Issue 323___Will you want to live in San Francisco - tomorrow ___November 2008

IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE!

This year at the Holiday Party we have so much to celebrate:

A new United States President, Barack Obama, who says we must go all-out now to reduce global warming – “Delay is no longer an option.”

New members in the U. S. House and Senate, joining those determined to reverse some of the worst environmental actions of the outgoing administration.

Four new members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisor (replacing termed-out Supervisors) all committed to protecting our urban environment – Eric Mar, David Chiu, David Campos and John Avalos – will join continuing Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu, Ross Mirkarimi, Chris Daly, Sean Elsbernd, Bevan Dufty, and Sophie Maxwell.

The voters’ decision to build High Speed Rail in California – downtown to downtown from San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal via Central California to Los Angeles’ Union Station – plus San Diego to Los Angeles – striving to solve our state’s increasing transportation needs while using 1/6 as much fuel as airplanes per passenger seat with 1/10 the air pollution – and costing less than more freeways and airports.

Join us Thursday, December 11, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Forest Hill Clubhouse, 381 Magellan. Your participation and donation make possible our day-to-day fight to protect our urban environment.

You and Your Friends are invited to Party with SFT
Thursday
December 11, 2008
6 to 9 p.m.
Forest Hill Clubhouse,
381 Magellan Ave

To reach the Forest Hill
Clubhouse, take Muni to Forest Hill Station
Go west (right) two long blocks on Dewey,
right one block on Montalvo,
Turn right onto Magellan.

$35. Sponsor $60 .
Patron (& 1 Guest) $120.
Phone: Jane Morrison
564-1482
RSVP: Please mail check to:
”SFT” 41 Sutter, # 1579,
SF 94104.

SFT’s Party always attracts interesting GUESTS:
You will meet State Senators Carole Migden, Leland Yee, Mark Leno, Assemblymembers Fiona Ma & Tom Ammiano. Mayor’s Office. Members of the Board of Supervisors. City officials from SF Muni, PUC, Environment, Recreation & Parks. Transbay Joint Powers Authority. BART. Environmental Organizations: Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Alliance for a Clean Waterfront, Friends of the Urban Forest, Treasure Island Wetlands Project, Nature in the City, Walk San Francisco. Presidio Sustainability Project . San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Running Rec/Park as if the Environment Mattered

On October 8th, the Mayor selected Jared Blumenfeld to serve as the interim general manager of the Recreation and Park Department (RPD). An excellent choice – given Jared’s love of parks, commitment to sustainability and management experience. Given the positive changes he’s already initiated at RPD, it’s no wonder that rumors abound that his new position may become permanent. Currently serving as Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment (DOE), the early understanding is that Jared will serve as the replacement for outgoing General Manager Yomi Agunbiande for the time needed to find a permanent department head.

In any case, it is important to install a new permanent
GM soon. If Jared must return to DOE, the City can take advantage of his full range of ability and innovative thinking there. But the community needs to put pressure on the Search Committee to recruit an experienced manager, familiar with SF’s parks and committed to environmental sustainability, who will foster close ties between RPD and the DOE.

The City is already ahead of the game. In late November, under Jared’s leadership, the Recreation and Park Commission approved Goals for 2009 that will greatly improve the department’s community involvement, staff empowerment, volunteerism, and financial and environmental sustainability. Efforts to gather public input will include meetings in the community, parks bike tours, and an improved website. The draft Goals call for administrative and management staff to perform two hours of volunteer work per week in the parks.

The draft Sustainability program includes such programs as the conversion to recycled water for landscape irrigation and a more efficient watering system; energy audits, improved energy efficiency and the use of solar energy generated on site; continued leadership in Integrated Pest Management; a vastly improved waste reduction program, including recycling and composting; a green building program (the Greening Checklist); and a reduction in carbon emissions through a tracking program and reduction in the RPD’s vehicle fleet.

The Draft Greening Checklist can be found on the RPD’s website at:
http://www.parks.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/recpark/meetings/Recreation_and_Park_Commission/supporting/2008/Item8DraftGreeningChecklistattachment.pdf

And the Draft 2009 Goals can be found at:
http://www.parks.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/recpark/meetings/Recreation_and_Park_Commission/supporting/2008/Item7RPDGoalsDraft2Oct2008.pdf

The public may still offer input to the 2009 Goals and the Greening Checklist. Stronger conservation measures such as reducing water demand through climate-appropriate landscaping and a reduction in lawn area are encouraged. Expediting implementation of the Natural Areas Program is crucial; this has been sitting on the shelf for many months.

Staffing for ecological restoration must be increased to bring back habitats in which wildlife thrive, including better support for volunteer stewards. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, and sensible, to create a City Naturalist position? Paying more attention to habitats for wildlife would serve us all, by instituting such measures as: avoiding unnecessary lighting, preventing the feeding of animals, providing wildlife-friendly landscaping, increasing habitat diversity and providing more interpretation of nature.

Jared has already begun a zero-emission, fact-finding program, a bicycle tour of 220 city parks in 58 days! He will visit the parks over the course of the next two months (weather permitting), covering more than 364 miles along the way and meeting the people who use and work in the parks. The public is invited to ride along or to meet him at the parks. For a schedule of upcoming tour dates, please see

http://www.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=92180

The Tuolumne River Thanks You!

A year ago we faced a Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) that would have diverted an additional 25 million gallons of water per day from the Tuolumne River, writes Peter Drekmeier.  Fortunately, the SFPUC has just approved the Phased WSIP, which will cap water sales at current levels until 2018.  This was a huge victory – the first time we’ve ever had a cap on sales.  We've changed the way the SFPUC does business!
 
We now have ten years to reexamine water demand projections and ramp up conservation and recycling programs.  The SFPUC also will study the potential impacts of climate change on future river conditions, and complete a biological study of the Tuolumne to help determine when additional water should be released from Hetch Hetchy to benefit wildlife and vegetation downstream.
 
The Tuolumne River thanks all of you who wrote letters to the SFPUC or attended the recent hearing.  There was an overflow crowd, with dozens of articulate and passionate speakers, people committed to the health of the Tuolumne River and other local watersheds.
 
The Phased WSIP still includes a provision that would allow the diversion of an additional 2 million gallons per day from the Tuolumne to fill reservoirs following extended droughts.  However, the Commissioners made it clear they wanted to see the Tuolumne protected, and included several strongly-worded amendments aimed at minimizing the need for additional diversions.  The SFPUC will set aggressive water conservation and recycling goals, and provide regular updates on water use projections to identify potential threats to the Tuolumne before they become problematic.
 
It is clear that the SFPUC is taking its role as a steward of the Tuolumne much more seriously.  No one wants to see more water diverted from a wild and scenic river, so now we must all work together to make sure adequate measures are in place to reduce our dependence on the Tuolumne.

GRIDLOCK IN THE SUNSET

With the reopening of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in September the Park, and neighborhoods that border it, routinely experience compete traffic gridlock on weekends, holidays, and “free” days. Significantly contributing to this gridlock is the garage entrance within the Park. As the garage fills to capacity, autos line up waiting for someone to leave so they may enter. This line extends out of the park and into the Inner Sunset, often blocking Lincoln. For those living in the Inner Sunset, we grit our teeth and are glad we can walk. But for those that must pass through the Inner Sunset, weekend travel has become a nightmare.

With approval of the Concourse Garage and the later modification of city code to allow an entrance within the Park, two bodies were created to mitigate impacts as they occur: the Concourse Authority and later the Concourse Authority Advisory Committee. Though all of the problems feared by opponents to the garage and the entrance within the Park have come to fruition, neither body seem to even exist anymore. The Concourse Authority trickled down to two meetings a year and their president, Ron Miguel, resigned to serve on the Planning Commission. In 2006, the Advisory Committee attempted to suspend all meetings until the opening of the Academy, but could not even attract a quorum to do that much.

Within the San Francisco General Plan, Recreation and Open Space Element, you will find: POLICY 2.4
“Gradually eliminate non-recreational uses in parks and playground and reduce automobile traffic in and around public open spaces.”

The Academy of Sciences is attracting visitors from all over the Bay Area and they mainly arrive in cars, vans and SUV’s. Maybe Academy visits will quiet down in the coming months, but the current impacts of the traffic should be studied now and a Traffic Control Plan for Golden Gate Park initiated. We cannot tolerate the depredation that this automobile traffic in and around the Park is now causing. The city has initiated the CultureBus (74X) that runs from Civic Center to the Park, but at a one-day fare of $7 for adults and $5 for children 5 to 17, even with the $3 discount at the Museum, it has very low ridership.

Again, San Francisco government has thumbed its nose at integrated urban planning and the City’s General Plan, and diminished the quality of our urban environment. Though we talk of reducing traffic, when push comes to shove, our city usually chooses to increase auto traffic and pollution, and ignore the dangers they pose to pedestrians and bicycles.

Suppression of Public Comment

Those of us who testify before official bodies (boards, commission, committees, etc.) know the arbitrary time limits that are placed on public comment. The time limit is usually three minutes, but if a lot of people wish to comment, the time limit will be reduced to two minutes, or even one minute. When time is up a loud gong sounds and that's that. Last week, Recreation and Parks Commission President Larry Martin, with less than a full house, decided that two minutes was enough and enforced the limit by cutting off people in mid-sentence. Could he even have been paying attention to the content? A really enlightened official, who understands how valuable and wise comments from the public can be, would be grateful to people who give up their afternoon and come to speak their views. It’s a democracy, remember? It’s our city.

It was not always like this. There was a time when no strict time limits were placed on people testifying before such bodies. Presiding officials would allow people to complete their testimony and make their points. If someone started taking excessive time or rambled on and on, the presiding official was able, tactfully and politely, to get that person to wind up. Watching and listening only to the clock, present day officials seem to have lost that ability.

San Francisco Tomorrow urges public officials to give this a lot of thought. Learn the ability to treat people who appear before you respectfully, not as a nuisance but as a fund of knowledge and information. Their predecessors were once able to do this, and above all, really listen to the people. You might learn something. It might affect your decision, which you thought you had all wrapped up beforehand, when you took your seat on the dais.

Mountain Biking vs. Natural Areas
Currently there is but one small location for legal off-road bicycling between San Bruno Mountain and the Golden Gate Bridge. Though estimates of mountain bikes in San Francisco run upwards of 30,000 and many make it “into the dirt” regularly, so far efforts to establish a legal trail system within the City have failed.

For this reason, it was deeply disturbing when 150 enthusiasts met up in mid-November and rode a 30-mile course throughout our public natural areas. The ride went through endangered species habitat at Twin Peaks, McLaren Park and San Bruno Mountain, and through rich California native grasslands at Bernal, Mt. Davidson, and Glen Canyon, special natural places in the heart of San Francisco.

On the one hand, the ride utilized roadways and established trails throughout. These same trails have been used for decades without repercussion. Many who participated in the SF Flow ride never considered it was wrong to use the same trails by a larger, more organized group. Even so, did they stay on these trails? A video which was posted on YouTube, and later removed, showed the bicyclists traversing the trails and trampling the landscape.

On the other hand, naturalist Jake Sigg states, "The participants in this bicycle event are so innocent--but to those of us who have been dedicating our lives to preserving the biological values of these areas, the race is anything but. The destructiveness of this activity is beyond describing, undoing what thousands of hours of our labor have accomplished, not to mention tens of thousands of years on the part of nature. It's gone."

“As a City, we must advance toward more rational and sensitive means to treat our natural landscapes,” says Peter Brastow of Nature in the City. “We need financial, human, and infrastructure resources to protect, steward and interpret nature in the city for future generations of young mountain bikers, naturalists, and dog lovers alike.”

The ride was illegal and damaging to public resources. The few remnant natural areas of San Francisco are not places for a mass event, especially one which inevitably tears up the landscape.