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 A23A
 YWC
FRIDAY,OCTOBER16, 2009
Bay Area com-muters can expectan increase of atleast $1 in the costof crossing all sev-en local tollbridges beginning July 1,transportation officials say.The Bay Area Toll Authority,which manages the bridges, isexpected to make a decision inJanuary on how to close a pro- jected annual budget gap of $140 million. Every option be-fore theauthorityraises tollsfor passenger cars by $1, to $5.In addition, members of theagency’s staff say they areleaning toward a first-timecharge of $3 for car pools.And if you use the BayBridge, brace yourself for thepossibility of a $6 rush-hourtoll.Bay Area resi-dents are joiningin a countrywidescramble to re-finance or take outnew mortgages,local bankers say, as interestrates continue their enticingdownward slide. As rates on30-year fixed mortgagesdropped below 5 percent, re-financing applications haveflooded in, said Brad Black-well, a Danville-based salesmanager for Wells Fargo.“We’ve seen as much vol-ume in the last three weeks aswe’ve ever had,” Mr. Black-wellsaid. In Antioch and Fair-field, sharp plunges in homevalues have pre-empted refi-nancings and there has been asurge in home sales, he added.Most owners choosing tosell are still finding prices de-pressed. Figures releasedThursday by DQ Newsshowed the median price of ahome sold in Solano Countywas 24.5 percent lower lastmonth than in September2008. In Napa County, the dropwas 18 percent; in Contra Cos-ta County, 12.7 percent;in San-ta Clara County, 11 percent.San Francisco home values,down 3.7 percent, fell the least.As Gov. ArnoldSchwarzeneggersigned a bill onSunday requiringutilities to buyback renewableenergy from private producersat above-market prices, envi-ronmental groups and renew-able-energy companies pre-pared for the fight over wherethe new price will be set.The more utilities pay forthe energy, the more likelythere will be a surge in solar-panel installations, thoughbills might rise, too. Currently,utilities pay roughly 12 centsper kilowatt-hour, and solaradvocates want the PublicUtilities Commission to makeit 20 cents for facilities gener-ating threemegawatts or less.That could increase annualsolar-energy production to 750megawatts, up from today’s 14megawatts, said Bernadettedel Chiaro, a lobbyist with En-vironment California.Cindy Pollard, a PG&Espokeswoman, said the utilitypreferreda price set by auc-tion. PG&E will also argue thatits purchase costs should notexceed a predetermined total.
GERRY SHIH
INDICATORS
ConsumersPay the Price
The consumer price index inthe Bay Area has remained flatin this recessionary year,though grocery costs dipped 3.1 percent and electricity rose 13.1 percent, the Bureau of LaborStatistics reported Thursday.Here are other developmentsaffecting local pocketbooks.
TOLLSHOUSINGPOWER
By JESSE McKINLEY
Anthony W. Batts was enjoyinga successful run as the head of the Long Beach police when aheadhunter called last winter andasked if the chief’s job in Oaklandhad any appeal. Mr. Batts said no.Then, he said, came March 21,when a recently released parolee,Lovelle Mixon, shot and killedfour Oakland police officers andcemented the city’s reputation asthe violent crime capital of theBay Area.Sitting at the officers’ funeral,Mr. Batts said, he changed hismind. “I decided that I’d like tohelp,” he said.On Monday morning,Mr. Battswill start one of the toughest jobsin American lawenforcement,taking over a department de-moralized by itslosses and dis-trusted by many it is charged toprotect.While his task is straightfor-ward — get his officers to believein him and themselves and gethis community to do the same —the problems are complex: a cityalready dealing with underper-forming schools, an entrenchedcrack cocaine trade, deadlygangs and a 17 percent unem-ployment rate. Never mind thesurfeit of parolees and probation-ers who are often entangled in vi-olent crimes.There are fewer than 800 offi-cers in this city of 404,000. LongBeach, a city of 465,000, has morethan 1,000. In Oakland, the forceoperates under a cloud. The be-havior of a group of rogue offi-cers a decade ago led to years of federal oversight, and the citycontinues to pay millions eachyear to settle police-related law-suits. Other Bay Area cities havetheir own crime dramas — a newchief in San Francisco, charges of racial profiling by the police inSan Jose, the Jaycee Dugard casein Antioch — but Oakland’s oceanof problems seems wider anddeeper. AndOakland officials sayit is exactly Mr. Batts’s record of managing several problems atonce that appealed to them.“I wanted a police chief thatwas committed to reform, com-mitted to community policing,and one that recognized that pub-lic safety is a multidimensionalproblem,” Mayor Ron Dellumssaid. “We are not going to arrestour way out of this.”Mr. Batts’s crime-fightingrecord is impressive. In sevenyears as the chief in Long Beach,he helped drive down the violentcrime rate to its lowest level innearly 40 years.Long Beach and Oakland areboth busy port cities with blue-collar rootsand almost identicalpoverty levels. Each has largewhite, black, Asian and Latinocommunities. Mr. Dellums calledthem mirror images.“But when you look at thecrime rate,” Mr. Battssaid, “theyare upside down.”Not that the force isn’t trying,and having some success. In fact,with the notable exception of rape, which is up 14 percentfromthis time last year, Oakland hasactually seen double-digit crimereductions thus far in 2009, in-cluding murder (down 19 percentfrom 2008), robbery (down 18percent), arson (down 27 per-cent), larceny (15 percent) andauto theft (23 percent), andsmaller reductions in assault andburglary.But how will Mr. Batts keep thecrime rate going down while con-vincing city residents that the po-lice force is on their side? Itseems almost certain that he willcall for an expansion of communi-ty policing. It is an idea that Oak-land has tried and even under-written — with a 2004 ballotmeasure that resulted in 63 new“problem-solving” officers — butthat Mr. Dellums wants Mr. Battsto expand.“He understands how to do iton the ground,” the mayor said.That said, veterans of big-citypolicing say the mayor must alsodo his part. “You need the politi-cal will to get it done,” said How-ard Safir, the former New YorkCity police commissioner. “Youneed the guy at your back.”In a 2006 article for the F.B.I.Law Enforcement Bulletin, Mr.Batts and Cynthia Renaud out-lined his approach in LongBeach. In particular, he suggest-ed that quality-of-life crimes likevandalism be more vigorouslypursued by patrol divisions thatdraw on diverse skills, like thoseof nuisance abatement officers.In one case he cited, officersand community leaders in LongBeach sealed off and collectivelymonitored a crime-plagued pe-destrian bridge. Crime theredropped, he wrote.Some of these ideas have beenused to varying degrees in Oak-land. But senior members of thedepartment say they expect big-ger changes. “Any time you havea change at an executive level, inany organization, you have achance for new ideasand new be-ginnings,” said Howard A. Jor-dan, the acting police chief.Among the rank and file, mean-while, the appointment of Mr.Batts — an outsider — has beenmet with guarded optimism.“Is he going to be a crime fight-er or is he going to be a poli-tician?” said Sgt. Dom Arotzare-na, the president of the OaklandPolice Officers Association, the
 New Oakland Police Chief Inherits a Force, and a City, in Turmoil 
JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kevin Arias investigated shooting deaths in East Oakland on Oct. 8. The city is considered the violent crime capital of the area.
Continued on Following Page
98058088013
 
13
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As of Wednesday,there were 89homicides inOakland, down from110 during the sameperiod last year.
HomicidesIn 2009
Source: Oakland Police Department 
Oakland
CALIFORNIA
AlamedaPiedmontSan Leandro
1 mile
The phones wouldn’t stop ring-ing at the office of San Francis-co’s assessor-recorder. A be-sieged clerk repeated the samewords over and over: “It’s toolate to appeal.”Property tax billsarrived in San Fran-cisco last week. De-spite the recessionand plummetinghome prices, home-owners are learning that theirproperty values are up, alongwith their taxes.Call it the 2-percent solution.Assessors all over Californiahave been addicted to it since1978 when Proposition 13 cappedassessment increases. The mostany property value could rise, of-ficially, was 2 percent a year.Since then,nearly every prop-erty assessment automaticallygoes up 2 percent annually, evenif property values are down.So when Jon Stuber opened aletter in July saying the value of his home had increased, his firstreaction was, “No,it didn’t!”Two years ago,Mr. Stuber lefta rundown rental, took his lifesavings and bought a few-frillscondo at 15th and Mission. It israre to be a first-time homeownerin one of the world’s most expen-sive cities. Mr. Stuber, originallyfrom modest circumstances inrural Maine, lives a frugal, Hulu-instead-of-cable lifestyle.We have been friends since hemoved here a dozen years ago,and I watched him go from sling-ing hash in a restaurant to man-aging projects for a biotech firm.He has done hard labor for every-thing he owns. I was proud of himthe day he closed on that condo.Mr. Stuber bought it in 2007 for$610,000. No one thinks it is worththat much in 2009, but the citysent him an assessment of $634,642.“I’m going to fight,” he vowed.“I pretty much found out myproperty is about $100,000 less.”Mr. Stuber is not alone. Theyare still processing the mael-strom of mail at City Hall, but thiscould be a record year of about6,500 property assessment ap-peals, on par with the recessionof 1993. Inspired by my friend’soutrage, I studied my own as-sessment and also filed an ap-peal.Homeowners are armed withstatistics from Web sites likeZillow.com that show home saleprices down an average of 21 per-cent in San Francisco from 2008to 2009. They want more than justa waiver of the 2 percent. If theyprevail,it will cost the countymore, on some properties, than if there had been no increase.“We try to be fair,” said PhilTing, San Francisco’s assessor-recorder.Mr. Ting did decrease the as-sessments on about 5 percent of the properties in San Francisco— 9,997 parcels. But, he said, “ev-erybody who didn’t get a de-crease went up 2 percent.”Not all assessors take the sameapproach — though, in fairness,property values elsewhere in theregion have taken more of a hitthan those in the city.For instance, Santa ClaraCounty’s tax assessor, LarryStone, reduced the assessmentsof nearly one in four homes. “If Iknow someone is over-assessed,why would I look the other way?”Mr. Stone said.Reductions help those who getthem, but an analysis of homesales data for the 2009 tax yearshows a price drop in every sin-gle San Francisco neighborhood.This explains why people are liv-id.
Up? Is this a joke?
It is certainly not funny if youtry to appeal. To a novice, the pa-perwork reads like Aramaictranslated into gibberish. Thencomes the wait. It is expected totake more than a year to processthe appeals, and homeownersmust pay the contested taxes upfront.Adding to the frustration isthat it is already too late to objectin many counties. There werewarnings, but the problem didnot hit home for many people un-til tax bills arrived — hence theavalanche of incredulous calls toCity Hall.Longtime homeowners areprotected from this mess, sinceProposition 13 guarantees thattheir properties are assessed forless than what they are actuallyworth. But the value of homesbought in San Francisco since2004, and as far back as 2000 inSanta Clara County, is probablydown.For those homeowners, howcan assessors justify any rise?“You’re not required to do a 2percent bump, right?” I askedMr. Ting.He stared at me for an uncom-fortable moment, like I was blam-ing him for the anger homeown-ers feel. Mr. Ting then explainedhow difficult it was to determineaccurate values during this de-cline, but he said taxpayers mightget relief — next year.“There’s talk that there may beno 2 percent across the board,” hesaid.No more 2 percent solution foranyone. What a concept.
The 2-Percent Solution Is One Size That Does Not Fit All 
SCOTTJAMES
BARBARYCOAST
HEIDI SCHUMANN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Jon Stuber is fighting the as-sessment on the condomini-um he bought in 2007.
Scott James is an Emmy-winning television journalist and novelistwho lives in San Francisco.
Starting today, the Bay  Area pages will appear every Friday and Sunday, featur-ing coverage of public af-fairs, commerce, culture andlifestyles in the region, andproviding a complement toThe Times’s national reportin print and online atnytimes.com. We invite your comments at bayarea @nytimes.com.
To Our Readers
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