BEAT STAFF REPORT

San Francisco’s elusive Mayor is back — in his digital form. He sent out this tweet on his Twitter account at around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after a nearly 13-day hiatus from the website.

That’s really strange for a guy who’s known to sent out tweets like crazy — even when he’s rushing to the maternity ward to see his firstborn.

As you may have heard, in those past 13 days, Gavin Newsom dropped out of the 2010 Gubernatorial race, jetted off to Hawaii unannounced, and hasn’t been spotted by news cameras for 11 days now.

He came back last Friday, and has reportedly been hard at work trying to negotiate a contract settlement betweet Hyatt hotel workers and management. We’re told he was also at Sunday’s Veteran’s Day parade in the city.

But when the Mayor does get a quiet moment, might we suggest updating his Twitter page about the Gubernatorial run? It sends mixed messages.

Just sayin’

E-mail the Beat at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By WENDY STEWART
Beat Staff Writer

A Hayward man in his 50s hauling a container of Asian pears across the upper deck of the Bay Bridge during the early morning hours Monday became the first fatality stemming from the troublesome bypass curve installed over the Labor Day weekend.

Official and witness accounts of how the man died are horrific.

Drivers in other cars crossing the bridge at 3:30 a.m. say that the big-rig driver was speeding in the far right lane and hit the S-curve too fast. He skidded against the cement K-rail barrier for a while until the Asian pears he was carrying in the container section of the truck shifted from one side to the other.

The shift caused the big-rig to topple over the cement barrier and off the bridge, the California Highway Patrol said.

The truck plunged 200 feet to Yerba Buena Island below where the impact eviscerated the truck and ignited a brief fire that was put out before San Francisco Fire crews got on scene. First responders found the pulverized big rig pointing in the opposite direction from the way it was travelling.

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The CHP said it’s likely that the steep fall caused the truck to twist and turn while it was in the air.

The driver of the truck, whose name has not yet been released, died on impact.

Monday morning’s fatal collision marked the 43rd accident reported on the new S-curve section of the bridge since it opened to through traffic after Labor Day — when construction crews chiseled out an old, straight portion of the bridge and slid in a connector piece that diverted traffic around construction for the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

The collision was also the first instance where someone died because of the sudden twist in the bridge road-deck.

Caltrans says that in all 43 incidents, speed was the factor that likely caused the collisions.

The posted speed limit for the span is 50 miles per hour, but at the S-curve, the speed dips to 40 miles per hour — a drop needed to safely negotiate the bend.

But while additional safety mechanisms — like radar-equipped signage, better reflector strips and additional warning signs — were promised in the wake of yesterday’s fatal crash and another high-profile big-rig collision along the S-curve, critics are asking just how safe the S-curve is for motorists.

They’re questioning everything from the design of the curve, why additional safety mechanisms weren’t put into place when the S-curve was put into service, and the height of the cement K-rail that didn’t keep Monday’s big-rig from toppling off the bridge.

Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a civil engineering professor at UC Berkeley, tells KPIX-TV that he’s never seen a bridge with such a sharp turn in the middle of it.

And such a diversion can create hazardous driving conditions when motorists are used to zipping across the bridge at 50 miles per hour from end to end.

Just one look at the upper deck of the bridge at the S-curve shows evidence of drivers still doing that, paying little attention to the reduced speed limit.

Motorists who cross the bridge on a daily basis point to the abundant skid marks over the S-curve’s sleek white concrete pavement indicating that drivers are screeching through the section at high speeds, often losing control and swerving into other lanes.

Officials at Caltrans said Monday that they believe that the bridge is safe to cross and that if drivers slow down to the 40 mile per hour posted speed limit through the S-section of the span, they’re confident that accidents can be avoided.

They noted that 16 million vehicles passed through the S-curve section since it opened, and of those trips, only 43 accidents have taken place.

They acknowledged the loss of life from Monday’s big-rig accident and promised the safety improvements — including more signs and speed monitors — would go up soon.

For the agency, it’s been a particularly tough few weeks. First, a Safeway truck hauling groceries flipped over and blocked four of the five lanes for hours on the upper deck at the S-curve on October 15.

Then on Oct. 27, a repair to a cracked eyebar put into place over the Labor Day weekend failed amid high winds, fell onto passing cars below and prompted an unprecedented 6-day emergency closure of the bridge to fix the failed fix.

Now this.

The litany of problems has caught the attention of state lawmakers, who have already scheduled a January 12, 2010 hearing in Sacramento to discuss the safety of the bridge.

Both Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) believe that it’s no coincidence that all these accidents are happening on a specific segment of the bridge.

They want accountability, and hope to probe Caltrans and ask for answers about the troublesome S-curve and the fallen eyebar fix that nearly crushed two Canadian tourists when it came crashing onto their car while crossing the bridge.

“I think the public is frustrated,” Simitian told KCBS Radio.

E-mail Wendy Stewart at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

Sacramento // Fillmore, San Francisco

From the California Beat photography collection, Bay Area Snapshots is an occassional glimpse at daily life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

By STEVEN LUO
Beat Political Director

If there is an anti-tax mood in the electorate, it sure didn’t show in Tuesday’s elections in the Bay Area.

Of 29 tax increases and bond measures placed before the electorate in the Bay Area, 22 passed, including most measures requiring a two-thirds majority.

The popularity of measures asking voters to tax others might not have been surprising. Measures to increase taxes on hotel stays in Brisbane, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Anselmo, San Bruno, San Mateo, and South San Francisco all passed with large majorities.

But even excluding those measures, more than two-thirds of the tax hikes, bond measures, and newly proposed taxes on the ballot — 15 of 22 — were approved by voters.

• ELECTION DAY TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates on Tuesday’s election.
• RELATED: 10th Congressional District voters elect Garamendi to House

Measures supporting schools proved popular with voters Tuesday. Parcel tax measures in the Albany Unified School District, Acalanes Union High School District, Walnut Creek School District, Lagunitas Elementary School District, and Larkspur School District were all approved, along with school facilities bond measures in the Mill Valley School District and Shoreline Unified School District.

Parcel tax and most bond measures require two-thirds approval, though school bond measures require a smaller 55% majority.

Only voters in Santa Clara County bucked the trend, with parcel tax measures in the Santa Clara Unified School District and Fremont High School District falling short of the two-thirds mark despite achieving large majorities.

Cities looking to voters to help balance their budgets received more mixed results, though even here a majority of measures — 7 of 12 — passed, with one measure still too close to call.

A measure to impose a utility users tax in Newark served as a stark reminder that every single vote counts, with the No side ahead of the Yes side by only eight votes in election night totals. Additional provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be counted and will likely decide the race.

Other utility users taxes in Cupertino, Vallejo, and Portola Valley passed with large majorities.

Voters also approved a sales tax in San Mateo and parcel taxes in Fairfax and Atherton, but rejected a sales tax intended to support emergency services in San Carlos. A San Rafael bond measure for infrastructure upgrades for emergency services achieved a large majority, but fell short of the two-thirds approval required.

New or increased business license taxes were rejected by majorities in Palo Alto and Redwood City, though voters in Emeryville did approve a business license tax on the city’s card rooms.

Experts expressed surprise at the results — voters are notoriously reluctant to tax themselves, especially in a recession.

San Jose State political science professor Larry Gerston told KCBS radio that Tuesday’s results might cause other local governments, strapped for cash and squeezed by state budget cuts, to ask voters for increased funding.

E-mail Steven Luo at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By STEVEN LUO
Beat Political Director

Voters in the 10th Congressional District have elected Democratic state Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi to the House of Representatives.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Garamendi holds 53% of the vote, with Republican opponent David Harmer trailing with 43% in totals reported by the secretary of state’s office.

Three other candidates each polled less than 2%: Jeremy Cloward of the Green Party, Jerome “Jerry” Denham of the American Independent Party, and Mary C. McIlroy of the Peace and Freedom Party.

The Garamendi victory in the district was expected, given that Democrats hold an 18-point voter registration advantage in the district and President Obama took 65% of the vote in 2008.

• ELECTION DAY TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates on Tuesday’s election.
• RELATED: By and large, Bay Area voters say yes to tax hikes
• RELATED: Garamendi, Harmer advance to runoff in 10th Congressional District special election

Indeed, Harmer’s loss by slightly more than 10 points might signify some swing against Democrats in a heavily Democratic district.

Garamendi thanked supporters at an election night event, while Harmer said that he was unlikely to run for office again, saying he was not a career politician.

The election brings to a close a race that mostly failed to capture the attention of voters.

Garamendi, who in addition to his inbuilt advantage as a Democrat in a heavily Democratic district had a significant name recognition advantage over the other candidates in the race, stressed his experience and promised to help advance Democratic initiatives in Congress.

Garamendi survived a tough primary race against two other prominent politicians from the district, who leveled accusations of “carpetbagging” against him. (Garamendi’s home lies just outside the district, and it is not required that a House representative live in the district he represents.)

Harmer, an attorney and the son of a former lieutenant governor, ran on a platform of reducing the deficit, choosing to avoid social issues which he said weren’t on the minds of voters. He consolidated local Republican backing behind him during the primary race, and managed to raise enough money to stay with Garamendi financially.

Garamendi will have to resign his lieutenant governor’s post in order to take up his new House seat. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will then name a replacement, who is likely to be a “caretaker” with no ambitions of running for office in 2010.

The 10th Congressional District, which covers parts of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties, was the seat of former representative Ellen Tauscher, a Democrat who left Congress to take a post in the State Department.

An open primary was held in the district September 1, in which no candidate drew more than 50%. The top vote-getter in each party advanced to Tuesday’s election.

E-mail Steven Luo at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By WENDY STEWART
Beat Staff Writer

What’s a canceled television series supposed to do when the host network decides not to ask for new episodes?

Kill off the cast and blow up the props.

It’s already being done for NBC’s Trauma — the ratings-starved medical drama set in San Francisco. Monday’s episode had a shuttle bus careening into an ambulance sending two of the main characters to the hospital with major injuries.

Destroyed shuttle bus: check. Pulverized ambulance: check. Almost off-ing your characters: check.

All the ingredients for a faltering show that’s on the brink being shelved into the NBC video morgue are there.

The do-not-resuscitate order for Trauma came down last week after NBC execs couldn’t take anymore dips in the show’s ratings. Fewer and fewer viewers tuned into the high-adrenaline show every week.

It was the high cost of filming (it cost something like $3 million per episode to film), and the lousy reviews that put the final nail in the coffin for the show.

Just take a look at the above photos from Trauma’s Treasure Island set for just how expensive it must be to produce this show.

We can’t imagine that destroying so many vehicles for a mid-season episode, the bus, the ambulance and a taxi, is cheap.

Especially when no one is watching.

E-mail Wendy Stewart at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By WENDY STEWART
Beat Staff Writer

The Bay Bridge — the reason for many commuters’ angst and extended travel times for the past 6 days — reopened Monday morning.

A marathon construction and inspection effort by engineers and bridge safety officials to ensure that the replacement to a failed repair for a cracked eyebar would withstand vibrations that brought down the initial fix that went into place during the Labor Day weekend passed muster Monday morning, allowing Caltrans to give the go ahead to allow vehicles back onto the 73-year old span around 9:00 a.m.

State and federal bridge inspectors spent extra time scrutinizing the installation of the replacement steel tierods and modifications to the fix for a cracked eyebar that was installed during the bridge closure on Labor Day weekend.

A setback in repair work left the bridge closed through over the weekend as repair crews furiously worked to perform inspections and stress tests.

Caltrans and contractor officials said that the failure was caused by the metal tierods in the original repair vibrating in place, causing metal fatigue — damage similar to repeatedly bending a paper clip back and forth.

• BAY BRIDGE CLOSURE TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates on the repair.
• RELATED: Caltrans’s diagram of modifications to the eyebar repair (PDF, 660 KB)
• RELATED: Bay Bridge closure creates commute nightmare
• RELATED: Day One: The Bay Area without the Bay Bridge
• RELATED: PHOTOS: Crack in structure may delay Bay Bridge reopening

High winds on the span, which create additional vibrations in the structure, may have contributed to the break.

That repair failed during Tuesday afternoon’s commute when a massive brace for the tierods along with the cabling fell onto the roadway below striking three vehicles. No one was injured in the incident, but a CHP spokesperson said someone could have been seriously injured or killed if the metal had fallen directly onto the roof of passing vehicles.

The failure of the eyebeam fixed prompted state transportation officials to shut down the bridge within hours of the parts falling onto the upper deck of the span.

The 6-day emergency closure of the bridge was unprecedented.

It stretched the Bay Area’s transportation infrastructure to its seams. Commuters crowded transbay BART trains in record droves and shattered the transit agency’s single-day ridership record after more than 442,000 trips were logged on Thursday.

Those who chose to drive endured heavy traffic that stretched for miles along alternate bridges. The Golden Gate and Hayward-San Mateo Bridges became the workhorses during the bridge closure as motorists sought a way to navigate the region without a critical main east-west transbay traffic artery.

Commute times on Bay Area roadways tripled and in some cases, quadrupled.

Another point of frustration was the elusive reopening date for the bridge.

Late Thursday, Caltrans announced that the bridge could reopen in time for the Friday morning commute only to announce during a Friday afternoon press conference that the bridge may not even be reopened for the Monday morning commute.

That didn’t sit very well with commuters who braced for the continuation of the closure. On a normal weekday, the Bay Bridge carries more than 266,000 cars.

The good news came down during an 8:30 a.m. Caltrans press conference when it was announced that the bridge passed inspections and would reopen by 9:00 a.m.

The first cars were escorted by CHP cruisers across the upper deck of the span in a procession-like parade of motorists traveling 25 MPH across the bridge.

Eastbound cars began crossing the bridge at around 9:10 a.m.

Many motorists were seen giving thumbs up as they crossed the bridge, signaling a respite from the emergency repair work that severed access to the span.

Beat Staff Writer Steven Luo contributed to this report. E-mail Wendy Stewart at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By STEVEN LUO
Beat Political Director

And then there were none.

First, state Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi traded in his gubernatorial campaign to jump into the race for Ellen Tauscher’s House seat (a race he now looks likely to win when voters go to the polls on Tuesday).

Then Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, long rumored to be a contender for the Democratic nomination for governor, announced that he wouldn’t run after all.

Now comes news that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, for months now the only declared candidate in the Democratic field, is dropping out, ostensibly to spend more time with his family.

One common thread runs through all these decisions: fear of a 71-year-old man who isn’t even officially in the race.

While his opponents drew all the attention with flashy campaign events and Internet promotion blitzes, Attorney General Jerry Brown has quietly built up a commanding lead in the statistics that matter — money and support in the polls — the old-fashioned way.

Brown has leveraged connections built up through a lifetime in politics to build up insider support and raise more than $7 million in campaign cash, many times that of his primary challengers.

And his name recognition, especially amongst the older voters who vote most reliably in off-year elections, has allowed him to build an enormous lead in opinion polls as his opponents have stumbled.

That statewide name recognition will also serve Brown well in a potential general election matchup against any of the candidates in the Republican field — all with Silicon Valley bases and only one of whom has held statewide office.

Those built-in advantages have allowed him to keep a low profile, avoiding public appearances and policy announcements even as Newsom took repeated blows for some of his San Francisco policies and the Republican candidates started flinging mud at each other.

As a result, Brown, who served two terms as governor in the 1970s — before California’s term limit law took effect — looks well-positioned to complete a remarkable political renaisssance by returning to the governor’s mansion.

Brown could have gone into the twilight — an elder statesman after a long, colorful, and successful political career — after his third presidential run in 1992 ended in defeat to then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.

Instead, he chose a young politician’s path back to the top. Brown won the mayor’s job in Oakland in 1998, where he spent two sometimes controversial terms.

Then he leveraged his name recognition to run away with the 2006 race for state attorney general — a move that had sparked speculation as to whether Brown had further ambitions.

Along the way, Brown underwent an extraordinary transformation — the politican once known as “Governor Moonbeam,” known for eccentric liberalism and dalliances with high-profile women, became the buttoned-down establishment man, a safe pair of hands.

Now, Brown is ready to return to the top of the state political system, cementing his status as California’s ultimate political survivor.

Unless Dianne Feinstein — the undisputed top dog of California politics — decides to jump in first.

E-mail Steven Luo at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By STEVEN LUO
Beat Staff Writer

Caltrans said Sunday afternoon that a setback to emergency repairs to replace a broken part of the eyebar reinforcement installed over Labor Day weekend meant that the bridge would not reopen for the Monday morning commute.

Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney said that a stress test overnight Saturday revealed that metal-on-metal contact responsible for the failure had not been eliminated, requiring modifications.

Ney did not give an estimated time of reopening, saying that he didn’t “want to make a false prediction.”

Engineers and construction workers have been working around the clock as they replace steel tierods and make modifications to the fix for a cracked eyebar that was installed during the bridge closure on Labor Day weekend.

Ney said that crews “had to destress, then reorient” the repair structure, and were now preparing to repeat the stress test. If successful, crews would then install vibration dampers and other enhancements designed to reduce the risk of future failures.

• BAY BRIDGE CLOSURE TWITTER UPDATES: Follow @californiabeat for up-to-the-minute updates on the repair and when the bridge might reopen.
• PLAN YOUR COMMUTE: 511.org Bay Bridge closure page
• RELATED: Bay Bridge closure creates commute nightmare
• RELATED: Day One: The Bay Area without the Bay Bridge
• RELATED: PHOTOS: Crack in structure may delay Bay Bridge reopening

Caltrans spokesperson Bob Haus said Friday morning that, once repair work had finished, at least three hours of testing and two hours of cleanup work would be needed before the bridge could be reopened to traffic.

California Department of Business, Transportation, and Housing secretary Dale Bonner insisted Thursday that inspectors would have “all the time they need” to make sure the bridge is safe before the span is opened.

With the bridge closure set to continue, transit agencies will be offering extra service for the Monday morning commute.

BART will run longer trains from the start of service and add trips during off-peak hours to accommodate extra demand. The agency says Sunday night overnight service cannot be offered due to mandatory safety inspections.

AC Transit’s Transbay buses will be rerouted to East Bay BART stations instead of crossing the Bay Bridge, but the agency otherwise plans a normal schedule.

The Alameda-Oakland and Harbor Bay ferries from the East Bay will add extra trips, and the Larkspur ferry will have an additional boat available to accommodate demand.

Increasingly frustrated commuters are now looking at a fourth consecutive weekday of commute chaos caused by the bridge closure.

The Bay Bridge has been closed to traffic since Tuesday evening, after two steel tierods and a crossbar that formed part of the reinforcement for a cracked eyebar on the eastern span fell onto the bridge deck at the height of the evening commute, striking three vehicles. Somehow, no one was injured.

The resulting closure has clogged alternate routes across the Bay from Highway 37 in the north to the San Mateo Bridge during both the morning and evening commute. Transit agencies are seeing record loads and full parking lots.

Caltrans and contractor officials said that the failure was caused by the metal tierods in the original repair vibrating in place, causing metal fatigue — damage similar to repeatedly bending a paper clip back and forth.

High winds on the span, which create additional vibrations in the structure, may have contributed to the break.

Caltrans said that it’s making changes to prevent the structure from breaking again, and to keep components from falling even if parts fail.

Welds will be strengthened to couple the system more tightly to the eyebar, dampers will be installed to reduce vibration, and the holes in which the tierods are mounted will be modified to keep the rods centered in place.

• RELATED: Caltrans’s diagram of modifications to the eyebar repair (PDF, 660 KB)

Third-party inspectors, including a team from the Federal Highway Administration, have reviewed plans for the repair, and will inspect the span before the reopening to ensure that the bridge is safe.

Caltrans has said the outside inspectors want to examine the completed repair and how it responds to load, including vibrations, before approving the reopening of the span.

Repairs will be paid for by Caltrans out of emergency funds. No cost estimate has been released.

In a steel truss cantilever bridge like the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, the steel beams which make up the superstructure form two lever arms anchored at the ends of the bridge, which support the weight of a span in the middle.

When a beam fails, the load is redistributed onto other parts of the structure, resulting in a significantly weaker bridge. As long as the remaining good components can bear the strain, though, the structure will not collapse.

Bonner said that, even with the cracked eyebar unreinforced, the bridge was “not anywhere near to a catastrophic failure.”

E-mail Steven Luo at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.

By STEVEN LUO
Beat Political Director

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced this afternoon that he is dropping out of the California governor’s race, a move that stunned political observers around the state.

In a statement issued today, Newsom wrote that “With a young family and responsibilities at city hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to and should be done.”

But Newsom’s widely documented fundraising difficulties and difficulty gaining traction in the polls may also have contributed to his early exit.

The presumed Democratic frontrunner, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has raised many times the amount that Newsom has, despite not having formally entered the race yet.

Newsom spokesperson Peter Ragone told the Los Angeles Times that Newsom would have “needed to spend most of his waking hours raising money for the next few months in order for the campaign to be viable.”

And in the most recent Field Poll, released in early October, Brown held a commanding 47-27 lead over Newsom, and was polling much better in general election matchups against Republican contenders.

With Brown polling so close to 50% while more than 25% of Democratic primary voters are still undecided, Newsom would have had to change a lot of minds already made up in order to have a chance at winning the June 2010 primary, a difficult proposition given his increasing financial disadvantage.

In addition to financial and political troubles, the Newsom campaign has also suffered from internal turmoil this year, with campaign manager Eric Jaye, a strong proponent of Newsom’s strategy of reaching out to young voters via the Internet, leaving after an apparent row with the mayor.

Even a recent high-profile endorsement by former President Bill Clinton failed to gain Newsom any momentum with donors or political insiders.

Newsom’s departure leaves Brown a clear field for the Democratic nomination for governor, unless some other candidate joins the race.

Brown issued a statement today saying “Mayor Newsom is a talented public official and I believe he has a bright future. I am sure this was not an easy decision.”

While there has been speculation that Senator Dianne Feinstein could enter the race, and polls show her running well ahead of Brown, she has shown little interest in the race. It’s unclear whether anyone else entering now could gain the support needed to mount a legitimate challenge to Brown.

E-mail Steven Luo at californiabeat@gmail.com. Join the California Beat on Facebook, and get breaking news headlines, story alerts and previews when you follow us on Twitter.