By Regina Davis, Executive Director
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation

Can changes in buildings and land use make a significant positive impact on people living in public housing? The HOPE SF program included in Mayor Newsom’s proposed budget takes up the challenge of initiating radical change for families living in public housing sites in San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods. HOPE SF proposes a $100 million investment, $5 million from the City budget and $95 million from a proposed bond, to significantly change public housing by rebuilding 2,500 apartments for public housing residents and building 3,500 new market-rate and affordable homes on seven public housing sites. The City expects to leverage federal and private funds for the majority of its costs.    Read more »

By Jared Blumenfeld, Director, SF Department of the Environment
Susan Leal, General Manager, SF Public Utilities Commission
Originally Published in the San Francisco Chronicle

San Franciscans and other Bay Area residents enjoy some of the nation's highest quality drinking water, with pristine Sierra snowmelt from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir as our primary source. Every year, our water is tested more than 100,000 times to ensure that it meets or exceeds every standard for safe drinking water. And yet we still buy bottled water. Why? Maybe it's because we think bottled water is cleaner and somehow better, but that's not true. The federal standards for tap water are higher than those for bottled water. Read more »

By Elizabeth Ridlington, Policy Analyst, Frontier Group 
Rob Sargent, Energy Program Director, Environment California

Rising global temperatures, unpredictable weather and alarming scientific predictions have led to increasing public concern about the impacts of global warming on the environment, health and society. But while the Bush administration continues to resist efforts to reduce global warming pollution, many states are taking effective actions to address the threat—including the adoption of the “Clean Cars Program,” which sets limits on global warming pollution from cars, light trucks and SUVs. The global warming benefit will be significant. Read more »

In the heat of the last campaign for Mayor, Michael Moore didn’t support Gavin Newsom.  Since then, Mayor Newsom has led San Francisco to become one of the greenest cities in the world and has stood up for same sex marriage when most other politicians ran the other way. And he, along with Supervisor Tom Ammiano and our partners in labor and the health care community are delivering universal health care for every San Franciscan. Read more »

By Bernadette Del Chiaro
Clean Energy Advocate, Environment California

This past Wednesday the California General Assembly approved a measure to create the nation’s largest solar water heating program, promising to again expand the state’s market for clean, renewable energy.  The bill, The Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 (AB 1470), authored by Assembly member Jared Huffman, sponsored by Environment California, and supported by hundreds of organizations and businesses, would create a $250 million ten-year program to provide consumer rebates for solar water heating systems, a form of solar power that is currently underutilized in the United States but is thriving in European and Asian countries. Read more »

By Asmb. Jared Huffman

California needs to take a long look at Genetically Engineered crops and create a coherent policy that addresses the risk of Genetically Engineered (GE) contamination.  My legislation, AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act, will protect California’s farmers, our environment and our food supply from contamination by genetically engineered crops. It would enact California’s first state policy to deal with GE crops and would recognize that with proper safeguards, we can explore the potential promise of GE in agriculture while protecting our farms, food supply, and the environment. Read more »

By Leslie Rule
Project Supervisor, KQED Digital Storytelling Initiative

The importance of the Internet in a 21st education is a given. It is barely possible to do research without the Internet. The Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, Black History, Latina History, pictures, videos, speeches – the main source of knowledge is no longer found in books, it’s found on the web. Without 24/7 connectivity as the norm, young people, especially students who dream of a college education, are at an overwhelming disadvantage. Material for high school exit exams and other standardized tests is in great abundance on the web, but try to locate offline help – it’s expensive, difficult to find and often outdated. Entrance requirements and applications to college? Found on the web. Help and support for health issues? Found on the web. Read more »

We need your help right now to save the Community Justice Center.  Supervisor Daly introduced legislation yesterday to stop the Community Justice Center and to cut funds for more police, funds to fix our roads and sidewalks, funds to upgrade the successful new 311 Call Center, funds for new trees, funds to help rebuild public housing, funds to help small businesses and many other vital services.  We need the Community Justice Center to keep making progress on the homeless crisis. The court is a proven way to direct those who commit quality-of-life crimes like aggressive panhandling into social services.  In a time of rising homicide rates, we need the new police officers Daly wants to cut to keep our streets safe.  We need the funds Daly wants to cut to repair our roads and infrastructure after decades of neglect. Read more »