Mayor meets community leaders

by Paul Kozakiewicz

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom held a "personal" community meeting at the Beach Chalet March 20 with about 40 leaders from the Richmond District to get feedback on a host of local issues.

Newsom praised the city's representatives in Washington D.C. for getting a great deal of money for the city in the national stimulus package and said he is "about 90 percent there" as it pertains to figuring out the upcoming city budget.

To help local businesses, the mayor said he has 15 ideas, including low-interest loans and giving a payroll exemption for new hires for two years.

Concerning the city's practice of installing artificial turf at many of the city's playgrounds and athletic fields, the mayor said he supports the effort but will leave it up to individual neighborhoods to determine whether or not they want it.

At Rossi Playground, a plan to remove the grass fields and replace them with synthetic turf was put on hold when the neighborhood protested. The plan also called for the installation of outdoor lights so the fields could be used at night.

David Weiss, a resident of Francisco Heights, gave the mayor a stack of petitions concerning the future of Rossi Playground.

Michelle Stratton, a member of the Planning Association for the Richmond, expressed concern for the amount of litter and trash that has been accumulating on district streets, especially in light of the fact that the SF Department of Public Works reduced street cleaning by more than 50 percent with its first and third, or second and fourth, weekday schedule.

The mayor said he has had the city's trash analyzed several times and cigarette butts are one of the biggest problems. He said an announcement is coming by mid-April concerning cigarette butts and a potential attempt to charge smokers for the cleanup.

As for keeping sidewalks clean in the district's commercial corridors, Newsom urged local merchant groups to form a Community Business District, which would allow them to pool money for various improvements, including cleaning sidewalks and hiring security guards if needed.

A question was asked about the pot-holed streets in Golden Gate Park, especially outer John F. Kennedy Drive. Newsom deferred to SF Recreation and Park Commissioner Jim Lazarus, who explained that the SF Recreation and Park Department has to pay for all road repairs within the city's parks.

The department is cash-strapped and faces the possibilities of laying off personnel to meet the mayor's mandated budget cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, and next year's budget.