BCNA’s Ballot Endorsements – Remember to Vote on March 3

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The BCNA Board of Directors has reviewed the statewide and local propositions from the perspective of our neighborhood values and input from our members, including residents and businesses.  We have endorsed the only statewide proposition (Prop 13 school bond) and all but one of the San Francisco ballot measures. Please vote on March 3!

  • Prop 13 (School Bond): $15 billion in bonds for school and college facilities. BCNA SUPPORTS.
  • Prop A (City College Job Training, Repair and Earthquake Safety Measure): Allows city college district to sell $845 million in bonds to perform improvements to school buildings, including seismic retrofits. BCNA SUPPORTS.
  • Prop B (San Francisco Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond): Allows the city to sell $628.5 million in bonds to finance infrastructure improvements at police and fire stations, 911 call center, and other disaster-response facilities. Funds an expansion of the city’s emergency firefighting water system, which supplies firefighters with high-pressure water. BCNA SUPPORTS.
  • Prop C (Retiree Health Care Benefits for Former Employees of the San Francisco Housing Authority): Ensures city employees are not penalized by a gap in their work for the city due to the collapse of the San Francisco Housing Authority. NO POSITION.
  • Prop D (Vacancy Tax): Imposes a fee on landlords whose storefronts have been empty for more than 182 days. The tax, championed by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, would start at $250 per linear foot of storefront in year one and double in each consecutive year. The measure would affect the city’s thirty-odd neighborhood commercial corridors, including Union Street, West Portal, and Haight Street, starting in 2021. BCNA SUPPORTS.
  • Prop E (Office Development Limits): Would restrict future office development if San Francisco fails to meet state-mandated affordable housing goals. Currently, San Francisco only allows a certain amount of office space to be approved every year. Prop. E would further lower the amount of office space that could be approved by a percentage equal to the city’s shortfall in approving affordable housing development. While some restraint on unbridled growth of large office building construction seems desirable, this measure lacks the balance needed to develop more affordable housing along with commercial interests, including neighborhood-serving retail. We believe this measure needs more review and debate. BCNA OPPOSES.