Housing Policy
During the last four years of the “Dot Com” boom, San Francisco’s real estates prices tripled and the accompanying unbridled
development coupled to push many of our working class families out and threatened to change the very character of our
neighborhoods. Well in the years since the “Dot Com” bust, prices have continued to rise unabated. I believe expansion of our
affordable housing stock is essential to stabilizing our housing market forces. As your Supervisor, I will support a managed
development process that is keyed to individual neighborhood interaction, so that development goes where it is needed
and yet is restricted from where it is not wanted.
HOUSING BONDS
As your Supervisor, I will support a community inclusive policy for affordable home ownership, with special assistance for first
time buyers. I support the City’s “Inclusionary Housing Act” which incorporates the production of affordable housing units into
the cost of private development. I support developing workforce housing and home ownership assistance programs for
the assistance of San Francisco teachers, public safety officers and healthcare workers.
Note, however, that my support for new affordable housing bond measures is conditioned upon the assurance that safeguard
mechanisms are also in place to ensure the taxpayers’ money is well spent.
MUNICIPAL / COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
As your Supervisor, I will support public / private partnership ventures to develop low density, low cost housing. Modeled upon the
successful Nehemiah Project employed in Brooklyn, New York. In that project community leaders raised funds for a revolving
interest free construction fund and, in turn, the city subsidized each house with a loan, repayable upon resale, and also deferred
property taxes for a reasonable period.
The project’s result was the creation of a substantial affordable housing stock, directed toward both moderate and low income residents;
40% of the new home owners came from public assisted housing, which in turn freed up public housing units for those
people stuck on waiting lists.
LANDLORD / TENANT ISSUES
As a renter myself, I support innovative (tenancy-in-common) programs that enhance ownership opportunities for tenants. It is my firm
belief that the best protection against eviction is, after all, owning your own home.
As renter myself, I also recognize that responsibility for maintenance of my home is a shared responsibility between the landlord and
the tenant residing there. As such, I oppose excessively restrictive measures that seek to totally prevent “pass
through” renovation costs to the tenant. These measures only lead to the deterioration of properties, by becoming an incentive
for landlords to allow their otherwise viable housing to fall into disrepair. Additionally, landlords unable to make a reasonable profit are,
thereby, encouraged to recoup their investment by selling their property; this can lead to raised rents or even forced evictions.
Environmental & Energy policy
It is no secret that San Francisco’s zoning policies have historically concentrated polluting industries within the southeast sector of the
city, away from the wealthier west-side communities. These short sighted zoning policies and actions – using the southeast sector as
the city’s dumping ground – have created the current unjust environmental & social conditions where our city’s poor communities, and
communities of color, have been disproportionately impacted by polluting industries. The Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood alone
has less than 4 percent of the city’s residents, yet it has 67% of the city’s hazardous waste sites. The city Health Department found that
the area had 700 hazardous waste material facilities, 325 underground oil storage tanks and two federal Super-fund sites, including the
enormous Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. And of the 39 pollutants measured by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in San
Francisco neighborhoods, the highest concentration – 20 pollutants — are found within Bayview- Hunters Point.
It is, therefore, no surprise that there is a concentration of chronic illnesses among southeast residents, particularly within the Bayview-
Hunters Point neighborhood. Hospitalizations of these residents for chronic illnesses are four times higher than the statewide average.
The serious illnesses were asthma, congestive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes and emphysema. While a myriad of factors can be
attributed to causing such chronic illnesses, the current polluted environment is clearly the biggest smoking gun.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Our quality of life must no longer be victim to paralysis of endless analysis without action. As your Supervisor, I will work to
reverse the city’s harmful policies that have damaged our southeast communities and explore every means to effect real action that
finally cleans up the myriad southeast toxic sites. To that end, I will work to bring our southeast communities the resources needed for
meaningfully involvement in the cleanup of environmental hazards harming our health, and secure the environmental justice we
deserve.
As your Supervisor, I will work under the principles of the US Environmental Protection Agency which defines “environmental justice” as
the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all affected people with respect to the development and implementation of
environmental laws and policies.
Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental
consequences resulting from industrial operations or governmental policies.
Meaningful involvement means that:
1) residents have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that affect their
environmental health.
2) decision makers seek out and facilitate their involvement.
3) the public’s concerns be considered and contribute to the decision making process.
As your Supervisor, my Environmental Justice Strategy will focus upon:
1) promoting enforcement of all health and environmental statutes within the southeast sector.
2) improving research and data collection relating to the health of and environment of southeast sector
residents.
3) ensuring greater public participation of southeast sector residents.
Hunters Point Shipyard cleanup
I recognize that the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard alone is so saturated with pollutants that it will cost more than $100 million and a lot
of time to make it safe for residential use, but I feel there is no acceptable alternative to doing the job right.
To date, the voters passed the Proposition P ballot initiative that established the “Community Acceptance Criteria” for the cleanup of
the Shipyard under federal toxic cleanup guidelines. During the same year (in 2000), a Memorandum of Agreement between the City
and Navy outlined a process and timeline for negotiating and transferring shipyard property from the Navy to the City of San Francisco.
Then, the Conveyance Agreement, framework established the criteria, including environmental conditions, under which the City will
accept property transfer.
As your Supervisor, I will work closely with community representatives to ensure that the shipyard cleanup is conducted to the
high standards mandated by the voters with the passage of Proposition P. Additionally, I will work to ensure that development
of the transferred parcels is consistent with the needs of the surrounding Bayview-Hunters Point residents.
Schlage Lock site cleanup
As your Supervisor, I will work closely with community representatives to ensure that the Schlage Lock site cleanup is conducted to the
high standards necessary for later residential habitation and the safe siting of a supermarket facility. Additionally, I will work to ensure
that the subsequent development of the Schlage Lock site is consistent with the needs of the surrounding Visitacion
Valley and Little Hollywood residents, as best articulated in the Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance’s vision plan.
Sewage Treatment Plant
The Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant (sewage treatment plant, built in1951) processes 80 percent of the city's sewage - that's 67
million gallons a day. Daly City and Brisbane, cities to the south of San Francisco, pump in about 2.6 percent of that total sewage. The
plant is slated to handle additional sewage once the new 300-acre Mission Bay and 450-acre Hunters Point Shipyard developments are
completed in the near future. Air sample analysis at the plant, in 2001, revealed higher than normal levels of chemicals posing
potential health hazards to nearby residents. And as residents there all too well know, the plant's odor from raw sewage is suffocatingly
intolerable. At the plant 10 digesters and two flare stacks spew odors (rotten egg-like stench), all too frequently when the system isn't
working right.
As your Supervisor, I will work closely with community representatives to fix the environmental and quality of life problems stemming
from operation of the Southeast Sewage Treatment Plant. I will pursue measures to see if there are some options that can take some of
the burden off the southeast plant and redistribute it elsewhere. One such option to decentralize its sewage treatment to
alternative sites is the construction of a “cross-town tunnel” leading to the ocean beach at the Great Highway where other
treatment facilities could contribute to handling San Francisco’s waste, rather than just the southeast.
In the interim, as your Supervisor, I will work to press city agencies to implement significant odor-control improvements at the
southeast plant. I will push for the upgrading of the sewage solids handling capacity of the southeast treatment plant facilities, in order
to increase its reliability and reduce its foul odors.
Power Plants
With 20 of the 39 pollutants measured by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in San Francisco neighborhoods, the highest
concentration are found within the southeast, where asthma is epidemic. Not surprising, considering there are two power plant facilities
within the southeast billowing large quantities of pollutants into the air.
The Potrero and Hunters Point plants are the biggest industrial air polluters in San Francisco, according to the California Air Resources
Board. As your Supervisor, I will continue the pursuit alternative energy generation technologies (solar, wind-power, co-
generation, and fuel cell) that can cut 40-70% of existing power plant emissions. Alternative energy generation could allow the Potrero
Unit 3 to significantly derate (reduce) its production, and allow the complete closure of the Hunters Point Unit 4 plant. Additionally, I
oppose the expansion of Protrero’s Mirant Power Plant and will make every effort, in consensus with the local community, to shut it
down. In fact, my ultimate goal will be for the complete phase out of fossil fuel burning emissions for the city’s electricity needs.
I also support the placement of the combustible turbine engines – the City received from the Williams Energy Company – at more
remote sites, such as the San Francisco Airport, rather than within the southeast vicinity.
I support the development of transmission power lines (Jefferson to Martin) for replacement power, as a reliable power source
alternative that will enable the closure of the Hunters Point power plant. Note that after initially supporting this position, Maxwell
reversed (flipped-flopped) her position, calling for more study (delay & expense); fortunately, the California Public Utilities
Commission ruled against her stance.
ENERGY POLICY
San Francisco is at a crossroads on energy policy; decisions made in the next several years will shape the ways electricity is produced
and delivered to San Francisco for several decades. Presently, our electric system is vulnerable to disruptions and with the City being
situated at the end of a peninsula there is a limited ability to import electricity into San Francisco.
As your Supervisor, my goal will be to reduce air pollution through the development of energy efficiency, renewable energy and new
clean generation technology. I will pursue the implementation of energy policies that assure reliable (local control), yet affordable
power to meet the needs of San Francisco’s residents and local businesses, while protecting human health and the environment.
Alternative Electricity Resource Plan
I support the proposed The “Electricity Resource Plan” by San Francisco’s Environment Department and Public Utilities Commission
that would speed the closure of the existing Potrero and Hunters Point power plants without a massive power plant expansion. This
alternative (to plant expansion) energy plan increases our energy security because it would bring more of our power resources under
local control.
It is essential that the proposed The “Electricity Resource Plan” be guided by five policy goals:
• Develop Renewable Power
• Maximize Energy Efficiency
• Assure Reliable Power, through increased Local Control Over Energy Resources
• Support Affordable Electric Bills
• Improve Air Quality, supporting Environmental Justice concerns
Alternative Energy Generation
I support the ban in the use of MTBE fuels in city vehicles, and promote the use of cleaner, alternative fuels (natural gas) in
city vehicles and watercrafts (ferry boats).
As your Supervisor, I will support the study and development of Solar, Tidal Current and Wave Power Generation
technologies. And I will support the expansion of Wind Power Generation technology use along the Hetch-Hetchy
transmission right-of-way.
