San Francisco news briefs

Vehicle License Fee

The San Francisco Group is working with the Sierra Club lobbyists in Sacramento to support Mark Leno's proposed bill AB 799 on the Local Vehicle License Fee (VLF).

This bill would authorize the Board of Supervisors, by 2/3 vote, to place an initiative on a future ballot to restore San Francisco's VLF to 2%, the rate for 50 years before being rolled back to 0.67% by Govs. Davis and Schwarzenegger. If a majority of San Francisco voters agree that it's worth paying a few dollars more in VLF to pay for services and programs that benefit all San Franciscans (and especially the most needy), the increase will generate $60 million annually for the General Fund.

WhatYouCanDo

Express your support at:
robert.tashima@asm.ca.gov
fax: (916)319-2113.

Pedestrian oasis

The "principal purpose" of 1998's Prop J, which allowed building a garage under the Golden Gate Park Concourse, was not achieved this summer at the Board of Supervisors. Yes, the first article of Prop J listed a "pedestrian oasis" and reduction of cars as principal purposes, but these were left out of the actual requirements. This is similar to the Constitution, which includes "promote the general welfare" and has concerns about our "posterity" in the Preamble, but allows all kinds of deviations so that our concepts of fairness and conservation are hard to achieve.

The Supervisors have adopted a plan that falls short of a pedestrian oasis, but are requiring that the issue be revisited in one year. During the coming year, the San Francisco Group will work to implement or enforce the following improvements in the Golden Gate Park Concourse area.

• Support the passage of Proposition G in November to prevent the widening of Martin Luther King Drive to four lanes.
• In the Concourse itself, work for a time in the future when we can limit drop-off to paratransit and vehicles with disabled placards; enforce the ban on through-traffic except for Muni, emergency, and service vehicles; and enforce the speed limit of 15 mph passed by the Board of Supervisors. The city should provide clear signage and enforcement to prevent though-traffic and illegal drop-offs.
• After the Museum of Fine Arts and the California Academy of Sciences reopen, continue the ongoing traffic studies at Ninth and Irving and at Eighth and Irving, so that traffic impacts to the neighborhoods can be mitigated.

We will also work for Saturday closure of John F. Kennedy Drive.

Significant trees

The San Francisco Group supports Supervisor Chris Daly's proposed ordinance to preserve significant trees on both public and private property.

Howard Strassner