Wednesday, November 21, 2007

San Francisco Beautiful Gives Over $1M in Grants

In 2007 San Francisco Beautiful marked several important milestones that we are very proud of. Not only did we celebrate our 60th anniversary this year with a fitting gala at City Hall, we also passed the $1,000,000 mark in our Freidel Klussmann Grants Program. With the closing of our final grant cycle of the year, we have given a grand total of $1,061,000 to local neighborhood groups to help carry out community improvement projects across the City.

Our 2007 grants include funding for:

• Restoring Alemany Farm in St. Mary's Park (Bernal Heights) with native plants and a beautified entryway;
• New fencing at the Dolores Park Playground in the Mission, a community bulletin board at Victoria Manalo Draves Park in SOMA and a water fountain for both humans and dogs at Upper Douglass Dog Park in Noe Valley;
• The restoration of the beautiful Women's Building murals on 18th Street;
• New trees at West Portal Elementary School, a school garden at James Lick Middle School (Noe Valley), and a native plant garden at Willie L. Brown, Jr. Academy in the Portola District;
• Permeable landscaping on Judah Street in the Outer Sunset;
• Community garden enhancements at Koshland Park in Hayes Valley, a deck extention at the 24th Street Mini-Park in the Mission District and a natural seating area at Potrero Hill Park Playground.

Our first grant cycle application deadline for 2008 is February 1, and I encourage all San Francisco neighborhood, parks, and merchant groups to take a look at our website at www.sfbeautiful.org for information on how to apply for a Freidel Klussmann Grant. We would love to support your community improvement project! You can also call me for more information: (415) 421-2608 x 11.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Dee Dee

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Prop K Wins, Clear Channel Loses!

One week after the San Francico local elections, a few thousand stray ballots have yet to be counted, but it is nevertheless clear that Prop K, the "No New Advertising in our Public Spaces" policy declaration has won overwhelmingly! As of today, November 13th, the vote count is:

MEASURE K
YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 81,035 61.76%
NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,170 38.24%

This vote sends a strong message to San Francisco's policymakers that city residents are not willing to give over our public spaces to the billboard industry, especially Clear Channel Outdoor, who stands to gain the most from commercial advertising on bus shelters and other "street furniture".

Clear Channel spent a reported $175,000 on "No on Prop K" advertising, including direct mailers (lame graphics, riddled with half-truths and a sorry waste of many trees) and, of course, billboards across the City. I honestly think this is what assured us the win - their campaign definitely back-fired on them. San Franciscans are not stupid. They know that when the bottom of the mailer says "Paid for by Clean Channel Outdoor', that the the billboard company is attempting to protect its own bottom line, not the citizens of San Francisco. Voters recognized that Prop K would not threaten their MUNI service, as Clear Channel maintained, but would show our city leaders that we STILL do not want commercial advertising covering every conceivable inch of space in our uniquely beautiful city.

This vote reaffirms the Prop G vote in 2002, when over 79% of San Francisco voters approved the measure to stop all new billboards from being built in the City.

What next? Should San Francisco follow Sao Paolo's lead and ban ALL billboards in our city? That would be a difficult law to pass, as state law (put forward by the billboard industry, who else?) mandates that billboard owners have to be paid for the LIFETIME VALUE of any legally permitted billboard that is removed. That's a chunk of change in a city where many billboards are valued at millions of dollars each. And yet, it's an interesting idea, perhaps worth pursuing.

What are your thoughts? Let us know!

Dee Dee Workman, Executive Director
San Francisco Beautiful