Issue 303 ___Will you want to live in San Francisco - tomorrow ___April 2006

SCIENTISTS HAIL SAN FRANCISCO’S SIGNIFICANT
NATURAL RESOURCE AREAS MANAGEMENT PLAN
Independent Peer Reviewers Find Plan Scientifically Sound,
Urge Further Protections for San Francisco’s Unique Wildlife and Plants

Three independent scientific reviews of San Francisco’s Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan have reached a common conclusion: San Francisco’s progressive plan to protect the Bay Area’s most imperiled wildlife and plants is based on sound science and “does an outstanding job” of maximizing protection with limited resources. But the plan should be strengthened to eliminate risks posed by invasive species and irresponsible park visitors, according to peer reviewers. The peer-reviewed plan will now go before the Recreation and Parks Commission for final review and approval.

San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program is one of our country’s boldest urban conservation measures. The program aims to protect San Francisco’s numerous imperiled species and ecosystems, many of which are ‘endemic,’ meaning that they are found nowhere else on the planet. The City’s biological diversity—and its precarious status—is of global concern: the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has included portions of San Francisco in the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve, a type of recognition also given to Brazil’s Central Amazon rainforests. Yet while Brazil has preserved approximately 42% of its rainforests—which most scientists and conservationists consider a failure—San Francisco has preserved only 3% of its indigenous habitats.

The Natural Areas Program aims to preserve, restore, and enhance a small slice of San Francisco remaining indigenous habitats and species. The program recognizes that we have a moral obligation to ensure that San Francisco’s imperiled wildlife and plants are not pushed to extinction, and offers alternatives to harmful land-use management, alternatives that promote environmental stewardship and leave a legacy of wildlife protection for future generations to enjoy. At the same time, the program provides extensive recreational access so that all park users will have beautiful landscapes in which to engage nature on a daily basis.

The Management Plan, several years in the making, will help San Francisco make informed decisions to protect our unique habitats and species for the next two decades. The independent peer review of the plan concluded that it “does an outstanding job overall” of prioritizing efforts where maximum conservation benefits can be reaped, and that the plan clearly articulates where irresponsible uses of natural areas will jeopardize San Francisco’s unique biodiversity. The peer reviewers also suggested modest changes to portions of the plan, many of which have been adopted in the Final Draft Plan.

The Natural Areas Program cannot protect urban nature while simultaneously accommodating all forms of recreation enjoyed by the public without restriction. However, peer reviewers determined that the plan does not go far enough to protect San Francisco’s natural heritage from free-roaming dogs and feral cats. Peer reviewers concluded that “given the small size of the Natural Areas and populations of species of concern, it is most appropriate to enforce the exiting leash regulations and to exclude dogs from some small but vital wildlife habitat”. The Plan suggests that the proposed protection mechanisms are not “conservative” enough to protect San Francisco’s endangered biodiversity. Furthermore, the peer reviewers explained that “the need to control feral cats is urgent” because feral cats “kill prey species even when populations of prey are low, increasing the chances of extinction for the prey.”

The Natural Areas Program gives people who otherwise cannot or will not drive to distant wild lands an increasingly rare recreational opportunity: the chance to be exposed to things more than human. This of course applies to those without the fiscal resources to travel to distant wild areas, but also to those over-worked and time-stressed individuals who, because of life’s daily grind, cannot scrape the time together to visit nature in far-away places. For these individuals and the rest of us living in civilization, the Natural Areas Program provides an oasis of hope for a sustainable society.

Your support of the Natural Areas Program is vital if this visionary plan is to be approved. Please contact the Recreation and Parks Commission and let them know that they should adopt the plan, and even strengthen its provisions dealing with free-roaming dogs and feral cats, to ensure that future generations of San Franciscan’s will be able to enjoy our wondrous biological landscape. Write to:

Recreation and Park Commission
McLaren Lodge, Golden Gate Park
501 Stanyan Street
San Francisco, CA 94117-1898

"Imagine the Way"
Saturday, June 24, 2006 Save this date!

Join Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Livable City Initiative, and the Neighborhood Parks Council for "Imagine the Way" Day on Saturday, June 24, a community event to celebrate the launch of the Blue Greenway Waterfront Trail. Imagine a green park corridor along the southeastern Bay shoreline from SBC Stadium to Candlestick Point, linking land and water, as well as parks and communities while also providing healthy activities for people of all ages. Come to Heron's Head park and the adjoining India Basin Shoreline Park from 11 am - 4 pm to learn more, enjoy live music and performances, and a community barbeque. Birding experts will be on-hand to illuminate the beautifully restored wetlands at Heron's Head Park. And circus arts performers will delight and engage children of all ages. This is a free event. For more information: www.bluegreenway.org

Reusing the UC Laguna site
Kindles a land use debate

For the past two years, residents and officials have voiced their concerns over the decision by University of California to offer an 85-year lease to A.F. Evans, a developer who wants to rezone the former U.C. Extension campus in order to build residential housing there. This block, bounded by Haight, Laguna, Buchanan and Hermann Streets, was once San Francisco State University's main campus for over half a century. This plot of land continuously served San Francisco for public use as an orphan asylum and a chapel when those two facilities were built 150 years ago. Then, a few months after the 1906 earthquake destroyed their original location on Powell Street, San Francisco State first opened this campus location to students. The Spanish colonial-style buildings served as auditoriums and lecture halls mostly for women who studied teaching and education before S.F. State expanded its academic programs and offered class lessons for female and male students alike. In the late 1950’s, U.C. bought the Hayes Valley campus as an extension to the university and renovated the buildings for use as lecture classrooms, a computer lab and four public art galleries. The closure of the extension was announced in 2003 due to budget cuts. U.C. representatives believe redevelopment is essential because the current conditions of the aging campus buildings will cost more to repair and retrofit than to replace them.

A.F. Evans’ plan for reuse includes building 335 residential apartments, 83 subsidized apartments for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender senior citizens and a retail complex. They also plan to renovate the auditorium and construct a 20,000-square-foot park. But Hayes Valley activists and historical preservationists say they don't want to lose the old buildings which contain public murals, mosaics and other architectural features sponsored by the Works Progress Administration
S.F. State relocated its main campus in the mid 1950’s from the six-acre block on Laguna Street to its larger 90-acre residence near Lake Merced due to increased enrollment size and expanded program offerings. Remnants of S.F. State's existence remained on the grounds of the campus after the move, including murals, statues, hand-made framework and benches around a large palm tree.Vincent Marsh, who is a preservation planner concerned with saving the historic campus, said he will nominate the cluster of buildings as an historical landmark. "Demolition of historically significant buildings is considered to be an adverse environmental effect and the goal is avoid such an outcome," Marsh said.

"The owner has the right to object to the local landmark nomination. However, the site also meets the criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."
Meanwhile, New College is offering a counter proposal which would retain the site for its historic educational purposes; U.C. would retain ownership and derive income from this use. New College would preserve all existing historic structures and employ the State Historical Building Code to upgrade them. New construction on the site would provide housing for about 300 students and faculty, with limited parking. This plan would include small retail uses along Laguna Street to serve the campus and the local neighborhood. An environmental impact report is underway and one of the alternatives studied will be the New College proposal. The neighborhood would have access to the campus park and open spaces and to the theater in Richardson Hall.

Hayes Valley residents recently voted 22 to 2 against the A.F. Evans proposed development plan. "Our number one priority is to see a substantial amount of property maintained for public use," said Patricia Walkup, founder of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association."

Dear Editor: (this letter appeared recently in the Chronicle)

The March 6 story headlined "We're living longer ..." ended with the usual remarks about the pending insolvency of the Social Security Fund. The alleged impending bankruptcy of the Social Security Fund can be averted very simply -- raise or eliminate entirely the cap on earnings for contributing to the fund. This would increase the reserves quite rapidly. If multi-million-dollar-a-year corporate CEOs contributed to the fund at the same rate that ordinary working stiffs do the fund would be really fat.
It should also be noted that the Social Security program is actually a comprehensive insurance program. It provides survivors and disability benefits in addition to old age pensions. Contributions to it are premiums on an insurance policy, not taxes.
Very truly yours,
Norm Rolfe, Board Member, SFT

Mayor will not be supporting ‘Better Neighborhoods Plus’

Proponents of the Better Neighborhoods Plus (BN+) legislation, which would enact Redev-elopment Authority-like planning legislation, have found themselves out of step with the commun-ities they say they stand for, and now, with the Mayor. Mayor Gavin Newsom has recently said that he would veto any such legislation if it is brought to him for signature.

The BN+ legisla-tion would empower project sponsors to fast-track development within a 40-acre area and create new “neighborhoods” which maximize residential density, minimize off-street parking and derail the usual means of public comment on buildings unless they follow the “grand blue-print” agreed early in the process by a committee for that neighborhood. Neighborhood historic preservation is given short shrift. Neither would affordable housing be a prime goal. Market rate housing would be built and continue to overlook San Francisco’s moderate income families.

The Mayor heard representatives of neighbor-hood groups put forward an alternative idea which is being carried out successfully in Seattle. The Seattle Plan complements and strengthens the city’s general plan, retains the advice and commentary of the public throughout the process, and helps to obtain capital for new city infrastructure within the City’s own budget, not through private funding using City guarantees (as BN+ does).

While a number of Supervisors were ready to “kill” the BN+ legislation at their recent meeting, they agreed to send it back to the Board’s Land Use and Housing Committee who will try to parse all the amendments and code language changes grafted on in recent months. (No one is really sure what BN+ means at this point.) Nonetheless, Supervisors Jake McGoldrick continues to press for “his” legislation, despite the fact that most of it was hatched in private by a small group of housing developers with no community representatives at the table. Eventually, the Planning Commission asked for a test period in a select neighborhood so that the legislation could be tried and refined, but no one seems to be listening to them.

At its February Board of Directors meeting, San Francisco Tomorrow offered to come up with alternative legislation that would keep the public’s wishes at the heart of the process, while also securing developers’ financial contributions to constructing new infrastructure required by their new buildings.

SFT SPONSORED FIELD TRIPS

March 26 Sunday, 10 a.m,
Mt. Davidson (San Francisco County)
Leader: Tom Annese
We'll begin by looking at historic photos of Mt. Davidson that show how a 19 th -century property line led to the division of the park into two distinct halves, one a relatively intact grassland and coastal scrub area, the other a lush eucalyptus and cypress forest. We'll see perhaps twenty different wildflowers in bloom, ten species of bunchgrasses, four ferns, and over thirteen different berries (most won't be in fruit yet--bring snacks). We'll talk about why Mt. Davidson is one of the best non-aquatic birding spots in the city, discuss the park's recent history (from Adolph Sutro to the Zodiac Killer), and have lunch atop the tallest peak in San Francisco.
Meet at the bus turnaround on Myra and Dalewood (23 Myra St, 94127 on Yahoo Maps). Bring lunch, water, hat, sunscreen, layered clothing, and sturdy shoes. For more information, contact Tom Annese at 415-297-1413 or tom.annese@sfgov.org

Wildflower Walk and Habitat Restoration Work Party at Corona Heights
Saturday, April 29
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Meet on the back patio (opposite the parking lot) of the Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way (off Roosevelt) at 10 a.m.
Leaders: Jon Campo & Jake Sigg
Sponsored by San Francisco Recreation & Parks Natural Areas Program (NAP), California Native Plant Society (CNPS), and San Francisco Tomorrow (SFT).

Come join us for a restoration work party and wildflower walk at Corona Heights, one of San Francisco?s most popular spots offering spectacular views; grand wildflower displays and amazing rock outcrops. We will work on the hill from 10am-12pm, take a snack break, and then enjoy a guided wildflower walk. Bring lunch, water, hat, sunscreen, layered clothing, and sturdy shoes. Tools & disposable gloves provided (bring your own sturdier gloves if you wish). For more information call Jon Campo (NAP) at 753-7267 or Jim Houillion (SFT) at 552-3542.