Supervisor Eric Mar: City Hall

Washington grad freed
Student and community coalition frees Steve Li

On Nov. 2, I passed a resolution urging senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to support Steve Li and his efforts to remain in the United States by introducing a private bill. Steve Li is a 20-year-old student at City College of San Francisco. He graduated from George Washington High School and was a writer and editor for the Eagle, the school newspaper. He always thought he was an average San Franciscan until the morning of Sept. 15, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents suddenly raided his home and arrested him and his parents. Steve was incarcerated in Arizona for more than 60 days far away from his friends and family. He was told that he and his parents had been ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2004. He was only 14 years old when he was ordered to be deported from the United States. His parents shielded him from this and never spoke to him about his immigration status. He had no idea that he was undocumented.

Immigrants have always been part of our Richmond District and our City. When a community member's rights have been violated, we as a community need to speak up. Because of public outcry and pressure from a broad community coalition, Pelosi and Feinstein have stepped in and Steve has been able to return home to San Francisco.

Feinstein issued a private bill on Steve's behalf because Steve is a DREAM Act student. He came to the United States when he was 12 years old, grew up here, went to school here and aspires to serve the community as a nurse. Steve, like all DREAM Act students, are our school valedictorians, athletes, aspiring writers and journalists, and our future. Steve said recently in a San Francisco Chronicle article: "As long as I'm here and able to use my voice and help myself and all those people in the same situation I will never forget those people I met inside Their stories and faces will be with me for the rest of my life as I'm fighting for people who are law abiding, tax paying, but currently undocumented."

New design for La Playa/Ocean Beach Safeway
On Monday, Nov. 15, Safeway hosted another public meeting to discuss its latest architectural plans for the La Playa/Ocean Beach Safeway. Safeway previously held two other public meetings this year where it gave the public an opportunity to voice their concerns about the initial design.

During the meeting, Safeway representatives showed a new design that addressed many of the neighbors' concerns raised through discussions during the first two meetings. This new design was presented using a two-dimensional simulation video that allowed viewers to actually walk through the new design. Ken Lowney of Lowney Architects, the lead architect for the project, led the simulated walk-through.

Some significant changes from the previous designs are:

á The proposed design will have a maximum height of 20 feet, 6 inches on the west side of the building that faces La Playa, substantially lower than the 60 feet originally proposed;

á There will be an underground loading dock with proposed access from the La Playa street side. This is new for Safeway and the design is intended to reduce noise and traffic hazards for surrounding residents;

á The new proposal would also have an additional building with 3,500 square feet of retail space on the corner of Cabrillo and La Playa;

• Two entrances from 48th Avenue to street level parking that is bordered by a 10-foot-tall trellis;

• A large lot for bicycle parking on the upper level;

• A 12-foot-tall wall on the 48th Avenue side, which is less than half the height of the 27-foot wall that was in the original proposal.

The main entrance to the store will be on La Playa halfway down the block, with a secondary entrance on the corner of La Playa and Fulton. The Safeway will not close during the remodel, which is expected to take 10 months. Instead, Safeway plans to build a new store alongside the old store, and upon opening the new store, tear down the old store in a phased approach. There is no start date for construction and Safeway has not submitted final plans to the City.

For more information on the La Playa/Ocean Beach Safeway remodel and to give your input on the design, please visit the project's website at www.safewayonlaplayasf.com. There you will find updates on the project, contact information for project leaders and the latest design.

A Different Kind of FOG
On Nov. 9, I introduced an ordinance called the Fats, Oil and Grease (FOG) Control Ordinance, which is designed to prevent fats, oils and grease from entering our sewer system. FOG is a serious problem for San Francisco sewers, creating blockages costing the City more than $3.5 million annually to address. Current San Francisco law prohibits dumping FOG in drains leading to our sewer system, but the law has not been successful in preventing FOG from entering sewers. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of sewer service work orders are FOG related.

San Francisco currently requires that restaurants limit the amount of oils and grease that can be discharged into City sewers, but many restaurants in the City remain out of compliance with current law. Some restaurants have grease traps that are not cleaned or serviced properly and some restaurants have no grease traps at all. My FOG Ordinance will control oil and grease more effectively at the source with clearer requirements and standards to ensure grease capturing equipment is in place where required, to ensure equipment is fully operational and adequately serviced and to move us towards more modern and effective grease capturing equipment.

Restaurants will be placed into four categories based upon their risk of discharging grease into sewers. Restaurants which discharge significant FOG into sewers due to poor maintenance of a grease trap, or lack of a grease trap, will be required to install an automatic grease removal device (GRD). Restaurants that already have grease control equipment in place may keep its existing equipment and must only ensure it is operating and properly serviced and maintained.

For restaurants that will be required to install an automatic GRD, financing is available to cover immediate costs. Additionally, the SFPUC will reduce sewer service charges by 14.2 percent, paying for the new equipment over a few years, and after that restaurants benefit with long-term savings. In some cases, the sewer service rate reduction may be greater than the monthly cost of the equipment.

Coffee With Eric
Please join me for coffee on Thursday, Dec. 16, at 6 p.m. I will be at the Garden House Cafe, 3117 Clement St. Come meet with me and other Richmond District residents and share what's on your mind.

San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar represents District 1.