Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods
Advocating for a healthy city
KPIX CBS News
This is a problem that someone should be able to fix as soon as the new administration steps in.
We understand there is a well-managed private RV park close by that cost less to operate than the city managed one. Perhaps there is someone better able to manage this safe parking site and our new Mayor will find that person in time to save it. Trailer parks are a perfectly legal and widely accepted lifestyle for many. Why San Francisco opposes them is somewhat of a mystery.
Mayor Blocked 3 Permanent Drug-Free Housing Projects
Mayor Breed allocated $3.7 million for permanent drug-free SRO housing in her 2023-24 budget. None of this money has been spent.
Did drug problems end in San Francisco? No. Did other permanent drug-free housing options available to graduates from transitional programs emerge? No.
The mayor did not spend a dime of the $3.7 million allocated for permanent supportive drug-free housing in the 2023-24 budget year. Instead, Mayor Breed intervened three times to block the program she claimed to support.
The North Beach Hotel
“I think a project like this could be a game changer, and very transformative and exciting for so many people who deserve a second chance to live a life free and clean and sober in the city and county of San Francisco,” Breed said.”–SF Chronicle, February 8, 2024…
The San Remo Hotel
The San Remo Hotel, 2237 Mason, was completely vacant (it is legally a tourist hotel). I met with Peskin to assess his support. Peskin not only supported the project but said he would take responsibility for community outreach and community support. I thought that was great. But when I conveyed that to the mayor’s office I was told they didn’t want Peskin doing that. They wanted me to do the outreach.
So I began outreaching to North Beach groups. None expressed opposition. Some asked that I meet with their Board and this was scheduled. All was going well when the mayor’s office told me that wanted one of their close political allies, Cedric Akbar of Westside Community Services, to do door-to-door outreach around the San Remo.
I thought that was odd. We did not need Akbar’s help to do outreach. Akbar was running for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee at the time and I assumed the mayor was looking to help his campaign by assigning him outreach to potential voters (he was elected). Wanting to move the project forward, I said fine to Akbar’s plans…
Steve Adami of Salvation Army also said that permanent drug-free housing didn’t work. I thought that was odd because the Salvation Army was co-sponsoring Matt Haney’s statewide bill mandating money for permanent drug-free housing. After our call I alerted the Bay Area Council about this contradiction (they were co-sponsoring Haney’s bill) and heard from Salvation Army that Adami did not speak for them. He later recanted his opposition to permanent drug free housing expressed at the meeting.
Residents in Westside/Salvation Army programs do not get tenants’ rights. These are transitional “programs” that residents must leave to get the permanent drug-free housing they need.
What I realized was going on here was Mayor Breed trying to shift $3.7 million from the Tenderloin Housing Clinic to her favored nonprofits. The mayor was also reversing her support for THC’s plan to provide a bridge to permanent drug-free housing for those graduating from transitional programs. The Salvation Army and Westside do not provide permanent drug-free housing so that was not where the mayor now wanted this money to go.
What I anticipated would happen after that meeting did happen. The mayor killed her once heavily promoted permanent drug-free housing plan…(more)
Reading this makes me feel some-what vindicated. For some time I have watched Breed flit from one shiny new object to another, never giving any of her proposals time to work. What is particularly galling is the facts that she blame everyone else for not building any affordable housing, when all along it was her holding onto the money, and or, frittering it away on someone else. We shall soon see what she did with it if it is not in the coffers waiting to be spent.
By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez : sfstandard – excerpt
In an interview with The Standard, Peskin said that despite speculation, he isn’t interested in serving as, for instance, chief of staff for mayor-elect Daniel Lurie or the city’s first inspector general. (Regardless, Peskin would be barred from such roles by a rule that prohibits employment at City Hall for a year after leaving.) But Peskin did call Lurie to offer any help he could, he said.
Instead of a staff role, Peskin plans to unite a loose collection of progressive Democrat groups — neighborhood groups, Democratic clubs, civic organizations, and labor — to push back against the influence of wealthy power players in local politics.
A cadre of folks whose net worth borders on the bonkers — including billionaire Bill Oberndorf, who backs Republicans nationally, and The Standard chairman Michael Moritz — have channeled millions of dollars into political groups like TogetherSF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, and GrowSF.
In this election, such well-heeled donors dropped coins aplenty: Moritz spent $3.1 million; Oberndorf spent $1.1 million; former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, $1.4 million; Ripple CEO Chris Larsen, roughly $1 million; and tech angel investor Ron Conway, $438,000. That’s to say nothing of the city’s new mayor, Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, who self-funded his campaign to the tune of $8 million.
The outcome of all that spending was mixed.…(more)
insidesf – excerpt
The San Francisco Superior Court has struck down a residential vacancy tax slated to take effect in 2025, ruling that the tax is unconstitutional.
Voters approved the Empty Homes Tax in 2022, which required owners of apartments or condos in structures with three or more units to pay a tax on units vacant for 182 or more days in a calendar year. Filing and fees were scheduled to begin in 2025.
However, the San Francisco Apartment Association, Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, San Francisco Association of Realtors and four individual landlords filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in February 2023 to challenge the constitutionality of the law. And the San Francisco Superior Court ruled yesterday morning that the tax violated the Constitution and imposed an unlawful burden on privacy interests, while also being pre-empted by the state’s Ellis Act.
As it stands now, the residential vacancy tax is no longer in effect. The city will appeal the decision and debate will continue. (Here’s a link to the court decision.)
Owners in this property category now don’t need to file or pay any fees to the city. I’ll keep you updated on any future developments…(more)
By Joe Burn, Sam Mondros, and David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excrrpt
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)
By Susan Dyer Reynolds – via email (excerpt)
by Carol Harvey : sfbayview – excerpt
Read the article before you view the videos. Watch the entire one and one-half hour event by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRITuQhUO3g&list=PLHrKWOo7hlZBqhGnknzClH3RqOO_sR4Lz.
Watch a 14-minute video summary by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/KlcWvBFn36Q.
Watch an eight-minute summary by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/zbHBfGQjK3Y.
If you live on Social Security and Medicare, you and I are not alone.
It has now become too expensive for 65 million Americans to live in the United States of Money. People need food, shelter, healthcare and a basic income. Social Security and Medicare are our safety nets…
On July 30, 2024, with flare and a sense of fun, the California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA) threw Social Security and Medicare a birthday party. I videoed the event, which took place at the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francesco. I swear I gained weight just looking at the red, white and blue frosted birthday cake held up by Hene Kelly, CARA vice president, and Kory Powell-McCoy, Nancy Pelosi’s district director…
“Scrap the Cap” signs were everywhere. So what’s the cap?
The first thing that Pacific Heights resident Gabriel Wolf recalls when asked about his mid-pandemic move to Upper Fillmore Street is discovering signs of a friendly and engaged community that he found comforting during a time of great uncertainty.
He points out a ginkgo tree dubbed “Bartholome” that the owner of Cielo lobbied the city to have planted on the sidewalk in front of her clothing boutique, and the string lights that a customer of adjacent Ten-Ichi installed outside the 46-year-old sushi restaurant. Across the street, 45-year-old La Mediterranee restaurant refurbished its parklet with a mural depicting a serene sunset…
“These businesses obviously care about this neighborhood and the people in it,” Wolf said.
Now the future for some of these businesses is uncertain.
When a mysterious web of connected limited liability companies started buying up building after building on a three-block stretch of Fillmore, small business owners and residents in the area were hopeful that the infusion of capital could help buoy and revive the close-knit retail community that had been struggling since the pandemic.
But, months after the properties traded hands, the vision of Upper Fillmore’s newest investor is coming into focus, and one thing appears certain: It does not include several of the mom and pop businesses that have anchored the street for decades.
Earlier this year, stealthy entities spent upwards of $40 million on acquiring more than half a dozen aging buildings on Fillmore between Clay and Pine streets, including the defunct Clay Theater at 2261 Fillmore. For now, they’re adding to the street’s shuttered storefronts by displacing a handful of long-time small businesses in an apparent bid to ultimately bring more high-end retailers into the area… (more)
RELATED:
VC Neil Mehta, who’s quietly nabbing prized SF property, plans a “Y Combinator for restaurants”:
What does Neil know about the restaurants he is kicking out? Not much evidently. They are some of the most popular eating establishments in town. How jaded are his tastebuds?
You better keep your car because you are going to need it when they drive you out of town!
By H. R. Smith : missionlocal – excerpt
There are, unsurprisingly, so many more points than six
Supervisor Aaron Peskin gathered with supporters at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 school on Tuesday to announce his six-point Crisis to Care plan, saying if elected mayor he would address homelessness with housing, conservatorships, and cash payments to avoid evictions…
Peskin said he would be hands-on in the plan’s implementation.
“I will be the person that convenes the department heads,” says Peskin, in the tone of someone ascending to the emotional high point of a speech. “I will be the person who calls for and reads the audits and implements the results, and I will be the person who implements the systemic management reforms. I am the person who, from the legislative branch, has seen the tangled web and knows how to untangle it.”
It is this enthusiasm for the boringness of civic governance and budgeting (which even people who disagree with Peskin cite as a defining characteristic) that has raised the hopes of many of those assembled here that homelessness could be managed more like a public health problem than a referendum on an official’s political career. Though in this case, it could be both…
Proposition 1, which passed at the state level earlier this year after heavy campaigning from Gov. Gavin Newsom, requires every county in California to spend more of its tax revenue from the Mental Health Services Act on housing and treatment for people with drug and alcohol problems. It also requires money be set aside money for expanding residential facilities for people with mental health or substance abuse problems.
Some of the most practical sites for this kind of housing, says Agnos, are state mental hospitals that were defunded back when Ronald Reagan was governor of California. Local governments could literally work together and begin to un-Reagan decades of California mental health policy…(more)
For Immediate Release : via email
New Police District Would Cover Hospitality Zone to Better Deter Crime Targeting Businesses and Tourists Downtown
SAN FRANCISCO– Today, Daniel Lurie announced a plan to create a new police district that covers San Francisco’s hospitality zone, from Moscone Center to Union Square. The new police district would encompass the Convention Center, San Francisco Centre, Yerba Buena Gardens, and Union Square, with a station located in the district once Lurie’s plans to fully staff the police department are implemented. Currently, the hospitality district is split between three police districts, dividing already limited police resources across an area with unique public safety needs.
“The Union Square shopping area is ground zero for retail theft,” said Daniel Lurie, a longtime non-profit executive, father of two, and lifelong Democrat. “From deterring crime in our shopping corridors to ensuring tourists feel safe in an iconic San Francisco neighborhood, this area has unique needs that require dedicated and specialized resources. Revitalizing this area is key to San Francisco’s economic recovery. The current and former interim mayors caused a morale crisis in our police department which has spurred an exodus of officers, but I’m confident we can turn this around with new accountable leadership.”
Union Square, historically the region’s premier shopping area and the most important city-center shopping district west of Chicago, has been hit hard by retail theft, threatening businesses and deterring foot traffic, putting the economic vitality of downtown San Francisco at risk. This specialized police district would focus on protecting the heart of San Francisco’s economy, which contributes 75% of the city’s GDP and 40% of the city’s jobs. The plan for a new police district is coupled with Lurie’s existing plans to increase police staffing numbers citywide, create a downtown climate innovation hub, ensure certainty in zoning and permitting, and transform downtown into a 24/7 vibrant urban core.
Lurie’s plan for fully staffing the police department includes: building workforce housing for first responders, offering rent subsidies so officers can live in the communities where they work, providing child care and transportation incentives, and increasing diversity in our ranks so officers reflect the communities they serve.
In contrast, both Farrell and Breed have a track record of defunding the police. Specifically, Farrell claims to have increased police funding as budget chair, but during his tenure from 2013 to 2017, his Budget Committee actually reduced the police department’s budget by nearly $6 million over three years—$600,000 less in 2013, $1 million less in 2014, and $4 million less in 2015. Moreover, as interim Mayor, the San Francisco Police Officers Association criticized him as obstructionist on officer pay. Since Breed became Mayor in 2018, SFPD has lost 300 officers creating both a staffing and morale crisis that has further exacerbated a sense of lawlessness while stretching 911 call response times to dangerous levels.