California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

Without directly addressing the potential fine, GM CEO Mary Barra said Monday that the October crash has helped the automaker learn more about the need for transparency and a better relationship with regulators.

“We’re very focused on righting the ship here because this is technology that can make the way we move from point A to point B safer,” Barra told a gathering of automotive media.

Barra also pointed to the overhaul of Cruise’s management that included a reorganization of its government-relations and legal teams as signs of progress. “We think we can do things more effectively,” she said.

Cruise issued its own statement pledging to respond “in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission’s concerns. The company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet (6 meters) at a speed of seven miles per hour before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

The documents allege Cruise’s concealment started with an Oct. 3 phone call to a regulatory analyst who was told the robotaxi had come to an immediate stop upon impact with the pedestrian without mentioning the vehicle actually drove another 20 feet with the injured person still pinned down.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

42 mins ago

FILE – Associated Press reporter Michael Liedtke sits in the back of a Cruise driverless taxi that picked him up in San Francisco’s Mission District, Feb. 15, 2023. The California regulator that approved the expansion of the Cruise robotaxi fleet owned by automaker General Motors is now threatening to fine the driverless service for covering up the severity of an accident that triggered the suspension of its California license. The potential penalty could be in the range of $1.5 million, based on documents filed Friday, Dec. 1, by the California Public Utilities Commission. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)

California regulators say a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent the suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the Public Utilities Commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

“Cruise is committed to rebuilding trust with our regulators and will respond in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission, the company said in a Monday statement. The San Francisco-based company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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“Urban doom loop.” “Office real estate apocalypse.” Today, anyone who reads business news has seen dire predictions for America’s downtown commercial towers, which emptied out when the coronavirus arrived and remain under-occupied three and a half years later. Most coverage centers on the most expensive big cities, such as New York.

But the focus on glittering superstar cities is misguided, because many more fragile downtowns—the likes of Dayton, Ohio; Birmingham, Alabama; and St. Louis—entered the pandemic with little margin for failure. Even Minneapolis, with a strong overall labor market, faced a high office-vacancy rate in 2019. Still more commercial space emptied out during the pandemic, and foot traffic downtown has waned. “It’s spooky,” one retail clerk told The Wall Street Journal.

To be sure, Manhattan office investors and their lenders certainly have plenty to lose, because participating in that market was so expensive to begin with. According to the 2023 outlook from the commercial-real-estate company Colliers International, asking rents for downtown Class A office space in Manhattan are $81 a square foot per year, down slightly from $85 the year before the pandemic. Current rents for comparable space in San Francisco ($79) and Boston ($72) also dwarf the rents typical in boomtowns such as Atlanta ($38), Denver ($39), and Dallas ($31). The rents in some of the priciest markets have started to come down—notably in San Francisco, where Class A rents, according to Colliers, hit $105 in 2019—but are still nowhere close to Sun Belt levels.

Dror Poleg: The next crisis will start with empty office buildings

Class A refers to a city’s most attractive buildings—typically recently constructed towers in desirable locations. If rents for such buildings in Manhattan must drop by half to return to normal occupancy, landlords will lose a lot of money. Some major real-estate investors in New York are halting debt payments for certain properties and giving up control to their lenders. The shift in the market could cost New York City 3 to 6 percent of its tax revenue, by some estimates. But the city will still be the world’s financial capital; a tech hub; the headquarters of a slew of major corporations; a home to major educational, medical, and cultural institutions—all of which generates demand for office space even in the remote-work era. New York, in other words, will be fine.

By contrast, if office rents in the Rust Belt or the Mississippi River Valley drop by anything close to half, downtowns in those regions face abandonment—not only by white-collar businesses and the shops and restaurants that once served their employees but also by the owners of entire buildings. In a city such as Dayton—which, according to Colliers, has downtown Class A rents of $18 a square foot per month and had a vacancy rate of more than 25 percent even before the pandemic—rents can’t fall far while still yielding enough money to pay taxes and operating costs. Class A rents are comparably low in Memphis, Tennessee ($20); St. Louis ($20); Albuquerque, New Mexico ($23); Cleveland and Akron, Ohio ($23); and Birmingham ($23). St. Louis and Albuquerque also had pre-pandemic vacancy rates hovering around 20 percent or higher. Many cities, including Dayton, are working—with some success—to repurpose their downtown with new condos and apartments, restaurants, and entertainment venues. But how quickly struggling central business districts can replace what used to be their core economic activity is an open question. In the meantime, a lender who seizes a commercial building in so weak a market may turn around and surrender the property to the city rather than run up bills while awaiting a buyer.

That is what an actual public-policy crisis looks like: Think of Detroit, Buffalo, or Flint, Michigan—places where, over the past several decades, owners simply stopped paying property taxes and let the government take over. Many abandoned buildings were demolished for surface parking or left vacant altogether, in some cases prompting major publicly funded demolition campaigns that continue today.

When downtown commercial rents are high, it’s partly because the downtowns themselves are desirable places to work—and partly because the supply of office space is limited. New York, Boston, San Francisco, and other cities that are notorious for limiting housing construction also constrain the supply of commercial real estate. The high cost of building in some cities also helps explain high rents, but only up to a point. Indeed the New York Building Congress found that office-construction costs are 15 to 50 percent higher in New York than in most other major U.S. cities. This might justify rents that are persistently 15 to 50 percent higher, but the artificial scarcity is the primary explanation for why, before the pandemic, Class A rents in Manhattan were 74 percent higher than in Chicago and 82 percent higher than in Los Angeles.

For all the hand-wringing about New York, a major rent drop could end up being good for business. Brad Hargreaves, a New York–based entrepreneur, told me on Twitter (now X) earlier this year that his education start-up, General Assembly, rented a “beautiful” space for $29 per square foot in 2010. “In 2018–19 they were charging upwards of $75psf,” he wrote. “We never would’ve started GA if we had faced those rents on Day 1.” Acknowledging this threat to the city’s competitiveness, Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio broke from anti-growth norms by rezoning areas such as Hudson Yards and East Midtown to permit more office space. Bloomberg’s “upzoning” of Hudson Yards alone legalized 28 million square feet of potential office construction—more than all of the office space of Portland, Oregon.

Not least because of that easing of regulations, Manhattan still has more than 11 million square feet of downtown office supply under construction, Colliers reported earlier this year. That’s about four Empire State Buildings. It’s nearly as much downtown office space under construction as in the entire South—which includes Atlanta, Houston, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, and a dozen other cities. Even if the pandemic had never brought about an exodus from white-collar workplaces, the addition of so much new commercial space in New York would have forced the owners of existing office buildings to hold down or even cut rents. The new space, combined with the remote- and hybrid-work shocks to office demand, may foretell a Houston-like abundance of office space—which means that Manhattan office rents might conceivably fall to a Houston-like $40 to $50 a square foot.

If you own a dilapidated, highly leveraged building in Manhattan, you may lose it to the bank. But then the bank will auction it to a new owner, who might cut the rent by double digits or convert the property to another use to fill it back up. Nobody should even start to worry about a Dayton-style abandonment of Manhattan until its office rents fall below Houston’s or Atlanta’s. No foreclosing lender will simply abandon a tower that can still collect Sun Belt Class A rents.

The expensive superstar cities enjoy an advantage accidentally created by bad, anti-growth choices before the pandemic. Like nature, markets abhor a vacuum—and if office rents eventually fall far enough below residential rents, developers in cities starved for housing will find a way to take advantage.

Skinny buildings with lots of windows can easily be turned into apartments, particularly if their current zoning accommodates multifamily residential. But few office towers fit those criteria. In harder cases, extensive and expensive renovations, which in some cases may involve cutting huge lighting and ventilation areas dozens of stories deep, can produce high-end residential units. Cities could also change their building and zoning codes to allow dormitories and rooming houses with shared dorm-style kitchens and bathrooms that wouldn’t require threading in new vertical plumbing stacks for every unit.

Tracy Hadden Loh: Downtown needs to change to survive

Were New York and San Francisco farsighted in creating housing shortages and a “safety buffer” of priced-out people waiting to move in? Certainly not. Nevertheless, they do today in fact have hundreds of thousands of people ready to move in if they loosen their land-use regulations. The waitlist is shorter than in 2019, but NYC alone is still at least 300,000 homes short of demand.

If office rents really plunge, one last option comes into play: Desperate landlords will start renting out gray-market “artist studios” and not checking too carefully to find out whether people are staying overnight. Are unrenovated Class C office-building interiors ideal places to live? Not really. But neither are the large-floorplate 19th-century factories that have long supplied New York’s famous artist lofts. Impractical floor plans and bad plumbing didn’t stop artists from seeking big, cheap, gray-market factory loft studios when Manhattan began deindustrializing in the 1960s. It wasn’t just the 1960s, either; New York regularly updates the Loft Law to catch up with ongoing illegal factory and office loft conversions in the outer boroughs (and last did so in 2019). Although 1970s office buildings aren’t as pretty as lofts in 1870s factories, they’re also safer to live in.

New York and a few other cities have the easy option of changing the rules—or just looking the other way—as underused office buildings turn into apartments. But this alternative isn’t available to cities with more reasonable housing costs and fewer desperate tenants. Not many New Yorkers will shed tears for the incumbent landlords of Manhattan, whose supply-side comeuppance is long deserved, and an “office apocalypse” that lowers rents for start-ups and opens up space for artists could even make the city more vibrant. Instead, national policy makers and urbanists should be worrying about the already-cheap downtowns of cities that cannot survive any more rent cuts.

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Humboldt Bay Social Club is located on a former World War II airship base in Samoa.

Humboldt Bay Social Club

Nothing shakes off the winter blah like a spring escape. Being able to get away and catch your breath can do wonders for the body and mind; you might even make a memorable discovery or find an unusual place to lay your head.

From treehouses and lighthouses to trains and water towers, there’s a wealth of unique Northern California accommodations—all just a few minutes’ drive from the East Bay.

East Brother Light Station, Richmond

Richmond’s East Brother Light Station overlooks San Pablo Bay.

Frank Schulenburg

Perched on an 3/4 acre rocky island in a strait between San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, this Victorian Inn offers a leisurely taste of what it might have been like to be a lighthouse keeper. Built in 1873, the alluring property features five bedrooms; four are in the historic lighthouse itself, while a smaller room is in the fog signal building. Worth knowing: Some rooms share a bathroom, and guests staying only one night cannot shower. (The property has no fresh water lines from the mainland; on-site rainwater collection is used to meet a variety of needs, so water conservation is a must.) There’s no Wi-Fi on the island and cellular service is unreliable. So plan to be happily separated.

Two innkeepers handle everything at the East Brother Light Station – from providing the five-minute boat ride to and from the island and the tour of the lighthouse to preparing meals and cleaning the rooms. Proceeds from the bed and breakfast fund the property’s ongoing restoration and maintenance costs.

Not sure if you’re ready to spend the night? Groups of 7 to 12 can book day trips with boat transport and a guided tour of the lighthouse on selected Saturdays during the summer.

Eagle’s Nest Treehouse Farmstay at Salmon Creek Ranch, Bodega Bay

A stay at Salmon Creek Ranch in Bodega Bay comes with an air of glamor unique to Sonoma County Wine Country. Take a spiral staircase up to a treehouse—far beyond what you dreamed of as a child—tucked between two trees that tower over this 400-acre private ranch. The overnight experience includes a cozy queen-size bed and modern comforts such as electricity, heating, a coffee maker and a full bathroom with a double-walled shower that allows for spectacular forest views during your ablutions.

The ranch’s permanent residents include cows, goats, ducks and half a dozen working Anatolian sheepdogs; Guests are welcome to observe and in some cases even participate in farm activities such as egg collection. Forest trails that run through the ranch provide hiking enthusiasts with endless hours of enjoyment and offer views of Salmon Creek and, on a clear day, the Pacific Ocean.

Napa Valley Railway Inn, Youngville

Enjoy a piece of living history at the Napa Valley Railway Inn in Yountville.

John Sutton

Railroad lovers will find this inn a dream come true as guests stay in historic railroad cars in the heart of Napa Valley. More than 40 years ago, six railcars and three cabooses made their final stop on the Napa Valley Railroad Company’s original tracks in Yountville, after serving stations throughout the west. (Visit the neighboring one cornerstone basement tasting room, and you can peek through the train station’s old ticket window while sipping a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.)

Alongside modern conveniences like flat-screen TVs and WiFi, each car elegantly conceals a fascinating story. You would never know that No. 4 once transported cattle, and a standout white caboose is now home to the model bakery, whose English muffins have been on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list several times.

The property is located on Washington Street, Yountville’s main thoroughfare, and is within walking distance to numerous wine tasting rooms and restaurants.

JD House, Mendocino

The charming water tower at JD House in Mendocino.

Four Sisters Inns

Water towers dot the skyline of the sleepy village of Mendocino; Years ago they provided water for the townspeople, but these days they are finding new life.

The centuries-old beauty at JD House now offers a charming place for a good night’s sleep. Built in 1922, the transformation of the water tower makes it hard to believe its original purpose. Light and airy with a nautical theme, a comfortable queen bed and a gas fireplace, the inn – part of the Four Sisters Collection – is a cozy place to spend the night. And when you wake up, it’s all too tempting to linger as breakfast is delivered to your door. (A stay here also includes a daily wine and cheese hour and freshly baked cookies.)

Located a few blocks off Main Street, the Water Tower is an easy walk to almost everything, including Mendocino Headlands State Park and popular restaurants like Trillium Cafe and vegetarian Mist Eater Cafe.

Humboldt Bay Social Club, Samoa

Built as an airship base during World War II, Samoa Field is now home to a tiny but still active airstrip and the Humboldt Bay Social Club.

The former officers’ quarters have now become four rustic-chic guest rooms. This Humboldt County boutique hotel is about a five-minute walk from Oyster Beach, where you can walk, swim, or soak in two Instagram-inspired open-air bathtubs. (Four cabins on Oyster Beach are also available for week-long stays.)

Many guests spend their days hiking in the shade of majestic trees (Samoa Field is less than an hour away Redwood National and State Parks), but those looking to stay on-site will find an outdoor area with lawn games, fire pits, and charcoal grills ideal for grilling oysters and the selection of other supplies available on the property.

Too much work? samoa cookhouse, which opened in 1893 is just a few miles down the road. The logging crews that once filled the dining room may be long gone, but breakfast, lunch, and dinner are still all-you-can-eat and served family-style.

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• San Francisco Bay Area residents were banned from using wood fires
• The mandate began on December 22nd and will last until Christmas Day
• First time offenders will be fined $100, repeat offenders up to $500
• The city’s priorities have been called into question as rampant drug use continues

For San Francisco Bay Area residents hoping to stay warm and cozy in front of their fireplaces this cold, rainy Christmas, authorities have reminded them that burning wood is prohibited.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a spare-the-air alert from Dec. 22 through Christmas Day, banning the burning of wood, processed logs, or other solid fuels in both indoor and outdoor locations.

The mandate, which stipulates that those who break the rule be fined $100 and those who commit repeated violations up to $500, hopes it reduces the risk of respiratory illnesses linked to cancers Substances reduced by fine dust pollution from wood smoke.

But questions remain as to why authorities have turned their attention to the festive fun while rampant drug use continues to plague the streets and thousands roam the city openly smoking crack and meth.

San Francisco Bay Area residents have been banned from using wood fires — the city’s priorities have been called into question as drug use continues Air District interim executive officer Sharon Landers said the mandate is for the health of the city’s residents

“Unfortunately, the weather conditions are causing significant smoke buildup across the region, which is expected to result in unhealthy air quality during the Christmas holiday,” said Sharon Landers, the Air District’s interim executive officer.

“It’s important that we stop burning wood to reduce air pollution so all Bay Area residents can enjoy a healthier and happier holiday weekend.”

These conditions are not new, earlier this week an ugly brownish haze blanketed the Bay Area creating “nasty looking” conditions, SFGATE reported.

On December 22, air pollution was moderate in San Francisco, but reached unhealthy levels in Oakland.

Air District spokeswoman Tina Landis said fireplaces and wood stoves in residential homes were the primary culprit.

“In the winter, wood burning is actually the number one source of pollution, which is kind of shocking, but there are 1.7 million fireplaces in the Bay Area,” she told the outlet.

Cold evening temperatures combined with everyone being home for the holidays means more people are gathering around the fire.

“People tend to burn more,” she said, adding that low, light winds and the pollution blowing from the Central Valley also contribute to the problem.

Landis said the air pollution was so bad it blocked her view of San Francisco’s Mission District. “I can hardly see downtown. It’s so blurry,’ she said.

But while the city has banned the use of log fires at Christmas, authorities seem to have hinted at a tougher crackdown on drug use.

One ex-addict said that “overt drug use has been normalized” in San Francisco. The city planned to build 12 new drug consumption sites, or “wellness centers” — but those plans were stalled due to legal and logistical problems. Drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the Department of Health and Human Services said the Justice Department “has yet to formulate a way forward.” .

San Francisco is run by a leadership enthused by its progressive, humanitarian ethos that the idea of ​​enforcing laws, even those that save lives, like controlling the sale and use of drugs, is seen as reactionary and lackluster.

“Overt drug use has normalized to the point where there are blocks where the entire sidewalk is filled with people passing out or getting high,” said Kevin Lee, a San Francisco resident who is himself in recovery. the New York Post in October.

“There is not enough emphasis on providing access to treatment.”

The city planned to create 12 new drug consumption sites, or “wellness centers,” where people can use drugs under the supervision of trained staff.

Plans to open those centers by June next year have stalled due to legal and logistical issues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Department of Health said in a statement earlier this month that opening 12 hubs is no longer accurate and the timing and certainty of opening a site are unclear.

“The city has no plans to open 12 new drug consumption facilities,” the statement said.

“Proposals are developed and revised based on a number of factors, including legal obstacles at the state and national levels.”

The ministry’s overdose prevention plan released in September said the city would build at least two wellness centers in one to two years and more within three to four years.

The health department previously said some hubs would likely allow drug use and offer overdose prevention services, and does not dispute that this is still the expectation.

However, the department cited “multiple legal roadblocks at the local, state and national levels” and did not commit to a timeline for opening a hub in its statement.

Air District spokeswoman Tina Landis said that residential fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are the primary contributors to the city’s air pollution since they are established

Regulated drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the Department of Health and Human Services said the Justice Department “has yet to formulate a way forward” on how they will treat regulated consumption sites.

Its botched predecessor, intended to put addicts in touch with rehab facilities but revealed by DailyMail.com as a secret illegal drug use website, has since been shut down.

The Tenderloin Center was opened by San Francisco Mayor London Breed earlier this year to help deal with the city’s ongoing drug crisis, and it cost about $22 million to operate.

The site has often been called a “safe place” for addicts to “get high without getting robbed,” according to a person who used the center.

In the first four months of the center’s opening, only 18 of the more than 23,000 people it welcomed on the site are said to be referred.

Overall, less than one percent of visits ended with a “completed connection” to behavioral health programs.

City leaders, including Breed, now say the site was a “temporary solution” offered to avoid the more than 640 overdose deaths San Francisco experienced in 2021.

Despite their best efforts, 2022 has been almost as deadly as more than 500 people have died from drug overdoses in the California city. In 2021 there were 641.

Officials had also hoped the site would provide a place to deal with the homeless crisis the city has faced in recent months and years.

By some estimates, hundreds of people visited the Tenderloin Center while it was open, and more than 350 drug overdoses were reversed on the spot.

Mayor Breed originally committed just $10 million to the project, but it quickly rose to more than double that estimate.

In total, about 400 people were being assisted daily, according to the San Francisco Department of Health.

However, a large proportion of those who used the site used it specifically for shelter or food.

Earlier this year, Gina McDonald of Mothers Against Drug Deaths (MADD) wrote an op-ed for DailyMail.com, describing the site as “dystopian”.

“The Linkage Center was never intended to be a place where people could do drugs, but that’s exactly what happened,” said the mother, whose own daughter once became a heroin addict.

In October, Breed signaled a reversal in her approach to the city’s rampant drug use by retracing some of her “soft” ways.

Launched by the mayor and city officials, the website was designed to provide addicts with a place where they could safely take drugs without fear of death.

However, some have said it has quickly become places where people can take drugs “without anyone going to jail”.

The post San Francisco air air pollution tremendous for anybody who lights a hearth of their residence or open air appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

For residents of the San Francisco Bay Area hoping to stay warm and cozy in front of their fireplaces this chilly rain filled Christmas, authorities have reminded them that wood burning is prohibited.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a Spare the Air Alert from Dec 22 to Christmas Day, banning burning wood, manufactured logs, or any other solid fuel both indoors and outdoors.

The mandate, which sees those who violate the rule receiving a $100 fine and those who repeat offend up to $500, hope it will reduce the risk of carcinogenic substance related respiratory illnesses from fine particulate pollution which comes from wood smoke.

But questions remain, why authorities have focused their attention on festive fun as rampant drug use continues to plague the streets with thousands roaming the city openly smoking crack and meth.

San Francisco Bay Area residents have been banned from using wood fires – the city’s priorities were called into question as rampant drug use continues

Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the Air District said the mandate was for the health of residents in the city

‘Unfortunately, weather conditions are leading to significant smoke pollution build-up throughout the region that is expected to cause unhealthy air quality through the Christmas holiday,’ said Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the Air District.

‘It’s vital that we refrain from burning wood to reduce air pollution so all Bay Area residents can enjoy a healthier, happier holiday weekend.’

These conditions are not new, earlier this week, an ugly, brownish haze blanketed the Bay Area, creating ‘gross-looking’ conditions, SFGATE reported.

As of Dec 22, the air pollution level in San Francisco was moderate but in Oakland reached unhealthy levels.

Air district spokesperson Tina Landis said that fireplaces and wood stoves from residences are mostly to blame.

‘In the wintertime, wood burning is actually the number one source of pollution, which is kind of shocking, but there are 1.7 million fireplaces in the Bay Area,’ she told the outlet.

Cold evening temperatures, combined with everyone home for the holidays, leads to more people gathering around the fire.

‘People tend to burn more,’ she said, adding that low, light winds and pollution wafting from the Central Valley also contribute to the problem.

Landis said that the air pollution is so bad, it’s obscuring her view from San Francisco’s Mission District. ‘I can barely see downtown. It’s so hazy,’ she said.

But while the city has banned the use of log fires this Christmas, a stricter crackdown on drug use appears to have alluded authorities.

One ex-addict said that in San Francisco that ‘open drug use has been normalized’ in the city

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness hubs’ – but those plans have been stalled due to legal and logistical issues

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Department of Justice ‘has yet to articulate a path forward’

San Francisco is governed by a leadership enamored by its progressive, humanitarian self-image that the idea of ​​enforcing laws, even ones that save people’s lives like controlling drug sales and consumption, has come to be regarded as reactionary and lack luster.

‘Open drug use has been normalized to the point there are blocks where the entire sidewalk is filled with people passed out or getting high,’ Kevin Lee, a San Francisco resident who is in recovery himself told the New York Post in October.

‘There is not enough emphasis on creating access to treatment.’

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness hubs’ where people can use drugs under the supervision of trained staff.

Plans to open these hubs by June next year have now stalled according to the San Francisco Chronicle because of legal and logistical issues.

The health department said in a statement earlier this month that opening 12 hubs is no longer accurate, and the timeline and certainty of opening any site is unclear.

‘The city is not planning to open 12 new drug consumption sites,’ the statement read.

‘Proposals evolve and are revised based on a number of factors, including legal barriers at the state and national level.’

The department’s published overdose prevention plan in September said the city would establish at least two wellness hubs in one to two years, and more within three to four years.

The health department previously said some hubs would likely allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and isn’t refuting that’s still the expectation.

But the department cited ‘multiple legal barriers at the local, state, and national level’ and did not commit to a timeline in its statement for opening any hub.

Air district spokesperson Tina Landis said that fireplaces and wood stoves from residences are mostly to blame for air pollution in the city

The health department said some hubs would likely allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and isn’t refuting that’s still the expectation – if they are established

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Department of Justice ‘has yet to articulate a path forward’ about how they will treat supervised consumption sites.

Its bungled predecessor, which was supposed to put addicts in touch with rehab facilities, but was revealed by DailyMail.com to operating as a secret illegal drug use site has since closed.

The Tenderloin Center was opened by San Francisco Mayor London Breed at the beginning of the year to tackle the city’s ongoing drug crisis and cost about $22million to operate.

The site was often referred to as a ‘safe place’ for addicts to ‘get high without getting robbed,’ according to one person who used the center.

In the first four months of the center’s opening, was said to only refer 18 people of the more than 23,000 it welcomed into the site.

Overall less than one per cent of visits ended in a ‘completed linkage’ to behavioral health programs.

City leaders, including Breed, now say the site was a ‘temporary solution’ offered up as a way to avoid the more than 640 overdose deaths San Francisco saw in 2021.

Despite their efforts, 2022 has been nearly just as deadly as more than 500 people have died from overdoses throughout the California city. In 2021, there were 641.

Officials had also hoped the site would offer a place to deal with the homeless crisis the city has faced in recent months and years.

Some estimates indicate that hundreds of people visited the Tenderloin Center while it was open, and more than 350 overdoses were reversed at the location.

Mayor Breed had originally allotted just $10 million for the project but it quickly ballooned to more than double that estimate.

In total, some 400 individuals were provided with assistance each day, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

A large portion of those who took advantage of the site used it specifically for shelter or food, though.

Earlier this year, Gina McDonald with Mothers Against Drug Deaths (MADD) wrote an op-ed for DailyMail.com in which she described the site as ‘dystopian.’

‘The linkage center was never intended to be a place where people could come to do drugs, but that is exactly what has happened,’ the mother whose own daughter had become addicted to heroin at one point.

In October, Breed signaled a U-turn in her approach to the city’s rampant drug use by backtracking on some of her ‘soft touch’ ways.

The site introduced by the mayor and city officials were pitched as a way to provide those battling addiction a place to safely engage in drug activity without fear of dying.

Some have said however that it quickly turned into spots where people are able to take drugs ‘without anyone going to jail.’

The post San Francisco air air pollution tremendous for anybody who lights a hearth of their house or outside appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

For residents of the San Francisco Bay Area hoping to stay warm and cozy in front of their fireplaces this chilly rain filled Christmas, authorities have reminded them that wood burning is prohibited.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a Spare the Air Alert from Dec 22 to Christmas Day, banning burning wood, manufactured logs, or any other solid fuel both indoors and outdoors.

The mandate, which sees those who violate the rule receiving a $100 fine and those who repeat offend up to $500, hope it will reduce the risk of carcinogenic substance related respiratory illnesses from fine particulate pollution which comes from wood smoke.

But questions remain, why authorities have focused their attention on festive fun as rampant drug use continues to plague the streets with thousands roaming the city openly smoking crack and meth.

San Francisco Bay Area residents have been banned from using wood fires – the city’s priorities were called into question as rampant drug use continues

Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the Air District said the mandate was for the health of residents in the city

‘Unfortunately, weather conditions are leading to significant smoke pollution build-up throughout the region that is expected to cause unhealthy air quality through the Christmas holiday,’ said Sharon Landers, interim executive officer of the Air District.

‘It’s vital that we refrain from burning wood to reduce air pollution so all Bay Area residents can enjoy a healthier, happier holiday weekend.’

These conditions are not new, earlier this week, an ugly, brownish haze blanketed the Bay Area, creating ‘gross-looking’ conditions, SFGATE reported.

As of Dec 22, the air pollution level in San Francisco was moderate but in Oakland reached unhealthy levels.

Air district spokesperson Tina Landis said that fireplaces and wood stoves from residences are mostly to blame.

‘In the wintertime, wood burning is actually the number one source of pollution, which is kind of shocking, but there are 1.7 million fireplaces in the Bay Area,’ she told the outlet.

Cold evening temperatures, combined with everyone home for the holidays, leads to more people gathering around the fire.

‘People tend to burn more,’ she said, adding that low, light winds and pollution wafting from the Central Valley also contribute to the problem.

Landis said that the air pollution is so bad, it’s obscuring her view from San Francisco’s Mission District. ‘I can barely see downtown. It’s so hazy,’ she said.

But while the city has banned the use of log fires this Christmas, a stricter crackdown on drug use appears to have alluded authorities.

One ex-addict said that in San Francisco that ‘open drug use has been normalized’ in the city

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness hubs’ – but those plans have been stalled due to legal and logistical issues

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Department of Justice ‘has yet to articulate a path forward’

San Francisco is governed by a leadership enamored by its progressive, humanitarian self-image that the idea of ​​enforcing laws, even ones that save people’s lives like controlling drug sales and consumption, has come to be regarded as reactionary and lack luster.

‘Open drug use has been normalized to the point there are blocks where the entire sidewalk is filled with people passed out or getting high,’ Kevin Lee, a San Francisco resident who is in recovery himself told the New York Post in October.

‘There is not enough emphasis on creating access to treatment.’

The city planned to establish 12 new drug consumption sites or ‘wellness hubs’ where people can use drugs under the supervision of trained staff.

Plans to open these hubs by June next year have now stalled according to the San Francisco Chronicle because of legal and logistical issues.

The health department said in a statement earlier this month that opening 12 hubs is no longer accurate, and the timeline and certainty of opening any site is unclear.

‘The city is not planning to open 12 new drug consumption sites,’ the statement read.

‘Proposals evolve and are revised based on a number of factors, including legal barriers at the state and national level.’

The department’s published overdose prevention plan in September said the city would establish at least two wellness hubs in one to two years, and more within three to four years.

The health department previously said some hubs would likely allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and isn’t refuting that’s still the expectation.

But the department cited ‘multiple legal barriers at the local, state, and national level’ and did not commit to a timeline in its statement for opening any hub.

Air district spokesperson Tina Landis said that fireplaces and wood stoves from residences are mostly to blame for air pollution in the city

The health department said some hubs would likely allow drug use and provide overdose prevention services and isn’t refuting that’s still the expectation – if they are established

Supervised drug consumption sites remain illegal under federal law, and the health department said the Department of Justice ‘has yet to articulate a path forward’ about how they will treat supervised consumption sites.

Its bungled predecessor, which was supposed to put addicts in touch with rehab facilities, but was revealed by DailyMail.com to operating as a secret illegal drug use site has since closed.

The Tenderloin Center was opened by San Francisco Mayor London Breed at the beginning of the year to tackle the city’s ongoing drug crisis and cost about $22million to operate.

The site was often referred to as a ‘safe place’ for addicts to ‘get high without getting robbed,’ according to one person who used the center.

In the first four months of the center’s opening, was said to only refer 18 people of the more than 23,000 it welcomed into the site.

Overall less than one per cent of visits ended in a ‘completed linkage’ to behavioral health programs.

City leaders, including Breed, now say the site was a ‘temporary solution’ offered up as a way to avoid the more than 640 overdose deaths San Francisco saw in 2021.

Despite their efforts, 2022 has been nearly just as deadly as more than 500 people have died from overdoses throughout the California city. In 2021, there were 641.

Officials had also hoped the site would offer a place to deal with the homeless crisis the city has faced in recent months and years.

Some estimates indicate that hundreds of people visited the Tenderloin Center while it was open, and more than 350 overdoses were reversed at the location.

Mayor Breed had originally allotted just $10 million for the project but it quickly ballooned to more than double that estimate.

In total, some 400 individuals were provided with assistance each day, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

A large portion of those who took advantage of the site used it specifically for shelter or food, though.

Earlier this year, Gina McDonald with Mothers Against Drug Deaths (MADD) wrote an op-ed for DailyMail.com in which she described the site as ‘dystopian.’

‘The linkage center was never intended to be a place where people could come to do drugs, but that is exactly what has happened,’ the mother whose own daughter had become addicted to heroin at one point.

In October, Breed signaled a U-turn in her approach to the city’s rampant drug use by backtracking on some of her ‘soft touch’ ways.

The site introduced by the mayor and city officials were pitched as a way to provide those battling addiction a place to safely engage in drug activity without fear of dying.

Some have said however that it quickly turned into spots where people are able to take drugs ‘without anyone going to jail.’

The post San Francisco air air pollution superb for anybody who lights a hearth of their residence or outside appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It seemed so unfair. They’d been using their carpad for decades – when suddenly the city said it’s illegal. Not only that, they were threatened with a $1,500 fine – a huge penalty even for San Francisco. The only way out? Go back into San Francisco history.

UPDATE: How an Army aerial photo expert helped SF couple park in driveway again after threat of $1.5K fine

Parking in San Francisco is a difficult part of life here. You find a spot… but get a ticket anyway.

For Judy and Ed Craine it seems especially unfair.

“We always use the carport,” said Judy.

RELATED: SF mom of 3 fears losing car to parking tickets as Mission Bay residents urge SFMTA to change rules

“Parked in that driveway every day and every night,” confirmed Ed.

They live on a steep hill where parking can be a gravity-defying challenge.

But they could slip into their driveway and park on their carpad, which they’d been doing every day for the past 36 years.

But not anymore.

“We got this email saying we can’t park in the pad anymore. I said what, that’s crazy,” recounted Ed.

RELATED: Bay Area man can’t stop unwanted Amazon packages from coming in ‘brushing scam’

Out of the blue, the couple got a ticket for parking in their own driveway.

“It was very surprising, to say the least,” said Judy.

And worse? It came with an enormous fine: $1,542 dollars, plus another $250 per day if they didn’t get the car off their carpad.

“I wrote them back saying I thought this was a mistake,” Judy said.

But it was no mistake. And no ordinary parking ticket. It came from the city planning department, telling them it’s illegal to park in the front of a house.

RELATED: Are gas stations, oil companies price gouging you? Here’s what experts say

“And if we were found parking there again, it would be a $1,500 fine,” Judy said.

And so they quickly pulled the car out — but none of it made sense.

“Why are you taking away something that has great utility?” asked Ed.

Ed and Judy had been parking there for nearly four decades. And as far as they could tell, the space was used for parking since the house was built back in 1910 – one of the first in their Noe Valley neighborhood.

“To all of a sudden to be told you can’t use something that we could use for years. It’s, it’s startling. Inexplicable,” Ed said.

RELATED: Testing SF’s new BottleBank mobile recycling service reveals delayed payments, location scarcity

And so the Planning Department gave them a challenge: prove that parking was a historic use on the lot, and they might get a waiver.

“We could be grandfathered in. If we show them a historical photo that showed a car… or a horse-drawn buggy in the carport,” said Judy.

Right away they dug up a photo of their daughter 34 years ago – a part of the car barely visible.

But officials said: not old enough.

“I did a number of online searches,” said Ed.

And so they combed through hundreds of historic photos.

Plenty showed the early days, when there were few streets or homes.

RELATED: Bay Area woman ticketed for using FasTrak lane when she didn’t; still had to pay fine

“Our house and our neighbor’s house had empty fields all around,” Ed said.

But to find a photo of a car or horse in their particular driveway, back before the days of iPhone cameras?

Nearly impossible.

And then, bingo.

“To me, it’s pretty compelling that was a car,” Ed said.

An aerial photo from 1938 shows their exact home – and Ed is sure he can see a car – or horse-and-buggy — pulling into his driveway!

“So this little black blob looks like it’s pulling into our house,” Ed said.

It looks like just a blob from above. But Ed says it must be a car — like all the other blobs you can see along the road.

“I don’t know what else they would be,” he said. “To me, it’s pretty compelling that that was a car pulling in or out of the parking pad.”

They rushed the photo to the Planning Department – the proof they need!

RELATED: FasTrak has the wrong stationery, sends ‘toll violation’ notices instead of invoices

Right?

wrong

“They said they were too fuzzy,” Judy said.

The Planning Department said this was not clear evidence.

Officials tell 7 On Your Side the couple was violating a code section banning vehicles in a setback in front of a house, even if it isn’t blocking a sidewalk.

Though it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like many of their neighbors.

Planning Chief Dan Sider said it was enacted decades ago for aesthetic reasons, to “Ensure that front yards don’t turn into parking lots.”

Yet, it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like their neighbors,

“I don’t think our car looks any worse than all the cars stacked in front of garages,” Ed Craine said.

And why enforce the rule after all these decades?

Sider said someone made an anonymous complaint to the city. Two neighbors also got tagged for the same violation, parking in a front driveway.

In an email, Sider wrote:

“I recognize that the property owner is frustrated. I think I would feel the same way in their situation. But the Planning Code doesn’t allow for the City to grandfather illegal uses on account of their having flown below the radar for a length of times.”

And so their carport sits empty — the oil stain a testament to easier days — as they struggle to park on the hill.

“I had to use my head to keep the trunk open while getting out groceries,” Judy said.

“The onus is on us to prove we’re innocent… though I don’t feel guilty,” Judy said.

The city did close the case without charging any penalties after the couple got the car off the carpad and kept it off. And the city says they could build a covered carport or garage to park there – or maybe find that old photo.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

Have a question for Michael and the 7 On Your Side team? Fill out the form HERE!

7OYS’s consumer hotline is a free consumer mediation service for those in the San Francisco Bay Area. We assist individuals with consumer-related issues; we cannot assist on cases between businesses, or cases involving family law, criminal matters, landlord/tenant disputes, labor issues, or medical issues. Please review our FAQ here. As a part of our process in assisting you, it is necessary that we contact the company / agency you are writing about. If you do not wish us to contact them, please let us know right away, as it will affect our ability to work on your case. Due to the high volume of emails we receive, please allow 3-5 business days for a response.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post San Francisco couple instantly will get $1,500 fantastic for parking of their driveway as they’ve for 4 many years appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Viewers from all over the world responded to this San Francisco couple’s story. Many could not believe a city would threaten a huge penalty for parking in their own driveway. Many offered to help prove it was a historic use – and then – the proof they needed came from an amazing source.

“It just seems wrong.”

Judy and Ed Craine had been parking in the carpad of their San Francisco cottage for 36 years… when suddenly the Planning Department said it’s illegal.

RELATED: CA couple allowed to park in their driveway again after threatened with $1.5K fine from city

They had to remove the car or face a huge penalty: $1,542 plus $250 for every day they parked there.

“I said what, that’s crazy,” Ed said.

So they quickly pulled the car out – but it made no sense.

“Why are you taking away something that has great utility?” Ed asked. “To all of a sudden to be told you can’t use something that we could use for years. It’s, it’s startling.”

The city planning code makes it illegal to park in the setback of a home to prevent front yards from becoming unsightly parking lots.

However, if they could prove cars were parked there before the law was passed in 1978, they might get a waiver.

RELATED: Chicago makes more drivers pay speed camera, red light camera tickets gotten by thieves, they say

“We could be grandfathered in. If we show them a historical photo that showed a car… or a horse-drawn buggy in the carport,” Judy said.

“I did a number of online searches, Ed said, “checked historical resources,.”

But finding a historic photo of their exact driveway seemed impossible. Until Ed found an aerial photo from 1938. Zooming in showed their exact house. Ed saw a black shape he figured must be a car, pulling into what he figured must be the driveway.
.

“Here’s our house…” Ed said. “This black blob looks like it’s pulling into our house… to me it’s very compelling that was a car.”

But city planners said the photo was too fuzzy – not clear evidence.

However, after ABC 7 aired the story, the couple was flooded with offers of help (as well as commentary about way-out San Francisco).

And then, a gift from the sky.

“I happened to be watching Channel Seven, Michael Finney, and I saw this couple who was in a really tough spot…” said David Rui. He manages the aerial photo collection at Pacific Aerial Surveys of Novato in Marin County, which has millions of photos from its flights across the Bay Area dating all the way back to 1928. Ruiz saw our story and knew he could help Ed and Judy.

“I just simply went through our flight database and found numerous flights and was able to pull out some photography,” he said.

Ruiz used mapping coordinates to locate their house among maps in the company database. He found two aerial photos of what appears to be a car in their driveway; the clearest was a photo from 1958.

Ruiz said the company flew over most of the Bay Area once every three years including this neighborhood. “The question is, is there a car in the driveway at the moment we fly over,” Ruiz said. Most people were at work with their cars when Pacific Aerial Services was flying overhead, reducing the chances of catching a car in the driveway .

He did find two of them — 1958 and 1955. .

“So April 23, 1958,” Ruiz said, pointing to an aerial photo taken with a film camera in a plane flying 6000 feet overhead. Ruiz said he’s able to enhance the photos with 3-D imagery and other tools. He’s trained to look for indicators it’s a real vehicle, such as shadows, context and dimension.

“And here’s the house in question, And right here is a nice car, parked right there.”

He pointed to an image that looked like it could be a 1950s automobile. it was a snapshot in time, a view that went back in time. The viewer is transported to that moment in that time. “It definitely looks like a nice big American sedan, doesn’t it?” Ruiz said.

“This is all film-based. We had a plane flying overhead, it’s flying at 6,000 feet, took this wonderful photo that you can enlarge,” he said.

It is crystal clear to Ruiz – as it just so happens Ruiz is an expert trained during his Army career to analyze aerial images – especially cars.

“As an imagery analyst from the Army, one of my specialties is identifying vehicles,” he said.

And so the black blob Ed Craine found? The planning department wouldn’t accept it. But Ruiz says that blob was, indeed, a car.

He showed 7 On Your Side a clearer copy of that photo.

“It verifies that this is a vehicle, that there’s height… so I told them that there’s no doubt in my mind as an expert that this is a vehicle and if they needed me to, to write a report or testify to that I could do that,” Ruiz said.

The Craines showed the city that 1958 photo.

And it did the trick.

The city said it is now a legal parking space — grandfathered in.

Ed and Judy, who didn’t want to go on camera, said: “We are delighted we are able to park in our driveway again.”

Thanks in large part to David Ruiz.

“I’m glad it helped them out. They seemed like wonderful people that were just in a tough spot,” he said.

Major help also came from a neighbor who rummaged through old boxes and found a 1972 photo showing a car in their driveway. Others in the neighborhood also got violation notices for parking in their driveways. All came from anonymous complaints. If that’s you, let 7 On Your Side know about it.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

Have a question for Michael and the 7 On Your Side team? Fill out the form HERE!
7OYS’s consumer hotline is a free consumer mediation service for those in the San Francisco Bay Area. We assist individuals with consumer-related issues; we cannot assist on cases between businesses, or cases involving family law, criminal matters, landlord/tenant disputes, labor issues, or medical issues. Please review our FAQ here. As a part of our process in assisting you, it is necessary that we contact the company / agency you are writing about. If you do not wish us to contact them, please let us know right away, as it will affect our ability to work on your case. Due to the high volume of emails we receive, please allow 3-5 business days for a response.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post Parking violation: US Military aerial view knowledgeable helped San Francisco, CA couple park in driveway once more after menace of $1.5K superb appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Parking in San Francisco is a difficult part of life here. You find a spot… but get a ticket anyway.

For Judy and Ed Craine it seems especially unfair.

“We always use the carport,” said Judy.

SEE ALSO | FTC sues Walmart for allowing scammers to use money transfer services, take millions from consumers

“Parked in that driveway every day and every night,” confirmed Ed.

They live on a steep hill where parking can be a gravity-defying challenge.

But they could slip into their driveway and park on their carpad, which they’d been doing every day for the past 36 years.

But not anymore.

“We got this email saying we can’t park in the pad anymore. I said what, that’s crazy,” recounted Ed.

RELATED: Plainfield family almost loses $11K to thieves using ‘grandchild scam’

Out of the blue, the couple got a ticket for parking in their own driveway.

“It was very surprising, to say the least,” said Judy.

And worse? It came with an enormous fine: $1,542 dollars, plus another $250 per day if they didn’t get the car off their carpad.

“I wrote them back saying I thought this was a mistake,” Judy said.

But it was no mistake. And no ordinary parking ticket. It came from the city planning department, telling them it’s illegal to park in the front of a house.

SEE ALSO | Stranger who moved into Chicago home and refuses to leave says she was scammed

“And if we were found parking there again, it would be a $1,500 fine,” Judy said.

And so they quickly pulled the car out — but none of it made sense.

“Why are you taking away something that has great utility?” asked Ed.

Ed and Judy had been parking there for nearly four decades. And as far as they could tell, the space was used for parking since the house was built back in 1910 – one of the first in their Noe Valley neighborhood.

“To all of a sudden to be told you can’t use something that we could use for years. It’s, it’s startling. Inexplicable,” Ed said.

RELATED: What are NFTs: How to avoid NFT scams before you invest

And so the Planning Department gave them a challenge: prove that parking was a historic use on the lot, and they might get a waiver.

“We could be grandfathered in. If we show them a historical photo that showed a car… or a horse-drawn buggy in the carport,” said Judy.

Right away they dug up a photo of their daughter 34 years ago – a part of the car barely visible.

But officials said: not old enough.

“I did a number of online searches,” said Ed.

And so they combed through hundreds of historic photos.

Plenty showed the early days, when there were few streets or homes.

SEE ALSO | Ex-CPS principal admits defrauding district of hundreds of thousands of dollars

“Our house and our neighbor’s house had empty fields all around,” Ed said.

But to find a photo of a car or horse in their particular driveway, back before the days of iPhone cameras?

Nearly impossible.

And then, bingo.

“To me, it’s pretty compelling that was a car,” Ed said.

An aerial photo from 1938 shows their exact home – and Ed is sure he can see a car – or horse-and-buggy — pulling into his driveway!

“So this little black blob looks like it’s pulling into our house,” Ed said.

It looks like just a blob from above. But Ed says it must be a car — like all the other blobs you can see along the road.

“I don’t know what else they would be,” he said. “To me, it’s pretty compelling that that was a car pulling in or out of the parking pad.”

They rushed the photo to the Planning Department – the proof they need!

RELATED: Sextortion scams: FBI warns of schemes targeting teenage boys in effort to extort money

Right?

wrong

“They said they were too fuzzy,” Judy said.

The Planning Department said this was not clear evidence.

Officials tell 7 On Your Side the couple was violating a code section banning vehicles in a setback in front of a house, even if it isn’t blocking a sidewalk.

Though it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like many of their neighbors.

Planning Chief Dan Sider said it was enacted decades ago for aesthetic reasons, to “Ensure that front yards don’t turn into parking lots.”

Yet, it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like their neighbors,

“I don’t think our car looks any worse than all the cars stacked in front of garages,” Ed Craine said.

And why enforce the rule after all these decades?

Sider said someone made an anonymous complaint to the city. Two neighbors also got tagged for the same violation, parking in a front driveway.

In an email, Sider wrote:

“I recognize that the property owner is frustrated. I think I would feel the same way in their situation. But the Planning Code doesn’t allow for the City to grandfather illegal uses on account of their having flown below the radar for a length of times.”

And so their carport sits empty — the oil stain a testament to easier days — as they struggle to park on the hill.

“I had to use my head to keep the trunk open while getting out groceries,” Judy said.

“The onus is on us to prove we’re innocent… though I don’t feel guilty,” Judy said.

The city did close the case without charging any penalties after the couple got the car off the carpad and kept it off. And the city says they could build a covered carport or garage to park there – or maybe find that old photo.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

Have a question for Michael and the 7 On Your Side team? Fill out the form HERE!
7OYS’s consumer hotline is a free consumer mediation service for those in the San Francisco Bay Area. We assist individuals with consumer-related issues; we cannot assist on cases between businesses, or cases involving family law, criminal matters, landlord/tenant disputes, labor issues, or medical issues. Please review our FAQ here. As a part of our process in assisting you, it is necessary that we contact the company / agency you are writing about. If you do not wish us to contact them, please let us know right away, as it will affect our ability to work on your case. Due to the high volume of emails we receive, please allow 3-5 business days for a response.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post San Francisco, California couple in Noe Valley immediately will get $1.5K effective for parking of their driveway as they’ve for 4 a long time appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.