News
adult-clipper-card-web.jpg

City transit agency springs Muni fare increase

03.30.2011
|
By

Update 3/31/11: Muni riders might have been surprised by the fare increase announced Wednesday, but Muni spokesman Paul Rose said the increase was approved last year. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors approved the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 proposed budget last April, which included the increases to the monthly Fast Passes. Rose also said that since 2003, the agency has been using the Consumer Price Index as a guide to raising transit fares on Muni. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the index saw an increase in February this year compared to a year ago in the same month. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, announced Wednesday it will be raising the cost of its Fast Pass by $2 starting in July, according to the agency’s website.

News

Industry optimistic about Bay Area biotech future, educators worry about benefits to community

03.29.2011
|
By

Even in the midst of a recession, the Bay Area remains the leading biotechnology hub. But other areas both in the U.S. and worldwide are making serious efforts to catch up. Can the area hold its position in the next 20 years? That was the question at a recent panel discussion at the University of California, San Francisco hosted by Xconomy. Industry representatives seemed optimistic about biotech’s future locally, in synergy with Silicon Valley’s information technology companies.

Housing
5545375549_87113fac88_z.jpg

Book examines life along Octavia Boulevard

03.28.2011
|
By

For San Francisco writer Yvonne Daley, the birth of the city’s Octavia Boulevard signified more than a swanky refurbishment of the streets to replace the neighborhood’s dilapidated Central Freeway. The thoroughfare that was created following the ruin of the freeway in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and its impact on the people who resided there, serves as the backdrop for her latest book. » Read more

Utilities
3858147350_df53f5d56c_z.jpg

PG&E proposes charging customers to opt out of Smart Meter program

03.25.2011
|
By

PG&E has proposed charging residential customers to opt out of having wireless transmission of electric meters turned off at their homes.
 
The proposal announced Thursday would allow the utility to recoup the expenses it says are associated with running an opt-out program by charging participating customers. » Read more

Education
Kiel_Copeland_398.jpg

City College students struggle to break into biotech firms

03.24.2011
|
By

With his ponytail and goatee, Kiel Copeland looks like your average lab geek almost as much as TV’s gleaming “CSI” laboratory resembles one in real life. Then again, he never aimed to be a lab nerd. Misfortune — and luck — brought him to where he is today, after losing his job when his employer went out of business. » Read more

News
2070312-016cambeach.jpg

City transit expert, 62, dies unexpectedly

03.23.2011
|
By

Cameron Beach, one of California’s long-time transit officials and a member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors, died from a heart attack last Friday, the agency reported over the weekend. He was 62 years old. Born in 1949, Beach served for 25 years as the chief operating officer for the Sacramento Regional Transit District, and later joined the San Francisco agency as a board member in 2007. Known for his broad expertise of the city transit system, Beach worked intensely with the Muni Restoration Task Force to restore transportation services that were cut due to budget shortfalls in May of 2010. He earned special recognition in 2009 for the grilling he gave agency staff in response to complaints of slow vehicle running times in the Twin Peaks tunnel.

Neighborhoods
20110304-0003.jpg

New Muni crash comes as agency defends safety record

03.21.2011
|
By

UPDATE 3/25/11: San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a 30-day extension request with the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday and it was approved on Friday. Herrera said in the request that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, will need time to gather documents and data from several of the agency’s divisions to provide a thorough response to the commission’s allegations of safety violations on its light-rail system. » Read more

City Hall

Computer system shutdown hurts homeless at city shelters

03.21.2011
|
By

The hours-long wait that homeless people undergo each day to get a bed for the night grew even longer  last week when San Francisco’s computerized reservation system shut down at shelters across the city, forcing many to endure outside temperatures in the 40s during the two full days it remained out of commission. » Read more

Health
3460072093_182efca869.jpg

California officials say radiation ‘plume’ from Japan won’t increase state’s levels above normal

03.17.2011
|
By

California health and emergency officials said a “plume” of radiation coming from the Japanese nuclear crisis that’s expected to hit the West Coast as early as tomorrow will bring radiation levels to no higher than normal background levels.
The officials from the California Department of Public Health and the California Emergency Management Agency said the state is simply too far away from Japan to create any harmful affects, even in a “worst case scenario.” » Read more