Candidate Joseph Blue's Major Policy Statements

By Joseph Blue

This page summarizes Candidate Joseph Blues major policy proposals regarding creating jobs, expanding home ownership programs and affordable housing, stopping violent crime improving public transportation, opposing the PUC rate hike, and caring for our City's senior citizens. More information on Joe's positions on these and other issues important to District 5 and the City at large can be found at http://www.joeblue.us.

For District 5 Supervisor

It's time for change in San Francisco!

JOBS

San Francisco has the second highest unemployment rate in the country for a city of its size. We must bring more quality jobs to San Francisco by encouraging businesses to locate/relocate in San Francisco through incentives. In particular, we must bring emerging industries with high-paying jobs, like biotechnology, back to the City. We cannot bring quality employers and jobs to this City without an environment that fosters business growth.

This rampant unemployment has a human face. While walking the streets of the Inner Sunset talking with neighbors, I was amazed at the number of individuals I met who were out of work or making very little money. We talk about rent and making housing affordable, but if you don't have a job or make very little money you won't be able to pay the rent. Bringing good paying jobs back to San Francisco is my first priority.

HOUSING

Home ownership is a major key to both personal and civic economic stability and quality of life. The pride and sense of equity provided by owning one's home empowers people to care more about their surroundings, the quality of their lives, and about the vitality of their neighbors and their neighborhood. Thus, my proposals for affordable housing and home ownership are two-fold: 1) introducing legislation to allow the "co-opitization" of low income housing projects, which would allow a portion of a tenant's rent to go towards eventual ownership of their unit; and 2) expanding the income maximums for people to qualify for home ownership assistance under the proposed Housing Bond.

"Co-oping" low income housing projects is the most efficient way to give San Franciscans living in such low income housing projects an opportunity to own their own home. A very successful model for such programs is the St. Francis Square Co-Op in the Fillmore, which just recently paid off its note, thus empowering the residents by enabling them to sell their units as condominiums on the open market, with prices commanding between $300,000 and $430,000. This is public policy that can truly improve lives and give people the power and pride to take back their neighborhoods and streets from blight and violence.

Secondly, we must better utilize home ownership assistance under the proposed Housing Bond. The current maximum income for people to qualify for such assistance is too low to be accessible to middle class families. It is vital for us to bring the middle class back to SF to create a strong economic and civic backbone for our community. To that end, I will propose legislation on my first day in office which will re-establish the income limits that Mayor Newsom originally proposed for the Housing Bond.

CRIME

Our City has witnessed over 53 murders since January, making us a leader in a category of human misery. I will be working with businesses, community organizations, and unions to provide other opportunities to our youth than drugs and violence. By providing real alternatives to the youth, we can really change their lives and improve our City. The key steps will be to:

• Increased police patrols and a greater emphasis on community policing and neighborhood watch programs
• Foster job creation for City youth through internships with private industries
• On-site job training programs developed with unions and private businesses that will put the youth on a path to employment in skilled trades and other positions
• Placing career and educational development centers directly in the projects (similar to the Renaissance Business center in Bayview) to cover a wide range of topics and needs (computer training, SAT/GRE preparation courses, small business development consulting, etc.)

As Chairman of CORE (formerly Adopt-A-Muni), I am the only candidate who can claim to have directly improved MUNI. Adopt-A-Muni single-handedly took on the reclamation and restoration of the Forest Hill station, transforming it into a clean, safe, efficient MUNI hub that now allows many of our neighbors in the Sunset and beyond to get into the heart of the city quickly and conveniently. These are the types of reforms that lead to increased ridership, which results in better revenues, which then gives us the funds necessary to increase service levels. This is a cycle of virtue that I will bring to bear on public transportation

When elected I will not support any cuts to MUNI service, and will work to rollback the fare increases that were imposed. As a director of the Golden Gate Bridge Authority, I fought the $2 increase on Golden Gate Bridge tolls because I thought the people should not have to pay for past financial mismanagement and the inefficiency of our bus and ferry services. Increasing fares and then cutting service is not fair to those of us who depend on public transportation, and is not the way to run a transit agency. As District 5 supervisor, I will passionately fight against such MUNI fare increases.

SAY NO TO THE PUC RATE HIKE!

I will oppose the PUC rate hike absolutely, as I have already publicly stated. I will help put an initiative to the voters on the proposed 11% PUC rate increase on homeowners, small businesses, seniors and renters. Any proposed increase should be no more than half of that! Additionally, I oppose both Proposition J and K. This continued pattern of increasing taxes on our small business community and citizens will further drive individuals out of our City and will cause further increases in our unemployment rate, which is already one of the highest in the nation.

SENIOR CITIZENS

Society is often judged by how it treats its youth and its senior citizens. In San Francisco, drastic cuts have been made in the number of days senior citizens are able to receive social services. I think this is no way to treat our citizens who have worked hard all of their lives, and to whom this City owes so much. When elected, I will work to preserve and expand the social services, such as meals, transportation, etc., upon which our seniors have come to depend. Additionally, I will work to make district 5 a safe and vibrant neighborhood in which our senior citizens can thrive and remain active. I will:

• Author legislation to increase funding for senior meals, transportation services, home nursing, and activities. We will seek to bring private businesses in as well as to augment the City budget provision for seniors through private donations and programs developed to support D5 seniors.

• Appoint two staff members to monitor senior services and the quality of care and support at District 5 senior residences, shelters and homes. These staff members will also monitor, investigate, and plan solutions to problems and issues raised by senior residents of our district and others throughout San Francisco.

• Block any attempts to limit the number of senior specific beds and rooms at Laguna Honda Hospital and in all housing specifically designated for seniors.

• Seek innovative solutions to issues of loneliness and depression among seniors in assisted living residences by working with civic groups such as the ASPCA, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and other groups that can bring seniors in touch with young kids and pets, which have proven to have positive therapeutic influence on senior's lives and allows them to provide guidance, wisdom, and knowledge to our youth.

• Work with the SFPD and neighborhood groups to make sure seniors can walk, shop, and congregate safely throughout District 5.

http://www.joeblue.us

VOTE BLUE!!!