Here's What's Happening in the Bay Area as Curated by KALW News:
In wake of mural fight, Oakland developer agrees to hundreds of thousands of dollars in concessions // San Francisco Business Journal
"The developer of an approved 126-unit residential tower in downtown Oakland has agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional community concessions in one of the biggest financial victories for community activists, who criticized the project's impact on parking and blocking views of a mural.
"After negotiations mediated by City Council president Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Bay Development has agreed to pay $100,000 to replace an adjacent mural, subsidized with $40,000 in public funds, that will be blocked by the construction of the project, at 250 14th St."
-----
Unions Halt Tech Buses // SF Weekly
"The ubiquitous white buses that ferry San Francisco's white collar tech workers travel through a union town. This was evident last week when the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency — derided by left-leaning locals for allowing tech buses to use Muni's overtaxed public bus stops for a paltry $1 fee — denied one tech bus company a permit to continue operating.
"Bauer's Intelligent Transportation, known for black minibuses that predate the behemoths used by Apple, Google, and Facebook workers, was dinged by the SFTMA for sending buses down the wrong streets and for making stops in the wrong areas. But its real sin was playing games with organized labor."
-----
Uber, Lyft may face new rules in California // San Francisco Chronicle
"California regulators will meet on Thursday to tweak rules for Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing companies.
"The California Public Utilities Commission’s original regulations for ride-hailing companies, adopted in 2013, broke new ground as the nation’s first set of guidelines for startups trying to disrupt the taxi industry."
-----
Muni Proposes Tiered Pricing System That Penalizes Cash With 25-Cent Surcharge // SFist
"Yesterday evening the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency adopted a new budget that, if approved by the Board of Supervisors, will penalize commuters who purchase tickets the old fashioned way with good ol' American Washingtons and Roosevelts. The budget, which the Chronicle reports is over $2 billion for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, stipulates that people who pay their Muni fares in cash (as opposed to with a Clipper card, or, shudder, the Muni phone app) would be hit with a 25-cent penalty.
"At the same time, the budget also proposes reducing towing fees for all the car owners among us. And while yes, at some of the highest in the country, the fees associated with getting a car towed in SF should be lowered, that they are being done so in the same budget that makes riding the bus more expensive essentially stands as a "fuck you" to anyone putting their faith in San Francisco's transit-first policy."
-----
BART gives first look at new train cars // SF Gate
"The future ride to work for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters was unveiled in Hayward on Wednesday morning — and the new BART railcar has a sleek new look, an extra set of doors and a horn that sounds like a cross between a British police car and a modern school bell.
"BART introduced the first train from its new fleet at its Hayward railyard at an event for reporters, employees and agency directors held a couple of weeks after the car arrived in the Bay Area from Plattsburgh, N.Y., by truck. After some brief speeches, officials tooted the horn, which emits a noise shriller than the traditional beep-beep, then let guests climb aboard and give the new seats a test sit."
-----
USGS finds long-obscured earthquake fault in downtown Santa Rosa // SF Gate
"Scientists probing the ground with airborne laser beams have mapped the Rodgers Creek Fault in the heart of Santa Rosa for the first time, they reported Tuesday.
"A team from the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, led by geologist Suzanne Hecker, discovered the fault’s signs throughout the city’s downtown area where redevelopment has long obscured the evidence of past quakes, Hecker said."