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<p>Christopher Columbus ' statue in San Francisco was vandalized the day before the federal holiday commemorating his arrival in the Americas in 1492.</p><p>On Sunday, city workers washed up a statue at the foot of Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, which was coated with red paint. Graffiti on the foundation said "Destroy all genocide sites" and "Kill all colonizers."</p><p>The North Beach News posted a picture of the defaced monument; one columnist commented, "Well done. Columbus doesn't deserve any better." The case is under investigation by the San Francisco Police Department.</p><p>The New World explorer has become a polarizing figure, and Columbus monuments are often the object of vandals across the United States. On Monday, a statue in Rhode Island was splashed from head to toe with red paint. A poster reading "Stop Celebrating Genocide" was leaned against the pedestal.</p><p>Although Columbus Day is a national holiday held on the second Monday of October, many areas across the country have changed from celebrating Columbus to paying tribute to the indigenous communities who endured abuse and disease as explorers as Columbus arrived. More than 100 towns celebrate the Day of the Indigenous Peoples instead of Columbus Day.</p><p><br></p>

United States Of America •

San Francisco •

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22:07 14 October

Destroy all monuments of genocide ': the statue of Christopher Columbus in San Francisco vandalized.

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<p>Bay Area commuters will be able to use Google Pay rather than Clipper Cards.</p><p>Android users will soon be able to use their devices to pay for transportation cards in cities such as San Francisco after Cubic Transportation Systems signed an agreement with Google Pay, the contactless payment service of the search giant, on Monday.</p><p>Cubic notes that Bay Area passengers will be able to "connect transit cards to Google Pay, easily redeem funds and buy tickets directly from their mobile device — the removal of the need for a physical transit card."</p><p>The new Google Pay Contract also expands the capabilities of existing systems in cities such as New York, Miami, and London.</p><p>Working with Cubic would help us ease the experience for Google Pay customers in a number of major transit systems — including support for Clipper cards in the San Francisco Bay Area," said Ambarish Kenghe, Director of Product Management for Google Pay.</p><p>Clipper Cards are contactless cards now in use in all major Bay Area transit systems, including BART.</p><p>New York, meanwhile, is in the process of rolling out the OMNY system, but transit cards will not be available until "every subway station, bus route and Staten Island Railway is equipped with this new technology," according to the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It plans this to occur by 2023.</p><p>Cubic made contactless payments in New York to Apple Pay and then to Google Wallet subscribers on a per-ride basis earlier this year. The OMNY system currently operates on 4, 5 and 6 trains between the 42nd St and the Barclays Centre.</p>

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22:00 14 October

Google Pay will soon be rolling out to rail users in San Francisco

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<p>Back when I was about 16 years old and knew all about it, I took a physics class. The teacher started with a few basics. That meant, he said, that there were consequences for everything you did. I didn't believe that to him. My friends didn't either. We were young and as free as the sky. The teacher was old, very aged. He must have been at least 40, maybe 45. How did he know about that? </p><p>As a product of growing older myself, I can now see what he said. city of San Francisco, for example. We've been proud for years to be a place where everything goes. Anyone could come here and reinvent themselves. It was just part of our DNA. "San Francisco is a mad city, mostly inhabited by totally insane people ..." said Rudyard Kipling more than a century ago. We appreciated the quote. In addition, it is engraved on the railing on the waterfront along with other quotes from notable people celebrating the bay of the town.</p><p>For years, they have embraced, even welcomed, street characters, assuming them to be part of the mysterious essence of San Francisco. But now the roads, particularly Market Street — the main stem of the city — are clogged with what seems to be truly madmen, speaking to themselves, shouting.</p>

United States Of America •

San Francisco •

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21:50 14 October

This is what we did for ourselves, San Francisco. We've got to live with it now.

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<p>SAN FRANCISCO —The psychedelic rock stars of their native Zambia, the African band W.I.T.C.H. (an acronym for "We Intend To Cause Havoc") is coming to San Francisco to perform the Chapel on their first-ever tour of the U.S.</p><p>Though largely unknown in Africa, W.I.T.C.H. would become one of the biggest rock bands to emerge from the continent in the 1970s. Led by the charismatic singer Emanyeo "Jagari" Chanda and lead guitarist Chris "Kims" Mbewe, the band admired Jimi Hendrix's pyrotechnic guitar and James Brown's irresistible groove and crafted a style of fuzzy-out garage rock that was taken fairly from psychedelia and funk.</p><p>The band's first three albums — the 1972 debut In the Past, the 1974 Introduction, and the 1975 landmark Lazy Bones — established the band as one of the leading lights of the national music movement that would eventually be called "Zamrock." But by the end of the decade, with the nation facing economic collapse and increasingly authoritarian rule, bands like W.I.T.C.H. They were forced to play daytime shows to avoid strict curfews. </p><p>It was around the time that Chanda left the band, wanting to support himself and his family by working as a teacher or a gemstone miner, according to conflicting accounts. The group would move in a more dance direction, finally splitting up in the mid-1980s. But in the decades that followed, the original W.I.T.C.H. recordings became a scarce and prized resource by collectors and hip-hop artists hunting for untapped sample outlets.</p><p>The use of W.I.T.C.H. samples by popular beatsmith Madlib for his Beat Conducta in Africa mixtape and the reissue of the band's first three records by Now-Again Records in 2012 ignited a huge resurgence of interest in the group. At this time, the only living member of the W.I.T.C.H. Chanda was moving to the West Coast the next year, playing at events hosted by Madlib in Los Angeles and at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco.</p>

United States Of America •

San Francisco •

Events •

21:36 14 October

Mythical African Psycho-Rock Band Makes San Francisco Debut

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<p>The beautiful San Francisco house of Bebo's founders Michael and Xochi Birch is on the market for $39 million.</p><p>Birches bought a property on a street called Billionaire's Row in Pacific Heights for $29 million in 2008, after selling their social networking site Bebo to AOL.</p><p>The six-bedroom home features a library, a British pub, and a spa with views of the Golden Gate Bridge.</p><p>The house, located at 2799 Broadway, needs little improvement as construction has recently been carried out.</p><p>The beautiful San Francisco home of Bebo creators Michael and Xochi Birch is on the eye-watering $39 million markets, and even comes complete with its own bar and library. </p><p>The Birches bought an 11,600-square-foot manor-style home on a street nicknamed Billionaire's Row in Pacific Heights for $29 million in 2008, after selling their social networking site Bebo to AOL for $850 million.</p><p>If the property sold for its asking price, it would have tied the record for the most expensive home ever purchased in San Francisco. The $39 million records were set last year after the purchase of a nearby home by venture capitalist Matt Cohler.</p><p>The multi-story house is set high above the city of San Francisco and the ocean, providing views across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oakland Hills.</p><p>Guests at the stunning stack are welcomed by a dramatic double staircase featuring zebra-printed carpeting and an eclectic 18th-century portrait gallery mixed with contemporary art. It also features a study of the British Union Jack mosaic emblazoned in the fireplace, courtesy of Xochi Birch, who is British.</p><p>The house also has a pub with an old bar, converted from a decommissioned British tavern. Most recently, the pair hired architect Eric Cohler to refurbish the kitchen and create a family room with a more colorful style.</p><p>The top floor is where you can find apartments, including a master suite with a working fireplace and a walk-out terrace, which also has a pool with a view of San Francisco Bay.</p>

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21:28 14 October

A perfect pint pad! British Bebo founders list their six-bedroom home for $39 million: a real British pub and stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

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<p>Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at the start-up investment patterns for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. We began with San Francisco and went on to the East Bay. The next stop in Oakland.</p><p>Back in the days of the dot-com bubble, the City of Oakland put advertisements on top of San Francisco taxis saying that "Oakland is closer to San Francisco than San Francisco is to San Francisco."</p><p>It's one of those statements that is both demonstrably false and quite accurate. It's actually faster to get to downtown San Fransico by bus from Oakland than the outer San Francisco communities. The towns are just 8 miles apart, as the Crow flies.</p><p>The proximity to the center of the millennial boom, combined with a transit-friendly downtown and a slightly lower cost of living and business operating costs, makes Oakland an increasingly popular destination for scaling up startups. A lot of locals, including many who felt they were escaping tech stagnation in San Francisco, are not pleased. But then it disappears.</p><p>To date this year, 47 Oakland-based companies have closed funding rounds with a combined value of $583 million. This is the highest total in years, and part of what has mostly been the upward trend of funding in recent years:</p><p>Still, Oakland isn't rich in unicorns. Per Crunchbase data, there's only one private, venture-backed Oakland company that has crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold. Marqueta, a fin-tech unicorn, has raised almost $400 million for its configurable payment card technology.</p>

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21:16 14 October

Oakland Is Not San Francisco, But It's Getting More Startup Funding

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21:11 14 October

Undefeated 49ers have a 2014 Warriors Bust-Out Feeling

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<p>Last week, the Rent Cafe renting platform published its annual lists of the most costly U.S. renters ' ZIP codes, an annual tabulation that is painful to witness but also surprised by important data.</p><p>San Francisco is on the chart four times out of 50 locations. Cited areas account for almost 15 percent of the 27 ZIP codes of the region. Yet almost all of the prices lease operation is concentrated on the east side of SF, where most of the development of new homes has taken root.</p><p>Outside the area, the list also includes other towns in the Bay Area such as Sunnyvale, Santa Monica, Redwood Area, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Cupertino, and Foster City. Here's how this year's most price points for SF stacked up: 94105: no wonder this is the top show for SF. This ZIP code includes South Beach's East Split, Rincon Hill and sections. Rate Cafe reports an average monthly market rent of $4,858 across all categories of apartments, up 4.1 percent year-over-year. Generally, this ZIP is nationally the sixth priciest— like last year.</p><p>94158: This ZIP is fairly closely synonymous with Mission Bay and drops into second place for SF and 11th overall for the whole state, with a median $4,614 market rent. That's 5.3 percent higher than when it ranked 13th nationwide in 2018. Here's how SF's most price points stacked up this year. 94105: no wonder this is SF's top show. This ZIP code covers East Split, Rincon Hill and parts of South Beach. Rate Cafe records a monthly average market rent of $4,858 in all apartment types, up 4.1 percent year-over-year. Generally speaking, this ZIP is the sixth priest nationwide— like last year.</p><p>94158: This ZIP is largely synonymous with Mission Bay and falls to second place for SF and 11th overall for the entire state, with an average market rent of $4,614. That's 5.3% lower than in 2018 when it placed 13th nationally. </p><p>94103: It covers nearly all SoMa, except Western SoMa, the only Rent Cafe SF area to arrive at less than four grand a month— in this case, $3,887. It's also the year's worst mover, plummeting ten positions down to 38th over 2018 nationwide. Adrian Rosenberg, the spokesman for the Rent Cafe, tells Curbed SF this is largely because price appreciation in other neighborhoods went wild last year, increasing here a relatively modest 0.7%.</p><p>Within SF, Redwood City's 94063 was the priciest Bay Area ZIP code, doubling its 25th-place success since last year, but spending $4,129. The 94025 area of Menlo Park saw the highest rent hikes in the Bay Area relative to last year, increasing by 10.8 percent to $4,102 and marking the 29th position. Just two other ZIPs at the national level saw a larger rise than the ZIP code of Menlo Park, which can be located in Manhattan.</p><p><br></p>

United States Of America •

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21:01 14 October

San Francisco's most costly ZIP codes for homeowners

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<p>San Francisco, long one of the most technology-friendly and technology savvy cities in the world, is now the first in the United States to prohibit its government from using facial-recognition technology.</p><p>The ban is part of a broader anti-surveillance ordinance that the city's Board of Supervisors approved on Tuesday. The ordinance, which outlaws the use of facial-recognition technology by police and other government departments, could also spur other local city governments to take some action. Eight of the board's 11 supervisors voted in favor of it; 1 voted against it, and two who support it were absent.</p><p>Face-recognition devices are rapidly being used anywhere from police departments to rock concerts and homes, supermarkets and schools They are designed to identify specific people from live video streams, video footage or still images, often by matching their features to a series of faces (such as mug shots).</p><p>A new rule of San Francisco's, which is set to go into effect in a month, forbids the use of face-recognition technology by the city's 53 departments — including the San Francisco Police Department, which doesn't currently use such technology but did test it out among between 2013 and 2017. However, the ordinance carves out an exception for federally controlled facilities at San Francisco International Airport and the Port of San Francisco. The ordinance does not prohibit businesses or residents from using face recognition or surveillance technology in general — such as on their own security cameras. And it also does not do anything to limit police from, say, using footage from a person's Nest camera to assist in a criminal case.</p><p>"We all encourage good policing but none of us want to live in a police state," San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who introduced the bill earlier this year, told CNN Business ahead of the vote.</p><p><br></p>

United States Of America •

San Francisco •

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20:54 14 October

San Francisco has just banned facial-recognition technology

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<p>The days of carrying a plastic bottle of water to stay hydrated during a long flight will soon be over for people flying out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).</p><p>The airport, which prohibited the sale of single-use plastic straws when the City Law went into effect in July, is now prohibiting grocery stores, cafes and vending machines from distributing plastic bottles of water. Only water in glass recycled aluminum and approved compostable materials can be sold from August 20.</p><p>The change is a part of SFO’s 5-year strategic plan. Launched in 2016, the plan includes SFO becoming a zero “waste-to-landfill” facility by 2021, as stated on its website.</p><p>According to SFO, per airport guest creates half a pound of trash In an effort to reduce waste, the airport is limiting the use of single-use food accessories such as napkins, coffee cups, and chopsticks. In contrast to plastics, SFO bans items with "unsubstantiated claims" about their sustainability Water bottles with messages like "environmentally friendly" or "bio-based" will have to be certified by the Biodegradable Plastics Institute (BPI) before they are sold.</p><p>Before the plastic bottle ban was announced, the airport installed almost a hundred water-bottle filling stations and mandated that restaurants only give customers single-use accessories such as condiment packets upon request instead of with each purchase. </p><p>"We're waiting until now because a few years ago, there was no market in place to provide an alternative to plastic bottled water," said Doug Yakel, SFO's public information officer, in an interview.</p><p>The new policy of SFO comes in amid an international assessment of the recycling industry's problems.</p><p>In June of this year, a Guardian investigation revealed that only 9 percent of the plastic that Americans send to recycling plants actually gets recycled. This is because US recycling plants do not accept things like unwashed plastics and plastic bottles that still have the lid on them. Most cheap plastics like water bottles and milk cartons go to landfills or incinerators or are shipped to other countries to be processed.</p><p><br></p>

United States Of America •

San Francisco •

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20:46 14 October

San Francisco Airport declares a ban on the sale of plastic bottles of water

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