10/18/08

SF: Prop E – Changing the Number of Signatures Required to Recall City Officials

Shall the City adopt state law signature requirements for petitions to recall City officials?

Currently, 10% of registered voters in a district of the City is needed to recall an elected official in the following areas/positions:

  • City and County
  • City Administrator
  • Airports Commission
  • Board of Education
  • governing board of the Community College District
  • the Ethics Commission
  • the Public Utilities Commission

The ten percent rule is in the City laws. Proposition E wants to rid the City of the ten percent rule and use the state recall rule which dictates the percentage based on a tiered system.
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10/18/08

SF: Prop D – Financing Pier 70 Waterfront District Development Plan upon Board of Supervisors’ Approval

Shall the City provide funds to develop Pier 70, based on new City hotel and payroll expense tax revenues from the development, if the Board of Supervisors approves a financial and land use plan for Pier 70?

Proposition D will allow the Board of Supervisors to approve a broad development plan for Pier 70 rather than checking off each and every project one at a time. The proposition will also contribute approximately $600 million to help the developers clean up the area of contaminates from when the port first operated as a ship part factory. A portion of taxes and revenue from the future hotels and businesses will be used to pay back the City.

No real risk to passing this proposition unless the developers quit midway through the project. The area this affects is pretty run down currently. Once the land is developed, the City can recoup the cost through taxation and generate more revenue for other programs.

An easy yes vote for this proposition.

10/17/08

SF: Prop C – Prohibiting City Employees from Serving on Charter Boards and Commissions

Shall the City prohibit City employees from serving on most Charter created boards and commissions?

Proposition C is pretty clear cut. The supporters of the proposition do not want city employees to staff commissions whose decisions may affect their department. The reasoning seems logical.
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10/17/08

SF: Prob B – Establishing Affordable Housing Fund

Shall the City establish an Affordable Housing Fund; set aside from the property tax 2 ½ cents for every $100 of assessed value for this Fund through 2024; and use this Fund, subject to public review, to acquire and develop new affordable housing units meeting certain priorities and income limitations?

Proposition B sounds like someone watched Office Space once too many times. In the movie, three disgruntled office workers concoct a plan to transfer half a cent from the company’s internal bank transactions to a private bank account. They ended up with a huge sum of money. Worried about getting caught, they try to return the money to the company only to find the place burned to the ground. The money was assumed to have burned in the fire; but, another employee had found the packet and flew to a tropical island for some R&R.
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10/17/08

SF: Prop A – San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Earthquake Safety Bonds, 2008

To ensure the availability of San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in the event of a natural disaster or emergency, by building and/or rebuilding and improving the earthquake safety of the hospital and to pay related costs necessary or convenient for the foregoing purposes, shall the City and County of San Francisco issue $887,400,000 in general obligation bonds subject to independent oversight and regular audits?

Turns out there is a state law (SB 1953) that requires hospitals to meet certain seismic safety standards by 2013 or have their acute facilities downgraded to non-acute status. The definition of acute care is “short-term medical treatment, usually in a hospital, for patients having an acute illness or injury or recovering from surgery.” (Answers.com)

The San Francisco General Hospital is the only hospital in the city that have these facilities. Unfortunately, the hospital is unable to retrofit the current buildings thereby requiring bonds to build a new acute facility on the current hospital grounds.
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10/16/08

General Election

November 4, 2008

The date in which George W. Bush will no longer be the President of the United States. Whether it be Barack Obama or John McCain will be left up to the electorate. Hidden behind the circus that is the presidential election, we will have a chance to vote for legislators, senators, and representatives on the national level. At the state level, we can decide on the judges we want on the bench, the supervisors running our city, and the various propositions that will affect both the state and the city.

In California, the last day to register to vote in order to participate in the presidential election is October 20, 2008 which is only four days away. The fastest way to get yourself registered is to fill out the online voter registration form and drop it in the mail box. If a printer is not readily available, then the post office will have the form available for pickup.

I encourage everyone who are of age to register to vote. Our votes may have little impact on the presidential election, but we can still make changes at the local and state level.

10/15/08

BlizzCon 2008

Blizzcon 2008
Blizzcon 2008

This past weekend, I took a trip down to Anaheim to attend BlizzCon 2008. I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get the tickets. First things first, Blizzard needs to find a better way to sell the tickets. I was slamming their site with page refreshes on the date of the ticket release and their servers kept crashing. Luckily, I was able to create an account and fill out my shipping info on their EU site so when the page did load, I did not have to create one then and there.
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09/26/08

New TV Opens New World

The other day, the garbage company made available to the neighborhood three of those large open-top refuse containers for disposal of large items. This was a perfect opportunity to junk some of the things we had laying around the house.

Metal pipes, broken computer, broken vcr, old clothes–I bet they would have accepted the kitchen sink if asked.

Anyhow, we had purchased a new television set a few years ago and this was as good a time as any to make the actual replacement.
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08/21/08

A little common courtesy…

…goes a long way.

I believe I spoke of this matter in the past. When you are packed into a sardine can with a number of other people, there is no space to maneuver, if by chance you wished to flee. I was in that state of hopelessness yesterday.

I was riding the 14x yesterday, the bus was packed to the rim. My standing position was in the middle of the aisle. I had to put my right foot perpendicular to the rotational axis of the earth while holding onto the top rail with my fingertips. Awkward, but I am use to the yoga-like positions by now.

So I am standing there, feeling sexually harassed by the amount of grinding going on when the bus makes sudden movements, when the guy to my right facing me has the mother-of-all sneezes.
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