Plans for a shelter that can quickly accommodate hundreds of people living on the street have stalled, a delay that embodies the challenge the city faces to act urgently to address its deepening homelessness crisis to manage something.

The board’s budget and finance committee on Wednesday voted to withhold approval of the $ 18.7 million needed to keep the shelter going until more outreach is done.

More than 250 adults could have moved to an existing property at 711 Post Street in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood in a matter of weeks if San Francisco regulators voted for a $ 18 million grant on Wednesday.

The members of the committee recognized the great challenges facing the homeless in San Francisco. Ultimately, however, they cited a lack of publicity and indiscriminate engagement efforts as reasons to wait another month before considering the allocation.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who does not sit on the committee but represents the district where the shelter would be located, said many of his constituents had not received any real notice of the proposal or this hearing. He described his district as a place with a proven track record of using homeless services, but only after a robust public process.

“There was next to no meaningful and genuine commitment to the community,” said Peskin. “It checked the government at its worst.”

It takes time to gain broad community support, time that people who survive on the streets don’t have.

Officials acknowledged the urgency of the situation and the need to act quickly, but asked for more time to work with local actors to win the neighborhood before moving on.

“We are all aware of the urgency of this work,” said Supervisor Gordon Mar. “But I would repeat what my colleagues said that we cannot use this urgency to go through a bad process.”

At the time of the 2019 annual census, the last since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, around 8,035 people were homeless in the city. There has long been a gap between the number of people who need shelter and the number of beds The City can offer. Last year the city had 5,080 emergency shelters and transition beds.

Mayor London Breed’s homelessness restoration plan aims to close that gap. It stipulates that a total of 2,100 beds for adults and transition ages for teenagers will be added by June 30th.

The property on Post Street between Jones Street and Leavenworth Street would help achieve this goal. The residents would have few barriers to entry and there would be no maximum length of stay. However, they would have to be referred to the shelter and anyone staying there would be checked in and out as they left the building.

The existing building, a former youth hostel, offers a unique residential building model, which means that not everyone sleeps in the same room. It has 123 rooms, ranging from single rooms to four-person rooms. Each floor has a bathroom and a shower, and there is ample communal space in the form of a lounge, lobby and reception. It also includes a commercial kitchen, dining area and basement compartment.

Emily Cohen, deputy director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) said this configuration reflects some of the positive qualities of the hotel program as it gives residents more privacy and independence.

“We have to be smart about how we’re adding more beds, and this project gives us the ability to do that and it can be done pretty quickly,” she said.

Under the proposed agreement, HSH would grant Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that employs people with experience of homelessness or incarceration, $ 18.7 million. It already oversees the operation of a number of street cleaning, homelessness and relief programs across the city, including safe sleeping places, on-site accommodation and secure parking.

Urban Alchemy would not only operate and support the shelter itself around the clock, but also lease the building from February 1 to June 30, 2024.

“We are very excited to be working with Urban Alchemy on this project,” added Cohen. “You have a great track record of opening up new and creative program models with us.”

Based on public comments, the community’s reaction seems polarized.

Some people expressed frustration with the city’s contacting process, which took place during the holiday season and failed to reach many neighbors. They also said Lower Nob Hill did “more than its fair share” in helping the homeless – there is a navigation center just around the corner from the proposed accommodation address – and urged other neighborhoods to provide services.

Others said they feared Urban Alchemy was not equipped to be effective case managers.

Cohen said her agency was ready to put together a working group of local stakeholders to provide answers to questions and address concerns, but she stood up in addition to getting the grant approved as the city prepared to open the property.

“I think the most urgent reason to move forward is the 250 people who would sleep outside while we wait for this process,” she said.

Those who supported the shelter repeated their feelings. They stressed the severity of the emergency on the streets of San Francisco as a reason to act now.

“We absolutely believe that keeping people on the streets for another month is a terrible decision,” said Corey Smith of the Housing Action Coalition. “The situation will not improve after the community meetings.”

Supervisor Ahsha Safai asked if the city could own the building instead of paying someone as a tenant, but was told that HSH’s current strategy was in favor of acquiring buildings that could be converted into permanent supporting housing. This property doesn’t fit well as not every bedroom has an en-suite bathroom, Cohen said.

She pointed out that an overemphasis on permanent supportive housing, which she identified as a long-term solution to homelessness, results in people in need of immediate housing facing few barriers to entry without finding a safe place. For example, if they cannot enter accommodation, they may never be able to move to permanent housing.

“The need for protective beds is one of the most pressing needs we see,” said Cohen. “We’re adding a significant amount of sustained supportive housing, which is incredibly important, but we also need to build up our contingency measures to allow people to flow through the system.”

Although HSH asked the Budget and Finance Committee to reconsider the grant as soon as possible, members voted to wait until the next meeting on February 2nd to discuss the issue again.

cgraf@sfexaminer.com

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SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – The new building in unincorporated Santa Clara County must have all-electric heaters and appliances, as well as connections for charging electric vehicles, according to a new ordinance passed by regulators on Tuesday.

The ordinance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions prohibits natural gas connections in new buildings and calls for the use of electricity for “water heating, space heating, cooking, drying clothes, indoor and outdoor fireplaces as well as decorative devices”. New homes must also have cabling for the installation of battery storage systems.

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For residential and non-residential high-rise buildings as well as hotels and motels, the measure also requires the installation of solar power.

When charging electric vehicles, the requirements vary depending on the size of the building. Single-family houses and townhouses require at least two electric vehicle sockets. Today, larger non-residential projects require high-capacity charging systems and dedicated parking spaces for charging.

According to district officials, the measure goes beyond state requirements that encourage all-electric construction.

Supervisor Otto Lee said in a statement: “This is clearly in line with our climate protection plan and will help us achieve our goal of being 100% CO2 neutral by 2045.”

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In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials claim that all-electric designs are generally less expensive because they don’t require natural gas lines, meters, and vents.

Jasneet Sharma, director of the district’s sustainability bureau, touted building electrification and the use of electric vehicles as a cost-effective, low-risk way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“That means improved indoor air quality and safety for our residents, fewer gas-powered vehicles on our roads and fewer pollutants in the atmosphere,” said Sharma.

Some exceptions apply, including hospitals and correctional facilities and buildings where all-electric devices are “not feasible”. Also excluded are certain accessory apartments (ADU) that are completely contained in a single-family house that is already piped for natural gas.

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The regulation comes into force in February.

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SAN JOSE (BCN) – The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has approved the American Rescue Plan Act stimulus fund allocation to provide up to $ 2,500 in bonuses to county employees for their work during the pandemic.

In Tuesday’s vote, approximately $ 76 million from the county’s first tranche of the $ 187 million ARPA funding will be used to make one-time payments to nearly all of the county’s 22,000 employees through December 3 of this year Afford.

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The county is expected to receive its second tranche of $ 187 million in ARPA funding in May 2022.

The only district employees excluded from receiving the rewards the district calls Hero Pay are the five district managers and the district executive Jeff Smith.

That means senior positions like the sheriff, district attorney, and county assessor – who each earned between $ 330,000 and $ 460,000 in total compensation for fiscal 2019 – also receive a bonus of $ 2,500.

This is an idea that apparently made Supervisor Otto Lee uncomfortable and could explain his decision to abstain. Had he voted for it, the Hero Pay would have been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors.

“I have concerns about how this came about … I don’t want to vote for a $ 2,500 bonus for myself as an elected officer,” Lee said. “I think for so many reasons the amount that has been allocated here seems very generous, but in some ways it is too generous.”

After Lee raised reservations, Supervisor Cindy Chavez made a change to exclude the five district managers from the bonus payment – a move that was supported by all district managers.

Lee also urged employees to create a way for county employees to opt out of Hero Pay for those who are uncomfortable or who don’t need the $ 2,500.

CEO Mike Wassermann attempted to extend Hero Pay to Smith due to his “Herculean” efforts during the pandemic, but Smith graciously refused to accept it.

As of this writing, full-time workers and county part-timers will receive a prorated amount based on the full-time equivalent status of the part-timers and the additional hours worked by the employee.

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Independent In-Home Supportive Services providers receive a $ 500 bonus from the county to top up the additional $ 500 they receive from the state.

Ellenberg found that $ 2,500 is double what other similarly populated counties give in Hero Pay.

Smith said the reason for the amount was because he believed it was what superiors wanted, and joked that the board was “twice as progressive”.

“We had a strong feeling that everyone in the county was actually doing the maximum possible vigorous engagement in responding to the pandemic,” said Smith. “So administratively, we didn’t feel that we could take on a group or a particular job or activity, and that made more money than any other.”

Smith also pointed out that ARPA funding calls for some to be used for Hero Pay, so providing these bonuses is in line with the federal government’s idea of ​​using those dollars.

“We’re just pursuing the intent of the bill,” said Smith.

The district also decides on the granting of bonuses for the approximately 3,000 “additional workers” who did not have a regular schedule and instead supported the district’s efforts at times.

Additional assistants, often referred to as shift workers, can be found in “pretty much any department that does a variety of things,” including nurses, clerks, secretaries, and social workers, Smith said.

“We still have a formula to work out,” continued the district executive. “We couldn’t agree on what we would agree on.”

Smith said the county will have to consult with several unions to ensure everyone is on board with Hero Pay before the money is distributed in December.

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SAN MATEO COUNTY (CBS SF) – San Mateo County’s regulators on Tuesday will consider giving millions in financial relief to small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board of directors will discuss three issues related to corporate discharge.

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First, they will consider donating $ 2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to small businesses that have received no other aid in the past year.

If approved, the SMC Strong Small Business Assistance Program would provide 200 grants of $ 10,000 each to qualified small businesses in 2021.

The program would require companies to submit a short pre-proposal and then the grant recipients would be selected at random.

Second, the county will consider allocating $ 500,000 to micro-food businesses such as cottage owners, caterers, food trucks, and food trucks.

These companies are eligible for grants of $ 2,500, $ 5,000, or $ 10,000, respectively, depending on the type of business. To be eligible, businesses must have approval from the county’s Environmental Health Services Division. Those who have received grants from previous grant programs cannot receive this grant.

Thirdly, the regulators will consider introducing a regulation that allows the sale of food from domestic kitchens.

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The Small Business Kitchen Operation Ordinance will create a process for licensing domestic kitchens under the county environmental health services department under state law.

If approved, the regulation would apply nationwide and allow home kitchens to run for a two-year pilot phase.

Regulators will consider allocating $ 238,000 in federal funds to the Environmental Health Services Department for administrative costs related to regulating kitchen operations at home.

Managers will also consider allocating an additional $ 62,500 to provide $ 2,500 in grants to permit holders under the pilot program.

The meeting on Tuesday starts at 9 a.m. The session takes place virtually via Zoom. Attendees can access the meeting’s agenda and a video streaming link at https://sanmateocounty.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.

Those wishing to comment publicly can access the meeting via Zoom at https://smcgov.zoom.us/s/95809512148 or by calling (669)900-6833. The meeting ID is: 958 0951 2148.

People can also email public comments on specific agenda items to boardfeedback@smcgov.org.

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Outdoor parklets for restaurants and businesses will remain a part of the San Francisco cityscape after the pandemic.

The board of directors approved an amended version of the regulation regulating the Shared Spaces program on Tuesday, which will allow small businesses in particular to continue to use public sidewalks and parking spaces to strengthen their businesses – and to close these spaces at night.

Regulators disagreed on whether companies should close parklets overnight. Proponents of closing the parklets said that opening the parklets places a responsibility on business owners to clean the rooms of overnight clutter or to deal with the noise from people using the rooms after business hours. Proponents of keeping the parklets open overnight said they wanted to preserve the public space for public use.

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí introduced two last-minute changes on Tuesday to allow companies to close parklets overnight and keep the program running within the planning department, which issued parklet permits during the pandemic, rather than operating on public ones Relocate work. Both changes were passed, with night closing times set from midnight to 7 a.m.

“This program is one of the lasting legacies and a positive direction for our city,” Safaí said. “The biggest complaints were when people used these rooms after hours. It is more difficult to defend these spaces when they are only open 24 hours a day. “

Supervisors Safaí, Matt Haney, Rafael Mandelman, Gordon Mar, Myrna Melgar and Catherine Stefani voted for companies to be allowed to close the parklets overnight.

Haney, who represents the downtown neighborhoods hardest hit by outdoor homelessness and drug use, said business owners in his district told him that opening parklets overnight would be “significant challenges”. He feared that companies would be held responsible for problems like selling drugs in a parklet.

“If you asked for these to stay open overnight, they would be unusable for a lot of the small businesses I represent,” Haney said.

Superiors Aaron Peskin, Connie Chan, Dean Preston, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton voted for parklets to be open to everyone overnight to save space that is hidden from the public.

“We’re starting this incredible program that has changed the landscape of San Francisco,” said Ronen. “We’re giving up an extraordinary amount of public space to accommodate private companies, as I believe we should, but in return I believe the public should have the greatest possible access to it.”

Legislation requires companies to add a public bank nearby or in the parklet.

In recent months, the Parklet program has been put to the test as elected officials grappled with regulating the hundreds of outdoor areas that became a lifeline for small businesses during the pandemic. In particular, the board members wanted to ensure that parklets are accessible for disabled people and discussed the permanent privatization of public spaces.

At some point, Mayor London Breed threatened to put the Parklet program on the ballot if the board did not pass it.

Mom-and-pop businesses enjoy a two-year program fee waiver to aid in economic recovery. Fees range from $ 1,000 to $ 3,000 for a single parking space, depending on the type of parklet, and are charged for formula chains.

Some business owners were pleased to hear that the program they saw as a lifeline would continue.

“I’m gushing right now,” said Ben Bleiman, founder of the SF Bar Owner Alliance, which represents 475 bar owners in the city. “This is the biggest positive change for small businesses in my 20 years in San Francisco.”

Bleiman put up parklets in his two bars – Soda Popinski’s in Nob Hill and Teeth in the Mission – as soon as he could. The outdoor area at Nob Hill is “life or death,” he said, because without it he would not have been able to reopen the bar.

Bleiman was grateful for the latest change that allowed companies to close their parklets at night, arguing that not even city parks stay open all night.

“I thought this was a recipe for disaster,” he said. “The downsides were very obvious. We just have a street clean and homeless and crime and security epidemic in the city around our trade corridors. Having to keep these open at night would have set off a beacon for this activity that would have put small businesses in direct conflict with our neighbors. “

Bleiman did not understand the argument that parklets privatize public space, especially when they take up parking spaces. He stressed that there would still be enough space on the sidewalk for people, including disabled or elderly people, to pass by.

Shirley To, owner of the Bottoms Up Bar and Lounge on Mission Street near the Excelsior, had mixed feelings about the plan to make parklets permanent. Last year, the parklet she built in August enabled her to keep her business open.

But she had problems, including homeless people using the parklet “like a home” and leaving them to clean the room, she said. And in May a drunk driver rammed the parklet late at night, tore a hole in the wall, and hit a nearby homeless man. With repairs, she ended up paying more than $ 8,000 for the parklet.

The parklet was still open, but didn’t use it very much, she said, because her guests prefer to be indoors near the TV and protected from the wind and cold. She said she would give him another chance when the weather warms up.

“I’m still a little worried,” she said.

JK Dineen and Mallory Moench are contributors to the San Francisco Chronicle. Emails: jdineen@sfchronicle.com mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen @mallorymoench

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San Franciscans can avoid the evacuation cliff looming ahead of other California renters if the expanded protection that Supervisor Dean Preston is proposing this week gets approval from the larger board of directors.

Under current law, tenants who have been financially affected by the pandemic are only allowed to pay a quarter of their rent and do not have to be evicted. However, this benefit expires on June 30th. With little appetite at the state level to expand protection under Senate Act 91, tenants and lawyers have been waiting eagerly for what has become known as the “eviction cliff” as the rent relief has still reached many needy people.

Under the laws introduced by Preston on Tuesday and announced on Wednesday, tenants in San Francisco could continue to pay 25 percent of their rent through the end of the year. The impending expiry of SB 91 means that local jurisdictions are again free to take their own eviction moratorium measures.

While Preston is not taking his passage for granted, Mayor London has ordered and extended Breed moratoriums on emergency clearing, while the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed laws based on those orders. On Tuesday, the supervisory authorities unanimously approved an extension of the evictions through no fault, as resulted from the move in and the renovation of owners, until September.

“People are still struggling with the pandemic and are only just finding their booth,” Preston told the examiner. “This is quite a big endeavor to get all of those funds out quickly. The last thing we need is that pressure on all evictions that take place while this is being sorted out. “

The legislation would give tenants more time to stay in their homes while rent relief is slowly distributed to landlords while maintaining public health, Preston said. One version of the legislation is an emergency law that can only last 60 days and one that is implemented through the standard board process and allows protection until December 31st.

In the first six months after the coronavirus shutdown alone, tenants in San Francisco have amassed an estimated $ 81 million to $ 196 million in unpaid rents, according to an October report by Budget and Legislative Analyst. The process for tenants to obtain rent relief from the state has been criticized as being slow, cumbersome and full of obstacles.

Elena Cruz, who has been unemployed since March, applied for relief under the state program but received no notifications about it. This week, she received a letter from her landlord saying she must move immediately to pay $ 18,000 in rent back or vacate her 18-year-old home, said Maria Jandres, organizer of the San Francisco Housing Rights Committee in the southeast.

“She has a lot of trauma,” said Jandres, translating from Spanish for Cruz. “We have already received these communications and will be in May. We really, really need to do something to make sure the Franciscans stay in their homes. “

Breed announced Monday that San Francisco’s emergency rental program will begin accepting applications starting Friday. The Mayor’s Housing and Community Development Office will be able to distribute a portion of $ 90 million received through government assistance to needy renters, but has a little over a month through June 30.

“This has been a year of challenges that we have not faced before and the economic consequences of the pandemic have been devastating for so many companies and employees,” Breed said in a statement. “This rent relief is critical to helping tenants and small home owners get back on their feet as we continue our economic recovery. It is absolutely vital that we keep people in their homes and this funding will help make that happen. “

Tenants who can provide evidence of financial difficulties can apply for three months ‘rent back and six months’ rent via sf.gov/renthelp.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been incredibly difficult for vulnerable renters and home owners struggling with missed rents and deferred mortgages,” said Charley Goss, manager of government and community affairs for the San Francisco Apartment Association. “Now that local rental assistance is available, it is vital that housing providers and their tenants in underserved communities can quickly and easily access and navigate the program.”

However, a political battle for additional rent relief has arisen. Proposal I, a property sales tax of more than $ 10 million, which was passed by voters in November, was used as rental aid and affordable housing. Approximately $ 10 million from the revenue has been approved for rent relief, with another additional budget pending approval.

Prop. I has raised $ 58.5 million since it went into effect in January, according to the Controller’s Office. While viewed as a very volatile source of income, it is expected to soar $ 800 million with the high profile sale of PG & E’s downtown headquarters.

Tenants and lawyers have asked Breed to use the funds as intended for the coming financial year. It has claimed that it would not approve any additional allocations until its budget is launched on June 1st.

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CBS San Francisco Staff Report

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — With a surge in coronavirus cases, the information you need to know is coming fast and furious. Here’s a roundup of the COVID stories we’ve published over the last 24 hours.

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California Shatters Daily Record For New COVID Cases, Deaths
California is seeing the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic, reporting more than 53,000 new cases and 293 deaths on Wednesday, both new daily records while hospitals struggle to absorb a surge in patients. The state has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soar in recent weeks. Hospitals are filling up so fast that officials are rolling out mobile field facilities and scrambling to hire doctors and nurses, while the state is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues. Read More

Solano Health Officer Worries Order Won’t Slow Spread, Some ‘Aren’t Going To Be Persuaded’
FAIRFIELD — As all Bay Area counties are set to enter a stay-at-home order due to ICU capacity dropping below 15%, Solano County’s health officer worries the latest order will not stop the surge in COVID-19 cases. In Solano County, ICU capacity has dropped to 13%. Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said the surge in cases and hospitalizations can be directly linked to Thanksgiving and he doubts people will change their ways for Christmas. “I think this is going to be a really, really tough holiday season. It really will be,” Matyas told KPIX 5 on Wednesday. Matyas is basing his belief over what has happened over the last week and a half. The health officer said 13 deaths can be traced back to holiday get-togethers. “Family members are dying because of having attended Thanksgiving events that were not run properly,” says Matyas. Read More

San Mateo County To Join Stay-At-Home Order Amid Record Cases, Rising Hospitalizations
SAN MATEO COUNTY — As hospitals strain under surging COVID-19 cases, San Mateo County officials on Wednesday urged people to stay home for the holidays. The county’s Deputy Chief of Health Srija Srinivasan and County Manager Mike Callagy said during a media briefing that the county’s COVID-19 numbers were extremely concerning. “We haven’t been able to mitigate the increase that began around the Thanksgiving holiday time,” Srinivasan said. “The strains on hospital capacity are too real.” San Mateo County’s COVID-19 numbers and hospitalizations have been on the rise since early November, according to state and county data. The county has seen record-high case numbers in December. In the last week, the county had 2,602 new lab-confirmed cases for a daily average of 372 cases, the highest for any seven-day period. Read More

Ultracold Freezers For Pfizer Shot Arrive In San Mateo County With Distribution Set To Begin
SAN MATEO — Two sub-zero freezers slated to store thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 have arrived in San Mateo County, county officials said Wednesday. The freezers at San Mateo Medical Center will store allotments for the county’s health department and for Seton Medical Center, and vaccines for other acute hospitals will be shipped directly to the respective hospitals. “These freezers are a really big deal only when we look at the Pfizer vaccine because it needs to be stored at -70 degrees while the Moderna vaccine just needs to be freezing,” Dr. Anand Chabra, county COVID-19 mass vaccination section chief and Family Health Services medical director, said. “Because of its formulation, in order to be viable it needs to be stored this way and the other thing is that there are no preservatives in there.” County hospitals may start vaccinations as early as Thursday, as the county has already received its first allotment of 5,850 Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday. Read More

Bay Area Post Offices See Crush Of Holiday Packages During Pandemic; Customers Report Delays
PLEASANT HILL — Along with the annual avalanche of Christmas packages, the US Postal Service faces new challenges in 2020, including there is the tidal wave of online shopping due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, not to mention the virus itself. “Well, we’re just like other employers that we have to be cognoscente of the fact that you may have a case and we do have those. There’s no denying that,” said USPS spokesperson Augie Ruiz. “It’s sporadic.” The USPS said they have had very few cases but when a case is discovered, it triggers mandated CDC guidelines; targeted sanitation, deep cleanings of work spaces and quarantine. All when there’s an historic workload during unprecedented times. Monica Thow noticed somethings was up with her mail. She checks it twice a day, sometimes more. Thow said her mail carrier was gone a couple days and no one was available to take his place “The talk is there’s been a lot of frustration,” she said. Read More

Bay Area ICU Capacity At Under 13%; Stay-At-Home Order To Go Into Effect For Entire Region
SAN FRANCISCO — According to the California COVID-19 website, Bay Area ICU capacity dipped below 13% Wednesday, triggering a stay-at-home order for the entire region starting Thursday night. Data on the state’s COVID-19 site showed that the Bay Area hospital region had dropped to 12.9% ICU capacity as of late Wednesday morning when the latest COVID case and ICU capacity figures were updated. Much of the Bay Area — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties plus the city of Berkeley — already adopted the state’s stay-at-home order on December 7, well ahead of the region dropping below the 15% ICU capacity threshold set by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month. Read More

California Exodus? Growth Rate At Record Low As More People Leave
SAN FRANCISCO — More people are leaving California than moving here, continuing a trend that coupled with fewer births has slowed the growth rate in the nation’s most populous state to a record low amid a pandemic that is reshaping its future. Officially, California added 21,200 people from July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2020, increasing the state’s population a paltry 0.05% to 39.78 million people — still by far the most of any state. But the bigger news from Wednesday’s new population estimate was that 135,600 more people left the state than moved here. It’s only the 12th time since 1900 the state has had a net migration loss, and the third largest ever recorded. California became a state in 1850 after a gold rush spurred a massive migration of people moving west to seek their fortune. The state boomed again following World War II because of the aerospace and defense industry, and again in the 1980s and early 1990s as technology companies made Silicon Valley a household name. Read More

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‘Mental Health Issues At Crisis Level’ For Children During COVID Pandemic, Expert Warns
LOS ANGELES — Educators and therapists say the pandemic has created a serious mental health crisis for students. For nine months, Dr. Veronica Brown, principal of Manchester Avenue Elementary School in South L.A., has been unable to hug her students or even see them in person. “I thought about the kids,” Brown told CBS Los Angeles Tuesday. “I thought about, oh my goodness, who are they gonna turn to now? Because they turn to us for everything.” She says that over the past several months, she has seen more stress and pain in their lives “Sometimes, they’ll tell us that such-and-such passed away, and then there’s that moment where we say, ‘oh my goodness, let’s give him a big hug everybody,’” Brown said. Read More

San Jose Places Caps On Food Delivery Service Fees
SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County and the South Bay’s largest city, San Jose, both approved caps on food delivery service fees Tuesday in an effort to protect struggling small businesses in the wake of COVID-19. The county’s temporary ordinance caps delivery fees for third-party delivery services, like Uber Eats or DoorDash, at 15 percent of the purchase price for orders and at 10 percent for pickup/takeout orders from any restaurant. The emergency regulation goes into effect on Saturday and expires once restaurants can resume indoor operations or at the county’s discretion. “The current pandemic unfortunately creates opportunity for price gouging,” Supervisor Joe Simitian said. “That’s the problem we’re tackling.” Since restaurants were required to close both indoor and outdoor operations earlier this month, they have had to rely on pickup and delivery orders to sustain themselves into the next year. Read More

Google Glitch, Snowstorm Create Woes for Virtual Learners
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Snowstorms and technical malfunctions are still delaying school days, even when all the students are online. Students in the Northeast might be giddily anticipating a storm that the National Weather Service says could drop a foot or more of snow across the region Wednesday and Thursday. The glitch that came Monday, though, wasn’t in the forecast. “Google is down across the globe, which is the COVID version of a snow day,” Superintendent Joe Clark tweeted to followers from his Nordonia Hills City School District in northern Ohio. “Until it’s back up, Nordonia students, read some books, play outside, and help your parents around the house.” All-virtual learning — in use by many U.S. schools this holiday season to help curb the spread of the coronavirus — has some districts talking about not needing snow days anymore, even after students return to school in person. If there’s inclement weather, they argue, students can simply log on from home. That is, if the technology holds. Read More

CoCo Supes Ask State to Prioritize Teachers for Vaccines
MARTINEZ — The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors formally asked the state this week to consider teachers as “essential workers” and thus among the first people to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. In its request to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials, the board stated that vaccinating teachers and all other school personnel at public, private and any other schools, the supervisors said, will better prepare them for reopening schools as early as possible. “We’re taking the initiative here … to convey to the state, as it develops its vaccine priorities, that we want all school personnel to be prioritized as essential workers,” Supervisor John Gioia said Tuesday. Distance learning, he said, is not necessarily effective, especially in communities of color, and reopening schools as soon as it’s safe is important. Supervisor Diane Burgis noted the board is only making its stance clear, and has no power to give school workers vaccine priority. She also stressed the county doesn’t have the authority to reopen schools — that is up to each individual district, and influenced by the health orders in each county. Read More

Other trending Bay Area COVID stories

Marin County Runs Out Of ICU Beds; ‘Transmission Is Accelerating Exponentially’
SAN RAFAEL — With new COVID cases and hospitalizations continuing to soar, Marin has become the first Bay Area county to reach its maximum ICU capacity. On Tuesday, county health officials reported that all their fully staffed intensive care beds at Marin’s three hospitals were now in use. Of those being treated, 12 of the county’s 29 beds are occupied by COVID patients. “We know that community transmission is accelerating exponentially,” Dr. Matt Willis told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Our hospitals are at or near full capacity, and case rates in Marin are four times higher than one month ago.” And that’s with the surge in new cases stemming back to the Thanksgiving holiday still accelerating. During his Tuesday COVID update, Gov. Gavin Newson reminded Californians that while the COVID vaccine rollout has begun, it will not directly impact the current surge in cases which is filling up hospital rooms, morgues and ICUs at an alarming rate. Read More

Coronavirus Grim Toll Soars; State Purchases Cache Of 5,000 Body Bags; Launches Emotional PSA
SAN FRANCISCO — While Gov. Gavin Newsom began his weekly COVID update on an upbeat note as health care workers began receiving the Pfizer vaccine, he ended with the grim death toll the pandemic continues to take all across California. Over the last 24 hours, 142 people have died of COVID complications in California. Over the last 14 days, the state has averaged 163 deaths a day. On November 14, that average was 41 a day. “Think about if we continue on the path we are (during the surge) what that January 14th number could look like,” Newsom said. In Santa Clara County, health officials reported 24 new deaths on Tuesday while Los Angeles County had 86 and San Diego County had 32 fatalities. Read More

Critical Care Doctor, Intensive Care Nurse First To Receive COVID-19 Vaccines At SF General Hospital
SAN FRANCISCO — A critical care doctor and an intensive care nurse received San Francisco’s first COVID-19 vaccination shots Tuesday as the initial allotment from Pfizer was being distributed and administered to front line health care workers at Bay Area hospitals. A batch of 2,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital on Monday. On Tuesday, Dr. Antonio Gomez and intensive care nurse Phung Nguyen were the first to receive the shots. “This is a historic day for our city and, we hope, the start of a turning point in our response to COVID-19,” said Breed. “This has been a really tough year, and this is good news for our city and for the fight against COVID. It gives us some much-needed hope during an otherwise challenging and uncertain time.” Read More

MORE NEWS: COVID: San Francisco Looks At Spending $125M Surplus On Businesses, Residents Struggling In Pandemic

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Debuts ‘Holiday In The Park’ Drive-Thru Experience
VALLEJO — What used to be a walk-thru holiday experience is now a drive-thru one. For the first time ever, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom redesigned “Holiday in the Park” to entertain people from their cars. It is the only such event in a Northern California theme park. The 20-minute ride features festive displays and more than a million lights choreographed to music, along a mile-long stretch. “It was really cool that they’re adapting to COVID, so that we can drive through and still enjoy the lights,” said Mckenzie Salinas of Rohnert Park. Solano County, where the park is located, is one of the few Bay Area counties that does not yet have a stay-at-home order. “It’s really nice, I like that I can get out and do something rather than be stuck inside,” said Sam Aparicio of Walnut Creek. “They had all the people waving and stuff like that it was really neat.” Read More

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