Dozens of San Francisco residents, displaced after their high rise flooded over a year ago, got some bad news this week: those waiting to move back in will have to wait until next year at the earliest. 

“My initial reaction is definitely ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’” said Austin Caldwell. 

When it comes to returning to 33 Tehama, a luxury high-rise that he used to call home, Caldwell said it feels like the goal post keeps moving. 

He was one of the residents displaced from the South of Market building in June 2022 when it flooded. 

“I had stability in my life,” Caldwell said, “and the uncertainty and, honestly, the mayhem that that flooding caused in 2022 — it caused the big part of it, the downfall in my relationship. It changed my life.”

Caldwell said his decision to move on was reaffirmed after learning that residents who still want to return got a letter this week, letting them know that they’ll be waiting even longer. 

A spokesperson for the developer Hines, Sam Singer, said the delay is due to a combination of factors. 

“Getting the parts, getting the paperwork,” Singer said. “And it’s not the city’s fault, but it takes a while to get this done properly. It also takes time to get it done and permitted properly and that’s what is taking longer than assuredly the residents would like to have seen.”

Singer added that their hearts go out to residents and said that the owens have done everything they can to assist displaced residents. 

San Francisco’s 33 Tehama has been flooded out for months and residents of the luxury apartment building said they’ve had enough and more than 50 former tenants of the apartments have filed a lawsuit. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Nazy Fahimi from the law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy about what her clients are asking for.

An attorney representing about 90 tenants against the property owners, Nazy Fahimi, said the closure has dragged on for so long that some tenants have moved away. And even while some are counting the days until they can return, others are worried that something else might go wrong at the building. 

“Imagine being put out of your home,” said Fahimi. “Bad enough, right? But then the notion of ‘when is it going to be fixed,’ ‘when am I going to be able to come back,’ ‘when am I going to have some peace.’ “

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Akira Okura

Akira Okura has lived all over the world, moving to new countries for work throughout his career, including Spain, Singapore, the United States and Japan. “I love moving,” he joked.

Okura was appointed as chief operations officer of Beard Papa’s USA in June. The 435-unit Japanese cream puff franchise has locations internationally and in 16 states. The dessert concept gives customers the option to choose a shell, like honey butter or chocolate éclair, and a filling—vanilla, green tea or chocolate.

Beard Papa’s was founded in 1999 in Osaka, Japan. The brand has since grown in popularity, with the Beard Papa mascot having a spot in Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” voiced by John DiMaggio.

Okura previously worked as an executive for Beard Papa’s parent company, Muginoho International, from 2004 to 2011. He started in Japan before being transferred to the U.S. division in Los Angeles.

Most recently, Okura worked for Franchise World Link as the Japanese country manager.

Previously, Okura was a major part of the U.S. introduction of Beard Papa’s in Los Angeles in 2004. He plans to use that experience to further expand the brand nationwide, with the goal of opening 100 stores in three years. So far, the brand has about 40 open.

“First of all, I want to make many stores in big cities,” he said, naming options like Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to add additional stores. “And then be a strong brand name, and then go to new, smaller cities.”

A lot has changed since Okura was last working on franchise development in the United States 12 years ago—even the price of the cream puff. “Our cream puff, when I was here, was like $2. Now, depending on the store, it’s like $3. So, it’s double,” he said. So far, his colleagues are helping him catch up on the last decade-plus of the brand. “We’re adapting and trying to restart this brand.”

The franchise still has franchisees he used to work with, too. “It was great to work with them again,” Okura said.

Beard Papa’s isn’t just a dessert franchise—the brand considers itself an experience.

“We are using natural vanilla bean for our signature. We are baking the puff in the oven for the customer on site. We inject cream into the freshly baked puff in front of the customer,” Okura said. “It’s entertainment, but it’s eating. Eatertainment.”

Executive Ladder

Dog Haus named Michael Montagano, the former chief executive of Kitchen United, as CEO.

Mike Lopez was hired as Tint World’s chief operations officer.

KFC appointed Paul Tuscano as its first chief digital officer.

Subway named Douglas Fry as president of North America, replacing Trevor Haynes. Carrie Walsh was promoted to president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Mike Kehoe to global chief development officer. Cristina Wells was promoted to senior vice president of marketing.

Cousins Maine Lobster hired longtime Wendy’s executive Angela Coppler as its first head of development.

Mayweather Boxing + Fitness hired Ryan Reeves as chief development officer and Dawn Weiss as chief marketing officer.

FirstLight Home Care hired Kristen Duell as its executive vice president of experience and innovation.

Penn Station East Coast Subs hired Diane Matheson as its director of marketing.

Youth Athletes United promoted Annie Spaulding to chief operating officer and Bob Gibson to president of Soccer Stars.

ParkerStark Management, franchisees of Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders and Scooter’s Coffee, announced Kevin Armantrout as president.

Five Star Franchising, parent of Bio-One and 1-800-Textiles, hired Mike Miller as vice president of franchise development.

Smalls Sliders named Greg Swafford as vice president of supply chain.

Modern Restaurant Concepts, parent company of Qdoba and Modern Market Eatery, brought in Prashant Budhale as chief technology officer.

Carrie Walsh

Papa Johns named Patrick Coelho as senior vice president of development.

Metal Supermarkets named Elliott Tepperman as manager of e-commerce.

Craveworthy Brands named Greg Creed as its first advisory board member.

Big Frog Custom T-Shirts announced David Braun as chief development officer.

HomeFront Brands hired Meaghan Price as vice president of marketing, Paul Tucker as vice president of e-commerce and Jason Livingston as vice president of customer experience and analytics.

Josh Burris joined The Vitamin Shoppe as an advisory board member.

Chicken brand PDQ promoted Kep Sweeney to CEO, filling the hole after the departure of co-founder Nick Reader.

Stellar Service Brands, franchisor of Restoration 1, Bluefrog Plumbing + Drain and Softroc, named Courtney Harmon as brand president of Bluefrog and Softroc. Devin Ward was hired as vice president of franchise development and Kyana Shamloo as director of strategic initiatives for Softroc.

Brix Holdings named Luke Mandola Jr. as vice president of franchise sales and development.

American Family Care brought in Randy Johansen as its new CEO after D. Bruce Irwin, founder and CEO, died.

Yogurtland announced David Kahn as senior director of franchise development.

Lynn Edwards

Hounds Town promoted David Martinelli from vice president of marketing to chief relationship officer.

Dutch Bros President Christine Barone will transition to the role CEO after current CEO Joth Ricci announced he will step down. She starts her position in 2024.

Captain D’s announced Jeff Wilson as chief financial officer.

Ford’s Garage hired David Ragosa as its vice president of franchising development.

Jersey Mike’s brought back Paul Brodeur as vice president of franchise development.

The Joint Chiropractic hired Lori Abou Habib as chief marketing officer.

Taziki’s named Robert Brown as vice president of operations and Lynn Edwards as vice president of human resources and people operations.

Panera Brands named Paul Carbone as chief financial officer.

Valvoline named Lori Flees as CEO and president of the company when former CEO Sam Mitchell retires.

Ziebart International promoted Thomas Bowler to director of United States retail operations.

Rachel Rearden will be stepping into the chief experience officer role at skinBe Med Spa.

Scooter’s Coffee appointed Tim Arpin as chief sales officer.

Little Caesars promoted Paula Vissing from chief operating officer to president of global retail. Ed Gleich was promoted from chief innovation officer to president of global services.

WaterWalk appointed Jim Anhut as president and chief development officer.

Empower Brands announced Cory Lyons as brand president of Koala Insulation.

Send promotions and new hire news in franchising to Megan Glenn, mglenn@franchisetimes.com.

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Ahead of the upcoming budget deliberations, a well-connected citizens’ group is asking Mayor London Breed to rent more hotels to accommodate the homeless.

RescueSF, a nonprofit that works to find solutions to homelessness, told The Standard that it has identified several hotel owners who would like to rent out their properties cheaply, as the city’s struggling tourism industry is causing low occupancy rates.

Renting of enough hotel rooms to provide beds for 2,000 people would cost the city $800,000 Start-up costs and about $64 million in annual operating costs, the group proposes.

This alone could cut the number of vulnerable homeless people in the city in half in just two years, said Mark Nagel, executive director of RescueSF.

“We looked at the city’s plans and they just don’t have the urgency they need,” Nagel said. “The public needs to demand this stuff. It is a matter of life and death for the people on the street.”

The city currently has just over 3,000 shelters in its portfolio, while over 4,000 people sleep on the city’s streets each night.

RescueSF is looking at a former youth hostel turned homeless shelter on Lower Nob Hill as a prototype for its proposal.

A man bicycles past the Ansonia Hotel at 711 Post St. on February 1, 2022. | Camille Cohen/The Standard

Located at 711 Post St., this shelter operates 250 beds under a three-year, $18.7 million contract. Nagel sees 711 Post St. as an example of how people can be protected with a lower startup cost than other solutions.

The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s own five-year plan estimated that it would cost $87 million to maintain 1,075 additional shelters annually. That’s $81,000 per bed per year.

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The ministry has been reluctant to invest in shelters over housing, arguing that it is more expensive to pay 24-hour shelter staff and that deprioritizing housing production would ultimately leave more people homeless. Nagel and his colleagues at Rescue SF argue that the city overestimates the cost of lodging and that renting hotels can be an inexpensive way to get people indoors quickly.

Nagel declined to specify which hotels RescueSF identified because the owners had expressed concerns that publicly expressing an interest in renting to the city would jeopardize their value. But he said they are in downtown San Francisco’s “central hotel corridor.”

But if 711 Post is any indication, Rescue SF’s proposal will likely face opposition from the neighborhood where these shelters are planned.

Neighbors to the 711 Post property have complained that a plethora of poorly maintained hotels in the area have transformed their neighborhood from a tourist hub into a containment zone for the city’s homeless crisis.

Mayor London Breed tours a bedroom at 711 Post St. Animal Shelter in San Francisco. | Benjamin Fanjoy/ The Standard

Susan Walsh, a former public defender for Alameda County and spokesperson for the Lower Nob Hill Neighborhood Alliance, didn’t mince words as she described the impact of the 711 Post St. shelter and other nearby facilities in her community.

“They’re sending us through absolute hell,” Walsh said.

Walsh claimed that conditions around 711 Post St. have deteriorated since the facility reached full capacity in February, arguing that the city must stop trying to solve the homelessness crisis with short-term solutions. She described watching people mentally break down from the window of her apartment and said drug dealers now operate near her home.

An employee of the non-profit organization Urban Alchemy, which manages the site, is said to have shot and killed someone during their lunch break in November.

“You have to stop thinking of it as an emergency and then use it as an excuse to put band-aids on gashes,” Walsh said.

The city is also paying the price for quickly accommodating over 3,000 people in hotels during the pandemic. since Claims for damages totaling over US$40 million were made to repair the destroyed buildings.

However, many homeless advocates viewed this program as a success, noting that it has resulted in 1,842 people moving into permanent shelters and improved health outcomes for many clients.

Aaron Peskin, the chairman of the board, represents Lower Nob Hill. He acknowledged there have been “hiccups” at the 711 Post St. location, but said overall the property has been a success. The city needs to build new shelters across San Francisco to reduce the changes in a particular neighborhood, he added.

“You can treat this as an emergency and still be responsible about it,” Peskin said. “It’s not just about finding a facility and someone to run it; it’s also about providing additional resources to the community.”

Nagel said the pandemic hotel program should be taken as a lesson to provide customers with a fuller service, rather than a warning to avoid setting up accommodations at all.

“That doesn’t happen in a properly run shelter,” Nagel said. “It is in our interest to let the public know that there is another way.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify that RescueSF is not a registered lobbying organization.

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A San Francisco lawmaker is pushing ahead with a bill to increase criminal jury salaries.

Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) plans to expand a pilot program by the City of San Francisco that will increase criminal jury wages from $15 to $100 per day.

Ting believes the move would ensure all Californians have access to a jury of their own kind, as promised by the US Constitution. He said the bill would make juries across the state “fairer and a more accurate reflection of their communities.”

“Unfortunately, if you look at who’s coming through the criminal justice system, they’re disproportionately people of color … they’re disproportionately low-income, working families … and that doesn’t reflect on our jury,” Ting said during a news conference Wednesday in San Francisco.

Under the Be The Jury Act (AB 881), jurors qualify for the $100 daily stipend if their household income is less than 80% of their regional median income and they meet any of the following additional criteria:

• Your employer does not pay for jury service
• Your employer will not compensate for the estimated length of the process
• You are self-employed
• You are unemployed

Both prosecutors and public defenders support the proposal.

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A San Francisco supervisor has introduced legislation that would seek to place an 18-month moratorium on all new parcel delivery services in the city, including Amazon’s proposed 725,000-square foot, last-mile logistics center in Showplace Square.

Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood where the logistics center will be located, introduced the legislation Feb. 15.

Walton said big companies need to have conversations with local residents about large projects planned for their communities.

“As a community, we must be allowed to decide if we want these types of facilities and businesses, and not just to be told that they are moving into our neighborhood,” he said at Feb. 15’s board of supervisors meeting.

The move, backed by the Teamsters and the United Commercial Food Workers, is the latest battle in the war between organized labor and Amazon, which has planned or already opened more than two dozen distribution centers throughout the Bay Area.

Jim Araby, strategic campaign director with the United Food & Commercial Workers, said Amazon has been aggressively buying and leasing “last-mile” warehouses throughout the Bay Area, spending more than $1 billion acquiring properties that are zoned for industrial uses or distribution.

“They need to build as quickly as possible with as few roadblocks as possible,” he said.

He said the 18-month break would allow the city to come up with regulations that would help ensure that parcel delivery services don’t adversely impact local residents with traffic, pollution and noise, and that the workers hired would be treated fairly.

“The city needs the tools necessary to evaluate the impact of this project,” Araby said.

Doug Bloch, political director at Teamsters Joint Council 7, said the legislation represents an escalation in the “trench warfare” the unions have been engaged in against Amazon over the past few years as the company has sought to build warehouses in and close to urban areas Contra Costa County, Morgan Hill, Santa Rosa, Hayward, Gilroy and San Jose.

“The battle has come to San Francisco — this is the big one,” he said. “This is San Francisco saying we need to pause and evaluate this project and what it means for our communities and our workers.”

Bloch said a fight in San Francisco “could have national implications” as Amazon pushes to locate its logistic facilities in the urban core of big cities.

The site where Amazon is hoping to build a warehouse has, for decades, been home to Recology, a trash hauling company. Recology sold it to Amazon for $200 million after unsuccessfully trying to rezone the land for about 1,000 housing units. The property, which abuts California College of the Arts and is at the edge of the city’s design district known as Showplace Square, is zoned for “Production Distribution and Repair,” which means that Amazon does not need any zoning variances in order to built there .

The previous effort to build housing there was strongly opposed by nearby residents in the Dogpatch and Potrero Hill neighborhoods.

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Worrying gray whale deaths along the Pacific coast two years ago appear to have continued into 2020, raising concerns that the ocean giants’ celebrated boom may not be safe.

Once near extinction, the whales are dying from a combination of killer whale attacks, ship attacks and starvation. Scientists aren’t sure why these hazards led to a sharp increase in deaths, but they believe this is related to disruptions in marine conditions caused by climate change.

As the whales swim past California this winter, marine biologists are watching an unprecedented migration between the Arctic and Mexico to see if the worrying trend will continue for another year. Some fear that ocean changes will pose an ever greater challenge to the cherished Titan, and could affect its future in the long term.

“We may have a few years where the death rate is lower,” said Pádraig Duignan, chief pathologist at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands who performed necropsy of the whales. “But I expect such events to happen more often than in the past.”

In 2020, 172 whales were found washed up on beaches along the west coast of North America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 79 were in the United States, 88 in Mexico, and five in Canada. The numbers were only slightly lower than the 214 in 2019.

While some stranded whales are common during the annual whale migration, the recent numbers are not normal. For every whale found dead, the scientists estimate that five to ten more whales die unnoticed. Most sink to the bottom of the ocean or decompose without landing.

In 2019, when the surge in deaths was first observed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “Unusual Mortality Event,” a label that money and researchers pointed to the problem. A team of federal and academic investigators continues to try to learn more about why the whales are dying.

Gray whales were once common in the northern hemisphere. Today they are found in only two different population groups: a small group on the coasts of China, Korea and Russia and the recreational group that travels up and down the west coast every year.

Both populations were critically endangered a century ago, but international protection and the ban on commercial whaling are credited with saving the species. It is believed that the North American group has now grown to nearly 27,000 animals. The 50-foot beasts, which weigh 90,000 pounds and can live for 80 years, have become a popular spectacle for coastal visitors to the Bay Area.

The concern, however, is that increasing disruption to the marine environment could undo decades of progress.

“When the population changes, it can happen dramatically and quickly,” said Duignan. “The whales are fine now, but if something more drastic happens the population could crash.”

Observations and autopsies by Duignan and other scientists reveal a handful of causes of death for the whales. However, poor nutrition often underlies the animal’s condition, and when it did not result in death, it sometimes contributed to it.

For example, if a gray whale succumbs to a killer whale, it could be that the whale is not healthy enough to defend itself or its calf, Duignan said. A collision with a ship could be the result of a whale moving to new places to find food, such as San Francisco Bay, where it is more likely to be exposed to human activity.

This breach was discovered in 2017 by a gray whale just off the coast of Moss Beach on the coast of San Mateo County during a whale watching trip from Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.

Chris Biertuempfel / Oceanic Society 2017

Most of the scientists’ observations and autopsies were conducted in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic limited research and collaboration over the past year. However, those involved in the work say their thinking stays the same: the whale’s poor health is likely linked to stress caused by the ocean caused by climate change.

The biggest problems are in the Arctic, where the whales spend their summers feeding.

There they rely on shrimp-like crustaceans known as amphipods, which they eat from the sea floor. However, these amphipods can become less numerous and less nutritious. The algae that the amphipods eat and that grow on sea ice before falling to the seabed become scarcer as the ice retreats in warmer temperatures. As a result, the amphipods are not as robust and the whales are not getting the meals they are used to.

Higher ocean temperatures in the Pacific have also changed the distribution of the whale’s other prey, which includes plankton, ghost shrimp and crab larvae, and fish that share their prey. Both affect a gray whale’s diet.

“Warmer water is generally not good for productivity,” said Sue Moore, a University of Washington scientist who studies whales in the Alaskan Arctic and is part of the team that studies deaths. “The (new) prey may have less fat and may be less nutritious. The whale’s body condition will show signs of it and if they are female they may not be able to give birth to a calf. “

The whales’ weakened condition also makes them more prone to disease, Moore said.

“Is that enough to trigger the (mortality) event? I don’t know, ”she said.

Fortunately, the whales are very resilient, added Moore. They are able to switch to new food sources and change their migrations to look for food. This helps them withstand the changing ocean and hold out on their 10,000 mile round trip that takes them back to the Baja California lagoons, where they give birth and spend part of the winter.

The deaths eerily resemble a spike in whale deaths two decades ago. In 1999 and 2000, more than 600 whales were reported stranded on the west coast. Scientists estimate that 20% of the total gray whale population has been lost. However, in 2001 the numbers stabilized and so far there has been no significant decrease.

John Calambokidis, senior research biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington and part of the team studying whale deaths, says the current episode may just be another correction in the population.

“There are still many puzzles as to why we saw such a dramatic increase in mortality,” he said. “If we see mortality continuing into 2021, I will become increasingly concerned – and possibly alarmed.”

Kurtis Alexander is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

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