By Olivia Wynkoop
Bay City News

Over 450,000 California residents were without power during Tuesday’s high winds and rain, PG&E officials said during a briefing on Wednesday.

And in the Bay Area alone, approximately 108,000 people were still without power as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Officials said it was the 38th consecutive day the company’s emergency operations center has been active, pointing to an extraordinary winter season with high levels of rain, snows, flooding, mudslides and other storm-related emergencies throughout the state.

More than 5,500 crew members are in the field to restore power during extreme weather, said Sumeet Singh, PG&E chief operating officer. He added that the company will continue to prioritize safety above all, which sometimes means that it takes a while to restore service in some areas.

“At PG&E, we know how important that electricity is to your families, schools, communities and businesses,” said Singh. “And we will not stop working until we get power back for every single one of our customers.”

Singh said the company is working to recover from the most recent storm event this week — the 13th storm in the past 75 days — which broke a record for the storm with the greatest amount of power outages for customers in the Bay Area since 1995.

On Tuesday, nearly 367,000 customers across California were without power at the peak of the storm, Singh said.

Of the total 450,000 customers around the state impacted by outages on Tuesday, 290,000 have had their power restored as of Wednesday afternoon, he said.

“When there is extensive damage, it can take some time to safely access a situation and assessment. We know this can be frustrating,” said Singh. “Our commitment is to provide restoration estimates no later than 24 hours after the outage starts even if we haven’t been able to access the outage to assess it.”

Angie Gibson, vice president of emergency preparedness and response at PG&E’s Emergency Operations Center in Vacaville, said the Bay Area counties with the most damage are Santa Clara, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties. Most damage stems from trees uprooting due to soil saturation and extreme winds..

She said upcoming weather will make it easier for crews to assess and restore in affected areas.

“The extreme storm that produced the major damage yesterday has thankfully exited the territory,” said Gibson. “We have fair and dry weather, which will continue through at least tomorrow with light winds.”

Residents who notice a downed power line are encouraged to first call 9-1-1, then PG&E at 1-800-743-5000. People concerned about their vulnerable neighbors can also receive information on community services in the area at 2-1-1.

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

By Eli Walsh
Bay City News Foundation

San Francisco’s recovery from the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst in the country among major metropolitan areas, according to an economic recovery tracker recently launched by the Bay Area Council business group.

Among the 25 largest metro areas in the country by regional gross domestic product, San Francisco’s pandemic recovery ranked 24th on the Regional Economic Recovery Index, besting only Baltimore.

San Jose fared better, but is still in the back half of the ranking at 16th. The Austin, Dallas and Denver metro areas have had the greatest recovery to date, according to the Bay Area Council.

Pandemic recovery was measured via 15 different metrics, including local job growth, population growth, office occupancy, labor force growth, sales tax receipts and the construction of new housing.

San Francisco’s recovery ranking includes data from Oakland and Berkeley, while San Jose’s includes data from Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.

“The Bay Area is competing for its economic future and in any competition it’s critical to know where we stand and where we need to invest time, energy and resources to succeed,” said Jeff Bellisario, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute’s executive director.

The Economic Institute developed the index in partnership with the commercial real estate firm CBRE and its Tech Insights Center.

CBRE has regularly tracked office occupancy in San Francisco throughout the pandemic, finding in a report released last month that roughly 27% of the city’s offices were vacant at the end of 2022.

In addition, permanent remote work skyrocketed in the Bay Area between 2019, when between 5% and 10% of workers in counties across the region self-reported that they worked from home, and 2021, when that number is as high as 46% in San Francisco, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

San Francisco also ranked last on the index’s measure of economic activity with a score of just 3.2 out of 100, driven mainly by the city’s sales tax revenue falling $96 million from 2019 to 2021. Washington, D.C., was the next closest region with a score of 12.7.

The stark drop in sales tax receipts and passengers boarding flights — the two metrics tracked for economic activity — has also had a cascading effect as the city and local governmental bodies like transportation agencies all face budget issues.

San Jose and San Francisco scored well in just one category — investment — with the San Jose metro area attracting the most venture capital funding of the 25 measured regions. San Francisco ranked eighth, near Philadelphia and New York.

“Macroeconomic uncertainty in the short-term and new challenges related to remote and hybrid office-based work could slow the usual robust, tech-driven economic rebound the Bay Area expects,” said Colin Yasukochi, the executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center.

“This is especially true for urban downtown areas that could benefit from economic incentives and other public sector support,” he added.

The index report is the first of three the Bay Area Council and CBRE plan to issue in the coming months to track regional pandemic recovery, with the next report scheduled for the second half of 2023.

The recovery index can be found at http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/economic-recovery.

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By Victoria Franco
Bay City News Foundation

A 36-year-old man was found guilty by a jury Tuesday in connection with the murder and attempted robbery of a man in Stockton in 2020, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.

Rangel Gumesindi Hernandez was found guilty of the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Richard Saldana who was killed on Jan. 13, 2020 in the backyard of his residence.

“I would like to congratulate Deputy District Attorney Alexander Henry and the Stockton Police Department for holding the defendant and co-defendants accountable for their vile actions,” said San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas in a press release.

In a 2020 social media post, police said Saldana had seen three males attempting to enter his backyard in the 1000 block of East Seventh Street and confronted them.

Saldana’s wife had heard a gunshot and called the police, but when she went to check on her husband, she found that he had been shot.

Police said the three suspects had fled the scene.

The victim was taken to a hospital but died from his injuries.

Hernandez and his two co-defendants, Daniel Miranda-Lick and Alonzo Fabian Talavera had approached Saldana with the intent to rob him, but ended up shooting him when he confronted them, according to eyewitness testimonies.

“My thoughts are with the Saldana family during this very difficult time,” said Freitas in the press release following the verdict.

Hernandez is set to return before Judge Lance Jacot in department 7A of the of the San Joaquin County Superior Court on May 1, 2023 for sentencing.

The other two defendants had plead guilty to attempted robbery charges and were sentenced to 16-months in prison each, said the District Attorney’s Office.

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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CONTACT: San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Elisa Bubak (209) 468-0719 or (209) 414-9057 cellphone or Elisa.Bubak@sjcda.org

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