MAC SF

Are Trustifarians Endangered? We can only hope....

2009-06-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

According to this article in the NY Times, "Trustifarians" are being hit by hard times brought on by their families' gambling on the stock market and on bad mortgage securities. "Trustifarians" are also known as "Trust Fund Hipsters", "Hij@s de Papi", "Subsidized Loafers", and other affectionate names.

Oh no! What will that artists-that-has-never-sold-any-art-but-lives-in-a-flat-in-the-mission-previously-rented-by-working-class-tenants do? Or what about the loafer hipsters who like to sit at Ritual Coffee on their computer all day, even though they have internet at home? I mean, who will wait an hour for mediocre food at Boogaloos? Will these Trustafarians be able to get a job and make it through four hours without "twittering" or taking artistic yet aloof pictures for their facebook/myspace profiles?

As a show of solidarity we can give them a gift bag of job applications, coupons, and fashion tips, such as don't wear your faded/yellow "Keep on Truckin'" t-shirt to a job interview and leave the ironic 80's fashion at home.

At this very moment capitalism continues to collapse onto itself, people continue to loose their jobs & homes, and the pinche mayor (gruesome newsom) is hells bent on gutting services for the poor and for the ill. The people of San Francisco are fighting to keep these services which people depend on every day. The least of our concerns is whether or not the offspring of the ruling class will have to move back with their parents or if they will have to confront the reality of 40+ hour weekday.

Welcome to our economic reality, Trustifarians. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

They Say “Save Medjool”… We Say “Save the Progressive/Historic Latino/a Mission District “

2009-05-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Everyday activists, organizers, non-profit workers, and community members in the Mission District always have to decide how to fight injustices barreling down on our community. From ICE raids to evictions to street violence, we prioritize and do the best we can to put our social justice values into action by “fighting the good fight”. Sometimes in the social justice movement we have differences of opinion regarding tactics and strategies, these differences can be intense and difficult but rarely do they reach a point where we are on opposite sides of the struggle for equity and justice. On those rare instances we are divided, it is usually on land-use issues and high-end condo projects because wealthy, well-connected, developers are able to corrupt the political process and divide the community through patronage.

The current controversy involving local, well-heeled, developer Gud Murad and his Save Medjool campaign, while complicated in some respects, is quite basic. As social justice activists we all stand against corruption, lack of transparency, gentrification, and the erosion of progressive democratic principles. The root causes of this current controversy are the implicit and overt racial and economic inequities shaping development along Mission Street, the districts main commercial corridor. As progressives we should also stand together against these deeply ingrained societal injustices. However, it seems that because of patronage and the lack of foresight to strive for socially equitable projects, some activists have compromised their values and actively campaign in support of saving Medjool and throw their support behind the proposed New Mission Theater project that would bring dozens more high-end condos to our neighborhood and a higher end version of Medjool.

Here is some historical background that may help clarify the situation and help us reconnect with our social justice principles:

• When the New Mission Theater was put on the market by City College, Gus Murad out bid local nonprofits, thereby undermining community based development;

• He was anti-union in selecting contractors for developing Medjool and the accompanying Elements Hostel;

• He chose to provide “community benefits” by selecting Mission Neighborhood Centers as the recipient of space on the ground floor of his New Mission Theater project. While providing space for a community-based nonprofit is, at first glance, certainly a worthy gesture, in this case it is not what it appears to be. Years of land-use based activism by groups like MAC have resulted in changes in the way developers approach the project entitlement process. For-profit developers in our neighborhood have come to understand that they need to show that they are “working with the community” in order to get their projects approved The simplest way to do this is to provide some commercial space to a community group willing to take the handout. For a project of this scale and impact, simply giving up some community space is not enough. This developer tactic creates the sad spectacle of community groups pitted against each other in hearings as those that are benefitting directly from small potatoes developer handouts fight for a project that that could potentially give a much greater benefit then the one that they are defending;

• Murad, notoriously, has given money and gifts to politicians and community leaders to gain their support, thereby compromising their principles and corrupting democratic processes;

• He bypassed the proper permitting process for his roof-top bar by using the political capital he has accumulated through political donations and favors.

While we in MAC support the preservation and expansion of job opportunities in the neighborhood, we will not be forced into accepting political patronage, more gentrification, and the undermining of a community-based planning process by siding with unscrupulous developers and building owners. Many of these developers have chosen to pursue the politics of favoritism instead of working with the community towards developing community benefits and assets that go beyond the nominal job or office space. They further jeopardize their community standing by not following the city’s proper permitting and development processes. It’s those actions that are putting at risk Medjool’s jobs, not the community or city officials that refuse to look the other way. Further, it is these high-end businesses that have put at risk or have driven or kept out hundreds of formerly existing and potentially existing neighborhood-based jobs in small businesses. These businesses can’t afford to operate in the Mission due to the speculation fever and greed that has gripped local land-owners and developers because they want their own version of Medjool, Foreign Cinema or a large formula retail business in their commercial space.

There is no righteousness in Gus Murad using resources to mount a campaign that uses phrases like Save Mejool or Save Mission Jobs especially when these large high-end, destination night-clubs drive up the rent along the corridor and drive neighborhood serving, sustainable and affordable business and their jobs out of the Mission District. Instead, progressive residents should oppose more Medjool-like developments and fight against the forced displacement of working class residents, businesses and institutions.

As I write this, the residents at 2789 Harrison Street are fighting for their homes and business as they face outrageous rent increases and harassment from their landlord because he wants to bring in wealthier residents and a Medjool-like business to 24th Street. As a community we must fight back and support sustainable community development based on the overall needs of the community and not on the speculative greed that has corrupted development in San Francisco and the Mission District.

Rest in Peace: Manong Al Robles

2009-05-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

RIP to a our local fierce elder and warrior Al Robles. The following words are from our friends over at POOR magazine:

Out of the deep fog, we saw two birds...

After the news of the passing of revolutionary poet and scholar of the people Uncle Al Robles, Tony, his nephew, Tiburcio, and me (Tiny) went to the edge of ocean to say goodbye to Uncle AL - the powerful embodiment of everything that is the revolution, who began his journey to the other side at 9:30 am yesterday, Saturday, May 2nd, after approximately two months battling with an illness. His family was with him all the way through the struggle of health, healing, setback and passing.

There are no amount of words, images or thoughts that could be enough to honor the power and espiritu of Uncle AL. So in addition to any words or messages written in his honor we can honor him with all that he lived and practiced and accomplished... the continuing of each of our efforts at global and local organizing, writing, protesting, poetry,art, song, love, caregiving,family, eldership, indigenous resistance and perhaps most important, dreaming....

Family and Community will be planning a community event sometime in the next few weeks- we will update folks when the date is known...

and then they flew away...

Con amor y paz

Tiny, Tiburcio and Tony Robles

Help keep the Ramirez family together! ¡Ayude a mantener unida a la familia Ramírez!

2009-04-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

What: Fundraiser tardeada for the Ramirez Family Legal Fund

When: Sunday, April 26, 3 – 7 pm

Where: El Patio Restaurant (3193 Mission St.)

WHY

When the Ramirez Family migrated to San Francisco, their sons did their grade school homework in the flower shop that Mamá Ramirez ran out of their Mission District apartment. With tons of community support, they defended the flower shop from gentrification, and their campaign helped start the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition. Ten years and many dozens of flowers later, the landlord found a legal way to evict them, and they were displaced from the Mission but not from the struggle.

Both mom and dad got their residency, but our messed up immigration laws prevented their two sons from qualifying despite having been here all their lives and despite one of them having a 5-year old daughter who was born and raised here. The family found a lawyer who promised to fix their immigration status, but instead he took all of the family’s savings, lost his legal license, and disappeared overnight, leaving their case in shambles.

Suddenly, the Ramirez family got a notice from immigration, stating that they were to leave the country immediately or face deportation. Completely shocked, they appealed for more time to resolve the problem that the fraudulent lawyer created for them. The appeal was granted.

A week later, near dawn, ICE raided their home in the Bayview, found one of the young men at home, threw him on the floor, held a gun to his head, and threw him into their squad car. Mamá Ramirez was not easily intimidated and demanded that her son be released. She waved the appeal letter in front of the ICE officer and threatened to call Univisión, pointing to the note on her dresser with the television station’s phone number, which she had from the last press conference organized to defend their flower shop and home. Her bravery and her history in the struggle paid off, and her son was released.

Now both the sons are still in legal proceedings, trying to adjust their status. The trauma of the raid still brings Mamá Ramirez to tears, and her bravery has inspired her sons to reach out to the community for support.

Please join St. Peter’s Housing Committee, and stand in solidarity with the Ramirez family! The April 26 tardeada will feature food, DJ and other entertainment, as well as a chance to meet the Ramirez family and hear their story. $10-25 donation requested at the door.

You can also donate directly to the legal fund here.

Don't forget to march for legalization on May 1^st!

___________________________________________________________________

Cuando la familia Ramírez migró a San Francisco, sus hijos hacían la tarea de primaria en la florería que operaba la Mamá Ramírez desde departamento en el distrito de la Misión. Con un montón de apoyo comunitario, defendieron a su florería contra el aburguesamiento, y su campaña ayudó en dar a luz a la Coalición Anti-Desplazamiento de la Misión. Después de diez anos y muchas docenas de flores, la propietaria encontró una forma legal de desalojarlos, y fueron desplazados de la Misión, pero nunca de la lucha.

Mamá y Papá consiguieron su residencia, pero las estropeadas leyes de migración impidieron que sus dos hijos calificaran, a pesar de haber estado aquí todas sus vidas, y a pesar de que uno de ellos tiene una hija de cinco anos nacida y criada aqui.

Encontraron un abogado que les prometió arreglar su estado migratorio. Pero en vez de cumplir, se llevo todos los ahorros de la familia, perdió su licencia para practicar leyes, y desapareció de la noche a la mañana, dejando el caso hecho un desastre.

De repente, la familia Ramirez recibió una notificación de migración, diciendo que tenían que retirarse del país inmediatamente o enfrentar el proceso de deportación. En un estado de shock, solicitaron más tiempo para resolver el problema que el abogado defraudador les causó. La corte les otorgó la extensión.

Una semana después, cerca de la madrugada, ICE hizo una redada en su hogar en el Bayview. Encontró que uno de los jóvenes estaba en casa, lo tiraron al piso, le apuntaron con pistola, y lo tiraron en el auto patrulla. Pero Mamá Ramírez no es alguien que se deja intimidar facilmente, y exigió que dejaran en libertad a su hijo. Agitó la carta de apelación frente al oficial de ICE, y amenazó con llamar a Univisión, señalando a la nota en el estante que tenía el número de aquella estación de televisión, cuyo teléfono tenía por causa de la última conferencia de prensa que se organizó para defender la florería y su hogar. Su valentía y su historia en la lucha se hicieron valer en ese momento, y su hijo fue liberado.

Ahora ambos hijos estan todavía dentro del procedimiento legal, intentando ajustar su estado migratorio. El trauma de la redada todavía le saca las lágrimas a Mamá Ramírez, y su valentía ha inspirado a sus hijos a buscar apoyo en la comunidad.

Por favor únase al Comité de Vivienda San Pedro, en apoyo solidario a la familia Ramírez!

En la tardeada el dia 26 habrán botanas, música de DJ y una oportunidad de conocer a la familia Ramírez y escuchar su testimonio. Se pide una donación de $10-25 a la entrada.

También puede donar directamente al fondo legal aquí.

¡Y marche por la legalización el 1° de mayo!

Desde La Gran Manzana a San Pancho: HEEPESTERS Love Thick Mexican Moustaches!!!

2009-04-20T01:40:00.000-07:00

Peep articles...
Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization (Adbusters)
So, Who Is a Hipster? (Mission Local)

Mission District Hershey's Plant Threatened with Closure, While The Co. Increases Profits

2009-03-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

So while there's talk and real fear of the Hershey's chocolate plant closing in the Mission District on 16th & Folsom, laying off over 100 local workers..."Hershey's profits rise as economy slumps"

The following is an excerpt from a news report that came out back in January talking about the banner year that Hershey's is having despite the economic crises.

"The company reported Tuesday that 2008 sales reached $5.13 billion, up 3.8 percent from its $4.95 billion in 2007. The company also was more profitable in 2008, making $311 million, compared with $214 million in 2007.

"Most food companies in 2008 did well," said Christopher Shanahan, a research analyst with Mountain View, Calif.-based Frost & Sullivan. "Hershey was definitely one of the leaders."

Hershey Co. CEO and President David J. West said the financial numbers show the company's strategy is working."

Peep out these links on how the French are getting down and radical: "United against the crisis, defend employment, spending power and public services."

French workers take manager hostage over job cuts

BBC News Video of People Taking to the Streets

Get Down with the Frisco Movement For Land & Jobs

2009-03-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Press Release: Bay Area community & labor groups want to stimulate equality and transparency in Green Jobs Stimulus Package

SAN FRANCISCO, CA— A broad alliance of community groups and workers centers will testify before Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors this Monday March 23 calling for greater transparency and community input in shaping the infusion of federal stimulus dollars slated for San Francisco’s developing green collar economy.

Community groups are echoing the frustration of City Supervisors and others in City Hall, all of who have not been given concrete and comprehensive information about the specific allocations San Francisco has secured from the Federal Stimulus Package, as well as other specific proposals the city has submitted for future allocations.

“The American people and the President have called for the highest level of transparency and accountability in the use of the stimulus funds, but here in San Francisco we haven’t seen any of the Mayor’s concrete proposals or allocations for public approval,” said Oscar Grande from PODER...

Click here to read the full press release http://pitch.pe/6827

Join us @
The Board of Supervisors Land Use and Economic Development Committee
March 23, 2pm
SF City Hall, Room 263

Speakling of the New Mission Theater...

2009-03-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Mission Mission:

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

2009-03-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

After several days of titlating headlines and public displays of disbelief and outrage we have...silence. The documented and now publicly acknowledged wrongdoing of our favorite neighborhood restauranteur/innkeeper/friend-of-Gavin, Gus Murad, has resulted in a whole lot of nothing.

Operating a rooftop bar without a permit and illegaly taking much needed residential hotel units off the market to operate a hostel may not seem a like big deal to some. After all, shouldn't we encourage entreprenours to grow their businesses even if it means calling in a few favors at City Hall? And, really, wouldn't you rather have some cute, young, European tourist walking around Mission Street than your typical crazed, unsightly, SRO tenant? So what if we have a homelesness crisis in this City? But consider this: at what point does the City become complicit in the (potential)wrongdoing after its been notified of these apparently illegal acts yet takes no action?

The City's Planning Commission and Planning Department as well as the Department of Building Inspection have been asked to investigate and police these matters, yet, several weeks later, we have seen no results.

The question, of course, is WHY? Stay tuned...we will be pursuing this story until we get an answer.

Chronic Stress

2009-02-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

Below is some background information from the Unnatural Causes website

Chronic Stress

Background: Turn on the stress response for five minutes and it can save your life. But as Stanford biologist Robert Sapolsky observes, turn on the stress response for 30 years, even at a low level, and it can increase your risk for every chronic disease.

Chronic stress, like other conditions that threaten or promote health, is distributed unevenly through society along class and racial lines. Our ability to manage the pressures that might upset our lives is not simply a matter of personality or character; it's tied to our access to power, resources, support networks and opportunities. Both exposures to stressors and access to the resources we need to manage them are tied to our class and social status.

We all experience stress. Our body's stress response is actually a way of protecting us from a perceived danger. In the face of peril, hormones like cortisol and epinephrine increase our heart rate and blood pressure to supply oxygen and glucose to muscles and the brain while shutting down "non-essential" functions like growth and reproduction.

Rockefeller University's Bruce McEwen and UCLA's Teresa Seeman are among those studying how long-term or chronic stress throws our body out of balance, especially our neuro-endocrine, immune and cardiovascular systems. McEwen calls the measurable wear and tear of persistent "micro-insults" to the body allostatic load. He and other researchers are demonstrating how chronic stress increases the risk of metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart and artery disease, stroke, depression, auto-immune diseases, impaired memory, even failure to ovulate in females and erectile dysfunction in males.

There's also increasing evidence that repeated activation of the stress response early in life can literally affect the wiring of the brain, inhibit children's ability to develop "resilience," and increase the chances they will develop helplessness, anger and depression later in life and become more susceptible to obesity and illness.

All of us face pressures in our lives, but our ability to cope - and consequently stay healthy or not - depends on our position on the class pyramid. It's not CEOs who are dropping dead of heart attacks, it's their subordinates. Why? Because those with access to power, resources, support and opportunity have more control over the forces that impinge upon their lives and are better able to manage or escape the demands placed upon them.

People who are lower on the socioeconomic pyramid tend to be exposed to more formidable and ongoing stressors, e.g., job insecurity, unpaid bills, inadequate childcare, underperforming schools, and dangerous or toxic living conditions, crowded homes, even noisy streets. They are also less likely to have access to the money, power, status, knowledge, social connections and other resources they need to gain control over these many tempests that threaten to upset their lives.

But it's not only those at the bottom of the pyramid harmed by stress. So are many middle managers, working people and especially people of color, whose aspirations to succeed are often thwarted by interpersonal and institutional barriers over which they have little control, including prejudice and racism. High demand / low control jobs are particularly stressful.

Today, chronic stress is widely recognized as a health threat. But suggested solutions usually are limited to individually based interventions like taking vitamin supplements, practicing yoga, or meditating. Although these are helpful, they aren't the whole picture. We also need strategies that challenge the underlying economic and social conditions that imperil our chances for health in the first place.

Social policies like living wage jobs, greater autonomy and control at work, safe, walkable neighborhoods, efficient public transportation, good schools, and quality, affordable housing and paid vacations are all effective ways to reduce stress, though they require a political commitment, not just a personal one. But political engagement is an effective remedy in more ways than one: while improving social conditions improves health, research suggests that the very act of engagement can also be empowering and thus stress reducing. That's a double victory.

Is inequality making us sick?

2009-02-24T17:01:00.000-08:00

Check out this article from the Guardian.

Sustainability is also about equitable development, not just being "green."

Everything you wanted to know about the Mission and more

2009-02-19T16:39:00.000-08:00

A lot of blogs put up historical pictures of the Mission, fun facts and other random activities in the neighborhood. So we thought we would provide you with some statistics.

The stats are part of a the Healthy Development Measurement Tool.

"The Healthy Development Measurement Tool is a comprehensive evaluation metric to consider health needs in urban development plans and projects.
The HDMT explicitly connects public health to urban development planning in efforts to achieve a higher quality social and physical environment that advances health."

Check it out, it is very interesting.

YOU'RE GONNA CRY

2009-02-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

YOU'RE GONNA CRY
A Solo Theater Work-In-Progress
by PAUL S. FLORES

Directed by Brian Freeman
Videography by Haldun Morgan

Thursday February 19, 2009 @ 7pm*
Friday February 20, 2009 @ 8pm**

RED POPPY ART HOUSE

2698 Folsom Street @ 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.826.2402
www.redpoppyarthouse.org

Tickets $7-$10 Sliding Scale available at the door

How could gentrification be violent if artists started it?

Like many young artists, Paul Flores came to San Francisco looking to find a community and establish himself. You're Gonna Cry is about the hard realities of life in San Francisco's Mission District, and the offbeat and humorous characters who also make it a place to love.

*2/19 (Thurs) Also features guest performances in homage to Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri featuring influential local poets Alfonso Texidor, Avotjca, QR Hand and Marina Lavaille. w/ dj lucha grande

**2/20 (Fri) Also features Youth Speaks with James Kass, local narrator Norman Zelaya and Taco Shop Poet Adrian Arancibia reading from his new book Atacama Poems. w/ dj lucha grande

Check out video of Paul @ http://vimeo.com/2587678

ABOUT YOU'RE GONNA CRY:

You're Gonna Cry is a work-in-progress, original multimedia solo theater piece refelecting on Flores' own relationship to the Mission District Latino community where he spent ten years developing as a community artist and witnessing the force of gentrification that displaced many Latino residents and fellow artists, as the neighborhood went through a cultural shift beginning in 1995 when the SF Chronicle dubbed the neighborhood the "New Bohemia". Flores' story addresses his search for identity as an artist while pursuing an ideal/romantic vision of the Mission District as the Latino cultural oasis that it was famed to be in the 1960's and 70's.

The piece includes spoken word, personal narrative, character monologues, puppets as well as a visual element - with the work of video artist Haldun Morgan -to explore Flores' personal journey as he developed into a Mission based poet, youth mentor, and Latino community activist against the backdrop of San Francisco's "Dot-Com" boom. Flores follows changes in the Mission's Latino community dynamics, including mass evictions, gang injunctions and immigration enforcement raids largely brought on by the affects of gentrification, ultimately leading him to arrive at a wiser, realistic understanding of an artist and his community.

Playwright and director Brian Freeman's expertise in developing solo performance will be instrumental in shaping Flores' first solo theater project. And the two nights of work-in-progress at Red Poppy Art House are designed to get community feedback in preparation for the premiere in May 2009.

Rally For Families @ 2789 Harrison Canceled Today

2009-02-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

The owner of 2789 Harrison Street (@ 24th) has agreed to enter into good faith negotiations with the families-the rally and press conference today is canceled. We will keep you posted on developments as they happen. Thanks for your support!

Spot Zoning Part V

2009-02-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Reading about the events of last week at the Planning Commission, it is obvious that American Apparel can learn a thing or two about doing business in the city. Check out this post from Beyond Chron.

Spot Zoning Part IV

2009-02-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

Is Medjool's rooftop bar illegal? Check out this article from SFGate.

Support Our Neighbors Keep their Home

2009-02-06T17:07:00.000-08:00

Rally and Press Conference

Support Mission Families in their fight to keep their homes!

The apartment building on 24^th and Harrison, (2789 Harrison St), home to 6 working-class Immigrant and Latino Families are being forced out of their long-time homes by a new land-lord. He is trying to implement rent increases between $800.00 and $1100.00 per month, in effect forcing the residents out of their homes. The residents are willing to negotiate a fair increase in rent in order to remain in their homes. These increases are too much for these working families to afford, we believe this is an injustice and ask that the owner of the property RBA member Mr. Allen McCarthy negotiate a fair rent increase and new lease with the residents of 2789 Harrison.

Please Join us on the Steps of City Hall for a rally and Press Conference to support the Residents and the introduction of a Board of Supervisor Resolution introduced by District 9 Supervisor David Campos calling for a just resolution for the residents.

Rally and Press Conference
Tuesday, February 10
12:00pm
Steps of City Hall (Polk St. entrance)

Sponsored by: Comite 24 y Harrison with support from MAC, and community allies

A Tale of Two Commercial Corridors

2009-02-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

It was the best of times (for well connected developers on Mission Street and anti-formula retail activists on Valencia Street) and the worst of times (for folks interested in restoring the New Mission Theater as a true community serving institution, affordable housing advocates, and fans of good planning and clean government). Valencia has become iconic for its high-end eclecticism, it's hipster saturated streets and pricey restaurants. The demographic on the street is young, hyper-educated and affluent. Mission Street is, well, Mission Street, full of brown faces, families with kids, recent immigrants, grime, and all kinds of cheap apparel stores up and down the corridor. Two streets that sit side by side running parallel through the Mission District, only a block away but worlds apart.

Our last post gave you the result of the vote to override the veto on the New Mission Theater, let's just say it didn't go our way. The press and blogger attention this story got was minimal, to put it kindly. Compare that to the incredible amount of heat and press coverage that the spectre of American Apparel coming to Valencia has generated, it's truly mind boggling given the relatively small impact that this store would have on the neighborhood as a whole. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom helps Gus Murad, the glad handing owner of "the Douchiest Bar in San Francisco," execute an end run around the Planning Department and the Board of Supervisors to build close to 100 high-end condos and Medjool Part II where a beloved and historical theater sits, and all those angry Valencia Street activists and bloggers have shown about as much interest in this anti-gentrification battle as they would in going to a close out sale at Lane Bryant.

In part, its lack of outreach on our part to bring in the folks that are now activated by the AA campaign. However, its no secret that the Mission has been overrun with gentrifying development projects throughout the past decade with a noticeable lack of outrage from most of the folks jumping on the anti-formula retail bandwagon.

The takeaway is that (duh) money rules and community consciousness often doesn't extend past race and class lines, even when similar battles are happening literally one block away from each other.

To have a real shot at preventing big money developers from continuing to call the shots in the Mission all of the different sectors of the anti-gentrification movement have to come together. Its one thing to drive off a sleazy, mustachioed formula retail vendor out of a neighborhood that's already hating on chain stores. Its quite another to fight off sophisticated developers with ready access to City decision makers and deep pockets to fund politician's election drives.

I'll leave you with a silver lining, the New Mission Theater battle is far from over. The project still has to go through the Planning Commission to receive permission to move forward and, if we lose there, will come before the Board of Supervisors again on appeal. We shall see if the anti-AA forces are willing to extend their concern for preserving the Mission one block east. We sincerely hope they do.

Spot Zoning Part III

2009-02-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

The Board failed to override the veto. Supervisors Carmen Chu, Alioto-Pier, Elsbernd and Dufty supported the well connected restaurateur/developer by voting against the override.

See what the Chronicle had to say here. You can read Supervisor Daly's take on the issue and the influence of money here.

Spot Zoning Part II - A strange series of events

2009-01-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

Advocates of the community planning process were happy to learn that Sandoval’s spot zoning legislation died at the Board of Supervisors. We believe Sandoval’s legislation died because the merits of raising the heights on just two properties were never vetted through the planning process. Interestingly enough, one Supervisor who supported his legislation at committee did not support it at the Board. This would be the first strange event in a series of strange events.

On Monday November 24th, the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan was passed by the Land Use Committee. The height limits along Mission Street are an aspect of the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. While the Committee voted to keep the height limits along Mission Street as they have been, but nor below 55ft, the text of the actual legislation had the height limits set at 85 feet. The text carried a previous proposal, rejected by the Committee, to set the height limits along Mission Street at 85 ft.

On Tuesday November 25, the Plan was scheduled to be heard at the full Board of Supervisors. Given that the Plan was approved late Monday evening, there was not enough time to change the actual text of the legislation for the Board meeting to reflect what was passed.

The Board followed the Committee’s recommendation on height limits along Mission Street. As for the the height limits on both the El Capitan and New Mission theatre, they stayed where they are at, 55 feet and 65 feet respectively.

Are you with me so far?

The next strange event happened sometime in the week of the 24th when the Planning Department staff in charge of actually changing the text in the legislation to reflect the Board’s decision made a typographical error. They were making the changes they did not have time to do on the 24th.

The height limits on paper for the New Mission Theatre remained unchanged @ 85 ft instead of 55ft, but the height limit for the El Capitan Theatre was amended to reflect the Board’s decision at setting it at 55ft.

So of all of the parcels to get wrong, the planning staff gets wrong the one that is owned by a well connected restaurateur/developer. A part of me believes that it was an honest mistake because there is no evidence to the contrary.

When the Board approved the heights along Mission Street on the second reading on December 9th, as I stated in a previous post, they did not know that there was a typo regarding that one parcel.

This is where the problem begins. The planning staff made a typo that is caught too late, and the Board essentially votes the typo into law.

In a not so strange event, at the same hearing another Supervisor again tries to assist the well connected restaurateur /developer by trying to exclude his parcel, and that of the El Capitan Theatre, from the legislation. At this point the Supervisors are still unaware of the typo in the legislation. This move, if supported by the Board, would have essentially allowed the well connected restaurateur /developer to circumvent the planning process.

The centrist block of the Board of Supervisors supported the move to sever the two parcels from the height limits legislation in an effort to give the well connected restaurateur /developer his desired height. I guess they are not really into the idea of a community planning process and are ok with bypassing the planning process for well connected individuals.

Fortunately his efforts failed.

During all this time parcel 3616-007 had the incorrect height limit. On December 16th, the Board voted to correct their mistake. The Board passed the issue on the second reading, fixing the typographical error. Supervisors Carmen Chu, Dufty, Elsbernd, Alioto-Pier opposed fixing the error. Why would four otherwise rational law makers vote against a non-controversial issue such as fixing a mistake?

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the Mayor vetoed the legislation fixing the issue before he left to Washington DC. For President Obama’s Inauguration.

Spot Zoning Part I

2009-01-29T15:06:00.000-08:00

Where did all the trouble with parcel 3616-007 (the site of the New Mission Theatre) begin? It really started with former Supervisor Geraldo Sandoval.

Under the guise of historic preservation, former Supervisor Sandoval introduced legislation that would have excluded the parcels where the El Capitan residential hotel and the New Mission sit from the height requirements, essentially giving the developers a variance.

Sandoval introduced legislation during the last Land Use Committee Hearing on the Eastern Neighborhoods on November 24th. Scores of hearings were held at both the Planning Commission and the Land Use Committee on the Plan, where proposed amendments were, for the most part, thoroughly vetted. The height increase proposed in Sandoval’s legislation was never discussed during the process.

The last minute introduction of this piece of legislation was an insult to the hundreds if not thousands of individuals who attended the Eastern Neighborhoods hearings at the Planning Commission and Land Use Committee. Only a few concerned citizens had the opportunity to comment on the legislation at the last minute.

Sandoval argued that any proposed developments on those two parcels should be allowed to go up to 85 feet, by right, in order to preserve the facades or marquees. We were not necessarily opposed to the merits of his legislation; we were opposed to the manner in which it was introduced.

It was our contention that Sandoval’s action to introduce legislation at the final hearing went against the spirit of the Eastern Neighborhoods planning process. While we have reservations about the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, it had unlike Sandoval’s legislation, been vetted during the last year by community organizations, community residents, the development lobby, the Planning Department, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors.

At best we considered the legislation to have been spot zoning, and at worst, to be a mockery of the planning process in San Francisco.

We argued for it to be treated as trailing legislation to allow for more community input and a more measured analysis by the Planning Department and Board of Supervisors.

Luckily for the community, the Board recognized the legislation as spot zoning and turned it down.

Unfortunately, other Supervisor were not content with its defeat, leading to a strange series of events that brings us to the February 3rd vote.

Your Recommended Daily Allowance of Irony

2009-01-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

Over the years MAC has fought against displacement, evictions, speculation and gentrification in the Mission District. We have organized to keep out big box developments, supported the formula retail ban, fought the Walgreens on Cesar Chavez, Home Depot on Bayshore and have worked to protect neighborhood serving and locally owned small businesses, so it would seem like a no-brainer that we would oppose the American Apparel outlet proposed for Valencia Street.

Yet, MAC and other long-time residents who have seen the changes on Valencia Street, Mission Street and 24th St. corridors, we cannot overlook the irony and contradictions that the “locally owned businesses on Valencia “Your Mission” campaign present. Many of the displacements have been at the hands of non-neighborhood serving boutique shops, or destination restaurants or just plain expensive shops that many Mission residents can not shop at. I noticed a comment on the No American Apparel site that stated that it was these shops that had saved the Mission from 99 cent stores and, I assume, other lower-end businesses. It is this short sighted analysis from the group that makes us pause. It is because many locals cannot afford to buy from shops on Valencia and we see the forcing out of Latino owned and operated business on 24th that are being replaced by Valencia like businesses that we are hesitating on our position on American Apparel.

It also bears mentioning that AA hires workers of color from within the community their production plant is located within and pays them a fair wage, a practice that our local businesses should but often don't follow. The knee-jerk "no" to chain stores would make a lot more sense if our existing Valencia St. shop owners committed to hiring young people from the neighborhood and providing price points that we all could afford. It would also sense if local businesses coming to the Mission partnered with community-based organizations to train and recruit a diverse work force that had opportunities to work in all aspects of their businesses and not just as janitors, or dish washers.

In the end we oppose formula retail on Valencia, but not because we want to protect the businesses that displaced the community-serving businesses in the hood. We only hope that the Your Mission Campaign takes a moment to reflect on their role in displacing the previous group of small businesses. It might also be a good time for them to figure out what "Your Mission...Not Theirs" means when this same group of shop owners do not provide goods and services for the working class and lower-income residents of the neighborhood that make up the majority of the residents in the Mission District.

MAC opposes formula retail because it allows landlords to speculate and dispense of long-time sustainable businesses that cannot afford the outrageous rents that are currently charged for commercial spaces in our neighborhood. It is not about American Apparel, it's about landlord greed and how they keep spaces empty waiting for formula retail or the next fancy restaurant while not providing long-term leases for real neighborhood serving businesses.

One final but important point, after the passage of the Eastern Neighborhood Plan the conditional use process will be more important than ever for the community to have some handle on how deveoopment occurs in the Mission. The precedent setting impact of allowing new formula retail on our NC corridors is something that we should be very worried about and is another critical reason why are saying no to American Apparel.

Say It Ain't So

2009-01-27T12:12:00.000-08:00

According to post on the SFGate.com City Insider’s page, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed a piece of legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors that would have corrected a typographical error in the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan that was recently approved by the Board. Why would the mayor veto something that is essentially a non policy issue, but is just correcting a mistake? Before I answer that question, let me give you some history on the matter.

In December the Board of Supervisors voted to maintain the maximum allowable heights of buildings along Mission Street at their current levels, a change from the proposed allowable heights in the Eastern Neighborhood Plan.

In order to do this every parcel, several hundred if not thousands, had to be listed in the legislation at their correct heights. Every parcel has the correct height listed except for one. On that parcel happens to sit the New Mission Theatre and Giant Value store. The Supervisors believed that they voted to maintain the height of that parcel at 65 feet (approximately 6 stories), but the legislation carried the typo. The Board with out knowing voted to approve the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan with the allowable height at that particular parcel at 85 feet.

To their credit, the mistake was owned up to by the Planning staff. When informed of this error, the Board of Supervisors drafted and passed legislation to correct the mistake. What is funny is that some supervisors (Dufty, Alioto-Pier, Elsbernd and Carmen Chu) voted against correcting the mistake. Why would they vote against correcting a mistake? It is not even a policy issue.

The owner of the site, Gus Murad, (who is politically well connected and happens to assist with fundraising for a variety of San Francisco politicians) plans to build an eight story tower that would contain high-end condos and a nightclub. If the heights were correctly set at 65 feet he would need to apply for a zoning variance to be allowed to build an eight story tower. To my knowledge, he has had these plans in the works for years, but has yet to apply for a variance. We hope he develops a project that is an asset to the community.

The problem is that he has circumvented the planning process that all other developers have to abide by, most likely because he is politically connected. The Newsom veto allows him the additional height to build his project without having to provide any additional benefits for the community. In this day and age of Change, shouldn’t the politicians be called out for appearances of out-right voting under the influence of money.

No one is outright opposed to an eight story tall tower along Mission Street, but the developer should go through the proper channels to do it. Otherwise, this is spot zoning by the Mayor and the four Supervisors who supported the original amendment. This winter the community and the Planning Department completed a decade long planning process, just to have the Mayor allow one special character exempted from its requirements because of a mistake. All San Franciscans should be outraged at such blatant pay to play politics and call Supervisors Chu, Elsbernd, Alito-Pier, and Dufty to demand that they support the override of the Mayor’s Veto that is scheduled to be considered at the Board of Supervisors February 3.

MAC

Signed, sealed and delivered!

2009-01-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Eastern Neighborhoods Plan was passed by the Board of Supervisors and signed by the Mayor in December. The Plans became effective on January 19, 2009.

We will provide some analysis as to how the Plan will affect the Mission District in future posts.

Eastern Neighborhoods Hearing

2008-10-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Land Use Committee met to discuss some minor amendments to the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. Needless to say, few of the amendments reflected any of the concerns raised by community-based groups. But more on that later.

A list of the amendments can be seen here, under the session #8.

One of the issues brought up by MAC is the lack of a strategy in the Plan to support the current businesses along Mission Street from being displaced. There are plenty of housing development opportunities along Mission Street. These housing development opportunities are on hundreds of parcels along Mission in the area plan that are 0-1 stories and do not have housing units.

It is the businesses on these parcels that most likely to be displaced because buildings without housing are generally the easiest to demolish. Because of the two density bonuses given to developers (greater heights and no density limits), there are very favorable incentives to develop housing.

The density bonuses create incentives to build housing because if a developer can build higher, then they can generally increase the return on their investment. Also, if there are no density limits, then developers can build smaller units, and thus more units per development site, than they could have before the passage of the Plan. Again, generally the more units they can build, the greater their return on their investment will be.

What are we proposing? Among other things, we are proposing stronger conditional use controls and incentives for new developments to lease their space to locally owned community serving business.

To state the obvious, the displacement of the current businesses serving the neighborhood will inevitable lead to the loss of the neighborhood's character. What ever our opinion of Mission Street is, we cannot deny that the businesses along the corridor serve a low-moderate income population. Hey, everyone needs a place to shop.

Surprisingly, the Supervisor from District 3, who fights tooth and nail for neighborhood serving businesses in North Beach, seemed uninterested about protecting community serving businesses in the Mission.

The Supervisor from District 11 was the only member of the Land Use Committee to even show the slightest bit of concern about the character of the Mission, and the businesses that serve the neighborhood. He asked the Planning Department to do something about it, lets see what they come up with.

I recognize that building a mix of affordable and market rate housing along Mission Street is a good things, but what are the benefits to the current businesses, if they will be displaced?

2008-10-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

Manifestacion contra el Hostigamientoy por un Hogar Santuario
rally against harassment & for sanctuary

Saturday, October 25th, 12pm24 & Mission, BART plaza

tamales, music

Join us to speak out against landlord harassment and abuse. speak out against landlord harassment and discrimination and in support of Proposition M, the anti-harassment ballot measure. Proposition M on the November ballot will stop tenant harassment and save peoples' homes and affordable housing. Proposition M adds to our rent control law a section defining harassment and prohibiting the harassment of tenants by landlords.
With Proposition M, tenants won't have to live with years of abuse before they can do anything about it. Actions like threatening tenants with physical harm, starting repairs but never finishing them, demanding private information like citizenship status or Social Security numbers, threatening to call the Immigration Customs & Enforcement and police, illegally entering the tenants' apartment, or failing to accept rent from tenants will all be defined as harassment and prohibited by our rent control law.
We need to stop this landlord as well as others from using harassment and intimidation tactics to displace working-class immigrants, people of color and seniors from our communities.

We say No more displacement! No more harassment! Vote YES on M!

To read more about the anti-harassment proposition:http://techforpeople.net/~housingcommittee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2

To see pictures of our last Prop M/Anti-harassment Rallies:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29091086@N03/sets/72157607581839031/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angeliquemarie/sets/72157608046341045/

FYI

2008-10-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

The next hearing is on Wednesday October 29^th at 1pm. There is still plenty of time to advocate on behalf of the People’s Plan ( the neighborhood’s amendments to the Eastern Neighborhood Plan). We have at least until the end of November to write in to our Supervisors. No one is sure when the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors. Please check back regularly to read about current event and background issues.

Thank you for your support.

Everyone Deserves a Healthy Neighborhood

2008-10-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

The map above comes from a fascinating and useful website called thehdmt.org. HDMT stands for Healthy Development Measurement Tool, a comprehensive attempt to provide a set of health based metrics and guidelines for evaluating development projects and plans. The site is put together by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and is devoted to the idea that, "...all communities should have equal access to health resources...As such, HDMT objectives and indicators explicitly call out the need for development that serves existing and new residents and workers." The idea of using health as as a driver in the city's decision making process is not a new one, unfortunately, health is currently not a serious consideration in the our city's decision making process, particularly in regards to land-use. The result has been that our city's poorest neighborhoods have the highest rates of preventable disease and the highest rates of premature mortality.

Only a small minority of San Francisco families are able to afford to own housing in San Francisco. With increasing scarcity of affordable rental properties, many families with children are forced to live in substandard or overcrowded housing conditions or are forced to leave the City. Living in substandard housing conditions can cause mold, lead and pest exposures, which in turn can trigger asthma attacks. Importantly, asthma attacks are 100% preventable and cost over $20,000 per hospitalization. In the Mission alone, there were over 130 asthma hospitalizations in 2005-2006. Overcrowding can result in increased risk of infectious disease, noise, and fires. Being forced to move away can result in the loss of jobs, difficult school transitions, and the loss of health protective social networks. In addition, high housing costs create significant stress burdens for families, which can affect individual immune function and ability to stay healthy. For a graphic representation of how this plays out in San Francsico you can look here.

MAC is currently working with neighborhood health organizations to build a movement to address this perisitent and deadly problem. We will regularly keep you updated on this work.

If you're down with the Mission, then you're down with MAC.

2008-10-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

I admit that my coverage of the Land Use Hearings has been a bit sporadic, so I’ll do my best to catch up.

Throughout September and October the Supervisor’s Land Use Committee has held a series of public hearing around the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. The Eastern Neighborhoods Plan will rezone four of San Francisco's most diverse and economically important neighborhoods, East SOMA, the Central Waterfront, Showplace Square, and the Mission District.

This process has entered its final stage at the Board of Supervisors, where it must be approved if it will be incorporated into the City’s General Plan. At the series of Land Use Committee Hearings, members of the Mission District community have voiced their objections to the Plan. The primary objection from the community has been the Plan’s lack of a solution to the housing and economic crisis faced by moderate and low-income San Francisco families with children. One Supervisor echoed our concerns by stating that the Plan as it stands will further gentrify the Mission District.

MAC has been organizing and advocating for zoning that will result in affordable housing for low and moderate-income renters, who are the majority of the folks that live in the Mission, as well as affordable ownership opportunities. We are not only concerned with new affordable housing units, we are also concerned with skyrocketing residential and commercial rents for current tenants. Our policies are intended to maximize the benefits of this rezoning process for the current residents of the Mission, especially families and seniors.

While the Planning Commission may have given up on the Mission as a place for working families, we haven't! If you support our goals, we urge you to send a letter (at the bottom of this page) to your Supervisor. It’s not too late. Thank you for your support.

Fashionably Late Fridays

2008-10-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a few choice links to get you through the weekend:

A TRULY great and much needed new voice in the local journalism scene. A couple of their thoughful stories about our neighborhood that you will probably not see told in the Chronicliar.

Not too much analysis in the news or blogosphere of the District 9 Candiates Debate that was held this past Tuesday. A real shame considering how much is at stake with this election. As a public service, here is the a link to a video of the debate as well as the lengthiest, funniest, and most detailed analysis of the debate I've stumbled across (Disclaimer: MAC is not endorsing any of the canditates running nor, necessarily, agreeing with the analysis or opinions of the individual analyzing the debate. So there.)

Finally, a little bit of history.

Makes you wanna hollar.../Te hace llorar...

2008-10-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hijole! Its getting harder and harder for everyday people to survive and thrive in San Francisco. Heres a few facts about families in Frisco. These nuggets of information were taken from a policy briefing back in May by the SF Department of Youth & Families and the SF Family Support Network.

Original research with families identified housing, education and the high cost of living major push factors
Families with children have declined dramatically over the past decades
$154,149 annual income needed to purchase a median priced home ($700,000)
Poverty line $17,600 for a family of 3
One in four families with a full time wage earner cannot make ends meet
A Single Parent With Two Children Must earn $57,658 Annually or $27.30 per hour

To see the full presentation click here...

"Damn you FRISCO, I hate you... largate de aqui... no, no I can't leave you" - overheard on Hampshire and 25th St.

******************
¡Hijole! Cada dia se pone mas y mas deficil para sobrevivir y triunfar en San Francisco. Aqui compartamos un poco de información sobre la Ciudad cual que queremos tanto. La informacion viene de una presentacion que hizo el Departamento de Niños y Familias y la Red de Apoyo de Familias de San Francisco.

Investigaciónes hecho con familias identificó las temas de vivienda, educación y el alto costo de vida como factores principales en la razon por el desplazamiento de familias afuera de la ciudad
La poblacion de families con niños a dramáticamente bajado en los ultimos decadas
Para comprar casa de precio medio ($ 700,000) una persona necesitara ganar $154,149 anualmente
Una familia de 3 ganando menos de $ 17,600 al año es por debajo de la línea de la pobreza
Uno de cada cuatro familias con un asalariado lleno de tiempo no puede hacer alcanzar el dinero
Un padre sin pareja con dos niños deber gana $57,658 anualmente o $27.30 por hora

Para ver el reporte en Ingles haz click aqui...

2008-10-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

Vigilia contra el Hostigamiento y por un Hogar Santuario

Vigil against harassment & for sanctuary
Friday, October 3rd, 6pm867 Capp Street (@ 24th Street)

tamales, chocolate, music

Join us to support Corado family in their struggle to defend their home against their landlord's cruel abuse. The Corado family are one of the last remaining long-term Latino working-class tenants in their building. The landlord has tripled the rent on the other vacant units and will resort to anything to force the Corado family out of their home. She has locked them out of their home three times in one week, smeared blood and feces on their front door, and falsely accused them of physical assault almost causing a wrongful arrest of an innocent tenant. We need to stop this landlord as well as others from using harassment and intimidation tactics to displace working-class immigrants, people of color and seniors from our communities.

We say No more displacement! No more harassment! Vote YES on M!
To read more about the anti-harassment proposition:http://techforpeople.net/~housingcommittee/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2

Mi Pueblo... Represent, Represent!

2008-10-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

The peoples were in the casa & representing at yesterday's Land Use Committee hearing at City Hall. Community members from the Mission District and the South of Market came from the heart and demanded the Peoples Plan - the community's blueprint for affordable housing and economic development for the next 20 years. Neighborhood leader after leader let Supervisors Peskin, Maxwell and Sandoval know that they were not satisfied with the Planning Departments Eastern Neighborhoods Plan.

The Residential Builders Association, the creators of "live work" loft condos, were there as well making sure it's the usual PROFITS OVER PEOPLE. Also in the audience was local developer/entrepreneur Gus Murad, owner of Giant Value & the New Mission Theater, keeping a close eye on the Supes so they don't thwart his 100+ units of market-rate condo w/ monster club (think Medjools but bigger) proposal. Props go out to Local 22 Carpenters Union who came deep with their members and backed up MAC by asking the Supervisors to make the developers hire local & pay their fair share in development fees.

I LOve THe Peoples Plan/Yo Quiero El PLan POpular

2008-09-26T20:09:00.001-07:00

Click and download the Peoples Plan support letter below. Email it to the SF Supervisors on the Land Use Committee on behalf of the hard working families of San Francisco...

Haz click abajo y descarge la carta apoyando las familias que luchan cada dia en San Francisco. Mandelo por email a los Supervisores del Comite del Uso de Terreno...

Sophie Maxwell, District 10 Supervisor
(415) 554-7670 - voice
(415) 554-7674 – fax
Sophie.Maxwell@sfgov.org

Gerardo Sandoval, District 11 Supervisor
(415) 554-6975 - voice
(415) 554-6979 - fax
Gerardo.Sandoval@sfgov.org

Aaron Peskin, District 3 Supervisor
(415) 554-7450 - voice
(415) 554-7454 - fax
Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org

Peoples Plan Support Letter - Upload a Document to Scribd

Eastern Neighborhoods Pro-Displacement Plan

2008-09-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

The second hearing in a series of hearings at the Land Use Committee on the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan was held this past Monday. The topic of the day was housing, specifically affordable housing. By now you should know our position and the city’s position. So let’s get down to it. The hearing became interesting when District 11 Supervisor asked some hard and fair questions about the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan that was passed by the Planning Commission.

The Supervisor’s principal concern was, in effect, that the plan as it stands will further gentrify the Mission District. There were three other noteworthy issues raised at the hearing:

1. Is the Plan passed by the Planning Commission satisfactory to community serving organization? The answer is NO.

2. Why were the counter proposals by MAC and SOMCAN dismissed by the Planning Commission?

3. Why is there not an affordable housing plan for Mission Street?

It was about time an appointed or elected official called out the Planning Commission’s Plan as a plan that would further gentrify the Mission District. The community based organizations from the Mission and South of Market do not approve the current Eastern Neighborhoods Plan as it stands because it will continue to displace residents and businesses. Furthermore, than plan will do little to solve our affordable housing crises.

I hope the comments raised by the committee were not just lip service.

San Francisco is moving forward with a Plan that will not solve our affordable housing crises, will further gentrify the neighborhood, and will result in the loss of thousands of blue-collar jobs.WHY?

2008-09-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

*October 1st: Fighting For Our Right To The City: "The Rumble For The Mission"
In this corner... you have vulture speculators, money hungry Realtors, hater NIMBY's and bottom-line developers vying for the heart & soul of La Misión and the entire Eastern Neighborhoods. Their corner is stacked with developer-friendly policies and pushover bureaucrats that have supported the block by block, house by house gentrification of the City. They lay waste to the community by displacing long-time residents and merchants; they close doors and thus opportunities to newly arrived immigrant families; and leave behind out-of-reach condos and an inhospitable environment for children and their families.

In the other corner... we have tens of thousands of hard-working families who for generations have strengthened our communities with little fanfare and less than enthusiastic support from City hall. But despite the odds- brown, black & blue-collar peoples have persevered and built amazing communities with strong social networks, thriving local economies and a legacy of cultural activism. Because of this the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition developed the People's Plan: the community's blueprint for urban land reform and the development of dignified jobs and affordable housing for all of us.

In typical fashion, the City's Planning Department rejected the People's Plan and took the developers' side. Now the Supervisors must decide:

WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON? WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON IN THE RUMBLE FOR THE MISSION?

Join us this Monday at the Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee. Let Supervisors Maxwell, Peskin & Sandoval hear our voices as we demand the Peoples Plan.

Wednesday, October 1st 3:00pm Meet at Stairs of City Hall We'll walk-in together to the hearing room 263

Fighting For Our Right To The City: "The Rumble For The Mission"

2008-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday September 22...
In this corner... you have vulture speculators, money hungry Realtors, hater NIMBY's and bottom-line developers vying for the heart & soul of La Misión and the entire Eastern Neighborhoods. Their corner is stacked with developer-friendly policies and pushover bureaucrats that have supported the block by block, house by house gentrification of the City. They lay waste to the community by displacing long-time residents and merchants; they close doors and thus opportunities to newly arrived immigrant families; and leave behind out-of-reach condos and an inhospitable environment for children and their families.

In the other corner... we have tens of thousands of hard-working families who for generations have strengthened our communities with little fanfare and less than enthusiastic support from City hall. But despite the odds- brown, black & blue-collar peoples have persevered and built amazing communities with strong social networks, thriving local economies and a legacy of cultural activism. Because of this the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition developed the People's Plan: the community's blueprint for urban land reform and the development of dignified jobs and affordable housing for all of us.

In typical fashion, the City's Planning Department rejected the People's Plan and took the developers' side. Now the Supervisors must decide:

WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON? WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON IN THE RUMBLE FOR THE MISSION?

Join us this Monday at the Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee. Let Supervisors Maxwell, Peskin & Sandoval hear our voices as we demand the Peoples Plan.

Monday, September 22
3:30pm Meet at PODER
4:00pm Hearing at City Hall, Rm. 240
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, near Grove St.

Freaky Fridays

2008-09-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

A few choice links to end your week

Our friends at the San Francisco Bay Guardian tellin' it like it is.

The New York Times (re)discovers the Mission. It seems pretty different from the place I knew when I moved here in 1991.

For those of you who couldn't make the first Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee Hearing on the Eastern Neighborhoods this Wednesday, here is the replay.

Have a great weekend and see you Monday at City Hall for the next Board of Supes hearing.

EN HEARING TODAY!!!

2008-09-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the first of a series of hearings at the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee on the Eastern Neighborhoods (EN) Plan. As reported earlier, the EN Plan was approved by the Planning Commission and is going to be heard this month and early next month at the Board of Supervisors. Today, the Planning Department will present to the Board one section of the Plan passed by the Planning Commission. Today’s topic is the preservation/elimination of industrial-type businesses. Please read the “Made in San Francisco” report produced by the City, that outlines the importance of industrial-type businesses to the City’s economy.

Industrial type businesses are generally defined as "small to medium-size industrial or commercial businesses that create products or provide services in manufacturing, wholesale,
commercial, logistics, construction, repairs, and food processing."

It merits to be stated once more: MAC is in favor of preserving blue-collar jobs in the city. This requires zoning controls that will prevent current parcels zoned only for industrial type uses from being converted to a zoning category that will permit market rate housing and office uses.

Aint Nothing Like a Job and Affordable Housing To Make Our Streets Safe

2008-09-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the Mission Community Council hosted a very emotional and inspiring community meeting in response to the latest upsurge in street violence in the Mission District & throughout Southeast SF . The community room at Mission Recreation Center was packed with public officials, cops, front-line outreach workers, youth organizers, reporters and concerned mothers. Many in the room, long-time and newbie residents alike, were alarmed and wanted justice for the 7 homicides that have taken place on the streets of the Mission over the past three weeks. Check out the photos on the HOMEY website.

These past months life has been challenging for many in the neighborhood, especially young Latinos and Blacks who have to navigate & survive on these streets. The recent flare ups in street violence targeted at our young people has us all worried and wanting to take action. People in the community are expressing their pain and anger through marches and vigils. Others have been holding prayer circles. And yet others have been clamoring at our local officials to do something about it. The media, especially the virulent and sensationalist Chronicle, Examiner and Fox News, has politically attacked and pointed fingers at our immigrant community thus frightening Mayor Newsom into getting soft on our Sanctuary City ordinance.

With all the attention and talk of stemming the violence, the debate being shaped by the Mayors Office, cops and reactive neighborhood associations has focused solely on aggressive police tactics. One highly controversial strategy has been the five month old Gang Injunction (already in place in Bayview and Western Addition). Youth advocates from here to LA agree that this is a free pass to racially profile youth/adults, stigmatize & label non-affiliated youth as gang members, make the neighborhood "desirable" for land speculators and weekend bar-hoppers, and has do nothing to change the conditions of our communities.

Over the past 8 years that we have been organizing amongst Mission residents on behalf of an healthy & equitable community plan, we have witnessed and experienced first-hand the multitudes of challenges working families throughout San Francisco's eastern neighborhoods are undergoing. From poverty, unemployment/underemployment, displacement of family/community networks, uncontrolled debt, inequitable education system, no or poor health care, and a disconnect from the political process.

Groups like HOMEY, Community Response Network, CARECEN and others are taking a deeper approach- holistic and equitable- towards remedying the ills that are beating down on the community. They and others see law enforcement as a small part of the equation towards realizing a safe, healthy, affordable and vibrant Mission District. The members and activists of the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition have joined in on these efforts. We believe that our young people and their families need real opportunities like affordable housing, good paying career driven jobs, strong community institutions and a land use plan that treats our community as if we matter.

The Next Planning Revolution!

2008-09-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

The opinions of SPUR amuse me from time to time. In their July Urbanist issue, their executive director argues that the next planning revolution is the combination of modernist and anti-modernist (think Jane Jacobs) ideologies. He claims that doing more “infill projects” while maintaining the character and livability of a neighborhood is the next planning revolution.

In other words, he wants to build high density market rate housing along Mission Street in the Mission district, further gentrifying the neighborhood and displacing residents and businesses.

I don’t know about you, but to me this hardly seems revolutionary, it isn’t even a paradigm shift. According to Webster, the definition of revolutionary is a sudden or radical change in a system or state of affairs. I do not see any radical or sudden change in planning philosophy from combining two ideas.

It would be revolutionary if the city zoned the neighborhoods to require thousands of affordable (inclusionary) family size housing units in the Mission district and the other eastern neighborhoods. It would be revolutionary if the ENP incorporated the concerns of community members over the development lobby.

Sorry Mr. Metcalf, planning for profits over people is not revolutionary.

So why is the Next Planning Revolution important to the Eastern Neighborhoods discussion? Because, the comrades who subscribe to the next planning revolution are trying to recruit the Board of Supervisors to their revolution.

I caution the Supervisors to prevent the planning and urban research revolutionaries from leading them astray; I ask the Supervisors to prevent them from running amok in City Hall.

We are not in some in some planning class Mr. Metcalf, where we can discuss the merits of the anti-modernist movement. San Francisco is not academia. San Francisco is the real world, where working class families, who do not normally participate in your ivory tower discussions, must find a decent job and place to live.

Blue Collar Pa Siempre (Forever)

2008-09-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Everybody pays lip service to the "working class." Politicians are especially fond of talking about people who use their hands to manufacture things (like furniture makers and bakers) or use their hard earned skills to repair stuff (like car mechanics or electricians). Its the sort of work that commands respect because, well, its hard and its essential to maintaining the quality of life of every single individual throughout this country. The respect, however, doesn't extend much further than the lip service. Government, including our local one, has done nothing in the past few decades to ensure that the lives of those that work in in traditional industrial jobs will be decent ones. San Francisco has been especially hostile to our blue collar workforce: under the Planning Department's proposed rezoning San Francisco will be left with the smallest amount of industrially zoned land of any major city in the United States and we will also lose about 10,000 industrial jobs over the next 15 years. Is that anyway to treat the people who keep our country running?

There is a silver lining. Through tireless community advocacy the City's plan does preserve a core industrial area in the neighborhood where only industrial development will be allowed. This, however is not nearly enough. MAC is fighting to ensure that those workers that have worked in traditional kinds of blue collar jobs (what the Planning Department calls Production, Distribution and Repair or PDR) find a place in the new types of businesses that are coming into or already exist in the neighborhood. Here is what we are pushing for:

New style industrial businesses will be allowed to come into the neighborhood only if they:

Move into existing buildings which are three stories or more and were built before 1950 (to limit the number of these new businesses);
Provide jobs for immigrants, people who have less than a 4-year college degree, individuals who do not speak English as their first language, people with disabilities, Low-Moderate Income individuals, and folks who have been displaced from other industrial jobs. We want an average of 25% or more of these jobs go to folks that are part of the traditional blue collar workforce;
Offer training, benefits, and progression paths for these same individuals over time.

We want the City to support “traditional” and “next generation” or “hybrid” PDR businesses that meet the hiring requirements above. We also want it to support entrepreneurship and micro-business start-ups, especially those who are trying to grow future PDR or hybrid-PDR companies that will provide employment opportunities for our traditional industrial workforce.

MAC has reached an agreement in principle with the Northeast Mission Residents Association (NEMRA) and representatives of the Planning Department and the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development to try to move this idea forward. More than with most policy recommendations, the devil is in truly in the details of this idea. Without proper monitoring and enforcement mechanisms we could be left with a bunch of new office based businesses who's only job openings for community members involves a broom and a mop. MAC is working on creating a strong set of implementation measures that will ensure that our neighborhood benefits from the new wave of industrial jobs that is moving into the neighborhood and that our "working-class" neighborhood remains proudly so in the 21st century.

Call for Submissions! Dispatches Against Displacement...

2008-09-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Dispatches Against Displecement
From the Global Economy to the Eviction Notice

Edited by Guadalupe Arreola, Alicia Schwartz,
James Tracy and Tom Wetzel
To be published by AK Press, 2009

Summary
In nearly every major U.S. city, the displacement epidemic is destroying communities and reshaping the urban landscape into zones of exclusion and elitism. An avalanche of eviction notices and redevelopment efforts fractures working class neighborhoods, particularly those of color. The causes lie far beyond bad landlords and poor public policies. Twenty-first century displacement is intricately tied to shifts in the global economy, where de-industrialized cities must continually re-invent themselves as high-end construction temporarily replaces the vanished factory, and forced migration and displacement intensifies.

Within this, politicians and policy makers also rely on displacement as a method of policing, thinning, and managing low-income people and the surplus population. Yet every action has its reaction, and people's organizations challenge and confront the real estate industry. Together, these campaigns call into question exactly who has the "right to the city" and suggest an alternative urban life rooted in economic and racial justice.

Dispatches Against Displacement examines the struggles for the city and asks how they might be combined, strengthened, and critically examined in order to forge an agenda for land-reform within the United States.

The book will have three main sections:

The Crisis
Articles in this section will clearly lay out the causes of displacement; and make links between this and other issues such as the global economy, prisons, class struggle, etc.

Dispatches From the Space Wars
Articles in this section will look at what organizations and individuals are doing to fight displacement in their own communities. It is intended that these pieces will: explore the tactics, strategies, successes and failures used in campaigns and identify parts currents of the campaigns which could contribute to an urban land-reform agenda.

Land and Liberation
What would it look like if the hundreds of disparate organizations and campaigns could coalesce around, and win urban land reform? What shape would the demands take? What changes would be made? Is it possible for any meaningful reform to occur under market-capitalism?

Style and Format
Accessible in tone, yet well-written. While the book will be academically sound, we want to make sure that it finds a readership in the neighborhoods it is written about.

Bring together book smarts and street smarts. We strongly encourage collaboratively written articles. Articles co-authored by activists who primarily do on-the-ground grassroots organizing and activists who primarily work in the academy will receive preference. Talk to people in the community you are writing about, quote them and respect their point of view.

Back-it up! If you say something is so, then give some facts establishing your point.

Please use Chicago Humanities style endnotes, not footnotes.

To submit: Please in Word format, as an attachment, to jamestracysf@earthlink.net by November 1, 2008. We are happy to review queries to determine if a proposal fits the scope of this book.

Forward

The Eastern Neighborhoods Plan (EN)

2008-09-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

For today I will answer some FAQs to provide some background information to the new readers of the blog.

What is the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan?

To view the City’s answer, click here.

To sum up the website, the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan will rezone several neighborhoods on the eastern half of San Francisco. These neighborhoods include: The Mission District, SOMA, Central Waterfront, and Potrero Hill. The proposed EN plan will limit/eliminate community input into the planning process, eliminate thousands of blue-collar jobs, and encourage high density luxury condos.

Why is MAC involved?

We are involved in the process because the new planning codes from the rezoning process have the potential to continue the displacement of Mission District and San Franciscan residents. We believe that disenfranchised members of our neighborhood, including working class communities of color, not developers, should be steering the planning process. One way we do this is by creating and advocating for the People’s Plan, a set of zoning policies and maps created by working class Mission residents that work to meet the housing, economic development, open space, and transportation needs of the people most vulnerable to displacement.

What is MAC advocating for?

Among other things, we are advocating for the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan to be amended to require greater levels of affordability in all new housing developments, preserve blue collar jobs in the city, create green jobs for all, and allow for greater community input into the planning process.

Taco Tuesday: Veggie Deluxe Seattle Style... eeww

2008-09-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

"New demographic figures make clear what a statistical outlier Seattle is, with few families, few kids, high education, and rapid gentrification. Only San Francisco can compare."

Friday Happy Hour/Hora Feliz: Convivios in the Barrio

2008-08-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday and Thursday the compas from the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition threw down a couple of barrio inspired mixers for community folks. Over plates of panuchos and hummus, organizers shared policy demands & community strategies for strengthening our San Francisco Eastern Neighborhoods. Similar to MAC members, many of those present are also involved in local efforts to win Proposition B (the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment) this coming November 5. After much heartfelt discussions about the conditions of our neighborhoods and the flight of working families from the Mission and South of Market, there was enthusiastic agreement that now is the time to get involved. Everyone in attendance committed to involving hundreds of people to win thousands of affordable housing units and blue/green collar jobs through the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan and Proposition B.

El Miercoles y Jueves pasado l@s compas de la Coalicion Anti-desplazamiento de la Misión organizaron unos convivios con miembros de la comunidad. Gozamos unos platos muy ricos de panuchos y hummus, a la misma vez organizadoras presentaron demandas y estrategias politicas para retomar Nuestro Ciudad de los urbanizadores codiciosos. Despues de mucho discusion sobre las condiciones de nuestro barrios y el desplazamiento de las familias trabajadoras de la Mission y South of Market, hubo mucho animo para involucrarse y defender nuestros derechos a vivir, trabajar y gozar la ciudad. Todos presente comprometieron a organizar cientos de personas para ganar miles de unidades de vivienda accesibles y trabajos manuales en Los Vecindarios del Este de San Francisco. Mucho de los quienes estaban presente, lo tambien estan involucrados en la campaña en favor de la Proposición B (enmienda para Viviendas Accesibles) de este 5º de Noviembre.

Freaky Fridays

2008-08-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Some interesting links:

This sure could've helped us these past few years.

The new face of San Francisco is rich, older, doesn't live here most of the time, and doesn't like their kids staying over.

From the same guy that wanted to develop 2660 Harrison St.: the cutting edge of housing.

A long overdue idea for generating money for our neighborhood needs.

A trip down memory lane...

A shout out to our sister organization, SOMCAN, who provide you a brief taste of the organizing that's going on in SOMA around the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan:

Jobs? Who Needs Jobs?

2008-08-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

A sobering article from the San Francisco Examiner.

San Francisco, say “So long” to industry and “Hello” to condos.
The City is expected to lose approximately 9,470 jobs throughout the next 16 years by converting nearly 5 million square feet of industrial space into housing units in four neighborhoods on the eastern side of San Francisco.
Under a rezoning proposal recently approved by the Planning Commission, the plan would grant housing developers access to huge swaths of industrial land that was previously available to them only with special permits. The zoning would allow housing development opportunities in east SoMa, the Mission district, Potrero Hill and the central waterfront, four areas with a rich industrial history that also make up about 7 percent of San Francisco’s 47 square miles of land.
Officials with the Planning Department told The Examiner recently that they expect so-called light industrial businesses — mostly auto-repair, printing, storage, furniture manufacturing, food production, catering businesses and some retail stores — to be pushed out because housing and office space generate far higher rents than industrial rent.

In case you haven't been paying attention, our communities are giving up a lot in terms of land and jobs in order to have space for another desperately needed commodity: affordable housing. The joke, of course, is that the City is offering precious little affordable housing in it's plan. So, what are we getting back? Not much, unless the plan is amended to incorporate both more affordable housing as well requiring new "innovative" industries to hire from within our traditional light industrial workforce. Next Monday we will lay out some specific proposals to make the City's plan better.

This may come as a surprise...(Happy Hour Fridays)

2008-08-22T09:21:00.001-07:00

Over the past year at the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, there are some constant arguments that I have heard from the development lobby that I think need to be challenged or at least better thought out. One such argument is that if you build more housing in San Francisco, prices will drop.

The wanna-be economists argue that the housing market in San Francisco subscribes to the basic economic theories of supply and demand. According to their simplistic reasoning, if you increase supply, prices will fall. Well, I too have taken economics, and it is my contention that their analysis of the housing market is incorrect. Building more housing in the City would not result in a decrease of the medium home price, at least not to a level that would make housing affordable to the majority of residents.

Moreover, I am also arguing that an increase in the housing stock, may actually increase the demand for housing (the housing market in SOMA is an example), thus increasing the price of homes.

Lets take the SOMA example. How many housing units have been built in SOMA over the past ten years? Thousands. Now, has the price of housing decreased in SOMA and the city overall since these thousands of units have been built?

No!

What these wannabe economists always fail to mention is the number of housing units that would actually have to be built in the city to decrease prices. The development lobby just wants to build housing and hope that prices fall.

One of my economics professors in graduate school once said that public policy is about winners and losers. If we add all this new market rate housing that the development lobby is asking for, and the price of housing increases, then who is really benefiting. If more and more San Francisco will be priced out, who will be winning and who will be losing.

This is a fight for the City, this is a fight for housing, this is a fight for a just housing policy.

Join Us For The Summer Mixers//Unete A Los Convivios En El Barrio

2008-08-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

We are calling friends, activists & allies to join us for some tasty food & drinks as we share our policy demands & strategy for taking back our SF Eastern Neighborhoods. At the same time we are mobilizing to win Prop B (the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment) this November, we are also organizing hundreds of people to win thousands of affordable housing units through the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan.

Join us for one these fun political mixers in the barrio...

August 27, 5pm @ PODER
474 Valencia St. #120 (at 16th St.)

-OR-

August 28, 5:30pm @ Le Boheme Cafe
3318 24th St. (at Mission St)

Estamos invitando a nuestros amig@s y aliados a reunirse en una tarde con comida y bebidas en dondoe vamos presentar nuestras demandas y estrategias para retomar Nuestro Ciudad. Ala misma vez que estamos movilizando en favor de la Proposición B (enmienda para Viviendas Accesibles) de este Noviembre, tambien estamos organizando miles de personas para ganar miles de unidades de vivienda accesibles en Los Vecindarios del Este de San Francisco.

27 de Agosto, 5pm en PODER
474 Calle Valencia #120 (acerca la Calle16)

-O-

28 de Agosto, 5:30pm en Le Boheme
3318 Calle 24 (acerca la Calle Mission)

Wonky Wednesday Morning

2008-08-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

(The future posts for Wednesday will be written by me, and I will be
covering the events at the Board of Supervisors, as they relate to
Eastern Neighborhoods. )

I will use this post to articulate the policy recommendations in the
People's Plan for Housing, Jobs and Economic Development. Today, I will speak to our Mission Street rezoning recommendations.

The Mission Area Plan as passed by the Planning Commission is recommending that heights along Mission Street be set at 85 feet and citywide affordability requirements apply. It will increase the allowable heights along Mission Street from 17th Street to 23rd Street. In other words, landowners would be allowed to build 8 story tall buildings without an increase in affordability requirements.

We object to the increase in allowable heights and propose:
• 55 feet height limits
• At least 30% of all units be sold/rented at below market rate
• Inclusionary units for sale – at 80-120% SF AMI
• Inclusionary rental units – at 60% SF AMI
• Inclusionary units affirmatively marketed to existing Mission residents

As many of you have noticed, most of the buildings along Mission
Street are below 55 feet or 5 stories, so why did the Planning Commission support increasing the height limit to 85 feet (8 stories)? Damn, those will be some tall building along Mission Street. We propose that new developments keep within the heights of existing buildings. If developers want to exceed the height limits, we propose that they contribute more affordable housing units to society in exchange for being granted an exemption from the planning code (law).

Allowing a developer to build more units than what is currently allowed is called a density bonus. In planning and policy classes, we learn that density bonuses are a powerful tool to build more affordable housing units. Generally, density bonuses are only granted if the developer is willing to provide a greater percentage of affordable housing units than is required. The Planning Commission, against our recommendations, decided to grant developers a density bonus without requiring enhanced affordability levels.

We essentially appose the increased height limits because they are out of character with the neighborhood, do not provide an increased percentage of required affordable housing units, and will result in high priced condos that the vast majority of San Franciscans cannot afford.

We are also proposing an enhanced inclusionary requirement of 30% because there is a need in the city and the neighborhood in particular for affordable housing. According to the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), 64% of all new units will have to be developed at affordable levels to meet the affordable housing need of San Francisco's residents. We are arguing that the market has failed to produce affordable housing in the City. When there is a market failure, it is the responsibility of the government to correct the failure.

The city of San Francisco can correct this failure by adopting the
aforementioned polices from the People's Plan.

So, How Are We Paying for All This Great Affordable Housing? Glad You Asked...

2008-08-15T16:22:00.001-07:00

November's election provides all of us who care about affordable housing a tremenedous opportunity to, in a very real way, put our money where are mouths are. Proposition B, the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment, would set aside money every year from the City's General Fund to pay for our most critical need, affordable housing. Here are the highlights of how this money could be used to preserve and enhance our community:

Establish a set aside of 2.5 cents of every local property tax dollar. This set-aside would generate an estimated $33 million dollars each year for the next 15 years;
Encourage a diverse unit-mix with at least 50% of the new units required to be 2 bedrooms or more;
Ensure that 40% of funds dedicated to new housing development assist very low-income households with incomes less than 30% of San Francisco median income(SFMI);
Ensure that 60% of funds dedicated to new housing development assist low-income households with incomes between 30% and 80% of SFMI.

The Affordable Housing Charter Amendment, is absolutely essential to build the, potentially, thousands of affordable housing units that could come from the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan.

Here's the rub, the plan that is going to be considered by the Board of Supervisors in a few short weeks does not contain nearly enough affordable housing. It mainly relies on private developers to provide a paltry 15 to 20% of units developed as "affordable." We know from experience that this inclusionary housing requirement very, very rarely produces affordable rental units. We will be left with neighborhoods that contain a handful of affordable ownership units and no affordable rental opportunities. The Planning Department optimistically predicts that up to 28% of the units produced under their plan would affordable. Which is all well and good, except for the fact that to meet San Francisco's affordable housing need even they acknowledge that a full 64% of new units would have to be affordable. While the community has waited over seven years for the Eastern Neighborhood plan to be completed, the Planning Department and Mayor’s Office of housing have failed to produce a comprehensive strategy to meet the affordable housing goals of 64% that the Board of Supervisors recommended in their resolution on the Eastern Neighborhood Plan.

In this regard the timing of the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment could not be any better as it can get all of those hard-working activists who have been pouring their heart and soul into that campaign to also focus on the importance of the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. Now is the time for all of us to call for a better Plan that will produce substantial numbers of affordable housing units across the income spectrum. Without a viable plan that calls for adequate amounts of truly affordable housing, the Housing Charter Amendment will be a tremendous resource squandered.

The Eastern Neighborhoods Plan and the Affordable Housing Charter Amendment go together like bricks and mortar-let's pitch in and make sure that we have the right materials to build our San Francisco of the future that will provide homes for all of us regardless of income, race or class.

La elección de noviembre nos da a todos aquellos a quien nos importa la vivienda económica, una oportunidad tremenda. La Propuesta B, la Enmienda de la Carta de Vivienda Económica, hará una reserva cada año del fondo general de la ciudad para nuestra necesidad más crítica, vivienda económica. Aquí están los usos más importantes de cómo este dinero se podría utilizar para preservar y para realzar a nuestra comunidad:

Establecerá un contribución de 2.5 centavos de cada dólar de impuestos locales de propiedad. Este dinero generaría aproximadamente $33 millones de dólares cada año por los próximos 15 años ;
Motivaría una mezcla en tamaños de unidades de por lo menos un 50% de nuevas unidades requeridas que requieran 2 o más dormitorios;
Asegura que 40% de los fondos de desarrollo de nuevas viviendas, sea dedicado para la asistencia a personas de bajos ingresos especialmente aquellos que ingresen menos del 30% en ingresos de acuerdo a el ingreso medio de San Francisco (SFMI por sus siglas en ingles);
Asegura que 60% de los fondos de desarrollo de nuevas viviendas, sea dedicado para la asistencia a personas de bajos ingresos especialmente aquellos que ingresen del 30% al 80% en ingresos de acuerdo a el ingreso medio de San Francisco SFMI(por sus siglas en ingles).

La Enmienda de la Carta de Vivienda Económica, es absolutamente esencial para construir, potencialmente, miles de unidades de vivienda económica que podrían venir del Plan de Las Vecindades del Este.

Pero el problema esta en que el plan que va a ser considerado por la Junta de Supervisores, en algunas semanas, no habla lo suficiente de la vivienda económica. Este plan principalmente confía en los urbanizadores privados para que proporcionen 15 a 20% de unidades desarrolladas como “económicas.” Por experiencia sabemos que este requisito de “vivienda incluyente” raramente produce unidades de alquiler económicas. El plan nos dejará con vecindades que contienen muy pocas unidades de venta económicas y ninguna de alquiler económico. El Departamento de planificación, optimisticamente predice que habrá un 28% de las unidades producidas bajo su plan serán económicas. Lo cual estaría bien, pero el hecho es que para resolver la necesidad de vivienda económica de San Francisco se necesitaría que el 64% de nuevas unidades fueran económicas. Mientras que la comunidad ha esperado mas de siete años que se terminará el Plan de las Vecindades del Este, El Departamento de Planificación no pudo producir una estrategia comprensiva para resolver las metas de vivienda económica de 64% que la Junta de Supervisores recomendó en su resolución sobre el Plan de Vecindades del Este.

En ese aspecto la sincronización de la Enmienda de la Carta de Vivienda Económica no podría haber sido mejor pues puede conseguir que todos esos activistas trabajadores que han estado invirtiendo su corazón y alma en esa campaña para que también se enfoquen en la importancia del Plan de las Vecindades del Este. Ahora es el tiempo para que todos nosotros pidamos un plan mejor que produzca números substanciales de unidades económicas a través del espectro económico. Sin un plan viable que requiera cantidades adecuadas de viviendas verdaderamente económicas, la Enmienda de la Carta de Vivienda Económica será un enorme recurso malgastado.

El Plan de las Vecindades del Este y la Enmienda de la Carta de Vivienda Económica van junto como ladrillos y mortero-luchemos juntos para asegurar que tengamos los materiales y derechos para construir nuestro San Francisco del futuro, donde proporcionará hogares para todos nosotros sin importar nuestros niveles de ingresos, raza, o clase.

Victimas de Embargos Hipotecarios

2008-08-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

Cuando hablamos de embargo hipotecario, conocido en ingles como foreclosure usualmente pensamos que los únicos que son afectados son los dueños de casa y nos olvidamos que hay ciertas ciudades como San Francisco donde la mayoría de habitantes dependen del inquilinato.

En los últimos dos años en el área de San Francisco, el número de embargos hipotecarios aumentó significativamente a más 390 casos por mes. Con esto una ola de abusos inquilinarios inesperada, que se presentan desde intimidación con la policía o inmigración, suspensión de los servicios de utilidades, hasta ejecución física de la propiedad.

Aquí, en el Comité de Vivienda San Pedro hemos escuchado muchos casos de abusos, ya sea por agentes de vienes raíces, los antiguos dueños o la persona que adquirió la propiedad. Los casos mas comunes que se han presentado son de personas que les han suspendido la electricidad y gas por falta de pago por el antiguo dueño de la casa, a pesar que los inquilinos hallan entregado su pago mensual.

Ha habido agentes de bienes raíces que quieren sacar provecho de la situación y se hacen pasar por nuevos dueños exigiendo que la renta se les entregue a ellos. No siendo eso suficiente estos agentes acosan a los inquilinos a diferentes y altas horas de la noche queriendo sacarlos de la propiedad.

Pero el tormento de los inquilinos no termina allí, pues no todos los bancos o nuevos dueños informan a los inquilinos la nueva dirección a donde se tiene que mandar los pagos mensuales o quien es responsable por alguna reparación pendiente. Esto hace que los inquilinos estén más vulnerables a los diferentes fraudes y abusos.

La causa de esta ola de abusos ha surgido debido a la falta de información disponible acerca de cuales son los derechos de un inquilino en caso de un embargo o ejecución hipotecaria, y la falta de conocimiento de parte de los bancos de la protección de inquilinos que existe en San Francisco.

Si usted o alguien que usted conoce se encuentran en un embargo hipotecario, lo primero que tiene que saber es que no solo porque la casa ha cambiado de dueño, no significa que tiene que salirse de la propiedad. Especialmente si usted vive en una casa hecha antes de 1979 o si su edificio esta protegido por el control de renta. No se deje intimidar por ningún agente de bienes raíces, ni por nuevos o antiguos dueños que desean sacar provecho de la situación. Busque el centro de protección de inquilinos más cercanos o llame al Comité de Vivienda de San Pedro.

~ 0 ~

Foreclosure Victims

When we talk or hear about foreclosure, we usually think that home owners are the ones being affected. Let us not forget that there are cities like San Francisco where most residents are renters/tenants.

During the last two years in San Francisco, foreclosure cases have significantly increased to more than 390 cases per month, which bring along with them a wave of tenant’s rights violations. These violations range from using the police and immigration to intimidate tenants into moving out, to inhumane shut offs of basic utility services like water and electricity, and, at times, even forced, physical eviction.

At St. Peter Housing Committee we have seen these violations done by real state agents, ex property owners and new property owners. The most common complaint we hear from our immigrant Latino tenant clients is about the suspension of electricity and gas. Even though tenants pay their fair share for utilities to their landlords or master tenants, some landlords fail to make the monthly payment, leaving the tenants to their own luck, and often facing a debt of thousands of dollars owed on the utility account

There have been real state agents that have taken advantage of the situations and pretended that they were the new property owners and have demanded rent payments from tenants. As if that wasn’t enough, these agents also harass tenants at odd night hours, threatening them and giving them illegal verbal eviction notices.

Currently, not all the banks or new owners send the information of where the rent payments need to be sent or who is responsible for repairs. If a tenant is not informed of who the new owner is or when the change of owner takes place, it makes them vulnerable to their rights to be violated or to fraud.

Sadly, the main reason why tenants’ rights are being violated is due to the need for information on tenant rights in cases of foreclosure, and the banks’ lack of knowledge about tenants’ rights protections in cities like San Francisco.

If you or someone you know lives in a house that is foreclosed, the first thing you need to know is that the property going into foreclosure doesn’t mean that you need to leave your home. Especially if you live in a house built before 1979, or if the building is under rent control. Don’t let any real estate agent or owner intimidate you or take advantage of the situation. Your first step is to go to any tenant rights organization or call St. Peters Housing Committee.

Que Viva Jose Morales!

2008-08-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

On July 27 over 70 supporters joined Jose Morales for a vigil commemorating his 14 year battle against an unjust Ellis Act eviction from his home of 43 years. At 79 years old, Jose has accomplished the amazing feet of fighting his landlord for the right to live out his golden years in the neighborhood and home that he loves. Over these triumphant years Jose has garnered the enthusiasm and hope of thousands of peoples from throughout the City.

Sadly though, on August 6 the San Francisco Sheriffs at the request of the courts, delivered the final blow and forced Jose out of his home at 527 San Jose Ave. It was a sad day but I couldn't help feeling hopeful at the sight of dozens of community members and organizations lending Jose a hand during this difficult time. That's what a community does... we take care of our own!

Currently, Jose is staying at a shelter being run by Dolores Street Community Services and is working with the fine folks at Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center to get him into affordable senior housing as soon as possible. Click here for the full Tecolote story.

Props go out to the many peoples and organizations that have and continue emotionally, spiritually and materially supporting our Abuelo. Click here for the pictures.

Development without Displacement: is it possible?

2008-08-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

The Peoples Plan for Housing, Jobs, and Economic Development was officially unveiled to the Planning Commission on July 10, 2008. The Peoples Plan (a community planning effort) was written to inform the Mission Area Plan (MAP) released by the city. The planning commission will vote on the plan by the end August. The Board of Supervisors will have the final vote.

The MAP will have numerous effects on the Mission District, on Mission Street in particular. Contrary to the People’s Plan that advocates for 55 feet (5 stories) height limits, the MAP will increase the height limits on Mission Street to 85 feet (8 stories) from an average of 65 (6 stories). What does this mean? This means that most of the land along Mission will become more expensive overnight. The city will have conferred wealth to landowners at the expense of the community. How? The taller a building can be, the more housing that can be built. Generally, the more housing that can be built, the more expensive the land becomes. There is nothing wrong with building more housing but we are afraid that more housing units along Mission Street will likely mean more luxury condos that the vast majority of residents can not afford.

More luxury condos will eventually lead to more gentrification. More gentrification will result in your neighbor, your favorite businesses, your best customer or even you being evicted or price out of the neighborhood. Does sound like a plan that would benefit the neighborhood? No it does not.

We are advocating for increased affordability levels (more below market rate units) for any development along the corridor, and enhanced affordability levels for any development that is higher than 55 feet. What does increased affordability mean for the business in the neighborhood? It means that there will be more low-moderate income customers in the neighborhood. This is approximately a family of four that earns less than $80,000 a year. This segment of the population is the customer base for many of the stores that operate in the daytime along Mission Street.

Mission merchants protect your customer base by supporting the People’s Plan, the only plan that will protect local business and residents from being evicted, and the only plan that will lead to housing, jobs, and economic development for Mission District residents.

EN ESPANOL

Desarrollo sin desplazamiento: es esto posible?

El Plan Popular por Vivienda, Trabajos y Desarrollo Económico fue presentado oficialmente a la Comisión de Planificación el 10 de Julio del 2008. El Plan Popular (un trabajo conjunto de planificación comunitaria) fue escrito para incluir las demandas de la comunidad en el Plan de Area de la Misión (MAP en inglés) presentado por la ciudad. La Comisión de Planificación votará si recomienda el Plan a finales de agosto pero la aprobación final la decidirá la Junta de Supervisores.

El MAP de ser aprobado tal como está tendra numerosos efectos en el distrito de la Misión y en particular en la Calle de la Misión. Contrario al Plan Popular que apoya un límite de altura de los edificios de 55 pies (5 pisos), el MAP propone 85 pies (8 pisos) de altura límite para los edificios en la calle de la Misión. Qué significa esto? Esto significa que la mayoría de las propiedades en particular el valor de la tierra en la calle de la Misión será de un día para otro mucho más costosa. Por medio de esta política la Ciudad le estará otorgando riqueza a los dueños de la tierra a expensas de la comunidad. Cómo pasa esto? Entre más alto pueda ser un edificio, más vivienda puede construirse. Generalmente, entre mas vivienda pueda ser construída en un terreno mayor valor adquiere la propiedad. No hay nada de malo en construir más vivienda, pero nos preocupa que las viviendas que van a construir a lo largo de la calle Misión son condominios lujosos que la gran mayoría de los residente no pueden comprar.

La construcción de más condominios lujosos solo conduce a más aburguesamiento del barrio. Mayor aburguesamiento resulta en que su vecino, su tienda favorita, su mejor cliente ó usted mismo sea desalojado de su vivienda o negocio por el exagerado aumento en la renta. ¿Le parece que este es un plan que podría beneficiar al vecindario? Por supuesto que No!

Nosotros estamos abogando por incrementar los niveles de accesibilidad para familias de bajos y moderados ingresos (mayor número de viviendas a precios por debajo del mercado BMR en inglés) en cualquier nueva construcción de vivienda más alta de 55 pies (5 pisos) a lo largo del corredor comercial de la calle Misión. ¿Qué significa aumentar el acceso a vivienda económica para los negocios? Esto significa que habrá más familias de bajos y moderados ingresos (familia de 4 que ganan menos de $83,000 al año) en el vecindario. Ellos son el segmento de la población considerados los mejores y más fieles clientes de las tiendas que operan durante el día en la Misión.

Comerciantes de la Misión protejan a sus clientes apoyando el Plan Popular, el Plan que protegerá a los negocios locales y residentes de ser desalojados, el Plan que nos llevará a obtener vivienda, trabajos y desarrollo económico para los residentes del distrito de la Misión.

The End Is Near! Let's Organize...

2008-08-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to approve the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan that will rezone four of San Francisco's most diverse and economically important neighborhoods, East SOMA, the Central Waterfront, Showplace Square, and the Mission district. This process now enters its final stage at the Board of Supervisors, where the Supervisors will make changes based on community input. The SF Chronicle's take can be found here.

MAC has been organizing around this process since its beginning, way back in 2001. We have been ceaselessly advocating for our community derived land-use policies, contained in the People's Plan, to be adopted by the Planning Department. The City's plan, as approved, falls far short of what we have been demanding. It does an adequate job of protecting land for industrial jobs in the Mission and it also requires new "hybrid" industries that provide industrial jobs but have a larger office component, to hire a significant portion (25%) of their workers from within our traditional industrial workforce. However, the Devil is in the details; unless we have adequate monitoring and enforcement of the new rules, our communities will lose out. So far the details are conspicuously lacking in their plan.

The housing side is far worse: a giveaway to market-rate developers that will quickly gentrify the neighborhood at an even more rapid rate than what we have seen this past decade. The Planning Department is not offering much in terms of affordable housing beyond "inclusionary housing," which is in essence below-market-rate ownership housing and what it calls "middle-income" housing, that would offer housing for people making 150% of Area Median Income (about $99,000 per year for a single person!). We are still strongly advocating for zoning that will result in affordable housing for low and moderate-income renters, who are the majority of the folks that live in the Mission, as well as affordable ownership opportunities.

While the Planning Commission and Planning Department may have given up on truly affordable housing, we haven't! We are organizing our community to come out in force to the Board of Supervisors in September. The Board still has the power to give the community the plan we have worked so hard to get. Please check back here regularly to get updated on specific hearing and event dates and to get updated on our specific campaign demands. The end is near and that means that we have to come together stronger than ever before.

Versión En Español

El jueves pasado la Comisión de Planificación de San Francisco votó para aprobar El Plan de las Vecindades del Este rezonifica cuatro de las vecindades más diversas y económicamente más importantes, East SOMA, Central Waterfront, Showplace Square, y el Distrito de la Misión. Este proceso ahora empieza su etapa final en la junta de Supervisores donde los Supervisores harán cambios basados en el retroalimento de la comunidad. El punto de vista del SF Chronicle puede ser encontrado aquí.

MAC ha estado organizando alrededor de este proceso desde su principio en 2001. Hemos estado abogando incesantemente para nuestras políticas derivadas por la comunidad, contenidos adentro del Plan Popular, para que sean adoptadas por el Departamento de Planificación. El plan de la ciudad, según lo aprobado esta corto de lo que hemos estado exigiendo. Es adecuado en sus protecciones para los trabajos industriales en la Misión y también requiere que las nuevas industrias “híbridas” que proporcionan trabajos industriales pero que tienen un componente más grande de oficina, para que empleen una porción significativa (25%) de trabajadores industriales tradicionales. Sin embargo, el diablo está en los detalles; a menos que tengamos la supervisión y aplicación adecuadas de las nuevas reglas, nuestras comunidades perderán. Los detalles están faltando hasta ahora en su plan.

El plan para viviendas es mucho mas peor: un regalo para los urbanizadores de viviendas al nivel del mercado que rápidamente va a aburguesar a la vecindad aún más rapido de lo qué hemos visto esta última década. El Departamento de Planificación no está ofreciendo mucho en términos de la vivienda económica más allá del “inclusionary housing,” que es, esencialmente, vivienda de compra bajo del nivel del mercado, y lo qué ellos llaman la vivienda de “renta promedia,” que ofrecería viviendas para la gente que hace 150% de promedio de ingresos de la área (¡cerca de $99,000 por el año para una sola persona!). Todavía estamos abogando fuertemente para zonificación que dará va a crear viviendas económicas para los inquilinos de ingresos bajos y de la moderado, que son la mayoría de la gente que vive en la misión, así como oportunidades para comprar viviendas económicas.

¡Mientras que la Comisión y el Departamento de Planificación pudieron se han dado por vencidos en la idea de vivienda económica, nosotros seguimos luchando! Estamos organizando a nuestra comunidad para venir con fuerza a la Junta de Supervisores en septiembre. La Junta de Supervisores todavía tiene el poder de dar a la comunidad el plan que hemos trabajado tan duro para conseguir. Regrese por aquí regularmente para conseguir las fechas específicas para audiencias y eventos y para obtener noticias sobre nuestra campaña. El fin esta cerca y esto significa que tenemos que venir juntos más fuertemente que nunca.

The Mission is our Home

2008-08-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

(This post originally appeared in the publication El Tecolote earlier this year)

It has been ten years since Mission residents were first being evicted and priced out of their homes in the gentrification of the Mission. In an attempt to quell these problems, the Mission Ant-displacement Coalition (MAC) has been fighting to prevent displacements through grass root organizing and advocacy. In response to neighborhood concerns, the San Francisco Planning Department has been in the process of creating a Mission Area Plan to rezone the Mission District. Among other things, the plan will “strive to provide a significant amount of new” affordable housing and “attempt to ensure a stable future” for industrial type businesses.

The residents of the Mission will need to advocate for “a significant amount of new” affordable housing and “a stable future” for industrial type businesses, because the City will fail to provide a suitable amount without community pressure.

The proposed zoning changes by the city will affect your home, business, health, employment and/or commute. It is imperative that community residents voice their opinions at City Hall. The Planning Department staff hopes to finalize the Mission Area Plan by year’s end. Hearings at the Planning Commission regarding the Mission Area Plan (MAP) are scheduled to begin in May. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will have final say on the policies in the MAP.

MAC has been in discussions with the panning department and other neighborhood based organizations to deliver community input into the plans. MAC has advocated for the plan to include regulations requiring that a significant percentage of the new housing built be affordable to families in the neighborhood. As a coalition of social service agencies, MAC is very aware of the need for affordable family-size housing in the neighborhood.

The biggest physical changes to the neighborhood will likely occur along the corridors (Mission, 24th, 16th, and Valencia Street) and the northwest corner of the Mission. The plan can also have a significant affect on the number of residents and businesses who are evicted or priced out of their respective homes and locations.

The rezoning of the corridors will play an important role in where new housing is built. The plan calls for rezoning Mission Street to allow for more housing by increasing height limits along the corridor. It could create incentives for developers to demolish existing buildings with businesses on the ground floor to build expensive mid-rise condos. Rezoning along the corridors should be done to maximize affordability and minimize displacement.

The plan will also determine the future uses of the industrial spaces in the northwest corner of the Mission. It will recommend the conversion (rezoning) of some parcels zoned for industrial use to residential and commercial uses. It is important to preserve industrial businesses because they provide thousands of blue-collar jobs.

EN ESPANOL

La Misión es Nuestro Hogar

Han sido ya 10 años desde que residentes de la Misión fueron desalojados y desplazados de sus viviendas por el alto costo de las rentas y el proceso de aburguesamiento del barrio. En un intento para enfrentar el problema, MEDA con otras organizaciones de la coalición MAC han estado luchando para prevenir los desplazamientos y estabilizar el vecindario por medio de la organización y participación comunitaria. En respuesta a las preocupaciones de la comunidad , el departamento de Planificación de la ciudad ha estado en el proceso de crear el Plan de Area para la Misión para rezonificar el Distrito de la Misión. El Departamento de Planificación espera lograr la aprobación del Plan para finales de este año. Entre otras cosas, el Plan de Area se “esforzará por proveer una significativa cantidad de vivienda económica” e “intentará asegurar un futuro estable para los negocios industriales”

Los cambios de zonificación propuestos afectarán su vivienda, negocio, salud, empleo y transporte a su lugar de trabajo. Los cambios físicos más significativos en el vecindario se notarán alrededor de los corredores comerciales de las calles Mission, Valencia, 24 y 16 y la parte noreste de la Misión. El plan puede tener un impacto significativo en el número de residentes y negocios que son desplazados o desalojados debido a los altos precios de la renta. Audiencias en la Comisión de Planificación con respecto al Plan de Area de la Misión empezarán en Mayo. La Junta de Supervisores sera quien diga la última palabra con respecto a las políticas del Plan de Area.

MEDA como miembro de la coalición MAC ha abogado por incluir legislación que requiera un mayor porcentaje de construcción de vivienda nueva accesible para familias del vecindario. El Plan de la ciudad propone rezonificar la calle Mission para permitir mayor altura de los edificios para constuir más vivienda. Lo anterior puede motivar a los constructores a demoler los edificios existentes que tienen negocios locales en el primer piso para constuir edificios de condominios costosos e inaccesibles a nuestra comunidad. La rezonificación alrededor del corredor comercial de la Calle Mission debe ser hecho para maximizar el número de vivienda económica y minimizar el desplazamiento.

El plan de la ciudad determinará el futuro de los usos industriales en la esquina noreste del Distrito de la Misión. Por ahora la recomendación de la ciudad es rezonificar algunos lotes designados para uso industrial y convertirlos para uso residencial y comercial. Es importante preservar los negocios industriales porque proveen miles de trabajos para nuestra comunidad.
Si está interesado en saber más del Plan de Area de la Misión, puede visitar la siguientes páginas de Internet:

Departamento de Planificación: http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/planning/Citywide/Eastern_Neighborhoods/VOLUME_1_Mission_Area_Plan.pdf

Coalición de MAC: http://www.macsf.org/documents/Peoples_Plan_Draft_part_1.pdf

Qué es zonificación y porque es tan importante?

Cada dirección (lote o parcela) en la ciudad es zonificada para ciertos usos. La calle Mission está zonificada para uso comercial y residencial. La calle 24 tiene también los mismos usos pero solo permite edificios hasta de 4 pisos de altura. Sin este tipo de regulaciones los edificios podrían ser tan altos como de 10 pisos.

Vivienda Incluyente: Es un requerimiento para cualqueir nueva construcción que incluye un porcentaje de unidades de vivienda accesible.

Vivienda Económica: Vivienda donde personas con ingresos menores del 80% -120% del ingreso medio de area ($80,000 al año para una familia de 4) paga no mas del 30% de su ingreso. Valencia Garden es un ejemplo de vivienda económica.

Comisión de Planificación: Es un grupo de 7 personas elegidas por el Alcalde y la Junta de Supervisores que supervisa el trabajo del Departamento de Planificación y aprueba, cambia, modifica o desaprueba las construcciones en la ciudad.

Junta de Supervisores: La rama legislativa de la Ciudad compuesta de 11 miembros elegidos en cada distrito. La Junta establece políticas, aprueba el Plan de Area y adopta ordenanzas y resoluciones.

Plan de Area: Es un elemento del Plan General de San Francisco. El Estado de California require que las ciudades decidan como van a cumplir con las necesidades de vivienda a través del Plan General.

Welcome To Our New Blog!

2008-07-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our final push to create a truly community serving rezoning and area plan for the Mission District, MAC is expanding its presence on the Internet with this fresh new blog! We hope to be able to keep all of our friends and allies up to date on our campaigns and get feedback from everyone to help build our movement. In the next few days we will be greatly expanding and improving this site so check back or even (gasp!) subscribe to our blog.