Is the idea of restoring Hetch Hetchy (you know, at some point) “insane?” No, not at all.
But it sure would be inconvenient, I’ll grant you that.
Anyway, here’s the latest:
“City Contractors & City Bureaucracy Team-Up Against Prop F - Pay-to-play politics used to oppose the Yosemite Restoration Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18, 2012 — San Francisco city contractors and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) have ganged up to defeat Proposition F, the Water Conservation & Yosemite Restoration Initiative, the most recently released campaign finance reports disclosed. According to the reports(1), 47% of funding for the ‘No on F’ campaign has come from companies currently doing business with San Francisco; companies with past contracts with the City, and labor unions representing contracted workers with the City. In addition, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has spent an undisclosed amount of money entertaining San Francisco community leaders at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, as well as more than $197,000 in federal funds promoting the “Hetch Hetchy Brand” to San Francisco voters.
“These public records demonstrate that San Francisco City Hall and its employees have arm-twisted city contractors to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars to oppose reform. It’s typical ‘pay-to-play’ politics to defend the status quo and fight water conservation,” said Mike Marshall, Campaign Director for the Yosemite Restoration Campaign. “It’s made that much worse by the improper use of rate-payer and federal funds by the staff of the SFPUC in the run-up to, and during, the campaign.”
Proposition F is the “Water Conservation & Yosemite Restoration Initiative.” It requires the City to develop a two-part plan to build San Francisco’s local water resources and reverse the damage done to the environment by the current water system over the last 100 years. The plan would need to be approved by voters in 2016 in order to be implemented.
ABOUT THE YOSEMITE RESTORATION CAMPAIGN: The mission of the Yosemite Restoration Campaign is to reform San Francisco’s 19th century water system to allow for the restoration of Hetch HetchyValley and the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. It is a non-profit, 501(c)(4) organization. www.YosemiteRestoration.org
‘No on F’ Campaign Finance Fact Sheet
According to campaign finance reports filed on Friday, October 5 the ‘No on F’ campaign received:
– $131,122 from companies currently doing business with the City and County of San Francisco.
– $69,729 from companies with past contracts with the City and County of San Francisco.
– $43,500 from labor unions representing individuals working on projects for the City and County of San Francisco.
According to public record requests the SFPUC staff has spent:
– $197,000 in federal EPA funds promoting the Hetch Hetchy water brand. The funds were intended to encourage San Francisco residents to call 311 to report water quality problems. (2)
— An undisclosed amount of money organizing eight junkets to Yosemite National Park for local Democratic Club leaders, ‘No on F’” funders, neighborhood association leaders and gay rights activists. Despite multiple Sunshine Ordinance requests, SFPUC staff have ignored requests asking for a detailed financial accounting of staff time spent organizing these political junkets.
– An undisclosed amount of staff costs collaborating with ‘No on F’ attorneys to lobby the Ballot Simplification Committee.
“PG&E and the City and County of San Francisco Investigate Power Outages at Candlestick Park
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2011 — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) issued the following statement from Geisha Williams, executive vice president of electric operations, about the power outages that impacted Candlestick Park this evening:
PG&E is working closely with the City and County of San Francisco, owner and operator of Candlestick Park, to determine the cause of tonight’s power outages. The first priority for both PG&E and the City and County has been to get the power restored as quickly and safely as possible and keep the power on through the rest of the game. Determining exactly what happened and working to prevent something like this from happening again is very important to everyone involved.
SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company”
And from SFGov:
“MAYOR LEE’S STATEMENT ON POWER OUTAGES AT CANDLESTICK PARK
Mayor Edwin M. Lee today issued the following statement on the electric power outages at Candlestick Park at tonight’s San Francisco 49ers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Monday Night Football game:
“Following the loss of electric power to Candlestick Park before kickoff this evening, I directed our Police, Fire and Recreation & Park Departments and our Public Utilities Commission to work closely with the 49ers and PG&E to ensure that maintaining public safety and restoring power to the stadium were the top priorities. City staff worked immediately to deliver backup power and support PG&E staff in their repairs.
I have directed Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington to conduct a full investigation into the cause of both outages and, with PG&E, identify immediate actions that must be taken to prevent incidents such as this from happening again.
Tonight we all share in tremendous pride for our San Francisco 49ers. We must make every effort to support continued victories for the team and fans across the Bay Area in the weeks ahead.”
All that hullabaloo in Civic Center this AM is just CIVIC RESPONSE 2011.
Deets below.
The calm before the storm:
Click to expand.*
All the deets:
“Multi-Agency Joint Evacuation Exercise – Civic Center Area - ”Civic Response 2011″ – September 30th 2011, 10:30am
Exercise Overview This will be a coordinated multi-organization joint evacuation drill involving the facilities management and security agencies, as well as the involved building tenants from within the San Francisco Civic Center area. This multi-agency drill will involve civilian and uniformed responders from the local and state government levels and is aimed at helping ensure public safety in the event of an actual emergency.
There will be approximately 1,500-1,800 building tenants evacuated and dozens of responders involved in this exercise. The participating agencies will activate their fire alarm plans and evacuate their tenants to pre-designated locations at Civic Center Plaza, UN Plaza, and the War Memorial area.
Participating Buildings – City Hall, Dept Public Health at 101 Grove Street, UC Hastings College of the Law, Veteran’s Building at 401 Van Ness.
The Command Post will be the SF PUC Mobile Command Vehicle (MCV) which will be parked on Grove Street between Polk and Larkin across from the Bill Graham Auditorium.
Mission: All participating buildings will execute their evacuation plans simultaneously and safely while keeping aware of the other facilities tenants.”
You’ve got the box filled with whatnot mounted on the right side of an exisiting wooden phone pole, the all-important cylindrical antenna up high on the left , and down below you’ve got a soothing sign from Next G complete with a phone number for a real live person, basically a counselor who will talk you down from your anti-technology panic attack.
Hurray!
Click to expand
(Personally, I think that anybody what wants to stop a cell phone antenna from being put wherever an engineer wants to put it should be required to complete an environmental impact report first, you know, so we can calculate the effect of a lack of utility service on the Commonweal.)
Camera middle: 100 McAllister (UC Hastings – the oldest and largest law school west of the Mississippi, until somebody tells me different), City Hall (the highest old-school dome in the Western hemisphere, yes higher than the U.S. Capitol Building)
Now, the SFPUC Building at 525 GG was supposed to have windmills on the top and whatnot but that’s not going to happen now.
Oh well.
How will you make a mark SFPUC? How will you show the world how great you are? (LEED-certification? Is that it? Well, O.K., just be sure to tell tout le monde about over and over and over again…)
