It’s Time to Vote!

Soon, San Francisco residents will get their mail-in ballots and the voting will begin. Because last year’s election was rolled into this one, the SF Department of Elections voter pamphlet will be thicker than an old phone book. Nevertheless, it is important to read it in order to make informed decisions on the many candidates and propositions on the Nov. 5 election.

Upper Great Highway for Everyone

One of the most important issues facing the west side is way down the ballot, Proposition K, which would close the Upper Great Highway (UGH) to private vehicles.

The proposition qualified for the ballot on the last possible day (June 18) with the votes of five city supervisors, including District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio and District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar.

Engardio offered some convoluted reasoning for springing the citywide ballot measure, and why he and other advocates for closing the highway decided to keep the plan secret from the public and neighborhood and merchant organizations. The District 4 supervisor even has a monthly column in the Sunset Beacon where he could have explained his rationale for such a draconian plan.

It’s no accident that property values are escalating near Ocean Beach, as developers and real-estate interests are eyeing buildings with increased height and bulk. The Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement is behind the effort, with leading advocate state Sen. Scott Weiner recently calling for properties near the beach to be divorced from oversight by the California Coastal Commission. He also sponsored numerous bills to bypass local planning decisions with a “state remedy,” whereby developers can build multiple levels taller than is allowed by the SF Planning Code by adding a few affordable units. The City is powerless to stop developers using state guidelines.

Big money is coming in to ban vehicles from the Upper Great Highway, with one person, YIMBY advocate Jeremy Stoppelman, giving $300,000.

But numerous city leaders and politicians recognize a power grab and bad deal made in the darkness of a back room.

Mayoral candidates Aaron Peskin, Mark Farrell and Daniel Lurie support keeping the UGH open to everyone and urge their supporters to vote “no” on Prop. K. As well, Richmond District Supervisor Connie Chan and her challenger in the District 1 supervisorial race, Marjan Philhour, say “no.”

Some local groups opposed to Prop. K include the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR), Chinese American Democratic Club, Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association, People of the Parkside, Sunset (POPS), Irving Street Merchants Association and the Richmond and Sunset branches of the Chinatown Merchants Association.

Please vote “no” on Proposition K.

Lurie, Farrell, Peskin for Mayor

One of the most important decisions we make on Nov. 5 is who will lead us as mayor for the next four years.

San Francisco has a strong-mayor form of government, whereby our mayor needs to wield the levers of power to achieve desired results. And we need results.

With ranked-choice voting, San Franciscans can choose several candidates, listing them in the order of preference.

There are three top-flight candidates who could lead us in a new direction:

• Daniel Lurie has the chops to get the job done. As an outsider who is not afraid to make tough decisions, he would shake up the entrenched bureaucracy and get the City moving again.

In 2005, Lurie founded Tipping Point Community, which raised more than $500 million and claims measurable results on early childhood, employment, housing and education programs.

When Prop. K was sprung on the electorate; Lurie was the first candidate to take a principled stand to reject the measure. (daniellurie.com)

• Mark Farrell has already been a temporary mayor who understands finance and budgets. With projected deficits on the horizon, Farrell would be a good candidate to keep us financially solvent with a minimum amount of damage. He stresses the importance of public safety and favors taking a different approach to the City’s drug use crisis. (markfarrell.com)

• Supervisor Aaron Peskin has earned the respect of a large swath of San Franciscans due to his institutional knowledge and informed discourse. While I sometimes differ with him on particular issues, he is respectful of the views of everyone and is confident enough to face his critics and explain in detail his policy decisions. Peskin is opposed to plans for extreme upzoning and the building of high-rises across the City – he would not sell out to the highest bidder. (Aaron2024.com)

I am leaving Mayor London Breed off my ballot as she failed to be an honest broker on behalf of all San Franciscans when the SF Board of Supervisors voted to close a portion of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, a roadway closed due to a worldwide pandemic. (City voters later approved the road closure.)

Breed also supports the misguided effort to restrict vehicles on the Upper Great Highway, the only major candidate to do so.

And when Geary merchants were fighting to limit the damage caused by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency’s Bus Rapid Transit program on Geary Boulevard, she was nowhere to be found.

Two Good District 7 Candidates

Two strong candidates are running for supervisor in District 7.

• Matt Boschetto is a small business owner, parent and native San Franciscan. He is running because he wants to tackle many of the complex issues facing San Francisco, including public safety and transparency in city government. He also supports making it easier to operate a small business in the City.

“I am not an ideologue, I am a pragmatist,” he said. (matt4supervisor.com)

• Stephen Martin-Pinto is a San Francisco firefighter who traces his family’s history in the City back to the 1840s. He would shut down open-air drug markets, fully fund law enforcement, address homelessness “responsibly,” end corruption at City Hall and promote housing and small business programs.

“I’m running because our City has a crisis of leadership. Our government lacks transparency, accountability and, most of all, integrity,” Martin-Pinto said. (stephenmartinpinto.com)

Melgar Must Go

Supervisor Myrna Melgar is running for re-election in District 7, which includes Golden Gate Heights and the Inner Sunset.

Melgar is a knee-jerk reactionary who is lousy at creating good policies. She’s gotta go.

She supported the effort to close JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, creating serious equity issues that still have not been addressed, supports Prop. K to close the Upper Great Highway and restrict vehicle access and used a tragic traffic accident near West Portal Avenue to expedite changes that could have negative consequences. She testified the changes at West Portal Avenue did not have the full support of merchants and others who called for restraint and more study and those who wanted to turn the avenue into a pedestrian mall. Perhaps changes were not necessary.

If Melgar were a divorce court judge, she would order the family cat cut in half so each side could have a piece.

Melgar also supported moving people living in recreational vehicles from Winston Drive near the Stonestown Mall to Zoo Road, next to the Janet Pomeroy Center for disabled children. She created an unfortunate situation for the center, but sanity prevailed when the mayor intervened and ordered the vehicles removed.

Paul Kozakiewicz is an editor and former publisher of the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review newspapers.