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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)

 

 

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A dummy’s guide to the Gavin Newsom recall

By Eric Ting : sfgate – excerpt

In case you haven’t heard, there’s an ongoing campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.

March 17 marked the deadline for recall organizers to submit signatures to county elections offices, and organizers are very confident they have the numbers to force a recall election later this year…

How we got here

Newsom has angered many across the state over his handling of the pandemic…

Newsom has also drawn charges of hypocrisy after violating his own guidelines while dining at the French Laundry, and has kept his kids in private, in-person schools while most of the state’s public schools remain shut down. In addition, there’s a massive unemployment fraud scandal…

In the unlikely event enough people who signed the petition withdraw, the election is called off. If enough valid signatures remain, counties have until July 6 to notify the secretary of state’s office of this fact…

How recall election day works

On the designated election day, voters will receive one ballot with just two questions on it.

The first question will be something along the lines of, “Should Gavin Newsom be recalled?”

The second question will then ask voters to pick a candidate to replace Newsom…(more)

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Analysis links 12 groups and gangs to most of SF’s gun violence

By Michael Barba : sfexaminer – excerpt (includes maps and graphics)

A new analysis of crime in San Francisco has found just a dozen groups of high-risk individuals are responsible for a majority of gun violence citywide.

The analysis, presented to the Police Commission by a nonprofit consultant Wednesday, shows that 12 groups or gangs in the Bayview and other police districts were involved in most of the gun homicides that occurred between 2017 and mid-2020 and non-fatal shootings from 2019.

At least 58 of the 162 homicides reported in San Francisco from January 2017 to June 2020 involved either a victim or suspect, or both, associated with a group or gang, according to the analysis. Of those group-involved homicides, 36 were motivated by an ongoing group conflict or a personal dispute…(more)

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Former SF official agrees to plea deal, will cooperate with FBI in corruption investigation

By Andre Torrez : ktvu – excerpt

SAN FRANCISCO – A former San Francisco aide to Mayor London Breed has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and will cooperate with the FBI in their ongoing corruption investigation of San Francisco City Hall…

Federal officials made the announcement on Tuesday regarding the former Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services Director, Sandra Zuniga…

“This investigation continues, but the window of time for cooperation is closing.  If you are involved in public corruption at any level, reach out to the FBI before the FBI reaches out to you. Early cooperation is always viewed favorably.”…(more)

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Will SF Spend New Federal Homeless Dollars on Tents, Shelters or Homes?

By Randy Shaw : beyondchron – excerpt

City Faces Moment of Truth in Combating Homelessness

The Democrats’ American Rescue Plan provides $32 billion for addressing homelessness and low-income rental assistance. The National Low Income Housing Coalition website—which offers a great city and state breakdowns— has San Francisco slated to get nearly $19 million in new homeless action grant funds (the Plan also erased the city’s $650 million budget deficit).

The question then emerges: will San Francisco use these new funds to house the unhoused or only seek band aid solutions?…(more)

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Just Up-zoning the Suburbs Won’t Solve our Housing Problems

By Casey Maddren : citywatchla – excerpt

NEED MORE THAN SUBURBS–Anybody who pays attention to the news knows that there’s a heated, ongoing debate in LA, and across California, about how to solve our housing problems.

There are lots of different proposals floating around, but the message we hear most often from elected officials and the development community is that we have to up-zone to allow a whole lot more density. The argument goes that it’s just a matter of supply and demand. If we up-zone our cities and up-zone our suburbs, that will unleash the power of the free market and we’ll have plenty of cheap housing for everybody.

One idea that’s especially hot right now is the proposal to up-zone areas dominated by single-family homes (SFH). Some State legislators have embraced this approach, resulting in bills like SB 1120.

The City of LA hasn’t yet made a move to up-zone SFH areas, but the concept is popular among local progressives who believe we just need to build more housing. Heated debates have erupted over the topic on social media. At a recent hearing on the Hollywood Community Plan Update (HCPU) some members of the public expressed enthusiastic support for ending SFH zoning…

If the key issue is the lack of affordable housing, up-zoning by itself does nothing to solve the problem. As Patrick Condon points out in his book Sick City, when a city just increases allowable density, it’s really increasing the cost of the land, and that additional cost is ultimately paid by the household that’s renting or buying. The benefit goes to the landowner, not the renter or buyer. For a solution, Condon holds up Cambridge, Massachusetts, where city officials adopted an ordinance that allows increased density but only for the construction of permanently affordable units…

Casey Maddren is President of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA [www.un4la.com]), a community group focused on better planning and better governance, and a CityWatch contributor.) Image: Curbed. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abram…(more)

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Cities Are Sinking Under the Weight of Urban Development

By Linda Poon : bloomberg – excerpt

A new study quantifies what big buildings are doing to the ground beneath San Francisco and other cities, as sea levels rise.

In late 2020, engineers began working on a $100 million project to stop San Francisco’s Millennium Tower from tilting and sinking further into the ground. Tenants of the beleaguered luxury condo had learned four years earlier that the 58-story high-rise had sunk some 16 inches in over a decade. But the tower’s predicament is only part of a larger problem, and not just for the Bay Area: Cities around the world are sinking under the weight of their own urban development — at the same time that sea levels are rising.

A new study seeks to quantify how much the sheer weight of the built environment contributes to the sinking of cities, a geological phenomenon known as land subsidence. While urbanization is just one small cause of this phenomenon among several, the paper in the journal AGU Advances estimates that its impact is only likely to grow as people move to cities in greater numbers. As a result, densely packed cities are likely to sink faster than less developed areas.

Study author Tom Parsons, an earthquake seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, looked at the San Francisco Bay Area as a case study of this impact. He estimates that the collective weight of all of the San Francisco region’s buildings is roughly 1.6 trillion kilograms, or 3.5 trillion pounds. That alone may have caused the land to sink by as much as 80 millimeters, or more than three inches, over time as the city grew. …(more)