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It takes 4-5 years just to get through the building approval process after you own the land. That's if you actually meet all the restrictive criteria and the neighbors aren't trying too hard to prevent you from building. If you're trying to finance your construction, because of all the delays and the uncertainty involved in each step, that takes an average of four years to get done. Don't even talk about financing purchasing raw land, as you'll be paying interest for years before any hope of a return.

In most other places, it takes maybe 30-60 days to accomplish all of the above, even in other locations many consider slower than they need to be.

So while there is an increased understanding in the bay area what the results of their terrible policies are and some efforts to remediate them, they are a long ways away from not effectively blocking (by discouraging them from even trying, for the most part) an actual expansion of places to live.

Don't take the last flight of the day.

Also, we need more high speed trains to get people to and from the hubs, so if you miss a local flight due to a delay or weather grounding the flight, you can take the train instead. This may kill the shorter flights (in turn killing the hub-and-spoke model), but those are the flights the airlines don't much care for anyway.

These "personal" cars won't have the level of monitoring and inspection that city subways have

Holy shit have you ever BEEN on an SF or NYC subway, and also in a Tesla owners car??

At least in Musk's tunnels a jacked up car just rolls in neutral off to a side channel instead of blocking every car behind it for an entire morning.

Found this http://www.sfexaminer.com/muni... and then this https://www.electrive.com/2018...

The issue isn't buying land for new office buildings - the issue is the tight housing market with insane valuations. And crazy traffic as well. Or dealing with taxi drivers urinating and defecating in SFO parking lots.

30% of traffic in SF may be cars circling the block while looking for parking. Since Uber/Lyft drivers don't park, they may be relieving more congestion than they are causing.

As "ride-sharing" becomes more popular, and there is less need for parking, the best way to reduce congestion is to eliminate curbside parking, especially on busy streets. This opens up an additional lane in each direction for traffic.

This is long distance travel...

And also commuter rail, for example from Millbrae to downtown San Francisco.

...that only well-off people will be able to afford...

They are planning to set the train fares at 83% of airfares.

...that will carry a small proportion of traffic on a route that is not congested anyway...

You obviously have never driven in or out of San Francisco or Los Angeles during rush hour!

...and is already well served by other mass transit options (airplanes, buses, Amtrak).

There's only one daily Amtrak train in each direction between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Otherwise you have to take a bus such as the California Shuttle Bus, or Amtrak Train + Amtrak Thruway bus.

And even the airlines don't think we need hundreds of departures every day from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.. The reason is because those short flights aren't profitable, and that's why wherever HSR is built, it always quickly gains market share from the airlines.

TL/DR version: Super old news; done for debt shedding.

This was publicly announced 3 weeks ago, but it's been known for a month and a half (since 10 Dec 2015), when a letter was sent out to co-op members, and it was primarily done to shed debt, and because the coop (which is how it's organized) is not attracting new drivers; with a limited number of medallions, taxi coops compete to attract those with medallions. Yellow cab isn't doing as well in this as other companies and co-ops. Primarily they are losing medallioned drivers to Flywheel Taxi (formerly, DeSoto Cab) and Luxor Cab.

"The bankruptcy filing will allow the co-op to shed its mounting debts."

"Fewer drivers mean fewer profits for Yellow Cab, the co-op admitted in a letter to its members."

"The company told the San Francisco Examiner its ridership numbers are healthy. But in a letter to shareholders obtained by the Examiner, Yellow Cab Co-Op President Pamela Martinez wrote that they must do more with less to survive."

^^^^---- note: not losing business to ride sharing services ----^^^^

“In reality, we have the best color scheme there is in the world, we’ve got a lot of loyal customers, we still get a high volume of calls to our color scheme on a daily basis,” he [Jim Gillespie] said.

"Financially, he said the straw that broke the camel’s back were a number of lawsuits which ended up hurting the company’s bottom line."

"On background, multiple sources told the Examiner that cab companies are having a tough time hiring competent drivers and may be hiring drivers with spotty driving records. Gillespie denied this, but he did say the lawsuits were harmful to the co-op."

http://www.sfexaminer.com/yell...

"Google may keep a bus route for 1 person they believe "key" in a project" I find that very hard to believe. Do you have a source for that statement? If a person is that key they would just get a town car to take him to and from work. It would be far cheaper than renting a bus & driver and more convenient for the "key" employee.

If you don't move closer to work it doesn't mean that more tax dollars won't be spent in the city. Since more people live in the city they will naturally spend more as they go out. After all that was the whole point of living there in the first place. Also SF has been raking in more and more in property taxes since the bus system was in place and now property tax revenue is at an all time high.

The protesters are part of a group that are upset about gentrification. -- it's when people with significant wealth and/or income move into an area of people with less wealth/income and thereby drive up real estate prices beyond what the established population can potentially afford.

And real estate prices wouldn't go up if the people who owned the properties refused to sell them at higher prices. And prices wouldn't go up if people weren't willing and able to pay the higher prices, which are exacerbated by China's pathetic retirement savings options and rampant corruption. I hear many complaints that whenever a property goes on sale, it's snapped up by some Chinese person with millions of dollars in cash. Since we don't outlaw capitalism, the best alternative would be to allow more living units to be constructed in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Incidentally, due to Proposition 13, property taxes go up very slowly as long as you don't sell your house or do major construction to it. And due to rent control, rental prices in San Francisco go up very slowly. You get a fun combination of super-cheap housing from the 1970's, and super-expensive housing for new people.

In a side note, this winter we got a lot less rain than average, and I'm starting to worry about our water supply. Building more housing units is a matter of public policy, but having enough water to keep them livable is currently outside human control. It would be funny if these tech giants would invest in desalination and water purification, not for third-world countries, but for their own homes around San Francisco Bay.

Also not mentioned in the summary is this.

"Nick Starr threatens suicide on Twitter — again"

You've all been suckered by an internet attention whore. Be sure to read the comments; this guy is a real sweet heart.

That is all.

Also not mentioned in the summary is this.

"Nick Starr threatens suicide on Twitter — again"

You've all been suckered by an internet attention whore.

That is all.

Obama did not write it. He has no idea what is in it.

Right. That's why he negotiated away the public option in secret to the for-profit hospital lobby a year before signing the actual bill. Or making the same deal with the same lobbyist that he slammed in a campaign ad when he was running for president. Because he was just a Helpless Bystander.

considering that a medallion in San Francisco can cost upwards of $200k

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/flag-might-drop-on-more-taxi-medallions/Content?oid=2193759

-I'm just sayin'

Only if they damn well show up when I call them, rather than taking nearby, more lucrative fares when they get flagged down on their way to me. If their dispatcher agrees on their behalf that they will show up, they need to damn well show up.

If they don't show I, I really don't give a flying what they paid for their medallion (and most Taxi drivers in SF are contract workers, with the medallion being owned by the taxi company; the driver is just an employee with no benefits who has to follow radio orders).

This is administered by the California Public Utilities Commission, same group that oversees electricity and gas companies (and doesn't always do that job well either). This is not at all the same thing as NYC where you need medallions.

You are making the baseless claim that there isnt an artificially limited number of taxi's in SF which reality does not agree with. Its more like New York than ever before, including medallions.

"Under the original permitting setup, drivers who wanted to become medallion holders were placed on a waitlist for the turnover of one of 1,500 medallions in circulation. In most cases, it took decades for a coveted permit to become available and drivers only had to pay $1,600."

One has to wonder what any of your statements are worth, on any subject, when you blatantly lie about reality and defend tyranny on this subject.

It's all about the money. The SF airport officials want their cut of the fares and are bullying the rideshare cabs to get it. This is what they said in April :-

The airport has demanded that six different ridesharing companies quit their SFO operations until further notice.

“It’s not fair for the cab companies that go through the permitting process to compete with these unregistered vehicles,” said airport spokesman Doug Yakel. “Not only are we talking about the limited space at the airport, but also the safety of our passengers.”

A trip to the airport can result in a $50 fare for cabs, but drivers must pay nominal fees each time they enter and exit the hub as part of the permitting process overseen by the CPUC. SFO wants all ridesharing companies to be certified by the CPUC before operating at the airport.

So, when banning the ridesharing cabs (who don't pay their 'nominal fees') didn't work, they started arresting the cab drivers.

After the cease and desist order was issued, airport officials and police began “admonishing” rideshare drivers who dropped off or picked up passengers at the airport.

Starting July 10, airport officials began slapping rideshare operators with citizen arrests for trespassing when they were discovered at the airport. “This is not the type of arrest where somebody gets put in jail,” Doug Yakel told Ars. “It's a misdemeanor and it's for trespassing.” Yakel went on to say that the curbside airport police observe and “have the right to question drivers,” if they see anything that appears to indicate ridesharing. Tells include anything from the giant pink mustache that Lyft drivers slap on their car grill to seeing the rider and driver exchange money before the rider leaves. “There could be a variety of different things that [airport police] would be looking for to see if there's a rideshare transaction,” Yakel explained.

At that point, airport police contact an airport official, who writes the rideshare driver a citation for a court date. Yakel said that officials are writing citations under California Penal Code section 602.4, which states that people offering “goods, merchandise, property, or services of any kind whatsoever” on airport property, without the airport's permission, are guilty of a misdemeanor. Yakel told Ars that he didn't know how high the fine for such a misdemeanor might be.

That should have been "Speed limit enforced by drones". Maybe the signs were made by someone whose first language isn't English, and/or someone who is not that good at it.

The fake signs closely mimic legitimate "speed enforced by aircraft" signs commonly found on California freeways. For example, see the picture in this SF Examiner article about declining use of aerial speed limit enforcement in CA. I agree that the wording is ambiguous, but that's not the fault of the creator(s) of these fake drone signs.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/fair-is-taking-digital-leap/Content?oid=2442281
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/06/13/hi-tech-exhibits-join-farm-animals-carnival-games-at-san-mateo-county-fair/

Among the additions this year are a 3-D printer, a Frisbee-throwing robot made by students at Aragon High School, and a "reverse-engineering" exhibit where kids can take apart VCRs and computers to see how they work. Colaluca also has organized competitions in coding and app-making, and he deputized employees of local computer companies to judge them.

It is biased towards cars that are designed for the max speed of the 60s rather than today.

Average highway speeds on 280 and 101 are 40-50mph: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/transportation/2011/12/commute-speeds-have-slowed-down-san-francisco-drivers In fact, most of the densely populated areas have highway speeds below 64 mph.

It is most accurate in the middle, rather than as an extreme outlier, it would think the middle 80 percent fit to a bell curve.

You don't know what you're talking about: your numbers are wrong as are your distributions.

Let me Google that for you...

Here you go, 7,719 arrests, WITH LINKS to the stories.

Enjoy!

http://stpeteforpeace.org/occupyarrests.sources.html

Here are some specifics:

Destruction:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/05/protesters-take-over-city

General mayhem, including 200lbs of human feces:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19373284

Rape:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/woman-raped-at-occupy-philadelphia/

Enjoy the read!

How come we never heard from the so-called "Space Frontier Foundation" when Obama wanted to turn NASA into a zoo ?

Because he didn't.

Partisanship can only go so far, buddy, and when you cross the line you are telling a BIG FLAT LIE !
 
How do you explain this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVM1ASIxwWI

Or are you saying that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is a liar ?
 
Obama has instructed Charles Bolden to " find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering "
 
As report by The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7875584/Barack-Obama-Nasa-must-try-to-make-Muslims-feel-good.html
San Francisco Examiner http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/nasa039s-muslim-outreach-al-jazeera-told-first
  and the White House itself never denied the existence of that "MUSLIM OUTREACH PROGRAM" http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/07/white-house-nasa-defend-comments-about-nasa-outreach-to-muslim-world-criticized-by-conservatives/
 
Sir, if you want to comment, comment away, but please, stop lying !
 

Great links. The ordos story reminds me of San Francisco's problems

On a recent visit to San Francisco, I was struck by the smell of sewage along the Embarcadero. This was my first experience with something I had only heard about on the news.

Really? A quick Google is beyond you?

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2011/10/ms-13-gang-suspects-face-murder-shooting

"Largely for state schools it's coming from reduced income from the states general budget."

Exactly right. The states typically pay for only 20-40% for flagship universities. Exceptions abound, for example when I was a grad student at the University of Oregon a few years back we didn't get 10% from the state, a situation similar to the University of Colorado's current 6.9% state funding. Also keep in mind that the 20-40% is for flagship universities, which make up a tiny percentage of state institutes of higher learning. The state university budget is a perennial favorite for the chopping block too. 20 years ago most states funded their state universities at about 50%. Every time the state whacks a university budget tuition goes up. Here at the University of Wisconsin we've recently had quarter billion dollar bites taken out of us twice, and both times tuition was increased by over 10%.

San Francisco has a lot of crazies, and sorting out the harmless ones from the dangerous ones is hard. Here's one case. A guy in a wheelchair was slashing the tires of city vehicles with a rock. He was apparently shot by cops with a beanbag gun, and he and one cop were taken to a hospital with non-lethal injuries. There's video from someone across the street. Excessive force? Perhaps, but subduing someone with a sharp object without getting cut is very tough.

Here's another case, of a known mentally ill woman shot in her home after threatening a social worker. This probably was excessive force; the cops could have waited for backup from the guys in heavier protective gear.

Here's the aftermath of the shooting the protests are about. This doesn't seem to have been a crazy, but a parolee from Portland who ran from cops after trying to ride a bus for free and being caught at it. Whether he had a gun remains an open question.

The SFPD is at best a mediocre department. NY and LA have really tried to clean up their act, but SF hasn't.

Interesting but annoying.
From the news stories I read the person shot was said to be armed with a knife and one of the officers involved was treated for cuts. Is that not true? What is your source? In fact there is a video of him throwing a knife at the officer. A drunk throwing bottles and knives at officers in a train station where their are other passengers seems like a real threat to me. The bottle stuck to officer and the Officer fired on the man after he threw the bottle and was coming at him with a knife.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/bay-area/2011/07/bart-shooting-video-shows-thrown-knife-not-threat-man-posed
Frankly that data points to the officers reaction being reasonable IMHO. It isn't proof but there does seem to be some data that points in that direction and very little that points to this being an unjustified shooting.
Second where does someones rights end? Why do the protesters rights to free speech matter more than peoples rights to use public transit? The protesters set out to shut down the stations. They have every right to protest outside the stations but once they interfere with people using the station they are violating others rights.

I do not see what there is to protest about. It almost seems like vigilantly justice towards the police.

Code Pink?

Yes, Code Pink. Code Pink has been neck-deep in the Middle East wanting, apparently, to finish what the Nazis started with the Holocaust. How tolerant and "Progressive" of them.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/ayers-dohrn-helped-organize-flotilla-group

Former Weather Underground leaders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, as well as Code Pink founder Jodie Evans, helped organize the Free Gaza Movement, which launched the six-ship flotilla from Turkey to Israel that ended in a violent clash with Israeli Defense Forces, BigGovernment.com reported.

In January, the trio were spotted in Egypt attempting to stir up crowds on the streets with 1,400 other left-wing activists after the Egyptian government refused to allow Free Gaza Movement members to enter the Gaza Strip. About 100 marchers were eventually allowed to cross the border, where they were met by former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Now, go back to sleep Doc, and dream about your perfect socialist nirvana that will never, ever be.

Strat

If Google, or any other company in the Bay Area, thinks their employees might need suicide nets, then they should probably be funding these:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Funding-for-Golden-Gate-Bridge-suicide-net-proves-elusive-52559197.html

...is that it'll steal customers from the airlines, which are already hurting.

The airlines don't care about their short haul shuttle services. They make more money on the longer flights. Even JetBlue doesn't "think we need hundreds of departures every day from the Bay Area to Los Angeles".

He certainly sounds incompetent, but he's in jail because hes a jerk- and thats _wrong_.

It sure would be wrong if he was in jail because he is a jerk. But he isn't. He is in jail because he was found guilty of felony network tampering.

Never heard of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley?

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Daley-Vows-New-Gun-Ordinances-97328384.html

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/gregory_kane/Kane-Chicago-mayors-comments-wound-gun-control-advocacy-95833474.html

William

Is this how screwed up NASA is

No, this isn't even close to how screwed NASA is getting. Just check out what NASA's director says is Obama's foremost task for his agency: it's really fun .

Glad to see they got this done and available before NASA had to shift its mission over to the administration's new priority for the agency . After all, what could be more important than a condescending, platitudinous mission (the foremost mission, says NASA's director) to boost the self esteem of a specific religious culture?

Maybe ... it will push NASA and Obama to rethink their scaling back on the space program

No need! Obama has already given NASA a brand new top priority. According to NASA's director, the agency's foremost (his word) objective is now to "reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering." No, really. That is the director's new top priority. Really .

You don't seem to understand this newfangled "burden of proof" concept.

It would've mattered in court. In our argument it is not as important, because it is not, what my point hinges on. The one-hour minimum overtime was just an example of a possible absurd rule.

If you actually support the claim, sure, then it stops being BS.

Are you, actually, denying, that the gross abuses in the Union-contracts exist? More like are simply trying to bog me down with this meaningless nit-picking... Here are some overtime-related examples for you:

• Up until this year, employees of Wall Street Journal had a 5-hour minimum overtime pay. That's gone now, but only in exchange for other concessions.
• If the employee works more than one-half of an extra consecutive shift, the time worked for the entire extra shift shall be paid at time and one-half of pay. Yep, round it up — AFL-CIO are proud of this one, they quote it, even if without the full text.
• Firefighters received overtime pay regardless of whether they worked more than scheduled because their union contract guarantees regularly scheduled overtime (emphasis mine).
• The union contract for Muni operators prevents the SFMTA from hiring part-time drivers, meaning overtime must be paid overtime

The last two, in particular, blow up your entire argument about employees "not caring" for employees, and "forcing" to work overtime... The examples show, how the unions consider the overtime rules as a "benefit".

Of course, you know, my example was valid. BS here is produced by you — at least, the bulls produce it through proper orifices...

See?

MSNBC: ‘Law makes it a crime to be illegal immigrant’

Best headline ever!

We have solved the health care, diagnosis via Facebook and Twitter.
I cannot help thinking that someone is practising medicine via some images on Facebook.
Practising medicine without a license is illegal and if someone had a license I expect it would be at risk because of this.
Worse this is apparently a mental health issue involving depression. We could all review the video of the Army Psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood. Does he look crazy? The evidence is growing that he was.
There was no external facebook clues for the High School kids some miles down the tracks from here at Gunn HS in Palo Alto, CA
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/High-school-mourns-second-student-death-on-tracks-in-a-month-46861617.html
Mental health problems can have serious consequences.

Installing parking meters in residential areas is on SF's mind:

Cashing in with more parking meters:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/City-could-cash-in-with-more-parking-meters-51363987.html

"Residential areas are packing in more people The City is projected to take in more than 150,000 new residents in the next three decades and the need to manage traffic and parking availability is becoming a key concern for transportation planners, according to a new study by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority."

---------------
Exhaustive Parking Study
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/07/21/sfcta-completes-exhaustive-parking-study-supervisors-delay-action/

"The study estimated there are more than 600,000 parking spaces in San Francisco, of which 320,000 are on-street and only 24,000 are regulated with parking meters. Residential parking permits (RPPs), as evidenced by the map above, have been added throughout the city in an ad-hoc fashion and in many areas are not synthesized with metered parking."

--------------
Bilkable Meters:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Electronic-city-parking-meters-are-easy-to-bilk-52402397.html

"The so-called e-parking meters installed in 2003 for around $25 million include features that are supposed to deter theft, according to manufacturer J.J. MacKay Canada.

But a trio of programmers and engineers say it took them only three days to create imposter cards that can offer free metered parking in The City.

Through computer code, the security researchers said they discovered how value is stored on the prepaid cards and were able to create fake cards valued at $999.99. They also found out how to create cards that wont deplete in value after being used."

Installing parking meters in residential areas is on SF's mind:

Cashing in with more parking meters:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/City-could-cash-in-with-more-parking-meters-51363987.html

"Residential areas are packing in more people The City is projected to take in more than 150,000 new residents in the next three decades and the need to manage traffic and parking availability is becoming a key concern for transportation planners, according to a new study by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority."

---------------
Exhaustive Parking Study
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/07/21/sfcta-completes-exhaustive-parking-study-supervisors-delay-action/

"The study estimated there are more than 600,000 parking spaces in San Francisco, of which 320,000 are on-street and only 24,000 are regulated with parking meters. Residential parking permits (RPPs), as evidenced by the map above, have been added throughout the city in an ad-hoc fashion and in many areas are not synthesized with metered parking."

--------------
Bilkable Meters:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Electronic-city-parking-meters-are-easy-to-bilk-52402397.html

"The so-called e-parking meters installed in 2003 for around $25 million include features that are supposed to deter theft, according to manufacturer J.J. MacKay Canada.

But a trio of programmers and engineers say it took them only three days to create imposter cards that can offer free metered parking in The City.

Through computer code, the security researchers said they discovered how value is stored on the prepaid cards and were able to create fake cards valued at $999.99. They also found out how to create cards that wont deplete in value after being used."

Not even close, they have been promoting this same line of BS for five years now. http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/07/13/news /20050713_ne01_barcell.txt http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2 003/03/28/BA298009.DTL&hw=nextel+bart&sn=003&sc=16 7

You're right, what I have read before is that the median home price is such in SF that a person should earn an income of ~160k to afford it. My mistake. http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/05/06/busi ness/20050506_bu03_real.txt

Worser than the latest MS virus! Worser than the war in whoknowswhereistan! It's a crippling blow to all of geekdom!

http://www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/0629 04n_clintons Pizzaman probably replied but here's an article. Google led me to it.

> He always supports the Democrat no matter who's on the ticket.

Except when he's not.

> He blindly pulls the Dems' party line and never questions it.

Moore is much more liberal than the "Democratic" party and its presidential candidates. The dem party is shifted right because the country has been a polyarchy for a while, and as such, the "parties" are just different degrees of the right wing.

> He has not problem living a lavish Hollywood lifestyle while at the same time
> calling for higher taxes on the common man.

What is Moore worth? What kind of digs does he have? Cars? What proof is there to substantiate the claim that he is living like P Diddy?

> Are these the values that I want represented in Washington?

Some of them: vigorous scrutiny of government, basic moral principles applied in foreign policy (what's wrong for them is wrong for me), de-coupling industry from government, de-militarizing the economy, retreat from the Bush doctrine, opposition to Patriot Act.

> Could I afford the lifestyle that I have now if my payroll taxes were 50%
> higher then they are now?

Whatever the rate, I'd rather that 51% of my tax money were not spent on offensive weaponry (to call it defense is a laughable euphemism).

> If Saddam isn't a threat to the US, then why didn't the last President pull
> US troops home?

Because there was a policy of containment.