Category: Update

By Tessa McLean : sfexaminer – excerpt

Even on a rainy San Francisco day, light floods the nearly floor-to-ceiling windows lining the walls of the Warfield Building. Exposed brick borders the windows, giving the office space a decidedly hip feel, one that echoes the urban loft vibe that was once so trendy in major cities. Market Street bustles below, but the street noise is minimal, and from the high floors, the views stretch out to Bernal Hill and beyond.

These office conference rooms could someday be someone’s bedroom, if local developer Group I can get past the city’s Byzantine permitting process and execute an incredibly rare office-to-residential conversion project, which many have billed as one of the only reasonable solutions to the city’s perpetual housing crisis. As downtown San Francisco continues to struggle to revitalize itself post-pandemic, transforming office buildings into housing has been talked about as something of a golden ticket. Not only would it help to make a dent in the city’s woefully inadequate housing supply, but it could also rejuvenate a district that desperately needs a boost, especially as more businesses continue to close…(more)

By Shanti Singh and Roisin Isner : 48hils – excerpt

SF won’t begin to meet its housing goals unless Breed commits the funding.

In the coming weeks, Mayor London Breed will present a $14 billion budget proposal that will shape the direction of affordable housing in San Francisco for years to come. This budget will choose to either invest voter-approved funding to expand the supply of affordable housing, or to scatter and spend that funding for uses not intended by the voters.

In 2020, a clear majority of San Francisco’s voters approved Proposition I, which increased taxes on the transfer of real estate worth more than $10 million. The official ballot arguments in favor of the measure explicitly stated that the new revenue should be dedicated to expanding affordable housing. Since then, Proposition I has generated more than a quarter of a billion dollars in new revenue for the City of San Francisco, and the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ordinance to commit Proposition I revenue to affordable housing upon its passage.

Proposition I became a model for Los Angeles’ Measure ULA, which also increased taxes on large property sales and was approved by voters last year. Following its passage, Mayor Karen Bass immediately committed Measure ULA revenue towards an ambitious and innovative plan for housing preservation and production. Yet it remains unclear whether Breed will follow our sister city’s lead…(more)

By Lydia Chavez : missionlocal – excerpt

Joe Rivano Barros

After many years in which I’ve run the newsroom in tandem with Joe Eskenazi — a feat that sometimes felt like a high-wire act — Mission Local has added a new senior editor. His name is Joe Rivano Barros, and he started in April. (I know, two Joes. We haven’t yet figured that one out.)

Joe Rivano joined Mission Local right out of Stanford University in 2014 as part of the Rebele Internship program, which places young students in local newsrooms. He was terrific then — bookish, curious and thoughtful. Unfortunately for us, he was also eager for foreign adventure and left the Bay Area to work for a nonprofit in Bhutan.

When he returned, we hired him as a full-time reporter and he did superb work on the homeless, housing and political issues. At the time, we had only three reporters, all of whom covered everything — a madhouse of a newsroom in what was probably half the size of a Pacific Heights closet…

Already, Joe E. and I can see the benefits of what he brings to the job — a deep knowledge of and love for the city as well as superior editing and organizational skills. All are essential as Mission Local grows…

So, welcome Joe and if you need to get in touch with him, he can be reached at joe.rivanobarros…(more)

by Joe Rivano Barros : missionlocal – excerpt

118 residents across 114 RVs would be dispersed if the site were closed

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to oppose the planned closure of a Bayview RV site that has housed hundreds of homeless people over the last three years.

The site, located at Pier 94 and surrounded by industrial lots, is slated to be closed by the end of the year. The 118 residents currently living there would be transitioned into other forms of housing, according to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, which manages the site…

The vote on Tuesday simply urges the city to keep the site open. Both the city’s homeless department and the …(more)

By Thomas K. Pendergast : richmondreview – excerpt

A study on financing the expansion of the Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS) – a separate heavy-duty pipeline system designed to fight a devastating conflagration following a major earthquake – was recently released by city agencies.

The report was in response to a resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors last September which called for the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning (ORCP) to come up with a financing plan by Dec. 31, 2022, to expand the EFWS.

The EFWS, formerly known as the Auxiliary Water Supply System, was initially built after the 1906 earthquake because so many water mains and connections in the regular system were broken that there was almost no water pressure left to fight fires. A fire break was created along Van Ness Avenue and a U.S. Navy firefighting ship pumping seawater from off shore was able to stop the fires from going further west…(more)

If you live in the western side of the city, you should read this article that describes what is needed and what may happen next.

by Scott Wilson : msn – excerpt

…In a few months, altering its past path, the state will begin an experiment in what amounts to coercive compassion, an initiative that unlike today’s mental health system will force people into treatment programs instead of jail and monitor their progress for at least a year.

More than three dozen states have some version of courts designed for those suffering from mental illness, many of which fall under the criminal court system and often include jail as a key part of a sentence. No state is attempting to establish a civil court program on the scale of California’s. Estimates by the National Alliance on Mental Illness show that a quarter of the state’s 170,000 homeless residents, more than a quarter of the nation’s total, has a serious mental illness.

But in California, sharp criticism has been raised, including by medical associations and civil rights groups, that the system Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has pushed will stigmatize people with certain mental illnesses and fail to provide enough protection for them from being drawn into the proposed process. Severe housing shortages for the mentally ill — and how appealing the idea is to the homeless — are key questions that have yet to be answered…(more)

by Josh Koehn, Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

Multiple polls have been commissioned in San Francisco to see who has the strongest odds to win the mayor’s race next year, The Standard has learned.
The results have not been published, and the list of candidates vary between polls—but at least one of them lists as many as seven individuals, including Mayor London Breed, three supervisors and a tech entrepreneur.

The Standard reached out to the potential candidates, their campaign consultants, political insiders and special interest groups to gauge who has a real interest in running for mayor, as well as what chances they might have to win the race to lead San Francisco…(more)

Who do you trust? Who do you trust to replace the next round of Directors of the SFMTA Board and District Supervisors? Who do you want to appoint many of the Commissioners? Who do you want to represent San Francisco? Who do you trust to write the checks appropriated by the legitimate body?

sfrichmondreview – excerpt

Shawna J. Mcgrew

https://www.sonsf.org