Summer of pet love, SF sleep stats, and gaming parking

Clement parking starts slide

Long under the fixed price of $2.25 per hour, those parking on the Outer Richmond District’s bustling Clement Street will have less of a sure thing in July.

The Richmond District Blog reports that SFMTA staffers let area merchants know last week that as of July 1, parking rates would fluctuate based on demand.

It’s a system that’s been in effect in various spots in San Francisco since 2011, when the SFPark smart meter initiative launched.

According to SFPark’s pricing page, the intention of the system is to “open up parking spaces on each block and reduce circling and double-parking,” which anyone seeking a slot on Clement will confirm is a definite issue.

SFMTA representative Hank Willson tells the Richmond District Blog,“The idea is that rates on very crowded blocks and at very crowded times will go up, while rates at less crowded blocks and times will go down.

That gives people options while helping to keep spaces open on every block: if you really need to park right near your destination, then you can, but you might pay more. If you are looking for cheaper rates, then you can park a block away or come at a lower-demand time.”

That means that thrifty parkers can get a deal if they’re willing to walk a bit.

“During the pilot, we saw that rates could be dramatically different even one block away or around the corner,” says Wilson. “In the Marina, rates on Chestnut area as high as $6.25/hour in the middle of the day on the busiest block, while one block over on Lombard the rates are $1.75/hour.

We see the same differences in Japantown on Post and Geary, or in the Mission on Valencia and Mission. So there’s usually a cheap place to park right around the corner, even if a very popular block gets more expensive.”

Photo by Sharon Mollerus

Sleepy SF

Feeling tired? You’re apparently not alone, a company called Eight would have you believe. A self-described “sleep measurement and improvement system” maker, Eight used data collected from their products to chart “how Americans sleep.”

Their findings include news that residents of Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire sleep the best, while folks in Mississippi, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arizona and Oregon sleep the worst.

Obviously, the grain of salt necessary is enormous, as (again) much of this comes from intel collected by their tracker, a product arguably obscure enough that Apple’s app store says, “We have not received enough ratings to display an average” for the feature.

Here’s their methodology:

Over 1,000 adults ages 25 and up living in the U.S. were surveyed about their sleep habits and patterns, and were asked to rate the quality of their sleep. Eight’s team analyzed these responses in correlation to the true sleep data collected from the company’s Sleep Tracker and Smart Mattress products, which measure over 12 sleep data points including sleep times, toss and turns, deep and light sleep, heart and respiratory rate.

All that said, it’s still interesting to note that, per their report, residents of SF sleep an average of 7 hours and 8 minutes a night—the same length of time as residents of New York City, and far shy of Seattleites, who get a jaw-dropping 8 hours 12 minutes per night.

According to the newest recommendations from the National Sleep Foundation, a group “dedicated to improving health and well-being through sleep education and advocacy,” younger adults (that is, those aged 18-25) should get between 7-9 hours per night, as should “adults” (a separate category! Take that, millennials) aged 26-64.

Nightly sleep of less than six hours is “not recommended” for either group, they say, as the persistent shortfall can have a negative impact on physical and emotional health. They also say that sleeping more that 11 hours a night is not recommended, but maybe they’re just jealous of those who lead lives where that’s even possible in the first place.

Photo via CCCAS

Summer of pet love

While many marketing campaigns piggybacking on the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love range from laughable to worrisome, Contra Costa County’s Animal Services Department is using the peg for a pretty decent cause—connecting homeless pets with adoptive families.

According to the CCCAS, the upcoming Fourth of July weekend is typically their busiest intake (read: animals dumped at the shelter) period of the year. To make room for the influx, as a “Summer of Love” themed promotion, until July 8 the shelter will allow qualified families to adopt an animal without any of the usual fees, which as you can see here can be as high as $284.

You can take a look at the shelter’s adoptable animals here, or meet the pets in person at 4800 Imhoff Place in Martinez, where the shelter is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, with additional 5-7 p.m. adoption hours every Wednesday night.