Category: Action

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Mayor Lurie halts funding for S.F. parks nonprofit that misused millions

By Michael Barba, Accountability & Public Safety Reporter : sfchronicle – excerpt

Mayor Daniel Lurie ordered a citywide pause Friday on all public funding to the San Francisco Parks Alliance after the Chronicle revealed that the prominent nonprofit fundraiser for open space projects had misspent millions and is facing a criminal probe.… (more)

Two city supervisors have also taken action in response to Parks Alliance admissions that they misplaced 3.8 Million dollars of client funds, setting them up for yet another investigation. The last one ended with multiple city employees going to jail after money laundering schemes were revealed by zealous investigative reporters before the books could be hidden or fixed.

This time Parks Alliance has a lot to answer for, and forgiveness will not be likely.

Supervisor Shamann Walton has called for a hearing on the Parks Alliance, scheduled for June 5, while Supervisor Jackie Fielder is seeking a full audit of the city parks department and the Parks Alliance, its longtime nonprofit partner..(more)

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Supervisor Calls For Hearings Into Whatever’s Going On at Beleaguered SF Parks Alliance

By Joe Kukura : sfist – excerpt

The cancellation of the free movies in the park series may just be the tip of the iceberg of the financial problems of the SF Parks Alliance, and Sup. Shamann Walton is calling for hearings into why the group doesn’t seem to have money it should have.

We should start here by pointing out that the SF Recreation and Parks Department and the SF Parks Alliance are two different groups, despite having very similar names. SF Rec and Parks is a city department that manages SF’s public parks. The SF Parks Alliance is a nonprofit that organizes free movie nights in the parks, playground renovations, or giant Ferris wheels in parks.

And the SF Parks Alliance is able to take private donations that Rec & Parks, as an official city department, cannot legally collect themselves. Thus, the SF Parks Alliance also collects donations and grants for some 80 or so smaller neighborhood or “Friends of So-and-So Park” groups, helps these groups raise funds, and then “stores” their money like a bank so they don’t have to apply for nonprofit status themselves.

This all sounded like a noble arrangement, until the whole Mohammed Nuru scandal showed that Nuru was using the Parks Alliance as something of a slush fund for staff parties, merch, and shwag. That all blew over with Nuru now in prison, but new questions arose about the SF Parks Alliance after they laid off about two-thirds of their staff within the last six months, and their director abruptly stepped down… (more)

Looks like the Nuru curse never left the Parks Alliance. We look forward to a very detailed report on where the money went, including any funds that went into the recent ballot initiatives. We hope the PR and legal firms that represent most of the city departments and their close associates will be investigated as well.

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Supes approve public notice for neighborhood zoning changes

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Chan bill approved; Dorsey, Melgar, however, say the city should not ‘alarm’ people by telling them what’s about to happen to their communities.

The Board of Supes approved by a veto-proof majority today a bill that would require the Planning Department to notify tenants, businesses and property owners about the massive new zoning changes proposed for the West Side of town.

The 8-3 vote came after two supes, Matt Dorsey and Myrna Melgar, warned that notification would cause under alarm in the impacted neighborhoods.

Dorsey said the notices would be “incredibly alarming.” Melgar said the city would be “needlessly alarming” people…(more)

Wow! and Wow! Why would Matt Corey care since his site is already densified and up-zoning the West side will not affect his constituents.

I can see why Melgar may be concerned because she is already on the bad side with many of her constituents, who will see major changes in their neighborhoods as the development shift to them. Was she planning to hide the plan and spring it on them after it is too late? Of course the are alarmed. They are more than alarmed. They are angry and she knows it.

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Planning Commission – Big Meeting on April 8

I’m reaching out to make sure you are aware of an important small business anti-displacement hearing taking place at City Hall Thursday April 10th at 1pm.

In the face of upzoning plans on commercial corridors driving small business displacement, as was recently seen in the Fillmore (1) (2), the Race and Equity in all Planning coalition and Small Business Forward have written a letter to the Planning Commission asking for permanent controls for neighborhood-serving businesses for equity and protections in displacement situations.

Please review the Permanent Controls for Neighborhood-Serving Businesses Letter here https://bit.ly/controls-neighborhood-serving

We are collecting sign-ons from representatives that can speak for small business names that will be listed on the letter. We started collecting signatures this week, currently the list includes Bangin’ Hair Salon, SF Beauty Network (Geary Blvd Merchants Association), Joe’s Ice Cream, Booksmith, Bar Part Time, Mercury Cafe and many others. We are looking to get as many small business names on the list as possible, especially in upzoned areas! You can see the upzoning map here https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6e0e399f9c82456dbda233eacebc433d
Please reach out to discuss more at 415-649-0522 and I hope your small business and merchant association can sign onto the letter which will give small businesses more protection and equity in the face of displacement.
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Letter to the Editor: Plenty of Questions About the New Ocean Beach Park

via email from richmondsunsetnews – excerpt

Editor:

To Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors:

Don’t you think you had better slow down ramming this park idea down our throats and what artwork should be commissioned? The sand, wind, and graffiti will make quick work of destroying whatever you plan to put up. The graffiti on the art sculptures at the end of the Taraval line have had graffiti on them for months. Who’s in charge of cleaning it up?

Who is in charge around here anyway, giving away taxpayer dollars without the community allowed any input? Have other supervisors of the City had any input? Why don’t you use the money to buy art and school supplies for the children and public schools in the City? Our schools are broke, laying off teachers and cutting programs. Trump is talking about cutting off funds that San Francisco and California badly need. This is not a playground for children, it’s for adults who want to see the ocean from their high rise condos. The people backing this are mostly out-of-town millionaires. Their skin in the game is making money.

We already have over 250 parks and playgrounds in the City. Why don’t you paint murals at our schools and playgrounds and better maintain what we already have? The schools are laying off staff, and contemplating closing schools and you folks want to paint murals on the ground and walls next to the sand? Isn’t the purpose of going to the beach, is to go to the beach, lay in the sand and look out at the ocean and watch the waves? Art is nature itself! How many statues and murals do you see when you go to Yosemite or Yellowstone national parks?

I am including all of the supervisors whose areas suffer from a lack of funds in their own areas. SFMTA and Muni are millions of dollars in debt. They are cutting Muni lines, and want to raise parking fees to raise money. Our large and small businesses are leaving. Is it OK for all of you to approve money for art projects, money that we don’t have? How many of you supervisors have had input in this Ocean Beach playground? How many of you know what the city budget is for this two-mile playground? We have a lack of transparency!

Maybe you should have murals of high rise condos painted to match the view looking east.

Friends of Ocean Beach Park have become the Elon Musk of the west side of the City. Like Elon, Friends of Ocean Beach Park are not part of the city government, yet they are out there making decisions for the City. The same with the San Francisco Bike coalition and Walk SF who are funded with taxpayer dollars yet are not part of the city government. It’s rather embarrassing.

Tony Villa, D4 resident

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protestors are out in force today, March 23, 2025 

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S.F. homeless families to be evicted despite reassurance from Lurie

By Xueer Lu : missionlocal – excerpt

Update: Hours after publication, both families won another temporary extension, meaning they will not face eviction again until mid-April…

 

 

 

Two steps forward and four steps back. How do we get back through the looking glass?

In last-minute reversal, S.F. homeless families avoid eviction — for now.

Two San Francisco families who were set to be evicted from their homeless shelters on Monday night have won a reprieve following protests by advocates and several press stories highlighting their plight, according to Matt Alexander, an advocate working with the families.

The families of Vilma Arias and Maria Flores, two in a group of some 30 families who are facing eviction after San Francisco reintroduced a cap on the number of nights families can stay in city-contracted homeless shelters, were told to be out of their rooms at St. Joseph Family Center by 5 p.m. tonight.

If not, shelter staff told the families, the police would be called…(more)

Whiplash politics from Washington to SF! What gives? Why don’t they do us all a favor and DO NOTHING! That is the cheapest least chaotic way to end this mind-bogging confusion we are in. Did something happen to our leaders? Did power go to their head or what? Who said we wanted mass change? I thought the public voted for border security and safe streets and an end to inflation. Nothing they are doing is gong to fix those problems!

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SFPD converting SoMa parking lot into one-stop shop for arrests, drug treatment, and homeless busing

By Abigail Van Neely : missionlocal – excerpt

‘Street fair’-like tents proposed for site where drug-users could be offered choice of jail, treatment — or bus journey

A third of a parking lot at 469 Stevenson Street will become a temporary law enforcement and treatment center to curb drug use on Sixth Street.

Hours after the Board of Supervisors voted in support of giving Mayor Daniel Lurie expanded powers to mitigate the city’s drug, mental health and homelessness crises, San Francisco police held a town hall to address part of their contribution to the effort: a parking lot.

Specifically, a parking lot at 469 Stevenson St., a stone’s throw away from the notoriously chaotic Sixth Street corridor, which Lurie has focused on as an early priority for his administration.

Police plan to operate 469 Stevenson as a hub for directing drug users to services and offering to bus them out of San Francisco — or putting them in jail. The site was the subject of an infamous fight when the Board of Supervisors temporarily blocked hundreds of housing units there in 2021, which led the state to investigate the city’s housing laws.

The city is “keeping expectations low” as it tries “doing something different,” San Francisco Assistant Police Chief David Lazar said on Tuesday evening. But, Lazar said, “If the model works, we can copy and paste it.”… (more)

How will the SFPD determine if the experiment is working? If neighbors are feeling better about the streets’ conditions, users are taking advantage of the services, and 911 calls are down, Lazar said the city would consider the project a success.

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Peskin helps cops catch attacker while driving to work

By Joe Burn, Sam Mondros, and David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excrrpt

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin went above and beyond in his civic duties Thursday morning. As he drove toward City Hall along Van Ness Avenue, he spotted what appeared to be a homeless man being beaten and robbed.

Acting fast, Peskin called 911 at 11:02 a.m., he told The Standard in a phone call, and began following the suspect in his car, remaining on the line for eight minutes.

“At which point, I was told he had been apprehended, and I drove back around and found him and identified him, and he is now under arrest,” Peskin said.

Peskin said the victim looked as if he was in his 60s and “maybe homeless.”…

Peskin’s longtime political consultant, Jim Stearns, wasted no time seizing the opportunity to promote the mayoral candidate’s good deed for the day.

“He not only swims from Alcatraz, he single-handedly apprehends dangerous criminals. I mean, of course, he should be mayor,” he told The Standard by phone…(more)

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Prior to her resignation, Dream Keeper Initiative director Sheryl Davis threw a party at one of D.C.’s swankiest hotels

By Susan Dyer Reynolds – via email (excerpt)

She also took two trips to Martha’s Vineyard in 2023 and 2024, where she and other Dream Keeper recipients were event sponsors…
Mayor Breed, right, appointed Mawuli Tugbenyoh to serve as acting replacement for Human Rights Commission head Sheryl Davis…
 
To nobody’s surprise this close to an election where Mayor London Breed, her dear friend, is battling to keep her job, Sheryl Davis, head of the Human Rights Commission where she also ran the Dream Keeper Initiative, has resigned (on Friday the 13th, no less). As I pointed in last week’s GBTB, when London Breed was District 5 supervisor, she asked Mayor Ed Lee to allow Davis to run programming at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. After a few years there, Davis was asked to be interim director of the Human Rights Commission, and soon after that she became the director. In November 2023, I called out the Dream Keeper Initiative, which took $120 million from law enforcement and created a citywide plan for “reinvesting” those millions in San Francisco’s African American community, as a pet project of Mayor Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton ripe for grift. “A quick glance at the beneficiaries brings up numerous ‘nonprofits’ with ties to Breed and Walton, including organizations involved with the SFPUC Community Benefits pay-to-play scheme,” I wrote. A year later, my predictions came true, with many of the nonprofits I referenced caught misusing those funds on everything from cigars and bourbon to $700,000 for two Juneteenth parties.
On Sept. 12, Davis took a paid leave of absence, but she phoned it in. The day before, on Sept. 11, she presided over the Dreaming Forward “fireside chat” and reception at the luxury five-star Riggs Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was hosted by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, as was a seminar held from 11 a.m. to noon that same day called “Dreaming Forward: Investing in Black Culture to Advance Academic Excellence,” featuring Davis and Dream Keeper Initiative director Dr. Saidah Leatutufu-Burch.
It turns out Burch has big City Family ties as well, to District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton, co-sponsor of the Dream Keeper Initiative. Walton officiated the wedding of Leattutufu to his aide and longtime associate Percy Burch. In his opening comments, Walton made light of the fact they met “while one was the boss of the other” but said (with a “wink-wink”) that both swear the relationship started outside of work. And where did they work? At the infamous Young Community Developers while Walton was director. Not surprisingly, YCD got a nice grant from the Dream Keeper Initiative…(more)