Washington Post (January 29)
“Self-driving cars appear to be safer than those with human drivers.” We should welcome their introduction. For example, “Waymo robotaxis have logged 33 million miles, mostly ferrying passengers in San Francisco and Phoenix.” In those two cities, “compared with cars driven by humans, Waymo vehicles have been involved in 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer crashes that resulted in injury and 81 percent fewer crashes severe enough to deploy the air bags.” Moreover, the reality is probably even better as some of these accidents were caused by other drivers.
Tags: Accidents, Air bags, Crashes, Human drivers, Injury, Passengers, Phoenix, Police, Robotaxis, Safer, San Francisco, Self-driving cars, Waymo
Wall Street Journal (April 17)
Marking “a sharp reversal” from years of “bolstering their office footprints,” Big Tech is now “downsizing workspace in another blow to office real estate.” Especially hard hit, “San Francisco’s office-vacancy rate hit a record 36.7% in the first quarter,” roughly ten times worse than early 2019 when it stood at 3.6%.
Tags: 2019, 3.6%, 36.7%, Big tech, Downsizing, Footprints, Office, Real estate, Record, Reversal, San Francisco, Vacancy, Workspace
Bloomberg (June 12)
“The owners of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall are giving up the property to lenders, adding to deepening real estate pain in a city struggling to bring back workers and tourists after the pandemic.” Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp. will default on $558 million in remaining debt. “San Francisco has been among the hardest-hit cities since the pandemic as office vacancies soar, retail vacancies rise and concerns about safety deter visitors.”
Tags: Brookfield, Cities, Debt, Default, Hardest-hit, Lenders, Mall, Office, Pain, Pandemic, Real estate, Retail, Safety, San Francisco, Struggling, Tourists, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Vacancies, Workers
SFGate (June 6)
“A billion dollar company that owned two substantial San Francisco hotels announced June 5 that it’s defaulting on its loan and releasing the hotels from its portfolio.” Park Hotels & Resorts “will immediately stop making payments toward a $725 million loan, slated to mature November 2023.” The REIT cited the “best interest” of its unitholders given “concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027.”
Tags: $725 million loan, Defaulting, Hotels, Loan, Park Hotels & Resorts, Payments, Portfolio, REIT, Return to office, San Francisco, Street conditions, Unitholders
San Francisco Chronicle (November 18)
“Officials are concerned hospitals could be strained this winter as COVID-19 cases increase across the region ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.” In San Francisco infection rates have already “risen sharply in recent weeks…. With people expected to travel, gather with friends and spend more time indoors over the next few weeks… the region could soon head for another surge.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitals, Indoors, Infection rates, Officials, San Francisco, Strained, Surge, Thanksgiving, Travel, Winter
San Francisco Chronicle (August 24)
“San Francisco has long reigned as the priciest rental market in the U.S.—but it has officially been dethroned…. New York’s one-bedroom median rent rose a whopping 4.9% in August to $2,810, slightly more than San Francisco’s median of $2,800, which reflected a month-over-month increase of 2.9%.” San Francisco had been the priciest rental market since at least 2014 when Zumper began tracking data.
Tags: Dethroned, New York, One-bedroom, Priciest, Rental market, San Francisco, U.S., Zumper
Washington Post (November 30)
“The NFL was a joke Sunday, at a time when nothing about the coronavirus warrants laughter. In Baltimore, the Ravens reported a positive test for the eighth straight day, further jeopardizing a twice-delayed game against the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. In the Bay Area, the San Francisco 49ers were rendered temporarily homeless, if they want to keep playing football, because of local restrictions.” Make no mistake. “The coronavirus is in charge, and it is raging once again…. It’s impossible to play football out in the open, without a bubble environment”
Tags: 49ers, Baltimore, Bubble, Coronavirus, Delayed, Football, Joke, NFL, Pittsburgh, Positive test, Raging, Ravens, Restrictions, San Francisco, Steelers
San Francisco Chronicle (June 25)
“San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes after supervisors gave the measure its second and final vote Tuesday.” The west coast city “celebrates its marijuana culture, but it appears deeply opposed to other vices. Last year, voters approved a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco and in 2016, a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks.”
Tags: Ban, Electronic cigarettes, Flavored tobacco, Marijuana, San Francisco, Sugar-sweetened drinks, Tax, U.S., Vices
USA Today (August 2)
Apple just became the first U.S. company to achieve a $1 trillion valuation, which seems rather unfathomable at first. “For $1 million you could buy a very nice one bedroom apartment in San Francisco. With $1 trillion, you could buy a very nice apartment for everybody in the city (San Francisco’s population is close to a million).” But hopefully Apple will “write a check because there’s just over a trillion dollars currently in circulation in the U.S.”
Tags: $1 trillion, Apartment, Apple, Circulation, First, San Francisco, U.S., Valuation
Wall Street Journal (October 24)
“After earning big profits at home, Chinese investors are looking abroad for safer assets that offer steady returns. They are shifting their increasingly valuable currency out of China’s expensive property market and into the likes of Manhattan and San Francisco—bargains by comparison.”
Tags: Bargains, China, Investors, Manhattan, Profits, Property markets, Safe assets, San Francisco, Steady returns. Currency