Category: Update

Report By State Liaison Eileen Boken, (SPEAK) with comments by Mari Eliza

Link to CAL-SPAN Video of California Coastal Commission Meeting Dec. 14, 2023 Agenda Item #5 document : Informational Briefing on Housing (no vote)

Link to recording : https://cal-span.org/meeting/ccc_20231214/

Bochco is the outgoing Chair of the Coastal Commission who resigned from the Coastal Commission effective this month. This is her last meeting.. Hart is the incoming Chair of the Coastal Commission. Commissioner Katie Rice represents the North Central Coast District which includes San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and San Mateo counties.

Wiener was the first to call in during Public comments (around 2:54:50 on the tape) after the Key Takeaways presentation. His blamed the Coastal Commission for slowing the pace of building on the coast. He accused them of taking 9 years to process one of the sites in their jurisdiction. His manner was rude and his claims were refuted in a calm and casual manner by commissioners when they responded after public comments. They claimed other parties held up the project for 9 years before they received the application they needed to review and process and that once they had it they turned it around in 5 months. Scott’s bullying manner did not appear to phase them but he looked like a bully.

Commissioners Bochco, Brownsey and Hart mentioned Wiener. Commission Vice Chair Escalante didn’t mention him, but she did request friends in the Bay Area join in a discussion with SoCal. Commissioner Rice, who represents San Francisco,did not mention Wiener but referred to Bayview / Hunters Point as being in harm’s way.

by Michael Barba :sfstandard – excerpt

The allegations of financial mismanagement piling up against a San Francisco nonprofit that enjoys millions in taxpayer funding are nothing new for the charity’s freshly ousted executive director. Her tenure began on the heels of controversy.

Before getting hired to lead San Francisco SAFE six years ago, Kyra Worthy was the executive director of For Richmond, a now-defunct East Bay nonprofit that contracted with the West Contra Costa Unified School District to run educational programs for Black students.

What happened next raises questions about how effectively public entities monitor the nonprofits they fund and whether they have a responsibility to vet their leaders…

For Richmond failed to complete many services and, in some instances, did not perform them at all, despite receiving payment for such services from the district,” an associate superintendent for the district wrote in the letter to Worthy, which was obtained by The Standard.

It was only months later that Worthy landed her job in January 2018 as the executive director of SF SAFE, a longtime nonprofit partner of the San Francisco Police Department, which played a role in her hiring process, according to the president of the nonprofit’s board…

But all that power was suddenly stripped away in a matter of days this week, when allegations of financial mismanagement at SF SAFE burst into public view and ultimately toppled Worthy.

First, a report by the Controller’s Office concluded that SF SAFE had improperly billed SFPD for luxury gift boxes, valet parking at an exclusive club and limo rides on a trip to Lake Tahoe. Then, vendors who did business with the nonprofit came forward with allegations that SF SAFE stiffed them on at least $1.2 million worth of bills. Finally, an internal investigation inside the nonprofit discovered depleted bank accounts—and indications of possible check forgery...(more)

This leads one to question what the HT department is doing for the 9 months it takes them to fulfill a new hire. We know what they do not do. They do not appear to take much time looking at the past positions of the applicants. And they don’t look at the staff of the non-profits they contract with.

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Plus: Yimby leader calls for rents to go higher. That’s The Agenda for Jan. 22-28.

The Board of Supes will hear an appeal Tuesday/23 of an issue involving a modest historic building on Sacramento Street that could raise much larger issues about the future of environmental review, not just in this city but in the state of California.

In essence, a developer and the City Planning Department are arguing that any project that falls under the Housing Element—that is, all future residential development in the city—is exempt from all review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

That, city planners say, is because the city already did an Environmental Impact Report on the latest Housing Element, a plan that happens to be based largely on fantasy.

Richard Drury, the lawyer for the appellant, notes in his letter that: “If the [Planning Department] approach is condoned, then arguably, CEQA review will never be required for any residential project in the City ever again.”

That may be what the Yimbys want, but it’s still a pretty radical change, particularly since the Housing Element EIR, which you can download here, specifically states that it’s a “programmatic EIR,” not a project-specific EIR, and that individual projects that might have a significant impact on the environment beyond what was analyzed in the program EIR would still need further CEQA review.

From the appeal letter: What the [Environmental Review Officer] fails to mention is that the Housing Element EIR did not analyze this Project at all. It analyzed the Housing Element that applies to the entire City of San Francisco. The analysis was at a very general programmatic level, analyzing the impacts of adding 50,000 new residents to the City. The Housing Element EIR specifically stated that it was not conducting any project-level CEQA analysis and that further CEQA analysis would be required for specific projects when they are proposed…

This one is weird: I thought the main Yimby argument was that more housing, including more market-rate housing, will eventually bring down rents. That’s the central reason that the state is mandating so much new housing—because a housing shortage, which can best be solved by the private sector, drives costs up for everyone…

From a number of sources including a video link on X and on 48hills:

On Jan. 18, 2024 at the Planning Commission Meeting, Corey Smith, executive director of the Housing Action Coalition, told the commissioners that “we need the rent to go back up” if new housing is going to be built. “I know that’s counter-intuitive and insane to say out loud, but it’s the truth,” he testified…(more) Stay tuned. It’s going to be a rocky ride.

• By Patrick Hoge : sfexaminer – excerpt

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in March that California would supply a total of 1,200 small cabinsto Los Angeles, San Diego County, San Jose and Sacramento to house homeless people.

Amy King, CEO of Washington state-based Pallet Inc., said she was thrilled in September to sign a contract with the California Department of General Services setting pricing and construction standards for the tiny shelter homes her company makes.

Not having received any orders for months, however, King loaded her company’s latest prefabricated offering, designed to meet the state’s specifications, onto a truck and launched a tour of select Bay Area cities — including San Francisco — in hopes of finding future business.

“We’re proud of it,” said King, who parked across the street from Civic Center Plaza last week to show off a 120-square-foot cabin that had a bed, a shower and toilet, storage, heating, air conditioning, a window, a lockable door and a price tag of $48,500…(more)

By : Calmatters – excerpt

Redding Police Chief Brian Barner has long thought it was odd that community service officers are allowed to interview witnesses to crimes, but state law prohibits them from testifying about what they were told.

Instead, gun-carrying officers with arrest powers, he said, have to get pulled off their beats to reinterview each witness and then go to court to recount what the witnesses said.

“It just takes that officer off the street and from doing proactive enforcement and responding to emergency calls,” Barner said in an interview with CalMatters.

So Barner and his colleagues around the state turned to Barner’s state senator, Republican Brian Dahle, who challenged Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2021 recall election, running on a platform that included slamming Newsom on crime…

Dahle’s bill, SB 804, would amend Proposition 115, the “Crime Victims Justice Reform Act,” passed by voters in 1990. The proposition included a provision that allows for changes with a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and the Assembly, according to a legislative analysis…(more)

By John King : sfchronicle – excerpt

Look past the obvious attractions along San Francisco’s bay waterfront, and Hyde Street Pier has long had its own cult appeal.

Tucked between Fisherman’s Wharf and Aquatic Park, it’s an 1,100-foot-long structure lined with historic vessels from as far back as 1886. Visitors can board ships that carried grain from California to Europe, and crossed the bay before today’s bridges were a gleam in anyone’s eye.

At some point this spring, however, four of the floating landmarks will set sail for Vallejo for at least several years — and the century-old pier itself will be torn out and totally rebuilt, a project that may not be complete until 2027.

“There’s going to be disruption, we know that,” said Dale Dualan, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, which manages the pier and nearby Aquatic Park. “But this is an opportunity to preserve these resources for future generations.”.

Though the $102 million project was approved by Congress in 2022, many basic details remain vague — such as what the new pier will look like, or when construction will begin and end. Nor is it clear when the historic vessels that line the pier will depart, or if all will return once work is complete…(more)

by Garrett Leahy : sfstandard – excerpt

A shuttered San Francisco diner has sat empty for over eight years, despite long-standing plans to develop it into luxury apartments.

The Lucky Penny diner, next to a Trader Joe’s at 2670 Geary Blvd. in Laurel Heights, was a favorite for late-night hospital visitors and University of San Francisco students, as it stayed open around the clock.

After it served its last patty melt on Christmas Eve in 2015, plans emerged in 2018 to demolish the diner and erect a building with 101 luxury apartments, dubbed the Laurel, by developer Presidio Bay Ventures.

But it’s 2024, and the Lucky Penny remains a shell of its once-bustling self.

Ex-cop Dominic Yin, who runs the family trust that owns the land and building, blames city red tape and swelling labor and building costs brought about by inflation for the delay.

“Take whatever the price [for development] was and double or triple it,” Yin said, declining to share how much construction would cost currently.

A 2019 building permit for an eight-story building with apartments and a street-level commercial space pegged the cost at $25 million. The Planning Commission approved the project in January 2020…(more)

By Yujie Zhou : missionlocal – excerpt

Chino Yang recently wrote a rap — a diss track, to be specific — about his frustration with anti-Asian hate, the current state of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed. Within days, the Asian rapper found himself the focus of condemnation from San Francisco’s African American leaders and the subject of a media frenzy.

The reaction to Yang’s rap criticizing Mayor Breed was as much about the messenger as the message, said Kyle Shin, 26, a fifth-generation Chinese American in the city who is also a rapper. Generally, he noted, Asians are perceived as reserved, the “model minority.”

That model minority may be turning on Breed. Interviews with small-business owners and leaders in the Asian community indicate that many are unhappy with the mayor and ready to support another candidate in the November election…

“I see people that are mad at London Breed, you know, don’t trust her at all,” said Albert Chow, president of the neighborhood association People of Parkside Sunset and owner of Great Wall Hardware on Taraval Street.

“I know there’re a lot of people that aren’t very happy with what’s going on now with the politics,” added William J. Barnickel, president of the Outer Sunset Merchant Professional Association and a commissioner on San Francisco’s Veterans Affairs Committee. While Barnickel is not Asian, most of his association’s members are.

David Ho, a Chinatown organizer and political consultant, said that the community now sees the mayor as responsible for the public-safety issues that have been there for years. Previously, the mayor and others could blame former District Attorney Chesa Boudin…

“Maybe this time we can point at the mayor, ‘You better do your job,’” added Sean Kim, vice president of Richmond District’s Geary Boulevard Merchants Association and owner of Joe’s Ice Cream. For small businesses, Kim said, it is dangerous to do business in San Francisco now. “But we don’t see any accountability, so we are not happy.”…

“I’m really glad to see Chino Yang speak up, and we have to support him,” said Kim, who also noted the chilling effect the aftermath of the incident would cause. “This kind of incident gives signal, ‘Oh, any other Asian small businesses, you better be quiet, otherwise you will be targeted.’”…

If not Breed who?

Breed will have the benefit of incumbency, but she is facing a burgeoning field: Daniel Lurie, nonprofit founder and the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, pulled papers in September, joining District 11 Supervisor Safaí. Former District 2 supervisor and acting mayor Mark Farrell is reportedly exploring a run, and supporters of Board President Aaron Peskin have urged him to throw his hat in the ring…(more)