City takes over redevelopment’s responsibilities

From SFGate's blog,

As it races to shut down, San Francisco’s redevelopment agency will transfer its projects and functions to the city at large, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday.

The supervisors approved a resolution that puts the city in charge of the agency’s current responsibilities, following a California Supreme Court ruling that allows the state to abolish its 67-year-old redevelopment program. Those roughly 400 departments must shut down by Feb. 1.

The resolution, introduced by Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen, transfers the agency’s affordable housing assets to the Mayor’s Office of Housing. The city administrator will take over non-affordable housing assets.

The board also confirmed the mayor’s appointees to the seven-member oversight board that will guide the agency’s dissolution. This board, required to be created under state law, will oversee the repayments and implementation of projects under way, including Mission Bay, Hunters Point Shipyard and parts of Transbay.

Its members will include John Rahaim, director of the San Francisco Planning Department, and Bob Muscat, director of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21, who will have two-year terms. Olson Lee, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, and Nadia Sesay, director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Finance, will have four-year terms.

“Given the short time frame and the nature of the board and the board’s obligation, I am comfortable with these appointees, that they will be able to make the decisions necessary to keep projects moving forward,” Cohen said.

While the redevelopment agency in its current form will shut down by next week, its 100 employees could stay for a transition period to the end of March. Christine Falvey, Mayor Ed Lee’s spokeswoman, has said it is unclear whether there will be layoffs.

Just One Tree campaign in SF - lemon trees

Do you have a lemon tree in your garden or do you have a friend or neighbor who does? Then consider registering them on the SF Urban Forest Map as a first step prior to launching the Just One Tree project this year. The goal of JOT is for San Francisco to become sustainable in a beautiful and easy to grow crop - Meyer Lemons, providing a global model that any city can be more self-sufficient in a number of crops--even without much land! We need only 12,000 lemon trees to be completely self-sufficient (3lbs/per capita per year) and there are an estimated 3-4,000 lemon trees already planted -- we just need to find them! I'd like to get them mapped before we launch the JOT campaign because the goal will be very achievable even more quickly. Here's where you (or anyone else) can register your lemon tree:

http://www.fuf.net/resources/sfTreeMap.html which will have a link to http://www.urbanforestmap.org/

They will have a website up soon that will have everything anyone needs to know about buying, planting, caring for, sharing excess production, and even recipes for lemons. It will also have a list and information about another 11 fruit trees that do very well in San Francisco -- the delicious dozen. Stay tuned!

h/t K Williams

San Francisco Redistricting Task Force Announces Second Round of Community Outreach Meetings

The San Francisco Redistricting Task Force will be holding meetings in each of the Supervisorial districts to maximize public participation in the redistricting process.

January Meetings:

When: Wednesday, January 4, 6:00 PM
Where: San Francisco City Hall, Room 406

When: Monday, January 9, 6:00 PM
Where: District 11, Location TBA

When: Saturday, January 21, 10:00 AM
Where: District 6, Location TBA

When: Thursday, January 26, 6:00 PM
Where: District 10, Location TBA

The locations for the special meetings are to be announced. Please find additional information on January meeting locations and February & March meeting announcements here.

San Francisco City Survey 2011

 

Did you get a flier in the mail about this?  I know I didn't.

Anyway, go to http://sanfranciscocitysurvey2011.org/ and fill out the survey.  Shouldn't take you more than a few minutes.

San Mateo, San Francisco Strike Deal on Local Hire

From the SF Appeal,

"Reciprocity Agreement" Reached Despite Hill's "Acrimonious" Bill

Turns out that San Francisco's local hire laws - billed as the toughest in the nation, which mandate city residents be hired on construction projects receiving city funds, and which triggered a reactionary anti-local hire law from a San Mateo Assemblyman -- aren't just for San Franciscans.

The local hire laws also apply to residents of San Mateo County, where San Francisco International Airport and bits of the Hetch-Hetchy Aqueduct are located, according to Supervisor John Avalos, who authored the legislation.

That local hire guarantees jobs for San Mateo County residents as well as San Franciscans is old news for Avalos -- but it was a harder sell to Peninsula politicians, who needed a signed-and-delivered "reciprocity agreement" which codifies the arrangement.

This agreement, negotiated by the City Attorney and San Mateo County counsel, could be signed as early as today, according to sources familiar with the arrangement, and will be unveiled by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and San Mateo politicians in the next few days.

More atthe SF Appeal

SF supes delay vote on AT&T utility boxes

From SFGate,

After hours of public testimony and weeks of behind-the-scenes lobbying, the Board of Supervisors voted late Tuesday to delay a decision on whether AT&T can place up to 726 new utility boxes on city sidewalks without first going through a lengthy and costly environmental review process.

The City Planning Department already gave the telecommunications giant the green light for the project - a decision that San Francisco Beautiful and the Planning Association for the Richmond appealed to the Board of Supervisors. Other neighborhood groups, from Telegraph Hill to Potrero Hill, backed the appeal as a way to stall or stop the project.

Read more at SFGate

Read my previous post on the utility boxes

Yes, Suhr: San Francisco has finally found its perfect top cop

From SF Examiner,

At the swearing-in ceremony of new police Chief Greg Suhr on Wednesday, one thing really stood out — and it wasn’t the terrible acoustics in the rotunda at City Hall.

It was the crowd, consisting of conservative judges, lefty lawyers, retired city department heads, former classmates, enough police officers to hold back a riot and a wide cast of colorful friends, gay, straight and narrow.

It was a rainbow coalition — a snapshot of San Francisco — and the reason why so many people are happy that a long-deserving homegrown kid finally gets his shot at the top.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner

Read more on reaction at Indy Bay

Census Data Will Likely Signal Loss of Political Power for Bay Area

From the Bay Citizen,

With the much-anticipated release of 2010 census data for California expected Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area faces the prospect of ceding political clout to its upstart neighbor: the fast-growing Central Valley.

The dramatic population shift under way in the state, redistricting experts say, will make plain that the Bay Area should probably lose a district. The population in the ascendant Central Valley has grown roughly 15 times as fast as the population in the San Francisco Bay Area over the last decade, according to federal population estimates.

In past years, powerful Democratic lawmakers from the Bay Area would have vehemently resisted any efforts to hand over a district to the more heavily Republican inland area. But the power to line-etch is now the province of the newly formed Citizens Redistricting Commission, created by a voter-approved initiative in 2008. The 14-member panel this year will try to combine communities that share common social, economic and other interests as it redraws California's Senate, Assembly, State Board of Equalization and congressional districts.

Read more at Bay Citizen

San Francisco Mayor’s Race is Off and Running

From Beyond Chron,

It’s eight months before San Francisco’s mayoral election, with the eventual winner already in the field. While a candidate identified with the city’s political Left still may emerge, the current frontrunners are Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and State Senator Leland Yee. Former Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Michela Alioto-Pier and Assessor Phil Ting will shape the outcome due to ranked choice voting, but none have reached the top tier. This is the first time since 1975 where there is no clear favorite in the Mayor’s race, but keep in mind that Jack Molinari in 1987 and Art Agnos in 1991 were heavy favorites in March and both lost. Here’s my assessment of the major upsides and challenges affecting the three current leading contenders.

Read more at BeyondChron

The End of Redevelopment Agencies?

Jerry Brown to Redevelopment Agencies: You're Toast - SFCurbed 1/21/11

Jerry Brown calls redevelopment agencies futile - SFGate 1/20/11

Cities rush to spend redevelopment money - SFGate 1/19/11

How Redevelopment Agencies Subvert Democracy - BeyondChron - 1/18/11

Cities move to wall off redevelopment funds before program is killed - SFGate 1/17/11

Redevelopment cut imperils SF affordable housing - SFGate 1/14/11

Redevelopment projects face funding cutoff - SFGate 1/14/11

Redevelopment plans threatened by CA budget cuts - SFGate 1/11/11

Rec and Park Department Community Budget Presentation

For those of you interested in what goes on in our parks and how the Rec and Parks Department is planning on allocating its 2011-12 budget, mark Thursday, February 3rd on your calendars.  RPD will be hosting a series of four informational meetings around the city, with the last one at the Joseph Lee Recreation Center, 1395 Mendell St, near the Bayview Opera House.

A preview of the RPD presentation can be found online at the SF Rec and Parks website.

Also, there is also a group called 'Take Back Our Parks' that is organizing to ensure some oversight of the Rec and Parks Department, and folks may be interested in checking them out if they have concerns about clubhouse closings, budget allocation issues, etc.

S.F. supervisors prepare for redistricting battle - SFGate

From SFGate,

San Francisco moderates gained clout at City Hall with the recent selection of Ed Lee as interim mayor and David Chiu as Board of Supervisors president. But now political strategists are looking long term, anticipating that the city may redraw boundaries for supervisors' districts.

The opportunity comes once a decade, and the outcome can strongly influence the city's electoral landscape for years to come.

Read more at SFGate

S.F. cops: Homicide up, overall violent crime down - SFGate

Justin Berton of the Chronicle writes,

In 2009, San Francisco saw a significant drop in homicides from the previous year, with the number falling from 96 in 2008 to 45.

At the time, newly sworn-in Police Chief George Gascón credited the change to a revitalized enforcement strategy started by his predecessor, Heather Fong, that targeted high-crime neighborhoods such as Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley and the Western Addition. The homicide unit also had expanded from a dozen detectives to 30, and Gascon introduced a new statistical analysis method that tracked crime more closely and aimed to hold district captains more accountable for results.

In 2010, department statistics show 7,139 violent crimes were reported in San Francisco. That followed a 10 percent drop in reported violent crimes in 2009.

Read more at SFGate

San Mateo Co. supes urge Newsom to veto ordinance - KGO

David Louie at KGO writes,

SAN MATEO, Calif. (KGO) -- On a 4-0 vote, San Mateo County Supervisors today passed a resolution urging San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to veto an ordinance that calls for a 50 percent local hiring goal for all city-financed construction jobs within a 70-mile radius of San Francisco. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' intent is to help provide jobs to building and construction trades people who live in San Francisco.

However, San Mateo labor leaders and the four San Mateo County Supervisors (the Board is currently missing one member with the election of former Board President Richard Gordon to the state assembly) argue that San Francisco's ordinance takes away job opportunities for its local residents. They point out the current jobless rate is close to 30 percent for construction and trades jobs.

Read more at KGO

But, as Sarah Phelan at the SF Bay Guardian asks,

Does Mayor Newsom represent SF workers or San Mateo politicians?

Jimmy Jen codes case settled; S.F. gets $486,000 - SFGate

Bob Egelko of the Chronicle writes,

San Francisco's long-running case against a permit expediter who repeatedly violated city building codes has ended with a $486,000 payment from his bankruptcy estate, the city attorney's office said Wednesday.

The city won a Superior Court ruling in 2003 finding that Jimmy Jen had broken numerous laws while expanding a residence he bought in Visitacion Valley in 1999 and sold two years later. Judge Ellen Chaitin said Jen had violated health and safety rules and ignored a city order to stop work on the property.

Read more at SFGate:

Phil Ting Begins Organizing Campaign for Mayor to Reset San Francisco

San Francisco, CA – Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting today began organizing what he pledged would be “a different kind of political campaign focused on empowering San Franciscans to help make our city government work faster, fairer and smarter.”

Ting, accompanied by his wife Susan and two young daughters, pulled papers from the City Elections Department to begin organizing a campaign for Mayor in the November 2011 election.

Ting has been leading a growing online community, ResetSanFrancisco.org, dedicated to organizing San Franciscans from every neighborhood to promote the kind of “User Generated Government” that will help make our city more responsive to pressing issues like job creation, improving public transit and bringing solutions to the city’s endless budget problems.

That was close!

With Steve Cooley's concession in the Attorney General race, the question now is, who's going to fill out Kamala Harris' term as SF District Attorney?

Writes Marisa Lagos at the Chronicle,

Harris' replacement could be appointed by Newsom, if he waits to resign after she vacates the district attorney's office. Otherwise, an acting or interim mayor would choose the city's next prosecutor, until voters weigh in next November.

Teens Menace Elementary School Crossing Guard - SF Appeal

This one hits close to home - I say hello to this crossing guard every morning. She's a super sweet woman whom I can't believe is out there every day dealing with these punks. In the six years I've seen her at this corner, I've never heard of her having trouble, but there are routinely fist-fights there when she's not around, so this doesn't exactly surprise me.

"A crossing guard was harassed by two teenage students Monday afternoon near a Bayview elementary school, San Francisco police said.

The crossing guard, a 59-year-old woman, was on duty in the 2000 block of Silver Avenue just after 4 p.m. when she was shoved by two girls about 14 years old near Willie L. Brown Jr. Academy College Preparatory School, Lt. Troy Dangerfield said."

Read more at SF Appeal.

Who wants to be Mayor

Some of the language is not safe for work (nsfw), and I hope Malia Cohen laughs at the reference to her win in our D10 race... (h/t Kristine Enea)

Grist for The Rumor Mill

Funny how rumors get started. Take this one: Chris Waddling is a Steve Moss supporter. What, hadn't heard that one? Well, a commenter at a recent SFBG article certainly thinks its true, and wants others to believe it too, apparently. I have tamped that down quickly and unequivocally over there.

Like my rebuttal, rumors about the candidates need to be rebutted quickly and unequivocally, especially if the candidates want us to be convinced that they're false. Do none of them remember John Kerry getting 'Swift-Boated' in 2004 and the damage that did to him in the campaign? These rumors divert our attention from the issues, and keep the candidates from having to provide answers to questions about what they'd do when in office, but they also plant seeds of doubt that are tough to kill once they've taken root.

I hope that what I have written here has been unbiased and doesn't sound like I support one candidate over another. The candidate whom I do personally support is upset with me for not devoting more space here to their campaign. Honestly, I would love to, and maybe I should have a separate blog for that. But here, I'm trying to simply provide links to information that's out there so that readers don't have to go searching for it. That's it. Yes, I have opinions about ranked choice, voter apathy, the effect of money on the campaigns, etc., and I'll write about those things. If a candidate has what I think is a good idea, I'll give it a shout-out. But that's the extent of it. I also have my opinions on who would be the best supervisor for D10, but can't say that here and keep this site unbiased.