phil matier. the topic, trust in the city of san francisco. >>> a san anselmo man tried to return money to the edd. i'm michael finney. wait until you see what happened to him. > spencer riiais coming up. all is calm now, but our weather will soon be turning cooler and wetter. like, seeing my mom. it's unthinkable to me that i can't see her and i can't hug her. not being able to hug is just like somebody has to tie me down. touching someone to say i love you, to hug you... those are the things that i miss. ♪ ♪ >>> a san anselmo man tried to do the right thing when edd accidentally overpaid his benefits. now his effort to return the money set off a chain of unfortunate events that he still is trying to unwind months later. 7 on your side's michael finney has his story tonight. michael? >> dan, this construction worker now regrets ever applying for unemployment. once you see his story, you'll understand why. all matthew lombardi can do is laugh about his problem. like many other, he lost his job as a

phil matier. phil, that family's story might have once been considered extreme, leaving the state for school purposes. do you think that's a trend we're going to see more of? >> reporter: well, that is sort of an interesting one. they're actually just staying in colorado until the schools reopen here. they're renting a place there, sort of airbnb. and dan, that sort of is an example, however, of what we are seeing more of. the idea of going out of state for school and then coming back would have seemed far-fetched just a couple of years ago. but then the idea of entire businesses working remotely without getting together for ten months would have seemed absolutely off the charts. but that is the reality we're in. the covid virus has accelerated a lot of things. one of the things it's accelerated is frustration with the state of california. both by businesses and by parents and by individuals just trying to make a living. >> yeah. and phil, we've always heard people talk about leaving the bay area.

abc7 news insider phil matier is listening in, and he is going to break it down for you later in this newscast. you can watch the event live on our abc7 california phones offers free specialized phones... like cordless phones. - ( phone ringing ) - big button, and volume-enhanced phones. get details on this state program. visit right now or call during business hours. people were afraid i was contagious. i felt gross. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx. four years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. learn more at cosentyx.com. let us take you to a place you've been craving. where the aroma of authenticity turns into the scent of home. and the warmth of friends and family is in every bite. h

. >> abc 7 news insider phil matier joining us live now to discuss this issue. , the governor's plan defines what in-person instruction means but it doesn't set a time limit for how many hours a day that they have to meet in person. so do you see this becoming an issue, a problem? >> well, it depends on the school district. as you point out, there's no issue there or at least guideline or even mandate about what constitutes going back to school. is it a half a day five days a week? is it two days a week? is it two hours a day five days a week? what exactly is that going to be? that depends on the school district and is teachers union, what they work out. once again the governor is, as he likes to say, incentivizing. he's basically encouraging sxoolz school districts to go this route in return for getting billions of dollars in extra money. but there's no mandate that they have to. also in there is the idea that the teachers' unions get to sign off on this as well. so while there's no -- he's not picking sides, he's definitely saying everybody in here's got to sti

my colleague phil matier is looking at how to bring downtown back to life. one of the questions i wonder is if you think work from home will continue or enough office workers will come back so they can support all those small businesses serving lunch and all that depend on them. >> raise your hand if you are tired of working from home. it's time to open the city. there is only so much working at home that most people are going to be able to do. it's great to have the option and we want to still be careful, but people want to get back to work the mother want to get back to offices, get back to the ability to walk outside and going to a restaurant or go have drinks after work or go take in a play or some sort of live entertainment. i think gradually, office space is going to begin to repopulate and those businesses will start to reopen. it's just going to take time for us to get used to it. and the vaccine has been playing an incredible role in our ability to reopen. almost 40% of san franciscans over the age of 16 have been vaccinated, we are seeing hospitali

. >> reporter: she spoke exclusive limit with phil matier about how san francisco and the thousands ofpeople who work, live, and shop downtown will find a path forward from this pandemic. phil joins us live now from the newsroom with a bit more. hi there, phil. >> hi. well, you know, the mayor was almost giddy when she announced the city of san francisco would enter the orange tier. allowing many buildings and businesses to significantly increase their capacity, and she is hoping for even the yellow tier in the next couple of weeks. for the city and her, it's been a long year. businesses, workers, residents, we've all struggle to live through this philadelphia financially, emotionally, health-wise. so we talked to her about how we are going to get people back to work, and how retail will survive, as well as tourism and transportation. how are we going to do it safely. >> mayor breed, there are those who say that san francisco's downtown on the verge of dying. what do you say? >> well, i say san francisco is going to come back. this is one of the most significant cities in the bay area.

. >>> coming up next, abc7 news insider, phil matier looks s s office buildings sitting empty. what happens when office workers come back? >> how many people does this building hold? >> more than several thousand. >> more than several thousand. 7 to 10,000 people. ♪ ♪ are you ready to join the duers? those who du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent. the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. du more with less asthma. talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has change

we asked abc7 news insider phil matier what this says about city government. >> this is not a good look because if it hadn't been for city attorne dennis herrera and the feds and cooperation from recology, we'd still be paying it. >> and city attorney says average households will see refunds of 190 bucks and recology says garbage collection rates are going to go down 7% by next montana. >>> happening today several movie theaters back in business around the bay area with enhanced and safety protocols. amc will open five locations. cinemark will also be reopening 10 additional movie theaters, joining three others that were able to open last week. those include the century 20 in daly city. center arts, santana row >>> if you are waiting to go out and do things until you get the vaccine you are definitely not elope. many who want that vaccine are feeling some degree of vaccine envy while we wait for our turn. abc7 news was in walnut creek where a nail saleh lion owner saids they can't build a customer base back until they get a vaccine. now they aren't essential enough to get a vaccine. a p

. >> reporter: abc7 news insider phil matier says this speech took a different tone. >> he was speaking painly to the california people. >> reporter: state republican leaders were not impressed. >> he absolutely has no plan for how to get our kids back in school. he has no plan for how to improve edd and he has no plan on how to get our people vaccinated. >> >> reporter: while the governor managed to take a swipe at his critics pushing his recall. >> the critics throughout with parson power grabs and outdated prejudices and rejecting everything that make california truly great, we say this. we will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and our economy booming again. >> that was dan ashley reporting. the governor also talked about getting kids back to class but didn't give any specific tonls school reopening plan. he said almost 7,000 of the state's 11,000 schools are open or will be soon. >>> happening today. state superintendent of public introduction tony thermen is going to host a meeting for reopening schools safely. including the strategic use of rapid covid-19 testing as a

our contributor phil matier joins us live.ow you have been working on a series on this talking about bringing san francisco back to life. >> it will start tomorrow here on abc7. this is bigger than san francisco. it is how we live our lives going forward. one of the biggest issue is how we work. do we go to the offices we did in the past? or do we stay home? or do we go two or three days a week? what effect does that have on the restaurants and small businesses around your office and mass transit like bart. we talked about that and we hit the streets with that. one of the people we talked with was workforce ceo who have offices in downtown san francisco. working solutions is a micro lender. they have businesses around the bay area. we talked about what they see coming. let's take a look. >> we have grown the stthe stt 20. of the 20, five of them are permanently out of the bay area. >> so you had five leave the bay area. so that leaves you with about 15. how many will come in on any given day? >> we certainly can't put 18 and h

abc7 news contributor phil matier here now with a look at what we can expect to hear.et's start with location. why dodger stadium? >> well, as you said, we're going to hear, but we're also going to see. and dodger stadium is sort of a visual statement that the governor wants to make. why? well, for starter, it holds about 54,000 people, which is roughly the number of people who have passed in california due to the covid viral pandemic. so what he is saying, this is the size of the problem that we faced. this is the price that we have paid so far. there is also a site of a vaccination center, where he was hoping to turn things around, and things appear to be turning around. so in a month or so, he is hoping to have fans return to the empty seats behind him when he speaks at dodger stadium, the overall message being this is a resilient state, a champion state, a and the dodgers are the same, and this is a statement about the resilience of champions. >> so the governor is building this as a different kind of a state of the state address. usually he does it in january. wha