Frustrating when i, myself, when i called 911, i got the busy signal. The mayor of oakland promising to fix the 911 dispatch issues after our Investigative Unit exposed the problem. The city has the second worst Response Time in the state of california. And a new covid booster is available as soon as this week, but should you get it . Were talking to one of our experts from ucsf. And whats it going to take to change things in San Francisco . A new Political Group is taking a different approach to clean up the city. Good evening. Im raj mathai. Thanks for being with us on this emotional night across america. Well show you whats happening locally and nationally on this september 11th. But we want to start with this huge mess weve been following in San Francisco. Take a look at that, that giant sinkhole in the cal hollow neighborhood after a water main break. Our skyranger was overhead. The San FranciscoPublic UtilitiesCommission Says two water mains broke last night around 11 00, sending a rush of water right down fillmore street. The pressure from those breaks also washed out truckloads of dirt and sand beneath the pavement. Thats what created this sinkhole. One man tells us he first thought it was raining because of the sound of the water rushing down the street. It was like a waterfall, and it was loud. Then it was like for a good hour. Then this morning, i was woken up because of the machinery and the drilling and all the trucks. A lot going on in cal hollow. At least 115 homes and businesses were impacted by the flooding and silt that washed onto their properties. Crews were on scene concerned the shifting soil might break gas lines as well. More illegal sideshows popping up in the bay area. The latest one in vallejo. Police say it went on for hours and reached a new level of danger. This was last night. Multiple cars spinning out, doing donuts as hundreds of people cheering. The sideshow started at the intersection of louis brown drive and minnie drive, then moved over to lemon and sonoma. One man appeared to get grazed by one of the spinning cars here, knocking him to the ground. People who live in the area say this activity is now happening several times a week, and its getting more dangerous. They say police and the city of vallejo wont do anything to stop it. This is getting a little too old. You know, i think Law Enforcement has got to take care of business. The city has got to take care of business. The issue we had last night were our lack of staffing, our lack of resources, and other calls for service that had higher priority. So what exactly happened last night . Well, after it ended, shots were reportedly fired, and thats when the crowd dispersed. Gunshots. Police say they got there after and say they didnt get any reports of any injuries. Another headline that we are following. A day and a night that we will all remember painfully. Today marks 22 years since the world changed forever. September 11th, 2001. This is a live look right now in new york city. A lot of remembrance ceremonies held there today, especially at ground zero, where the twin towers once stood. Here in the bay area, two south bay schools continued to honor former students who died on september 11th that day or in the wars that followed. At captain jason dahl elementary in san jose, students learned about their schools namesake. Dahl was the pilot on united flight 93 from newark, new jersey, to sfo. Crew and passengers fought back, crashing that plane into an empty field in pennsylvania, presumably saving a lot of lives on the ground. Dahl attended the school, which was renamed after him in 2002. And at san joses leland high school, former student pat tillman is being remembered. The football stadium there named after him. Tillman gave up his football career in the nfl after september 11th to serve his country in the u. S. Army. After multiple deployments, he was killed in 2004 by friendly fire in afghanistan. A number of people from the bay area were killed on september 11th. The list includes many of their names here. Another hero being remembered today, San Franciscos betty ong. She was a Flight Attendant on American Airlines flight 11 which was the first plane to hit the north tower. Ong was the first person to notify authorities about the hijackin a relayed critical information authe hijackers, likely saving countless lives. Betty ong grewp in San Franciscos chinatown. Her legacy lives on. The Chinese Recreation Center was renamed the Betty Ong Recreational Center in 2011. Also tonight, a step in the right direction for oakland. Our Investigative Unit exposed the city has the second worst 911 answering rate in the state. Today oakland is finally addressing its outdated and failing system. This is an issue that weve been reporting on since july. The average answering time for a 911 call in oakland is nearly a minute long. We also learned potentially thousands of people arent even reaching dispatchers. Last year alone, oakland had more than 50,000 abandoned 911 calls. Thats double the number from a year before. This morning, mayor sheng thao and other city leaders announced oakland will spend 2. 5 million to upgrade that 911 system and hire more staff. The mayor says this is how shes moving her city forward on an issue that shes personally experienced. You know, its really frustrating that when i, myself, when i called 911, i got the busy signal. And so for me, i take this very seriously. Will these changes bring down the 911 answering times in oakland, and if they will, when . Absolutely. You know, everything that were working towards is to really bring down that closing that gap. I wish that it would be tomorrow. We know that systems dont change overnight. You see that reporter asking the questions. Thats our Investigative Reporter candice nguyen, who exposed those problems earlier this summer. You spoke with the mayor directly today. Whats the exact issue with that 911 system . Right now it is those long answering times that she says is caused, one, by staffing issues as well as outdated technology. A civil grand jury report found city leaders, former and current, have failed to upgrade year after year. So the mayor says 2. 5 million will go towards upgrading the system and for staffing. Im a little cynical here. 2. 5 million doesnt seem like a lot. Yet to be seen. We know the first thing theyre going to spend it on is recruitment. They have 16 openings. They need to fill them. But is it enough . I hear you, raj. I do know oakland when it comes to those expensive 911 software upgrades, oakland is years behind. Were going to keep an eye on that. We pay taxes, you and i and everyone watching presumably, to bolster and staff emergency services. Where is our money going . As of recent years, were paying a 30 cent 911 surcharge on our monthly phone bills. You can see it there. Every month, per line. Thats supposed to go to our 911 systems as well as to reimburse 911 local centers when it comes to equipment and training. We did the math. Californians paid about 1 billion or more into the system over the years, but in our investigation just last night, we found that state monitoring of these public funds and of these local centers is seriously lacking. Is this not just an oakland problem, but oakland seems to be leading the pack here in a category they dont want to be leading. When it comes to staffing and long wait times, were hearing from industry experts. It is an industrywide, nationwide problem. We looked at the data here in california. In many call centers, they are answering them within the 15second standard. Oakland is an outlier here in california. 60 seconds compared to 15 seconds. Yes. Four times the state standard. Thank you, candice. I know youll stay on this story. Are you ready for the next covid shot . The new booster shots for covid might be available as soon as this week. Today the fda approved the pfizer and moderna boosters. The cdc is expected to do the same, approve it as soon as tomorrow. The new booster is formulated to target the xbb1. 5 omicron subvariant. You probably dont know what that is. This is actually not the most common strain right now, but its closely related to the ones that are. Anyone 5 years or older is eligible to get this new booster shot. Right now, both california and the bay area experiencing a covid surge. This is the statewide positivity rate. Remember when we used to do these stats . This is the perntage of people who a testing positive for covid right now. 14 almost. Its one of the highest levels weve seen since the pandemic began. Joining us now, one of our covid experts, dr. Peter chinhong from ucsf. Dr. Chinhong, nice to see you. Tell me, why get this booster . What are you telling your patients, your family, and your friends . Well, the way i think about it, raj, is that ill ask the folks who are older than 65 and those who are immune compromised of any age to go ahead and get it as soon as its available, particularly if you havent had a vaccine in the last six months or gotten infected. I think for everybody else, try to get it with your flu shot anytime before halloween will peak your antibodies for what we expect a larger amount of cases during the winter. This will be a separate shot. I get my flu shot and also this covid booster, so two different shots, right . Yeah, two different shots. You could get it at the same time. In the future, we hope youll just have one needle and two vaccines. So you just have to get stuck once. Dr. Chinhong, what are you seeing now at ucsf, your own hospital . So i think, you know, we arent seeing as many cases in the community convert to hospitalizations. So we would expect to be seeing, like, 100 now because, again, from wastewater, it looks like a very high level of covid as evidenced by a test positivity rate. But the number of admissions and people in the hospital, although people are still getting sick, is about 20. So, again, it speaks to the fact that people are getting ill but not to the level as we saw in the winter or one year ago, when its probably about 10 of what we would expect. Thats good news. A final question for you. Heres a big change now. The federal government i know youre not an insurance guy. Youre a doctor, but well ask you. The federal government no longer paying for these covid shots, about 120. Whether insurance is paying for me or not, will this discourage a lot of people from getting that shot . I think the uncertainty will make people wonder whether or not its going to be paid. But do realize that there are programs that cover people who dont have any insurance. It should really be free. Theres a bridge in california at least until the end of the year. Everyone should be getting it for free regardless of insurance status. Dr. Peter chinhong, appreciate your time and expertise. Have a good evening. Bye, raj. Up next, new information about that that Mysterious Group trying to build a brandnew city in Solano County. Theyve been conducting a survey. Well show you what it reveals. Also, is this the last year for dreamforce in San Francisco . Marc benioffs comments that Marc Benioffs comments that caught the attention of a lot of wendys new breakfast 2 for 3 is so good, the crew is giving every combination codenames. I got that saucbis and some taytays. Egg man and saucy boy. Two hot coffees. No matter what you call it, wendys breakfast is that breakfast. Choose wendys new 2 for 3 biggie bundles. This story that we continue to follow is fascinating. We have new information about that Mysterious Group planning to build a whole new city in the bay area. Last month we broke the news of a survey going out to residents of Solano County, hinting at this idea. Since then, weve learned not only is the plan real, its also backed by some of silicon valleys richest investors. That plan is to build a new city right next to Travis Air Force base. The group called itself California Forever. As weve reported, that survey went out last month by email and by phone. California forever says the goal was to hear how Solano County residents feel about the future. Among the key findings here, many people are worried about the direction Solano County is going in. Of the 1,400 people surveyed, 29 felt it was going in the wrong direction, right there. 39 said their feelings were mixed. One big issue here, affordability. The survey found 70 of people believe that kids in Solano County wont be able to live in the same neighborhood where they grew up. Really goes for many counties around here. Since going public with the plan, the man spearheading this new city has been meeting with Solano County leaders, including congressman John Garamendi and the mayor of fairfield. That developer gave us an exclusive interview a few days ago. Are you just as excited about this project now that youve met with leaders . Oh, im much more excited. I think that weve always felt that once we Start Talking to people and they see that we are committed to the community and its going to be run here locally. Local leaders we spoke to about this project tell us the plan, theyre going to keep close tabs on the situation, close tabs on the Development Plans and that California Forever has a long way to go to build trust there in the county. Get ready. Here they come. Thousands of people heading to San Francisco for the annual dreamforce conference, which starts tomorrow. This years event is all about a. I. But with all the recent talk about problems in downtown San Francisco, including the homeless crisis and the crime issues, there are serious concerns that salesforces biggest event of the year, dreamforce, might find a new home in the future. Yeah, dreamforce could leave town. Those concerns actually come fr. The ceo of salesforce, marc benioff. In a recentntview with the chronicle, benioff said, quote, if this dreamforce is impacted Current Situation with homelessness and drug use, it may be the last dreamforce in the city. Theres a lot of attention in San Francisco. We know this. Not just from city hall or from our elected leaders but also from outside Political Groups and, of course, the national media. One of those groups is the newly formed we San Francisco. The person behind it is working to recruit Community Members who want to make a difference. Joining us now is ben kaplan, founder of we San Francisco. Ben, nice to have you on the program. You know this. There are plenty of other groups out there trying to do similar things youre doing to make San Francisco cleaner and safer. Why is your Group Different . Well, thanks for having me, raj. One thing is that i dont know if you can feel it, but in San Francisco, there is this palpable, Creative Energy of people now. And the idea is a communityled movement. So if you were here in 2017, you know, the city was bustling, it was booming and maybe you didnt have to get involved. But all of the people i talk to now, who maybe werent engaged in the city, werent involved in politics, now are like, we have to get involved. This is unacceptable, the current state of public safety, civic disorder, government accountability. So whats unique about if is its purely a communityled movement of people almost, to paraphrase jfk, ask not what your city can do for you. Ask what you can do for your city. And hundreds and now thousands of people are standing up and saying, i want to do something to improve San Francisco. Im a graphic designer. Im an accountant. Im an organizer. What can i do . And were trying to provide a mechanism to do that. Ben, i agree with you. I think most people watching do agree with you. We want San Francisco back to that great city it always is and was. You say people want to sign up and join your movement. How . Are you just going on the street corners . How are you recruiting these people and what specific things are you guys doing . Sure. One of the first things we did was we said, lets rebuild a sense of community in San Francisco. So we went to all the people and said, congratulations. You didnt move away. Youre committed to being here. Lets get together. We started getting hundreds of people at everything as simple as happy hours and special events. Then in all of those events, we said, who wants to do more than that . We want to rebuild a sense of community, but what about this . What if we go to 15,000 san franciscans, we go door to door and large events and festivals and actually tell, what is the will of the people . It doesnt have to be elected leaders always or appointed leaders always leading this. What if we did our own census and actually said, this is neighborhood by neighborhood, district by district, this is what the people want. Why cant we, the people, the first three words that the u. S. Constitution, why cant we release our own budget . If we feel like the budget needs to be a total revamp, to look at how are we spending money, how are we prioritizing, how are we effective, why do we have to wait for the mayor to propose a budget . Why cant we, the people, do it . Whats interesting is every few weeks, were doubling in size. We ive never seen so many people who are like, i want to volunteer to do something because i care so much about San Francisco. So many people care. We feel your energy and excitement here. Why not combine with other groups, grow s. F. Is trying to do something similar. Youre trying to do something. Have you all talked about, hey, were trying to work on the same thing. Lets combine our forces . Absolutely. What were doing, were actually in a meeting with a lot of these groups. Every couple of weeks we all sync, we all align. I think the key premise of this is, do you want reform for San Francisco . If you want the status quo, if you think things are fine the way it is, probably youre not aligned with us. If youre a group, an individual, an organization, if youre someone whos never been involved before but youre like, the status quo does not work, we need to change things, and we cant wait. This is the biggest thing, i think, motivating the group. We cant wait five years, seven years, ten years. No, this is a generational moment right now. 2024 is a big election year. 2023, were going to create the road that were going to drive down in 2024 so we can take action now. I think the idea is dont reinvent the wheel. Dont duplicate work of other groups but align it into one unified voice. In the next several months, any big march, any flagship event youre planning . Theres a lot coming up. You dont have to wait until the next few months. This friday if you go to we San Francisco. Org, were actually having a united kind of Community Event at press club in San Francisco, where were bringing out a lot of people. Its a social event, but theres always kind of a hint of what we can do next. And actually coming up later this month, were doing all of these individual meetups at houses, at businesses in every district. So theres lots of ways to get involved, and then well have some really big events coming up maybe, like you said, a few months down the road. All right, ben. Keep us posted. Appreciate your time. Thanks so much, raj. Take care. Lets take you outside. Jeff ranieri is going to join us with our forecastn this o okay. Happy monday. Jeff ranieri joins us now to kick off our week. Im really liking this weather. Its just amazing outside. We had that blue sky, a little bit of heat across the inland valleys but not too hot. On the satellite radar picture, we were tracking remnants of hurricane jova. Its still out here in the pacific. Let me show you whats on the way. We did have some popup thunderstorms this weekend. A little bit of humidity on saturday. Again, hurricane jova has weakened but some of that midlevel moisture still making it up into central and southern california. So through tonight, we are expecting some popup storms that are likely down here in southern california. Again, for us, were dry. But well continue to monitor that radar. As we roll through tomorrow mornings forecast, temperatures in the 50s with a little bit of fog to start. Then for the afternoon, sunshine returns. Well go a little bit cooler but still going to keep us in that comfortable range. Up to santa rosa, 83. Concord, 84. 82 in san jose. 70s oakland to palo alto. 60s for the coastline. The other thing were tracking this week is hurricane lee. It will stay parallel to the atlantic seaboard through this week. Then by saturday, were looking for landfall anywhere from boston up to halifax, nova scotia. So by saturday and sunday of this weekend, certainly some airport delays on the way with that storm. Right here in the sevenday forecast, 80s through sundays forecast. Then by next monday, going down to 78. So this is just going to be some nice weather to get outside and enjoy it. Also all those people coming in for the big dreamforce conference as well. Coming up here on nbc in prime time tonight, the finals of american Ninja Warrior from las vegas at 8 00. Thats followed by weakest link at 10 00. Hopefully youll join us for our 11 00 newscast as well. Thats going to do it for us at 7 00. For everyone here at nbc bay area, including our director, will adams, thank you for my name is caron and im from brooklyn. I work for the city of new york as a police administrator. I oversee approximately 20 people and my memory just has to be sharp. I always hear people say, you know, when you get older, you know, people lose memory. I didnt want to be that person. I decided to give prevagen a try. My memory became much sharper. I remembered more ive been taking prevagen for four years now. Prevagen. At stores everywhere without a prescription. Tonight on access hollywood. The person we knew for 25 years. Almost universally everyone panned that apology video. After supportive words for convicted rapist Danny Masterton created a