Despite recent alarming revelations that children in 10 San Francisco and Oakland schools had been exposed to lead contamination well above federal safety standards, data from household water quality tests performed this year by the Bay Area’s two major utilities indicate that lead levels remain well below dangerous thresholds in the vast majority of the region’s homes.

In addition to routine systemwide inspections for lead and other toxic materials in their drinking water, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which together deliver water to more than 4 million Bay Area residents, also conduct lead tests for individual households, upon request.

San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission performed water quality analyses on 211 household faucets this year and taps from Jan. 2 to Oct. 17. Of those, six contained lead levels above 15 parts per billion. By far the most heavily contaminated sample, taken from a bathtub faucet, registered 698 parts per billion. Notably, since shower and bath faucets aren’t considered typical drinking-water fixtures, they are exempt from lead-free plumbing requirements.

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The San Francisco agency charges $25 for each tap it checks, though households eligible for the Women, Infants and Children Program, which provides food and other benefits to low-income families, can apply to have the tests performed for free.

Across the Bay, EBMUD rolled out a program in March that allows customers to apply for a voucher for a certified lab to test their water at no cost. Since the program began, 70 tap tests have been conducted and none were found to contain lead levels above 15 parts per billion.

In 2014, the agency also analyzed the taps at 55 of its customer’s homes as part of a scheduled water quality testing program required under federal regulations. In all, 99 percent of those tests revealed lead levels below 15 parts per billion, and 90 percent were below five parts per billion.

Lead can cause a grim array of short- and long-term health problems, including brain and nervous system damage, anemia and hypertension, when enough accumulates in the body. It poses an acute threat to young children, who can absorb up five times more of it when ingested compared to adults, according to the World Health Organization.

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While no amount lead is considered “safe” to ingest, the Environmental Protection Agency’s lead and copper rule mandates that water utilities take action when systemwide lead levels exceed 15 parts per billion. Both SFPUC and EBMUD rely on that as a benchmark for household lead tests.

Since the 1980s, efforts to eliminate water service lines containing lead have “greatly reduced” exposure to lead in tap water nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control or Prevention. In most cases, when dangerous levels of lead are detected, the source can be traced back to corroded household plumbing materials, often in older homes. Lead cannot be seen, smelled or tasted when dissolved in water.

“It is much more common for older (plumbing) fixtures to have trace elements of lead than pipes underground, said David Briggs, EBMUD’s manager of water operations.

Both utilities recommend that anyone who finds elevated lead levels in their home taps arrange to have their fixtures inspected and replaced — particularly in older homes. Since 2000, California law has required that all kitchen faucets sold in the state must be “ultra-low lead.” According to the SFPUC, most faucets purchased prior to 1997 were made of brass or chrome-plated brass containing up to 8 percent lead.

“We encourage property owners to contact plumbers and contractors directly to make upgrades to their plumbing system,” said Tyler Gamble, an SFPUC spokesman. When replacing plumbing fixtures, the utility also recommends selecting products certified by the National Sanitation Foundation as being “lead free.”

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In homes with older plumbing systems and fixtures, experts also suggest flushing taps for up to two minutes before drawing water for cooking or drinking to clear away any water that might be contaminated. That’s particularly important to do for faucets that haven’t been used in several hours, when lead can leach from a faucet’s interior.

“If people aren’t clear about how safe their water is, running and flushing the taps is the best thing to do,” Briggs said.

The post Checks present that lead ranges in Bay Space ingesting water are usually not harmful appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Waymo is beginning to operate electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs in San Francisco with no human safety driver at the wheel.

Waymo

Waymo, the first self-driving company to launch a US robotaxi service, said it’s shifting to fully autonomous vehicle operation in San Francisco and expanding the service area where its Arizona robotaxi fleet operates into downtown Phoenix.

The Alphabet Inc. unit, which began testing Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs loaded up with cameras, laser lidar sensors, radar and computers in San Francisco in 2020, said it’s operating some of those vehicles without a human backup driver behind the wheel. For now, they’ll only be hauling Waymo employees, rather than paying customers. Cruise, backed by General Motors, is starting to offer paid autonomous rides to commuters in San Francisco, although Waymo claims it’s the first company to have robotaxi services in more than one location.

“We’re particularly excited about this next phase of our journey as we officially bring our rider-only technology to San Francisco—the city many of us at Waymo call home,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post. “We ‘ve learned so much from our San Francisco Trusted Testers over the last six months, not to mention the innumerable lessons from our riders in the years since launching our fully autonomous service in the East Valley of Phoenix. Both of which have directly impacted how we bring forward our service as we welcome our first employee riders in SF.”

The arrival of autonomous ride services in a dense, urban environment like San Francisco is a big accomplishment for a technology that’s proven to be more complex and challenging to perfect than anticipated a few years ago, despite billions of dollars of investment and, in Waymo’s case , more than a decade of R&D. Along with Cruise, Amazon’s Zoox unit is also preparing to launch a San Francisco-based robotic ride service. Competitors including Argo AI, backed by Ford and Volkswagen, and Motional, supported by Hyundai Motor and Aptiv, have plans for their own autonomous ride services in Miami and Las Vegas, respectively.

In addition to its robotaxi program, Waymo is starting to deploy autonomous semi-trucks, initially in Texas, and has been lining up customers and truck builders for what some analysts think could be a compelling business owing to rising demand for freight and a shortage of long-haul truck drivers.

Waymo began giving test rides in autonomous minivans in suburban Phoenix in 2017, and introduced fully autonomous rides in 2020, limiting the service area to East Valley communities including Chandler and Tempe. The company is planning to make the service available in downtown Phoenix as well though just like in San Francisco, initially, only Waymo employees will be getting rides in that part of the city.

“It’s not a matter of validating your technology for certain streets, but deploying a confident Waymo Driver that is prepared to handle what could happen on that type of street anywhere,” Dmitri Dolgov, also Waymo co-CEO, said in the post. ” Just as our learnings from Phoenix’s East Valley transferred to San Francisco, our learnings from San Francisco are already informing our progress in downtown Phoenix.”

Though it’s been generating revenue for a few years, Waymo hasn’t yet disclosed that information or said when it expects to become profitable.

The post Waymo Begins Totally Autonomous Assessments In San Francisco, Increasing Arizona Robotaxi Zone appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Jori Epstein

United States today

The cowboys know.

They’re tired of hearing about it, too.

Yes, Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers scheme screams versatility. Yes, a receiver like Deebo Samuel can dash downfield as a running back, while tight end George Kittle is just as deadly as a blocker and passcatcher. Yes, the 49ers will combine mental acuity with toughness as they select different plays from identical formations and challenge defensive opponents’ ability to predict where and how they will go.

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On an unseasonably warm day in March, Michael Johnson lay in his tent, sweat dripping down his face, on Minna alley just off 6th Street in San Francisco’s Soma neighborhood.

As they often do, a team of city outreach workers, sanitation workers, cops and a firefighter swarmed the alley, which was lined with tents. They were there to offer unhoused San Franciscans a choice.

They could accept an offer of some form of shelter, or they could take down their tents and move along. What people like Johnson, who has been homeless two years, couldn’t do was stay on this street, where the sidewalk was blocked by dozens of garbage bags. A power washing of the block and a collection of trash would take place after the people departed.

“The point is I want you out of the street, big homie,” one outreach worker told Johnson.

Encampments have been set up around San Francisco to provide tents, toilets, showers and food to unhoused people. The city calls them “safe sleep sites.”

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The 38-year-old understood. He pulled down his tent, grabbed his bike and backpack and prepared to move along — but not before grabbing an ice cream from a nearby store.

Instead of going to a large congregate shelter or a hotel, Johnson boarded a bus with a plastic sheet partition protecting the driver from the virus. He was brought to one of San Francisco’s six sanctioned tent encampments, which sprouted up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and have become a key part of the city’s homelessness response and a lightning rod for debate among activists, politicians and homeless people.

“You can come and go as you please. There are not as many rules.”

Michael Johnson, referring to the city’s tent sites

Cities up and down the West Coast, including Seattle, Sacramento and San Francisco, confronted by the high cost and slow progress of building housing for homeless people, have turned to these permitted tent encampments. They offer services such as toilets, meals and help finding a permanent place to stay. These efforts, once anathema among some homeless service providers, are becoming more widely accepted as unsheltered homelessness has grown and government officials reckon with a pandemic that has made placing people in large shelters dangerous.

The Times spoke with more than two dozen people who either have stayed or currently stay in these sites. Many wished for a room in a hotel or an apartment to call their own. Still, a majority said that they appreciate these lots, some of which will eventually have supportive housing built on them.

A safe sleeping site on Gough Street in downtown San Francisco.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Johnson was one. He’s been trying to overcome an addiction to methamphetamine and wants to find a permanent place to live — something he hasn’t had since he broke up with his girlfriend two years ago. A hotel room would be a start, but he won’t go to one of the city’s large shelters, which have been the site of large outbreaks of COVID-19 and have strict rules and curfews.

“You can come and go as you please,” he said of the sanctioned tent encampments, which are called “safe sleep sites” by the city. “There are not as many rules.”

The city’s first site in the shadow of City Hall and next to the public library sprouted up just as the shelter system’s capacity was limited by the coronavirus and large encampments with 10 or 20 tents began to appear on San Francisco’s streets. It started as an ad hoc response to the pandemic but will probably remain in some form.

City officials say there’s more demand for the roughly 260 spots at these sanctioned tent encampments around the city than spaces available. On one day in early April, there were five open sanctioned camping spots, four spaces open at one of the city’s congregate shelters and two hotel rooms. All were filled by outreach workers by the early afternoon.

“You can rest here,” says Erin, 37, of the tent site on Fulton Street. “I don’t plan to be homeless forever.”

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

City officials, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, have partially credited this effort for a decline in the number of tents on the city’s streets. In April 2020, there were 1,100 tents on San Francisco streets and 66 encampments of six tents or more. Now, there are just under 400 tents and 10 large encampments, according to Jeff Kositsky, who previously ran the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and now is in charge of its unsheltered homeless response.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently debated and eventually shot down a proposal to require the city to provide shelter for all unhoused people. Its lead supporter has said that this could be accomplished mainly through the expansion of the safe sleep sites. The city’s latest point-in-time count found about 8,000 homeless people, but officials say based on other estimates the number is closer to 20,000.

“This creates choices for people. They have agency in getting to decide how to live their life,” Kositsky said.

He added that the city was attempting to strike a balance between creating safe, passable sidewalks, which housed residents want, and also helping find places for homeless people to stay in a humane and dignified way. Kositsky described the tension between these two needs as he stood in the city’s largest sanctioned encampment on Fulton Street, near City Hall. About 140 people sleep there each night.

Kenneth Lieth, who goes by Stormy, stands with his puppy at a tent site run by Homeless Youth Alliance.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The dynamic on the streets “has to do with the failures of our brand of capitalism, institutional racism, a broken behavioral health system, and none of us who do this work, we’re not going to fix that,” Kositsky said. “What we’re trying to do is manage a really deep systemic issue where homelessness is a very visual depiction of our failures as a society.”

In Los Angeles, simmering public anger about large unsanctioned encampments has also led politicians to seek out immediate solutions. One sanctioned encampment on the West L.A. campus of the Veterans Administration opened last summer.

“Sometimes people aren’t ready to go into housing. People like this because they get to be in their own space.”

Lena Miller, Urban Alchemy CEO

In the aftermath of the controversial closure of Echo Park Lake and removal of homeless people, another site opened recently on a parking lot in East Hollywood.

It will hold about 120 people — and cost about $2,600 per person, per month, according to city documents. It is being managed by the same organization, Urban Alchemy, that’s running several of the sites in San Francisco. There’s an expectation that this won’t be the only one, and homeless services officials in Los Angeles have been talking to their counterparts in the Bay Area about how to best manage the sites.

A woman is helped out of the portable shower at the safe sleep site run by Urban Alchemy on Fulton Street.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Lena Miller, chief executive of Urban Alchemy, said these locations help people begin to overcome the traumas they faced on the streets. The sites help them stabilize, she said, and begin to consider how they can move forward in life.

“Sometimes people aren’t ready to go into housing,” Miller said. “People like this, because they get to be in their own space. They get to be in community. They’re embraced and then they can start to heal, and they’re safe — not only physically but emotionally, and spiritually.”

San Francisco’s Fulton Street encampment began spontaneously at the outset of the pandemic and grew to about 90 tents packed closely together. Then, activists say, one evening city workers erected a fence around it and enrolled people who chose to stay. Now, 10-by-10-foot squares delineate where people can place their tents and keep their possessions.

Showers and toilets sit in one corner of the lot, and a canopy offers people a shaded space to charge their phones. There are three meals a day, and people from a needle exchange frequently visit.

The fenced-in lot is not without its problems. Phones are stolen regularly and fights between the staff and homeless people break out sometimes, encampment residents say. One resident said he carried a machete to keep himself safe. Still, multiple people said they found it preferable to living on the street and having to constantly strike their tent when public works crews arrive to power-wash sidewalks and pick up detritus. Others preferred it to living indoors because it afforded them a freedom and comfort they pined for.

Jody Morrow, 46, an unemployed plumber, moved to the Fulton Street site last summer after being told to leave his camp under a freeway.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

“All that craziness out there doesn’t come in here,” said Jody Morrow, 46, an unemployed plumber who arrived from Arkansas three years ago and has been mostly homeless since.

Before moving into the Fulton Street site last summer, he lived in a tent under the freeway and was told he couldn’t stay there by city workers who needed to clean the area. They offered him a place in the encampment, and he said his situation has improved slightly. He’s less worried about losing his possessions and said he has begun to think about getting a job delivering food on his bike.

He said the camp is far preferable to the larger shelters that his friends have stayed in. “Those seemed like jail when I listened to other people talk about them,” Morrow said.

But it’s how both Morrow and Johnson arrived at their respective sanctioned encampments that worries activists like Chris Herring, who say it’s a problem that the city is tying placements to the forced moving of people. Herring argued that this dynamic prioritized the interests of homeowners and businesses over people living on the streets with few options.

At the same time, Herring and several other homelessness activists say tent encampments connected to services can be a lifeline for unsheltered people. Last summer, the San Francisco Coalition for the Homeless surveyed unhoused people and found that more than half “would prefer a legal camp with amenities as opposed to existing shelters.”

The site at Stanyan Street in San Francisco.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Herring argued that the camps are far too expensive and the money could potentially be put to better use either buying hotels or renting people rooms. The San Francisco Chronicle reported last year that the city was paying about $61,000 per tent per year — roughly $5,100 a month, or more than twice the rent of a typical one-bedroom apartment.

“I would definitely not consider [the encampments] an unqualified success. I wouldn’t consider them a failure, either,” said Herring, who has closely studied the problems inside San Francisco’s shelter system.

He pointed to one in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood that he and other activists considered a model. It’s run by the Homeless Youth Alliance and its 40 or so spots are filled by unhoused people who had previously been living on the streets nearby.

That was a key difference for Mary Howe, the organization’s executive director, who has been working in homeless services in the area for two decades. Unlike at the other locations in the city, which receive new campers from all over the city, Howe’s goal has been to help the homeless people in the immediate neighborhood.

Jamal Alexander, 36, says he appreciates the safe sleeping site he has in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco and hopes to get more permanent housing soon.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

In the early days of the pandemic, Howe and her team witnessed a mushrooming of tents mostly along Haight Street. Initially they planned to build a campsite in Golden Gate Park — with or without government approval — but eventually were able to take over an empty, city-owned lot that used to be a McDonald’s. It soon will have supportive housing for homeless people constructed on it.

We “designed this place and created it with the voice of the people who are using the services in mind,” Howe said.

Howe described how residents sign accountability agreements, but fewer than 10 people have been removed for bad behavior. People feel like they’re part of a community, she said, and appear to be invested in keeping it clean and pleasant. They can come and go as they please and have access to private meeting rooms where they can get medical and psychological support.

Adam Schmidt, 38, sits outside a tent with Moose, one of his dogs.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Adam Schmidt, who has been homeless for eight years, said the encampment community gave him a bit more peace of mind. It meant that he didn’t need to worry as much about losing possessions and finding food for himself and his dogs, Moose and Button. They had been living at a large encampment several blocks away, and when an opportunity came to move to a place with food, showers and bathrooms, they jumped.

“It’s stressful to carry everything you have and fear losing a backpack with everything you have in it,” he said. “This gave me a place where I had a little more security.”

Howe said part of the success was in keeping the camp small. Only about 30 people live there. Kositsky, the city worker, applauded the work of Howe and her team but said encampments need to be larger to be economical. He also said that buying rather than renting things like toilets and hand-washing stations along with not having private security would make the sites cheaper to run.

Howe is a bit worried about a looming deadline. Mid-June is when construction begins on the housing development.

Before that can happen, the sanctioned campsite will have to close. Howe is still figuring out where people like Schmidt will go.

The post San Francisco assessments campsites as a homelessness resolution appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Good morning and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday October 2nd and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

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Just before 1 a.m. in Washington early Friday morning, the President of the United States sent a tweet that quickly sent shock waves around the globe.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. The president tweeted that he and the first lady would “begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately.”

[Read the story: “Trump and first lady test positive for the coronavirus” in the Los Angeles Times]

His positive test came just hours after the White House announced that Senior Adjutant Hope Hicks tested positive for the virus after several trips with the president this week, including the first presidential debate in Ohio on Tuesday and a campaign rally in Minnesota had Wednesday. Vice President Mike Pence tested negative on Friday morning.

The president traveled to New Jersey for re-election Thursday and appeared at a fundraiser at his Bedminster Golf Club. According to the New York Times, White House officials have been aware of Hicks’ likely diagnosis since Wednesday night, though she reportedly didn’t receive her positive test until Thursday.

News of Trump’s diagnosis comes just a month before the US presidential election and seven months into a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and changed almost every aspect of life across the country. The president has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the coronavirus threat and refused to adhere to public health guidelines.

Trump is 74 years old and has a higher risk of serious complications from the coronavirus. According to the Associated Press, this is the most serious known public health fear a sitting US president has encountered in recent history. Several other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, have previously contracted the coronavirus.

And now this is happening across California:

Dangerously dry and windy conditions will challenge the crews battling the glass fire in California’s wine country in the coming days as officials warn that gusts of wind could potentially drive the fire towards communities in Napa County. Los Angeles times

Disney’s Bob Iger resigns from Governor Gavin Newsom’s task force as tensions mount over theme park closures: the Los Angeles Times

California Adds a COVID-19 Equity Requirement: California’s major counties will only be allowed to further open their economies if they reduce coronavirus infections in the hardest-hit locations where poor, black, Latin American and Pacific islanders live. Los Angeles times

Note: Some of the websites we link to may limit the number of articles you can access without signing up.

LA STORIES

Mega donors and police unions have poured nearly $ 12 million into the LA District Attorney’s race. Incumbent Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey’s campaign was largely backed by law enforcement unions, while wealthy lawyers primarily focused on the Bay Area provided much of the funding for challenger George Gascón. Los Angeles times

After a disastrous election in March, LA County faces a “major challenge” in November. It will be the first choice since the troubled debut of the county’s new $ 300 million electoral system that officials have been trying for months to fix. Los Angeles times

In these Koreatown stores, kimchi is everything and more. Independent kimchi stores try to focus on quality and specific flavor in order to stand out from the crowd. Los Angeles times

Traditional Baechu Kimchi and Baek Kimchi surrounded by a range of raw materials from Kae Sung Market in Koreatown.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

[See also: “Your guide to the must-try kimchis of L.A.” in the Los Angeles Times]

Dodgers Advance: The Dodgers battled the Milwaukee Brewers in the best-of-three wildcard round at Dodger Stadium and moved to the National League Division Series to face either the St. Louis Cardinals or the San Diego Padres . Los Angeles times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Trump’s war on electoral integrity “follows a racist playbook used in Orange County in the 1980s.” Columnist Gustavo Arellano advocates historical comparisons. Los Angeles times

The government has attempted to intimidate the department into keeping a Foster Farms poultry factory open despite the coronavirus outbreak at the facility, according to the Merced County’s director of public health. CBS News

CRIME AND COURTS

A federal appeals court upheld Newsom’s coronavirus restrictions on indoor worship during the pandemic. A majority in the U.S. 9th appeals court said California’s church health ordinances did not discriminate against religious expression. Los Angeles times

HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

One reason for the terrible fire season in Northern California? Less rain than in Southern California. Los Angeles times

A ranger station in Sequoia National Forest was wrapped in foil like a “big baked potato” to protect it from wildfire. “Only one chimney stuck out, making the structure look like a big, badly wrapped Christmas present.” Fresno bee

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

California’s Deepening Crises: Santa Cruz County Lost Nearly 1,000 Homes To The CZU Lightning Complex Fires. The real estate crisis is now worse than ever. San Francisco Chronicle

The workers quietly come back to the offices in Southern California. About 25% of the country’s employees already come to the office regularly – not five days a week, but at least two or three days, according to research by Newmark Knight Frank broker Ryan Harding and his colleagues. Los Angeles times

Alexandra Rousso, foreground, left, and Carly Kinnan, background, left, receptionists at Hudson Pacific Properties, a large Los Angeles office rental company, work behind security partitions to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Desperate for art and culture IRL? Here are six shows in Southern California to see in person. Los Angeles times

A poem to start your Friday: “Pan Dulce” by Jose Hernandez Diaz. Poetry Foundation

Free online games

Get our free daily crossword, sudoku, word search and arcade games in our new Game Center at latimes.com/games.

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny, 96. San Diego: sunny, 84. San Francisco: partly sunny, 78. San Jose: partly sunny, 93. Fresno: sunny, 98. Sacramento: sunny, 100. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Hap Freund:

In 1978, Claudia, the woman I eventually married, I moved from a house in eight acres of woodland and pasture overlooking Puget Sound to Santa Monica while she was attending law school in Los Angeles. I started my job in Ventura and commuted on the Pacific Coast Highway for the first few weeks. Every morning I was excited to see little black figures in the water as I drove north; I came home every evening to tell Claudia about the seals I saw. Until I finally discovered, embarrassed, that they were surfers in wetsuits.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas, and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

The post Important California: Trump checks constructive for the coronavirus appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.