City Visions Radio Production

May 3: The Changing Face of the Historic Tenderloin District

2010-04-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

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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

2010-03-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

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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?

2010-02-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

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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

2010-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

City Visions Radio Production

May 3: The Changing Face of the Historic Tenderloin District

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

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

February 1: Water Management and California's Aquatic Future

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

November 9: Digital Books and words of the future

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

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September 14: Peddle Power and the future of San Francisco Streets

August 10: The Evolution of Drug Policy

July 13: Labor, Unions and Business in the Bay Area

June 8, 2009: Closing Nature: How the State Budget Cuts Will Affect State Parks

May 4, 2009: May Special Elections: Budget Bandaids or Fiscal Fixes?

April 13, 2009: Bay Area Waste water: Once we use the water, what do we do with it?

March 2, 2009: Water Worries: Balancing the Water We Need with the Water We Have

February 2, 2009: Assessing the Obama Technology Agenda

December 8, 2008: Restaurant Economics in a Down Economy

October 13, 2008: Rethinking Prostitution in San Francisco

September 15, 2008: Exploring Our World: Travel Writing in the Bay Area

August 18, 2008: Rethinking Food

July 14, 2008: The Bay Area's Road to 2050: The Regional Plan for Northern California