News For Reasonable People

Drivers may soon get speeding tickets without ever talking to an officer, if a bill gets approved authorizing speed limit cameras.  The program would give speeding drivers a ticket by using speed cameras and an automatic billing system, according to Assembly Bill 645. "The speed safety system shall capture images of the rear license plate of vehicles that are traveling 11 miles per hour or mo...

As we outlined last week, the amount of vacant office space in San Francisco has ticked over 23 million square feet.  For context, the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce/Transbay tower at First and Mission, which is the tallest building in San Francisco, contains 1.35 million square feet of office space spread across 59 floors. Employing the framework we introduced back in 2020, and others have since co-o...

The evacuation of federal headquarters during the COVID-19 crisis appears to have become permanent and costly with up to 90% of several agency headquarters empty, according to a federal audit. At least 6 of 24 Washington area headquarters are 90% empty, including several that manage federal office space and employees such as the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Managemen...

A Portland man KATU spoke with more than a year ago is now threatening to sue over homeless camps near his property. Chris Pearcey is trying to sell his house but says he's trapped by the tents nearby. Pearcey had July 7 circled on his calendar. It's when Portland's new daytime camping ban took effect. "It breaks my heart that the city keeps giving these empty promises," s...

Theft has become so bad in San Francisco that some stores are now padlocking shut their freezers and tying metal chains to ensure the doors remain closed overnight.  Video shot by one potential shopper at a local Walgreens in the city sees aisle after aisle of products locked away behind Perspex and glass, out of the reach of thieves. Even lower value items such as toothpaste and tissues are kept...

The owners of Field Office, a 290,375-square-foot office complex near the Willamette River, have defaulted on their $73.8 million loan after being unable to find enough tenants, becoming the latest office owners to throw in the towel on Portland’s struggling office market. Field Office is owned by New York investment bank Goldman Sachs and Lincoln Property Co., a Dallas-based real estate firm with...

For the last 11 years, Littlejohn's Candies has been one of the locally-owned businesses working to try to revitalize San Francisco's Mid-Market corridor, but the owners now say, despite their best efforts, it's time to close the location. The final day of business for the small candy shop will be Thursday, July 20. The owners say their plan is to open a different site, but they hav...

You may have seen the signs cropping up in North Texas cities: “Don’t give money to panhandlers,” they advise. For those of us raised on Texan values of friendship and kindness, this directive may come as a surprise. Some support the signs’ framing, but others say it works to further stigmatize an already marginalized group. The city of Dallas tweeted out a similar instruction last week. “Giving s...

Homeless encampments are back in Venice Beach - after nearly 200 people were cleared from the iconic boardwalk last summer.  Almost a year later, footage from the Los Angeles town show dozens of tents back up, and some 120 vagrants overtaking the beach once again. Residents are now complaining about a renewed stream of garbage littering the promenade, as well as elaborate processions erected by in...

During a portion of an interview with CNN National Correspondent Nick Watt aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Jason Elliott, who serves as an Adviser to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on homelessness, defended the state spending $17.5 billion to fight homelessness over the past four years even though homelessness in the state went up by 32% by stating that the problem would be wor...

All eyes are on the office sector, watching as it largely unravels in the aftermath of the pandemic. And as the billionaire developer, Ross Perot Jr., recently told Fortune, “it’ll be years before we really understand the damage the pandemic did to the world,” adding that for one, “it broke the habit patterns of millions of people that used to go to work every day in a real office.” Office vacancy...

California will officially adopt a new "equity" and "social justice" based mathematics framework for its K-12 schools after a vote from the State Board of Education on Wednesday. After multiple revisions and years of development, the board unanimously passed the 2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools which seeks to renew the state’s "commitment to ensurin...

After 127 years in business, San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down. According to a press release, the brewery has been facing challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016. "This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation," Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said. "We recognize the imp...

The Charles F. Berg building in the heart of downtown Portland, a historic structure known for its once avant-garde design and shimmering gold façade, has fallen prey to an unfortunate plight. Vacant for several years and up for grabs in the market, the building has become the latest symbol of the urban decay eating away at the city's core, thanks to an unsolicited inhabitance of squatters. T...

When summer comes to Seattle, the locals seek to cool off in whatever way they can - it appears that even those residing in homeless encampments feel the heat. A bizarre addition has appeared amidst the usual clutter of a homeless camp located near Highway 509 and Myers Way, a full-fledged swimming pool. As one might imagine, this has sparked a deluge of reactions from the locals, most of them not...

A popular San Francisco food hall, La Cocina, is closing after some restaurateurs are claiming that the sidewalks outside the hall are too full of drug dealing, public defection and crime to allow for a pleasant experience for guests, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.  The food hall, located in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, was supported by a nonprofit that provided assistance...

After another round of musical chairs in the insurance market, Farmers Insurance has become the latest player to reduce their commitment to California. The company is restricting the sales of its new homeowner policies in the Golden State, joining the likes of Allstate and State Farm who have stepped back entirely. The reason? Let's say it's a wild-firestorm of events: California's...

The notorious Union Square in San Francisco strikes headlines again with an alarming spree of three armed heists at high-end retail stores, all within a single week. What once stood as a hub for luxury shopping now harbors a grim environment for both shoppers and storekeepers, as relentless lawbreakers exploit the leniency in the city's policies, treating it as an open season on retail. In th...

In a reflective turn of events, the well-aged Union Square hat shop in San Francisco has finally decided to close up shop, and it's not a stand-alone instance. It seems that the city, once a beacon for tourists and tech industry employees, is gradually morphing into a ghost town. The culprit? A mix of unprecedented events, from pandemic lockdowns to soaring crime rates and the persistent home...

In Portland, the new city camping ordinance came into effect with a caveat that could raise a few eyebrows — no immediate enforcement. Harking back to the timeless saying, "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime", the city's strategy seems to be one of education rather than punishment. But what's the true cost of this 'laissez-faire' approach? In what fee...

The once-bustling Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco now bears a striking resemblance to a post-apocalyptic movie set. Once the thriving heart of the financial district, it's now become a ghost town. The bustling lunchtime crowds and shoppers have evaporated, leaving behind shuttered shops and a deafening silence that punctuates the air. Each corner of the Plaza screams a tale of economic cat...

In a surprise move that has set tongues wagging, major tech behemoths Red Hat and Meta have reportedly withdrawn their conferences slated for 2024 at San Francisco's Moscone Center. This unanticipated decision traces its roots to the concerning conditions of the city's streets. You'd think these corporations would just push through the hiccups, but no. They've thought better of...

In the heart of America's breadbasket, Wichita, Kansas, a wave of organized retail theft is gripping the city. Notable for its rich entrepreneurial heritage, as the birthplace of Pizza Hut and the Coleman Company, Wichita is also earning an unsettling reputation for skyrocketing retail theft. With local retailers such as Victoria's Secret and Cabela's suffering hefty monthly losses,...

Bookings on Airbnb are taking a nosedive in San Francisco, and some are wondering whether the city's tarnished image or actual unsafe street conditions are to blame. For nearly 30 years, Catherine Bloom has let her Potrero Hill home on Airbnb. However, this year, her calendar for the summer is eerily empty, a sharp contrast to the bustling activity of previous years. She's not the only o...

In the latest development from California, the state's reparations task force seems set on pushing the boundaries of societal norms to a new, strange frontier. They have put forth a proposition that might leave many scratching their heads – the call to ban police from enforcing public urination laws. As puzzling as it sounds, they insist that such matters of public disorder should be handled...