In advance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC), San Francisco is putting up black fence barricades around a special security zone. As some believe, the wall is to prevent protesters from approaching Xi Jinping’s motorcade, but the real purpose is to hide the city’s out-of-control squalor.

In recent years, San Francisco has become an open-air latrine, with maps marking out areas with heavy accumulation. This took place on the watch of Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who commissioned $400,000 for a study claiming the town was nearly spotless. Nuru, a crony of former Mayor Willie Brown, is now in prison on corruption charges, but the squalor carries on.

California’s Proposition 47 allows criminals to steal nearly $1,000 without facing felony charges. Since the measure passed in 2014, car break-ins have been on the rise. This year, they hit 15,000 by September, and, in most cases, police never make an arrest.

The city’s Tenderloin district has become an open-air drug market, with needles, feces, and bullet casings strewn about. On sale are meth and fentanyl, the synthetic opioid many times stronger than heroin. This goes on near Union Square and the shopping district.

“Downtown [San Francisco], once beautiful and thriving,” tweeted Elon Musk earlier this year, is “now a derelict zombie apocalypse.”

“[B]efore this APEC summit was even on the horizon, city officials essentially refused to lift a finger,” notes San Francisco resident and commentator Richie Greenberg.

With APEC in town, Gov. Gavin Newson and Mayor London Breed are deploying “high-powered spray guns to suds up the sidewalks, scrub down the BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] trains and make the APEC security zone shine,” explains Greenberg, who compares it to the Potemkin villages used to deceive Russian royalty. This time, it’s “clean for Xi, but not for thee,” and, when APEC wraps, it will be back to drugs, tents, and squalor.

San Franciscans have a right to wonder why the city can’t be cleaned up for the residents, businesses, and tourists. California’s strategy for the homeless is a big part of the problem.

The state’s “Housing First” policy aims “to construct or acquire a permanent home for every person experiencing homelessness, often at taxpayer expense,” explains Lawrence J. McQuillan. This sounds good but defies state realities.

The number of homeless is growing, and, for every person housed, “up to four more people become newly homeless.” California is also “the second most expensive state to build housing, behind only Hawaii,” and moving takes five years or more. In San Francisco, one “affordable” housing unit averages $750,000, but costs can rise to $1.2 million.

From 2018 through 2022, California spent $17.5 billion on programs compliant with Housing First, to no avail. Newsom and city officials willfully ignore different approaches already proven to work.

High-tech shelter tents, like those used by the military, can provide living for hundreds of people. The tents are “scalable to fit” local needs, “safer and more humane than street life,” and closer to providers who can deal with root causes of homelessness. (For further reading, see “Beyond Homeless: Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes, Transformative Solutions.” Governors and mayors across the country can also check out the holistic, integrated approach that is working well in San Antonio.)

In San Francisco, meanwhile, people should not be fooled by the APEC emergency measures. “Clean for Xi” needs to become “clean for you and me” moving forward. If Newsom and Breed continue to shun proven, reality-based measures, San Francisco will remain a theme park for human misery.

The post San Francisco Builds a Wall for China: Information: The Impartial Institute appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Breadcrumb Trail Links

1. Opinion
2. Split

Released April 18, 2023 • Last updated on April 19, 2023 • 3 minutes reading time

Photo by Rawf8 /Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Feeling kind of blasé these days? Has your favorite NHL hockey team’s failure to make the playoffs again made you gorge on popcorn while watching the Oscar-nominated movies you missed out on at the cinema?

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Well my friend, I think you’re just the type who could benefit from the inspirational power of an accent wall.

What exactly is an accent wall?

Basically, as the name suggests, it’s a whiff of something else. An alternative color or texture that makes a powerful statement, but doesn’t overwhelm the room because it only needs to take up about 10 percent of the wall space.

It’s like a polka dot bow tie or a fuchsia pocket square tucked into the breast pocket of an otherwise plain black suit jacket.

The accent adds a touch of individuality and, in our case, a little pizzazz to a normal-looking wall space.

What creates an accent wall?

Basically all you would have to do is take a liter of red, blue or any other primary color and throw it at the wall. And there’s your accent. Because the accent generally takes up limited space but is still eye-catching, it’s often used to transform a drab area or wall space in need of help into something special.

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So you wouldn’t normally turn that wall that supports your big-screen TV, which is mostly covered by a bookshelf or has a large window, into an accent wall. Busy walls don’t really need the attention of a pop of color or raised texture.

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In general, look for a smaller space – the wall, which is always the last chosen for the dodge ball, the underdog. This is the wall that will benefit from an accent.

How do I create an accent? As mentioned, all you really need is a vibrant color. However, it’s always nice to add structure as well, in the form of a natural slate tile or an MDF board with an overlap. The practical thing about accenting with slate or MDF is that you’re essentially creating a picture and either covering part of the wall, usually a central strip six to eight feet wide, or if it’s a smaller one space acts, the entire wall .

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Regardless, you should not use your miter saw to make corners, angles, or anything other than a straight 90-degree cut. Therefore, the accent wall can be a good first try with a natural slate product, as cutting the slate to size can sometimes seem intimidating for first-time installers.

However, as with anything else that requires a cut, it’s important to have the right blade on your chop saw. So make sure your chop saw blade is rated for cutting slate, and be sure to make those cuts outdoors or there will be a dust storm of debris. Or rent a wet saw that will remove most of the dust and allow you to do your cuts indoors.

The only other recommendation for a slate product is that you buy a stackable model that simply glues to your drywall. So no mortar joints have to be filled.

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Unless you want an accent wall to be slate or some sort of tapestry or woven fabric, it needs to be painted. Not that stained oak or knotty pine planks don’t draw a lot of attention, but in most cases a vibrant color or interesting texture makes for a great accent.

There is hardly a better way to create structure than with a primed MDF board. Installed horizontally, diagonally or simply vertically, an MDF board will give you lines, closely spaced lines, more widely spaced lines, bumpy lines – when it comes to decorating, you can’t invite too many lines to the party.

The easiest way to frame your chosen slate or MDF board, or to create a frame, is to use a 1×3 or 1×4 board of MDF. The .75″ plank is slightly thicker than the slate and MDF, creating the perfect shadow line and solid start and end points.

Good accentuation.

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The post Handyman Hints: Pondering your accent wall appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• Woodpeckers filled the walls with the tiny nuts after pecking holes
• The determined birds were still hanging around even after the pest control stopped
• Nick’s Extreme Pest Control’s Nick Castro said it was the “craziest” experience

A pest exterminator got more than he bargained for when he received a call claiming worms were coming out of a wall in a California home.

Nick Castro was stunned when he opened the wall and thousands of tiny acorns fell out.

A hungry woodpecker had tried to store the acorns in the chimney of the San Francisco estate.

The bird pecked holes in the chimney, put the nuts in them, but then lost them in the wall cavity.

But instead of stopping, the woodpecker continued to fill the walls with thousands of acorns.

When Castro cut into the wall at Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, the nuts fell to the ground.

Nick Castro was stunned when he opened a wall and thousands of tiny acorns fell out – after a hungry woodpecker tried to store them in the San Francisco estate’s chimney. The bird had pecked holes in the chimney and placed the nuts inside but then lost them within the wall cavity

He told The Dodo: “There were some worms that seemed to be coming out of the wall and the worms looked like maggots.

“Everyone kind of thought it was a dead animal in the wall. It was unreal.

“We see strange things all the time, but I’ve never seen anything like it. They came and came, non-stop.

“It was thought that acorns were only about a quarter of the way up the wall. As it turned out, they were stacked up to the attic of the house.

“The bird had completely destroyed the exterior of the house with the holes it had made. Acorns were stored on siding and moldings everywhere.’

His team measured that around eight 40-gallon garbage bags full of tiny nuts contained 700 pounds of acorns and stuffing.

Castro had to open four different holes in the walls to remove the acorns, which were covered with fiberglass insulation.

The process took hours before the acorns were loaded into a van and taken to the landfill.

Castro of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California cut into the wall and the nuts fell to the floor. His team measured that around eight 40-gallon garbage bags full of tiny nuts contained 700 pounds of acorns and stuffing, which Castro had to open four different holes in the walls to remove the acorns, which were covered in fiberglass insulation

Pest Control Chief Castro felt guilty for disposing of the birds’ hard-earned foot, adding that they had seen the birds overhead as they exited.

He said: “We actually saw him there when we were there to put more into the holes he created.

They were quite creative, so we knew exactly what they were doing.”

Castro added that the structure was sealed to keep the birds from getting back in, and encouraged the homeowner to install vinyl siding to prevent further damage.

The post Woodpeckers stash THOUSANDS of acorns contained in the wall of a California residence appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Housing

February 16, 2022 11:15 am

Demand for housing has risen sharply in 2021, and that has affected prices. According to the carefully followed S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, home prices nationwide rose 19.1% in October, compared to the same month last year. In several markets, the figure was over 25%.

No single factor has caused these increases in demand for housing. Certainly, low mortgage rates have contributed, although these have begun to rise. Tens of thousands of people have departed expensive coastal cities such as New York and San Francisco, where home prices exceed twice the national median, for inland cities where prices have been lower. The ability to work from home, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, has allowed many Americans to become mobile.

Ironically, the move inland has pushed home prices higher in cities people have found attractive for their new lives. With limited supply, bidding wars (when more than one buyer puts an offer for the same home) also have contributed to price increases. Homes in some cities now stay on the market for just a few days.

As people migrate to these popular inland cities, among the things that have happened is that they can often pay more for homes than the residents of these same cities. In some places where the rich have bought large volumes of homes, the “locals” can barely afford to stay. A well-known example of this is Nantucket, an island playground for the rich that is off the coast of Massachusetts.

In its just released Out-of-Town Buyers Have Nearly 30% More to Spend on Homes Than Locals in Migration Hotspots Like Nashville, Atlanta and Miami report, brokerage Redfin found that the market where the difference is the greatest is Nashville. Hope Geyer, a Redfin agent in Nashville, commented on this trend in the Tennessee city: “We’re seeing a lot of out-of-state transplants, mostly from states like California that have an income tax.”

The budget premium outside residents have to buy a home in Nashville compared to local residents is 28.5%. The budget of outsiders is $736,868. It is what Redfin calls the “average maximum budget for migrants.” The “average maximum budget” for locals is $573,382.

These are the 10 cities where out of towners have a budget to pay the biggest premium compared to locals for a home:

Click here to see the cities where it is most expensive to buy a home.

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The post Homebuyers Transferring to This Metropolis Can Pay A lot Extra Than Native Residents – 24/7 Wall St. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Special report

November 7, 2021 10:00 am

Americans have had a period of exceptional mobility – and the top city Americans are moving to is Sarasota, Florida.

The high cost of living and real estate prices in large coastal cities like New York and San Francisco are part of the reason Americans move. Low mortgage rates have also made homes more affordable, and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed people who work from home to move from cities where their businesses have offices to almost anywhere in the country. (These are the best cities to live and work from home in 2021.)

A by-product of this increased mobility is that home prices have skyrocketed in some modest (by population) states and cities. The people of Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee, and South Carolina along with a few cities have huddled within their borders. The 2021 census data will likely show more than the US average population growth in these states and cities.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed a study by the major Mayflower moving company, entitled “Find home.” Mayflower’s data from locations where the company supported a total of 800 or more moves showed the locations – states and cities – with the most inbound moves between July 2019 and July 2021.

The states with the most inbound moves were Idaho, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida.

In addition to migration data, a survey was conducted between September 13 and September 23, 2021 that claims to reflect the US population by gender, generation, and census by region.

The survey found that “nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) feel they have a hometown”. However, the meaning of “hometown” is not the same among respondents: “58% consider their hometown to be the place they come from, while 42% consider their hometown to be the place where they currently live.”

Whether people are moving to or from their new hometown or not, the city with the most inbound moves was Sarasota, Florida, where 76.9% of all moves were recorded. It was followed by Wilmington, North Carolina; Fort Myers, Florida; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Boise, Idaho. Find out if these cities are some of the best cities to live in.

Here are the 25 most popular cities where people are moving

The post This Is the Prime Metropolis Individuals Are Transferring To – 24/7 Wall St. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Americans went through a period of extraordinary mobility. The high cost of living and real estate in large coastal cities like New York and San Francisco are partly responsible. Also, low mortgage rates have made homes more affordable, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it possible for people who work from home to move from cities where their businesses have offices to almost anywhere in the country.

An iconic by-product of mobility is that home prices have skyrocketed in some (by population) humble states and cities. The people of Idaho, Oregon, Tennessee, and South Carolina along with a few cities have huddled within their borders. The 2021 census data is likely to show population growth in these states and cities in excess of the US average.

Mayflower, the major moving company, recently published a study called Finding Home.

The study measured the moves of people who entered the state and the city between July 2019 and July 2021. The data were collected between September 13th and September 23rd. The study claims that the data reflects gender, generation, and measures from the census by region. The researchers drew one conclusion from the data:

[It] reported that nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) feel they have a hometown. However, the meaning of “hometown” is in the eye of the beholder: 58% consider their hometown to be the place they come from, while 42% consider their hometown to be the place where they currently live.

The states with the most inbound moves were Idaho, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida.

The city with the most inbound moves was Sarasota, Florida, which was home to 76.9% of all moves. It was followed by Wilmington, Fort Myers, Santa Fe and Boise.

Here are the top 10 cities where people are moving:

• Sarasota, Florida (76.9% incoming)
• Wilmington, NC (75.9% incoming)
• Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Florida (75.1% incoming)
• Santa Fe, NM (73.1% incoming)
• Boise, Idaho (69.8% incoming)
• Huntsville, Alaska (68.0% incoming)
• Daytona Beach, Florida (66.8% incoming)
• Knoxville, Tennessee (66.7% incoming)
• Nashville, Tennessee (65.1% incoming)
• West Palm Beach, Florida (64.7% incoming)

Click here to find out more about America’s 50 Best Cities to Live in.

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The post This Is the High Metropolis Individuals Are Transferring To – 24/7 Wall St. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Last June, when most of the world remained closed, the Svane Family Foundation commissioned Bay Area artists with $ 10,000 each to create 100 new works, and paid out a total of $ 1 million. It was the foundation’s first program since its inception in 2019, and now the next phase is starting: an online auction and exhibition of the works resulting from the project entitled “Ark” at the San Francisco Art Institute from 7 to 27 May September. (Proceeds from the sale will benefit Bay Area ArtSpan, a nonprofit.)

We spoke to foundation founder Mikkel Svane, who is also CEO of software company Zendesk, about his move to collecting and how art philanthropy has made him rethink his own buying habits.

What was your first purchase (and how much did you pay for it)?

There are pieces in my collection that date back to a childhood portrait, so it’s almost impossible to remember when you first bought it. What really changed my approach to collecting was the Hospitality House Community Arts Program in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, next to our Zendesk office. I got drawn into it and ended up talking to people who lived in really difficult circumstances, but who had this opportunity to support themselves with their work. I was amazed how this studio and gallery could do such a good job of struggling with so much people, embracing the raw expression of life in this part of town, and that my art purchases were of immediate benefit to the life of the Artist would have. I think the first piece I bought there was by Charles Blackwell, and since then many, many works have been created. Eventually I started helping organize their annual fundraising auction, which resulted in my overall commitment to the local art scene here.

What was your last purchase?

Works by Camila Fernandez, Donna Personna, Lord Fredrick and Alicia Mccarthy, all on the Hospitality House auction. And a couple of random Danish nature paintings that remind me of home.

Woody De Othello, Face to Face (2021). Courtesy of the Svane Family Foundation.

Which works or artists would you like to add to your collection this year?

One of Woody De Othello’s ceramic pieces that has not yet come out of the gallery. There’s only so much space on the wall so you’ll have to collect media that don’t need it! There can be a lot of ceramics this year. I also recently bought Jackie Browns Cheetah camo and chiaozzas Bouquet sculpture No. 2 by Hashimoto Contemporary.

What is the most expensive work of art you own?

I have to insist that what you get out of a piece does not correlate with its price. I think my favorite piece I own is a Joe Turek painting. White collarwhich was not expensive, but really impressed me during the time I lived with it.

Where do you most often buy art?

Of course our local galleries, especially Jessica Silverman Gallery, Hashimoto Contemporary, Part 2 Gallery, Rebecca Camacho Presents, the Luggage Store and Gallery Wendi Norris. Artistic is a great pastime. And I follow these little auctions in Europe – there are so many jewels to discover there. I just found something special Robert Bechtle painting from an auction in Paris.

Is there a job that you regret buying?

My only regret is that I’m limited to how much I can collect. Wall space is limited, especially city life. We just moved to find more!

Emilio Villalba, Sixpack (2019). Courtesy of the Svane Family Foundation.

What work do you have hanging over your sofa? How does it look in your bathroom?

Now that we’re moving it’s up for discussion, but before packing we had a piece of Art Collaboration twfive, Venus and the swans, above a sofa. Above others were Emilio Villalbas Six pack, a painting of cigarettes (I always say collecting art is like smoking, it’s fun, and addicting), and Tammy Rae Carlands I’m dying here (Carole + Mitzi) –all “Ark” artists – and Peter Gronquists Ferns and roses. I hang my kids’ pictures in the bathroom and bedroom mixed with the professional artists so they are some of the first and last works I see today.

What’s the most impractical piece of art you own?

This huge painting by Casey Gray, The pursuit of happinessthat I wasn’t sure would even fit in the house. We had to test it out before buying it. Also a Jeppe Hein sculpture made of two balloons, Wishes for twothat you need to fix to the ceiling with magnets. But I never buy art for practical reasons other than to support local artists and keep the city creative and interesting.

Dashiell Manley, Black Rotation (2019). Courtesy of the Svane Family Foundation.

What work would you have liked to have bought when you had the opportunity?

That’s the thing, you almost always regret it if you don’t react faster. Dashiell Manley’s last show on Jessica Silverman is a huge regret. Got a little bit, but hesitated too long with my feet and missed what I really wanted.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I couldn’t buy anything. It just felt absurd. But then I realized how important it was to support local artists financially as all their options dried up, and to support them emotionally – to encourage them to keep working. So we made the Svane Family Foundation’s first program a commissioned composition of 100 pieces that will be featured on the Ark show in September. It was a bit of a revelation – why spend $ 1 million on a single work when that amount can support a whole community of artists?

If you could steal a piece of art without getting caught, which one would it be?

There is this very special piece at SFMOMA, Robert Bechtle Alameda Gran Torino (1974), a painting of a car with wood paneling. It reminds me of my father who grew up in the USA during the war and always told us these stories when I grew up in Denmark. It represents that kind of Americana that I associate with my childhood and my father.

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The post Software program Exec Mikkel Svane on Shifting to Get Extra Wall House, and Commissioning 100 Works Throughout Lockdown appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE (CBS SF) – A wall of flames from the Caldor Fire roared over Echo Summit on Highway 50 Monday night, hurtling down the mountainside toward the Lake Tahoe Basin, where thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes in a mass escape that clogged the few roads out of the region.

Flames burned on either side of the winding slope of Highway 50 – a popular stretch of road for visitors traveling to Tahoe – on Highway 89 and Meyers. There were reports that the fire shifted to the south end of Meyers on Monday evening.

CONTINUE READING: South Bay non-profit organization searches for homes to host Afghan refugees

Meanwhile, South Lake Tahoe – a community of nearly 22,000 people – has taken on the appearance of a ghost town. For hours, evacuees forced out of their homes had slowly escaped to safety. Among them was Mel Smothers, who got out of his vehicle and serenaded the drivers with his violin.

While traffic exiting South Lake Tahoe slowed to a crawl as thousands of residents fled the area – many said it took several hours to move just a mile or two – the streets were eerily quiet early Monday night and traffic-free.

KPIX reporter Katie Nielsen was there when firefighters were digging their last dig and trying to keep the Caldor fire from coming over the Echo Summit into the Tahoe Basin below when the wind continued to stir up just before 6 p.m. on Monday night and the Ignited flames.

That happens at the #EchoSummit on the #CaldorFiee. Winds try to blow the fire over the summit and down to the #TahoeBasin. Red Flag Winds are happening now. @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/tvtdXap1HU

– Katie Nielsen (@KatieKPIX) August 31, 2021

Nielsen later reported from the mostly deserted streets of South Lake Tahoe when the fire broke out over the summit. The only people left were the residents who didn’t have cars to evacuate from the area. They were seen carrying backpacks and duffel bags with their belongings to the evacuation buses that would leave the area.

Evacuation centers have been established at the Douglas County Community Center at 1329 Waterloo Lane in Gardnerville, Nevada and the Truckee Veterans Hall at 10214 High Street in Truckee.

In the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski area, teams turned snowmaking machines into makeshift fire hoses. Authorities said the fire charred part of the land and surrounding trees, but firefighters were able to rescue all of the resort’s buildings and believe all of the chairlifts are still intact.

On Monday evening, the raging fire grew to more than 186,568 acres and was 15 percent contained. Three firefighters and two civilians were injured and a Galt police officer who was on his way to the police in the fire zone was killed in an accident.

At 11 a.m., the evacuation of the lower Lake Tahoe Basin was ordered. All residents have been instructed to exit the area east on Highway 50 toward Nevada.

Caldor Fire evacuation order for 8/30/21 at 11:00 a.m. pic.twitter.com/g1WxBKeWds

– CAL FIRE AEU (@CALFIREAEU) August 30, 2021

Caldor Fire Chief Thom Porter said at a briefing on the state’s forest fires that the Caldor Fire has grown more than 20,000 acres since Sunday and the fire may have spread in all directions.

ALSO READ: Caldor Fire threatens beloved Camp Concord on the shores of Lake Tahoe

“Difficult road conditions, difficult to access. It burns in heavy wood, just very, very difficult conditions, ”said Porter. “We made progress sometimes. Last week I reported on how we effectively have an inversion that kind of curbs fire activity. But when the air clears, it’s like taking the lid off a pot of boiling water. Suddenly this cloud of heat and steam comes out, the same thing happens with a fire. It also sucks in oxygen from all directions, sets fires and punctures fires in all directions. That happened yesterday. “

Porter said after the flames hit Twin Bridges and the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski area, the fire was now in the Tahoe Basin with point fires in the Lower Echo Lake, Aloha Lake and Desolation Wilderness areas.

It was also the second time a forest fire has crossed one end of the Sierra to the other, another example of the state’s unprecedented forest fire situation.

“We haven’t had wildfires from one side of the sierras to the other,” said Porter. “We did that with the Dixie [Fire], now we have with the Caldor. Twice in our history and both happen this month. So we really need to be aware that there is fire activity in California that we have never seen before. “

Porter urged those in evacuation warning areas to consider early evacuation before issuing a mandatory evacuation order.

“Be ready now. Be ready now before there’s a warning, ”Porter said. “If there is a warning, you pack everything in the car and drive off, or you wait for the order and leave. Be ready now. “

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department had issued mandatory evacuation orders Monday morning for the west bank of Lake Tahoe from Emerald Bay to Tahoma on the Placer County line and then west to the border of the Desolation Wilderness.

The contract also included the residential and commercial park that leads to the intersection of Highway 50 and Lake Tahoe Boulevard – a popular junction to the casinos in Stateline – and the area east of the Pioneer Trail and south of the Heavenly Valley Resort Ski Area.

The evacuations came because the fire was advancing at frightening speed.

“We had gained over 25,000 acres,” said Tim Ernst, Cal Fire chief operations chief. “Yesterday it moved the fire about 8 1/2 miles east due to the change in weather.”

The fire made a run on Sunday from Strawberry on Highway 50 northeast to Echo Lake, where it burned Monday morning.

“A number of structures have been lost in this area,” said Ernst.

The task of containing the Caldor fire will not be easier for the fire department in the next few days. A red flag warning with hot temperatures, low humidity and strong winds applies to the region until Wednesday evening.

“Red Flag Warning now in effect and has been extended”

Now – Wednesday 11pm
N. Sierra & S. Cascades
Bad wind & extremely dry

CONTINUE READING: Pedestrians killed in fatal crash SB I-680 in San Jose

Are you prepared for wildfire? Visit https://t.co/4PbDmtOuXj for tips on how to prepare. #CAwx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/X4UH8xntNw

– NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) August 30, 2021

To date, the flames have destroyed 472 homes – many in the fire-ravaged community of Grizzly Flats – and threatened an additional 21,451 buildings. In the small communities that line Highway 50 – a major artery between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe – over 24,000 residents have been evicted from their homes.

On Sunday night, residents of Myers, Fallen Leaf Lake, Kirkwood and Christmas Valley were told to vacate their homes immediately when shacks burned near Camp Sacramento. Flames threatened the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski area, where giant snowmaking machines were used to wet the terrain and 25 additional strike teams were sent into battle to prevent flames from roaring in South Lake Tahoe.

As a precaution, officers also used school buses and ambulances to evacuate Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe.

CALDOR FIRE:

“Today was a tough day,” said Jeff Marsolais, National Forest Supervisor of El Dorado, at a press conference on Sunday evening. “There are no bones. I think the team is doing an excellent job of staying ahead of a very developing fire … Today it let go. “

Erich Schwab, chief of Cal’s fire department, said the brightening of the sky on Sunday triggered rising pyrocumulus clouds that lashed the flames on the eastern edge of the massive flame.

“To put it in perspective, we’ve seen about half a mile of movement around the perimeter of the fire every day for the past few weeks, and today this has moved 2.5 miles with us with no sign of it so is starting to slow down, “he said at the press conference on Sunday evening.

And now a warning for gusty winds and bone-dry humidity should come into effect on Monday at 2 p.m.

The fire spread to the north side of Highway 50 and started on Ralston Ridge. The crews took defensive measures to protect the buildings south of the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski area, but night photos from the resort showed flames approaching the ski lifts.

Near Camp Sacramento, the fire burned several huts along Mt. Ralston Road on Sunday evening.

Firestorm near Camp Sacramento as fire crossed S-N Highway 50, causing significant property damage #CaldorFire pic.twitter.com/2YLvlbeAEW

– craig philpott (@CphilpottCraig) August 30, 2021

Tragic losses turn at least between Camp Sacramento and the Sierra Tahoe. Unknown E from there. #CaldorFire Hwy 50 looking north to east pic.twitter.com/8amM7NZ7cW

– craig philpott (@CphilpottCraig) August 30, 2021

Tahoe is an attractive vacation spot for Bay Area residents, especially with Labor Day weekend approaching, but South Lake Tahoe Fire Department chief Clive Savacool said if they’re in the area they must go.

“Tourists should be gone,” he said. “If someone is still here as a tourist, they have to pack and go. Everyone who doesn’t have to be in South Lake Tahoe has to get out now. “

Among the many other challenges faced by the 3,500 firefighters fighting the flames is terrain that creates its own wind.

“This fire is in an area with multiple deep, steep drains,” said Steve Volmer, a fire behavior analyst with Cal Fire. “We have a saying: ‘Where water flows, there is wind.’ So you can see all of the problem areas of the fire that we had problems in those deep, steep drains along Highway 50 … They (the winds) keep sending out point fires along Highway 50, down in Camp Creek and Slug Canyon. “

These spots are ignited 3/4 of a mile before the main fire.

Volmer said the flames were also fueled by the area’s fire history.

“Right now we have a lot of heavy, dead down material in this fire area,” he said. “The area has very little fire history dating back to 1940 and almost no recorded fire history prior to 1940. There are large numbers of extremely large diameter logs that are still on fire. They are still burning down and still producing all the smoke. “

The firefighters will also look at the weather conditions to warn of the red flag over the fire zone, which will develop early Monday and will extend into Tuesday.

Cal Fire meteorologist Jim Dudley said winds will reach up to 35 miles per hour at the upper elevations near Echo Summit.

“These will start Sunday night and increase the speeds on Monday and they will last through Monday night and Tuesday,” Dudley said of the winds.

Highway 50 is still closed from the Sly Park Road exit to the Highway 89 interchange in Meyers.

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The fire, which was first reported near the Grizzly Flats community on August 14, is unlikely to be fully contained until September 8. Officials said the cause is being investigated.

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A Google Street view of the Hajoca showroom in Hendersonville, NC.

Google Maps

Six months after a wall under construction on a plumber’s branch collapsed, killing a bricklayer and injuring four others, three North Carolina state companies were charged and fined.

A notice from the North Carolina Department of Labor said that distributor Hajoca Corp. and Robert Crawford Masonry were each cited with an alleged willful willful gross violation and an alleged serious violation of the North Carolina Labor Protection Act, with each company fined $ 30,800. The department also cited Pinnacle Grading Co. Inc. with alleged serious breach of the law and fined $ 2,800.

According to the city of Hendersonville, on the morning of Jan. 13, a retaining wall under construction in the parking lot of Hajoca’s showroom in Hendersonville, NC, collapsed, trapping five contracted masonry members underneath. A press release said a crew member who got away with minor injuries said that four other members were working with him. Rescue workers rescued three of them, followed by the 37-year-old man who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two of the injured were flown to hospitals and one was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Hajoca describes itself as the United States’ largest private wholesaler of plumbing, heating and industrial supplies. It’s also one of the oldest – founded in 1858. Headquartered in Lafayette Hill, PA, northwest of Philadelphia, the company employs approximately 3,500 people.

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The Port of San Francisco (which manages 12 miles of the city’s waterfront, including the three miles that are supported by the seawall) had assumed the wall needed to be replaced, but it didn’t know how urgent until 2016 when officials did one preliminary study published the seismic vulnerabilities. Unlike some levees, San Francisco offers structural support as well as flood protection. The following 2020 report details its weaknesses on both fronts. As climate change raises sea levels, the dike will increasingly have to function in a context for which it was not designed. Since an earthquake could happen any day, the port has an immediate priority to ensure the integrity of the dike in such an event. However, the rise in sea level and its uncertainties as to how fast and how high must also be taken into account. Decisions now made to reduce risk must take into account the unrecognizable.

Patrick King, who heads port and maritime work at Jacobs, the engineering office that manages the port’s resilience program, formulates the urgent challenge of designing a future waterfront. “This infrastructure was built for a specific environment that no longer exists and is rapidly changing,” he said. And now we have to predict to the best of our knowledge what this environment will look like.

“Wall” is a generous word for the pile of stones lying on the mud that runs along the northeastern waterfront in San Francisco. During the feverish early days of the gold rush, the San Franciscans built the levee in a sloppy attempt to create some flat land on the edge of the hilly city. Horses struggled to haul carts filled with gold over the hills, and the San Franciscans needed warehouses and counting houses on level ground. Impatient for steam-powered shovels arriving from across the country, residents began dumping whatever was there into the marshland of Yerba Buena Cove: loose sand, remains of city construction, unwanted goods, trash, remains of abandoned ships. After a year, San Francisco had expanded three blocks into the bay.

To curb the building chaos, the California legislature has set up a Board of State Harbor Commissioners to draw up a port development plan. Construction of their first seawall – essentially a rescue mission for the ruined port – began in 1867. A better-funded effort began in 1878, and construction continued in stages over the next four decades.

Although longevity was not a priority, the wall still stands – long outlasts what everyone could expect. And that is worrying for some experts.

“I would suggest that San Francisco is triple at risk,” King said: earthquakes, sea level rise, and obsolete infrastructure.

So far the wall has mostly worked, if hardly at all. During the earthquake of 1906, the sea wall shifted into the bay, tram tracks broke, pipes broke and houses were destroyed. Entire stretches of road slid sideways; other parts fell a few meters. In today’s city, a similar disaster would be even worse.

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