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San Francisco is set to ban homeless people from living in RVs by adopting strict new parking limits the mayor says are necessary to keep sidewalks clear and prevent trash buildup. The policy, up for final approval by San Francisco supervisors Tuesday, targets at least 400 recreational vehicles in the city of 800,000 people. The RVs serve as shelter for people who can’t afford housing, including immigrant families with kids. Those who live in them say they’re a necessary option in an expensive city where affordable apartments are impossible to find. But Mayor Daniel Lurie and other supporters of the policy say motor homes are not suitable for long-term living and the city has a duty to both provide shelter to those in need and clean up the streets. We absolutely want to serve those families, those who are in crisis across San Francisco, said Kunal Modi, who advises the mayor on health, homelessness and family services. We feel the responsibility to help them get to a stable solution. And at the same time, we want to make sure that that stability is somewhere indoors and not exposed in the public roadway. Critics of the plan, however, say that it’s cruel to force people to give up their only home in exchange for a shot at traditional housing when there is not nearly enough units for all the people who need help; the mayor is only offering additional money to help 65 households. Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, says city officials are woefully behind on establishing details of an accompanying permit program, which will exempt RV residents from parking limits so long as they are working with homeless outreach staff to find housing. I think that theres going to be people who lose their RVs. I think theres going to be people who are able to get into shelter, but at the expense” of people with higher needs, like those sleeping on a sidewalk, she said. San Francisco, like other U.S. cities, has seen an explosion in recent years of people living out of vehicles and RVs as the cost of living has risen. Banning oversized vehicles is part of Lurie’s pledge to clean up San Francisco streets, and part of a growing trend to require homeless people to accept offers of shelter or risk arrest or tows. Strict new rules The proposal sets a two-hour parking limit citywide for all RVs and oversized vehicles longer than 22 feet (7 meters) or higher than 7 feet (2 meters), regardless of whether they are being used as housing. Under the accompanying permit program, RV residents registered with the city as of May are exempt from the parking limits. In exchange, they must accept the city’s offer of temporary or longer-term housing, and get rid of their RV when it’s time to move. The city has budgeted more than half a million dollars to buy RVs from residents at $175 per foot. The permits will last for six months. People in RVs who arrive after May will not be eligible for the permit program and must abide by the two-hour rule, which makes it impossible for a family in an RV to live within city limits. It first cleared the Board of Supervisors last week with two of 11 supervisors voting no. RV dwellers can’t afford rent Carlos Perez, 55, was among RV residents who told supervisors at a hearing this month that they could not afford the city’s high rents. Perez works full-time as a produce deliveryman and supports his brother, who lives with him and is unable to work due to a disability. We dont do nothing wrong. We try to keep this street clean, he said, as he showed his RV recently to an Associated Press journalist. Its not easy to be in a place like this. Yet, Perez also loves where he lives. The green-colored RV is decorated with a homey houseplant and has a sink and a tiny stove on which Carlos simmered a bean soup on a recent afternoon. He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 30 years, roughly a decade of which has been in the RV in the working-class Bayview neighborhood. He can walk to work and it is close to the hospital where his brother receives dialysis multiple times a week. Zach, another RV resident who requested being identified by his first name to not jeopardize his ability to get work, started living in the vehicle a dozen years ago after realizing that no matter how hard he worked, he still struggled to pay rent. Now he works as a ride-hail driver and pursues his love of photography. He parks near Lake Merced in the city near the Pacific Ocean and pays $35 every two to four weeks to properly dispose of waste and fill the vehicle with fresh water. He says Lurie’s plan is shortsighted. There is not enough housing available and many prefer to live in an RV over staying at a shelter, which may have restrictive rules. For Zach, who is able-bodied, maintains a clean space and has no dependents, moving to a shelter would be a step down, he says. Still, he expects to receive a permit. If housing were affordable, there is a very good chance I wouldnt be out here, he said. City recently closed its only RV lot RV dwellers say San Francisco should open a safe parking lot where residents could empty trash and access electricity. But city officials shuttered an RV lot in April, saying it cost about $4 million a year to service three dozen large vehicles and it failed to transition people to more stable housing. The mayor’s new proposal comes with more money for beefed-up RV parking enforcement but also an additional $11 million, largely for a small number of households to move to subsidized housing for a few years. Officials acknowledge that may not be sufficient to house all RV dwellers, but notes that the city also has hotel vouchers and other housing subsidies. Erica Kisch, CEO of nonprofit Compass Family Services, which assists homeless families, says they do not support the punitive nature of the proposal but are grateful for the extra resources. Its recognition that households should not be living in vehicles, that we need to do better for families, and for seniors and for anyone else who’s living in a vehicle,” she said. San Francisco can do better, certainly. Janie Har and Terry Chea, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Coca-Cola said Tuesday it will add a cane-sugar version of its trademark cola to its U.S. lineup this fall, confirming a recent announcement by President Donald Trump. Trump said in a social media post last week that Coca-Cola had agreed to use real cane sugar in its flagship product in the U.S., which has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup since the 1980s. Coke didn’t immediately confirm the change, but promised new offerings soon. On Tuesday, Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said Coke will expand its product range to reflect consumer interest in differentiated experiences. We appreciate the presidents enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand, Quincey said in a conference call with investors Tuesday. We are definitely looking to use the whole tool kit of available sweetening options.” Quincey noted that Coke uses cane sugar in some other U.S. drinks, like its Simply brand lemonade and Honest Tea. Coke has also sold Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar, in the U.S. since 2005. Were always looking for opportunities to innovate and see whether theres an intersection of new ideas and where consumer preferences are evolving, Quincey said. Its a good sign that the industry, including ourselves, are trying lots of different things. Rivals PepsiCo and Dr Pepper have been selling versions of their trademark colas sweetened with cane sugar in the U.S. since 2009. Asked if Coke would also consider introducing a prebiotic version of its trademark cola as PepsiCo did this week Quincey said the company is currently selling a Coke with added fiber in Japan and is studying consumer response to it. Quincey said consumer demand for its products improved in the second quarter in many markets, including China, Europe, Africa and North America. I would I would say overall that the global economy and the global consumer remains resilient, Quincey said. But early monsoons and conflict hurt demand in India, and Quincey said demand in Thailand and Indonesia was also weaker than expected. Quincey also said lower-income consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere have also pulled back on spending. Global case volumes of Coca-Cola fell 1%. Juice, dairy and plant-based beverages fell 4%, Coke said. Sports drink case volumes were down 3%, as higher demand in North America was offset by declines in Latin America. One bright spot was Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, which saw case volumes grow 14%. Traditional Coca-Cola still far outsells the zero-sugar variety, but consumer demand for zero-sugar versions is growing much more quickly. In North America, case volumes fell 1%, but that was an improvement from the first quarter, when they were down 3%. Quincey said Hispanic sales in the U.S. returned to normal levels by the end of June. They had plummeted starting in February, when a social media video began circulating that claimed Coke was reporting its own workers to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Quincey said the claim was false. The company has been trying to win back Hispanic consumers with targeted deals and ads touting the companys local economic impact. It was still a headwind in the second quarter but the issue is now largely resolved, Quincey said Tuesday. Coca-Cola reported better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter as higher prices offset the weaker volumes. Coke said pricing rose 6% globally. Revenue for the Atlanta company rose 1% to $12.5 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, quarterly revenue was $12.6 billion. That was in line with Wall Streets forecast, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Net income jumped 58% to $3.8 billion. Coke’s adjusted net income was 87 cents, which was higher than the 83 cents Wall Street forecast. Coke said it now expects full-year adjusted earnings to grow 8%. At the start of the year, Coke had expected earnings to grow 8% to 10%, but in April it lowered that range to 7% to 9%. Coke earned $2.88 per share in 2024. Shares of Coca-Cola Co. were down 1% in early trading Tuesday. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
Wall Street is hanging near its records on Tuesday following some mixed profit reports, as General Motors and other big U.S. companies give updates on how much President Donald Trumps tariffs are hurting or helping them. The S&P 500 was shaving 0.1% off its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 44 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.4% after setting its own record. General Motors dropped 5.8% despite reporting a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. The automaker said its still expecting a $4 billion to $5 billion hit to its results over 2025 because of tariffs and that it hopes to mitigate 30% of that. GM also said it will feel more pain because of tariffs in the current quarter than it did during the spring. That helped to offset big gains for some homebuilders after they reported stronger profits for the spring than Wall Street had forecast. D.R. Horton rallied 14.5%, and PulteGroup rose 9.2%. That was even as both companies said homebuyers are continuing to deal with challenging conditions, including higher mortgage rates and an uncertain economy. So far, the U.S. economy seems to be powering through all the uncertainty created by Trumps on-and-off tariffs. Many of Trumps stiff proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, and the next big deadline is Aug. 1. Talks are underway on possible trade deals with other countries that could lower the proposed tariffs before they kick in. Companies are already feeling effects. Genuine Parts, the Atlanta-based company that sells auto and industrial replacement parts around the world, trimmed its profit forecast for the full year in order to incorporate all U.S. tariffs currently in effect, along with its updated expectations for business conditions in the second half of the year. Its stock rose 5.5% after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. RTX fell 2.3% after cutting its forecast for profit in 2025 but also raising its forecast for revenue. It made the changes to incorporate what CEO Chris Calio called our current assessment of the impact of tariffs, along with other changes anticipated from Washington’s recent approval of big tax changes. Coca-Cola fell 1% even though it delivered a stronger profit than forecast. Its revenue for the quarter only edged past analysts expectations, and it said that higher prices that it charged helped offset sales of fewer cases during the spring. Opendoor Technologies, a company that’s caught interest among investors looking for the next meme stock that can rally regardless of how its profits are doing, rose another 3.1% to $3.31. It’s more than quadrupled from 78 cents just two Fridays ago. In the bond market, Treasury yields sank as traders continue to expect the Federal Reserve to wait until September at the earliest to resume cutting interest rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been insisting he wants to see more data about how Trumps tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy before the Fed makes its next move. Thats despite often angry criticism from Trump, who has been lobbying for more cuts to rates to happen sooner. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.33% from 4.38% late Monday. In overseas markets, Japans benchmark surged and then fell back as it reopened from a holiday Monday following the ruling coalitions loss of its upper house majority in Sundays election. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.1%. Analysts said the market initially climbed on relief that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to stay in office despite a loss for his ruling coalition in an upper-house election Sunday. But the results have only added to political uncertainty and left his government without the heft needed to push through legislation. A breakthrough in trade talks with the U.S. might win Ishiba a reprieve, but so far theres been scant sign of progress in negotiating away the threat of higher tariffs on Japans exports to the U.S. beginning Aug. 1. Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe. Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Category:
E-Commerce
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