Yesterday, San Francisco’s Attorney David Chiu announced a suit against the owners of three Chinatown single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels. The lawsuit alleges public nuisance and a lack of response to many health and safety violations, according to the SF City Attorney. The defendants Jeff Appendrodt, Shailendra Devdhara, Kamlesh Patel, and five associated LLCs, are alleged to have neglected their properties, causing their tenant’s sufferings.

A long list of violations is attributed to the housing conditions in these SRO hotels including unpermitted work, broken plumbing, exposed electrical wiring, infestations of insects, unsanitary shared restrooms, malfunctioning appliances, lack of heating and emergency exits, broken locks, damage from mold, mildew, lead risks, and more.

Several city departments, notably including the Department of Building Inspector (DBI) and its Chief Housing Inspector, Jamie Sanbonmatsu, have made some progress. However, there are still 21 outstanding Notices of Violation (NOVs) addressing health, sanitation, and structural issues and more necessary work. These outstanding violations give cause to the conclusion that work needs to be continued to safeguard the well-being of the tenants.

As Malcolm Yeung, Executive Director of Chinatown Community Development Center emphasizes, this lawsuit is important because it asserts that all city dwellers, regardless of income, are entitled to safe and sanitary living conditions per the City Attorney of San Francisco.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports a 7 million deficit of affordable rental homes for extremely low-income households in the US. This deficit has perpetuated the hazardous living conditions faced by low-income families and exacerbated their resource scarcity.

Greater governmental regulation and enforcement could potentially help improve housing standards for low-income residents. Increased oversight can motivate landlords to maintain safe and sanitary living conditions and promptly address violations. 

The Director of DBI, Patrick O’Riordan, emphasized every San Franciscan should be assured that their rights will be defended by the city, as mentioned in the SFCityAttorney article. 

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LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – An asteroid predicted to be the largest to fly past Earth this year will approach the planet closest on the first full day of spring, according to NASA.

But don’t worry, because there is “no danger” of it falling to earth, assures the space agency.

The asteroid, dubbed the 2001 FO32, will be within 1.25 million miles of our planet on March 21, NASA said in a statement.

While that’s roughly 5.25 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, it’s still considered close in astronomical terms. For this reason, the space rock has been classified by NASA as a “potentially dangerous asteroid”.

The earth is spinning faster than in 5 decades, say scientists

It is expected to be the largest asteroid zoomed from Earth in 2021, with a length comparable to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, EarthSky reports.

Astronomers have been tracking FO32 in 2001 since its discovery 20 years ago, according to Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We know the 2001 FO32 orbit,” Chodas said in the press release. “There’s no chance the asteroid will get closer than 1.25 million miles to Earth.”

In fact, according to NASA, there is no danger of an asteroid colliding with the planet in the centuries to come.

The near-Earth asteroid will fly by at about 77,000 miles per hour, faster than most that hit the planet. This is due to its “sharply inclined and elongated (or eccentric) orbit around the sun,” the agency said.

This diagram shows the elongated and inclined orbit of 2001 FO32 on its orbit around the sun (white ellipse). (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

The rocky body “like a skateboarder rolling down a half pipe” will pick up speed as it navigates further into the inner system, and according to Release it will only slow down after being thrown back into space. The asteroid then swings back into the solar system and towards the sun.

All in all, it will take 2001 FO32 about 810 days, or about 27 months, to complete orbit.

However, the asteroid will not come close to Earth again in another 31 years – until 2052 – if it passes at a distance of about 1.75 million miles.

So next weekend’s approach will offer astronomers a rare opportunity to better understand it, according to NASA. Some things you will be looking at are size, brightness, and composition.

“Little is known about this object at the moment, so the very close encounter provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about this asteroid,” said Lance Benner, senior scientist at JPL, in the press release.

For example, he noted that “20 years of observations have shown that approximately 15% of near-Earth asteroids comparable in size to 2001 FO32 have a small moon.”

The asteroid will appear brightest in the southern sky as it approaches, meaning those in the southern hemisphere and the lower parts of the northern hemisphere have the best views, according to Chodas.

But it won’t be visible to the naked eye.

To see the asteroid, Chodas recommends using a medium-sized telescope with an aperture of at least 20 inches on the nights before March 21. But those trying to see it will likely still need starting cards to find it.

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