The San Francisco Giants' problems continue, with a 3-7 record in their last ten games.

With the Giants still just three games out of a wild card spot, they could look to improve before the trade deadline and secure a playoff spot. What they do before the trade deadline remains to be seen, and it's one of the more interesting situations in baseball.

There are clearly areas of need, including a center fielder and a shortstop. Jim Bowden of The Athletic suggested a deal that would help them get a player who can play both positions, but the trade could be a huge overpayment.

His proposal would send Jazz Chisholm Jr. to San Francisco for Carson Whisenhunt, Marco Luciano and Luis Matos.

“Chisholm has a batting average of .267/.332/.445 with 10 home runs, 13 stolen bases and an OPS+ of 115. He can play second base, shortstop and center field.

“The 26-year-old offers a rare combination of speed and power and has the potential to one day hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season. His positional flexibility would give the Giants multiple options to use him. As a 2022 All-Star, Chisholm is arbitration-eligible next year and is under the team's control through 2026.”

While Chisholm would be the ideal player to target in a deal on his own, there are some legitimate concerns about him.

In the first four seasons, he only appeared in more than 97 games once and was unable to fulfill all expectations.

That doesn't mean he's a bad player and wouldn't help this team, but this package seems a bit too much.

His best season was 2022, when he was named an All-Star for the first and only time in his career. That season, he posted an OPS+ of 138 and 14 home runs. Although he played well, he only appeared in 60 games.

If Chisholm can perform well for the Giants for a full season, he would have a good chance of being the best outfielder on the team, but that remains to be seen.

There is hope that he is healthy, as he has played in 75 games this season. His slash line of .267/.332/.445 with 10 home runs is also impressive. If he continues at this pace, this would be the best season of his career.

The Miami Marlins are in a position to sell, so trading the 26-year-old makes sense. And they're likely expecting a huge sum in return. San Francisco can offer them that with some of their young players, but it's up to management to decide if it's worth it.

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MARIN COUNTY — Officials at the Tamalpais Union High School District are deciding whether to put a tax measure on the ballot to upgrade their high school campuses, but the amount of the bond issue has some in the community accusing them of swinging for the fences.

District representatives are set to weigh the measure at its meeting Tuesday evening.

Redwood High in Larkspur is an award-winning school but at more than 60 years old, it’s buildings have seen better days.

“Our school, as you can see, it’s a little run down, especially on the inside. It gets a little hot sometimes and the classrooms are super small,” said Redwood High junior Ginger Howard. “And it’s hard to get enough state funding to fix things like this because there are other priorities, and we understand that.”

The Tam Union High School District is set to vote whether to put a bond measure on the ballot for March of 2024. The bond would raise money to upgrade the facilities at its three comprehensive high schools, including Redwood, Tampalpais and Archie Williams.  

“The bottom line is we’ve got some leaky roofs that need to be tended [to]. We’ve got old outdated heating and plumbing and cooling systems and electrical systems,” said the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Corbett Elsen.

But it goes far beyond that. New athletic fields and solar canopies are planned for all three campuses, as well as new classrooms at Tamalpais and a new $104 million cafeteria and commons building for Redwood High. There is a hefty cost for all the planned renovation.  

The ballot measure says it will raise $517 million in revenue, but if you add in the cost of the interest on the 30-year bonds, taxpayers will be paying a staggering $1.04 billion.

“We think that the size is too large. We think…we are concerned that they didn’t prioritize,” said Mimi Willard, president of the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers.

The organization has taken up the fight to get the district to scale down the ballot measure. Willard pointed to the new cafeteria as an example of the district’s overreach.

“It was deemed by the district’s own metrics to be a ‘Priority 2,” she said. “So we would like to see the district focusing on the ‘Priority 1’ projects.”

Willard said the voters also deserve ballot language that reflects the true cost of over a billion dollars rather than just the amount of the bonds. She suspects that the district may be aiming high for the March ballot because of a large number of funding measures that are expected in November. But Elsen denied that Tam Union is trying to get all that it can before tax fatigue sets in.

“I don’t think we’ve swung for the fences,” he said. “We’ve identified what we need…in terms of what our community feels that we need. We feel we owe it to our community. They’ve asked for this, so we need to reflect upon what the cost of this is.”

The measure would tax property at a rate of $30 per $100,000 in assessed value. Elsen said that means the average homeowner in the district would pay $329 per year for the next 30 years. 

It will take a 55 percent vote to approve the measure, and an early poll showed 60 percent were in favor. But a later poll shows that number has been coming down. Whether the largest bond measure in the district’s history will pass now looks to be a toss-up.

More from CBS News

John Ramos

John Ramos accidentally launched a lifelong career in journalism when he began drawing editorial cartoons and writing smart-alecky satire pieces for the Bakersfield High School newspaper.

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An off-shore barrier is being proposed from SFO to as far south as Coyote Point to create a lagoon that would protect the shoreline from sea-level rise through doors that could close during large storms or extreme tides.

The proposal is by OneShoreline, the county’s Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District, and its CEO Len Materman is making the rounds to various government agencies to explain the concept and gather feedback.

“OneShoreline was created to address huge problems that need huge solutions. I don’t want our legacy to do things on the margins. I want to address this issue,” Materman said.

The proposed off-shore barrier is still in the concept phase. However, if approved, the structure would connect from the San Francisco International Airport’s barrier it is constructing and would span from Millbrae as far south as Coyote Point on the San Mateo and Burlingame border, Materman said during a Burlingame City Council presentation Monday, Oct. 16.

During extreme tides or storms, there can be less than a foot of protection. However, Materman

said the barrier would address this issue, allowing water to ebb and flow. The structure’s doors would be open about 99% of the time, and OneShoreline would close the doors when large storms or extreme tides occur, restricting the water back and allowing the on-shore drainage systems to flow freely.

Materman said drainage systems are like a clogged shower pipe and water has nowhere to go so it gets increasingly higher. This winter’s storm is a prime example, he added. Many of the streets far from the Bay were flooding because the water in the pipes had nowhere to go, he said.

The agency is working collaboratively with cities around the Bay to fight off the dangers of sea-level rise, which is projected to rise up to a foot in the next 30 years and up to 6 feet over the next century.

“As you know, there are mud flats out there, and it’s not going to take much sea-level rise for those mudflats to be permanently covered in water,” Materman said.

As sea-level rise persists and water levels increase, the doors will be closed more frequently. When sea-level rise is 1 1/2 feet higher on average, the doors would be closed during the peak of high tide, about one hour a day. When the water level reaches 3 feet higher than today’s average, which would equal today’s 100-year storm level, the structure doors would be closed during each high tide, twice a day, about seven hours total, Materman explained.

Habitat protection

While addressing the increasing waterline and protecting the Peninsula from flooding is the agency’s top priority, it is acutely focused on improving the environmental habitat and public access around the Bayside.

“We want habitat that works for today’s ecosystems but, more importantly, the habitat that works for future conditions,” Materman said.

One idea is to have oysters and other aquatic life use the barrier as a lifeline, like an artificial reef. Another idea is building a trail above the structure, but it would need approval from outside agencies. One of them is the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, a regional agency that oversees all development on the Bay.

“We want it to have other values besides the flood protection,” Materman said.

Another benefit would be that the barrier would lift the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone designation for many residents of the Bayside, he added.

Sea-level rise threat

Multiple studies point to the county’s unique vulnerability from sea-level rise over the years. It will significantly affect the 53 miles of county shoreline, threatening Burlingame and other cities on the Peninsula with low-lying areas home to vital infrastructure and private developments.

FEMA rules call for sea-level infrastructure to be built with a height 6 feet above the current elevation a 100-year flood would reach. That means infrastructure within the city limits would need to be built up to 16, 17 and 18 feet, getting taller as it moves south. The first floor of buildings must be 3 feet above the 100-year flood elevation.

In 2022, Burlingame was the first city in the county to include sea-level rise in its zoning and now requires new buildings in low-lying areas near the water to have raised first floors. Some may need to build and maintain infrastructure like levees or sea walls or leave room for such infrastructure to be constructed in the future.

The majority of land east of Highway 101, the highway itself, and a sizable strip west of the highway are projected to become inundated within the next 100 years if no action is taken, according to the city’s projections.

“As I mentioned, sea-level rise will put our current habitat under water and completely cover it with no ability to manage it adaptively,” Materman said.

Conceptual phase

The entire scope of the project is still in the conceptual phase and will need buy-in from communities and outside agencies. Project cost still needs to be determined. One alternative was to build the creek banks higher, but it would be difficult because of access issues and more expensive, Materman said.

A week ago, the OneShoreline approved a grant application from the city’s Park and Recreation Foundation to restore and create a new habitat at the mouth of Mills Creek. The creeks in the area were rerouted during the airport’s construction, which is why there is lots of flooding in San Bruno, Millbrae, South City and Burlingame, Materman said.

“The project’s coastal protection objective is to keep the Bay’s shoreline, creeks and lagoons from overtopping,” Materman said.

The agency plans to work with the cities, perform public outreach, and complete 30% of the conceptual design by spring 2024, according to the presentation. Materman said he hopes to see it constructed within the decade. The tidal lagoon size has yet to be decided but will be worked on in the next year.

At the Burlingame council meeting, Mayor Michael Brownrigg said a third of the city’s revenue comes from Bayfront businesses. The water treatment facility on the Bayside is also a concern, he said.

“So this isn’t a passing interest to the city of Burlingame,” he said. “It is almost an existential threat.”

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Saying the targets to cut water use in cities and towns will be costly and difficult to achieve, water agencies throughout California have raised concerns about an ambitious state proposal that would require more water conservation statewide beginning in 2025.

The State Water Resources Control Board’s proposed regulations would mandate conservation measures by more than 400 cities and water agencies that serve about 95% of Californians. The measure could wave about 413,000 acre-feet a year by 2030, enough to serve about 1.2 million households per year.

During the last three-year severe drought, which ended this year, the Newsom administration set voluntary conservation goals that were largely ineffective. Californians used only about 6% less water from July 2021 through the end of last year compared to 2020, far less than Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 15% goal.

The new rules are mandated by a package of laws — enacted in 2018 by the Legislature and former Gov. Jerry Brown — that aim to make “water conservation a California way of life,” not simply an emergency drought measure.

Water providers from the Mojave Desert to Sonoma County and beyond warned at a board workshop on Wednesday that the regulations would be a challenge, particularly because many would have to make steep cuts to outdoor water use. About 80 people, mostly representing water agencies, spoke during the meeting, which lasted longer than eight hours.

The regulation would cost water suppliers about $13.5 billion from 2025 to 2040 — more than 40% of which would fund rebate programs and other efforts to cut residential water use, according to the water board. But the benefits are anticipated to reach about $15.6 billion between 2025 and 2040, largely from reduced water purchases by both suppliers and customers.

“It’s awkward, because we are committed to water use efficiency,” said Ryan Ojakian, government relations manager for the Regional Water Authority, which represents Sacramento-area providers. “It really comes down to, are the regulations feasible? Are the costs worth the benefits? And what are the consequences in achieving the regulations?”

The water board is expected to vote by next summer on the rules, which could go into effect next fall.

Water suppliers, not individual customers, would have to meet the targets — and each supplier would need to figure out its own strategy. These could include rebates that encourage customers to swap out thirsty lawns for more drought-proof landscapes or rate structures that penalize heavy water users.

Water providers said it will be difficult to squeeze more conservation out of their customers.

“They want us to save water at such an accelerated rate, that even if we had all the money, we would not be able to convince our customer base to participate at the rates we need them to,” said Joe Berg, director of water use efficiency at the Municipal Water District of Orange County. “We can build it, but they don’t necessarily come.”

The state agency’s formula sets targets for each water agency based on goals for indoor and outdoor residential water use, business landscapes with dedicated irrigation meters, losses like leaks and other variables, such as the presence of livestock in a region.

In the rules, the state’s targets for indoor and outdoor water use in residential areas ratchet down, beginning in 2030 and then again in 2035.

Suppliers that fail to live within their prescribed water budget could face escalating consequences that could eventually lead to fines of $1,000 a day starting in 2027 or $10,000 a day during droughts.

Tracy Quinn, CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, told the board that water conservation measures are critical as California stares down a water-scarce future.

Between the declining snowpack, ongoing haggling over Colorado River water, groundwater regulations and projections that climate change could dry up 10% of the state’s water supply, “there is an incredible need for us to do a rulemaking that’s going to require the efficient use of water,” she said.

About 231 agencies serving nearly 27 million Californians are already on track to meet the 2025 objectives without reducing their water use, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California. And 71 agencies serving 8.5 million Californians are expected to meet the 2035 standards as well, including the city of San Diego, the San Jose Water Company, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Irvine Ranch Water District and city of Santa Ana.

Cumulatively, the rules are expected to save about 6.3 million acre-feet between 2025 and 2040, mostly from residential measures.

Berg said the regulations could cost Orange County water agencies more than $707 million over 11 years to implement. But more than that, he said, he’s concerned that the standards for outdoor water conservation accelerate too quickly.

“If an agency were to look at the cost to comply and compare that to the cost of the fines, it wouldn’t surprise me if an agency just says, ‘Okay, we’ll just take fines,’” Berg said.

Claire Nordlie, water use efficiency supervisor for the city of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, echoed those concerns during the workshop.

“I really want to emphasize that sustained water savings are difficult to achieve. It takes decades of time, and a significant investment of resources, as well as a population and a culture within your service area that want to participate,” she said.

Nordlie said fewer and fewer people are participating in the city’s rebate program for removing lawns, which offers $1 for every square foot of grass removed. Customers surveyed say that it costs about $7 a square foot to tear out their lawns. That cost, Nordlie said, is a major barrier.

“If customers don’t want to participate, we can’t force them to,” she said.

Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis, told the board he’s concerned that the regulations could affect public trust.

“Certainly some aspects of our society are really upset every time you come in there with a new regulation, and so I think we have to bear that in mind,” Lund said. “Because that blowback can be very bad for a lot of more important things than this.”

Smaller water agencies, especially in inland regions, will be the hardest hit. Ten suppliers serving about 200,000 Californians are expected to face cuts upwards of 30% in 2025, but the number increases to 84 suppliers serving 3.7 million Californians in 2035. Included are the cities of Atwater and Kingsburg, the Oildale Mutual Water Company and the West Kern Water District, according to state data.

Jennifer Cusack, director public and government affairs with the Hi-Desert Water District in Yucca Valley on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, said the water agency has long struggled with its water supply and there’s little room for additional conservation. Many ornamental lawns are already gone and indoor water fixtures have been improved.

“There’s not a lot of opportunities for savings in our community, because we’ve done so much already,” she said. “A lot of folks don’t even irrigate their homes. They have dirt lots or maybe some trees.”

Even so, the desert water supplier is expected to be out of compliance with the 2030 and 2035 targets, which, she said, “just raises a red flag.”

In response to earlier calls for increased flexibility, state regulators offered an alternative pathway that would give some providers, such as those serving disadvantaged communities, extra time to meet a 2035 outdoor water-use target, provided they meet certain criteria.

Rachel Becker is a reporter with CalMatters.

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SOMERS — School officials have reported a preliminary estimate of $10.5 million for an upgrade to the elementary school’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system and are heeding advice by the Board of Finance to clarify the proposed project’s scope so residents will understand its necessity and possible impact on taxes.

Superintendent Sam Galloway and school business manager Stephanie Levin attended a Board of Finance meeting on Tuesday where they said the project has been isolated to just the elementary school, which they hope to put before voters in the November election.

The town plans to seek state funding for the proposed project through the HVAC Indoor Air Quality Grants Program for Public Schools, a program established by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration through the state Department of Administrative Services.

Somers, along with a number of other districts across the state, did not receive grant funds for HVAC projects during the first round of applications. State officials say they plan to launch a process in the coming months for districts to apply for school air quality improvement grants again, while lawmakers recently approved $300 million more in funding for the program.

It’s essential that the town have community support before seeking grant funds, Board of Finance members and finance officials said at the meeting. Therefore, they said that the school administration needs to explain to residents what the project will entail and why it’s necessary.

The state won’t give communities a guarantee on grants until they have local support, Chief Financial Officer Brian Wissinger said. He pointed out that Ellington, which received $6.7 million in grant funds for HVAC work at three schools, held a referendum on bonding the projects well before submitting its application to the state, with 75% of voters in support.

“No one will think the town is serious about this without a referendum,” Assistant Treasurer Michael Marinaccio said. “If you want to get into the game, you need an appropriation on the table that will pass.”

He said the town plans to have two questions on the ballot asking voters if they would approve going to bond for the HVAC project as well as a proposed new community/senior center.

The two projects combined could come to a cost of at least $20 million, Marinaccio said, but that does not mean the town would be bonding that amount.

“If we pursue the various funding opportunities out there, that $20 million could lower itself to $8 million to bond,” he said, adding the town has estimates on the cost for the two projects but won’t know the true cost until going out to bid.

Somers will hold a special town meeting before the November election where officials will present information on the proposed senior/community center and HVAC project. Board of Finance members advised Galloway to have sufficient information by then to present to residents.

They suggested explaining that the elementary school, which was formerly the town’s high school, has attributes a community couldn’t get today in a new building and that construction schedules could be flexible, with one project possibly starting before the other.

Board of Finance member Ralph Williams said the best way to allay a lot of residents’ concerns about how projects would impact the tax rate is by providing predictability. He advised showing how figures will stay constant for the projects even under a “highball” figure.

“The default fear is that the mill rate will go up for the life of these projects,” said Marinaccio. “Our debt service (on other, older projects) will be going down like a ski slope in Switzerland.” 

Marinaccio said he can’t imagine the tax rate would go up more than three-quarters of a mill.

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The Salvation Army has applied for a permit to build an eight-story drug rehabilitation center in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood for people who are recovering from drug addiction. 

The charity aims to demolish its property at 850 Harrison St. and replace it with a high-rise that would serve up to 220 people who have completed the first step of drug treatment. 

Currently, the lot houses a one-story commercial kitchen and parking lot where the Salvation Army trains homeless people in the culinary arts.

Part of the nonprofit’s the Way Out program, a fundraising initiative and treatment apparatus with the goal of expanding drug treatment access in San Francisco, the planned treatment program in SoMa is geared toward providing job assistance and eventually transitioning clients into independent living. 

The charity is lobbying the city to help fund the programs and others that it believes can help people recover from addiction. 

Darren Norton, a divisional commander with the Salvation Army, said the Harrison Street project project is in its very early stages.

“We’re exploring things with the city to see if it’s something they would approve,” he said. “We don’t want to go to our donors and get them excited if it’s not going to meet the city’s requirements for housing.”

Fatal overdoses are occurring at a record rate in San Francisco, with 473 people dying due to drugs over the first seven months of this year, according to preliminary data from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office.

The planned rehabilitation center will not take people directly from the street who are homeless and suffering from addiction, Norton said. Rather, these will be people who have graduated from a treatment program and are now moving to extended supportive, transitional housing.

If approved and constructed, the facility will feature support, training and amenity spaces on the first two floors and the eighth floor. Floors 3 through 8 will feature five-bedroom, five-bathroom suites that can house 10 participants each. The participants will also share kitchen, dining and living spaces.

The planned complex will also include a two-bedroom guest suite, shared lounge and classroom space for the Salvation Army’s programs.

There will also be a commercial teaching kitchen on the ground floor, which the Way Out plans to use for its culinary program. Most of the building’s roof will feature solar panels.

The SoMa neighborhood is home to a large number of drug treatment, homeless services and low-income housing complexes. 

This has led to pushback from some locals who believe the neighborhood is being forced to shoulder too much of the burden of addressing San Francisco’s most pressing issues.

At the same time, the proposed project would be located just a stone’s throw from other Salvation Army facilities, including its South of Market Corps Community Center and the Silvercrest Residence, an affordable apartment complex that reserves 40% of its units for low-income seniors.

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A floating pool has been proposed for the city of San Francisco, which will be the first public pool of its kind in the city and will bring a new type of aquatic experience to the Bay Area. Located on San Francisco Bay, the Olympic-size heated pool would float on Piers 30-32, currently used as parking lots and being remodeled as part of the project.

The proposed floating pool would be surrounded by retail space, offices and apartments, including a 725-unit residential tower, 25% of which would be affordable housing. San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener proposed legislation in 2021 authorizing construction of the pool on the state-owned piers. The plan proposes a unique recreation and relaxation space while protecting the city’s waterfront from climate change and sea level rise.

The concept has faced challenges as previous attempts to revitalize the piers have been unsuccessful. Previous plans to convert the area into a stadium, museum and cruise terminal have failed. However, Wiener is optimistic that this project will succeed. He believes the previous plans failed because attempts were made to rehabilitate the piers while this project is building them from scratch. The success of the project is dependent on city, state and various other government approvals.

The floating pool would be built on one of the two piers while the other pier would be converted into 375,000 square feet of offices and 45,000 square feet of retail space. The swimming pool would provide space for swimming laps, playing water polo and lounging in a Jacuzzi. A section of the bay surrounding the pool will be dedicated to open water swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding.

The project, similar to the Plus Pool proposed for the East River in New York City, aims to create an attractive and sustainable space that enhances the waterfront and offers opportunities for new homes and public spaces shared by all can become.

The new plan for the project is a change from previous versions that emphasized commercial space on the piers and gave the impression of a large office park with a small waterfront recreation. The latest version of the project emphasizes swimming, with a focus on public access to the bay and views of the Bay Bridge. The plan now envisages the rebuilding of a single pier, with the remaining pier being converted into an Olympic-size swimming pool, a shallow pool for swimmers, a jacuzzi and shower facilities. Along the Embarcadero there would be an indoor market with food kiosks and craft stalls for manufacturers to sell their wares.

The project’s developers, Strada Investment Group and Trammell Crow, hope to attract bay swimmers with a cordoned-off area similar to the aqua park near Crissy Field. They plan to heat the pools, most likely using fresh water rather than the cold water pumped from the bay. The developers have also released new renderings of the piers, which are more public than previous plans.

The piers’ redevelopment plan aims to revitalize the Embarcadero and make it a more pleasant public experience. The project’s success depends on making the Embarcadero feel less like walking past a few office building lobbies and more like an appealing waterfront destination. The concept has undergone several changes based on feedback from state agencies, particularly those who regulate the waterfront. The changes reflect a desire to create a space that is more in tune with the natural surroundings, with a greater emphasis on public spaces and waterfront recreation.

The project faced several challenges, including the fact that the site where the project is to be built is owned by the state, meaning that special statutory approval would be required before a developer could build there. The project must also be approved by the city, state, and several other agencies.

Developers hope the floating pool will offer a unique aquatic experience in San Francisco, drawing locals and tourists alike to the Bay Area. The concept had strong support from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who said the project would help the city invest in critical infrastructure that protects the coast from climate change and sea-level rise, while also opening up opportunities for new homes and would create new spaces for the public to enjoy along the city’s beautiful waterfront.

Photo credit: Strada Investment Group

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The Detroit Lions want to make sure no one else gets into the same quarterback situation that the San Francisco 49ers faced in the NFC Championship Game.

You may remember — unless you’re a 49ers fan who blocked it like childhood trauma — but the 49ers were effectively running out of functioning quarterbacks in the game.

Starter Brock Purdy injured his throwing arm early in the game and was replaced by backup Josh Johnson. However, Johnson was knocked out of the game with a concussion. That meant Purdy was pushed back into action despite being unable to throw the ball.

That must have spooked the Lions because they were the ones who submitted the bylaws proposal and not the 49ers.

The Lions submitted a bylaw proposal that provides for an emergency QB. Each team could nominate a 3rd QB from either the inactive or the practice team that can be activated mid-game if the 2 active QBs have been locked out for the rest of the game.

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) March 13, 2023

Seems like a solid idea. Given how things have gone for San Francisco, it’s hard to believe any team would fight it. Eventually someone will find a loophole and exploit it, but for now it seems like a solid idea.

However, the NFL misses an opportunity to make headlines in a way that the NHL has mastered. Soccer needs its version of Ice Hockey Emergency Goalie or EBUG.

In this case, they must implement emergency backup quarterbacks or an EBUQ.

The San Francisco 49ers’ brutal QB carousel — particularly in the NFC Championship — could be grounds for a slight rule adjustment. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

The Lions’ proposal is fine, but the NFL needs EBUQs.

You should strictly follow the template of the NHL. In short, the home team would secure the services of a backup quarterback in case of an emergency. He can be used by either team if needed. It could be anyone. Someone who was playing QB at a D-II school back then, or maybe a plumber who plays semi-pro football on the weekends.

For most games, the EBUQ just sat in the press box and ate nachos. However, if a team has both QBs out, he can put down the nachos and spring into action.

If you know how it works in the NHL, it’s exciting to see a “normal guy” dress and play in the big leagues.

The only thing that would be more fun from a fan point of view would be some kind of sweepstakes system. At the stadium on game day, washed up high school and junior college QBs who want to show they still have it can throw their name in a bucket. Then, if necessary, we grab the bucket and select a fan to jump into the game.

There’s a higher chance that the chosen person’s football career hasn’t passed Pop Warner — or that they’re completely hammered — but at least the randomness would make things fair.

Whatever the league decides, this year’s NFC Championship was likely enough for most teams to want a safety net.

Just in case you find yourself in a similar situation.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Alex Tourk wants to build 2,000 tiny homes for San Francisco’s homeless population. And he wants your help to get it done.

The political operative turned public relations specialist is teaming up with the citizen volunteer organization RescueSF to get this idea off the ground, The Examiner has learned. The newly formed nonprofit is calling itself MyOwnLockandKey.org. the goal? Increase transitional housing options and get the homeless off the streets.

Tourk, who ran point on Project Homeless Connect for former Mayor Gavin Newsom, knows the landscape and he’s banking that his history of running campaigns and building political coalitions will help move the plan forward.

He’s going to need all that experience and then some, because this idea is going to run into some serious hurdles.

First off, where are you going to put all these tiny homes, also known as modular housing units in the homeless advocacy world? Tourk says he’s identified 50 parcels of land across San Francisco that could house modular housing, owned by The City, state, federal government and private entities, such as religious organizations.

I asked where these parcels were, and he told me they’re spread across San Francisco. And that’s where it’s going to get interesting.

As we all know, people feel strongly about homelessness. They want something done. But they don’t want it done in their backyards. Tourk says he has an answer. That’s where you come in. Over the next 20 months, Tourk and RescueSF plan to “organize a broad citywide coalition of 25,000 San Franciscans to support bringing modular/tiny home transitional supportive housing projects to sites throughout the City.”

Good luck with that. And I mean it. If anyone can pull it off, it’s probably Mr. Tourk. He’s a driven organizer. He could sell the Pope dope. Part of the plan will be to hold 500 house parties across The City, where neighborhood supporters could gather their friends to hear the pitch.

“I could be pollyannaish here, right? There could be people who are like, ‘What are you talking about? … Get them out of my neighborhood,’” said Tourk. “But you know what? I want to inspire people. That’s what true organizing is. It’s like selling a vision and getting people to buy into it. This idea that you’re going to keep dumping people in the tenderloin, in the Bayview, and this is going to somehow solve homelessness, just because it’s out of sight out of mind. If we really want to solve homelessness, we really want to make a dent in it, we all gotta participate, one way or another.”

OK, say you get the neighborhoods to buy in. Who’s going to provide the services needed? You can’t just give somebody a cabin and wish them luck. They’ll need services… and security.

Tourk believes The City is flush with cash (it is) and there are “a bevy of supportive services” available (um, not really). And he’s looking at the controversial nonprofit Urban Alchemy as a possible security solution.

OK. What about all the other nonprofits in town? The homeless industrial complex can be pretty territorial. Everyone wants to keep their piece of the funding under their own roof. On that front, Tourk figured the Coalition on Homelessness and the San Francisco Building Trades and Construction Council would be his biggest opponents. Both groups have traditionally opposed modular construction in favor of permanent housing.

But so far, Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition remains open to the idea and Rudy Gonzalez with the builders union is relatively supportive. Tourk says there are 1,300 union members who could benefit from building the 2,000 units proposed.

Funding may prove the biggest obstacle to MyOwnLockandKey. Tourk originally wanted to create a ballot measure that would make it possible to redirect some Prop. C money. (You know, the initiative that taxes the rich to help the homeless in SF) But that didn’t look politically expedient. Instead, his group wants to put this proposal in front of the Board of Supervisors and let them find the money. This could be Tourk’s Waterloo. Or Hamburger Hill. Many a dream has died in Room 250.

But this past week, the dream took a step toward reality. Not only is the group up and running, but they held a little party to kick things off. Tourk gathered a couple dozen of the biggest names in San Francisco’s homeless advocacy community at Civic Center Plaza to listen to his pitch and take a group photo.

“I picked this spot for a reason. And it really was three of them,” Tourk told the crowd. Turns out, George Moscone campaigned against the scourge of drugs and homelessness in the Plaza back in 1975. In 1988, this was ‘Camp Agnos,’ a homelessness tent encampment. And in 2004, Tourk and Judith Cain launched Project Homeless Connect on the same spot, spurring Tourk to say, “It made me realize that maybe my organizing skills were for something bigger than just electing politicians.”

“About a year ago, I met Mark (Nagel) and Laurie (Brooke), and these guys are doing amazing work at Rescue SF. They’re able to articulate a missing rung on the housing ladder, which is your transitional supportive, modular, tiny home construction. They are officially working with me as a policy arm of this foundation to help make sure we’re doing this appropriately, thoughtfully, with data and analysis. So again, today’s the beginning.”

Tourk points to existing, similar programs in Los Angeles, Oakland and Mountain View as his North Star. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of cheerleaders for his idea in the crowd at Civic Center Plaza.

“We’re very supportive of his idea,” said Brooke, co-founder of Rescue SF. “Having Alex come on board with his campaign experience and messaging experience, this could really take it to the next level.” She and her co-founder, Nagel pointed to an existing site at 33 Gough as their pilot.

The Examiner’s Sydney Johnson reported on the opening of that location, revealing that the site currently holds 30 cabins, with plans to expand to 70.

“Each unit is carefully and fashionably designed with details such as living plants, bookshelves and artwork, and features a bed, air conditioning, a desk and electricity,” Johnson wrote. “Bathrooms, showers and an eventual computer lab are all part of the development, which will get a wrap-around mural before the opening of all 70 units later this spring.” Generally speaking, residents would live in these cabins for months, rather than years. They’re intended to be a stepping stone rather than a permanent solution.

But the site also only has a temporary lease. The developer wants to build on the site. That’s why movable units are important in this plan, Tourk argues.

“It’s about time that somebody really did something, stepped up and helped,” said Gwendolyn Westbrook, executive director of Mother Brown’s Dining Room, a social service group that runs a safe sleeping site in the Bayview. “Transitional housing is what they need.”

Here, here.

It was a lovely, sunny day in San Francisco. There was a feeling of hope in the air. Many of these people have been fighting on behalf of the homeless for years and years. And they’re not going to quit.

As I walked away from the gathering, I passed the safe sleeping site run by Urban Alchemy near City Hall. Many of the sites appeared empty inside the fence. Across the street, dozens if not hundreds of people milled about in search of a fix.

They seemed a lot more interested in heroin than housing.

Editor’s note: The Arena, a column from The Examiner’s Al Saracevic, explores San Francisco’s playing field, from politics and technology to sports and culture. Send your tips, quips and quotes to asaracevic@sfexaminer.com.

Tiny homes for homeless individuals at 33 Gough St. serves as a prototype for the kind of sites a new non-profit called MyOwnLockandKey.org hopes to build. (Craig Lee/The Examiner)

A group of homeless advocates and non-profit organizers gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday, March 2, 2022, to listen to Alex Tourk’s pitch to launch a transitionary housing non-profit called MyOwnLockandKey.org. Tourk, pictured at the center in a white shirt, chose the spot for symbolic reasons. (Photo by Mitch Tobias)

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Amazon said Tuesday it will pause work on a proposed last-mile warehouse in San Francisco’s Showplace Square after the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation that placed an 18-month moratorium on all new parcel delivery services in the city.

In a statement a company spokesman said, “We will continue to evaluate our long-term use of the site, and in the short-term we will work with our neighbors to look at ways to use the location to serve the community.”

The company’s announcement came after the board voted 10-0 to back the moratorium, which was crafted in part as a response to Amazon’s plan to build a 725,000 square foot warehouse at 900 7th St.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin recused himself from the vote because he owns stock in Amazon.

While the board didn’t discuss the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting, the vote was preceded by a fiery rally in front of City Hall at which organized labor, environmental watchdogs, and residents of San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods denounced Amazon’s expansion plans.

With an 18-wheeler emblazoned with a “Teamster” banner as a backdrop, Jason Rabinowitz, president of Teamsters Joint Council 7, said “the type of jobs we don’t need to have are the Amazon style poverty jobs that are underpaid, unsafe , include no rights at work.”

“Good jobs uplift our community,” he said. “Amazon style poverty jobs drag us all down.”

Folks attend a press conference at Civic Center Plaza that urged passage of temporary moratorium legislation on Amazon and other parcel delivery service facilities in San Francisco.

Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle

Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood where the logistics center would be located, said that if Amazon wants to build in the district it will have to negotiate a community benefits package similar to deals struck with major waterfront developers.

“You can go and ask Pier 70. You can ask the (Potrero) Power Station. If you are going to come into our neighborhoods you are going to talk to the people in the neighborhood. You are going to provide them with community benefits,” he said.

The legislation passage is a big win for a broad coalition of organized labor, including the Teamsters, the United Commercial Food Workers, Service Employees International Union and the Building Trades Council.

Jim Araby, strategic campaign director with the United Food & Commercial Workers, said the legislation would “Create the process necessary to hold large corporations like Amazon accountable to the community, the workers and the elected officials.”

“This legislation is the first step to make sure there is an actual process, that you can’t just plop down a 700,000 square foot in the middle of a community and say we are going to buy you off with five dollars and an ice tea ,” he said.

JK Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen

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