Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Ridge Request
Consider volunteering at the 12th annual Ridge Trail Day on Saturday, November 2 and help build, repair, and improve the eventual 550-mile project at one of 16 sites, including Marin County’s Tennessee Valley and San Jose’s Alum Rock Park. Volunteers will give trails some TLC by repairing trail tread, building drainage features, picking up litter, and improving trailside habitats. The locations, descriptions, and hours for each project are listed here. Registration is required — and don’t forget the rules of the trail while you’re out there.
Say Watt?
Some industries are making sustainability strides, but most California buildings continue to burn natural gas, accounting for nearly 12 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Electrifying buildings is a solution cities like San Jose are acting upon. But what exactly does electrification entail? SPUR intends to spark answers during an October 24, 12:30 p.m. discussion, “Watt Will It Take for Building Electrification?” at the advocacy group’s San Francisco Urban Center. Click here to plug into the list of speakers (including Building Decarbonization Coalition Director Panama Bartholomy, pictured) who will discuss electrification impacts on health, economy, and the power grid. The event is $10, or free if you’re a SPUR member.
Come on in, the Water Survey’s Fine
The Alameda County Water District would like feedback about customers’ conservation efforts for its water efficiency master plan. Responses to the survey, which contains several questions about water usage and drought, will help the district pinpoint strategies to meet long-term water use and efficiency goals. Take the brief survey and then read Robin Meadows’ Monitor article from 2014 — during one of the state’s worst-ever droughts — about cultivating a water conservation culture. Have you made any of these changes?
Scooter Over
As SFMTA’s new Powered Scooter Share Permit Program launched this week, Jump, Lime, and Spin are now deploying 500 electronic scooters apiece on San Francisco streets, while incumbent Scoot will have up to 1,000 scooters, down from 1,250 under an earlier permit. Scoot is in “good standing,” SFMTA said. But scooter fleet size was debated ahead of this week’s rollout, given safety and other concerns. To accommodate the total fleet, more racks are coming, with each operator paying $75 per scooter for installation. The permitting program also includes a rigorous complaint tracking process. Learn more about the operators’ role, when fleet size will jump again this year, and what the public can do when they see bad scooter behavior.
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