helping improve the environment is one part of our effort to help build a better bay area. a key goal is to minimize our dependency on plastic bags and our story about how that's happening became one of our most memorable. this year, we'll revisit that in a sneak peek at our building a better bay area best of 2023 streaming special. but first, for 50 years, the transamerica pyramid has defined the skyline of san francisco. now its new owners are hoping a massive redevelop of the block where it sits will redefine the city's downtown. you're watching getting answers. i'm j.r. stone when it comes to the transamerica pyramid, one developer is hoping $1 billion investment will encourage workers to return to downtown san francisco. abc seven news insider phil matier got a first look inside the building, and talked with the building's owner. take a listen. >> why would you sink $1 billion into office space in a city

that's got a 30% vacancy rate? it's a great question. >> so, you know, i walked when i came to see this building for the first time to buy it. i walked around that corner, looked up to the building, and i told my team, we have to buy this building. it's the fact that this is the symbol of san francisco, no different than the cable cars or the or the golden gate bridge. >> with more on that interview and a preview of his in-depth piece that you'll see tonight at 4:00 and 6:00, phil, thanks for joining us. first off, hats off to this story. i was able to get a sneak peek of it. this developer is pretty optimistic. >> i would have to say, you know, you know that expression bet big or go home? well they are betting very big to the tune of $1 billion on downtown office space in san francisco. something most people out there are saying, hey, within a 30% vacancy rate, what would you be doing that for? the answer is pretty simple. it's the building . you know, i was thinking about this and you know, on the east

coast, you have the empire state building. it's very distinguished, right? the un building. very you can see it forever on the west coast, the only building, i think that anybody would recognize around the world is the transamerica pyramid. it's not the biggest building, the most modern, but it's one of the most controversial and easily recognizable. and what he's betting on or these developers are betting on that, that iconic status, the fact that it is so well known and going in there and bringing it up to grade or up to snuff, actually improving the ground floors and trying to make it more open and welcoming is going to revive that whole part of town. here's what i wonder. >> and i've talked with so many people who work in the salesforce tower downtown. they love the new building. they love that area. um but not everybody loves the old buildings. so i know it's a redevelopment plan, but, you know, have they redeveloped the elevators, the offices up there? that's what i'm curious about. do people want to be inside this building? >> well, that remains to be

seen. they're optimistic about it. they have rehabbed it, for example, the lobby of the building, you know, when the tower went up, it was the headquarters for the transamerica corporation. they weren't looking to get people in there. if you went there because there was business there or there was a bank on the ground floor. so they've opened that up and they're putting there's a redwood park there. believe it or not, they're actually redwood trees in a lot adjacent to the transamerica building. they're going to put a restaurant there and open that up. so yeah, they're betting on it. but you know, the history of san francisco downtown, it's kind of interesting. was initially the heart of san francisco was in sort of the north beach. and this area. and as we became a bigger financial center, it sort of spread out from there. and that became the financial district. when the tech boom happened, all those people that were in those offices started moving south of market into first, you know, dotcom gulch and then into the new towers that went up. it's like the salesforce towers. this is a move back to that older

neighborhood. okay so what are they? what do they think is going to bring them in? well, the brand new offices in what they call a class a exclusive building, that's one thing. the other thing is the feeling, you know, around that area is old san francisco. unlike the other part of town, which is tower after tower after tower, this is the only tower down there, and the rest of it is north beach chinatown, sort of like a place you'd want to be. so. so they're resell ing this part of san francisco. they kind of got sold out by the tech area. >> it's a great point you make because talking with some of those people in that area, they'll tell you that, yeah, union square has struggled. yeah. but when we talk about the neighborhood in san francisco, they have not struggled. they are still strong. and being that close to north beach and this area around the transamerica area is very historic. >> i mean, this is the old book buildings and they go back a ways. you know, there's whiskey distilleries, buildings and things like that. and in the 70s and such, it was a big place for like antique stores and hip,

very hip clothing stores, graphic design and that kind of went away. now it's starting to come back. so they're not just selling a building, they're selling in the neighborhood. but what does this mean to everybody out there? not not i mean, we can talk about real estate deals or, you know, still over 35% exactly. but and that's what san francisco's got to work on the idea of converting offices into housing really isn't going to pan out in a big way. i'm not sure about the future of big retail. between the internet parking in san francisco and the ongoing crime, who knows what that is. but if they can get people back in and working, that's going to be the fundamental part. and you know, for all the talk of asking the mayor, what are you going to do and how are you going to do it? she really doesn't have a big say in this. it takes big money and big bets to make things happen. san francisco has a history of big money and big bets. going back to the days of the gold rush. you know, it's a boom bust town. somebody going to a lot of these developers have gone bust. some of them

have gone boom. we'll see. >> and this developer that you spoke with is talking big money. this is somebody who's put big money in other major cities across the country. yeah >> he and his investors, let's always remember that because i'm not sure how much comes out in michael schubert's wallet himself, but he's done it in miami. he did it with a landmark hotel down there. and turned that into an office place. he did it with in chicago. and his his is okay, get the icons, get the get the, get the get the get the star, get, you know, don't mess with the big players. get the star. now can that bring the big players up. maybe some other buildings are going to have to come down. i mean there are a lot of buildings that went up there, not particularly attractive. they can't be converted and people just don't want them there. something's going to have to happen there. the other big challenge is still facing all across san francisco, and especially the downtown is ground floor retail. we have literally miles and miles of empty storefronts, and no matter what you put on top of that, it doesn't look great from the ground. and that's something that the mayor is grappling with. but again, there's only so

much they can do. what's interesting also is while san francisco talks always about streamlining and trying to revitalize areas, they never have a shortage of putting blocks up. it seems like it takes forever. it can take you almost a year to get your permits, but in this case, i have never seen the city say yes fast enough. and it's kind of like it used to be. the thing was, when are they going to say no or how many ways are they going to say no? but under breed now the order is how fast can we get to. yes. okay. i don't want to hear. no. so a lot of the blocks, you know, whether it's be heights, shadows or this or that, well, not happening here, but i know one of the arguments is that lease prices haven't necessarily dropped. >> so you think that you have those high vacancy rates that maybe the price drops down and then people move back in. but that's that's not necessarily the case. >> you know, something you and i have covered development and we've covered sports. and i want to know in your opinion who these are all bets who knows anything between the development

and look at look what sports. look at what the raiders did in vegas. but i'm saying that people say, well, this, this and this, i can go to one developer and they say, yes, this, this, this is no reason to build. i go to michael schiller and he says, yeah, this is the time now. why? because i got the building at a discount. i can get the money right now and we can we can take advantage of the downturn in. so it's which way you want to go. it's we'll find out in a couple of years. hopefully it works because if it works, then we get people back into san francisco. so and that's the ultimate goal here. >> and is that what we're talking about? are we talking about a redevelopment plan that would take a couple of years, or are we talking about something that's going to take ten years, like a housing conversion would do? >> we are talking about something that immediately is going to in the next year or so, is going to get way off, be up and running. and that's the transamerica pyramid itself. that's a refurbishing the building of the buildings around them that's going to take a little more time. i'm not. i am not betting or putting money on the on the on the other parts of the plan because when they start

saying phase two and phase three, that's usually means it's a little ways off. >> we don't have much time, probably a minute or so, but i did want to touch the topic of donald trump coming off the ballot in colorado. and the talk now from the lieutenant governor that they're looking at possibly doing the same in california. will it happen? >> uh, it i'm not. there's also a bill being proposed that would allow the secretary of state to take donald trump or somebody like him off the ballot. i'm not sure, even if they did it, if it would stand up in court. we're going into a whole new terrain about this. i will say that in a couple of years back, the democratic legislature tried to basically keep donald trump off the ballot by saying you had to submit your income tax returns in order to qualify. uh, but the court said no to that. so the ultimate thing is going to be at the courts. >> i find it fascinating that we hear from the lieutenant governor saying this, not the governor. >> yeah, yeah, that's got to be something political there. yeah. the lieutenant governor is running for governor. the governor is out of town on vacation. so i got a feeling

that while the governor is away, the lieutenant governor decided to. let's play. >> phil, always acan't urit to l story. 4:00 6:00. all right. all right. up next, a san francisco couple uh- says they've had it with parking tickets, and now they've created an app that could help us all avoid the fines. we'll explain next on getting

add up. but now one couple fed up with the fines is taking matters into their own hands. they've created an app to help

avoid getting ticketed, and you can read all about it in this new article from our media partner, the sf standard, and joining us live now with all the details is the author of that article, garrett lahey, a reporter for the standard. garrett, thanks for joining us. first off, tell us about this couple that created this street cleaning parking app. >> sure. so, pablo figueroa and mary luis howell uh- basically got tired of getting these parking tickets. theyould average about two a month, 90 a piece. and so the actually over this past weekend, used publicly available data to build this free app that you can test right now that will use the gps location of your phone when you park and cross-referencehat with the publicly available street sweeping sedule. so if your car is paed in street sweeping zone, you'll get a notification to let you know, hey, you need to park your car. otherwise you're going to get a ticket. so what type of response has the app gotten so far? well, you know, they actually uh- first announced the app and that they were developing it, testing

it on the social media app reddit. and the post, when i had spoken to pablo a few days ago, had 1500 upvotes, and i assume it's only gotten more, and then they've actually had a couple hundred people who have signed on to the beta program to test out the app for free, and they are trying to work out all the bugs and are expecting to actually launch the app on the app store. uh- starting next week. >> you know, i love the idea of getting like an alert if you could get ticketed, if something's going to come up. but we're specifically talking cleaning here. what about the idea of parking meter locations? >> yeah. so you know, unfortunately, the app doesn't have that uh- ability. 8-80. it doesn't account for parking meters and loading zones. i'm not sure what pablo's plans are for either. adding that functionality in but one feature he is interested in doing,

perhaps in a paid version of the app, would actually be to allow users to communicate with each other and let them know when they vacated a parking spot, and using that same gps technology that the app has other users could then be alerted to that and then go into that parking spot. so that would be one additional bonus feature. in addition to street sweeping cleaning warnings. so you can move your car. >> yeah, i truly wonder about that because, you know, if you're coming to the city, you're often using the meters and you're looking at the signs on the streets. obviously, this is seems to be geared towards people who are living here in the city and looking for their parking in different areas, which, you know, off the bat, if you park on the same street every night, you know, the schedules. but not all of us have the luxury of parking on the same street every night. >> that's right. pablo was mentioning that this was a problem specific to him. he and his his partner, who developed the app live in nopa and uh- because it's more dense. there it's not a guaranteed bet that

you're going to park on the same street every night, and for them, just keeping track of the schedule, you know, every second wednesday and second and fourth wednesday at these times, you've got to not be parked here. uh- it became too much to manage, and they inevitably made very costly mistakes, $90 for parking tickets. so this app seems to be geared to fix that problem. specifically they actually mentioned that they had developed it for themselves, but the app had so much, you know, positive, um, you know, feedback that, uh, they're thinking of launching the app and maybe even a paid version. so this seems to be more geared to residential parking, at least in its current form. >> and you sort of answered the question there. i think when we see the headline of how many tickets they got, people initially say, how did you rack up all of those tickets? if you're parking in the same area? but it's a dense, you know, these are dense, one of the densest cities in america. >> that's right. they said they average about two a month and 90 each. so uh, they they just have a hard time keeping track of the

schedule. and so they made this app and, you know, hopefully it's helpful. and people seem to seem to like it whenever you get a ticket, there's always that feeling that somebody out to get you. >> um, do we know how much the san francisco municipal transportation agency has collected and uh- in tickets over the years, or on average? >> yeah. so they actually use that parking ticket revenue to fund their general operations. and just since 2021, they've actually collected over $200 million in, in, you know, parking fee revenue to fund their general operations. so it is these parking tickets painful for us, but they are a big money maker for the sfmta. >> it's somewhat fascinating because i know at one point there was there was an idea of extending parking meter times too. and there was somewhat of a backlash. so when you talk about parking tickets, it's something that really grabs people. >> yeah, definitely. well, it's one of those things where, you know, we've all experienced it and it's just one of those

things that's very, very painful to have to pay the, the parking meter. but you know, in the times i've gotten, i always just tell myself that it's helping to fund the sfmta, helping to fund public transit, road maintenance, all that. >> it's always nice to see when you know the people who created an app like this, like pablo and mary-louise. um, it creates a sense of community. there are they looking to expand to any other cities, and could that happen soon? >> so that was one of the things pablo had mentioned to me, which was that in the feedback he's gotten online and from others using the app, um, there's been a lot of interest in expanding to other cities like the ones you mentioned me were montreal, chicago, uh, los angeles, which you mentioned, uh, has a lot of issues with people getting parking tickets, having a hard time keeping track of, uh, the street cleaning schedules there. so so he is thinking of expanding the app to, to other cities, but i don't know where those efforts stand right now. >> have you had a chance to use it? >> i you know, i actually haven't had the chance to use it. i'm afraid i did sign up for

the beta, but i luckily i live in a neighborhood where i do tend to be able to park on the same street every night because it's low density enough. yeah but this would be especially helpful for those who don't have that luxury. and i know pablo mentioned he has actually had a lot of users from all over the city, but, uh, he's also had a lot of users in places like the mission, which can be very, very difficult to find. parking over there because it's so dense, wonderful. >> garrett, we could keep talking. i appreciate that. thank you. always a pleasure to have you as a guest on our show. likewise. thank you. you can check out garrett's story and more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting on their website, sf standard.com. stay with us. getting answers continues right after this how are you doing between practices? i feel pretty good. surrounding myself with a great team. de'aaron we're going to take a quick look at your knee with ultrasound. everything is looking great. but not just for me. for them.

it's great to see you again man. thanks jb. for all that is me, for all that is you, kaiser permanente.

together in a special. you can stream on demand, but here's a taste of what you can expect

from abc seven news reporter lyanne melendez. >> i'm lyanne melendez i'm sort of called the bag lady. and let me explain why. in california, we banned single use plastic bags, but the plastic industry tried to get around it by introducing these heavy duty plastic bags, which can be used over and over again. that's why they say they are reusable. well, you know me, i had to put one of these to the test and i had fun doing it. san francisco was the first city in the nation to get rid of single use plastic bags in 2007. in 2014, the rest of the state would also ban the so-called urban tumbleweed overnight, like at our recycling facility, pier 96. >> it's like plastic bags just went away and they were no longer a problem. >> people began embracing the concept of bring your own reusable bag to the market. the law did allow for stores to

offer paper or heavy duty plastic bags, but only if they were considered reusable. but then, because of the fear of spreading the coronavirus for a short period of time, any bags brought from home were not allowed. >> so during the pandemic, we stopped bringing our own reusable bags to the store and that was important to protect public health, both ourselves as shoppers, but also to the workers at the stores. >> the problem now is that some people are having a hard time giving up those heavy duty plastic bags. good thing or not, so much so that they don't mind paying extra to use in some cases. lots of them. >> lots of them, do you? >> okay, so why not bring your bag? >> um. >> i'll try. i'll try to remember that. >> so, um, so are these. how much did you have to pay for these bags? >> i'm not sure. i don't know $0.10 right here.

>> oh, really? i think so. the plastic industry claims these heavy duty plastic bags can be reused up to 125 times. that's how by law, they are allowed to be called reusable. >> while they're not necessarily being used as much as the industry claims that they can be, and they are ending up in our landfills, what do you do with those bags after you're done with them? >> actually, i got a stack of them at the house sometime. i use them just different things, like, do you ever throw them away? >> yes, yes. once in a while you'll find people who say they do use them over and over again. would you say that you use it 125 times? >> uh- yes, i do so here's how they are allowed. >> despite the ban on plastic bags. number one, they have to be at least 40% post-consumer material and can be reused 125 times is not 100, not 150, but 125 times. i have no idea how

they came up with that number. 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 you go? >> 20 to go tot >> that's it. you can still use it. >> it's reusable. >> oh, it just broke at

on the one who was not reusable at the moment. >> i do think california needs to take a look at that law and make adjustments and do what it was intended to do, which was to do away with all plastic bags kind of thick and or thin. >> but there is little incentive to do so coming from supermarket and pharmacies, because they are allowed to keep the proceeds from the sale of each bag in 2020. san francisco new charging $0.10 wasn't enough to keep people from buying them, so the city increased the fee to $0.25 per bag. does it bother you that it's $0.25 per bag? i have, we're in san francisco and we're in california, so it just used to it. >> i just i don't think about it because it's about convenience building a better bay area. >> best of 2023 is now streaming on demand. one of my stories involving burning man is on

there as well. you can stream it on our website, abc seven news.com, or from our abc seven bay area app on your phone or tv. thank. you so much for joining us for getting answers today. we'll be here every weekday at from the state that's already helped millions of people like you get and pay for health insurance. with financial health to lower the cost of health coverage, you could get a quality health plan for less than $10 a month. every plan covers preventive care, doctor visits, emergency care, and more. if you have questions, we're here to help every step of the way. covered california. this way to health insurance. enroll by december 31 at coveredca.com.

tonight, the deadly mass shooting, just days before christmas. at least 14 people killed, more than two dozen wounded. the chilling images coming in. the gunman armed with a rifle firing down from a university balcony overseas. panic on the ground. students running from the gunfire. some climbing out windows, hi