Friends and neighbors,
Happy Earth Day! Every year on April 22, we dedicate time to celebrate our beautiful planet and reaffirm our commitment to protecting it so future generations can enjoy a vibrant natural world that can sustain a good life for all people.Â
District 5 has a lot to celebrate this Earth Day when it comes to building up our tree canopies. I’m thrilled to share that the Tenderloin is set to be the first fully tree-stocked neighborhood in San Francisco. The funding for this will come from a $12 million Inflation Reduction Act grant the City received, as well as a $456,000 grant from the California Natural Resources Agency. Earlier in the month, Hayes Valley neighbors came together and planted 13 trees along Octavia Boulevard, and through addback funding we obtained in the 2022 budget, 40 additional trees are slated to be planted in the district. These new trees will join the planned 100 young street trees that we started planting last month in the Tenderloin, the Transgender Cultural District, NoPa, and Hayes Valley for Arbor Day 2024.Â
Along with being Earth Day, it’s also Climate Week here in San Francisco. SF Climate Week is among the largest climate summits in the world and there are hundreds of events throughout the week to attend. I hope you can visit GROW: A Public Art Installation by the Goldman Environmental Prize , in Hayes Valley at the corner of Octavia and Hayes. Artists Brian Singer & Laura Hapka have created an installation that celebrates the power of grassroots activism in protecting the environment, and this art will be on display Friday, April 19 - Wednesday, May 8. After that, the trees in the installation will be planted throughout the city.
This Earth Day, the District 5 office is reaffirming our commitment to implementing bold plans and transformational legislation that addresses the global challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation, including:Â
- Investing in public transportation, and continuing our efforts to create free and fast MUNI that helps move people from their cars that rely on fossil fuels to public transit. During the pandemic, my office partnered with community groups to restore transit lines and services that were on the chopping block, but we need to go further and inspire people with a vision of public transit that lives up to our Transit First mandate.
- Expanding our car-free network, and advancing pedestrian and bike improvements, not just to save lives, but to promote biking and walking as primary modes of transportation. I’m proud to have established several Slow Streets in District 5, secured funding for the Golden Gate Greenway, championed Car-Free JFK, established the parking-protected Fell street bike lane along the Panhandle, and pushed consistently for a citywide network of safe streets for pedestrian and bike travel.
- Championing a public bank in San Francisco that will scale up our investment in green infrastructure across our city. The plans include a business and governance plan for creating a publicly owned municipal financial corporation (MFC) and for converting the MFC into a full San Francisco public bank.Â
- Advocated for a pilot program with San Francisco Environment Department and Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to transition app based delivery drivers from cars to e-bikes, a successful pilot that’s being expanded with additional grant funding.
- Supporting bold federal initiatives like the Green New Deal for Public Housing, which will invest up to $234 billion over ten years to transition the entire public housing stock in the United States into zero-carbon, highly energy-efficient homes, and the Green New Deal for Public Schools to invest $1.43 trillion to provide green renovations and retrofits to public schools to meet health, accessibility, safety needs, identify and alleviate educational and economic disparities among students, and provide funding for special education services.
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This Earth Day, let’s all recommit ourselves to the struggle for a more just and sustainable world. Together, through collective action and solidarity, we can build a future where the well-being of people and the planet are prioritized over profit and exploitation. |
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Dean Preston,
District 5 Supervisor
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