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Ballot argument deadlines for June ballot

DEADLINES:  https://sfelections.org/tools/cscal_jun22/  

Thursday March 7, noon is the deadline for Submission of official Proponent and Opponent Ballot Arguments for Local Ballot Measures and District Measures 

Deadline for paid arguments is March 21, 2022. 

Writing arguments is extremely important. Paying for a ballot argument or signing onto one has been somewhat effective in the past.

Many of you are concerned about the $400 million bond issue.

You must fill out the forms and hand them in to City Hall with payment by noon Thursday, so get on that now if you want to write something.

We believe that opposing this bond is one of the first steps to take to convince City Hall that the voters oppose the agency policies and would make demands for more voter ballot initiatives on city policies easier to get on the ballot and passed.

I  believe that killing this bond measure may lower sales taxes tied to the current bond or keep them from going up. I am not clear on that. I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong about this.

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The new draft district supes maps: WTF?

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Critics—and there are plenty—say the plan would undermine LGBT, Black, and progressive representation on the board.

The San Francisco Redistricting Task Force just published its first draft of a map for new supervisorial districts, and the general response I am hearing is: Huh?

Or better: WTF?…

A whole lot of changes that seem more political than necessary…

… (more)

I sat in on about 5 minutes of the public meeting last week and that was all I could stand of it after two of the committee argue over which map to start with. These people do not appear to know what they are doing or are following orders to disrupt the system, in my opinion.

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Should JFK Dr. be closed forever?

Rally on the SF City Hall steps this coming Thursday, March 10, 9 AM and then stay for public comments at the 10 AM Joint meeting where Rec and Park and SFMTA Board will consider how to handle the street closures in Golden Gate Park.

John Rothman Show on KGO 810 taped podcast:
https://www.kgoradio.com/johnrothmann/  with Megan Bourne de Young Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Trustees, and Richard Skaff, Executive Director of Designing Accessible Communities. Federal ADA issues are discussed and the public has some comments.

Supervisors are expected to have the final say.  According to and article in  SFist.com there are three Supervisors who support permanent closure. The Mayor has voiced support for permanent closure.

Thursday March 10 there is a rally to Re-open JFK Drive at 9 AM prior to a special joint meeting at 10 AM with Rec and Park and SFMTA. They are expected to vote on the closure after the public speaks on the matter. Stay tuned for more news as it developed. Please try to attend he meeitng and speak in person or call in to do so.

Remote Meeting Access: : http://www.sfgovtv.org/sfmtaLIVE or
https://www.sfmta.com/calendar/board-directors-special-meeting-march-10-2022 Please note the remote access call in numbers to join the meeting by phone: +1.415.655.0001

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UC Berkeley must cut new enrollment by 3K students after high court ruling

By Frances Dinkelspiel : berkelyside – excerpt

Since not all admitted students enroll, Cal will now have to tell 5,000 high school seniors there’s no place for them at Berkeley in the fall.

The California Supreme Court has turned down UC Berkeley’s request to postpone a drastic cap on enrollment for the fall, meaning that Cal will need to cut its incoming class by 3,050 students next year. This means 5,000 fewer high schoolers will be offered admission this month than the university had hoped…

On Aug. 23, 2021, Alameda County Judge Brad Seligman ordered UC Berkeley to toss out the EIR it did for the Upper Hearst project and start anew. He also ordered the enrollment cap.

UC Berkeley appealed that decision first to the Court of Appeal and then to the California Supreme Court. Both appeals were denies.

The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the matter in the coming months. No date has been set yet.

UC Berkeley has not yet started to do a new EIR on the enrollment increases, according to Cal officials…(more)

We hope the case will be published soon so we can review the comments and reasoning behind the decision.

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Amidst scandal, measure to reform Recology will appear on the June ballot

By Bay City News : sfexaminer – excerpt

‘We are long overdue to reform our refuse rate setting process’

San Francisco voters in June will decide whether to reform the way garbage collection rates are overseen after the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the ballot measure.

The measure would establish the City Controller as the refuse rate administrator, requiring the official to monitor waste collection expenses, revenues and rates.

The measure would also replace the City Controller with a ratepayer advocate to serve on the Refuse Rate Board in an effort to remove conflict of interests connected to the role as refuse rate administrator, city officials said.

In April, the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office reached a $100 million settlement with Recology, the company contracted by The City to handle waste collection, over excessive charges to customers.…(more)

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Shooting of Tenderloin ‘Ambassador’ Raises Questions about Security Practices at Fast-Growing Urban Alchemy

By Matt Smith, David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excerpt

A star-shaped pattern of blood left over from a Tuesday night shooting near the Asian Art Museum might not have been notable for a city that had 222 victims of gun violence last year, except the blood came from a man whose job is tamping down violence in the dangerous San Francisco neighborhood.

The unnamed shooting victim works for Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that employs a cadre of reflective-vest-wearing “ambassadors” to help patrol dangerous streets in the Tenderloin and some adjacent neighborhoods. They have become ubiquitous in central parts of the city since Mayor London Breed announced last year that Urban Alchemy workers would play a key role in an ambitious public safety plan.

But Tuesday night’s confrontation raises questions about whether the program’s managers are risking staff members’ safety by having them do the work of security guards, who would normally require a license from the state. The incident involved an unarmed ambassador being shot while trying to stop two men from selling drugs, according to an Urban Alchemy director who spoke to The Standard on the condition of anonymity…(more)

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Why did Breed launch the Tenderloin crackdown? Here’s a clue

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

The mayor met with top hotel executives just as she was planning to deploy more cops to the neighborhood.

I know I’m not the only person who’s been wondering why Mayor London Breed suddenly decided in December to declare a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin.

The problems in that neighborhood have been going on for years. The city, including the Mayor’s Office, hasn’t done much about it. But all of a sudden, Breed decided that something dramatic had to be done.

The San Francisco Business Times this week offered a suggestion as to what’s going on:

Just before the holidays, the CEOs of the two companies with the most hotel rooms in San Francisco took a cross-country field trip here to meet with Mayor London Breed on the state of city streets. The meeting took place fresh off the blitz of high-profile burglaries in Union Square.

The CEOs, Jon Bortz of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust and Thomas J. Baltimore of Park Hotels & Resorts, described the previously undisclosed meetings in separate earnings calls within the last week. Collectively their companies own 14 hotels and 5,278 rooms in the city…(more)

RELATED:

Police chief has to back down, agrees to let deal with DA’s Office stay in place

SF Democrats overwhelmingly vote to oppose Boudin recall

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‘It looks like the Wild West’: Industrial dust is taking a toll on the Bayview

By Jessica Wolfrom : sfexaminer – excerpt

Candlestick Heights residents report health problems due to concrete crushing in vacant lots

The wind has always whipped up the earth at Candlestick Point, a waterfront expanse at the southeastern tip of San Francisco.

But last summer, Gayle Hart noticed a new kind of dust in the air. A brown film had settled over her neighborhood. It coated her car, crept into the corners of her patio and clogged her lungs.

Some days, the flurries were so bad that her 13-year-old son was unable to play basketball at the nearby playground. “He was only out there for about five minutes,” she said. “The dirt kept coming in his eyes.”…

Residents of Bayview’s Candlestick Heights neighborhood say the dust has been kicked up by concrete crushing and other industrial activity that recently has moved into the open parcels across the street from Hart’s townhouse on Arelious Walker Drive…(more)