Looks as if we got our weekly Tuesday Noon Siren Test in early when some of San Francisco’s emergency sirens went off today at 3:45PM to … mark the end of Sunday Streets Chinatown?
“A siren from San Francisco’s Outdoor Public Warning System sounded at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday, but a City Twitter account stated that the siren was activated accidentally.”
Has it been only three years since the Cosco Busan, the leakiest 2001 Hyundai ever, spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel* into the bay? Seems longer.
Anyway, turns out that a dude who supposed to be up front looking out for stuff in the pea soup fog was downstairs in the galley eating breakfast. I did not know that, no sir. Of course, the idea to depart on sked despite the fog came from the bar pilot, so that’s the person who’s primarily responsible. But there still plenty of blame to go around. Deets below.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the following probable causes of the accident:
- the pilot’s degraded cognitive performance from his use of prescription medications, despite his completely clean post accident drug test,
- the absence of a comprehensive pre-departure master/pilot exchange and a lack of effective communication between Pilot John Cota and Master Mao Cai Sun during the accident voyage, and
- (COSCO Busan Master) Sun’s ineffective oversight of Cota’s piloting performance and the vessel’s progress.
Other contributing factors included:
- the failure of Fleet Management Ltd. to train the COSCO Busan crewmembers (which led to such acts of gross negligence as the bow lookout eating breakfast in the galley instead of being on watch) and Fleet Management’s failure to ensure that the crew understood and complied with the company’s safety management system;
- the failure of Caltrans to maintain foghorns on the bridge which were silent despite the heavy fog;
- the failure of Vessel Traffic Safety (VTS) to alert Cota and Sun that they were headed for the tower. VTS is legally required to alert a vessel if an accident appears imminent, yet they remained silent;
- the malfunctioning radar on the COSCO Busan, which led Captains Cota and Sun to use an electronic chart for the rest of the voyage. Although Coast Guard investigators found the radar to be in working order, they did not examine it until days after the accident (allowing time for faulty equipment to be fixed, which is not uncommon after a marine accident)
- Captain Sun’s incorrect identification of symbols on the electronic chart;
- the U.S. Coast Guard’s failure to provide adequate medical oversight of Cota, in view of the medical and medication information he had reported to the Coast Guard
Happy Anniversary, Cosco Busan, or should I say MSC Venezia? Don’t ever come back.
The patched-up ship finally hits the road, back in aught-seven – this was the last time we’ll ever see the Cosco Busan in the Bay Area, most likely:
*Yeah, Wiki is still wrong on that gallonage figure, partly due to the U.S. Coast Guard sitting on information for months and months ’cause they didn’t want to earn themselves any more bad press.
And all the while, the honking yellow Hummer of Main Contractor Synergy Project Management was discretely parked across the street, as discretely as possible given that it’s a honking yellow Hummer:
Here’s the news from the boys and girls at Justice, below.
Patched up and riding high – the last time we saw theCosco Busan back in 2007. Will it ever come back? She’s called the MSC Venezia these days, currently working in the Canaries.
Oh well, she’s not the first Hyundai to leak oil into San Francsico Bay, and she won’t be the last.
Interested Arizonians (or just anybody, I s’pose) should regularly monitor Yelp.com/jobs to get in on the action before the madding crowd. Read all the deets below, if you want to hear the Arizona Department of Commerce and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council crowing over their win.
Scottsdale Mayor W.J. “Jim” Lane just drank our milkshake, all the way from the 480. Drank it up! Why? It must have something to do with the Bay Area lacking a “strong infrastructure and an educated talent pool of potential employees.” Read CEO Jeremy Stoppelman’s full quote below. And while you’re at it, feel free to read between the lines. Granted, Yelpers in San Francisco will soon have a little more elbow room, but it’s difficult to see today’s news as something other than a big dis to SF and the bay area.
Let’s remember the good times, back in aught-five when most Yelpers worked in town. Via Yelp.com:
Another from Yelp.com‘s infamous 2005 XXX-mas party:
Yelp, the community-led local search site, today announced it is opening an office in Scottsdale, Arizona, as it increases hiring to support the company’s U.S. and international expansion.
The San Francisco-based technology company plans to hire more than 200 people this year for the office, which will be located in the Scottsdale Corporate Galleria, and is looking to fill positions across numerous departments, in particular sales and account management.
Yelp, which connects consumers with great local businesses through user-written reviews and ratings on its site, has seen rapid growth in recent years. More than 29 million people used the site last month and review content has doubled in the last year to more than 9 million. Started in San Francisco in 2004, Yelp is available throughout the U.S. and Canada, and expanded to the U.K. and Ireland last year.
“Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix area have a vibrant and growing Yelp community,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO and co-founder of Yelp. “The region is also a great place to locate a technology business, having a strong infrastructure and an educated talent pool of potential employees. We are excited to make Scottsdale home to our third Yelp office and the hundreds of future Yelp employees who will live, work and play in this great area.”
Our three-term City AttorneyDennis J. Herrera has just released the news about how San Francisco recently won a little compensation to pay for all the extra work it’s doing to bring poorly-ratedCitiApartments / Skyline Realty* to justice. Keep in mind that these penalties are not to punish (’cause that part will come later). No, no, this $50K is just to pay us back for the extra expenses we recently incurred due to relentless foot-dragging from the infamous Lembi Familyet alia.
Poor Judge Munter had to spend half of the hearing deciding how to divvy up the penalties among all the interrelated defendants. Oh well.
San Francisco’s Happy Warrior: His middle name is Jose, his son speaks Mandarin Chinese and he’s been working on gay legal issues for donkey’s years, at least since the 1990′s - do you think all that might help him if he decides to run for Mayor in 2011?
Pwned:
Herrera wins Court sanctions against CitiApartments for “obfuscation, delay.” Landlords’ defiance in the face of City Attorney’s ‘Herculean efforts’ triggers order to cooperate with discovery, pay $50K sanction
SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 2, 2010) — City Attorney Dennis Herrera has won Court-ordered sanctions against a labyrinthine web of defendants involved in the operation of CitiApartments and Skyline Realty, the residential property management and investment behemoth Herrera first sued in 2006 for its stunning array of unlawful business practices. The order, which was signed by San Francisco Superior Court Judge John E. Munter last month and obtained this morning, compels each of the two-dozen corporate, trust and individual defendants currently named in the suit to respond to discovery requests in compliance with rules of civil procedure, and to pay sanctions to the City totaling $50,129.50, which reflects San Francisco’s fees and costs to pursue its motion to compel. Munter’s order requires all of the defendants to comply with the order by Feb. 19, 2010.
“CitiApartments deserved to be sanctioned for its continued defiance in this case, and I’m gratified to Judge Munter for calling these tactics exactly what they are — ‘obfuscation, delay and meritless objections,’” said Herrera. “I hope this sanction sends a message to Frank Lembi, Walter Lembi and all of the defendants responsible for CitiApartments’ lawless conduct that there is a limit to judicial patience, and they’ve reached it. This has been a long, difficult case to address what is perhaps the most egregious corruption of San Francisco’s residential housing market in modern history. We remain committed to pursuing this case aggressively, and I hope these sanctions are a tipping point that hastens our progress toward a just outcome.”
All the gritty nitty, after the jump.
*Let me tell you something here, whenever you’re paying your monthly rent to “LSL Property Holdings II DE LLC” or something, don’t be surprised when you have trouble getting your deposit back. This case is a morass. Anywho, your defendants:
“Skyline Realty Inc., Citiapartments Inc., Citi Funding Group Inc., Citisuites LLC, Lembi Group Inc., Lembi Group Partners LLC, Urban Property Management, Inc., Citiwide Rentals, Inc., Frank Lembi, Walter Lembi, David Raynal, Taylor Lembi, Frank Lembi As Trustee Of The Frank E. Lembi Survivor’s Trust Dated February 17, 1984, As Restated On June 2, 1999, Frank Lembi, As Trustee Of The Olga Lembi Residual Trust Created Under The Provisions Of Part Three Of The Lembi Family Trust Dated February 17, 1984, Walter Lembi, As Trustee Of The Walter And Linda Lembi Family Trust Dated June 30, 2004, David Raynal, As Trustee Of The David M. Raynal Revocable Trust Dated May 9, 2002, 737 Pine DE LLC, 737 Pine B10 DE LLC, 737 Pine B10 Mezz DE LLC, 1155 LLC, Gaylord Hotel LLC, LSL Properties B14 DE LLC, LSL Property Holdings II DE LLC, LSL Property Holdings II Mezz LLC, Nob Hill Tower DE LLC, Nob Hill Tower Mezz DE LLC, Prime Apartment Properties LLC, Prime Apartment Properties B10 DE LLC, Prime Apartment Properties B10 Mezz DE LLC, Trophy Properties B10 DE LLC, Trophy Properties IV DE LLC, Trophy Properties IV B8A LLC, Trophy Properties IV Mezz DE LLC, Trophy Properties V LLC, Trophy Properties V DE LLC, Trophy Properties VI LLC, Trophy Properties IV B8A Manager LLC.”
Why did this eatery close down without warning? Well, the manager (and management in general) didn’t want to say. But now, we have a statement from Chevy’s. See?
Click to expand:
Their “lease expired.” Simple, right?
But that seems a little funny. (Of course, I’m not in the restaurant biz so I don’t know.) You’d think they’d have been able to give the workers more notice if this was just a matter of losing a lease.
(And you know, actually, I’d imagine that Boston Properties (or whomever you talk to when you want to strike a bargain on cheaper rent at Embarcadero Center) would be looking to make a sweet deal, based upon the low level of occupancy they have these days…)
Maybe Chevys’ management figured they’d be closing this store a month or two ago, but they kept this info a secret from the workers?
(When Warren Simmons, Sr. and his son Warren “Scooter” Simmons, Jr. started up the first Chevys (no apostrophe, please) in Alameda back in 1987, did they think that this was they way it was going to be? Oh well.)
