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Mayor London Breed Issues Executive Directive for Comprehensive Charter Reform

News: sf.gov – excerpt

Thirty years since last major charter reform effort, Mayor Breed initiates process to improve efficiency of government with a goal of setting major reform on November 2026 ballot – August 20, 2024

San Francisco, CA — Today, Mayor London N. Breed issued an Executive Directive to initiate comprehensive Charter Reform in San Francisco. The current version of the San Francisco Charter was adopted by voters in 1995, and this would be the first comprehensive reform effort in 30 years.

“The current charter, with its layers of bureaucracy added over the years, has created inefficiency and diffused accountability across our governance structures,” said Mayor London Breed. “The good news is that we can fix this by stepping back and reconsidering the Charter as a whole. That time is now.”

The Executive Directive asks the City Controller and City Administrator to work with good government experts and City officials to identify key areas of improvements, and to establish a public outreach and education process with City leadership, residents, businesses, and labor partners to consider changes to the Charter.

The goal of this Executive Directive will be to develop, draft and pass a Charter Reform measure at the Board of Supervisors to be placed on the November 2026 ballot…(more)

Isn’t she jumping the gun? What happens if she is not re-elected? Is she planning to hang on I some capacity that will allow her to push this through?

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SB 610: Senator Wiener attacks Fire Hazard Maps as impediments to housing.

By Amy Kalish : marinpost -excerpt

Fire truck got stuck in a tight turn. Had to get another. Use a different approach. Hydrant was 300 feet away Here’s something fresh!

There is a new and dangerous assault on local control. Senator Wiener is not content to merely wrest zoning from cities. He is now targeting Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps as “impediments” to housing.

SB 610 upends local considerations — and would eliminate the State Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps and familiar terms — most noticeably “ember resistant zones.” A whole new system would instead declare portions of the state “Wildfire Mitigation Areas.” There would be no comparative maps to see where changes were made.

Wiener introduced SB-610 “Fire prevention: wildfire mitigation area: defensible space: State Fire Marshal” as a “gut and amend” bill, meaning the contents were completely changed after it had already passed the Senate in an innocuous form (a proposed annual report by the chair of the State Energy Resources Commission).

The Assembly had no time to digest the language or its ramifications and it has sailed through.

Wiener bluntly states the reasons to ditch a functioning system in his SB 610 Fact Sheet:

  • “to keep localities from weaponizing the fire hazard mapping as anti-housing/development tools.”
  • “LRA (Local Responsibility Area) maps can functionally result in restrictions on growth in those areas through imposing costly building standards, increased disaster planning and mitigation requirements, or increasing home insurance premiums.”
  • “Local jurisdictions have the ability to misuse this process and make the majority of their community a high or very high FHSZ (Fire Hazard Severity Zone) map that could impact housing development.”
  • In other words, the Maps must go in order to keep cities and counties from cheating their way out of “fair share housing.”…(more)

How can anybody be so callous about human lives?

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Muni riders walked a mile through a tunnel after their train died. The city blames a can

By Alex Mullaney : sfstandard – excerpt

It wasn’t surprising when a K Ingleside train lurched to a stop moments after leaving Castro Station one Friday last month. Delays are a fact of life. But for Stephen Martin-Pinto, being told to step into the dimly lit subway tunnel and walk a mile down the tracks was new.
The 42-year-old firefighter was returning home in a two-car train with about 50 passengers when, as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency would tell state regulators, “the overhead power feeder was reported open and then closed.” In other words, the train died.

Apparently, an object on top of the train shorted out the system, a city official who was briefed on the matter later told Martin-Pinto. Electricity arced, sparks flew, the tunnel filled with smoke, and the power went out.

Moments later, the train’s batteries kicked in, and the lights came back on. The operator soon announced that a rescue train would pick up the passengers. But after 16 minutes, the operator came on again to announce a change of plans — the system had shorted out, after all — and told the passengers they could exit the train. The majority did. For Martin-Pinto, this is when serious safety questions began cropping up.

Although the smoke began to clear, the tunnel was “poorly lit and full of trip hazards,” Martin-Pinto said…

Initially, the transportation agency said it was a mechanical issue with the overhead power system — a once-common problem that has decreased in the past five years.

But no. It was something much simpler — and handheld. A few days later, Martin-Pinto asked the San Francisco Fire Department’s Transit Committee to take up the incident and learned what had shorted out the train: a regular aluminum can. Someone had thrown a can from the platform. Martin-Pinto wasn’t told exactly what kind it was — “a soda or beer can.” Whatever it was had exploded.…(more

Interesting to note that regardless of what happens it is never SFMTA’s fault. In this case a soda can exploded on the tracks and that must be vandalism. It could not have been that a soda can was accidentally dropped and rolled onto the tracks? SFMTA blames everything on someone else. No apologies and no falling on swords. For those who missed it,  (Video of Stephen Martin-Pinto describing the incident at our Town Hall) 
 
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Breed’s allegiance to the Yimby movement is hurting her political future

By Calvin Welch : 48hills – excerpt

Some of her Big Tech allies have abandoned her—and now the neighborhoods are unhappy too…

Hammett’s 1920s cynicism of fictional San Francisco has been superseded by the 2020s reality facing voters this November: the simultaneous buying and taking of the city by a handful of billionaires. These billionaires’ intent is not only controlling the city’s politics, but also in replacing most of its current residents with folks more like them—wealthy and conservative.

This assault on the current residents of San Francisco is based, in part, on Yimby lies about housing policy, lies endorsed by the Breed administration. And the irony of ironies is that it is her “loyalty” to this agenda that has so weakened her among San Francisco voters that some of her wealthy backers have dropped her like a stone.

Breed has now been officially discarded by the very “moderates” she has courted with her pro-Yimby density/displacement plans and her hard right turn on crime and police. Parts of the big tech/real estate coalition have now formally endorsed Mark Farrell, saying that Breed has not “demonstrated an ability to govern with the degree of persistence and consistency necessary to solve San Francisco’s problems.”…(more)

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Fearing tall buildings, westside homeowners look to Aaron Peskin

By Han Li : sfstandard – excerpt


Many moderate westside voters are finding themselves attracted to Aaron Peskin for his stance on rezoning—despite his progressive record.

Within San Francisco’s relatively narrow political spectrum, Michael Nohr, a Sunset District homeowner, thinks of himself as a moderate.

He supported the recalls of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three progressive school board members in 2022 and prefers a more business-friendly environment. Most importantly, he wants a more cautious approach to building dense apartment buildings on the west side of the city.

In the upcoming mayoral election, Nohr is struggling over whether to vote for the most left-leaning candidate—Supervisor Aaron Peskin—because of his similar views on housing.

“It is truly a conundrum,” Nohr told The Standard. “Peskin and I are not in alignment on most policies, but he is the only candidate currently making sense on the issue of housing.”

San Francisco’s west side, which generally refers to the area west of Twin Peaks, had been largely zoned for single-family homes, with multi-family buildings banned on most of the land. But as the city grapples with how to meet a state mandate to accommodate 82,000 new homes and city officials look to loosen zoning restrictions, the opposition is mounting on the west side as residents fear mega-projects that they believe would crowd streets and threaten neighborhood character…

In a statement, Peskin’s campaign said it is gaining momentum on the west side of the city.

“We are finding strong support [on the westside] for Supervisor Peskin’s effective leadership and record of giving neighborhoods a voice at City Hall,” the statement said…(more)

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URGENT — OPPOSE SB 7

This is an URGENT call to action. SB 7 is a terrible bill, and it needs to be opposed before it’s next heard on 6/26. Letters and calls should be in ASAP. Today if possible.

What is the Problem with SB 7?
This is a housing bill that makes HCD stronger and RHNA worse. SB7 takes recommendations from a 176 page report — “California’s Housing Future 2040: The Next Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)” — sent to legislators just two months ago, and hastily tries to get them passed into law in the next few weeks.

Through a sneaky process called “gut and amend,” new language has been put into SB 7 — which already passed the Senate in another form — and is now working its way through the Assembly.

No underlying problems of 6th cycle RHNA are addressed. This bill relies on unsubstantiated claims about the state’s housing crisis to justify usurping local control.

The 6th cycle RHNA is not even mid-way through, and all cities are failing its metrics. The solid reasons why are heavily documented — to the point that a housing element audit was recently authorized to examine the process.

The HCD is doing an end run around the audit and any flaws it might uncover; the new language of SB 7 bolsters their powers for 7th cycle RHNA, and they want it done now.

WHAT HCD GETS WITH SB 7:

  • An increase in authority, zero oversight, no transparency
  • Heavier hand against cities, bolstered by new punitive legislation
  • Further control over local zoning control
  • Eliminates the right to appeal RHNA mandates
  • Allows unchecked lobbyist influence
  • Continue to disregard infrastructure costs and other impacts to cities
  • Continue to disregard actual data, including population projections that show California’s numbers flat through 2060
  • Inclusion of open space in their calculation for how much new development a jurisdiction can absorb
  • No requirement to base policy on robust economic theory
  • No requirement to base RHNA mandates on legitimate population projections
  • RHNA allocations will continue to increase market rate housing
  • RHNA will require — but not advance — affordability.
  • Unelected bureaucrats will continue creating policy with no accountability

THIS IS HAPPENING FAST:
SB7 is being rushed through without due diligence.
This “gut and amend” bill bypassed normal deadlines, and showed up at the last minute. In the Senate it was an innocuous bill about group housing.

June 10th: Amended in Assembly
June 18th: Passed Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee
June 26th: Up for a vote in the Local Government committee

your message can be this simple: I OPPOSE SB 7.
Contact for direct representatives are below, they also need to hear from us.

First Last Email Phone
Chair, D Juan Carrillo juan.carrillo (916) 319-2039
V-Chair, R Marie Waldron marie.waldron (916) 319-2075
R Bill Essayli bill.essayli (916) 319-2063
D Matt Haney matt.haney (916) 319-2017
D Ash Kalra ash.kalra (916) 319-2025
D Blanca Pacheco blanca.pacheco (916) 319-2064
D James Ramos james.ramos (916) 319-2045
D Chris Ward assemblymember.Ward (916) 319-2078
D Lori Wilson lori.wilson (916) 319-2011
Chief Cons. Angela Mapp angela.mapp (916) 319-3958

SB 7 Verville sample letter

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Confederacy of NIMBYS cheer Peskin, criticize Melgar on housing

By KELLY WALDRON : missionlocal – excerpt

As dozens of slides on the evils of new housing construction flashed on the screen, the 100 or so residents gathered Wednesday night at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center agreed on one thing: Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin best represented their views, while the local district supervisor Myrna Melgar did not.
Peskin, who is running for mayor and spoke for around 10 minutes, often skeptical of new market-rate housing, was a clear winner for the crowd. District 7 Supervisor Melgar, who represents the area in which the meeting was held and is running for re-election there, attended but did not speak. She was not a fan favorite — and she made it clear the feeling was mutual.
“These are not my people,” said Melgar about the event put on by Neighborhoods United, a coalition of over 50 neighborhood associations across the city…(more)  
 
Melgar was invited to speak but just sat in the audience and said nothing. One of her opponents, Stephen Martin-Pinto was in attendance and gathered a lot of support last night. There were a lot of people from D-4., D-7, and D-11 that I recognized.

RELATED:

An Open Letter to Mission Local reporter Kelly Waldron

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Longshot mayoral candidates to host ‘People’s Debate’ every Saturday at Dolores

By Oscar Palma : Missionlocal – excerpt

Mayoral candidates Serena Hughes, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Shahram Shariati, Guy McCoy and Honest Charley Bodkin spoke in Dolores Park during the first People’s debate for mayor this season on Saturday June 1, 2024.

Cruise ships to alleviate the housing crisis, temporary get-out-of-jail cards to allow prisoners to work, blue poles around the city with buttons that summon a police officer and many more gardens to grow food for San Franciscans.

These are all ideas from San Francisco mayoral candidates. Nope, not Mayor London Breed, Mark Farrell, Daniel Lurie, Aaron Peskin or Ahsha Safaí. Instead, they come from some of the other 48 candidates hoping to defeat incumbent Breed in November and claim Room 200 in City Hall… (more)

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Breed proposes $1.3 billion budget bump, despite months of deficit warnings

By Gabe Greschler and Noah Baustin : sfstandard – excerpt (see graph at the source)
For months, Mayor London Breed has been ringing the alarm about an $800 million deficit and asking city departments to plan for budget cuts. But instead of cutting overall spending, Breed’s latest budget proposal calls for a record $15.9 billion outlay next year, a nearly 9% climb from this year’s budget…

Breed’s plan is likely to spur intense debate and discussion this summer and comes as the mayor—along with two supervisors and another two City Hall outsiders—seek the city’s top job in November.

Breed’s challengers are already casting her as having squandered years of bright economic growth—and a moderate versus progressive fight is almost certain in the coming weeks over at least some of the mayor’s spending priorities.

Last year, Breed was able to plug up a similarly large deficit through the use of Covid-related reimbursements and reserve funds. But by October, Breed warned that cuts were coming and directed city departments to make 10% reductions to their budgets.

San Francisco’s supervisors will propose their own tweaks to the mayor’s budget proposal before sending it back to her for a final signature by the end of July… (more)

RELATED remarks via email

…Supervisor and Budget Chair Connie Chan blasted the mayor on Friday over what she described as the mayor’s “wasteful spending and inefficiencies” in city contracting and departments.

“My task is clear—we must comb through the mayor’s proposed budget and advance a budget that prioritizes all San Franciscans—not just the demands of the wealthy few,” Chan said.

Likewise, Safaí had some harsh words for Breed: “Her budget is out of touch with working families, and there’s no way it will pass as is.”

Other critics of the mayor echoed Chan’s remarks: “We’re going to have to understand and digest the money machinations,” said Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club President Jeffrey Kwong.

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Trump convicted: San Francisco, tell us how you feel after guilty verdict

By Stanford Staff : sfstandard – excerpt
Are you headed to a party? Planning a protest?

Former President Donald Trump prepares to make comments to members of the media after being found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday. | Source: Seth Wenig/AP

Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 counts in his New York hush money trial Thursday.

The landmark jury verdict makes him the first former American president to be found guilty of felony crimes in the nation’s nearly 250-year history.

Trump is set to visit San Francisco next Thursday for a fundraiser dinner at David Sacks’ ritzy Pacific Heights home.

Sacks has already shared his feelings about the trial on X… (more)