Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: Working on Voter Wishes

As the new year is upon us, I have been thinking about the priorities I will be focusing on in my eighth and final year in office.

Our work on the City's 2008/09 fiscal budget priorities looms before us, of course, as does the work we continue to do for other vital services to serve San Francisco residents.

But more specifically, I have been thinking about the very clear messages received from the San Francisco voters this past November ballot. My initiatives on the ballot seem to have struck a chord with voters. Proposition B, which passed with a 71 percent margin, showed that voters were eager to take politics out of the job of advising city government. We codified and clarified an appointment/reappointment process for charter-created commissions that had previously been subject to political whim.

The important work that is done by advisory bodies such as the SF Public Utilities Commission, the SF Police Commission and SF Planning Commission makes it clear that the more independent we make commissioners, the more clarity the advisor can bring to the table.

Proposition K called for a hold on the number of advertisements on street furniture in San Francisco. Sixty one percent of voters agreed that the unique beauty of San Francisco must be preserved, and asked that city officials not sell public space off to the highest bidder. This hope for an uncluttered, less commercial San Francisco is evident, despite an expensive, misleading campaign against the proposition by Clear Channel.

I am overjoyed to see that San Franciscans are sharp and unwavering in their commitment to San Francisco's beauty. These themes - preservation of good government and preservation of the uniqueness of San Francisco - will continue to mark the work that comes out of my office.

I have introduced many pieces of legislation that will be considered in the next few months, some of which may be on the June ballot, that are wholly informed by San Francisco values. In this vein, I also recently supported a charter amendment that will fund more affordable housing, requiring more inclusive and thorough planning for affordable housing, in an effort to preserve a mix of socio-economic, racial and cultural diversity within our City. This charter amendment will be placed on the November ballot.

Climate Change and Local Efforts
In the early part of December, I traveled to London in my capacity as chairman of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, to attend the Workshop on Transport and Congestion of the C40 Group. The workshop brings together representatives from 40 major cities around the world to coordinate efforts to combat climate change through concrete measures that can be taken locally.

Organized by the Climate Leadership Group of the Clinton Foundation, the workshop was devoted entirely to the discussion of local programs and actions in the transportation arena.

I was joined by the authority director and staff as well as key staff people appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to attend the conference. The invitation-only workshop was co-hosted by the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, and the vice-mayor of Stockholm, Ulla Hamilton. There were representatives in attendance from every continent: North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. North America was represented by New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Toronto.

The U.S. was the only country represented at the conference which has not yet signed the Kyoto Treaty on climate change. The program included sessions where we were able to compare notes on topics such as congestion management, bus rapid transit applications, parking management and pedestrian and bicycle programs - including the latest on the implementation of municipal bicycle rental programs to encourage use of public transportation and bicycles in combination.

There were significant discussions devoted to financing mechanisms and analysis of cost-reduction measures undertaken by C40 members that can be replicated elsewhere. The visit also included an in-depth tour of London's centralized traffic operations center, soon to provide traffic control for all transit vehicles and cars, as well as a tour of the Alexander Dennis motor coach plant.

We all left the conference with an overwhelming sense of the urgency to do something about the accelerating pace of climate change, but also with a sense of hope that there are many concrete things we can do at the local level, if only we can commit ourselves to them.

San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick represents District 1.