LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy rains drenched parts of California on Wednesday, bringing the threat of flooding and mudslides as millions of people geared up for holiday travel, the National Weather Service said.

The Pacific storm centered offshore was moving gradually southeastward, sending bands of rain ashore and hitting particularly hard on the central coast after sweeping through the San Francisco Bay Area. Flood watches were posted all the way south to San Diego.

California’s rain came as the Northeast battled the effects of storms that brought floods and downed trees, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands and killing at least five people.

More than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain had fallen by late morning in the Santa Ynez Mountains — the steep backdrop to the south Santa Barbara County’s “American Riviera” communities — and more bands of heavy rain were expected to follow.

The stormy weather came as millions of Californians geared up for holiday travel and finished preparations for Christmas, with the Automobile Club of Southern California predicting 9.5 million people in that region would travel during the year-end holiday period.

However, so far the rain hadn’t drenched the shopping season.

Employees at Skylight Books, an independent bookstore in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, were worried about the impact of the storm. But on Wednesday, general manager Mary Williams said the store was packed.

“I think after last winter’s deluge, Angelenos have decided to go out in the rain after all,” she said. “I guess buying presents for the holidays is just that important.”

At Whiskey & Leather in Montecito, near coastal Santa Barbara northwest of Los Angeles, manager Karina Cota said Wednesday’s rain had prompted customers to start and finish their Christmas shopping at the boutique to avoid going to other places in the downpour.

“They’re coming in and just want to get it over with,” she said. “They’re trying to do it all in one shot.”

In the coastal LA suburb of Long Beach, family-owned Todd’s Christmas Trees prepares each season for Southern California’s late-year heat waves and stores their trees under a giant tent to keep them from drying out. It was a coincidence that the tent also protected the trees during Wednesday’s rains.

“It kind of works out perfectly,” Mike Todd said. He expected to sell out again this year, even with the bad weather.

“People will come, as they say,” he said.

California is well aware of storm risks: In January 2018, a downpour on a wildfire burn scar unleashed massive debris flows through Montecito, destroying homes and killing 23 people.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department increased staffing for the deluge but there were no evacuation orders for residents, said spokesperson Scott Safechuck.

“Our creeks are not showing any signs of having any issues (handling runoff) so we’re in a good position here, but we are expecting 5 to as much as 10 inches (12.7-25.4 centimeters) in the next 24 to 36 hours,” Safechuck said.

The storm, more powerful and widespread than one that blew in earlier in the week, was expected to jumpstart a laggard rainy season just a year after California was inundated by a series of atmospheric rivers that refilled reservoirs that had been emptied by a prolonged drought.

“It’s been balmily warm and unusually dry really throughout the state the past couple of weeks,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who spoke during an online briefing Tuesday.

Swain noted that the storm was very unstable, and at times on Wednesday, forecasters issued marine warnings for coastal waters due to severe thunderstorms capable of producing waterspouts.

The pace of the storm also was proving difficult to forecast. The San Diego-area weather office pushed back the timing of the heaviest rain there to Thursday and Friday.

Flood watches were issued from the central California coast to San Diego with warnings of a high risk of roadway flooding that could prompt travel delays, as well as rockslides, mudslides and debris flows from wildfire burn scars. The severe weather could pose a problem for some of the 9.5 million Southern Californians that the Auto Club predicts will be traveling for the holidays.

The relative warmth of the storm meant that snowfall would be mostly limited to high elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada and some Southern California ranges.

The California Highway Patrol office in South Lake Tahoe said in social media posts that the storm, nonetheless, was “making a mess,” producing rain, sleet, snow and icy roads.

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A slow-moving Pacific storm could bring excessive rain and flooding to California on Wednesday, forecasters warned.

The center of the low-pressure system was about 300 miles (483 kilometers) west of San Francisco during the early-morning hours and was expected to gradually move south along the coast, the National Weather Service said.

The storm, which was likely to be more powerful than one that blew in earlier this week, was expected to finally jumpstart a laggard rainy season just a year after California was inundated by a flurry of atmospheric rivers that refilled reservoirs that had been emptied by a prolonged drought.

Advisories for minor flooding were in effect for parts of the San Francisco Bay Area and around Monterey Bay. Near sunrise, forecasters issued a marine warning for waters off the central coast due to a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts.

The storm’s major impacts were expected later from the central coast south through Los Angeles to San Diego.

Flood watches issued for the region warned of a high risk of roadway flooding, rockslides and mudslides, debris flows from wildfire burn scars, and travel delays. Rainfall totals for some foothills and coastal slopes ranged up to 10 inches (25 centimeters).

Snowfall, however, was predicted to be limited to high elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada and some Southern California ranges.

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Target will close nine stores in four states, including one in East Harlem, New York and three in San Francisco, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.The closings, which will be effective Oct. 21, also include three stores in Portland, Oregon, and two in Seattle. Target said that it still will have a combined 150 stores open in the markets where the closures are taking place. Target will offer affected workers the opportunity to transfer to other stores.Target described the decision as “difficult.”“We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all,” Target said in a statement on Tuesday.Before making the decision, Target said it had invested heavily in strategies to prevent and stop theft such as adding more security team workers, using third-party guard services and installing theft deterrent tools like locking up merchandise. It also has trained store leaders and security team members to protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues. But it noted that despite those efforts, it continued to face “fundamental challenges” to operate the stores safely — and the business performance at these locations was unsustainable.While the store closings account for just a fraction of the 1,900 stores Target operates nationwide, the move is significant. It underscores the big challenges that retailers like Target face in reducing theft in stores as they wrestle with protecting their workers and customers while trying to serve the community, particularly low-income and minority groups who rely on the local stores for necessities.For example, the Target store in East Harlem is located in a heavily Hispanic area, and residents have few choices to buy good quality healthy foods. In San Francisco, one of the stores slated to close is located at 13th Street and Folsom under a busy overpass with homeless tents in a largely commercial neighborhood with auto shops. In Seattle, one of the stores is located on a busy avenue near the University of Washington.Target CEO Brian Cornell has been one of a handful of retail CEOs flagging what they described as rising theft over the past year or so. Cornell had held steadfast he didn’t want to resort to closing stores even despite mounting losses. Target said in May that theft was cutting into its bottom line and it expected related losses could be $500 million more than last year, when losses from theft were estimated to be anywhere from $700 million to $800 million. So that means losses could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year.Moreover, Cornell told analysts in August that violent incidents against workers at Target stores increased 120% for the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year ago.“Our team continues to face an unacceptable amount of retail theft and organized retail crime,” Cornell told analysts. “Unfortunately, safety incidents associated with theft are moving in the wrong direction.”The announcement also comes as Target is still reeling from being targeted for its LGBTQ+ support, in particular, its displays of Pride Month merchandise. In late May, ahead of Pride Month, Target pulled some items in particular regions and made other changes after encountering hostility from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. Target said the moves were made to protect workers in the store.It’s unclear how much money retailers broadly are losing due to organized retail crime — or if the problem has substantially increased. But the issue has received more notice in the past few years as high-profile smash-and-grab retail thefts and flash mob robberies have garnered national media attention. Over the past few quarters, an increasing number of retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Ulta Beauty have been calling out rising theft, calling it a factor in shrinking profits.The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said its latest security survey of roughly 177 retailers found that inventory loss — called shrink — clocked in at an average rate of 1.6 % last year, representing $112.1 billion in losses. That’s up from 1.4% the previous year.The greatest portion of shrink — 65% — came from external theft, including products taken during organized shoplifting incidents, the trade group said Tuesday. More than two-thirds of respondents said they were seeing even more violence and aggression from perpetrators of organized retail crime compared with a year ago.The NRF said that even though retailers continue to improve their loss-prevention measures, sometimes more drastic action must be taken. Nearly 30% of retailers surveyed reported being forced to close a specific store location, and 45% said they needed to reduce operating hours. Roughly 30% said they needed to change or reduce product selection in stores as a direct result of retail crime.Late last year, Congress passed a bill, called the INFORM ACT, that seeks to combat sales of counterfeit goods and dangerous products by compelling online marketplaces to verify different types of information – including bank account, tax ID and contact details – for sellers who make at least 200 unique sales and earn a minimum of $5,000 in a given year.Target said Tuesday that it’s making significant investments in cyber defense to combat retail theft and fraud and has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division to combat retail theft.

NEW YORK —

Target will close nine stores in four states, including one in East Harlem, New York and three in San Francisco, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.

The closings, which will be effective Oct. 21, also include three stores in Portland, Oregon, and two in Seattle. Target said that it still will have a combined 150 stores open in the markets where the closures are taking place. Target will offer affected workers the opportunity to transfer to other stores.

Target described the decision as “difficult.”

“We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all,” Target said in a statement on Tuesday.

Before making the decision, Target said it had invested heavily in strategies to prevent and stop theft such as adding more security team workers, using third-party guard services and installing theft deterrent tools like locking up merchandise. It also has trained store leaders and security team members to protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues. But it noted that despite those efforts, it continued to face “fundamental challenges” to operate the stores safely — and the business performance at these locations was unsustainable.

While the store closings account for just a fraction of the 1,900 stores Target operates nationwide, the move is significant. It underscores the big challenges that retailers like Target face in reducing theft in stores as they wrestle with protecting their workers and customers while trying to serve the community, particularly low-income and minority groups who rely on the local stores for necessities.

For example, the Target store in East Harlem is located in a heavily Hispanic area, and residents have few choices to buy good quality healthy foods. In San Francisco, one of the stores slated to close is located at 13th Street and Folsom under a busy overpass with homeless tents in a largely commercial neighborhood with auto shops. In Seattle, one of the stores is located on a busy avenue near the University of Washington.

Target CEO Brian Cornell has been one of a handful of retail CEOs flagging what they described as rising theft over the past year or so. Cornell had held steadfast he didn’t want to resort to closing stores even despite mounting losses. Target said in May that theft was cutting into its bottom line and it expected related losses could be $500 million more than last year, when losses from theft were estimated to be anywhere from $700 million to $800 million. So that means losses could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year.

Moreover, Cornell told analysts in August that violent incidents against workers at Target stores increased 120% for the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year ago.

“Our team continues to face an unacceptable amount of retail theft and organized retail crime,” Cornell told analysts. “Unfortunately, safety incidents associated with theft are moving in the wrong direction.”

The announcement also comes as Target is still reeling from being targeted for its LGBTQ+ support, in particular, its displays of Pride Month merchandise. In late May, ahead of Pride Month, Target pulled some items in particular regions and made other changes after encountering hostility from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. Target said the moves were made to protect workers in the store.

It’s unclear how much money retailers broadly are losing due to organized retail crime — or if the problem has substantially increased. But the issue has received more notice in the past few years as high-profile smash-and-grab retail thefts and flash mob robberies have garnered national media attention. Over the past few quarters, an increasing number of retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Ulta Beauty have been calling out rising theft, calling it a factor in shrinking profits.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said its latest security survey of roughly 177 retailers found that inventory loss — called shrink — clocked in at an average rate of 1.6 % last year, representing $112.1 billion in losses. That’s up from 1.4% the previous year.

The greatest portion of shrink — 65% — came from external theft, including products taken during organized shoplifting incidents, the trade group said Tuesday. More than two-thirds of respondents said they were seeing even more violence and aggression from perpetrators of organized retail crime compared with a year ago.

The NRF said that even though retailers continue to improve their loss-prevention measures, sometimes more drastic action must be taken. Nearly 30% of retailers surveyed reported being forced to close a specific store location, and 45% said they needed to reduce operating hours. Roughly 30% said they needed to change or reduce product selection in stores as a direct result of retail crime.

Late last year, Congress passed a bill, called the INFORM ACT, that seeks to combat sales of counterfeit goods and dangerous products by compelling online marketplaces to verify different types of information – including bank account, tax ID and contact details – for sellers who make at least 200 unique sales and earn a minimum of $5,000 in a given year.

Target said Tuesday that it’s making significant investments in cyber defense to combat retail theft and fraud and has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division to combat retail theft.

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In his first major public interview since the DMV cut their San Francisco fleet in half, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said “we cannot expect perfection” from the self-driving cars, and vaguely threatened to leave town if regulators curtail them any further. From a report: The self-driving robotaxis of GM subsidiary Cruise and Google-owned Waymo seemed like they were heading in a successful direction when they won approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last month to run their self-driving robotaxis at all hours in SF without restrictions. But barely a week later, the California DMV demanded Cruise cut it SF fleet in half, following post-Outside Lands stalling incidents, a night of multiple accidents, and SF City Attorney David Chiu filing a motion to get the CPUC to reverse their decision.

Cruse CEO Kyle Vogt sat down for a (very friendly) 40-minute interview Wednesday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, which can be seen in its entirety above. And he seems to be going on offense against the regulatory pushback his company is getting from SF and California lawmakers. “It’s kind of fun as a society to poke at the differences between AVs (autonomous vehicles) and humans, but if we’re serious about safety in our cities, we should be rolling out the red carpet for AVs,” Vogt said, according to the SF Standard.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Target will close nine stores in four states, including one in East Harlem, New York and three in San Francisco, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.

The closings, which will be effective Oct. 21, also include three stores in Portland, Oregon, and two in Seattle. Target said that it still will have a combined 150 stores open in the markets where the closures are taking place. Target will offer affected workers the opportunity to transfer to other stores.

Target described the decision as “difficult.”

“We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all,” Target said in a statement on Tuesday.

Before making the decision, Target said it had invested heavily in strategies to prevent and stop theft such as adding more security team workers, using third-party guard services and installing theft deterrent tools like locking up merchandise. It also has trained store leaders and security team members to protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues. But it noted that despite those efforts, it continued to face “fundamental challenges” to operate the stores safely — and the business performance at these locations was unsustainable.

While the store closings account for just a fraction of the 1,900 stores Target operates nationwide, the move is significant. It underscores the big challenges that retailers like Target face in reducing theft in stores as they wrestle with protecting their workers and customers while trying to serve the community, particularly low-income and minority groups who rely on the local stores for necessities.

For example, the Target store in East Harlem is located in a heavily Hispanic area, and residents have few choices to buy good quality healthy foods. In San Francisco, one of the stores slated to close is located at 13th Street and Folsom under a busy overpass with homeless tents in a largely commercial neighborhood with auto shops. In Seattle, one of the stores is located on a busy avenue near the University of Washington.

Target CEO Brian Cornell has been one of a handful of retail CEOs flagging what they described as rising theft over the past year or so. Cornell had held steadfast he didn’t want to resort to closing stores even despite mounting losses. Target said in May that theft was cutting into its bottom line and it expected related losses could be $500 million more than last year, when losses from theft were estimated to be anywhere from $700 million to $800 million. So that means losses could top $1.2 billion this fiscal year.

Moreover, Cornell told analysts in August that violent incidents against workers at Target stores increased 120% for the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year ago.

“Our team continues to face an unacceptable amount of retail theft and organized retail crime,” Cornell told analysts. “Unfortunately, safety incidents associated with theft are moving in the wrong direction.”

The announcement also comes as Target is still reeling from being targeted for its LGBTQ+ support, in particular, its displays of Pride Month merchandise. In late May, ahead of Pride Month, Target pulled some items in particular regions and made other changes after encountering hostility from some customers who confronted workers and tipped over displays. Target said the moves were made to protect workers in the store.

It’s unclear how much money retailers broadly are losing due to organized retail crime — or if the problem has substantially increased. But the issue has received more notice in the past few years as high-profile smash-and-grab retail thefts and flash mob robberies have garnered national media attention. Over the past few quarters, an increasing number of retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Ulta Beauty have been calling out rising theft, calling it a factor in shrinking profits.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said its latest security survey of roughly 177 retailers found that inventory loss — called shrink — clocked in at an average rate of 1.6 % last year, representing $112.1 billion in losses. That’s up from 1.4% the previous year.

The greatest portion of shrink — 65% — came from external theft, including products taken during organized shoplifting incidents, the trade group said Tuesday. More than two-thirds of respondents said they were seeing even more violence and aggression from perpetrators of organized retail crime compared with a year ago.

The NRF said that even though retailers continue to improve their loss-prevention measures, sometimes more drastic action must be taken. Nearly 30% of retailers surveyed reported being forced to close a specific store location, and 45% said they needed to reduce operating hours. Roughly 30% said they needed to change or reduce product selection in stores as a direct result of retail crime.

Late last year, Congress passed a bill, called the INFORM ACT, that seeks to combat sales of counterfeit goods and dangerous products by compelling online marketplaces to verify different types of information – including bank account, tax ID and contact details – for sellers who make at least 200 unique sales and earn a minimum of $5,000 in a given year.

Target said Tuesday that it’s making significant investments in cyber defense to combat retail theft and fraud and has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division to combat retail theft.

_______

Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

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Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is one of San Francisco’s biggest advocates, but claims he might have to relocate its marquee conference owing to the city’s homelessness and drug problems. Fabrice Coffrini—AFP/Getty Images

San Francisco is a hot-button topic for just about everyone these days, including the vocal tech industry leaders whose offices are scattered throughout the city’s sprawling downtown.

To Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), located in the grungy Civic Center neighborhood, San Francisco is a “postapocalyptic” place. Venture capitalist Jason Calacanis has condemned the city as being run by “evil, incompetent fools and grifters who accomplish nothing except enabling rampant violence.”

The critics seemed to have won a new convert this week when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a longtime champion of San Francisco, threatened to move his annual Dreamforce conference to another city because of the rampant homelessness and drug use. “If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce,” Benioff told the San Francisco Chronicle in a story published Tuesday.

On Wednesday, however, Benioff, who was raised in San Francisco, was back to his usual self, talking up the city’s merits during Salesforce’s quarterly earnings call.

“We’re really seeing downtown San Francisco become A.I. central,” Benioff said during the conference call. He ticked off a list of hot A.I. startups based in the city, and noted that one such company (that he said he was not permitted to name) had just leased the entire building that Salesforce-owned Slack once occupied.

San Francisco, Benioff said on the call, “is becoming the number one A.I. city in the world.”

It was a jarring change of tune from Benioff’s comments hours earlier, and indicative of the ambivalent attitudes and glaring extremes on display every day in San Francisco.

Even as the city attracts a constant stream of richly funded tech startups and entrepreneurs, San Francisco remains in the midst of a dire crisis involving homelessness and a surge in lethal drug overdoses, with 473 people dying in 2023 alone. On Tuesday, a San Francisco court order preventing officials from clearing homeless encampments caught the ire of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called it “preposterous” and “inhumane.”

A source close to the situation told Fortune that Salesforce has been “communicating” its concerns to the city and the Moscone Center, the convention center that hosts Dreamforce, and noted that Salesforce could cancel any future bookings of the Moscone at any time (though with high cancellation fees).

“We’re working hand in hand with the city, as we always do,” Benioff told the Chronicle on Tuesday. “We’ll bring a significant number of people to the city—40,000 people—and it will generate $57 million in the downtown economy. So it’s in all of our interests for it to go well, and for APEC to go well. This should be the focus of the city.”

While there haven’t been any reported Dreamforce issues tied to homelessness or drug use in recent years, the Chronicle pointed out, Benioff had once shared with the Chronicle in 2018 that some attendees had sent him emails expressing concerns about the homelessness crisis and the unsanitary condition of the streets.

This year’s Dreamforce is set to kick off in San Francisco in less than two weeks. As for the event’s location in 2024, we may have to wait until Salesforce’s next earnings call.

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The editors of the San Francisco Chronicle issued a stark warning about San Francisco’s economy, emphasizing that the city must move forward as quickly as possible to avoid a “fate loop” as employees transition to remote work.

“Experts say post-pandemic problems stemming from office workers staying home instead of commuting into the city could push San Francisco into a ‘doom loop,’ eroding its tax base, decimating tariff-based regional transit systems like BART and trapping it into an economic death spiral,” the editorial warns.

The editorial also drew a comparison between San Francisco after COVID-19 and New York City after 9/11, as commuters feared returning to New York’s skyscrapers after the terrorist attacks.

But with enough subsidies, the article argues, Manhattan rebounded thanks to new train stations, public parks, malls, and residential buildings in the Financial District. But San Francisco has yet to make structural changes.

SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR TORCHES AS SEEKS FEDERAL ASSISTANCE TO COMBAT CRIME CRISIS: “YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS”

A view shows the downtown skyline of San Francisco, California, June 29, 2022.

“Despite our housing crisis, the COVID pandemic took years for our leaders to meaningfully question the logic of reserving some of the most valuable real estate on earth for moody suburbanites and their cars,” the editorial reads.

READ ON THE FOX BUSINESS APP

“And so we squandered generous federal COVID emergency funds trying to bludgeon, cajole, and pray for office workers to return downtown instead of planning for change,” the article continued. “We are now staring at the consequences of this lack of vision.”

VISIT INCREASED DUE TO INCREASING CRIME IN SAN FRANCISCO DAMAGING BUSINESS

The editors suggested investing in office conversions and demolishing office buildings for new projects, which would require financial support from the state government.

Last year, San Francisco topped the list of cities homebuyers were looking to move from. 24% of buyers in a Redfin report wanted to leave San Francisco.

The story goes on

Alexandria Real Estate Equities founder and CEO Joel Marcus told Fox Business in January that redeveloping older office buildings into multi-family units could solve the housing crisis.

“I think this is a monumental opportunity for this country to take over this inventory of older office buildings,” Marcus said in Mornings with Maria. “Nearly 996 million square feet by checking account, and move that to a housing stock because it’s there and just needs rehab.”

An aerial view of the San Francisco skyline in California, October 28, 2021.

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Barry Joule, Francis Bacon’s former craftsman and close friend, has threatened to sue Tate for failing to publicly display one of the late figurative artist’s works, which he donated in 2004. According to the Guardian, Joule has waited nearly two decades for the museum to host an exhibition around the $ 37 million donation, considered to be one of the most generous gifts the London institution has ever received, and 1,200 sketches, photographs and related items Includes documents. He also said he would revoke a promised gift of an important 1936 self-portrait by Bacon and nine other paintings by the artist from the same period.

“If the result is not satisfactory. . . by October 2021 on the terms and conditions of the Tate Joule Contract, ”Joule wrote on 3. I will request the full return of this my 2004 Tate Francis Bacon Studio Donation. And so the matter can ultimately be decided in court. “

Joule says that Nicholas Serota, who was the director of the Tate at the time Joule proposed the gift, assured him in 2003 that the organization would host an exhibit related to the gift within three years of the gift. A gift announcement from the institution in 2004 appears to support this claim, which states: “Tate will undertake over the next three years to study, photograph, and catalog the collection before exhibiting and making these items available for loan . ” Tate held a major exhibition of Bacon’s works in 2008, but did not include items from Joule’s gift. In 2017, Balshaw appeared as director of the Tate, and Joule began writing to her to have the exhibition staged.

Joule, who met Bacon in 1978 when the Irish-born artist spied on him fixing a television antenna on a neighbor’s roof and invited him for a glass of champagne, said he donated the items to the Tate because it was Bacon’s favorite museum. He also donated around eighty drawings by Bacon to the Musée Picasso, which, according to Joule, were exhibited in a major exhibition in 2005 that linked his work with that of the renowned Spanish artist and was accompanied by a catalog.

Tate said she reached out to Joule to arrange a meeting in September on the matter.

ALL PICTURES

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SAN RAFAEL (KPIX) – Coastal communities are still grappling with rising sea levels caused by global warming. The US Geological Survey predicts the ocean could rise up to seven feet by 2100 and about 600,000 homes could be at risk of flooding. Many of them are in Marin County.

Sea level rise threatens homes and infrastructure near Stinson Beach. The State Coastal Commission has the final approval authority there and wants to stop the construction of walls and let nature take its course. Residents and the district are pushing back.

“We anticipate that there will be a fire, we anticipate that there will be an earthquake, and we plan to do it. But how much will the ocean really rise? “Asked Mike Matthews, president of the Stinson Beach homeowners association.

Matthews is all too familiar with the threat of sea level rise.

It first took center stage six years ago when property owners in low-lying neighborhoods known as Calles and Sonoma Patio received a letter from the county warning them that a rise in sea levels would affect their ability to Obtaining permits for improvements to their properties.

“A lot of people who loved their beach house and a minute and a half walk to the beach suddenly found that they weren’t going to get permission for anything,” said Matthews.

Any structure within 1,000 feet of the coast called the coastal zone could potentially be affected.

“That means, ‘I can’t sell your house,’ and that means it is depreciating in value, so there was an extreme response,” said Matthews.

The county was pressured by the Coastal Commission to update its local coastal plan, and the commission proposed something called a “managed withdrawal”. That essentially means relocating or abandoning all structures in the coastal zone – in this case the entire city instead of protecting it.

“If you say, ‘well, we’re going to move these houses’ – well where are you going to move them to?” Jack Liebster, County Marin Planning Manager, asked. “These are pretty expensive areas, and where do you get the money for them? That’s … a big question,” added Liebster.

He says a managed retreat could also prevent plans to elevate or protect a low-lying section of Highway 1 near Stinson Beach. “Highway 1 is an icon for the state of California, and it wouldn’t be very good if a piece was missing in the middle of the highway,” Liebster said.

In 2018, Marin County officially proposed a more moderate plan for sea level rise. Liebster says the Coastal Commission sent it back with changes the county refused to accept. The discussions have come to a standstill until now. This year, he says, the district is back at the table with some new ideas.

“One of the things we are considering are nature-based alternatives,” Liebster said. Among other things: Using dredging material from the bottom of the bay to raise the level of the wetland, a project already being carried out in the San Rafael Canal District.

At Stinson Beach there are plans to create a dune system by importing more sand and planting beach grass. That worked well at Lawson’s Landing, a popular campsite at the entrance to Tomales Bay.

“The Lawson family is definitely friends with European Beach Grass,” said Willy Volger, partner at Lawson’s Landing.

He says the beach has actually gotten bigger there over the years, but he knows things can change so a managed retreat could become a necessity.

“The beach is a moving, living thing and we hope that it can grow with us and that we can stay here. But when things don’t work that way, we have more property continuing up the hill, ”said Volger.

Back in Stinson Beach, Seadrift’s exclusive, gated community thought ahead.

“When they could, they got permission to install a very expensive rock wall on the edge of the Seadrift properties on the ocean side,” said Matthews.

Multimillion-dollar homes in Seadrift are built on raised foundations, but the less affluent Calles and Patios neighborhoods of the lowlands remain vulnerable and may soon become unable to protect themselves.

“I wouldn’t want a house down there now,” said Matthews.

He hopes this time around the talks with the state on a local coastal plan will include more compromise, with a focus on shorter 20 years instead of the 100 year plan proposed by the Coastal Commission.

“It is true that you have to look for the worst events in planning, but you want to have a sense that they will actually occur. Let’s see what actually happens and then we get it, ”said Matthews.

The Coastal Commission declined our request for an interview for this story. Two years ago, when we were looking at the same topic in Pacifica, their top expert KPIX announced that there was no time to compromise.

WEB LINKS

KPIX: Homeowners fear losing property due to guidelines to counter sea level rise

Coastal protection: adaptation of sea level rise

Marin County Foundation: Nature-Based Adaptation

San Rafael: Tiscornia Marsh Restoration Project

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