Tag Archives: Commiefornia

VTA can keep transit cardholders’ personal data for seven years [2012]

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“The resolution also calls on the commission to encrypt travel information on the Clipper card, which can be read by scanning it with a smartphone app called FareBot.  Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the transportation commission, said he did not see the need for the legislation.  Use of the card, accepted by every major Bay Area public transit system, is soaring with 689,000 transactions a day and more than 1 million active Clipper cards. Every time a user swipes the card for BART or Muni, the information is saved.  In 2010, California enacted a law limiting the use of data collected on bridges and toll roads through FasTrak devices, but Clipper cards were not included in the legislation.”

https://www.baycitizen.org/news/transportation/supervisor-seeks-more-privacy-clipper/

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S.F. Taxi Chief Resigns, Predicts Industry Wipeout By Lyft And Uber

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“In a sense, it’s shocking to hear such grim assessments about the state of an industry–one that seems like a basic city service–that has been around for decades. But this is a lesson for other cities: San Francisco’s taxi system is notoriously horrible, with too few cabs on the road, too many cabbies who lie about having broken credit card machines so customers will pay cash, and problematic drivers.  A look at 1,700 customer complaints by the Bay Citizen reveals all sorts of issues, including cabbies smoking, texting while driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and just being rude. Should we surprised that the industry is in danger of toppling over?”

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3031448/heres-an-idea/head-of-san-francisco-cab-company-predicts-lyft-and-uber-will-put-the-industry

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Bay Area city approves $13 minimum wage, to be California’s highest

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“Businesses that pay less than 800 hours of employee wages over a two-week period will be exempt from the rules but must still pay the state minimum wage.  Richmond businesses that ‘derive more than 50 percent of their income from transactions where the point of sale is outside the city’ will be forced to pay an ‘intermediate wage,’ defined as halfway between the city’s minimum wage and the state minimum wage.  Seattle recently raised its minimum wage to $15 by 2017, which would be the nation’s highest. San Francisco’s $10.74 minimum wage is currently the state’s highest.  The new law will phase in the minimum wage hike over several years, increasing to $13 in 2018.”

http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20140605/bay-area-city-approves-13-minimum-wage-potentially-californias-highest

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San Francisco voters just voted to make housing less affordable

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“Yesterday, San Francisco voters handily voted in favor of Measure B. That’s a ballot initiative that will make it more difficult to construct tall buildings on the San Francisco waterfront by requiring buildings over a certain size to obtain voter approval via referendum.  Thanks to the miraculous technology of the elevator, it is perfectly possible for lots of people to live and work in a small geographical area via the mechanism of tall buildings. But when tall buildings are banned, space becomes scarcer. And when space is scarce, the tendency is that the richest people around will be the ones who are able to bid for it.”

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/4/5778696/measure-b-san-francisco-will-reduce-affordability

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Government Mismanagement Causes California Water Crisis

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“California Central Valley has a water crisis, not because the state doesn’t have enough water, but because government agencies have allowed massive amounts of water to flow out to the ocean instead of storing it for future need.”

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State Law Hides Investigations of Police Misconduct from Public Scrutiny

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“When compared to other states, Police Departments in California are among the least transparent in the country. When citizens complain about the conduct of sworn police officers, those complaints might go away and are never heard of again. In the last five years alone, the Investigative Unit discovered 17.916 citizen’s complaints filed against the four major law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area, in addition to California’s Highway Patrol.  Yet, a state law called the Police Officer’s Bill of Rights protects police from those who allege misconduct.”

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/State-Law-Hides-Investigations-of-Police-Misconduct-from-Public-Scrutiny-257080571.html

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Google barge, kicked out of S.F. Bay, gets warm welcome in Stockton

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“The arrival of Google’s barge in Stockton has given a city beleagered by bankruptcy and negative press a jolt of excitement and hope.  Some see the arrival of the tech giant’s barge — believed to be some sort of floating showroom — as a potential boost to the economy and a move to help counter its negative image.  Google’s barge is made from dozens of shipping containers. It will be housed at the Port of Stockton for six months while the company completes construction of the boat.  In February the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission ordered Google to relocate the barge because the company did not obtain the proper permits to build it at the port.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-google-barge-move-stockton-20140307-story.html

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“Congestion pricing” part of Mtn. View city plan for Google’s growth

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“City Council members have long discussed a hard limit on commuter car trips into North Bayshore. Council members have been inspired by success with such a cap imposed by the city of Palo Alto, which prevents the Stanford campus from expanding unless car trips are kept at 1989 levels.  The council’s goal is to make solo driver car trips only 45 percent of all commute trips into North Bayshore. The number now stands at 61 percent for Google alone. A total of about 6.4 million square feet is potentially coming to Mountain View soon, bringing tens of thousands of more commuters and potential residents to the city with a general plan that makes room for only about 7,000 new homes by 2030.”

http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2014/04/29/congestion-pricing-part-of-plan-to-allow-googles-growth

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San Francisco’s Dumb Ban on Bottled Water

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“San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to ban bottled water from city property and events, as well as food trucks regulated by the city. The legislation is widely acknowledged to be among the strictest bottled-water bans in the country, and in the environmental community at least, it’s being hailed as an important step in ridding landfills of the scourge of plastic bottles. A tad smugly, David Chiu, the city supervisor who authored the legislation, underscored that the ban was intended to change behavior, too, not just packaging. ‘I want to remind people that not long ago, our world was not addicted to plastic water bottles,’ he said. ‘For centuries, everybody managed to stay hydrated.'”

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-03-14/san-francisco-s-dumb-ban-on-bottled-water

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San Francisco Union Protests City’s Tax Exemptions for Tech Companies

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“San Francisco leaders said the incentives deprived the city of just under $2 million in taxes, while generating $8 million in new revenue.  Union leaders, on the other hand, said lost taxes total somewhere close to $56 million.  San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development said the payroll tax breaks offered to Twitter, lured 17 other tech companies to mid-market. They also brought 17 small businesses, 13,000 jobs and more than 5,000 units of new housing under construction in the area.  ‘The 13,000 jobs support so many other jobs and economic activity in the city,’ said Todd Rufo, the mayor’s director of economic and workforce development.”

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Union-Workers-Protest-Citys-Tax-Exemptions-for-Tech-Companies–255424971.html

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