The effort to recall SF Supervisor Jake McGoldrick is in full swing.

Fundraising has already begun and soon, a major petition drive will be started to put McGoldrick on the ballot so Richmond District voters will have the opportunity to vote "Yea" or "Nay" on his continued service at the board.

McGoldrick's "crimes" against the community are many, and varied. Last month, I wrote some 2,600 words about some of McGoldrick's treasonous activities, including:
• His effort to close Golden Gate Park to vehicles on Saturdays;
• His overseeing of the insertion of a single paragraph, which was buried deep in the middle of a 10-page proposition, Proposition K passed in 2003, which mandated that the city remove two traffic lanes on Geary Boulevard so that they could only be used for Muni Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The plan would dump about 600 vehicles on other Richmond District roads during peak times -126 per hour on California Street alone - and violates the city's General Plan, which calls for funneling neighborhood traffic onto Geary Boulevard to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists on the district's secondary roads. Keeping his constituents in the dark in order to pass the proposition was unethical, according to my moral compass.

Despite proposing to spend up to $200 million for BRT, the bus program will not add a single seat of capacity -riders will still be jam-packed into buses, many of them standing, while the bus lurches from stop to stop;
• His failure to support Geary merchants in their call for an economic impact study regarding the Geary BRT;
• His attempted thumping of families who own a single-family home in a district zoned for two units, who want to expand their properties by making them pay huge taxes, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, into the city's Inclusionary Housing Fund. Fortunately, the other two supervisors on the Land Use and Economic Development Committee agreed to send the proposal back to the mayor's office and SF Planning Department for further review;
• His attempted rewrite of the SF Planning Code, which would have limited the public's right to a Discretionary Review hearing at the SF Planning Commission;
• His introduction of legislation to limit the number of tenancies-in-common allowed in the City each year to 100, despite the city's voters saying in 2000 that such limitations should not be allowed. Tenancies-in-common allow renters to purchase the apartment building they live in, giving them an affordable way to own a home in San Francisco.

If you missed it, my last column is online at www.sfrichmondreview.com. This month, I researched other actions by McGoldrick that run contrary to will, or best interests, of his constituents.

Update on Golden Gate Park Road Closures
In May, the SF Board of Supervisors voted to close Golden Gate Park on Saturdays - in spite of San Francisco residents who voted twice to not close the park.

One of the ballot measures city voters rejected in 2000 asked: "Shall the city close John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to automobile traffic on Saturdays after the Music Concourse parking facility is opened?"

A whopping 62 percent of the voting public citywide said "No."

But that didn't matter to McGoldrick, who brought the issue up at the SF Board of Supervisors not once, but twice.

Last year, the mayor vetoed the measure and four supervisors supported the will of the people to keep the supervisors from overriding the mayor's veto. But this year, Supervisor Bevan Dufty said his support for the voters was wavering and that he might vote for the closures. Without the four votes needed to uphold a mayoral veto, the mayor set off frantic negotiations with several groups to reach a last-minute compromise.

Because of Dufty's assertion, several of the neighborhood negotiators said they felt like a "gun was pointed at their heads" and that they had to work on a deal to limit the damage - partial closures would be better than total Saturday closures.

McGoldrick used a ruse about "healthy Saturdays" to rally support for the closures - support that came almost exclusively from members of the SF Bicycle Coalition. In the interest of supporting the coalition, McGoldrick sold out the people he is supposed to represent -the people of the Richmond who voted for him.

Sunset District resident Benny Wright teaches black history. She was distraught that the supervisors would openly disregard a vote of the people.

"I can't tell people anymore that their vote counts," she said.

For more details about the Saturday closures in Golden Gate Park, read the news story in this issue.

Supervisor MIA
Our supervisor has also been missing in action in regard to many important quality-of-life issues in the district, often ducking the people and community groups who need his help.

For example:
• Sunset District businessman Scott Hauge, who has an insurance business on Taraval Street and who is founder of SF Small Business Advocates, said he tried for a year to meet or talk with McGoldrick about extending the city's Clean Tech. Tax Credit to small businesses -to no avail.

"He's ignored us," Hauge said.

The tax credit is for businesses with 10 to 100 employees with a payroll of $167,000 or more. Hauge wants to extend the credit to any business with a payroll of $167,000 or more, which could include businesses with as few as two or three employees.

Fortunately for small businesses, District 4 Supervisor Ed Jew has introduced legislation to extend the tax credit to help small businesses become more environmentally friendly.

• Robert Bakewell, an Arguello Boulevard resident, has been working to restore the oak woodland in the northeast corner of Golden Gate Park. He said he has tried to get the support of the district's supervisor, without success.

"I have found Supervisor McGoldrick to be unresponsive to my attempts to gain his support for the Golden Gate Park oak woodland efforts," he said.

• When the Institute on Aging and Bridge Housing proposed a large-scale project at the site of the closed Coronet Theater on Geary Boulevard, neighborhood groups in the area had concerns about the scope of the project, and how it would affect the surrounding neighborhoods.

The Francisco Heights Neighborhood Association, Laurel Heights Improvement Association and Laurel Heights Homeowners Association had concerns about the project. They wanted the six-story, 72-foot-tall, 230,000-square-foot building scaled back and wanted more parking added to mitigate impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods. Despite having hundreds of IOA employees working at the site, the original plan only called for 67 parking spaces.

One group, the Francisco Heights Neighborhood Association, had to sue to seek redress.

When I asked McGoldrick what he had done to support these groups, he produced a letter from Oct. 28, 2004 that was sent to Acting Planning Director Dean Macris requesting a "scoping" hearing to get additional feedback from the public before an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was commissioned for the project.

That's it. There was nothing to express the concerns of the neighbors concerning shadows, bulk or the lack of parking at the site. There was nothing after the EIR was prepared for the project. As well, the real motives for requesting the hearing could be contained at the end of the letter, which states: "A public airing of these issues early in the process, rather than putting them off to inevitably be raised in an appeal of the EIR, seems both prudent and perhaps preventative of future delays."

The fact that McGoldrick was in support of this project is not a crime but vacating his position as an honest broker working for the interests of all residents was wrong. In district elections, where other supervisors often refer city residents to seek redress from their own supervisor, individuals are shut out of the process if their supervisor is not willing to be an honest broker.

McGoldrick ignored the groups seeking his support for the project and instead attended a meeting of the SF Organizing Project, sponsored by the Star of the Sea Catholic Church.

The Organizing Project puts politicians and bureaucrats on stage and has an array of predetermined people ask specific questions to solidify support for their positions. No one is allowed to speak at the meetings, unless they are a part of the program. The dog-and-pony show might be good for pushing projects the Organizing Project wants to move forward, but is contrary to a democratic process where diverse and sometimes opposing viewpoints are expressed.

No one can argue that senior housing is needed in the City or that the IOA and Bridge are fantastic non-profit service providers. But the heavy-handed way the matter was handled left a bad taste in many peoples' mouths and, like it or not, set a precedent for massive construction projects along Geary Boulevard.

In the end, the SF Planning Commission voted to approve the EIR and move the project forward after the height was altered slightly with setbacks and several dozen parking spaces were added.

Hurting the Poor, Middle Class and Families with Taxes, Fees and Fines
McGoldrick has voted for just about every tax, fine and fee proposed at the Board of Supervisors. Despite having a nearly $6 billion budget, more than the total budgets of some 20 states, the supervisor constantly pushes for more and more revenue to support a bloated government bureaucracy. Those actions are regressive on the poor, middle class and families because it takes a larger percentage of their earnings.

Rather than cut fat out of the budget, which takes time and effort, McGoldrick thinks nothing of heaping additional expenses on those who can least afford it.

Anyone who has paid a meter to park or accidentally gotten a parking ticket recently knows how the prices have gone up astronomically.

A few of the highlights of his legislative actions include:
• McGoldrick proposed making the downtown area of the city off limits to anyone who can not afford to pay for the privilege. After meeting with London's socialist mayor, McGoldrick arranged for the SF County Transportation Authority to investigate the possibility. McGoldrick donated some $260,000 in local funds and had the Transportation Authority apply for a $1 million grant to study the proposal.

Charging people to drive downtown will disproportionately affect the working poor, who can not afford to pay fees to drive downtown. (You can bet the wealthy bankers, stockbrokers and others who can afford it will continue to drive and park downtown.)

McGoldrick, as part of a majority of supervisors on the board who have the nerve to call themselves "progressives," are the most "regressive" legislators on the face of the planet. They are culpable for driving the poor, minorities and families out of the City.

The report banning traffic downtown is still being compiled by the TA.

• McGoldrick initiated legislation to reduce the cost of a Muni Fast Pass for adults aged 18 to 24, which would have cost city taxpayers about $5.7 million a year.

At the Board of Supervisors, the measure was whittled down to include only 18 to 21 year olds. The action will cost the City about $3.1 a year -money that will be added to Muni's current operating budget.

Muni, which is predicting an $11 million-plus deficit this year and larger deficits over the next two years, will have a further deficit to deal with because of the discounted Fast Pass.

Muni determines the cost of parking meter rates, and prices charged to park in the city's parking garages as part of its budget-making process. It makes its recommendations to the supervisors, who have to balance the budget. Expect those taxes to increase because of the transit agency's budget deficit - a deficit that has been further exacerbated by McGoldrick's free-ride proposal.

The legislation was heard in the supervisor's City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee, which is comprised of McGoldrick and supervisors Ed Jew and Michela Alioto-Pier. Because Alioto-Pier was not at the hearing, Jew moved that the item be postponed for one week because he was concerned about adding expenses to a budget deficit without identifying ways to pay for the free Fast Passes.

Fearing Jew and Alioto-Pier might not support his legislation by moving it to the full board, McGoldrick engineered a coup by getting the signatures of three other supervisors - Chris Daly, Tom Ammiano and Ross Mirkirimi - so that the item could bypass the committee process and be moved to the full board.

When McGoldrick doesn't like opposition from members of the board, he pulls a fast one to circumvent it.

"Is this what my colleagues mean when they talk about sunshine and open government?" Jew asked in an op-ed column in the SF Examiner.

"No prudent legislative body should gamble a probable city loss of $5.7 million against a hope and a prayer that people will stop driving and take an increasingly unreliable Muni," Jew said.

• Don't leave those garbage cans on the street. Legislation sponsored by McGoldrick levies a $100 fine on anyone who leaves their garbage cans on the streets more than 24 hours after their scheduled pickup time.

Attacks on Business:
McGoldrick also attacks businesses on a regular basis to extract even more money to feed the always ravenous government and its many programs. These attacks raise the price of products and services in the City - again disproportionately taking money from those who can least afford it.

A few of his attacks on business include:

• McGoldrick voted to raise taxes on businesses by mandating they provide money for health insurance for the uninsured in the City;

• He voted to grant paid sick leave for the employees of private enterprises in the City, whether they need it or not;

• He earned the ire of restaurateurs and small business owners when he proposed a tax for those who use valet parking for their customers;

• He proposed raising the fees for the city's sidewalk flower operators and called for taking away their permits in the case of death, a move that was seen as petty and vindictive against long-standing businesses.

Summary
The District 1 supervisor has continually worked against the interests of the people he is supposed to represent. The streets of the Richmond have never been dirtier, or filled with potholes, than they are now and our traffic lights have not been working properly on Geary Boulevard for months, snarling weekday commutes.

When McGoldrick refuses to support the people who elected him, or continually takes actions that hurt them, or acts unethically while representing them, he needs to be removed from office.

Paul Kozakiewicz is the editor of the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers.