Category: Update

By John King : sfchronicle – excerpt

The image of North Beach has long been well-defined.

There’s the Italian overlay, once seen in the faces and now reflected in the abundance of pasta- and pizza-fueled restaurants. The beatnik-era poets published by still-vibrant City Lights Bookstore. Wooden buildings that press tight against steep blocks below Coit Tower.

It’s an alluring collage — and one that was feeling musty by the time COVID-19 hit in 2020, especially in a city that, in recent years, has put a premium on the different and new. Yet, not only has the aged district weathered the pandemic, the commercial heart of North Beach also feels more vibrant than it has in a decade or more.

Grant Avenue street fairs on the first Friday of every month draw large and lively crowds. Sales tax revenue was back to 2019 levels by the end of 2022. Since then, a bookstore has opened in a historic bakery closed since 2015, a grocer has moved into a former bank and there are several new restaurants and cafes..(more)

Isn’t it obvious why North Beach is thriving? Unlike other neighborhoods in San Francisco very little has been allowed to change. Supervisor Chiu kepth the Central Subway from emerging in the middle of Colombus Ave. There has been no forced demolition to build gentrifying towers. There are No cranes in the sky and very little up-zoning has been allowed in this neighborhood of lowrise buildings where residents are fiercely independent and very protective of their little piece of history in San Francisco. The vitality of North Beach is testimony to the argument that preservation of neighobhroods ensures their economic survival. We should all be so lucky. Now they have Aaron Peskin to protect them. When he leaves who will follow?

by Josh Koehn : sfstandard – excerpt

No ballots were cast last week in San Francisco, but that didn’t stop some of the city’s most influential political players from gathering for an election party in the Mission.

That may sound a bit unusual, but in many ways, this was not a normal party.

The gathering—held Tuesday at a condo owned by Garry Tan, the vociferous CEO of tech startup incubator Y Combinator—was designed to celebrate victories scored by moderate Democrats in 2022, as well as bring together an eclectic cast of elected officials and political organizers in a rallying cry for two elections in 2024.

According to several people who attended the party, a dramatic shift is underway in how local political organizations and their campaign committees are aligning to defeat progressives and confront a range of issues next year—from passing ballot measures and winning supervisor races to unseating incumbent judges. A leader of one of these political groups estimated they could spend as much as $15 million combined in next year’s elections…

“We’re all trying to respond to similar problems but have different takes on what the solutions are,” said Kanishka Cheng, the head of TogetherSF Action. “I think people like Garry and others in leadership roles are doing their best to present this as a coalition of organizations that are working together to solve these problems.”…

Todd David, a political director for Abundant SF who attended the party, said the groups seem to be aligned on almost everything outside of possibly the mayor’s race. Abundant SF is backing the reelection of Mayor London Breed but does not plan to spend money on the race…

“We don’t all agree on everything, but that’s the beauty of this coalition: no purity tests,” Buss said. “We are just focusing on getting the basics, like clean streets, safe streets, building homeless shelters, building housing and helping small businesses. Garry is a great cheerleader for commonsense causes.”…

Jim Stearns, a longtime political consultant in San Francisco who works on competing progressive campaigns, called the gathering at Tan’s condo “extremely dicey” as it gives off the appearance that candidates are improperly coordinating with political committee…

The major disagreement among the people I know who are in those groups is over transit and car issues. Some of Marjan’s supporters hate SFMTA because they are killing the merchants with thier anti-parking and anti-car acitons. They are primarily united over teh crime isseus. That is why YIMBY switched to crime and homelessness. I am glad to see they do not all agree on the solutions. – Mari

By Rachel Swan : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio coming soon)

Czech TV journalist Bohumil Vostal was capturing what he thought would be a majestic shot — San Francisco’s iconic City Lights bookstore, steeped in the gathering dusk — when three masked assailants approached with guns pointed.

“They were heading at my camera man, aiming a gun at his stomach, and one at my head,” Vostal said in an interview Monday, growing breathless as he recounted the harrowing incident at 5 p.m. the night before.

Vostal is among hundreds of international correspondents who flocked to San Francisco this week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, an event drawing some of the world’s most powerful leaders to downtown and Nob Hill. Like many reporters, Vostal had seen news coverage of unruly shoplifters, open-air drug markets and commercial vacancies, but he hoped to portray the city in a more positive light.

But after three armed perpetrators confronted Vostal and his cameraman on Columbus Avenue, stealing more than $18,000 worth of equipment and precious footage from a day of wandering the city, the Czech newsman said he felt shattered.

“I’m one of those many people who used to read Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road,’ and I was so much looking forward to visit your city,” he said, recalling how magical the day of filming had been…(more)

By Tom Pendergast : richmondreview – excerpt

The end of the road is on the horizon for a section of the Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline boulevards, after a unanimous vote by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) on Oct. 10.

The four-member commission recommended the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department authorize the closure of that highway section via a resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors…

Commission Vice President Anthony Rivera expressed concerns about the traffic patterns and safety issues involved in redesigning that intersection.

“This is going to be a major change to the current flow of traffic and not only concerns for potential traffic congestion but also, this is an area that attracts a lot of children, families with disabled kids; it is so hard to get across Sloat,” Rivera said. “I just want to make sure that we have safeguards in place for those individuals who are going to be there every day…

“I know that there’s parking along the median on Sloat and there’s a lot of new developments and there’s potential for other changes coming up,” he added. “I don’t know what SFMTA is planning on putting (in there) but I know that there’s different ways to control the traffic.”

That day the commission also authorized the SFPUC “in coordination with other partner agencies” to evaluate vehicle access to the SF Zoo’s parking lot, and consider whether any subsequent project is necessary to provide “enhanced vehicle access.”

San Francisco Zoo officials are also worried about safety issues that may arise from closing the Great Highway and redirecting traffic eastward around the Zoo, as well as other negative impacts the project might have on them.

A letter from the Zoo’s CEO, Tanya M. Peterson, to the commission clarified their concerns…

“The temporary closure of the Great Highway has had a negative impact on the Zoo in various ways. Historically, Zoo attendance averages approximately 1 million visitors annually, but with the Great Highway’s closure on weekends and holidays, annual visitor numbers have decreased. Moreover, the Zoo visitor experience has been impacted dramatically,” Peterson said.

“Zoo visitors are limited to a very narrow entry/exit off of Sloat Boulevard, resulting in a very congested parking lot with slow egress, a potential concern during an emergency. Construction trucks from the north further confuse Zoo visitors’ U-turns from westbound traffic on Sloat to access the Zoo’s parking lot.

“In addition, (Zoo staff) believes animal welfare has been and will continue to be impacted by the construction on the Great Highway. Already, the construction noise and vibration at and near the Zoo’s borders have and will continue to impact those animals closest to the construction sites. Also, construction generates air pollutants that potentially impact those animals closest to the construction sites, not to mention that visitors and staff are subjected to the construction generated air pollutants,” Peterson said…

“The Zoo requests: permanent return of its ‘overflow’ parking area to alleviate the congestion now being experienced within the Zoo’s lot; short-term, construction mitigations to ameliorate conditions described above; and consistent with prior overtures of the agency, a new ingress and egress suitable for a significant cultural institution of San Francisco, which invites, not deters, visitors and others,” she said…(more)

One assumes some animal rights groups might be concerned about this. Who else? Does San Francisco care about their zoo? Or is that on the shopping block?

Eileen received a letter from the Planning Department that sent her to this page and a map that states:

Under state law, San Francisco must plan for roughly 36,000 housing units in the next eight years (2023-2031) to meet our city’s housing needs, on top of the housing units we already expect to be built. To foster more inclusive communities and undo the harmful effects of housing segregation and discrimination, the state requires that a significant share of new housing be built in neighborhoods with greater access to economic opportunities and services that can support growth, such as public transit, parks, retail, and community facilities.

Why do they keep throwing out different numbers? We keep hearing 80K housing units are needed. I distinctly remember Connie Chan whirling them down to the 36K figure at an early meeting on the subject of the Housing Element. Someone must confused. If you want the Planning Deparatment’s take on the Housing Element requirements and a few maps, go to this page.

by JUNYAO YANG : missionlocal – excerpt

CANA project Somos Esenciales receives $6 million funding for community health intervention and research. Courtesy of Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas.

A Mission-based nonprofit has won a five-year $6 million federal grant to fund a variety of different health programs for Native American, Latinx and Black communities in the Mission.

Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas will receive $1.25 million from the National Institutes of Health for the first fiscal year of the five-year period, the NIH announced in September.

CANA will use the funds in four different areas: First, the nonprofit will fund mental health, career service and other wellness programs in Mission affordable-housing buildings. As part of the grant, it will test the efficacy of those programs…(more)

Chronicle Editorial Board – excerpt

Would you wait a year to get hired for a job? If you want to become a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, that’s exactly what the city expects you to do

How much time would you give a company to hire you after applying for a job?

For the right opportunity, most people try to be as patient as possible. But could you afford to wait a year? Would you?

It’s safe to say that any company that expects its applicants to sit around idly twiddling their thumbs for that long is in for disappointing results. If you want to become a San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, twiddling your thumbs is exactly what the city expects you to do.

According to San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, getting applicants through his office’s background check process can take between four to five months. Then you have to add San Francisco’s notoriously glacial civil service hiring process on top of that, which takes an average of 255 days according to a June report from the Civil Grand Jury. Miyamoto told the editorial board that recent efforts have been made to allow both processes to occur simultaneously, but there’s still an overwhelming wait.

In 2023, 1,214 people who applied to be sheriff’s deputies met the minimum qualifications for the job and were invited to take the written test. There’s a big drop-off. Only 485 showed up to take it, and 350 passed. From there, candidates have to pass a physical ability test, get interviewed and answer test questions via video, spread out over three weeks. Starting next year, the department plans to roll those into one day to speed up the process, but it doesn’t end there. Background checks and psychological evaluations are conducted, along with training regiments, before a deputy can be put on duty…

Contrary to the online rhetoric, the police department hasn’t been defunded. We’re spending more than ever on police; it’s going to overtime. The department’s open positions are budgeted, we just can’t fill them…

Indeed, the new jail annex is being explicitly reserved for inmates with behavioral health issues. Had city public health staffing levels been sufficient, perhaps many of these folks would have gotten treatment before their alleged crimes, and we wouldn’t need to open an annex…

(more)

As we suspected, it is not hte Mayor or the Supervivosr’s fault, or a matter of money, but, the out of step HR hiring practices that are to blame for hte shortage of police and sheriff’s and pretty much everyone else who is not elected or appointed to a poistion at SF City Hall. How will the candidates running for office deal with this problem? How do other citeis handle their hiring programs?

Glide – excerpt

A community of families with children, students, and seniors who cannot afford the Bay Area’s high rents are living in RVs near Lake Merced. This community is facing the threat of 4-hour parking restrictions, which will require them to leave work or school to regularly move their vehicles or face ticketing and towing. Implementing the new parking restrictions without anywhere else to go will push families deeper into instability and homelessness.

…Many of the families living in their RVs are struggling to make ends meet as they work low-paying jobs. There are also students and seniors living in RVs who cannot afford rent anywhere else……

GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice is one of the founding members of the End Poverty Tows Coalition, which advocates with and for people living in their vehicles and low-income people who cannot afford to lose their vehicles to tows. The End Poverty Tows Coalition recently came together to stand alongside these families and urge the City to reject these 4-hour parking restrictions that would be devastating for these already marginalized families. We have been pushing for the City to fulfill its promises to these families to open up a safe parking site for their RVs and help them access affordable housing.

As part of this organizing effort, GLIDE arranged a press conference on October 24th alongside the families who live in their RVs, as well as other community organizations. RV residents and supporting community members and organizations shared powerfully about the need for a safe parking site and permanent affordable housing…

At GLIDE, we firmly believe in our collective responsibility and capacity to open pathways to stability, rather than place barriers and increased hardships for families and students working to make a life in San Francisco. If you would like to support our efforts, you can quickly send an email to City leadership. …(more)

By ANNIKA HOM : missionlocal – excerpt

Certain street-level fentanyl dealers in the Tenderloin will soon be charged with federal crimes, Northern California District U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said on Thursday afternoon. He made this announcement at a crowded press conference standing beside a lengthy and eclectic group of speakers that included IRS officials, BART deputy police officials and even postal inspectors, and a propped up poster showing overdose statistics.

Federal charges generally carry harsher penalties, and often trigger deportation proceedings for undocumented offenders.

“We’ll double-down, triple-down, and take all necessary steps to keep this poison from our streets,” Ramsey said… (more)