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Advocates propose model for community-based response to homelessness

By Ida Mojadad : sfexaminer – excerpt

Plan to divert calls from police could save as much as $11 million, group argues

Community advocates unveiled a plan Tuesday that they say would reduce police responses to homelessness and save millions annually — if it is fully funded.

Under the Compassionate Alternative Response Team proposal, or CART, calls related to homelessness and behavioral health would be rerouted from police and first responders to a new hotline with a 24/7 staff of social workers behind it. It would be implemented by a non-government organization and staffed with people who have experienced homelessness themselves.

Presented by a coalition of community groups, Police Commission members and city departments on Tuesday, the plan recommends CART staff to respond to calls with dispatch codes regarding a mentally disturbed person, well-being check, select sit/lie violations, trespassing, aggressive panhandling and suspicious people…(more)

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Renderings Revealed for 321 Florida Street, Mission District, San Francisco

New building permits have been filed for a nine-story mixed-use building at 321 Florida Street in the Mission District, San Francisco. Led by DM Development, the project will replace surface parking with 168 new apartments and ground-floor retail. 31 affordable units will be included thanks to the State Density Bonus program, first passed in 1979, with several amendments since. Construction is expected to cost $42 million, with DM Development in charge of the project…(more)

There were 7 stories, and then there were 9. Thanks to our Sacramento politicians for pushing the envelope every higher. We had a 7 story project that would have been a much better fit for the neighborhood, without imposing a nasty shadow over the block and the nearby park, but, now we have a proposal for another ugly tower that will impose a shadow over the entire block, including an existing solar power system.

Allowing this project to proceed is an affront to all independent solar power owners who may face similar threats if this matter is not addressed. The government has invested tax payer dollars, set up tax incentive programs and encouraged people to invest in alternative energy systems in an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Now is the time to protect our investments, and our right to continue relying on the sun.

 

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Climate Change Is Turning Cities Into Ovens

By Matt Simon : wired – excerpt

A new model estimates that by 2100, cities across the world could warm as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius. It’s a deadly consequence of the heat-island effect.

Whichever side of the subjective city-versus-rural debate you’re on, the objective laws of thermodynamics dictate that cities lose on at least one front: They tend to get insufferably hotter, more so than surrounding rural areas. That’s thanks to the urban heat-island effect, in which buildings and roads readily absorb the sun’s energy and release it well into the night. The greenery of rural areas, by contrast, provides shade and cools the air by releasing water…

Climate change is making the urban heat-island effect all the more dire in cities across the world, and it’s only going to get worse. Like, way worse. An international team of researchers has used a new modeling technique to estimate that by the year 2100, the world’s cities could warm by as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius on average. For perspective, that figure obliterates the Paris agreement’s optimistic goal for a global average temperature rise of 1.5 degrees C from preindustrial levels. In fact, the team’s figure more than doubles the agreement’s hard goal of limiting that global rise to no more than 2 degrees C…(more)

If we needed another excuse to add to the long list of reasons to slow urban growth this may be the most viable yet. We need to preserve all the green plants on the planet, not just the jungles in South America.

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California First Appellate District Court of Appeal publishes its opinion in LC/CVP v ABAG

Posted by Bob Silvestri : marinpost – excerpt

On January 6, 2021, the First Appellate District Court of Appeal issued an Order Granting Publication of its opinion in the case of New LivableCA/Community Venture Partners v ABAG, stating that

“For good cause, the request for publication is granted. Pursuant to rule 8.1105(c) of the California Rules of Court, the opinion in the above-entitled matter is ordered certified for publication in the Official Reports.”

That means the opinion of the Court of Appeal is now case law. This opinion will have broad applicability and impacts throughout the state’s legal system. To put it plainly, this is a very big deal.

The significance of this reversal of the decision by the San Francisco Superior Court, to dismiss this case, and its publication cannot be over-stated. The Appeal Court’s opinion has now become case law and as such is the law of the land in California that will impact future Brown Act petitioners for years to come.

To read the appellate court’s opinion CLICK HERE…(more)

 

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The safety of Treasure Island residents must be addressed

By Guest Columnist  : sfexaminer – excerpt

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/the-safety-of-treasure-island-residents-must-be-addressed/

“… It’s not surprising residents struggle to trust the Navy, which is why Supervisor Matt Haney called the hearing. After years of inaction, Treasure Island residents deserve transparency and accountability. They also could use a groundswell of action from San Franciscans who care about environmental justice and systemic racism…

“The health situation is pretty bad,” Carol Harvey, an investigative reporter who covers Treasure Island for the San Francisco Bay View National Black newspaper, told me.

At the upcoming hearing, Harvey plans to anonymously list residents’ health issues. She has photos of people’s painful skin rashes, pustules and lesions. She has reports of above average rates of miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects. Cancers and strokes are common. Bones break — an indication of radiation exposure. Family dogs have seizures.

robynpurchia.com…(more)

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Planning Commission to hear a bad UCSF deal

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Massive new development that violates historic agreements is drawing widespread opposition.

If you read the San Francisco Chronicle story about the UCSF expansion plans today, you might get the impression that the school has gone to great lengths to offer affordable housing, transportation money, and open space to the community – and that everyone thinks this is a fine idea:…

That’s not exactly accurate.

In fact, the deal that will come before the City Planning Commission Thursday/7 has considerable opposition, from neighborhood groups, affordable housing leaders, and the Sierra Club…

The “widespread support” that the chancellor described, and the Chron linked to, is almost entirely elected officials who favor more growth (State Sen. Scott Wiener) or don’t represent the district (Rep. Jackie Speier and Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, both from the Peninsula), or pro-development groups like SPUR and the Chamber of Commerce, or Yimbys. Check out the list... (more)

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Gavin Newsom could be ‘undermined’ by Democrats in recall efforts, report says

By Eric Ting : sfgate – excerpt

The sixth attempt to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is rapidly gaining steam amid the worsening pandemic, a controversial new stay-at-home order and an unemployment fraud scandal.

It was previously reported by Politico’s Carla Marinucci that those close to the governor were growing “increasingly worried” about the recall efforts, and Marinucci’s latest report on the recall adds another twist.

After detailing the new Republican fundraising efforts behind the recall — while noting the challenges the GOP will face in a heavily Democratic state — Marinucci quotes a “Sacramento insider aligned with a major special interest group” who says, “We’ve gotten calls from Democrats who are already kicking the tires” on getting on the ballot in a potential recall election in 2021….(more)

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She Noticed $200 Million Missing, Then She Was Fired

By Scott Morris, Bay City News Foundation : propublica – excerpt

Alice Stebbins was hired to fix the finances of California’s powerful utility regulator. She was fired after finding $200 million for the state’s deaf, blind and poor residents was missing…

Earlier this year, the governing board of one of California’s most powerful regulatory agencies unleashed troubling accusations against its top employee.

Commissioners with the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, accused Executive Director Alice Stebbins of violating state personnel rules by hiring former colleagues without proper qualifications. They said the agency chief misled the public by asserting that as much as $200 million was missing from accounts intended to fund programs for the state’s blind, deaf and poor. At a hearing in August, Commission President Marybel Batjer said that Stebbins had discredited the CPUC.

“You took a series of actions over the course of several years that calls into question your integrity,” Batjer told Stebbins, who joined the agency in 2018. Those actions, she said, “cause us to have to consider whether you can continue to serve as the leader of this agency.”…(more)

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Clint Reilly, S.F. Examiner’s New Owner, Vows to Expand Paper’s Newsroom, Coverage

By Laura Wenus : sfpublicpress – excerpt (includes audio)

The soon-to-be owner of the San Francisco Examiner intends to grow the publication’s newsroom and expand its coverage, diversifying the perspectives in San Francisco’s news ecosystem.

Clint Reilly, a retired political consultant with a real estate and hospitality business who also owns two local magazines, is purchasing the Examiner and SF Weekly after the two papers were under absentee ownership for years. The company he and his wife Janet co-own, Clint Reilly Communications, is expected to take over in January.

“What’s happened in newspapers over the last decade, decade and a half, even 20 years, has been essentially a huge cutback in journalists and costs at the local level,” Reilly said. “As journalists have been laid off, so have the beats that they cover. And so the amount of coverage of local news has declined dramatically over the last 10 years.”… (more)