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Show The Salt Lake Tribune THE WEST Friday, August 10, 2001 San Francisco see With Homeless GroundDelivery Slows Western Mail Service But others say the Postal Service, which projects a $3 billion deficit this year,is BY CARL NOLTE SAN'FRANCISCO CHRONICLE SAN FRANCISCO First-class mail service, often derided as “snail mail,” has become atleast a day slower in most ofthe West as a result of new standards adopted without public notice by the Postal Service. The new service standards, which wentinto effect earlier this year, mean that first-class mail that used to carry intercity mail. Ever since the demise of the old premium rate for air mail service a generation ago, first-class mail has al ways been flown between pairs of cities more than 80) to 900 miles apart. Butearlier this year, the Postal Service quietly changed its first-class service standards, allowing more jintercity mail to go by truck take two days to get from San Francisco and other Bay Area points to San Diego, Phoenix and the Pacific Northwest now takes three days. andless byair. This, said Gannon,is good for postal customers in, the eastern part of the country, where 49,000 city pairs. get first-class mail delivered in two daysinsteadofthree, However,hesaid, delivery between 27,000 pairs of ZIP . The Postal Service says the extra day is necessary because first-class mail that used to go by air is now shipped bytruck. er come The reason, according to Eric Risberg/The Associated Press Chuck Gannon, the Postal Service’s national manager for service standards, is that rete hpilb engin ane iseelier, scalapacankiv bles by whathe found here. “On the oneside it looks like a very nice city. On the other there’sa lot ofbeggars andfilth on the streets,” he said. Sean DeRyke,a bartender at Fisherman’s. Wharf, said he constantly has to intervene when aggressive panhandlers bother tourists eating outside. “T wouldlike the city not to be so lenient, but I guess the lenience comes with San Francisco,”he said. Homeless people have alwaysbeen attracted to thecity, which offers a mild climate, generous benefits, a tolerant populace and the promise of a start. They quickly learn that housing here — some of the world’s most expensive — is in very short supply. It’s hard to say whether the number of homeless people is increasing in the city of777,000, though officials sayit is likely, given the fact that the overall population has increased. San Francisco began an official count ofthe homeless lastyear, reporting a total ofabout5,400. Advocates put the total much higher. What some people say has changed are behaviors. “There’s a lot more drug activity. People are strung out. Somepeoplefeel like they have a right to do whatever they wantto do,” said George Smith, director of Mayor Willie Brown’s office on home- Nations Plaza in San Francisco. Residents say homelessness is becoming a huge problem. lessness. deff Webb, wholives near Market Street, said the streets have “definitely gotten worse in the last six months to.a year.” He grew so frustrated with drug dealers congregating in thestreet outside his room that he aimed a camera atthe trouble spot and began broadcast- cruddiness,” he wrote: Homeless advocates say the real problem is a lack of housing. The city has fewer than 2,000 shelter beds, which are assigned bylottery. A block from City Hall on a recent day, a disheveled man stood next to a pay phone,gripping the receiver for hours on end as passers-by strolled by, ing over the Internet to shame lawbreakers andlaw enforcers. Smith said thecity is spending more than $172 million on the homeless, an effort he said is hindered by District Attorney Terence Hallinan’s decision to stop codes was increased from two daysto three days. Nearlyall of these routes are in the West. The new policy, has had | airlines have changed their priorities and bumped mail pretending notto see the gapee oe eet from flights loaded with passengers, their luggage and air PaNet far away, Charles Houston is hawking the homeless newspaper Street . He has seenall kinds onthestreets. “Here’s a guy who can’t read. Here’s a person on Thorazine,” he said. “They don’t have ways of helping with their self-esteem.” cargo. “A lot of mail is still sitting on the tarmac” when the planes takeoff, he said. “They can tell us, ‘We're not taking any mail today,’ ” Gannonsaid. “Surface transportation is more dependable.” devastating impact” on ser- vice in the West, said Douglas Carlson, a University of Cali. fornia at Santa Cruzassistant dean and lawyer who has been a frequentcritic of the Postal Service. Moving it back to the ground, he said, means “we have regressed 25 years.” Summer Wrap-Up prosecuting “quality of life” crimes such as public drunkenness or using the sidewalks for toilet. Hallinan contends he had no choice after Brown cut his budget. Police say they make arrests when they see someone breaking the law, but it isnot againstthe law to be homeless. A few years ago, when Brown proposed seizing shopping carts, citing people for theft and funneling 1 them into diversion programs, the plan was shot down as a violation ofconstitutional rights. Morse called for an end to misplaced compassion in his recent columns. ‘ie AND ; “In the last couple of dec- ades, because of a cuddleeveryoneliberalism, San Francisco tipped over into complete OFF SELECTED BACKPACKS eINTERNAL & EXTERNAL FRAME eMIDSIZE LUMBAR °DAY OFF ENTIRE STOCK SPORTSWEAR ACTIVEWEAR OFF HUGE SELECTION HIKING & MULTI-SPORT MENS & WOMENS TEVA AND REEF RT SANDALS SELECTED4 MENS & WOMENS SHORTS FROM PREVIOUS SEASONS (LimitedQuantitie) A Califomia bartender serves patrons sane pepoeg a blackout.The Westem powergrid nearly collapsed a week ago. Regulators Asked to Investigate Repeated Blackout Close Calls THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO — California power managers say 65 million customers in 14 Western states and parts of Canada and Mexico were at risk of blackouts last week when several power suppliers failed to deliverelectricity to the region as promised. Gregg Fishman, a spokes- man for the California Independent System Operator, said during last Thursday’s incident, the balance was so close that the unexpected loss of a ee powerplant could have red the region’s worst oain five years, natural gas, which ante stored, electricity must teused as it is produced, creating a delicate balance of supply and demand. The ISO schedules deliveries of electricity from generators and power marketers to utilities. Outages happen when those megawatts arrive late or in lesser quantities than expected. Fishman said such stability threats to the powergrid have occurred with alarming fre- of the participants in the operation of the electric system abide by the reliability requirements,” said Bob Dintelman,assistant executive director of the Western Systems Coordinating Council in Salt LakeCity. On Wednesday, the ISO warned generators to deliver poweron time, and asked federal regulators to investigate last week’s incident. In a report, the ISO points to two recent examples, but does not nametheoffenders. In one case, a generator scheduled more power than it was capable of delivering and fell more than 1,600 megawatts short. A megawatt is enough to powerroughly 750 homes. Separately, a did notfollow ISOorders to deliver power needed to stabilize the system. Tamara Young, a spokeswoman with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said she was not sure when or how the FERC would act. 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