Over 1000!

I just got a call from the Department of Elections, we went over the 1000 signature threshold to offset the $500 filing fee. Congratulations to us all and thank you to everyone in the community who supported us by knocking on doors and working it for every signature! Onward toward November!

The Proper Use for Park Land?

Here's a photo of the a little corner of John McLaren Park that is the site of a proposed trash and recycling center. The yellow building adjacent to the site belongs to the Girls After School Academy, an after school program for Sunnydale girls ages 8 to 18. Just down the hill and next to the academy starts the Sunnydale public housing projects. In the background of the photo are the magnificent trees, trails of the park as well as the Gleneagles International Golf Course. Across the street from the proposed site is the John McLaren Child Development Center, a school my wife and I visited for my daughter who has been struggling with developmental delays. Also across the street is one the most beautiful natural areas of John McLaren Park.

After Golden Gate Park, John McLaren Park is next largest park of the city. It has the most natural areas, trees, trails and scenery of any other park in the city. Scattered throughout are many other recreational uses including playgrounds, tennis courts, amphitheaters and golf courses. We need to be encouraging use of this fine park not making it a site for waste and recycling, uses which may very well dampen the park's appeal to people from the Visitacion Valley and Sunnydale community.

The trash and recycling center is being proposed by the Newsom administration and Norcal waste as a solution to the SF Housing Authority's utter failure to provide dignified and clean housing for Sunnydale residents, many of whom have not been properly separating their recycling and putting out and retrieving their garbage and recycling bins.

The administration's proposal will offer recycling jobs for Sunnydale residents who will be able to use the jobs as a pathway into the waste management industry. The workers will help other residents sort their garbage and properly use their bins. They will also transport the bins to the trash and recycling compactors at the center next to the Girls After School Academy.

At Monday night's joint Rec and Park and SFHA committee meeting, I spoke in favor of the jobs and against the proposal to site the recycling center within the park. I spoke of a win-win solution that would use the City and Norcal's recycling facility on Tunnel Ave which is only 1.3 miles away from Sunnydale instead of the John McLaren Park site. In this way, the Norcal and the SFHA could still create the jobs for the Sunnydale residents who can work their neighbors to create better handling of trash and recycling .

The solution seems simple enough, but the Rec and Park and SFHA commissioners who were present at the meeting made no indication of what was to happen next. They need to hear from us. Follow this link to contact the SFHA commission and next one for the Rec and Park Commission.

Scores of residents and park advocates spoke against the proposal and offered many alternatives for the site including a garden and nursery for small plants. Many other people, including Newsom Administration insiders and the President of the Sunnydale Tenants Association, spoke in favor of the proposal.

All of our communities should have access to jobs and good park land.

On the Picket Line with Striking UC Workers

(July 18, 2008) In the early mornings of Monday and Friday of this week, I joined striking University of California service workers and members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union Local 3299 at UC Hospital on Parnassus. The strike is statewide and involves tens of thosuands of workers from across California. After a week of the strike Friday's picketers were still lively and spirited.

UC service workers do everything from transportation services and staffing the cafeterias to cleaning operating rooms and campus dorms. Many of them make poverty wages as low as $10 an hour that still qualify them for food stamps and other benefits for very low income people. Other hospitals and California's community colleges pay an average of 25% higher for the same work.

AFSCME had been negotiating a contract for over a year and has repeatedly reached impasse with UC who has refused to significantly increase wages nor allow for steps in pay for length of time working. For the past few years, turnover and recruitment difficulties have been common at UC campuses and hospitals. Meanwhile the UC Executives earn huge salaries with outrageous perks and bonuses.

The cost of running UC's hospitals and schools includes a living wage, health care, step increases and pensions for workers. Shame on UC for skimping on the workers.

A Tragedy That Must Never Be Repeated

My heart and prayers goes out to the Bologna family. As a parent, I shudder to even think of losing my son or daughter but to lose three members of one’s family is pain and mourning beyond imagination.

The murders of the Anthony, Michael and Matthew Bologna have shaken San Francisco and especially Excelsior District to its core. The Bologna family is known and loved by many in the community. This working class family has given so much to the neighborhood to its youth and schools. Anthony Bologna grew up in this neighborhood and many long term Excelsior residents went to school, coached and played ball with him. He and his sons, Michael and Matthew were truly respected and loved by peers and adults alike. How can such horrible things happen to such good people?

This terrible tragedy has left the neighborhood with a palpable sense of outrage, hurt, fear and disbelief. Many of us feel helpless at the senselessness of these killings. However, there is much that we can do.

The best thing we can do at this moment is happening. People are talking to one another in affirming ways. Folks across the Excelsior are expressing compassion and sympathy for the Bologna family and acknowledging our common fears for our own loved ones. This communication is a great step towards making lasting change. People are generally asking the following questions: How do we best support the Bologna family in their suffering? How do we protect our family members against such senseless violence? How do we talk to our kids about it and when is it appropriate to discuss it with young children? What should the city’s do and who is responsible? How will the city ensure that this never happens again?

The city has been grappling with such terrible violence for at least four years now. It’s high time to come up with a plan to deal with it.

First off, it’s important to know that policing is only one part of the solution to public safety and violence prevention, a major part but not the only part. There is a great need for police suppression efforts and investigations to clear cases for prosecution. Police and community working better together in a closer more trusting relationship is a vital ingredient to overall public safety.

We also need to ensure there are opportunities for people to have better choices away from criminal activity, for community serving organizations to support people with greater access to education and employment -- two major pathways out of these mean streets. District 11 lacks these services and many others.

What we do not lack are neighborhood organizations like Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, the San Francisco Organizing Project and ACORN as well as institutions like our schools and churches that can play a vital role in bringing about change. We have many kinds of artists from painters, writers and hip hop musicians and dancers. We have people who volunteer like crazy in our schools and community based organizations, but we have not always come together to ask the big questions about how we can improve our communities and neighborhoods. Such comprehensive discussions are important first steps for developing long-term plans for community building and overall public safety.

Here are is my vision for increased public safety for all of District 11:

Strengthen Community Policing and Community Police Relations

• Strengthen community policing efforts by fostering more trustful relations between the community and police.
• Set high standards for interaction between foot beat officers and neighborhood organizations, merchants and residents.
• Create a neighborhood community police relations plan with a public/police committee oversight on staffing levels and deployment.
  

Increase Neighborhood Participation

• Hold annual neighborhood violence prevention summits to craft and update an overall violence prevention plan.
• Involve organizations and institutions from across the district in the summit and the formation of the plan.
• Share ways neighborhood residents can increase communication and neighborhood watch programs. The city must ensure support across ethnic divisions which all too often exist and may impede such efforts.
• Share techniques and skills for residents to recognize the signs of activities that may lead to violence.
• Provide schools with information regarding violence prevention strategies; involve school site councils in planning efforts.
  
• Increase greater coordination among community groups and community based organizations.
  

Provide Reentry and Criminal Justice Services and Reduce Recidivism

• Provide adequate levels of supervision and case management for people on probation or at risk of involvement in the justice system.
• Provide greater access to jobs and vocational training for people on probation and at risk of involvement in the justice system.
• Provide adequate resources for probation officers and set high standards for outcomes and accountability for juvenile and adult probation officers working with people on probation.
• Increase supports for people on probation to finish education such as high school equivalency or to seek higher education.
• Strengthen restorative justice responses to graffiti and petty criminal activity that can lead to greater criminal activity including violent crime.
  

Increase Street Outreach Efforts

• Intensify street outreach effort for youth at risk of involvement in criminal and violent activity.

Provide Greater Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults in District 11

• Provide more recreational and educational opportunities for District 11 youth such as sports, after school programs and college prep programs. Ensure that girls are served as much as boys.
• Provide greater arts and musical outlets for District 11 youth. Such outlets must be known and accessed by youth across the district.
• Provide greater connection to jobs and job training for District 11 youth. Create a one stop to serve youth in the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods.
  

Strengthen Educational Facilities and Involve the School District

• Provide early childhood education that can have lasting impact on academic performance. Invest in childcare facilities and center-based childcare.
  
• Provide conflict mediation classes in all public schools K-12.
• Involve students in neighborhood services programs from clean and beautification efforts to neighborhood outreach and tutoring younger students.
• Welcome faculty and administrators' involvement in community events and services.
• Convene neighborhood school administrators in violence prevention planning efforts.
  

Provide Greater Family Support

• Acknowledge that many families are struggling with parenting, many for lack of time, and provide greater access to parenting classes and family support services.

Involve More Children and Youth in Solutions

• Children and youth have great ideas for solutions to violence, involve their energy and talent in neighborhood planning and advocacy efforts.
• Support greater classroom involvement in community projects that can lead to neighborhood revitalization, safety and cleanliness.
  

Ensure Greater Accountability

• Set high levels of accountability for police department and community based organizations to show evidence of change in tactics and behaviors to uproot violence.

If District 11 were to do these things in a coordinated way, we could do much to enhance our safety. We could also provide a national model for how neighborhoods can respond to a tragedy and violence in general. We owe it to all the residents of our district but especially to the Bologna family that tragedies like this never happen again.

Accomplished Excelsior Community Member Launches Campaign for San Francisco District 11 Supervisor Seat

Okay I realize this is a little late, but the press release did go out well before the event which was high on neighbors from the District 11 community. Check out Luke Thomas photos. Other photos to follow.

News

For Immediate Release Contact: John Avalos
June 20, 2008 john@avalos08.com

Accomplished Excelsior Community Member Launches Campaign for San Francisco District 11 Supervisor Seat

At 11am on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at the Excelsior Playground (corner of Russia and Madrid), John Avalos will be kicking off his grassroots campaign for the open District 11 Supervisor seat to be vacated by Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval.

As a ten year District 11 resident, Avalos has worked for and collaborated with numerous community organizations on civil rights issues and to improve San Francisco and District 11 for working families. Between 1996 and 2002, while earning his Masters in Social Work at San Francisco State, he worked for Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth where he focused on neighborhood parks, environmental justice, child care services, youth employment, neighborhood beautification projects, government accountability and school reform.

Mr. Avalos has also been an organizer with SEIU Justice for Janitors Campaign where he served in San Jose and San Francisco and lead efforts to ensure workers contracts with better salaries and affordable health care.

As a legislative aide in City Hall, John Avalos has demonstrated a great understanding of the city budget and how the budget can be an instrumental tool to promote sound public policy. Through his work collaborating with City Hall insiders and labor and community groups alike, he has been able to expand funds for senior citizens, youth, affordable housing, homeless people, immigrants, mental health and substance abuse clients. He has worked on capital improvements to parks, health care centers and city streets.

Mr. Avalos has also drafted legislation ranging from tenant protections and minimum wage policies to setting ethical standards for local campaign law.

Heretofore, John Avalos is endorsed by the San Francisco Labor Council; UNITE HERE Local 2; SEIU Locals 1021, UHW, 1877 and 24/7; the California Nurses Association; the United Educators of San Francisco; AFSCME 3299; the TWU as well as Sheriff Michael Hennessey, Public Defender Jeff Adachi, President of the Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Supervisor Chris Daly, Supervisor and soon to be Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, School Board Commissioners Eric Mar, Kim-Shree Maufus, Jane Kim, and Norman Yee.

John Avalos has qualified to receive financial support from San Francisco's public financing program. He has also vowed not to take money from corporate interests, real estate developers and registered lobbyists. "Public financing makes it possible for me to run for office and not have to kowtow to the big downtown political players," said John Avalos. "I'm running as a community member. My wife Karen Zapata is a teacher and my kids are students in the San Francisco Unified School District. I'm running to strengthen the voices of District 11's vibrant communities so that District 11 can get the attention from City Hall that it deserves."

Working it

Here are some images from last week's Community Clean Team event. After tanking up on Mama Art Cafe a la Cruzita, I got to work with other Excelsior residents, dpw workers and Project 20 volunteers on weeding and spreading out soil in the planter boxes next to the Excelsior Boys and Girls Club.

I ran into an old friend, Nino Parker, and made a few new ones before running off to the Civic Center Plaza for an SEIU UHW event. Much thanks to the DPW workers and community volunteers who pitched in at the event.

Coming Up

Last Saturday dawned gloriously for the opening of the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center.

Congratulations to the Ward family for their hard work and dreams and to the many OMI residents who struggled against extra long delays and incompetent oversight.

The center is a symbol of a community coming up. It has a great child care room, kitchen, community space bedecked with the names of community leaders, and a brand new gym. The center will certainly make the summer safer for OMI youth and provide ample space that the community has sorely lacked.

It was a great honor to witness the many happy and proud faces at the opening.