Years-in-the-making Mission affordable-housing project secures final funding

By James Salazar : sfexaminer – expert

A state loan will help San Francisco bring 168 affordable homes to a years-in-development site in the Mission.

Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday that the California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded San Francisco nearly $38 million to finish developing Casa Adelante, an affordable housing project located at 1515 South Van Ness Ave.

The development will house low-income families, formerly homeless families and people living with HIV earning between 25% and 80% of the San Francisco Area Median Income, which federal officials pegged at $80,700 for a individuals last year. Construction is expected to start in winter 2025, more than six years after The City first secured the site…(more)

In a dramatic move, a CA court says housing density doesn’t mean affordability

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

If the decision holds up, which may not happen, it would be a significant blow to the Yimby agenda.

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles issued a ruling this week that prevents the state from forcing the city of Redondo Beach, and several other Los Angeles suburbs, to allow single-family lots to be split into duplexes.

The decision by Judge Curtis Kin found that SB 9, a state law mandating that cities approve those splits “ministerially” violates the state Constitution, which gives considerable authority over local land-use decisions to charter cities.

It’s kind of a technical issue, and the state will appeal, and the Legislature may try to change the law, and none of this is even remotely settled…(more)

Why owning a home in San Francisco has never cost more

By Kevin V. Nguyen and Kevin Truong : sfstandard – excerpt

Between utility and insurance costs, homeowners are finding themselves increasingly on the hook for things outside of their control

Home prices in San Francisco may have settled down from the record highs set during the pandemic, but the hidden costs associated with homeownership are skyrocketing.

An analysis from Redfin found that the salary necessary to afford a median-priced home in the Bay Area is $404,332 a year, a nearly 25% increase from the year before. A scan through Zillow confirms that math—the average price for a single-family home remains stubbornly well over $1 million.

Paying for the upfront price of a home is still a buyer’s primary concern. But now, because of factors mostly outside of homeowners’ control, auxiliary costs—like utilities, property taxes, home insurance and maintenance work—are threatening to overtake already hefty monthly mortgage payments… (more)

RELATED: Video

FEES AND LAWSUITS FUELING CALIFORNIA’S HOUSING COST CRISIS

Supes rent-relief program saved 20,000 people from eviction during the pandemic

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

New city report shows how taxing the rich to help low-income renters is highly effective.

The rental assistance program that the Board of Supes pushed for during the early days of the pandemic saved as many as 20,000 people from eviction and possibly homelessness, a city report shows.

The report by the Budget and Legislative Analyst demonstrates how successful local government can be at preventing people from living on the streets—by forcing the very rich to pay even a fraction of their fair share.

Most of the money that funded the program came from two measures supported by progressives, including Prop. C and Prop. I, which taxed big corporations and high-end real-estate deals to provide revenue for addressing and preventing homelessness…(more)

Unsanctioned Signs

Installed along San Francisco’s Wiggle bike route

By Timothy Karoff : sfgate – excerpt

To stop cars from speeding on a popular bike route, a group of locals took matters into their own hands. 

Early on Tuesday morning, members of the road safety activist group Safe Street Rebelinstalled makeshift road signs and safety posts on Steiner Street, aimed at slowing down cars. The posts run along the centerline of Steiner between Waller and Duboce, alongside Duboce Park. “Yield to Peds & Bikes,” read the green signs, which look uncannily similar to official San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority signs. … As of Thursday morning, one of the signs was flattened by a car. 

@SafeStreetRebel – on X
Today, we’re launching a new campaign to make the Wiggle–San Francisco’s premier east/west bike artery–safer for all. If you want to see the city install safe ped and bike infrastructure like it, use this 1 click link to send an email to SFMTA- http://tinyurl.com/SSRwiggle

Capp Street, barricaded against sex work, is the Mission’s newest parking lot

by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN : missionlocal – excerpt

Several days a week, Edward sets up shop in the middle of the street at 20th and Capp, just north of where the city installed bollards a year ago to discourage johns from cruising the blocks from 18th to 22nd streets.

His pop-up car wash is apparently meeting a neighborhood need: Drivers often line up along the block or leave their cars altogether as they wait their turn for a wash.

Locals appreciate him, Edward said, because they don’t have to travel as far to get their car cleaned. And in the three or four months he has been in business, no one from the city has bothered him…

“It’s definitely helped out here,” said David Cuetter, a nearby resident, who agreed that Capp has been quieter and safer, particularly since all the additional obstacles appeared, preventing drivers from breaking and driving over the bollards…(more)

There are a number of car businesses that use the city streets for customer parking. This is one way to get parking I guess.

Peskin Ally Says SF Mayor Race Will Stoke Housing Backlash: ‘We’re Going to S ee What People Really Think’

I saw it – did you like it?

On 04/20/2024 1:37 PM PDT zrants <zrants@gmail.com> wrote:

By Adam Brinklow : thefrisc – excerpt
Susan Candell has tried twice to derail the density movement with a California constitutional amendment, and she’ll try again in 2026.

For decades, local control ruled in California. Cities decided where to build housing – or not, in many cases, which has left the state in a housing shortage and affordability crisis.

But a new wave of state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s Scott Wiener, and Berkeley’s Buffy Wicks, have realigned housing politics. Regulators in Sacramento, not city officials, now set goals and may override local laws they deem hostile to new housing. Those yearning for a return of local control have been all but shut out in the capital, as the new legislative session shows.

An attempt to bring the issue directly to voters via ballot measure has failed twice, but its backers are giving it another go. Helmed by a couple East Bay officials, the initiative Our Neighborhood Voices would amend California’s constitution to enshrine local control…

The Frisc reached out to ONV architect Susan Candell, also mayor of the East Bay town of Lafayette, to discuss the group’s aspirations, California housing wars, the upcoming election, and more. … (more)

RELATED:

Aaron Peskin’s Been a Force for and Against Housing in SF for 20 Years. Now Comes the Real Test

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Peskin Ally Says SF Mayor Race Will Stoke Housing Backlash: ‘We’re Going to See What People Really T hink’

By Adam Brinklow : thefrisc – excerpt

Susan Candell has tried twice to derail the density movement with a California constitutional amendment, and she’ll try again in 2026.

For decades, local control ruled in California. Cities decided where to build housing – or not, in many cases, which has left the state in a housing shortage and affordability crisis.

But a new wave of state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s Scott Wiener, and Berkeley’s Buffy Wicks, have realigned housing politics. Regulators in Sacramento, not city officials, now set goals and may override local laws they deem hostile to new housing. Those yearning for a return of local control have been all but shut out in the capital, as the new legislative session shows.

An attempt to bring the issue directly to voters via ballot measure has failed twice, but its backers are giving it another go. Helmed by a couple East Bay officials, the initiative Our Neighborhood Voices would amend California’s constitution to enshrine local control…

The Frisc reached out to ONV architect Susan Candell, also mayor of the East Bay town of Lafayette, to discuss the group’s aspirations, California housing wars, the upcoming election, and more. … (more)

RELATED:

Aaron Peskin’s Been a Force for and Against Housing in SF for 20 Years. Now Comes the Real Test

Sign up for The Frisc’s
free weekly newsletter

Market Match program, which doubles CalFresh dollars at farmer’s market, may be slashed

By Kelly Waldron : Missionlocal – excerpt

On a typical Thursday, Katy Alaniz Barnhill goes to the Mission Community Market on 22nd Street to get her week’s worth of produce. These days, she fills her basket with greens, mushrooms and plums — but soon, her weekly market budget may be slashed.

Alaniz Barnhill, like some other 500,000 Californians, uses Market Match, a program that allows shoppers enrolled in CalFresh benefits, the state’s food-assistance program for low-income individuals, to double a portion of their allowance to spend on produce at farmer’s markets.

For $15 of her CalFresh dollars spent, Alaniz Barnhill gets $30 worth of food. But come later this year, she may have to pay from a shallower pocket, without the extra $15.

In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed state budget cuts that would virtually eliminate the funding for the California Nutrition Incentive Program, which funds Market Match. It may also leave additional funds on the table: The program has drawn in over $30 million in matching federal funds since 2017…(more)

Matt Haney’s ‘right to disconnect’ bill is bad for business and a death knell for startups

By Joshua March :sfstandard – excerpt

‘You can’t legislate good management.’ Assemblymember Haney’s ‘right to disconnect’ bill would stifle startup culture, argues CEO Joshua March

Everyone needs time to wind down and disconnect to be their best self. I’m the CEO of a Silicon Valley tech startup, and even I set my phone to “do not disturb” after 9 p.m. most days as I’m winding down for bed. I try to schedule at least one weekend day that is free of work.

But sometimes there are tight deadlines, and startups need to do whatever it takes to win. If that means you need to get on a red-eye flight to get to an important pitch meeting, you do it. If you need to spend all weekend reworking a deck for an important Monday morning meeting, tending to lab experiments or coding for a product launch, you do it. This kind of dedication is necessary to succeed.

AB 2751 by state Assemblymember Matt Haney would make this kind of flexibility illegal…(more)

Seriously? Matt can’t think of anything better to do than dictate how people will handle their own free time? He obviously needs a different job. This is about as lame of a bill as anything we have seen lately. Who is running to replace him?