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Planning Asks Amazon to Repackage Development Proposal

By Bettina Cohen : potreroview – excerpt

The San Francisco Planning Department issued a 55-page response in April that calls for changes to a proposal Amazon submitted to develop a last-mile parcel delivery facility in Showplace Square.

The planned 900 Seventh Street facility would be three stories and 650,000 square feet, according to the Preliminary Project Application (PPA) that Amazon submitted in February.

“The letter we published is kind of a road map,” said Richard Sucre, Planning Department principal planner. “Our processes are layered and challenging for everyone.”

MG2 Corporation, the Seattle-based architectural firm that submitted the PPA for Amazon, describes itself on its website as “expertly navigating jurisdictional complexities” for clients.

Amazon has 18 months to modify its application and satisfy California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements, including transportation, noise, and air quality studies.

“We won’t accept their application until they provide everything we’ve outlined. Until the environmental review is done, we won’t move forward with approval,” Sucre said…(more)

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I joined SF’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to expose corruption. Instead, I’m a cog in the machine

Opinion By Kevin Frazier : sfchronicle – excerpt

I’ve always been an aspiring muckraker. Years ago, in my hometown of Portland, Ore,, I immersed myself in local and state politics, and watched the “sausage” get made as a lobbyist in the Oregon State Legislature. I was appalled at the often-questionable actions taking place behind closed doors. A state senator once told me he wouldn’t consider a bill to reduce diesel pollution on school buses because the Big Oil lobbyist “got here first.”…

San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance was enacted by the Board of Supervisors in 1993 with the goal making the inner workings of local government more transparent and accountable to city residents.

“Government’s duty,” according to the ordinance, “is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public.”

I joined the SOTF to be help empower citizens to better understand their local government and call out officials for non-compliant behavior. My time on the task force, however, has made clear that the Sunshine Ordinance is failing.

We aren’t exposing corruption. Instead, we’re a cog in the over-bureaucratization of democracy…(more)

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Inflated RHNA Numbers Lead to Ruin

Inflated RHNA Numbers Lead to Ruin  (video)

Presented by Art Kiesel, former Mayor, Foster City
RHNA – Regional Housing Needs Assessment/Allocations.
The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) calculates  new housing needs by region and then assigns the local Council  of Governments (MTC/ABAG) to determine the allocations for each city. But what if the numbers are wrong and the cities can’t meet the allocations?

New documents that describe the growing number of threats the state is using to override the constitutional jurisdiction of local government. Share them with your city and county councils.

Forward the docs below to your City Council or neighborhood association. Use public open time during a CC meeting to distribute and talk about your concerns re: top-down mandates.  Write about them in a Letter to the Editor of your local paper. Circulate them along with the video of the RHNA Town Hall.

3a 1 RHNA Appeals

3a 2 Consequences of Non-Compliance with Housing Laws 

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What about Water?

What about Water? (video)
Presented by Rick Johnson, retired Sr. Mgr, SF Water Department.
The legislators who push for more housing are ignoring the forecasts and consequences of drought. By 2050 California expects a population increase of 10 million people (25%) and increased occurrences of drought. Conversion of farm land to urban use and lack of water will result in decreased food supplies and increased prices. (note https://sfwater.org/ moved to sfpuc.org

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California Communities Are Bracing for Drought

By Peter Drekmeier, Tuolumne River Trust : westsideobserver – excerpt

Does This Mean We Should Panic in the Bay Area?

Listening to news about the current drought, one might wonder how long we have before we run out of water. Fortunately, for those of us who live in San Francisco and other communities served by Hetch Hetchy, we can rest a little easier than just about anyone else.

The SFPUC, which manages our water supply, has a lot of reservoir storage capacity. Hetch Hetchy makes up only a quarter of it, and at full storage, the SFPUC has enough water to last six years. Right now they’re sitting on enough water to last four-and-a-half years. That’s like driving with your gas tank three-quarters full – hardly time to panic.

The SFPUC also has a long history of inflating demand projections. Just a few months ago they got caught trying to cook the books in their Urban Water Management Plan. When forced to use actual demand projections, potential rationing decreased by 27%.”

Despite being in an enviable position, the SFPUC wants you to believe our water security is far from certain. They want you to support their lawsuits against the State Water Board. The Board is in the process of requiring more water to be left in the Tuolumne River – the source of Hetch Hetchy – to help restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta and rivers that feed it.

In an average year, the SFPUC is entitled to three times as much water as is needed, so if next year is close to average, all of their reservoirs will fill. The drought will be over, at least for San Francisco…(more)

 

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Extend the Auxiliary Water Supply System to all of San Francisco

Letter from Dick Morton to Jake’s Nature News

Before the City starts adding population to the West Side of SF, they need to expand fire protection system that we have been waiting for. Sprinklers will not do much if the water pressure does not back them up

Jake, I live next to the heavily Blue Gum forested Pine Lake and Stern Grove. For years, I have been concerned that the fire in the forest would send flaming Blue Gum bark strips blowing onto the nearby houses jeopardizing life and public facilities and businesses. Should a fire occur in the Blue Gum forest I have told my neighbors that we need to get up on our roofs to hose down any burning embers. Their potential for conflagration in other neighborhoods such as Glen Canyon, McLaren Park, Golden Gate Park, the Presidio is real.

I chaired the SPUR Disaster Preparedness Task Force where I learned about the firefighting Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS). I am now an advocate to expand AWSS to all of San Francisco, including my Parkside/Sunset neighborhood.

I agree with you, we are “unaccustomed” to thinking in terms of conflagration.  You are correct San Francisco is “run by bureaucracies, which, by definition, are unaccustomed to thinking in terms of the unpredictable” – a conflagration.  Our bureaucracies, PUC and FireDepartment, continue to demonstrate a lack of urgency and preparedness for devastating fires. You should be greatly concerned by the San Francisco lack of unlimited firefighting water resources.

There have been two Civil Grand Jury reports, two emergency bond measures and numerous other calls to action to expand the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS), a high pressure, independent firefighting capability utilizing unlimited water supplies – saltwater.

The existing 1913 AWSS is largely confined to the northeast quadrant of the city. That leaves substantial swaths of 15 vulnerable non-AWSS neighborhoods without conflagration fire protection which could arise from a Blue Gum fire, major fires and most importantly, an earthquake.

The emergency bond measures have been largely used to repair and upgrade the existing 1913 AWSS. 15 vulnerable neighborhoods have waited for decades to have the same level of fire fighting protection as AWSS neighborhoods.

The PUC and the Fire Department continue to ignore the necessity to expand AWSS pipes, pumps and support connections to saltwater. Burn baby burn is the operative city response for vulnerable neighborhoods such as most of the Richmond, Sunset, Ingleside, the Portola, Excelsior, Bayview and Hunter’s Point.

RELATED:

The Truth about SF’s Water  by Nancy Wuerfel
Neighborhood fire preparedness needs to be considered as the State sets the future water plan…(more)

 

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Walton calls out Breed for her attacks on the Board of Supes

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excpert

Simmering clash between the mayor and the supes breaks into the open after Breed attacks the board for asking tough questions of her department heads.

The Mayor’s Office has been attacking and refusing to work with the Board of Supes for some time now. Mayor London Breed refused – for no apparent reason – to spend the money the voters approved for rent relief. She threatened to go to the ballot if she didn’t get everything she wanted, immediately, on (of all things) parklets.

Her public comments about the supes have been just this side of hostile. One board member recently told me the relations between the two branches of government have been “toxic.”

All of that broke out into the open Tuesday…

Ginsburg has been all about privatizing the parks for years now; his role with a private contractor that may be linked to an ongoing corruption scandal is the public’s business…(more)

The public must insist o knowing how City Hall is working and the only way to do that is to do that is to shine a light on the process. Supervisor Walton has made it clear that he is going to assist the Board of Supervisors in their efforts to not only conduct studies and investigations, but to inform the pubic of their findings.

 

 

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Town Hall Report on Opening the city streets and action items:

People have asked for more extensive notes on the details that were discussed at the June 2 Town Hall on Opening the Streets.
Most of the issues discussed are explained by reading the petitions linked here: https://www.discoveryink.net/wp/petitions/
The speakers requested that we sign the petitions, write letters, and make public comments at two meetings that were held last week. Chris Prima, introduced the San Francisco Driver’s Union group on nextdoor and invited people to join. https://nextdoor.com/g/dpr1kbsxx/
First meeting was a budget item for an equity study on the effects of closure of JFK, as requested by Shamann Walton. Some of us requested an independent third party be involved in the study with no ties to the departments or the Parks Alliance, that is under great scrutiny regarding various pay to play and other questionable practices the non-profit is pushing. Read the particles about the Park’s Alliance on 48hills and Mission Local if you want details on the allegations. Some people must have gotten that message about an independent study because the matter was raised by one of the Rec and Park Commissioners at the second meeting.
Second meeting was a joint meeting between Rec and Park and SFMTA that addressed the closing of the Great Highway. This was marathon meeting that lasted for 6 hours with hundreds of public comments on the closure. The supervisors will have the last say on the closing.
Link to that meeting: I suggest you cut to the end of the meeting to hear the comments by Rec and Park Commissioners and SFMTA Board members, or read the attached notes.
Recording of the June 10 joint Rec and Park and SFMTA Board Meeting:

Download notes on the meeting: 6-14 updates.

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Huge Victory for SF Public Bank!

via email:

SF Board of Supervisors Passes Reinvest in San Francisco
Supes Vote 10-0 for a SF Public Bank!

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took a giant step for public banking June 15 by voting 10-0, a veto-proof majority, to pass the Reinvest in San Francisco Ordinance, legislation introduced by Supervisor Dean Preston to rebuild the COVID-devastated economy with a public bank.

Reinvest In San Francisco builds on years of work by the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, former Supervisors John Avalos, Malia Cohen and Sandra Lee Fewer, and many others who see the need for a municipal bank to counter the concentrated power of Wall Street banks. This legislation will result in San Francisco redirecting a portion of the city funds from “too big to fail” banks into the hands of community banks, credit unions and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that invest to benefit SF communities.

The Process for Starting the Public Bank

Reinvest in SF sets up a Working Group which will develop the plan for establishing our bank. Last year, an extensive report by the Budget and Legislative Analyst on a Municipal Bank for San Francisco recommended a phased-in transformation of City banking by beginning with a non-depository municipal financial corporation (MFC). Lending by the MFC will finance loans for small businesses, affordable housing and sustainable infrastructure enabling a smooth transition into a public bank. The Working Group will produce a business plan for the Board of Supervisors that will be sent to State regulators for approval.

Once chartered, under the rules of The Public Bank Act (AB857) signed into law last year, SF will have its own municipal public bank. As a depository bank, it will be able to leverage its capital multiple times in loans, greatly expanding its lending capabilities.