TysforSupervisorBlog

"Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want...
and they deserve to get it, good and hard."
- HL Mencken

Did I mention pub crawls are fun?




Come on out to the next one... Tonight!

Continuing to work for the community while on the campaign trail:





Everything takes time, and more importantly, perseverance.

As president of North of the Panhandle, I was part of the negotiating team... well, it ended up being just me and another NOPNA board member, Jim... with the Bank of America developers at Fell and Broderick. One of the things we negotiated with the developer was to get money for the Panhandle park. We thought we'd buy the park a bunch of trees to plant throughout the area, and we still hope to do that, but the park also needs grass seed and top soil.

Here's me with the $2500 check for trees and maintenence for the neighborhood park. One more way community leadership and dedication can bring positive things to the District.

amazingly, again, I was the only candidate in District Five to attend the Community Policing Forum at Northern Station last night.

Every single one of my opponents talk about how we need stronger community policing programs, better relationships between the police and the public, more communication... and yet they don't even know what's going on.

There was another shooting this week on Fillmore Street. Another drug dealer getting taken out by others, who knows why. Apparently, the victim survived, but won't even give any information about who shot him. This happened in front of 3 of my competitor's campaign signs.

Voters should be asking themselves, how much of all this talk from candidates is just talk?

ah, journalism...

it's unfortunate that we don't have much for real journalism here in SF. Granted, the D5 race is a circus, and everyone is clamoring for attention, but there's such a gap between how hardworking the 'small'/independent media (SF Observer, SF Sentinel, even the New Fillmore, heck, even joefire) seem to be compared to the Guardian, the Weekly, etc.

I just saw 4, or was it 5 pages of the Weekly taken up with a spoof on the D5 race as a trading cards game. Sheesh. Worse, the miniscule comments (ok, I didn't read everyone's, I bet they're all bad) written about each candidate seem based on impressions after asking a few people in a bar to say what they know about the folks in the race.

My little blurb mentioned that I often wear a hat. My guess is that they read that on joefire, since he's had that on his site for about a month. there's journalism for you. repeat an off hand comment made by someone else as the whole message. Ah well.

One reason I'm so interested in the local media is that it could be such a great place to get information to people, to let a whole part of our district --folks who don't or can't get to political forums, who just moved here, etc.-- to know about the important stuff that will affect the city for years to come. Instead, we get playing cards that don't make much sense. Oy.

Ideology vs. Practicality

I was out at a bus stop this morning, talking to voters, answering questions, saying hello, and I ran into someone who was supporting another candidate (Lisa). Always interested in people's thought process, I asked what the guy liked about her.
He mentioned her eloquence (which I agree with) and her pro-housing stance on the planning commission (which I agree with her stated philosophies, but wonder how effectively they were implemented on the planning commission.. but I didn't say anything about that)

I mentioned that I agreed with Lisa about the needs for afordable housing and that we agreed on most of the ways to get there... and then I started talking about how I felt the job was a lot more about customer service and representation instead of ideology (especially since most of the candidates agree on philosophy) and this guy strongly disagreed.

Interestingly, he said that this district is "doing just fine. There's a lot of wealthy people here. What's most important for this district is to create a progressive majority at the BOS. This district is fine." That's where the conversation ended, as he had to get on the bus... but I guess it would have ended anyway.

It's funny how people see even these local political issues in this simple black and white... or should I say green and blue (for democrat?) I bet my bus stop friend would put Peskin into that progressive camp at the BOS... yet he got elected as neighborhood guy, coming from the community groups. We need to get away from the us vs. them mentality and start focusing on the problems vs. the people.

thoughts on debates:


It’s my personal belief that what we want to see from our political candidates is care, experience, and leadership. To that end, I suggest questions that get at those three areas. Often, the election cycle is compared to a long job interview, and rightly so. So let’s ask questions that trained employers ask. (I used to be a consultant helping businesses hire the best employees.) My suggestion would be to get the candidates to tell about their past experience showing X, Y, Z. The best way to do this is ‘tell me about a time when’ questions. For example:

-Tell me about a time when you showed leadership within a community that led to a positive change for that community.

- Tell me about a time when you worked to build bridges between what you consider two different perspective groups, explain the outcome, and why you feel they had very different perspectives.

- Tell me about your experiences giving your time to the community when it wasn’t connected to your job

- Tell me about a time when you did outreach to a community that you aren’t a part of, either ethnically, financially or socially and how that outreach led to something getting accomplished.

Why and How questions are also very good, but How has to be focused on the individual’s experience:

Why do you feel you should be Supervisor over the person sitting next to you?
(another thing about the debates is that there’s never any distinguishing between the candidates done by each other. Everyone is too afraid to look like they’re attacking someone. Well, almost everyone. )

Why do you feel a background in ____ will be what is best for the job of Supervisor?

Why did you decide to run for this office when all these other folks were already in the race?

How have you worked to improve D5 in the past?

How have you worked with the small business community in the past?

How have you dealt with customer service issues in a hectic office environment in the past?

My final thought about the debate process is that most of the audience only seems to enjoy the parts when the candidates are moving away from the structured process and doing quick back and forth arguments. In other words, when the moderator loses control is when it gets interesting.

can I get that on a patch? "Restorer of Streets with Dwellings"


paraphrasing Isaiah...

If you share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, clothe them.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Then the LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

A lot of folks are concerned about the confusion around Rank Choice Voting.


Of course, there's a pretty good website explaining it, but it's not the web-savvy people we're worried about. While ranking things first, second and third, is not that hard, it's that people think they need to understand it more deeply... that they can 'game' the system by voting for someone specific for their 3rd choice or something.

It doesn't work that way, but people think it must. I have a little explanation on my website as well... http://www.tyssniffen.com/rcv.htm but again, lots of people aren't going to hear about that.

What's more, a lot of people are blaming Rank Choice Voting (RCV) for the flood of candidates we have in District 5. Having this many candidates does in fact make the process even more confusing, but it's not the cause of the flood.

We have 22 people running in this race because the incumbent dropped out and the job pays $90,000. In the 'old' voting system in 2000, Matt Gonzalez got 12,000 votes and the nearest competitor got 8000 votes. In the December runoff, 2600 people voted, with 1800 votes going to Matt. That's how he won. The winner of this race will probably get about 10,000 or so votes this fall.

We have a lot of people in this race who are just thinking they should take a shot at getting those votes. Don't blame RCV, but candidate ego.

You're going to vote, right?

well, take a second and fill out this form and maybe win $100,000!

http://js319bh.VOTEorNOT.org

why not? you ARE going to vote anyway.

back in town...


Getting back into life in San Francisco, I’d like to take this public moment to thank the many people who have sent their sympathies to me over the recent loss of my father, whose funeral took me back to WI and off the campaign trail for a week. It’s been a year of change for me, as I lost my mother last fall, got married this summer, and decided to run for Supervisor this last spring.

Mom's obituary can be read at http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/TAUWP/sniffenobit.htm

and dad's at http://omrofuneralhome.com/obituaries.php

Times of change are often times to reflect and determine if one is on the right course… and it seems that at every change, the great friends I have in San Francisco, and the city itself let me know that I’m a lucky guy. Lucky to live in such a great place, and to have this opportunity to serve my community. Thank you.

Well, we had that violence summit a while ago... I haven't heard much coming from the other candidates who organized it about next steps.

Have you ever thought about volunteering in the SF school system?
http://www.sfsv.org/interested.html

Much of the insightful comments that came from the public that evening were about teaching our children values, character, and responsibility. Many people had ideas on ways to do that, all of them good ones... one simple way, of course, is to build on what we already have in place--- like a volunteer program in our schools.

The Tys Campaign is everywhere!

http://www.eventvibe.com/sf/clubs/me/pictures/082604/

Two great events last Saturday:


The Mayor's office of Neighborhood Services came out to D5 and put on a good show... bringing department heads and folks who can answer questions. The mayor did a fine job.

Here I am talking with Cheif Fong, who I've certainly seen out and about, talking with communities.




After the Town Hall, Marcus Garvey/MLK co-op had a block party going on, and lots of community leaders came out to enjoy the fabulous day (and good food!)
Here's Captain Ehrlich and some happy community leaders:



Bright colors shown off by Tys and Sister Carmen Johnson, a powerful positive force in the Western Addition.

Take a moment and help get California back on track with the environment, working toward implementing the solar power plan...building a million solar homes by 2017.

After months of intensive campaigning for the country's most aggressive solar homes policy, we have finally received the official support of Governor Schwarzenegger! Now we need your help to pass our bill in the state legislature and put it on his desk within the next two weeks.
Please email your state assembly member and senator today and ask them to support Senator Murray's Solar Homes Bill, SB 199.

To send a note right now, click this link, or simply paste it into your web browser:
http://environmentcalifornia.org/envirocalifenergy.asp?id=111&id3=CEenergy&dm=1

Building a million solar homes by 2017 will do the following:
* Install more than 2,700 megawatts of solar power, equal to 36 peaking power plants.
* Save ratepayers $2-5 billion dollars by reducing the need to purchase expensive power during periods of high demand;
* Bring California greater energy independence from the energy companies guilty of manipulating the state's energy supply for profit;
* Reduce energy demand during the hot summer afternoons, the time of day California continually faces energy shortages.
* Reduce hundreds of thousands of tons of air pollution.

I'm pretty proud of this answer to a survey question (have you seen them all at www.tyssniffen.com/about.htm ? whew!)

Please list 3 primary goals for your 4-year term as District 5 Supervisor.

1. Organizing the district and community structure so that neighborhood residents feel they are listened to and well informed. From the many different ways I intend to communicate with the public about City wide issues to the understanding I have about the simple things that bother residents, I feel that a structured, supported, neighborhood-based, volunteer leadership team can solve many, many problems in our great district and city.

Imagine a Supervisor who buys breakfast once a month for the dozen or so neighborhood leaders while they all discuss the issues of the day and the challenges in their own organizations. By tapping into this knowledge pool, I could not only learn so much about every aspect of the community, but empower these leaders with a sense of responsibility and ‘clout’, which would help them recruit more volunteers to their organizations, and help me with grass roots perspectives for potential solutions.

Imagine a Supervisor who brings in trainers and programs on things like mediation services, public speaking, event planning, consensus building…as well as city programs and advocacy groups, so that the different neighborhood leaders would have the skills and knowledge to deal with issues in their own neighborhood. Little disputes that currently tie up city workers, or blow up into bigger issues could be handled on the neighborhood level.

Imagine district awards dinners where we recognize local heroes, giving out a ‘best neighborhood business’, ‘best park group’, ‘best community leader’ awards to motivate and appreciate the many volunteers who actually do so much work for the city.

Imagine a district where small business corridors and neighborhood groups and special interest advocacy groups and smart housing developers all communicated together and had solid leadership that could move our communities into a more positive, sustainable urban environment that maintains its fantastic San Francisco charm.


2. A stronger review and appointment process for city commissioners. Much of the
frustration I’ve experienced as a community leader, and certainly much that I’ve witnessed in other leaders and concerned citizens in San Francisco hinges on a lack of understanding and response from different commissions. Because commissioners are either unable to understand the complexities, or simply choose to not represent the public in their role as advocates to city departments, we have created a morass of sub commissions and processes under which normal decisions stagger and die. A quick look at the Rec and Park list of committees is a fine example: http://www.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=2696 11 different groups often making competing recommendations (and I say this as someone who chaired one of those 11 committees!)

We need to have commissioners who have professional and educational backgrounds in the areas they are overseeing, as well as a deep understanding and drive to serve the public’s interest. We need more technical, financial, and social knowledge, not more ideology on commissions.

Besides working with the current mayor on his appointments, I would like to have more shared appointing by the BOS, and to create a process by which commissioners get reviewed on their level of service.

3. Working on ways to make it more possible for ‘average folks’ to buy homes here in San Francisco. From smart growth to financial programs to land trusts to cleaning up the condo conversion process, I want to be the supervisor who brings stakeholders together to truly work out solutions that will do the most good for the most people, as well as focus on continued economic and ethnic diversity.

so we had the 'anti-violence summit' the other night here in District 5.

It was a really good event, as there were people there who aren't usually part of the typical discussions, and folks were concentrating on articulating the issues of violence, what causes it, and what to do about it.

A lot of the standard thoughts came out of it, which can be boiled down to: we need to invest in our children early on, we need to teach people how to be good parents and good citizens, that it's hard to get to a job or to a class when you don't feel healthy, and the economic disparity in our society is the dry grass in which violence sparks.

So... what do we do now? A lot of the talk I was part of focused on teaching values and keeping kids busy and thinking. There was abstract talk about different funding for different programs, talk of taxing corporations in a different way... and about how the difficult economy hurts family structures.

What can we do as a society, a city, to fix these problems?

1. fix the economy so more people have jobs, and the city gets more money to invest in good programs. That's tough for one city to do, but we can:

• encourage small businesses in our communities by helping them do business with the city that's better for them (small biz makes up the largest part of the economy)
• encourage our neighbors to shop locally
• encourage our city businesses to hire locally, and have the city contract locally
• promote SF better around the country, and around the world, so tourists come and spend money here
• examine our tax structures so that we neither give away breaks to the corporations nor scare them away with too many taxes
• actively schmooze mid-sized businesses to come here

2. Spend more city money on the right stuff, not the wrong stuff

• curb city salaries, which will also curb retirement benefit costs
• recruit and educate more volunteers to work in their communities, so the city can spend less money doing the little things: trash pick up, graffiti removal, etc.
• recruit more volunteers into the school system, so teachers can teach, volunteers can monitor and help http://www.sfsv.org/index.html
• look at our investments in programs and cut out the bad ones, better fund the good ones.
• stop creating legal battles for the city (which cost money) and write policy and laws that won't need legal challenges.
• stop re-inventing the wheel: there's so much good work/best practices going on out there already, yet here in SF we seem to either forget what we've done, or think no other successful program will work here. I searched for 3 minutes today and found a long report on how we can make changes to our child welfare programs here in the Bay Area... written in 2002. http://www.tyssniffen.com/welfare-reform-ideas.pdf

3. Organize our communities to help one another

• My many ideas about neighborhood groups can be found throughout this site, but again I have to say, if people are involved in their community in some way, they get more involved as time goes on. A sense of ownership is created that allows you to start caring, and voicing that concern. Because I'm involved in my community, I feel able to participate in the 'village raising a child' idea. If we're going to really get to that ideal, we need people to feel like they are a village. To do that, we need to work together.

empowering neighborhoods

so, I've written about how I want to create/train/empower/extend/encourage neighborhood leaders, right?

Besides regular meetings and check-ins and accolades and recognition and listening to those folks who have become leaders in their community, I want to help those folks with all sorts of different training, resources, and leadership so they can leap ahead and not spend time trying to figure out how to run a community group.

Ok, so some things I want to cover with 'neighborhood leader training' (which would be done by other recognized leaders in the city, professional coaches and trainers, and other trainers who can add insite:

- organization structure and process:
we want neighborhood groups that have by-laws, a democratic process, outreach to the community, and balanced and diverse leadership.

- volunteer recruitment training:
we'll need leaders who know how to delegate and find people to delegate to.

- public speaking, handling difficult crowds, and speaking in 'positive, inclusive' language: we've all been to meetings were the leaders were good, and we've been to meetings where things got out of hand. it takes skill. we need to teach that skill.

- conflict resolution. http://www.communityboards.org/ I want these leaders to become the people folks turn to when an issue arises, and I want them to have the training and the resources to handle the situation. I'll bring in folks from community boards, both to train, and to explain their services.

- recognition. These volunteer leaders will have the ability to recognize their volunteers with something substaintial. Whatever it might be that I'll be able to get my hands on, I'll use. and If I can't get something, I'll find it via the local merchants. As we work with volunteers, we will reward them.

As I do all these surveys, a lot of the organizations are surprised by my turn around time. I believe I have consistently been the first (and sometimes only!) candidate to turn surveys back in to requesting organizations.

Why do I work on them so quickly? a couple reasons:



- I don't need to do a lot of research. Because of my experience and understanding of the issues and situations in the district, it's not hard for me to reference solutions, local people doing a great job, or in-depth aspects of the particular event.

- I don't need to 'run things by a committee' and check and see if my answers will "play well" with the particular organization, or the overall voters in D5.. Why? because I am what I am, and I'm not worried about voters being scared or swayed by one particular answer.

- Communication is a big part of how I want to solve the problems of District 5. With good "customer service", fast response time, and a drive to get to the bottom of a problem, we will have happy district 5 residents. I hope that my fast, and thorough responses are an indication of what sort of Supervisor I would be.

My Challenge to the other candidates: Let's save the city some money

Today is the filing deadline for all the wanna-be candidates in District 5. That there's a whole bunch of people thinking they want the job, plus the new 'rank choice voting' process will create a lot of confusion and possible problems in the election process.

(to learn about rank choice voting, check out my nice explanation at: http://www.tyssniffen.com/rcv.htm )

So, there's a lot of talk about how the new system is going to create potential for law suits and arguments about who won, and who lost to a coin toss, and what groups were disenfranchised, etc.

My Challenge to the District 5 candidates: No legal action against the city

I'd like to see all the candidates agree to NOT taking legal action unless a majority of the candidates on the ballot agree there was something amiss enough that the group feels should be investigated. In other words, we need to promise to 'take it as it comes' unless 51% of the candidates agree that something messed up the election to the point where lawyers need to be involved.

This is the sort of stuff that often ends up costing the city millions in legal fees and time and energy. This challenge is my heartfelt attempt to cut that sort of stuff off at the pass. San Francisco doesn't need more litigation, it needs less, and I would think that if one thought of themselves as a leader in the community, it wouldn't be to hard to pledge to 'take what gets dished out' and not throw a tantrum that will cost the city money.

What do you think?

Hey folks, check out this opportunity to speak via the Kerry campaign about the environment... What got me to post it here is how 'down here' at the urban community level, we too, are being affected by the 'philosophical' (if you can call it that) decisions of our current administration.

Take a second and think about things in our community that are affected by Federal funding... and where the priorities have been. How does it affect you? Libraries, schools, public transit, hospitals, mental health services... send a note, get your voice heard.

Between now and November 2, communities most affected by George Bush's destructive environmental policies will look closely at the differences between George Bush and John Kerry.
When we reach out to these communities, we can talk about the differences between George Bush and John Kerry as matters of policy and record.

Or we can talk about the experiences that you have had in the great outdoors and why, when it comes down to America's love for the wild and pristine, John Kerry is the one who will best preserve our natural relationship with America's physical treasures.

To do this, we need your help. We need you to volunteer your stories. When did you last visit a national park? Does your community have a park where children can play? Do you hunt or fish? How does the natural environment play a role in your daily life? Does your family take vacations to lakes, forests, beaches, or parks? Are you concerned about how clean the air or water is in your community?

Email us at mailto:mediacorps@johnkerry.com?Subject=The%20environment, and tell us your stories. Please put "the environment" in the subject line. If you have pictures you'd like to share, that would be fantastic. Just attach them to your email.
The Kerry-Edwards press team works hard to make sure that your voice is well represented. Knowing how you have been affected personally by Bush's dangerous environmental policies helps our campaign to better illustrate our case. After all, this election is about you and about America today.

Volunteer your voice to the environment today, and make the difference in this coming election. Email us at mailto:mediacorps@johnkerry.com?Subject=The%20environment, and send us your story and pictures.
Thank you,

So, I was part of the group that worked on the new sound policy enforcements...

an article in the Examiner attempted to explain it. The article didn't do a very good job. Here's my letter to the editor:

To the Editor,

As one of the community members who worked on the language of the sound policy for Sharon Meadow, I feel compelled to respond to your article from July 29th, “A Concerted Effort at Sharon Meadow”.

First, I’d like to point out that a group of neighbors, some of whom had been requesting a response for up to nine years had to force the Rec & Park Commission to even consider this issue. Once they did, they acted as though this was some new thing that had no history.

This group of neighbors discovered that there was in fact, a sound policy already in place that had been ignored for years, both by RPD employees and the concert promoters to the point where ‘the wrong way’ became the ‘way we always did it’. Further, this group of neighbors discovered that besides ignoring the rules about how loud the concerts could be – simple, plain rules that don’t need fancy sound equipment to check: ‘the sound should be inaudible 250 ft from the back of the concert area’—the monies that were to be paid to RPD had not been paid in full… for years! After doing the math, we figured RPD had squandered approximately $3 million in fees they should have received. This, however flabbergasting this was, was not our issue. We simply wanted the concert promoters to follow the rules that had been on the books.

We worked through much resistance from RPD, including their City lawyer telling us there would be Free speech issues if we asked the concerts to turn down the volume (!) to clarify the language of the sound policy. This clarification did include the promoters needing to acquire a bond that would be held in the case they did break the rules and get fined, RPD could collect the money. This would not constitute any sort of great financial burden to a promoter working with a couple hundred thousand dollars… unless of course, they were planning on breaking the rules.

The mandated ‘acoustical consultant’ came from the Rec and Park Commission, not the neighbors. And personally, I see no reason for it. The rules clearly state how to judge how loud it is, and they don’t need an expert for that. It would seem to me that promoters, with all their sound people, should be able to figure out how to have an enjoyable concert without blasting the neighbors.

The AIDS walk experience was a bad test run. RPD of course did nothing to let the surrounding community know how to contact the right persons if there was a complaint. The phone number the neighborhood committee was given went to an answering machine, and Park Police station seemed to know nothing about ANY of the new regulations, how to work with RPD, or the supposed ‘three sound-enforcement officers’.

The Now and Zen folks seem to be the only promoters following the payment rules, and, low and behold, they intend to keep going for next year. Whether they can follow the amplified sound rules is yet to be tested. However, the other promoters seemed to only be able to run an event at Sharon Meadow by under paying, or not paying at all. Mr. Levine, the promoter who runs ‘A La Carte’ told a Chronicle reporter he was moving due to lack of attendance and poor weather. He told an RPD employee that he was having financial difficulty well before the sound policy was changed. Your article seemed to blame the loss of sorely needed revenue for the park system on the neighbors’ desire to see the concerts adhere to a reasonable volume, which is incorrect. We need more research and accuracy in our media, not less.

Tys Sniffen
The Neighborhood

Another important group doing work to make San Francisco a better place:

www.getsfready.org

These folks are looking to get a commission together to prepare a Disaster Plan for SF. Surprisingly, we don't have one, even with the obvious earthquake issues we have around here.

You can also get involved by helping collect signatures to get the measure on the ballot.

Someone sent me these photos of a public bathroom in Switzerland... it looks like a mirrored box from the outside, totally clear on the inside...



why do we here in San Francisco have to be so far behind the times?
From Outside...


From inside....

How long do you think these would last here in SF? how much resistence would they get from neighbors?

and... .how would you feel using one?

I know I've posted about this before, but I just spent about 2 solid days replying to surveys sent to all the candidates by different organizations. 

While I truly appreciate the different folks in these groups spending their time involved in community politics.. I really do.. I wonder how many spend time reading the answers?  I wonder if they share them with their entire group? I wonder if they ever think about looking at a different groups' questions?

More importantly, I wonder if they've checked the answers from the candidates.  Both for accuracy, and for pandering to one group or another. 

Right from the start, I've posted every survey I've answered at www.tyssniffen.com/about.htm and I hope readers will take a few minutes to check out my sometimes long winded answers.

 

Thanks Friends!

 
Just a note to say thank you to all the supporters who came out to watch and participate in my nominating process yesterday. 

There's really 3 steps to filing to run for Supervisor. 
1. check in with the Ethics commission and let them know you're doing banking as a candidate.

2. gather signatures (1000 certified) so you don't have to pay the $500 filing fee.  The Tys for Supervisor Campaign did that in just 2 weeks.  (it looks like a couple other campaigns are coming in with signatures yesterday and today, at the deadline, after 2 months)

3. file all the other paperwork, which we did yesterday. Scroll down to the photos on www.sanfranciscosentinel.com to see a couple nice shots done by the ever pleasant Pat Murphy.  The deadline to file is August 6th... let's see who else shows up.

Thanks again everybody.

Another state prop I can comfortably get behind... Prop 71

http://www.curesforcalifornia.com

Stem cell research. come on, this makes sense.

 

ah, the pandering...

We're starting to see the poli-speak come out in waves now.  It seems we have dozens of candidates here in District 5 who are pro-business, pro-housing, pro-education, pro-policing, pro-neighborhoods, pro-environment, and pro-public transit.  Wow. Who knew?

Of course everyone is for all these things. So is every San Franciscan, to one degree or another.  What I'd want to hear from candidates is not things they agree with, and --amazingly-- I don't even want to hear about their innovative new ideas... because San Franciscans have ideas all the time.  What I'd want to hear from my candidates is what makes them think they can actually get any of this stuff accomplished, and what sort of experience they've had in the community on the subjects they're referring to.

That's why, if I do say so myself, I feel comfortable as a candidate in District 5.  I've worked on (or worked with the leaders of groups who do work directly on) just about every one of those issues, either at the extremely practical end, or the community end. 

More importantly, I've shown I can work with the many different perspectives and personalities in these different subject areas, and can work to find solutions if they aren't already in place.

Come on people, don't let candidates get away with 'self labeling' themselves.  Ask them 'what have you actually done about that?'

 
The surveys continue.  I turned in two today; both the San Francisco for Democracy, and the Alice B Tolkas Democratic club.  You can of course, check them out at my 'about' page.
 
What's amazing is the amount of questions... and how every organization wants to judge by its own criteria.  Ah well, it's what one signs up for as a candidate. 
 
I wonder if the groups look into what the candidates say to the other organizations?  Not only to simply avoid asking the same questions over and over, but to check for B*S*.  What if on one day a candidate says "I love X" and the next day they tell the opposite group, "those idiots who love X should be boiled in oil!" ...does anyone check? 
 
Well, you can check my consistency where I post all the different surveys: my 'about' page.

 
Here at the Tys Sniffen community politics University, we've created a first step on how to understand the exciting new "Rank Choice Voting"  with pictures! 
 
Check out the 'What is RCV?' page on the www.tysforsupervisor.com website.
 
Here's a photo of another exciting day at the Tys Sniffen Community Politics University: 
  
  
 

(actually, it's the Hayes Valley Reading program kids, and me in a paper hat.)

 
Prop 63 needs all the support we can give.
 
Check out my good friend and Tys Sniffen for Supervisor strategist and volunteer, Alex's webpage about Prop 63.
 
Here's a quick rundown: 
 
"The Mental Health Services Act(Prop 63) expands mental health care programs for children and adults. It is a proposed citizen initiative that will appear on the November 2004 ballot. It provides services to people who are disabled by mental illness, people who are showing signs of mental illness in need of prevention services, and to families and caregivers of those affected.For most adults, the initiative uses the recently developed, successful "integrated services" model to link many kinds of care. The initiative pays for expanded programs through a surcharge on income above $1 million per year. A new 1% surcharge applies to each dollar earned over $1 million. The initiative creates a new oversight and accountability commission to supervise the new mental health care programs."
 
Go sign up on Alex's page. Give a bit of money to the campaign. This will end up getting San Francisco something around $50 million a year to spend on homeless programs.  This is the right thing to do. 
 
I was at the press conference today for this thing. Jeff Adachi, Kamala Harris, Hennessey, Dufty, Fong, Newsom, Assemblymember Darrell Steinberg (the sponsor of the proposition and a very close resemblance to Tony Shalub) were all there.  To make a similar note that another candidate in D5 has made recently, not one 'progressive' leader present. hm.

 
someone told me the other day that I seemed like a 'one issue candidate'... I think they were referring to my early focus on trash issues... but I could be wrong. 
 
Perhaps they were referring to my focus on neighborhood groups, as I feel that strong community groups create an atmosphere that can foster better planning. Planning for businesses, housing, parks, streetscapes, community safety...
 
I also feel that neighborhood focus can help build a sense of community.  When people feel they can trust and count on their neighbors, they can start to come together and deal with the negative elements in the community and react appropriately.
 
Or maybe they meant my single issue of efficiency.  I want things to work well, not waste money or time, and deal with the reasonable problems in the community when they need fixing.
 
Or maybe they meant my single focus on communication and process.  If we follow through on an issue, make sure all parties are listened to and considered, and let everyone know what we're up to, we won't have the sorts of lawsuits and planning complaints and contention that we currently have.
 
who knows? maybe the Tys Sniffen for Supervisor campaign isn't a single issue campaign.

All the candidates are talking about how we need to be 'neighborhood focused'... we need community policing, we need to hold onto our neighborhood character, we need to support the small neighborhood businesses... all of which is exactly true.

Which is why I have been working at the neighborhood level for more than 5 years now, doing on a volunteer basis what all these new candidates suggest should be done.

I've worked to support new restaurants and bars in my community, doing everything from presenting in front of the planning commission, writing letters, creating PR for businesses through newsletters, to testifying to a judge at a hearing at the Alcohol Beverage Control for 3 hours straight.

I've also worked to keep chain stores out of the neighborhood, and worked with developers on housing projects to keep the neighborhood 'look and feel' as much as possible. I've also been one of the leads on the 'follow up' with developers, since the City doesn't have any sort of enforcement or checkup system when a developer makes promises to the neighbors, someone has to be vigilant and a good communicator to continue that relationship.

I've also worked with the police, extensively-- to the point I have a very strong relationship with a number of officers and sargents in the two stations in D5. I've worked on specific criminals, general 'hot spots' and worked with the community and the police on identifying trends.

I've worked on expanding a large network of volunteers in our community to help clean up trash and paint out grafitti. When the city wasn't able to keep up with the grafitti, I found private money (from a developer) to PAY homeless teenagers in a jobs program to help keep our area looking better.

And I've worked with many other community organizations in the district, helping them build their networks and get a better understanding of how to work with and represent their community.

I've run meetings for years that help inform the public about what the city is up to and what they can do about it. I've brought in city agencies to answer tough questions from neighbors about service, and then helped that agency and that neighbor find a solution and come to a conclusion. I'm still doing that as president of NOPNA.

I'm currently working on signage at a dangerous intersection, trying to negotiate with the DMV to get the parking lot opened again, helping a bar get it's full liquor license, planning a neighborhood block party...oh, and trying to create a training program for neighborhood disaster preparedness... and running a campaign and getting married next week. So... I'm not too busy.

If we're going to follow through on all these great ideas about community and neigbhorhoods, we'll need someone who understands the current sitaution, and who understands how to recruit, train, and support community leaders.

I feel that district 5 can't wait around for another politican to learn how to deal with the communities in this district. We need someone who's already to go. I'm that guy.

Here at Tys Sniffen for Supervisor headquarters, we do pay attention to what other candidates are saying should happen in the city and in the district.

Seeing the increase in violence in our area, many folks are calling for 'Community Policing Programs'... a very good idea. Which is why we've had them here in District 5 for a number of years, both at Northern Station and at Park Station.

I thought I'd do a bit more research though, in case I didn't understand what that phrase was truly supposed to mean. I checked out a major community policing website, and read their reports and strategy planning suggestions. Yep, it sounds like stuff we're doing, and dedicated volunteers have been doing for quite some time.

Yes, the programs need more support, and it'd be great if we could find the funds to help the police department afford to have more cops on foot, on bikes, and on horseback, (which increases their community interaction) but another important thing that needs support is the community organizations themselves. That is, the neighborhood groups.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the last 4 years or so is how neighborhood groups have been pushed away and put down by folks at City Hall and in different political camps.

It's great that so many people (29 candidates) are now quite interested in community meetings and organization. Let's get out there and get involved!

Schools and Business community, working together.

The article today in the Examiner reports an interesting development: Private business money funding administrative/advisory council to the School District.

I'm reacting in a number of ways to this...

1. what an innovative, smart thing! The business community knows it needs a good school system around to attract good workers, so they're stepping up to the plate.

2. that it's an advisory council on administrative stuff seems harmless enough, and since it won't cost the city anything, why not?

3. involving private money and personal funding streams that could walk away at a moments notice is a tenuous spot to be in for a public institution, at best.

4. what's with the supposed 'Darth Vadar' of wealthy meddling, Warren Hellman (who I only know from the papers--he's the guy leading the private funding of the Golden Gate Park Garage hooha) getting involved with the Schools? is this all part of a conspiracy, or his attempt to be more benevolent?

confusing, interesting, dangerous? I'm not sure I like those adjectives being used around city policy or action. Still, the schools are a HUGE problem. Let's start looking at the spending on schools across the city... do we spend the same ammount of money at Lowell that we do at Ida B Wells? why or why not?

Me and the Bay Guardian, seeing eye to eye... Link to Fire Dept article

what's most amazing about the issues that article brings up is that the solutions are really imbedded in training and cluture change... stuff that doesn't really cost that much.

I always wondered why, when someone fell and cut their arm and called 911, a Fire Engine and an ambulance showed up at same time, sometimes two trucks. Because they're required to have 2 paramedics around, and an ambulance only holds one, as does a fire truck.

As a NERT , I know how important fast response is, and what an important job Firefighters do... but all this stuff seems like it's time for some cultural changes.

All these candidates...


I went to a 'candidates collaborative' meeting last night. 20 some candidates trying to figure out how to run a forum/debate within the district. I'm glad that there's a sense of partnership amongst some of the candidates, and that they understand the need to get out and meet people in the community... but it was frustrating to sit there and watch them try and figure out how to micromanage one meeting.
And they intend to run a whole bunch of them before November!

The second half of the meeting revolved around an upcoming "anti-violence summit", which it took me a while to understand is a couple of the candidate's idea.. at first I thought they were partnering up with National Night Out, August 3rd, or working with some of the current programs in place... but no.

They're out to 're-invent the wheel' because as they are beginning to get involved in community politics, they're finding out about the safety concerns of our neighborhoods. It's great and everything that they want to be involved and 'learn from the public' about what communities need, but come on! Aren't you supposed to have an inkling about these issues BEFORE you become a candidate?

I guess this wouldn't bug me so much if they were meshing their project into some of the existing programs and meetings... But they're going to create (and of course I'll participate) some 'summit' meeting that will attempt to bring everyone out from the Public Defenders office to the School Superintendent... all of which, if it's done well, will result in ideas to create and support (surprise!) the sort of community based work that's already going on in our community. Here's another

It sure would be nice if we didn't just run after newspaper headlines like lemmings, but instead focused on supporting the great work that's already going on. If more people (oh, say 20 or 30 from around the district... where could we find a list, hm?) got committed and involved and started talking to other people in their community about the safety, policing, and crime issues, we might actually get somewhere.

Again, I'm glad these folks want to start to get involved.

We now have the Tys for Supervisor flyers in Russian, Korean, and Arabic. How cool is that? I'm working on Chinese.

Why all these languages? Because it's important to be inclusive.

Why Arabic when there's probably only a handful of Arabic reading voters in D5? Because they're the store owners. They know what's going on in their community. They're the gossip points, the focal points of a few blocks that leaders in our community should be reaching out to. These are the people who can help recruit volunteers to clean up trash and grafitti. These are the small business owners who stabilize a community.

The Arabic is darn cool looking too. Check out the
arabicflyer.pdf

ask yourself these questions:

what's your vision for San Francisco?

I find a lot of people, myself included sometimes, fall into the trap of only seeing the city through a narrow personal perspective. It's a valid perspective, of course, but often we forget that other people have different ways of seeing it.

I just read a great article in SPUR's newsletter written by the very active and intelligent Ms. Sullivan, the founder of City Car Share. She wrote a great article about how growing density in SF can help families live here.

Though her article really only looks at things from the perspective of a new mother. Of course, that's where she's seeing things from, so it makes sense... but it's important to see things from many perspectives: historical, economic, cultural...

"...I used to be a hammer salesman, and every problem I saw looked like a nail... "

Being a part of a community also includes trying to understand different people, and so we have to listen to them. As a neighborhood leader trying to solve problems, I've gained some ability to do this, but it's amazing how we can still learn so much more.

Think again of your 'vision'.. does it include new immigrants coming to the city? from Asia? from Latin America? From Ohio? What about families? Does it include changes in your neighborhood, or only in other neighborhoods?

So, everybody knows I spend about an hour a day in my local park picking up trash, right?

And everybody knows I'm running a grassroots-talk-to-people-get-things-done-without-waste-or-a-potical-machine, right?

And when a reporter at the Haight Street fair asked me why I didn't have the "cool" lapel stickers like some of the other candidates, I mentioned a couple things:

1. handing out stickers that people put on right then will just mean that when they get home, if they get all the way home, they'll just throw it in the trash. Doesn't seem like a wise use of money to me.

2. stickers could be stuck to public, or private property, as everyone has seen before, creating in essence vandalism that city workers or private citizens have to come and clean up... spending city money to do so...

3. it's just a little thing that will most probably end up in the landfill that doesn't really tell you anything about the candidate.

So I'm in the park yesterday with my dog...picking up trash. And I had to pick up another candidate's sticker... hmmm.

More budget musings...

People who care are trying to find ways to save important services in these tight financial times, and rightly so... of course, everyone feels their particular program/service/department is the most worthy.. and it's up to the Supes to juggle the few dollars and see if they can save a couple.

I'm surprised that no sitting supervisor... or especially 'outgoing' supervisors don't ever bring up the salary of city workers question. I guess it's the big elephant in the room no one wants to mention.

People bring up the Supervisor salary, a healthy $90K, and some think that's too much. I don't... they work hard, but there's a lot of other city jobs out there that pay a bunch more than Supervisor. I've been trying to find some good comparisons, between cities and salaries. You know what would be interesting? a comparison between Boston City salaries and SF... or Sydney's, or even Chicago's.

Here's what I could find from last summer, before Brown left office. This is from 'Beyond Chron' :

- New jobs: Since taking office in 1996, Brown has added 3,900 employees to the city workforce.

-- Healthy raises: Under Brown, most city workers have gotten raises of at least 30 percent. Police officers' and firefighters' salaries have gone up 37. 5 percent -- and the cops will get even more under a just-negotiated four-year contract.

-- Overall pay: According to a recent report by the Board of Supervisors' budget analyst, the average city worker earned $70,506 last year, when premium pay and overtime were included.

This past year alone, the number of city workers whose pay topped $100,000 rose to 2,600.

Even veteran patrol officers pulled in an average of $103,000 last year when overtime was factored in.

And what goes up -- goes up even higher in the upper ranks.

Among city executives, the highest paid was David Kushner. The deputy director of the city's retirement system clocked in at $236,031.

Next up, Controller Ed Harrington, who made $212,478 -- followed by Airport Director John Martin at $212,178 and Public Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz, at $209,512.

Brown got $163,948 -- dropping him to 55th on the city's top pay list.

wow. We had 2600 people making over $100K? That's $260,000,000 in salary alone? Then add benefits? Am I doing that math wrong?
Even if Mayor Newsom has managed to find a way to fire/cut/retire/reduce half that number, that's still $130mil a year in overly nice pay.

So, just for fun, what if we pulled all those salaries down to $90K? Take an average of the 'over 100K', just picking $110K as the average we're paying now, saving that $20K mulitplied by 2600 = $52million. That's without losing one job, and still paying about $20K over the average city employee in the Bay Area. hm...

Can I mention that in District 5, the median household annual income is $36K? And I think in the city of San Francisco, according to the 2000 census, it's $55K.

and the Supervisors are fighting over $5mil here and there to save incredibly important stuff like mental health services? Why won't they say anything about the elephant, no, the cash cow, sitting in the room?

Budgets, kids, programs, nashing of teeth...


As we've had a rise in violence this spring, many are now (now! finally! as though community safety is a new issue??!) calling for better programs for young people and for summer job opportunities.

Jeff Adachi mentioned to me the other day that our great city has 268 different youth serving programs.

Two hundred and Sixty Eight.

If you say that a third of our entire population is under 18 (and it isn't) that's still one youth organization for about every 1000 kids.

Now, like typical 'news lemmings' (i.e. something hits the front page we must react immediately, running blindly towards a cliff of reinventing the wheel) people want to figure out how find money in the empty wallet of the city to address this problem.

I realize it's a noble desire, but if we had leaders (and political candidates) who were better informed through actual work in the community, they could help promote the current programs instead of spinning their wheels.

Or better yet, looking at how to combine/streamline/cross promote these current programs so that we would actually serve more kids with less money. I realize this might put some NPO executives out of work, but those are the people who can easily move to a new cool job with their education and experience.

It's not that SF is so dumb, or the people here are more violent, or less caring, or more administrative... it's just that we let our big hearts get in the way of doing things the right way...the simple way.

I would just like to thank everyone for the consideration, but I would like to announce that I'm not interested in the City Treasurer position.

Seems like everybody is being talked about, nobody wants the job. funny.

Mr. JoeFire enjoys the show, if you want to read more.
joefire.com

Man, the Haight Street Fair was fun too...

We handed out fortune cookies and Tys for Supervisor T-shirts, talked politics, met people, and enjoyed a beer or two.




If you like the design of our first batch, connect with our contributing designer, Alex Tonisson: atonisson@yahoo.com -- He does free lance stuff. Thanks again Alex!

Well, things are calming down here at Campaign headquarters now that we've gotten the needed 1000 certified signatures for the 'in lieu' petition.

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS and SIGNERS!

They give candidates 6 or 7 weeks (May 28 to July 22) to gather the signatures, and we're done in two. That's right, TWO weeks. We gathered 1600 or so, just to get the exact amount of certifiable voters from this district.


This is me, checking the accuracy of the last few signatures needed. Note the sunburn.


Some of the amazing stuff is both how informed and concerned some folks are, and how so many don't seem to care at all. And, Oy, how many think they're registered at their new address and aren't. I want to figure out a way to help the elections department clean up those lists... If you want to be a part of that process, let me know.

out on the streets.

I'm feeling pretty spent after 4 strong days of gathering signatures for the campaign. The Dept of Elections allows you to gather signatures instead of paying a filing fee to get your name on the ballot, so I've been focused on that important democratic process... .which takes my energies away from the witty banter that you will generally find here.

But I did get the mention from Mr. Hampton at the Examiner, so I'd better let the blog reading world know that I'm stomping the pavement.

Besides a farmer tan and tired feet, I'm really getting the impression that my messsage resonates with voters. It's not really about party politics or ideology, but simply staying focused, getting things done, and following through.

Almost all of us here in SF agree on the bigger issues, it's really about local decisions and the people those decisions affect.

Anyway, if anyone has anything they'd like to talk about, come meet me on the sidewalk.

Triumphs all around, but not 'feel powerful' triumphs...

I was at a progressive lecture/spoken word event the other night, and one speaker talked about how he felt the Chronicle was a bad paper. His arguments were pretty strong. I particularly enjoyed how he pointed out that the Pultizer prize folks (who give out awards for journalism and generally considered the true measure of quality), while giving awards to the NY Times, the Wash Post, the New Orleans paper, even smaller market papers, haven't felt the need to give the Chronicle an award since 1952. Wow. that's not good.
World class city, one horse newspaper.

Anyway, another part of what the speaker pointed out was how the Chronicle never does any actual journalism by asking follow up questions, or pointing out inconsistancies in our leaders opinions or actions.

(I'm getting to my point here, almost) He pointed out how, for example, the left/progressive/green (however you want to call it) has been pointing out for years that the only real solution to helping the homeless was to get them into some kind of housing, then start working with them with social services... and now, suddenly, our "non-lefty" mayor has discovered that, sure enough, the solution is to get them indoors. Today's article about Angela Alioto. And I see that another lefty/progressive/green issue, that the Police Citizen Complaint folks have more say... is getting more of exactly that, reports our favorite paper.

So, the real situation here is that things are getting done. But it's getting done by 'the other side'... and that doesn't feel as good. We were right (correct) all along! Give the left the credit!

Believe me, I know it's frustrating to have your thunder stolen, and I totally agree that the media in this town needs to be much more on the job, but can't we also be happy that these things are getting implemented, no matter who is finally getting started?

The Non-citizen Voting thing...

Supervisor Gonzalez has been talking about allowing non-citizens the right to vote in local school board elections.

Seems like an odd idea, until you look at the idea that 16% of SF population consists of non-citizens... and you remember that any kid born here IS a citizen, and thus is most probably in the public school system... so what goes on in the school system is very important to the parents of these kids.

There are strong arguments the other way, of course: voting is a right that many immigrants who work to become citizens really respect, and this would be a slap in the face to all of them...

I wonder how much of that 16% number is French waiters and Irish bartenders over here just making dough, and not immigrant families concerned for their kids?

and I wonder how many immigrants feel that it would be too risky to go vote in some election that might end up pointing out problems in their visas, work permits, or green cards, or whatever?

But, heck, we can barely get our American-born butts off the couch and get over to the voting booth in any sort of numbers, why not give some few folks who really want the chance the opportunity?

Reinventing the Wheel?

Supervisors Daly and Maxwell are pushing to have a measure on the ballot that would set aside $5mil for spending on youth crime prevention, the Examiner reports.

Gee, think anyone will vote against that? of course not.

At first, I was thinking, 'well, their finally thinking about the root of the problem'... then I started thinking about the different programs that are already out there (and struggling for funding).. do you think these Supes don't know about these programs? do they think they aren't doing enough? There's great people doing really good work at places like the Safety Network Program and SF Safe and specific ones in District 5 like Ella Hill Hutch's Henderson Program

There's some new stuff in this idea.. bringing survivors of violent crime to the table and having youth advocates be part of the planning process... but the main part, the money part, sounds just like these others:
"The $5 million set aside in the measure would go toward programs such as conflict resolution, mediation, job development and mental health and substance abuse treatment."

So it really starts looking like Supervisors just sort of read the paper, get upset, and try and invent some new solution... it would really help if our leaders knew about, and supported some of the current stuff already going on.

And heck, if you're going to put stuff on the ballot, why not work with the other supervisors who are talking about stronger gun control, Gonzalez and Sandoval?

Another survey done...

phew. Yet another survey from a political group finished. The Harvey Milk Dem Club asked 40 questions. Would you believe I ended up writing 17 pages?

You can see it on my 'about' page, or here: HarveyMilk.pdf

More cultural perspectives...

During this ridiculous war in the Middle East that our current President has gotten us into, as people are making many a reference to Vietnam and it's similar problems...

I can't help but notice the similarities between different decades on another issue here in San Francisco..

Once, there was a town of regular folks, hardworking, quirky San Franciscians who cared about their neighborhoods and spent a lot of time in coffeeshops and restaurants... then the economy changed, the American culture changed, and young, predominantly white people started flooding this City, coming from little podunk towns across American, taking over whole areas of town, not respecting the current inhabitants, pushing the people who had lived here for years out of their neighborhoods and towards the outlying areas. "the old San Francisco is gone!" the old residents said. "these young people are taking over!" they said...
The late 60s were a trying time for San Francisco, or was that the late 90s? Depends on your perspective.

Boy, do I hate the phrase "NIMBY"

NIMBY, the acronym for 'Not In My Back Yard'is used with ridiculous regularity in this town by everyone.

What's really frustrating about it is how many folks use it as some sort of general term meaning conservative or problematic. It gets its origins from people living near a proposed project of one kind or another come out saying, 'I don't want X near my house'... for whatever reason they might have. Of course, not many realize this stance applies across the board.. If someone wanted to build a Hummer dealership in Upper Haight, there'd be a whole lot of people coming out and saying 'not in my back yard!' who would be quite different looking than those who might come out in a different community when, say, a meth clinic might be going in. You could say the people fighting the parking garage in GG Park are NIMBYs, so are the folks fighting the new condos in North Beach, the changes in density, the changes in bike lanes, the changes...anywhere.

Let's not use this phrase anymore.

more thoughts on Economics and how I'd want to help the city...

o Solving problems on the district level so that the Mayor can focus more on bringing business to the city.
o Supporting small business by helping clean up and streamline the many hurdles put in their place by the city.
o Pushing San Francisco to get to the front edge of 21st century sustainable planning and urban design so that we continue to be everyone’s favorite City, and people stop moving to the suburbs.
o Helping the entertainment industry, especially the live music and dance purveyors stay alive and vibrant.
o Helping “sell” the city to the country and the world to invigorate the tourist trades, our best non-consumerism asset. We should be creating more reasons for people to come to San Francisco, and more often. Art festivals, music festivals, poetry festivals, theater festivals… How about a comedy festival on the level of Edinburgh’s ? Even our current ‘parties’ could use better promotion: Halloween, and Bay to Breakers. I’m amazed to see national ad campaigns for movies, theater events, etc. and they have celebrations/openings in LA, NYC, Chicago, and Seattle?? We need to capitalize on the fantastic history and culture of SF… which of course, will help maintain it.

Just back from the District 1 and 5 public meeting on the budget situation... whee. This budget is going to be the hardest one since world war 2, they said.

Why is that?
Seems like basically, it's the fact that SF employs so many people, and we have to take care of them, both benefits-wise and pension-wise. And healthcare costs are squeezing us. The other main issue is that the city invests money to make money to pay for stuff, and the market isn't producing like we'd hoped.

To take a big 'macro' swipe at this issue: we need to employee less people and pay them less. Over time, we have to get SF back to a 'normal' level of per capita spending/employment of city workers. Normal being defined by other cities in the country and world with similar situations. I'm trying to find some of those numbers now.

Also, while I believe Susan Leal, the City Treasurer probably did a good job of investing city dollars, I wonder if we couldn't get the city to invest more in SF real estate... the one thing we really control, and which seems to never go out of style.

Big day yesterday... Bike to Work event first thing in the morning, the Bike Coalition did a great job of sheparding the Supes around town and showing them the different traffic challenges, then let them all give speeches on the steps.
Once again, you gotta hand it to the new Mayor. He was there, made some very funny remarks about bikes with Gonzalez stickers still on them... today I read how he's meeting with Gang members in Bayview to get their side of the story.. he's out there working.

Anyway, we also had our NOPNA neighborhood meeting last night, where Jim Chappell from SPUR spoke about how broken the planning department is.. sheesh, what a mess. They don't even have the proper job descriptions and 'chain of command' stuff done right.

I really like community meetings. People coming together, caring about their neighborhood. Sometimes politics and personalities get in the way, but overall, they're a positive thing.

Lots of city politics in the news today, does everyone reading this know about Usual Suspects? I like to say it's like letting your highschool history teacher read the newspaper before you and highlight the important bits.

I see that the ever so organized Civil Service Commission (the folks in charge of salaries) have taken another look at Supervisor's salary... and bumped it back down to $90k... see the article in The Chronicle... I wonder if that might scare off any of the possible candidates?

Community, building, and communication

I was at the second meeting of the community around the Berkeley extention campus in Hayes Valley last night. It was put on and facilitated by Mercy Housing, the folks who are partners in the proposed project.
They did a great job, and a tough one it is. One of the difficulties of trying to build community approval around projects like that is no matter how many times you have a meeting or a presentation or gather input, someone feels left out, or isn't willing to follow through on the process they start.
Many of the fine leaders of Hayes Valley are vetrans of the 'public meeting run around' and aren't willing to cut anyone any slack... at the same time, the folks at Mercy are very well known in the housing world, and well trusted.. and they're working hard to do all they can.

And you know what? at the end of the day, there's still going to be people who don't like the results.

Note to self, and city in general:

Next year for Bay to Breakers, the City needs to request and demand that the B2B folks get port-o-potties in the panhandle, besides the much awaited public bathroom that is supposed to be on the way...

Everybody is ready to 'go' there at the halfway mark, and that ugly little locked up bathroom wasn't dealing with with the 'overflow' (excuse the pun) from the crowd.

Questions from a reporter and my responses:

writing an article on the affects of chain stores on small businesses in San Francisco. I am including information on th recent legislation preventing chain stores from opening in Hayes Valley and making it tougher to open in Cole Valley and I was hoping to ask you a few questions about the ordinace. Was your organization supportive of this initiative? Now that the supervisors voted the law through, what do you expect its effects to be? What about the jobs that chain stores create? Do you think banning chains from Hayes Valley will hinder the job opportunities in that neighborhood? I appreciate all of your and hope to hear from you soon.

Was your organization supportive of this initiative?

North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA) doesn't generally endorse or support specific legislation, since we represent a very diverse community, we don't all speak as one voice... Even with our representative board.

Still, one would have thought that our Supervisor would have been interested in what the community thought about this legislation, but we weren't asked.

As an individual, and someone who's involved in these sorts of issues (and a candidate for Supervisor in District 5) I personally have some opinions about the legislation, and will answer the other questions not speaking directly as representing NOPNA, but myself.

The intent of the legislation, which really is nothing more than notification on change of use, isn't a bad one. The more the neighborhoods know about what's going on the better. The problems arise in the definitions. Not in the definition of 'chain store', which they spent so much time fiddling with, but with everything else:
- who monitors the notification?
- how far away do the notices get sent? 150 ft, like bars, or 300 yards, or one block, or just to neighborhood leaders, or what?
- how do you define neighborhood leaders? Or Neighborhoods, for that matter? Is Hayes Valley really just those 4 blocks on Hayes St? Where does the Haight start and Cole Valley end?
- who speaks for the neighborhood? The neighborhood associations? The merchant groups? Individuals? How do you determine their opinion? Vote? A public meeting? How is that run? Who's in charge of the notification for that meeting?
- what happens if the notification doesn't happen? Who monitors that?

There's more, but that's a start...

Now that the supervisors voted the law through, what do you expect its effects to be?

Nothing really. Since so many questions are still on the table, it won't really change anything. So what if you get notification that something you don't like is coming to the neighborhood? What can you do? The same as always... trudge down to planning commission meetings and wait 3 hours to speak for 2 minutes... gather petitions that all your friends sign... This new law doesn't really help one way or the other.. just creates more work for the property owner and the planning department.

What about the jobs that chain stores create?

You seem to ask this question with the idea that we (or I) would be supporting the legislation. That's ok, but still, a bit leading. Personally, I agree with those that point out 'the Starbucks catch-22'... that on one hand we want employers to pay a living wage, give benefits, pay domestic partner benefits, purchase sustainable products, etc. etc. yet we don't want any business that might be too successful or actually have the corporate buying power to do these things.

Do you think banning chains from Hayes Valley will hinder the job opportunities in that neighborhood?

If businesses have a harder time starting in a community, jobs are lost because of it, yes. But those that wave the banner of jobs as the solution to all things, are they really striving for more part time barista or stock clerk positions? Doubtful.

Anyway, I hope my rantings aren't too off the mark for what you were looking for. Again, please consider my answers my own opinion as an experienced community leader, not as representing NOPNA's official stance.
Cheers,
Tys

Man, here's a bad idea: City College plans to use academic money to make more parking... right at a time when they should be moving away from the car. People at City College were almost 'on board' with public transit.
Read the article in 'Beyond Chron'

PART 2: the follow up to my response:

***
I actually forwarded your response to my roommate, colleagues, and several friends -- leading us to "talk amongst ourselves" about the Lower Haight, my initial email, and your response.

Second, I appreciate the time that you put into responding. At the very least, I was impressed at the thoughtfulness of the response and the detail that you went into -- providing specific examples and a general concern in addressing the problem. It's clear that you have done your homework -- especially in comparison to other responses I received (as well as non-responses, which also speak volumes about those individuals as public servants.) My email was certainly not intended as a test to see which candidate could provide the better answer; however, it did provide me with a solid foundation to determine who was serious about serving this district and what approach they would take to addressing problems.

Your response was extremely thought provoking for me.
I composed the email one day after coming home from work (walking through the Haight-Fillmore intersection) and just feeling like the neghborhood is going to, well, shit! (for the lack of a better word) So it was nice to hear someone approach the problem methodically and with great insight, with regards to the various stakeholders involved (police, neighbors, corporate partners, city leaders, police, etc.)

This past weekend's murder on the 400 block of Haight certainly reinforced my comments about the safety of the area -- an issue that you reaffirmed in your response. Now I'm even leary of going to the few Haight Street restaurants (closer to Fillmore) that I had previously not even considered as unsafe.

I want you to know that, since receiving your email, I have visited your website often to read more about who you are and what your plans are if elected to represent the district. I am impressed.

I'm not quite sure how to respond to the suggestions that you provided (I feel like the problem is so much larger than me -- even though "it's all grassroots", I know... I'll admit to being stuck in the frame of mind where I just want someone else to make the problem go away, not fully realizing that I'm either part of the solution OR part of the problem.) I became more engaged in the past Mayoral and DA elections -- attending several community debates and really engaging myself in studying the candidates and the issues. It felt natural for me to take the initiative to find out who was replacing Matt Gonzalez. I guess the Presidential election (and what's at stake) has also forced me to become more proactive -- I feel like we are on the edge of an abyss in this country and fundamental rights are at stake. And all politics are local, right?

I appreciate the opportunity to engage in a dialog. ***

I recently got an emailed question (that went to all the candidates) from someone who lives in the Lower Haight. Here's the main part:

The Lower Haight is in desperate need of attention. While I wholeheartedly supported Matt Gonzalez' political aspirations, I was relived that he would not be pursuing re-election to represent District 5. His attention to his district needs has been questionable at best, completely absent at least.

Specifically, the Haight & Fillmore intersection and the several blocks that surround the area have fallen on dismal times of late. In the past several years, I have noticed the area's demise and realize that it's on board to becoming the new "Bayview Hunter's Point" of San Francisco -- in that little attention is paid to evident problems. Open drug dealing occurs all day and all night. One can stand at both bus stops (at Haight and Fillmore - heading East and West) and watch drug deals occur regularly. It's a safe haven for deals to occur as their is little police presence or enforcement. Is this okay?

It's common knowledge that the three blocks on Haight, between Fillmore and Laguna is not safe. Period. End of discussion. Is this okay?

In addition, the area is filthy. It gets filthier by the day. Little effort or attention is paid to cleaning up the area. The affect results in a slow progression of inattentiveness to outlying blocks and neighboring streets. Is this okay?

I know this is long, but I wanted to post it somewhere where everyone could see what my response was...

***
Your questions of ‘is this ok?’ really seem to want a response to: ‘what can be done about this?’ and while I think these issues of crime in the community are more about police policy/action and then prosecution by the District Attorney, I do believe there are things the community can do.

First of all, the surrounding community needs to get involved. In fact, I would say that in some ways, what’s going on at the 400 block of Haight is a response to community involvement in other surrounding areas. Communities like Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and the strong-willed community members of the Hayes Valley North/South housing development like Sandra Swanson and SF Neighborhood Safety Partnership and SAFE http://www.sfsafe.org/ have been working for years to get crime out of their streets… and have succeeded, thus pushing this activity to the two block area where it’s still being allowed to happen.

How did they do it?
By building a sense of community and working with the police to communicate specific concerns and actually tell them about each and every possible bit of criminal activity they were aware of. By meeting regularly with the police reps from Northern Station, learning about how best to report these crimes, and letting the criminals know it won’t be tolerated any further. By learning to call the police with a detailed description of a specific situation: ‘the guy with the blue jacket and red pants has been dealing on Saturday mornings, and he keeps his drugs stashed in the bushes at the corner of….’ Instead of simply, ‘they look like they’re selling drugs all the time’.
Then, the much harder part -- standing together and following through on the prosecution of these criminals once they’re caught. So many times in community meetings I hear the fear of retaliation to testifying against these types of criminals. The only answer to that is the whole community needs to truly follow through on these trials, go there, testify, to say as a group: this is a bad guy who’s hurting our community. We don’t want him back in our neighborhood.

Then, as has been shown by the other neighborhoods right in the area, the work has to continue. Communities have to find things to keep the kids busy, to keep the areas clean, and to encourage the local businesses to stay involved and ‘present’ on their sidewalks.

I mentioned Sandra Swanson above. She runs an after school reading program right at Haight and Buchanan, and on Wednesdays (4:30 to 5pm) she has invited the community to participate by coming over and reading to the children from the neighborhood. That’s the sort of continued community involvement that’s needed, and that builds strong relationships that can change a community for the better.

It’s interesting that you bring up Supervisor Gonzalez’s ideological leanings, and mention what you see as his difficulty balancing the local needs with his citywide and/or philosophical points. I too, tend to generally agree with MG’s ideology, but have also seen the realities of local issues in opposition to some of them. It was interesting to learn, for example, that MG strongly backed DA Hallinan for re-election, when many community leaders (and certainly pundits) felt that Hallinan’s record on working with the police and following through on prosecution of these ‘lower level’ quality of life crimes was not strong. From what I’ve seen of the new DA Harris’ positions and work style, she intends to work much more closely with the police to help communities get these sorts of crimes off the street. (I hope the current death penalty for a cop killer doesn’t hurt that relationship.)

What can be done about the cleanliness of the area?
Again, my first response will point back to the community, but includes action from city agencies. As you may know, trash is certainly one issue I’ve worked on a lot in my own neighborhood. Read about my many different, specific solutions to the city’s trash problem at: http://www.tyssniffen.com/trashrant.html but, let’s talk about lower Haight:

- The community, that is, neighbors who care, such as yourself have to come out and help. On April 17th, we just had a very successful clean up in that surrounding area hosted by the Clean City Coalition www.sfcleancity.com that included many different groups, including DPW. I hope you got a chance to participate. That sort of event shows how much neighbors care, and how we can work with the city to focus their attention where it needs to be.

- The community needs to tell those merchants on Haight to clean up in front of their stores. They will respond saying they are struggling as it is, and don’t have the energy or time to do more. This isn’t an acceptable answer. We, the community, need to let them know that if they don’t include themselves in the solution, they won’t be around much longer. One suggestion might be to use the model that Upper Haight has implemented, creating a clean up crew sponsored by the immediate merchants. I can get the specifics from the President of the Haight Merchants Assoc. if you’d like to learn more. I think Walgreens could be the focal point for the start of this effort, as they of course have the corporate backing and wherewithal to kick off this process, perhaps by renting a sidewalk steam cleaner. (interesting isn’t it, that sometimes a corporate chain might be part of the solution, not the danger it is painted as by some elements of the ‘progressives’)

o I find that the merchants are just as frustrated as you are, and are looking for support and help. Someone just needs to start the process, and they often ‘jump on board’.

- The community also needs to communicate its dissatisfaction with the situation to the Department of Public Works whenever possible. I hope you know about the ‘trash report line’ 28-CLEAN (282-5326) which is open 24/7 for notification of a specific problem. I call about graffiti, illegal dumping, and general dirtiness whenever I see it. Remember, however, that DPW isn’t charged with cleaning the sidewalks, the property owners are. Focus on reporting graffiti on public and private property, illegal dumping (like the couch on the sidewalk) and if people are using the public trash cans for other than their intended use.

o Another interesting side note on trash cans: That new Indian (Pakistani?) restaurant going in specifically asked to have the public trash can *removed* from their corner because they didn’t like it in the front of their building. Now, probably, people are dropping more trash on the street. Hmm..

What can a Supervisor Do?
As I mentioned above, this isn’t exactly an issue that is typically solved from an office in City Hall. BUT, my plans as supervisor would certainly facilitate the above suggestions. In my planned District Town Hall events http://www.tyssniffen.com/promises.htm#townhalls we will bring in the city department managers (not necessarily the Executive Directors, who are often good at saying much and responding to little, but the mid-level folks who are in charge of our areas) and bring these specific issues up in the public forum, taking notes on their responses and following up with them until the job is done. As your supervisor, I will focus persistently on accountability among our city department managers, especially in high crime – high trash areas in our district. But again, my plan depends on regular community-member involvement.

I also want to start a ‘Community Leader Training’ process, where neighborhood leaders can attend workshops and trainings to help them understand community issues, what’s worked in other areas and other cities, how to build community support, even work on resolution of conflicts, and more.

We also need to update and promote our civic responsibility outreach, so that children and the public at large realize that we’re all responsible for our environment and our communities. When was the last time you heard a ‘give a hoot, don’t pollute’ commercial? Seems like years to me.

And of course, I want to implement a number of policies and practices mentioned in my trash solutions page http://www.tyssniffen.com/trashrant.html like a better definition of who’s in charge of the sidewalk, which will slowly change the culture of trash and litter.

The SFPD has a new tool to work on these issues as well. The City CrimeStats program, which you can use yourself online: http://gispubweb.sfgov.org/website/san_francisco_community/ will allow the police to better focus their responses by seeing trends in crimes. Of course, these maps will only show *reported* crimes, so it is even more important to educate the community about calling and reporting crimes when they happen.

Finally, I do want to talk about cultural perceptions. We live in a very diverse urban environment, where many different sorts of cultures and attitudes rub up against one another. From some people’s idea that graffiti is ‘art’ while others see it as simply gang tagging, to the long cultural history of African-American’s interacting in their community by ‘hangin’ on the stoops and front steps of their homes, socializing and spending time with friends and neighbors… which is often perceived with trepidation and concern by those of us from other backgrounds, we have to carefully examine our own reactions and perceptions. If we feel unsafe simply because there’s a lot of people around us who don’t look like us or talk like us, do we need an institutional response, or do we need to learn more and build bridges to other communities? Is drinking alcohol on the sidewalk something we want to crack down on? Maybe, but maybe not. Is the double parking causing real trouble? Or the loud radios? We have to decide what’s acceptable in an urban environment and what’s not. Where we decide to draw the line on enforcement of our laws is more of a cultural decision than a legal one, as I’m sure you know.

As Supervisor, I will lead the District 5 community towards solutions like these on this issue, and bring this level of focus and understanding to the other important subjects of our city as well.

Well, I’m interested in your response, and while I have more thoughts and ideas, I’ll stop here. Let me know if you want some assistance if you’re interested in rallying the neighborhood. I’d also be interested in the other candidates’ responses, if you get any. And of course, you can forward this to them if you want.

Tys
Your candidate for Supervisor.
***

Dateline: Chicago

In the Great North for the weekend, I keep hearing about how Chicago is doing great things with trees and greenspace. I just heard a radio commercial for a fundraiser/event thing for dining out. Select restaurants were donating certain proceeds to Chicago's version of Friends of the Urban Forest and then there was going to be a follow up so trees would get planted.

Imagine, promoting local businesses and the economy, while supporting the greening of the urban landscape, at no cost to the city... What a concept! Sheesh. I thought the Left Coast was supposed to be on the leading edge.