Friday, August 1, 2008

AT&T Utililty Box Exemption Denied: July 29, 2008

VICTORY FOR NOW

AT&T withdraws motion for exception of environmental review of its 850 utility boxes. Fight not over as AT&T plans to come up with a new proposal and resubmit

On July 29, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors heard dozens of people at the microphone stating their disbelief that the Planning Department issued a Determination of Exemption from Environmental Review for 850 AT&T Utility Boxes. They all came out to rally behind the Cole Valley Improvement Association’s appeal to the Board to deny this categorical exemption.

Here’s what happened at the Public Hearing: After those who supported the exemption appeal spoke, the Planning Department gave its reasons for awarding the exemption. Board members grilled the Department staff and when it was clear to AT&T that the Board may approve the CVIA’s appeal, AT&T asked to withdraw its motion for exemption of environmental review and stated that they will come back to the Board with a new proposal.

And so, a victory for the day was achieved. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who contacted your supervisors; and we want to especially thank those who came out and spoke at the hearing. Due to this support and the great job by the Cole Valley Improvement Association of rallying all us around the common cause of making San Francisco livable, we acted as a solid unit and won.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Lake Merced and the Pacific Rod and Gun Club

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding the future of the Pacific Rod and Gun Club at Lake Merced. This has come up because the San Francisco PUC is crafting a Lake Merced Watershed Plan and is asking the hard questions about what are the appropriate and environmentally sound uses at the lake, now and into the future. The Plan is the result of the long-term advocacy of the Lake Merced Task Force that has been pushing for a master plan of the lake for a long time. I started the Task Force with two other organizations in 1999 to restore the lake and create a long-term stewardship program for its continued care. The Task Force is still going strong, almost a decade later.

I co-wrote an opinion piece that ran in the Chronicle on April 23, 2008 about Lake Merced and the Gun Club controversy. Here it is:

Let’s Not “Fire Away” Without All the Facts
by Dee Dee Workman, Dan Murphy, and Mondy Lariz

As long time advocates involved with restoring Lake Merced after many years of neglect, we are compelled to respond to recent Chronicle pieces: “Fire Away” (April 4 editorial) and “Gun Club in Crosshairs” (March 20). As is usually the case with complicated matters such as the current controversy over the Pacific Rod & Gun Club, things aren’t as simple as the Chronicle suggests.

The current process of how to restore Lake Merced is one that the Lake Merced Task Force, made up of over 40 organizations and agencies, has urged San Francisco to undertake for nearly a decade. Many who care about this priceless ecological and recreational resource have come together with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), which owns the lake, to develop a Lake Merced Watershed Plan. The plan will address issues such as environmental health, recreational potential, land use and watershed protection at the lake.

It should be made clear that the SFPUC is not arbitrarily trying to evict the Gun Club from its shores. Through its comprehensive watershed planning process, the SFPUC is simply trying to gauge public attitudes and priorities about different uses at the lake, including those at the Gun Club site.

This is not a question of banning or outlawing guns. Rather it is a process which asks; what is the most appropriate way to utilize this prime 14 acre lakefront site?

Currently the property is used less than 20 hours a week as a shooting range for approximately 300 gun club members. While the club has been generous in allowing occasional use of the property by others, the objective of the current SFPUC exercise is to determine what uses of the property will meet the classic utilitarian test of providing “the greatest good for the greatest number”.

Among the many uses being explored are a storage and launching facility for local high school and adult rowing programs; a facility for recreational boat rentals; a nature and environmental center; a children’s play area; a restoration site for dune and wetland habitat; and a youth fishing program. Both public comment and rigorous criteria established for balancing multiple lake uses have generally favored these activities. The suggestion that there must be room for a compromise where the gun club would share the site with other uses raises serious questions. As long as shooting continues to be the focus of the Club’s program, only the rowing facility is even remotely likely to be compatible with it. The space is large enough to accommodate many uses, yet safety around live shooting is a concern no one seems to be talking about. Imagine if a child enjoying the nature center wanders off and is accidentally shot. Also issues of noise, residual effects from lead and broken clay targets and impacts to birds and wildlife have yet to be fully addressed. The watershed plan must answer the question of whether gun use is a sustainable practice at Lake Merced and if it can be compatible with competing uses without creating environmental and human hazards.

We have worked collaboratively with members of the Gun Club and their affinity groups and respect their point of view. We also believe that the open public planning process led by the SFPUC is the best way to balance the competing possibilities for the future of Lake Merced. To learn more and comment on the Lake Merced Watershed Plan, go to the SFPUC website at: http://www.sfwater.org/msc_main.cfm/MC_ID/20/MSC_ID/179/.


Dee Dee Workman is Executive Director of San Francisco Beautiful; Dan Murphy is a member of the Golden Gate Audubon Society Conservation Committee; Mondy Lariz is Program Director for California Trout
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

No Billboard Insider on the Planning Commission

We have successfully prevented Ryan Brooks, the Vice President and local representative of CBS Outdoor, from serving on the San Francisco Planning Commission.

Mr. Brooks requested that Mayor Newsom appoint him to the Commission after being booted from the Public Utilities Commission. The mayor then appointed him to the Planning Commission (what was he thinking?), but his appointment had to be approved by the Board of Supervisors. We mounted an all-out offensive to stop the appointment because the Commission is the governing body that oversees the billboard industry in this town, and his appointment represented a serious conflict of interest that would have led to an easing of billboard controls in a city that hates them.

By working with the Board of Supervisors, the media and San Francisco Beautiful's members, we were able to thwart the appointment to the extent that Mr. Brooks withdrew his name from consideration. Public opinion was clearly against his appointment - take a look at Ken Garcia's article in the Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/Blogs/Fault_Lines?cid=sf-nav-garcia

Billboard industry representatives often get themselves appointed to local governing bodies in order to protect their economic interests. In fact, Michael Colbruno who represents Clear Channel Outdoor, the largest local billboard purveyor, serves on the Planning Commission in Oakland, where he lives. This is nothing new. But it is a flagrant breach of the public trust and will not be tolerated in San Francisco, where city residents voted to ban all new billboards by over 79% of the vote in 2002.

San Francisco Beautiful celebrates another victory against the billboard companies!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

What the New Year Brings

Happy New Year everybody!

All of us at San Francisco Beautiful wish you a healthy and beautiful 2008!

The San Francisco Beautiful staff and board are anticipating a busy and challenging year ahead, as our fight to keep illegal billboards out of our city continues unabated. We had a setback last month when a judge of the Superior Court granted the billboard companies an injunction to stop the City's Planning Department from making their recently completed billboard survey available to the public. We are astonished at this decision, as the Department conducted the survey on its own, with city dollars, making that information, we believe, appropropriate for public access. Au contraire, said the judge. We are awaiting the City's decision on whether it will appeal the judge's decision, but in the meantime, the entire question of whether the sign survey will be available to the public will go to trial this spring. We will be working to make sure that this information, so vital to city residents' ability to protect the livability of our neighborhoods, is accessible to the public.

For those with Comcast cable tv, you can view my recent interview with Arthur Bruzzone on his program, "SF/unscripted" which airs on cable channel 11. It is a regular news program in which Arthur interviews local opinion leaders on current civic issues of the day. We discussed San Francisco Beautiful's work related to past and present livability concerns, including the condition of our neighborhood parks and streets, new high rises and family housing, the Golden Gate Park windmills and more. The interview will air on Jan. 3rd at 6:30 pm, Jan. 4th at 8:00 pm, and Jan. 6th at 8:00 pm. If you don't have cable tv you can go to the program's website at www.sf/unscripted.com. The video will be uploaded within the week.

Until next time,

Dee Dee