ERIC MAR

DISTRICT 1 SUPERVISOR

Spring 2012

Dear Neighbors, Happy Lunar New Year! And Happy Year of the Dragon, which is considered the luckiest of all years! This year, I am continuing as Chair of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee. I will also be a new member of the Public Safety Committee, where I will be able to address many issues that are important to District 1 residents. In response to various public safety concerns that have arisen in the past several months, my focus is to strengthen community relations with local merchants, the San Francisco Police Department, and community groups to keep the lines of communication open. The safety of our community is of utmost importance. In this auspicious Year of the Dragon, I will continue to focus on the well-being of children, seniors, and families to ensure that seniors can remain active, our children thrive in school, and our entire community is healthy.

SUPERVISOR ERIC MAR.

CONTENT
Introduction Announcement My Committee Assignments Community Work Achievement Community Calendar/Events Staff Change Community Resources 1 2 2 3 4 6 7 7 7

-Eric

Credits

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

ERIC MAR
DISTRICT 1 SUPERVISOR

Spring 2012

ANNOUNCEMENT OF HEARING ON BIG EVENTS IN GOLDEN GATE PARK SPRING 2012

On Monday, February 13 at 1:00pm, the Land Use and Economic Development Committee of the Board of Supervisors will be holding a hearing on the community impacts of large events in Golden Gate Park. The purpose of this hearing is to allow residents to speak out on issues of concern with the City Recreation and Park Department and the Police Department and staff regarding future plans for large events in the park, such as Outside Lands held in August and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass held in October. We will discuss how these events impact our community and, most importantly, it is an opportunity for you to raise concerns and offer suggestions for how our City can best address any problems that may arise from these events.

ERIC MAR IN GOLDEN GATE PARK

My Committee Assignments
I also hold the following positions: Chair of the Land Use Committee Member of the Public Safety Committee Board Member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Authority Commissioner on the San Francisco County Transport Authority Board Member of the Golden Gate Bridge District Committee Board Member of California State Association of Counties Chair of the First 5 Commission Finance Committee Board Member of the San Francisco County Transit Authority

For more information, please contact my Legislative Aide, Nick Pagoulatos, at (415) 554-7412 or [email protected].

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

ENTER MONTH/YEAR

Community Work

Spring 2012

New Housing for Homeless Families

In December, I, along with the rest of the Board of Supervisors heard the heart wrenching testimonies and stories of hundreds of homeless families and children from across the City at a Neighborhood Services Committee hearing. The testimonies and official reports clearly showed the number of families waiting for shelter in San Francisco has reached crisis proportions. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there are 2,200 homeless children in San Francisco schools, some in shelters, others in cars, or on couches, or in long-term hotel rooms, which is 400 more homeless children than a year ago. Mayor Ed Lee announced that the City would find housing as soon as possible for homeless families in shelters and on the shelter wait list. In response, Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, and his wife, Lynne, donated $1.5 million to assist with efforts to help homeless families in shelters and Mayor Ed Lee said that the City would match the Benioffs' gift. I have also been working on assisting homeless families. In the last weeks of December, I helped convene community meetings with Catholic Charities, our neighborhood Star of the Sea Churchs Father Brian Costello, the San Francisco Organizing Project Local Organizing Committee, and local merchant and neighborhood leaders to discuss the need and give feedback on a proposal by Catholic Charities for a Star Community Home for clean and sober formerly homeless mothers with children. Mayor Ed Lee, his staff, and our Richmond Station Police leadership have been instrumental in working with relevant City departments to ensure that this critically needed project is open as soon as possible. As a result of these meetings, I am proud to announce that the Richmond District will now have a home located at the former convent at Star of the Sea Parish located at 4350 Geary Boulevard at 8th Avenue, which will initially house 12 families. As families are able to transition to permanent housing, new families will move in, allowing Catholic Charities to serve many more families over the entire length of the project. The home aims to provide a safe place to live for some of San Franciscos most vulnerable homeless families while stabilizing their living situation, developing a plan for how to secure family stability and providing intensive support to facilitate their move to permanent housing.

Above: Bedroom at the new Star Community Home.

Nearly 2,200 of San Francisco's public school students are homeless, enough to fill five or six elementary schools or an entire high school. That's nearly 400 more homeless schoolchildren than a year ago (San Francisco Chronicle)

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

Achievements
Jack in the Box
The Commission also adopted my stronger safety recommendations, including increasing security presence to 7 days a week from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. (Public Safety)
As many of you know, on Thanksgiving Day last year a man was hit by a car after an altercation at the Jack in the Box on Geary Boulevard at 11th Avenue. Because of repeated incidents and issues arising from Jack in the Box and other late night businesses, I have been working hard to create a proactive community plan to make our neighborhood safer. After meeting with Richmond residents to hear their concerns and working with various groups, including the Police Department, the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, and SF SAFE, I advocated for the restaurant to close during early morning hours. I am pleased that the Entertainment Commission is requiring Jack in the Box to close between 4 to 6am. The Commission also adopted my stronger safety recommendations, including increasing security presence to 7 days a week from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., adding a second guard for Friday and Saturday evenings, and preventing customers from eating outside in the outdoor seating area after midnight.

Spring 2012

I am working on a comprehensive safety strategy with SF SAFE, merchants, residents and the Richmond Police Station. In addition, SF SAFE through their director Cindy Brandon has agreed to do workshops with neighbors and residents surrounding the Jack in the Box to help develop block groups to raise the safety level of the neighborhood. Thank you to the neighbors that have participated in efforts to promote a safer community in the Richmond, to the Richmond Police Station and to SF SAFE, for helping to develop a comprehensive community safety plan for our neighborhood.

In the coming months I will be looking into how to deal with the impacts caused by the large number of tour buses in our District. (Transportation)

Supporting the Arts

One of my points of focus is to ensure that our vibrant local arts community is strongly supported by the City. To that end, in November I held a hearing examining how the Americas Cup cultural program will be inclusive of local artists from throughout all of our Districts and looking at how revenue generated from the event will support our arts community. I am also in the process of drafting legislation that will allow our Citys Cultural Equity Grants Program to better support San Franciscos small arts organizations. Finally, in January I introduced a call for a hearing focusing on the critical role that the music industry plays as an economic driver in San Francisco and what the City can do to support local artists, producers, venue owners, and festival promoters.

Supervisor Mar and Captain Vintero walking in District 1 promoting SF Safe.

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

Spring 2012 Making Transportation Work

Over the past months I successfully worked with 8th Avenue residents who were concerned that an abrupt and unannounced MUNI rerouting of the 44 OShaughnessy bus from 7th Avenue over to 8th Avenue was creating a safety hazard for school children from the Star of the Sea and Peabody schools who walk to school along the route. I worked with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) staff to devise a more appropriate route. After directives from my office and advocacy from community members, the SFMTA rerouted the bus line so that it would go down Clement, up Park Presidio, and down California, thus, avoiding residential streets altogether. This solution was presented at a community meeting and embraced as a sensible new route. In the coming months I will be looking into how to deal with the impacts caused by the large number of tour buses in our District.

Achievements

Above: the map of the rerouted 44 OShaughnessy bus

Neighborhood Economic Development

I am proud to have worked closely with the greater Geary Merchant Association, Clement Street Merchants, and the Planning Association for the Richmond over the past year to make our commercial corridors visibly cleaner and more vibrant. After several weeks of conversation with the Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), I am happy to announce that DPW has agreed to include the Geary corridor from 14th to 27th Avenues in the citys Corridors Project. This means that additional resources will be devoted to keeping that section of the corridor clean. Thanks to the groups I mentioned above for helping achieve this significant community victory. On December 5th, at the Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee meeting I convened a hearing on the impact that formula retail is having on our small business community. My goal is to protect our neighborhood small business sector and to develop legislation that will make formula retail businesses better neighbors and employers.

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

COMMUNITY CALENDAR/ EVENTS:

My monthly coffee hours will be: Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 6 pm Toy Boat Dessert Caf 401 Clement Street (Between 5th and 6th Avenues.)

-Support your local businesses! Above: SF Neighborhood Emergency Response Team in action. -Watch a movie at a theatre near you (Balboa Theater, 4 Star Theater). -Visit your local library! (SFPL Richmond Branch, 351 9th Ave.) -Richmond Recreation Center has a variety of activities for everyone in the family. (251 18th Ave.)

SF Nert is hosting a variety of Emergency Response events. For more information, please visit: http://sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=884

Public Hearing on: Redistricting Task Force Free Zumba/ Line Dancing Classes Zumba: Tuesdays 8-9pm. Line Dancing: Thursdays 8-9pm Location: Richmond Village Beacon (located on the George Washington High School Campus near the entrance on 30th Ave. and Anza) More events hosted within the Richmond District can be found at: http://rdnc.org/home/index.php/involveme nt/community-calendar.html Date: Saturday February 11, 2012 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: Washington High School (600 32nd Avenue)

Many Events hosted in Golden Gate Park! Please visit: http://www.goldengate-park.com/ to find out about Events held in GG park each month.

Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415

Spring 2012 Newsletter

CREDITS:
Special Thanks to: Catholic Charities CYO San Francisco Chronicle Richmond District Neighborhood Center Staff: Nickolas Pagoulatos Victor Lim Keenith Chan Shanti Prasad Pavel Kniha Tony Chen

Staff Changes
Introducing Victor Lim I hope you will all join me in welcoming Victor Lim to the office of District One. Victor took up the Legislative Aide position for District One on November 14 2011, taking over Lin Shao Chins position. I want to thank Lin Shao for her outstanding work and wish her the best in all her future endeavors. Victor has taken on the responsibility of assisting me with ease. In particular, he is in charge of overseeing media relations, community relations, scheduling, and public committee work for District One. Victor is a native San Franciscan, born and raised in North Beach; he also spent two years living in the Richmond District. Victor attended Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, and holds a double major degree in Asian Studies and Asian American Studies from UC Berkeley. In addition, Victor is a talented linguist, who is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Toishan. Victor comes to us from a rich background in public service: he began his career at City Hall as a part time Legislative Aide for the President of the Board of Supervisors, and prior to that, Victor worked as a dedicated Community Law Advocate for the Asian Law Caucus on naturalization issues with low income migrants. I am certain that Victor will serve the District One constituents with dedication and commitment. We welcome Victor to the team. Our Russian Speaking Interns Pavel and Andrei I am happy to announce that for this year we will have two Russianspeaking interns: Pavel Kniha and Andrei Jingan. Russian speaking constituents can call or drop into our office on Tuesdays afternoons to speak with Pavel. We will be glad to help you. ! . 13.00 17.00 , .

Community Resources: - Richmond Public Library - Richmond Recreation Center

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If you have any questions or concerns, please call 415-554-7410 or send an email to [email protected].
Supervisor Eric Mar | San Francisco City Hall, Room 284, San Francisco, CA 94102 | phone 415.554.7410| fax 415.554.7415