By Gavin Newsom
San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco is the first city in the United States with a universal health care program. Our 311 customer service system has already answered more than 800,000 calls — it is bringing better customer service to our residents and greater accountability to city government. Care Not Cash and other homeless programs have shown solid results, and new initiatives such as the Community Justice Center will help us continue making progress addressing homelessness and panhandling. We have accomplished a great deal. But there is more to be done. “Good enough” never is. Where something is working, I say, let’s make it better. Where something isn’t working, I say, let’s change it.

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By Bernice Young
San Francisco Chronicle

Though community courts have emerged as a popular and practical method for integrating problem-solving justice approaches, there is no single way to do it. Other examples include community policing and drug courts. But what these efforts have in common is an openness to include the voice of the community in the court process, a willingness to look at a defendant as something more than the perpetrator of a crime, and a desire to look to root causes and rehabilitation, rather than resorting to straight punishment.

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By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle
Originally Published August 7, 2007

After stalling for a few months, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's controversial plan for a new community court to prosecute quality-of-life crimes in the city's core has taken a big step forward.

Newsom and Superior Court judges have signed off on a plan for the court, dubbed the Community Justice Center, which was written by judges and presented to the mayor Friday.

The plan includes some major changes to the mayor's initial idea, including not handling infractions such as public urination and public drunkenness. Read more »

Please join Mayor Gavin Newsom as well as representatives from labor, local political clubs and enthusiastic supporters like yourself at our campaign HQ this Saturday, July 21st at 10:30AM. We will be hitting the streets of San Francisco with the Mayor, collecting signatures and talking to other San Franciscans. (If you can't make on Saturday you can download the signature forms at anytime. Just click on Aaron's blog and follow the instructions). Your signature is a mark of support for our efforts to make free WiFi a reality, improve MUNI, create a Community Justice Center and more – including passing a budget that prioritizes the basics of daily life like filling potholes, cleaning up our parks and policing our streets.

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In the past week, more than two-thousand people have signed our petition to bring a Community Justice Center to the Union Square area to address quality-of-life concerns and help make sure more homeless San Franciscans are connected to social services.  The key to the Community Justice Center is that it will have everything under one roof: criminal justice agencies, social service providers and judges.  A similar program has worked in New York City and we think it will help create a better living environment and change lives in San Francisco.  Read more »

Mayor Newsom wants to bring a community court to Union Square to address quality of life concerns, like aggressive panhandling, public urination, and graffiti.  The new court will be modeled after Manhattan's highly successful Midtown Community Court, which helped revitalize Times Square in the early 90s.  But, we need your support.  As Mayor Newsom said in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, "We're fighting against the status quo, and they're fighting for the status quo," he said of his opponents. "I'm not interested in fighting for failure."  Please sign our petition today.  Read more »