HVNA

1) The current proposal for the U.C. Berkeley Extension property, a 6-acre site located between Laguna, Haight, Buchanan and Hermann streets, calls for the development of 500 housing units, with 80-88% market-rate rentals and the remainder income-restricted rentals. Market-rate rentals that are not subject to rent control often have a high rate of turnover, attracting transient renters who are looking for a “temporary” home. On the other hand, “affordable” housing tenants tend to remain in their apartments for many years. Do you believe the proposed amount of affordable housing is appropriate? Further, do you believe that housing on this site should be entirely rental? If not, what will you do to negotiate housing opportunities for a wider mix of income levels or home ownership on the U.C. Extension property?

The proposed development should include a larger percentage of “affordable” units to serve low and medium income residents. I would also support in the inclusion of “for sale” units in the development aimed at market rate, and below-market buyers. I would lobby the planning commission and the developer to include such changes in their proposal.

Furthermore, I am deeply interested in the design of the current proposal for housing units. I am interested in its effect on street-life, as well as its aesthetic impact on the community at large. The project ought to have other elements aimed at serving the public good. A neighborhood recreation center or attractive and inviting public spaces and playgrounds could be extraordinarily helpful in integrating the new development into the surrounding community.

2) The Park and Rec Department seems particularly hard hit with layoffs and cutbacks. There will be a new director for Parks and Rec who will have to deal with these challenges. Explain how you will select and support this new director with these specific issues in mind:

A) voters repeatedly approve capital improvements funding for parks showing their support, but then the city cuts maintenance resulting in rapid deterioration of parks (in our community, the focal Koshland Park is one such example). What is your commitment to adequate maintenance budgets? What is your target level of financial support for parks (vs. current actual levels)?

Firstly, the Parks and Rec administration must be subjected to a careful audit. We must ensure that current funds are being used appropriately. Parks are a major aspect to quality of life, and voters appreciate this fact. At the same time, voters cannot deliver unfunded mandates to the Parks and Rec Dept. We choose to tax ourselves, issue a municipal Parks Bond, and ensure that the money is not squandered. I would look to local organizations to help determine the appropriate amount of funds need to adequately fund our parks.

B) another mission of Parks and Rec is children's programs. These have also seen severe cutbacks resulting in kids with little outlet for productive expression. The result is detrimental to the children and the community. The Western Addition, including HayesValley, is especially hard hit with its high concentration of at-risk children. How are you going to support Park and Rec restoring these programs?

An efficiently managed Park and Rec Dept. may be able to restore some of the lost programs. We have a major obligation to support programs that benefit at-risk children. I will support the Park and Rec Dept. by making myself personally responsible for observing their actions, work ethic, and resource management.

3) Part of the purpose of the recent chain store legislation spearheaded by HayesValleyNeighborhood Association is that it will help to preserve San Francisco's cultural and architectural heritage from being replaced by the "formula" architecture and interiors of large national chain stores. There is also sentiment in Hayes Valley in favor of designating certain parts of the neighborhood as historic districts as a way of preserving neighborhood character. What is your position on Historic and Architectural preservation?

I am in favor of historical and architectural conservation. Historic districts preserve the unique character of San Francisco, making this an attractive place to live and do business. Also, the scale of historic districts supports our transit infrastructure. I do not think that a architectural historian is necessary to establish the historic significance of a place. If there is a connection within the community to the built environment, and if the built environment has been retro-fitted to meet modern standards of safety, then I say keep it the way it is.

It is worth noting that the “look” of retail changes over the time. The mark of a healthy city is that different eras of retail development overlap. If a particular establishment wants to recreate the interior space to fit their need; if the establishment is willing to invest in the infrastructure of the place, then we should not stand in the way based on nostalgia alone. No place is frozen in time. However, we should take advantage of the excellent architectural typologies that compose San Francisco’s urban fabric.

4) The replacement of the elevated Central Freeway with the Octavia Boulevardpresents an opportunity for HayesValleyto balance automobile traffic with other modes of travel, including public transit, walking and bicycling. What measures do you recommend implementing that would limit auto congestion and encourage the creation of a pedestrian-oriented community where residents can shop within walking distance of their homes?

Trees. We need fine sidewalks with trees. We need well-designed sidewalks with inlets and benches. Streets in the Hayes Valley neighborhood that are major bicycle arterials should be designated as bicycle boulevards, or striped for bicycle accessibility and visibility. Transit stops should be well-designed, with shelters. Octavia Boulevard also offers an opportunity to rethink transit accessibility in this area. Are the busses well-used? Are they reliable? Can you get there from here? A neighborhood focus group might begin to answer some of these questions. We want to avoid heavy automobile traffic, though certain streets will inevitably be designated as heavily used arterials, and perhaps we can sacrifice sidewalk space in these instances.

5) Define “Community Policing” in three sentences or less. How many times in the last year have you attended the Northern District Police/Community Relations Forum?

Police officers integrate themselves into the neighborhood by introducing themselves to shopkeepers and pedestrians. They make connections in the community to gain trust. This is a major priority, and it is essential to reversing a debilitating trend in law enforcement and public safety.

6) The Market/Octavia Plan creates a blueprint for a high-density, pedestrian-oriented, urban neighborhood where owning a car is a choice rather than a necessity. Please describe the elements of this Plan that you consider most important in determining the success of the HayesValleyneighborhood. Please also identify any elements you think should be changed, and explain why.

The plan’s success hinges on the degree to which it’s purported goals and focus is actually carried out. The pedestrian-oriented elements of the plan are perhaps the most important components. We must ensure that the construction of sidewalks, cross-walks and public space create a friendly environment that is highly conducive to pedestrians.

7) Name the key crime areas in the Hayes Valley area. Name some individuals, groups, and community based organizations located in the HayesValleyarea that are currently working on reducing crime and improving the quality of life in our neighborhood.

Key Crime Areas: 400 block of Haight, Buchanan & Hayes, and Market

Senior Action Network
City Hub Neighborhood Alliance
Safety Network Program
Northern Station Police Community group.
Neighborhood churches and religious groups
Formal and informal teams and networks of local merchants and business people who are providing a useful presence on the street.
Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and Richard Johnson
Mattie Scott

8) Please comment in detail on the recently passed chain store legislation.

Local communities should have input on the quality and nature of local services. For this reason, I supported the limited restrictions created by the chain store legislation, and as a Supervisor, I would heed similar community demands.

One of my goals as a legislator is to facilitate the creation of new neighborhood serving businesses through creating a single point resource for entrepreneurs. As a city, we should ease the process of creating new neighborhood serving businesses.

9) The Octavia BoulevardProject includes the creation of a new neighborhood park on Octavia Street, between Fell and Hayes. We expect this park to be an important gathering spot for the neighborhood and the performing arts community. The Octavia BoulevardProject does not include any funding for the maintenance of this park. The Recreation and Parks Department has no funding to maintain this park. How do you propose obtaining funding for the maintenance and upkeep of this very important park?

How do we fund this park? We make it a public, neighborhood issue. We apply for State and Federal grants. We apply to foundations that support community development.

Most important, however, are efforts to draw volunteers to help keep up the park and take ownership and responsibility. This sense of ownership and community responsibility is, at its core, the most important thing we can do to ensure the future of our neighborhoods. And, this must be accomplished holistically.

10) What is your position on green space as a requirement for any UC Extension development plan? Please provide as much detail as you can on what you feel adequate green space would be in this major site.

The city needs more trees and green space, especially at the street to mediate between traffic, sidewalk, and built structure. We should consider all levels of green space for the project. Some have suggested making the entire lot a park, and I think this option should be seriously considered.

I am very interested and invested in architectural designs. This is not just “units” that are being built, but an essential building block of our community. It can be done well, and it can be botched. As supervisor, I am committed to seeing these projects done well, and sometimes that means insisting on architectural excellence.

11) A payroll tax exemption has been proposed for biotech companies while existing small businesses have recently been saddled with a new gross receipts tax. Do you support an exemption for biotech companies? Why?

Yes. Providing limited incentives to encourage biotech companies to base their operations in the City is a small concession relative to the enormous public benefit that such companies would bring. New companies will bring jobs, and new tax revenues in the short and medium term to support City services. We have the resident knowledge at UCSF to support such companies, but without incentives, other communities will continue to lure away this valuable intellectual capital.

Do you support the new gross receipts tax? Why?

No. It places too great a burden on small businesses.

How do you propose to help independent, locally owned and operated businesses thrive in San Francisco?

As I mentioned above, I support the creation of a single point resource to provide entrepreneurs and small business owners with the information and support they need to thrive.

12) In order for our commercial districts to thrive we need to encourage many more customers to visit our shopping areas than can arrive by personal automobile. What creative ideas do you have for encouraging shoppers to travel to shopping districts by walking, biking, public transit or taxi?

This sort of work requires a lot of expansive grassroots organizing. We need to take advantage of the energetic resources in our city’s non-profit development communities. BART has offered free Pete’s coffee cards. Similar promotions might be offered with MUNI and a particular retail district.

Let’s offer free MUNI days to encourage those who never ride to get on the bus and realize how easy and comfortable it can be. Promotions can help get drivers on the bus, but the experience of the bus needs to sell itself.

We have an obligation as a city to find real solutions so that our community commercial districts, the lifeblood of our city’s economy, can thrive.

13) When you become supervisor how do you propose to reduce crime and improve the quality of life for residents who live within the H.V.N.A. boundaries? Please give specific examples.

Community policing is a good place to start. More importantly, we need to address the source of crime in our City. We can do this through improving the quality of public education, enhancing job training and after school programs, and supporting the creation of new businesses to create jobs.

I would also work with the Mayor’s office to address quality of life concerns such as graffiti abatement. As a proponent of the “broken windows” theory, I believe that the City should aggressively address graffiti in a timely manner.

14) Our performing arts center often has performances that draw many more patrons than can be accommodated by personal automobile. What creative ideas do you have that would encourage patrons to use public transit? What other suggestions do you have for effectively transporting patrons to and from the performing arts center? Do you support the construction of additional parking garages, or the expansion of existing garages in the CivicCentervicinity?

Ideally, all communications from the arts venues should include details about how to get to the performance via public transport. Let performance tickets be used to take the bus and muni on the night of performances. Let’s provide free shuttle busses or vans from transit hubs (civic center BART etc.) and from nearby public parking lots. Encourage artists to design musical scavenger hunts that make walking to the performance fun. Provide extra police and lighting to ensure the safety of those folks walking back after the performance (and advertise these extra precautions).

I do not support the construction of additional garages.

15) Funding for the traffic calming/pedestrian safety portions of the Octavia Boulevard

Project's "ancillary projects" has been budgeted at $5 million. A large portion of this

moneywill likely be spent on enhancing the livability of the South of Market neighborhood located near the touchdown ramp. This South of Market area will require a great number of amenities to maintain any reasonable quailty of life.

Spending the majority of the "ancillary" project money on South of Market, leaves very little money to spend north of Market on traffic calming or on developing "living streets" on the alleyways crossing the Boulevard. Pedestrian safety and the enhancement of the livability of our alleyways are key elements to the success of the overall Octavia BoulevardProject. How do you propose funding these improvements?

I agree that pedestrian safety is a crucial element to the success of the project. Although the south of market section of the project may demand greater resources to impact safety, I would work to ensure that funds are distributed fairly. We could look to private companies, foundations and federal funding sources to supplement our share of the funds. The Octavia Boulevard Project is a real test of the City’s Neighborhood Planning process – it’s in everyone’s interest to make it succeed. Let’s make this project a positive example of what’s possible with active community input in San Francisco.