today on getting answers. call them parking crusaders or vigilantes, but they're on the hunt in san francisco for illegally parked cars that block sidewalks, parks. our media partner, the san francisco

standard, has the story. and as we near the end of asian american pacific islander heritage month, a woman from an ethnic minority group in china is launching a food business in the bay area today to share her culture. but first, you thought california had banned single use plastic bags already ten years ago, right? and voters even affirmed that ban. so why is plastic waste actually growing? you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze, thanks for joining us. this week. an east bay lawmakers build to ban plastic bags and reduce environmental waste in the state took a big step forward, passing both chambers. one more vote is needed in each chamber. then it's off to governor newsom's desk. now, some might be wondering, don't we already ban single use plastic bags? well we did. california banned single use plastic bags in 2014 and voters upheld it in 2016. so many stores switched to those

thicker, reusable plastic bags that customers can pay for. well, our lyanne melendez recently put those bags to the test. >> each bag must be able to carry 22 pounds at a distance of 175ft, 125 times. so for the purpose of this experiment, i'm going to go from point a to point b, 125 times. how many? >> here you go. what? 20 to go? tot. >> that's it. you can still use

it. >> it's reusable. oh it just broke at 120 500 o was not reusable at the moment. >> all right, so. so what is the ramification of that? we are going to talk to the bill's author for this new plastic bag ban in just a moment. but right now we want to get to this other story. it has to do with parking here in san francisco. many people can relate to having overinvolved neighbors right? but what happens when things are taken to the next level and every infraction is being reported to the authorities? it's like your neighbor is big brother. joining us live now is noah boston from the san francisco standard, who tells us in a new article that some folks are taking it upon themselves now to become parking crusaders in their neighborhood. noah, thanks for your time. hey thanks for having me. all right. so

your new article that's in sf standard.com right now, talks about why some san francisco residents are now calling that number 311 to report illegal parking, what kind of illegal parking are they incensed about? and reporting? >> yes. so really, a lot of this comes down to people who are parked, blocking the sidewalk. and sometimes that means parking. so you're 100% blocking the sidewalk, but sometimes that means just you know, hanging over a little bit, which you're also not supposed to do, even though a lot of people do it regularly. >> right? i mean, are we talking about and i see this in san francisco in particular, a lot, where they're blocking the sidewalk because they're kind of like sort of right in front of their own garage, but they don't pull into their garage, but they're sticking out right, half on their property, but half on the sidewalk. is that what we're talking about? >> exactly? we're a city of short driveways. so a lot of times you might be in your driveway a little bit, but but you're still hanging over onto the sidewalk. >> okay. so you're tracking this has the number of 311 reports

for these things really jumped in the past few years. >> oh it's jumped remarkably. yeah. so the data we have goes back to 2018. back then you know it was a little north of 1000 a month. people were calling this in. so it was still happening. but this year so far like 2000 a month, the city has been getting reports of people calling on their neighbors and saying, hey, you know, this person's blocking the sidewalk. i want you to come write him a ticket, okay? >> i want to touch on the neighbor dynamic in a little bit. but right now, what does happen when you call 3-1-1? i mean, do they send a citation? you know, a police officer out? do they give you a ticket? how much does that ticket cost? >> yeah, yeah. so what happens is it goes to the sfmta, the transportation agency here in the city, and they'll deploy a parking control officer, you know, some of the people who make these reports, you know, they they complain that it doesn't happen fast enough, but eventually someone will come,

even if it takes an hour or two. and if the car is still there and it really is, you know, up on the sidewalk, then they'll write a ticket and it's $108 to get one of these blocking the sidewalk tickets. wow. >> all right. so but staffing shortages, you know, prevent them from showing up necessarily right away. right. because i know sfmta has budget struggles as well like other agencies. >> yep. that's part of it, and also the other thing is, you know, these calls aren't always as high a priority. another kind of separate complaint they get a lot is if someone is blocking a driveway and sfmta, they told me, you know, they'll prioritize that because someone might need to get out of their garage or they need to get into their garage. so of course they're going to go to that first. >> gotcha. okay. but in terms of what we're talking about, what we're seeing, these pictures, let's now dive into that neighborly dynamic. right. usually we think of neighbors. you bring each other brownies, borrow sugar, borrow eggs. but if you're calling on each other about something like this, talk to me about what people say to you. you know, about why they do

it and how they feel about it. >> yeah, yeah. so these people who are calling in these reports , a lot of them would consider themselves transportation activists, you know, they're people who say look like cars. you get most of this public space between the homes, we just want this little space, the sidewalk for people who walk. and, you know, we're ticked off that you're butting into this, so that's kind of what's driving them now. of course, their neighbors who are on the business end of getting these tickets, they're certainly not happy about it. a lot of times they feel like, hey, you know, i left some space you could get through, you know, give me a break. and there's been some pretty, upset people with each other over some of these reports . >> really? i mean, have you heard of any fights breaking out or. i mean, usually, you know, you would think neighbors would just talk to each other first. hey, can you not do that? because you know, i can't get around the car or whatever.

>> yeah, yeah. so one person who i spoke to, she is incredibly passionate about this. she's been calling in these reports for 30 years, believe it or not. and she told me, you know, her neighbors have figured out that she does this. she has gotten yelled at, she's gotten spit on, and she says that on one winter's night, she actually did ask a neighbor to move his car from blocking the sidewalk. he was spraying out his garage with his hose and he turned around and sprayed her with the hose. >> so oh god, some some pretty bad situations. you hate to hear it, right? because you don't want to see it escalate and somebody really getting hurt. but speaking of getting hurt, i mean, is that one reason the city does issue citations for these? is there real safety concern for this kind of parking practice? >> yeah. i mean, so first of all, it's it is the law that even if it feels like you're leaving enough space, technically the whole sidewalk, you're not supposed to park there. and, you know, i've spoken to people who have disabilities who use

wheelchairs, and they say, like, look, when you're blocking the sidewalk, you know, it forces me, you know, sometimes on a steep grade into the street, and you don't want to be in the street as a pedestrian. and i interviewed one woman who uses a cane, and she explained that she's fallen before trying to get around cars blocking the sidewalk. so there are real reasons why it's important to keep the sidewalk clear. all right, well, it seems like just last week when your colleague did a story also in the standard about people leaving cones on the street to try to, you know, reserve claim their parking spot, right when they get back from work or whatever, how does the city handle, i guess all these examples do they point to something bigger about the city and the parking situation? >> yeah, i think that they point to the fact that in san francisco, there are residents who feel very differently about the relationship that they want the community to have with vehicles and cars. i mean, some people really want the city to

move towards de-prioritizing cars. they want it to be a transit first city, which it has been by policy for many years, but they really want it to be a place where it's people are walking, cycling, taking transit and, you know, just driving as a kind of last priority as these changes are happening, i think a lot of car owners are feeling the squeeze. you know, there is less parking. and as the city is making changes to add bike lanes, you know, we've seen all these high profile conflicts about the parking amount is shrinking. and i think these are some of the tensions coming out as that change is happening and unlikely to go away any time soon. >> you can check out noah's story. thank you very much. you can check out noah's story and more of the standard's original reporting on their website. sf standard.com. up next, that conversation about how california has banned single use plastic bags right? but now plastic waste is up higher than ever. so what's going on? a new

bill t

bay lawmakers bill to ban plastic bags and reduce environmental waste in the state took a step forward, passing both chambers. but as we mentioned earlier, you know, we had banned single use plastic bags in 2014, right? and then voters upheld it. so then many stores switched to those thicker , reusable plastic bags that customers can pay for and reuse. that's the idea. but now there's a push to get rid of those bags as well. joining us live now to talk about the passage of ab 2236 is its author, assemblywoman rebecca

bauer-kahan from orinda. thank you so much for joining us. assemblywoman, how are you? >> good. thanks for having me. yeah. >> well, i want to talk about your bill, which is moving along. but this is surprising to people, right. because we did get rid of single use plastic bags. yet since then, i guess plastic waste has been up. way up. can you talk to us about that? and what happened? >> yeah, we got rid of those thin plastic bags. but as we all know, we moved to the thicker plastic bags, which were meant to be reusable, but they're not being reused. they're ending up in our landfills. and in our waterways. and so what we're doing is we're getting rid of those, and we're moving to paper only, and the paper will be highly recycled, and it'll be better for our environment and our kids future. >> so paper only, no plastic at all of any type. is that the idea? >> no plastic in the grocery stores? yep. >> wow. okay, so can i just ask you, like, how does i guess the grocery industry feel about this? i mean, i can imagine the plastic industry is probably not happy. environmentalists perhaps support it. tell me what you're

getting in terms of the reaction. >> yeah, the grocers and the environmentalists are walking arm in arm on this one. they're both in support. we're allowing them to have disposable bags for people who don't bring their own. they're just going to be paper. and so the only opposition we have is the people who make those plastic bags that we need to get out of our landfills. and waterways. >> can you explain why this is so important in terms of plastic ban pollution or plastic bag pollution? >> yeah, i mean, the plastics we know and we just saw news this week about the microplastics that are in our water. we're ingesting plastic. it's getting into our animals and our wildlife. and in addition, we're seeing that as we drive down the consumption of oil and cars, we're driving up the production of plastics to keep those profits the same for the oil companies. so this is critically important to the air emissions coming out of our refineries as well. okay. >> so if we go to paper only, what would the cost consequence be. >> so the cost will be the same. the $0.10 that you pay today for those fees is going to stay the same. it does cost more for paper. so those fees will just cover the bags more than they do

today. >> okay, but critics say paper bags have their own environmental footprint. would that increase would this ban are there trade offs? >> well, we're making sure that the content of those paper bags is highly recycled. so we're keeping that environmental impact down all right. >> so what's next for this bill? i understand it's passed once in each house already right now. now what. >> now it's off to the senate where it'll get through the hopefully the environmental committees and the floor. and then off to the governor's desk and the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. >> so what's the timeline for adoption if the governor does sign it into law? >> so it will go into effect january of next year. >> okay. and are there milestones that you've set up as part of this bill to measure its success, i guess, no, i mean, we're optimistic that this will show us that we can do it well beyond the grocery stores. >> but for right now, this is just the grocery store. so it is a small segment of the stores where you get plastic bags. >> today, i hear some low income communities have concerns about the added costs of fees on, you

know, paper bags. i guess it's no different from the $0.10. now on most of those thicker plastic bags. but in general, does the bill contain any equity or affordability, you know, perspectives. >> it does. it makes sure that our wick and snap users, those low income consumers in our grocery stores, do not pay that fee. >> okay. a plastic ban. you know, as you mentioned, plastic bag makers may not like this. they certainly have fought it in the past. do you expect any lawsuits or challenges? we're hopeful that people will move to a paper future, but we'll see what happens. all right. do you see this as a model for other states? >> i hope so, and to be clear, other states are ahead of us in this. we're not the first way what the other states are ahead of us. >> california. yes, i have to admit it. okay. well, which states are those? by the way? >> i believe new york is ahead of us, but i don't. i'd have to fact check myself on that. >> and people still buy groceries. they figure out how to make it work without those. they make it work. okay assemblywoman rebecca bauer-kahan from orinda. thank

you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> meals have a special meaning for many cultures, but next we'll introduce you to someone that's cooking to keep their heritage alive through meat pies

but the month we want to highlight one asian culture that does not get a lot of attention in the western world. the uyghurs are central asians, a predominantly muslim turkic ethnic group living primarily in xinjiang in northwestern china. though they date back thousands of years, their rich culture and cuisine are largely unknown to americans. even here in the bay area. but now a bay area woman originally from urumqi is launching a culinary business with the goal of sharing her culture. joining us live right now is aaliyah arkin, founder of

yildiz, a uyghur meat pie shop and andrew chow, co-founder of the boba chain boba guys, and you guys are coming to us from the boba guys location in fillmore or on fillmore street in san francisco. hey, aaliyah. hey, andrew. >> hi, kristen. >> hello. welcome welcome, andrew. look, your shop looks a little different today. i see, i hear it's because you're doing a special pop up. >> we are. so we have aaliyah here. we've known each other for over a year, and, we always wanted to work together. so today we're going to do, meat pies or special meat pies. beaver meat pies with our our boba. so tonight at seven to, 10 p.m. here at the fillmore. >> okay, so uyghur meat pies, something that we don't know a lot about. and boba, which we know a lot about now, but not always before together. that's neat. okay. aaliyah, as a uyghur immigrant to the bay area, why did you start this food business ? >> so we all know that, like, food always brings people

together and through food, we can learn a lot about the culture. that's why i decided to bring my cultural food to the space. >> ha! okay, but why meat pies? >> so grow up. i'm sorry. i grew up eating meat pies. in my language, we call china and. and meat pie is one of the popular dishes in cuisine. and if you go to xinjiang in any restaurant, you can find it on the menu for sure. just like pizza here in america. >> so it's a very traditional food, right? and i take it you ate it a lot growing up as a kid . >> do you have a lot of it when we were kids. >> oh yes. i will eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. i love these bites. >> okay, i see you're making it right there. and you're kind enough to bring us some, so i'm going to check it out. this is aaliyah's meat pie, by the way. guys here, i'm just going to

take a bite here, looks like an empanada. i mean, we're familiar with that. okay now i'm eating while talking, which is extremely rude. you guys, i'm so sorry, but it's amazing. it's really good. oh, alia, how long did it take you to come up with this recipe? i don't know if it's a family recipe or just something you kind of, you know, remembered and just started creating and experimenting in the kitchen and then iterating, reiterating, how does this come about? how did you achieve this deliciousness? yeah. >> so it's my grandmother's recipe, and it took me almost two years to perfect the recipe. and because i don't want to mess up with my grandma's recipe and to be honest, i'm a perfectionist and if i decided to do something, i want to be best at it. that's why i took while. >> okay, i think grandma would approve of that. being perfectionist, what does yildiz mean? >> so you. this means schools in quebec and we all know that we're living in a world that's constantly changing and it's crucial to preserve our tradition and that's why i

decided to name my brand as these are. >> you know, it's neat. as i'm eating this, andrew, i think of how i feel like in every culture there's some version of this. i don't know if it's just very comforting, but where you have a pastry dough around some delicious meat concoction, you know? >> yeah, we've we've worked with quite a few different pop ups, you know, obviously we've always again, wanted to work with the uh- in her beta version, but you know, there's empanadas out here in the bay area. there's, sosa. so we wanted to kind of have something in that flavor profile . and for us, as you know, we're one of now the older aapi, businesses, some people would say like legacy businesses. so we're like, why don't we do something with the next generation? and i think she's, i've had her many of her pies by now, at this point, we think she's kind of carrying the torch for the future of her, her community. right >> right. i mean, because it is a community that, i think a lot

of people here really don't know too much about. so, leah, can you tell us what it's like in your homeland? and, you know what? what can you tell us about the people there, the culture and what's important and what you value? i will say our culture is very beautiful and we have amazing food. we have beautiful arts, and we have so much to share with the world. >> and then behind you looks great. i mean, that's really neat. yeah. andrew, there's a little redecorating going on there. i don't know if we can see all of it. oh, yeah. yeah but but like, we're music. >> we're art, actually, one of my favorite drinks that we have her friend makes, it's a yogurt drink that i'm also really. she knows i'm really addicted to this, so, the her yogurt drink. >> oh, at the pop up, is it? what is it? is it going to become one of your permanent menu items? >> i don't know, i have to learn

how to make it, but i want to get it from straight from the source. so we'll see about that. >> yeah. i mean, look how important andrew do you think it is in this day and age especially to connect through food? >> it's extremely important, i think, with all the stuff going on, some people know with whether it's the stopasianhate movement right now, it's, asian heritage month. and so, you know, for us, as we were talking about, we wanted to highlight a part of the diaspora that normally doesn't get highlighted in this case. and i have known each other for a day. so, but it's important, i think for us, we believe that the gateway to culture, the gateway to understanding, is food. so we've been doing for around 13 years now, as some of you all know. so, it's kind of hopefully our way of kind of combining and bridging cultures. >> all right. yeah i mean, you're definitely doing it and you're doing it again tonight. this is so good, by the way. i know aaliyah. you can't give away the grandma's secret. but i think what is in there? ground beef and can you tell us like

the basics, the basic flavors in there? >> yeah. normally back home, when we make meat pies, we make it with lamb or beef. but here i decided to make this beef, it's an adaptation. kind of. >> yes. >> okay, so tell me about the pop up and how else and where else people can enjoy your pies. >> so for now, if you want to order meat pies, you can order to my social media account on instagram, which is like daetz. or you can have it for my next post. >> all right. well, aaliyah, that setup looks gorgeous. your your your whole, outfit is lovely. and i know it's all in loving my be called off, but thank you for educating me. i was going to say it's all in loving tribute to your culture, as are your meat pies. so the pop up tonight is at boba guys from 7 to 10 p.m. and that's at

the fillmore location of boba. guys, thank you so much. aaliyah, erkin and andrew chow. really appreciate you joining us. good luck tonight. all right. remember abc seven news

tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the severe storms set to hit, just as millions travel for the holiday. ginger zee is standing by. and the storm that blew through new york city already. tonight, the new line of storms from texas all the way north. >>