https://sfneighborhoods.net/sunshine/civilgrandjurysunshinecomplaint.html
This complaint was submitted to the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury on October 28, 2024. For a PDF of this document click here.
Landline service could end for good across the Bay Area and California
By
AT&T is hoping to remove landline service in several parts of California, raising concern among residents who say they rely on the service for myriad reasons…
AT&T secured a big win in its lengthy battle to pull landline service across the state of California after the Federal Communications Commission approved a petition from the telecommunications giant last week to end the service. The plan would cut off access to 184,000 households starting June 1, 2027, the Mercury News reported, though it remains unclear how many homes in the Bay Area would be affected.
“Only 3% of households we serve in California still use traditional phone service. We’re taking a phased, year-long approach to upgrade customers in these areas where better, more reliable services are available,” AT&T said in a recent news release, adding that “no customer will be left without access to phone or 911 service.”… (more)
We are told that affordability is the Number One issue for voters this year
Investigating the Safeway closures turned into a multitude of detailed investigations that are summed up here rather well on this site by agricultural organizations. https://www.affordabilitywatchca.org
…
They cover some of the major reasons I have been talking about for the high cost of food and huge changes In California’s agricultural industry. https://www.affordabilitywatchca.org/food
This week we saw some possible good news on the Marina Safeway. Someone is taking the nearby park issue seriously according to the sfist.
Opponents Say Proposed 25-Story Marina Safeway Project May Not Be Eligible For Fast-Tracking
By Leeanne Maxwell : sfist – excerpt
The proposed 790-unit Marina Safeway redevelopment was granted fast-track status under a state housing law, but opponents argue the project may not actually qualify because the law requires that the majority of the surrounding land already be developed for “urban uses.”
The latest challenge to the proposed 25-story Marina Safeway redevelopment centers on whether the project should have been allowed to bypass a full environmental review, as the Chronicle reports. In a letter signed by several neighborhood groups, Marina Supervisor Stephen Sherrill argues the project does not qualify for streamlining under Assembly Bill 2011 because the law reportedly requires at least 75% of adjoining parcels to already be developed for “urban uses.”
Sherrill contends the requirement isn’t met because much of the property surrounding the Safeway site consists of parks and open space, including Marina Green, the Marina Yacht Harbor, and nearby land managed by SF Recreation and Park or the National Park Service at Fort Mason...(more)
Supervisor Dorsey wants city-funded nonprofits to report their lobbying efforts at City Hall.
By : sfchronicle – excerpt
Can’t happen fast enough…
Should city-funded nonprofits in San Francisco have to disclose their lobbying activities in the same way that for-profit corporations do? One city lawmaker thinks so, and he’s working on legislation to enact the idea.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey intends to propose an ordinance that would eliminate a provision in city law that exempts nonprofits from local rules requiring organizations to register their lobbyists and publicly report when they seek to influence officials at City Hall.
In a Wednesday letter to city lawyers asking for help preparing the ordinance, Dorsey said the legislation was intended to create more transparency around how city-funded nonprofits are allocating their resources. San Francisco has roughly doubled its spending on nonprofits since 2019, the Chronicle previously reported, but Dorsey noted that the city has simultaneously seen a “troubling pattern” of “ethical scandals, mismanagement” and other problems among nonprofits that provide crucial services.
Dorsey submitted the letter, which is likely to face pushback from nonprofits and their political allies, the same day supervisors sat for a marathon hearing to receive public comment about Mayor Daniel Lurie’s nearly $17 billion city budget proposal. Hours after the meeting of the supervisors’ appropriations committee began, the line of people waiting to speak still snaked through the corridors of City Hall. People sat huddled on the marble floors, some sporting matching shirts and jackets representing nonprofits and community groups… (more)
How many non-profits spend money on lobbyists? We know that some of them do, but., probably not the many.
Citizens’ Democracy Report – Massive fee increase for citizens’ ballot arguments
by Patrick Monnette-Shaw and John Crabtree
Breaking news on City Hall Proposal for 400% increases proposed for both ballot argument filing fees and per-word fees. A Citizens’ Democracy Report & Citizens’ Anti-Corruption Report Breaking News Story.
Mayor Lurie’s revised plan to increase filing fees and per-word fees for paid ballot arguments in the official Voter Information Pamphlet (VIP), which is mailed to voters in the City & County of San Francisco; and his new plan to eliminate publishing the legal text of each ballot measure in San Francisco’s VIP. Both measures will weaken democratic elections in San Francisco, and likely hand over even more power to special-interest recipient committees funded by billionaires to adversely influence San Francisco elections.
There are two companion Ordinances being heard at either the Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 17 at 10:00 a.m., or the next day on June 18 (apparently if the Committee runs out of time on 6/17). Both measures are being rushed through the Board of Supervisors Budget and Appropriations Committee without adequate public review. Although the Mayor’s Budget Director submitted both pieces of legislation on Monday June 1, it took two full work weeks until Friday June 12 before the public learned the legislation would be heard five days later on June 17… (more)
The two measures are Agenda Items 6 and 7 on the Appropriations Committee meeting agenda…
UPDATE: The issues were heard at the Appropriations Committee and were tabled by the Chair, Connie Chan. THEY NEED TO BE WATCHED AS THEY WILL COME BACK.
The second Ordinance, Board File #260604, will “remove the requirement that the Department of Elections publish the legal text of ballot measures in the Voter Information Pamphlet sent to voters before each election, and allow the Director of Elections to determine the format of the Voter Information Pamphlet without the Ballot Simplification Committee’s approval.”… (more)
In place of including the legal text of each ballot measure in the Voter Guide, voters would be forced to locate it on-line, at a Branch Library, in-person at the Department of Elections, or by e-mail or U.S. Mail. The costs of providing it by e-mail or U.S. mail — which may ultimately cost more than including it in the VIP — were not estimated for the consideration of this proposal.
The Ordinance to eliminate publishing the legal text in the Voter Guide would become effective 31 days after passage — meaning it would go into effect for the November 2026 election.
Therefore, all of the Charter Amendments the Mayor is introducing for his “Commission Streamlining” reform ballot measures will have their legal text kept out of the VIP in what appears to be a creative way to keep those ballot measures’ legal text as far from the voters as possible… (more)
Patrick Monette-Shaw will continue his breaking-news reporting on all of these developments in the Westside Observer as well.
New Melgar-Lurie plan for affordable housing is great; cutting other funding is not
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
Expanding the Housing Trust Fund could bring in $125 million a year. Repealing Prop. I could wipe out almost as much
Anything that adds more money for affordable housing in San Francisco is, by default, a good thing. The Council of Community Housing Organizations is celebrating new legislation, originated by CCHO and and SF Community Land Trust, that would increase the city’s Housing Trust Fund to as much as $125 million a year.
It’s not an unusual approach, by historic standards: In essence, the Trust Fund would grow as part of what we used to call “tax increment financing.” The additional property tax money that comes in from the city’s radical upzoning would in part (a fairly small part) be dedicated to affordable housing. It’s also called “value capture.”
Sup. Myrna Melgar took on the legislation to make this new approach happen, and Mayor Daniel Lurie signed on, and it will wind up on the ballot in November. The plan is to make sure the trust fund is in the City Charter, so no future mayor or supervisors can divert the money to other purposes.
Since it’s a defined revenue stream, the city could issue revenue bonds against it, bringing in immediate money for housing.
All of that is good. As CCHO Executive Director Quintin Mecke notes:
“Today, more than 17,000 approved affordable homes sit in San Francisco’s pipeline — entitled, designed, and waiting. Ready for permits. Ready on zoning. Waiting only for funding.
The Housing Trust Fund, as currently structured, falls short of what that pipeline demands.
The proposed Charter Amendment can begin to change that. This is a transformation, and we should name it as one.”…
UPDATE: Melgar told me there is no deal involving Prop. I; the only deal was to reduce the amount of required affordable housing in new projects. She said she is not currently supporting the BUILD Act.
Former Sup. Dean Preston and his allies are circulating petitions that would make Prop. I permanent–and would mandate that the money go for affordable housing. Lurie will oppose that.
Some folks will say that Preston and SF’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America are undermining the “deal” that trades away Prop. I and inclusionary housing for this new, valuable, steady income source.
But Mecke told me that in his meetings with Melgar’s Office and Lurie’s Office, nobody said that the new trust fund hinged on everyone supporting the repeal of Prop. I and the cut in affordability requirements. “I was never asked to agree to a deal,” he said.… (more)
This continues to be one of the most convoluted way to operate an affordable housing plan. No matter where you look there is a “gotcha”. Perhaps when the dust settles one may be able to look at what options remain for the voters to respond to in November.
Meanwhile, what is being done to get the people who need housing into the thousands of empty units, some owned by companies that are or will soon declare bankruptcy and may well owe the city millions of dollars in back taxes.
We hear that Parkmerced is largely empty and the owners are broke. What can’t these properties, which can’t be in worse shade than some of the affordable housing projects we hear about, be turned into a temporary housing project for the people who are already signed up for housing?
RELATED:
How a CCHO idea became a $3 billion Charter Amendment — and why the fight isn’t over. (By Quintin Mecke, SF CCHO : substack )
Lurie wants to make ballot arguments too expensive for small campaigns
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
EXCLUSIVE: Dramatic increase in fees would help big-money and undermine grassroots groups. It goes before the supes Wednesday.
Mayor Daniel Lurie is moving to increase by a factor of five the cost of putting an argument in the ballot handbook, undermining the most affordable way for grassroots campaigns to reach voters.
Under his legislation, which no local news media has covered, the cost of an argument would increase from $200 and $2 a word to $1,000 and $10 a word by 2030. That would mean a 200-word ballot argument that now costs $600 would cost $3,000.
Five ballot arguments, a modest number for a lot of campaigns, would cost $15,000—more than many community-based campaigns could afford.
That would give big-money operations even more clout in San Francisco.
The measure comes before the Budget and Appropriations Committee Wednesday/17 at 1:30 pm… (more)
At the June GA meeting CSFN members voted to approve a letter objecting to this action. The letter sent to the Budget and Appropriations Committee. re: Ordinances 260603 & 260604.
CSFN Oppose Ballot Fee Increase
A week of budget protests as Lurie’s brutal cuts hit everyone except the cops
By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt
Plus: Letting big institutions off the planning hook—and yet another bizarre prosecution from DA Brooke Jenkins. That’s The Agenda for June 14-19
The Board of Supes Budget and Appropriations Committee will continue hearings on the mayor’s budget proposal this week—and City Hall will be filled with protesters. The People’s Budget Coalition plans a series of creative actions; here’s a rundown:… (see the schedule here)…
A full Civic Center spectacle will show what San Francisco looks like when the city funds communities instead of cuts. Community organizations, workers and residents will fill Civic Center Plaza with cultural performances, drag, dance, music, poetry, art-making, popular education, resource sharing, picnic blankets, banners, accessibility areas, pieces of the AIDS Quilt, and political theater calling on City Hall to restore the cuts. 10am, in front of City Hall… (more)
Why turning 55 is one of the most important financial milestones if you live in California
By Jessica Roy : sfchronicle – excerpt
Every birthday is worth celebrating. But in California, you might celebrate a little more when you turn 55 — especially if you own a home.
What’s all the excitement about? It’s the age you become eligible to sell your home and buy a new one while retaining your property tax basis, thanks to Proposition 19… (more)
This is actually a tease for the next article that is a lot more compelling in my opinion, and there is no firewall.
Primary Care as a Public Utility
The Case for a Common Fund
Importance More than one-third of US adults lack access to primary care, which has increasingly become a commodity rather than the common good envisioned by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Many states are working to bolster primary care, but face common challenges related to federalism, fragmentation of health insurance, and administrative hurdles that undermine their efforts to invest in primary care. These challenges are discussed and one potential solution is described: a primary care common fund that finances and pays for primary care from the perspective of a public utility…
Conclusions and Relevance As people in the US increasingly struggle to find a primary care clinician, state investments in primary care share common challenges. A primary care common fund could help states overcome these challenges by pooling resources and paying for primary care as a public utility—consistent with the vision of primary care as a common good—without disrupting the rest of the health care system. This approach is supported by precedent and paths toward feasibility… (more)
MAYOR LURIE AND COMMUNITY LEADERS CELEBRATE 145 NEW AFFORDABLE HOMES FOR SENIORS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2026
CONTACT: Max Szabo| | max@szaboandassociates.com
MAYOR LURIE AND COMMUNITY LEADERS CELEBRATE 145 NEW AFFORDABLE HOMES FOR SENIORS First Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund project delivered in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional affordable housing developments – Click HERE for livestream footage. Livestream begins at 11:30 AM 6/2
SAN FRANCISCO — Today, Mercy Housing California, alongside the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), Mayor Daniel Lurie, and community partners, celebrated the grand opening of 1633 Valencia, a new affordable housing community providing 145 homes for formerly homeless seniors in San Francisco’s Mission District.
As the first development backed by the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund, 1633 Valencia was built in just 19 months for approximately $525,000 per unit — half the cost of some affordable housing developments in San Francisco.
“Our city has not built enough housing, and the price has fallen to our seniors—people who spent decades contributing to this community and deserve stability, dignity, and care. Today, I’m proud to open 145 new supportive homes for San Francisco seniors,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “This space used to sit largely unused, and now it will be a site where people can age with dignity, build connections with their neighbors, and find the stability they need to thrive. We will continue building a system where housing comes with healthcare and where success is not just about whether someone has a place to sleep but about whether their life is actually getting better.”…
The Housing Accelerator Fund is committed to the preservation and expansion of quality affordable housing for economically disadvantaged individuals and families throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. An innovative nonprofit public-private partnership and certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), HAF works with community-based organizations, local governments, and private and philanthropic institutions to provide powerful new financing tools that accelerate housing solutions for the Bay Area’s most vulnerable residents. This includes the newly launched Industrialized Construction Catalyst Fund as well as the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund and other tailored financing products. Visit us at www.sfhaf.org...(more)