Jake McGoldrick: Legislative Gains Made in 2001

During recent weeks, my office has accomplished a number of goals here at City Hall. I am happy to share these results with you as a small gift during this holiday season.

First, we have had significant success in our efforts to reform the budget process. The board passed my legislation that requires the mayor to submit a budget on April 1 during the next budget cycle. This will allow both the board and the public to have an earlier look at the budget picture and begin the process of establishing priorities.

I also am working with chairs of other subject-area committees to begin more thorough reviews of specific department budgets in those committees beginning in January.

While this year's budget process promises to be a challenging one with difficult choices ahead, it also promises opportunities to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of various city departments. Look for a Town Hall Meeting on the budget in April so I can get your ideas on priorities for city spending.

In December, we also were able to finalize the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and this blueprint for regional transportation funding included the most significant funding for San Francisco transportation projects in more than 20 years.

Our negotiations for the RTP were based on the principals embodied in a resolution I introduced at both the Board of Supervisors and the Transportation Authority last February. With the continued advocacy of myself and other supervisors, as well as the leadership of board President Tom Ammiano at MTC, we are in great shape to make improvements to the City's public transportation network.

Inclusion of the San Francisco projects in the RTP means that they will be in line for crucial state and federal transportation dollars needed to pay for our projects.

Among the projects included in this regional plan is money for studying improvements on the Geary corridor, which will allow us to jump-start transportation improvements on Geary. This will tie in to recent legislation I asked to be drafted that will establish a Geary Corridor Working Group made up of neighborhood stakeholders and city department representatives. This working group will study alternatives with a goal of creating a 10-year Action Plan for transportation and pedestrian improvements and beautification of Geary Boulevard.

It is my sincere hope that over the next six months, we will be able to put together a Geary improvement plan that all stakeholders will support and that city departments will move swiftly to implement.

Last month, our Town Hall Meeting on the environment was both informative and productive, with speakers and constituents raising issues of trash and recyclable pick-up, creating more "green" buildings, continued implementation of the bicycle network, continued funding for urban tree programs and abandoned shopping cart collection. DPW continues to use a hotline number for reports of problems with clean streets, 28-CLEAN. The department tracks calls to determine priorities for allocating their resources, so they rely on your calls to let them know where problems are. Please do your part by calling in when you see a problem.

As a result of the meeting, my office is looking at several possible proposals. We will be introducing legislation to implement bicycle lanes on Cabrillo Street, which will provide a safe east-west bicycle corridor as well as much-needed traffic calming on this extremely wide avenue. My office also will investigate whether it makes sense to require commercial recycling.

Please join us Jan. 26 for our Town Hall Meeting on land use planning issues. In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones the best this holiday season and have a happy New Year!

Jake McGoldrick is a member of the SF Board of Supervisors representing District 1.