Updates
Bites on Broadway returns as new food truck “food pod” ordinance is introduced
By Ryan Phillips
Oakland North
Bites off Broadway is back, and maybe this time, thanks to a new food truck ordinance in Oakland, it’s here to stay for the summer.
The weekly gathering of about a half dozen food trucks at 45th Street and Broadway began its second year last Friday evening, when about 300 people showed up to dine on fare from food trucks like Tina Tamale, Go Streatery and Doc’s By the Bay.
“I thought it would be slow at first because word needs to get out that we’re there,” said Danvy Vu of Go Streatery, which serves made-from-scratch dishes featuring local produce. “But people were just waiting for it, probably counting down the days. The feedback I got from customers was, ‘I’m so glad you’re back, we’re going to be here every week.”
Bites off Broadway began last June. But in July, the event was shut down by Oakland police because organizer Karen Hester didn’t have the necessary permits to operate the food event. Under the city rules at the time, food trucks were only allowed in certain parts of East Oakland and Fruitvale. Though city officials later relented and let Hester operate Bites off Broadway for the rest of last summer, the question of how to regulate mobile food in the city remained.
Then in the fall, Councilmembers Jane Brunner (District 1) and Rebecca Kaplan (At-large) introduced an ordinance for a pilot program through which mobile food vendors could gather to form “food pods” at different places in the city. At a press conference in December, Brunner noted she had attended Bites off Broadway and that helped inspire the legislation. “Oakland is in a food renaissance,” Brunner said in December. “So we really needed to step up and make it a legal action.”
The ordinance took effect in May, and there are now five food pods that will open within the next few weeks: At Snow Park on Wednesdays from 11 am-2 pm, starting May 23rd; at Splash Pad Park on Thursday nights from 5-9, starting May 24; at 12th and Franklin on Thursdays from 11 am-2 pm starting Thursday, May 17. The food pods at Clay and 16th Street on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am-2 pm and the 365 block of 45th Street on Fridays from 5:30-8:30 pm are already in operation.
Hester said while she’s glad the ordinance is in place, but it still needs some work. She said she’s paying $200 a week for the permits and the process was arduous and took months. Hester said she had to take on additional expenses, like buying liability insurance for the event, even though each truck has its own insurance. She said she has to reapply for the permit every two weeks.
Still, Hester said she’ll take a permit that’s difficult to obtain over operating without one, or the possibility of being shut down again.
“The bottom line is we need more Oakland trucks out there selling because it’s good for the economy,” Hester said. “The Oakland trucks need to have the assurance that they’re going to have plenty of pods to choose from and participate in.”
Bites off Broadway returns this week on Friday on 45th Street in front of Studio One. The food trucks scheduled to be there include Tina Tamale, Le Truc, Doc’s of the Bay, Nick’s Breakfast Truck, Annakoot and Fist of Flour.
Go here for more information on Bites off Broadway.
http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/05/17/bites-on-broadway-returns-amid-new-food-truck-ordinance/
Oakland’s Jack London Market still hungry for food vendors
By Angela Woodall
Oakland Tribune
I was going to write that the Jack London Market hall needs to be resuscitated, but then I looked at the definition — revived and made vigorous again.
The hall cannot be brought back to a state it never attained.
So the question is: What next?
Why not give up the hall’s artisanal food vendor blueprint and go for an Apple store or a Gap? For one thing, the market hall, like the rest of Jack London Square, is governed by the California Lands Commission’s tidelands trust regulations.
The state regulations restrict the property to maritime-related uses — recreation, fisheries and the like. Restaurants and food businesses are also allowed. That’s how the blueprint for the food vendors made it into the building. The state also allowed a law firm to move in on the fourth floor and the solar startup Sungevity on the third floor.
But Apple and Gap don’t fit.
Instead of going head-to-head with the state commission to change the law, at-large Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said she has been brainstorming with Pamela Kershaw, of the Port of Oakland, to get the hall filled despite the still-absent food businesses.
One idea is to bring in a high-end kitchenware store along the lines of Sur La Table or Williams-Sonoma, Kaplan said during a break in the Port of Oakland’s Northern California MegaRegion Summit, held May 4 in the empty hall.
(When I left the MegaRegion summit, I nearly ran into a man wearing, if I remember correctly, a monocle and top hat with a fake falcon on his arm. Someone nearby was juggling. They were part of the Night Market, a mini food and merchandise festival held every first Friday of the month. The festival includes tilt walkers, hula hoops, roosters and a mechanical beast.)
Culinary retail has always been part of the plan. But Kaplan also enthused about hosting Iron Chef-type competitions and several other ideas that sounded good.
Ellis Partners, the developers since 2002, sank millions into remaking the square before turning over most of its control to Divco West Services, a bicoastal real estate investment firm with deep pockets. Ellis still takes care of the day-to-day management, but it has the assistance of Divco’s cash.
But Sur La Table is not a likely tenant. The store’s lease at its Berkeley location includes a radius restriction. In plain English, that means Jack London Square is too close to the Berkeley store. Williams-Sonoma wasn’t interested, said Jim Ellis, of Ellis Partners.
He said the company is trying to get the right mix of vendors. It is standing by the original plan “and being very persistent.”
They have two big barriers. One is the way the square is shut off by buildings along Embarcadero instead of being open. The other is the market hall’s location. It stands blocks from the ferry stop at Jack London Square. There are no signs inviting visitors climbing off the ferry to the rest of the square. They are greeted at that end of the square by a mostly empty building, BevMo and a parking lot.
In contrast, the San Francisco Ferry Building thrives in part because it is nearly impossible to avoid walking through it from that ferry stop.
I promised to make an appointment with Ellis to talk about Jack London Square some more. I was on deadline, and I am no expert.
Kershaw did not want to comment.
Finally, I have to include a few of the places opening around Oakland:
District, a “wine and whiskey lounge” on Ninth and Washington streets, is the busiest bar in town right now. Food Coma, a daytime restaurant, opened a few storefronts down.
Just around the corner, on Ninth Street, Cosecha Mexican Café has helped transform Swan’s Market and managed to get rid of the fish smell. Now the market is inviting a wine bar to the location for sales by the bottle and glass from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. And three of the boutiques that got a foothold in the Victorians on Ninth Street, near Broadway, through the PopUp Hood project signed a lease. Faz opened a while ago in the old Verbena restaurant on Broadway, but I just met the owner.
Chop Bar’s Chris Pastena is opening a restaurant on the bottom floor of the Tribune Tower this winter. And, as far as I know, Camber and Feezy are still slated to open in the Uptown District.
Oakland officials want public’s help to ID vandals
Associated Press
Oakland officials are asking for the public’s help to identify those responsible for vandalism during recent protests, including on May Day, when a police car was set on fire.
City Attorney Barbara Parker and City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan requested on Friday that anyone with video or photo evidence of the vandalism e-mail them to stopwindowsmashers@gmail.com.
The city has hired an investigator to review any evidence that comes in. It plans on filing lawsuits to recover damages against any vandals who are identified.
The City Attorney’s Office has already sued three people who were arrested on suspicion of vandalism during Occupy protests on Nov. 3 and Jan. 28.
Some Occupy protesters say Friday’s request is further evidence that the city is trying to break up the movement.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/12/state/n090009D14.DTL#ixzz1urf55911
Oakland celebrates Bike to Work Day
Frank Ogawa Plaza was crowed with bikers Thursday morning celebrating Bike to Work Day
By Ryan Phillips
Oakland North
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan talks about bicycle improvements in the city during her remarks on Thursday.
There’s a “culture shift” about bikes happening in the East Bay, Renee Rivera, the executive director of the advocacy group East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), told a crowd gathered in Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall on Thursday to celebrate Bike to Work Day. More people are riding bikes and cities are committing more resources to improving bike accessibility—these changes are no more evident than on Bike to Work Day, she said.
“The city is really investing in better biking in Oakland, and that’s paying off with more people biking,” Rivera said, noting that the coalition has seen a 250 percent increase of people in the East Bay biking to work over the past four years. “Things are really shifting in the East Bay.”
Bike to Work Day is in its 19th year in the East Bay and is a statewide event to encourage people to use bikes to help improve their health and cut down on transportation-related pollution. On Thursday morning, the front of City Hall was crowded with bikes—EBBC had a free all-day bike valet parking station set up, and members were also doing safety check-ups on bikes. Dozens of people with bikes walked by booths from Oakland bike shops like Spoke Cyclery and Wheels of Justice, which were offering small repairs. Information booths were also set up by agencies like Caltrans, which was alerting bikers to a new path in Emeryville, and advocacy group Walk Oakland, Bike Oakland.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan rode in to downtown shortly after 8 am with a group that included Rivera. The group started their trip at the Eastmont Police Station at 7 am. The group had biked to Fruitvale BART station where they met up with Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente (District 5) and then headed to City Hall. Quan said she started at Eastmont because as mayor, she wants to “figure out the bike lanes” of Oakland, noting she should probably begin her ride from North Oakland next year to learn about those lanes.
In her remarks to the group gathered on Thursday, Quan noted that the city completed the construction of its 100th mile of bike lanes this year, and the Oakland City Council approved the installation of? new bike lanes for East 12th Street near Lake Merritt. She also encouraged people to eliminate at least one car trip a week to help the city meet its gas emissions goal, part of its climate action plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse emissions 36 percent below the 2005 level by 2020. “Biking is the easiest way to do that,” she said.
Quan said there is more work to be done, including building more bike lanes and possibly having the city provide free loaner bikes at major transit stations or intersections that could be ridden and then dropped off at the next one. “We’ve been talking about locations where that could possibly be, particularly BART stations,” Quan said.
The 19th Street BART station will soon be getting a bike station, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan (At-large) announced to the crowd. Kaplan said the city has secured a grant that will cover at least 80 percent of the cost to open the station, which will be housed in vacant retail space and where people will be able to valet park their bikes. Quan invited nonprofit bike companies or companies that sell bike products and would be interested in sharing the space to contact her office.
Kaplan said that the idea for the station came about because of Oakland’s “large and growing bicycle population” and was inspired by similar projects other cities, like Berkeley which has a staffed bike station downtown. Kaplan said she’s hoping the station will be opened by Bike to Work Day next year.
“It was growing to the point that in Uptown, there are actually more people looking to park bikes than there are places to put them,” Kaplan said. “And also, people want to leave their bike in a place where they know it will be safe.”
Christina Morales, who works for the city’s housing and community development office, was in line to get her bike checked out at the EBBC stand and then park it there for the rest of the day. Morales said she rides her bike to work regularly anyway, but was still excited to celebrate and promote biking.
“It’s a lot of fun—the camaraderie of people and their bicycles, getting out and getting some exercise and fresh air, and not polluting,” she said.
http://oaklandnorth.net/2012/05/10/oakland-celebrates-bike-to-work-day/
State’s lawyers call MTC’s building purchase improper; opinion fuels regionalism reform
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
The same week legislative lawyers declared improper the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s use of bridge tolls to purchase an eight-story San Francisco building, state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier introduced a bill to put the agency underneath a new, directly-elected regional board.
It’s the Concord senator’s latest move in his unflinching, 15-year stance that the transportation commission and other regional Bay Area agencies governed by a roster of local political appointees are out of touch with residents.
The ruling unveiled Friday by the Legislative Counsel Bureau only reaffirmed his position. He opposed the commission’s purchase of the building, and since the sale has demanded the agency postpone any renovations pending the outcome of the state auditor’s analysis of the transaction.
The counsel’s office found that the transportation commission exceeded its authority when it used $180 million in bridge toll proceeds to buy and renovate the old U.S. Postal Service building for the purposes of relocating up to four regional agencies.
The building is far larger than needed to house the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and other potential governmental tenants — the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and possibly, the Association of Bay Area Governments. MTC planned to lease the excess space to other companies.
“When agencies become too insular, they become arrogant and they make decisions like buying a building in San Francisco they weren’t legally authorized to purchase,” said DeSaulnier, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
MTC disagrees. The purchase was entirely legal and in keeping with the regional agencies’ shared state and federal planning roles, said spokesman Randy Rentschler.
Whether or not the sale will stand is an open question. A legal opinion, on its own, cannot compel the commission to rescind the transaction. The Legislature can do it or if a lawsuit were filed, the courts could intervene.
But Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, a vocal critic of site choice, is optimistic it will lead to a shift.
“The authority used money authorized by the state, and so it would be quite a leap of chutzpah to ignore the state’s opinion,” Kaplan said. “I think the commission will have to come to grips with the fact that its action wasn’t legal and it will need to look at alternatives.”
Whatever the outcome of the building, DeSaulnier is moving ahead with his plan to reform the nine-county Bay Area’s regional governance by forming a new regional board. His bill, approved 9-0 Tuesday by the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, would establish a 15-member directly-elected Bay Area Regional Commission authorized to coordinate billions of public transportation investments, housing, air quality, economic development and other regional planning tasks.
It would replace a 25-member joint advisory committee comprised of representatives from MTC and the boards of other regulatory agencies.
The dozens of elected city and county officials who serve on agency boards would remain, but the new commission would oversee operations and meld common tasks such as accounting.
It would become the second directly-elected regional board of its kind in the nation. The other is in Portland, Ore., a community hailed as a regionalism pioneer.
DeSaulnier, who sat on the MTC when he was a Contra Costa County supervisor, faces steep opposition.
Commission Chairwoman and San Mateo County Supervisor Adrienne Tissier chastised the senator in a letter, calling the proposal hasty and flawed.
And Contra Costa local elected officials reject the premise that a directly-elected board would better represent their communities.
“Is the current system perfect? No,” countered commission Vice Chairwoman and Orinda Councilwoman Amy Worth. “But as cumbersome as it is, it allows the cities and counties to collaborate on issues rather than create a single board which could thwart local decisions.”
Association of Bay Area Governments Vice President and Clayton Councilwoman Julie Pierce acknowledges regional agencies must do better but called an “uber-agency” a nonstarter.
Oakland Art Murmur adds 9 venues to First Friday
By Patricia Yollin
San Francisco Chronicle
For six years, Svea Lin Soll has owned Swarm Gallery in Oakland near Jack London Square. Now she is finally on the map.
This particular map lists the places open on the first Friday night of every month, when as many as 7,000 people turn out for an art walk organized by Oakland Art Murmur, an association of art and cultural venues that expanded southward in March to include Swarm and eight other places.
“I thought we were a good fit for Art Murmur. It’s a safe, inspired and creative thing,” Soll said as she watched people pour into her Second Street gallery on April 6. It was the first time the nine additional members were officially part of the Art Walk, which now stretches from 26th Street on the north to new territory in Uptown, Old Oakland, downtown and the Jack London district.
Two blocks away on Jefferson Street, the Hive was just as crowded. It includes a gallery and more than 30 artist studios. One of the liveliest belongs to John Casey, who has been involved with Art Murmur since it began in 2006.
“First Fridays have gotten so large that it’s become almost a logistical issue,” Casey said. “The idea of expanding Art Murmur made perfect sense because it diffuses the epicenter, at 23rd and Telegraph, and spreads people out. And we want to incorporate as much of Oakland as we can within reason.”
Art Murmur has grown to 21 galleries and nine mixed-use venues, such as cafes and shops with rotating art exhibitions. For the brand-new members, the expansion means greater visibility. For the public, it provides more options in a city with one of the highest numbers of artists per capita in the country.
Given the wider geographic boundaries and the 6 to 9 p.m. time frame, it would be almost impossible for people to hit every Art Walk stop unless they traveled at intergalactic speed and spent no more than five minutes at each place. There is, however, a more rational approach.
Target neighborhoods
Danielle Fox, director of Oakland Art Murmur and owner of Slate Contemporary Gallery on 25th Street, suggested targeting one or two neighborhoods. “I can see Jack London and Old Oakland as a good evening out, or Old Oakland and downtown/south of Grand as also fairly doable,” she said, adding that the free Broadway Shuttle makes it easy to get around and that the afternoon Saturday Stroll is a less hectic alternative, especially for families.
First-timer
On April 6, Jill Graham and her husband, who moved from Benicia to Oakland’s Temescal district seven months ago, took BART from MacArthur Station to experience First Fridays for the first time.
“I’m thrilled Oakland has something that takes away from all the violence,” said Graham, 54, admiring the nearby Fox Theater from the third-floor windows of Res Ipsa on 17th Street. “This is a different perspective on what Oakland has to offer.”
Unlike many galleries, Res Ipsa, which was opened in December by two lawyers who are Oakland residents, will not stage a new exhibition every First Friday – though that’s coincidentally what will happen May 4, when the works of painter Mitchell Johnson will be on display.
“He does representational and abstract side by side,” said co-owner Jonathan Ball, who brought out a binder of Johnson’s work. “He’s not a rock star and he’s not a starving artist.”
Ball said joining Art Murmur was a “no-brainer” because “the publicity and access it provides are terrific.”
Co-owner Frank Petrilli said, “It’s bringing folks into town. The idea is to elevate what Oakland is doing culturally.”
Res Ipsa’s white walls, narrow space and minimalist sensibility were a counterpoint to Betti Ono Gallery a block away on Telegraph Avenue. Even though it was only 6:30 p.m., people were spilling onto the sidewalk. Wine was flowing, a disc jockey had just put on “Love the Way It Should Be” and sunlight drenched a bright red wall.
“We would have been crazy not to be a part of Art Murmur,” said owner Anyka Barber, who opened her gallery in September. “It’s an awesome opportunity to show how Oakland is a destination.”
The crowd was as wildly diverse as Oakland itself. “One family with a baby stayed here three hours,” Barber recalled.
Phillip Mehas, who is on the Richmond Arts Commission, was taking it all in. He’s a First Friday veteran and had brought his girlfriend, who lives in Sonoma.
“I like to support emerging young artists, especially artists of color,” said the white-haired Richmond resident. “It’s always fun and entertaining, and you get good art.”
At 10 p.m., John Casey was still chitchatting with visitors to his studio, which featured graphite and pen-and-ink drawings in a style he described as “surreal realism,” with characters whose bodies morph into their emotions or state of mind.
“Normally we’re a pretty private little enclave here,” said Casey, whose studio is usually open only two weeks in June. “Now we’re much more public. People can see us where we work, under the veneer, and ask questions. Not everyone is comfortable with that, but they should be. I’m more than happy to discuss my work.” {sbox}
Oakland Art Murmur: The next First Friday Art Walk takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Fri. For details, a map and parking and transit information, go to oaklandartmurmur.org.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/26/PKEK1O5C0U.DTL#ixzz1tw3cO4Q1
Public Works Kicks Off Annual Blitz on Potholes
Extended Eight-week Effort Seeks to Fill 3,500 Potholes
City of Oakland, Public Works Agency
April 30, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oakland, CA – To keep the City of Oakland’s vehicular and pedestrian traffic safe, Oakland Public Works will conduct a Pothole Blitz again this year.
This year’s Blitz will take place starting today, April 30, 2012, through June 22nd extending the effort by four weeks longer than last year. Each week, the Blitz will re-locate to another district in the City, starting on Broadway near Manila and Taft Avenues.
Last year, the Streets & Sidewalks Division of the Department of Infrastructure & Maintenance filled 3,230 potholes citywide during the Blitz. Crews expect to repair more than 3,500 this year. The focus will be on traffic corridors, schools, hospitals, high traffic pedestrian areas and problem streets.
Where necessary and feasible, their repairs will focus on long-lasting solutions to recurring potholes instead of short-term patches. Potholes are a never ending battle because repairing them is just a band aid fix to our City’s old streets.
Oakland’s finances are so limited that roadways that should be repaved every 30 years are now scheduled to be repaved every 80 years. “That means that once in your lifetime, your street will get paved,” explained Public Works Director Vitaly B. Troyan, P.E. Director Troyan said, “We’re asking everyone to become involved and call our Hotline at (510) 615-5566 to report your least favorite pothole.”
You can also use any one of several alternate methods to Report a Problem: Use the online form at www.OaklandPW.com. Use the new mobile appSeeClickFix. Email pwacallcenter@oaklandnet.com to report your favorite pothole.
Your assistance in slowing down when crews are working in the roadways is greatly appreciated.
###
Is Goldman Sachs Holding Oakland Hostage?
By Reverend Daniel Buford and Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan
Oakland Post
We write together today – as a pastor and a politician – to ask for social justice.
The Great Recession of the last five years has been a travesty that we’ve all shared in together. We’re still working to recover – to regain our jobs, our homes, and often, our dignity.
And even as we’ve had things taken from us, we’ve still been a giving people. Told that they were ‘too big to fail,’ we bailed out American banks to stave off financial disaster, helping save this country from the brink of ruin.
So, as residents of Oakland – a shining city – it’s outrageous to watch bailout beneficiaries like Goldman Sachs continue to hold hostage our city.
One of the largest banks on the planet, Goldman Sachs refuses to let the City of Oakland refinance the municipal bonds it owns. Holding onto these “toxic assets” has allowed the company to pocket almost $30 million of our money – and to keep profiting at a rate of $5 million a year.
That is, of course, unless Goldman Sachs agrees to let us renegotiate.
Leviticus 25:6 tells us, “If your kinsman being in straights comes under your authority, let him live by your side. Do not extract from him usury through interest.”
Do not charge us unjust interest, Goldman Sachs.
We implore you – the good people of Oakland implore you – to help us recover from the Recession the way we helped you.
The bank bailout was justified to the public on the grounds that it would enable companies such as Goldman Sachs to be able to operate in a manner that is beneficial to the public.
But the second part hasn’t taken place, and this is evidence of that.
The City of Oakland will continue to negotiate – and will take whatever action is necessary – to terminate this “deal.”
But do unto us the way we graciously did unto you when you were in trouble, Goldman. We used taxpayer dollars to salvage private, for-profit companies like yours.
As with many other cities across our country, our struggle with debt continues. This poses an even greater burden at a time when we grapple with some of the harshest cuts to our most basic and critical services. The weight of this contract threatens to further destabilize our city, threatening the most basic core services.
This is money that could build a health clinic in East Oakland, create a jobs program in West Oakland and so much more.
On behalf of our parishioners, our constituents – and a large coalition of active and vocal community members throughout this city, we demand action to terminate this deal.
Join us in demanding that Goldman Sachs renegotiate our debt – the same way we renegotiated theirs.
http://www.postnewsgroup.com/publishedcontent/2012/04/28/is-goldman-sachs-holding-oakland-hostage/
Kaplan: An open letter to George Lucas from Oakland
By Rebecca Kaplan
San Francisco Chronicle
Dear George -
We heard you ran into a little bit of trouble in Marin recently in your efforts to build a new digital production facility.
As Oakland’s citywide elected council member – and a fan of yours since age 7 – I invite you to locate your new facility in our city.
Yoda said, “Always in motion is the future.”
That future is Oakland – home to a growing and diverse creative class – with good transportation and no shortage of “Star Wars” fans.
With a thriving entertainment scene, great food, countless imagineers and possibilities for development-approved locations, I would be happy to work with you to ensure the success of your project in our welcoming community.
We have great locations: waterfront property, industrial land, urban mixed-use, and even in the woods. Options with ferry and BART access. And space already approved for development like Jack London Square and the Coliseum area.
I’d be happy to arrange a tour.
I hope to thank you for your decades of inspiration by helping you find a place to expand- in Oakland, where you can build, grow and thrive in our sunny, scenic city.
If you want, I’ll even wear my Boba Fett mask to the groundbreaking. May the force be with you.
Rebecca Kaplan has represented Oakland as its council member at-large since 2008.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/13/ED541O33M7.DTL#ixzz1sDzNjOrN
San Francisco’s loss
San Francisco is losing much of its diversity, cultural edge, and working class to the East Bay – can anything be done?
By Steven T. Jones & Yael Chanoff
San Francisco Bay Guardian
San Francisco is increasingly losing its working and creative classes to the East Bay and other jurisdictions — and with them, much of the city’s diversity — largely because of policy decisions that favor expensive, market-rate housing over the city’s own affordable housing goals.
“It’s definitely changing the character of the city,” said James Tracy, an activist with Community Housing Partnership. “It drains a big part of the creative energy of the city, which is why folks came here in the first place.”
Now, as San Francisco officials consider creating an affordable housing trust fund and other legislative changes, it’s fair to ask: Does City Hall have the political will to reverse the trend?
Census data tells a big part of the story. In 2000, the median owner-occupied home in San Francisco cost $369,400, and by 2010 it had more than doubled to $785,200. Census figures also show median rents have gone from $928 in 2000 up to $1,385 in 2010 — and even a cursory glance at apartment listings show that rents have been steadily rising since then.
Tracy and other affordable housing activists testified at an April 9 hearing before the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Economic Development Committee on a new study by the Budget and Legislative Analyst, commissioned last July by Sup. David Campos, entitled “Performance Audit of San Francisco’s Affordable Housing Policies and Programs.”
“There’s a hearing right now at City Hall about our housing stock and how it’s been skewing upward toward those with higher incomes,” Board President David Chiu told us, noting that it is sounding an alarm that, “Creative individuals that make this place so special are being driven out of the city.”
Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan said that San Francisco’s loss has been a gain for Oakland and other East Bay cities, which are enjoying a new cultural vibrancy that has so far been largely free of the gentrifying impacts that can hurt a city’s diversity.
“You can add more people without getting rid of anybody if you do it right. Most of development is looking at places that are now completely empty like the Lake Merritt BART station parking lot, empty land around the Coliseum, and the West Oakland BART station,” Kaplan told us. “We have to commit to revitalization without displacement.”
Yet the fear among some San Franciscans is that we’ll have just the opposite: displacement that actually hinders the city’s attempts at economic revitalization. “What’s at stake is the economic recovery of the city,” Tracy said. “You can’t have such a large portion of the workforce commuting into the city.”
TOO MANY CONDOS
A big part of the problem is that San Francisco is building plenty of market-rate (read: really expensive) housing, but not nearly enough affordable housing. The report Campos commissioned looked at how well the city did at meeting various housing construction goals it set for itself from 1999 to 2006 in its state-mandated Housing Element, which requires cities to plan for the housing needs of its population and absorb a fair share of the state’s affordable housing needs.
The plan called for 7,363 market-rate units, or 36 percent of the total housing construction, with the balance being housing for those with moderate, low, or very low incomes. Developers built 11,293 market rate units during that time, 154 percent of what was needed and 65 percent of the total housing construction. There were only 725 units built for those with moderate incomes (just 13 percent the goal) and just over half the number of low-income units needed and 83 percent of the very low-income goal met.
“We have to do a better job of monitoring and evaluating each project,” Chiu said. “Every incremental decision we make determines whether this will be a city for just the wealthy.”
The situation for renters is even worse. From 2001-2011, the report showed there were only 1,351 rental units built for people in the low to moderate income range, people who make 50-120 percent of the area median income, which includes a sizable chunk of the working class living in a city where about two-thirds of residents rent.
“The Planning Commission does not receive a sufficiently comprehensive evaluation of the City’s achievement of its housing goals,” the report concluded, calling for the planners and policymakers to evaluate new housing proposals by the benchmark of what kind of housing the city actually needs. Likewise, it concluded that the Board of Supervisors isn’t being regularly given information it needs to correct the imbalance or meet affordable housing needs.
Policy changes made under former Mayor Gavin Newsom also made this bad situation even worse. Developers used to build affordable housing required by the city’s inclusionary housing law rather than pay in-lieu fees to the city by a 3-1 ratio, but since the formulas in that law changed in 2010, 55 percent of developers have opted to pay the fee rather than building housing.
Also in 2010, Newsom instituted a policy that allowed developers to defer payment of about 85 percent of their affordable housing fees, resulting in an additional year-long delay in building affordable housing, from 48 months after the market rate project got permitted to 60 months now.
Tracy and the affordable housing activists say the city needs to reverse these trends if it is to remain diverse. “It’s not even debatable that the majority housing built in the city needs to be affordable,” Tracy said.
Mayor Ed Lee has called for an affordable housing trust fund, the details of which are still being worked out as he prepares to submit it for the November ballot. Chiu said that would help: “I will require a lot of different public policies, but a lot of it will be an affordable housing trust fund.”
GROWTH AND DIVERSITY
San Francisco’s problems have been a boon for Oakland.
“With much love and affection to my dear SF friends, I must say that Oakland is more fun,” Kaplan told us. “Also I think a lot of people are choosing to live in Oakland now for a variety of reasons that aren’t just about price. We have a huge resurgent art scene, an interconnected food, restaurant, and club scene, a place where multicultural community of grassroots artists is thriving, best known from Art Murmur.”
There is fear that Oakland could devolve into the same situation plaguing San Francisco, with rising housing prices that displace its diverse current population, but so far that isn’t happening much. Oakland remains much more racially and economically diverse than San Francisco, particularly as it attracts San Francisco’s ethnically diverse residents.
“We’re not looking at a situation where the people moving into town are necessarily predominantly white,” Kaplan said. “We’re having large growth in quite a range of communities, including growing Ethiopian and Eritrean and Vietnamese populations…If you don’t want to live in a multicultural community, maybe Oakland’s not your cup of tea.”
According to the 2010 census, a language other than English is spoken at home in 40.2 percent of Oakland households, compared to 25.4 percent in San Francisco. “Almost every language in the world spoken in Oakland,” Kaplan said.
African Americans make up 28 percent of Oakland’s population, compared to only 6.1 percent in San Francisco, and 6.2 percent of the population of California. In San Francisco, the number of black-owned businesses is dismal at 2.7 percent, compared to 4 percent statewide and 13.7 percent in Oakland. The census also finds that 25.4 percent Oaklanders are people of Latino origin, compared to San Francisco at 15.1 percent and 37.6 percent statewide. San Francisco is 33.3 percent Asian, compared to Oakland at 16.8 percent and all of California at 13 percent.
Both cities are less white than California as a whole; the state’s white population is 57.6 percent, compared to 34 percent in Oakland and 48.5 percent in San Francisco.
Gentrification shows its face differently depending on the neighborhood. Some say Rockridge, a trendy Oakland neighborhood where prices have recently increased, has gone too far down the path.
“Rockridge has been ‘in’ for a long time, but the prices are staggering and it isn’t as interesting any more,” Barbara Hendrickson, an East Bay real estate agent, told us.
The nationwide foreclosure crisis didn’t spare Oakland and may have sped up its gentrification process. “The neighborhoods are being gentrified by people who buy foreclosures and turn them into sweet remolded homes,” observed Hendrickson.
Yet Kaplan said many of these houses simply remain vacant, driving down values for surrounding properties and destabilizing the community. “I think we need a policy where the county doesn’t process a foreclosure until the bank has proven that they own the note,” said Kaplan, who mentioned that the city has had some success using blight ordinances to hold banks accountable for the empty buildings.
And as if San Francisco didn’t have enough challenges, Kaplan also noted another undeniable advantage: the weather. “The weather is really quite something,” she said. “I have days with a meeting in San Francisco and I always have to remember to bring completely different clothing. Part of why I wanted to live in California was to be able to spend more time outdoors, be healthy, bicycle, things like that. So that’s pretty easy to do over here in Oakland.”
