Busy Year for the West Side

What a busy year’s end it was for the Richmond, Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods!

We have an ideological divide about the recently passed upzoning maps for high-rise developments in the neighborhoods. The SF Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee failed to pass an amendment that would have provided protections against rampant development at Ocean Beach.

There was the unfortunate episode with SF Mayor Daniel Lurie’s appointment of Beya Alcaraz as District 4 supervisor to replace the recalled Joel Engardio. Lurie subsequently appointed Alan Wong to serve in the post until the June 6 election.

It appears Wong, as well as newly minted candidate Albert Chow, both support putting the fate of the Upper Great Highway (UGH) on the ballot.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi announced she was stepping down after multiple suitors lined up to challenge her for the job. After Pelosi’s announcement, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan said she’s running for the position. It’s the first time since 1987 that Pelosi won’t be representing San Francisco.

And the SF Public Utilities Commission is once again offering an inadequate plan for fighting fires on the west side after a major earthquake.

Yes In Your Back Yard

The main point I hear coming from the Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) pro-high-rise-development forces, the mayor’s office and real estate interests, is that building more housing will result in lower prices for rent, single-family homes, duplexes and condominiums.

The claim of creating “a city that our children can afford to live in” is a fallacy, as was the case in New York City, Chicago and other major cities that have tried upzoning to create more affordable rent and ownership options.

I have yet to see any evidence offered for the claim of lowered prices except for the “supply and demand” argument, where prices should drop if a significant amount of new housing is created. That’s not likely to occur in San Francisco, where there are always more people who want to live here than can be accommodated.

When it comes to producing “affordable” housing, the price tag for subsidized apartments is borne by developers and other taxpayers.

Based on data from the City and County of San Francisco controller and Budget Analysis Division, fees collected from the “inclusionary housing fee,” paid by developers that did not include affordable units on site, were approximately $200 million from 2014 to 2019.

At 4200 Geary Blvd., a new seven-story building contains 98 affordable units for seniors and veterans. It was built by the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) and cost about $90 million, mostly paid for by 2019 Affordable Housing Bond dollars, tax breaks and grants. There is no parking provided on site.

At 2550 Irving St. there are 90 affordable units for rent for families earning between $28,000 and $106,500 per household. The development cost the TNDC more than $50 million.

At 1351 42nd Ave., 135 affordable units for teachers, school employees and their families have been completed. This project has been in the works for years.

On Sloat Boulevard, a massive apartment building has been proposed near the SF Zoo and several supermarket sites are slated to add more than 3,000 apartments.

Align Real Estate developers are planning to build apartment buildings on several Safeway sites, including the Fulton Street and 48th Avenue location (eight stories, 526 units, 68 affordable); the Marina (25 stories tall, 790 units, 86 affordable) and Geary Boulevard and Webster Street (30-40 stories, 1,800 units, 270 affordable).

Almost all of the units being constructed in the City, including those deemed “affordable,” are apartments. They are not single-family or townhouse homes or condominiums where occupants own the units. Renters do not have the benefits of home ownership – they can be evicted at any time and don’t create generational wealth to pass on to heirs.

Our City is already skewed with about two-thirds of the 420,000 units being apartments. Most cities have about a 50-50 split between homes and apartments.

Where are the home ownership opportunities for our children in the City’s game plan?

Plan to Use Fresh Water for Fighting Fires

The SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is at it again, fighting common sense and pushing an inferior program that will cause problems after a major earthquake.

The SFPUC wants to use water from city reservoirs to fight fires, a plan that will take at least 14 years to complete. The plan is dangerous because it could quickly exhaust the City’s fresh water supply and lead to cholera and other diseases.

The SFPUC has determined its plan does not need environmental review and has appealed to the SF Planning Department for a “Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration.”

An extensive Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS) was constructed after the 1906 earthquake to protect the developed City from further firestorms. But there has never been a dedicated system of pipes to protect the west and southern sides of the City from multiple fires after a catastrophic event.

A good plan to extend the current AWSS to cover the western and southern neighborhoods was dropped in 2014, but activists, including 66 retired firefighters and officers, urge the commission to go back to the plan and to stop using drinking water to fight fires.

The only reasonable solution is to construct a pump station at Ocean Beach to provide unlimited water for firefighting. But the SFPUC, which never wanted the responsibility it was granted from former SF Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2010, has continuously come up with stupid plans which would never work in an emergency in order to save money for what it deems more important – serving its water customers on the Peninsula.

New Supervisor, Challengers Want UGH Open

Mayor Lurie chose Alan Wong to replace recalled Supervisor Joel Engardio in District 4. Wong was an aide to Supervisor Gordon Mar and a former member of the Community College Board. Wong was sworn in as supervisor just days before he voted to support the mayor’s upzoning of the west and north sides of the City. To counter Wong’s unpopular decision to allow high-rises, he announced in late December that he would work with three additional supervisors to put the fate of the Upper Great Highway back on the ballot.

Challenging Wong for the District 4 seat are Natalie Gee and Albert Chow. He is the owner of the Great Wall Hardware store on Taraval Street that was closed after an arsonist torched the business.

Chow is the president of the People of Parkside, Sunset (POPS), a merchant organization that hosts free outdoor movies during the summer and monthly meetings to air neighborhood grievances.

Chow was involved in the Proposition K effort to open the UGH to traffic during weekdays and he supported the recall of Engardio. He also opposes the massive upzoning of the west side.

I haven’t met Gee, an aide to District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, but she reportedly would support opening the UGH to traffic during weekdays. Gee attended Lowell High School and SF State University.

Chan Throws Hat in Ring

District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan has thrown her hat into the ring to fight for a job in Congress. After current Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement, Chan deemed it her time to represent the City in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Chan is running against Democratic Socialist Saikat Chakrabarti and State Sen. Scott Wiener. Chakrabarti was the former chief of staff for New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Wiener is the architect of the state’s usurping of housing decisions from local governments that do not prescribe to Wiener’s draconian housing mandates, which benefit his benefactors: the builders, developers and real estate interests which profit from his housing laws.

Chan was re-elected last year and has three years left on her term. If she wins a seat in Congress, the mayor would appoint a replacement. The congressional election is Nov. 3.

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