Recently, the same group “The Other 98%” organized over 1000 people into another slogan: Dump Citizens United. They hired a helicopter and photographer John Montgomery took some amazing shots of the event – and of San Francisco.
For more of these brilliant pictures (in higher resolution), go to their website HERE.
WHAT IS “CITIZENS UNITED” ?
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Citizens United v The Federal Election Commission that “it was unconstitutional to ban free speech through the limitation of independent communications by corporations, associations and unions, i.e. that corporations and labor unions may spend their own money to support or oppose political candidates through independent communications like television advertisements.” (Source: Wikipedia).
It’s widely considered to give Corporations the same free speech rights as people. From the website of The Other 98%:
“By defining corporations as people and money as speech, the Supreme Court has undermined ‘government of, by and for actual people,’” said John Sellers, co-founder of The Other 98%, the organization behind today’s event.
I read the SF Birds Yahoo Group, though I’m an indifferent birder at best. It’s always interesting to know what’s going on with our feathered residents and visitors. Birder Dan Singer recently posted a most unusual sighting.
This visitor, though, isn’t feathered. It’s a river otter, at Sutro Baths. No one on the list remembers seeing one here before, though a sea otter’s been sighted in the area a few years ago.
I passed on the word to Janet Kessler, the photographer who specializes in urban wildlife, and soon she was out there with her camera. With her permission, I bring you these pictures.
Her website is at UrbanWildness.com – if you’re interested in wildlife pictures, most of them taken right here in San Francisco, that’s a treasury.
Edited to Add: I was sent this message from the West Portal Merchants Association:
“Many are saddened by the fire that has destroyed the building at the corner of West Portal Ave. The biggest tragedy is that there are over 60 displaced employees. Loss of employment just before the Holidays adds to the stress. An account has been set up with Bank Of America to accept donations. You can walk into any B of A Bank and ask to deposit into the “West Portal Fire” account. ALL money received will be distributed to the displaced employees. All overhead costs are being funded by the West Portal Avenue Association A.K.A West Portal Merchants Association. Please be generous to those most affected by the fire.”
West Portal Merchant’s Association
And the Greater West Portal Neighborhood Association noted that the city is trying to help and they’ll keep us informed.
“The City plans to expedite permits for repairs. In fact, Regina told me that Squat & Gobble already has their permits. They will help with legal and relocation activities. They are awaiting the Department of Building Inspections decision on if the Vin Debut building can be rebuilt or must be torn down.”
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There’s been a large fire at West Portal. Early yesterday morning, a blaze started at Squat and Gobble restaurant, and spread to the wine bar next door as well as an orthodontist’s office. There’s CBS report about it HERE.
I went by around midnight. Squat & Gobble is boarded up, so is the wine shop; and a fire-truck is parked beside them.
People in the bars across emerged from time to time to look. I’m guessing that each time someone new went in the bar, they were being told what had happened. A couple of buses and a train came by. Muni seemed to be running normally.
A white van – fire department surveillance of some kind? – sat in front of the West Portal Tunnel entrance. In front of the Studio Redz salon, a sad pile of debris was cordoned off with yellow tape and a traffic cone.
Even as I left, a few people stood on the sidewalk pointing at the burned out building. A smell of smoke still hung in the air.
[Edited to Add: A few more pictures, showing the damage in the day time. The inside was gutted. I took these on Oct 25th, but did not get around to posting them until now.
Soon, I hope, this will merely be a sad memory.]
CAFE FOR ALL SEASONS COULDN’T WEATHER THIS
In other, non-fire-related news: Cafe for All Seasons is apparently closed for good. The other day, I was surprised to see it shut mid-week and at lunchtime. Expecting a temporary closure, I jumped out of my car to read the note on their door for the dates. Instead, it was an eviction notice. Pity, that. First West Portal Bakery, gone equally suddenly, now this. I hope whoever moves in will be as popular as Goat Hill Pizza, which took West Portal Bakery’s spot.
Walter Caplan asked for publicity for this flyer, forwarded by George Wooding of Midtown Terrace. (Walter, thanks for clearing publication permission with Laguna Honda Hospital.) It’s for the Laguna Honda Community picnic, tomorrow 13 Oct 2012, between noon and 4 p.m. at the Betty Sutro meadow. Bring your own food and toys!
I went to UCSF’s long range development plan (LRDP) meeting a couple of days ago. My main interest is in Mount Sutro’s Cloud Forest, but I also wanted to know what the other issues and plans were.
(For more on the Mount Sutro Cloud Forest, go HERE. The meeting report relevant to the forest is HERE.)
UCSF’s plan will be adopted in 2014, and runs to 2035. So they’re looking at issues around UCSF’s growth plans, its impact on neighborhoods, and how to reconcile one with the other. Their full presentation is HERE (as a PDF) on their website.
LIMITS TO GROWTH
First, some background. Back in 1976, UCSF had a strategy of stealth acquisition. It quietly acquired a bunch of houses (mainly in the 4th Avenue and 5th Avenue area in the Inner Sunset), used some eminent domain, and planned to knock them down and expand. It was trashing the neighborhood, and the neighbors revolted. The battle was bitterly fought, and went all the way up to Sacramento.
When the smoke had cleared away, UCSF agreed to limits to growth in the neighborhood. The UC Regents passed a resolution. This had several important impacts on Forest Knolls.
It agreed to maintain the 61 acres of Sutro Forest as an Open Space. They weren’t going to build on it.
They imposed a limit – 3.55 million — on the total square footage in the Parnassus area. If they built something new, they would knock down something else.
They defined an expansion restriction area in which they would not acquire properties (they cannot accept gifts of properties in this area either. This restriction area – the map in the photo above – includes Forest Knolls (the line ends at Clarendon).
Recognizing that the influx of people (with the transport requirements and other pressures they bring) was also impacting neighborhoods, they included a goal of limiting the population to 13,400.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
UCSF seems to have satisfied conditions 1 and 3. The Sutro Forest is still a forest (for now, anyway). And as far as I know, they haven’t bought anything within the expansion restriction area.
The space ceiling is another story. By 1996, they’d blown through it and were at 3.66 mn sq ft. They planned to reduce the excess by half in the next period, by 2012. That didn’t work. Instead of reducing it, they went even further over the limit. They now have 3.84 mn sq ft, 8.2% over the limit.
The People limit’s also been exceeded. Set at 13,400 in 1976, it had gone to 15,400 in 1996. UCSF adopted a different goal: 16,000 people. They’re well over that now, at nearly 18,000.
So if you’re wondering why Parnassus Avenue seems increasingly crowded every time you go by there – now you know.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Inner Sunset neighbors were most concerned about traffic and space ceilings. UCSF offered ways to reduce the square footage, the most important being to demolish University Hall. (The UCSF slides discussing those options are HERE as a PDF.)
They are also talking of how to plan for traffic, and for their shuttles. Though we in Forest Knolls aren’t directly affected, it certainly does impact us each time we go down 6th Avenue and through the Parnassus bottleneck.
If anyone wants to get involved, more meetings are planned. The UCSF LRDP website has the details.
It’s coming up to Halloween, and Forest Knolls is organizing a candy loop…
Walter Caplan of the Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization (FKNO) dropped off a flyer at my place with the details. Laura Bloch is organizing this. Laura is at LJBloch@aol.com or (415) 504 8043.
Basically, if you’re in the loop (on the map below) and want to take part, have a pumpkin outside your house, and be ready for visitors between 5.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. The FKNO will provide pumpkins and pumpkin signs. (This doesn’t mean that homes that aren’t on the loop can’t participate. Just have a pumpkin visible, leave your porch light on, and have a stash of candy ready. That’s what I mean to do!)
And if you have kids (or are a kid) who wants to trick-or-treat, come on over to the Forest Knolls loop and look for the pumpkin signs.
I was at a meeting yesterday where Nader Shatara of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) talked about the West Nile Virus (WNV). It’s a mosquito-borne disease that typically first shows up in birds, particularly crows and ravens and jays. In fact, unexplained dead birds are sometimes the first sign that WNV has arrived. It can be transmitted to people when a mozzy bites an infected bird and then a person. Usually a mild disease in humans, it can sometimes be serious or even fatal.
San Francisco recently had its first human case where the patient had no record of travel or other explanations for the disease. (An earlier case was related to an organ transplant.) He is recovering.
Cats and dogs can also get it, but it’s very rarely anything serious for them. Squirrels sometimes die of it, and it’s occasionally a problem in horses – though not, of course, in Forest Knolls.
TREATING THE CATCHMENT BASINS
The best way to prevent WNV is to control mosquitoes. In San Francisco, the most common place for breeding mosquitoes is in the storm drain system, mainly in the catchment basins under the street.
So for the last several years, the Water Department has been treating the catchment basins. Its contractor, Pestec, inspects the basins – he said the current routine is once a month – and if needed, puts in a something to stop the breeding. A colored dot above the grate shows they’ve checked it, using a different color each month. (This month’s color is blue.) Some of you may remember I wrote about it here two years ago.
At the time, they were using Bacillus Thurengiensis Israelensis (Bti) dunks. Bti is an organic way to kill mosquito larvae. Nader said they’ve switched to using Bacillus Sphaericus. (Click here for a PDF version of an EPA fact sheet about this bacterium.) It also kills mozzy larvae, but apparently has a longer lasting effect. Only, in at least one catchment basin that was supposedly treated, they found live mozzies. They’re trying to find out why – one theory is the packet of bacteria snagged on something and didn’t get to the water.
REPORT DEAD BIRDS – SOMETIMES
San Francisco’s program to prevent WNV includes dead bird reporting. If you find a dead bird, you can put it in double plastic baggies (wear gloves or pick it up with tongs or something in case of other infections) and call it in for testing. (Click here for a link with all the details.)
From the California Department of Public Health West Nile virus website: If you find a dead bird, particularly a crow, jay, magpie, raven, sparrow, finch, or raptor, or dead tree squirrel, please file an online report at http://www.westnile.ca.gov or call toll-free 1-877-WNV-BIRD. Dead bird and dead tree squirrel reports are very important because they are usually the first indication that the virus is active in an area, and this allows CDPH to monitor the virus throughout the year.
Only, in San Francisco, this service is apparently closed between October 15th and mid-May.
REPORT MOSQUITOES AND AVOID HOSTING THEM
If you see mosquitoes in storm drains (or in PG&E vaults, which can also trap standing water, like in this picture), call the SF DPH and let them know.
I’m not sure if there’s a public hotline for it, but Nader was kind enough to provide his business card and his number is 415 252 3887; he’s at Nader.Shatara@sfdph.org
If you have standing water around your house (garden ponds, plates under potted plants, containers left outside, unattended bird baths) you might want to deal with it. For garden ponds, Bti dunks are good; or you can get mosquito fish (gambusia) if your pond’s large enough.
NOT A HUGE PROBLEM
Keeping it in perspective – WNV is not a huge problem in San Francisco. The last human case was in 2005. Our neighborhood especially may benefit from being surrounded by the eucalyptus forest – eucalyptus tends to repel mosquitoes. (There’s a 2009 research paper on it HERE; you can read the abstract for free but would have to buy the full report.) We probably don’t have a problem like the treeless parts of the city. The last dead bird was found near City College.
But anyway, except for their role in the food chain, who wants mosquitoes? No harm in keeping an eye out for them.
I got this message from Diane Rivera, NERT Advisory Board – Coordinator Chair (www.sfgov.org/site/sfnert)
October is here and we celebrate the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, an important date for all citizens who live and work of San Francisco. As the Bay Area suffered extensive damage from this earthquake, the neighbors in the Marina district requested that the San Francisco Fire Department start a program to help people to be better prepared for just this type of an event. The Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) was established soon after and active fire fighters continues to train individuals and families in all neighborhoods. The NERT Teams will hold their semi-annual drill in the neighborhoods on October 20, 2012 as we bring continuing training to the NERT community in San Francisco.
The NERT training is a FREE, hands on, 20 hour training for all people who live and work in San Francisco. Our training allows individuals, their families, neighbors and friends to be resilient, to be ready for any emergency with confidence in their training if and when we will need to take care of ourselves and our families.
We bring three new training opportunities at this time and thank you for your support in helping us get the message out so the as many people as possible learn about this training. Please add information to your calendar section!
**************************************************************************************************
So here they are:
1) Potrero Hill: St. Teresa Church, Connecticut @ 19th Street
Tuesdays 6:30PM – 9:30PM
October 9 : Class 1
October 16: Class 2
October 23: Class 3
October 30: Class 4
November 7, Weds:Class 5
November 13, Tues:Class 6
RSVP – REGISTER HERE FOR ANY CLASS http://bit.ly/y4R3nd
2) San Francisco State University, 800 Font Blvd.
Two Day Intensive!
Tuesdays 8:30am-5:30PM
October 9: Class 1, 2, and 3 – (In the Conference Center)
October 16: Class 4, 5, and 6 (In the Tower Conference Center
Parking – Garage 20 on October 9th & October 16th.
RSVP – REGISTER HERE FOR ANY CLASS http://bit.ly/y4R3nd
3) Personal Readiness Workshop
October 24
Wednesday, 6PM – 8PM Intersection for the Arts, 925 Mission St. (near 5th St.) SF
Tell your family, friends, co-workers to come to this workshop to learn more about the NERT program.
** To enroll -Call 970-2024 or – http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=879 and provide Name, Phone & Number.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lt. Erica Arteseros, Program Coordinator, Neighborhood Emergency Response Team at 415-970-2022 or email her at erica.arteseros@sfgov.org.
A few days ago – on 22 September 2012, to be exact – the Space Shuttle flew over San Francisco on its voyage to its new museum home in Los Angeles. Neighbor Ingrid Schultz was there with her camera.
Here’s what she writes: “I got up early, Saturday morning, drove down to Crissy Field. A lot of people had the same idea! For a change the fog held off….”
“…The small speck in front of the Endeavor is the spot plane that flew in front…”
Here’s a gallery that includes the original pictures (I cropped the ones above to fit into the column width).
Here it is again: The indefatigable Barbara with another Inner Sunset event!
The Inner Sunset Gazillion-Family Flea Market
Saturday, Sept. 29th, 10a to 4p
NW corner of Sixth & Irving
28 Families already participating!
To reserve a free table, with a $40 deposit, please call Barbara: 415/246-4748
Just two spaces left!
Come buy handicrafts, used clothing, furniture, junk, tools,
games, treasures, artwork, photography, CDs, plants, cookies,
more junk, kids’ clothing, some bric & some brac!
[Edited 16 Sept 2012 to correct and clarify the dates and time line.]
Back in December 2010mid-2008, neighbor Beverly Mack put in a request to the San Francisco MTA for traffic calming on Warren Drive, one of our neighborhood’s main streets. The issues were speeding, particularly on the curves and cut-through traffic. Warren Drive has steep slopes and blind curves, with children often present. Parents park on the street to walk their kids down to the Clarendon School via the Ashwood Lane stairs. What they asked for was two speed-bumps.
The form needs ten signatures from neighbors; they got fifteen.
SF MTA issued Beverly an acceptance letter in December 2010. In this acceptance letter, SF MTA noted that while it had accepted the application, that didn’t mean they would do anything right away.
I guess it was a fair warning, because nearly two years later, exactly nothing has happened.
Beverly called SFMTA, and found the project is currently 14th out of 39 projects. She got an email from SF MTA that said, “Sometimes this ranking does shift as new applications are accepted and meet additional criteria (vehicle speeds and volume, recorded collisions, evidence of cut-through traffic, parks and schools nearby, etc). The traffic calming program is currently being evaluated and no new applications will be reviewed until Spring 2013 which means your ranking should not change.” (By implication, they aren’t clearing any either.) It’s a funding issue, apparently.
(What I’ve heard, true or not, is that it takes actual collisions to move the project up the rankings so they start acting on it.)
ONCE THE PROJECT STARTS
Even once the project starts, it takes time to accomplish.
So there it is: Despite all the effort, it looks unlikely anything will be done for another year or two — at best.
Does anyone have any ideas? If so, email Beverly: BMack4paws at sbcglobal.net
[Edited to Add: One way to help is to call or email the SF MTA. Jeffrey Banks at 701-5331, email is Jeffrey.Banks@sfmta.com]
Meanwhile: SF MTA has a questionnaire out, seeking feedback about customer satisfaction. There’s one section where you can leave a comment. Perhaps that’s an opportunity to push this neighborhood’s needs.
The way it works is this: The criminals put a small piece of blue tape on the door (or, I suppose, the garage door) of a house – or many houses on a street. Then they come by at night to see if the tape’s been disturbed. If it isn’t removed for a number of days, they can guess that the house is unoccupied and therefore safe to break into.
Apparently, the Bernal area has had a rash of these blue-tape tags. There’s no report of subsequent break-ins, at least on the blog. But many of the neighbors there have been removing tape-tags they see.
Why does it have to be blue? I don’t know. I’d guess white masking tape would work as well.
I haven’t seen or heard of anything like this from any other source, but if you’re aware of it, let us know?
You don’t see the connection? Neither did I, actually, but I had to see the ostrich chicks.
As a member of the Cal Academy, admission is free and I can guiltlessly just drop by. That’s what I did today, just to see the ostriches, and was directed to the end of the building. But the enclosure was empty. The ostrich babies were actually outside, being exercised in a large pen in the sunshine.
These little guys were 20 days old, and as you see here, still fuzzy. The fuzz is actually rather like dry grass in texture, and doubtless helps conceal them on the African plains. Ostriches form harems, with 6-7 females and a male, and lay eggs in a communal nest. The females incubate it in the day, the male in the night. When the chicks hatch, they’re ready to run with the flock. In nature, they’d be chasing their mother around the savanna, much like outsize chickens (or she’d be chasing them).
The Academy chicks are indoors much of the time, and so this outdoor exercise time is important to their development. They came as eggs from a ranch in Escondido, the docent explained, and were hatched in an incubator at the Academy. As they outgrow the exhibit, they’ll be sent to various zoos, or back to the ranch. The Academy hatches a new batch every few weeks.
I’m wondering if these little chicks are going to imprint on humans… I was reading on the internet that they do, sometimes, and then the males will direct its mating displays to its human attendant instead of the female ostriches.
Oh, and the connection with earthquakes? Well, it’s plate tectonics.
As the earth’s tectonic plates separated, they parted related birds onto different continents – emus and rheas and ostriches. They’re all flightless rattites, but each evolved flightlessness separately.
Plate movements also cause earthquakes.
And if the connection still seems a bit far-fetched, it’s a good excuse for a display of fuzzy ostrich-babies.
I got this announcement with the plan for the Inner Sunset’s Fourth Friday of September 2012:
Explore the Inner Sunset after hours! Enjoy specials, art exhibits, refreshments, and more from local businesses every fourth Friday of the month, from 6-9pm.
On September 28th, some of the fun things to discover include
Handcrafted jewelry, photography, free fresh-baked cupcakes and tasty wine at Pearl Gallery;
A community HU chant at Sheehan Chiropractic at 6:45pm;
Free Patxi’s Pizza at two secret locations; and
Bubbly and an additional 20% off sale items at Ambiance.
Head down to the 9th & Irving intersection and pick up a map of the businesses that are participating at any of the following locations: Urban Bazaar– 1371 9th Ave.; Pearl Gallery– 839 Irving St.; Park Smile- 1244 9th Ave.; Alaya– 1256 9th Ave.; and Paragraph– 1234 9th Ave. All venues, except 21+ only establishments, are family friendly.
Here are a couple of photographs from the August event:
Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association hosted a District 7 Candidates’ Forum, and I went to see and make notes. Of the 9 candidates running for Board of Supervisors for District 7, 6 showed up. (Lynn Gavin, Julian Lagos, and Bob Squeri weren’t there.)
I’ll try to be impartial, but I’ll state my bias up front: I love trees and habitat for wildlife and those are my issues. Each candidate made their brief statement, and then the audience asked questions. The questions related to:
Parking: Sunday parking meters, extended parking meter hours. SF MTA (which is independent of the Board of Supervisors) has been talking about adding meters, extending hours, and adding Sunday meters. This will add costs for everyone, and push cars into the neighborhoods as they try to avoid meters.
The difficulty of getting downtown with so many road improvement projects going on simultaneously, and the need for interdistrict co-ordination
Lake Merced, which is currently managed (or not) by the SF Public Utilities Commission (because of the lake) and SF Rec & Park (for boating and fishing). Who should manage it? The gun club occupies – and has polluted with lead shot – 14 acres of land. Remediation may cost $5-10 million. Who pays?
Tree felling and pesticide use in the Natural Areas via the Natural Areas Program (NAP) – part of San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. What are your views about the thousands of trees to be felled, especially the 1600 trees to be felled on Mount Davidson? (I asked this question.)
The need for affordable housingvs preserving neighborhood character. How to balance the two?
So in alphabetical order, here they are. (The pictures weren’t taken at the forum. I forgot. They’re from a bunch of other sources, so if any candidate wants the picture replaced – email me at fk94131 at yahoo.com.)
He introduced himself as a professional geographer and cartographer who’s done work for the City, a smart small business owner, father, and husband. (His daughter is 5th generation San Franciscan.) Sean Elsbernd appointed him to the Pedestrian Safety Committee. He’s also volunteered with Project Homeless Connect with the homeless, and with Project Open Hand, and plays guitar for children’s programs. He stands against the use of public funds in elections, and believes the money could be better spend on other things. Key issues: Homelessness, panhandling – and preserving trees.
Q&A
Andrew had to leave early (clashing appointment) and could only answer the first question, on parking. He opposes Sunday meters and extended hours, and sees a need for training the enforcement workers. People get tickets even when they’re legitimately parked, which becomes harrassment.
FX spoke about his deep roots in District 7 where he’s lived most of his life and raised his family – a neighbor. He was a stagehand and served on the Board of the SF PUC, and also on the Ports Commission. He spoke of a deeply personal reason to run; his brother John, ill of terminal pancreatic cancer, charged him with doing something to benefit the future generation. So he decided to run for Supervisor. His vision for San Francisco includes jobs, infrastructure, neighborhood character, reforming non-profit organizations, preserving green spaces.
Q&A
Parking. He thinks people should tell their supervisors about problems, and different places have different issues. For example, making parking difficult in West Portal will push people to Stonestown and Daly City malls.
Getting downtown. Since it’s an issue involving a number of districts, he’d bring everyone to the table to work out the problems.
Lake Merced. Dual responsibility is best, with both SF PUC and SF RPD on it. They are dealing with it now, it’s getting better.
Trees and NAP. He’d approve removing the dead and dying trees, working with the rest.
Affordable housing. The Mayor’s housing trust fund may help. He favors increased density on transit corridors, and more development in places like the 3rd street corridor, Treasure Island, and Park Merced.
Joel ran through his background – raised by a single mom, went to University of Michigan on a scholarship and became a journalist – a watchdog. He worked for the ACLU, on protecting everyone’s constitutional rights. Then he got a mid-career scholarship to Harvard, where he got a Masters in Public Administration because he wants to focus on working for people in the government. Hence his run for Supervisor. He stressed that as a candidate who had qualified for public funding, he was truly independent and not beholden to any special interests; he would be an advocate for the people of his district. People were concerned about ideological decisions in the government, and he stood for common sense: Focus on the basics before trying to raise more money. He supported viable small businesses in San Francisco; the city shouldn’t be a theme park with all the real work going on in Silicon Valley. As an example of common sense: there’s room for trees, and there’s room for native plant gardens, but spending tax money to cut down thousands of trees for the sake of native plants doesn’t make sense.
Q&A
Parking. Raising parking rates is unsustainable. It discourages people from going places by car, and hurts small businesses, who have to compete with places easier to get to. He also opposes parklets, which are difficult to maintain, and take away 3-4 parking spaces. He suggests SF MTA look for more revenue by cracking down on ticketless travel on Muni.
Getting downtown. The Westside needs an advocate. The City’s “transit first” policy sounds good, but becomes counter-productive for many westside areas – an example of ideological thinking that lacks common sense.
Lake Merced. It should have only one manager, the SF PUC. Too many cooks spoil the broth. The gun club should have been required to carry insurance; since it doesn’t, it’ll have to be the SF PUC.
Trees and NAP. We should leave them alone. San Francisco has no native trees! He’s not against native plants, but he doesn’t think the ideology should determine the use of tax dollars for cutting down trees.
Affordable housing. The city needs growth, it needs housing, but it also needs to preserve single-family homes. He favors development in certain areas, for instance Park Merced, and along transport corridors, where he’d be okay with ownership condos.
Mike has an MBA from Loyola in New Orleans, and ran a couple of small businesses. He moved to San Francisco when he became an options trader after he bought a seat on the Pacific Stock Exchange. He’s on the board of St Stephen’s and of the YMCA and volunteers in various areas. Former Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed him to the Ethics Commission and later to the Board of Appeals. He has 40 years of business experience, and 10 years of government experience. He noted a Chamber of Commerce survey found people were most concerned with the economy, pensions (or pension reform), and quality of life issues, i.e. homelessness. He thinks pension reform is essential going forward, with a cap on retirement benefits for new hires.
Q&A
Parking. Mixed feelings. Some West Portal merchants want Sunday meters because otherwise people park their cars and go elsewhere. But in other places – like the Zoo – it becomes a de facto tax on the poor and on small businesses.
Getting downtown. The problem is the cumulative impact of multiple projects all over the city. When such projects are planned, SF’s planning department tries to stagger them to avoid impacting residents too much. SF MTA could easily do the same with some planning.
Lake Merced. SF PUC has the deep pockets, they should manage it. No use going after the gun club for remediation, they have no insurance and can’t pay.
Trees and NAP. It’s ironic that the city forces people to adopt the street trees in front of their property, whether they want to or not; but then it turns round and chops down trees. SF RPD hasn’t engaged the neighbors in the process of planning. Though he’s a friend of Phil Ginsburg (head of SF RPD), he’s against NAP in its current form. (He used his summation speech to push the Parks Bond 2012 to say that even if it funds NAP, you should vote for it because it will be used to refurbish playgrounds.)
Affordable housing. It’s important to do it sensibly with infill, not overbuild. He definitely wants to preserve the character of D7 – where people have lawns.
This is the first time I’ve seen Glenn Rogers. His platform is listed on his website, and that’s pretty much what he ran through in his statement: Creating a Department of Public Safety; standardizing fire hydrants so all firehoses can access all hydrants; tax Recology (the garbage company); Parks Bonds should include maintenance costs (at present, they’re restricted to capital expenditures); plant road medians with native plants; install solar windows in downtown buildings (like solar panels, only they’re windows, and they generate electricity), and those buildings should have green roofs.
On the questions:
Parking. Glenn said SF MTA hired new parking enforcement people each costing ~$50, 000 annually and thus needed to write a lot of tickets to cover the costs, but didn’t think they could. He facetiously suggested they break all the meters so they could ticket everyone.
Getting downtown. He suggested more research. Adding bus lanes, for instance, wouldn’t help because cars encroach all the time.
Lake Merced. He supported dual responsibility, and also closing the gun club. He didn’t think they would shift to steel ammo, because lead is cheaper – so as long as they stay, they’ll pollute.
Trees and NAP. Eucalyptus poisons the soil through allelopathy, so eucalyptus forests are deserts where nothing grows and there are no birds or animals. [This is factually incorrect. See photos HERE for pictures of the lush understory on Mt Sutro, and HERE for a partial bird-list for the forest.] On Mount Davidson, the city should cut down enough trees to show the cross, however many trees that is.
Affordable housing.Park Merced shouldn’t be built up, it’s is not transit-friendly. A shuttle to the BART doesn’t count. It will increase traffic congestion. But affordable housing is important. We want our police, firefighters, and educators to be able to afford the city.
Norman said he was a 3rd generation San Franciscan, and his focus was improving the lives of families and children. Though he initially trained as an engineer, his true interest was education, and so he went back for an MA in education. He was President of the School Board for 8 years. He believes his strength is getting people together to discuss and work out problems. He mentioned some successes of the School Board – reducing truancy, raising test scores, reversing declining enrollment, and saving the Sunset Childcare Center that ran out of funds mid-year leaving working parents stranded.
Q&A
Parking. He’s against Sunday meters, and he’s personally observed mistaken enforcement. When he pointed it out to the Parking worker, she didn’t reverse her actions, she just went off, leaving an bunch of erroneous tickets. Norman thinks that downtown parking rates should be raised instead, since it will impact outsiders more.
Getting downtown. Norman said he’d fight for the interests of our district.
Trees and NAP. The plan for Mount Davidson is a bad plan. We should manage dead and dying trees, and replant trees. We should preserve recreational access and usage.
Affordable housing. Norman’s facing this problem right now: His adult daughter would like to stay in the city, but is not sure if she can afford it. He thinks multi-unit developments are possible, but need to allow ample time for stakeholder inputs – and make the effort to do it right.
It was an interesting evening, and kudos to Golden Gate Heights for setting it up. I’m hoping to attend more forums, and get their views on a broad range of issues. Meanwhile, I welcome any comments.
There’s a candidates forum for District 7 candidates Thursday 30 August 2012. It’s hosted by the Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association, and its President says you’re invited. So if you’re curious about the nine contenders, most or all of them are expected to come to the forum. I’m planning to be there. (There’s a full list HERE, and video of five of the nine.)
Listen to the candidates, ask questions, share refreshments.
District 7 Supervisor Candidates Forum
Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association
Thurs, August 30 at 7 pm at
Parish Hall, Christ Church Lutheran, 1090 Quintara St at 20th Ave, San Francisco
This little snippet from a neighbor who prefers to remain unnamed:
Was on my way to West Portal, a little local neighborhood shopping and dining area. Very sleepy and quaint normally. I ran into a huge amount of traffic, it was like midtown Manhattan at 6pm, WTH?
I crawled along, and lo and behold the Woody Allen film crew was there filming and Mr Allen was there too. He is a tiny little guy. He has been all over San Francisco filming here and there.
Love it when movies are made here, good income for SFO and people get to see my lovely City by the Bay.
Edited to Add: I went by there a day later, and the filming continued, across the street from the Valero station. I didn’t see Woody Allen, but there was a lot of activity with trucks and support people, and of course, onlookers.
There’s a candidates forum for District 7 candidates Thursday 30 August 2012. It’s hosted by the Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association, and its President says you’re invited!
Listen to the candidates, ask questions, share refreshments.
District 7 Supervisor Candidates Forum Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association Thurs, August 30 at 7 pm at Parish Hall, Christ Church Lutheran, 1090 Quintara St at 20th Ave, San Francisco
We’re in District 7, and Supervisor Sean Elsbernd will be termed out this November. The position’s up for grabs, and now there are NINE candidates running. Here’s a 3-minute video of four of the candidates (FX Crowley, Joel Engardio, Mike Garcia, and Norman Yee) speaking at a Town Hall meeting on the Arts. (Click on the picture to go to the Youtube video.)
Click on the picture to go to the 3-minute Youtube video
Edited to Add: Andrew Bley was at that meeting, but somehow wasn’t included in the previous video (which we didn’t make, incidentally) but we’d include him with the “top candidates.” Here he is, making his point in a musical half-minute.
Click on the picture to go to the video
Here’s the list of all nine candidates, cropped from the city’s website:
I’ve met five of them thus far: Andrew Bley, FX Crowley, Joel Engardio, Mike Garcia, and Norman Yee. Over the next few weeks, in the run-up to the November election, I’m hoping to write something about platforms and views. Meanwhile, here are the websites for those who have them:
Sorry, folks, it seems there’s been a misunderstanding somewhere.
FKNO is not organizing a Forest Knolls Neighbors’ meeting for tonight. It’s essentially a potluck by and for people who have been walking their dogs at the reservoir. It’s not intended as a large public event. The candidates were invited to stop by if they wanted.
I will be removing the previous post on the matter.
If you see mosquitoes in storm drains (or in PG&E vaults, which can also trap standing water, like in this picture), call the SF DPH and let them know.
FOREST KNOLLS NEIGHBORHOOD 