Eugene Lew presented his dom-i-city design concept to the CSFN General Assembly meeting Wednesday, January 18, 2022. This time he brought Cory Smith from SFHac to emphasize he fact that he has done the work of convincing a wide range of people that his ideas work. Together they presented a plan to enlist more people in adopting the dom-i-city plan in the West Side of town in a more gentle, humane manner that leads to a smaller footprint on the neighborhood, cuts cost, and meeting the approval of both city planners and the neighbors.
How Recology’s monopoly leads to very dubious rate accounting
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
Michal Barba, who is a good reporter, broke the story first in the SFStandard: Recology may have overbilled San Franciscans for even more than the $95 million the company has had to pay back as part of the ongoing City Hall scandal.
Other news outlets have picked up the story, but nobody has explained exactly what went on here, and how Recology could be on the hook for a lot more money.
There are two major factors at play here, and both of them show the problem with a single company operating as a City Charter-sanctioned monopoly with a perpetual no-bid contract—and of late, at the Department of Public Works, little to no oversight.
The way the current system works—and Sup. Aaron Peskin is trying to change that—Recology never has to submit a competitive bid. Instead, like PG&E, another government-sanctioned monopoly that has more than its share of problems—the city is supposed to closely regulate its rates…
Then there’s this piece of property that Recology sold to Amazon. It’s at the foot of Potrero Hill, and the company doesn’t need it any more. It’s a big piece of land, and at one point Recology wanted to develop it for housing. Instead, Amazon bought it for $200 million and plans to turn it into a new distribution center.
Recology has owned it since 1971. Right before the sale, Assessor’s Office records show, it was assessed at about $3 million; under Prop 13, that means Recology paid a bit less than that, probably about $2 million, for it 50 years ago.
So there’s a good bit of profit here—like, almost $200 million.
Who gets that money?…(more)
Can San Francisco live up to its reputation as a champion of the poor?
By Denise Sullivan :sfexaminer – excerpt
In a city divided, predictably there’s division in the Tenderloin
Sometime in the early hours of Christmas Eve, as the Tenderloin emergency plan was still being debated on sf.gov/tv, for reasons beyond my understanding, I couldn’t tear myself away from the very un-Christmasy livestream.
Listening as San Franciscans expressed themselves during the public comment portion of the Board of Supervisors meeting, the fright, hurt and anger were palpable, even through virtual space. The divisiveness got to me. And ever since, I’ve been thinking of the San Franciscans on the street for whom heightened emotional states are part of everyday life, as they struggle to stay alive through another season of rain, cold and the pandemic surge.
“Everyone in the TL will tell you resources are desperately needed,” said Kelley Cutler, human rights organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness when I spoke to her a few weeks later by phone. “People are in need of help. We’re all on the same page about that.”
Predictably, the problems have not instantaneously resolved since Mayor Breed announced the Tenderloin emergency order and division remains among residents and service providers about how to care for people with dignity.
In 2018, the United Nations reported the treatment of San Franciscans living in informal settlements like tent encampments was in violation of its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states people have a right to life, housing, health, water and sanitation services. Four years later, the most casual observer can see the pandemic has worsened conditions for people on the streets.
But there was a moment in 2020 when things improved for unhoused folks and their neighbors.
“In 2020, when we got an influx of hotel rooms, we were not having to convince people to take them,” said Cutler. “But there’s a narrative in The City that there is shelter resistance.”…
Denise Sullivan is an author, cultural worker and editor of “Your Golden Sun Still Shines: San Francisco Personal Histories & Small Fictions.” More at www.denisesullivan.com and @4DeniseSullivan...(more)
New Tenderloin Linkage Center Nears Opening as Doubts Remain about Emergency Measures
By David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excerpt
The imminent launch of the “Linkage Center” in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood became apparent Friday as workers in UN Plaza were seen erecting a fence around the building at 1170 Market St.
The facility, which is scheduled to open in mid-January, will serve up to 100 clients suffering from drug addiction and mental distress, according to city officials. The site is inside the mayor’s new exclusion zone that strictly prohibits street vending in the area and is across the street from a safe sleeping village that was sanctioned under the COVID-19 emergency declaration.
When opened, the site will offer essential services such as access to food, water, hygiene resources, and a referral system for specialized rehabilitation programs and supportive resources.
For drug users in the area, the initiation of the site could offer a much-needed opportunity to get clean.
Kenny Mckinnon, a resident in the Tenderloin, said he lost his job during the initial Covid outbreak after being sober for six years. He fell back into a habit of using opioids. Since then he has been unable to kick his addiction, but he said the linkage center could provide him with valuable resources.
“If I were to walk in there today, and if I can get into an outpatient through them, I would jump on it so quick,” Mckinnon said.
Mayor London Breed touted several data points last week as part of the “broader” efforts to improve conditions in the Tenderloin. But a closer look at the numbers her office provided showed many of the initiatives were already underway before the mayor’s emergency declaration…(more)
If Randy Shaw is not impressed no one is.
The Threat to Rooftop Solar, and What You Can Do
sftomorrow – excerpt
In case you haven’t heard, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has proposed new rules for NEM ((net metering – the state’s main solar incentive program) that would make solar much more expensive – while disingenuously claiming to promote equity. This is being pushed by the big three investor-owned utilities, including PG&E, and could be voted on by the commission as soon as January 27th.
The utilities have lobbied the CPUC to charge a solar penalty fee of $8 per kilowatt – averaging $57/month – to every solar customer), and to reduce by 80% the credit solar users earn for excess electricity sent back to back the grid. It will put solar out of reach for middle and working class people, hurt small solar companies, and imperil thousands of jobs.
The utilities’ motive is obvious. Locally-generated energy from the sun lowers their profits. It also weakens their argument for building additional huge, potentially fire-hazardous transmission lines – the type of infrastructure spending that led PG&E to announce an 18% rate hike for 2023.
Not only are the proposed changes highly inequitable, they will make the goal of 100% clean electricity by 2045 even more elusive. We need all the solar power we can get, not penalties for households that provide it. We need to speak up. Here are several ways to make your voice heard:
TOMORROW, Thursday Jan 13th: SAVE SOLAR RALLY. Show up (masked) at SF Civic Center Plaza at 11 am sharp, then march a block to CPUC. Bring a sign if you can, but they will have some there. Rsvp here.
Now: Sign petition & email Governor Newsom: https://www.savecaliforniasolar.org/sign-petition Call the governor: Ask him to prove that climate is a priority by standing up for rooftop solar. His number is 916-445-2841. Here’s a sample script. Note: His office only takes calls/voicemails 9 am – 5 pm, Monday – Friday. If the mailbox is full,please try again. Perseverance furthers!
Thursday Jan 27th, 10 am: Call in to CPUC meeting. Re: CPUC Docket #: R.20-08-020. Calendar here. (Agenda with call-in information should be available the day before the meeting.)
BACKGROUND
Here is a fact sheet on the CPUC’s proposal, with citations. And here are FAQs and a toolkit.
Newspaper & online editorials, including SF Chron, LA Times & Sac Bee: https://www.savecaliforniasolar.org/news
Breed refuses to discuss the future of road closures with supervisors
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
Mayor has hostile response to fair questions from Chan on a topic that could really use some leadership.
Supervisor Connie Chan is taking on a major challenge on an issue that has generated a huge amount of heat in the city: The use of JFK Drive and the Great Highway in a post-pandemic future. And from what I saw at Question Time today, Mayor London Breed isn’t helping.
Chan has said repeatedly that she wants to find some compromise that will allow people with mobility issues and others who need vehicle access to get to the park, and to prevent traffic on the Great Highway from flooding local streets.
But there’s little room for middle ground on this one; both sides are pretty well dug in. It would take real leadership from the Mayor’s Office to find a solution—and instead, the mayor spent her time today insulting Chan…(more)
No love lost between the parties.
“Good and Clean Government” charter amendment
By Connie Chan : sfrichmondreview – excerpt
Good and Clean Government
In early 2020, the former director of the Department of Public Works, Mohammed Nuru, was arrested with corruption allegations by the U.S. Attorney. That set off a chain reaction of contractors, department heads, and city officials also being indicted or resigning from their posts.
That’s why I have introduced anti-corruption legislation: the “Good and Clean Government” charter amendment will ensure greater accountability and transparency in all areas of city government in two key ways: by creating an independent City Administrator who can focus on delivering city services free from political cronyism, and by sharing appointments to chartered commissions between the executive and legislative branches…
Currently, commissioners are largely appointed by the mayor with little public process and are often limited to a small group of well-connected political insiders. Many of these commissioners serve the City with dedication and commitment, but the lack of checks and balances opens the door to corruption. Sharing the appointing authority of these commissions between the executive and legislative branches helps assure a balance of power on these important policy-making bodies. Lastly, this measure would also ensure all appointments are subject to a public process.
This is a critical time for our City as we recover from the pandemic, and we need to ensure our departments are focused on serving the needs of the City and its communities. A working system of checks and balances and functioning day-to-day city operations is the foundation of good and clean government. I look forward to bringing this to the voters in June 2022.
Connie Chan represents District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She can be reached at (415) 554-7410 or chanstaff. Find an archive of her columns online at RichmondSunsetNews.com…(more)
The only community garden in Daly City could become market-rate housing
By Emily Margaretten : 48hills – excerpt
Mist swirls through soaring Monterey pine trees, threatening to envelop the gated enclosure below. A steep embankment protects a community garden from the wind and fog, offering sanctuary to hundreds of species of plants that have pushed roots and shoots past crumbling concrete to reclaim a small parcel of land in one of the most densely populated cities in the country.
Erick Campbell, caretaker of the garden, smiled impishly and attacked a slab of concrete with a pickax. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead. “Daly City,” he said between swings, “is the worst. There’s no urban canopy, something like 3.9 percent.”
An urban tree canopy is the layer of leaves, stems, and branches that cover the ground. It averages around 27 percent for US cities. Daly City is an extreme outlier. It’s “an impervious concrete jungle,” as Project Green Space puts it.
Campbell pointed to the ground, where the rich sediment, a combination of 20 years of decaying vegetation and protective mulch, has created a thriving habitat for seedlings and saplings to grow.
“It’s made its transition from concrete back to earth,” Campbell observed. “Kind of silly to think they just want to put it back to concrete, you know?”…(more)
What is another garden covered by luxury housing in a state that has removed single family zoning in favor of by right and no rights for residents and voters to determine how we want to live. You may drop those illusions at the border.
The state that claims to be following the “new green policy“ slate that is leading the country down the road to environmental excellence has started us down the road of destroying our natural environment by cutting trees, plowing over gardens, limiting lawns, and withholding water from farms and fish to plant more housing. This is a small list of actions the state is taken to sell our land and resources to the highest bidders and wall street investors. There are no-bid options for all cash deals all around.
Your state representatives were sold to you by global investors pushing us into the 2022 gold rush. They are up-zoning and gentrifying the state, leading the way to the highest levels of inflation that will ripple across the country and food prices escalate and the parties quibble over social matters and the media keeps us entertained.
Everything you thought you loved about the state will be short-lived unless we pass the ballot initiative to stop the land grab in the anti-garden state. Rather than compromise or give the voters a chance to suggest other ways to solve the problems, Sacramento politicians have hidden their intentions and ignored the voices of opposition.
Ourneighobrhoodvoices.com is the place to go to find out how you can join the efforts to stop this outrage that starts with the takeover of our backyards and rolls across our cities building “housing for everyone.”
In San Francisco’s Most Polluted Neighborhood, the Polluters Operate Without Proper Permits, Reports Say
By Elena Shao : insideclimatenews – excerpt
Some concrete plants and sand facilities in Bayview-Hunters Point have had only draft permits for years. An air district spokesman said finalizing permits have taken longer “than we would have liked.”
Raymond Tompkins thinks the high efficiency air filters in his old, gold Mercedes are among the car’s best features. They trap dust and tiny pollution particles, and they’re fitted with activated charcoal to help remove odors—an invaluable function for a longtime resident of San Francisco’s most polluted neighborhood.
“You know, I’m supposed to be dead,” Tompkins, 72, said. “Most Black men don’t live this long, here in Bayview. I’ve been going to a funeral every month.”
Living in Bayview-Hunters Point, a mostly low-income and minority neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city, means blinking away the dust from hills of sand and asphalt piled in industrial yards and ignoring the stench from a wastewater treatment facility and an animal rendering plant next door to their homes and schools…(more)
San Francisco confronts a crime wave unusual among U.S. cities
By Rachel Scheier : yahoo – excerpt
It’s the sentimental things people are desperate to recover: a child’s notebook, a wooden cross, an Army backpack that survived two tours in Iraq.
These are among the possessions Mark Dietrich has retrieved from curbsides here in recent months, hastily dumped evidence of the smash-and-grab burglaries and petty thefts that have become a feature of everyday life in the city.
Dietrich is among an increasingly loud group of local activists who say such crime has spun out of control in San Francisco.
“We have all asked ourselves, is it time to go?” he said. “Lots of people have just said, ‘I’m not putting up with this mess.’”…(more)