The GrowSF Report: Vote on June 7 like your future depends on it
The GrowSF Report: Vote on June 7 like your future depends on it
Get informed with the GrowSF Voter Guide
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of May 1, 2022
- Help support “A Place for All”
- Vote like your future depends on it
- The curious case of Tomiko Miller
- Red tape: only 62 new homes proposed this year
- Cafe lights coming to more streets around the city
Help support “A Place for All”
A Place for All is going to be heard in committee this Thursday, May 12th at 10am. Here are two things you can do to help make sure it passes:
Use our tool to email your Supervisor in two clicks and tell them you support a comprehensive plan to end street homelessness.
Sign our petition to get updates with the public comment schedule as soon as it’s available.
What is it?
We’re all used to hearing about eye-popping sums being spent on one homelessness program or another, but no program seems to change how many people we see every day forced to sleep on the streets.
GrowSF is proud to support Supervisor Mandelman’s “A Place for All”, a common-sense proposal to take a step back and think comprehensively. It would require a plan to use all of the shelter options at our disposal, from innovative tiny homes to navigation centers, to quickly and effectively bring the number of people forced to sleep on the street to zero.
This should be a no-brainer — but this is San Francisco. Obstructionist Supervisors and corrupt special interests are going to try to water down this proposal, but you can help prevent that.
You can also read more about the proposal and our answers to objections on our action page.
Vote like your future depends on it
It’s time to vote — again! We can fix San Francisco, but only if we vote together. Read and share the GrowSF Voter Guide. Ballots are arriving now!
The June 7 election has two very important items: the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin (Prop H) and an effort to make future recalls near impossible (Prop C).
Vote YES on Prop H to recall Boudin. We support criminal justice reform. We also want residents to feel safe. We believe San Francisco can have both — but not under Chesa Boudin. Read our case for recalling Boudin.
Vote NO on Prop C to stop a limitation of your democratic right to recall. If you voted for the school board recall, then you should vote NO on Prop C. It would have made the school board recall impossible. This is a cynical power grab by city supervisors to restrict the democratic rights of voters.
There are more than 20 offices and propositions on this ballot. Be an informed voter. Read the GrowSF voter guide to understand what all these votes mean.
The curious case of Tomiko Miller
San Francisco Examiner columnist Al Saracevic does a deep dive into what happened to one of the suspects in the infamous Louis Vuitton mob theft in Union Square last November. The video of the caper went viral. Saracevic says “Tomiko Miller’s story may help shine some light on the complicated debate surrounding public safety in San Francisco. Or it may just depress the hell out of you. Either way, it’s worth telling the tale.” We agree. Read it here.
Red tape: Only 62 new homes proposed this year
There was supposed to be housing built in this empty land across from a Caltrain station. But that project stalled. And a San Francisco Chronicle report sounds the alarm that “applications coming into the San Francisco Planning Department for new housing developments has slowed to a trickle so far in 2022 with just three projects totaling 62 units being processed during the first four months of the year.” This is not a good omen for solving our housing crisis. The Chronicle explains why “projects are just dying.”
Cafe lights coming to more streets around the city
There are 8,000 “cafe lights” strung above Valencia Street sidewalks that provide some European flavor the San Francisco Examiner dubbed “La Dolce Vita meets Mission Dolores.” The lights have been a boon to small businesses. The idea came from Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s cafe at 16th and Valencia and former small business commissioner. Now he wants to light up a dozen commercial corridors across San Francisco in hopes the magic spreads.
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
Today: Celebrate the new permanent JFK Promenade!
A permanently car-free JFK Drive has been 50+ years in the making, but it’s finally here to stay! This morning, join us and the many coalition partners that made a permanent car-free JFK possible for a celebration on our new promenade, at 6th and Fulton.
There will be food and activities. At 12:15, there will be a signing ceremony as the Mayor signs the legislation into law.
Speaking of our coalition partners, we want to take a second to acknowledge the amazing organizations that made car-free JFK possible. Car-free JFK was supported by so many people — including mobility advocates, disability advocates, small businesses, neighborhood associations, and recreational organizations — but we’d like to thank WalkSF, SF Bicycle Coalition, KidSafeSF, and the Church of 8 Wheels in particular for all of their hard work making this happen!
Come join GrowSF & Refuse Refuse SF clean-up Fillmore St
Sick of seeing trash around our beautiful city? We sure are! Refuse Refuse SF is an incredible organization that has helped clear over 100,000 gallons of trash from our streets; we love rolling up our sleeves to get stuff done for SF and decided we needed to get involved. Come join us on Friday, May 13th, 3PM at Santinos (California and Fillmore) for a clean-up drive, followed by a GrowSF sponsored happy hour to meet some like-minded neighbors. Sign up here.
SF Parks Alliance annual Public Space Summit
Join SF Parks Alliance for their annual Public Space Summit on May 12 at the Country Fair Building in Golden Gate Park! The Summit is a chance to hear from volunteers, community leaders, and local experts about all things parks and public spaces! Tickets are on sale now at publicspacesummit.org.
Celebrate San Francisco
There’s a lot to love about our city. Here’s what makes it great:
Ghirardelli Square is turning into a hub for local food
We always loved visiting Ghiradelli Square for an amazing ice cream sundae. And now we’re even more excited since Square Pie Guys and other local small businesses are opening there. There’s so much good food to eat in San Francisco.
Crissy Field Kite Day today from 1-3pm
“The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy will celebrate Crissy Field’s 20th anniversary from 1-3pm on Saturday, May 7. The first 1,500 people to arrive will receive a free kite to fly on this spacious grassy field in the Presidio.” More here.
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Topical Tweets
Yes, there is good stuff on Twitter. Here’s some of it:
We have to build housing at every level, including market rate housing.
Good thread by Jeffrey Tumlin about Muni’s recover since Covid hit.
