News

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A call for the state to revoke PG&E’s license to sell power

By Tom Molanphy : 48hills – excerpt
In the wake of more criminal charges, some say the PUC should end the private utility’s role as the main energy provider in Northern California (paving the way for public power).

The Sonoma County DA’s office filed criminal charges against PG&E this past week, the latest entry on the utility’s criminal rapsheet that seems longer than a California power line. PG&E stated that the company disagreed with the criminal charges and is “committed to making it right.”

The Reclaim Our Power grassroots organization responded with an emotional press conference Thursday, demanding that the California Public Utility Commission make things right by denying PG&E’s “safety certificate” on April 15th, a drastic step that would bring PG&E one step closer to having its entire business license revoked…(more)

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Golden Gate Park’s main drag has been closed to cars during the pandemic. The fight over its future is heating up

By Heather Knight : sfchronicle – excerpt

San Francisco’s leaders love arguing vociferously over pretty minor issues, but 54 years of fighting over how often cars should be restricted from one stretch of one road in one park must be some kind of record.

John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park first went car-free — the eastern stretch of it, anyway — on Sundays in 1967. Supporters have wanted the closure expanded ever since and did get some Saturdays added to the mix, but they have repeatedly run into arguments from museum officials and others that a full closure would prevent people in cars from reaching their destinations.

Finally, the city closed JFK Drive to cars every day during the pandemic, a silver lining in a miserable year. In a city coping with dozens of traffic deaths annually and in a world facing a major climate crisis, keeping it that way permanently seems like a very tiny, very needed solution…
But the fight has taken a surprising and heated turn with Supervisors Shamann Walton and Ahsha Safaí recently tweeting simultaneously that they want JFK Drive to reopen to vehicles now that the pandemic is subsiding. They argued that people of color can’t access the park because of the closure, and Walton, in an ensuing editorial, called car-free JFK Drive elitist, segregationist and an example of “recreational redlining.”…(more)
There are hundreds of miles of bike paths and pedestrians paths in the park where cars do not drive. The roads are for the cars. The park is a family place for groups to visit and cars are the way most groups travel, especially now, when hate crimes are prevalent.
People who do not drive should not design streets for cars. Their “calming efforts” are creating angry drivers and angry drivers are not safe drivers. They angry and confused. If there is an uptick in accidents, that is an indication that the pilot projects are flawed.
My personal rant for the week: When SFMTA gets around to figuring out how to run a Muni system that does not involve bunching 5 Muni 22’s along a 3rd street lightrail served street, we may expect them to start figuring out how to return service that they removed to serve the Chase Center.
Log in and comment or write a letter to the editor if you feel strongly about this. Or, call or comment on one of the many “live” meetings that will not doubt be reviewing this for a while. Not keeping up the Cancalendar lately, but, links to some of the meeting agendas are here: https://cancalendar.wordpress.com/agendas/
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Community leaders line up to oppose attacks on DA Chesa Boudin

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Records show the recall effort is backed by Big Tech, Finance, and Real-Estate (and someone who says ‘VC Lives Matter.’)

The right-wing campaign to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin is a long way from qualifying for the ballot, but a coalition of community leaders and activists is already organizing to oppose it.

They argue that this campaign is part of an emerging trend to attack progressives and their positions in the city at a time when the left has had tremendous electoral successes…(more)

It is surprising to see where the money is coming from big tech, finance and real estate industries since most complaints about crime on the streets are coming from frustrated citizens complaining about the lack of police support. This a complicated situation and perceptions will probably outweigh the facts regardless of how much money or support is applied to either side.

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Farmworkers fight shaped California attorney general nominee

By Adam Beam AP : startribune – excerpt

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In 1977, Cynthia Bonta was among 3,000 people who locked arms and tried in vain to prevent 400 riot police from evicting the mostly Asian tenants of a hotel near San Francisco’s Financial District so developers could build a parking garage.

More than four decades later, her son Rob Bonta stood near that spot — now an apartment building for low-income seniors — to hear the governor of California nominate him to become the first Filipino-American attorney general of the nation’s most populous state.

Rob Bonta is a considered a shoo-in for confirmation from the Legislature. His likely ascension to one of the most powerful law enforcement posts in the country comes after more than than 50 years of community activism by his parents.

Bonta was first elected to the Assembly in 2012 and quickly carved out a reputation as a criminal justice reformer. He has called for ending the death penalty and championed legislation that outlawed for-profit prisons and ended cash bail until it was overturned by voters in November.

His father, Warren Bonta, who is white and a native Californian, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama. His mother, Cynthia, began her activism after coming to the U.S. in 1965 from her native Philippines on a scholarship.

Their son’s nomination is a galvanizing moment for the state’s Filipino community, a group that advocates say is often a forgotten segment of California’s Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, who account for about 16% of the state’s nearly 40 million residents...(more)

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Good News for SF’s Homeless

by  : beyondchron – excerpt

City Adopts New Strategy, Leadership

Last week brought some very welcome news to San Francisco’s roughly 6000 unhoused people living in tents, shelters and on the street.

First, a new referral strategy for filling vacancies in the city’s master leased SRO hotels has finally begun. Nonprofits began raising alarms about excessive vacancies and inadequate referrals in fall 2019. I described this as part of San Francisco’s “failed homeless strategy;” yet until very recently HSH made no material changes to the process.

The new referral process has already increased the number of unhoused who the city is allowing to move into permanent housing…

Starting April 1 a block rental system will sharply increase placements. Sending groups a large block of unhoused applicants as opposed to a few at a time is not rocket science; it gives the nonprofit provider the chance to offer options to potential tenants and ensures units do not sit vacant due to declines.

Hundreds of vacancies in city-funded, nonprofit master leased hotels will soon be filled. The new referral program will not end homelessness in San Francisco  but it will maximize the use of city funds for reducing the numbers…

It takes time for the city to purchase hotels as many agencies are involved…(more)
“It takes time for the city to purchase hotels as many agencies are involved…” This is a problem that needs streamlining. Which agencies can be cut out of the process? There is no end to streamlining for developers. Let’s see some of the focus shift from building new expensive “affordable” housing to purchasing existing affordable housing and keeping it permanently affordable. One might even consider offering permanently affordable units as rent-to-own to help the tenants move into the middle class rather than remain on the public dole. That would allow the city to purchase more permanently affordable housing and extend the offer to more families of a secure future.
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More parks privatization: The horses of Golden Gate Park

By Steven Hill : 48hills – excerpt

The Ferris Wheel is not the only example of the SF Recreation and Parks Department privatizing Golden Gate Park — and establishing structures without a two-thirds vote of the Board of Supervisors.

Nearly 18 months ago, a private vendor moved into the western end of the park next to Bercut Equitation Ring and built 20 or so stables to house as many horses. Chaparral Ranch Horse Program offers riding lessons and trail rides through the park for $80 an hour. It was supposed to [be] a six-month pilot program.

Also, in a public park that routinely rousts out the homeless from living in the park, the vendor installed two large RV trailers, where an unknown number of vendor staff are living full-time.

These sure look like “structures” to me. And they have not been authorized by the Board of Supervisors…

Is it just a coincidence that the Parks Alliance, the off-the-books friend of Rec-Park that served as a slush fund for nearly $1 million in Mohammad Nuru’s Recology kickback money, just threatened to pull funds from a park in Supervisor Connie Chan’s district if she didn’t back off her criticism of the organization?

So many questions, and so few answers. Meanwhile, the privatization of San Francisco’s public park jewel proceeds apace…(more)

New Policy and Priority at Golden Gate Park. No more natural habitats and no more public access where we can make a buck.
Let’s keep the public out of OUR public parks so we can cash in on it to feed out growing park budget cause our main cash cow got caught out cleaning funds. And let’s make sure the public is not snooping round to see what we are doing and file and complaint. Let’s keep them busy fighting over the street access for as long as we can. No cars. No free access and no camping unless we set up a camp site that we can benefit from.

Who do our public servants work for now? They are certainly not working for us.

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Ceci n’est pas une ferris wheel — in which San Francisco is distracted by a literal shiny object

By Joe Eskenazi : missionlocal – excerpt

So, the ferris wheel. The Golden Gate Park ferris wheel. The goddamn Golden Gate Park ferris wheel.

A town where, in the midst of a human and fiscal calamity, so much time and energy is expended and scenery is chewed regarding a ride in a park appears to have transcended the bounds of self-parody.

So, that sounds normal enough for San Francisco.

But then Drew Becher, CEO of the San Francisco Parks Alliance, penned a letter to Supervisor Connie Chan. And, just like that, we transcended the bounds of transcending the bounds.

Punishing constituents to exact political vengeance or demand fealty from a political leader is nothing new. But you’re not supposed to do it in writing. Or, when called on it, confirm it to the newspaper of record...(more)

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How Private Equity in the Rental Market Makes Housing Unaffordable, Unstable, and Unhealthy

By Alexander Ferrer, Research and Policy Analyst  : saje – excerpt (download pdf)

Beyond Wall Street Landlords

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Housing in the US has Experienced a Dramatic Corporate TakeoverSince 2000, the proportion of housing in corporate hands has increased dramatically. This trend started in the 1990s with the birth of the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and the Limited Liability Company (LLC) and accelerated dramatically because of the 2008 foreclosure crisis. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000 individuals owned about 55% of the country’s rental stock, but by 2018 the share had fallen to just over 40%, and a plurality was owned by corporate vehicles for the first time in history. This consolidation of the rental housing stock into corporate hands affected all property types and threatens the stability of housing because integration into global financial circuits and the application of corporate management strategies and profit-making imperatives transform housing from home to investment. As this report demonstrates, this transformation is even more apparent in Los Angeles, where investment vehicles own 67% of rental housing…(more)

 

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SF Creates New Office Tasked With Relocating Homeless Hotel Residents

: sfpublicpress – excerpt

A new city agency, founded in the wake of rising concerns about the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s ability to house the city’s homeless population, aims to bring 2,000 people into permanent shelter by the end of the year.

The Office of Housing Opportunities will be a division of the COVID Command Center, shifting responsibilities away from the homelessness department. Of particular focus will be housing the 1,880 residents of the shelter-in-place hotels, a program launched in 2020 to bring indoors vulnerable homeless people during the pandemic. Directing the effort is Chris Block, formerly the director of the chronic homelessness division at Tipping Point, a nonprofit focused on battling poverty and homelessness.

It’s unclear how the office will be funded, or if it will receive any portion of the Department of Homelessness’s $562 million annual budget. Through the city’s communications hub at the Department of Emergency Management, a spokesperson who would not divulge their name declined to answer questions about either agency’s budget or staffing…(more)

Read the whole article and see what you think about this new change. Whatever it takes to keep the affordable units full. The is no excuse to have 10% empty while people are living on the streets.

RELATED:

Renters Are Still Being Displaced, Tenant Advocate Say

By Laura Wenus : sfpublicpress – excerpt (includes audio )

At the beginning of the year, a tenant attorney warned of an “avalanche” of evictions unless California legislators reached a deal to extend tenant protections. They did, and applications recently opened for a support program designed to help both low-income tenants and their landlords with growing rent debt. Shanti Singh, legislative and communications director for Tenants Together, a coalition of 50 renters rights organizations in California, talked with “Civic” about the legislation…

Debt will continue to be a concern, Singh said. Applications opened March 15 for the State Rental Assistance Program, through which. landlords of qualifying tenants, who agree to forgive 20% of back rent owed, can get a subsidy from the state to cover the remaining 80% of that back rent… (more)