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By Tes Welborn, HANC Board

Calvin Welch introduced the meeting topic, What's Up with the Mayor?  He asked, “Why is the Mayor seeking more control in a second Emergency Declaration, when she already has enormous Emergency powers?”  There are 34,000 city employees, 75 departments, and some 40 boards and commissions, and most are under the Mayor, even in non-emergency times.  The Mayor proposed two charter changes that were discussed.

 Jennifer Friedenbach, Coalition on Homelessness, tackled the Tenderloin Emergency 90 day Declaration.  The Mayor called a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Christmas Eve that lasted to midnight!  The Mayor did not appear, and her representatives didn't have many answers. The vote was 8 yes, 2 no, Aaron Peskin absent. Ms. Friedenbach said that the Mayor already had the power to take action.

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By Tes Welborn, HANC Board

Every ten years, the boundaries of San Francisco's Supervisor Districts are redrawn to ensure that each district maintains approximately equal numbers of residents. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in the redistricting process.

Why does Redistricting Matter? Redistricting directly impacts communities' access and ability to voice their goals, ideals, and objectives. This process helps ensure that Communities of Interest are kept intact and with meaningful representation to access funding for schools, hospitals, parks, community resources and services.

Because of all the population growth and housing approved in Districts 6 and 10, they have to reduce in size, and most other districts have to grow and/or change shape. And D5 is right in the middle of all these changes!

The Redistricting Task Force [RDTF] has the ultimate authority to create a city-wide map and we have the opportunity to influence the result. Their map must be finished by April 15.

Calvin Welch and others have been working with San Francisco Rising to develop a Community Unity Map. Because the boundaries of any given district affect other districts, SF Rising has been working with dozens of community organizations to identify and address issues, seeking a map for the whole city that large numbers of people can support. San Francisco Rising builds the political power of working-class communities and communities of color in San Francisco to lead the way for democratic governance that prioritizes racial, economic and environmental justice.

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 On Saturday, February 26, HANC and co-sponsors (Coalition for a Complete Community, Senior Working Group, Cole Valley Haight Allies, Coalition on Homelessness, Homeless Youth Alliance, Larkin Street Youth Services, Acrosports, Booksmith, and Institute on Aging) held an event at 730 Stanyan to demonstrate that the space can and should be used pending the start of construction of permanent affordable housing.

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HANC supports San Francisco Rising's work to create a Redistricting Community Unity Map.

SF Rising's goals include:

1. Maintain the voting power/representation of working class BIPOC communities
2. Avoid diminishing/lowering of the Progressive Voter Index and the Socio-Economic Voter Index
3. Keep communities of interest whole

The link below explains Redistricting, show maps of the city, and provide ways people can be involved in the important work of Redistricting San Francisco. (permission by SF Rising to republish)

CLICK HERE→ SFR-Redistricting-training.pdf

The housing planned for 730 Stanyan will use public funds and is required to use part of the construction budget to fund art that will be visible from the street.

Artists who are interested should submit their qualifications by April 28 (this is not a deadline to submit proposals for the artwork).

There is a related series of five free online workshops Thursdays from 5:00 to 6:30 pm from March 17 through April 14, which cover "site analysis, stakeholder considerations, community engagement, RFPs vs RFQs, funding opportunities, contracting, and insurance."   Registration for the workshops ends on March 10.

Here is the announcement from the project developers:

PUBLIC ART RFQ + FREE WORKSHOP

730 Stanyan 100% Affordable Housing Development team, a partnership of Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), is releasing the Public Art Request for Qualifications (RFQ) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/5o7ikik73w58zcc/730%20Stanyan%20PUBLIC%20ART%20RFQ_2022.02.17.pdf?dl=0) on February 17, 2022 for responses from artist applicants by April 28, 2022.

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By David Woo, HANC Vice President

Looking at the recalls here locally, around the state, and country, it’s an interesting piece of history and really an abomination of the original intent of the recall. Recalls were creatures of Hiram Johnson, the progressive era governor in 1911 when Southern Pacific ran California. Johnson ran on breaking the control that big corporations had on the state, with the state legislature controlled by these corporations.

The idea was if state legislators can’t be counted on to do the work of the people, then the people can do it themselves. So we can put an initiative on the ballot with signatures and we can pass our own legislation that the legislature is too corrupt to pass. And at the same time if the legislature (controlled by corporations) does something horrible, we can put a referendum on it, put it on the ballot, and get rid of it. Added to this was the recall.

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