Candidate for Supervisor Proposes New Mission District BART Station

By Joe Rivano Barros : missionlocal – excerpt

A new BART station and thousands of units of housing may transform the area of the Mission District south of Cesar Chavez Street, if a candidate for District Nine supervisor has his way.

Josh Arce, a community liaison for laborers union Local 261 running to replace Supervisor David Campos, laid out plans on Thursday to replace the Safeway and its parking lot at 30th and Mission streets with a new BART station, and to develop dozens of parcels in the area to increase the neighborhood’s housing supply by 2,000 units.

The development, part of a proposed “Mission Street South of Cesar Chavez” plan, would “not touch any existing housing,” Arce said. The housing built would be a mix of market-rate projects and affordable housing.

“There’s never really been a plan for this neighborhood,” he added, standing with some 20 supporters in the Safeway parking lot at 3350 Mission St. where the new station would go. The Safeway itself could be incorporated into the new station, Arce said, or a new store could be built elsewhere…

Arce’s plan parallels that of one of his opponents, Hillary Ronen, who is also running for District Nine supervisor and currently serves as chief of staff for Supervisor Campos. Ronen announced in January her intention to build 5,000 affordable housing units in the Mission District in the next decade, saying she would develop empty lots and raise heights to accomplish the feat.

The Mission District has seen no new units of affordable housing constructed in the last decade and just 455 units approved across four sites for the next four years. Those will be joined by a couple hundred more once funds from the housing bond passed last November are disbursed, but that would still be a fraction of the total Ronen has pledged for her term in office... (more)

Who needs food when you can BART? Can we find a politician who cares what the residents in the neighborhood want to do, instead of demanding we follow their plans to change our lives? How about if we just slow down the pace of change and allow everyone to catch up before running off on a new tangent?

 

Five vying to represent a Mission ‘in crisis’ on Board of Supervisors

By Joshua Sabatini: sfexaminer – excerpt

The Mission district is widely considered ground zero for the forces of change with which San Francisco has notoriously struggled in recent years: soaring housing costs, evictions, the influx of technology workers, the infamous “Google buses” and the displacement of long-standing residents, many of whom are Latino.

Amid such unforgiving turmoil, five candidates are vying for the seat on the Board of Supervisors to lead that community — described by one candidate as being at a crossroads, another in a state of emergency — for at least the next four years.

“We’re in crisis, and I am angry,” said candidate Hillary Ronen, 40, during a recent interview with the San Francisco Examiner.

The District 9 election is eight months away, but with the direction of San Francisco’s politics hanging in the balance, the money is already pouring in, influential endorsements have been declared and candidates are wasting no time in lobbing attacks.

Many consider the race a slugfest between progressive standard bearer Ronen, who works as a legislative aide to the district’s current Supervisor David Campos, and building trades-backed Joshua Arce, also 40, a community liaison with construction trade union Local 261.

The other candidates vying for the post include Edwin Lindo, a board member of the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center and education consultant; Melissa San Miguel, a former policy manager for the National Center for Youth Law; and Iswari España, a training officer for the Human Services Agency… (more)

Who will protect the current residents and small businesses in the Mission? Who will stop the privatization of our city streets and the policies that are killing our businesses? Who will demand accountability from the SFMTA? Who will question their
priority policies that demand the biggest slice of the city’s financial pie and return the worst service to the community? That is who we will support. It is about survival.