Category: News

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Two big Projects Recently Rejected by the Board of Supervisors

Two big projects in District 6 were rejected by the Supervisors. How bad must a project be to be rejected? Read the two Tim Redmond articles that ran in 48hills. Most local media covered this with differing opinions.

In dramatic move, supes block huge luxury housing project in Soma

Debate shows city planners’ utter failure to understand the role of market-rate housing in gentrification and displacement.

In a stunning victory for progressives, the Board of Supes voted 8-3 Tuesday to block a massive market-rate development that would have threatened one of the last affordable areas in Soma.

The vote to overturn the 469 Stevenson EIR doesn’t kill the project, but it’s a major setback and could help advocates who want to use the site for affordable housing…

The vote also showed a new political shift on the board, with Sup. Matt Haney, who represents Soma, joining his more conservative colleagues, Ahsha Safai and Catherine Stefani, in voting to support the project…

The politics of this are fascinating: Haney, who has long been part of the progressive majority on the board, is now running for state Assembly with the strong support of the building trades (and it appears, at least some of the Yimbys—he is featured, along with the mayor, at a VIP reception for a Yimby fundraiser)…

At one point, under questioning, an executive from the developer, Build Inc., acknowledged that there is currently no financing for the project and the company doesn’t even own the land. Founding Partner Lou Vasquez said that he couldn’t predict how much the new units would rent for because “we don’t own the site or have financing in place to build it.

The supes didn’t even know how to respond. “I think that silence is from shock,” Sup. Shamann Walton noted...(more)

In a direct assault on planning policy, supes reject Tenderloin tech dorms

Board makes clear, for perhaps the first time ever, that developer profits should not be a deciding factor in city housing decisions.

The Board of Supes rejected a plan for tech dorms in the Tenderloin yesterday, setting up a challenge for private housing developers who increasingly want to build what’s known as “group housing.”

That term is badly defined in the Planning Code, and potentially creates a massive loophole for market-rate short-term rentals to replace family housing units.

And the supes, by unanimously overruling the Planning Commission—a very rare move—made it clear that they don’t want to see projects get approved, and then substantially changed afterward.…(more)

It appears that someone filed an application to develop someone else’s property, and went through the process of procuring an entitlement, with the help of SF Planning Department staff without involving the property owner in the process. It took an appeal before the Board of Supervisors to discover that the developer does not own the property they are entitled to develop. They have on funding or construction cost analysis and have no idea what the rents may be. How many times has this happened without an appeal being filed and is this a good use of SF Planning staff time and taxpayer money?

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Campos takes first step toward state Assembly bid

By Tim Redmond : 4hills – excerpt

If Chiu becomes city attorney, his seat will be open for a special election.

David Campos—former supervisor, chair of the local Democratic Party, and current vice chair of the state party, announced today that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for state Assembly.

Forming the committee will allow him to start raising money for the seat…(more)

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Colorado River, Lifeline Of The West, Sees Historic Water Shortage Declaration

by Kirk Siegler : npr – (excerpt) includes audio track and transcript

The first-ever shortage declaration on the Colorado River forces arid Western states to re-examine their relationship with resources many take for granted, drinking water and cheap hydroelectricity.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:  For the first time ever, the U.S. government declared a shortage on the Colorado River last week. That means states like Arizona that rely on the river for their water supply are seeing big cutbacks as a punishing drought continues in the west. The Colorado River and its tributaries are a lifeline to some 40 million people in multiple states, including in California, who rely on it for drinking water. The river also irrigates countless farms and generates lots of cheap hydropower. So a shortage on the Colorado is a big deal, and we wanted to hear more about that. We asked NPR’s Kirk Siegler to talk us through it. He covers the West and has been reporting on the Colorado River for years…(more)

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California Gubernatorial Recall Election – Frequently Asked Questions

Dr. Shirley N. Weber  Secretary of State

The California Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing recalls for state officers, including for constitutional offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, etc.), state legislators, and justices of the Supreme and Appellate Courts. Local recalls are overseen by county or city elections officials.

The recall process is outlined in the California Constitution (Article II, Sections 13-19) and the California Elections Code (Sections 11000-11110, 11300-11386).

The recall has been part of California’s political system since 1911. It provides a mechanism for the public to attempt to remove elected public officials from office before the end of their term of office. Before a recall election can be initiated, a certain number of voters must sign a recall petition within a specified amount of time.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS TOPICS

Qualifications & Filing Requirements for Replacement Candidates

A write-in replacement candidate must file a Statement of Write-In Candidacy with the county elections official of the candidate’s county of residence by August 31, 2021.

The Certified List of Write-in Candidates will be available on September 3, 2021…... (more)

So think twice before writing in a candidate.

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Board OKs $14.3M Loan for 2550 Irving St. Project

By Thomas K. Pendergast : sfrichmondreview – excerpt

With a unanimous vote the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently approved a $14.3 million loan agreement to help replace the Police Credit Union building on Irving Street between 26th and 27th avenues, with 100 units of “affordable” housing reserved primarily for previously homeless and low-income families in a seven-story building.

“This is a historic moment to be considering funding for site acquisition for the Sunset’s first 100% affordable housing development for low and moderate-income families,” District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar told the Board at a meeting on July 27. “The need for affordable housing is so often overlooked and ignored in the Sunset and this development is one very important step to address the urgent needs of residents priced out of our neighborhood.”…

Mar acknowledged that the project is contentious…

“Imagine a day in the life of a hundred families and what their needs are and what they do every day,” said local architect Thomas Soper. “(Affordable housing for families) is by far the most activity-generating type of affordable housing that you can ever build…. Over-concentration is the word that professionals should be applying here but politicians don’t understand that. They have a mandate…

“The scale of the building is way out of line from where it should be,” said Robert Ho, who owns a four-unit building in the area. “The City is making a mistake getting back into the large-scale, low-income housing type of development that they’d gotten away from or stopped doing…. I think it’s a mistake to build such a large building on Irving Street.”

Ho said he grew up in Chinatown public housing.

“Where a person grows up, especially a young person, influences their self-esteem,” he said. “Living in such a large-scale building, it’s something that a young person is aware of very early, that this is not where we want to live. We’re living in this out of necessity, not because we want to. It’s a constant reminder for young people that ‘our family is poor.’”…(more)

 

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PG&E, Gavin Newsom, and the French Laundry connection

By ABC Investigation : abc10 – excerpt (includes video)

ABC Investigation : Governor Newsom brokered a bankruptcy plan that prioritized PG&E, French Laundry friend’s clients over PG&E fire victims.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A plate of dinner at Napa County’s award-winning French Laundry restaurant starts at $350, but dining there during the pandemic cost Gov. Gavin Newsom quite a bit more than that.

It was an unforced political error that immediately put Newsom on defense from the appearance of hypocrisy for going against his own COVID safety advice to Californians…(more)

This is just the tip of the nasty iceberg that could bring the house of Newsom down. The party has until the end of the month to come up with an alternative. Will they get smart?

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Mayor London Breed’s $23K ethics fine is ratified — and everyone comes out looking bad

By Joe Eskenazi : 48hills – excerpt

Ethics Commission staff refuses to answer key questions, even to commissioners: Was mayor interviewed? Did it obtain key receipts for Nuru gifts? What was the true source of illegal donations?

y a 4-0 vote, the San Francisco Ethics Commission today approved a stipulated agreement with Mayor London Breed, fining her nearly $23,000 for a series of legal and ethical missteps.

This is not an insignificant amount of money. And this is the first instance of the Ethics Commission dinging a sitting mayor — despite a healthy selection of ethically challenged (and extremely ding-able) prior San Francisco mayors. But if the purpose of today’s proceedings, and the Ethics Commission writ large, is to give San Franciscans confidence that our elected leaders are adhering to the law or face consequences —  well, that didn’t happen...(more)

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California Treasurer Fiona Ma sued for sexual harassment by former employee

By Alexei Koseff : sfchronicle – excerpt

SACRAMENTO — A former senior employee in the California State Treasurer’s Office has sued Treasurer Fiona Ma for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, alleging that she was fired earlier this year after resisting unwanted sexual advances from Ma.

Judith Blackwell, who worked under Ma for about 16 months as executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, filed the lawsuit last week in Sacramento County Superior Court.

“Plaintiff felt the work environment to be hostile as she felt her employment was contingent on her accepting Defendant Ma’s sexual advances,” Blackwell’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, wrote in the complaint. “As a result of Plaintiff denying Defendant Ma’s advances, she was terminated from her employment.”…(more)

A little light reading after all the heavy stuff we are hearing about graft and corruption in City Hall, this is tame by comparison.

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I joined SF’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to expose corruption. Instead, I’m a cog in the machine

Opinion By Kevin Frazier : sfchronicle – excerpt

I’ve always been an aspiring muckraker. Years ago, in my hometown of Portland, Ore,, I immersed myself in local and state politics, and watched the “sausage” get made as a lobbyist in the Oregon State Legislature. I was appalled at the often-questionable actions taking place behind closed doors. A state senator once told me he wouldn’t consider a bill to reduce diesel pollution on school buses because the Big Oil lobbyist “got here first.”…

San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance was enacted by the Board of Supervisors in 1993 with the goal making the inner workings of local government more transparent and accountable to city residents.

“Government’s duty,” according to the ordinance, “is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public.”

I joined the SOTF to be help empower citizens to better understand their local government and call out officials for non-compliant behavior. My time on the task force, however, has made clear that the Sunshine Ordinance is failing.

We aren’t exposing corruption. Instead, we’re a cog in the over-bureaucratization of democracy…(more)