May 3: The Changing Face of the Historic Tenderloin District

Listen

We will look into the tenderloin's future. With the a portion of San Francisco's tenderloin district joining the National Register of Historic Places, it is trying to improve its image and the quality of life of its residents. With promotion of a new museum, as well as pushes to make improvements to historic buildings, what changes are in store for current residents and tourists alike?

Don Falk, Executive Director, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

Elvin Padilla, Executive Director, Tenderloin Economic Development Corporation

Laurie Armstrong, Vice President of Public Affairs, San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau

April 5, 2010: The Hospitality Strike and San Francisco Tourism

Listen

Since Fall of 2009, Local 2's 9000 hospitality workers and 60 hotels in San Francisco have been without contracts. The ongoing labor dispute between hotel owners and striking workers is said to center on disagreements on health care costs and wages. However, this labor dispute is set in a difficult time for San Francisco's tourism industry as people are traveling less for pleasure and for work. But the longer term story reveals long seated differences between management and workers of the mainly corporate owned hotels that dominate San Francisco accommodation options. Over the course of several decades the building of non-union hotels, role of card check neutrality, and drawn out contract negotiations have made for a complex web of relationships and recent history.The polarized climate has also been playing out in the media as both sides use different figures to indicate how hospitality workers are paid. The Hotel council claims workers receive $60,000 a year in benefits, while the Union says that number is far less. But in the end the real questions of how do workers in jobs like room cleaners, bell hops, and laundry washers get a fair contract that takes into account the challenges of the current economy as well as the cost of living in the Bay Area. Who are hospitality workers? What jobs do they have? What functions do they perform that make what amounts to a small city in a building run?

The boycott of 7 hotels in San Francisco have been a new wrinkle, with Local 2 actively calling for convention holders and others to avoid these hotel, but also advocating that conventions be held elsewhere while the boycott is in effect. The San Francisco Visitor's board as well the Hotel Council have said the boycott and strike have cost San Francisco millions in tax revenue as well as economic benefits to businesses. Although San Francisco's tourism business is recovering, the tax and revenue will be missed. With tourism options plentiful in the world, do increasing wages for workers cause San Francisco to be less competitive as a destination due to accommodation prices? Does the turmoil drive tour operators to suggest other locations for the clients? The boycott and animosity could play out for years.

But how is the pain of the recession spread throughout a company when tourism and travel revenues fall? Are the two sides closer to getting to a deal, or getting farther away?

How have the strikes effected you? What role do you think hospitality workers play in San Francisco's tourism economy?

• Ian Lewis, Research Director, Unite Here Local 2.
• Connie Hibbard, Banquet Server, Westin San Francis Hotel

March 8, 2010: The Clean energy Portfolio: Is Nuclear Energy back on the table?

Listen


Clean energy for all its promise and coverge in the media and in Bay Area cocktail chatter is entwined in the history and economics of energy in California, as well as the competing technologies and costs associated with each. Tonight we are going to get an in depth perspective on the challenges and opportunities with moving to a cleaner and renewable source of energy. New technologies like wind and solar, as well hsitorically controversial energy generation methods like nuclear fusion, are now being pushed as ways for electric utlities like PG and E to meet the California 2020 requirement of 33% of the electricity generated in the state be from renewables.

But how much much does California's history of deregulation and current interest in Community Choice Aggregation effect how these sources will be integrated and accepted? Will the interest in clean energy create a short term hike in fees that customers face, and will the electricity you use be any cleaner in reality?

In building a clean energy portfolio, the idea of nuclear energy and the purported improvements made since the 30+ year ban on new nuclear plants was enacted is partly seen in the federal money flowing to new plants in Georgia, as well as the prominence in President Obama's State of the Union. With 15% of California's power coming from our 2 nuclear plants, will the need for cleaner, safer, and cheaper technologies make nuclear an option? Or have competing technologies like wind and solar become better options due to unanswered environemntal and safety concerns? But with todays guest, we will be talking about the more likely scenario that a clean energy portfolio is a mix of a number of technologies that balance cost, risk, and the enthronement.

What is your vision of clean(er) energy portfolio? Have the concerns and memories of nuclear risks diminished? Which of these technologies would you want to have in your neighborhood?

• Severin Bornstein, Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business and the Co-Director of the Energy Institute

February 1: Water Management and California's Aquatic Future

Listen

As discussions of recent winter downpours mature into discussions of California's multi-year drought, the future of the Golden State's water management and infrastructure becomes a key part of the economic and environmental debate. The Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act is an $11 billion bond proposal coming California voters in November of 2010 that would fund improvements and enhancements to water infrastructure. In a cash strapped state government and with tax coffers depleted, how will one of our most basic needs be addressed and financed?

With the public debate often focused on overly simplistic battles like North vs. South, Urban vs. Rural, and Conservation vs. Utility of water, a new vision for California's shared water future seems to be the choice being given to voters.

In San Francisco, there is a special relationship to the Statewide debate since the City's water supply is managed from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in the Sierra Nevada mountains, as is the transmission and storage. Even with this unique position in water supply, the San Francisco Bay is at the crux of two water challenges in sea level rise, in addition to changes that effect the Sacramento delta.

But who will the winners and losers be of this new system? How do divergent water users such as farms, fisheries, cities, and conservationists agree on the right path? How much should we as tax payers and as water consumers be paying for water? With the threat of earthquakes and deficient flood control systems, wouldn't creating and funding a plan now, before a disaster, be the wisest choice? With a number of conflicting interests in water usage and water ownership, the policy-making foundation for how California shares and stores water resources is being rethought with an eye toward building a new consensus for our water policy.

• Ellen Hanak, Senior Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California
• Doug Obegi, Staff Attorney, Natural Resource Defense Council
• Michael Carlan, Deputy General Manager, San Francisco Water Commission

January 4: California at the Crossroads: A look back at 2009 and a look ahead to 2010

Listen

2009 was a dark year in California politics as financial crisis and
political gridlock seemed to have put 36 million people in a daze over
the leadership and future of the Golden State.
But will the governor's race, challenges to the workings of the state
constitution, and progress on numerous environmental issues offer some
new light in 2010? Does the start of economic recovery make 2009's
issues a distant memory or will crisis be an opportunity for a
meaningful re-think of the california dream?

• Marisa Lagos, Journalist, San Francisco Chronicle
• Patrick Murphy, Professor of Political Science, University of San Francisco

November 9: Digital Books and words of the future

Listen

Next on cityvisions, we will look into the evolution of books from turning pages to looking at computer screens. Technology initiatives have sought to increase the access to and the searchability of the printed word. Books can now be viewed on a number of devices and in a number of ways, and delivered with growing ease coupled with streamlined payment processes. Like so many information evolutions, this ease of access will also expand the reach of literacy and knowledge around the world, lessening the digital divide in the process as more people have access to written information in all its forms.

But what impact does digitization have for content creators and publishers? How will the privacy of reading and gaining knowledge be secured in an age of interconnectideness? Will book digitization expand the challenges between literacy and access for groups like the blind and computerless? What benefits will there be to having searchable access to the world's aggregated knowledge?

• Chris Hoofnagle, Director - Information Privacy Programs, UC Berkeley Law,Technology and Public Policy
• Brice Gosnell, Regional Publisher, Lonely Planet Publishing
• Mike Masnick, Founder, TechDirt

October 12: Taxing the Sweet: Will a Soda fee in San Francisco make us healthier

Listen

Next on City Visions, we'll discuss an initiative by the Mayor's office to add a fee to the sale of soda in The City. The surcharge will go toward the funding of the physical activity agency, ShapeUP SF, but will it succeed in using higher consumer prices on soda to help people make different choices. Is this tax fair to everybody and what is some of the recent dietary research supporting this approach? Do the economic choices people make in regards to their health respond to modest tax increases? What successes and concerns have other cities had in using taxation to change behavior?

• Dr. Harold Goldstein, Exectutive Director, California Center for Public Health Advocacy
• J. John Wilson, Communication Director, Center for Consumer Freedom