News

by David Mamaril Horowitz : 48hills – excerpt

This story is being updated through Wednesday evening.

Traffic was halted on Franklin Street as well over 200 educators across some 20 school sites filled the street in front of the school district headquarters at 3 p.m. to protest the Empower pay crisis. Chants quickly overpowered the music.

“What do we want?” shouted Evelyn Sanchez, a teacher at San Francisco Community School and a protest organizer.

“Paychecks!” responded the crowd.

“When do we want them?”

“Now!”

More than 3,000 educators have been impacted across the San Francisco School District by the EMPowerSF payroll debacle, according to Alvarez & Marsal, the firm recently hired to assess and fix the EmPowerSF payroll system.

At the corner of 555 Franklin St., teachers took turns at the mic to share their stories…(more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Board members furious that the Felton Institute refused to answer questions at a hearing on union-contract issues.

A social-service nonprofit that gets more than $20 million a year in public money from San Francisco is engaged in a union struggle—and has refused to discuss the situation with the Board of Supervisors.

SEIU Local 1021 is trying to organize workers at The Felton Institute, which provides a wide range of social and behavioral health services, and union members say they are facing resistance.

But when the supes Government Audit and Oversight Committee held a hearing on the issue last week, nobody from Felton was willing to answer questions…

“They do good work,” Melgar told me. “But they have to be fair to their workers. And the best way to make sure that happens is for all the workers to have a union.”…(more)

How can they be doing good work when they are ripping off their employees?

By Tomasita Medál and Nicky Tresviña : eltecolote – excerpt

San Francisco needs to be more accessible as a city, not less so, write guest commentators on Propositions for the upcoming election.

There are two items on this November’s ballot that greatly impact our community’s ability to have equal access to all of the amenities along JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park as well as easy access to Ocean Beach and the VA Hospital coming from the Mission, Excelsior, and Bayview on the Upper Great Highway.

Proposition I would restore car access to JFK Drive and Upper Great Highway to pre-Covid days, keeping JFK Drive accessible to everyone 24/7, except Sundays and holidays and some Saturdays in Spring and Summer. This returns JFK Drive to the SHARED space initiated in 1967.

Proposition J would close JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park 24/7 EVERY day of the year, permanently. It reserves JFK Drive only for the exclusive use of bicyclists! The road was designed to bring everyone to the Rose Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers, the Dahlia Garden, the Rhododendron Dell, the waterfall, the Academy of Sciences, and the deYoung Museum. Since Mayor Breed cited the pandemic as a reason to close JFK Drive 24/7, countless families from distant neighborhoods, with elders, disabled members, and young children have been excluded from all of the amenities along JFK Drive. These include winter night sights such as the Conservatory of Flowers light show and the “Enchanted Garden” neon forest installation…

We are saddened to see how our city has become so uncaring about the impact of these road closures on our vulnerable communities.

It’s easy for the able-bodied to dismiss the needs of those with disabilities, but we will all become elders eventually. Please have compassion for those more vulnerable than you. For these reasons, we urge you to register to vote and vote Yes on I and NO on J. This vote will impact generations to come.… (more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Martha Goldin asks for inquiry into the DA’s paid work for nonprofits that were tightly linked to the Boudin recall campaign.

A retired Superior Court judge who lives in San Francisco has filed a detailed complaint with the state Bar Association claiming that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins lied about her work for supporters of the Chesa Boudin recall.

The complaint focuses on information that has been reported widely, in the most detail by Michael Barba at the SF Standard. After quitting her job at a prosecutor after a dispute with Boudin, her then boss, about whether a mentally ill person should be sent to a hospital or to prison, she began to work for three nonprofits…(more)

by Josh Koehn : sfstandard – excerpt

Two nonprofits working to keep JFK Drive and the Great Highway car-free appeared to skirt IRS and election rules this summer when they solicited tax-deductible donations to fund a campaign fight that has consumed City Hall for more than a year.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Walk San Francisco, which receive city funding and advocate for safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians, respectively, sent emails in July encouraging their members to make tax-free donations for the election battle on whether cars should return to the coveted roadways.

While 501c3 nonprofits can advocate on political issues and ballot measures, the money used to fund these campaigns has to be properly reported, and this money cannot be used for tax write-offs.

The proponents of Proposition I, which seeks to return vehicle access to the Great Highway in the Sunset and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, claimed in complaints filed with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and the San Francisco Ethics Commission that the nonprofits violated these laws. Both the Bicycle Coalition and Walk SF support Prop. J, which would codify an ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors to keep the roadways car-free, a move that occurred early in the pandemic…(more)

I appears that other campaign rules are being broken if the scene is in a city hall meeting. I thought people are not allowed to bring campaign signs into the meetings. Did that rule change? May we all show up with signs now?

By David Lawder : reuters – excerpt

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury moved to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing on Friday by finalizing a new tax credit income rule that may qualify more housing projects and extending deadlines for when they must be placed in service.

The finalized income-averaging rule for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit now allows a broader mix of income levels among residents of qualifying projects, by using an average, rather than fixed limits for all units.

The rule clarifies a 2018 law passed by Congress to allow developers more flexibility in qualifying for the credits.

Previously, projects qualifying for the tax credit, which can offset up to 70% of an affordable housing project’s costs, needed to make at least 20% of the units available to residents earning 50% of the local area’s median income (AMI) or 40% of the units at 60% of AMI.

A Treasury official said the new regulation allows for at least 40% of a project’s units to meet an average of 60% of AMI — allowing more higher-income tenants to mix with lower-income residents…(more)

Can this help build more affordable housing and make a dent in the “penciling in” argument? Why does this feel like a déjà vu moment? Haven’t we seen this script before?

By Nick Voronin : sfstandard – excerpt

Anyone who tuned into KGO 810—the Bay Area’s long-running, Cumulus Media-owned AM talk radio station—after 10 a.m. Thursday morning was met with a medley of pop music and a string of cryptic interstitial announcements.

“Start spreading the news,” a woman’s voice proclaimed in one announcement, which gave way to a snippet of “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. “Our new handle is coming Monday!”

“It’s the biggest gamble in Bay Area radio history!”, a resonant male voice declared, before a clip “Money” by Pink Floyd played…

“Today we say goodbye to the legendary KGO,” a message posted on the radio station’s Twitter and homepage read. “Over the last 80 years, KGO has been here for Bay area listeners covering and discussing all the news that has impacted our world and local communities. We thank you for your loyalty and for trusting KGO to be your source for information. We also want to sincerely thank all the talented men and women that worked so hard over the years to produce award-winning programming on KGO. On Monday, 810am begins a new era. We hope you will tune in.”…

A story published by the industry periodical Radio + Television Business Report speculated that the medley of pop songs—including “Viva Las Vegas” by Elvis Presley and “Ride Wit Me” by Nelly—is a sign that the station will begin focusing on sports and maybe even further specialized in sports betting. All of the songs played referenced money and gambling…(more)