Friends & neighbors,
Last week, I held two hearings at the Government Audit and Oversight Committee regarding issues of importance to District 5 residents: car break-ins and UN Plaza. Both hearings were a great reminder of the importance of collaboration, whether it means collaboration between departments to address car break-ins, or collaboration with community and farmers in crafting plans for the revitalization of UN Plaza and protection of the Heart of the City Farmers Market.
We thank the departments and community members who came out to these hearings for your input, ideas, and thoughts on these crucial issues, and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with our constituents on these and other important topics.
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Dean Preston,
District 5 Supervisor
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➩ No Turn On Red For Pedestrian Safety
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Yesterday, we introduced a resolution calling for the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency to implement No Turn On Red (NTOR) across the City. If implemented, San Francisco would follow New York City’s lead and become the second largest city in the country to ban these turns. Several other large cities like DC and Seattle have begun implementing bans to varying degrees as well.
We introduced this resolution after the successful implementation of the “no turn on red” (NTOR) regulations at over 50 intersections in the Tenderloin, which were approved at a February 2021 Public Hearing. The Tenderloin was the first neighborhood in San Francisco to have widespread speed limit reductions, aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries through comprehensive, community-based approaches. Given the early success shown by the implementation of NTOR in the Tenderloin, and the tragic ongoing traffic fatalities citywide, we should be expanding NTOR to the greatest extent possible, particularly every street on the High Injury Network. Banning turns on red won't solve everything, but it is an important step in a positive direction toward our Vision Zero goals.
Read more about this proposal here.
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➩ Making Progress on Car Break-Ins
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On September 21, my office held a hearing on car break-ins. The hearing was the culmination of extensive research, departmental briefings, and outreach involving various stakeholders, including tourism and rental car representatives, merchants, CBD’s, and tips/ideas from our constituents. Car break-ins have vexed our city for a long time, as noted by an intriguing deep dive by the San Francisco Chronicle a couple of weeks ago. Despite various announcements and initiatives over the past several years, the number of reported car break-ins has hovered over 20,000 per year with one outlier: 2020, when San Francisco had far fewer tourists, and therefore fewer tourists leaving things in their cars. Break-ins fell by about 42%. But as tourism has thankfully returned, the number of car break-ins has once again surged.
We held our hearing to let the public know: what is the city doing to curb break-ins, help victims, and work with our most affected neighbors? What we heard from departments is that the city is not currently coordinating its responses to car break-ins, its outreach materials are not multilingual and therefore not reaching the many tourists who visit our city who don’t speak English, and that current case closure rates have hovered around 2% for the past several years.
We sent departments a memo before the hearing and were heartened to hear that many City departments are eager to collaborate on this vexing issue, including the SFMTA which has already started the process of implementing our suggestion to add messaging into the city’s parking meters and parking apps. We aren’t done and will be following up on some of the proposals and ideas brought forth by constituents and colleagues during our hearing– stay tuned to hear more.
You can read about our hearing and conversations with City departments here.
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➩ Fighting for Heart of the City's Farmer's Market
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For more than 40 years, Heart of the City Farmers’ Market provided fresh food in UN Plaza. Without any public input and with minimal consultation with the Farmers’ Market, earlier this month, the market was relocated to Fulton Plaza as part of a broader redesign of UN Plaza. In response, we introduced a resolution expressing concern about the process leading up to the relocation, urging the Recreation and Park Department to provide information to the public, and demanding the department agree to mitigation measures requested by the Farmers’ Market to help ensure the market’s ongoing success. The resolution was heard last week at the Board’s Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which unanimously forwarded the resolution to the full board with recommendation despite the Recreation and Park Department’s failure to send a representative. We are grateful the Committee heard community members, farmers, and other stakeholders loud and clear, and we will keep working to ensure that the Farmer’s Market survives and thrives and that the community remains involved as this project progresses.
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Happy Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month! While this special commemoration has evolved since its 1968 inception, we hope that you will join us in recognizing the many outstanding contributions of Latinx and Hispanic community members, leaders, and activists to the tapestry of our city.
To commemorate Latinx/Hispanic culture and heritage, the San Francisco Public Library is holding events all over the city, including within District 5. Check out their calendar of events here, and their book recommendations here!
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September is also Transit Month and there is no better way to close it out than taking Muni or BART! Our City’s public transit system should be celebrated, protected, and expanded so that it is accessible to everyone in San Francisco. Feeling competitive? Join hundreds of other folks in the Bay Area in participating in the Transit Month Rider Contest and see how you stack up against our most enthusiastic public transit riders!
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➩ National Recovery Month
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We want to extend our love and support to all of our neighbors this National Recovery Month. While the overdose crisis is certainly not a crisis that exists only in San Francisco, one does not have to travel very far from City Hall to see some of its most devastating effects. We continue to urge the Administration and the Department of Public Health to make sure that there is strategy, commitment to evidence-based solutions, and transparency in the City’s response to the overdose crisis. We also call for transparency in their use of settlement funds– and all city funds– and to ensure that we are spending on things that will help us save lives, including overdose prevention efforts, wellness hubs, treatment on demand, counseling, and programs that will help people remain in recovery.
If you or someone you know needs help, you can take a look at City resources here.
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➩ Moving Unhoused People Into Empty Supportive Housing Units
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Earlier this month, we passed a resolution calling on the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to fill half of the City’s vacant Permanent Supportive Housing units and reduce the vacancy rate going forward from 10% to no more than 5%. The City currently has about 1,000 vacant PSH units sitting vacant that can be filled by people currently experiencing homelessness. We are urging HSH to act with urgency because this is a matter of life and death for people in search of housing.
Read more about this effort here.
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➩ Final SF Reparations Report Released & Accepted
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Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors officially accepted the Reparations Task Force’s final Reparations Report. The report, which was written after significant community engagement and thoughtful deliberation by the task force includes a number of recommendations that we are happy to report we are supporting through our work, including:
- Consistent with Recommendation 1.4 [Create a Public Bank]: Working to launch a public bank, as recommended, that can finance Black-owned businesses and affordable homes. Just a few weeks ago, the Board of Supervisors approved the Governance and Business plans to create a public bank in San Francisco.
- Consistent with Recommendation 2.5 [Grants for Home Repairs & Maintenance]: Winning $20 million in the budget process for public housing repairs and are actively pushing the Mayor’s office to release those funds without further delay.
- Consistent with Recommendation 2.7 [Path to Ownership for Public Housing Tenants]: Working to fulfill the post-redevelopment promise of homeownership for the residents of Midtown Park Apartments; supporting co-op residents across District 5, especially in the Fillmore; supporting Plaza East residents to ensure their voice is heard, that they control the future of Plaza East, and to ensure this public housing site does not become a profit center for developers.
- Consistent with Objective 4 [Address Legacy of Redevelopment]: Fighting tirelessly to keep Black residents in District 5, beating back rent increases in subsidized housing, organizing with residents for repairs for tenants in public housing and co-ops, and helping residents form tenant associations so they have a voice and power as they demand housing stability and improved living conditions.
- Consistent with Recommendation 5.4 [Successful Fillmore Heritage Center]: Working with community leaders to keep The Fillmore Heritage Center, a crucial center of the Fillmore that was created to atone for the devastating impact of redevelopment, in public hands and open an RFP process so at long last it can be activated. The Administration is in the final stages of selecting those who will operate it.
- Consistent with Recommendation 6.6 [Parity Between Public Defender and District Attorney]: Prioritizing funding in the budget process for the Public Defender, including critical investments in programs like the End the Cycle Program, which helps offer services and counseling to clients and their families to decrease the likelihood of recidivism.
- Consistent with Recommendation 7.1 [Direct payments & Training]: Dedicating add-back funds and supporting start-up funds for Black entrepreneurs in the Fillmore.
These are just a handful of efforts we are engaged in that speak directly to recommendations in the report. Our office strongly supports reparations, and we look forward to advancing the recommendations in the Final Reparations Report. We thank Supervisor Walton and the District 10 Office, Director Dr. Sheryl Davis and the Human Rights Commission team, Chair Eric McDonnell, Vice Chair Tinisch Hollins, and the entire African American Reparations Advisory Committee for their historic work to advance reparations in San Francisco.
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➩ Small Business Grants Now Available!
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During the summer, the City announced $4 million in grants that will fund two programs to support the launch of small businesses across the City while addressing storefront vacancies. The funds, distributed through the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), are part of a larger strategy aimed to help businesses contribute to thriving neighborhood corridors where residents can find the services and goods they need close to home.
The two grants launched by OEWD prioritize strengthening existing businesses and filling ground floor space in commercial corridors that serve low to moderate income areas or whose sales tax volume is slower in recovery.
Learn more information here, or by reaching out to the Office of Small Businesses and schedule an appointment with them by calling (415) 554-6134 or emailing sfosb@sfgov.org.
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Democratic Socialists of America SF: Queer Mixer
Wednesday, Sept. 27, 6-8pm
El Rio, 3158 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Our local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is holding a Queer Mixer at El Rio TODAY for DSA SF members and anyone who is socialism-curious. The mixer will take place in the patio, and there will be DJing and dancing all night!
For more information on this and other DSA SF events, click here.
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Fillmore Night Market
Every Friday, 4-9pm
O’Farrell Street, between Fillmore and Steiner
Check out the Fillmore Night Market, which features soul food, small business vendors, and local artists every Friday from 4pm to 9pm! The market is a great place to support Fillmore and neighboring businesses, as well as community by activating the space in a positive way. Read more about the market here– we hope to see you there!
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Ensuring Digital Equity
Our office recently held a hearing on our resolution urging internet providers to do their part to help bridge the equity divide when it comes to internet access. Even with the availability of affordable internet through ACP/Lifeline, our seniors and disabled people experience interruptions and delays in their connection. This is often blamed on outdated cables, the locations of which correspond with underserved Black and Brown neighborhoods. This issue persists for older low-income housing and residential homes: in the Bayview, about 18% of residents don't have internet access. In the Tenderloin, about 30% of residents lack high-speed internet access. Learn more about the ACP program here.
Like these programs? Stay up to date on the latest about how you can help ensure these programs can be sustained!
Community Organizing Fellowship for Black Men
The RISE Center for Racial Justice at the University of San Francisco has opened up applications for its Community Organizing Fellowship for Black adult men in San Francisco. This program offers instruction on critical race theory and other theories related to anti-Black racism in the United States. You can learn more and apply here. Applications close after September 29th.
Foreclosure Prevention Nights
Join the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation every 4th Tuesday of the month for their Foreclosure Prevention Nights from 6pm to 8pm. At these events, clients can meet with counselors on how to prevent foreclosures. You can get more information and sign up here!
Installation of 1,420 Bicycle Racks Around the City
This summer, SFMTA completed another tranche of bike rack installation around the city with 1,420 racks installed with funding from San Francisco’s Transportation Fund for Clean Air (TFCA) program, funded by a regional $4 vehicle registration fee. The Board approved a new round of TFCA funding for SFMTA’s bike rack program to continue.
Members of the public can request the installation of a new bike rack by visiting www.sfmta.com/getting-around/bike/bikeparking
Need Help With Your Water/Sewer Bill?
The SFPUC is offering an improved discount program for low-income customers. Under this new program, low-income customers can get up to 40% off on their utilities. You can check your eligibility and apply today here.
Changes to Speed Limits in D5 & Citywide
As part of CA Assembly Bill 43, the SFMTA has nearly finished implementing reduced speed limits to 20 mph in a number of business corridors in District 5. This is an important step in making our streets safer for everyone. Various corridors in District 5 have already implemented the 20mph speed limit, including:
- Haight Street, from Stanyan to Centra and Webster to Steiner
- Fillmore Street, from Chestnut to Union and Jackson to McAllister
- Divisadero Street, from Pine to O’Farrell and Goldent Gate to Haight
- Post Street, from Laguna to Fillmore
- Hayes Street, from Franklin to Laguna
You can learn more about this project here. Next year, SFMTA will be setting up “safety corridors” in areas with high rates of traffic injuries and deaths. We will share details on this when they become available.
Panhandle & Inner Sunset Sewer Rehab Project
As part of the Sewer System Improvement Program investments, the Panhandle and Inner Sunset Large Sewer Rehabilitation Project will rehabilitate the existing 100+ year-old sewer mains located under several streets located along the Panhandle and Inner Sunset. Construction has already started, and we understand that many constituents have experienced impacts. For background on this project or to find out the latest on this project, you can check out the PUC’s project page.
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Like everyone else, we are continuing to monitor the situation regarding COVID-19 and Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). Want to find resources? Click here to read about the latest on the City’s COVID-19 updates and resources, and here to read about the latest regarding Mpox. Please note: the City’s COVID-19 health officer emergency order has expired.
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Email prestonstaff@sfgov.org for more information, questions, or suggestions for our next newsletter!
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