Los Angeles, California–(Newsfile Corp. – November 13, 2023) – SOS Moving Company, a full-service local and interstate mover operating in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Orange County, has announced plans for nationwide expansion. The mover looks to repurpose the strategies that elevated the brand in the California market, to grow exponentially in the national market.

SOS Moving Company: Full-service local and interstate movers

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SOS Moving’s stated mission is to deliver peace of mind through safe and stress-free relocation services to every client, regardless of the complexity and distance of the move. The overarching strategy is to establish SOS Moving Company as a premier moving company across America – not just California.

In expanding operations nationwide, a primary objective is to maintain the same level of professionalism, customer service, and communication that facilitated growth from 3 trucks to 40 during a global pandemic. Some of the factors that the company believes has elevated its profile are the differentiated services included for commercial and residential clientele including:

• Apartment Movers
• Commercial Movers
• Packing Services
• White Glove Movers
• Storage Services
• Long-Distance Movers

This comprehensive approach to customer service and communication is intended to help clients of all levels of fame be more confident in their relocation process. The strategies employed for high-profile clients like Snoop Dogg, Frank Grillo, Bella Porch, and Selma Hayek in Los Angeles are designed to work equally well for tech execs in San Francisco.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are available to protect the privacy of Seattle and Orange County residents as they do Hollywood celebrities. Learned best practices can be carried over into new markets nationally. However, some partnerships – like with the Oscars ceremony red carpets – may be market specific and require last partnerships within a region.

The aim is to continue to provide the same experiences across the country that brought the SOS Moving Company to this place of growth. As the team grows to accommodate new locations and clients, all work will be focused on the goal of being the best moving company in the United States.

The company ethos through expansion will remain around the values of:

• Professionalism – The foundation of company services.
• Communication – Planning and implementing strategies with complete client buy-in and periodic updates.
• Customer Service – A customer-centric approach for service delivery that makes the client the center focus.
• Modernity – Integrating modern tech solutions to simplify processes that will eventually automate a nationwide enterprise.

The brand’s focus on improved customer satisfaction and new national partnerships are intended to jump-start development and advancement. The promise to surpass customer expectations is thought to be the driving force behind the brand’s increased visibility among California movers, the word of mouth that created a Top 5 California mover.

By attempting to hold true to proven outcomes, SOS Moving is leveraging its experience in the California market as a proof of concept to expand nationally. Seattle is a market beyond its California base that can be studied as a variable and extrapolated outward to create a new set of data points to be crunched and examined.

The human elements of the process and strategy can keep the mover grounded and on a familiar course. What brought success in the days of Los Angeles are designed to bring success to Atlanta one day.

About SOS Moving Company

The team at SOS Moving Company values professionalism, efficiency, and a can-do attitude

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SOS Moving Company was founded in Los Angeles in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. However, the mover was able to grow the fleet of moving trucks and expand into new markets by October 2021. SOS understood the necessity to pivot operations, shift resources, and adapt strategies to navigate through unsettling times more effectively.

The company gives back to the community by offering special rates for low-income housing relocations, while contributing to various charities that support minorities and people in need. By supporting charitable organizations, they seek to uplift disadvantaged communities and individuals, embodying the spirit of corporate social responsibility.

To learn more about SOS Moving Company, please visit the company website or contact:

Akzhol Zhumagulov
[email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/187127

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Award of Merit – Manufacturing: San Francisco-Marin Food Bank Expansion | Engineering News-Record

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Christine Dillman, executive director of Tri-Valley Haven, at the non-profit’s community building in Livermore, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2023. The nonprofit provides domestic violence, homelessness and sexual assault services. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

LIVERMORE — For Christine Dillman, executive director of Tri-Valley Haven, there’s nothing worse than telling someone who is trying to escape an abusive partner that the nonprofit’s shelter is full.

During the coronavirus pandemic — which reduced capacity — and amid the survivor-led #MeToo movement, Dillman said the organization’s shelter for those fleeing domestic violence has often been full.

“It’s so hard when somebody is calling — they’re a family in Pleasanton, and they’re fleeing and we have no space,” Dillman said in an interview. “Of course, we do everything we can. We work with other shelters, but that family doesn’t necessarily want to go to San Jose or Oakland or somewhere out of the area.”

Now, Tri-Valley Haven, which is based in Livermore, is moving toward what Dillman described as a “defining moment” for domestic violence survivors in the East Bay. It plans by early next year to break ground on a $7.5 million rebuild of its shelter, named Shiloh. The Dublin City Council this month agreed to provide $240,000 to the project from a pool of Community Development Block Grant money.

The project will expand the shelter’s capacity by 50%, from 30 to 45 beds. It will also replace two decades-old buildings that Dillman said are falling apart. About a year ago, the organization was forced to close one of the shelter buildings because of mold. The other building has roof and plumbing problems.

“The current domestic violence shelter does not represent how I want to care for people,” Dillman said. “And that breaks my heart.”

Tri-Valley Haven in Livermore plans to break ground on a project that will expand the nonprofit’s domestic violence shelter capacity from 30 beds to 45. (Courtesy of Tri-Valley Haven) 

Domestic violence is one of the primary causes of homelessness. According to data in Alameda County’s 2022 homelessness Point-In-Time Count, 27% percent of those in families with children cited domestic violence as a cause of their homelessness.

Tri-Valley Haven — which also provides services for those experiencing homelessness and hunger, and those who are victims of sexual assault — has launched a capital campaign to raise money for the project. So far, it’s raised about $5.5 million — or about 75% of the project’s estimated cost — through a combination of public and private contributions. The cities of Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton, and the county of Alameda are contributing a combined total of around $3 million, Dillman said.

Typically, the nonprofit serves about 250 people per year at its shelter, she said. And while the shelter houses people from all over Alameda County — and southern Contra Costa County — more than 50% are from the Tri-Valley.

“Maybe they grew up in this area or they’ve lived here for the past 10 years or they work in this area; but they have strong connections to the Tri-Valley, and that’s why they want to be here,” Dillman said.

The new facility will introduce major improvements, including individual sleeping rooms, a computer lab, a Japanese rock garden and dedicated playground areas for children, she said.

With the services of landscape architecture firm vanderToolen Associates, they’re also building in “a lot of greenery and just have it be a calm space where families can take a minute and play with their children,” Dillman said. She added, “This is a building that really can take us successfully 50 years into the future.”

Data on domestic violence paint a grim portrait of the problems in Alameda County. The Domestic Violence Unit of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office annually reviews about 5,000 arrests, but often finds it difficult to prosecute. In some cases, survivors may be reluctant to testify at trial, or they may recant statements provided to police.

Safe Alternatives to Violent Environments, or SAVE, which provides shelter and crisis services for victims of domestic abuse in Fremont, also is often at capacity, said Jennifer Dow Rowell, the nonprofit’s executive director.

Tri-Valley Haven’s aging domestic violence shelter is set to be replaced by a modern building that will include a computer lab and other upgraded amenities. (Courtesy of Tri-Valley Haven) 

Tri-Valley Haven’s expansion project, Dow Rowell said, is “so needed” as it provides a critical part of the community’s safety net.

The organization’s rebuilt shelter is expected to be completed by the summer of 2025, Dillman said. Temporary housing services for survivors of domestic violence will continue during construction, she said.

And while the nonprofit hasn’t yet reached its funding goal, it’s confident it will hit its target.

“We’ll reach it. We will,” Dillman said. “We have a number of foundations that have said they will step in, and I know that they will.”

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, you can find support by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. In the Bay Area, you can call 211 for referrals to shelters and other services.

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Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

District can’t afford
Concord High change

In regard to Concord High changing their mascot from the “Minutemen” to the “Bears,” I don’t understand the need for it. Minutemen were heroes. But my main concern is the cost. I work at an MDUSD school where every week the plumbing fails or the air/heat breaks down. The list is never-ending.

The cost to reoutfit the band alone would be over $100,000. If you include football and all the sports uniforms … I can’t even imagine.

Our schools are deteriorating. We need to address our infrastructure. Please. Let common sense prevail.

Toni Keosian
Concord

Airport expansion bad
news for environment

Re: “Oakland airport’s expansion will exacerbate climate change, groups say” (Page A1, Aug. 15).

The planned expansion of the Oakland airport, which is used primarily for short-haul flights, will increase demand and use of the airport and worsen pollution and the climate crisis.

It is disingenuous to claim that Oakland flights would increase anyway without the project. The increased capacity would allow airlines to add more flights daily, causing increased stress-inducing noise pollution and small particulate emissions among surrounding low-income communities that already suffer massive environmental injustice.

We must choose other scenarios for meeting the high demand for travel, especially for short-haul distances. Most of this traffic would be better served by high-speed rail, eliminating the additional air and noise pollution from even more frequent flights across Oakland and Alameda.

Fully 11% of California’s CO2 emissions come from air travel. Has the climate crisis not yet convinced officials and the public that we have to change our ways?

Susan Wright
Oakland

Keep spotlight on
Santa Rita Jail deaths

Re: “Lawmakers seek jail death transparency” (Page B2, Aug. 16).

The Interfaith Coalition for Justice in Our Jails appreciates your article, which focused on the San Diego Jail. This devastating problem lives here at the Alameda County jail, with over 70 deaths since 2014. We have conducted three somber rallies, calling on county supervisors to take some leadership on jail conditions.

As in San Diego, most deaths occur to people within the first traumatic days and weeks of incarceration, before they are even charged. Guards and the medical service contractor fail to properly handle mental illness and substance abuse. And the dual sheriff/coroner role often compromises family/community access to death information. The movie “What Happened to DuJuan Armstrong?” documents these issues.

We urge continued coverage of this problem, particularly for our Santa Rita Jail.

Karen Rachels
Oakland

Moms for Liberty
don’t speak for all

Re: “‘Fear and hate are the issue’” (Page A1, Aug. 17).

To Moms for Liberty: You don’t speak “for America.”

You are an extremist minority group. You hurt innocent people you don’t know, often children, and you don’t care. You have the right to speak your distorted and hateful messages, but that right does not extend to actions. It’s sad we have to block your book bans and racist curricula revision and gender strictures with legislation — such a waste of resources just to extinguish your hate.

My suggestion: Put a sock in it.

Steven James
Walnut Creek

Put Pink Poodle
story to bed

I’m amazed at how much effort and print has gone into the investigation of the supposed Pink Poodle incident regarding the San Jose Fire Department.

I understand that those in certain sectors of our public safety should always maintain a quality standard. In this case, no one was assaulted, nobody’s house burned down, there were no egregious text messages, just a bikini-clad woman stepping off a fire truck. Meanwhile, there are unsolved freeway shootings and homicides, carjackings and sideshows happening all over the Bay Area. If an emergency came up during their “joy ride” of 20 minutes, I seriously doubt that would decrease their response time.

Let’s focus on the real problems and put the Pink Poodle to bed.

Kevin Moore
Livermore

Don’t give Trump
free advertising

It’s happening again. Donald Trump makes headlines in our newspapers and other media on a regular basis. This gives him free advertising not available to many who do not support him.

Free advertising won him the election in 2016. What a disaster for American democracy. Did he Make America Great Again? He doesn’t read, he cannot spell, he does not pay his bills with his own money. He often chooses to ignore his own lawyers. His ego is his entire life’s focus. I believe strongly that we cannot afford to provide him with a position of power.

I appreciate the responsibility of the media to report the news objectively to the American people. I would suggest, in fairness to others, that news pertaining to Trump be allocated to inside pages of the newspaper and that it be presented without pictures. I strongly disapprove of the free publicity available to this man.

Judy Malinowski
Livermore

Earth’s climate can’t
take GOP agenda

Re: “Far-right climate strategy: Drill more” (Page A1, Aug. 6).

While the world is burning and flooding, the Republican plan for America is to repeal environmental regulations and drill, drill, drill.

They would have us believe that the most crucial issue facing us is that some guy in San Francisco is wearing a dress. It’s become clear that voting Republican is voting for global suicide.

Jim Hogan
El Sobrante

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Self-driving cars once seemed like futuristic wonders, however, in tech-savvy San Francisco, autonomous vehicles are now just about everywhere, making deliveries and shuttling passengers.

Despite the city’s legacy of embracing new technology, San Francisco has become one of the fiercest battle grounds in the debate over autonomous vehicles, and whether they can safely coexist on streets already bustling with human drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and other urban obstacles.

Across California, a total of 41 companies currently operate more than 2,000 autonomous vehicles in California. While most have test drivers inside, who are capable of overriding the cars when necessary, hundreds of vehicles on the road right now have no one behind the wheel.

As autonomous vehicle companies now seek to further expand their operations in the San Francisco, some say it’s time to hit the brakes on the emerging technology.

Questions, however, about safety and how exactly human drivers stack up against their A.I. counterparts don’t always have simple answers.

If you haven’t spotted one already, it’s only a matter of time. Driverless cars are here. Would you get into one? Many people want to hit the breaks on the technology. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban explains what’s driving the controversy and what happened to him on a test run.

State transportation records, obtained by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit and NBC News, reveal self-driving cars have been involved in hundreds of crashes across the state over the past five years. Most self-driving vehicles in California have test drivers traveling inside, who are able to override the cars’ computer systems.

According to records from the California DMV, those safety drivers had to override their vehicles thousands of times last year, including for safety reasons.

In another incident that snarled up rush hour traffic, a self-driving car shuttling Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban, swerved, then simply stopped on a major thoroughfare in the Outer Sunset neighborhood, blocking two lanes of traffic for 20 minutes.

Despite the technology’s current imperfections, industry insiders are quick to highlight the technology’s safety benefits, which they argue allow the vehicles to often outperform human drivers.

“Our cars don’t drive drunk, they don’t get distracted,” said Prashanthi Raman, Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Cruise, which is majority-owned by the automotive giant General Motors.

“In the vast majority of situations, the vehicle behaves exactly like it’s supposed to do, similar to a human driver,” Raman said.  “We’re really looking to improve interactions where that doesn’t work as appropriately as it should.”

Prashanthi Raman is the Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Cruise

Cruise and its major competitor, Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, are two of the largest driverless car companies in the United States.

Both companies are currently petitioning regulators with the California Public Utilities Commission to expand their robotaxi services in San Francisco, the state’s largest testing ground for autonomous vehicles, so passengers can request rides from their phones, 24 hours a day.

Waymo and Cruise already hold test permits from the California DMV that allow them to operate their vehicles at all hours of the day throughout San Francisco. However, both companies have their ultimate sights set on ride-sharing services, similar to Uber and Lyft, which requires the companies to secure separate permission from the California Public Utilities Commission. As of now, Cruise is only allowed to collect fares from passengers from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in select parts of the city.  Waymo isn’t allowed to charge for its robotaxi services at all. On Thursday, however, the CPUC’s five commissioners will vote on whether to allow both companies to expand their ride-sharing services to all of San Francisco, regardless of the time of day.

It’s not always a smooth ride

Regulations in California require autonomous vehicle companies to self-report each collision involving an autonomous vehicle. Transportation documents, obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit through a public records request, show autonomous cars have been in involved in at least 532 collisions since June 2018. However, in 252 of those crashes, the car was being fully controlled by the test driver, known in the industry as ‘conventional mode.’  The remaining 280 crashes occurred while the car was in full control, known as ‘autonomous mode,’ resulting in at least 64 injuries and a dead dog.

Of those crashes, 42 were truly driverless – with no safety driver inside the vehicle.

* An at-fault determination is typically made by law enforcement and insurance companies, according to the California DMV, which aimed to track at-fault data during the onset of the state’s testing program by collecting police reports and insurance-related information.  Law enforcement, however, does not always respond to the scene of an accident and so an at-fault determination isn’t always made.  As a result, the California DMV, says it has since stopped collecting such information and has not documented an at-fault determination since Nov. 25, 2019.

A California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database, obtained by the Investigative Unit, details collisions with other vehicles, bicyclists, scooterists, skateboarders, and even city busses.

Self-driving cars were not always at fault in those crashes, according to the records. It’s unclear from the data, however, exactly how often other parties were to blame.

For autonomous vehicles in testing, with actual humans inside who can take the wheel, DMV records reveal the human drivers had to override their cars more than 8,000 times last year alone.

“If humans have to override these vehicles because of a safety issue, they’re not good to go,” said San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson, who said she opposes the expansion of driverless cars until the technology can be improved.

“I am not anti-technology. I am pro safety,” Nicholson said. “There’s a lot of smart people on both sides and they can troubleshoot and they can work together to figure things out and make things better, and I have seen no effort on the [autonomous vehicle] side to make that happen. And it’s really distressing.”

Nicholson says for months her department has asked Cruise to make its engineers available to meet with fire department staff to craft solutions to some of the technology’s shortcomings relating to emergency scenes.  Nicholson says those requests have so far gone nowhere.

Cruise, however, denies the accusation.

“We know that our relationship with city agencies and city departments are very important,” Raman said. “We continue to work with them and have met with them dozens of times over the last 18 months.”

While Nicholson acknowledges she and her staff have previously met with representatives from autonomous vehicle companies, those meetings have yet to yield any substantial solutions to the problems, she says, the fire department has repeatedly raised.

San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson

In San Francisco, cameras have captured self-driving cars getting confused by emergency scenes, sometimes plowing into caution tape, or blocking fire trucks.

Without a driver in the car, Nicholson said, it’s difficult to get the vehicles to move when they’re impeding first responders. The chief said her crews have even had to smash the window of a driverless car to stop it from getting in their way.

In instances where first responders need help moving an unresponsive driverless vehicle, fire department officials have been given a toll free phone number to call to reach a company representative.

“We don’t have time to call a 1-800 number when we are doing CPR on someone,” Nicholson said. 

Waymo never responded to NBC Bay Area’s interview request.

Raman, one of the leaders at Cruise, said the company’s fleet of vehicles are designed to come to a safe stop when they approach a situation they are unsure about.

“Traffic blockages are not something that we want to have happen, but it’s also one of the realities of living in a very dynamic street with pedestrians and bicyclists, with delivery trucks, with double parked vehicles,” she said. “So we are working to minimize when those things happen.”

Raman conceded the technology isn’t perfect, but said Cruise’s own analysis found the safety record of its self-driving cars often outperforms human drivers, who were responsible for more than 42,000 traffic related deaths in the United States last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Self-driving cars are only believed to have been involved in one fatal crash, which occurred in Phoenix back in 2018.

The comparison is a difficult one to make, however, since there are hundreds-of-millions more cars on the road being driven by humans, who log more than 3 trillion miles each year.

According to Cruise, its cars have driven more than 3 million miles, and haven’t been involved in a single death or life-threatening injury.

The one fatal crash involving a self-driving car

The accident involved an autonomous car from Uber, which has since halted its operation of self-driving vehicles.  The car, which had a test driver riding along behind the wheel, struck and killed a pedestrian who was jaywalking at about 10pm. In a 2019 report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, investigators cited an “inadequate safety culture” at Uber, and noted “inadequate safety risk assessment procedures, ineffective oversight of vehicle operators, and [a] lack of adequate mechanisms for addressing operators’ automation complacency.” Other contributing factors, according to the NTSB, included drugs being found in the pedestrian’s system and the “failure of the vehicle operator to monitor the driving environment and the operation of the automated driving system because she was visually distracted throughout the trip by her personal cell phone.”

While injuries have so far been rare, traffic blockages are increasingly more common, something NBC Bay Area witnessed firsthand during one of two rides with Cruise’s autonomous vehicles.

The first test drive appeared to go smoothly, with the vehicle maintaining the speed limit and pausing for pediatricians in the cross walk. Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban hailed the ride through the company’s app and spent about 45 minutes in the vehicle, traveling from the Pacific Heights neighborhood to the Outer Sunset without any problems.

Soon after being dropped off, Shaban ordered a second ride, where he was accompanied by Eugenia Borges, a driving instructor of 15 years. Borges, who works for Ann’s Driving School in San Francisco, has instructed thousands of beginner drivers during her career and joined the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit to assess the driverless ride.

Driving instructor Eugenia Borges and Senior Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban take a test ride in a Cruise autonomous vehicle.

Less than one minute into the ride – and less than two blocks away from our pickup point – there were already signs of trouble.

Despite a green light, the car sat there for two minutes without budging.

“It’s very confused,” Borges said from the back seat. “Poor thing.”

The car eventually got through the intersection, but there were even more problems to come.

A construction sign up ahead indicated the far-right lane the vehicle was traveling in would be closed and was signaling vehicles to merge into the center lane. For more than three minutes, the car haltingly inched forward, but kept stopping, sometimes straddling the far-right and center lanes without moving.

“It’s a very safe situation for the car to turn and it’s just staying here,” Borges said. “I’m not sure why.”

Then, suddenly, the car accelerated and veered straight towards the median, stopping just short of hitting it.

“Oh, oh!” Borges exclaimed from the back seat. “This is not good.”

The car sat there occupying the far-left lane and part of the center lane without budging, as rush hour traffic backed up for blocks behind it.

NBC Bay Area’s second test ride with Cruise doesn’t go as planned.

Not even coaching from Borges could get the car moving again as onlookers stared and frustrated drivers honked their horns.

“Turn your wheel right!” she instructed.

After being stuck for twenty minutes, a Cruise employee arrived and drove the car away in manual mode.

The company declined an interview request to explain what happened, but sent a statement saying the issue stemmed from an “unexpected construction zone” that would have required several lane changes.

“The better course was for the [autonomous vehicle] to come to a safe stop rather than proceed,” the statement said.

Tweaking the technology to be able to handle every type of roadblock could take the industry years, according to experts, so gearing up driverless cars to navigate all across the country may still be a long road ahead.

“I’m rooting for this,” Borges said.  “I want this to happen, but with what I saw right now, it’s a big no for me.”

You can explore the entire California DMV database of autonomous vehicle collisions below.

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Stone Brewing’s bistros in Escondido and Liberty Station have a mystery beer on tap. The menu just describes it as an “experimental lager.”

This beer is Stone’s first batch of Sapporo Premium — the first to be made at the local craft brewery since it was acquired by Japanese brewer Sapporo for $165 million last August.

A second batch is currently fermenting, foreshadowing the multi-million dollar transformation that Stone’s Escondido and Richmond, VA production breweries will face as a result of the Sapporo acquisition.

Both locations are expanding their capacities to be able to brew Sapporo beers for the American market.

“The underlying theme is to produce all of the Sapporo beer sold in the United States in the United States,” said Sean Monahan, Stone’s chief operating officer. “That’s the core driver.”

Incorporating Sapporo beer production will roughly double Stone’s annual production of its own craft beers, such as Arrogant Bastard IPA and Buenaveza. Last year, more than 376,000 kegs were brewed – ranking seventh among the country’s craft breweries by volume. A barrel equals 31.5 gallons.

Sapporo USA beer is currently made in facilities mostly located outside the United States, Monahan said.

“The logistics costs, etc. make it a very expensive undertaking,” he said. “I always use the analogy that it’s mostly water and you don’t want to transport water far, so you produce it as close to the market as possible.”

The Escondido facility will brew premium Sapporo that will be sold west of the Rocky Mountains, while the Richmond facility will handle production for the Midwest and East Coast. In addition to Sapporo Premium, Sapporo Black and Sapporo Reserve will also be brewed at the Stone facility in Richmond.

Nicole Williams, senior operations manager at Stone Brewing Escondido

(Mike Freeman)

Stone will also be expanding its canning, bottling and keg lines at both Escondido and Richmond to handle the increased volume.

Sapporo’s investment in the U.S. beer market comes at a time when the industry is struggling to keep up with growing competition — not just from other breweries, but also from canned cocktails and other alternative adult beverages.

The overall beer market shrank 3 percent in volume in 2022 — mostly driven by declines in big beer brands, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group that mostly represents small, independent breweries.

“Combined growth for this category is difficult to achieve in this more mature and competitive market,” said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association.

While craft and import breweries have fared better than the big brands, they have still faced rising operating costs and changing consumer preferences. Sapporo wasn’t immune. Earlier this month it announced the closure of 127-year-old San Francisco-based Anchor Brewing Co., which makes Anchor Steam. Six years ago, Sapporo acquired Anchor Brewing, which produced about 35,000 barrels last year.

Despite this setback, Sapporo is expected to invest up to $20 million to expand capacity at Escondido and about $40 million to increase production at Richmond, Monahan said.

“Even though I’m saying we’re going to make the same (Sapporo) beer that people are familiar with, I think it’s actually better because it’s made in the US and it’s so much fresher,” he said. “You get a fresh Sapporo compared to one that’s been on a boat across the ocean for weeks.”

While work is already underway to get Sapporo beer flavors right in experimental batches, mass production is not expected until January 2024.

Nevertheless, new devices have been ordered, the installation of which is expected to begin in the autumn of this year. Eight new fermentation tanks will be added at Escondido and another eight tanks will be installed at Richmond.

Stone Brewing employees clean tanks at the Escondido facility

(Mike Freeman)

A new keg line and expanded filling and canning capacities are also planned in Escondido. Richmond will also modernize its packaging lines.

Stone expects to add another day to his work week, from 24 hours five days a week to 24 hours six days a week. The additional workload is expected to create 40 to 50 jobs on site.

Two Japanese brewers from Sapporo moved to Escondido to help make the beer. Brewing the trial batches was a learning experience, said Nicole Williams, senior operations manager at Escondido Brewery.

“One thing about brewing a beer like Sapporo — a light, clean lager — is that you have nowhere to hide,” she said. “You really have to get every step right every time.

“That’s why we’re conducting these trials — to make sure we’re making the freshest, best sapporo anyone’s ever tasted,” she continued. “Creating it here in the US and getting it straight to market is going to make a noticeable difference, I think.”

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Two Waymo driverless cabs stop on a street in San Francisco on February 15, 2023 and drive across from each other before passing each other.

By Michael Liedtke | Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – Two pioneering ride-hailing services are breaking new ground by applying for governmental approval to transport passengers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through one of the most densely populated cities in the United States in vehicles where nobody sits in the driver’s seat.

If Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, and Waymo, a Google spinoff, reach their goal before the end of the year, San Francisco would become the first US city to have two fully driverless services, competing with Uber, Lyft and traditional taxis – all relying on humans to control the cars.

But Cruise and Waymo still face potential roadblocks, including complaints that their vehicles are making unexpected, congested stops that could annoy other travelers and endanger public safety.

Cruise has been charging driverless rides in less-congested parts of San Francisco during nighttime hours since last June. Waymo is offering free driverless rides in a larger part of the city and is awaiting approval to start loading passengers into robotic vehicles, which Google secretly began working on 14 years ago.

Efforts to roll out competing driverless services across San Francisco are proving to be the first step in a far more ambitious expansion centered in California — a state that currently has more than 35 million human-driven vehicles on its books.

Cruise recently applied for permission to test its robotic vehicles across California at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) — that’s 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) above the top speed of its robotic taxis in San Francisco. Waymo is already testing its self-driving cars in Los Angeles – the second largest city in the United States

The California push comes in addition to Cruise, which is beginning to test its robotic taxis in Austin, Texas, as well as in Phoenix, where Waymo’s driverless ride-hailing service has been ferrying passengers along Arizona roads that are far less congested and challenging than those since 2020 the streets of Arizona San Francisco.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but it’s improving pretty quickly,” Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told The Associated Press. “As it is fine-tuned, it will become more elegant over time, but the security will continue to improve as well.”

Saswat Panigrahi, Waymo’s chief product officer, believes the company’s past experience will pay off as the company applies its learnings from operating a driverless ridesharing service in Phoenix to busier cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“The uncertainty is definitely a lot less now that we’ve run a fully autonomous service with real drivers,” Panigrahi said.

Both Cruise and Waymo recently announced that their driverless fleets have each traveled more than 1 million miles without a major accident. But even their robotic taxis have been struggling with pesky problems in San Francisco, which have resulted in traffic delays and other annoyances that could annoy people or, worse, block emergency vehicles en route to a fire or other urgent calls for help.

“The expected things are simple, but it’s the unexpected things that people react to in real time that are of concern,” said transportation expert Nico Larco, director of the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon. “At best, when cars stop in the middle of the road, it only leads to confusion, chaos and congestion. But the worst cases could actually harm someone.”

Two Associated Press reporters witnessed the potential problems firsthand in mid-February after a Waymo vehicle transported them safely on a trip through San Francisco that involved navigating hilly terrain, turning rush hour traffic, and making room for pedestrians to make who darted onto the zebra crossings.

During one trip, the robotaxi pulled up in the middle of the street after AP reporters got out and stayed there for several minutes, with a line of human-driven cars piled up behind it. It turned out that a rear door on the driver’s side was not fully closed.

In another Cruise-related glitch last September, an AP reporter took a roughly five-mile ride in a robotic taxi nicknamed “Peaches,” which repeatedly avoided the intended destination. The reporter eventually had to use the Cruise app to contact a dispatcher at a remote headquarters so the car could be pulled over — in the middle of the road.

Vogt noted that a number of improvements have been made since then, and indeed, two different cruise robotic taxis — one named “Cherry” and the other named “Hollandaise” — hit the same reporter and his colleagues at the designated designations during a follow-up investigation departed despite Cherry stopping at a bus stop that momentarily prevented the arrival of an oncoming bus.

A warning letter the San Francisco County Transportation Authority sent to California regulators in January raised broader concerns about the operation of robotic taxis, which cause headaches for those outside the vehicle.

The letter cited at least 92 reported incidents of Cruise robotic taxis suddenly stopping on the road as of December 31. At least three of the incidents blocked public transit lanes for periods between nine and 18 minutes.

According to the agency, over the past year, driverless Cruise vehicles have also prevented firefighters from rushing to a three-alarm blaze or illegally entering areas where ongoing attempts to extinguish the fire have been ongoing around the clock throughout San Francisco until there are more gives information about why and how often the cars regularly congest the traffic. The abrupt braking and stops of Cruise’s robotic taxis have also been under investigation by the federal supervisory authorities since the end of last year.

“We’re just very cautious,” said Tilly Chang, executive director of the San Francisco Transportation Department. “We want to be supporters and help make (driverless driving) possible, but we have to make sure it’s safe.”

Meanwhile, dozens of other tech companies and automakers have joined a race to develop self-driving car technology that collectively costs more than $100 billion. Your ultimate goal is to make money from robot drivers that are safer and cheaper than human drivers. Robotaxis could also lower fares for passengers, although Vogt believes consumers may be willing to pay more for trips without a stranger at the wheel.

Investments to date have resulted in a mix of successes, failures, and exaggerations from the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who predicted nearly four years ago that the electric carmaker would have a giant robotaxi service by the end of 2020, but still hasn’t done so has. I’m nowhere near achieving that goal.

Cruise’s owner, the nearly 125-year-old General Motors, is nevertheless so confident that robotic taxis can drive more responsibly than humans and expand its driverless service to more US markets that he made the bold prediction last fall that Cruise would pay a billion By 2025, sales are projected to increase — a big jump from Cruise’s $106 million in sales last year, when the company also lost nearly $2 billion.

That optimism stands in stark contrast to the disheartening experience of another storied automaker, Ford Motor, which paid $1 billion to acquire driverless startup Argo AI in 2017 but closed the division last October at a $2.7 billion loss dollars after failing to find a buyer for the technology.

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JW Hanson Heating & Air takes a big step from just a garage business.

Founded in 2005, the Santa Rosa-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning services, repair, retrofit and installation company has operated from a 930 square foot industrial condominium at 3200 Dutton Ave., Unit 225.

Then, on January 6, founding couple James and Kimberly Hanson purchased the 26,156 square foot former Bergy Door & Window facility at 3999 Santa Rosa Ave. for $2.65 million, according to public records and the Bay Area Development Company, one of the funders.

According to the announcement, a showroom, storage space, office space and a parking lot for vehicles are planned for the new location. The Hansons could not be reached for comment.

The Santa Rosa Avenue sale comes a few weeks after the nearly 70-year-old Bergy Door company conducted a liquidation sale of its trucks, trailers, woodworking equipment, tools, inventory of doors and windows, and storage and office supplies, according to a press release on the auction .

“We really appreciate serving Sonoma County since 1953 and since 2007. Personally, I have enjoyed working with all my customers and suppliers over my 29 years in the door and window industry and I will miss them all,” said Gregory Soos, owner of Bergy Door & Window Company, in the auction announcement. “It was a very difficult decision and I wish everyone the very best. I will truly miss serving Sonoma County and helping others with my years of knowledge in this industry.”

Bergy Door founder Harold Bergstrom came to Santa Rosa in 1948 and worked as a carpenter hanging doors on construction sites before starting his own business five years later, according to the auction announcement. Soos bought the company from Bergstrom’s son. Health problems in Soos’ family have led to the liquidation of the company since the beginning of last year.

Demi Basiliades of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented the Hanson trust in the purchase of Santa Rosa in 3999. Kevin Doran, also of Keegan & Coppin, represented the seller, G&L Santa Rosa LLC, led by Gregory Soos.

Walnut Creek-based Small Business Administration financing firm Bay Area Development Company partnered with Lincoln Capital Management and Harvest Commercial Capital to fund the SBA 504 program.

Jeff Quackenbush is involved in wine, construction and real estate. Before joining Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for the Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

The post Sonoma County HVAC contractor plans sizable growth appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

JW Hanson Heating & Air takes a big step away from a garage operation.

Since the Santa Rosa-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning service, repair, retrofit and installation company began operations in 2005, it has been operated from a 930 square foot industrial condominium at 3200 Dutton Ave., Unit 225.

On January 6, founding couple James and Kimberly Hanson acquired the 26,156 square foot former Bergy Door & Window facility at 3999 Santa Rosa Ave. for $2.65 million, according to public records and the Bay Area Development Company, one of the deal’s backers.

Plans for the new location include a showroom, storage area, office space and a yard for vehicles, according to the announcement. The Hansons could not be reached for comment.

The Santa Rosa Avenue sale came a few weeks after nearly 70-year-old Bergy Door held a liquidation sale of its trucks, trailers, woodworking equipment, tools, door and window inventory, and storage and office supplies, according to a press release about the auction.

“We are very honored to have served Sonoma County since 1953 and since 2007. Personally, I have enjoyed working with all my customers and suppliers in my 29 years in the door and window business and all will be missed,” said Gregory Soos, owner of Bergy Door & Window Company, in the auction announcement. “It was a very difficult decision and I wish everyone the best. I will truly miss serving Sonoma County and helping others with my years of knowledge in this industry.”

Bergy Door founder Harold Bergstrom came to Santa Rosa in 1948 and worked as a carpenter hanging doors on construction sites before starting his own business five years later, the auction announcement said. Soos bought the company from Bergstrom’s son. Health problems in the von Soos family led to the dissolution of the company at the beginning of last year.

Demi Basiliades of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented the trust of Hanson in the purchase of Santa Rosa in 3999. Kevin Doran, also of Keegan & Coppin, represented the seller, G&L Santa Rosa LLC, led by Gregory Soos.

The Walnut Creek-based Small Business Administration-treasury Bay Area Development Company worked with Lincoln Capital Management and Harvest Commercial Capital to fund the SBA 504 program.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before joining Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for the Bay City News Service in San Francisco. You can reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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San Francisco, California, United States

Marc Cavagnero Associates’ Hamlin School renovation and expansion project transformed the campus into a fully sustainable building that minimizes demolition and maximizes the reuse of existing structures to reduce waste and increase material resources and insulation of all exterior building envelopes above and below save class to reduce energy consumption

The new Hamlin School campus recently received the 2023 Green Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

For over 127 years, The Hamlin School has been focused on its mission to educate girls to “meet the challenges of their time.”

The school is located on a steep sloping site in a residential area of ​​San Francisco with restrictive height restrictions.

The campus consists of 3 buildings descending 65 feet down a slope while scaling a 40 foot retaining wall, all conditions that created profound site constraints and design challenges.

With separate elevators and stairways in each building, connections between the separate buildings were unclear.

The retaining wall at the center of the campus created a physical barrier between the middle school and the junior high school, fundamentally dividing the site into upper and lower sections.

The three buildings were constructed in three different eras and were not designed to support the school’s contemporary pedagogical ambitions.

And the undersized gymnasium was shared with the performing arts department, affecting both athletics and performing arts programs.

Work focused on the interior of the site to minimize impact on the stunning bay views from the campus and neighboring residences.

The project expanded the lower school’s McKinne Building, retaining its front half while excavating behind it south to the retaining wall, yielding new excavation area as usable area.

The new design stacked a large, double-height gymnasium over a multipurpose arts space deep in the center of the site, conforming to zone boundaries and minimizing visual impact on neighbors.

The roof of the extension forms a new terrace directly in front of the existing science classrooms in the middle building and creates new opportunities for science education and experiments.

This strategy also consolidated the newly enlarged classrooms on the north side of the McKinne Building, where they make best use of the large windows, soft light, and views.

The existing classrooms were small and did not support the school’s project-based pedagogy.

Working closely with the teachers, the classrooms were paired by grade level, with the youngest children on Level 1 moving up the building as they got older.

Each pair of L-shaped classrooms is connected by an operable partition and a shared project space.

This layout creates differentiated learning spaces to support different learning modes: individual, small group, whole class, and whole grade level.

The renovation also created a new, open and accessible entrance at ground level, midway between the first floor and the newly excavated lower level.

Where the building’s previous 1960s entrance was awkward, cramped and hidden from the street, the new entrance welcomes students, parents and visitors and is connected to the indoor lobbies on levels 1 and 0, which lead directly to the multipurpose performance space and The climbing wall.

These lobbies are open and flexible spaces used for classroom activities, after-school programs and as a vestibule for the new performance space.

Sustainable features of the campus include a computerized building management system using occupancy sensors and daylight sensors to automatically reduce energy use from lighting and HVAC systems when not required.

The architects have used high-efficiency LED lighting fixtures and low-flow plumbing fixtures throughout, while low-E coating double glazing reduces solar gain and energy loss in all new windows.

In addition, operable windows provide user-controlled natural ventilation and limit mechanical cooling to large gathering spaces to reduce energy consumption.

Project: The Hamelin School
Architect: Mark Cavagnero Associates
Design Team: Mark Cavagnero, Felicia Dunham, Anna de Anguera, Christopher Agosta and Tammy LePham
Project Manager: Pacific Union Development Company, Inc.
Client: The Hamlin School
Photographers: Mike Kelley

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