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Report on the Wiener Town Hall

Posted December 22, 2020
There were some problems at the start, and Twitter crashed.  Congress had just passed the Cares package, and much of the talk was about that, and about the vaccine regimen and unemployment problesms.  He talked about emphases for the new legislative session: housing in general, extending the eviction moratorium, helping small landlords, reforming criminal justice (policing), and mental health programs, including safe injection sites.  The legislature has a windfall for the state budget due to the stock market and other reasons; SF has a drug overdose epidemic to deal with; there are problems with the EDD payments, with the PG&E bankruptcy, and with the Homekey program.  (No specific bills were mentioned)
     He ended the hour by saying there would be more town halls in the future, with some great guest speakers…
Regards,
Charles
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Hypocrisy in the local zoning debate

By Zelda Bronstein : 48hills – excerpt

Professors who argue that local regulations drive up housing prices appear to admit they have no credible data to back up that argument.

On December 1, 48hills ran my story about the California State Auditor’s dubious sortie against local land use authority, an incursion purportedly undertaken in behalf of greater housing affordability. While I’m waiting for the Auditor to respond to my Public Records Act request for documentation of her numerous claims, I want to call out the hypocrisy of three of the scholars cited in my story.

To illustrate the tenuousness of the Auditor’s attack, I observed that a growing number of academics are questioning the argument that “local constraints significantly hamper the provision of affordable housing.” I illustrated that interrogation with a few examples:…(more)

Government confusion, fraud and corruption are to blame for the high cost of building in San Francisco.

If we look at San Francisco’s building triumvirate, Planning, DBI and Permitting departments, that the public and small contractors must wade through we can see that the primary costs for building and remodeling in the city is not in government regulations. It is in government confusion, fraud and corruption. The sad thing is that is took the FBI t expose what many knew was going on for decades. This system is rigged. You must pay to play or get out of the game.

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Neighborhood Notes: New funding for Latino Task Force and online events happening soon

by Juan Carlos Lara : missionlocal – excerpt

DPH pandemic grants

The Department of Public Health announced $5.25 million in grants to neighborhood organizations for pandemic-related community assistance.

The funds are meant to support contact tracing, outreach efforts, mobile testing and community care for residents with Covid-19, according to a press release by the Department of Emergency Management.

In the Mission, the Latino Task Force and the Mission Language Vocational School will receive the grants, totalling about $500,000, according to Jon Jacobo, health committee chair for the Latino Task Force…

The community care component consists of workers bringing food or supplies to residents quarantining with Covid-19. If a quarantining community member lives in a crowded home, they will be connected with quarantine hotels in the city to prevent spread within the household.

The Latino Task Force also provides financial support to encourage residents to stay home rather than going to work sick…

Residents hoping to seek out the services mentioned above can do so here, or show up to 701 Alabama Street any Monday and Wednesday through Friday during regular business hours. …(more)

RELATED:

Department of Public Health opens Covid-19 popup community testing  site on Barlett Street

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Transit advocates grill nominee Manny Yekutiel on his vision for the SFMTA

by Clara-Sophia Daly : missionlocal – excerpt

‘Class should not be a barrier to getting around the city.’

Manny Yekutiel, Mayor London Breed’s nominee to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Board, spent close to two hours Thursday evening telling community members and advocacy groups that his priority would be equity — in both access to transportation and within the agency.

“You have to get your own house in order, before you can tell others to get their house in order,” he said, seemingly alluding to the lawsuit Black employees filed Wednesday against the city, and acknowledging that “there is a problem with racial discrimination within SFMTA.”…

“I want to make it easier for small business owners who are disproportionately represented by people of color and immigrants, and see a better relationship with SFMTA and small business owners,” he said…

He hopes to continue to support small businesses on the SFMTA board, especially on Mission Street, where he said that the red transit-only lanes have made it challenging for some businesses. “It is possible we could take another look at forced right turns and think about how we can encourage more business on Mission Street, or think about eliminating or reducing certain registration fees for business owners.” … (more)

Manny offers a refreshing change of view on transportation as seen through the eyes of a small businessman and he is not afraid to speak out. If the board does not eat him alive, he may be able to bring some new ideas to the SFMTA. They certainly need some.

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Two of architecture’s biggest names just pulled out of an ambitious climate pledge

By Nate Berg : fastcompany – excerpt

In as many days, two of the world’s most well-known architecture firms have shocked the field and removed their names from a pledge aiming to reduce architecture’s contribution to climate change and biodiversity loss. First Foster + Partners and then a day later Zaha Hadid Architects withdrew from Architects Declare, a pledge launched by architects in the U.K. in 2019 that commits to reducing the architecture and construction industry’s nearly 40% contribution to global carbon emissions…(more)

At last we have an admission that the ordinary citizens going about their lives are not the primary producers of GHG. Read the article for a list of the primary contributors.

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Mill Valley’s RHNA Methology Letter Calls for a Stronger Response

By Susan Kirsch of Mill Valley : marinpost – excerpt

This letter is written to the Mill Valley Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Councilmembers, but it may apply to any of our local civic leaders who are considering how to deal with the RHNA number conundrum, made more obviously out of touch with reality by the large exodus of citizens from California this year.

The end of the land rush has come to the state, due to a number of factors, but, our government officials can’t get past their old methods of creating financing through growth. Read the letter here and consider how you may apply the information to your community…(more)

Review the investigative report by The Embarcadero Institute, entitled “Double Counting in the Latest Housing Needs Assessment” (September 2020)…

“Use of an incorrect vacancy rate and double counting, inspired by SB-828, caused the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to exaggerate by more than 900,000 the units needed in SoCal, the Bay Area and the Sacramento area.”

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SF challenges PG&E’s power moves

By Joshua Sabatini : sfexaminer – excerpt

Utility uses expensive hookups to discourage public power use\

The contentious relationship between PG&E and San Francisco has grown more tense, with the energy company now seeking to impose costly new requirements for The City to use its grid to deliver publicly-owned Hetch Hetchy power to city projects and even street lights.

The City lost a dispute earlier this year before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over similar requirements the utility imposed in recent years on projects like schools, affordable housing and pools. The City has since taken the matter to court.

But now PG&E has filed a Sept 15 proposal with FERC to make the costly hookups a requirement going forward as part of the wholesale distribution tariff, a set of rules for how the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission can use PG&E’s grid to serve The City’s own power customers. The SFPUC delivers over the grid greenhouse gas-free hydroelectric power produced by Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite…

PG&E has said it will now no longer offer the less expensive secondary service hookups but will support existing secondary service as long as there are no upgrades…(more)

 

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SF to launch COVID-19 testing site at Alemany Farmer’s Market

By Joshua Sabatini : sfexaminer – except

Following the closure of the South of Market testing site, access to free COVID-19 testing will begin Tuesday at Alemany Farmer’s Market and operate five days per week, city officials announced Monday.

The site will have the capacity to test to 500 persons per day.

The City decided to relocate the SoMa testing site to the Alemany site to better serve the southeast area of San Francisco, city officials said…

The City is currently testing about 5,800 people daily…

The testing site, called Alemany CityTestSF, is located at 100 Alemany Boulevard. People can walk up for tests and drive-through. Appointments can be scheduled at sf.gov/gettestedsf but residents and essential workers can obtain tests without appointments.

The hours for the Alemany CityTestSF will be 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday…(more)

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San Francisco Faces $116 Million Budget Shortfall

By Raven : sfnews – excerpt

SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, November 10, the San Francisco City Controller’s Office projected a $116 million shortfall due to economic impacts as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to the report, the Citywide General Fund revenue is projected to decline by $143.5 million. City Controller Ben Rosenfield cites a slower re-opening and increase in telecommuting as a concern for the city’s budget.

“If the level of telecommuting returned to its pre-Covid levels at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2020-21, our projections for business would be about $190 million higher than our current projections,” Rosenfield said…(more)

RELATED:

SF District Attorney’s Office Facing Severe Staff Shortage

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San Francisco Rents Steeply Decline

By Don Macritchie : potreroview – excerpt

San Francisco rents have dropped faster than any other major city in the country. According to Zumper’s October rent report, which analyzed data from more than one million listings nationwide, rents in the City have declined by 20 percent since last year.  Zumper, which vends apartments and houses online, found that an average South-of-Market studio could be leased for $2,056, a one-bedroom, $2,850 and a two-bedroom, $3,650.  Prices were somewhat higher in Potrero Hill, where studios averaged $2,345, one-bedroom, $2,907 and two-bedrooms, $3,750. Among the most expensive two-bedroom rents were in Mission Bay, at $4,372…

“One of the biggest outstanding questions is the degree to which COVID will shift preferences away from cities,” Apartment List research associate Rob Warnock wrote in “An Urban Exodus? Not Yet,” posted on the Apartment List’s website in July.  Based on an analysis of Apartment List data Warnock found “subtle regional shifts, but no overwhelming evidence of a large-scale urban exodus” in large cities in general, and in San Francisco specifically…(more)