An Unprogressive Vision for San Francisco

By Rob Anderson

A response to the Planning Department's grandiose development projects with the Orwellian "Better Neighborhoods" title

Big projects have unintended consequences for the quality of life in the city and put entirely forseeable stresses on the city's infrastructure. The first consequence of encouraging all these market-rate housing units will be to accelerate gentrification, something one would expect progressives to oppose. Instead, because We Need Housing, they've given the Planning Dept. a blank check on projects with Orwellian names---"Better Neighborhoods"! The Market/Octavia Plan's whole purpose is to encourage housng density in the heart of the city---which is already densely-populated---by rezoning more than 4,000 parcels to encourage more population density, higher buildings, fewer setbacks, and of course fewer parking spaces for the 9,875 new residents that will be the result of that Planning Dept. project. Let them ride bikes! Or an already maxed-out Muni! Progressives on the BOS support both the M/O Plan and UC's attempted land-grab on lower Haight St.

By the way, these projects reflect the essence of the city's late, unlamented Housing Element, which was recently thrown out by the courts because it encouraged this kind of development in city neighborhoods without requiring adequate environmental review. The city now has no legal Housing Element in its General Plan.

Second, encourage Mayor Newsom to apply the downtown homeless sweeps and the sweeps in Golden Gate Park to the whole city. The homeless who refuse the offer of services to get them off our streets must be arrested/taken into custody---or "criminalized," if you prefer that term. No one has the "right" to live on the streets of San Francisco, which is apparently a controversial idea here in Progressive Land. A completely misguided sense of compassion continues to motivate opposition to any serious effort to actually get the homeless off city streets, even though many continue to die on city streets---88 last year alone, mostly from drug and alcohol related causes. Hence, the status quo is bad for the homeless themselves, degrades the quality of life for everyone, and undermines tourism, our largest industry.

Mayor Newsom has made a good start in dealing with homelessness since he was elected in 2003, with Care Not Cash, Homeward Bound, Project Homeless Connect, and the emphasis on supportive housing. The city needs to take the next logical step in its struggle with homelessness by enforcing Laura's Law on those among the homeless who are unable/unwilling to take responsibility for their own welfare.