SUSTAINABLE SAN FRANCISCO  A PROJECT OF THE TIDES CENTER An Update on the Progress of Producing and Implementing a Plan for San Francisco's Environmental Sustainability
			July 17, 1996
Index of  Newsletters	Contents  The Plan  Public Hearings     Comment Handling  Public Outreach     Media     Distribution of Hearing Announcements     Presentations to Community Groups     Walk-by Display     Internet  Finalizing the Plan  Commission Approval  Board of Supervisors Adoption  Some Details on the Plan Structure     Numbering System     Baselines for the Indicators     Cross References  Implementation

The Plan The draft Plan for Sustainability for the City of San Francisco was finished on schedule at the beginning of June. Congratulations to all those burning midnight oil to get this plan finished! Most of the editing was done by Beryl Magilavy. Thanks for volunteer editing and proofreading to Arthur O'Donnell, Janet Jacobs, Kelly Runyan, and Ann Bartz. Additional copies of the plan are available from 554-3430.

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Public Hearings Public hearings, sponsored by the Commission on San Francisco's Environment and the Wallace Stegner Environmental Center, were held during the last two weekends of June, with turnouts ranging from 30 to over 100 people per day. Mayor Brown, invited to speak at the opening, had a previous commitment to the National Conference of Mayors meeting in Colorado, but was represented by his chief of staff, Emilio Cruz. President of the Board of Supervisors Kevin Shelley also spoke. Sustainable San Francisco organizer Beryl Magilavy chaired the hearings. Supervisor Shelley announced at the meeting on the 22nd that the problems with the Environmental Department's budget had been ironed out, and that it would be funded at the full $600,000 he had requested. (For those not familiar with this issue, the mayor's budget released at the beginning of June unaccountably had only a little over $100,000 budgeted for this new agency.) Thanks to the Board of Supervisors and to all of you who wrote or called the Mayor's office (it made a difference), the department will be funded at the $600,000 level. The hearings were divided into segments of one hour per topic, with presentations by members of each City Circle for 15-20 minutes, and public comment for the rest of the hour. Thank you to all those who dedicated their weekend time to these presentations: Air Quality: Natalie Kraft and Barbara Spark Biodiversity: Kristin Bowman, David Graves and Annie Malley Economy and Economic Development: Scott Edmonson and Warren Karlenzig Energy: Cal Broomhead Environmental Justice: Anne Eng and Eric Quezada Food and Agriculture: Sibella Kraus and Mohammed Nuru Hazardous Materials: Maggie Johnson and Bill Kissinger Human Health: Ross Mirkarimi and John Knapp Municipal Expenditures: Terry Engle Parks and Urban Forest: Mel Baker and Isabel Wade Public Information and Education: Robert Toia and Karen Mendelow Risk Management: Jim Aldrich and Ed Leach Solid Waste: Brad Benson, Sharon Maves, and Gretchen Schubeck Transportation: Peter Albert Water and Wastewater: Daniel Rourke Many thanks also to those who volunteered to record comments and staff the hearings: Barbara Bernardini, Tom Cooper, Danielle Dowers, Sandy Claire, Janis Gomes, Janet Jacobs, Dave Massin, Karen Noll, Matt Orr, Barbara Perman, Arnold Robbins, Karen Schkolnick, Shelley Stump, Holly Van Houten, and Tes Welborn. We also appreciate all the organizing put in by Wallace Stegner Environmental Center Librarian Phoebe Adams, with assistance by Librarian Cate Sullivan. Comment Handling Public comments at the hearings were recorded on flip-charts by volunteers, and written comments will be accepted through the end of July. (They should be sent to the Sustainable San Francisco office at 1155 Ellis Street, San Francisco 94109.) During the first few weeks of August, volunteers will summarize all the comments and mail them to all City Circle participants about two weeks before each group's final meeting in early September.

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Public Outreach The plan draft was mailed on June 6th to 500 people: all participants, facilitators, recorders, and coordinators of the City Circle drafting groups; members of the environmental commission; the mayor (and some of his staff); the supervisors; department heads and commission presidents of agencies whose functions are addressed in the plan (including City Planning); and people who had requested copies in advance. Half the remaining 500 copies are being distributed by environmental commission staff as public requests come in, and the remaining 250 copies are being given away at the main library. Media Media outreach has been managed by Janet Jacobs. In March, press releases were sent to about 50 newspapers and local newsletters. In April, we made contact with environmental writers at the Chronicle, Examiner, Independent, SF Weekly, and Bay Guardian to encourage stories. In May, an updated press release was sent for June newsletters and considerable follow-up was done with the environmental writers. Hearing notices were sent to the Independent, Chronicle/Examiner, and Bay Guardian calendar sections. Special articles were written for the Sierra Club Yodeler, the San Francisco Tomorrow newsletter, and Recycle Today (the Sanitary Fill newsletter that goes out with garbage bills). PSAs were sent for broadcast in mid-June. Faxes were sent to all the active environmental groups and many individual activists in San Francisco a week and a half before the hearings, announcing the availability of the plan and inviting their comments and participation in the hearings. Beryl Magilavy appeared on the Jerry Brown We the People show (6/14) and KQED's Forum (6/27) to discuss the plan. Distribution of Hearing Announcements Announcements of the hearings were translated into Chinese and Spanish and were broadly distributed. Thanks to Frank Lee for facilitating these translations. English-language announcements were provided, along with Plexiglas notice-holders, to all the library branches. Former supervisor Willie Kennedy distributed a supply of hearing flyers at meetings in the Bayview district. Presentations to Community Groups Beryl Magilavy, Kevin Fox, Lisa Gallina, Janet Jacobs, and Bruce Quan have been speaking at neighborhood and political club meetings since May. Groups include the Hayes Valley, Duboce Triangle, and Glen Park neighborhood associations; the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, the Harvey Milk Club, Friends of Noe Valley, the Asian Pacific Democratic Club, and others. Environmental Commission Chair Frank Lee has done great outreach in Chinatown, and booked four presentations over the summer. Walk-by Display A display featuring sustainability issues has been designed and built pro bono by Jer Jurma, Nancy Olexo, Chris Christie, Barbara Bernardini and Janet Jacobs. Volunteers take it out to areas of the city with good foot traffic, give passers-by information on the plan, and tell them how they can get a copy and make comments. The display has been to two farmers' markets and on 24th Street. We are actively recruiting more people to do this public outreach. Internet A Web-site created as a donation by Nick McBurney at http://www.igc.apc.org/sustainable carries the complete sustainable plan draft text and background information on the effort. Z Smith is in the process of adding the text of the 1994 (most recent) State of the City report to the Web-site.

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Finalizing the Plan At a final meeting of each City Circle in early September, participants will: Incorporate those of the public comments they feel are appropriate. Make a recommendation for some priorities for implementation of the plan. Make any other changes they think will improve their sections.

Commission Approval After the plan has been finalized by the community representatives that have produced it, a couple of weeks will be required for final editing and production, and it is planned to refer it to the Commission on San Francisco's Environment's consideration at its October meeting. Since most commissioners have been intimately involved in the drafting of the plan as part of the overarching Sustainable San Francisco effort, and since it has already sponsored hearings, it is hoped that the Commission will not need more than one meeting to endorse the plan and forward it to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

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Board of Supervisors Adoption A group of environmental commissioners and Sustainable San Francisco steering committee members (Kevin Kelley, Beryl Magilavy, Annie Malley, and Paul Okamoto) have been meeting with members of the Board to bring them up to date and talk about adopting and implementing the plan. We have met with considerable interest on the part of the supervisors. Perhaps the most useful way for the Board to adopt the plan (since many of the actions in it will take additional work to make them more detailed and achievable) may be to: Adopt sustainability as a fundamental goal of the City of San Francisco, and Adopt the objectives for the year 2001 as policy objectives for the city. There will probably have to be additional hearings and findings at the Board level.

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Some Details on the Plan Structure There were a couple of clarifying comments inadvertently left out of the introduction to the plan: Numbering System You will have noted that the numbering systems are different in the various plan sections. The numbering reflects the logic structure in each section, which is not uniform across topics. The structures arose from the way each group addressed its topic. Some groups felt that since there were so many crossing effects between columns (one action might apply to more than one goal and more than one objective; some objectives are addressed by more than one action) the most effective approach would be to avoid linking statements across columns. Other groups were more linear in the way they addressed their topic. They started at a particular goal and established corresponding objectives and actions. The result isn't uniform across topics, but this reflects the fact that this plan was drafted by a broad cross-section of the community. The lack of uniformity between sections has no detrimental effect on the clarity of any individual section. Baselines for the Indicators Since the draft indicators have yet to be adopted as those the City will actually use, it seemed inappropriate (and we didn't have the person-power, anyway) to do the research to determine the baselines at this point. Filling out this section is meant to be left until the plan is adopted by the Board. Cross References Because of the nature of sustainability (which has a high degree of relatedness from one topic area to another) and our wish to avoid redundancy between topics, particular issues are sometimes difficult to find. (For instance, the action to establish a "green building" program is in the Solid Waste and Economy sections; not where most people might necessarily expect to find it. We intend to index the plan, but because of the amount of work involved, do not mean to do this until the sustainability plan has been finalized.

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Implementation Although the plan won't go to the Board of Supervisors until later in the fall, there is no reason why implementation cannot begin as soon as it's finalized in September. Many of the actions listed for government are already within the responsibilities of city agencies, and there is no reason why individuals and private institutions cannot begin at once to improve their environmental practices. One of the major functions of the new environmental department is to ensure that the plan is implemented. The new charter that mandates the department's creation came into effect at the beginning of this month. This in itself is cause for celebration, and is the culmination of many years of work on the part of the environmental activist community. It is hoped that the mayor will be appointing members of its commission soon.

Sustainable San Francisco P.O. Box 460236 San Francisco, CA 94146 voice: (415) 285-6106 Fax: 415/648-2558 e-mail:sustainable@igc.apc.org displayed using 100% recycled electrons