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Mayor London Breed’s $23K ethics fine is ratified — and everyone comes out looking bad

By Joe Eskenazi : 48hills – excerpt

Ethics Commission staff refuses to answer key questions, even to commissioners: Was mayor interviewed? Did it obtain key receipts for Nuru gifts? What was the true source of illegal donations?

y a 4-0 vote, the San Francisco Ethics Commission today approved a stipulated agreement with Mayor London Breed, fining her nearly $23,000 for a series of legal and ethical missteps.

This is not an insignificant amount of money. And this is the first instance of the Ethics Commission dinging a sitting mayor — despite a healthy selection of ethically challenged (and extremely ding-able) prior San Francisco mayors. But if the purpose of today’s proceedings, and the Ethics Commission writ large, is to give San Franciscans confidence that our elected leaders are adhering to the law or face consequences —  well, that didn’t happen...(more)

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Facing ‘dire water shortages,’ California bans Delta pumping

By Rachel Becker, calmatters : sfexaminer – excerpt

In an aggressive move to address “immediate and dire water shortages,” California’s water board this week unanimously approved emergency regulations to temporarily stop thousands of farmers, landowners and others from diverting water from from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed…

The new regulations — the first to take such widespread action for the massive Delta watershed stretching from Fresno to the border with Oregon — could lead to formal curtailment orders for about 5,700 water rights holders as soon as Aug. 16. The decision comes on the heels of curtailment orders issued to nearly 900 water users along the drought-stricken Russian River, with 222 more expected next week.

The five water board members, who were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom or former Gov Jerry Brown, approved the rule despite vehement opposition from representatives of Central Valley growers.

Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield, said the regulation would “disrupt the critical production of essential food…Instead, the state should focus on expanding water storage and upgrading its existing water infrastructure, not punish local water managers.”

Assemblymember Adam Gray, a Democrat from Merced, called the curtailment orders for senior water rights holders “one of the most destructive measures possible.”

“The Board’s legal authority is by no means certain,” Gray wrote to the board. “Growers will have to risk significant fines and penalties just to find out whether the Board actually has the authority it claims. Either way, they lose.”…

Dwindling flows risk salty backwash from the Pacific tainting supplies for drinking, farmers and fish…

It’s just too fast, you’ve got to listen to stakeholders in this process,” said Valerie Kincaid, a water law attorney who represents the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, a coalition of irrigation districts and water agencies. “We now have a draft regulation that exceeds water board authority.”…(more)

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The public must decide

Opinion by Gregory Schmid, Palo Alto : sfchronicle

Regarding “Manhattanize Palo Alto” (Open Forum, July 25): Manhattanizing a city or region is a big deal. It is a change in the nature of a community. In our democracy those are decisions made with full public participation. But Manhattanizing follows the program defined by the non-elected Association of Bay Area Governments Board which set its own priority strategy: concentrating jobs and housing growth in already jobs-rich South Bay Cities. There has been no serious public discussion of alternative strategies (as required by law) such as job dispersion, or of the serious consequences of overconcentration, including: the high cost of land and infrastructure, producing the highest housing costs in the country; the resulting income inequalities, with extremely expensive affordable and middle income housing; excluding families with two workers and children. (Manhattan and San Francisco have the smallest share of their population between the ages of 5 and 17 of any cities in the country). Remember: The tech revolution that transformed the world did not happen in Manhattan or any dense city, but in five small suburban cities where mobility of people and ideas was dominant. Manhattanization and its consequences need to be the product of a full public discussion and not an imposed decision.

I was there for a good portion of the PC revolution, working at InfoWorld. I ran around from one garage to another for short little meetings when I was doing package designs for developers. My little Fiat Spider was buzzing all over the valley.

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Go big or go home: S.F. supervisor juices housing legislation to allow fourplexes on every single-family lot

By Heather Knight : sfchronicle – excerpt (via email)

Early this year, the real f-word in San Francisco was fourplex. The notion of allowing single-family homes to be converted to four units — already being explored by Sacramento, Berkeley, South San Francisco and other cities — made some politicians and their NIMBY supporters blow their tops.

A tame proposal from Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, announced here in January, to allow fourplexes on corner lots and within a half mile of major transit stops garnered little support. Opponents of development falsely claimed it would ruin their charming neighborhoods, while supporters said it didn’t go far enough.

Mandelman could either scrap the idea or go bigger. Thankfully, he’s opted for the latter.

On Tuesday, he’ll introduce legislation allowing fourplexes on any single-family home lot in San Francisco regardless of whether it’s on a corner or near transit. And the most encouraging sign? Two fellow supervisors are working on their own pieces of fourplex legislation they plan to introduce this fall.

There’s no more time for whining about building more homes on your block. Climate change is slapping us in the face, and we need more people living near their jobs and near transit to reduce vehicle emissions. Plus, as inland California bakes — it reached 113 degrees in Sacramento this month! — we need to make room for more people near the temperate coast.

Add to that the city’s homelessness catastrophe and the obvious need to end exclusionary zoning so more low-income people and people of color can live in all neighborhoods, and it’s clear fourplexes need to be part of the solution to our housing crisis. Now comes the tricky part of figuring out how to make them affordable to build in a city where it can cost $800,000 or more to construct one unit of housing.

And it’s just not the Board of Supervisors thinking about fourplexes. A pro-housing group in San Francisco is preparing a fourplex-related ballot measure and an effort to allow them throughout the state is winding its way through the legislature.

Suddenly, fourplexes are cool. And the likelihood they’ll someday be allowed in San Francisco’s residential neighborhoods seems higher than it did just months ago.

“We’re going to have to make much bigger moves than this to address our housing shortage, but this is a meaningful step,” Mandelman said.

Meaningful, yes. But despite the outsize negative reaction they inspire in people who want San Francisco preserved like some kind of museum exhibit, fourplexes are just a tiny piece of the city’s giant housing puzzle.

What is motivating some to claim that density is the only solution to global warming while many reach the opposite conclusion? How does cutting trees and paving over backyards save the planet?

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How did the Housing Authority ignore awful conditions at Plaza East?

by Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

I just watched a hearing of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee on the status of the disastrous conditions at Plaza East housing complex in the Western Addition, and some of the information that came out was stunning.

For one thing, the city’s Housing Authority, which is emerging from years of mismanagement, appears to have allowed the private, for-profit developer that built and manages the public housing to operate with almost zero oversight…Nearly every question that Sup. Dean Preston asked the public agency in advance of the hearing was referred to McCormack Baron Salazar, which rebuilt the property just 20 years ago under a Housing Authority contract. (Wow, there are a lot of white people running a company that manages public housing, which is occupied largely by people of color.)… (more)

Looks like another case of the “c” word with yet another city agency or department that is not performing.

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PG&E says its equipment may have led to 30,000-acre Dixie Fire

By Adeel Hassan, NYTimes News Service : sfexaminer – excerpt

Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, said on Sunday that blown fuses on one of its utility poles may have sparked a fire that has burned through 30,000 acres in Northern California.

The blaze, known as the Dixie Fire, has spread through remote wilderness about 100 miles north of Sacramento, in an area close to the burn scars of 2018’s devastating Camp Fire, which itself was caused by PG&E equipment failures…(more)

What will it take for the CPUC and state officials to see that the way forward is to rely less on long-distance power lines and promote more local rooftop solar production?

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California Treasurer Fiona Ma sued for sexual harassment by former employee

By Alexei Koseff : sfchronicle – excerpt

SACRAMENTO — A former senior employee in the California State Treasurer’s Office has sued Treasurer Fiona Ma for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, alleging that she was fired earlier this year after resisting unwanted sexual advances from Ma.

Judith Blackwell, who worked under Ma for about 16 months as executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, filed the lawsuit last week in Sacramento County Superior Court.

“Plaintiff felt the work environment to be hostile as she felt her employment was contingent on her accepting Defendant Ma’s sexual advances,” Blackwell’s attorney, Waukeen McCoy, wrote in the complaint. “As a result of Plaintiff denying Defendant Ma’s advances, she was terminated from her employment.”…(more)

A little light reading after all the heavy stuff we are hearing about graft and corruption in City Hall, this is tame by comparison.

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Breed appointment triggers progressive jockeying at City Hall

By Michael Barba : sfexaminer – excerpt

‘The question is do they run against each other? Does that split up the field?’

Ever since Mayor London Breed nominated Dennis Herrera to lead the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, City Hall insiders have speculated on how the political dominoes will fall.

If all goes as planned for Herrera, Assemblyman David Chiu is widely rumored to be next in line for Herrera’s spot as city attorney. But what does that mean for Chiu’s job in the state legislature?

While nothing is certain this early on, the biggest names possibly considering a run for assembly are District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney and David Campos, vice chair of the California Democratic Party and chief of staff to District Attorney Chesa Boudin…(more)

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Two bills in the California Senate are making housing advocates upset

By Jennifer Howland : abc10 – excerpt (includes video)

Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 10 would allow for more units on single-family properties...(more)

Senate Bill 9 would:
1. Preempt local zoning
2. Up to 8 units on a single family lot
3. Developers not required to pay for
    infrastructure improvements
Senate Bill 10 would:
1. Allow cities and counties to approve
    up to 14 units on a single family lots
2. Don’t have to notify neighbors
Governor Newsom signed 60 housing bills in 4 years
that lack affordable requirements, reduce CEQA
environmental protections, increase density, and

encroach upon our homes, streets, and lifestyles.

We can see the sad results now. Sacramento’s solution is
to pass more restrictive developer bills that reduce public 
input, housing options, and the power of ballot initiatives.
They do nothing to solve our problems with EDD, water,
power, infrastructure, homelessness and crime.
Call and demand they Vote NO on SB9 and SSB10.

(Or find your CA State Rep HERE).

2.  Call your state representatives offices:
Senator Wiener: (916) 651-4011
Assemblymember Ting: (916) 319-2019
Assemblymember Chiu: (916) 319-2017

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Heat waves hit low-income Bay Area neighborhoods harder due to less trees shade

By ,  and Tim Didion, Grace Manthey : abc7news – excerpt (includes video and interactive graph)

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It may be the same sun beating down on the Bay Area, but the surface temperature it triggers during a heat wave can vary dramatically neighborhood by neighborhood. A big reason for the difference is shade and the canopy of trees that line some sidewalks but not others.

“It’s a clear pattern where you can see some neighborhoods, especially the richer and whiter ones have a lot of beautiful trees, and in other neighborhoods there’s barely any at all,” explains ational Geographic environmental reporter Alejandra Borunda.

blowup from the interactive map (white areas excluded)

Borunda spent near two years researching the shade divide for the magazine’s July issue…(more)

SPUR is concerned about the inequity of tree canopies in some neighborhoods. They are calling it the shade divide, based on income levels. Who do they blame for this? And who is cutting the trees now for dense housing now? Who wants to infill our backyards? Not us. The question to ask is, why are they cutting them now?

A good way to add shade where there are no trees is to install solar panels. Not only can you generate power, or heat water, but, the raised panels add an extra layer of air between the roof and the raised panels, and the reflective surface of the panels reflects the heat off the roof. So you get much cooler interior rooms.