Upcoming Events:


Community Meetings:

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Polling places

If you didn't receive an absentee ballot, whether because you're not signed up to permanently receive them or it just got lost in the mail, head over to the city's elections page to find your polling place for Tuesday.

http://gispubweb.sfgov.org/website/pollingplace/

Thursday, October 28, 2010

One Last Forum

Yes, there's ANOTHER forum, this Friday, October 29th, from 5PM - 7PM.

Community Election Rally and Candidate Forum
Calvary Hill Community Church
141 Industrial St
San Francisco

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Joseph Bryant
415-647-5300 or http://www.calvaryhill.org for more details.

h/t KE

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Editorial

The articles sounding the death-knell of the progressive candidates seem to forget the fact that we have ranked-choice voting and a growing population who vote first along ethnic lines.

First, I think that Beyond Chron's analysis that the progressive vote is too fractured for a progressive to win it all is wrong. I think quite the opposite - I think the split on the moderate side is so fractured that it creates an opening for the top progressive candidate to hang on long enough to pick up the #2 and #3 votes of all the other progressives who get eliminated first.

The moderate group is pretty evenly split among Moss, Sweet, Cohen, and Enea, and unlike on the progressive side, I see all of them getting an equally (within 10-20%) strong showing compared to one another. They'll stay in the rounds of elimination until close to the bitter end, while the candidates getting knocked out along the way will slowly add more and more to the top progressive's totals, and not as much to theirs. Remember, Marlene Tran has suggested her supporters pick Tony Kelly as their #2. Tran deservedly commands a huge amount of respect in the Chinese community, and her word will be heeded by many. Of course, the more conservative bent of many Chinese voters means that many will ignore Tran and throw their support behind the moderates, but again, their votes get split, although Moss probably comes out ahead here because of, sad to say, racial reasons, despite Sweet trying hard to woo these voters.

I've also been hearing a lot of grumbling about Moss, Cohen, and Sweet for their various alleged and confirmed transgressions, lack of experience, and general knowledge gaps. Although anectodal, people looking for a moderate who has a voting record on important land-use issues, but who is otherwise untainted, are looking to Enea, and she may very well come up the middle here.

The above all said, Moss could still pull this out. In running so hard against him in their reporting, the Bay Guardian may have shot progressives and all other, more palatable moderates in the foot, steering moderate voters to rebel and vote for Moss en masse out of pure spite. Moss has done a good job of working the 'poor me, the Guardian is out to get me' angle. He can tell his supporters and those on the fence that he's done all he can to placate them, but they still keep coming after him. Poor Steve. What they've ended up doing is rally his base, as it were, and galvanized his supporters against the progressives in the race. They've given him nearly daily press coverage that he couldn't have gotten in his own paper. He's played the Guardian like a fiddle, and will have them as much as Coates and all the anti-tenant forces for his victory, should he win.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Future of D10CanWatch

With one week left until the election, I have to say that I've enjoyed immensely following the election as closely as I have, meeting all the candidates, and helping keep all of you as informed as I can. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback from the candidates and readers, with many asking if I am planning to continue blogging about our district post-election. I've set up a poll (to the left) to gauge what you all think I ought to do: keep the same site, but just alter the content to be less political and more general information about D10; create a new site with a less political name; or to stop entirely.

Vote in the poll, and if you'd like this to continue, please add suggestions as to the direction you'd like to see this site go in.

League of Women Voter Interviews

A couple of weeks ago, the League of Women Voters held a candidate forum at UCSF Mission Bay. After the forum, they asked the candidates to record a short video message. I was able to find videos for James Calloway, Malia Cohen, Kristine Enea, MJ Marie Franklin, Tony Kelly, Steve Moss, Geoffrea Morris, Eric Smith, Lynette Sweet, Marlene Tran, and Stephen Weber. I've also embedded the videos on their respective 'Why I'm Voting For...' pages. If I've missed one, please let me know so that I can link to it, too.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Lowe's Opening Events

Our new Lowe's on Bayshore is about to open - you're invited to celebrate at three upcoming events:

Halloween Fun
Pumpkin painting with treats for kids of all ages

Support Habitat for Humanity (local chapter)

Meet HGTV Star Carter Oosterhouse
and Sourdough Sam mascot appearance

Have fun!
h/t Kristine Enea

UCSF Hospital Groundbreaking This Wednesday

Reminder:
On Wednesday, October 27th, UCSF will break ground on its newest hospital at its Mission Bay campus at the corner of 3rd St and 16th St from 1PM - 6PM. FYI, there'll be food provided at the event.

And yes, this is in D10.

Read more at the SF Examiner.

Visit the UCSF Mission Bay Hospitals website here.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Creepy, revisited

A few weeks ago, I posted about the creepy piece of mail I'd received at my office regarding three candidates. I wasn't going to do anything exposé style, which is what I think the sender had intended, so all I did was inform the three candidates that I'd received them, and then mostly just sat on them. At the time, one of the issues, that of Ms Sweet's multiple tax liens on her home, had already been made public. Likewise, Tony Kelly had already addressed his theater company's tax problems here. So two of the three were old news. The third set of documents related to Ms Cohen's home foreclosure, but I'm not a news source that's here to break news, so since this was still in the realm of rumor in the media, I didn't think it my place to expose Ms Cohen's personal dirty laundry. However, now that she has publicly brought the issue to light, I can now mention all of these as the set of documents that I received that day.

Of course, a question immediately came to mind: who of the candidates would benefit from trying to smear three prominent candidates in this way, two of whom are moderates, and one who lives in Potrero Hill? Maybe it was sent to me by an overzealous supporter of another candidate. Maybe it was prepared and packaged up on the candidate's own kitchen table. Who knows? What I do know is that only one candidate took note of the fact that one of the debates was held at my workplace just one week before I received the smear package. So while I don't have any proof, I have a strong suspicion as to which Potrero Hill moderate, or an overzealous supporter of theirs, may have sent me that package.

As to Ms Cohen's foreclosure woe, I hope she has turned a corner with it. I don't understand the whole foreclosure process as well as I'd like, and hope never to have the opportunity to experience it as Ms Cohen and so many of our neighbors have. However, from what little I've read, it isn't easy to reverse a foreclosure once the bank has bought back the loan, so Ms Cohen could probably teach a course to those in her situation on how to do this. After getting the 'smear package' in the mail, my curiosity was naturally piqued, so I looked up online public records and found info on Ms Cohen's 2006 condo purchase, including the amount of the loan (it's amazing what's on the internet). Oddly, I also found a record online of the property being bought back by the bank on August 9th. Now, like I said, I don't understand the whole process, and haven't looked into this further, so I hope that maybe Ms Cohen can write in here in the comments section to clarify that part of this complex story. It's got to have been a wild ride, to be sure, especially when also trying to run for office. Best of luck, Malia!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Even more money

The amount of money floating into these campaigns is astonishing.

Read more at the SFBG and The Bay Citizen.

Recall that Moss isn't the only candidate benefiting from Republican contributions like those from rent control overturn advocates Coates and Zacks. Although these numbers are huge, Lynette Sweet also has that sweet campaign office rent of $100/mo courtesy of the Vidovich family. Read more at Beyond Chron, SFBG, and Muckey.

Sweet presser

So I got a call from Ms Sweet's rep asking me to a press conference today at noon. I didn't think I had time, but it ended up I did, so I went.

She was there to sign a "Community Empowerment Commitment" along with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, YMCA director Juliana Choy Summer, and Kathy Davis of Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services. Kristine Enea showed up mid-presser, and signed on, too. Basically, they signed a pledge to work with each of our district's diverse communities to build stronger neighborhoods and to promise to listen to each community and understand its needs. Isn't that the supervisor's job description?

Dang! And here I thought there was going to be something juicy.

I did find it interesting when a neighbor from across the street came over and brought up a real issue of people rolling through stop signs near Jackson Park. He mentioned how, even though multiple thousand-signature petitions had been brought forward to get a stop sign at 17th and Arkansas, he'd been given the lame excuse about how it would slow down MUNI (even though there's a bus stop right there). Neither Maxwell nor Sweet had any answers as to why it hadn't been addressed!! Isn't this the "listening to the community and understanding their needs" we were there to talk about!?!

Signing a piece of paper means little if you're going to stand flatfooted when confronted by an actual problem.

Oh, and then there was Ms Maxwell feeding lines to Ms Sweet to try to placate the obviously unimpressed resident!!! Argh!!! Not impressed.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Forum Notes

I've finally gotten all of my forum notes converted into actual sentences. Sorry that I wasn't able to make it to every forum, but I do have a life!! Check them out from the links at the left...

Voting in Our IRV Election

This may seem a little counter-intuitive, but does this make sense? When voting, fill out the ballot by...

#1: Voting your heart. Put the person who may not be a 'top' candidate and whom you don't think is actually going to win, but who deserves a shout-out because of all the great work they've done in the community over the years. There are a number of candidates on the ballot who fit this description.

#2: Voting your head. Put the person you'd be happiest with and whom you think has a real chance of winning thanks to endorsements, money, organization, and name recognition, but who may need that extra push over the other 'top' contenders to make it. When your #1 person gets eliminated, then your #2 gets your vote.

#3: Voting your ass. Well, cover your ass, at least, with your #3 vote. This person ought to be one of the 'top' candidates, but someone you're not totally on-board with for one reason or another. Maybe they're inexperienced, have a skeleton or two in their closets, or they just haven't lit a fire in your heart for some reason. They're the best of the rest in your mind, and hopefully would be only slightly objectionable if they were to be elected, but you could deal with it.

11th Annual Potrero HIll History Night


"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - G. Santanya

The eleventh annual Potrero Hill History Night will take place Saturday, October 23 at the International Studies Academy, 655 De Haro at 18th St. The event is sponsored by PHAMB and The Potrero Hill Archives Project.

Come and enjoy:

View Larger Map
--- 5:30-6:30PM, A barbecue prepared by Parkside, a hill business for generations

--- Live music by the Apollo Jazz group will accompany the barbecue

--- 7PM, Interviews with long-time hill residents are always the evening's highlight.
This year, Goat Hill Phil (Philip DeAndrade of Goat Hill Pizza) will interview 3 men who grew up in public housing on the hill's south slopes and have been close friends for over 50 years.

Hear what happened when a train car full of candy broke down at the foot of Potrero Hill!

--- More entertaining surprises!

--- 9PM, end of program

The program is free. There is a charge for the barbecue. All welcome.

For more information call 415-863-0784.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

News you may have missed this week

News has become so fractured lately, with progressives the only people typically reading the progressive papers, etc. Hopefully there's something here that you missed that maybe piques your interest. As always, if I've missed something, please let me know!

As a side note, the SF Bay Guardian is based in District 10, and so it's not surprising that they have more D10-related articles than any other paper. Not that the SFBG is doing a bad job - quite the contrary - but I hope the Chronicle, Examiner, and others step up their reporting in our district prior to election day. They don't seem to know what they're missing!

10/19 District 10 Supervisor Candidates visit Asian American Students at SFSU - Hyphen Magazine (blog)

10/19 Bay Area New York Times Affiliate to Host Young Democrats' Campaign Volunteer Drive? - SFWeekly

10/18 District 10 endorsement madness - SFBG

10/15 District 10: Lynette Sweet, a sensible leader - SFGate

10/13 Maxwell disappoints by endorsing Sweet - SFBG

10/12 Downtown massively outspends progressives - SFBG

Monday, October 18, 2010

Replacing Blight with Beauty - SF Examiner

One of my pet peeves is blight - neighborhoods that are safer and more livable tend to have less of it, so projects like Quesada Gardens and the Pennsylvania St project, that seek to remove blight and show that the neighborhood cares, are right up my alley. Good work, neighbors!!

Last day to register to vote!

Make sure you, your friends and family have all registered to vote. Today is the last day! Pick up a form at your local library or post office. It must be postmarked today if you mail it.

Two weeks to go before election day! Thank goodness.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Potrero Hill Festival Saturday


See you tomorrow at the 20th Annual Potrero Hill Festival, 20th St at Wisconsin. Although it'll be a fun time to get out with family, there will also be a number of the candidates there with booths to try to capture your vote. Be prepared to talk politics tomorrow!

Newspaper endorsements

In preceding weeks, we've seen most of the more partisan endorsements come out from unions, environmental groups, the Democratic Party, and the more 'focused demographic' newspapers like the Bay Area Reporter, SF Bay Guardian and the BayView, plus those from several, if not all, of the various sitting supervisors.

Now, on the heels of Supervisor Maxwell's endorsement earlier this week, the Examiner and Chronicle have made their favorites to fill the D10 seat known:

The Examiner likes Malia Cohen and Lynette Sweet, while the Chronicle has chosen Ms Sweet, but gives an "also impressed with" to Kristine Enea.

Ms Sweet must be waking up pretty happy these days, but trust me, she won't be resting on her laurels any more than other candidates did after getting their endorsements. Each of them knows that with the number of strong candidates out there, they're going to have to dig for every #2 or #3 vote that they can get to pull this one off. With name recognition strong for so many of the candidates, I have this feeling that we're going to get a dark horse coming up the middle to win this thing.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

“Ask an Expert” Webcast Today

In case you're free at 4pm, you may like to tune in to this webcast. These webcasts are a way for residents to engage with city leaders on topics that matter to us.

San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting Continues "Ask an Expert" Webcast Series this Thursday

Reset San Francisco's Live Interactive Discussion to Feature Former Director of
SF's Economic and Workforce Development Department Michael Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Assessor Phil Ting's user generated government website ResetSanFrancisco.org will continue its live webcast series, "Ask an Expert," this Thursday, October 14 at 4:00 pm (PST). The webcast allows viewers to submit questions in real-time to policy experts and community leaders working to reform San Francisco.


The Ask an Expert series is part of a vision shared by Phil Ting and members of the www.ResetSanFrancisco.org community to tap the wisdom and energy of an online community to help reform San Francisco. The site is pioneering tools, such as streaming video and social media, to crowd source civic engagement in better government.

This week the Reset community will hear from Michael Cohen, immediate past director of the San Francisco Economic and Workforce Development Office. Cohen helped plan and win approval for some of the largest, and most controversial, land use projects in recent San Francisco history. The community may submit questions online at any time for the Ask the Experts series at www.ResetSanFrancisco.org. The San Francisco Ask an Expert webcast launched last week as Assessor Phil Ting moderated a discussion with BART Board Director Tom Radulovich and Municipal Transportation Commissioner Cameron Beach.

Reset San Francisco is an online community of more than one thousand members bringing people together to discuss smarter solutions for San Francisco. Reset San Francisco members identified the Ask an Expert webcast as a way to become better advocates for resetting San Francisco. The site is currently focused on reforming San Francisco city government, improving the San Francisco Municipal Railway, increasing San Francisco public safety, making housing more affordable, improving the San Francisco economy, making our schools better and other issues identified through the site's open source community architecture.


What: Reset San Francisco "Ask an Expert" Live Webcast

Who: Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting andMichael Cohen, former SF Economic and Workforce Development Director

When: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 4 – 5pm

Where:http://www.ResetSanFrancisco.org/Ask-Now

Visit www.ResetSanFrancisco.org for additional information or email us at info@ResetSanFrancisco.org.

Last night's forum...

I'll try to get the 'raw' notes from last night's forum cleaned up today, but here are a few take-aways from last night:

Malia Cohen wants to make McLaren Park a world class destination park. She railed on "downtown monied" candidates, as well as on the Chamber of Commerce for ignoring parks.
Teresa Duqué was so far out of her league that people in the audience were actually laughing at her as she gave her answers. She left the forum before the last question had even been asked.
This forum hit on many topics that Kristine Enea has been intimately involved in for the past five years. Many candidates once again came out in support of many of her ideas. I won't go any further, as you all know I'm a supporter of hers, and tonight was an indication to me as to why.
Rodney Hampton, only 18% of voters "look like you", so if that's the only reason to vote for you, then you'll only ever get 18% of the vote on the best day. And no, I don't want someone in office who's just like me. I want someone who understands land use, knows people who can make things happen, etc. You and I are far from being that person.
As with many candidates, Chris Jackson insisted on bringing locals into process and not making parks for future residents, but for those here now.
Nyese Joshua has no ideas, just rants against everything - "If people are homeless, then talking about parks is moot," and "put a fence around the shipyard land and don't let anyone use it for anything."
Tony Kelly mentioned the New York City Parks directors method of building open space first, raising value of property, and then building out developments as a correct way to go.
DeWitt Lacy made a good point about needing someone in office with negotiation skills and legal acumen in contract law in order to make contracts with developers that have teeth.
Geoffrea Morris sounded like the only one who'd actually used Silver Terrace Park, and like me, is in favor of the artificial turf there - "Have you ever played a sport on a field and tripped in a gopher hole?" This time around I see you as a huge asset in our next supervisor's office. With a little downtown polishing and city politics under your belt, you could be supervisor one day.
Every question Steve Moss answers comes down to light bulbs, toilets, and 1000 doors he's knocked on. But yes, as he and others said, our parks need to be for locals, but too many voices or too big of a plan gets things bogged down - must have realistic park goals
Eric Smith echoed others on the need to help get motivated community members over the brick wall that Parks and Rec puts up in getting locals involved.
Lynette Sweet talked about bringing back parks of yesteryear, with park directors who know what locals want. Money is the main issue that needs to be sorted out.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Neighborhood Parks Council Forum

Candidates began with 1 minute opening remarks, but in this heat, I may not be able to get them all down. Questions and responses will also be on the NPC website.

In attendance:

Nyese Joshua
Kristine Enea
Malia Cohen
Eric Smith
Steve Moss
Geoffrea Morris
Chris Jackson
Tony Kelly
DeWitt Lacy
Lynette Sweet
Rodney Hampton, Jr
Teresa Duqué (left the forum early)

Ok... Raw notes below...

1. What will you do for Bayview residents who lack access to open space?

TD. Keep career criminals out
RH. No coherent answer
LS. Wants residents to have more input. Port blue greenway. Mentioned the Transbay cable project.
DL. New development has an open space plan. Need new funding sources. California endowment linking SF and Oakland together. Need more opportunities for people reentering community from prisons. He would have a dedicated grant writer for this.
TK. Substantial funding is already here but is being used for other things. Must be used for things like urban agriculture, for which no training is required. Build open space first. Clean up pollution increases value of land and entices people to build.
CJ. People in neighborhoods weren't asked what they want. Kristine Enea has a good approach (yes he said this). Hire local people to do remediation work in parks.
GM. Too often have to wait for new parks. What about old parks? Start a park group - has been talking about this with Kristine Enea (yes, she mentioned her, too), Marlene Tran, others.
SM. He helped close Hunters Point power plant. His non-profit got money from Transbay cable to clean up sites. We are sitting on toxic land that needs to be cleaned up. Need to go to Washington, DC to get money to do clean up, but no one seems to be doing that yet.
ES. Continue doing what he's doing such as the two Sunday streets along Third. He is a LEJ member. Teaching youth about environment. Involve community.
MC. It's time to pull off the gloves. Concerned about downtown interests funding certain candidates. Asked where has the Chamber of Commerce been in helping parks?
KE. Has done much already. She got her neighborhood park on the list to get restrooms. Much harder to do than it sounds. Need equity. Eco center. Has filmed a full length documentary bringing attn. to our parklands. Currently working on a $5M grant to get money to parks. City needs to purchase open space to keep it open.
NJ. If people are homeless, the need for parks is moot. She has been fighting the BAAQM District for poisoning children. City of San Bruno now dealing with the same air quality issues we do thanks to PG&E pipe explosion.

2. Do you support park renovations like that at Silver Terrace Playground?

CJ. No: need places to live and better schools before park renovations of any kind.
TK. The city is not broke, just has its priorities wrong. Need expand resources. Currently, fields are for citywide interests, not neighborhood or local interests. Looked to KE's ideas regarding bringing disk golf to India basin and not McLaren Park
DW. Local parks need to be for locals; bring back more space for kids
LS. D10 parks used to have real grass. Against the Silver Terrace park artificial turf - new renovations would have to be real grass
RH. Would encourage natural open space (grass). Park spaces bring people together and killed crime in his neighborhood. Materials used need to be natural.
TD. Open space important, but need to keep to the budget. Don't want to allow criminals in parks
NJ. Of course, but who will do the work? Project will enhance neighborhood, but need to hire locals to build.
KE. Support renovation. Important to talk about whom its for. McLaren Park: the city says there's no money to staff it, but they won't allow volunteers to do it. Need to have more creative thinking. Also need more irrigation that works
MC. KE is right. SE part of city is a priority. Need a bond measure for D10 parks. Pathways to careers. Local 261 organizes gardeners in McLaren Park.
ES. Supportive of Silver Terrace park, but need natural space.
SM. Has played at all parks in SE part of the city. Lots of parks, but no recreation in this part of town. No real park space for kids, but we have the space and resources
GM. need to have local hire legislation. Support Silver Terrace park renovation. Said, have you ever been playing a sport and stepped in a gopher hole?" Keep artificial turf for sports that need good surfaces.

3. What is the best use of clubhouses and how would you create jobs?

MC. Partner laborers with unemployed locals in caring for parks. Clubhouses are for everyone to enjoy.
KE. Keep them public and for local use. Clubhouses are public entities, not for private use - uses should be locals only. Sports fields for locals. Make sure that their uses make sense. Need more programs like Brown Bombers in our parks
NJ. Stop firing people who work for parks. Parks used to be full of people. Would fight to bring back quality parks. Doesn't want new parks. Parks have been stripped.
TD. Clubhouses should be for the people of D10
RH. Create jobs that train people to run parks. Clubhouses should be safe havens taht foster family interactions
LS. Has seen what clubhouses means to community - jobs and public safety. Parks are resources for next gen. More after school programs in parks. Jobs - local hire in parks is easy.
DL. After school programs. Large population reentering neighborhood from prison. Expand back on track program. Excess money could be used to hire people to teach or coach Brown Bombers and sports teams
TK. Clubhouses need to be public and accessible. Bring back centers that have been closed. City has 26000 employees, bit can't lose more people at parks and rec
CJ. Keep public and staffed, especially over the weekend. Could be access points for farmers markets, etc. Bring people to parks through the clubhouses. Local people hired to work in parks.
GM. HP Family rents Gilman park. Not opposed to non profits renting out clubhouses. All for non profits renting out to support. Local residents.
SM. Local 261. Parks used to be controlled by director who knew what community wants. New professional model but should shift to community model to have local control.
ES. GG park tennis club closed bc staff laid off. Non profit made up of members cleaned up bc park and rec wasnt there. Communities need to be able to get into clubhouses when city wont.

4. What is your vision for McLaren park: disk golf, off leash dog, etc

LS. Revamp the amphitheater. Disk golf might be something worthwhile looking at if revenues down. Could teach people to golf in McLaren Park.
RH. Large enough for all. Golf: work with community to integrate teach people to golf (we're talking about DISK GOLF people, not regular golf at Gleneagles!!)
TD. Lots of people use the park already. Would make changes to disk golf proposal.
NJ. More involvement needed with local community. Eliminate need for environmental impact reports to keep housing out of parks.
KE. McLaren disk golf wouldn't have been so troublesome if locals had been consulted. Need to get nets on basketball hoops, etc. Need to offer other locations for disk golf. Promote SF Urban Riders. Look at natural contours and let that determine use
MC. Wants McLaren to be a park where people from all over the world come to visit. Not in favor of disk golf. Off-leash area for dogs is a necessity. Clubhouse needs to be rebuilt. Attract some tourist dollars to park.
ES. Loves this park and loves disk golf. Doesn't necessarily want it in McLaren, however. No space for golfers at McLaren park. If locals wanted it, would be different.
SM. Fierce love of McLaren park. Needs master plan with community input and money. Need thoughtful approach to make asset better the way he community wants.
GM. Need community support. Doesn't know what disk golf is. Disconnect between neighborhoods. Needs more lighting in the park, as it's not safe. OK with off-leash dog areas
CJ. Must include disconnected neighborhoods in planning for park, especially Sunnydale. Make the park for locals who live here now, not for future residents
TK. Make the park bigger. Make it a destination for passive recreation. Likes off leash dog space.
DL. Disk golf shouldn't dominate space but can combine bird watching and habitat. Separate space for dogs. Charge people from outside zip to use park

5. Esprit Park drinking fountain? Yes/No? Everyone said "yes".

GM. Where is Esprit Park?

6. How do you ensure HP Development is as green as possible and links to the Blue Greenway and new parks


TD. Need a panel to oversee Lennar
RH. Community oversight of Lennar, accountability
LS. Is a former Sf Redevelopment Committee member. Need political will to oversee Lennar. Blue Greenway has three sections. Middle part needs monitoring to make sure linkage happens.
DL. Do it contractually. Much negotiating ahead. Need someone who understands contract law.
TK. Plan and build open space first. Creativity around financing.
CJ. Local hiring makes this green. Bring neighborhood services to keep people out of their cars. Parks have plans for artificial turf - need to make it natural.
GM. Restore citizen advisory board. People need to be able to discuss this. Ensure total cleanup.
SM. Residents don't trust Lennar. His nonprofit built trust by giving things away and wanting nothing back. Lennar needs to build trust with community in this way.
ES. Former member of the restoration committee. Don't trust either Navy or Lennar. Make them accountable. Get rid of tons of waste
MC. Need civic engagement. Maintain political will to keep connection btwn Greenway. More accountability.
KE. Knows more than anyone in the room about this project. It's the Navy's responsibility. Must restore Redevelopment Advisory Board (RAB). Knows how to deal with Navy because she's done it. There exists a gap between the shipyard and the port, so need to build a pathway first.
NJ. City is complicit with Lennar in poisoning children. Fence the shipyard and don't let anyone in ever again. No way they'll get it clean enough for people to be able to use it.

7. How do you get people motivated to help in the parks?

TK. People already are. Hire for enthusiasm more than for skill.
DL. People are motivated. Engage the community. Knock on doors. Just like campaigning. Get kids involved
LS. We all have the "What's in it for me" syndrome. People are only going to want to be a volunteer if parks are open for people.
RH. Identify key people to take care of their own
NJ. Grieving community in recovery. Must consider things going on that have left out human cost.
KE. Make it easy and empower people. Show results. Bring opportunities to people - don't expect them to come to you
MC. Agree w/ two points from KE. Make it easy. Streamline pocket parks. Taking things away from people motivates them. Once engaged, that's how they're empowered
ES. Community members motivated but up against a brick wall of parks and rec. Needs to change.
SM. Potrero View did article about this but got no response from parks and rec. Lying throughout from the city needs to be changed to get people engaged. Some ideas can get too big to be implemented.
GM. Utilize the Jobs Now program. Use social services to bring people in. Streamline process to bring groups together
CJ. Park staff talk at meetings but don't listen to residents. We need to feel like our advice will be adhered to. Increase outreach.

Whew!

Supervisor Norman's Newsletter

Are any of the other candidates publicly referring to themselves as "Supervisor"? I don't think so.

Oh, and does the name "Al Norman", listed a 'publisher' on "Supervisor Norman's Newletter", ring any bells in the Bayview?

From the Chronicle:

"The alleged arrangement:

"Because Scott Co. was financing the company, Norman and his wife, Jacqueline, agreed that financial administration and daily management of the company would be performed by Scott.

"In consideration for the Normans' qualifying the company as a minority-owned business, Scott Co. agreed to give Norman 1 percent of company revenues. By December 1998, Norman had been paid more than $800,000."

Read more here.

And more here.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Chronicle Supervisor Candidate Questionnaires

Not sure how long this has been up, but SFGate has their questionnaires from some of the candidates up online (According to the Chronicle, they contacted all 21 District 10 supervisor candidates. The candidates not listed here have not responded to The Chronicle's questionnaire):

Maila Cohen
Candidate Malia Cohen asserts that District 10 has too often been the City's forgotten and last priority. Cohen wants District 10 to become a cornerstone of San Francisco, a home to a thriving job market, a healthy and growing community and a safe place for children and families.

Teresa Duqué
Particularly concerned with the issue of crime in San Francisco, Teresa Duque believes that the City needs to balance the Board of Supervisors in an effort to insure that real economic revival takes place.

Kristine Enea

Kristine Enea credits her knowledge of land use, waterfront development, redevelopment, public housing revitalization and fresh food resources to nearly six years of volunteering on the Bayview Project Area Committee, on the Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board, and as chair of the India Basin Neighborhood Association.

Chris Jackson
If elected District 10 supervisor, the biggest issue Chris Jackson wants to tackle is the flight of working and middle class families from San Francisco.

DeWitt Lacy
DeWitt Lacy has endured the same struggles as many of the working residents in D10, which he believes helps him better understand the needs and aspirations of the community. He also has a background in law, providing him the skills to work within bureaucratic systems.


Geoffrea Morris

Possessing a Master Degree in Social Work, Geoffrea Morris has spent her life in the social support field in advocating for people and families in San Francisco. If elected, Morris plan to make local hire her highest priority.

Eric Smith
Candidate Eric Smith hopes to make San Francisco run more efficiently, which includes creating sustainable policies in economic reform and establishing support for the green industry.

Lynette Sweet

With over 20 years experience as a fiscal manager and as BART director, Lynette Sweet promises job creation will be her number one priority as Supervisor.

Park-Friendly Candidates

In case you want to prep for tomorrow's NPC Forum:

2010 Park Friendly Candidate Ratings

NPC recognizes candidates as Park Friendly who not only demonstrate a love and appreciation of parks, but also knowledge of how parks in San Francisco function and specific challenges the system faces. Park management in such a geographically-limited, resource-scarce environment is very challenging and NPC looks to all of San Francisco’s elected officials to be informed, collaborative and community-minded as we work together to ensure neighborhood parks are clean, safe and fun.

Malia Cohen (Park Friendly)

Kristine Enea (Park Friendly)
Chris Jackson (incomplete questionnaire submitted)
Tony Kelly (Park Friendly)
Steve Moss (Park Friendly)
Eric Smith (Park Friendly)

The following Candidates did not return a completed questionnaire by the deadline:

* James Calloway
* Ed Donaldson
* Teresa Duque
* MJ Marie Franklin
* Rodney Hampton, Jr.
* Ellsworth “Ell” Jennison
* Nyese Joshua
* DeWitt M. Lacy
* Geoffrea Morris
* Jackie Norman
* Ashley Hawley Rhodes
* Diane Wesley Smith
* Lynette Sweet
* Marlene Tran
* Stephen Weber

Upcoming Events This Week in D10 (Update)

Lots of last-dash politicking going on this week. Expect lots of knocks on your door, too, as canvassers scurry around trying to capture your votes! Check out the poll to the left... When is it to late for a canvasser to ring your doorbell?

Prop B Round Table
Hosted by Jeff Adachi
Wednesday, 10/13
5:30pm-7pm
Alex Pitcher Room
Southeast Community Facility
1800 Oakdale @ Phelps




Neighborhood Parks Council D10 Supervisor candidate forum

Wednesday, 10/13
6pm-8pm
Joseph Lee Gym
1395 Mendell @ Newcomb (half-block off 3rd Street)
NPC encourages community members to ask candidates their most burning park questions, which can be submitted at the event or prior via e-mail sent to supervisordebates@sfnpc.org.
Learn more by calling NPC at (415) 621-3260

(UPDATE) Forum Format: After welcoming remarks from our executive director, candidates will have one minute to state their position on parks, recreation, and open space. Next, audience questions will begin, asked through our moderator. Each candidate will have one minute to respond. At the end of the forum, all candidates will have another minute to make any closing remarks they wish.
Sandwiches, dolma and other snacks and beverages will be provided courtesy of Oralia's and Pera.



Silver Terrace Street Calming Meeting

Thursday, 10/14
6pm
Bayview Police Station
201 Williams Ave






Potrero Hill Street Fair
Saturday, 10/16
11am - 4:30pm
20th St between Wisconsin and Missouri

(h/t K. Enea)

Maxwell Endorsement

Is Supervisor Maxwell's endorsement a "big-time boost"? Will it change many minds? Three weeks, and we'll know.

League of Women Voters Debate Video

SFGTV has just posted video from last month's League of Women Voter's D10 Forum.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Dirty Tricks

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... candidates, make sure your supporters aren't doing things that are illegal or amoral, and make danged sure they're not doing stuff that can bite you in the butt!!

New voting methods and fair elections : The New Yorker


If you think our ranked choice voting, as discussed in today's Chronicle, is tough, we've actually got it easy - and maybe could be doing it better, depending on the expert you talk to:

Read more...

Friday, October 8, 2010

California - Ballotpedia


I just spent the evening helping a friend with her ballot. My head hurts. Confused about all the ballot measures? Check out Ballotpedia.

Another useful site is SF Elections. At this site, you can find your polling place, view a sample ballot, and find contact information for the candidates.

For example, to the right is what your ballot looks like for the D10 candidates - note it's NOT alphabetically arranged, so you're going to have to find your candidate(s) of choice.

Creepy

OK, so I wasn't sure how to deal with this, but after talking to various parties involved, I figured I'd write something brief about it.

Let me just start by saying, I'm a bit creeped out by one of you... This week, I received a plain manila envelope in the mail at my workplace, addressed to me in that bubbly kind of high school girl handwriting - I almost expected to see hearts dotting the i's. Inside, the sender had placed photocopies that they'd gathered together of publicly available documents from the Assessor-Recorder's office. These were things like tax-lien information, and the like, on three of the candidates for D10's supervisor seat.

For the most part, these things have been aired and discussed in the media already, and most of us don't need me to name yet again the candidates involved. There was no note attached to these documents, so I'm not sure if the sender wanted me to do some kind of exposé or some 'gotcha-media' piece or just wanted to make a point.

My first action was to contact the candidates to let them know that I'd been sent this information, and that someone out there was being all cloak-and-dagger about trying to do a smear campaign with information that we already have about them in the public realm.

Let's be clear about something here - this blog is NOT an investigative news site. I'm not Woodward. I'm not Bernstein. This blog is about connecting D10 residents with news that actual reporters write in their own newspapers in the hope that we don't miss something of interest. If reporters out there want to write more about the personal problems that one candidate or another are having with taxes or something else, then I'll post a link to it here make all of you aware of it, but that's about it.

So, if you see something in the news or upcoming D10 event that you think I might have missed or ought to mention, please, by all means, email me a link to it. But please, don't go looking up my workplace address and involving me in your skullduggery. Send it to Matier and Ross or Sarah Phelan or someone at the Examiner - because it's their job to investigate stuff like this, not mine. If they report on it, then I'll post a link to it here. But until then, take it down a notch.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Groundbreaking


On Wednesday, October 27th, UCSF will break ground on its newest hospital at its Mission Bay campus at the corner of 3rd St and 16th St from 1PM - 6PM. And yes, this is in D10.

Read more at the SF Examiner.

Visit the UCSF Mission Bay Hospitals website here.

Dear Bay Area Newspapers

HEY!!! Over here, in D10!! Yeah, I know you see us cuz I hear you talking about us.

There are 21 candidates in this race, so why are you all (SFBG, Bay Area Reporter, Beyond Chron, and the Chronicle) only talking about five or six of them? Why has only the Examiner actually mentioned ALL of the candidates by name and offered profiles of each of them? Oh, and over at the Potrero View, a very handsome reporter has given us info on the ten candidates who've qualified for city matching funds.

Do your job, media, be responsible, and above all, fair, to help people make up their minds in this confusing election.

Why I'm voting for...

Starting today, I'll be asking readers who've decided whom they're supporting to post their reasons behind that support. Let's help our undecided neighbors by providing a two or three-sentence comment. With all the outside endorsements coming in, we'll call this project 'community endorsements.'

District 10 Candidate Forum

District 10 Candidate Forum

sponsored by

Visitacion Valley Community Development Corp

Thursday, October 7

5:30pm-6pm Mixer

6pm-7pm Candidate Introductions + Q&A

The Village

1099 Sunnydale Avenue

Questions? Contact Karen Gilbert, 415-587-7896

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Dig In SF


You are invited to join "Dig In San Francisco" on Saturday, October 9th from 9:30am to 1:30pm at the Visitacion Valley Greenway.

According to Ruth on The Portola mailing list, who went to one of these in July, "... free lunch, wine by Robert Mondavi, giveaways and a beautiful location..."

This free workshop on sustainable gardening is presented by DPW and the San Francisco Parks Trust Street Parks Program, in partnership with The American Community Gardening Association, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, and Recology.

Sessions include composting, planting, maintenance techniques, and demonstrations from a guest chef on how to cook fresh garden vegetables.

DIG IN part II invites you to share part of your day with experienced gardeners who will present fresh and useful information on sustainable gardening, here’s “the dirt” on the workshops and presenters for Dig In II:

* Enjoying Your Harvest: A representative from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi will provide fundamentals of getting started gardening from what to plant, the best techniques, to how to harvest and information on how to enjoy your harvest by providing two simple garden fresh recipes with in-season produce: discuss how to prepare, cook and serve them and pair them with delicious Woodbridge wines.
* Wreath Making: Just in time for the Holiday’s, Toni Zernik, Photography Art Director, will teach you how to create a wreath using materials from your home and garden. Toni is experienced in innovative methods of transforming the everyday item into a thing of beauty.
* Volunteerism: President of the American Community Gardener’s Association, Bobby Wilson will provide a discussion session on the ACGA’s Growing Communities Curriculum with information on how to grow your community garden by cultivating volunteers.
* Bees Just Bee-Cause: Karen Peteros, founder of BeeCause, will show the inner workings of a bee hive, different varieties of bees, and teach what plants will attract these valuable creatures. Learn how these pollinators are critical to our food supply and how you can plant habitats to help them survive throughout the year.
* Native Plants: Deidre Martin, Nursery and Stewardship Coordinator for Nature in the City and coordinator of the Green Hairstreak (Butterfly) Corridor Project, will discuss the various drought tolerant native plants that you can use to landscape and beautify your garden or street park. She will discuss which plants will best attract pollinators and the benefits of native plants.
* Water Conservation: Tara Hui will discuss different alternatives for water conservation in your home - such as rainwater catchment and grey water reuse. On November 6 she will return to the Visitacion Valley Greenway to give an in depth class on DIY rainwater collection in conjunction with the PUC's re-purposed olive barrel giveaway.

Register here now! Garden gates open at 9:30am in the Visitacion Valley Greenway in San Francisco on Leland Avenue between Alpha and Rutland Streets. Please contact Sandra Zuniga at (415) 695-2114 to register. Workshops are free.

Date: Saturday, October 9th, 2010

Time: 9:30am to 1:30pm

Location: Visitacion Valley Greenway, Leland Avenue between Alpha and Rutland Streets

Read the recent blog article from DPW Street Parks Coordinator and Dig in Organizer Sandra Zuniga: "Want to Produce Food on Public Land? Dig in...".

Check out photos from last summer's Street Parks workshops and tours.

Monday, October 4, 2010

311 and Quality of Life

I'm going to plug a city service that I absolutely love: 311. I call or tweet 311 four to five times a day with new complaints. Yes, I'm 'that guy'. Uncollected trash on a street corner to me is a sign of a neighborhood's low self-esteem, and getting rid of it helps make my neighbors and me feel better about where we live. Clean streets, weed-free sidewalks, and the like are the hallmarks of a community that cares and whose neighbors look out for one another.

How many times a day do you call 311, and what do you generally call about?

Buck stops here - Matier and Ross

Ms Sweet, why do you do this (scroll down a bit once at SFGate) to yourself!?! This adds to the mystery brought up in last week's SF Bay Guardian.

From the Chronicle

BART board director Lynette Sweet, who is running for supervisor in San Francisco's District 10, failed to disclose the $120,000 she was paid by an energy provider over the past two years for community outreach in the Bayview.

Sweet was hired by the lobbying firm HMS Associates at $5,000 a month to help smooth the way for a high-voltage cable line that an Australian developer, Babcock & Brown, was bringing into the neighborhood to provide backup energy for the city.

Sweet, however, never reported the income on the annual economic disclosure reports she was required to file with the state as a BART director - that is, until we began making inquires.

Sweet says she has since amended her disclosure forms to reflect the income.

"That is nobody's fault but mine," she said.

The lapse comes on the heels of our recent report that Sweet owed the federal government at least $20,000 in back taxes and penalties - money she said she thought she paid to the Internal Revenue Service three years ago.

She says she has now paid it.


Read more at the Chronicle and at the SF Bay Guardian.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

A question that didn't get asked yesterday

I submitted a couple of questions to the forum yesterday, but one that didn't get asked was the one that I'd hoped would be. Here it is.

In 2008, D10 saw the highest overall vote in San Francisco in favor of Prop 8, upwards of 65% 61% in some precincts in Visitacion Valley. In 2010, a Federal Court deemed Prop 8 to be unconstitutional, and its passage to have been fed by voter animosity toward the LGBT community. D10 has the highest density number of youth in the city, and by extension, likely the highest density number of LGBT youth. However, no services targeted at those youth exist in D10, leaving them to grow up in a district that is hostile to them and that makes them vulnerable to taunting, abuse, thoughts of running away, and suicide. The effects of growing up in an unsupportive environment have been born out by several gay teen suicides over the past couple of weeks across the country. What as supervisor can you do to help change attitudes and to bring social services for at-risk LGBT youth to D10, and especially to those areas of D10 in which they are most at risk, such as Bayview and Visitacion Valley.

District 10 candidates face diverse challenge - SFGate

John Wildermuth over at the Chronicle talks a bit about the crowded field of candidates and changing demographics in our supervisor's race, giving a relatively bare bones report, and not making mention of all the candidates who were in attendance at the Visitacion Valley Rec Center that evening.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Have the gloves come off?

So, one thing that struck me to today at the D10 Family Forum at St. Gregory's church was that there was actually a bit of confrontation between Chris Jackson and DeWitt Lacy.

After Jackson touted his involvement in creating 75 jobs through the Solar City paid internship program and in City College's Gateway to College program, Lacy got the rebuttal and pretty much said that Jackson wasn't being honest in saying that any jobs had been created by the Solar City program, nor had the city college program actually done anything substantial, though it had the potential to do so.

With only four weeks left to election day, will we start to see the gloves coming off and candidates challenging one another on the things they're saying in their stump speeches and at the forums?

Let's see what the coming weeks bring...

Who do you support?

I hope this doesn't put people off, but I want everyone who reads my little blog to know that, in my personal life, I do indeed support one of the 21 candidates for supervisor. I could have gone either way with this disclosure. I guess if I was running for office, I would be said to be exhibiting a lack of transparency. I get that. By not telling you up front that I am personally supportive of a particular candidate makes you all think that I'm personally neutral. However, if I had mentioned up front whom I do support in this election, then everything I post might be viewed as biased - which I suppose now it can be, too. I guess I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't. Call it a lie of omission on my part, and for that, I apologize to those who take issue with me not disclosing this sooner.

I hope that my blog doesn't actually reflect my personal support, because all I intended it to be was a forum for us as a community to find out information about the supervisor's race, and to share comments about it and our district. The fact that someone on a recent SFBG comment suggested that I was a Steve Moss supporter indicates to me that my blog actually hasn been unbiased. On that site, and now here, I 'come out' for Kristine Enea. I hope you can go back through my posts and not see any bias in her favor in what I've posted, and hope that future posts continue to be viewed as impartial and simply reporting facts.

If ever I seem to be devoting too much virtual ink to slam or support one candidate or another, please let me know. Again, I want you to feel that this site is what I truly intend it to be, a non-partisan look at our district election. The fact that some candidates show up on here more often than others is just a measure of the amount of reporting on them on real news sites.

One thing that you have to remember is that every reporter out there, from the top TV news anchors on down, support candidates or parties in their personal lives. For some, that creeps into their reporting. For the ones that we trust the most, it doesn't. I'm not a reporter by training, just a guy sitting in front of his computer writing a blog to help my neighbors connect with the local world around them, and that is something that I believe can be done in an unbiased way. If you don't think I can do that, then we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

Still, I hope you'll continue reading and continue to trust that I'll be as unbiased here as I can be!

- Chris

D10 Family Forum

At St Gregory's Church

Format for today:

Questions submitted aead of time to candidates. Also questions from the public.

Candidates randomly picked and given two minutes to answer, then a second candidate gets a one minute 'rebuttal'.

In attendance:

Malia Cohen
Kristine Enea
MJ Marie Franklin
Chris Jackson
Tony Kelly
DeWitt Lacy
Geoffrea Morris
Steve Moss
Eric Smith
Lynette Sweet
Marlene Tran
Steve Weber

90 Minutes of questioning follows...

D10 has most kids but needs more options for childcare and preschool. What will you do?

Steve Moss: parents can't work if kids aren't taken care of.  Many different models that work. Must have space for daycare and groups should be given access to space.

Geoffrea Morris: open up more avenues for middle class families who make too much to qualify for current programs.


What are your top three action priorities for the city and county of San Francisco?

Malia Cohen: first to create jobs, support local economy, revitalize Third St corridor, Leland, and San Bruno; Health - pocket parks, and Star King.  Safety.

Marlene Tran: transparency of government; outsourcing of work from D10; monies for everyone, not just top tier management


How would you improve K-12 education given the lack of control of school board by BoS?

Eric Smith: little influence except through budget. Work more closely with school board who spend the money, make sure that school board has taken into account what families are saying to them.

Lynette Sweet: BoS has limited control over education, but can mandate things like libraries are there for students. Can help make ad hoc committee to BoS better.


Budget is BoS major responsibility. What would you do: Tax or fee increase, program cuts, or employees give back benefits, or other?

MJ Marie Franklin: other.  Don't expect employees to give back. No new taxes. City needs to look at resources and figure out what will generate funds, such as entertainment, to draw more people in to spen money here.

Stephen Weber: to balance budget, need to do all of the above. Look at revamping business taxes. Look at all programs to make sure they're all giving back what they say they are. Revamp pension program.


What is your personal hot button issue?

DeWitt Lacy: economy. Make sure approve local hiring mandate, as Avalos is working on. Incentivize local hiring by all businesses. Increases money in community and increased sales taxe revenues.

Kristine Enea: Smart development. Dev that cones to D10 provides needs o complete neighborhood, bot living in a suburb. Make sure we have libraries, historic district, preserving district, and public spaces.


What are your top three action priorities for D10?

Tony Kelly: same as for city as a whole. Infrastructure and livability. Youth and family services, wraparound services. 1 in 7 children essentially homeless. Invest and control over budget. Manage growth in D10. 100K more people in twenty years. Pollution. Life expectancy 14 ears shorter here.

Chris Jackson:  protect working families. Few spaces where two people with a job can afford to live.   Good living wage jobs, re-open shipyard. Good affordable housing. Good schools financed adequately with wraparound services.


What are the greatest problems for families, and what would you do?

Geoffrea Morris: social worker in CalWorks program. Most schools underenrolled. Better schools. SF is no longer family friendly. Already working with sfusd, make community centers out of schools in evenings.

Malia Cohen: land use conversation, but little about families. Neighborhood Community councils to give some structure as to what communities need.


What can you do to bring quality middle and high-schools to D10?

Kristine Enea:   Rainy day fund must e there. Would introduce legislation to ensure it. To rebuild Willie Brown Academy needs funding.  Address needs of children outside schools. Encourage vote for Omar Khalif, the only d10 school board candidate.

Eric Smith: arts, activities, music, etc imperative, and as supervisor, would encourage additional those things.


What would you do to improve safety of students getting to school on muni, by bike, and by foot?

Marlene Tran: 35 year teacher in sfusd. Adequate crossing guards, already asked city hall to ensure funding for this.

Stephen Weber: improve security on muni, uniformed and non-uniformed presence. Or example, parents in yellow jackets as volunteers on buses.


What recent decisions by BoS that have impacted families do you agree or disagree with.

Lynette Sweet: prohibition of toys in fast foods. Calorie content on packaging. Agrees with this. Need to ensure kids eat the right things.
Disagree with no pet stores in SF. Shouldn't have to go outside our community to get a pet.
Prohibition of cigarette products in drug stores is a good thing.

Steve Moss: parks and rec changing drastically. No sense of place or programs. Muni ratcheting back. Higher parking fees hurts families.


Give a concrete example of an action you've taken in d10 that resulted in positive change.

Chris Jackson: gateway to college program at ccsf starting at southeast campus. 400 kids helped, more than half from d10. Solar City 75 paid internships program, pays for books, transportation, and gives degrees in solar panel onstallation.

DeWitt Lacy: Solar City contract hasn't put a single person to work. City college may have ability, but hasn't done much.  Urban Debate program brings critical thinking skills to kids in D10.


What is the most important contribution you could make to the BoS.

Tony Kelly: responding to people. In terms of budget, build budget but not economy. Take control of budget. $3B sits in bank not being used to make city better. Establish municipal bank.

MJ Marie Franklin: worked in community for years, creating programs. Experience with legal, religious groups, etc. Would bring sensibility to board.


New format: one minute responses

What is our greatest crime issue in D10?

Chris Jackson: BoS not addressing working class people is a crime. Public safety, most are crimes of poverty and of opportunity, rooted in a lack of hope. At CCSF, increasing classes, expanding nursing programs. Need political will to not just enforce. Community policing. Social services. Long term solutions.


How would you increase availability of jobs in D10?

Steve Moss: development will be positive for people and environment. Areas in D10 for clusters of businesses, like produce mart could be used to develop food service area for things like school lunch program. Third St, Leland, etc. Fairly depressed. Lower burden on businesses, payroll tax holiday.


2008-09 SF civil grand jury report made specific recommendations on nonprofits - how would you implement those recommendations?

Lynette Sweet: consolidate back office functions but keep services and non-profits intact.


How would you create and support employment opportunities?

Geoffrea Morris: want to help make careers for people and not just jobs. Local hiring.


Transit:  show us your clipper card, and tell us one good thing, one bad about muni.

DeWitt Lacy: clipper card acts as a fare increase. Would look at real needs of d10 people. Can't cut services.


Immediate policy actions to ensure families can prosper,

Steve Weber. Improve Ad hoc SFUSD committee. After hours community centers, programs with the arts, use parks and rec money to bring back services.


How would you improve bike safety?

Kristine Enea: Has worked to increase Bike lanes in India Basin bike way, listening to people in areas like Dogpatch to correctly place bike lanes on Illinois and not Third, for example.


What is the role of quality childcare to our district?

Marlene Tran: children at risk, and without quality care more kids will end up in jail.


What are the biggest issues facing families?

Malia Cohen: cost of living. Parking meter fees, hours, Sundays. Against Sunday meters because it's a day for families to experience the city, parking fees a disincentive to pay additional fee.


How will you work the board of education?

Eric Smith: promote community school model, make them hubs of community activities. Fairs, meetings, etc. Create vocational schools.

Money, Money, Money...

For your Saturday morning enjoyment, and article from the SFBG...

Now, for some real enjoyment:



See you at the Family-Friendly Forum at St. Gregory's, 500 De Haro at 3PM.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Restaurant Health Inspection Scores

Before you put that taco in your tummy, better check out the latest Health Department scores for some of our local favorites - eat wisely, District 10!

Potrero Hill/Dogpatch

Bayview/Hunters Point

Portola/Little Hollywood

Family-Friendly Forum Saturday 3PM

There'll be another D10 candidate forum tomorrow at St Gregory's Church, 500 De Haro St.


View Larger Map


The event is being billed as a 'family-friendly' event, with questions focusing on children, schools, and all things family-oriented. All of the candidates have been invited to attend.

There will be childcare provided for a small suggested donation.

Traffic Calming in Silver Terrace



The SFMTA has been working hard in the planning stages of local-level traffic-calming measures in the Silver Terrace neighborhood of D10. Major arterial routes like Silver and Palou are not part of the scope of their project, but the draft map above shows areas that are in the planning phase and that they are proposing implementing. More information on this project can be obtained here.

There will be a meeting for people who live in the area shown on the map above to discuss the proposed traffic calming efforts. The date and time of the Silver Terrace meeting to present the plan and get resident feedback has been set: October 14th, 6-8 PM at the Bayview Police Station Community Room at 201 Williams Ave. SFMTA will be sending flyers around to homes in this area sometime in the next week or two.

More information on an already implemented project in the Bayview can be found here.

For those interested, here's the city's bike lane implementation schedule for D10 streets:

WINTER 2010/2011

* Bayshore Boulevard, Cesar Chavez Street to Silver Avenue
* Illinois Street, 16th Street to Cargo Way
* Potrero Avenue, 25th Street to Cesar Chavez Street

Gang Injunction in Vis Valley Approved



The gang injunction for two Visitacion Valley gangs has been approved by the court. There have been five gang injunctions imposed on gangs in other parts of the city in recent years, resulting in what the City Attorney's office calls a "cooling off" in gang activity.

Read more at KAWL news...

For the City Attorney's office information on gang injunctions, read more here.

What was said about this at last night's Visitacion Valley forum? Did any of you go (I had a class last night)?