Mel Velasquez [00:01:03] I have this story that was originally reported by KQED reporter Katie DeBenedetti. And last week, the Trump administration signed an executive order to dramatically cut federal agencies, including the Presidio Trust. That would mean that that land, the park, would no longer be public land and could be up for grabs to be developed by private companies. and they’re even asking for the $200 million given to the park through the Inflation Reduction Act back. It’s really devastating. It’s the first park I ever visited in San Francisco as a kid, and that was like stunning. And I was like, one day I’m gonna live in San Francisco. So that was kind of like my first kind of my source of love for the city. All around, this is just pretty shocking news to most San Franciscans.
Alan Montecillo [00:02:04] Obviously the Presidio is beloved. I mean, I used to live nearby. What are people worried could happen to the Presidio now?
Mel Velasquez [00:02:13] Yeah, so not only do people like really love this park, but they’re also worried that it could turn into a land grab for real estate developers to build city developments on. And this isn’t the first time that the Bayside has been like considered for more urban development. There is this idea for a city called Marincello in the Marin Headlands, and it was proposed in the 1960s. It was supposed to be a bustling city with 30 ,000 residents and tons of new developments. And the Marin County Board of Supervisors actually approved it, but the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was then established as a result of all the legal battles of environmental activists and environmental groups coming in and trying to push back against this proposed Maroncello. So then it just didn’t happen.
Alan Montecillo [00:03:15] So there’s this history of attempts to develop on this public land. Are there current plans to build stuff in this area? Are there people saying, Hey, if you get rid of the Presidio Trust, I would love to build something here.
Mel Velasquez [00:03:32] Well, actually, Trump proposed an idea for this concept called freedom cities. It would be like 10 different cities built on federal land. I think this was just mentioned during his campaign, but there’s this guy, the founder of Charter Cities Institute, which pretty much advocates for new independent cities with like different… methods of governing. It’s a little vague, but that’s what I’ve found on it. His name is Mark Lutter, and he actually was urging Trump on X to start developing a freedom city in the Presidio, but it’s not anything that’s actually happening right now. It’s just being talked about.
Jessica Kariisa [00:04:24] Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting, you know, we’ve obviously seen a slew of executive orders. We’ve also seen pushback in the courts. We’ve seen things walked back. With the Presidio, do you think that, you know, this could actually happen? Like, do you think that, you know, it could dramatically change from being this like public park to something private or are there other, you know, mechanisms or laws in place that are protecting it.
Mel Velasquez [00:04:52] So because it’s such a beloved piece of land, like, this would take a really long time to happen and is unlikely that this will happen because of something passed in 1996 called the Presidio Trust Act, which incorporates the Presidio land into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which protects it from being developed, which includes that a previous proposed Marincello area, which is the Marin Headlands, or what we know to be the Marin Headlands. So the Presidio is a part of that, and it would be very hard to work around that.
Alan Montecillo [00:05:37] Well, Mel, I appreciate you bringing this story to us and kind of like a history behind, you know, the sort of big headline grabby story about the Trump administration.
Mel Velasquez [00:05:48] Of course, thank you.
Alan Montecillo [00:05:52] We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we’ll talk about a fast track, scam texts, and where did the Falcons go in Berkeley? Stay with us.
Alan Montecillo [00:06:10] And you’re listening to The Bay. I’m Alan Montesilio in for Erika Cruz Guevara. And this is our news roundup for the month of February. I’m here with intern Mel Velasquez and producer Jessica Carissa. And next up, we have a story that I’ve been following. FasTrak scam texts appear to be on the rise. I don’t know, have either of you gotten a text from a number saying, Hey, you didn’t pay your FasTrak bill.
Jessica Kariisa [00:06:38] Oh, yeah.
Mel Velasquez [00:06:39] Literally, literally all the time.
Alan Montecillo [00:06:42] Yeah, I mean, apparently they are increasing. They’re getting more aggressive and more sophisticated even. I mean, I got one about three weeks ago. It was from a number in the Philippines. So I could, you know, kind of tell that it was not. to tell that it was not. Not legit, but it does say, you know, pay your fast track lane tolls by February 1st to avoid a fine and your license you can pay at, and then there’s a URL. So more and more of these, I think, attempted scams in general, but fast track in particular seems to be on the rise lately.
Jessica Kariisa [00:07:12] You know, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot of these texts. So how can you tell that this is a scam text?
Alan Montecillo [00:07:20] Well, currently there’s a few telltale signs. Um, one is, is oftentimes the phone number is, you know, from another country. A lot of times these messages will provide a URL to a website. Oftentimes those, that website URL will have like a series of numbers and letters. It’ll look kind of weird. Sometimes they’ll even try to imitate the URL of, you know, fast track or whatever the transit authorities try, you know, is in the region. The most recent ones I’ve gotten too, and not even just for fast track for, for texts I’ve gotten pretending to be the post office, they’ll say, please reply why then copy this link into your browser and activate it. So some of those signs are definitely there. One thing that folks have noticed recently is that the spelling in these texts has gotten much better. There are fewer mistakes. You know, usually you can tell if, if like the spelling is way off or the grammar is way off. This is probably not coming from, you know, Fast Track, but that’s gotten better. And the messaging has gotten more aggressive saying like, hey, if you don’t pay, you’re gonna lose your license. Hey, if you don’t pay, you know, you’re gonna pay a fine. But those are some of the signs, right? FasTrak has said, they will never ask you to pay over text. In fact, the only text I’ve ever gotten related to Fast Track come from 86557 and they’re only about when I’m trying to reset my online account. If it does happen to you, FasTrak says call your bank, call your credit card company. We know that law enforcement is obviously aware of this. And in fact, a spokesperson with Rob Bonta’s office, the attorney general said, don’t click on these, but they also couldn’t confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. So maybe they’re checking it out.
Jessica Kariisa [00:09:07] Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten those scams before And it always freaks me out because I’m always dipping into the fast track lane I guess how do we even know that they’re increasing? I guess it’s only been anecdotal for me, but is there a way to actually report this stuff or track it?
Alan Montecillo [00:09:24] I mean, data is a little hard, right? I mean, I just told you about a message I got. I did not report that to some agency. John Goodwin with Metropolitan Planning Commission, that’s the agency that handles transit, planning for regional projects. They also run the Bay Area seven bridges. He told the San Francisco Chronicle a few days ago that it’s been about nonstop for almost a year. There were also about 2000 reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in about a two month span last year. So, you know, it is hard to, this is also a national thing. It’s not just a Bay area thing, right? In many states across the country, this is happening. So it is a little tough, but even just like having this conversation and even just in my own life, I’m noticing that I’m getting more of it. So, hard to be, you know, hard to put an exact number on it. But this is kind of, you know, I think just one of the features of our, you know, technological existence that we can get pinged by all these texts that say, you didn’t pay your bill. Have you ever like fallen for one of these or have you had to like help a relative sort of navigate this?
Mel Velasquez [00:10:29] I haven’t, but I know that my grandpa has unfortunately fallen for one of those internet security scams. For people who didn’t grow up with the technology, it can be really scary to receive a message like that, especially threatening ones being like, you owe this much money.
Alan Montecillo [00:10:52] Yeah. Stay vigilant.
Mel Velasquez [00:10:54] Stay vigilant. Yeah.
Alan Montecillo [00:11:00] Okay, and for our last story for the roundup, we have producer Jessica Kariisa. Jessica, what do you got?
Jessica Kariisa [00:11:06] Yeah, so there’s two Peregrine Falcons who live on top of the Bell Tower at UC Berkeley. Their names are Annie and Archie. And [2.1s] they haven’t been seen since January. I first saw this reported in Berkleyside, but quite a few other news outlets have picked it up at this point because it’s a big deal. They’re a big part of the campus community and they’re missing now.
Alan Montecillo [00:11:35] Maybe remind folks maybe who don’t live in Berkeley, who don’t walk through UC Berkeley, who are these Peregrine Falcons and why do they mean so much to people who live nearby?
Jessica Kariisa [00:11:44] Annie has been there since 2016. [00:11:48]She’s had different partners over the years. Archie is her latest partner. [3.7s] And they’re just a really beloved part of the community. First of all, they’re peregrine falcons, which I learned are some of the fastest animals in the world. They can go over 200 miles per hour when they die. Um, you know, they’re just like amazing birds and you know, they’ve built a huge following over the years. [00:12:11]There’s a 24 hour webcam. [0.8s] There’s a dedicated website for them. They have an Instagram page with over 18,000 followers. Um, they’ve been part of the community for so long and, uh, people really care about them.
Alan Montecillo [00:12:26] Do we know anything about why they’re missing?
Jessica Kariisa [00:12:29] We don’t have a clear definitive answer. [00:12:34]You know, there’s a 24 -hour webcam [1.2s] on their nesting site and a few other perches that they like to hang out at on the bell tower. But unfortunately, the big elephant in the room is definitely bird flu. You know, bird flu has devastated, you know, avian communities all around the country, all around the Bay Area especially, you know, Newsom instituted a state of emergency towards the end of last year around bird flu. So the longer that they go missing, it seems like that might be the culprit, but they also haven’t found them and it is possible that they could come back, but the longer the time goes, the less likely it is.
Jessica Kariisa [00:13:17] So they’re obviously beloved figures in Berkeley, but have they gone missing before?
Jessica Kariisa [00:13:26] They have gone missing before. In fact, they’ve even, Berkeley’s even written an obituary before for Annie when she was gone for about a week. It’s not uncommon for them to go on hunting trips, sometimes really extended hunting trips, and there’s still the possibility that that’s what this could be. But you know, it is quite long, and I don’t think that they’ve been gone this long before. So, you know, people are getting a little bit worried. They haven’t. made any definitive statements yet about what happened to them. But yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see. Thoughts and prayers for the birds.
Alan Montecillo [00:14:03] Yeah, come home Archie and Annie or just be safe.
