Category: City Hall
Posted inCity Hall, News

San Francisco shifting tree care onto property owners

by Alex Zielinski

Mayor Ed Lee recently produced a budget package for the new fiscal year that cut $300,000 from the already tight street tree care allowance. The proposal would shift the city’s responsibility for 24,000 trees in front of private property onto the property owners over the next seven years.

They would have to hire arborists to keep their trees healthy and pruned, an expense that can run up to $400 per visit. Property owners who neglect their new duties face city fines reaching $500 per citation. The city would keep maintaining trees on public property.

Posted inCity Hall, Muni, News, Transportation

Supervisor wants to see results of new Muni contract

by Jerold Chinn

An arbitrator-imposed labor contract for the city’s Muni operators went into effect on Friday and is expected to save the city $41 million over the next three years. City Supervisor Scott Wiener wants the transit agency to show where those savings are coming from.

Wiener introduced a resolution at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting calling upon the transit agency’s governing board to give periodic updates on how the agency is saving money from the deal.

Posted inCity Hall, News

Mayor: Social services agencies must plan for years of cuts

by Kevin Stark

City Budget: Lee recommends 5-year planning for nonprofits

In a clear departure from his predecessor, Ed Lee, the city’s caretaker mayor, stumped across San Francisco’s 11 districts this spring criticizing ingrained budget balancing techniques as “an incredible act of disrespect.” His big new idea: to encourage nonprofit service agencies to plan their budgets on five-year cycles rather than groping year by year for funds to keep their doors open. That would go hand in hand with the city’s first ever five-year plan, released May 3, which projected a whopping $828 million shortfall five years from now.

Posted inCity Hall, Community, Economy & Business, Land use, Neighborhoods, News

City gave up $3.5 million in community benefits before passing Twitter tax deal

by Nina Frazier

The April tax break for social media giant Twitter was supposed to include sweeteners to help community organizations, small businesses and the arts in the blighted mid-Market neighborhood. But just before the Board of Supervisors approved a tax exemption, which is projected to save Twitter $70 million, it abandoned a draft community benefits agreement worth at least $3.5 million, plus 1 percent of the company’s pre-tax income and myriad other community service projects. These included improvements to public parks, the opening of a neighborhood grocery store, a local hiring provision and free Wi-Fi for neighbors, the Public Press has learned. The board now has a chance to retroactively approve a committee to come up with such an agreement, but neighborhood activists say the city is in a worse bargaining position now that Twitter has its tax break.

 
Posted inCity Hall, Environment, Health, Technology

Pharmaceutical industry yields to pressure from San Francisco to fund a drug take-back program

by Siri Markula

Starting as soon as August, San Franciscans will be able to dispose of their unused medicines for free at 16 independent pharmacies and five police stations throughout the city. The pharmaceutical industry is funding the pilot program with $110,000, after facing city plans that threatened to extend producer responsibility to pharmaceuticals. For decades the industry and government waste experts told consumers to flush medications down the toilet. But with increasing recognition of the effects of human drugs on wildlife, regulators at all levels are seeking to get medicines out of the waste stream.

Posted inBay Area, City Hall, Health

Growing pot should be treated the same as growing grapes: Q&A with lawyer David Owen

by Hank Drew

David Owen was a freshly minted lawyer when he decided to open up a marijuana-focused land-use law firm in San Francisco. The former legislative aide to then-Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin had been involved in the early days of the city’s cannabis regulation development. Since opening his firm, Owen has represented SPARC, a high-end medical pot dispensary, and helps local pot cultivators navigate conflicted legal waters. In light of regulation problems in Southern California and San Jose, Owen talked about the challenges of being a medical marijuana attorney as San Francisco’s once forward-thinking regulations have become “stagnated” over the past six years.

Posted inCity Hall, Homelessness

City tries lottery system for homeless shelter beds

by T.J. Johnston

One of San Francisco’s principal shelters is gambling on a new lottery system, operational as of today, that it says will more effectively allocate available beds for homeless people. The plan by Multi-Service Center-South, a 300-bed shelter at Fifth and Bryant streets, is aimed at ending competition among shelter seekers, who line up daily during the early morning hours in the hopes of obtaining one of 60 single-night bed reservations available across the city.

Posted inCity Hall, Neighborhoods, Public Safety

Sex, drugs and filth plague city-sponsored public restrooms

by Nina Frazier

Second of two articles about hygiene options for San Francisco’s homeless

San Francisco’s 25 freestanding, so-called “self-cleaning” public restrooms scattered across the city are magnets for prostitution and drug use. They are so filthy that even after automatic cleanings, they require one to five manual scrub-downs a day. The Department of Public Works, which contracted with JCDecaux more than a decade ago to install and maintain the units, blames the company. The company blames the police. And the police say they don’t have time to babysit city toilets 24 hours a day. The homeless are often shut out of the facilities, which constitute the only public restrooms where they are welcome. Meanwhile, San Francisco takes a cut of the company’s profits from billboards that envelope the toilets.

Posted inCity Hall, Homelessness

Computer system shutdown hurts homeless at city shelters

by T.J. Johnston

A computer failure forced San Francisco homeless shelter residents to wait hours in the cold to gain admittance as staffers turned to pen and paper to register those who needed assistance.
The system, known as Coordinated Homeless Assistance through Guidance and Effective Services went offline on March 12 as the city’s Human Services Agency underwent seismic upgrades at its building on Otis Street.

Posted inCity Hall, Media, News

University of San Francisco aims to move transmitter quickly following KUSF sale

by Mineko Brand

Even as supporters of the University of San Francisco’s radio station race to file a petition with federal regulators to block the sale of its frequency, the school and a nonprofit group called Classical Public Radio Network are moving quickly to relocate the station’s transmitter off campus.

Dismissing critics of the recent dismantling of the student- and community-run radio station, USF and the radio network filed their own petition Monday to move the transmitter to Sausalito, requesting speedy approval.

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