The SF Public Utilities Commission says that more than 400 utility covers have been stolen off San Francisco sidewalks over the last two years, and the police department is urging residents to tattle on anyone they see doing this.

As the SF Public Utilities Commission tells it, more than 400 utility covers have been stolen off of San Francisco sidewalks over the last two years. That’s odd, because these would seem to have little value or use to anyone who is not a public utilities worker. But the gaps left on the sidewalks by these covers’ removal presents a real tripping hazard for pedestrians, and now NBC Bay Area reports that the SF Police Department is trying to figure out who’s responsible for this and bring these thefts to a halt.

The utility covers in questions are seen above. Some of them are dark oval-shaped covers with the name and insignia of the San Francisco Water Department, others are light-colored concrete rectangles that bear the letters “SFPUC.”

“The San Francisco Police Department is urging members of the community to be on alert for the theft of utility covers that leave sizable holes in city sidewalks that create a tripping hazard for pedestrians,” the department said in a press release. “The SFPD is investigating the thefts of these utility covers and is assisting in the recovery efforts.”

The department adds that if you see someone in the act of stealing one of these things, or know anyone hoarding them, you should call 911, as removing them or stealing them is a crime.

Whereas if you see missing covers on the sidewalk, you should call 311 to report this, so the SFPUC can get around to replacing them as quickly as possible.

Related: Guerrilla Group Installs New Safety Measures At Notorious Panhandle Intersection [SFist]

Images via SFPD

The EPA, state Attorney General, and SF Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board just dropped a combined lawsuit onto the City of San Francisco, claiming the city has allowed “more than 1.8 billion gallons of untreated sewage” to flow each year into the Bay and Pacific Ocean

We noted a couple times over the course of this year’s winter months that trash was appearing of SF beaches after heavy storms, which is regrettably a normal occurrence after significant rainfall, and that partially treated sewage could be intermingled with this trash. That may have been because the city’s combined sewer system outflows put rainwater runoff and treated sewage into the same flow, and that could accumulate some trash when the pipes are particularly backed up.

But the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) pushed back against the assertion that trash was flowing out of their outflows, with a spokesperson telling SFGate in January that those outflows “did not have any of those types of outfall discharges near Fort Funston or Ocean Beach during the storms last weekend,” and that “Trying to blame our system for trash in those locations appears to be inaccurate.”

Yet now the SF Examiner reports on a new lawsuit from the EPA, California Attorney General, and SF Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board that accuses the city of allowing sewage to flow into the SF Bay And Pacific Ocean, and alleges that the outflow system is in disrepair.

The full lawsuit accuses SF of “repeated and widespread failures to operate its two combined stormwater-sewer systems and sewage treatment plants in compliance with the law and its permits, and in a manner that keeps untreated sewage off the streets and beaches of San Francisco.” It also alleges that “The City’s failures to comply with its permits or properly operate its system significantly increases the risk that members of the public, including, for example, surfers, swimmers, and others recreating on beaches, unknowingly come into contact with untreated sewage, which contains pathogens and high enterococci and E.coli bacteria levels.”

The suit additionally claims that SF has allowed an average of 1.8 billion gallons of untreated sewage to flow into these water bodies each year since 2016.

“San Francisco’s aging wastewater system has exposed the public to risks for too long,” SF Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board chair Alexis Strauss said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “This is the time to commit to an outcome which reduces sewage overflows and builds upgraded wastewater infrastructure. Our goal is to help San Francisco achieve a healthy Bay and coastline, which can be enjoyed by millions of residents and visitors every day."

The city operates two wastewater treatment plants in the Bayview District, plus one near Lake Merced, which some jokers tried to get named after George W. Bush in a 2008 political stunt.

For their part, the SFPUC told the Examiner that the lawsuit would be “costly and unfair” to SF taxpayers. SFPUC spokesperson Nancy Crowley also told the paper that “Partnership and support from the federal and state government would be more helpful than costly and counterproductive litigation.”

The SF City Attorney’s Office was also displeased with the lawsuit. “The EPA prefers to threaten communities with enormous fines and costly litigation in lieu of working in partnership with the nation’s cities,” spokesperson Jen Kwart told the Examiner. “SFPUC stands ready to work collaboratively with EPA to achieve cost-effective solutions, just as it has for the past seven years.”

This is not the only lawsuit against the city regarding wastewater treatment, but it may be the most serious. The environmental group SF Baykeeper sued the city in March for allegedly allowing wastewater to flow into Mission Creek; and last August, a group of homeowners (including former 49ers QB Joe Montana) also sued the city for storm drain overflow that they claimed brought untreated sewage water into their homes.

Related: Trash and Debris Showing Up Again On SF Beaches, As It Often Does After Rainstorms [SFist]

Image: SFPUC

Former SF Public Utilities Commission head Harlan Kelly was sentenced to four years in prison Monday for fraud charges, after he was found guilty of taking bribes and giving phony information on a bank loan application.

It was about ten months into the Mohammed Nuru public corruption scandal when news broke that the FBI had raided the home of a prominent SF City Hall power couple, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager Harlan Kelly, and his City Administrator wife Naomi Kelly. Harlan Kelly would resign from his post on that November 2020 day, and Naomi Kelly would herself step down two months later.

Things got far more embarrassing for the Kellys when FBI investigators found cocaine in their home. Then as Harlan Kelly was facing charges of taking bribes from permit expediter Walter Wong, there were more charges of participating in bank fraud with politically connected landlord Victor Makras.

Harlan Kelly was found guilty of the bribe and bank fraud charges last July.    

Prosecutors were seeking a six-and-a-half year prison sentence for Kelly. His sentence will not be quite that severe, though, as the Chronicle reports that Kelly was sentenced to four years in prison Monday morning by US District Judge Richard Seeborg.

“Mr. Kelly participated in very serious criminal conduct,” Seeborg said Monday, according to the SF Standard. “He betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the public.”

Does it make you seem less guilty, or more guilty, when Willie Brown writes a letter of recommendation for you to a judge in your corruption case? Either way, Brown continued with his famous pattern of calling for leniency for City Hall officials accused of crimes. “If I were still in government, I would do my utmost to provide Harlan Kelly with a second chance,” Brown said in his letter, according to the Chronicle, and Brown also claimed that “personal gain was never [Kelly’s] motivation” in the crimes of which he'd been found guilty.

Though it’s a highly suspect claim that Kelly never sought any personal gain, considering that the Chronicle reports that permit expediter Walter Wong  provided Kelly’s home with “a luxurious wine cellar and other amenities” at a steep discount, plus a trip to Hong Kong, in exchange for favorable permit consideration. And Kelly also got local mega-landlord Victor Makras to secretly pay off $70,000 of his loans in order to get a favorable (and fraudulent) mortgage deal.

Kelly’s attorneys hoped for leniency because he apparently had a heart attack last month. “Mr. Kelly now has a stent in his heart,” his attorney Brian Getz wrote in a letter to the judge, as the Chronicle notes. This does not seem to have swayed Judge Seeborg.

Per the SF Standard, Kelly must surrender himself to authorities on June 19. Mohammed Nuru, seen above with Harlan Kelly, is currently serving his seven-year prison sentence at a US penitentiary in Lompoc.

Related: SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Charged with Fraud in Expanding City Hall Scandal, Has Home Raided by FBI [SFist]

Image: @MrCleanSF via Twitter

The man who died Thursday morning when an underground trench he was working in collapsed, burying him alive, has been identified.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office revealed Friday that the deceased was 25-year-old Javier Romero of Alameda County.

According to city officials, Romero was a contractor working on a sewer upgrade construction project on the 1100 block of Oak Street around 10:30 a.m. Thursday when the trench caved in, burying him under eight feet of dirt. It would be two hours before rescuers were able to dig through the dirt to reach him, at which point he was pronounced dead.

"Over 50 firefighters working together to effectively reach the individual, evaluate the individual for signs of life, and unfortunately two hours into this incident we are naming this a fatal incident," said SFFD Captain Jonathan Baxter, speaking to reporters Thursday.

Romero was one of multiple workers in the trench when it collapsed, but the others all managed to escape.

As NBC Bay Area reports, the project the contractors were working on is the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Panhandle and Inner Sunset Large Sewer Rehabilitation Project — the same one that has recently been causing gross odors all around the Lower Haight.

The Department of Public Works was managing the project, and the name of the contractor doing the work is D'Arcy & Harty Construction Inc.

The SFPUC put out a statement saying, "Our deepest condolences go out to the family and loved ones of this worker, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by this situation. We want to thank all of the crews who responded to the scene and worked swiftly and tirelessly on this incident."

Previously: Utility Worker Dies After Collapse of Trench at Oak and Divisadero

Photo: SFFD

Amidst Tuesday afternoon’s wind gusts of nearly 65 miles per hour, two metal panels came flying off the SFPUC building near Civic Center, while downed trees and ripped-off roofs kept public employees busy all day.

During Tuesday afternoon’s heavy-duty wind gusts that reached nearly 65 miles per hour and knocked out power for more than 100,000 Bay Area households, we noticed a curious tweet from Broke-Ass Stuart. “Just now part of a building at Polk and Golden Gate fell off and landed on these cars,” he posted.

We asked him to elaborate. “I walked by right after it happened,” Broke-Ass Stuart tells SFist. “The security guards or cops or whoever they were, were checking to make sure the people who were in the car didn’t get hurt. Luckily none of them did.”

We now have more detail on all this from a KTVU report, which describes that two metal panels came flying off the San Francisco Public Utilities building at 525 Golden Gate Avenue. The incident took place around 4 p.m. Tuesday, and KTVU confirms that indeed no one was injured, but people were inside those cars, and one “family was sitting inside their vehicle when one panel hit the back of their car.”

The SFPUC confirmed the panels were from their building, though it's not clear if they were part of the structure or part of Ned Kahn's 200-foot-high, wind-activated public art piece on the building's front.

"These were severe winds, and this was an unfortunate situation,” SFPUC spokesperson John Cote told KTVU. “We're looking into exactly what happened, and we are taking steps to ensure the building is safe for people going by and for those inside."

This was not the only wind bedlam across town Tuesday afternoon. Mission Local has the story of a downed tree at 24th and Potrero Streets that snarled traffic and gave folks a good scare (and yes, it was a ficus tree). “Overhead wires dislodged by the tree threatened a parked sedan and truck, but neither were damaged and no one was injured,” that site reports.

And over in the Excelsior,  a roof was literally ripped off a house on Russia Street. Again, there were fortunately no injuries. “We've had 88 wind related calls, that's in addition to our normal 911 calls," SF Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Jonathan Baxter told KTVU Tuesday.

Gusty winds are expected to return Wednesday afternoon, though it is not anticipated they will be as severe as Tuesday,

Related: Nearly 70,000 in Bay Area Without Power As Winds Top 60mph, Fallen Trees Blocking Bay Bridge [SFist]

Image: @BrokeAssStuart via Twitter

The palace intrigue continues over Monday's announcement that SF Mayor London Breed had tapped longtime City Attorney Dennis Herrera to head up the Public Utilities Commission. And on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors discussed the possibility of holding an election for a new city attorney in late fall, which is when the recall election for Governor Gavin Newsom is now expected to take place.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced a resolution Tuesday to get the ball rolling on a potential election, even though neither a date for the recall nor a date for Herrera's departure — and therefore timing of an election for his replacement — has been set. As the Examiner reports, Supervisor Dean Preston simultaneously sent a letter to Herrera expressing the board's concerns.

"On what date do you plan to vacate your seat?" Preston's letter asks. "Please describe any factors that might impact the timing, and describe any communications or agreements with the mayor of the timing of your vacating your seat."

Mayor Breed will get to appoint a new city attorney who will then have to stand for election 120 days or more after the appointment, per the City Charter. But the supervisors are now trying to strategize given the vagaries of the situation, with Herrera's nomination to the SFPUC still requiring confirmation hearings.

The letter adds, "The fact that the mayor will be appointing someone to head the office that is investigating her administration raises obvious concerns."

Foes of the mayor have not been quiet about the optics of the Herrera nomination — removing him from the city attorney's job just as investigations are ongoing of former Department of Public Works (DPW) director Mohammed Nuru and other current and former members of Breed's staff at City Hall seems convenient — but in a new interview with the Chronicle, Herrera insists that his office's investigations won't end with his departure.

"Big investigations have deep roots, and they don’t just stop because there’s a change in leadership at the top," Herrera says. "[The office is] going to continue with their work, and now they’ll have an ally. They’ll get my full cooperation."

Herrera tells the Chronicle that he and Mayor Breed meet regularly, and when she offered him the job at the PUC, he realized it would give him the opportunity not to be defined "simply by having a title."

After mulling it over on a drive up the coast, Herrera says he decided to go for it. "What better way to show San Francisco’s commitment to ethical, clean government than to put the city’s top watchdog in charge of this agency?" he says.

Herrera adds, "I’m really looking forward to this job, and I can’t wait to get in there."

The federal indictments that began with a probe into dealings by Nuru may still be coming. Several of the contractors and others involved have pleaded guilty and have been cooperating with federal investigators since the middle of last year. And the latest charges came on April 15 against former Recology vice president and manager of its San Francisco group John Porter. Porter is accused alongside another Recology exec of funneling about $1 million in bribes, some in the form of donations to non-profits that did business with DPW, and explicitly saying that this was about keeping Nuru "happy" as their main regulator at City Hall.

In announcing his office's investigations into City Hall corruption last year, Herrera said, "San Franciscans deserve a government that is worthy of their trust. When the integrity of San Francisco’s government is called into question, it is our duty to get to the bottom of it and change what isn’t working. That’s what the City Charter calls for, and that’s exactly what we’re doing."

But even then, some supervisors were skeptical that Herrera was unbiased enough to properly investigate an entrenched culture of low-level corruption at the city.

"The culture of pay-to-play politics at City Hall must end," Supervisor Matt Haney said. "It is both necessary and appropriate to identify a completely independent investigator without any pre-existing contracts or relationship with the city to conduct investigations." Haney's calls for hiring an independent investigator, outside of a "normal audit" process, were not heeded.

After a scandal-plagued year at City Hall, San Francisco Mayor London Breed is going with a familiar name and face for her nomination for the next general manager of the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC): City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

Breed is tapping Herrera for the job four months after the late November indictment of former SFPUC general manager Harlan Kelly, following which he resigned from his post. Kelly was accused of accepting a bribe from permit expeditor Walter Wong, who was himself charged in the wide-ranging corruption probe by federal authorities — and Kelly's wife, Naomi Kelly, would ultimately resign from her role as city administrator as well, though she has not been charged by the feds.

In a statement Monday about Herrera's nomination, Breed said, "Dennis has been a great champion in San Francisco across a wide range of issues from civil rights to protecting our environment, and most importantly he has been someone who always puts the people of this City first. By bringing his experience in office and his commitment to public service to this new position, I am confident the SFPUC will be able to deliver the high-quality services our residents deserve while continuing to advance nationally-recognized programs like CleanPowerSF and pursue ambitious efforts like public power. Dennis is the right leader for the hard-working employees of the SFPUC and this City."

The five-member SFPUC oversees the city's drinking water and wastewater services, and it provides power to the residents and businesses of San Francisco through the CleanPowerSF program. It also sells wholesale drinking water to three other Bay Area counties, and manages the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park, where our water comes from.

As the Examiner reports, Breed's nomination of Herrera may as well serve as a guaranteed appointment. The SFPUC was in the midst of a search process for a general manager, who would need approval from the mayor and Board of Supervisors. But now, his nomination is expected to be put forward by the SFPUC for final approvals, according to the Mayor's Office.

"San Francisco’s public utility needs clean, innovative and decisive leadership to meet that challenge. I am ready to take the lead in ensuring that all San Franciscans have sustainable and affordable public power, clean and reliable water, and, overall, a public utility that once again makes them proud,” Herrera said in a statement. “I want to thank Mayor Breed for this unique opportunity to stand up for ratepayers and usher in a new era of clean leadership at the top of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission."

Herrera, who ran for mayor in 2011 and appeared poised to again in 2017, was seen as a potential mayoral candidate along with Supervisor Matt Haney, though perhaps this sets him with a job that's a bit cushier.

And, this means that Breed gets to appoint Herrera's successor as City Attorney, who will then have to run for election sometime in the next year or so.

Herrera has been a vocal figure in the corruption probe, launching his own investigations into backroom dealings with city contractors alongside the City Auditor. In early March, he suspended four contractors from doing future business with the city pending the results of the federal investigation.

Photo: Wikimedia

Bigger fish are frying in the ever-expanding Mohammed Nuru DPW scandal, as the head of SF’s Public Utilities Commission has his home raided, gets charged with fraud, and possibly faces 20 years in prison.

Those of us who prepare popcorn when there are major political scandals have spent 2020 generally assuming that the Mohammed Nuru DPW scandal would eventually be known by a different name, because it would ensnare bigger fish than Nuru, and perhaps even cover a wider array of city departments. That time has now arrived.

Monday was a dizzying day in that sprawling public corruption probe, as the Chronicle had the scoop early this afternoon that the FBI had raided the home of SF Public Utilities Commission chief Harlan Kelly, and not long later, federal prosecutors charged him with fraud.

The raid of Kelly’s home is significant, because he is married to City Administrator Naomi Kelly, and we already knew that the FBI was probing for sweetheart deals that benefited their personal finances. Naomi Kelly is not named in the latest FBI criminal complaint, though there are references to “his wife,” and she is quite likely in some trouble here. Among the illegal gifts Harlan Kelly is accused of accepting is a lavish trip for his family, and the FBI has WeChat messages from Harlan Kelly saying “Thank you for the best family vacation ever! A little something for everyone!”

And who was he thanking for the best family vacation ever? None other than permit expediter Walter Wong, who also helped subsidize Mohammed Nuru’s alleged kickback bribe trip to China (why is always China?), and of course is now cooperating with the feds. Obviously, anyone with a Walter Wong connection should not speak without their attorney present.

It gets better! As the Chron’s Dominic Fracassa points out above, the FBI’s complaint also mentions allegations regarding “a former San Francisco mayor,” to which many readers may react “Please let it be Willie Brown! Please let it be Willie Brown! Please let it be Willie Brown!”

But judge for yourself: The FBI’s complaint says that “The reference to ‘35’ was a code that Wong and [Harlan] Kelly used to refer to a former San Francisco mayor. The number 35 corresponds to the letters for the official’s initials on a numeric telephone keypad. I have seen coded references to ‘35’ as early as 2013 in text messages between Kelly and Wong.”

On a numeric telephone keypad 3 is an ‘E’ and 5 is an ‘L.’ Ed Lee was mayor of San Francisco when the above-described incident took place in 2014.

Aaaand that was fast. Shortly before the publication of this post, Mayor Breed released a statement saying she had “accepted Harlan Kelly’s resignation as General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The allegations detailed in the Federal Investigation conducted by the US Attorney’s Office are disturbing and unacceptable for anyone serving in our government, let alone the leader of one of our largest departments.”

For now, though, Naomi Kelly remains city administrator of the City and County of San Francisco.

Related: Related: Recology Exec Ensnared In Nuru Scandal, Accused By Feds Of Long-Term Bribery Scheme

Image: (Left) SFPUC via Facebook, (Right) SFGSA.org

The widening Mohammed Nuru/DPW/City Hall corruption investigation is now looking into why the City Administrator and SFPUC General Manager directed $8 million in contracts to the woman who sold them their house.

This week’s news that three more city departments have been subpoenaed in the widening Justice Department public corruption investigation also shined a light on a prominent romantic relationship at City Hall. Not Nuru and London Breed, nor Nuru and Mayor’s Office director of Neighborhood Services Sandra Zuniga, but instead city administrator Naomi Kelly and her husband SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) general manager Harlan Kelly. Their relationship has never been a secret. But they are both now ensnared in the Nuru scandal, husband Harlan because he was named in the FBI subpoenas this week, and wife Naomi because she’s the one who tipped off the FBI that Nuru was violating his cooperation by alerting his colleagues to it.

But wife Naomi may not be in the clear here, as now the Chronicle reports the FBI is investigating possible sweetheart City Hall deals awarded to a contractor who sold the Kellys their house. Harlan Kelly owned a 50% share in a fixer-upper property in the Inner Sunset with a Melanie Lok, whom the Chron describes as a “longtime family friend,” and their real estate group bought the property for $540,000 in 2002, according to property records. The Kellys then bought out Lok’s share in 2011 for $282,000 and eventually moved in themselves. Seems like Melanie Lok did not get much of an appreciation or a return on that investment!

But as the Chronicle informs us, her software consulting company Mlok Consulting was awarded about $8 million in SFPUC contracts following that real estate deal. One of her company’s bids, in which there was only one other bidder, Lok wrote in her proposal that “Perhaps the most important advantage we can offer (the) SFPUC is peace of mind.” Ask Harlan Kelly how that “peace of mind” is working out for him right about now.

Harlan Kelly would probably not answer that question, though, because currently only his attorney is talking. “Mr. Kelly plays no direct role in the competitive bidding process for city contracts,” his lawyer Brian Getz told the Chron. “The SFPUC has a fair and transparent process for the hundreds of contract opportunities that an agency of its size and scale must extend every year.”

Kelly has an alibi, in that he was not SFPUC general manager yet when most of the original contracts were awarded to MLok. But he signed numerous amendments to the deal that raised payment ceilings, so there is at least a whiff of quid pro quo. The SFPUC maintains that those pay raises were consistent with the language of the original contracts, and approved by a five-member oversight commission.

But these days, it’s a bad sign when the name Walter Wong comes up in a City Hall employee’s personal financial dealings, as that fellow has been indicted on fraud and money laundering charges. The consultant and contractor has apparently been singing to the feds in hopes of reducing a possible 40-year sentence. And Wong’s construction business did some work on the Kellys' Inner Sunset house during renovations, which sound innocuous enough, except nothing seems innocuous in this affair anymore.

“Mr. Wong was a prominent construction contractor and community leader, and like countless others in this city, Mr. Kelly had known Mr. Wong for nearly three decades,” Getz told the Chron. “Mr. Kelly paid fair market value for this work — if anything, he may have been overcharged by Mr. Wong’s firm.”

Whoa, that shade almost sounds like the Kellys are turning against Wong. But Wong may have already turned on them, hence the FBI scrutiny of this house deal, and all of MLok Consulting's contracts with the SFPUC rendered since. The FBI is looking into sweetheart deals at City Hall, but as we see with the Kellys or Nuru and “Girlfriend 1,” some of these sweetheart deals involve actual sweethearts.

Related: Mayor London Breed Says Nuru Situation Is 'A Learning Experience' [SFist]

Image: (Left) SFPUC via Facebook, (Right) SFGSA.org

To shield San Franciscans from having their lights and water turned off during these worrisome times, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) won’t cut-off power and water services due to non-payment. Also, both SFPUC and SF Muni will waive late fees on overdue payments.

As we embrace social distancing recommendations, it’s moderately reassuring to know that, no matter the financial predicament, we’ll all have our electricity and plumbing conveniences guaranteed for a good while.

NBC Bay Area reported that the City of San Francisco will keep everyone’s water and power in good standing for the next two months. Better yet, late fees accrued on water and sewer bills will be waived for both residents and SFPUC Hetch Hetchy power account holders. The same courtesy will be extended to San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) citations, as well.

“San Francisco will not be shut off due to delinquent payments and penalties will be waived for late payments to SF Muni or the public utilities commission,” Mayor London Breed said yesterday, per the local news outlet. "We are continuing to implement policies to protect our residents who are struggling due to loss of income during this challenging public health crisis.”

SFMTA, as stated earlier, is suspending all late fees on citations and delinquent payments; the transportation agency will also extend deadlines for citation objections and stop forwarding additional unpaid citations to the California Department of Motor Vehicles or collection agencies.

"Our agency is committed to doing our part in providing [much-needed] relief for San Franciscans impacted by the COVID-19 emergency," said Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. "We know that penalties in difficult times are a burden, and we're also sensitive to the need to limit in-person transactions."

In a similar tone, CalMatters noted that six other state utility providers — including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is the nation’s largest utility provider — have taken like-minded action, safeguarding some 21M Californians from abrupt power and water shutoffs as coronavirus concerns heap.

Related: How You Can Support San Francisco's Queer Elders and LGBTQ+ Nightlife Workers in the Age of Coronavirus

SF Bars With Capacity Over 100 Ordered to Close For Seven Weeks; Restaurants Told To Limit Capacity

Image: Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco’s main water supply, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, is more than just a utilitarian natural space — complete with stone monoliths, tall waterfalls, and other Instagram-worthy tropes. So it makes sense why some are pushing for expanded access to the area; SF, though, isn’t budging.

As reported by KPIX, a non-profit organization is pressuring San Francisco officials to increase public accessibility on the 1,200-acre Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, citing it would help bolster ecotourism and general interest in the area.

“There are places to picnic, there are places to fish, there are places to rock climb, and people can’t get back there,” said Executive Director of Restore Hetch Hetchy (RHH) Spreck Rosekrans to the news outlet, adding that “people should be able to explore the area.”

RHH is a conservation group advocating for the restoration of the area; they’re even suggesting that the O’Shaughnessy Dam be demolished to bring the reservoir back to a more pristine, primitive condition. So, no: RHH isn’t supporting the idea of having additional construction in the area to allow for more inclusive passage.

“We’re not proposing roads,” Rosekrans adds. “[But there] probably should be more trails, but the easiest way to get back there is to allow boating on the reservoir.”

According to figures published in CalMatters, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is seen by a mere 1 percent of Yosemite’s visitors, despite the fact naturalist John Muir once described the unpopular refuge as a “rare landscape garden, one of nature’s finest mountain temples.” RHH believes that allowing electric boats to operate on the water could transport hikers and fishermen to various places along the 9-mile long reservoir, destinations that are now only reachable by multi-day-long backpacking journeys.

However, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) says it's not interested in any activity that allows human contact with the water.

“In our experience, people in the wilderness, in national parks… where people go, trouble tends to follow,” said Steve Richie, the commission’s general manager for water. “So we’re being very cautious about the type of access that will be allowed to our drinking supply.”

Which, alas, is a rather contradictory statement from previous narratives totted by The City. San Francisco promised in 1913, when congress green-lit construction for the O’Shaughnessy Dam, that the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir area would be managed for both “water supply and park purposes,” declaring that it would be “absurd” if SF thwarted the public from accessing the area.

Fast forward over a century and certain promises made by SF still have gone unmade. Though, the SFPUC says since none of those items were ever officially included in the final bit legislation circa 2013, they aren’t required to make good by them.

To this day, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir visitors still can’t camp on its grounds, enjoy well-maintained trails, or drive on its in-and-out roads once the sun goes down. And, per KPIX, a boating and swimming ban on the reservoir was snuck into a 2,000-page 2020 federal spending bill; the National Park Service, oddly enough, allows for year-round fishing in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and “part of the year in most [nearby] rivers and stream.”

And Rosekrans reasons it’s time San Francisco steps back and relinquishes some, if not most, of its power to Park Service, so Yosemite National Park visitors can enjoy this Muir-approved utopia — “[Restore Hetch Hetchy thinks] SF has had way too much influence on the Park Service to keep people away from this spectacular canyon, and that’s something that’s got to change.”

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission says the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir can store as much as 117 billion gallons for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which not only serves San Francisco, but also Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties as well. Hetch Hetchy is also home to some of the most diverse array of flora and fauna found anywhere in the Yosemite National Park and a few of North America's tallest waterfalls.

Related: In 2016, Your Pristine Hetch Hetchy Water Will Have A Little More Recycled Runoff

Calaveras Dam Project Digs Up Prehistoric Teeth, Fossils — And Dynamite

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Image: Flickr via JiBs

Though Uber and Lyft already require annual background checks, state regulators have decided that they don't need to perform full-on biometric checks (including fingerprint checks) like taxi companies do.

According to the Chronicle, the California Public Utilities Commission is allowing the ride-hailing companies to forego biometric checks because implementing the requirement "would not add a greater level of safety." Both Uber and Lyft have been opposed to requiring biometric checks, arguing that they're discriminatory. As it stands right now, biometric checks delve into a person's entire history, as they're checked against an FBI database. Uber and Lyft only require a background check, which goes back seven years and essentially goes into courthouse searches for all the areas that person has lived in within that time and also a check into the National Sex Offender database.

Still, despite not requiring them to perform biometric checks, the CPUC is moving to codify their already-in-place background check requirement. It will, at least, make it so that particular requirement won't go away anytime soon. The requirement also explicitly bans sex offenders and people convicted of domestic violence, driving under the influence, and assault and battery.

That said, even with current requirements, abusive and sketchy drivers seem to make it through the background checks anyway. Back in 2015, one of our own SFist staffers shared a story of her encounter with a driver who verbally threatened to rape and kill her. Earlier that year, both San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys sued the companies in order to force better background checks for both companies. At the time, both services advertised that their background check systems were "industry leading." A court later found that to not be true, resulting in hefty out-of-court settlements for both companies.

Of course, if Lyft's current partnership with self-driving car service Waymo proves to be successful, then these background check requirements could, in the future, be an artifact of a time gone by.

Related: New Law Means Tougher Background Checks On California Ride-Hail Drivers

Supervisor Jeff Sheehy is accusing PG&E of intentionally dragging its feet in a way that's keeping the lights off at two sites in his district, the newly renovated Randall Museum and Noe Valley Town Square, as well as a third project the Dogpatch, the city's latest Homeless Navigation Center. That final project, like the others, is ready to go — in fact, it was supposed to open in March, but it's just sitting there without power.

“PG&E needs to step up or step aside,” the Supervisor tells the Chronicle, who had the story.

The issue: PG&E and the Public Utilities Commission are competing over who will power the sites. But for the PUC to power them, it would want to use its Hetch Hetchy hydroelectric power, which is cheaper and cleaner than the power PG&E would use. The problem there is that PG&E owns the transmission lines that would carry PUC's electricity, and Sheehy says it's stalling to keep that from happening.

At the Homeless Navigation center, for example, the PUC submitted an application to power the shelter to PG&E, but after five months of negotiations, PG&E says the city needs to give them $25,000 for a study on the impact that hydropower would have on the power grid. “

PG&E has asked for similar studies at the Randall Museum. "The museum has been connected to the PG&E transmission and distribution grids for decades,” an incredulous PUC spokesperson tells the Chron. “The load really hasn’t changed.”

Sheehy's former aide, Andrew Powers, puts it this way: The museum “is caught up in what can only be described as a purposeful obstacle by PG&E to delay the opening of a city science museum for youth only because, as has long been the case, the city is choosing to use 100 percent renewable Hetch Hetchy power for this facility rather than less-green PG&E power.”

Andrea Menniti of PG&E disagrees. She tells the Chronicle that the PUC “slowed down the process, in some cases by not providing necessary information in a timely manner, by changing the scope of the project and by not submitting necessary payments in a timely manner.”

Related: Why Is PG&E Buying Multi-Million Dollar Marina Homes And Digging Up Their Yards?

Water main break causes some flooding in the Moscone Center and unfinished MTA subway. https://t.co/Y3kEfdsgLN pic.twitter.com/zwmgoJpeRi

— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) December 9, 2016

A South of Market water main pipe that reportedly dates back to the 1800s bid this cruel world farewell this morning, flooding area streets and snarling traffic for the Friday commute.

A 12-inch water main pipe that ran beneath Howard Street broke at around 2:40 this morning at Fourth and Howard Streets, a spokesperson with San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission says. Crews responded to the break, which the Chron describes as "a gusher that broke through the asphalt and flooded the intersection with several inches of water and mud," at 3:15 a.m.

Workers "isolated the broken main and are making repairs," KRON 4 reports, but not before water flooded parts of Moscone Center and the under-construction tunnels of the Central Subway, according to NBC Bay Area.

The pipe, which officials say dates back to 1895, likely broke due to old age.

“Right now, [the break] does not appear to be construction-related,” SFPUC spokesperson Charles Sheehan told CBS 5.

“This is an older section of the main, and the likely factor in these cases for older is usually age.”

As you can imagine, traffic in the area is a shambles, with numerous street closures and delays as the crews continue their work throughout the day. As of publication time, Howard Street will remain closed between Third and Fourth streets, with Fourth Street shut down between Howard and Folsom. One lane of traffic remains open on Fourth from Mission to Howard to allow right turns onto Howard, but with repairs expected to take several hours, you'd be wiser to avoid the area all together.