Features

Bay Area Briefs

Staff
Tuesday January 08, 2002

Study projects local economy rebound  

 

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Bay area economy will be on the mend in coming years, springing back from its worst slump in decades, according to a joint study released Monday by three public policy groups. 

The region’s economy will grow at a rate of 4.3 percent to 5.1 percent during the next three to five years, based on projections from the Bay Area Council, the Bay Area Economic Forum and the Association of Bay Area Governments. 

The key to how fast the Bay Area bounces back will depend, in part, on how long it takes the national economy to recover. 

The report found the Bay Area remains the most productive regional economy in the nation, and produces goods and services more efficiently than other areas. 

The report, authored by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co, found that $65,090 worth of goods was produced for every person in the region in 2000. That figure was 84 percent higher than the national average and far outdistanced Boston, which ranked second in producing $42,294 per person. 

The Bay Area’s high cost of living tempered its economic success, the report noted. 

“When you factor in the cost of living, the 84 percent lead in output per capita gets shaved down to 36 percent,” said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Economic Forum. 

 

 

 

 

 

Experts say mass transit systems are terrorist targets 

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area rail and bus systems carry 1.3 million weekday passengers, making them vital economic arteries — and an inviting target for terrorists craving mass casualties, societal disruption and media attention. 

“Terrorists clearly have identified public transportation — whether it’s the subways in Moscow, Paris and London, or Israeli buses — as a killing field, ” said Brian Michael Jenkins, a security expert who co-wrote a new international study to glean the best counterterrorism tactics from Bay Area, London and Tokyo transit systems. 

Issued by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, the study praised BART’s readiness for nuclear, biological and chemical attacks. 

But researchers criticized the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s light-rail and bus lines for being “less concerned with the thought of a terrorist threat than such issues as fare avoidance and graffiti.” 

Officials at the South Bay transit agency countered that the two-year study overlooked the agency’s disaster-response drills and its plans to install security cameras, vehicle-locator and communication technology on all trains and buses. 

 

 

 

Convict claims to be a Temptation  

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Alan Young sings, dances and puts on quite a show when he poses as the former musical director of the Temptations. Trouble is, police say, his unknowing victims get stuck with the tab. 

Young, a 50-year-old parolee from Oakland who has a criminal record dating to 1978, has variously claimed to be Cornelius Grant, the soul group’s one-time musical director, and Ali Ollie Woodson, a former Temptations lead singer, investigators say. 

Young was jailed Dec. 28 and has since pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of fraud and identity theft involving Woodson and Grant and four alleged victims — an art dealer, an attorney, an accountant and a Hayward church choir singer. 

Authorities believe Young took the four for thousands of dollars. 

The real Grant, who is 58 and lives in West Hollywood, is flabbergasted by it all. 

“I think it is amazing that a guy using my name can get onto a private jet, and I’m the real guy and I can’t get a dime,” he said. 

Grant was the Temptations’ musical director for 20 years and co-wrote some of the soul group’s hits, including “I Know I’m Losing You” and “You’re My Everything.” 

 

 

 

Marin foundation may spend out of county 

 

SAN RAFAEL — San Francisco supervisors want the Marin Community Foundation to spend Buck Trust money outside Marin County, and the board has asked the state attorney general to look at how the foundation awards grants. 

However, a resolution approved by the board in August never was sent to the foundation, which distributes the Buck Trust, or to the attorney general. 

It wasn’t until Dec. 19 that foundation chief executive Thomas Peters learned that San Francisco’s elected body had its eye on the foundation’s assets. 

“I was flabbergasted, number one at the content and explicitness of their run at the Buck Trust, but also sort of procedurally amazed that they never saw fit to send the resolution,” Peters said. 

The Buck Trust was left in 1975 by Ross philanthropist Beryl Buck for “charitable, religious or educational purposes in providing care for the needy in Marin and for other nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes.” 

In 1986, the San Francisco Foundation, first distributor of her trust, lost a lengthy legal battle to distribute the money throughout the Bay Area. 

But last August, San Francisco Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval drafted the San Francisco supervisors’ resolution at the request of the Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco public policy and advocacy organization. 

The institute says the foundation is not adequately serving Marin’s poor and needy, and in December asked Attorney General Bill Lockyer to investigate.SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco supervisors want the Marin Community Foundation to spend Buck Trust money outside Marin County, and the board has asked the state attorney general to look at how the foundation awards grants. 

However, a resolution approved by the board in August never was sent to the foundation, which distributes the Buck Trust, or to the attorney general. 

It wasn’t until Dec. 19 that foundation chief executive Thomas Peters learned that San Francisco’s elected body had its eye on the foundation’s assets. 

“I was flabbergasted, number one at the content and explicitness of their run at the Buck Trust, but also sort of procedurally amazed that they never saw fit to send the resolution,” Peters said. 

The Buck Trust was left in 1975 by Ross philanthropist Beryl Buck for “charitable, religious or educational purposes in providing care for the needy in Marin and for other nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes.” 

In 1986, the San Francisco Foundation, first distributor of her trust, lost a lengthy legal battle to distribute the money throughout the Bay Area. 

But last August, San Francisco Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval drafted the San Francisco supervisors’ resolution at the request of the Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco public policy and advocacy organization. 

The institute says the foundation is not adequately serving Marin’s poor and needy, and in December asked Attorney General Bill Lockyer to investigate.SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco supervisors want the Marin Community Foundation to spend Buck Trust money outside Marin County, and the board has asked the state attorney general to look at how the foundation awards grants. 

However, a resolution approved by the board in August never was sent to the foundation, which distributes the Buck Trust, or to the attorney general. 

It wasn’t until Dec. 19 that foundation chief executive Thomas Peters learned that San Francisco’s elected body had its eye on the foundation’s assets. 

“I was flabbergasted, number one at the content and explicitness of their run at the Buck Trust, but also sort of procedurally amazed that they never saw fit to send the resolution,” Peters said. 

The Buck Trust was left in 1975 by Ross philanthropist Beryl Buck for “charitable, religious or educational purposes in providing care for the needy in Marin and for other nonprofit charitable, religious or educational purposes.” 

In 1986, the San Francisco Foundation, first distributor of her trust, lost a lengthy legal battle to distribute the money throughout the Bay Area. 

But last August, San Francisco Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval drafted the San Francisco supervisors’ resolution at the request of the Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco public policy and advocacy organization. 

The institute says the foundation is not adequately serving Marin’s poor and needy, and in December asked Attorney General Bill Lockyer to investigate.