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Seeing as San Francisco's housing and cost-of-living issues are getting a lot of press attention these days (New York Times: "Backlash by the Bay: Tech Riches Alter a City"), here are a few recent bulletins from the front:
Venn on Market, a 113-unit apartment building at Market and Octavia, which won't be completed until January, is more than half leased and some tenants already have moved in, according to Spencer Moore, a spokesman for the developer, San Francisco's MacFarlane Partners.
Rents range from $3,075 for a one-bedroom - up from $2,900, the figure published earlier this month - to $5,000 for the three-bedroom units. Only one of the three-bedroom units remains. "Demand has gone up," Moore said.
Not surprising given Venn's location, at the intersection of trendy Hayes Valley and the north end of the Mission. Nearby, on the south side of Market Street, sit the headquarters of Twitter and Square.
Cash in hand: Farther south in the Mission, a 17-unit "balanced blend of urban living and comfortable luxury" at 3500 19th St. (at Valencia) is reportedly 60 percent sold, little more than a month after going on the market.
Condo prices there are listed between $1.6 million and $2.3 million. Calls and e-mail to the developer, Vanguard Properties, were not returned on Monday. One of Vanguard's agents told the San Francisco Business Times last month that the buyers are "new money, old money, techies, finance. It's people with money - everybody so far is paying cash."
Chic retreat: With Valencia Street, the focus of much angst, filling up, more attention is focusing on Mission Street itself.
The 202-unit Varas, a "chic retreat located in one of San Francisco's most desirable neighborhoods" - at Mission and 15th streets - opened in July, with 40 percent of it preleased. Now it's 85 percent full, said a spokeswoman for Behringer Harvard, a Dallas real estate investment trust that bought the property from the original developer, San Francisco's Avant Housing.
Last we checked, rents for the one- to three-bedroom apartments were similar to Venn on Market, ranging from about $2,500 to $7,000 a month. Vara also has 40 below-market rental apartments, ranging from $939 a month for a studio to $1,309 for a three-bedroom.
Cool and transformational: A perhaps more significant game-changer is under construction farther down Mission Street, where the Giant Value store once stood between 21st and 22nd streets.
In its place: a $70 million, eight-story, 114-unit development of market-rate condos. Next door, the historic, long-shuttered New Mission Theater is being replaced by the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, complete with five screens and digital projection, plus dinner, drinks and live events. As part of the development deal with San Francisco's Oyster Development, 14 below-market-rate units are to be built elsewhere in the Mission.
It's a project of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema of Austin, Texas, which specializes in first-run independent, alternative, classic and foreign films, called by Wired magazine "the coolest theater in the world."
There are more plans for that strip of Mission Street, once called the Mission Miracle Mile. "What's going on is transformational," said Philip Lesser, executive director of the Mission's Business Improvement District.
Y'all ready?
On the other hand: The San Francisco International Arts Festival is ready to roll out its latest initiative, "I.D. for the New Majority," a television series designed to "focus on the ramifications of the shifting demographics of the United States electorate."
First up, a pilot program mixing interviews with local residents, politicians and officials with artistic performances by SFIAF contributors illustrating "a community response to the current housing crisis facing the San Francisco Bay Area focusing on the situation in the Mission District."
More information and an edited preview of the broadcast is at www.sfiaf.org.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
And your child shall have it now - or very soon - plus toys, clothes and other items you simply have to have but can't bear the thought of competing for in the holiday season's madding crowds.
For example, you've had your eye on a jacket at Bloomingdale's and are treating yourself to a big-screen TV from Best Buy. Go to eBay Now, click on the desired items, purchase, and assuming the goods are in stock, an eBay "valet" delivers them to your door in about an hour.
Or you've braved the crowds and ventured into Macy's at Stonestown Galleria where you spot sheets and towels, cosmetics, shoes, dinnerware and other stuff you didn't know you needed. Pay at the cash register, note that you want them sent to your home that day, and a driver from a Palo Alto startup called Deliv will deliver them at a time of your choosing.
It's what retailers have traditionally called the "last mile." These days, it's known as "same-day delivery" and everyone's getting into it - brick-and-mortar chains, Internet giants, your neighborhood store, Uber-style startups and millions of dollars in venture capital.
"It's driving everything, although no one has yet come up with a provable model," said Garrick Brown, research director of Cassidy Turley, a national real estate consultancy with offices in Northern California.
EBay, which rolled out its same-day delivery service in San Francisco last year, has ramped up efforts this holiday season, with free delivery (standard fee: $5) and extended hours through Christmas Eve. In addition to big-box retail partners like Macy's, Toys R Us, Home Depot and Best Buy, "artisanal treats" from local merchants at San Francisco's Ferry Building are available this year.
The company, 75 percent of whose sales are derived from new merchandise, also has same-day delivery in the Peninsula and South Bay and New York. Chicago, Dallas and London are "coming soon." This month, eBay acquired a London company, Shutl, an online courier platform, which will be deployed initially in Chicago for same-day delivery. Price not disclosed, although the 5-year-old company raised $8.7 million in venture capital from European and U.S. investors, including UPS' venture arm.
EBay would not disclose financial details of its year-old service, but said working professionals are its top customers, buying "everything from toasters to iPads," with home and garden and electronics being the strongest categories.
Other players in the Bay Area include Google's Shopping Express, which this month snagged Costco as a partner, and Instacart, a grocery delivery startup that has raised $11 million in venture capital and includes groceries from Safeway (which offers its own same-day service), Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and Costco among its offerings. In September, Instacart launched in Chicago and it plans to expand to other urban centers in 2014. Postmates, a "same day urban logistics and delivery platform" focused on restaurants, added Brooklyn to its San Francisco and Manhattan coverage, along with a lengthening list of institutional and private investors.
"This is really a land grab. No one wants to be left out," said Daphne Carmeli, CEO of Deliv, which recently received an injection of $7 million from Chicago's General Growth Properties, the second-biggest owner of shopping malls in the country, including Stonestown Galleria and Eastridge Mall in San Jose. Which is why you might see Deliv's Uber-style crowdsourced drivers at the two Bay Area shopping centers and at the Glendale Galleria in Los Angeles and Oakbrook Center in Chicago.
"Enabling retailers to use our stores to fulfill online orders the same day is fundamental in creating an omni-channel experience. Our intent is to partner with retailers to create new consumer services, such as same-day local delivery and pickup," said GGP senior vice president Scott Morey in announcing the investment in August.
"Omni-channel" means brick-and-mortar retail, e-commerce, mobile shopping apps and other technological paraphernalia that are changing pretty much everything. But instead of the Amazon model, which is building dozens of giant warehouses aimed at same-day delivery, "malls, shopping centers, stores are the distribution points of the future. And we're crowdsourcing the labor to deliver," said Carmeli.
Retail analysts are not so sure. "To what extent do people want instant gratification, and how much do they want to pay for it?" wondered Helen Bulwik, a partner at Newport Board Group, a retail consultancy. "It can be great value when you need something right away, but how often?"
The added costs of same-day delivery remain "a serious challenge to retailers," as they did with earlier experiments, like Webvan and others, said Brown. "We've seen it before. It's too much." Second-day delivery, an Amazon specialty, is the sweet spot, he believes. "Costs for next day are doable."
However, all seem to agree that brick-and-mortar companies are central to the omni-channel retail future. "At the end of the day, brick and mortar will win because you have to have a physical place for people to go," Bulwik said.
As for the future of same-day delivery, "it's too early to call; everything is being disrupted," Carmeli said. "But I think by next shopping season, same day will be the de facto standard."
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
In addition to celebrating the first anniversary of its 1 million-square-foot distribution center in San Bernardino on Tuesday, with Gov. Jerry Brown in attendance, the Internet retailer announced plans for an even larger facility, in Moreno Valley (Riverside County).
That brings to at least four the number of giant warehouses for Amazon in California, employing thousands of people in hard-hit regions. Similar centers in Tracy and Patterson (Stanislaus County) opened this month. "We are excited to grow our presence in the great state of California," said Mike Roth, Amazon's vice president of North American operations.
California and Amazon haven't always been on good terms, but once the issue of Amazon not paying state sales tax on goods sold here was resolved - on the state's terms - nothing but warm words have been exchanged.
"The innovative spirit of Amazon fits well with the creative and entrepreneurial environment in California," Brown said at the San Bernardino festivities.
The Kindle and Kindle Fire, Amazon's answer to Apple's iPad, are products of Lab126, Amazon's R&D department located in - where else? - Cupertino. Next up from the lab: an Amazon smartphone codenamed "Smith," reportedly with a 3-D eye-tracking interface. Also, a set-top box, codenamed "Cinnamon," which may or may not be ready for the holiday buying season.
Office-wise, the Seattle company is leasing 580,000 square feet at Moffett Towers in Sunnyvale (more space for Lab126), and in August signed up for 65,000 square feet in San Francisco's Financial District, home to Amazon's music division and close by the company's 83,0000-square-foot space near the Embarcadero.
Check the San Francisco job listings, where you'll find openings for Amazon's "Advanced Gaming Technology team." Oh, and there's also a listing for a "program manager for Amazon Fresh Quality Control" at its Tracy facility, 60 miles east of San Francisco. That means Amazon's rollout of same-day grocery deliveries in the Bay Area isn't far away.
Still, there are those who will never forgive Amazon for some of its past - and present - behavior: The stomping on small brick-and-mortar retailers, and the vast amount of money lost to public treasuries in the years it refused to pay state sales taxes. Reading the most recent book on Amazon and its CEO - "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon" - won't make them feel any better.
Yep, Amazon is here to stay - and how.
Data points: The city of Fresno has very little cash on hand - 0.1 percent to cover its main operating fund on a daily basis.
Richmond has the eighth-highest debt per capita - $3,118 - of America's 250 largest cities. Hayward has experienced a 10 percent decline in state aid from 2007 to 2012, the fifth-largest drop in the nation.
Pension costs as a percentage of a city's general fund: San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley are Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in the nation, respectively (ranging from 30.9 percent for San Jose to 26.1 percent for Berkeley).
These and other downbeat statistics are brought to you by Merritt Research Services, a cruncher of municipal finance data headquartered in Iowa. It's featured in a Wall Street Journal series on the financial health of U.S. cities - more specifically, how close some may be to Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy.
At least Fresno is a tad better off than Pomona (Los Angeles County) and Charleston, S.C., which have zero cash on hand. Hayward might be thankful it hasn't lost as much state aid in the past five years as Chula Vista (San Diego County) - 14.5 percent.
Speaking of pension costs, how about Pasadena at 43 percent of the city's general fund? Seven of the 10 cities with the highest pension costs as a percentage of the general fund are in California, the others being Anaheim, Roseville (Placer County) and Torrance (Los Angeles County).
Happ(ier) returns: L.A. county's pension fund is doing pretty well, at least with its private-equity investments. .
The $38 billion Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association generated a 10.2 percent annualized return over a five-year period, second only to Massachusetts in a survey of public pension funds by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council.
San Francisco's $15 billion fund and Contra Costa's $5 billion fund also did well. They came in seventh and 10th, with 13.1 percent and 12.7 percent returns, respectively, out of 146 public pension funds with assets over $1 billion surveyed.
Information was not available for other Bay Area counties.
The two biggest pension fund investors in private equity - the California Public Employees' Retirement System, with $34.2 billion invested, and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, with $22.6 billion invested - had returns of 9.8 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively, annualized over 10 years.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
You're the nation's third-largest telecommunications company, headquartered in Kansas, but are losing customers and being dismissed as an also-ran in the increasingly hot mobile phone market. So where do you unveil your latest whiz-bang products and services designed to get you back in the game? In the Bay Area, of course.
So it was at Sprint's Research & Advanced Technology Lab in Burlingame this week that CEO Dan Hesse introduced Sprint Spark, an enhanced service capable of surpassing wireless speeds "offered by any other network carrier," including, of course, Verizon and AT&T. With executives from Samsung and chipmaker Qualcomm looking on approvingly, a lab demonstration had Sprint Spark phones clocking in at 1 GB per second, which I'm told is "screaming fast."
The new phones contain other tasty features, such as high-definition voice, which makes talking on your smartphone in a noisy bar much more pleasant. Unfortunately Bay Area customers (full disclosure: I'm one of them) won't be seeing Spark phones for a while. They are being rolled out next week in just five cities - New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Tampa, Fla.; and Miami. Not San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the world headquarters of tech and one of the densest smartphone markets in the country.
"Probably next year," said Hesse.
And therein lies part of Sprint's problem. It has more holes in its coverage than other carriers, especially Verizon and AT&T. In the Bay Area it ranks fifth, behind T-Mobile and Metro PCS, according to OpenSignal, which maps wireless networks and signal strengths around the country.
Sprint doesn't do too well in speed and quality either, according to surveys. Although it ranks high in customer service, it lost 360,000 contract subscribers in the last quarter, according to its financial report released Wednesday. Verizon added 927,000 subscribers and AT&T added 363,000.
"Yes, we've been experiencing 'pardon our dust,' " admitted Hesse.
But that is about to change, which was the main message delivered at the Sprint lab event. The restructuring of Sprint's entire network, including Nextel, which shut down this summer, is near completion. That and last year's acquisition of telecom operator Clearwire gives Sprint considerably more high-speed spectrum, and thus the ability to make its existing 4G LTE network available to 250 million Americans by mid-2014.
"We should basically have the country covered by the end of next year," said Hesse.
Sprint is also in a better position financially thanks to Japanese telecom and Internet giant Softbank, which bought an 80 percent stake in the company for $21.6 billion in July. That helped the company complete its takeover of Clearwire, which in turn enabled Sprint to record a rare third quarter profit of $383 million, despite fewer customers and lower revenue.
"In one year we will improve the network. I think it will take one year, but after one year, I think it will be a complete transformation," said Softbank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, commenting after Softback reported a six-month operating profit of $7.3 billion on Thursday.
Memo to Hesse: You might want to step up the pace in the Bay Area. We're here to help, especially since you "guaranteed" this week that Sprint's unlimited talk, text and data will be available "for life."
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
Whole Foods Market's newest San Francisco store opens Wednesday, with a customer base at the ready.
The 30,000-square-foot store, at Market and Dolores streets, sits on the ground floor of a new eight-story, 81-unit apartment building, with an herb garden, butterfly habitat and on-site car sharing - "the place for your urban lifestyle," according to its calling card. Tenants started moving in Friday.
Two blocks west, at Market and Sanchez streets, is a new, five-story, 22-unit condo complex called the Century. One block farther west, at the intersection of Market, Noe and 16th streets, sits Icon, consisting of 18 new "luxury residences" - all sold within two months - atop a Bank of the West branch.
To the east, within easy walking, biking or car-sharing distance of Whole Foods, are three more residential and retail complexes close to completion, with sales offices already open. "We're already about 30 percent sold, and ahead of expectations," said Hugh O'Donnell, sales manager with Polaris Pacific, which is marketing Linea, a nine-story, 115-unit glass-wrapped condo complex at Market and Buchanan streets, built by Brian Spiers Development.
While some of the biggest recent changes in San Francisco have occurred South of Market and Mid-Market, the commercial strip stretching from Octavia Boulevard to Castro Street, known as Upper Market, is also undergoing a transformation. An outgrowth of the six-year Market & Octavia Area Plan, the housing and retail developments - with more to come - have dramatically altered Upper Market's skyline as well as the neighborhood below.
"The changes have been in the pipeline for some time, but now you see them, the difference is palpable," said Dan Safier, founder and president of Prado Group, which developed the Market and Dolores project in what used to be the S&C Ford showroom and is now called 38 Dolores.
"It's exciting to see underutilized gas stations and car dealers and holes in the ground turn into vibrant new places for people to live and shop," Safier said.
But the changes come, literally, at a price. Rents at 38 Dolores range from $2,950 a month for a studio and $3,500 for a one-bedroom to $8,100 for a three-bedroom. Pets are extra: cats, $50 a month; dogs, $75 or $100, depending on weight. Rents are a little lower at Venn on Market, a 113-unit building on the corner of Market and Octavia, which is scheduled to open in January: $2,900 for a one-bedroom, $5,000 for a three-bedroom.
Condos at Linea, formerly a Union 76 gas station, are selling in "the low 600s" (thousand) for one-bedrooms to the "mid-800s" for two-bedrooms, said O'Donnell. Prices at Icon, the site of a burned-down church and then a community garden, also closed in on $800,000 before they were all snapped up.
"The market is so different in San Francisco," said Suzanne Gregg of San Francisco Realtors Gregg-Gorski, which handled the Icon sales. "There are so many young people with very good jobs."
Is she referring to techies? "Yes, they were the target market, and that's what we saw coming through." Plus, she said, older folks from Noe Valley and Corona Heights downsizing from larger homes who want to stay in the city.
They and many others moving into Upper Market (UpMa?) may be downsizing quite a bit. Units measure as small as 450 square feet - "teeny-weeny floor plans," as one real estate blog described them.
"There are a lot of changes, and a lot of them are positive," said Supervisor Scott Wiener, who represents the Upper Market area and has owned a small condo in the Castro district since 2004 ("I would not be able to afford it today."). In addition to more housing, "we're adding a lot more retail, streetscape, lighting and safety improvements."
"Although it's not competing with the older housing stock, the new housing is very expensive and out of reach for many people. It again points to the urgent need for new affordable housing." Wiener said.
Wiener wants to alleviate some of that shortage in his district by allowing mother-in-law units to be added to existing structures.
There are a handful of below-market rental units mixed in with some of the new developments. To meet the city's affordable housing conditions tied to the Linea project, Brian Spiers Development recently completed work on the 24-unit below-market-rate condo complex at 1600 Market off Franklin Street. Vouchers for the units, priced between $201,000 and $224,000, have just started to be issued.
For the 38 Dolores project, Prado Group paid $5 million into the city's affordable housing fund. "The city can leverage that money into other (below-market-rate) projects ready to go," said Safier.
"We're very engaged in helping the city to build a broad range of housing. But there are a number of levers that need to be pulled. The process needs to be streamlined, to get more supply faster."
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Blog: www.sfgate.com/blogs/bottomline Facebook: sfg.ly/doACKM Twitter: @andrewsross
Lots of talk about the affordable housing situation these days and, as Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, told The Chronicle this week, the "need to bring all our stakeholders together" to address it.
Let's make sure Bridge Housing is brought to the table.
On Friday, the San Francisco affordable housing nonprofit is being joined by a passel of local officials and bank executives at the groundbreaking of its latest project - 90 below-market-rate rentals at the MacArthur BART Station in Oakland.
The $44 million residential building, named Mural, is merely the second phase of a $400 million transit-oriented development, appropriately named MacArthur Station, that will include 624 new market-rate and below-market-rate homes, commercial and retail space and other community facilities. Partners include the city of Oakland, BART and local banks that helped finance the project.
"As the first housing development in the transit-oriented master plan for MacArthur Station, it's the realization of a 20-year dream and very important for Oakland," said Bridge Housing CEO Cynthia Parker.
Since its launch in 1983, Bridge Housing has developed or co-developed 14,000 homes, mostly in California, more than one-third of them in the Bay Area. And there's more coming, including a 60-unit below-market-rate complex being leased on Natoma Street in San Francisco's South of Market, and 62 affordable apartments at the former St. Joseph's Home for the Aged in Oakland.
In collaboration with San Francisco's Community Housing Partnership, Bridge Housing developed the Rene Cazenave Apartments, also in SoMa - 120 supportive housing units for formerly homeless people. First move-ins: early next month.
Monthly rents at Mural range from $450 for a studio to $1,100 for a three-bedroom apartment, open to residents with annual incomes between $28,000 and $47,000. One suspects they'll go very fast. The 60-unit Natoma Family Apartments, with rents from $711 to $1,569 (move in: late December) garnered 2,793 applications.
"There's an endless demand plus the rising cost of housing," said Parker. "We're already seeing rent growth outside of San Francisco extending into Oakland. We're seeing a big jump all over the Bay Area."
-- Stakeholders and others concerned about affordable housing might want to check out Bridge Housing's recently published book, "Smart Living, Smart Growth," a free download at www.bridgehousing.com/news-media/publications.
For a hard copy, e-mail info@bridgehousing.com.
Big, bigger, biggest: Google just keeps rolling along.
The Mountain View company said Thursday that it is once again going into the solar power business with private equity giant KKR, this time investing in six solar power projects - five in Southern California, one in Arizona - powering 17,000 homes beginning in January.
In 2011, Google struck a similar deal with KKR and San Francisco project developer Recurrent Energy to finance solar power in the Sacramento area provided by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The latest deal brings the value of Google's investments in renewable power projects (14 at last count) to more than $1 billion.
Hardly surprising, then, that the proprietor of the world's biggest search engine is looking for more office space, including 360,000 square feet in Midtown Manhattan, along with 807,000 square feet it already has in Chicago. Add that to the 350,000 additional square feet it leased at San Francisco's Hills Plaza and the 901,000 square feet it leased in Mountain View this year.
"Google is a monster engine everywhere, and we're pretty thankful they're in our world," Bob Chodos, a principal at Colliers International in Chicago, told Bloomberg.
And local brokers may be more thankful if, as is being reported, Google is once more nosing around Baghdad by the Bay. Two million square feet in Mission Bay (on land now owned by Salesforce)? Some - surely not all! - of the 80-story, 1.3 million-square-foot Transbay Tower South of Market? According to published rumors, it's being discussed.
All this and barges, too.
Helping hand: Add Wells Fargo to the list of Bay Area organizations contributing to Typhoon Haiyan relief.
The San Francisco bank is kicking in $250,000, half to the American Red Cross and half to the International Medical Corps. It's also temporarily waiving remittance fees for money being sent to families in the Philippines via its ExpressSend service.
"Wells Fargo is committed to helping the community recover," said Aveek Mukherjee, a senior Wells Fargo executive.
Teach your listeners well: Being a fan of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, not to mention the Hollies, I (yup, aging Baby Boomer) have to take note of the Commonwealth Club's departure from the usual roster of business and political thought leaders.
On Friday, Graham Nash "gets wild" with the Commonwealth Club audience, meaning he'll be talking about his autobiography, "Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life" and other matters of social import, and signing copies of the book.
Friday, 6 p.m. Nourse Theater. Premium prices. More details at www.commonwealthclub.org/events.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
It's taken 4 1/2 long, painful years for Blockbuster to go from 95 stores in the Bay Area to zero. The last three, in San Pablo, Redwood City and Concord, along with its remaining 300 stores, DVD by mail operations and distribution centers across the country, were told they would be closing this week.
"We started closing Monday," said a store clerk at the Blockbuster store on El Camino Real in Redwood City, which has been there since 1996. A store manager in San Pablo said he had heard nothing about it. "No comment," said an employee at the Concord store on Willow Pass Road.
Dish Network, which acquired Blockbuster for $320 million in 2011, said all stores would be closed by early January and its Blockbuster by Mail service shut down in mid-December. Approximately 3,000 employees are losing their jobs.
"This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," said Dish CEO Joseph Clayton.
Well, yes, which is why the satellite company bought the video rental chain in the first place, thinking the tie-in would compete with the likes of Netflix and Redbox, another DVD rental and digital streaming service.
Clearly that hasn't worked out, which Dish has known for some time, having shed Blockbuster assets piecemeal over the past 18 months, leaving all but the brand - which Dish will keep on some of its streaming services - plus Blockbuster's huge video library.
"We expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings," said Clayton.
Meanwhile, "we're having a liquidation sale, selling everything," said the Blockbuster clerk in Redwood City, who did not wish to be identified. ("I don't want to be fired today.")
Source or saucy? Listen up, independent booksellers: Amazon has a deal for you.
You sell our Kindles in your neighborhood store, and we'll give you a 10 percent cut of whatever e-book a Kindle purchaser buys from Amazon for the first two years.
"Customers don't have to choose between e-books and their favorite neighborhood bookstore - they can have both," said Amazon Kindle VP Russ Grandinetti. And your favorite neighborhood bookstore makes a little extra money on the side.
The online Goliath calls the program Amazon Source. Brick-and-mortar Davids might call it chutzpah.
"Hmm, let's see. Amazon engages in predatory pricing, sells books below cost, bullies publishers for better discounts, and has engaged in a decade-long fight to avoid sales tax collection," responded Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. "And now it wants to give bookstores the opportunity to sell Kindles so the company can gain access to their customers and lure them to the Amazon dark side. Wow, how can we pass that up?"
Amazon says it's a win-win. "For many years, bookstores have successfully sold print books on Amazon - now Amazon Source extends this opportunity to digital," said Grandinetti.
"It's got nothing to lose, especially if there are enough rubes out there," said a somewhat skeptical Michael Tucker, co-owner of Books Inc., where you can buy Kobe brand tablets. "This is not some sort of rapprochement." (https://source.amazon.com).
Showing the money: California's rapprochement with Amazon is showing financial results.
The state collected $263.4 million in sales tax from Amazon and other out-of-state online retailers in the first year of California's online sales tax. The amounts have grown quarter by quarter, and should top $100 million in this holiday quarter.
S.F. Housing 101: More and more housing is being built in San Francisco, yet the prices keep going up. Is there a way out of the conundrum?
There'll be some suggestions - which not everyone will agree with - at a forum presented by the Urban Institute for Development and Economic Alternatives Thursday evening at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market St.
Housing experts and advocates, including former San Francisco Supervisor and Planning Commission President Christina Olague, are among the panelists. Allocated seating is already spoken for, but there may be cancellations and there is some standing room.
Information at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/487676.
Going up: Under construction next door to the LGBT Center, at 55 Laguna St., is a 110-unit affordable housing project for LGBT seniors, developed by Openhouse and Mercy Housing California.
It's part of a complex on the former UC Extension site that will contain 330 more multifamily rental units, 50 of which will be below market rent.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
On this day of family and feasting, I thought I would turn my column over to the CEO of one of the largest organizations in the world: Pope Francis of the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church.
This week, the pope issued an apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, which had much to say about the world economy and some of the ways it's working - or rather not working - from his point of view.
"It is not the task of the Pope to offer a detailed and complete analysis of contemporary reality," he writes, "but I do exhort all the communities to an 'ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times' " (a phrase taken from a 1964 encyclical letter by Pope Paul VI).
Here are some of Pope Francis' observations from a section titled Crisis of Communal Commitment:
"52. In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people's welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. ...
"This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occurring in the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.
"53. Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. ...
"Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.
"54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories, which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.
"56. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies, which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. ... To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions.
"57. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: 'Not to share one's wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.'
"58. A financial reform open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favors human beings.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
It appears new-money San Franciscans don't have the sway they thought they had.
Their anointed candidate for a Presidio cultural center - George Lucas' digital arts museum - received a serious setback when it and two other proposals were put on hold last week. Worse, Lucas' proposal, backed by power broker Ron Conway and other tech heavyweights, came in for pointed criticism from the Presidio Trust Board's chairwoman, Nancy Bechtle.
This, two weeks after Conway wrote to Bechtle describing Lucas' Cultural Arts Museum - actually a house for his private art collection - as "the perfect addition to San Francisco's cityscape ... a beacon that says to the world that San Francisco is, and will remain, this country's capital of innovation."
Not only does San Francisco "deserve this museum, it demands it," Conway wrote.
Heavy duty. Hard to resist, especially after Mayor Ed Lee, along with leaders of the city's arts and education establishments, sent a letter along similarly enthusiastic lines to the board in June.
But it also put Conway and company at odds with representatives of San Francisco's old money - namely the Haas family, which through its Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund has poured millions into the park.
In a detailed letter to the board dated one week earlier, the fund's trustees called for delaying any decision for a number of reasons. "Rather than fulfilling the vision of a single individual, any new development in this important corridor should be community-inclusive," they wrote.
Oh, and by the way, "as your concerned and philanthropic partners ... any use of the site will be inextricably linked to the Haas Jr. Fund's deep ongoing investments in this park, as well as future investments being considered."
Combine that with Lucas' threat to take his $700 million proposal to Chicago if the Presidio board doesn't see the light, and we have an interesting face-off here.
Right now, old money seems to be ahead on points. Speaking to The Chronicle last week, Bechtle, a scion of the San Francisco Hellman family - she is the sister of the late Warren Hellman - said if "he (Lucas) walks, he walks. We'll take the brunt of the pressure."
There's likely to be more where that came from as the three contestants work on requested revisions to their proposals. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is one of the signatories on Lee's pro-Lucas letter. Gov. Jerry Brown also supports the project. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who more than anyone was responsible for making the Presidio a national park, has yet to be heard from.
The Presidio Trust board is federally appointed (President George W. Bush named Bechtle as its chair), and this year the Presidio, part of the National Park Service, became financially self-sustaining. Monetary threats from either side may not carry quite the same weight as they once might have.
Still, $700 million in private money to build and maintain Lucas' museum is nothing to be sneezed at. I'm no design critic, nor can I weigh in on height limits, traffic impact and other issues, but I rather liked the rendering of the Beaux Arts building. I don't feel as others do that the notion is somehow alien to the culture of the place.
Aren't the Disney Family Museum and Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic and LucasArts in the same park? Lucas' museum would replace a Sports Basement.
Among the other signatories to Conway's letter were Laurene Powell Jobs and Marc Benioff - both serious philanthropists - and John Lasseter, the genius behind Pixar movies. Attention should be paid to such worthies, although other signatories, like Joe and Jennifer Montana, could be more persuasive to some.
With Apple, Pixar and others being included in Lucas' museum, you could say it would definitively represent 21st century San Francisco. But then so would locating it at the Palace of Fine Arts - built, as Chronicle architecture critic John King reminded us, for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Side by side: 20th century San Francisco and 21st century San Francisco. Get it?
Here's what Lucas' supporters need to get, not to mention Lucas himself. It's what one critic called "an aroma of hubris" surrounding the project. Or what others have more generally described as Silicon Valley "arrogance," which Conway's letter smacked of.
And if the worst should happen, and their plan for the Presidio fall short, Lucas and his supporters might consider following the example of the late Donald Fisher, an epitome of San Francisco old money, who tried for years to get his private art collection housed in the Presidio.
Gracefully conceding defeat, Fisher insisted his collection stay here, and it is now housed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - currently undergoing a major expansion - in the city's tech central, South of Market.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
Normally, being bought out for close to $1 billion is a cause for celebration. But not everyone's been cheering since the Climate Corp., a 6-year-old weather data and insurance company in San Francisco, was purchased by agribusiness giant Monsanto, known best in some quarters as the chief supplier of genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides
"I've had to do quite a bit of explaining to people," said CEO David Friedberg, whose company officially joined the Monsanto family this month for approximately $930 million. The opponents included his father, and in an e-mail to Climate Corp.'s employees Friedberg acknowledged the anxiety with an imaginary email from a family member or corporate recruiter headlined, "Do you REALLY want to work at the MOST EVIL COMPANY IN THE WORLD??!!"
Friedberg certainly does. A former Google engineer, he co-founded the data-driven "weather insurance and risk management" company in 2007 with another ex-Google employee, angel investor Siraj Khaliq.
Monsanto "has by far the best data out there, and we're able to make better use of it than anyone else," he said Monday before flying to St. Louis to meet with Monsanto executives.
Originally named WeatherBill, the company has 200 employees, mostly scientists and software engineers in San Francisco and Seattle, along with insurance personnel in Kansas City, Kan. It uses big data to track and analyze weather and crop-specific conditions, and provide future forecasts - sometimes called "weather derivatives" - at the touch of a farmer's mobile device. Crop insurance is purchased through an agent.
Early investors include Silicon Valley's New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures. Friedberg, who would not disclose the company's financials, said hiring and office expansion will be ramped up. Like virtually every other economic activity, he explained, the analog world of farming is becoming increasingly digital, especially in the era of extreme weather and what's called "precision farming."
"The future of agriculture is going to be in data science and software. It helps growers and farmers make decisions leading to better outcomes," he said.
Monsanto, which reported $2.2 billion in revenue last quarter, believes Climate Corp. is just the company to lead the charge. "The Climate Corp. team brings leading expertise that will continue to greatly benefit farmers and their bottom line, and we want to expand upon this tremendous work and broaden their reach to more crops and more world areas," said Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant.
"This is the entry ticket into a $20 billion market opportunity and it starts fast," he said on an investors call. "It's an important addition. It will strengthen our growth rate over the coming decade."
If initial online posts are any indication, however, many see the acquisition as Monsanto's latest move to rule the agricultural world, and in harmful ways. Friedberg, in his lengthy employee e-mail, puts much of it down to "innuendo, anecdotal evidence, and out of context facts ... rooted in a lack of understanding and fear of the unknown." Meaning genetically modified organisms, in which he's a firm believer. "A lot of people are misinformed and really scared," he said Monday. "But scientifically it's a miracle."
In the e-mail, he urged his employees to learn more about GMO, as he has. But to further reassure them, he said the company will remain "as an independently run business. We are not going to be 'integrated' into Monsanto. No one will 'work for Monsanto.' What we do, how we operate and our culture, are still our decisions."
Friedberg said his efforts are paying off. "When people understand what the company does, they change 180 degrees. We haven't lost any employees."
In his e-mail he wrote: "I am not the kind of person that would take easily to partnering with a company that 'poisons the world's food system,' lays waste to the land, puts farmers out of business, or creates a monoculture that threatens the global food supply."
Amen to that.
Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross
sfgate.com Web Search by YAHOO! Businesses HomeNewsSportsBusinessEntertainmentFoodLivingTravelColumnsShopping Index ? CarsJobsReal Estate Close [X] Quick links to other pages on this site | Still can't find it? see Site Index Don't Miss:Spying on online sex livesMovember photosWeekend shopping ideasWar paint for Black FridayBlack Friday open & closedThanksgiving GuideBay Area & StateNationWorldPoliticsCrimeTechObituariesOpinionGreenScienceCA HealthHealthEducationWeird49ersRaidersGiantsA'sWarriorsSharks49ers FandomGSW FansNFLMLBNBANHLCollegePrepsGolfOutdoorsOtherTVTixShopTechnologyInnovationMarketsPersonal FinanceReal EstateMortgage RatesHome GuidesPublic NoticesPress ReleasesSponsored ContentMoviesMusic & NightlifePerformanceArtHockneyEventsBooksTV & RadioClick CityHoroscopeComicsGamesThings To DoRestaurantsRecipesWineTop 100 RestaurantsTop 100 WinesBargain BitesReservationsInside Scoop SFHealthy EatingHome & GardenStyleInnovative LivingInteriorsPartiesPhilanthropyLustLuxurySkiLGBTHouzzHolidaysWeddingsMomsPetsSponsoredWeekend GetawaysSF GuideNeighborhoodsWine CountryMonterey-CarmelTahoeHawaiiMexicoCoastal CaliforniaVegasSnowJetsetterClassifiedsDaily DealsDealersClick and ClackCar BlogMy RideCar GalleriesSell Your CarCareer AdviceBe Your Own BossJob EventsMonster MatchAdvertiseSalary WizardNew HomesOpen HomesLuxuryRentalsMortgage RatesCommercialLandPlace an adHome GuidesHomesalesForeclosures « Back to Article S.F.'s housing chasm growing even wider Andrew S. Ross Updated 7:25 am, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 View: Larger | Hide With an elevator broken at the Clementina Towers housing project in San Francisco's South of Market, waiting residents often crowd the lobby.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleWith an elevator broken at the Clementina Towers housing project in... Voters will decide Tuesday whether to allow construction of the 8 Washington condominium project, where a private tennis and swim club now stands.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleVoters will decide Tuesday whether to allow construction of the 8... Part of the 8 Washington development would rise to 136 feet. The developer got special approval to exceed the 84-foot height limit.Part of the 8 Washington development would rise to 136 feet. The... A new flier from 8 Washington supporters is heavy on chain-link fences and parking lots but only has one image of the controversial 136-foot tall condominium building — a small one on the back.A new flier from 8 Washington supporters is heavy on chain-link... Pedestrians walks along the Embarcadero at Washington Street past a parking lot at the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChroniclePedestrians walks along the Embarcadero at Washington Street past... A pedestrian takes a detour from the sidewalk on the Embarcadero near the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleA pedestrian takes a detour from the sidewalk on the Embarcadero... Captain Andres Vasquez of the Columbian Navy walks along a detour route near the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleCaptain Andres Vasquez of the Columbian Navy walks along a detour... Clementina Towers resident Michael Dismuke wipes down his kitchen shelves after having them treated by maintenance for cockroaches that he says have been a problem in his apartment since he moved in a year and a half ago on Thursday, October 31, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Dismuke said his apartment has been treated before but this time cracks where the roaches might enter his home had been sealed.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleClementina Towers resident Michael Dismuke wipes down his kitchen...
Clementina Towers residents Michael Dismuke (l to r) and Salomon Lopez talk in the lobby of their building next to a broken elevator on Thursday, October 31, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Several residents said the elevator had been broken over a month.
Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
Clementina Towers residents Michael Dismuke (l to r) and Salomon...
Mrs. Huang is 80 years old and is tired of taking the stairs to her apartment on the upper floors Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleMrs. Huang is 80 years old and is tired of taking the stairs to her... Residents of Clementina Towers Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. have balcony areas adjacent to their apartments. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleResidents of Clementina Towers Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San... A woman named Alla (no last name given) waits for the elevator in the 330 Clementina Tower Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. she has lived in for years. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleA woman named Alla (no last name given) waits for the elevator in... The proposed 8 Washington project would replace a parking lot and health club with a 12-story condominium building, a rebuilt health club and a new privately maintained park along the Embarcadero. This view shows the new triangular park, with existing buildings on the right.Photo: Skidmore Owings And MerrillThe proposed 8 Washington project would replace a parking lot and... Signage is seen outside a health club along Drumm Street for a health club at the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleSignage is seen outside a health club along Drumm Street for a... A pedestrian walks along Washington Street near the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleA pedestrian walks along Washington Street near the site of the... A lone tennis ball sits on the sidewalk along Washington Street between Drumm Street and The Embarcadero near the site of the proposed 8 Washington project on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The ChronicleA lone tennis ball sits on the sidewalk along Washington Street... The proposed 8 Washington project would replace a parking lot and health club with a 12-story condominium building, a rebuilt health club and a new privately maintained park along the Embarcadero. This view shows the playground portion of the new triangular park, with a cafe attached to the health club on the right and the Embarcadero beyond.Photo: Skidmore Owings And MerrillThe proposed 8 Washington project would replace a parking lot and... A broken elevator sign puts one of two elevators out of service which is difficult for seniors unable to negotiate stairs Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleA broken elevator sign puts one of two elevators out of service... Seniors often resort to chairs to wait for elevators, especially when one of two is out of order Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleSeniors often resort to chairs to wait for elevators, especially... For many of the residents at Clementina Towers, the elevators are the only way to get to the very top floors Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleFor many of the residents at Clementina Towers, the elevators are... A proposed project would redevelop the area along the Embarcadero north of Washington St. in San Francisco. Right now the land is home to a parking lot, tennis club, and open space.Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The ChronicleA proposed project would redevelop the area along the Embarcadero...
Clementina Towers resident Jamel Burrell makes his way into a working elevator next to a broken one as he heads to his apartment at Clementina Towers on Thursday, October 31, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Burrell said he was trapped in the elevator (at right) when it went out.
Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
Clementina Towers resident Jamel Burrell makes his way into a...
Xue Li Liu, who is 77 years old, says the elevators cannot be relied upon many days at Clementina Towers Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleXue Li Liu, who is 77 years old, says the elevators cannot be... The only working elevator at the 330 Clementina Tower building is always crowded at the lobby level Wednesday October 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. Mayor Ed Lee promised to make life better for residents of the city's public housing stock, but tenants at Clementina Towers often have problems with broken elevators and filth.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleThe only working elevator at the 330 Clementina Tower building is... Over one hundred supporters gathered in front of the Lee's building on Jackson Street to support the family Wednesday September 25, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. The Lee family has lived on Jackson Street in San Francisco for decades and now is being evicted under the Ellis Act. Friends, politicians and religious leaders gathered at their home to show their support for the elderly couple and stand against evictions of longtime residents.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleOver one hundred supporters gathered in front of the Lee's building... The Lee family moves bedding in preparation for their forced move recently in San Francisco, Calif. The Lee family, who are being evicted from their San Francisco home of over 30 years, move some belongings to the street for pick up.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleThe Lee family moves bedding in preparation for their forced move... Mother Gum Gee Lee (left) and her daughter Shiu Man Lee wait in a bedroom with some of their belongings shortly before leaving their home Tuesday October 22, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif. On the last night at their home, the Lee family packs up and leaves for a motel where they will stay until more permanent housing can be finalized.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleMother Gum Gee Lee (left) and her daughter Shiu Man Lee wait in a...
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A tale of two cities brought to you by Monday's Chronicle front page.
On the right side, we have the fight over 8 Washington, the proposed condominium complex whose 134 units are tentatively priced between $2 million and $10 million.
On the left side, how San Francisco doesn't have the money to fix broken elevators at its public housing projects, leaving seniors and disabled residents "stranded in their apartments."
I'm not taking sides on Tuesday's election to determine the fate of 8 Washington. If I owned or rented one of the luxury apartments at Golden Gateway Commons, I would be angry at my $1 million view being blocked by a 12-story building next door. If I was Mayor Ed Lee, on the other hand, I'd be bullish on the aesthetic, commercial and revenue-generating benefits 8 Washington would bring to the city.
But the chasm is impossible to ignore. San Francisco, one of the richest cities in the world - and getting richer all the time - does not have $8.4 million, out of a $7.9 billion annual budget, to fix the broken elevators at Clementina Towers and other public housing projects in the city.
Isn't there something wrong with this picture?
News to mayor's office
Lee, who has referred to the projects as "poverty housing" and has pledged to eliminate them, knew nothing about the problem. Nor did his office, according to The Chronicle's Heather Knight, who broke the story.
But it seems to know plenty about 8 Washington - the mayor is its leading pitchman - and about the Golden State Warriors waterfront arena plan, featuring a 175-foot condominium tower, where, it's reasonable to conjecture, prices will be even higher than at 8 Washington.
Yes, we're shocked, shocked, and determined to do something, especially for the elderly and disabled at Clementina Towers - located in tech-heavy South of Market, by the way.
Perhaps the elevators will get fixed in relatively short order. (Although this is not the first time the powers that be have been alerted.)
Perhaps the $11 million that 8 Washington's developer would be giving to the city's affordable housing fund will, at some point down the road, help relieve the thousands of other San Francisco public housing residents plagued by mice, roaches, sewage overflows, mold, mildew, and regular absences of heat and hot water.
S.F.'s direction
But maybe some thought should be given to those San Franciscans as we ponder our vote on Propositions B and C Tuesday. And thought should be given, too, to the elderly Chinese American couple and their mentally handicapped daughter who were kicked out of their low-rent Nob Hill apartment of 34 years to make way for another batch of pricey condos.
And to where San Francisco, with all its glittering prizes, is going.
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With an elevator broken at the Clementina Towers housing project in San Francisco's South of Market, waiting residents often crowd the lobby.Photo: Brant Ward, The ChronicleWith an elevator broken at the Clementina Towers housing project in... 
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