If you happen to visit Portland, you’ll feel right at home. It’s San Francisco 2.0. Or, perhaps, it’s the reverse. No matter. The two are nearly identical twins, at least when it comes to a variety of factors, both good and bad.

The West Coast weather is similar. Attractive water and impressive bridges grace both cities. And then there’s the societal decay. The depressing evidence is visible in too many grimy precincts. We had the misfortune of viewing some of it (too much of it, really) on a journey north late last month.

Portland’s fetid homeless encampments pop up with unfortunate regularity just like those in the once-proud city by the Bay. These makeshift dwellings house a compromised and vulnerable population marked by drug abuse, public toilet habits, occasional violence and unrelenting (and expensive) dysfunction.

Like the harried policymakers in San Francisco, those in Portland are consumed by the trials and tribulations (not to mention the costs) of the unhoused, not to mention their off-putting effect on the voting populace at large, including the business and tourist interests held hostage by all of this.

It’s no wonder that, like our own fading metropolis to the north, Portland has lost thousands of its residents over the last several years.

It’s a shame, really. The natural beauty in Portland and its surrounding towns and landscapes remains stunning. Not so much the city itself.

Welcome to San Francisco’s sibling in the northwest. Let’s not even mention Seattle. That’s another sad, though similar, tale.

RAIL BOONDOGGLE WILL NOT DIE: Government, at all levels, is confronting limitations on the spending of taxpayers’ dollars. What a concept.

At the same time, public transit agencies are begging for funding help due, in large part, to a dramatic decrease in ridership, largely due to work-related commute changes caused by the pandemic.

The timing is poor. That’s obvious. But some significant funds are being provided. Whether they will be enough to save transit agencies from major service reductions remains to be seen.

One particular entity, the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority, continues to prove that, no matter how obvious its deep and abiding fiscal flaws may be, cash will still flow.

The latest state budget includes the release of $4.2 billion to keep HSR construction going in the Central Valley. So the monetary life support for this manifestly mistaken operation goes on — and on.

For the many persistent critics of HSR over the past 15 years, anything that helps it to limp along and devour public dollars in the process is a cause for the gnashing of teeth and murmurs of frustration. Lawsuits against the project have come to naught.

The fast-train fiscal folly seems impervious to any and all efforts to drive a stake in it and kill it off once and for all. It’s a public-spending nightmare, a transit vampire devouring vast, endless sums, that simply refuses to die.

KRON’S ABSENCE EASILY HANDLED: Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder. That counter to a bit of accepted folk wisdom has certainly applied to the troubled condition of KRON TV-Channel 4. As the week began, customers of AT&T cable and Direct TV had been without KRON through July due to a financial dispute.

The impact appeared to be negligible. Or as that former KRON anchor/sage Gary Radnich might have put it: “Nobody cares.”

Some would-be viewers may well care, but not enough of them to make much of a difference. There are plenty of local KRON competitors out there selling the same sort of programming.

Sedentary life on the couch, such as it is, has gone on — with or without the presence of KRON on AT&T big screens.

TWO MORE MERIT WINNERS ADDED: Two more San Mateo County students of the high school Class of 2023 have received National Merit Scholarships, according to a supplementary list of winners released this week.

The local honorees are Joshua Yang of Carlmont High School in Belmont and Eli Zimmerman of San Mateo who attended Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto.

For Carlmont, the latest local addition brings its National Merit total to nine, the most (by far) of any secondary school in the county this year.

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Fourteen-year-old Alice was usually a good student, bright and popular. But her teachers at San Joaquin Memorial High School noticed her grades were dropping. She kept having to drop out of class to recover from her migraines. Alice was “very moody, very nervous and a little despondent,” one teacher told the Fresno Bee, but so were many teens. Only later, the teacher recalled with regret, did everything read like a warning sign.

At 1:45 am on March 19, 1950, Alice and her twin sister, Sally, came home from babysitting. At the six-room ranch-style home on Harvey Avenue in Fresno, silence fell as the Richard family fell asleep.

At 3 a.m. Alice got up. She searched in the dark and found the family’s bolt-action rifle and two cartridges. She padded back into the bedroom, handed the rifle to her sleeping twin, and pulled the trigger. Alice went to the nearest phone and called the police.

“Come to 4721 Harvey immediately,” she said. “There has been a murder.”

—

A twin killing its twin is so rare even today that there are only a handful of documented cases. When Alice killed Sally, the act was unknown.

The news made Alice a household name, her face gracing front pages across the country. It caused such panic that many newspapers reported on a report by a psychologist reassuring parents that their children were not murderers.

“This is an exceptional case,” wrote the doctor. “In the scientific records of twin studies, both in Europe and America, I could find no other instance of one killing the other twin.”

Sally and Alice were born in Long Beach in 1935 and were nine years old when the family moved to Fresno. From the outside, there seemed nothing particularly remarkable about the Richards. Father Edgard was a plumbing salesman and Mrs Mary was busy raising their six daughters and two sons.

Friends and family painted a tense portrait of the girls. By most accounts, Alice was the more popular and powerful sister. Her 16-year-old brother told the Fresno Bee he couldn’t imagine Alice envying Sally. “Alice looked better and I could imagine Sally being jealous of her,” he said. Sally was described as “exuberant”. “That’s why the girls didn’t invite her to parties,” the brother commented. “Since she and Alice were twins, Alice wasn’t invited either.”

Sally and Alice argued, but most shrugged – what 14-year-old siblings don’t fight every once in a while? However, at least one family member feared that the situation would escalate. Her 13-year-old brother told investigators he recently overheard the girls’ argument. “I’ll kill you,” he heard Alice shout, “and I’ll kill you with a gun.”

“I was afraid she was serious, so I got the .22,” the boy told investigators. He hid the gun under his bed.

The night Sally died, the twins were babysitting their neighbors’ two young daughters. Sally was usually alert, but this evening she seemed busy. She followed her neighbor through the house, pretending to be about to share a secret. When it came time to pay the girls, the neighbor only had a $5 bill. She joked she would have to rip it up to give half each to Alice and Sally.

“She won’t need it,” Alice replied.

When the police arrived on Harvey Avenue a few hours later, they found Alice calm amidst the chaos. When asked why she killed her twin sister, she remained calm.

“I killed her,” Alice said, “because I hated her.”

“She told me I could ask questions for the rest of my life and I would never find a reason other than the one she gave,” a sheriff’s deputy told The Bee.

When Alice was in custody, she kept up the ice-cold facade. She complained that Sally was “loud, acted like a weirdo and sang at the top of her lungs”. She said she enjoyed her stay in the juvenile detention center and slept better than she had in years. “The only thing I have to complain about here,” she boasted in her first court appearance, “is that they don’t allow us to use lipstick.”

Crowds of reporters and photographers followed her every step. Alice’s outfits, hairstyles and jokes have been breathlessly printed across the country as if she were a much older femme fatale. It was a circus.

In the rush, the sorrow of the situation was lost. A juvenile judge ordered Alice to undergo extensive psychological evaluations. Her parents agonized over her mental state and wondered if they had missed signs. Her mother told reporters she couldn’t imagine the act was premeditated; She said Alice asked earlier that evening for clean stockings to wear to church the next day – hardly the act of a girl who would murder a sibling hours later. Her father Edgard was convinced that Alice’s mental state had changed.

“I am satisfied that she is ill and unaware of the seriousness of what she has done,” he told the Bee days after the murder. Her family attorney seemed to agree. “I asked her if she knew the difference between right and wrong. She said she did it,” the attorney said. “… Almost in the same breath she will say that she was still right to kill Sally and that she would do it again.”

When the psychiatric evaluation came back, experts said Alice was in some sort of mental crisis. In a surprisingly progressive move for 1950, the judge did not allow her diagnosis to be disclosed. He felt that the only hope Alice had for getting her condition under control was to get out of the spotlight again. He decided that she would be checked every 90 days until she was well enough to be released. Alice was taken to Napa State Hospital for an indefinite stay.

“It’s bad enough losing a daughter,” her father told the media, “but in this case, I actually lost two.”

—

Although the adults in her life tried to keep her out of the public eye, Alice wasn’t done with it. In August, four months after being sent to Napa, she climbed a fence and set out in search of freedom. Almost immediately she recognized the car driving up the street – it was her mother, coming to visit. Alice ducked sideways and waited for her to come over.

A view of Market Street in San Francisco from a 35mm slide taken in the 1960s.

Meghan Bennett/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Four different cars picked up Alice on her way to San Francisco. With $3 in her pocket, she strolled down the market, saw a movie, and bought a soda and donut. But freedom wasn’t what she expected. Out of money and without a place to live, Alice went to the mission’s police station.

“I’m Alice Richard,” she announced. “I’m a runaway from the hospital in Napa. I shot my sister.”

She was brought back to Napa and was out of the limelight for the rest of her life. Eventually, Alice left the state hospital, but there were no crowds photographing her last day. Whatever happened happened quietly and quietly. There is no record of what Alice did next, but obituaries fill in the rest. She married and moved to Alaska, where she died in 2014 at the age of 78. She is buried next to her husband in the island town of Sitka off the Alaskan coast.

More than 1,500 miles away, her sister Sally rests in Fresno. Her funeral took place three days after her death; Alice decided not to go.

Schoolmates left Sally’s coffin covered with red roses and white carnations. A pastor gave her eulogy.

“We cannot fathom or understand what God had in mind when He brought such calamity upon us,” he said. “Perhaps such a great tragedy should not be understood by us.”

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New planning documents revealed artistic renderings of 76 homes at the base of Sutro Tower in San Francisco. The plans have yet to be approved.

The mixed-income project consists of 40 affordable teacher housing units and townhouse duplexes at 402 Dellbrook Ave. in the Twin Peaks district.

The townhouses would span three to five stories in the Midtown Lands LLC project. The project includes 67 parking spaces and 76 bicycle parking spaces.

The 3-acre project will extend the existing cul-de-sac at Fairview Court by 100 feet further along the base of Sutro Tower, a landmark on the San Francisco skyline that stands nearly 1,000 feet tall. Depending on the fog, the TV and radio tower can be seen from large parts of the city on most days.

The teachers’ residence will have seven floors, three of which will be underground. A garage for 19 cars is available for teachers.

CONTINUE READING: A home builder converted a San Francisco garage into three tiny homes for nearly $2 million. Progress or absurd?

An artist’s rendering shows what the new homes near Sutro Tower might look like. | Courtesy of RG Architecture

Upon completion, the project will consist of 13 studios, seven one-bedroom homes, 13 two-bedroom homes and 43 three-bedroom homes or larger.

Property owner and developer James Keith said a realistic timeframe for completion is between six and eight years given a three to five year permitting process and another three years for the homes to be built.

A rendering shows proposed housing plans for educators near Sutro Tower in Twin Peaks. | Courtesy of RG ArchitectureA street view depiction shows a proposed development in Twin Peaks near Sutro Tower. The development is in the early stages of the permitting process. | Courtesy of RG Architecture

“This is the first small step in a very long process,” Keith said. “And we know there is a lot of work ahead of us. And we’re ready to work with everyone involved to bring it to the finish line.”

CONTINUE READING: San Francisco officials are pushing for denser housing in outskirts

An aerial site plan shows how an existing street would be widened to accommodate new homes near Sutro Tower. | Courtesy of RG Architecture

The project has met some opposition from local residents, whose concerns range from fears of increased traffic to the stability of the slope on which the project is planned to be built, Keith said.

“I think it really needs to be expanded,” Keith said. “Nonetheless, we will work with everyone and mitigate whatever we can and address any legitimate concerns.”

According to a city document, the plans could be approved more quickly with help from the California Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency (HOME) Act (Senate Bill 9) and Senate Bill 35, which streamline affordable housing.

An aerial view shows the location where new homes could be built near Sutro Tower. | Courtesy of SF Planning/Midtown Lands LLC

The San Francisco Planning Board did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

According to the planning application, the construction costs should amount to 50 million US dollars.

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Jon Ryan says keeping his Twin Cities heating and cooling business on track this year has been like navigating an ocean liner through iceberg-strewn seas.

This spring there was more work than many companies could handle, but there was a shortage of labor and materials. Within months, interest rates doubled and housing collapsed.

Ryan is President and Owner of Genz-Ryan, a market leading HVAC company founded by his father more than 70 years ago. For years, the company’s bread and butter installed stoves and air conditioners in new homes.

No longer. He recently closed Genz-Ryan’s new construction department, destroying the work of 40 people. The company will focus on service and installations.

“It was like trying to turn the Titanic around,” he said, referring to the well-known ship that sank after hitting an iceberg. “Only about a third of what you can see is above water. What you can’t see worries me.”

After a pandemic-driven construction boom that left builders and their subcontractors overwhelmed and exhausted, a sudden contraction is transforming the industry.

“We are observing that many segments of the housing industry have exercised caution in response to the slowdown over the past several months,” said James Vagle, CEO of Housing First Minnesota.

The situation is particularly confusing for companies that were in business during the 2008 real estate crisis, which saw skilled workers flee to other industries. While they know the region still needs tens of thousands of new homes, they also know that demand can fluctuate quickly.

“Builders and trading partners are cautious as many have experienced construction cycle slowdowns before,” Vagle said. “The challenge is that demand for housing hasn’t gone away, it’s just on the sidelines. The builders know that at some point they will have to start up again in order to provide our region with much-needed living space.”

Of course, nobody expects the kind of real estate crash that triggered the Great Recession of 2008. This downturn was caused by bad debt and an oversupply of new homes, which is not the case today.

This recession happened before Ryan was in charge and about 90% of the company’s customers were homebuilders. Although they lost about two-thirds of their business, the company was less diversified than it is today, so exiting the newbuild business was not an option.

“Our business mix would not have allowed us to make that decision,” Ryan said. He added: “And I was a lot younger and had the energy to deal with a downturn.”

Today, Ryan says that because many people are spending so much more time in their homes, including teleworking, they are using their stove and air conditioner a lot more. These devices and their components require more maintenance and replacement.

And, he said, because people are staying longer, it makes a lot more sense to focus on servicing existing customers than it did during the last recession.

With fewer people moving, there were fewer sellers and even fewer buyers, but prices continue to rise. Last week, the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed that home prices in the Twin Cities were up more than 6% in September from the same time last year. This increase was lower than earlier this year, but was in line with historical averages.

It’s been a record-breaking spring for builders and many are still building homes bought earlier this year. More recently, building permits have fallen. According to new data released by Housing First Minnesota last week, builders collected half as many permits in November as they did a year earlier.

This shift has left many builders, subcontractors and their suppliers cautiously optimistic about 2023.

It is a paradox that the country’s largest construction companies and suppliers are looking for ways to control costs. Executives at Builders FirstSource, the Dallas-based leader in building products, recently told investors they are implementing what they call a “downturn playbook,” which includes freezing or cutting jobs.

Several listed homebuilders, including Pulte Homes, which has a strong presence in the Twin Cities, are canceling land purchase options and reducing development plans.

Michael Ramme, vice president of land acquisitions at Centra, a Coon Rapids-based developer, said there are opportunities for companies not obligated to shareholders to acquire land more cheaply than last summer, when national developers “slam on the brakes “. He said it’s getting easier to hire subcontractors.

“There are subs who need the work now, two years ago they didn’t even look at you,” Ramme said. “The luck has turned.”

For Genz-Ryan, this change of fortune forced a reckoning. Ryan said he made the decision to close the construction department even as it became easier to hire workers and source supplies.

The final straw, Ryan said, was realizing that so many homeowners are locked into the lowest mortgage rates in a generation. That means they are unlikely to move because they would have to contend with sharply higher interest rates if they bought again. These frozen homeowners could weigh on housing construction for years to come.

“It was really about rising interest rates, that changed everything,” Ryan said. “But I felt like this was the right time for us to make the decision.”

Some of those 40 employees who lost their jobs stayed with the company and were transferred to the service department, Ryan said. Others could quickly find other jobs.

As much as Ryan worried about his ability to keep crews busy during the housing crisis, he saw the decision as an opportunity to aggressively grow the service and replacement business.

He wants the company, known for advertising with the slogan “I love these guys,” to remain a local standout at a time when private equity firms are buying up heating and cooling companies and consolidating them under national brands .

Ryan said he is in the process of converting the former new construction showroom and selection center into the Jack Ryan Academy, named after his father. He will use this room to train workers.

The decision to eliminate his company’s new construction division was like a “stomach punch,” he said. But he added that given the ongoing challenges the industry is facing, it’s the right decision.

“The study of economics is the science of meeting unlimited needs with limited resources,” Ryan said. “It really boiled down to a handful of decisions.”

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Helping people was important to Jason Murphy and he was doing just that — working as a handyman — when he was killed last week in St. Paul.

On Monday police identified the two men fatally stabbed in a Payne-Phalen residence on Thursday as Murphy, 40, and Jon R. Wentz, 56.

The parents of Murphy said Monday they have many questions about what happened and the biggest is why the suspect was allowed to live in a sober-living house.

“It’s very senseless, very unfortunate and very sad,” Marsha Murphy said.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Joseph Francis Sandoval II, 32, on Friday with two counts of second-degree murder. He had just moved into the residence at the 1100 block of Lawson Avenue. Last year, he was civilly committed for being mentally ill and chemically dependent. He had several pending charges, including for first-degree assault.

Joseph Francis Sandoval II (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Murphy was doing work in the home and Wentz was a resident, according to the criminal complaint against Sandoval. Police said they were both St. Paul residents.

Sandoval told police that he sat down on the couch in the home and the “TV kept saying ‘take your opportunity,’ so I took my opportunity.” When an investigator asked Sandoval what he meant, he said, “The TV said they’re going to kill me.”

Sandoval made his first court appearance in the case on Monday and a judge ordered an evaluation about his competency to proceed with the court case.

Murphy was a caring, quiet man, and the father of a 15-year-old, said his parents, Bob and Marsha Murphy.

“It really meant a lot to him to help, especially the less fortunate, because he’s had some hard times in life,” Marsha Murphy said.

Jason Murphy’s mother says this photo shows him doing what he did best — wood working. (courtesy photo)

Jason Murphy especially enjoyed woodworking and made “beautiful furniture” that was inlaid with different types of wood, his mother said. He previously worked for a bathtub repair and refinishing company that his parents used to own.

“He did the actual work and he was very, very good at it — very particular about how he did things,” Marsha Murphy said. “He liked things to be done well and that followed into when he started to make things out of wood.”

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By Jen Mistrot and Elizabeth Cook

BRENTWOOD (CBS SF) — Sisters can be the best of friends, and Afshan and Uzma Rehman are no exception. So when both found themselves living in a new country, they leaned on each other for support.

READ MORE: Richmond Charter School Teacher Faces 29 Counts of Child Molestation

But like most all sisters, Afshan and Uzma have also experienced their fair share of sibling rivalry.

“We fight a lot,” said Afshan with a smile. “We argue a lot. Like, we literally had an argument this morning.”

But the two admit they have never stayed mad for long.

“We were always there to give each other that positivity,” explained Uzma. “To tell each other ‘Okay, you can do this!’.”

Encouragement of each other has seen Afshan and Uzma through some very tough times. The 29-year-old identical twins were born in the United States. They traveled between California and their parents’ native Pakistan before moving to the Middle East in grade school.

LEARN MORE: Students Rising Above

But by the time Afshan and Uzma were teenagers, their father’s violent behavior made home unsafe for the twins and their siblings. So their mom made the difficult decision to bring her family back to the US, where she would raise her children as a single parent.

“For her it was a very tough decision,” recalled Uzma. “It was a very tough decision because it was the four of us being very young.”

“Not having a dad there your whole life,” said Afshan. “Even though he was there in the picture but he never gave us that support.”

Missing their father hurt, but the move was their first hurdle. School came next.

“The way you grow up in Pakistan is very different than here,” explained Afshan. “When you come here as a teenager in your teenage years, you don’t know that teenage life. You don’t know how they are going to treat you.”

READ MORE: Pedestrian Struck and Killed by ACE Train Near Great America in Santa Clara

“You get looked down upon,” said Uzma.

“You’re not able to do anything. Oh there was racism. There was like, ‘Go back to your country.’”

But the twins’ country is the United States and California is their home. Both excellent during high school in Brentwood, then graduated from college before launching careers in high tech.

And there have been other great accomplishments and life changes for both women.

During the pandemic, Afshan had a baby and tackled a master’s degree.

“Hectic but I made it out,” said Afshan of the experience.

Uzma kept busy with volunteer tutoring while raising her four year old son.

“I teach him where we come from,” said Uzma of her son. “I teach him where I grew up, how I grew up.”

Both stayed close to each other, offering love, support and friendship.

“We were always there,” said Uzma. “To give each other that positivity.”

The twin sisters want their children to be good friends too. So the pair also stay close to their mom, even when they don’t see eye to eye.

“If me and [Uzma] are fighting my mom does not intervene,” said Afshan with a laugh.

MORE NEWS: Woman’s Body Found Friday at Gilroy Canal

“She is like, it’s like going to work it out.”

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Quick Response Firearms is one of the newest gun shops in Twin Falls. It is locally owned and operated. You have some really amazing things in there. The store is moving, but they won’t move far.

Right now they are behind Albertsons next to the liquor store on Blue Lakes Blvd. The shop is pretty small but full of really great stuff. If you’ve been around this complex recently, you may have noticed a sign with the Quick Response Firearms logo on the front of the complex. You will be moving to the front of the building. In fact, they are in the process of moving some things as we speak.

I’m not sure when the new store front will open for trading. I think their new location, while not far from the previous one, will work wonders for their business. If you didn’t realize Quick Response Firearms was back there, you could easily drive by or never know it existed. Now their new storefront will face Addison Avenue with a large sign that is welcoming and eye-catching.

The business actually only started online and has only grown since then. If you’ve ever walked in there you know that the people there are some of the nicest, knowledgeable, and interesting people on the planet. They’re great salespeople too. Almost every time I walk in there, I go out with a new toy.

The new store front isn’t open yet, so keep walking to its original location.

10 old Fisher Price toys that are a blast from the past

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MORE: See 30 Toys Every ’90s Kid Wanted

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MinnPost photo by Corey Anderson

Data from Zillow shows that rents in the metropolitan Twin Cities, which have increased slowly and steadily, have grown slowly during the pandemic but have started to rise again.

For years, Midwestern residents have heard reports from friends and family in major coastal cities about the staggering rental costs in these locations: In 2019, the typical San Francisco apartment cost more than $ 3,000 a month and more than $ 2,500 in New York – both of which are much higher than the roughly $ 1,500 a month it costs to rent an apartment in the Twin Cities, according to Zillow.

That has changed with the pandemic. Suddenly the demand for apartments in New York and San Francisco fell, and rents there fell.

Not so much in the Twin Cities. Data from Zillow shows that rents on the Twin Cities subway, which have been rising slowly and steadily for a decade, stalled during the pandemic but have started rising again.

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A drop in rents

In February 2020, just before the pandemic forced much of public life to close, the typical rent in San Francisco was $ 3,091, according to Zillow, while the typical rent in New York was $ 2,689. (Typical Rent is a metric compiled by Zillow that aims to capture the entire rental market, taking into account changes in rental rates of units regardless of size.)

Typical rents for San Francisco and New York

Source: Zillow

By the end of 2020, typical rents in San Francisco had dropped nearly $ 300 to $ 2,800 in San Francisco and $ 2,412 in New York.

A mix of pandemic-related factors caused the decline, said Nicole Bachaud, an economic data analyst at Zillow.

Some of these factors were common in all cities: young people moved back to their parents when colleges closed or jobs were lost. People doubled when they lost their jobs – and tenants were more likely to lose their jobs at all.

Other factors were more pronounced for large cities like San Francisco and New York. These cities, which typically attract large numbers of people for jobs and lifestyle attractions, did not see much immigration during the pandemic.

“Either there aren’t any jobs or the jobs people were moving for are now out of the way and the facilities weren’t working at full capacity, making these areas less attractive to move to,” said Bachaud. Some of the remaining residents even managed to negotiate their rents down, which would have been unknown a few years ago.

At the same time there was emigration from them. For those who can keep their jobs and work remotely – as many technicians and other employees in these big cities could – many moved out of the city, whether to the suburbs or other parts of the country. This increased the vacancy rate in these cities and depressed rents.

Conversely, rents in some Sunbelt cities like Phoenix and Tampa, where rents are relatively affordable – especially if you’re coming from the coasts – have risen during the pandemic.

Typical Phoenix and Tampa rents

Source: Zillow

“If everything is closed right now, moving to Phoenix may be a good option for many people,” said Bachaud.

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The decline in rents in New York and San Francisco was due to declines at the high end of the market, Bachaud said, which makes sense – and it doesn’t do that much – given workers with the luxury of working remotely and moving elsewhere Helping people in the lower income groups who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

Now rents are starting to rise again in these places, and there is evidence that the exodus from the big cities was temporary as things reopen and people withdraw to take advantage of the big city life.

“Facilities are reopening in the cities,” said Bachuad. “These changes will pull a lot more people back to the cities who were kind of depressed during the pandemic, and that will help create a stronger rental market.”

What happened in the Twin Cities

In the Twin Cities, rental rates haven’t attracted either a San Francisco or a Phoenix. Instead, they stagnated overall or decreased very slightly in a few months. This was a departure from the slow increase that had occurred over time, but it wasn’t a huge decrease.

Typical rents for MSP

Source: Zillow

“We haven’t really seen much of the lack of immigration or excess immigration in these other places,” said Bachaud.

Some of the factors putting rents under pressure everywhere – young people moving back in with their parents and people doubling in – seemed to be at play here in Minnesota, said Jennifer Ho, Minnesota housing officer.

Minnesota Housing data shows that average rents are relatively flat even during the pandemic, which researchers attribute to vacancy rates of around 5 percent during the pandemic in the Twin Cities metropolis. According to Minnesota Housing researchers, rents tend to go up when the vacancy rate is below 4, as was the case many years before the pandemic. If the vacancy rate exceeds 6 percent, rents fall.

Housing supply has also increased in recent years, which may have contributed to higher vacancies during the pandemic than in previous years, said Ho.

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However, as in other cities, Ho suspects that rent declines are more likely to occur at the higher end of the market and not in cheaper apartments where the demand for a limited number of units is very high.

Ultimately, the decline in rents here was not all that great. From pre-pandemic to the bottom of the market, there was only about $ 30 difference in rents, according to Zillow’s measurements.

“I don’t really think that’s a significant drop in prices,” said Bachaud.

In the Twin Cities, as in many other cities, data show discounts such as free monthly rent, a waiver of the deposit or free parking spaces that landlords sometimes offer tenants instead of rent reductions. From the time before the pandemic to the peak of the concessions, the proportion of listings with concessions had doubled.

Now the data shows that Twin Cities concessions are falling again and rents are back above pre-pandemic levels.

What the future holds, says Ho, it is not clear: many people are now used to working remotely, and we do not know how this will affect their choice of where to live in the future. We also don’t know what will happen if the current eviction moratorium ends. Another factor is whether more living space – especially cheaper living space – is being built, which could help ensure that the rental offer better matches the economic profile of the tenants.

“There are just a lot of factors at play right now,” said Ho.

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There have been a number of incidents in the news where curious whites have summoned the powers of the state to deter blacks from everyday activities.

One of the most notorious was “Permit Patty,” a woman who called the police on a young black girl selling bottled water on a San Francisco sidewalk.

Twin entrepreneurs, seven-year-old Kamari and Camera, of Savannah, Georgia, had the legality of their lemonade stand questioned by a white woman on social media after a photo of their new business was posted.

Instead of celebrating two children with an entrepreneurial spirit, she tried to question the viability of her business.

via WSAV

“A lady came in and said, ‘I bet you don’t have a license.’ And other people said, “How do you know that?” And she said, “I seriously doubt it,” said the girls’ father, Quentin Lawyer said.

Lawyer believes the woman’s comment was an example of overt racism.

“I didn’t even comment on them,” he said. “What she tried really did the opposite. It helped us more than it hurt us.”

Instead of closing the store, a family friend helped the twins apply for a business license with the city so they can sell their lemonade without being bothered by law enforcement or nosy whites.

Now their business, Twin Monad, is fully licensed in the city of Savannah and they have added more flavors to their menu. “Our flavors are strawberry-kiwi, blue raspberry, cotton candy, coconut, banana,” said Kamari.

In a matter of days, they made over $ 5,000. “That’s the whole purpose,” said lawyer. “Create generational wealth.”

On June 19th they had a line down the block and it was an hour’s wait for the lemonade.

via CBS

“We talked today about it being Juneteenth and ways to support black businesses,” customer Aimee Baxter told CBS News. “So we thought this was the business we wanted to support today.”

The girls’ mother, Charnise Anderson, hopes this is just the beginning of something much bigger. “It’s really great and we just want to push it forward,” said Anderson.

On a deeper level, it’s a little ridiculous that young children should have to get permission from the state or city to serve a cold glass of lemonade to a thirsty customer. Lemonade has never killed anyone and anyone who comes by for a cold glass understands the risk they are taking.

In rare cases, the brain may momentarily freeze if the lemonade is too cold.

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So much for Patrick Peterson, who plays security for the Vikings.

There has been much speculation that the eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback would potentially take that seat in his eleventh season after the departure of free agent Anthony Harris. Peterson had said on a podcast before resigning himself to the Vikings last week that he would be open to a change of position and LeRoy Butler, former Green Bay security officer, said Peterson was “a fantastic security”.

But on Monday, after Peterson signed a one-year contract worth up to $ 10 million, he put an end to the speculation.

“I feel like I’m still in a good position to play cornerback, so I know I can still play at a high level,” said Peterson, who will turn 31 in July. “Well, my position will be cornerback for sure.”

The Vikings will continue their quest to replace Harris, who signed a $ 5 million one-year deal with Philadelphia last week after six seasons in Minnesota. He’s been the starter for the past two and a half years alongside five-time Pro Bowl selection Harrison Smith.

Besides Smith, Josh Metellus, who only played 16 defensive snaps as a rookie last year, Luther Kirk and Myles Dorn are the only safeguards on Minnesota’s squad. Kirk was on the training team as an unoccupied rookie in 2020 and was active for one game but did not play. Dorn spent the entire season as an unoccupied rookie in the injured reserve.

There are still plenty of good options for security in the free hand. Pro Football Focus released a list of the 100 best free agents still available at the time on Saturday and 11 collateral was included.

“It’s a traffic jam out there,” said an NFL source close to the process.

Jaquiski Tratt, ranked 39th overall by Pro Football Focus, agreed to sign again with San Francisco on Monday. But those still available are Kareem Jackson (No. 10), Xavier Woods (No. 12), Malik Hooker (No. 19), Tashaun Gipson (No. 45), Duron Harmon (No. 47), Tre Boston (No. 47) 50), Earl Thomas (No. 69), Bradley McDougal (No. 72), Ricardo Allen (No. 83) and Kenny Vaccaro (No. 87).

Even if the Vikings don’t get Peterson to safety to start the season, former Vikings star cornerback Carl Lee said it was a move that might make sense at some point.

“He’s smart enough about the game,” said Lee. “It wouldn’t be a bad move and it would definitely allow him to play an extra couple of years. But he’s a great soccer player who has so much knowledge no matter where he’s played. ”

BARR’S RESTRUCTURE

The Vikings have created an additional $ 5.6 million in salary caps in connection with Anthony Barr’s contract renewal.

The linebacker agreed to take a $ 2.9 million wage cut last week, and it will continue to do so. But instead of paying Barr a base salary of $ 9.4 million in 2021, he received a base of $ 1 million and a signing bonus of $ 8.4 million.

Although the new deal allows Barr to become a free agent after the 2021 season, it had two ineffective years on his contract. Only $ 2.8 million of his signing bonus will count towards the cap in 2021, with the rest going to the books later. OvertheCap.com website now has Barr’s 2021 cap of $ 6.107 million and its 2022 cap of $ 9.89 million, as all of the money left over would continue to flow this year due to the contract termination .

Taking into account Barr’s restructuring, the Vikings were listed on Monday by OvertheCap.com at $ 10,314,209 below the cap. That didn’t include wide receiver Chad Beebe agreeing to a one-year contract for $ 920,000 that will have minimal impact on the cap, and linebacker Nick Vigil with a cap of $ 1.734 million.

However, a source said the Vikings postponed the official signing of the vigil on Monday due to “team business”. Vigil agreed to the terms on March 15, and Minnesota announced two days later that it had agreed to the terms pending physical agreement.

The source said Vigil could sign later this week or maybe not for several weeks. The source saw no chance he wouldn’t join the team.

“He’s a Viking,” said the source.

Vigil is expected to sign a one-year contract that, with incentives, could be worth up to $ 2.284 million. Until it is officially signed, the Vikings will retain a $ 1.074 million cap spot as Vigil’s $ 1.734 million figure would oust a player in the top 51 salaries and earn $ 660,000.

Also on Monday, free agent linebacker Hardy Nickerson signed a one-year deal with Houston after playing for Minnesota last season. He was not seen as a candidate for re-signature.

PETERSON AND FITZGERALD

Peterson spoke fervently about being Larry Fitzgerald’s teammate with Arizona for the past 10 years.

“Larry is just an incredible professional,” said Peterson of the Minneapolis-born American who isn’t sure whether to play an 18th season. “I tell him all the time, I just thank him for helping me understand how to be a professional. ”

Now that Peterson is a seasoned veteran, he plans to mentor Minnesota’s many young players.

Peterson said he knows Viking recipient Justin Jefferson, who rookie the Pro Bowl last season since he was “10 or 11 years old”. Jefferson played at LSU a decade after Peterson’s stint with the Tigers and was a teammate of Jefferson’s brother Jordan.

Peterson also said the Minnesota recipient, Adam Thielen, is his “golf buddy”.

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