4:41 PM: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee today gave his annual State of the City address and laid out a plan to create 30,000 new and rehabilitated homes in the city by 2020, promising that a third of those would be affordable to low- and moderate-income families.
Lee also proposed raising the city’s minimum wage, expanding funding to public schools to a level “never before seen in history,” raising the city’s vehicle registration fee for improvements to bus fleets, streetcars and roads, ending Sunday parking meter fees, expanding the city’s police force and improving services for the city’s homeless population.
The center of the mayor’s speech was creating more affordable housing, part of what he called his “affordability agenda.”
Lee called skyrocketing rents and a limited housing market a “crisis” for the city that “threatens to choke off our economic growth and prosperity for the future.”
He noted that the economic growth has reduced San Francisco’s unemployment rate from 9.5 to 5.2 percent since he took office in 2011.
“What our housing crisis demands is real solutions and a shared vision,” Lee said outside the former naval shipyard in the city’s Hunters Point neighborhood, where an $8 billion project to construct 12,000 new residential units got started last June after decades of planning and cleanup.
The mayor characterized some of the backlash against rising rents as “scapegoating,” including protests of commuter shuttle buses that take residents from San Francisco to jobs at tech companies like Google on the Peninsula.
“The story of San Francisco is one of rapid spurts of growth,” Lee said as he closed his speech. “Each new wave of newcomers has come with a degree of tension.”
Lee laid out a seven-point plan that he said can keep San Francisco affordable to families in the decades to come.
The plan included promises to do more to protect residents from eviction and displacement as landlords may try to push long-term renters out of rent-controlled units.
Lee also touted recent efforts by the city to improve and rebuild public housing units, including the acquisition of $6.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Alice Griffith housing complex and neighboring area.
Lee said he will travel to Washington, D.C., next month to ask for more flexibility in how the city uses that funding.
Lee advocated for building more housing faster, including prioritizing construction of affordable housing, but also building market-rate housing so more affluent residents don’t face a continually tight market and drive rents up.
“When it comes to housing construction, we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect better results,” Lee said.
He said that the construction of new housing must generally be easier, as obstacles in the planning and permitting stages can slow and stop construction of new units.
Lee did not stop at housing in his promises to make San Francisco affordable to all residents. He also advocated a ballot proposition for the November election that would raise the minimum wage beyond its current rate of $10.74 per hour.
While Lee did not specify how much he was proposing raising the minimum wage, he said that the hike would be “significant.”
He said that raising the minimum wage would help keep residents out of poverty and save tax dollars by giving people with jobs enough to live on so they are not forced to use social services.
Lee also touted education as crucial in giving people the necessary skills to get jobs and promised to expand programs like the Summer Jobs Plus initiative, which he said placed 6,800 students in summer jobs, with half coming from underserved communities like the Bayview and Western Addition.
He also vowed support for San Francisco Unified School District and for City College of San Francisco, which faces an uncertain future after the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges revoked its accreditation, pending appeal.
“We’re in the midst of a renaissance in our public schools,” Lee said.
He said that in 2014, through funding from the city and the state, San Francisco public schools will be funded at an unprecedented level, giving the district one of the highest per-student funding ratios in the state.
Regarding City College, he called on the accrediting commission to immediately lift “the cloud” over City College’s accreditation and future.
“City College has earned the right to be taken off this cliff of uncertainty,” Lee said.
Lee also emphasized transportation improvements, calling for two transportation funding ballot initiatives: a $500 million general obligation transportation bond and a measure to raise the local vehicle license fee.
But he also said the city should stop charging at parking meters on Sundays, a program Municipal Railway officials say has brought in nearly $6 million, roughly half from parking tickets, since being implemented last January.
Lee said the program has been unpopular and has hit low-income residents hardest.
If the two measures pass, the increased funding would be used for improvements to transportation infrastructure, including replacing Muni’s aging bus fleet and repaving roads, Lee said.
He also advocated continuing a pilot program that provides free Muni rides to youth.
Lee’s advocacy for infrastructure improvements didn’t stop there. He said he will ask voters to support a $400 million bond for earthquake safety improvements to fire and police stations, emergency water systems and other infrastructure for first responders.
The mayor also advocated for new assistance for one of the city’s most vulnerable populations, saying San Francisco must pursue new strategies to assist its homeless population.
He said despite the city spending millions each year on social services and homeless outreach, there remain many people on the street who are unable to make the choices to “save their own lives.”
“I refuse to let people die on our streets any longer because we refuse to compel them to help themselves,” Lee said.
To achieve those ends, Lee said he will implement San Francisco’s version of “Laura’s Law,” a state law that enables judges to order outpatient psychiatric care or forced anti-psychotic medication for people with a history of psychiatric hospitalizations, jailing or violent behavior.
He said he will ask the Board of Supervisors to enact a resolution that would allow the city to move forward with Laura’s Law and work with judges in implementing the program.
Scott Morris, Bay City News
11:57 AM: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee today gave his annual State of the City address and laid out a plan to create 30,000 new and rehabilitated homes in the city by 2020, promising that a third of those would be affordable to low- and moderate-income families.
Lee called skyrocketing rents and a limited housing market a “crisis” for the city that “threatens to choke off our economic growth and prosperity for the future.”
He noted that the economic growth has reduced San Francisco’s unemployment rate from 9.5 to 5.2 percent since he took office in 2011.
“What our housing crisis demands is real solutions and a shared vision,” Lee said outside the former naval shipyard in the city’s Hunters Point neighborhood, where an $8 billion project to construct 12,000 new residential units got started last June after decades of planning and cleanup.
The mayor characterized some of the backlash against rising rents “scapegoating,” including protests of commuter shuttle buses that take residents from San Francisco to jobs at tech companies like Google on the Peninsula.
“The story of San Francisco is one of rapid spurts of growth,” Lee said as he closed his speech. “Each new wave of newcomers has come with a degree of tension.”
Lee laid out a seven-point plan that he said can keep San Francisco affordable to families in the decades to come.
The plan included promises to do more to protect residents from eviction and displacement as landlords may try to push long-term renters out of rent-controlled units.
Lee also touted recent efforts by the city to improve and rebuild public housing units, including the acquisition of $6.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Alice Griffith housing complex and neighboring area.
Lee said he will travel to Washington, D.C., next month to ask for more flexibility in how the city uses that funding.
Lee advocated for building more housing faster, including prioritizing construction of affordable housing, but also building market-rate housing so more affluent residents don’t face a continually tight market and drive rents up.
“When it comes to housing construction, we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect better results,” Lee said.
He said that the construction of new housing must generally be easier, as obstacles in the planning stages can slow and stop construction of new units.
In his speech, Lee also proposed raising the city’s minimum wage, expanding funding to public schools to a level “never before seen in history,” raising the city’s vehicle registration fee for improvements to bus fleets, streetcars and roads, ending Sunday parking meter fees, expanding the city’s police force and improving services for the city’s homeless population.
Scott Morris, Bay City News
