Category: Update

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U.S. attorney hits SFPUC with subpoena as SF City Hall corruption investigation widens

By Dominic Fracassa : sfchronicle – excerpt

Federal officials served the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission with a sweeping subpoena last month, demanding numerous records and documents that appear to draw the agency into the widening City Hall corruption scandal touched off by the arrest of former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru in January.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office issued the subpoena on June 15, according to a copy obtained by The Chronicle on Friday.

The subpoena suggests that federal investigators are interested in examining contracts the commission awarded to several companies, some of which have previously been linked to alleged schemes traced back to Nuru in investigations by the FBI and the City Attorney’s Office…

The federal subpoena specifically demands all communications “related to any LED light installation contracts” between commission employees and Walter Wong, Washington Wong, the relative with the business registration, and their affiliated companies. The City Attorney’s Office previously filed a subpoena directly to Alternate Choice in February…

They also ordered the agency to produce any commission audits from 2010 to the present related to trips taken by Kelly and Ellis…

Kelly’s wife is City Administrator Naomi Kelly, Nuru’s former boss…(more)

This is getting to be a rather extensive list of City Hall power players. Who will turn up next in the net?

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The Latino Task Force emerges to take on COVID-19

by : missionlocal – excerpt

In a neighborhood that quickly boarded up and felt abandoned by the end of March, it was hard not to wonder what would happen to the Mission District’s large immigrant population. Nannies, construction workers, and small business operators were either unemployed or venturing out to grocery stores, construction sites, or gig economy jobs, praying that they did not bring the virus home. The Mission District’s social service agencies went into action, calling their clients to check-in, but their physical storefronts shuttered. One morning I watched a couple knocking on the door of one of the agencies. I explained that the social workers had to take calls from home, that they should use the number posted prominently on the front door… (more)

We suspect that this is an example of other neighborhood groups who are taking on major efforts to help people take care of themselves. It is good to look at an example of a system in detail so we are happy to share this one.

Thanks to this virus, we are probably more organized and more aware of the needs people have for essential services. Hopefully this will shed some light on how these programs may work.

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SF is piling tax hikes on the ballot. Will voters embrace them in a recession?

By J.K. Dineen : sfchronicle – excerpt

2of4Supervisor Matt Haney says that, with the city in a crisis, more money is needed from companies that “spend that much on lunch.”Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

3of4Arguello Market’s Sal Qaqundah, with employee Xandra Gonzalez, opposes new business taxes.Photo: Nina Riggio / Special to The Chronicle

San Francisco voters could be weighing as many as five tax hike measures this fall, in what will be a test of how the coronavirus-fueled recession influences attitudes on economic growth and whether the city’s big businesses are paying their fair share.

Four of the five tax-increase proposals — which have been placed on the November ballot but could still be withdrawn up until the end of July — were rooted in the pre-COVID days of 2019 when the city was flush with cash, the hotels were packed with business travelers, unemployment was about 2% and the growth of tech companies seemed limitless….

Haney, along with Supervisor Hillary Ronen, is behind one of the three revenue measures: a tax on CEOs earning at least 100 times the median income of their average worker…

Another measure, by Supervisor Gordon Mar, would put a 1.12% payroll tax on stock-based compensation and is expected to raise $50 million to $150 million…

A third, by Supervisor Dean Preston, would double the transfer tax from about 3% to 6% for residential and commercial properties sold for more than $10 million…

The fourth and fifth measures, the most comprehensive and complicated, are two competing proposals to overhaul the city’s gross receipts tax, one by Mayor London Breed and the other by the Board of Supervisors…(more)

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California voters: Here are the 12 initiatives on the November ballot

By Dustin Gardner : sfchronicle – excerpt

Californians will see a lengthy list of initiatives and referendums on their November ballot.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla has assigned proposition numbers to 12 measures that have qualified for the ballot, from funding for stem cell research to a repeal of the state’s ban on affirmative action and an expansion of consumer privacy laws. Each must be approved by a simple majority to become law…

Proposition 14: Stem cell research…
Proposition 15: Limits on property taxes...
Proposition 16: Affirmative action…
Proposition 17: Parolee voting…
Proposition 18: Voting age….
Proposition 19: Property tax transfers…
Proposition 20: Criminal justice…
Proposition 21: Rent control…
Proposition 22: Gig worker classification…
Proposition 23: Kidney dialysis clinics...
Proposition 24: Consumer data privacy…
Proposition 25: Cash bail…(more)

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A Historic Heat Wave Roasts Siberia

By Anton Troianovski : nytimes – excerpt

Wildfires are spreading. The mosquitoes are ravenous. People are shielding their windows from the midnight sun with foil and blankets.

MOSCOW — They used to ride snowmobiles in June in Russkoye Ustye, a Siberian village by the Arctic Ocean coast.

Last week, the temperature in the area hit 88 degrees.

“Nature is taking its revenge on us, probably,” Sergei Portnyagin, the village head, said by telephone. “We’ve been too bloody in how we’ve treated it.”

The climate has been warming rapidly in the Arctic for years, but even by those standards, a heat wave roasting northern Siberia for the past few weeks has been shocking… (more)

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Exclusive: How SF sidestepped state law on developing toxic sites

By Cynthia Dizikes : sfchronicle – excerpt

Contaminated gas stations, vehicle repair shops and parking garages have become prized development commodities in San Francisco in recent years as the city struggles with a crushing housing shortage.

But city officials have repeatedly stymied public oversight when assessing whether these chemical-tainted properties are safe for hundreds of new homes by allowing developers to bypass environmental reviews required under state law, a Chronicle investigation has found.

The California Environmental Quality Act prohibits certain exemptions for the tens of thousands of properties on a statewide roster of hazardous-waste sites called the Cortese list. “Categorical” exemptions are only supposed to go to projects with no significant impact on the environment or human health. The prohibition was designed to protect the public, construction workers and future occupants from exposure to dangerous substances, environmental lawyers said… (more)

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Plan to streamline environmental reviews for S.F. development projects hits opposition

By Laura Waxman : bizjournal – excerpt

A San Francisco ordinance aiming to standardize policies and requirements for proposed housing and development projects in a bid to expedite the environmental review process was stalled this week following community pushback.

Under the Standard Environmental Requirements Program Ordinance, introduced earlier this year, pre-determined mitigation requirements would be applied to projects that would otherwise face a longer and more intensive environmental evaluation. Currently, mitigation measures are applied on a project-by-project review basis, and streamlining the process is expected to allow mandated reviews to be conducted “roughly three months faster on average” for certain projects, said Planning Department spokesperson Candace SooHoo… (more)

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RescueSF Speakers

https://www.rescuesf.org/

To solve the seemingly intractable problems that are rotting our city, They are implementing a strategy that combines evidence-based solutions with people-powered activism. They are setting up a series of webinars.

Margot Kushel, MD, Director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and renowned authority on homelessness – Jun 18, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM RSVP

Kevin Fagan, After covering homelessness for many years, seasoned Chronicle reporter shares his insights on potential solutions for San Francisco – Jun 24, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM RSVP

David Faigman, Hastings Dean to discuss Hastings’s lawsuit to force the city of San Francisco to clean the streets and house the homeless in the Tenderloin – Jul 01, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM RSVP

 

 

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Muni rolls back fare increases after pressure from SF supervisors

By Rachel Swan : sfchronicle – excerpt

San Francisco’s transportation board has pulled back a 30-cent fare increase in a deal with two supervisors that followed months of jockeying in City Hall.

In exchange, Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Dean Preston withdrew a proposed charter amendment that would have stripped power from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, including its authority to decide fares…(more)

 

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WeWork Accused of Abandoning San Francisco Development Project

By Malathi Nayak : bloombergquint – excerpt

Bloomberg) — WeWork was accused in a lawsuit of reneging on a pledge to invest $450 million in a San Francisco development project that was supposed to showcase the WeLive communal living initiative.

Parkmerced Investors LLC sued the troubled co-working startup Thursday in New York state court, saying it abandoned a promise to help build WeWork-designed apartments and communal living space with media rooms, hot tubs and activities such as happy hours and yoga classes. Parkmerced Investors is seeking at least $100 million in damages.

The sprawling Parkmerced neighborhood, flanked by a lake and the San Francisco Golf Club, dates back to the 1940s and now offers high-rise apartments and town homes spread across 150 acres. Over the years, the complex has had backing from high-profile investors including the late real-estate billionaire Harry Helmsley and Fortress Investment Group.

The lawsuit comes after WeWork sued Parkmerced Investors in March in the same New York court, claiming it didn’t meet financing conditions for the deal and refused to return a $20 million exclusivity fee to complete the equity investment in the project…(more)

How stable is a project that relies on WeWork to succeed? The current tenants of the existing affordable garden apartments at Parkmerced are watching the corporate investors preparing to demolish their homes fight over millions, after they spent millions for the right to tear it down. The infamous State Supreme Court case overturned a ballot initiative voters fought for to protect the office housing balance that made the city a freedom loving comfortable highly popular cultural icon. Since that case was settled, San Francisco has been tuned into the golden goose that everyone wants a bite of. The city is being picked to the bone by greed and the corruption that it breeds. Hopefully the investors will eat each other and leave the residents in peace.