It could have been the plot of a science fiction novel, or perhaps “Rip Van Winkle.” Thirty-five years after its first meeting, the Community Congress awakens in 2010 to find its city and the world transformed — and perhaps a new reason for being. Many things in San Francisco have changed since the first such gathering in 1975. The first Community Congress was held that June and is credited for several major political changes to the city, including rent control and district elections.
Category: City Hall
Posted inCity Hall, Elections, Land use
Run down? Pay up — a list of San Francisco blighted properties
More than half a year after the Department of Building Inspection launched an ambitious effort to catalog unused and blighted properties in the city — a process that ultimately could bring in millions of dollars in property and transfer taxes and developer fees — the effort has been hobbled by layoffs in the department.
The Board of Supervisors passed an anti-blight law unanimously in November 2009. It requires property owners whose buildings are vacant or abandoned to register them with the city and fix up their dilapidated exteriors. The law is intended to reduce crime, clean up neighborhood blight and stimulate economic and social activity.
Posted inCity Hall, Elections, Law & Justice, LGBTQ+
Judge says same-sex marriages can resume on Aug. 18
A federal judge ruled Thursday that same-sex couples will be able to marry on Aug. 18 at 5 p.m. The ruling could be reversed if opponents of gay marriage appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The decision will lift the stay that last week he placed on his own judgement that a statewide ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. On Thursday morning scores of people gathered on the front steps of San Francisco City Hall to mark the occasion, with some same-sex couples hoping to get married on the spot if the stay were lifted immediately. There were also supporters of Proposition 8, the initiative that ended gay marriage in 2008. (READ THE RULING BY JUDGE VAUGHN R. WALKER — PDF)
Posted inCity Hall, Community, Environment, Neighborhoods, Parks & Open Space
Athletes vie with birds in Golden Gate Park’s environmental turf war
A swath of ground at the western end of Golden Gate Park has stirred debate among soccer players, neighborhood residents, astronomers and environmentalists. The disputed turf is the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields. A plan to replace the grass surface with artificial turf has been put on hold by the Recreation and Park Commission which has ordered an environmental impact report on the project.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
Muni to restore 61 percent of service by Sept. 4
Sixty-one percent of summertime Muni service cuts would be restored under a financial plan proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The changes could come as soon as Sept. 4, and are higher than the 50 percent restoration promised earlier in the summer. The $15 million one-year funding package includes money shaved from the San Francisco Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The agency also looked at cutting back on hundreds hours drivers are paid while waiting for shift changes.
Posted inCity Hall, News
City’s struggle against graffiti tries rewards, murals and profiling
San Francisco’s ongoing battle against graffiti is finally paying off – at least for those turning in taggers to the city’s Graffiti Rewards Program. Anti-graffiti strategies like the reward program have proliferated in the last five years as the Department of Public Works has adopted a mix of law-enforcement and community engagement measures to reduce tagging. City agencies as a whole spend $20 million on graffiti abatement each year.
Posted inCity Hall, Transportation
Chiu and Newsom settle on Muni reforms
The mayor and the president of the board of supervisors this week agreed on several Muni reforms to help the transit agency restore services cut in May and to improve oversight of the agency. The proposed reforms include a plan to fully restore May’s Muni service cuts by December.
Posted inCity Hall, Labor, News, Transportation
Muni drivers try to shift the bulls-eye
Hands clasped and brows furrowed, Gabriel Desalla sat quietly for the first half of the Bay Area Transportation Advisory Committee meeting. He is one of 2,172 union workers in the transit agency who are under increasing pressure to make concessions that would restore recently cut Muni services. In a small conference room in Bayview-Hunters Point San Francisco, Desalla waits for committee president, Emanuel Andreas, to open the floor for discussion. The topic, as usual, is the ongoing battle over salaries, health benefits and work rules. The SFMTA says that reforms are needed to improve financial efficiency but many Muni drivers are resistant to the changes proposed. The concessions the city has sought include changes to healthcare benefits for dependents and allowing part-time drivers.
Posted inCity Hall, Environment, Land use, Social Justice
Is Bayview the new Gulf of Mexico? Activists see parallels
This week’s debates over environmental approval for the $8 billion redevelopment planned for Bayview brought to the forefront comparisons with neighborhoods in the Gulf of Mexico — both in terms of environmental and racial justice concerns. The neighborhood redevelopment plan passed its latest milestone — the contentious environmental impact report — when the Board of Supervisors gave it a thumbs-up after more than nine hours of debate Wednesday morning, by an 8-3 vote.
Posted inCity Hall, Economy & Business, Land use, Neighborhoods, News
Mid-Market mogul: How Urban Realty quietly cornered San Francisco’s troubled main drag
San Francisco-based developer Urban Realty has been sitting on valuable, mostly vacant real estate on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth for almost six years. Urban Realty principal David Rhoades is waiting for the Planning Commission to approve the proposed CityPlace this month before he unleashes all of his plans.
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