By Danielle Echeverria : sfchronicle – excerpt
San Francisco Mayor London Breed joined other local leaders Saturday in Japantown to urge voters to back three ballot measures that supporters say will make the city safer and more vibrant.
The three measures, which will appear on the March ballot, attempt to address some of the city’s most visible, persistent issues — downtown’s sluggish economic recovery, public safety concerns and the drug crisis — that Breed has been focusing on ahead of her upcoming, potentially tough reelection campaign. Standing in front of dozens of supporters at Japantown’s Peace Plaza, Breed said the initiatives will face the issues head-on.
“We need to dig in, and we need to go harder and stronger and not be afraid to make the hard decisions that are going to get us to a better place,” she said.
The first of the three initiatives the leaders touted, Measure C, would waive the city’s transfer tax, which currently ranges from 0.5% to 6%, for buildings converted from offices to housing the first time they are transferred to new owners, in an effort to diversify and revitalize San Francisco’s downtown core…
The other two measures Breed and her allies promoted Saturday, E and F, have drawn more controversy.
Measure E, called the police policies and procedures measure, would cut down on the amount of paperwork officers must fill out, including after certain use-of-force incidents, with the goal that officers spend no more than about a third of their time on recordkeeping and reporting.
It would also allow the Police Department to use public surveillance cameras, drones and facial recognition technology without approval from the Police Commission, which sets policy for the agency, and would expand when officers are allowed to engage in a vehicle pursuit when they believe someone is committing a felony or violent misdemeanor, as long as it can be done safely…
Finally, Measure F would require welfare recipients with substance use disorders to enroll in treatment to continue to receive cash assistance through the County Adult Assistance Program — an idea Breed floated in the fall that received immediate pushback… (more)