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CBS News
6 days ago
- General
- CBS News
San Francisco dog owners urged to stay alert amid coyote pupping season
It's coyote pupping season, and this is the time of year people may encounter more confrontations with them. Those at Golden Gate Park recently noticed park rangers educating dog owners about an incident over the past weekend. Howling coyotes at Golden Gate Park near Lindley Meadows, a popular spot where dog owners walk and play with their pups. Brandon Hartstein and his dog Oden encountered a pack of coyotes in the area about a year ago. "We were walking on a trail that's not too popular and all of a sudden, three coyotes just appeared and started kind of stalking us," said Hartstein. Similar stories of coyote encounters are surfacing this year. Lauren Roche watched her dog get chased by coyotes. "She was running along the grassy area and I was running in the path that doesn't have cars, and there were two coyotes that started chasing after her," said Roche. "And I look over, wow, they're going so fast, and it was two coyotes chasing after her. Luckily, she was fast enough to outrun them, and I called her back over and they ended up going away." Signs like these are posted in Golden Gate Park to warn people about these potential run-ins with coyotes. Experts say coyotes are just protective during pupping season and are not displaying unprovoked aggression. They say the best thing to do is to shorten the leash and walk in the other direction. Something Hartstein tried to do. "We kept on walking away," said Hartstein. "I was making loud sounds trying to scare them off, and eventually we started running. Luckily, a biker came by and I flagged him down and he helped to chase them off." Some dog owners have noticed coyotes getting bolder and becoming used to humans in their territory. They say with these canines all over the Bay Area, the key is to limit conflicts and coexist with each other. "I just kind of try to adjust my way of living because it's part of where they live," said Roche. "I wouldn't have to adjust for someone coming into my home."
New York Times
27-05-2025
- New York Times
This California Highway Is Now a Park. The Cars Are Gone, but Not the Anger.
A couple in matching Rollerblades canoodled in a hammock at the western edge of San Francisco. The sun was warm. The vibe was cool. The office most certainly did not beckon, though it was 3:15 p.m. on a Monday. 'You can say this is my lunch break,' said Ryan LaBerge, 52, who works in sales when he isn't canoodling. This is Sunset Dunes, San Francisco's newest park, where people lounge, ride their bikes or scurry in their wet suits to surf in the Pacific. But there is trouble in this paradise. The park sits on a road. In California, people really love their parks. They also really love their cars. Here, these devotions have collided, setting off a heated clash over what some people call San Francisco's 'war on cars' that has prompted a recall campaign, a lawsuit and threats of an effort to undo the new park entirely. The transformation of part of a road into the largest pedestrian project of its kind in California history is the latest move by the city to dismantle highways in favor of parks and plazas. There was the tear-down of the Embarcadero Freeway after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged it. There was the removal of a damaged freeway off-ramp that became Patricia's Green, a popular art-dotted park in Hayes Valley. There was the banning of cars from John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park during the pandemic, opening it up to roller skaters, joggers and toddlers learning to ride bikes. Each time, there was some vociferous objection, followed by acceptance, but it's unclear what the outcome will be from the battle over Sunset Dunes. 'Change is hard,' said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Recreation and Parks Department. 'But these are some of the best things we've done from an urban planning perspective.' For 96 years, this two-mile stretch running alongside Ocean Beach was known as the Great Highway. At first, it was the road to Playland-at-the-Beach, a long-gone amusement park, and then became popular among 1950s hot-rod racers and surfers. In the spring of 2020, during the pandemic lockdown, the city closed it to cars to give people space to exercise while remaining socially distanced. As the pandemic eased and people returned to school and work, the city struck a compromise: Drivers claimed it on weekdays while exercisers got it on weekends. That arrangement was set to expire this year. Drought and wind meant more sand blowing onto the road, requiring sporadic closures and expensive cleanups. The southern extension of the road was already closed because it's crumbling into the ocean. With all that in mind, five members of the Board of Supervisors placed a measure on the November ballot to close the road to cars always and forever. Nearly 55 percent of voters approved it, but a striking divide was clear. Those who lived farther from the road supported closing it to cars because of the appeal of an oceanfront park, while those who lived closer and drove on it to access everyday places like jobs and schools did not. Sensing this rift, Mr. Ginsburg with the parks department adopted a strategy foreign to City Hall. He moved quickly. San Francisco is a place known for bureaucracy and red tape. One public toilet was famously slated to cost $1.7 million and take two to three years to install. Mr. Ginsburg decided building the park as quickly and inexpensively as possible would get people near and far to more eagerly support it. 'We had a good plan, and we actually executed it really well,' he said, adding, 'Bada-bing, bada-boom! It's a far cry from the toilet.' The city closed the road to cars on March 14. It still looks like a road — with two paved lanes going in each direction, still marked by white paint, still separated by most of a median. But workers dismantled the traffic lights and hauled them away. They jackhammered a small part of the median to make way for exercise equipment. They held a naming contest and received 4,000 entries, including the Tan Line, Sandy Bottom and Karl's Corner. (For the uninitiated, an anonymous Twitter account in 2010 introduced itself as Karl the Fog, claiming to be San Francisco's well-known weather system. The name stuck, and was even once a question on 'Jeopardy!') Volunteers helped install benches, a climbing structure shaped like an octopus and a pump track on which to ride bicycles. Private donors paid artists to paint murals. The entire endeavor cost roughly $1 million, split about evenly between city and private funds. Sunset Dunes was dedicated April 12, and the park's first month saw 150,000 visitors, measured by cellphone pings and sensors placed along the road. On weekends, 7,800 people have visited each day. During the week, 3,400 people have visited daily. The numbers make it San Francisco's third-most popular park on weekdays, behind JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park and the Marina Green on the northern waterfront. At first, Sunset Dunes was in the third-place spot on both weekdays and weekends, even beating out Dolores Park, a palm-tree-studded expanse in the heart of the city's Mission District that heaves with people on sunny days. But it slipped after Easter Sunday, when Dolores Park hosted its annual Hunky Jesus contest, where men long on hair and short on clothing vie for the crown before giant crowds. Small businesses near Ocean Beach are reporting increased revenue since Sunset Dunes opened. Kathryn Grantham, owner of Black Bird Bookstore, a couple of blocks from the ocean, said her sales are up 35 percent. The Outer Sunset, never a must-see neighborhood for tourists like the Castro or Haight-Ashbury, is booming, she said. 'It feels like, 'Oh gosh, we've been discovered.'' Lauren Crabbe, the chief executive of the popular local coffee chain Andytown, said sales at her shop near the beach are up 20 percent since the park opened. She added that she loves the new park, but not the heated neighborhood conflict it has caused. 'There is certainly part of the neighborhood that is grieving the road,' she said. Some of those park critics walked into City Hall on Thursday, carrying cardboard boxes filled with what they said were about 11,000 signatures of Sunset District residents seeking to recall their supervisor, Joel Engardio, who spearheaded the ballot measure that created the park. If the Department of Elections determines 9,911 of those signatures are valid, a special election will be held within three months. A preliminary count pointed to the likelihood the recall will take place. In a twist of fate, Mr. Engardio won his seat representing the moderate Sunset District in large part because he backed the successful 2022 recalls of the far-left San Francisco school board and district attorney. But now those same voters could recall him because he helped close the highway on which they relied. Selena Chu, a social worker who lives in the Sunset, said she worked on the campaign to elect Mr. Engardio and used to consider him a friend. Now, she said, she considers him a traitor. 'He acted against the very people who elected him,' she said. 'He broke the public trust.' Alyse Ceirante, a Sunset District resident and recall proponent, said it does not make sense to make it harder for families to get to their jobs and schools to make way for art, a word she uttered while forming air quotes. 'This whole city is anti-car,' she said. 'We've had enough.' If the recall of Mr. Engardio is successful, Mayor Daniel Lurie would name his replacement, but Sunset Dunes itself would not be affected, and the Great Highway would not return. Meanwhile, other park opponents filed a lawsuit against the city, seeking to revert the road back to cars, and a hearing is scheduled June 2. Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond District just north of the Sunset District, has said that if the recall of Mr. Engardio qualifies, she will try to add a citywide measure to the same ballot to undo Sunset Dunes. She did not return requests for comment. Mr. Engardio said whatever happens, he is glad he helped create the park. He takes long runs there and said he and his husband have agreed they will spend much of their retirement at the park, a retirement his detractors hope comes soon. 'How can anyone be against this joyful experience?' he asked. 'What is there to be mad about?' In the battles over work versus leisure, road versus park, car versus pedestrian, it was no surprise which side Mr. LaBerge, the Rollerblader in the hammock, was on. 'Driving it was great,' he said, 'but having it like this is the coolest thing in history.'
CBS News
27-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
WWI memorial, Heroes Grove, in Golden Gate Park gets new attention thanks to San Francisco man
SAN FRANCISCO — Nestled among towering redwoods in Golden Gate Park lies a quiet memorial few people knew about — until now. Known as Heroes Grove, the site commemorates the men and women of San Francisco who died in World War I. The granite monument has stood in the grove since 1932, but it was only recently that Ken Maley's years of effort brought new visibility to this historical landmark. "It's almost like a living cathedral," Maley said. The memorial grove was dedicated in 1919, just three days after Memorial Day, but for over a century, most passersby had little understanding of its significance. Dozens of people walk past it daily, just steps from JFK Promenade, unaware of the story behind the granite monument. Maley, now 80, was determined to change that. "I thought this place has been here for 100 years, and no one since 1919 had any idea what it was or why it was here, and that was my motivation," he explained. "I'm 80, and I think it's really something to leave behind." In 2019, Maley and the Veterans Commemorative Committee installed the first boulder inscribed with the words "Heroes Grove" near the memorial. Then last week, he oversaw the installation of a second boulder, this time at the entrance to the Rose Garden, effectively bookending the grove. To further enhance public understanding, Maley collaborated with the city's Recreation and Parks Department to add QR codes to both boulders. Scanning these codes takes visitors to the department's website with more information about the history of the memorial. "I heard people say, 'Oh, it's called Heroes Grove,' or 'I found the QR code, I never knew about it,'" Maley said. "I'm hopeful lots of people will do it. I'd be happy if Rec and Park told me, 'I'm sorry, it crashed, too many people.'" The new markers are already resonating with locals and veterans alike. Paul Whitehouse, a U.S. Army veteran who served during Operation Desert Storm, stops by Heroes Grove every Memorial Day and Veterans Day to honor those lost to war. "I'd love to be able to come out here one time before I die and say, 'Well, we solved it, and everything we fought for, we solved it, and no one has to do what you guys did,'" he said. Whitehouse appreciates the renewed attention to the memorial. "It's nice to see that they were appreciated, their memory is appreciated. They're from here. It's nice to know someone else around here decided to make sure they're remembered, not just on some little rock in the woods," he said. On Memorial Day, Maley read the names of 748 men and 13 women from San Francisco who died in World War I, a powerful tribute to their service and sacrifice. "These must have been brothers, you know, two brothers went off to the war and, you know, here we are," he reflected. Though Maley never served in the military — His draft number was never selected — he views this effort as a small act of service. His dedication to Heroes Grove has made it easier for San Franciscans to honor the memories of those who gave their lives in service of their country
Motor 1
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
This City Added Speed Cameras. Now, They're Issuing 30,000 Tickets a Month
Last year, San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) voted to install 33 cameras at high-risk intersections across the city beginning in late April. Those cameras issued more than 30,000 warnings in their first month of operation—that's more than 1,000 warnings per day, and the final 11 cameras aren't even up and running yet. According to SF MTA, the first batch of 22 cameras was launched on March 20th, 2024, in response to a new state law that allowed such changes. Walking advocacy groups, among others, had petitioned for the installation on the grounds of pedestrian safety. Photo by: Getty Images The San Francisco Chronicle said the cameras were placed in areas with a history of speeding and crashes. These areas included school zones and commercial corridors, with the cameras snatching plate photos of vehicles traveling at least 11 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Nearly half the warnings were issued from cameras at the border of Golden Gate Park, which will likely be the stretch of road most familiar to us outsiders, and those cameras didn't come online until April 22, data from SFMTA said. However, San Francisco's camera program is still in its trial phase, meaning these "tickets" issued by the cameras are just warnings for now, aimed at lowering the overall speed in these high-risk areas. But that's about to change once the program is fully implemented. Photo by: Getty Images Those traveling 11-15 mph over the limit are fined $50 according to California state law, with the price increasing to $500 for any vehicle traveling 100 mph or more. (Frankly, that seems a bit low for getting caught doing a buck anywhere in San Francisco's congested tangle of streets). Given the staggering number of tickets handed out during the trial phase of this camera rollout, we'd guess drivers will learn to curb their speeds in these areas. But it's definitely one lesson to keep in your back pocket: Slow down in San Francisco. Don't Speed Which States Have 80 MPH Speed Limits In 2025? Another State Joins the 80-MPH Speed Limit Club Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily. back Sign up For more information, read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use . Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency via San Francisco Chronicle Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
New York Times
19-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
The Coyotes of San Francisco
They walk along busy San Francisco streets. In Chinatown plazas. Across the paths of Muni buses. One was found dozing in a laundromat. Coyotes can sometimes be seen roaming in cities around the country, including Chicago and New York. But in San Francisco, they have become ubiquitous, and the tension between humans and coyotes is growing. Some people adore them, and coyote mania has seeped into the city's quirky culture. Others despise them and have called for their eradication, especially after one lunged at children and killed small dogs. Many people simply wonder where they all came from in the first place. Dozens of coyotes live in San Francisco, with small packs controlling specific territories like mob families. Golden Gate Park is home to two clans, with the 19th Avenue thoroughfare apparently serving as their dividing line. Other coyotes lay claim to parks, canyons, hills and golf courses that dot the urban landscape. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said a coyote had settled into the backyard of his mansion and lounged on his patio furniture. Brock Purdy, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, was filming a John Deere commercial in the city last year when he spotted a woman walking with her child and dog, unaware that a coyote was trailing them. 'I screamed, 'Yo, there is a coyote!'' Mr. Purdy recalled later on ESPN. 'That thing went running off.' How Did They Return? It was not always like this. Coyotes are native to California and were widespread in San Francisco in the early 1900s, but local residents considered them a part of the Wild West that needed to be removed. They vanished after a government-sponsored campaign that encouraged residents to poison or shoot the animals. More than 75 years passed before coyotes re-emerged in the city in the early 2000s. It is unclear how or why they returned, but blood samples point to a fascinating theory. San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, so one might assume that the coyotes returned through the fourth side, by way of the southern hills that run down the spine of the peninsula toward Silicon Valley. But scientists found that the DNA of the first arrivals did not match that of coyotes to the south. Instead, it matched the DNA of coyotes found to the north, beyond the strait and bay that separate the city from Marin County. 'Did they walk over the Golden Gate Bridge?' asked Christine Wilkinson, a carnivore ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 'That's my top theory.' Once the first coyotes returned to the city, she said, they probably howled to attract others to follow. 'Coyotes will be where they want to be,' Ms. Wilkinson said. Their numbers in the city reached about 100, or roughly two per square mile, several years ago and have held steady since. People began to notice them more often during the pandemic lockdown, and suddenly, it seemed as though the coyotes were everywhere. The animals are depicted in several murals around the city. The San Francisco Standard, a local news site, included coyotes alongside Stephen Curry and Mark Zuckerberg in its new list of the city's power players. Janet Kessler, a self-taught advocate known as 'the Coyote Lady,' regularly gives talks about the animals to packed audiences at local libraries, and she is convinced that most San Franciscans are awed by the creatures. 'I talk to a lot of people in the parks,' she said, 'and 95 percent are thrilled at seeing the coyotes.' But the coyotes' encroachment on city living has angered some residents. At a summer camp held near a coyote den in Golden Gate Park last year, an animal bit a 5-year-old on her backside, forcing her to get stitches. In response, federal agents shot three coyotes in one family there. Elsewhere, some neighbors were furious when athletic fields and a dog park temporarily closed because coyotes were roaming on them. But the most outrage came from people at Crissy Field, a popular bayside beach and park, who made up to 10 reports a day of a very aggressive coyote. On the Hunt On an unusually warm night in October, a small crew of scientists and federal agents stood at San Francisco's northern edge, straining to find their target. The Golden Gate Bridge stood to their left. Alcatraz to their right. Carrying a .22 rifle with a silencer and peering through thermal scopes and binoculars, the agents eyed raccoons foraging in the marsh, geese migrating across the bay and barn owls flying over Crissy Field. The team's mark, however, remained elusive. They were after a male coyote, a yearling who had grown far too bold. He had killed at least three small dogs and lunged at children on a school outing. The hunters were determined to make this night his last, but the apex predator had other ideas. Generally speaking, the problem, scientists say, is not the coyotes of San Francisco. It is the humans. Fishermen leave bait on piers, and picnickers leave scraps in parks. Trash cans spill over with detritus that the coyotes relish. Over time, the coyotes have come to associate humans with food. Another problem, scientists say, is that people let their small dogs off leash even in known coyote territory. Christopher Schell, an assistant professor and urban ecologist who runs a lab studying city-dwelling carnivores at the University of California, Berkeley, said that San Francisco would be far worse off without coyotes. 'They keep the rest of the ecosystem in check,' he said. Without them, rats and the diseases they carry would surge, Dr. Schell said. They also help control the feral cat population, protecting birds, reptiles and insects. But coexisting can be difficult. San Francisco's Animal Care and Control was besieged with calls about the dangerous encounters with the problematic Crissy Field animal. That coyote still haunts Michelle Sheppard, a longtime city resident and nurse at the University of California, San Francisco. She was walking Poseidon, her eight-pound puppy, in late September. She let him roam free at the beach, where off-leash dogs are allowed, but made sure he was close by. 'All of a sudden I hear a yelp. I turned around, and a coyote had him in his mouth,' she recalled. 'I was screaming like a crazy lady,' she said. ''A coyote just took my dog!'' She dashed after the coyote and finally caught up to him. It was far too late. Poseidon died soon after. 'It's Not the Coyote's Fault' Back on that October night, the hunters' goal was to kill the dangerous coyote and then preserve his brain to determine whether he had suffered from any diseases that might have explained his aggression. Killing small dogs was considered normal behavior for coyotes, but when this animal lunged at children, local and federal agencies agreed he must be shot. After searching for two nights, they finally found him in their scopes. A federal agent hoisted a rifle, aimed for the coyote's heart and fired. The bullet struck his lung. The coyote darted off, wounded. The team looked for him for hours until they detected heat amid trees in a nearby forest. He had finally died, a year and a half after he was born in a thicket at the Presidio Golf Course. Phoebe Parker-Shames, a wildlife ecologist who joined the hunters both nights, said she saw the killing as a failure of the public to be good stewards of the land and of the government to better educate people about living with coyotes. Many residents overreact to the normal behavior of 'escorting' — steering humans away from dens with pups inside. Debates have become heated on social media. Since the October killing, reports of aggressive interactions between coyotes and dogs at Crissy Field have waned. Ms. Parker-Shames and other Presidio workers gathered at the beach for a memorial service for the coyote. She read a poem. A gardener sang an old country song called 'Coyotes,' in which the chorus consists of coyotes yipping. The group spread flowers. Ms. Parker-Shames intended to send the coyote's body to a lab for a necropsy, but coordination with the lab has been delayed because of President Trump's firings of federal workers in the National Park Service. The corpse remains in a plastic bag in a basement freezer. She removed the body on a recent day to pick whiskers and an ear snip for research. 'It was hard for all of us because it's not the coyote's fault,' she said, wiping away tears. She placed the body back in the freezer. 'Night, night,' she whispered. Coyotes sometimes compensate for death by reproducing more the following year, Ms. Parker-Shames explained. Seven new pups were born at the Presidio golf course last month, all siblings of the slain coyote.
