Fake Turf Wars, by Mike Murphy

Fake Turf Wars

 

While other cities have turned away from artificial turf, SF is making a big play for fake grass

 

It’s Sunday morning, 5 a.m., on the ragged fringes of San Francisco, California. It is strangely quiet. Where once birdsong emanated from the underbrush, there are now signs posting the use of glyphosate (the soil toxin found in Roundup and Aquamaster), and much of the avian habitat has been removed. Where once there was an open meadow behind Golden Gate Park’s Beach Chalet, there is an imposing chain link fence that surrounds the field. Inside the enclosure is seven acres of grass – forage grounds for wildlife, and fields of play – a pastoral setting for recreation in the wilder-by-design far west end of Golden Gate Park and, now, the site of intense controversy.

 

 

Beach Chalet proposed 60 foot light towersphoto by SF Ocean Edge, on Flickr  - A rendering of the proposed light towers for the Beach Chalet soccer complex. These 60 foot tall poles and the 150,000 watts of light change this area from parkland into an urbanized space.

 

Read more: Fake Turf Wars, by Mike Murphy

SF Supervisors Report Card 2013

How Green is Your Supervisor?

This is a report card for the 2013 Supervisors. It shows the most important votes in 2013, from a Green Party perspective, and whether each supervisor supported or opposed our position. Some of the votes are on amendments to legislation.

 

It was difficult for us to pick legislation to score this year, because the Supervisors were unanimous in the vast majority of their votes. All too often, the Board served as nothing more than a rubber stamp for Mayor Lee. For example, in one boondoggle revealed by Weekly reporter Joe Eskenazi in a recent article, Mayor Lee ordered $38 million in failure-prone hybrid buses, which were paid for and arrived in Alameda weeks before an oblivious Board of Supervisors voted (unanimously, as usual) to authorize the purchase order.

 

While several Supervisors scored well this year, a Greener Board of Supervisors would be much more proactive about pushing for things that benefit working people, such as passing a Living Wage mandate, creating a municipal Bank of San Francisco, fixing Muni, building truly affordable housing, and creating more municipal utilities (e.g., public power, internet, and cable TV departments). As demonstrated by Matt Gonzalez in 2000, or Kshama Sawant in Seattle several months ago, the election of just one radical to a legislative body can really shift the political spectrum. We hope such people will step forward to run for office in SF this November!

 

Find out which Supervisor represents your neighborhood. Compare to our report card from 2012.

 

Key:

Supported Green Party position
Opposed Green Party position
Not yet appointed

 

  D 1: Eric Mar D 2: Mark Farrell D 3: David Chiu D 4: Katy Tang D 5: London Breed D 6: Jane Kim D 7: Norman Yee D 8: Scott Wiener D 9: David Campos D 10: Malia Cohen D 11: John Avalos
Fund Public K-12 Education Y N Y - N Y Y N Y Y Y
Appoint Corrupt Commissioner to Port Commission N Y N Y Y Y Y Y N Y N
Expose Influence Buying at DA's Office Y N N N N N N N Y N Y
Appoint Ethical Candidate to Ethics Commission Y N N N N Y N N Y N Y
Non-resident fees at Botanical Garden N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y N
Enable Raid on Retiree Health Care Funds Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Support CleanPowerSF Y N Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Close Parks at Midnight N Y Y Y N N Y Y N Y N
Overall Score 88% 0% 38% 0% 25% 50% 25% 13% 88% 25% 88%

 

 

Read more: SF Supervisors Report Card 2013

SF Supervisors Report Card 2012

How Green is Your Supervisor?

This is a report card for the 2012 Board of Supervisors. It shows the most important votes in 2012, from a Green Party perspective, and whether each Supervisor supported or opposed our position on legislation. Some of the votes are on amendments to legislation.

 

We plan to release a report card every year on key Supervisorial votes.

 

If you don't know which district you live in, click here for a map.

 

Key:

Supported Green Party position
Opposed Green Party position

 

  D 1:
Eric Mar
D 2:
Mark Farrell
D 3:
David Chiu
D 4:
Carmen Chu
D 5:
Christina Olague
D 6:
Jane Kim
D 7:
Sean Elsbernd
D 8:
Scott Wiener
D 9:
David Campos
D 10:
Malia Cohen
D 11:
John Avalos
Sharp Park Restoration Y N Y N Y Y N N Y N Y
Sunshine Task Force Purge N Y Y Y N N Y Y N Y N
Wall on the Waterfront Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y N Y N
Stop Beach Chalet Soccer Fields N N N N Y N N N N N N
CleanPowerSF Y N Y N Y Y N Y Y Y Y
Mirkarimi Removal Y Y Y Y N N Y Y N Y N
Nudity Ban N Y Y Y N N Y Y N Y N
Free Muni for Low-income Youth Y N Y N Y Y N N Y Y Y
Overall Score 63% 0% 50% 0% 88% 75% 0% 13% 88% 25%

88%

 

 

Read more: SF Supervisors Report Card 2012

Earth Day 2013: Stop the Pollution!

 

While the web was swarmed this week with climate change articles, the message boards were swamped with comments from an active group who seem to honestly and truly believe that there is nothing wrong with burning as much fuel and creating as much waste as possible.  

 

This very noisy minority has done a great job, thus far, in obfuscating the fact that climate change is a very important issue according to the federal government and that the scientific community has come to a consensus regarding the pressing nature of changing the way our species burns fuel and creates waste.

 

Where are our leaders in Congress?  Why aren’t they leading us to change?

 

Two reasons: First, wealthy interests have spent tons of money confusing people about the real impact of climate change.  Second: Big businesses and rich individuals profiting from the use of fossil fuels are bribing our congresspeople at an alarming rate. 

 

These are important things to consider as President Obama weighs arguments on the permit decision for the Keystone XL Pipeline.  Proponents of the pipeline argue that it will not spill very often and will create jobs, even though most scientists agree that tar sands oil will be a huge problem for the global environment.

 

What about the Keytstone I pipeline?  The one they started using in 2010 and claimed would spill only once every 7 years?  Oh yeah, it spilled 12 times in 12 months.

 

But just look at how much money backers of the pipeline are spending

Justice for Alan Blueford

The SF Green Party endorsed the SF Labor Council's resolution regarding the murder of Alan Blueford at our Jan 23 meeting, by consensus:

 

Whereas a Black person is killed by law enforcement once every 36 hours, per the Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement’s study;

 

Whereas the federal report monitoring the Oakland Police Department states that the Oakland Police Department pulls guns on Black and Latino people disproportionately to the number of times guns are pulled on whites;

 

Whereas two new reports by a federal monitor, criticized the OPD’s handling of officer-involved shootings and Occupy Oakland protests;

 

Whereas Alan Blueford, an 18 year old Black youth, who was about to graduate from Skyline H.S., was killed by OPD Officer Masso on May 6.

 

Whereas OPD has provided at least four versions of what happened the night Alan Blueford was killed, including the claim that the Officer Masso was shot in a gun battle with Alan Blueford, when he later admitted that he shot himself in the foot;

 

Whereas the OPD:
A. Engaged in racial profiling and violated numerous OPD policies;
B. Engaged in a cover-up (Made numerous false statements and repeatedly changed their story);
C. Showed complete disregard for the life of Alan Blueford and the dignity of the family;
D. Had the coroner’s report withheld from the family for 3 months, and the police report for5 months;

 

Whereas, the Coroner’s Report reveals that Alan Blueford had no gun residue on his hands, no alcohol or drugs in his system, and implies that Alan Blueford was shot while lying on his back;

 

Whereas Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley declared she will not charge Officer Masso for the killing of Alan Blueford. Her report shows strong bias as, for example, relying on Masso’s statement that Alan was standing when he first shot him, despite 11 out of 12 witness statements to the contrary;

 

Therefore, be it resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council pass a resolution seeking Justice For Alan Blueford and demand that the Federal Monitor take strong action against OPD including:
1. Stopping the OPD from racial and ethnic profiling and violence against people of color;
2. Instituting stricter background checks, training, apprehension and gun use policies within the OPD;
3. The firing of Officer Masso;

 

Further be it resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council demand that the Alameda County District Attorney immediately charge Officer Masso with murder.