adding that she intends to stay indoors while the storm hits. “I have no plans to go anywhere this weekend.”

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English

Imagine a slow-moving train coming towards you. The lights are shining, the horn is blaring, but it’s just far enough in the distance that the risk doesn’t seem real just yet.

That’s a fitting-enough analogy for the state of San Francisco’s commercial real estate market, which is tilting towards a collapse in property values, leaving the city, its budget and its ability to provide services tied to the tracks.

The root of this—of course—is the pandemic and the way that it has completely transformed work patterns in the city, hollowing out a downtown core that once accounted for most of San Francisco’s GDP, 70% of its sales tax revenue and 40% of the city’s jobs. And there’s an uneasy feeling among a coalition of business groups that city leaders are sleepwalking into an economic calamity with far-reaching consequences.

Signal lights of the city’s tenuous fiscal future are starting to flash. Major tech employers like Yelp and Airbnb have fled or gone fully remote, leading to mass office vacancies. A swath of commercial landlords are seeking massive reductions in their assessed property values—and associated tax bills. And a recent report from the Urban Displacement Project ranked the city’s downtown recovery as dead last among more than 60 cities across North America.

‘Uncharted Territories’

It’s no secret that office vacancies are high in SF’s downtown. But even as the pandemic wanes, an already-troubling outlook for downtown could only get worse.

That’s because a slew of office leases signed at the height of the city’s economic boom are poised to expire over the next few years, further inflating vacancies and diminishing what the office towers that draw the city’s skyline are worth. There’s currently more than 25 million square feet of commercial space available for lease or sublease in the city, the equivalent of about 35 Transamerica Pyramids sitting empty.

Empty desks in the SD Mayer Accounting firm office on July 29, 2022. | Juliana Yamada/The Standard

“We’re way above anything that was happening in the Great Recession and dot-com era days,” said Jay Shaffer, a co-founder and principal at Colton Commercial & Partners. “We have this shadow market of sublease availability in seemingly uncharted territories. And sublease inventory is still rising.”

Citing data from real estate firm JLL, SF’s chief economist Ted Egan tagged future vacancies, in a worst case scenario, as high as 53% in the Jackson Square area and 43% in the mid-Market area in 2024 as the clock runs out on office leases.

The current vacancy epidemic cuts across buildings of all sizes and price ranges in San Francisco’s downtown core, from the struggling mid-market area to the sparkling office towers of the East Cut.

For example, 415 Natoma, a 653,900 sq foot office tower owned by Brookfield Properties that was the sole ground-up office project to deliver in San Francisco in 2021, currently has just one announced lease: 20,000 square feet taken by “remote-first” startup thumbtack. Nearby office towers 123 Mission (Juul Labs, Inc.), 50 Fremont (Salesforce.com, Inc.) and 199 Fremont (CalSTRS) were each at least 30% vacant, according to CoStar data, along with a constellation of other big office buildings.

A few large buildings, like 550 California St. and 455 Market St, were placed on the market in recent months at deep discounts to what they would have fetched before the pandemic, but were eventually pulled when offers came in that were even lower than those already discounted prices.

In the case of 550 California St., a downtown office tower owned by Wells Fargo, bids came in at 60% to 70% under what the building would have sold for in 2019, real estate brokers said.

One of the entrances to 415 Natoma, the sole ground-up office project to deliver in San Francisco in 2021. | Google Maps

Zombie Buildings

The risk of a San Francisco real estate collapse is palpable enough that it’s caught the attention of at least one Wall Street hedge fund—and not in a good way.

Dan McNamara, founder of New York hedge fund Polpo Capital, became known for the lucrative short bets he made against regional malls run into the ground by e-commerce and Amazon.

Now, McNamara is eyeing the commercial office market for another short bet, and San Francisco is near the top of his list. McNamara started his firm last year to take advantage of what he considers to be mispricings in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market.

“We thought there was a unique opportunity to take advantage of the impending distress within the commercial real estate market,” McNamara said. “San Francisco has been an amazing example of this; we’ve had all these tech companies that have been driving office space usage for the past 20 years. But we believe that’s changed forever.”

A report published in November by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) calculated that San Francisco could see a short-term decline in commercial property values ​​of up to 43%, the highest projected in the study.

The logic is obvious: San Francisco’s software-dominant economy pivoted easily away from offices during the pandemic, and has little incentive to return.

In some ways, the city is a victim of its own success by creating an economic model so heavily dependent on tech in the aftermath of the Great Recession, said Wade Rose, president of the business advocacy group Advance SF.

“We initiated the growth of an economic sector that could pivot on a dime,” Rose said. “So they closed down fast and exposed this vulnerability.”

Lenders have taken a dim view of the office market and that’s doubly true for slow-to-recover San Francisco, leaving fewer options for refinancing.

“It’s frozen,” McNamara said of current market conditions. “I do believe San Francisco is the most challenging office market today partly due to the fact they became oversupplied very quickly when the model changed to hybrid.”

The properties most at risk are mid- to lower-tier buildings purchased near the peak of the market. Commercial real estate insiders say that those property owners are negotiating with lenders to avoid foreclosure, but that it may be sooner rather than later before the dam starts to break.

McNamara sees refinancing issues leading to defaults, delinquencies and a class of unoccupied “zombie-type buildings.” That may be already starting to happen.

Of the some 200 large properties identified by CoStar as “high vacancy,” at least three have defaulted on their 2021 property tax bills, according to a city tax database. Those include a property at 25 Taylor St. formerly occupied by the coworking firm WeWork, and a 1182 Market St. property formerly owned by the local real estate giant Shorenstein Properties.

Other building owners are asking the city to cut their tax bills on the grounds that their buildings have lost much of their value—as much as half, in some cases.

It’s not unusual for landlords to ask for revisions to their tax bills in an economic downturn. But the pandemic’s impact on real estate was dramatic enough that the city’s assessor-recorder, Joaquin Torres, took the step of surveying property owners and calculating a temporary property value reduction of $2.89 billion, out of $328.5 billion in total assessed value, in the last fiscal year. He said it’s too soon to know what the longer-term impact will be.

“We just don’t know yet,” Torres said. “It’s a wait-and-see approach right now as we continue to defend the values ​​that we have.”

The Prop. 13 Effect

The pandemic has already eroded the city’s business and sales taxes, both of which are reliable on downtown commuters. A hit to the city’s biggest source of tax revenue—property taxes—could be even more devastating.

Because of Prop. 13, San Francisco has some protection from a sudden collapse in property tax revenue. That 1978 law, which limited when properties can be reassessed for tax purposes to the point of sale and restricted annual appreciation to 2%, has the effect of stabilizing property tax rolls in a downturn.

Older buildings—even ones worth tens of millions at market prices—can pay taxes based on decades-old valuations. By contrast, newer towers spun up or sold during the last decade’s development frenzy contribute staggering sums to the city’s rolls, helping to drive property tax revenue in the city’s general fund north of $2.3 billion in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

So see

But no one seems to have clear answers on what the pandemic will do to that cash cow. And the city’s own forecasts are looking increasingly out of step with reality as tech’s remote-dominant office culture metastasizes into a state of permanence.

The city’s most recent budget forecasts estimate that office workers will telecommute 33% of the time when an in-person return to the office stabilizes. That number seems strikingly optimistic compared to data from key card company Kastle Systems indicating that SF’s downtown Offices are only about 30% full.

Rose suggested that the infusion of federal stimulus funds during the pandemic may have lulled city leaders into a false sense of financial security.

“The city didn’t have to fire anybody and there wasn’t so much immediate pain felt,” Rose said. “There’s a propensity to say, don’t make it worse than it is.”

Heads in the sand

rose sees an inflection point when leases expire, buildings are revalued, budgets are slashed and the problem can no longer be ignored.

The city’s budget office expects property tax revenues to continue to grow. But Howard Chernick, an economics professor at Hunter College and co-author of the report that forecast an up to 43% decline in SF’s property values, paints a much worse picture: His team sees a decline of up to 15% in property tax collections amounting to a roughly 4% drop in total revenues.

Based on the most recent numbers, that would mean a decline of roughly $240 million annually. And because tax revenues on average increased steadily each year since the Great Recession, any drop could be painful for a city that banks on growth to pay for an array of services and a workforce of roughly 35,000.

Local legislators are only beginning to get their arms around the problem. Supervisor Catherine Stefani sent a letter of inquiry asking budget officials to quantify declining demand for commercial space, while Supervisor Ahsha Safai plans to hold a hearing to brainstorm ways to bring workers back downtown.

“Do we need to have an honest conversation about the current tax structure?” said Safari. “We need to be putting everything on the table.”

Business and community groups are urging the city to take more action, arguing that policymakers must drastically remake downtown into a hub for arts, music and culture with outdoor spaces for visitors and commuters to gather outside of offices.

But most of those ideas are firmly in the realm of the hypothetical, and it’s unclear what may happen when they collide with the city’s bureaucracy: For example, a $6 million budget allocation for the downtown-focused Economic Core Recovery Program was subject to intense scrutiny by the Board of Supervisors before its approval.

When compared to the investment that cities like New York or Chicago are making to revitalize their downtowns, San Francisco’s effort barely registers.

The city has much to lose as federal funds that fortified its budget through the pandemic dry up. Some with a stake in downtown’s future are worried that time is running out.

“It’s within our power to stop or divert the train and meet it ahead of its collision point,” said SF Chamber of Commerce CEO Rodney Fong. “But that work has to start now, because the sooner you start it, the fewer days of discomfort you’re going to have.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect ownership changes in the properties at 25 Taylor St. and 1182 Market St.

English

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Serina Calhoun has worked as an architect in San Francisco for 21 years and has faced plenty of headache-inducing projects, but the renovation of a Bernal Heights fixer-upper that she took on in 2020 stands out as truly atrocious.

Many of the city’s worst story lines converged at the seemingly cursed house, leaving Calhoun and the home’s owners slack-jawed by all the plot twists.

It involves insanely high real estate prices. Byzantine planning codes that even the city’s planners find confusing. Neighbors who demand a say in any change near them. Squatters, drugs and vandalism. Police officers who blame the district attorney as they let criminals go. A pricey private security guard. And heaps of frustration.

Sounds like San Francisco, alright.

“This is a whole other level of crazy,” Calhoun said.

It all began in October 2020 when Jennifer Sun and her husband, Ben, purchased a house in Bernal Heights for $1.75 million. In most parts of the country, that would buy a stunning mansion. In San Francisco, it buys a rather dated fixer-upper.

The couple are wealthy, and nobody but them will shed any tears over their home remodel gone awry. Still, what happened next points to what’s broken in San Francisco — and so much is broken.

A sticker, writing on the refrigerator and a sign are some of the damage left over from squatters who trespassed and lived in the home of a Bernal Heights couple.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

The couple hired Calhoun to design a remodel, submitted their plans in March 2021 and hoped to secure permits within six months. They kept paying rent on their South of Market apartment so they could live there during the remodel, while also paying their new mortgage.

But six months turned into 12 months — and still, no permits.

The first hiccup was that the Planning Department said the home had been illegally converted into three units by a previous owner, and the couple wanted to restore it to its original single-family home set-up.

After some back and forth, the Planning Department said the plan was allowable because there was no record of any tenants ever living there.

Dan Sider, chief of staff for the Planning Department, said planners were ready to approve the plans including major interior work in July 2021, but then the couple submitted a proposal with a new wrinkle: extending the back of their home by just under 3 feet . That would make the back of the house even since the third story juts out beyond the lower two.

But this being San Francisco, and especially Bernal Heights, that seemingly small change is a very big deal. That’s because of a “special use district” approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1991 that governs every little change to homes in the neighborhood. The idea was to preserve the area’s character, but the details will make your eyes glaze over and, according to Calhoun, have prompted many architects in the city to refuse to work there.

In sections and subsections to subsections, it governs changes to homes in minute detail — down to the allowable width of curb cuts and garage doors.

“I can assure you that it is not a page-turner,” Sider said good-naturedly.

Jennifer Sun stands below two holes in the ceiling of her home, part of the damage from squatters. She and her husband have had to hire private security while they wait for permits to remodel their new home.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

A group of neighbors called the Bernal Heights East Slope Design Review Board — with no apparent website or easy way to find them — gets to weigh in on projects in the area. An email sent to an address associated with the group was not returned.

The rules include the length of a home can extend into the backyard from the front of its property line. But because the couple’s house sits on a curved lot, Calhoun’s been trying to get an answer on where on the front lot to start measuring from. She said she waited until November just to get a planner assigned and has spoken to four different planners about the 3-foot extension, and that none knows the answer.

“They shared that the code is confusing even for them,” she said.

Then, the planner told Calhoun the home was historic and the facade — though nondescript — could not be altered. Sorting that out would have extended the project by another six to nine months, Calhoun said, so the couple dropped proposed changes to the front.

Then things got really weird.

In February, Calhoun received an email from a member of the Bernal Heights East Slope Design Review Board who reported a neighbor across the street from the couple’s home had grown “increasingly agitated” by the couple’s lifestyle and the cars coming and going from the home at every hour.

Sun said she was shocked. They weren’t living there. What cars? What lifestyle?

So they visited the property, which had weird spray paint across the garage door and signs of people inside. They called police, who accompanied them inside the house where they found squatters had taken it over.

Photos the couple took show piles of furniture, clothes and a fridge full of food. Graffiti covers the refrigerator and walls. One message can’t be relayed in full because of antigay language, but it reads in part, “No soliciting. No shopping. No snitches.” They bashed holes in the walls and ceilings, wrecked a sink and other fixtures, left dog poop on the carpets and discarded needles and syringe caps around the house. Flies were everywhere. The house still smells bad.

According to the couple, police officers gave the squatters — all of whom appeared high — 10 minutes to collect their belongings and leave. They arrested only one. No one else faced any consequences. The couple said police explained there was nothing they could do because District Attorney Chesa Boudin “has different priorities right now” and wouldn’t prosecute.

Salar Naderi, a spokesperson with the Police Department, confirmed police found seven people occupying the house and arrested Richard Ostergard, 47, who had warrants for stealing a vehicle, possession of stolen property and theft. Naderi said the homeowners “did not want to have any of the (other) subjects cited or arrested,” disputing the couple’s version.

In any case, Sun, 36, said that just a few hours later, neighbors texted and called to tell her the squatters were back. And it doesn’t sound like they’re merely people down on their luck. Photos show nice belongings, and neighbors reported them driving a Mercedes, BMW and Dodge Durango.

Neighbors continued to report to the couple that people were entering the home over the next couple of days, and that someone tried to access the property with a crowbar.

The couple quickly hired a private security guard whom they’re paying $8,000 a month to watch over the house every night.

“If we had known the city would take so long, we would have moved in and this wouldn’t be an issue,” Sun said.

Even though they’re doing well professionally, the couple said the costs have created “an immense financial impact” — and work hasn’t even started yet. Mortgage payments and property taxes on the house have topped $180,000 so far. They paid $3,000 to haul away the squatters’ belongings and don’t know yet how much it will cost to repair their damage.

Meanwhile, construction costs keep growing because of inflation and supply chain shortages, and there’s no telling how much the remodel will end up costing or when they can finally start.

“How does anyone afford this?” Sun asked.

Sun said she’s no longer excited about moving in after the remodel — which she thinks won’t be done for another year at best.

“It totally creeps me out,” she said. “Just unlocking the door, I get goose bumps. It’s uncomfortable being in here. It’s so unnerving. This is supposed to be home.”

This being San Francisco, there is one bit of good news for the couple. Redfin says their dream home turned nightmare is now worth more than $2 million.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

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The corner lot on 17th and Ord Streets in San Francisco’s Tony Corona Heights neighborhood doesn’t look like much. A nondescript, gray, three-story building stands next to a yard with a chain-link fence covered with poorly cared for ivy.

But this property has become a major focal point in San Francisco’s battle for housing – how much of it this city needs, where it should be, and who decides what will be built. When the owner suggested adding four more houses to the site – including two that would be affordable – the usual battles for neighborhood character, sunlight and diversity began.

The saga turned residents against each other with nasty emails, screaming matches and neighbors who no longer speak to each other. Call it the “real San Francisco homeowners,” and you could be producing a reality television show.

But the real bad guy isn’t the neighbors trying to block more apartments on the site. It’s the city’s outdated zoning regulations that turn small projects into explosive battles in a city with major housing problems.

Rich Hillis, the city’s planning director, also agreed with the assessment that the city’s own rules are to blame, which despite increased demand, a large homeless crisis, and a fleeing middle class severely restrict new housing construction in large parts of the city and dwindling diversity.

“There was a lot to like about that proposal,” said Hillis of the original plan for 4300 17th Street. “But our 1960s code doesn’t allow us to approve it.”

The drama began two years ago when Scott Pluta, a lawyer who worked in the Obama administration and now works for Google, bought the property. He lives on the third floor of the house with his wife Rosalind Pluta, who also works at Google. A tenant lives in a unit subject to rent on the second floor, while the garage, laundry room and workroom are on the ground floor.

Pluta examined his neighborhood and learned that it was 84% ​​white, had an average home value of nearly $ 2 million, and had no affordable housing units. He quickly forged ambitious plans for the property.

He suggested adding an affordable unit on the first floor of his building and adding three units in the garden, two at market prices and one at affordable prices. Both affordable units would be permanently handed over to the Mayor’s Office for Housing, and qualified tenants would be selected through the city’s lottery.

He wanted his property to serve as a kind of laboratory where an experiment could be conducted to find answers to the housing crisis in San Francisco. He knew adding four units was just a tiny piece of the city’s huge housing puzzle – the state has ordered San Francisco to build 80,000 new units by 2031 – but he hoped others could replicate that.

He envisioned six people or families living in small units nearby – maybe a public school teacher, he said, and families of color. It could become a paradise home to people who could have afforded the beautiful neighborhood just a short walk from Muni Castro train station. It could be a model for similar projects in a city that says that it relies primarily on transit, needs affordable housing and wants more diversity.

Scott and Rosalind Pluta’s property, which is currently two units, is located on the corner of 17th Street and Ord Street in the Corona Heights neighborhood.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

“I wanted to do something that was in line with my progressive values,” said Pluta. “The ability to say, ‘I’ve built affordable housing in San Francisco.’ I know it’s cheesy, but it’s meaningful. “

For some of its neighbors, the garden is already a paradise, an open space that gives the surrounding houses more sunlight, air and a view. Pluta’s proposal is hellish in her opinion. Build too big and destroy the character of the block. And some of them say that Pluta pretends to be a social justice fighter when really he’s only there for the money. He said he would not make any money on the project.

At an irritable hearing in November, the planning commission continued the project, saying Pluta’s plan was not possible under the city’s current rules. So he scaled it down. It also lost an affordable unit.

At the request of Corbett Heights Neighbors, the hearing on the new proposal has been postponed for about six weeks and is expected to take place in mid-October. The group said it needed more time to consider the new proposal but was also strongly against it.

Bill Holtzman, president of the neighborhood association, has just returned from the Paris apartment he and his wife own in Paris and said he was still in the process of catching up on the new proposal. But he said it was already clear that according to city rules, the new version was still devouring too much of the garden.

“Our association will always choose trees, grass, and shrubs because that’s what makes San Francisco San Francisco,” he said. “We consider backyards to be inviolable. Until the city or the state changes these rules, we will live by these rules and we will reject any violation of the codes. “

These codes are likely to change – one way or another. Hillis said Pluta would have a far better chance if he waited for Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s proposal to allow quadruples on corner lots to be passed.

This law should be heard by the Planning Commission next month. A separate proposal from Mandelman to allow fourplexes on every single-family lot is not there yet.

Some other housing promotion policies are well received by the state legislature, and other ways to approve Fourplexes are being pursued by regulators other than housing legislation and election action.

A public hearing notice will be posted at Scott and Rosalind Pluta’s property at 17th and Ord Streets. Two of the units would be affordable housing.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Mandelman remains largely neutral on Pluta’s proposal, although it gets to the core of what he has been advocating all year round. He said the project could end up on the board of directors, and there isn’t much he can say about it without looking biased ahead of that vote.

“This is the type of housing that I would like to see more of in the district,” he said, adding that his office would like to act as an intermediary between the belligerent neighbors.

Maybe he wants to put on armor first. Pluta and several of his neighbors seemed to clash on both personal and political levels. Pluta thinks they are hypocritical NIMBYs. “It is this cartel that has restricted supply in order to maintain and increase the value of their properties,” he said.

His neighbor Casey Rando said Pluta initially outlined a much smaller proposal than the one he actually made. When Rando saw the plans, he lost his composure.

“I yelled at him and told him he lied to us,” he said. “He hasn’t been communicating with me since then.”

Rando, a gay man who moved to the neighborhood because of his proximity to Castro, said he hates being indicted by Pluta on “all of San Francisco’s racial problems” while Pluta has the money to hire a lobbyist and send one Create website.

“We’re literally three blocks from the rainbow flag and you won’t be lecturing gay men and women on diversity,” Rando said.

Pluta said he will keep trying the planning committee, but he doesn’t know if his shrinking project will ever fail. He never intended to make any money, but now he doesn’t know if he can break even. He could get approval, divide up the property, and hope the buyer would develop the garden.

Laura Foote, executive director of housing association YIMBY Action, said uncertainty is the problem. The outdated rules of the city lead to individual decisions, breaches of neighborhood and far too little living space.

“You could sit on the planning committee all day and those are all stories like this,” she said. “It’s all rich people yelling at each other and it’s the system as it was designed.”

It may be a popcorn worthy look, but it will never help us weather our housing crisis.

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this story, the number of units in the existing building was incorrectly stated.

The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

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