Supervisor Eric Mar: District 1 updates
Community Meeting on Alcohol Sales and Public Safety
I've heard from leaders in our community that there are concerns with alcohol being sold at stores with automated self-check stands and the potential for minors and people under the influence to get alcohol. I hope you can join me and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma for a community meeting about this issue on Friday, Sept. 16, from 5 p.m. – 6 p.m., at Star of the Sea School at 360 Ninth Ave., at Geary Boulevard.
15 MPH School Zones
Last month, San Francisco became the first large California city to implement a 15 m.p.h. speed zone around a school. George Peabody Elementary School on Seventh Avenue was the groundbreaking location for this citywide initiative. Studies have shown that simply reducing speed limits by small increments can save lives; otherwise fatal accidents can be reduced to minor ones. This is a great first step to calm traffic around schools and make the streets safer so our kids can walk and bike to school. I look forward to seeing the new 15 m.p.h. speed limit signs throughout the City on streets within 500 feet of schools.
Youth Clipper Cards
As of August, paper Fast Passes for Muni were discontinued. Youth passes have to be loaded onto a Clipper card. For youth who have not signed up for a Clipper card yet, the MTA will have special hours on Saturday, Sept. 3, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., to process youth Clipper cards. The SFMTA customer service office is at 11 South Van Ness Ave.
Green Jobs in San Francisco
Green jobs and job equity have been priorities for my office. One of the challenges we have faced is that some of our green initiatives have gone into unchartered territory in terms
of workforce and which trades will perform the jobs that we create as we build a new green economy.
Last month, I introduced an ordinance that will allow the City to craft its own policy with respect to green jobs and other jobs created for which the state has not yet weighed in with complete labor standards and wage rates.
Over the next several months I hope to work with advocates and stakeholder groups to pass this legislation and use this new framework to start installing solar panels again and to guide our upcoming energy efficiency work in a way that protects worker standards on public works while creating more jobs overall for our communities and for our partners in labor.
Welcome to new Legislative Assistant Nick Pagoulatos
I want to thank Les Hilger, Myrna Melgar and Joseph Smooke, who have been tremendous to work with over the past year, and I'd like to welcome my new legislative assistant, Nick Pagoulatos. He comes to my office with extensive housing development and land use advocacy experience. Beginning in 2005, as a staff member of the Mission Economic Development Agency, he worked with community residents and small business owners to craft a community-based response to the city's eastern neighborhoods rezoning process. More recently, with Dolores Street Community Services, he was the project manager for two supportive housing rehab projects and advocated on behalf of affordable housing and progressive homeless policies. He has been a San Francisco resident since 1991 and regularly enjoys the many wonders of District 1 with his partner, Malea, and their 4-year-old daughter, Olympia.
September Coffee Hours
My next coffee hour is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 22, at Simple Pleasures Cafe, 3434 Balboa St., between 35th and 36th avenues, at 5:30 p.m. If you need my attention before that, please feel free to contact my office at (415) 554-7410 or e-mail me at eric.l.mar@sfgov.org.
Bike to work day
Please join me and a merry group of bike commuters on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and bike to work together. We will leave from the Velo Rouge Café, 798 Arguello Blvd., at 8 a.m.
San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar represents District 1.