SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL LOVES IT’S OWN CORRUPTION!
SAN FRANCISCO GOVERNMENT WILL NEVER GET RID OF SAN FRANCISCO’S CORRUPTION!
THE FBI MUST TAKE OVER SAN FRANCISCO GOVERNMENT!
You have to pay off over 87 people and 28 ‘groups’ to build anything in San Francisco. Everybody from the mayor to the garbage man expects a “spliff”.
The hookers and mobsters that created San Francisco have turned into the Family funds and mobsters that rule the City. Gavin Newsom has called for ‘Emergency Reports’ to be written about why SF housing is so screwed up but Newsom was the Mayor of SF. HE KNOWS why SF housing is a mess: CORRUPTION.
Woke but NOT broke: San Fran’s Mayor London Breed was paid $351,000 last year – double the average city employee’s salary and nearly $100,000 more than NYC Mayor Eric Adams
G
overnment employees in San Francisco made anywhere between $36,000 and $601,000 last year, averaging around $127,000, the data showed.
The San Francisco Housing Authority is laying off 150 employees as of Sept. 30, part of the continued fallout of a 2019 U.S. Housing and Urban Development audit that found widespread problems at the agency.
The audit found SFHA, which manages San Francisco’s public housing, had shown financial irresponsibility and mismanagement of its housing program contracts and ordered the agency to contract out essential functions to a third party. A contractor was tapped in 2020, but the pandemic delayed the transition until this year.
“As the health impacts of the pandemic have subsided due to vaccinations and various other mitigating factors, the Authority resumed fulfilling its mandate,” said SFHA CEO Tonia Jediju.
HUD declared SFHA to be in default as a result of the agency’s failure to document and submit required financial reports, calculate accurate financial projections and manage its budgets. The agency had a nearly $30 million budget deficit in 2018, requiring a bailout from both the city and the federal government, as reported by The San Francisco Chronicle.
SFHA’s “over utilization” of its federal Housing Assistance Payments led to this deficit, SFHA’s Barbara Smith told Curbed SF at the time. She also cited SFHA’s difficulty in retaining “experienced” and “competent” financial staff.
HUD mandated city officials to assume responsibility of SFHA’s essential functions — making the city responsible for approximately 14,000 households reliant on rental assistance — in a letter issuing in the transition.
Fifteen employees will be impacted from the San Francisco Housing Authority administrative office, 65 employees from Sunnydale Development and 66 employees from Potrero Development, the layoff notice stated, and 85% of the workforce is being cut, according to Jediju.
The impacted job classifications range from construction carpenter journeyman to an SFHA program manager and senior administrative clerk. The majority of affected jobs fall into construction work categories.
Of the 146 employees impacted, Jediju said 89% belong to the building trades where they are provided with the opportunity to return to their union halls for new assignments.
Union representation for affected employees include Carpenters Union Local 22, Electrical Workers Local 6, Floor Layers Local 12, Plumbers Union Local 38, LIUNA Local 261, Glaziers Union Local 718, Painters Union Local 1176, Municipal Executives’ Association and SEIU Local 1021.
“The SFHA has invited all union member representatives to meet with their members and trust to provide answers to questions raised about wages and benefits after a layoff,” Jediju said.
“Significant efforts” have been made to minimize the adverse impacts of the layoffs, Jediju noted. The SFHA has been working with impacted staff since early spring, with 88 impacted staff members attending resume building sessions, 92 attending interview technique sessions and 87 attending rapid response workshops.
San Francisco homelessness crisis increases despite $1.1 billion in spending
Since the fiscal year 2016–17, San Francisco has spent over $2.8 billion on homelessness, but year after year, the number of homeless in the city continues to spike.
Rubbish! San Francisco’s $20,000 designer trash can struggles to contain trash
In 2018, San Francisco set out to build a better bin. The prototypes are finally ready for action – so we gave them a try
How San Francisco Uses Sex To Build It’s Culture
San Francisco promotes itself as an “anything goes” sexual lifestyle city.
Modern colleges sell the idea that putting your tongue or penis is someone else’s butt hole is ‘more exciting because it is more socially forbidden’. Kids from college swarm to San Francisco because they are told that they can get all kinds of sex and drugs there. Kinky people have three times as much sex as traditional people. So the horn-dogs move to San Francisco. Valleywag producer: Nicholas Denton, who openly loves young boys, spent a decade documenting Bay Area sluttery.
Alas, focusing your life on sex and drugs is not a great career choice. This has left San Francisco with one of the largest homeless populations of any major city. Thousands of douche-bag, wannabe, hipsters infest the alleys and facade-like neighborhoods of the City that was founded by prostitutes and gangsters.
Each of the Mayor’s of San Francisco, for decades, has had scandal-after-scandal with hookers, sleeping with aides wives, screwing Harvey Weinstein, having sex with convicted bribery perps and other shenanigans.
All of these kids want homes in SF but none of them can afford homes in SF. In offset, they create dorm-like flop-house dives to live-in, infect each other with AIDS, Monkeypox and scabies and fall by the way side.
Tue 23 Aug 2022 01.00 EDT
Last modified on Tue 23 Aug 2022 10.19 EDT
San Francisco may struggle with an intractable housing crisis, gaping income inequality and a deserted downtown – but one thing it will not tolerate is second-rate trash cans.
In 2018, the city’s department of public works began the process of replacing its more than 3,000 existing public trash cans. Not content with the models already on the market, San Francisco launched what is now a three-and-half-year (and counting), $550,000 project to design bespoke bins for its streets.
The design criteria for the trash cans stressed innovation (“Each can must be outfitted with an electronic sensor that sends alerts when nearing trash capacity so it can be emptied before overflowing”), aesthetics (“The design must be a visual asset on the sidewalk”), and above all, rummage-resistance.
The existing bins were “easy targets of scavengers, who rummage through them and leave behind a mess”, according to the public works department.
In July, the city finally rolled out custom-made prototypes of the three finalist designs. Production of the prototypes cost between $11,000 and $20,900.
But having already spent three and a half years on this rubbish issue, the city isn’t going to make any rash decisions on the final design: everyone’s invited to weigh in on which can is best. The three prototypes are distributed all over the city, with QR codes attached so that citizens can provide feedback during a 60-day pilot program. (Also planted across the city are three “off-the-shelf” models, which would reportedly cost $630 to $2,800 each; the custom ones, when produced at scale, are expected to cost $2,000 to $3,000.)
The Guardian took a tour around the city to investigate the options.
Salt and Pepper
This $11,000 trash can lives up to its name: it looks like a salt or pepper shaker. The public works department says its “unique and elegant profile stands out from afar”, and indeed, it was visible from across the street. But it doesn’t look particularly unique or elegant when stuffed with garbage: it looks like a trash can. And though its design may limit graffiti as intended, the steel fins seem likely to prove difficult to clean; they were encrusted with some unidentifiable gunk.
The Salt and Pepper has a separate section on top that’s intended for recyclables, as indicated by an unintelligible symbol. It was packed with non-recyclable items, which seems inevitable when hurried passersby are faced with a stuffed bin.
The opening for normal trash was small, which the city says makes it “difficult to rummage in the can”. It also makes it difficult to throw out a cup of coffee. A wide lip at the bottom of the opening means you really have to reach in there to ensure your trash lands in the bin, rather than next to it. Seeking a trash can people can’t take things out of, San Francisco has built one you can’t put things into.
Appearance: 5/10
Ease of use: 4/10
Overall: 4.5/10
Slim Silhouette
For $18,800, you get a trash can with a circular mouth that makes it appear permanently alarmed.
This bin’s appearance is unobjectionable; despite its name, it has an appealing heft to it. It would look at home on any street, but so do the current green trash cans. And like its slightly cheaper sibling, it’s a lot more appealing in the prototype images than it is when scuffed up and nearly overflowing. Also like its sibling, it was not drawing any interest from passersby despite the QR code on its side.
The Slim Silhouette also has separate compartments for garbage and recycling; again, both were filled with trash. The trash hole was even smaller than the Salt and Pepper’s, and when a finicky Guardian reporter threw out an item, he was forced to touch other trash making a bid for escape.
Appearance: 6/10
Ease of use: 3/10
Overall: 4.5/10
Soft Square
And finally, the bin behind the headlines: the $20,900 Soft Square, which is neither soft nor a square. The city describes this one as having a “recognizable trash can silhouette”, which does seem like something you want in a trash can. No one wants San Franciscans dropping their mail in these things or mistaking them for long-lost friends.
This is the only trash can that requires users to open it. There’s a pedal at the bottom so you don’t have to touch the handle; unfortunately, the pedal is so sleek and subtle that the Guardian reporter didn’t initially notice it and pulled the bin open by hand. Short on trash, the reporter placed a nearby leaf into the receptacle. Reopening it revealed that both the leaf and another piece of trash, placed earlier by someone else, remained stuck in the deposit slot, from which a fly lazily emerged.
As if to prove the slot was too small, a bag of trash sat on the ground next to the Soft Square, creating the very mess the cans are intended to eliminate.
Appearance: 5/10
Ease of use: 2/10
Overall: 3.5/10
The verdict
In a city obsessed with disruption, none of the models revolutionized the world of waste disposal. Might as well just go with the cheapest – or keep what we’ve got.
REPORTS!!?? YOU DON’T NEED NO STINKIN REPORTS:
YOU NEED TO BUILD!!!!
San Francisco Rich Elite Chinese, Indian And Old Money In Pacific Heights Call All The Shots!
SAN FRANCISCO HOUSING IS ONE HUGE CORRUPT MESS!
What takes four years to make and costs more than $20,000? A trash can in San Francisco.
That costly, boxy bin is among six trash cans hitting San Francisco’s streets this summer in the city’s long saga in search of the perfect can. Overflowing trash cans are a common sight in the Northern California city, along with piles of used clothes, shoes, furniture and other items strewn about on sometimes-impassable sidewalks.
City officials hired a Bay Area industrial firm to custom-design the pricey trash can along with two other prototypes that cost taxpayers $19,000 and $11,000 each. This summer, residents have the opportunity to evaluate them along with three off-the-shelf options added to the pilot program after officials faced criticism.
Last month, the city deployed 15 custom-made trash cans and 11 off-the-shelf trash cans — each of those costing from $630 to $2,800 — with QR codes affixed to them asking residents to fill out a survey. City officials said they intend to pay no more than $3,000 per can.
San Francisco began its search for the perfect trash can in 2018 when officials decided it was time to replace the more than 3,000 public bins that have been on the streets for almost 20 years.
Officials say the current bins have too big a hole that allows for easy rummaging. The bins also have hinges that need constant repair and locks that are easy to breach. Some people also topple them over, cover them in graffiti, or set them on fire.
The city is so serious about the endeavor it has created interactive maps so residents can track and test the different designs, which include the Soft Square, the priciest prototype at $20,900. The boxy stainless steel receptacle has openings for trash and for can and bottle recycling and includes a foot pedal. The Slim Silhouette, at $18,800 per prototype, is made of stainless steel bars that give would-be graffiti artists less space to tag.
If one of the custom-designed bins is chosen, the cost to mass produce it will be $2,000 to $3,000 per piece, said Beth Rubenstein, a spokeswoman for San Francisco’s Department of Public Works.
“We live in a beautiful city, and we want (the trash can) to be functional and cost-effective, but it needs to be beautiful,” she said.
But the good looks of the shiny new trash cans have not protected them from vandalism and disrespect. Three weeks after being unveiled, several have already been tagged with orange and white graffiti. Others already show the drip stains of inconsiderate coffee drinkers or have attracted dumping, with people leaving dilapidated bathroom cabinets and plastic bags full of empty wine bottles next to them.
Trash on San Francisco city streets has been an issue for decades. In 2007, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom eliminated about 1,500 of the city’s 4,500 trash cans because he said they were not helping keep streets clean and were becoming magnets for more trash. Officials couldn’t say how many receptacles are currently on the curb, but the city plans to replace at least 3,000.
“A trash can is one of the most basic functions of city governance and if the city can’t do something as simple as this, how can they solve the bigger issues of homelessness and safety and poverty?” asked Matt Haney, a former supervisor who lives in the Tenderloin neighborhood and now represents the area in the California Assembly.
New trash cans will be the latest addition to the city’s arsenal against its dirty streets. In 2014, San Francisco launched its “Pit Stop” program in the Tenderloin neighborhood, the epicenter of drug dealing and homelessness in the city, setting up portable public toilets. In 2018, the city created a six-person “poop patrol” team amid demand to power wash sidewalks.
Haney said that as a supervisor he reluctantly agreed last year to approve the pilot program despite the high prices to avoid delays.
“I think most people, including me, would say just replace the damn cans with cans that we know work in other cities, just do it,” he said.
Haney said the “whole trash can saga has this stench of corruption,” referring to disgraced former Department of Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who pleaded guilty in January to federal wire fraud charges. Nuru awarded the contract to maintain San Francisco’s trash cans to a company owned by a relative of a developer who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is cooperating with federal authorities in the case against Nuru.
On top of the corruption, the city has long been the butt of jokes for how long it takes to complete public works projects of all kinds.
A bus rapid transit system along Van Ness Avenue, one of the city’s main arteries, finally opened this year after 27 years of construction. A new subway line connecting Chinatown with other areas of the city that started construction in 2010 is four years behind schedule. In 2017, the city completed the Transbay Transit Center only a year late, but the $2 billion terminal abruptly shut down six weeks later after crews discovered two cracked steel girders.
Ultimately, what trash can the city gets will depend on feedback from sanitation employees, and the surveys completed by the end of September, Rubenstein said. The new cans are not expected on the streets until the end of 2023.
Diane Torkelson, who often picks up trash in her Inner Richmond neighborhood with other volunteers, recently trekked 5 miles (8 kilometers) with a dozen other civic-minded San Franciscans to examine three of the cans.
The two prototypes were already full when the group arrived to check them out, she said.
“If the trash can is full, it’s of no use, no matter how well it was designed,” she said.
http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/report/solving-the-housing-affordability-crisis-san-francisco/
Solving the Housing Affordability Crisis in San Francisco
Increasing the supply of housing, through completing large planned housing developments or reducing administrative barriers to creating new homes, drives the …
Inside San Francisco’s housing crisis – Vox
San Francisco is going through an “eviction epidemic,” Gullicksen said. The Tenants Union operates a drop-in clinic for people who have problems with their …
One Man’s Quest to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Crisis – The Atlantic
May 12, 2022 … Robert Fruchtman has documented dozens of community meetings, making it easier for activists, politicians, and journalists to notice San …
How to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Market
2 days ago … Raise taxes on income and you discourage labor. Raise taxes on capital and you discourage investment. Raise taxes on property and the same logic …
The solution to SF’s affordable housing crisis is simple
Nov 29, 2021 … San Francisco has built fewer than 6,000 affordable housing units in the last seven years — 10,000 units fewer than…
Creative Solutions to San Francisco’s Housing Crisis
Creative Solutions to San Francisco’s Housing Crisis · 1. Backyard Cottages in Denser Neighborhoods · 2. Tiny Prefabricated Portable Homes · 3. Nonprofit Artist …
How to Fix San Francisco’s Homeless, Housing, and Climate Crises
Nov 27, 2019 … By cracking down of the construction of luxury apartments, and limiting the amount of short-term rentals that are allowed in the city, San …
How to solve San Francisco’s housing crisis
Oct 23, 2019 … SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — We recently told you that San Francisco’s housing production for low-income earners is out of sync with the actual …
How San Francisco Bay Area Residents Are Confronting a …
Aug 3, 2021 … The City of San Francisco. Photo by Ryan Taylor. A central factor in the crisis is that there are lots of jobs being created, but little housing …
What is a good solution to the San Francisco housing crisis? – Quora
Advocate for more housing, especially multi-family housing (not luxury condos), in the Bay Area’s inner suburbs. Advocate to abolish single-family zoning in …
By J.K. Dineen [8-12-22] // “While the investigation of the city’s housing practices will likely take more than a year, the housing element is more pressing. San Francisco planners have five months” to come up with a realistic and convincing plan to build 82,000 housing units by 2030.
S.F. Chronicle: San Francisco is about to change dramatically — whether it wants to or not
By Chris Elmendorf [8-11-22] // San Francisco can go its own way in deciding which regulatory requirements to roll back first. Should it be impact fees for public art or affordable housing mandates? But the bottom line must be a regulatory environment in which building new apartments and condos is more appealing than flipping existing single-family homes.
By Chris Nichols [8-8-22] // “Other parts of the city, they get a hotel for the homeless,” Rebecca Sandoval said, referring to a state-funded downtown homeless housing project. “What do we get? We get a safe ground.”
S.F. Chronicle: Why California’s attorney general weighed into an East Bay affordable housing fight
By Shwanika Narayan [8-10-22] // AG Rob Bonta filed a court brief Tuesday supporting Livermore’s request to dismiss or expedite an appeal filed by the group Save Livermore Downtown, which said the downtown 130-unit affordable housing project necessitated a more thorough review.
By Barbara Henry [8-11-22] // Plans call for 94 apartments, restaurants, shops and a 34-room hotel building that will be connected via bridge to beach resort. Nineteen units will be reserved for affordable housing.
Sourav Goswami [8-8-12] // “… a new term has emerged, single-family rental (SFR), that includes both traditional single homes as well as purpose-built rental communities of houses (BTR).”
New York Times: The Summer of NIMBY in Silicon Valley’s Poshest Town
By Erin Griffith [8-12-22] // Moguls and investors from the tech industry, which endorses housing relief, banded together to object to a plan for multifamily homes near their estates in Atherton, Calif.
LAND USE / PLANNING / REGULATION
By Julie Johnson [8-10-22] // Santa Rosa officials capped the number of vacation rentals allowed in the city, the latest move by a Bay Area government to limit short-term rentals stirring complaints about everything from noisy parties to housing shortages.
San Diego Union-Tribune: Rezoning requested to allow up to 400 new homes in Oceanside
By Phil Diehl [8-7-22] // The proposed Tierra Norte development is about three miles west of a larger proposed residential project, also on North River Road, that has sharply divided Oceanside over the conversion of agricultural land to residential uses.
HOUSING MARKETS / REAL ESTATE
The Real Deal: SF has least competitive rental market in state, report finds
By Emily Landes [8-12-22] // Occupancy rates and rents are up, but the city has less demand than elsewhere.
MORTGAGE / FORECLOSURE
OC Register: California foreclosures jump 116%: Ugly turn or merely moratoriums ending?
By Jonathan Lansner [8-11-22] // US foreclosure activity up 153%.
Business Insider: Why mortgage rates are fluctuating so much in 2022
By Alcynna Lloyd [8-12-22] // The average US fixed rate for a 30-year mortgage came in at 5.22% this week, way up from last week’s reading of 4.99% and from a pandemic low of 2.68% in December 2020.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
By Pauline Bartolone [8-8-22] // Over the past eight months, CapRadio journalists have been listening to residents of Hagginwood, Del Paso Heights, Old North Sacramento and other nearby communities. They’ve shared their frustrations and their ideas about community-led solutions.
By Janelle Salanga & Kristin Lam [8-10-22] // “If you clean it up, and if you bring in the resources, and you bring in the new, you’ll be surprised how it’ll just flourish like Natomas did,” Mina Perez said. “It’ll grow and become and those that have been taking advantage of the community will go away, finally.”
HOMELESSNESS
East Bay Times: East Bay city pledges $2 million to support homeless housing
By Judith Prieve [8-10-22] // Antioch will seek a developer partner and state Homekey funding.
By Chris Nichols [8-11-22] // The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors has approved two ordinances that will outlaw homeless encampments along the American River Parkway, near schools, libraries and other areas deemed “critical infrastructure.” Laws are expected to take effect in 30 days.
KCET: L.A. Council Bans Homeless Encampments Near Schools after Another Disruption
[8-11-22] Kevin de Leon wishes violent protestors “would channel that energy to join with us to build more housing, to acquire more housing, to get our unhoused neighbors off the street sooner rather than later.”
[8-10-22] // The Sacramento City Council in a 7-2 vote during a special meeting Tuesday night approved the Emergency Shelter and Enforcement Act of 2022.
ECONOMY / EMPLOYMENT
Mercury News: Insurance rates climb from fires, COVID, inflation, worker shortage
By Ethan Baron [8-12-22] // Homeowner premiums have gone up 20% to 25% in the past three years. Huge home-insurance payouts by insurers after wildfires sent some providers fleeing from the risky areas of California, leaving fewer companies in the Bay Area and the state, with more risk in their portfolios.
MSN | The Signal: Castaic residents see 1000% increase in fire insurance
[8-5-22] // Residents of a Castaic condominium complex are wondering why an estimated 1000% increase to their fire insurance rates would happen in as little as three years, but say answers to this question are hard to come by.
TRANSPORTATION / TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Streetsblog: Guest Column: Europe’s Bike and Transit Systems Are a Marvel, but Only for Some
By Lisa Jacobsen [8-11-22] // Throughout her investigative tour of Amsterdam and London, Jacobsen noticed gaps in the way transportation solutions were planned. To be sufficient for U.S. cities, we would need to build on and improve upon European approaches.
Planetizen: $2.2 Billion in RAISE Grant Funding Announced for Transportation Projects
By James Brasuell [8-11-22] // The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) competitive grant program, supersized by the federal infrastructure bill in 2021, just announced a new round of funding.
REDEVELOPMENT / INFILL / PRESERVATION
By Edward Booth [8-5-22] // The plan would retain three historic buildings and redwoods, but a variety of new buildings would provide townhouses, condos, and single-family homes on the former site of the Napa County Health and Human Services Agency. Plans include housing for low-, moderate-, and workforce-income levels, depending on subsidies available.
By Sonya Herrera [8-10-22] // The City Council approved the pre-zoning and annexation of the 18-acre site of Cambrian Park Plaza and 20 acres total of county land in. The mixed-use Cambrian Village will replace a shopping center and include 428 housing units: apartments, townhouses, and detached houses.
East Bay Times: Big downtown San Mateo development gets boost from real estate deals
By George Avalos [8-11-22] // Project would bring offices and housing to San Mateo’s central district.
[8-4-22] // The Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter Act of 2022 (HOUSES Act) is a unique way to alleviate the housing shortage without interfering with state and local decision-making, by allowing states to purchase certain general public lands for the purpose of developing new housing. Full report available to download.
North Bay Business Journal: California’s Newsom wants to accelerate key climate goals
By K. Ronayne & A. Beam (AP) [8-10-22] // California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to speed up the state’s transition to non-carbon electricity sources and accelerate its timeline for lowering greenhouse gas emissions…
San Francisco’s largest employer: Salesforce, lists nearly half of office space in its second downtown San Francisco tower for lease as Salesforce dies. Netflix and Tesla layoff like gangbusters. Almost all of SF Twitter staff have posted resumes looking for other jobs. Using Facebook and Google is a true sign of ‘being an idiot‘ and advertisers are leaving them like a torrent. SF Tonal has a tsunami of lay-offs. ‘Influencers‘ committing suicide in ever increasing numbers as they see that tech is all lies. Bay area tech companies are going out of business in a flash of despair.
Bay area realtors see sudden departure of $100K over-asking offers evaporate.
Bay Area high tech buyers are rushing to Texas and Nevada as they see their big tech dreams turn into crapola.
Bay Area housing market switches from sellers market to buyers market almost over night.
Recession, Theranos and VC BS blows away Silicon Valley’s cloud of scams and puffery!
San Francisco genetic tech company Invitae will lay off 1,000 employees, including over 700 local employees
Corrupt Values Will Eventually Implode Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley stays quiet as Washington implodes | Computerworld
Founders Of Silicon Valley Firm That Imploded Amid Sex Harassment …
Silicon Valley’s favorite charity almost imploded in scandal. Now it’s …
Top Techies Dance As Silicon Valley Implodes • GadgetyNews
Silicon Valley Broke All Its Promises – The Atlantic
When pensions implode: Silicon Valley’s lesson for New York
Silicon Valley has learnt little from Elizabeth Holmes
Is Elizabeth Holmes’ guilty verdict a Silicon Valley reckoning?
The Selfish Californian The Silicon Valley motto should be “I create …
