Olivia Harden

Los Angeles

Travel Reporter at SFGate

She/Her | PARAMORE Stan | Travel Reporter @SFGATE | I travel SoCal for a living, the world for the memories

Articles

Real ID is a waste of my time and I don't need one

1 week ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

Does Real ID really make us safer? Before the first enforcement date in 2008, more than a dozen states were not on board and considered legislation to bypass it for the invasion of privacy. Maine legislators put their money where their mouth is and did just that in 2007. However, a decade later, the state overturned Legislative Document 1138 over concerns of what implications it would have for Mainers who were not in compliance with the rest of the country.
Calif. city issues thousands of tickets for a law that SF doesn't enforce

1 week ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

Police in San Diego revealed they have written thousands of tickets in the last two months, fining drivers over $100 for a controversial law that other cities, including San Francisco, have decided is too difficult to enforce. The San Diego Police Department's Parking Enforcement team has issued 4,200 tickets to drivers who violated California's new daylighting law, the department's supervisor Erin Longen told SFGATE in an email.
Historic casino on Lake Tahoe’s south shore to be reborn as new brand

2 weeks ago | sacbee.com | Olivia Harden

Caesars Entertainment has plans to completely transform Harveys Lake Tahoe, remaking the legacy hotel and casino into a luxury destination through a $160 million renovation and rebranding. Harveys Lake Tahoe originally opened in 1944 as a family-owned and -operated casino on the south shore. In 1963, the casino expanded to a high-rise hotel.
Historic casino on Lake Tahoe's south shore to be reborn as new brand

2 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

Harveys Lake Tahoe originally opened in 1944 as a family-owned and -operated casino on the south shore. In 1963, the casino expanded to a high-rise hotel. Now, Caesars Entertainment is in the midst of plans to renovate the hotel-casino, and on Wednesday, the company unveiled plans to rebrand the property into Caesars Republic Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino — part of a new branch of the Caesars brand that launched last year in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Dangerous Bay Area freeway on-ramps reopen after $100 million redesign

2 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

A project to fix a Bay Area interchange known for causing dangerous car crashes is finally complete. On Monday, Caltrans and the Alameda County Transportation Commission announced that the project addressing the Gilman Street interchange with Interstate 80 in Berkeley was complete. The $100 million bill was paid for by various government entities and constituent tax dollars.
Major Bay Area lawsuit settled, clearing way for Calif. high-speed rail project

2 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden |Grant Marek

After years of negotiation, Millbrae and the California High-Speed Rail Authority reached a settlement on April 17 to resolve a lawsuit the city filed in 2022 that threatened to delay construction of Millbrae’s high-speed rail station, clearing a significant hurdle for California’s elusive bullet train project. The city and rail authority reached a decision that addressed the city’s concerns over local control of the land and proper integration with the city’s other transit services.
Nearly half of California IDs aren't acceptable for travel after May 7

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

The deadline by which travelers will need a Real ID for domestic flights is just two weeks away, but only 55% of Californians have one. After several years of extending the deadline to obtain a Real ID for domestic travel, the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to enforce the requirement on May 7, 2025. But a CBS News data analysis conducted from April 7-18 found that almost half of Californians have not made the switch.
British Airways flight attendant found dead at San Francisco hotel

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

On April 15, a British Airways flight crew stayed in San Francisco for two nights on a stopover. But when the crew was scheduled to leave on Thursday, April 17, one flight attendant failed to show up for his shift, which raised alarm bells among his fellow crew members, according to the Sun. Hotel staff let his colleagues into his room, where they found the man deceased. The man has not yet been identified, and it is unclear how long he had been dead before his colleagues found him.
'I'm actually not happy': California Coastal Commission backs massive hotel

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

A proposed development in Santa Barbara has divided some in the Central Coast city for years over which is more valuable: maintaining one of the few remaining enclaves of affordability for artists and small businesses, or embracing the tide as a luxury hotel seeks to reshape the shoreline. On April 10, the commission met to discuss an appeal, filed by Keep The Funk Inc. and a Santa Barbara resident named Steven Johnson, to stop a 250-room hotel from appearing in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.
Driving to Tahoe hits major delay

3 weeks ago | sfgate.com | Olivia Harden

Bay Area travelers headed to Lake Tahoe and Truckee for Easter or one of the last weekends to enjoy all of the ski resorts before the season ends should brace themselves for significant delays on Interstate 80. Drivers heading east on Interstate 80 can expect to encounter major delays when approaching the intersection with Highway 20 near Yuba Gap.