a destination city. a lot of people live here because of the unique interest that san francisco provides and the entertainment industry and including restaurants provide a lot of that that make living here a joy for so many of us. and people say, what a wonderfully successful restaurant they must be making a lot of money. there is this image that somebody is benefitting at the other end of this commercial restaurant thing. i have to tell you knowing many in the commercial restaurant industry it's a very difficult to make a living if you are the owner or manager. more than think of from 24r point of voy restaurants provide a tremendous benefit to the city. there are a lot of people that have jobs in restaurants. suppliers and contractors have impacts throughout the city. we have to understand that restaurants provide social well being for the city. an economic base, this is an important thing and the department of building and inspection i do our very best to resolve restaurant issues. so that we can move

let's move north along the seaboard, another big vacation destination, ocean city, maryland where the storm is washing out a lot of plans, but of course much more serious than that. nbc's tom costello is there. >> reporter: it's an empty place here, brian. ocean city sits on the northern barrier island, they are expecting irene will come over the top of us from south to north, from virginia to delaware, it's packed with tourists this year. this time however, this year with a mandatory evacuation order now in effect, hundreds of thousands have clogged the highways to move inland, they have left behind virtual ghost towns of empty streets and boardwalks and hotels. we even found the coast guard station also boarding up, preparing to ride out the storm. the last time ocean city ordered this kind of evacuation was in 1985 for hurricane gloria. but emergency managers fear this time it could be different. >> we're going to get a lot of rain, we're going to get a lot of wind and we're going to get a lot of surge and it's going to come all at one time for an extended period of time. >> i'm no

final destination, new york city on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.lara firefighters darrell sales and david lombardo began their bike ride this morning taking off from santa clara. it's almost 4,000 miles across the u.s. something unique to this trip is they will be stopping and staying at different fire stations each night on the way to new york. seven riders joined them on the first leg of the trip and they are hoping others will come and go along the way. they have been planning this trip for about three years. they say it's their way to honor the 343 firefighters who died in the september 11th attacks. their motto? never again, never forget. their goal, to show that the country is united in support of its firefighters. >> this ride is really about connection and relationship and just letting the fdny know that the rest of the country cares what happened. >> excited about the adventure, excited about honoring the 343. have no idea what to expect, the people we're going to meet and the things we'll experience. so i'm hoping my body will be able to

destination. many are taking a position of next bus technology now in use around the city. updated at regular intervals from the comfort of their home or workplace. next bus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track buses and trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a greater sense that they can count on you to get to their destination on time. the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button. >> the success of these tests led to th

maryland up to 150,000 residents and visitors have been asked to leave the popular vacation destination of ocean city're now joined by the state's governor martin o'malley on the phone. governor o'malley thanks for joining us. tell us the latest in maryland and how your state is preparing for this oncoming hurricane? >> well, chris, as you mentioned, we are preparing for this category 2 to give us a real blow to the side there. in ocean city. and really, across our state as it passes by. it's a category 2. it's a killer storm. it is a very, very dangerous storm. and with the chesapeake bay, there is a tremendous amount of likelihood between the flooding, and the tidal surge, that a lot of the lower lying coastal areas, especially in the lower bay, will be inundated. so, this is a big event. we have never in modern times evacuated in a mandatory way ocean city. that evacuation is under way. several of the hundreds of the seasonal workers, sort of the kids here on student visas, have been evacuated for the last 24 hours. we hope by 5:00 p.m. tonight to have everybody out of ocean city, and it is a mand

to mock up what's taught with the ball with the british consul we came to the city has been established the final destination is not far from here at that period defense compound and there they'll be holding a mass rally presenting a number of demands on the government of the civil speakers several popular singers also prayers and in the last week there have been a number of smaller demonstrations that has been held for civil law was earlier this week taxi drivers blocked off a number of main roads they were protesting against the high cost of diesel there was also another protest among teachers university professors and students and they were united under the banner education for all and another demonstration just yesterday we hundreds of parents with strollers took to the streets and they were protesting against the wizened costs and the high costs of having children families well the israeli prime minister. has been surprised by the massive supports these demonstrations and his government is still struggling in terms of how to deal with them essentially what you can hear some people here in israel saying

you can wear them and head to the city of napa because it's becoming a tourist destination after years of being ignored as people head straight to napa slamly wineries -- valley wineries. now take a look. two world class restaurants and several tasting rooms. >> it's nice to have napa actually mean something in napa valley. >> visitors say they like the atmosphere, good weather, and ease of getting around. the businesses are going out of their way to show tourists don't need to be at the winery to get the feel of napa. they hope the redevelopment of downtown will strengthen the local economy making even more upgrades possible. >>> today volunteers will build a new playground in south san francisco. the new facility is going up at orange memorial park. the project is part of the let's play effort which is backed by the dr. pepper snap l group. volunteers listen to this will start working at 8:30 this morning. they expect to be done in time for ribbon counting at 3:00 this afternoon. >>> tvs and lightbulbs blown out. the unusual power outage some people in the bay area are experiencing r

in 2010, new york city enacted similar legislation and tour bus destinations around the world have been using headphones systems for years. also notably, recently in san francisco, there's a precedent, one of the major tour bus companies switched entirely over to headphones systems. as the legislation is currently written, it goes into effect in july of 2011, so obviously we have to make that amendment. and we will be meeting with representatives from different tour bus operators in the next few weeks to come up with some ideas of when a good sound and reasonable implementation timeline, what that would look like. new york city gave their companies a five-year window to implement the changes with percentages every year of how much the fleets had to be moved over to loud speakers. but in san francisco, because we don't have a permitting system like new york city does, we sort of -- we just have to choose a date and we can't phase it in. so last week, i had the opportunity to meet with a policy committee and they made several recommendations, all of which the sponsor is very open to. i'm

city today to launch this program. san francisco has been a top destination for chinese travelers for many years.t is imbued in the chinese culture and home to one of the largest chinese population is in the americas. therefore, is vital task today is the participation of the city and the honorable meier, -- mayoe, edwin lee. he sees the opportunity for travel and tourism and places part to welcome chinese guests to san francisco along with the rest of the world. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mayor lee. [applause] >> -- mayor lee: thank you. good morning. i am year to congratulate the hilton for such a wonderful job in creating this program because it complements what we have actually seen in our city, our great city of san francisco. as you know, we have been courting the chinese tourists and chinese business people for quite some many years and working very closely with our heads of travel, we have just finished what of the greatest international powwows -- one of the greatest international powwows that we have ever hosted in our city. we thank the hotel leaders in our city. we had such

destination. many are taking a position of next bus technology now in use around the city. updated at regular intervals from the comfort of their home or workplace. next bus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track buses and trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a greater sense that they can count on you to get to their destination on time. the next bur

destination on time. the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button. >> the success of these tests led to the expansion of the program to all stations on the light rail and is part of the new shelter contract, push to talk will be installed. check out the new technology making your right easier every day good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the commonwealth club in formed division, connect your intellect. that is our tagline. i am the president of the inform board. tonight, we have larry hardy. the founder of burning man and he is here to talk about the amazing place and phenomenon known as black rock city. he is one of the original planners and architects. we are going to talk about the path of burning man, the future as well. before we jump into the question that had to do with what is going on,