Category: Update

By Aldo Toledo : sfchronicle – excerpt

The office of San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan wants the city attorney to sue the state of California over efforts, led by state Sen. Scott Wiener, Chan says, to “singularly penalize” the city in its efforts to build market-rate housing. Chan’s office said in a statement that “San Francisco has more than 70,000 units of housing approved and waiting to be built, we should not be penalized because some politicians want to sell out to realtors and developers.”

San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Connie Chan want the city attorney to sue the state of California over what they say are efforts, led by state Sen. Scott Wiener, to “singularly penalize” the city in its efforts to build market-rate housing.

In a letter sent to the city attorney Dec. 26, Chan and Peskin argue that the city has long been committed to building housing, especially affordable housing, and has taken steps to do so by dedicating hundreds of millions in public funds to housing construction, streamlining permitting processes and approving over 70,000 new units…

“Not only has Senator Wiener set up San Francisco to fail, despite all our legislative and funding efforts, he added a last minute amendment to SB423 that singles out San Francisco for streamlining in 2024, which is years earlier than every other jurisdiction in California,” Peskin and Chan wrote…

In an interview, Peskin said Wiener is “in the pocket of the market-rate development” industry and discriminating against his hometown by holding it to a different, higher standard than the rest of the state …(more)

RELATED:

Letter to the editor: Yes, a taxpayer can sue over the state’s housing laws

By Julie Zigoris : sfstandard – excerpt

Putting out fires is not how you want to start a new year—but that’s what happened for residents of a sleepy street in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood on New Year’s Eve.

Firefighters and police officers responded to reports of cars ablaze in the 300 block of Park Street around 9:30 p.m. Sunday and helped to extinguish fires in four unoccupied vehicles, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Police said witnesses reported seeing people setting the cars on fire and then fleeing the scene.

In security camera footage viewed by The Standard, a person is seen holding a large canister and then pouring what appears to be gas on the sidewalk, the street, and on top of a car. The trail of gasoline subsequently illuminates in flames.

Carlton McMillan, who lives on the block, told The Standard his neighbors’ security footage also showed the perpetrator pouring gas onto garages, into the engine bays of cars and even up the stairs of one home where he said children were celebrating New Year’s Eve…(more)

RELATED:
Man Is Killed by Fireworks on Treasure Island Barely an Hour into the New Year

By Kevin Truoung : sfstandard – excerpt

The end of the year is typically a whirl of activity as deadline pressures hit the holiday season.

Presumably, the same forces impacted Oakland-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric, which used the last business day of the year to file for an even greater rate increase than was approved in November.

Starting Jan. 1, the typical PG&E electricity and gas customer will see their monthly rates rise about $34.50—13%—compared to current bills. That works out to $414 more in utility payments for the year, which would mark a historic increase.

Regulators had previously approved a $32.50 monthly increase in typical residential customers to start in 2024…(more)

After making sure that independent solar producers hooked up to the grid will be paid less for the power they produce, our Governor and the CPUC are giving PG&E another gift this year by setting ratepayer costs at a much higher level. Rumors are they need to charge us for their work on fire safety measures and they also need. To recover their costs to keep the nuclear power on at Diablo Canyon. Think about this when you vote next year.

By Susie Neilson : sfchronicle – excerpt

Valerie Tucker has a tough job even in ideal conditions. As a 911 dispatcher in San Francisco, she handles a barrage of high-stakes and often traumatic situations every day, coordinating the city’s response to emergency calls.

But right now, conditions are far from ideal. Tucker and her fellow dispatchers are working longer hours and getting fewer breaks. Many are on the verge of burnout, she said. And increasingly, they’re unable to keep up with the constant stream of calls that indicate their city is waking up to a turbulent, post-pandemic status quo.

“It’s dire straits for sure around here, and it’s not getting any better,” Tucker said. “Most of us in the room are starting to (ask), is this worth it?”

According to the Department of Emergency Management, San Francisco’s 911 call dispatchers answered just 72% of calls within 15 seconds in October, the latest month available. That’s the lowest share of any month in the last six years, and well short of the department’s goal to answer 95% of calls in 15 seconds or fewer…

The growing crush of emergency calls hitting a shrinking staff means department leaders must force the dwindling workers to work “mando,” or mandatory overtime, for months at a time, increasing their risk of burnout…

And with San Francisco’s hiring process taking an average of 255 days last year, new staff are not coming in quickly enough to replace retiring or burned-out workers — especially because it takes a year to fully train a dispatcher… (more)

It sounds like they need a new approach to managing the system. Shorterless demanding hours and more part time workers woud make the job more appealing, especially if it could be done outside the office. But, this is up to the geniuses at City Hall to figure out, or not.

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Narrow 4-3 votes ends the ability of community activists to call out unscrupulous landlords and speculators.

The Planning Commission, in a 4-3 vote, approved Thursday Mayor London Breed’s proposal to let the planning director approve, without public or commission input, all housing development that the uses the state density bonus plan.

All of the commissioners appointed by the Board of Supervisors voted No. All of the commissioners appointed by the mayor voted Yes.

The density bonus plan, under State Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 35 and SB 423, allows for streamlined approval and additional density for housing that includes a modest percentage of affordable housing, below what San Francisco until recently required.

Since almost every developer building market-rate housing in the city is going to use that bonus, the commission in essence gave the department staff the ability without public input to approve any new market-rate project.

Several speakers pointed out an essential problem: The law doesn’t allow this sort of approval if the property had tenants living in it who were evicted or otherwise forced out—but San Francisco has no way to track that information.

Over the past few years, when unscrupulous landlords or speculators tried to get around the rules, community activists would come to the commission and present evidence that the building was once tenant occupied.

No more… (more)

Why does the Mayor need more power when she is able to silence most public opposition now through appointments? Be sure to see this SFStandard article and watch to see how the media spins the story. We appear to have a case of the blind leading the blind.

By Josh Koehn : sfstandard – excerpt

In an embarrassing blunder, a moderate political group in San Francisco withdrew a ballot measure intended to cut bureaucracy at City Hall just two weeks after it announced the ordinance in a press conference.

TogetherSF Action confirmed to The Standard on Monday that it was pulling one of two proposed ballot measures to reform the city charter because, contrary to the group’s goal of empowering the mayor to make more decisions, it would actually hand more authority to the Board of Supervisors…

The group decided to scrap the measure before a Tuesday deadline after huddling with officials in the Mayor’s Office last week. TogetherSF Action plans to revise it and submit a new version to the Department of Elections…(more)

Who does not know that “Eliminating certain commissions would kick oversight responsibilities over to the Board of Supervisors”?

This is a bit more than a blunder. It shows a lack of understanding about how the government functions by the people trying to reform it. It is, as Mandelman said, a bit more complicated than it may appear. What is even more perplexing is why is this mayor is involved in changing mayoral powers for all future mayors. Perhaps some of our intrepid leaders became too fond of the executive powers they had under the emergency declarations during the pandemic.

If anyone wants to look at a department controlled by Mayoral appointees with authoritarian powers they should look at the SFMTA. If you like the way the SFMTA operates you may want to extend those powers to other government entities. And remove the line item veto from their budgets as well.

Margot Smith for Assembly District 14

Thanks Margot. We need more people willing to take a stand for the citizens of California. https://www.margotsmithforassembly.com/

Opinion By Emily Hoeven : sfchronicle – excerpt

California’s citizen’s arrest process has significant implications for how law enforcement handles lower-level crime. And how victims are treated

Joseph Shapiro heard the screaming first.

But, as the then 68-year-old law firm administrator stepped out of a cab in front of his downtown San Francisco office one morning last October, he didn’t think much about it. He’d recently moved from Pennsylvania to a neighborhood not far from the Tenderloin, where such sounds were commonplace enough that he barely registered them anymore.

Then came the hard crack of something hitting his head — and the sudden, sharp sensation of pain in his skull and shoulder…

Dazed, Shapiro grabbed his phone and called 911. Police arrived on the scene about six minutes later — during which time Shapiro observed the aggressor continuing to scream and threaten people with a broomstick, according to a call transcript I obtained from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.

To Shapiro’s astonishment, however, police told him he had to sign a citizen’s arrest form for the alleged offender, identified as 45-year-old Billy Jiles Holdman III of San Francisco, to be taken into custody…

California’s citizen’s arrest process — a little-understood procedure that’s been in place since 1872 — has significant implications for how law enforcement handles lower-level crime.

Under the state penal code, without a warrant, law enforcement officers can’t arrest someone for most misdemeanor crimes unless the offense happens in their presence — or unless a witness signs a citizen’s arrest form…

In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office said, “When we are unable to get in touch with victims or witnesses, we proceed in good faith, and work to advance justice in accordance with professional and ethical guidelines.” The office added, “We only bring forth charges that we can prove.”

For Shapiro, the experience solidified “everything I’ve been hearing about street crime in this city — that it’s not being dealt with.”

“I thought when they replaced the DA … part of this was about finding somebody who was going to pay more attention to street crime,” Shapiro said. “But this happened under the new one, so …”…(more)

By Sophia Bollag : sfchronicle – excerpt

As other counties across California plan to delay adoption of a new law that expands involuntary commitment of people with severe mental illness, San Francisco is charging ahead.

The new state law expands the group of people who can be placed into involuntary medical treatment to include people whose mental illness or drug addiction inhibits their ability to keep themselves safe. The law does not change the court process people must go through before they are compelled into treatment, which involves hearings and opportunities for people to argue before a judge that they do not need to be detained or placed in a conservatorship.

Mayor London Breed directed San Francisco departments to start preparing for the new law the day after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it. She told the Chronicle her administration plans to begin filing paperwork to put more people into conservatorships or involuntary psychiatric holds as soon as it takes effect next year.

The new law, SB43 by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, was sponsored by psychiatric organizations and other health care professionals who said it would get a small but troubled group of people off the streets and into treatment…(more)