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Thanks to everyone who came to Openhouse on January 6 to help kick off my second term as your District 8 Supervisor!
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WHAT WE'VE BEEN WORKING ON
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REVISITING SAN FRANCISCO’S FAILED “BANNED STATE” BOYCOTT: On Tuesday, February 28, I introduced a complete repeal of San Francisco’s 12X “Banned State List.” A policy initially designed in 2016 to protest states that enact anti-LGBT laws, 12X has since expanded to include states with restrictive abortion and voting rights laws. The policy now prohibits City departments from contracting with companies headquartered in 30 states and prohibits City-funded travel to those states.
Repealing 12X will increase bidder competition and lower contracting costs, saving San Francisco tens of millions or more each year. And it will better advance our social policy goals by allowing us to engage with the actual communities impacted by restrictive LGBTQ, abortion, and voting rights policies. That’s why a broad coalition of progressive supervisors, equity champions, and the policy’s original author State Senator Scott Wiener are coming together in support of this proposal.
PERMITTING CANNABIS CAFES IN SAN FRANCISCO: Taking a page from European cities like Amsterdam that have fostered a distinctly cannabis-friendly small business model, my office is partnering with Assemblymember Matt Haney to bring “cannabis cafes ” to San Francisco. On February 7, I requested the City Attorney to draft legislation that would allow the sale of non-cannabis-infused food and drink at cannabis retail establishments. This ordinance will help guide the implementation of Assemblymember Haney’s recently introduced AB 374, which would permit local jurisdictions to allow cannabis retailers to sell food, drinks and host ticketed events. San Francisco is a culinary, cultural and entertainment capital — innovation in cannabis policy helps San Francisco continue to be a leader and model for other cities to follow.
ENDING UNSHELTERED HOMELESSNESS: In January, I introduced a motion for the Board of Supervisors to sit as a Committee of the Whole on March 21 to consider the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s Place for All Report. In June 2022, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt my Place for All ordinance, making it the policy of the City and County of San Francisco to offer all people experiencing homelessness in the City a safe place to sleep.
HSH’s Place for All Report presents a $1.45 billion plan to add 3,810 permanent supportive housing units and 2,250 shelter units, in addition to those already in the pipeline over the next three years. This is not a serious or feasible effort to end unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco. The March 21 hearing will provide transparency into the assumptions underlying this report and serve as an opportunity to consider more cost-effective models for providing housing and shelter.
RESOLVING ENCAMPMENTS WITHIN 24 HOURS: As we work to aggressively stand-up additional shelter capacity, we also need to confront the hard reality that expanding our shelter capacity may not on its own be enough to address our encampment crisis. That is why on January 31 I also submitted a letter of inquiry requesting that the Department of Emergency Management work with the Department of Public Works, Police Department, and HSH Outreach Teams to outline the resources that would be needed to ensure prompt citywide removal of encampments within 24 hours, provided shelter is available. The failure to provide safe, clean, accessible public spaces across San Francisco's neighborhoods is perhaps our local government's gravest failure, and compassionately correcting that failure should be policymakers top priority at City Hall.
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At our January 24 meeting, newly-elected Board President Aaron Peskin announced new committee assignments. I am now serving as Vice Chair on the Budget and Finance Committee. In 2023 we must balance a projected deficit with the need for more psychiatric care and shelter beds — and address our dire SFPD staffing shortage.
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BRINGING CARE COURTS TO SAN FRANCISCO: At the Board’s newly created Select Committee on Homelessness and Behavioral Health, I will hold a hearing on San Francisco's plans to implement the State's new CARE Court legislation, which takes effect October 1. No city needs expanded mental health treatment more than San Francisco, but I am concerned about the City’s capacity to scale up services at the rate necessary to provide them for everyone whose petition is approved. Our Department of Public Health is still struggling to meet its own goal of 400 new beds, which it set based on a point in time report conducted in 2020. Meanwhile, the State has refused to take responsibility for setting regional or statewide goals and left all operational responsibilities to counties.
At best, CARE Court will push us to pick up the pace, or help motivate improved regional cooperation. At worst, it will impose additional bureaucratic complexity on our continuum of behavioral health care without providing adequate support for counties. Either way, it will be a lengthy, expensive, multi-agency project, and my hope is that this hearing will serve as a mechanism for accountability and problem solving as the City works to implement CARE Courts by October 1.
FUNDING CLIMATE ACTION: In recent years, San Francisco has taken a number of important steps to address the escalating climate crisis. We passed a climate emergency declaration back in 2019 and in 2020 passed legislation requiring that all new construction in San Francisco be all-electric, bringing us an incremental but important step closer toward full building decarbonization citywide. In July 2021, the Board updated the City’s climate action goals, requiring that by 2040 the City complete building decarbonization, transition to 100% renewable energy, and electrify 100% of all private vehicles. And in December 2021, the Mayor released the City’s Climate Action Plan, setting forth 31 strategies and 59 individual actions to achieve emission reductions across the sectors of energy supply, building operations, transportation and land use, housing, responsible production and consumption, and healthy ecosystems.
In November 2022, the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law released the report “Funding San Francisco Climate Action,” which further explored and quantified the potential costs of the green transition described in the Climate Action Plan and identified funding strategies to support that transition. I’ve requested a Board hearing for the City to begin grappling seriously with the analysis and proposals in the report, determine which of them may be feasible now or in the future and move forward aggressively to meet our climate action goals.
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Recently the Board of Supervisors voted to adopt our Burnside Mural+ project resolution to waive permitting fees for the expansion of this beloved public art installation. Special thanks to the organizers who have worked tirelessly on this project—especially Renee Berger—making Glen Park just a little brighter.
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Register today to join us this Friday, March 10, for a community conversation about public safety and street conditions in your neighborhood and citywide with San Francisco’s public safety leadership:
- District Attorney Brooke Jenkins
- SFPD Chief Bill Scott
- Healthy Streets Operations Center Director Sam Dodge
- District 8 Public Safety Liaison Dave Burke
- SF SAFE Executive Director Kyra Worthy
For more information or to submit a question to the panel, email MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org.
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Keep Queer A.F. Open in The Castro! Harvey Milk’s one time camera shop has a chance to live on: Queer Arts Featured gives 575 Castro new life as a gallery and event space. But their rent has doubled, and Queer AF needs help to turn a pop-up into a permanent part of our community. Your support will help Queer A.F. cover their Castro rising rent, hire a shopkeeper, keep their commission rates low, and build a whole new set of exhibitions, events, and collaborations. Please consider donating to help reach their goal of $50,000.
Bay Area Ferry 2050 Survey: Bay Ferry 2050 wants to hear from our diverse Bay Area community about what’s important to you in ferry service. How should the Bay Ferry balance affordability, service frequency and speed, expansion, and environmental sustainability to be a mode of transportation you use and trust?
Take this 5-minute survey to help San Francisco Bay Ferry re-imagine the future of water transportation and enter to win a $50 Clipper Card or a San Francisco Bay Ferry water bottle at the end of the survey.
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Neighborhood Meetings
Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association General Community Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of Every Even Numbered Month (February, April, June, August, October, December) from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
In-Person Bimonthly Meetings are held in the Ballroom of the Harvey Milk Recreation Center for the Arts, 50 Scott Street, Lobby level with entry from Scott Street and Duboce Park, and include a community social from 6:30 pm to 07:00 pm.
Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association meets every other month on the fourth Thursday virtually.
Upper Noe Neighbors meets every other month on the third Wednesday at the Upper Noe Recreation Center.
Glen Park Association meets monthly at the Glen Park Recreation Center. Check their website for the latest details.
Dolores Heights Improvement Club. Green Gardens group holds monthly clean-ups on the first Saturday of the month from 9am – 10:30am.
DHIC Board meets on the second Monday of every other month (except December.) Meetings are held via Zoom from 7pm – 8pm. Email info@doloresheights.org to obtain the Zoom meeting link.
Castro Art Mart is a monthly street fair on Noe Street between Market and Beaver the first Sunday of every month from 11am-5pm featuring LGBTQ art from local artists, live music, comedy and drag shows, and more.
Noe Valley Town Square hosts regular events such as Acoustic Sunday, Rhythm and Motion dance, and Free Sunday Morning Yoga.
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Celebrating Rudy Stadlberger's 99th Birthday with Noe Walks!
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NEIGHBORHOOD OFFICE HOURS
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Our next neighborhood office hours will be Saturday, April 22, from 10-12pm at Duboce Park Cafe. Email MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org to request a 10 minute appointment. Appointments are first come first served. |
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S.F. police would be highest paid in Bay Area under proposed contract
San Francisco Chronicle, March 6
San Francisco and the union representing its police force have tentatively agreed on a new contract that would give officers a 10.75% raise over three years, which Mayor London Breed touted as a critical step to bolstering the department’s staffing levels and addressing residents’ safety concerns … District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman also said he hoped the deal would help attract new recruits and slow the loss of more experienced officers.
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Cafe Flore owner presents new vision for S.F. Castro’s longtime LGBTQ hub
San Francisco Chronicle, March 4
When city Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, 49, discovered Flore — on trips home from college — the Castro was a place of energy and full storefronts. Yet it lay shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with many other businesses in the district and elsewhere in San Francisco, leading to worries that the neighborhood would not rebound.
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Breed, Wiener back state proposals to broaden conservatorship
San Francisco Examiner, March 1
Locally, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has backed the proposals. “California’s definition of ‘grave disability’, signed into law by Governor Reagan, institutionalizes a cruel libertarianism that allows people suffering from severe mental illness to die slow, undignified deaths on our streets,” Mandelman said in a statement.
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What should solving S.F.'s unsheltered homelessness cost?
San Francisco Examiner, February 28
A rift between Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and city bureaucrats has raised critical and longstanding questions about The City’s ability to eliminate unsheltered homelessness on its own. Like how much is too much to spend on a shelter bed? And is it even feasible to rapidly expand San Francisco’s network of shelters? And can these questions be answered in the near future, or is The City doomed to spend more months mired in debate?
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Court Order Blocking Homeless Sweeps Leaves Residents, City Workers in Ambiguity
San Francisco Examiner, February 24
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who has advocated for increased enforcement against sidewalk camping and greater shelter capacity, said that fallout from the federal injunction hasn’t been as bad as he anticipated. But he argued that the city should enforce sit/lie laws against people who have already secured shelter, contending that the city doesn’t have an obligation beyond providing a place to sleep and a “reasonable amount of storage space.”
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‘A burden for San Francisco:’ City may repeal or amend its boycott of 30 states over conservative laws
San Francisco Chronicle, February 13
Mandelman said he wanted the city to do more to support local small businesses, particularly those owned by people of color. But he did not think the existing boycott was the best way to do that, nor was it influencing other states to change their ways. “The most effective pressure San Francisco can apply on red states is showing that San Francisco can be effectively governed,” Mandelman said.
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San Francisco Makes It Easier To Install Solar Panels—for 30 Homes
San Francisco Standard, February 12
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman expressed his support for the program in a press release, saying that lowering costs and speeding along construction is key to increase sustainable development. “By bypassing plan review and shaving two weeks off the electrical permit process, San Francisco is making it faster, easier and less expensive for homeowners to install residential rooftop solar,” Mandelman said.
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New bills sponsored by Jewish pols could legalize noshing at cannabis cafés
The Jewish News of Northern California, February 8
State Assemblymember Matt Haney and San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman are each working on legislation at state and city levels that would allow cannabis shops to operate like cafés, selling food and drink and maybe even hosting live performances. “My legislation takes a page from European cities like Amsterdam that have fostered a distinctly cannabis friendly small business model, cannabis cafes,” Mandelman wrote in an email to J.
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S.F. offers $55,000 to be city's first official Drag Laureate
San Francisco Chronicle, February 7
“Drag is political,” said District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro district. “And at a time when queer people are threatened by right-wing extremists across the country and around the world, it's an honor and a privilege to represent a city that is lifting up our drag artists and highlighting the stories of our entire LGBTQ+ community.”
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SF supervisor says city's $1.45B budget plan to end homelessness won't work
ABC 7, February 1
San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman did not mince words during a sit-down interview with ABC7 News on Wednesday, talking about the city's housing plan for the homeless. Earlier in the week, Mandelman called on the Board of Supervisors to have a special meeting to discuss the report issued at the end of last year by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. "We spend a huge amount of money in this city, not solving this problem," Mandelman said.
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'Down to the Wire Again': SF Officials Blast Feds for Silence on Laguna Honda Patient-Transfer Decision, Just Days Before Deadline
KQED, January 31
At Tuesday’s hearing, other San Francisco leaders blasted federal officials for so far failing to respond to the city’s extension request, just days before the hospital could be required to resume patient transfers. “This is a powerful and unaccountable bureaucracy,” Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said. “They [CMS] have done significant harm. They have created a ton of stress and anxiety for hundreds more people.”
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Transit, safety, budget issues top focuses of out Bay Area politicians
Bay Area Reporter, January 30
"I look forward to working with colleagues, staff, and partners as we collaborate with the public to expand access, advance equity, and improve safety citywide," stated Mandelman in a release issued by the transit body. "All these priorities will require significant investment, much of which will come from the city's newly extended half-cent sales tax for transportation. I want to reiterate my gratitude to the voters of San Francisco for passing Proposition L last November."
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Castro Walk with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman
San Francisco Bay Times, January 26
On Friday, January 20, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, accompanied by his aide Jackie Thornhill, made his way along Market Street on a walk from Church to Noe Streets. The tradition of walking visits by San Francisco supervisors dates back to the1970s, according to San Francisco Bay Times lead photographer Rink.
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S.F. Toiletgate: City is being gifted a free bathroom, but it’s still going to cost $1 million
San Francisco Chronicle, January 21
Now, the Recreation and Park Department hopes to keep the toilet costs under $1 million, according to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents Noe Valley and has been in commode conversations with the department’s general manager, Phil Ginsburg …. “It’s insane, but it’s also consistent with everything else about city government,” Mandelman told me.
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‘Not Optional’: Newsom Faces Pushback Over Transit, Climate Cuts
The San Francisco Standard, January 11
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who also chairs the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, says that cutting transit project funding not only delays projects, but also makes it harder to complete them down the line due to missed opportunities. “It’s concerning because these are multiyear projects, where we’re seeking multiyear funding commitments and as there are fewer of those funds available. […] It drags those projects out longer, which makes them more expensive,” Mandelman said, noting this was a critical year for obtaining federal matching funds for the Downtown Caltrain Extension.
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Supervisor Looks To Overhaul Contracting for Big City Construction Projects
The San Francisco Standard, January 9
Today, when the city of San Francisco wants to build something big—like a new metro line or transit-only lanes—it’s required by law to rank the cheapest contractors higher on the list. That could change if city Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has his way. “That’s just not a good way of selecting contractors,” Mandelman said. “It’s something that sounds good and sounds like a way of saving money but actually isn’t.”
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How a judge's ruling is — and isn't — impacting S.F.'s homeless sweeps
San Francisco Examiner, January 2
“At the very least, we should take a serious look at, on an emergency basis, setting up a number of shelter beds equal to our point in time count (homeless population),“ Mandelman said. “If that means a giant warehouse, if that means 1,000 beds in the Cow Palace, we should look at the feasibility.“
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New and Familiar Challenges Await Supervisors in 2023
The San Francisco Standard, January 2
Meanwhile swing voter Mandelman championed stronger conservatorship laws, and got his “A Place For All” shelter policy passed after two years of work. Now comes the challenge to make all those places.
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