Francis Somsel’s Response to Questionnaire

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?

If there is one issue that I think defines my campaign more than any other, it is to make more home ownership opportunities available to low and middle income San Francisco.  Homeowners are permanent residents, they are planting roots, they are much more likely to take an active interest in their neighborhood and in their community.  From my attendance at several meetings, I’ve determined that the UC has made it abundantly clear that they want to hold on to the property (and who can blame them). 

As for mixing in income levels, I am a firm believer in “workforce housing.”  San Francisco needs to be a city with a thriving middle class.  The middle class has been priced out of San Francisco in both the rental and home ownership markets. 

The plan that AF Evans has put together is a pretty good one.  They have obviously left the parking space issue and the affordable housing issue in for negotiation purposes.  I don’t see why we can’t get them to include up to 30% for low and middle-income residents.  One of the concerns that I know that people in the community have is the quality of people that would be living in these units.  From personal experience I can tell you that one of my best friends lives in a below market rate unit at an AFEvans building.  They do a great job screening applicants and mixing the units in with other units and I would expect them to do the same with this project.

Not only have they left some things open for negotiation, we have a lot of tools that we can leverage to get them to where they need to be, including zoning, taxation, preservation and planning issues.  In the end, the final plan has got to work for UC, for the city of San Francisco, and, most importantly, for the neighborhood.

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)?

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?

Budget cutbacks have hurt many departments.  The Mayor was faced with a $352 million deficit with only $1.2 billion in discretionary spending within the budget.  Somehow they managed to balance the budget with fewer than 500 people losing their jobs.  The next challenge is to reduce retirement benefits of city employees so that these budgets don’t spin out of control in the future.

Yes – we need more funding for Parks and Rec and for children’s programs.  We need more funding for everything.

The way to increase tax revenues is to grow the tax base, bring in new businesses and bring back the tourists.  New housing projects like the UC Extension will bring new residents, new customers for our businesses, and increase tax revenues.  Making San Francisco a more business friendly town by streamlining our bureaucracy, reworking the tax code so that it encourages growth and the hiring of new employees, and increasing affordable housing opportunities so that middle class workers can live and work in the same city.

Another way that we can increase funding for parks, especially new ones that are created as part of new projects is to require the new developments to pay for the maintenance of those parks.  We can also do more to leverage our position in city government to encourage private donations, adopt a park programs, and hold fundraisers to help with these programs.  There is no question that we are going to have to be increasingly creative to come up with extra funding. 

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 think that one of the great assets that San Francisco has is its architectural heritage.  We should nurture and maintain this heritage as much as possible.

That being said, I cannot support an outright ban on chain stores.  There are some services that are needed within neighborhoods that can only be provided by chain stores or that local businesses are not stepping up to the plate to provide.  As an example, an ATM is not a bank.  Neighborhoods need banks.  Banks make loans, ATMs don’t.  Each new business coming in to a neighborhood needs to be looked at individually and should not automatically be discarded because it is a chain store.

As for historic districts, I think this is an unnecessary idea that may actually hurt Hayes Valley.  Business owners and homeowners may end up having a more difficult and expensive time fixing up their places and maintaining them.  It may also prevent necessary structural changes to Hayes Valley as our city continues to grow and evolve.

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?

I don’t understand why people don’t walk more in San Francisco.  My girlfriend and I walk everywhere.  That being said, there are some things that are more difficult to do without a car, like grocery shopping.  If you have children, cars are a necessary evil.  If you are in construction, you have to have a truck.  Whenever possible, it is better to walk and take mass transit.

Outside of planning, which I will not address because I think the Octavia/Market plan does a pretty good job of addressing these issues, there are several things we can do to get more people on MUNI.  #1 – make Muni safer.  There are many women who are afraid to ride Muni.  Kids are not safe on Muni either – both from the homeless, the teens, and the crush of big people during rush hour.  #2 – Muni is needs to become more of an express service.  I frequently walk from Oak & Webster to the 16^th & Mission Bart station (and back).  I take the same route as the 22.  If I see a 22, I am usually able to keep pace with it by walking because of the frequency of stops.  For healthy adults not carrying a heavy load, there is often no point in taking a bus.  If I really need to get somewhere quickly, like most people, I take a cab. 

Speed and safety – the two issues that will help get people on Muni.

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?

Community policing is the police and the community working together to combat both violent and quality of life crimes.  To do this the police force needs to have the trust of the community, open communication with the community, and policemen from the community.  The police need to be part of the community they serve, they need to be present and visible in the community, and they need to be responsive to the community’s needs on crime and on quality of life issues.

I currently work in Walnut Creek, frequently 10 to 12 hours a day, so these kind of events have frequently gotten lost in the shuffle of everyday life, as I’m sure they do for many concerned residents.  That being said, I’ve spoken to many police officers at length about the problems they face.  The one thing that I hear over and over again is that it doesn’t matter if they arrest someone, they’ll just be released back into the community without being charged.  Community policing means nothing if there is no enforcement.  The DA’s office rarely prosecutes quality of life crimes.  As Supervisor, I will work to change that.

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.

I think that the Market/Octavia Plan does a remarkable job of adding a lot of high density housing without adding a lot of vehicles while maintaining the character and livability of the neighborhoods.

There are three things that worry me about this plan.

#1 – dumping a ton of cars directly onto Market Street.  While Market St. is “the spine of the city,” it is really not a great thoroughfare.  I understand that cars are expected to go up Octavia, but we know that a lot of people in the Upper Market area will use this exit also. 

#2 – the lack of parking for Hayes Valley.  I understand and “get” the whole idea of not providing parking so that people won’t have cars.  But people have friends and family members that will come to visit.  A lot of these people will not be arriving from “transit first” communities.  If there is no parking, friends and family will be reluctant to visit.  Not only do we have the friends and family issue, but we have the shopping district issue.  This off ramp, combined with thousands of units of new housing, sets up Hayes Valley to be a major commercial district.  With a little bit of parking, it could become a destination for shopping.    Many tourists rent cars.  If you want tourist business, there had better be a place for them to park.

#3 – home ownership.  This plan says absolutely nothing about homeownership.  If this plan becomes all rental units, then I am dead set against it.  We need more homeowners to help preserve and maintain the integrity of the neighborhood.  Homeownership opportunities are vital to the success of this plan.

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

Haight and Webster is obviously one of the worst spots for crime in the city.  A local business owner told me that corner has more murders than any corner in the US.  While I haven’t verified this fact, it is definitely one of the worst spots in the city.  I live two blocks away on Oak and Webster.  When I lived on Fillmore & Haight, I was barred from entering my home for several hours while a body was removed from my doorstep.  The coffee shop I go to every morning, The Horseshoe, recently had two people gunned down at its front door.  Drug dealing is rampant in the Lower Haight.  Graffiti is everywhere. 

This is not the San Francisco that I know and love. This is not an issue that we can let fester the way we let the homeless problem persist. We need to take immediate action to get this under control. This is no longer the Wild West. If we want to be a world-class city, we can't have people gunning each other down in the streets on a regular basis. There are short-term actions that we can take to immediately reduce the number of murders, but there are also long term structural changes that need to be made that will prevent murders in the future.

Short-term solutions

• More cops on the beat. In high-crime areas like the Lower Haight, Hayes Valley, and the Western Addition, the visibility of police officers can serve as a deterrent to violent crimes.
• Amnesty and enforcement. The DA needs to aggressively prosecute illegal weapons violations – while offering amnesty to those that turn in their illegal weapons. We need to get the guns off the street.
• Summer jobs programs. Kids with too much time on their hands get into trouble. The City needs to expand and better publicize the programs that already exist.
• More money for police. There are not enough police officers on the force, DNA testing is backlogged for more than a year, and detectives don’t have access to enough vehicles and frequently do not go to crime scenes.
• More money for the DA’s office. Without the proper equipment or staffing, we can’t expect the DA’s office to adequately do their job.

Long-term solutions

• Improve the school system. I support Arlene Ackerman in instituting “Dream Schools” that will raise the standards of education for those that have the talent and motivation to do well in school.
• More community centers. Many children in our District have no place to go after school. Community/recreation centers provide a safe environment for children to help bridge the gap between school and home.
• Create more hope. Many children who later become criminals don’t realize that they have other options. They can go to college – there are plenty of programs available to pay for college and many ways to get there, even for those that haven’t graduated from high school. There are job options--other than dealing drugs--where they can make good money without having to worry about getting shot or going to jail. We need to improve the outreach to “at risk” children.
• Police/Community integration. The police need to work with the community to control crime, instead of being a force that comes from “outside”. Our District needs more police accountability, more effective communication between officers and community members, and police officers who live/grew up in the neighborhoods they patrol. The police should be seen as an ally, not an enemy.
• More homeownership. Families that own their own home have more of a stake in the community. The City needs to build more affordable housing specifically for homeowners.
• The Mayor’s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. Currently, 40% of the inmates at the county jail are homeless. As more permanent housing comes available for the homeless, fewer will end up incarcerated, thus freeing up those spaces for real criminals.

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

I think that the chain store legislation could have been accomplished in other ways.  While I agree with the intent of the legislation, this kind of thing sends a horrible message to businesses around the country.  We need to stop sending these kinds of messages to the business community.  San Francisco cannot afford to be the most restrictive place to do business in the US. Not only are we in an economic slump, but also the feds are pushing their budget problems to the states and the states are taking money from the cities.  We are on are own.  The only way to increase tax revenues substantially is to grow the economy.   Increasing tax revenues is vital to replace lost funds and to preserve, expand and improve that San Francisco provides to their citizens. When we pass anti-chain store legislation it is like putting up a KEEP OUT sign to 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?  

Adding new parks is an expensive proposition and an ongoing fiscal burden.  Part of the plan calls for building new high density housing developments and we can leverage the developers to include funding for the park, just as the UC development is planning on maintaining its public park space.

10) What is your position on green space as a requirement for any UC Extension

developmentplan?  Please provide as much detail as you can on what you feel adequate green space would be in this major site.

Their current plans require a public walkway, some green space, and a community center.  Nothing is final, but it should include a playground for kids.  As Supervisor, I will use my negotiation skills to try to get the things we need from any new development.

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?  Do you support the new gross receipts tax?  Why?  How do you propose to help independent, locally owned and operated businesses thrive in San Francisco?

I do support an exemption for biotech companies to try to lure some high paying jobs to San Francisco.  We need new businesses and San Francisco has to overcome high rents, a lack of affordable housing, and an anti-business reputation to lure businesses here.

I am in favor of a better-written tax policy for local businesses that encourages growth and doesn’t punish them for hiring more people.  I believe that the Gross Receipts Tax may be a more fair way to spread the business tax burden.  However, the wording that made its way onto the ballot simply adds the Gross Receipts Tax on top of the Payroll Tax.  I believe that this imposes an unfair burden on businesses in San Francisco.

There are many things that I would like to do to make it easier for small business owners in San Francisco.  The first thing would be to reduce fees for things like business licenses.  Secondly, I would streamline the bureaucracy at City Hall, making the focus what needs to be done to help a business get done what they need to get done, instead of sending people from one dept. to the next.  The third thing I would do is waive business license fees for one year for San Franciscans that want to start a new business here in San Francisco.

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?

A lot of what you are recommending should be accomplished more by the merchants association and by BIDs, not by the city. 

What the city can do is make public transportation safer so that people feel more comfortable using it.  Women in particular feel very vulnerable on our Muni system.  The Muni drivers have a responsibility to their passengers to provide safety.  They should have a way to contact police immediately (and discreetly) when there is a problem.  Also, increase the speed and reliability of Muni.  This was addressed in a previous question. The city recently put a bike lane in on Fell and they are looking for other opportunities to add bike lanes around the city.

I am open to suggestions for other ideas.

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.

See question #7.

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?

With the new Octavia/Market plan, expanding the garages and creating new parking in the Civic Centerarea is going to be a necessity.  As for public transportation, I don’t expect many black ties on Muni.  One thing that can be done is an automated system that would include a “Muni map” to the performing arts center from or the address that the tickets are mailed to.  A simple piece of software can put this together.

15) Funding for the traffic calming/pedestrian safety portions of the Octavia BoulevardProject's "ancillary projects" has been budgeted at $5 million.  A large portion of this money will 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 quality 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?

As Supervisor, I will do my best to find more money in the budget for these things.  However, it will be tough to find the money considering the economic condition of the city and the state of the budget.

See question #9.