San Francisco 2020: Leland Yee’s vision for a cleaner, greener city
IMMEDIATE ACTION TO SAVE SAN FRANCISCO’S PARKS
Oppose Park Privatization
The Recreation and Parks Department’s focus on revenue generation under the current and previous mayors is fundamentally out of line with its core mission: to increase access for all to parks, open spaces, and recreational activities. Instead, this move to privatize our treasured public parks means access is increasingly limited to only those who can afford it, and resources are devoted to revenue-generating services like concessions and development at the expense of low or non-revenue generating services like park maintenance or recreation programs. Leland Yee has fought against park privatization across the state, and as Mayor will put a stop to this dangerous commercialization of our parks. As Mayor, Yee will roll back the harmful measures undertaken by the current administration, like leasing out clubhouses to only those who can pay to use them, and laying off recreation program staff in lieu of high-paid revenue-generation consultants. Most notably, Yee will eliminate the highly controversial Arboretum Fee and oppose any attempts to privatize the Botanical Gardens or other park treasures.Champion a parcel tax measure for dedicated parks funding
With treasured Bay Area State Parks on the brink of closure, strong local park, recreation and natural areas protection programs are more important than ever. Yet in this tough economy, San Francisco’s park funds have been repeatedly cut, programs slashed, and facility maintenance dangerously deferred. Immediate action is essential. A recent SPUR (San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association) report estimates the Recreation & Parks Department needs an additional $30 million each year to fully fund its operations and its mission. As Mayor, Yee will move to secure dedicated recreation and park funds through passage of a parcel tax to generate the revenue necessary to protect and maintain our treasured parks—and preserve them as vital public assets, not turn them over to private interests.
Support a park renewal bond in 2012
San Francisco deserves a world class park system—that’s why voters overwhelmingly approved bond measures in 2000 and 2008 to rejuvenate our aging park system. But even after the current projects are completed, San Francisco’s parks will still face a backlog of $1.7 billion in unfunded projects. That’s why Yee supports the effort to place a park renewal bond on the ballot in 2012 or 2013—and he’ll work with the environmental community to ensure that any projects financed through the bond are not unduly repurposed for privatization or revenue-generation. The combination of a park renewal bond with a parcel tax to fund ongoing maintenance will allow our parks and the neighborhoods they serve to flourish.
Respect Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park has been a part of San Francisco for almost 140 years. It is a San Francisco institution and a treasured public asset. That’s why Yee opposes two current proposals for developments that are at odds with the park’s original purpose and master plan—an above-ground water treatment plant whose piping would cause beach erosion, and a commercialized mega-soccer complex with artificial turf that would shine stadium-grade lights over the pristine west end of the park and Ocean Beach. As Mayor, Yee would direct these projects be moved to different locations, and require that all future park enhancements be consistent with the Golden Gate Park Master Plan, adopted in 1998 to ensure park enhancements keep with the original vision: a universally-accessible open space preserve in the midst of the city.
2020 GOAL: 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY
One hundred percent clean energy by 2020: it’s another ambitious and transformational goal that Leland Yee is committed to helping San Francisco achieve.1 San Francisco has been a leader in fighting climate change and reducing energy use, but current projections still put us short of 100% renewable energy by 2020. Yee is committed to additional steps necessary to get us there.
Create a clean energy program that can compete with PG&E
CleanPowerSF, the city’s fledgling renewable energy program (referred to also as Community Choice Aggregation) means San Franciscans are close to realizing their hard-fought goal of providing residents with an independent, renewable energy source. But we’re now at a critical juncture and strong leadership is needed in order launch a competitive, successful program. We won’t reach our renewable energy goal unless CleanPowerSF can compete for customers with PG&E, but current leadership at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has balked at giving this promising program a chance. Yee’s administration will partner with the administering agency to explore ways to provide necessary start-up capital for local renewable suppliers, and ensure competitive start-up rates are on par with PG&E. He’ll also push for locally installed renewable energy, which will help ensure success of the program and also create thousands of San Francisco jobs. Bottom line, CleanPowerSF must be given the opportunity to thrive as an accessible, affordable clean energy alternative to the dirty power from PG&E that moves us closer to local distributed generation of electricity and public ownership of the power grid.Fully fund GoSolarSF and increase local clean energy production
In the past three years, the GoSolarSF solar rebate program has more than doubled the amount of solar installations on private, non-profit, and commercial buildings by closing the cost-efficiency gap with grants and rebates. The program’s local hiring directive produces much-needed green collar jobs for San Franciscans, and their practice of offering higher rebates to lower-income applicants makes solar installation increasingly more affordable for those in underserved communities. Yet the SFPUC has repeatedly threatened to slash funding for this innovative and highly successful program. As Mayor, Yee will fight for full funding to keep moving toward solar installation accessibility for all San Franciscans. Yee will also ensure full implementation of his legislation (AB 1969) that allows energy users to sell their renewable energy generation – including solar, small hydro, and wind – back to the grid.
Plan for the future
Recent reports highlight that San Francisco’s energy infrastructure is at risk due to the effects of climate change. Reduced snowpack in the Sierras could affect our reliance on hydroelectric power. Projected sea level rise could cause flooding to natural gas pipelines, compressor stations, electrical substations, and transmission lines. As Mayor, Yee will require the City work with the SFPUC to plan for alternate generation and transmission scenarios, and to institute measures to protect our energy assets should catastrophe strike.
Continue the push for energy efficiency
Energy efficiency measures still provide the best bang for our energy-saving buck. San Francisco has made significant strides in this regard, with new green building codes and by offering free energy audits to residents and businesses, and rebates for residential and commercial efficiency improvements. But more can be done to green our existing buildings—mostly multi-unit apartment buildings, which make up two-thirds of the city. Recent reports show low awareness, lack of capital, and confusing rebate programs still prevent many from making energy efficiency upgrades. As Mayor, Yee will tackle all three barriers by creating a web-based and in-person “one-stop shop” where residents can access all the different incentives and rebates offered through the Department of the Environment, SFPUC, PG&E, or Recology. Yee will ensure increased public outreach to renters and landlords about rebates for small improvements with quick return on investment, like water-efficient toilets and showerheads. And most importantly, Yee will ensure energy efficiency programs are targeted to disadvantaged communities where people need it most.
Encourage innovation to green the local grid
In 2020, the local power grid must be able to meet 950-megawatt peak power demand using only renewables. That will require hard work and pushing beyond our current power generation and storage strategies. Yee will work closely with the City’s Renewable Energy Task Force, which is currently drafting the city’s plan to meet the 2020 peak power demand, to set San Francisco on course to meet its renewable energy targets. That should include efforts to increase conversion to renewable energy sources at the commercial and residential levels, maximize the opportunity to generate renewable energy on new city projects, and pursue potentially untapped clean energy sources like wind, tidal, and wave power. He’ll also pursue pilot green energy storage programs like vehicle-to-grid, because with the increased use of battery powered vehicles, the City and SFPUC should investigate incentives to use vehicle battery capacity to store power at peak generation and put it back into the grid at times of high demand.
Oppose gas-fired peaker plants
Gas-fired peaker plants pose a myriad of environmental hazards and disproportionately affect low income communities by increasing emissions in neighborhoods that are already shouldering disproportionate environmental burdens. That’s why Yee worked for years to shut down such plants in the Bayview. After years of debate and struggle, the Potrero plant was closed—partially because of continued pressure from Yee and elected officials and neighborhood groups, but also because the city has invested in alternative energy and efficiency measures that have reduced our energy demand and rendering the need for local peak generation unnecessary. As Mayor, Yee will continue and expand these commitments to further reduce our need for additional fossil fuel energy and spur green-collar jobs, and he’ll fight any effort to place other dirty gas-fired peaker plants elsewhere in the city.
Renewable energy means green jobs
Yee understands that producing renewable power locally through CleanPowerSF is a critical investment not just because of its environmental and energy independence implications—it will also create good-paying green jobs. The same holds true for all new public, commercial, and residential projects that include renewable energy components. Yee is committed to supporting green training programs like TrainGreenSF, and to working with Workforce Investment San Francisco (WISF), local universities, and local unions to ensure our workforce is prepared to meet the growing need.
2020 Goal: Zero Waste
San Francisco recently reached a 77% waste diversion rate—the highest of any city in the United States. Reaching our Zero Waste goal by 2020 is an important milestone, and our waste diversion approach will be an important piece in our plan to achieve that end. As Mayor, Yee will lead the City in efforts to achieve its “Zero Waste by 2020” goal.
Improve public education and access to waste diversion options
The most effective way to reduce waste generation is making sure citizens make use of the programs already in place. While San Francisco has been a leader in municipal recycling and composting efforts, Yee believes there is more to be done to expand accessibility to and information about recycling, composting, and toxic and hazardous waste disposal to all corners of our culturally diverse and multi-lingual city. Whether it’s proper disposal of old pharmaceuticals or the use of safe home and garden products, Yee believes we can step up outreach and education and improve access to existing waste disposal programs and best practices. That starts with focusing efforts in underserved communities, and including waste diversion and recycling options in Yee’s “one-stop shop” to centralize all public information about best environmental practices and available incentives.
Improve proper waste diversion through incentives and improved technologies
San Francisco is recycling more than any other city in the country, but as much as 63% of waste put in the trash by San Franciscans and sent to a landfill in 2005 was either readily recyclable or compostable.2 We’ve made progress since then through mandatory composting, but there’s still more we can do to ensure proper sorting of materials. The city currently charges extra for larger bins to disincentivize landfill waste, but doesn’t offer a bin sized smaller than 20 gallons. Yee would add an additional tier to this system, encouraging less waste and more composting and recycling by offering smaller, cheaper bins, like Seattle’s 12 gallon “micro-can.” This pushes even further our system where households pay based on how much they throw away rather than a flat rate for service, which incentivizes waste reduction. Yee would also work with the city’s waste management contractor to improve processing technologies to further separate compostables from trash once materials have been collected.
Promote efforts to increase producer responsibility and sustainable products
Our waste reduction efforts have been so effective, we’ll soon reach a point where focus on end-of-pipe waste reduction begins to see diminishing returns. To move further toward our goal of zero waste requires a shift to producer responsibility for toxic and disposable products. Yee pushed for the Yellow Pages ban and supported as-yet unsuccessful efforts at the state level to create a CalRecycle’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework. He’ll continue those efforts as Mayor by continuing to push for a statewide EPR framework, and by working with bay area local governments, producers and manufacturers to initiate a regional voluntary targeted waste reduction program geared towards minimizing packaging and production waste and encouraging recyclability in product design.
2020 GOAL: 100,000 MORE MUNI RIDERS & 50,000 FEWER CAR TRIPS
A safe, affordable, and reliable transit system is at the heart of a clean and livable city—and key to combating climate change and reducing our carbon footprint. By 2020, our transit system must connect every corner of the city and accommodate 100,000 more riders—but we have a long way to go to achieve that goal. San Francisco’s transit system is in serious disrepair and requires immediate action to prevent another Muni Meltdown as seen in 1998. Yee will demonstrate the independence and leadership required to right the course for Muni, the vision to create a transit-oriented city that gets 50,000 people out of their cars, and the hard work and leadership required to make San Francisco a truly Transit-First city.
Fix Muni management
Today, Muni is led by a recently-appointed CEO with absolutely no transit experience, the result of a mayoral appointment based on political favors instead of proven expertise. We’ve seen the repercussions of this before—this is exactly the type of mismanagement that led to the Muni Meltdown of 1998. Muni is one of the largest and most complex multi-mode transportation providers in the country. It requires executive leadership that understands from first-hand experience how to manage transit operations. It also requires a proven leader who can boost morale and fix the broken management culture within the department. As Mayor, Yee’s number one priority will be to hire a qualified transit CEO from the ranks of APTA (American Public Transit Association) who can lead Muni in a new direction with a mindset towards collaboration and efficiency.
Re-engineer the system to connect and serve the entire city
Today, Muni routes are heavily engineered to provide service in and out of the downtown corridor and it’s been that way since Muni’s beginnings in 1912. But keeping with that old model comes at the expense of what San Franciscans need today: public transit options to get around the rest of town easily. Yee believes it’s time to re-engineer the system so it can provide reliable service between various neighborhoods and to high-traffic non-downtown destinations like San Francisco State University or UC Mission Bay. The only way we can grow Muni ridership and reduce traffic on our roads is by making Muni easier to use and on-time for every San Franciscan in every neighborhood across the city.
Bring Muni out of the Dark Ages: the long-overdue Technology Revolution
Muni is extraordinarily inefficient because it’s still operated the same way it was 30 years ago. Muni is the last major city transit operator in the country that has not implemented two key technologies that will improve on-time performance: a computer-aided dispatch system, and on-board technology that actively notifies the driver if they are running according to schedule. Both technologies have become standard equipment in public transportation fleets across the country over the last 20 years, yet Muni is literally the last agency in America that still dispatches with paper and pencils. These operational changes and technological upgrades even have funding already allocated from Proposition K dollars, yet Muni leadership still refuses to make them a priority and move forward. That’s not just unacceptable, it’s unsustainable. Yee’s administration will begin a sea change within Muni to implement these critical technologies that will greatly increase efficiency, allow restoration of services into areas that fell victim to budget cuts, and finally provide the reliable service San Franciscans deserve. And by opening these new data sets to the public, we will finally have reliable metrics by which to hold Muni management accountable for its service to the city.
Lead the charge for true regional transportation planning
Just within San Francisco, there are over eight different transportation agencies with different priorities and responsibilities—Caltrans for highways and roads; A/C Transit and SamTrans for regional bus service; the Golden Gate Bridge District for bridge, bus, and ferry connectivity; BART for regional rapid transit; Muni for light rail and bus service; the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and San Francisco County Transit Authority (SFCTA) for funding and planning. Yet not one of them is fully responsible for all San Franciscans. As Mayor, Yee will cut through the bureaucracy to create real regional planning collaboration between the various agencies that interoperate within San Francisco with the absolute goal of reducing car traffic and increasing public transportation usage going in and out of city limits. Yee believes that effective transit planning starts with the engagement of all possible stakeholders, including transit riders, cyclists, car sharing communities, private taxis and shuttle operators, paratransit operators, and our neighborhood groups. Willingness to engage in coordinated efforts will help bridge shortfalls in operational funding that produce gaps in regional transit services like CalTrain, and ensure better coordination with other agencies like BART to plan for necessary upgrades and extensions in San Francisco like high speed rail connectivity at the Transbay Terminal.
Bicycle safely and walk freely
The City’s bicycle ridership is ever increasing and will continue to rise with sustained efforts to improve routes and safety. Yee supports implementation of the city’s Bike Plan and will work to increase the network of bike corridors, including physically separated bike lanes on San Francisco’s most dangerous bike routes. He’ll also expand the number of reduced speed streets, and provide greater access to bike corrals and bike storage facilities. And by expanding car-free commercial areas and improving sidewalk conditions and crossing safety, we can make it easier to get around on foot.
PRIORITIZE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
An environmental vision for the America’s Cup
The America’s Cup is an important event that will generate almost $1.5 billion in economic activity for San Francisco, with the potential to create almost 9,000 jobs. But we must ensure San Francisco realizes the full benefits of the race without encountering unintended environmental hazards. As Mayor, Yee will ensure full environmental review and thorough public scrutiny for all Cup development projects. He’ll also work with the America’s Cup Steering Committee and the America’s Cup Environmental Council to ensure that the transportation plan includes adequate infrastructure improvements, water quality is protected against dredging and invasive species, sensitive habitats in the Presidio are protected, and historic resources are not unduly impacted. Most importantly, he’ll work to close the loophole Ed Lee’s current plan agreement with Cup organizers—docks for millionaires’ yachts that could soon jeopardize Rincon Park’s wide-open bay views. As Mayor, Yee’s first America’s Cup priority will be protecting public access to the waterfront and stopping efforts to privatize the shoreline into a yacht parking lot.
Full environmental cleanup at Hunters Point
Yee was the only state legislator to vote against the bill that authorized transfer of our parkland at Hunters Point to developers, because he didn’t believe there were adequate environmental protections. Residents in the Bayview have been disproportionately subjected to environmental hazards and plagued by higher-than-average rates of respiratory disease, cancer, and other preventable illnesses. That’s why Yee has continually advocated for specific cleanup measures, and why he’ll fight for full cleanup as Mayor. Yee is the only candidate with the demonstrated independence to fight for environmental justice and ensure that the promises and representations made by the developer and the City will be kept – not just on the environment, but on public health, jobs, affordable housing, and community input in the development process.
Put housing, jobs, and transit together
Yee understands that a shortage of affordable housing in urban centers leads to regional suburban sprawl and contributes to urban congestion and emissions. That’s why he’ll push for more affordable, high-density, family-sized housing units and job centers along existing transit corridors—which means proximity to transit lines, not just freeway onramps. He’ll move to eliminate minimum residential parking requirements for developments served by transit, and he’ll use his statewide experience on transportation issues to expand regional rail lines and make other regional transit infrastructure improvements.
Maximize reuse of captured rain water
San Francisco has made efforts to recapture rainwater, both as an efficiency measure for new developments to minimize strain on our water supply and via a new Rainwater Harvesting partnership program through SFPUC and the City. But we need to go further. Despite the program to help residents install rainwater harvesting systems, most existing buildings in San Francisco haven’t taken advantage and still treat rainwater like sewage, allowing it to be transported away and disposed of rather than reused. Instead, by capturing rainwater in rain gardens and cisterns and allowing it to recharge groundwater, we can use that rainfall to reduce diversions from the environment and make the city greener. As Mayor, Yee will boost public education for the Rainwater Harvesting program and help simplify the permitting process to make it easier for consumers to make these important upgrades. Yee will also advocate for necessary changes at the state level to allow the city to continue pushing innovative recapture projects for developments.
Promote healthy neighborhoods
How do we make our neighborhoods sustainable and strong? How do we keep people in high-density urban areas and attract businesses to our urban center? Yee understands that it takes efforts on multiple fronts, ranging from large-scale regional transit projects to small-scale community gardening opportunities. As Mayor, Yee will take the lead on efforts large and small, working with state and regional partners on transportation and planning and with local community groups and schools to improve sustainability practices while retaining neighborhood character. For example, Yee supports improved pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined neighborhood greening projects, and expanded opportunities for urban agriculture at the small businesses, community and school yard gardening levels. Underserved neighborhoods need particular attention, including sustained pollution abatement and toxic remediation efforts, prioritized energy projects, expanded community green spaces, and targeted efforts to improve the availability of healthy, affordable food. Yee has a long history of supporting these causes, and will continue these and other efforts—like implementation of the city’s Sustainability Plan—as Mayor.
