Mayor Newsom What Is Your Stand On Redevelopment?

Clean up the Point, then build several 20 story luxury condo buildings, with great views. They will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, thus bringing LOTS of new taxes for the city. Non profit development takes land off the tax roles and makes the taxpayers support it thru subsidies. Not this time, and not any more. And please, don't even start with the "we needs jobs for are young people" - if you want to get a decent job you have to be able to read, people. Start with the basics.

It is most interesting the federal Law states for the benefit of the affected community, which is 94124, and not a developer who wants to give the community 6 acres out 545 acres.
Notice they don't talk about local community ownership, maybe rentals.

This is the very reason Newsom needs to address this issue, because of Racist like you, who encourage the theft from the poor and the giveaway to the rich no matter what the law’s requirements are. You probably do not even own your house unlike many of the people living in 94124 with the highest home ownership, you would encourage theft of land and violations of the rights of the poor, and low income defined as the affected community by Federal Law. You need to read the Shipyard shutdown document, and where that land is supposed to go, not the City, or Lennar but the affected community. The City with a corrupt manipulative Administration used Redevelopment, as a way to shaft the local community not represent them as required by Federal Law. The Mayor’s Office used the Redevelopment Agency and Commission, which bypasses the Board of Supervisors as a quasi State Agency, which is under investigation and of the PEP Boys for lining their pockets while on the Commission. You would not be able to afford a place there anyway, you need to go back and read the minimum salary requirements under Prop J.

The Formation of the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee (PAC)
As required by California Community Redevelopment Law, the next step in redevelopment planning for Bayview Hunters Point was the formation of a Project Area Committee (PAC). It is important to note that redevelopment laws have undergone great reform to make certain the abuses of Urban Renewal never happen again. These reforms include strict requirements for citizen oversight and participation, open meetings, and community outreach.

The law requires representatives from four major categories of local citizens, with the ultimate number of PAC members determined by population. The 21 seats for Bayview Hunters Point require: four (4) tenant residents, seven (7) owner residents, four (4) business owners, six (6) community organizations, and property owners. Two of the tenant seats are reserved for students. The six community organization seats focus on those working in health care, senior services, religious institutions, and the environment.

SFRA's outreach efforts prior to the election of PAC members were coordinated by citizens and staff including area-wide mailings, advertisements in City, local, Spanish and Chinese language newspapers, billboards and posters, informational meetings, and flyers posted on the days leading up to the election. Candidates also ran their own campaigns and participated in a "Candidates Night" event for the public to hear their views on relevant issues. In all, 69 persons ran as candidates for the 21 seats: 19 community organization workers, 13 local business representatives, 23 tenant owners, 4 college student tenants, and 10 other residential tenants. On January 16, 1997, over 750 community members came out to elect their community representatives. The Board of Supervisors approved and certified the election of the Bayview Hunters Point PAC on February 10, 1997. Since 1997, there has not been another community election. Ex Mayor Willie L. Brown furnished new members to the Project Area Committee without the Community vote. We the people of 94107, 94124, and 94134 are not looking for a hand-out but a hand-up.We the people are a low-income community of color and demanding the Mayor Newsome and the S.F. Board of Supervisors to call for New Community Elections. We want our voices to be heard, but how can we when there is no Community Participation or outreach notifying We the People about the PAC meetings. We want a real community election. We do not want community people who work for the City and County of San Francisco or recieving funds from the City and County of San Francisco for their Community Based Organizations in 94107, 94124, and 94134.

Interesting how my detractor manages to insert "racist" into an argument that did not include the word. Typical; when attacked always scream "racism" and that is supposed to make everyone shut up. Not me, and not most people anymore. Your days of intimidation are over. And yes, I own a house. I make good money. But none of that is relevant. It is not about the poor, it is about policy. Nonprofit housing, like all other nonprofit entities, live on taxes provided by people who work and companies that make money. When you take land off the tax rolls for nonprofit ANYTHING you take it out of the tax stream. No taxes are collected on the property. This is a drain of resources. By building for-profit housing you bring in tax revenues which can be used to pay for whatever program you choose. That is the only argument here. The poor are not "entitled" to anything. I don't give a rat's ass about color or ethnicity. Stop promoting racism yourself by using it as an excuse to excoriate others.

MIRAMAR, Fla. -- A sunken patio sounds like an attractive feature on a house, but the reality at Hampshire Homes is an American dream turned into a nightmare.
Two dozen homes in the 307-house development near Fort Lauderdale were built around homemade garbage dumps that contained rusty dishwashers, washing machines, tires, tree trunks and assorted trash. Landfill has settled in the yards of these homes built in the late 1980s and 1990, opening the earth and revealing buried waste in something resembling "Poltergeist" without the evil spirits.

In selling its subdivision, Lennar Corp. urged would-be homebuyers to "Be A Winner. Live the Lennar Life." But Kathy Doan, who lives on one of the dumps, has her own motto: "Live the Lennar way: Garbage in your back yard."
Now the market for Hampshire Homes is dead, homeowners are ready to sue and the state attorney general's office has subpoenaed Lennar's records on developments since 1980.
Lennar, the state's biggest homebuilder, acknowledges burying construction waste, which is legal, but says it doesn't know how the rest of the garbage got there, sitting inches under a layer of topsoil.
The discovery by Andre Melton's 7-year-old son was innocent enough. The boy pointed out some holes in the yard early this year.
"I dropped my shovel in there, and it never came back," said Mr. Melton, an electrician by trade and president of the homeowners association. "I tried to fill it with dirt, and the more dirt I put in the hole, the more dirt it took. It would never fill."
After test digs, about 250 truckloads of construction debris, tires, junked appliances and household trash were hauled away. What remained was a lake 200 feet long, 80 feet wide and up to 10 feet deep within a few feet of the back walls of the 20 houses along Daffodil, Periwinkle, Olive and Marlberry streets.
Red clay roof tiles were plucked from the ground in a development with shingle roofs. Large tree trunks and less recognizable objects thrust out of the water at odd angles.
Curiosity led to testing other areas, and radar trackers discovered a similar pocket of waste last month in back yards shared by four homes across Daffodil.
An 8-foot chain link fence keeps the neighborhood's children away from the lake and a plastic orange mesh fence lines the second find.
William Scherer, the homeowners' attorney, charges Lennar created an illegal dump during construction, depositing its own building waste, accepting truckloads from elsewhere and covering it with topsoil before leveling the land.
"Who will buy a house behind a dump on a dump?" he asked.
Lennar "has acknowledged that it probably has disposed of legal and normal construction debris," said company spokesman Bruce Rubin. As for the junk that turned up, "We have said over and over we do not know how that happened."
The Miami-based company is a long-lived rarity in the Florida construction industry, a builder with a 42-year track record and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Lennar delivered 4,680 homes in Florida, Texas and Arizona last year while generating a $70 million profit on $870 million in revenue from construction and financial services.
But with the big size come questions about oversight. The 1,500-employee company farms out most of its development and construction work to subcontractors, a practice that raised questions after a like-named Hampshire Homes subdivision was devastated by Hurricane Andrew in neighboring Dade County four years ago.
A lawsuit charging hurricane damage was aggravated by shoddy construction and flimsy materials was settled under a sealed agreement with homeowners.
Owners on the Hampshire pit want to be relocated if trash extends under their houses, and others want an analysis of their property and a financial award for loss of property value. Mr. Scherer has mentioned a possible $30 million price tag, and his firm would collect one-third of any financial settlement.
Selling prices on the starter houses ranged from $70,000 to $90,000-plus, but widespread publicity about the homeowners' predicament has frozen the market.
"Right now, our properties are worth nothing as far as I'm concerned," Mr. Melton said.
Appraisals, a requirement for the sale, purchase and refinancing of homes, are virtually unobtainable. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a real estate agent with a Hampshire Homes listing away from the pit said the market is defunct.
"Every time you mention Hampshire Homes, they say, 'What? I don't want there'," he said.
At the request of the city, the state attorney general's office launched a civil investigation of environmental and consumer protection issues raised by Hampshire Homes, but the probe is not limited to the development.
"We certainly will assure ourselves that what is happening at Hampshire Homes certainly isn't going on anywhere else," said Assistant Attorney General Stephen LeClair.
A police investigation determined no criminal charges would be filed over the trash-filled lake because any dumping violation would have been a misdemeanor at the time, and the five-year statute of limitations has expired.
But homes bordering the second dumping ground were built after passage of an anti-litter law in 1988 that made it a felony to dump commercial trash or loads weighing more than 500 pounds, Mr. Scherer said. The clock on the statute of limitations begins at the time of discovery, leaving the possibility of criminal charges open.
The property is near an old Dade County landfill, and aerial pictures before construction show piles of tires and other debris.
"But I don't think any of the aerial shots would show the magnitude of debris that's there now," said police Lt. Bill Guess.
Mr. Rubin, Lennar's spokesman, said the company has assumed responsibility for cleanup, has offered to remove all waste and will consider buying any houses if problems are unfixable, but the homeowners association put work on hold after hiring Mr. Scherer.
Trust is gone, and frustration reigns.
A steppingstone path to Mr. Melton's back yard leads to a screened patio he built for his wife last year. But it is pulling away from the house, and the barbecue he received for Father's Day lies idle.
The family planned to move next year after their second child is born, but all moving plans are on hold. So is the lifestyle he thought he bought at his peach and white house three years ago.
"We don't barbecue anymore. We don't grill anymore," Mr. Melton said. "It's just been covered up."

FBI probe focuses on bayfront property proposals
2 projects involved mayor's pal Charlie Walker
By Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF, Aug 11, 1999

More recently, according to authoritative information obtained by The Examiner, the FBI demanded that a city agency turn over records related to Lennar Homes, a subsidiary of Lennar Corp. of Florida, which won Redevelopment Commission approval in March to build housing on the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

The Port industrial park proposal and the shipyard redevelopment project both involved controversial city trucker Charlie Walker, a friend, political supporter and former law client of Mayor Brown. Walker is a focus of the FBI city contracting probe.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/990811/0811probe.html

When a Florida development firm, Lennar Corp., began assembling a team last year for a bid on the rights to another piece of the southeast Bayfront, the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, it also turned to Walker. As its local jobs broker — a firm that would be charged with ensuring people from the Bayview were hired to work on the project — Lennar retained the Bayview Hunters Point Builders Exchange, another of Walker's companies.

Joe Petrillo, a lawyer for Lennar, said the developer wanted to get better connected to the people in the neighborhood.

Walker also brought connections — not only to Brown, but also to the then-Redevelopment Commission President Lynette Sweet, treasurer of Walker's nonprofit.

On March 30, when the commission selected a developer for the shipyard, Sweet voted to give the contract to Lennar, joining three other commissioners on a 4-3 vote to reject a consultant's recommendation that the project go to another firm.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/990627/0627walker.html

Lennar steals Hunters Point deal

San Francisco's redevelopment agency gave development rights for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to a team led by Lennar Corp. -- abandoning the recommendation of an outside consultant. The Lennar team, which is also redeveloping Mare Island in Vallejo, won a 7-0 vote and beat out Catellus Corp. and the consultant's pick, Forest City Enterprises. The agency said Lennar had done a better job mustering community support and was the best off financially

Source: http://www.amcity.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1999/03/29/daily15.html

--

Current Status of CA Base Reuse: Hunters Point Naval Annex http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/current_reuse/hunterpt.htm

A report is prepared by: California Trade and Commerce Agency Office of Business Development - February 1999



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The City of San Francisco has retained Peat Marwick to analyze three development proposals for the 500-acre former Hunter's Point Naval Annex (BRAC 1991). Three development groups were chosen to implement the City's reuse plan from among those that responded to an RFQ in 1998. The Plan includes a master-planned, waterfront community of residential, commercial mixed-use and light industrial uses. The three successful respondents include Forest City Development, Lennar/BVHP Partners/ Mariposa Management/Luster Group and the Catellus Development Corporation/WDG Ventures, Inc.

Upon receipt of Peat Marwick's recommendations and following a public hearing, the Redevelopment Agency Commission is expected to make a final decision on March 23, 1999.

Source: http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/bc_news/99mar/story8.htm

Related Links:

Lennar Corp. -
#5 at Builder 100
Profile - Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)

ArtSpan produces San Francisco Open Studios
http://www.artspan.org/

The Artists Community at Hunters Point
http://www.zpub.com/sf/thepoint/

Hunters Point Shipyard at SF Redevelopment Agency
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/sfra/hps.htm

For years residents of San Francisco’s southern and eastern neighborhoods, including Potrero Hill, SOMA, Mission, Bayview and Visitacion Valley, have demanded that the City engage in community planning for their communities and the industrial areas that surround them. The residents’ goal was to develop zoning changes to enhance and protect their neighborhoods while identifying areas for job creation and the development of much-needed housing.

With support by members of the Board of Supervisors, the planning process was funded and has made significant strides. The Better Neighborhoods 2002 plans, including the Central Waterfront, are close to completion and the Eastern Neighborhoods plan areas are well underway. Real community planning has taken hold.

But suddenly, out of nowhere, Proposition J, the misleadingly named “Workforce Housing Initiative,” is on San Francisco’s March 2 ballot. And it is very bad! The Chamber of Commerce and a few developers, lawyers and public relations consultants, directly attacking the ongoing neighborhood-planning process, wrote “J” behind closed doors.

When the Chamber could not get Supervisors to place it on the ballot last year, they spent over $50,000 for paid signature gatherers to qualify Proposition J. You may have even signed one of these petitions that were being pitched as “affordable housing” by the paid signature collectors. Like many propositions, the devil is in the details.

With no public hearings or consultation with the neighborhood groups, Proposition J sponsors have crafted a developer’s dream: high density, no public benefits fees for parks or transit, and they even included an Environmental Impact Review paid for by you and me. The initiative shifts $2 million from the cash-strapped city General Fund to pay for this great “social work.” To add icing on the cake, it also removes penalties for illegal alteration or demolition of historic buildings and makes “workforce housing” applications first priority for permits.

This so-called “workforce housing” is not for San Francisco’s real working people. It does NOT represent our teachers, health care workers, office workers, retail clerks, hotel employees or industrial workers. It convolutes and manipulates data using income levels that include Marin County and Hillsborough to establish the qualifying income thresholds for the city’s “workforce”: $77,000 for a single person to $136,000 for a family of four.

With so many working people in desperate need of affordable housing in the city, Proposition J is an affront to us all. Using the terms dictated by Prop J, the estimated monthly payments would be about $2,562 for a one-bedroom condo, $3,293 for a two-bedroom or $3,660 for a three-bedroom. Many San Franciscans would not be able to make these monthly housing payments, let alone the down payment that the so-called “workforce housing” will require.

Proposition J allows someone to build as high as 85 feet in an area with an average building height of 35 feet. It allows the builder to create over 60 percent of the units at unrestricted market rate on the upper floors. It sets the unit size on the workforce units from a 600-square-foot one-bedroom unit to 1,101 square feet for a three-bedroom, while allowing much larger units at market rate.

Who opposes Proposition J? To name just a few, Board President Matt Gonzalez and fellow Board Members Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Tony Hall, Sophie Maxwell, Jake McGoldrick and Aaron Peskin and Planning Commissioners Sue Lee and Lisa Feldstein. Organizations including the Sierra Club, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association, Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, California Nurses Association, SEIU 790, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 2 all say No on Prop J.

Proposition J is an attack on all neighborhoods, on community planning, and on real affordable housing for San Francisco’s workforce. Any neighborhood that has Muni Metro rail or high capacity bus transit is next for this “workfarce” scam.

Say No to Proposition J so real community planning can continue. San Francisco does not need special interest ballot box planning initiatives. For more information check out the No on Prop J website at http://www.noonpropj.org, email noonj2004 [at] yahoo.com or call (415) 864-1316.

John B. deCastro is a 25-year resident of Potrero Hill and past president of the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association, an organization that has been serving San Francisco for over 78 years. Greg Asay was senior legislative aide to Supervisor Sophie Maxwell from 2001 to 2003 and has a master’s degree in urban planning

Enough is enough is enough! The reason we have such a shortage of housing in this city is the endless circus of "public hearings", "community participation", and all the other euphemisms for busybodies to inject their personal pet peeves into any and all development that is not politically correct. I don't give a damn about "community input". We have zoning laws that are absurd. This is a CITY, not a village. Bayview has lots of empty land and it should be filled with high density, market rate housing. Stop throwing out that tired canard that we need to build housing for "the working class". Bullshit. I work all day. I AM the working class. There is no godgiven right for anyone to live in this city or any other. If you can't afford to live here, then live where you can afford. Richmond, Oakland, San Pablo, etc are full of much cheaper housing than SF. When you build housing for the middle class they will abandon the older housing and leave it available for lower income people. Market economics. Try it some time.

The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is making a move to grab the whole neighborhood – the Hunters Point Shipyard and nearly all of Bay View Hunters Point!

While tracking efforts to ram through the agreement for Lennar to develop the Shipyard, we discovered Redevelopment’s hush-hush plot to gentrify practically all of BVHP. Instead of continuing to pursue its longstanding plan to create a new project area, Redevelopment is quietly proposing to annex the rest of Bay View Hunters Point to the existing Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area through a simple-to-pass amendment. That way, the Redevelopment Commission can pass it quietly without full public notice and review.

At the next meeting of the Redevelopment Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the community is urged to come out in force, because both of these issues affect our future very seriously. Comment on both the neighborhood takeover “amendment” and the Lennar Disposition and Development Agreement (the DDA) for the Shipyard. The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416.

Ask the commissioners to postpone their vote on the Lennar agreement - the DDA - until the community has had its say. Many questions have been raised by community groups that have not been answered.

In addition, call the Board of Supervisors today and ask them to hold an informational hearing before any vote by Redevelopment. The Redevelopment Agency, the City Attorney and Lennar should come before the supervisors and answer the community’s questions.

Two Redevelopment plans — neither benefits BVHP residents

The general outline of Redevelopment’s plan for the Shipyard has been known for a while, but the devil is in the details. That’s why it is so important for the Supervisors to review it. What BVHP residents want most — business development providing long-term jobs for local residents — may be delayed for years. Upscale housing is the main focus for Redevelopment and Lennar, but business is what generates jobs, not expensive homes that many people in the community can’t afford.

Now this new annexation amendment of the Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area appears intended to clear away the low-income Black population that has lived alongside the Shipyard for 60 years — with the goal of increasing the future value of Lennar’s housing.

Neither of these projects helps the people who live here.

Redevelopment’s ‘amendment’ to gentrify BVHP

The proposed San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Plan Amendment, dated Nov. 4, 2003, would add 1,600 acres to the existing 137-acre Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area. It would encompass all the public and low-income housing near the Shipyard, most other residential areas, the entire Third Street corridor and other sections of the neighborhood all the way to Bayshore Boulevard and the freeway (see map).

The Black population in San Francisco has dropped from over 14 percent to less than 6 percent in this city. Bay View Hunters Point remains the city’s largest predominantly Black neighborhood. In Redevelopment’s brochure showing how the agency expects the neighborhood to look in the future, all the people in the pictures look White.

What Redevelopment did by creating the Western Addition Project Area, bulldozing thousands of Black homes and hundreds of Black-owned businesses - wiping out most of the Black population and even renaming the neighborhood known worldwide as the Fillmore – must not happen again! We need to make it clear to the powers that be that we will not be moved.

Let the Redevelopment Commission know on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416 that you don’t want any rushed decisions for acceptance of either the annexation amendment or the DDA. You want time for review, and you want the Board of Supervisors involved. Don’t be swayed by special interests that want you to support their get-rich-quick schemes.

Redevelopment wants to lock in Lennar

Redevelopment’s proposed agreement to put Lennar Corp. in charge of the first phase of development of the Shipyard is called the Disposition and Development Agreement, or DDA. The DDA describes the obligations of the developer, the City and the Navy, covering such topics as toxic cleanup, employment opportunities and Lennar’s profits. It sets up the “horizontal” development - roads and utilities infrastructure - and includes decisions on open space, housing density and community facilities.

The current lame duck administration is pressuring residents to approve it without seriously examining it. The DDA is an enormously complicated document, over 1,000 pages, but the mayor wanted the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to approve it in “30 days.”

Some of us who are on the CAC objected that many of the listed attachments weren’t attached and other information that was promised has not been delivered. The community must know what the Redevelopment Commission is being asked to sign, and it’s our responsibility as the CAC to find out.

We divided into subcommittees to look at different pieces of the DDA, and we held more than 26 meetings in the last month - because Redevelopment is in such a hurry! We’ve spent over 60 days reviewing it and recommending changes and additions, including community comments like “Not enough of the community was notified,” “Rush to judgment,” “Not getting answers from Redevelopment,” “Not seeing a very important document from Redevelopment until 6pm 11/24/03, the time of our final meeting.”

The Redevelopment staff has described the CAC’s recommendations, breaking them down as either 1) acceptable to Redevelopment, 2) acceptable to the developer or 3) other — not acceptable or requires further discussion.

What’s the rush?

What’s the big hurry to sign an agreement with Lennar? Redevelopment is acting as if Lennar is doing us a big favor by coming here. The reality is that the Shipyard is some the world’s most valuable real estate, and Lennar, America’s largest home builder, has earned a terrible reputation by, among other travesties, building new homes on its own toxic dump in Florida.

Redevelopment wants to use the DDA, along with the existing ENA, the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement, to lock in Lennar as Master Developer for the Shipyard. The Exclusive Negotiating Agreement comes up for review by the Board of Supervisors in December. By postponing Redevelopment approval of the DDA until then, we can examine the entire relationship with Lennar.

No transfer, no development until Shipyard is clean

Many obstacles must be cleared out of the way before work can be started on developing the Shipyard. Most important is Proposition P. Prop P is the ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by 87 percent of San Francisco voters in 2000 prohibiting any development of the Shipyard until all toxic contamination, including all traces of radioactivity, has been cleaned up and removed.

In addition, there can be no transfer of any parcel of Shipyard land to the city from the Navy because the Conveyance Agreement between the City and County of San Francisco, the community and the Navy has not been signed. The Navy is eager to transfer Parcel A, where Lennar wants to build 1,600 houses, and Parcel B, but neither is clean yet.

The regulators — the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), the DTSC (California Department of Toxic Substance Control) and the Water Resource Board - have not yet signed off on a FOST (Finding Of Suitability for Transfer) for Parcel A. And the Record of Decision on Parcel B just recently went through its five-year review, which drew community comments that must be answered, and a lot of cleanup work remains to be done on Parcel B.

Whether you’re buying a car, a home or a cell phone plan, you don’t want to cave in to the high pressure salesperson and regret it later. This is no time to cave in to the pressure to give up the Shipyard and all of Bay View Hunters Point.

Although this is happening in the midst of the holidays and everybody’s busy, this is the time to take a stand. Give the children a gift they can be proud of — a community for all the people who live here, not a gentrified community for somebody else.

For more information, read “Arrested Development” by Lisa Davis in the Nov. 19 SF Weekly at http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2003-11-19/feature.html/1/index.html. The DDA can be found at http://www.hunterspointshipyard.com/dda.html.

Maurice Campbell is the convener of the Community First Coalition and is a member of the Hunters Point RAB (Restoration Advisory Board) that advises the Navy and the Hunters Point CAC (Community Advisory Committee) that advises the city. Barbara George is executive director of Women’s Energy Matters and a community activist. Email Maurice at mecsoft [at] pacbell.net.

San Francisco Redevelopment Commission serving as Mayor Brown's Coconspirators by da community Saturday December 13, 2003 at 06:17 PM Remember the story about 30 pieces of silver? This when it is taken in full concept it explains the true nature of Willie Brown audio: MP3 at 1.4 kibibytes San Francisco Redevelopment ethical or unethical? Based on what happened to the San Francisco tax paying residents in the Fillmore you be the judge. Read up on who sold the Fillmore out, see if you see some of the same players at work. MP3: Willie Brown Machine Attempts Last-Minute Housing Giveaways http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/12/1663446.php www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=209.81.10.18&port=80&mount=/data/...

City department heads in San Francisco got a bit of a surprise the other day when they were summoned to City Hall, then loaded into a van for a tour of a Hunters Point housing project -- with Mayor Gavin Newsom acting as their not-too-happy guide.

"See this burned-out Dumpster?'' Newsom told the group, according to one witness who went out to the Hunters View project. "It's been sitting here since before I even started running for mayor. If this was any other neighborhood, it would have been gone in 20 minutes.''

Next stop, a giant pothole.

"This isn't just another pothole -- it's an institution,'' Newsom said.

Next stop, the basketball courts where Newsom pointed to bullet-riddled backboards.

"We're going to replace these,'' Newsom said. "And if they get shot up 32 days in a row, we'll be back on the 33rd.''

Newsom then walked around, pointing out the garbage on the street and the lack of lighting.

"It wasn't accusatory. It wasn't confrontational. It was matter-of-fact, '' said Newsom press secretary Peter Ragone. "He just pointed out that San Francisco spends more per capita on government services than any other city and that we can do better.''

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose district includes Bayview-Hunters Point, was on hand at the mayor's invitation.

"The mood among the department heads was, obviously things are going to have to change,'' Maxwell said. "They all had their pads and pencils out.''

And from what we hear, one of the things they wrote down was the date they are supposed to report back to the mayor.

And the bullet-riddled backboards?

"We are going to see if we can get a process to get them replaced as soon as possible,'' said Housing Authority Executive Director Gregg Fortner.

How's that for a snappy reply?

House hunting: On Sunday, we told you about the efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver to buy the Carmichael house that Nancy Reagan once commissioned as the governor's mansion, but that was sold after Jerry Brown refused to live in it.

Now comes word that while the state's first couple hope to pay for it privately, they're looking for an alternative to their own checking account.

According to Geoff Zimmerman, the seller's agent, one idea is to set up a private foundation to buy and operate the mansion for the state. That way, the 12,000-square-foot property on the American River could be handed down to future governors.

There had been talk that the couple could tap into the $3.5 million in state money from the proceeds and accumulated interest from the 1985 auction of the mansion. But Arnold and Maria have gone on record as saying that money should go to charity, so touching the account might be tricky.

The owner put an asking price on the Carmichael house of $5.9 million. Arnold and Maria offered just $2 million, and the seller has countered at $3.5 million.

Zimmerman said Maria wants to keep the price down for two reasons:

One, the property needs major redecorating, and two, the first couple fear there would be a backlash if they bought a big, expensive property when the state is broke.

And indeed, the price may come down.

"Look,'' Zimmerman said, "how many people want two kitchens and two dining rooms? This was not built for your average family.''

Fazio's return?: Bill Fazio -- the man who ran for San Francisco district attorney three times, and lost each race -- is giving "serious thought'' to running against Supervisor Tony Hall in the Sunset.

Fazio, who is back in private law practice, has always done well in the Fog Belt -- and he is a "name,'' as they say in the business.

"There are people talking to me about it -- but I want to see how strong the support really is," Fazio said. "But yes, I am giving it serious thought.''

Sealing the deal: More than a week after Schwarzenegger announced her support on KGO radio, Sen. Dianne Feinstein finally went public Tuesday with her endorsement of that $15 billion bailout bond.

According to sources close to the play, Arnold jumped the gun a bit -- going public in announcing Dianne's support before the ever-cautious senator had even consulted with many of her fellow Democrats, including state Treasurer Phil Angelides, an opponent of the governor's proposal.

"She wasn't miffed,'' said one source in the know. "But she would prefer to make her own announcements.''

Top billing: For as long as anyone can remember, the word "Governor" was scrawled in gold over the entrance to the executive offices in Sacramento.

Well, as of Tuesday, it reads: "Arnold Schwarzenegger -- Governor."

With Arnold getting top billing -- of course.

Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. They can also be heard on KGO Radio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Phil Matier can be seen regularly on KRON-TV. Got a tip? Call them at (415) 777-8815 or drop them an e-mail at matierandross [at] sfchronicle.com.

SLUG, the private clean-up crew that committed election fraud for Gavin Newsom for Mayor and Kamala Harris for District Attorney in 2003, and Willie Brown and his 49er Stadium Swindle in every election from 1995 through 2003, won a 4-year, $4.8 million Dept of Public Works grant in Jan. 2004.

SLUG, the private clean-up crew that committed election fraud for Gavin Newsom for Mayor and Kamala Harris for District Attorney in 2003, and Willie Brown and his 49er Stadium Swindle in every election from 1995 through 2003, won a 4-year, $4.8 million Dept of Public Works grant in Jan. 2004.

The story, with thousands of details, is in the SF Chronicle, 2/16/04 by Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/16/MNGBI51PL91.DTL

This union-busting scheme of contracting out has not only been used by that good Democrat former "mayor" Willie Brown to commit election fraud with SLUG, SLUG has been engaged in willlful till-tapping to the tune of $75,000 for a double-wide trailer, $25,000 for overalls and baseball caps, $1400 in consulting fees, $500 for toys from Toys-R-Us, another consulting fee contract for $5,863 at the rate of $250 per hour, and $12,500 in gas credit card charges, with no verification as to whose car was being given this gasoline.

The good Democrats at the City Attorney's office defended the City in a lawsuit brought by DPW worker Anthony Baeza which exposed all these evil, illegal, election-frauding, till-tapping deeds.

Now we have the good Democrat Kevin Shelley, former San Francisco Assemblyperson, sitting in the Secretary of State's office claiming to investigate the election fraud of SLUG and its thug director, Mohammed Nuru.

Nuru was promoted by his fellow thug Willie Brown in 2000 to a top position at the Dept of Public Works, where he remains today, while he continues to supervise the agency that receives a city contract that is supposed to be monitored by the DPW. See:
http://sunset.ci.sf.ca.us/dtisbook.nsf/cad6f1b32cff9ef188256d5700784681?CreateDocument

Nuru continues to have close ties to other "nonprofits" that do business with the Department of Public Works.

We have yet to hear of the good Democrats at the City Attorney's or District Attorney's Office going after Nuru for obvious conflict of interest, till-tapping and election fraud.

The election fraud of the Democrat-Republicans in the 49er Stadium Swindle election, which Swindle was opposed only by Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party, may be found a:
http://www.brasscheck.com/stadium

San Francisco residents, whether voters or not, must demand that:
(1) Nuru be fired immediately,
(2) SLUG's contract with the City of San Francisco be terminated immediately and forever;
(3) There be no contracting out by the Dept. of Public Works;
(4) All money for the above-described charges be returned to the City;
(5) Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris resign.

Contact election-fraud "Mayor" Gavin Newsom at:
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102

Telephone: (415) 554-6141
TDD: (415) 252-3107
Fax: (415) 554-6160
Email: gavin.newsom [at] sfgov.org
Press Office: (415) 554-6131

and all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors, regardless of which district you live in or whether or not you are a registered voter as follows:

Michela Alioto-Pier
District 2
(415) 554-7752
Michela.Alioto-Pier [at] sfgov.org

Tom Ammiano
District 9
(415) 554-5144
Tom.Ammiano [at] sfgov.org

Chris Daly
District 6
(415) 554-7970
Chris.Daly [at] sfgov.org

Bevan Dufty
District 8
(415) 554-6968
Bevan.Dufty [at] sfgov.org

Matt Gonzalez
District 5
(415) 554-7630
Matt.Gonzalez [at] sfgov.org

Tony Hall
District 7
(415) 554-6516
Tony.Hall [at] sfgov.org

Fiona Ma
District 4
(415) 554-7460
Fiona.Ma [at] sfgov.org

Sophie Maxwell
District 10
(415) 554-7670
Sophie.Maxwell [at] sfgov.org

Jake McGoldrick
District 1
(415) 554-7410
Jake.McGoldrick [at] sfgov.org

Aaron Peskin
District 3
(415) 554-7450
Aaron.Peskin [at] sfgov.org

Gerardo Sandoval
District 11
(415) 554-6975
Gerardo.Sandoval [at] sfgov.org

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/16/MNGBI51...