San Francisco, CA
SF’s Dean Preston Faces Criticism Over Affordable Housing in Hayes Valley | KQED
Netzband and Nelson, along with dozens of others, were in the park to watch Songs of Earth, a 2023 documentary set in Norway, on the big outdoor screen. It was the first of five Friday movie nights scheduled for the 9th annual Fall Film Festival at PROXY, an outdoor space at Octavia Boulevard and Hayes Street that features local businesses, Sunday concerts and free events like the film festival.
The space opened about 15 years ago as a placeholder for an affordable housing project.
Housing is a top concern for many San Francisco voters, and the candidates for mayor and the board of supervisors have rolled out plans to tackle the housing crisis. San Francisco, the slowest city in California to approve new housing, is under pressure to build 82,000 housing units by 2031.
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state officials to dismantle tent encampments. On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the number of tents on the city’s streets is at the lowest point since before counting began in 2018.
In District 5, which includes the Tenderloin, Japantown, Western Addition, Haight Ashbury and Hayes Valley, incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston’s housing record has been criticized by pro-development groups and his challengers. PROXY, officially known as Parcel K, has been a part of Hayes Valley for as long as many residents like Netzband have lived in the neighborhood.
Preston has made developing Parcel K a priority since he took office in 2019, dividing residents who have fallen in love with the space.
“When you promise affordable housing on a site as part of land-use planning, you damn well better deliver it,” Preston said at a rally in support of Parcel K development last month.
After voters approved a proposition to replace the central freeway west of Market Street with Octavia Boulevard in 1999, the surrounding land was parceled off for different uses. The city planted about 400 feet of grass and trees and put in concrete tables to create Patricia’s Green, named for Patrica Walkup, one of the activists who inspired the roadway teardown. Parcel K was earmarked for low-income housing.
Preston and Board President Aaron Peskin said that an affordable housing proposal for the space would gain the approval of the supervisors. If a developer did get the rights to build, they wouldn’t have to pay for the land. Thanks to a nearby market-rate development deal, Preston said a builder would get $1 million for the project. Still, 21 years since being designated for housing, there isn’t one rendering of what the apartment complex might look like.
Preston blames Mayor London Breed, who was endorsed by SF YIMBY, the city’s pro-development movement, in July. Before anything can happen, Breed has to issue a request for qualifications to invite bids from developers, which Preston said the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development agreed to do last year but hasn’t.
“It was determined that we would not prioritize Parcel K for development in the immediate term and instead focus on advancing projects that are more competitive for State funding and located in priority equity neighborhoods,” a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development said in an email.
The spokesperson said that PROXY saves the city roughly half a million dollars a year in holding costs and contributes to the neighborhood. The debate over what to do with Parcel K is just one of many policy tug-of-war between YIMBY groups and progressives in the fight to solve the housing crisis. Preston and Peskin have been quick to point out the hypocrisy of those who label them NIMBYs.
“You would think the YIMBYs would be here,” said Peskin, who is running to replace Breed, after last month’s rally at Patricia’s Green in support of Parcel K.
About 30 people attended the rally, including members of the advocacy group Hayes Valley for All and affordable housing advocates, to celebrate the delivery of a petition signed by 1,600 people asking Breed to issue the RFQ immediately.
In 2021, SF YIMBY volunteers published Dean Preston’s Housing Graveyard, a website chronicling more than 30,000 homes the group claims he’s opposed. GrowSF, a moderate advocacy group trying to oust Preston in November, put up a billboard near a shuttered Touchless Car Wash in the Haight that it said should be affordable homes. In June, a housing advocate filed a lawsuit over Preston’s depiction of his housing record on his reelection paperwork.
Preston’s main rival, Bilal Mahmood, who GrowSF and SF YIMBY endorse, has campaigned on meeting the 2031 requirement.
“We are not going to meet those housing goals if we follow the pattern that [Preston] does, which is pick fights in the community against single parcels and not be developing simultaneously and trying to get things done in as many spaces as possible,” said Mahmood, who has secured endorsements from Breed and San Francisco’s Democratic Party.
Besides Preston, he is the only other candidate in the race who signed Hayes Valley for All’s petition — reluctantly, according to organizers. He said District 5’s supervisor should be focused on building on other sites, like the car wash at 400 Divisadero St.
“Dean wants to continue to make this a specific personal campaign issue because he’s failed to build housing,” he told KQED. “He’s also failed to build housing in other empty lots and other parcels and we need to be building housing in as many places as possible.
Some of the units Preston is accused of opposing by SF YIMBY are projects requiring developers to increase the percentage of affordable units to gain his vote, including at 400 Divisadero St. and another potential development at 650 Divisadero St.
Preston said that in 2022, there was a developer in contract to acquire the graffitied, fenced-off car wash lot for a fully affordable project. He blames Breed for failing to acquire the land. Now, a market-rate project with 200 units is proposed for the site. Only 23 are expected to be affordable.
“We’ve been supporting housing at all levels, but when we say that, we mean that includes housing the market won’t build, which is housing that low-income and working-class people can live in,” Preston, who Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi endorsed in July, said.
But he’s also opposed projects before because of the way they could impact neighborhood character. Before he was supervisor, Preston was a leader of Affordable Divis, which advocated for affordable development on the street that would “contribute to the architectural character of the neighborhood.”
“This is the hub of this neighborhood,” Netzband said of PROXY, adding that the neighborhood wouldn’t utilize Patricia’s Green the same way if a tall apartment building was built on Parcel K.
He’s lived in San Francisco for 30 years and said Hayes Valley’s sense of community has kept him in the neighborhood for half of that time. Netzband said he’d vote for Preston but feels that his push to develop Parcel K is out of touch with the community.
“Over the past 15 years, [Hayes Valley] has grown tremendously,” Netzband told KQED. “New housing has brought thousands of people into this neighborhood, and this park is way too small for a neighborhood that’s as dense as this.
“I’m all for public housing, but this needs to stay the hub of the community because this community will suffer if we don’t keep it.”
Preston told KQED that Parcel K development would include ground-floor retail, like most of the buildings in the Hayes Street commercial corridor. It could accommodate about 100 units and be around eight stories, compared to surrounding three- and four-story buildings.
Jen Laska, the former president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, said a tall building would swallow Patricia’s Green.
“I think that would affect the draw to Hayes Valley, generally,” Laska, who was GrowSF’s head of operations in 2022 after leaving the neighborhood association, said. During her tenure, GrowSF coalesced with SF YIMBY to sponsor Proposition D, a 2022 ballot measure to streamline the city approvals needed to build housing. The organization said proposals are often denied by an “anti-housing Board of Supervisors.”
Cross that big street
Major arteries like Market Street and Van Ness constitute mental borders for many drivers. If your destination is near a popular street, aim for the other side of it, where there’ll typically be more vacancies.
Stray uphill
Hills, too, create mental obstacles for people looking for parking. If you’re willing to walk up one of San Francisco’s many hills either before or after the show, you’ll find more spots.
Always check signs
Pay attention to posted time restrictions to avoid tickets. Some meters in San Francisco mercilessly run until 10pm. Also, street cleaning hours can start at 12am, before some shows get out.
Know when you’re beaten
Some neighborhoods are hopeless. North Beach, Nob Hill, Divisadero — forget about it. The sooner you accept this, the more inner peace you will find.
Trust your gut
I acknowledge that I am a 6’1” man, and not everyone feels as comfortable as I do walking alone at night. If you’re not a local, and you’re feeling unsure, read up on the neighborhood beforehand.
Realize the ‘right’ way can be painful too
If you’re tempted to suck it up and pay for a parking lot or garage, remember: after the show, you may be stuck for a long time in a parking-lot traffic jam as cars try to get out all at once.
Okay! On with my list, with suggested free parking areas marked red.
Where to find parking for Davies Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House, Herbst Theater or Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
East side of Gough Street, between Golden Gate and McAllister
Pro tip: Park on the left side of the street. Quick eats to go are almost nonexistent in the area, so pick up any pre-show provisions you may need at the Super Sam corner store.
Where to find parking for SFJAZZ, Rickshaw Stop or Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club
North side of Oak Street between Buchanan and Octavia
Pro tip: The right lanes are almost always congested due to the upcoming freeway onramp. Watch for cars speeding down the hill behind you in the left lanes, and nose in rather than backing into the spot, if possible.
Where to find parking for the Castro Theater
Castro Street, between 14th and 16th
Pro tip: Separated from the Castro by Market Street, and up the hill a little, most people don’t think of parking here. I found a cool old metal dustpan on the street here once. Still use it.
Where to find parking for the Chapel
South Van Ness Avenue between 17th and 21st
Pro tip: Parking in the Mission District can be maddening; find solace on either the east or west side of the main artery on the edge of the neighborhood. Say hi to Whiz Burger for me.
Where to find parking for the Great American Music Hall
Franklin Street between Ellis and Geary
Pro tip: I’ve also found Geary Boulevard, between Van Ness and Franklin, to usually have open spots. (Plus, you’re right next to Tommy’s Joynt for post-show eats.)
Where to find parking for the Regency Ballroom
Franklin Street between Post and Bush
Pro tip: Separated from the venue by Van Ness, and up the hill a little, most people don’t think of parking here. Aim for the left side of this one-way thoroughfare, where parking is usually more open. Pour one out for the closed Walgreens.
Where to find parking for Mabuhay Gardens or On Broadway
Leavenworth Street between Francisco and Chestnut
Pro tip: Trying to find parking in North Beach is like repeatedly hitting yourself in the face with a hammer for a half hour. I park an entire mile away, and enjoy the walk along Columbus, which is teeming with action on weekends.
Where to find parking for the Midway
Illinois Street between 23rd and 25th
Pro tip: Do not be seduced by the road leading toward Pier 80; it looks wide open, but is full of private parking, and Pier 80 itself will be closed off.
Where to find parking for Chase Center
16th Street between Carolina and Connecticut
Pro tip: For concert parking, the Chase Center garage currently charges $75. Ahem. I think you’ll agree that a nice 10-minute stroll down 16th Street is a better alternative.
Where to find parking for the Bottom of the Hill
16th Street between Carolina and Connecticut
Pro tip: Parking’s not nearly as plentiful as it used to be here; be aware of the new-ish protected bike lanes on 17th and the many time restrictions. (Also, bring presents for the excellent staff at one of the city’s best clubs before it closes at the end of the year.)
Where to find parking for the Fillmore
Geary Boulevard between Divisadero and Scott
Pro tip: I agonized for years driving in circles on neighborhood streets until finding this wonderful stretch of Geary, down the road and on a slight curve, where no one thinks to park.
Where to find parking for the Warfield
Folsom Street between 7th and 6th
Pro tip: This one’s tough, being close to both Union Square and the Tenderloin. I shoot for the less-populated area south of Market and walk up 6th Street, home of harm-reduction services, pizza-by-the-slice joints, SROs and Tú Lan.
Where to find parking for the Brick and Mortar Music Hall or Public Works
Gough Street between Market and McCoppin
Pro tip: This is on an odd little diagonal block that’s off of most people’s radar, on the other side of a freeway overpass. It’s never let me down.
Where to find parking for Oracle Park
Harrison Street between 3rd and 4th
Pro tip: Optimal ballpark spots used to change each year. In a coincidence that I won’t overanalyze, I’ve had luck parking on this block ever since Buster Posey left the Giants in 2021.
Where to find parking for the Masonic
Van Ness Avenue or Franklin Street between Sacramento and Pine
Pro tip: Sorry, man. You will not find parking on Nob Hill. You can try driving up California while looking for a spot, but likely, you’ll have to head back and make the five-block walk.
Where to find parking for August Hall
Mission or Howard Streets, between 5th and 6th
Pro tip: The “park up the hill” trick doesn’t work here, since the nearby hill is Nob Hill. If you strike out on Mission or Howard, Folsom is often open.
Where to find parking for the DNA Lounge
Treat Street between Florida and Alameda
Pro tip: Luckily the DNA is surrounded by a pretzel of strange, short, wiggly streets, good for finding parking; head south of the freeway overpass to this hidden curve. (It’s where I parked when I saw Prince at the tiny club in 2013; yes of course I am bragging.)
Where to find parking for Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands or Hardly Strictly
Clement Street between 34th and 38th
Pro tip: The best way to get to these festivals is to throw a bike in the trunk, park near Ocean Beach, and ride in past the bison to the free bicycle parking area. Barring that, your other best bet is to park up the (very) steep hill, near the VA hospital.
Where to find parking for the Cow Palace
Geneva Avenue between Stoneridge and Carter
Pro tip: I don’t really have a pro tip for this one. I just want to say that there should be more concerts at the Cow Palace, which is cool as hell.
Where to find parking for Stern Grove
Portola Drive between San Fernando and Santa Clara
Pro tip: Park across the major artery of 19th, and up the hill a little bit. And, since Stern Grove concerts always take place on Sundays, there are no two-hour parking restrictions to contend with.
Where to find parking for the Independent
Divisadero Street between O’Farrell and Turk
Pro tip: You’ll have to go back in time to when you could park at the DMV lot, because this neighborhood is impossible now. I go down the hill a ways, and usually find a spot north of Primo Pizza.
Where to find parking for the Black Cat
East side of Van Ness Avenue, between Turk and Ellis
Pro tip: Aim for Van Ness, the west boundary of the Tenderloin. For a major thoroughfare, Van Ness often surprises me with open spots, especially on the east side heading north.
Where to find parking for Cafe du Nord or Swedish American Hall
16th Street between Guerrero and Sanchez
Pro tip: Once the daycare that’s just east of Dolores on 16th closes for the day, the white curb — which tends to scare off many drivers — is free for you to park at. Bonus points for the view of the Mission Dolores basilica, just a beautiful building.
The SF venues you don’t need my help parking at
San Francisco is having a civic nervous breakdown because the brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law is buying a minority stake in the Giants.
Not Donald Trump. Not Jared Kushner. Joshua Kushner. And not control of the team. A minority stake.
Apparently, that is enough to send parts of San Francisco’s activist and media culture into full panic mode.
One Giants employee posted a video from Oracle Park turning in their uniform and quitting because Kushner was buying into the team.
Social media lit up with complaints about “MAGA ownership” and Trump-world influence invading one of San Francisco’s most beloved civic institutions.
There is just one problem. Joshua Kushner is not exactly Steve Bannon in a Giants cap.
He has historically donated heavily to Democrats and has occupied a very different political lane than his brother Jared and the Trump orbit. But nuance never stood a chance here.
For some in San Francisco, the name “Kushner” was enough. That is the story.
The Giants are not some random expansion franchise nobody cares about. They are one of the oldest and most storied franchises in Major League Baseball history — with eight World Series titles and a lineage that includes Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Bruce Bochy.
Oracle Park is one of the great settings in American sports. Giants-Dodgers is still one of baseball’s defining rivalries. Generations of Northern Californians are emotionally attached to this team.
Which is precisely why the reaction has been so revealing.
Nobody was arguing about payroll. Nobody was debating the farm system. Nobody was asking whether this helps the Giants close the gap with the Dodgers in the NL West.
The panic was political from the first pitch.
That tells you where we are now.
Sports ownership used to be judged mostly by whether owners were competent, stable, and willing to spend money to win. Now it is an ideological background check.
Who donated to whom? Who attended what fundraiser? Whose brother married whose daughter? Who might show up in the owner’s suite?This is what happens when politics becomes religion. Everything becomes a loyalty test. Even baseball.
The irony is almost too perfect.
San Francisco is not exactly at risk of becoming a MAGA beachhead because a Democratic donor with the wrong last name bought a small piece of the Giants. But symbolic politics runs the city now.
In Democrat circles in San Francisco, politics is not just something people believe. It is something they perform. It is identity. It is status. It is social sorting.
So even indirect association becomes contamination. Joshua Kushner does not have to be Trump. He does not even have to be conservative. He just has to be Kushner.
That is enough.
To be fair, Giants ownership was already politically sensitive. Current owner Charles Johnson has drawn years of criticism for conservative political donations.
So this latest development landed on dry grass.
Still, the reaction says more about San Francisco’s liberal elite than it does about the Giants. The city’s activist class cannot even let baseball remain baseball.
A minority owner becomes a political emergency. A family connection becomes a scandal. A business transaction becomes a moral crisis.
This is not normal.
Fans used to argue about batting orders and pitching rotations. Now they investigate ownership family trees.
And the Giants are not being bought by Donald Trump. They are not being turned into a Trump campaign surrogate. They are not replacing team mascot Lou Seal with a MAGA hat.
A minority stake is changing hands. That’s it.
Yet for the loudest voices in San Francisco, even that apparently requires public anguish.
If this is the reaction to the brother of Trump’s son-in-law buying a minority piece of the Giants, imagine what happens if Donald Trump ever throws out the first pitch at Oracle Park.
Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics and a lifelong baseball fan, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.
San Francisco, CA
Casting shade on shadows: S.F. supervisor seeks to bar using shadows to block new housing
Shadows cast by tall and not-so-tall buildings alike have long been used to block housing in San Francisco, and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood wants it to end.
The District 5 legislator is announcing a law on Thursday that would eliminate the ability for people to say shadows cast by a building are an “environmental concern” that can be used to delay, and possibly block, new housing.
“In San Francisco, we’ve literally paid the price of being too afraid of our own shadow,” Mahmood said, pointing to data showing that shadow-based concerns were used to delay or block 2,195 housing units in 11 projects since 2017.
Whenever a new housing project is proposed in the city, its developer must create an environmental impact report on a variety of factors, like toxic waste and seismic hazards.
San Francisco requires that report to include a shadow analysis noting whether the new building will cast shade on any open space in the city. Mahmood’s legislation would get rid of that requirement; it is not in state guidelines, and most California cities do not consider shadows an environmental factor.
The environmental impact report is intended to help politicians make an informed decision about whether to approve or deny a development proposal. But any resident can file an appeal if they think environmental impacts were not fully considered, which can delay, block, or alter projects.
Shadows ultimately led to a delay for the infamous 469 Stevenson St. project from 2021, a 495 unit building on the site of a Nordstrom parking lot in SoMa.
Some SoMa residents were concerned that the project, which contained about 100 affordable housing units, would gentrify the area.
But gentrification alone is not a legal reason for supervisors to block a project. So residents filed an appeal alleging the project’s environmental impacts were improperly evaluated. The Board of Supervisors ended up siding with them in an 8-3 vote, citing shadows cast on nearby Mint Plaza in their decision.
The developer was forced back to the drawing board and had to redo his environmental report, delaying the project by several years.
Even when projects are 100 percent affordable, shadows cast uncertainty: Residents near 16th and Mission’s “La Maravilla” housing project, a 380-unit project next door to Marshall Elementary that broke ground last month, raised concerns that the development would darken the school’s playground. That forced the nonprofit developers to hold meetings and negotiate with residents about the issue.
Mahmood said even if appeals are ultimately rejected, the length and cost of the appeals process makes it difficult to produce housing projects and leads developers to avoid building in San Francisco.
“The housing problems we’re facing are death by a thousand cuts,” said Witt Turner of the Housing Action Coalition, a proponent of the bill. “We need to start sewing them up one by one.”
San Francisco is required by the state to plan for 36,000 more housing units by 2030, and the city’s best guess is that even under the most favorable scenarios developers will build less than half of that, and in four times as much time.
Mahmood, a YIMBY, has made streamlining housing a focus of his 15 months in office. His new legislation eliminates certain intermediate appeals and hearings and shortens appeal timelines, mostly from 30 days to 15 days.
The bill will be evaluated by the planning commission and the Board of Supervisors in early summer.
The bill is no silver bullet, however. Environmental appeals often cite more than just shadows when seeking to change projects. In the case of the Nordstrom parking lot building, for example, a failure to properly consider the seismic impact of a building was also a component of the decision.
YIMBYs have long pursued reform to CEQA, a California law outlining the environmental appeals process.
“We shouldn’t let outdated laws get in the way of building housing, which is actually important to making progress on our climate goals,” Mahmood said.
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