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He lost the mayor’s race, but Aaron Peskin isn’t going anywhere

By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez : sfstandard – excerpt

Supervisor Aaron Peskin may have lost his bid for mayor, but he isn’t going anywhere.  Though he’ll soon be termed out from his longtime perch on the Board of Supervisors, the Napoleon of North Beach is priming to rally progressive troops against the monied interests who spent millions of dollars in the election.   “I don’t think San Francisco needs new organizations. They just need better coordination and leadership,” he said. “And this is a ripe opportunity to bring them all together.”

 

In an interview with The Standard, Peskin said that despite speculation, he isn’t interested in serving as, for instance, chief of staff for mayor-elect Daniel Lurie or the city’s first inspector general. (Regardless, Peskin would be barred from such roles by a rule that prohibits employment at City Hall for a year after leaving.) But Peskin did call Lurie to offer any help he could, he said.

Instead of a staff role, Peskin plans to unite a loose collection of progressive Democrat groups — neighborhood groups, Democratic clubs, civic organizations, and labor — to push back against the influence of wealthy power players in local politics.

A cadre of folks whose net worth borders on the bonkers — including billionaire Bill Oberndorf, who backs Republicans nationally, and The Standard chairman Michael Moritz — have channeled millions of dollars into political groups like TogetherSF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, and GrowSF.

In this election, such well-heeled donors dropped coins aplenty: Moritz spent $3.1 million; Oberndorf spent $1.1 million; former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, $1.4 million; Ripple CEO Chris Larsen, roughly $1 million; and tech angel investor Ron Conway, $438,000. That’s to say nothing of the city’s new mayor, Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, who self-funded his campaign to the tune of $8 million.

The outcome of all that spending was mixed.…(more)

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SF Superior Court Strikes Down Residential Vacancy Tax

insidesf – excerpt

The San Francisco Superior Court has struck down a residential vacancy tax slated to take effect in 2025, ruling that the tax is unconstitutional.

Voters approved the Empty Homes Tax in 2022, which required owners of apartments or condos in structures with three or more units to pay a tax on units vacant for 182 or more days in a calendar year. Filing and fees were scheduled to begin in 2025.

However, the San Francisco Apartment Association, Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, San Francisco Association of Realtors and four individual landlords filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in February 2023 to challenge the constitutionality of the law. And the San Francisco Superior Court ruled yesterday morning that the tax violated the Constitution and imposed an unlawful burden on privacy interests, while also being pre-empted by the state’s Ellis Act.

As it stands now, the residential vacancy tax is no longer in effect. The city will appeal the decision and debate will continue. (Here’s a link to the court decision.)

Owners in this property category now don’t need to file or pay any fees to the city. I’ll keep you updated on any future developments…(more)

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Newsom announces new accountability measures for cities that receive homelessness aid

By Mollie Burke : sfchronicle – excerpt

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new requirements Friday for cities and counties receiving state money to address homeless encampments.

Newsom, who has been cracking down on local governments that refuse to accommodate new housing projects or homeless shelters, said that the state will “claw back” funding for localities that fail to comply with their housing goals.

San Francisco became the first city to fall out of compliance with the housing element law, the California Department of Housing and Community Development ruled in July. San Francisco is required to plan for 82,000 new units between 2023 and 2031, but the city authorized just over 3,000 new units in 2023 and 831 units in the first half of this year, according to the city’s Planning Department. The state announced in August that San Francisco was back on track to return to compliance.

Under a law passed in 2023 by San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener, cities that fail to comply must streamline the approval of most projects.

Newsom also said Friday that cities must follow “all state housing and homelessness laws” to hold on to their millions in state aid from encampment resolution funds…(more)

How did we end up with an anti-San Francisco governor and an anti-San Francisco Senator? What is wrong with our city that no one who likes us runs for state office?
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Rent control bill advances, with Melgar in opposition

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
Peskin measure would add protections to tens of thousands of units (if the state allows). Can Breed veto it?…

Prop. 33 on the Nov. 5 ballot would overturn Costa Hawkins. If that happens, and Peskin’s bill passes, every apartment build between June 14, 1979 and Nov. 5, 2024 would come under the city’s rent control law…

The legislation, sponsored by Sup. Aaron Peskin, would extend rent controls to the tens of thousands of units that are exempt under state law, if and when that state law is repealed or amended.

Under the Costa Hawkins Act, any apartment built after June 13, 1979 is exempt from any form of local rent control…(more)

Not sure why no one is asking the Mayoral candidates about this. They do a lot of lip service to “the high costs of housing”, but avoid talking about the corporate takeover and control of rental pricing. There is even less talk about the exorbitant costs of fuel and utilities. Most of these are state problems, but they need to be on the table for discussion every time the price of rent is raised, in my opinion.

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Peskin helps cops catch attacker while driving to work

By Joe Burn, Sam Mondros, and David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excrrpt

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin went above and beyond in his civic duties Thursday morning. As he drove toward City Hall along Van Ness Avenue, he spotted what appeared to be a homeless man being beaten and robbed.

Acting fast, Peskin called 911 at 11:02 a.m., he told The Standard in a phone call, and began following the suspect in his car, remaining on the line for eight minutes.

“At which point, I was told he had been apprehended, and I drove back around and found him and identified him, and he is now under arrest,” Peskin said.

Peskin said the victim looked as if he was in his 60s and “maybe homeless.”…

Peskin’s longtime political consultant, Jim Stearns, wasted no time seizing the opportunity to promote the mayoral candidate’s good deed for the day.

“He not only swims from Alcatraz, he single-handedly apprehends dangerous criminals. I mean, of course, he should be mayor,” he told The Standard by phone…(more)

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Prior to her resignation, Dream Keeper Initiative director Sheryl Davis threw a party at one of D.C.’s swankiest hotels

By Susan Dyer Reynolds – via email (excerpt)

She also took two trips to Martha’s Vineyard in 2023 and 2024, where she and other Dream Keeper recipients were event sponsors…
Mayor Breed, right, appointed Mawuli Tugbenyoh to serve as acting replacement for Human Rights Commission head Sheryl Davis…
 
To nobody’s surprise this close to an election where Mayor London Breed, her dear friend, is battling to keep her job, Sheryl Davis, head of the Human Rights Commission where she also ran the Dream Keeper Initiative, has resigned (on Friday the 13th, no less). As I pointed in last week’s GBTB, when London Breed was District 5 supervisor, she asked Mayor Ed Lee to allow Davis to run programming at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center. After a few years there, Davis was asked to be interim director of the Human Rights Commission, and soon after that she became the director. In November 2023, I called out the Dream Keeper Initiative, which took $120 million from law enforcement and created a citywide plan for “reinvesting” those millions in San Francisco’s African American community, as a pet project of Mayor Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton ripe for grift. “A quick glance at the beneficiaries brings up numerous ‘nonprofits’ with ties to Breed and Walton, including organizations involved with the SFPUC Community Benefits pay-to-play scheme,” I wrote. A year later, my predictions came true, with many of the nonprofits I referenced caught misusing those funds on everything from cigars and bourbon to $700,000 for two Juneteenth parties.
On Sept. 12, Davis took a paid leave of absence, but she phoned it in. The day before, on Sept. 11, she presided over the Dreaming Forward “fireside chat” and reception at the luxury five-star Riggs Hotel in Washington, D.C. The event was hosted by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, as was a seminar held from 11 a.m. to noon that same day called “Dreaming Forward: Investing in Black Culture to Advance Academic Excellence,” featuring Davis and Dream Keeper Initiative director Dr. Saidah Leatutufu-Burch.
It turns out Burch has big City Family ties as well, to District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton, co-sponsor of the Dream Keeper Initiative. Walton officiated the wedding of Leattutufu to his aide and longtime associate Percy Burch. In his opening comments, Walton made light of the fact they met “while one was the boss of the other” but said (with a “wink-wink”) that both swear the relationship started outside of work. And where did they work? At the infamous Young Community Developers while Walton was director. Not surprisingly, YCD got a nice grant from the Dream Keeper Initiative…(more)
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If you live on Social Security and Medicare, read this article before you vote

by Carol Harvey : sfbayview – excerpt

Produced over 12 years ago, this video never gets old…
Hey kiddos, Mom and Dad here. Let’s talk turkey – specifically about those turkeys who want to cut Social Security benefits. What’s up with that?

Read the article before you view the videos. Watch the entire one and one-half hour event by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRITuQhUO3g&list=PLHrKWOo7hlZBqhGnknzClH3RqOO_sR4Lz.
Watch a 14-minute video summary by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/KlcWvBFn36Q.
Watch an eight-minute summary by clicking this link: https://youtu.be/zbHBfGQjK3Y.

If you live on Social Security and Medicare, you and I are not alone.

It has now become too expensive for 65 million Americans to live in the United States of Money. People need food, shelter, healthcare and a basic income. Social Security and Medicare are our safety nets…

On July 30, 2024, with flare and a sense of fun, the California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA) threw Social Security and Medicare a birthday party. I videoed the event, which took place at the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francesco. I swear I gained weight just looking at the red, white and blue frosted birthday cake held up by Hene Kelly, CARA vice president, and Kory Powell-McCoy, Nancy Pelosi’s district director…

13scrap-the-cap-1400x875, If you live on Social Security and Medicare, read this article before you vote, Featured News & Views

“Scrap the Cap” signs were everywhere. So what’s the cap?

…(more)

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Investor who bought up buildings to ‘improve’ ritzy S.F. neighborhood is uprooting legacy businesses

By Laura Waxman : sfchronicle – excerpt

The first thing that Pacific Heights resident Gabriel Wolf recalls when asked about his mid-pandemic move to Upper Fillmore Street is discovering signs of a friendly and engaged community that he found comforting during a time of great uncertainty.

He points out a ginkgo tree dubbed “Bartholome” that the owner of Cielo lobbied the city to have planted on the sidewalk in front of her clothing boutique, and the string lights that a customer of adjacent Ten-Ichi installed outside the 46-year-old sushi restaurant. Across the street, 45-year-old La Mediterranee restaurant refurbished its parklet with a mural depicting a serene sunset…

“These businesses obviously care about this neighborhood and the people in it,” Wolf said.

Now the future for some of these businesses is uncertain.

When a mysterious web of connected limited liability companies started buying up building after building on a three-block stretch of Fillmore, small business owners and residents in the area were hopeful that the infusion of capital could help buoy and revive the close-knit retail community that had been struggling since the pandemic.

But, months after the properties traded hands, the vision of Upper Fillmore’s newest investor is coming into focus, and one thing appears certain: It does not include several of the mom and pop businesses that have anchored the street for decades.

Earlier this year, stealthy entities spent upwards of $40 million on acquiring more than half a dozen aging buildings on Fillmore between Clay and Pine streets, including the defunct Clay Theater at 2261 Fillmore. For now, they’re adding to the street’s shuttered storefronts by displacing a handful of long-time small businesses in an apparent bid to ultimately bring more high-end retailers into the area… (more)

RELATED:
VC Neil Mehta, who’s quietly nabbing prized SF property, plans a “Y Combinator for restaurants”: 
What does Neil know about the restaurants he is kicking out? Not much evidently. They are some of the most popular eating establishments in town. How jaded are his tastebuds?

You better keep your car because you are going to need it when they drive you out of town!

 

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Aaron Peskin, in Mission, delivers six-point plan to fix homelessness

By H. R. Smith : missionlocal – excerpt

There are, unsurprisingly, so many more points than six 

Supervisor Aaron Peskin gathered with supporters at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 school on Tuesday to announce his six-point Crisis to Care plan, saying if elected mayor he would address homelessness with housing, conservatorships, and cash payments to avoid evictions…

Peskin said he would be hands-on in the plan’s implementation.

“I will be the person that convenes the department heads,” says Peskin, in the tone of someone ascending to the emotional high point of a speech. “I will be the person who calls for and reads the audits and implements the results, and I will be the person who implements the systemic management reforms. I am the person who, from the legislative branch, has seen the tangled web and knows how to untangle it.”

It is this enthusiasm for the boringness of civic governance and budgeting (which even people who disagree with Peskin cite as a defining characteristic) that has raised the hopes of many of those assembled here that homelessness could be managed more like a public health problem than a referendum on an official’s political career. Though in this case, it could be both…

Proposition 1, which passed at the state level earlier this year after heavy campaigning from Gov. Gavin Newsom, requires every county in California to spend more of its tax revenue from the Mental Health Services Act on housing and treatment for people with drug and alcohol problems. It also requires money be set aside money for expanding residential facilities for people with mental health or substance abuse problems.

Some of the most practical sites for this kind of housing, says Agnos, are state mental hospitals that were defunded back when Ronald Reagan was governor of California. Local governments could literally work together and begin to un-Reagan decades of California mental health policy…(more)

 

 

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Lurie Announces Plan To Create New Police District

For Immediate Release : via email

New Police District Would Cover Hospitality Zone to Better Deter Crime Targeting Businesses and Tourists Downtown

SAN FRANCISCO– Today, Daniel Lurie announced a plan to create a new police district that covers San Francisco’s hospitality zone, from Moscone Center to Union Square. The new police district would encompass the Convention Center, San Francisco Centre, Yerba Buena Gardens, and Union Square, with a station located in the district once Lurie’s plans to fully staff the police department are implemented. Currently, the hospitality district is split between three police districts, dividing already limited police resources across an area with unique public safety needs.

“The Union Square shopping area is ground zero for retail theft,” said Daniel Lurie, a longtime non-profit executive, father of two, and lifelong Democrat. “From deterring crime in our shopping corridors to ensuring tourists feel safe in an iconic San Francisco neighborhood, this area has unique needs that require dedicated and specialized resources. Revitalizing this area is key to San Francisco’s economic recovery. The current and former interim mayors caused a morale crisis in our police department which has spurred an exodus of officers, but I’m confident we can turn this around with new accountable leadership.” 

Union Square, historically the region’s premier shopping area and the most important city-center shopping district west of Chicago, has been hit hard by retail theft, threatening businesses and deterring foot traffic, putting the economic vitality of downtown San Francisco at risk. This specialized police district would focus on protecting the heart of San Francisco’s economy, which contributes 75% of the city’s GDP and 40% of the city’s jobs. The plan for a new police district is coupled with Lurie’s existing plans to increase police staffing numbers citywide, create a downtown climate innovation hub, ensure certainty in zoning and permitting, and transform downtown into a 24/7 vibrant urban core.

Lurie’s plan for fully staffing the police department includes: building workforce housing for first responders, offering rent subsidies so officers can live in the communities where they work, providing child care and transportation incentives, and increasing diversity in our ranks so officers reflect the communities they serve.

In contrast, both Farrell and Breed have a track record of defunding the police. Specifically, Farrell claims to have increased police funding as budget chair, but during his tenure from 2013 to 2017, his Budget Committee actually reduced the police department’s budget by nearly $6 million over three years—$600,000 less in 2013, $1 million less in 2014, and $4 million less in 2015. Moreover, as interim Mayor, the San Francisco Police Officers Association criticized him as obstructionist on officer pay. Since Breed became Mayor in 2018, SFPD has lost 300 officers creating both a staffing and morale crisis that has further exacerbated a sense of lawlessness while stretching 911 call response times to dangerous levels.