In the middle of a climate emergency, with our city experiencing weeks of dangerous air quality, there is no reason to subject important transit improvements to unnecessary delays.
But this isn't just limited to transit.
sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…
Slow Streets & Shared Spaces allow residents to safely go outside and our businesses to find new ways to operate.
They are innovative responses to unprecedented challenges--examples of government working for good.
One person shouldn't be able to delay an emergency response.
In San Francisco, we allow almost everything to be subject to long delays, constant appeals, and never-ending "reviews" that make projects more expensive, less effective, and undermine the public's trust in our ability to get things done.
Let's look at housing as an example.
We face a massive housing shortage. Yet it takes new affordable housing projects an average of four years just to get a permit! That's no way to respond to an emergency.
So I proposed a measure that would remove 6 to 18 months of process and save millions of dollars per project.
Unfortunately, the Board preferred the status quo and killed the proposal. COVID prevented us from collecting the signatures needed to get it on the ballot this year.
But we'll try again. We need a system designed to encourage progress, not stop it. sfchronicle.com/politics/artic…
Small businesses have experienced our broken bureaucracy for years. We made it way too difficult for them to open & operate before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has made the need for action even more urgent. So I introduced Prop H - Save Our Small Businesses. sfsmallbusiness.com
Instead of waiting months for different permits, small businesses would receive permits in 30 days, helping to fill our vacant storefronts and speed up our economic recovery. It would streamline neighborhood notice, so that new businesses aren't delayed at the whim of one person.
These are common sense reforms that we should be exploring throughout our government. Allowing for extensive delays and endless appeals is not a good system.
Now with the pandemic and the climate emergency, I'm hopeful we can move forward with real reforms.
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