OUR MISSION: To provide our customers with high-quality, efficient and reliable water, power and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.
525 Golden Gate Avenue, 13th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
T 415.554.3155
F 415.554.3161
TTY 415.554.3488
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Correspondence Log
September 18, 2024 through October 8, 2024
Date Received From Subject
September 18, 2024 Alexander Gaguine
Re: Trump flag at city's Kirkwood Powerhouse
(four individual letters - one addressed to each
Commissioner)
October 8, 2024 Kieran Farr
Action Letter: Agency Coordination on SF Folsom
Stormwater Community Streetscape Plan
(email and attachment)
September 18, 2024
Commissioner Paulson
525 Golden Gate Av
San Francisco CA 94102
Re: Trump flag at city's Kirkwood Powerhouse
Dear Commissioner
Last month my wife and I passed by the City of San Francisco's Kirkwood Powerhouse on the Tuolumne River.
In front of the powerhouse are two residences, both of which had Hetch Hetchy trucks in their driveways. I'm guessing these houses are for project staff, and belong to the city. There are few other structures in the vicinity.
One residence flew the American flag, the only one near the powerhouse.
On the same flagpole was a large TRUMP flag.
I hope you will agree that this political statement on city property is inappropriate, and I hope you will request it's removal.
I no longer live in San Francisco but did so for many years.
Thank you.
c )\
Alexander Gaguine
Santa Cruz
September 18, 2024
Commissioner Rivera
525 Golden Gate Av
San Francisco CA 94102
Re: Trump flag at city's Kirkwood Powerhouse
Dear Commissioner
Last month my wife and I passed by the City of San Francisco's Kirkwood Powerhouse on the Tuolumne River.
In front of the powerhouse are two residences, both of which had Hetch Hetchy trucks in their driveways. I'm guessing these houses are for project staff, and belong to the city. There are few other structures in the vicinity.
One residence flew the American flag, the only one near the powerhouse.
On the same flagpole was a large TRUMP flag.
I hope you will agree that this political statement on city property is inappropriate, and I hope you will request it's removal.
I no longer live in San Francisco but did so for many years.
Thank you.
Alexander Gaguine
Santa Cruz
September 18, 2024
Commissioner Ajami
525 Golden Gate Av
San Francisco CA 94102
Re: Trump flag at city's Kirkwood Powerhouse
Dear Commissioner
Last month my wife and I passed by the City of San Francisco's Kirkwood Powerhouse on the Tuolumne River.
In front of the powerhouse are two residences, both of which had Hetch Hetchy trucks in their driveways. I'm guessing these houses are for project staff, and belong to the city. There are few other structures in the vicinity.
One residence flew the American flag, the only one near the powerhouse.
On the same flagpole was a large TRUMP flag.
I hope you will agree that this political statement on city property is inappropriate, and I hope you will request it's removal.
I no longer live in San Francisco but did so for many years.
Thank you.
Alexander Gaguine
Santa Cruz
September 18, 2024
Commissioner Stacy
525 Golden Gate Av
San Francisco CA 94102
Re: Trump flag at city's Kirkwood Powerhouse
Dear Commissioner
Last month my wife and I passed by the City of San Francisco's Kirkwood Powerhouse on the Tuolumne River.
In front of the powerhouse are two residences, both of which had Hetch Hetchy trucks in their driveways. I'm guessing these houses are for project staff, and belong to the city. There are few other structures in the vicinity.
One residence flew the American flag, the only one near the powerhouse.
On the same flagpole was a large TRUMP flag.
I hope you will agree that this political statement on city property is inappropriate, and I hope you will request it's removal.
I no longer live in San Francisco but did so for many years.
Thank you.
Alexander Gaguine
Santa Cruz
This Message Is From an External Sender
This message came from outside your organization.
Report Suspicious
From: Kieran Farr
To: [email protected]; Short, Carla (DPW); Tumlin, Jeffrey (MTA); Commission; [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: Herrera, Ana (BOS); RonenStaff (BOS); Ronen, Hillary (BOS); Andrews, Michelle; Sparks, Jeff; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Colwick, Chris; Jacob Klein; Martha Kreeger; Sarah Ranney; Tom Radulovich; Joseph Sweiss; [email protected]; Liana Warren; Tam, Madison (BOS); Dan Carrigan; Vincent Mazzaferro; SFPUC Citizens" Advisory Committee; [email protected]; [email protected]; Charles Whitfield; Owen, David (BOS); MelgarStaff (BOS); Melgar, Myrna (BOS); [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Sweet, Alexandra C. (MYR); Lall, Kamini (MTA) Subject: Action Letter: Agency Coordination on SF Folsom Stormwater Community Streetscape Plan Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 2:17:17 PM
Attachments: 20241008 Folsom Stormwater Community Action Letter (Complaint Followup).pdf Dear Dennis, Jeff, and Carla, and the Board / Commission Members of SFMTA, SFDPW and SFPUC:
As a followup to our original March complaint [1], over the past 6 months I've been working with your wonderful Agency Staff, elected officials, and countless community organizations on a community-led plan for streetscape improvements as part of the planned sewer replacement in Northeast Mission (Folsom Stormwater Improvement Project) planned to break ground Q3 2025.
But we are stuck and need your help -- despite nearly universal support from residents, community organizations and businesses, and even individual Agency Staff members, we have reached the limit of what the "community" can do alone, and we need immediate and direct coordination from your three agencies to move this project forward.
To make this official, attached please find a Community Action Letter
[2] endorsed by 20 major cultural, environmental,
and business organizations from the Mission Creek neighborhood and beyond demanding that you implement this plan.
Good news:
The plan is low cost -- much of the hard costs for streetscape improvements could be included as part of corridor re- grading -- if Agencies coordinate prior to groundbreaking! The plan is feasible -- unlike crazy ideas like bringing back the creek, this streetscape plan is very similar to other projects implemented in the Mission by DPW and PUC including Treat Plaza South The plan is popular -- the broad strokes are supported by everyone. We just need help from your staff to connect the dots.
Can we schedule a meeting with all 4 of us to come up with an action plan to get this together? I promise it can be fun and hopefully painless.
Specific asks:
Jeff, we'll ask for help from the SFMTA for a project manager to legislate street changes to facilitate inclusion of these plans as part of post-project surface regrading, as well as coordination with Muni yard and non-revenue maintenance facilities on the corridor. (There is no capital cost requested from SFMTA for this project, only minimal staff time.)
Carla, we'll ask for help from SFDPW for landscape design support across the corridor and especially regarding Treat Plaza North (proposed).
Dennis, we need your help from SFPUC to ensure that this alternative can be included in the final plan that may open to contractor bidding in the next few months.
I'm excited about the potential for this project to be a Win for your Agencies, the neighborhood, and the City, and I look forward to your response and continued collaboration.
Kieran
Kieran Farr
Mission Creek Neighborhood Resident and Dad
Sierra Club SF, Executive Committee Member
Mission Creek Business Association, Secretary
Marshall Elementary PTA, Secretary
415 568 7963
Enclosures:
[1] Original March Complaint: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gl8-x-Gjq5X9rmoDvBeWhXWc-Ec3nYJz/edit [2] Action Letter approved August, sent October after Endorsements: ATTACHED AS PDF and available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zyb0v-nz-StmHt2WJbjFCIUtIG8Jkpri/edit [3] Community Feedback Report from Into the Streets Grant-Funded Treat Plaza Outreach Activations from May - June 2024
2024:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_FbvnDiBsUmkS6ziHyN2CSzmGA8ylSMxhmu1wLtqVEw/edit#slide=id.p Serving Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Francisco counties October 8, 2024
To: Dennis Herrera, General Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Jeff Tumlin, Director, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Carla Short, Director, San Francisco Department of Public Works SFPUC Commission
SFMTA Board of Directors
SFDPW Commission
CC: San Francisco Mayor London Breed
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
attn: Hillary Ronen, Supervisor SF District 9
attn: Matt Dorsey, Supervisor SF District 6
California State Senator Scott Wiener, CA Senate District 7 California State Assembly Member Matt Haney, CA Assembly District 17 State of California San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board Re: City Agency Call to Action Letter: Please Work Together to Implement the Mission Creek Neighborhood Folsom Stormwater Post-Project Improvement Plan Dear Leadership Team of SFPUC, SFDPW and SFMTA:
As a followup to the Sierra Club Letter of Complaint re: Folsom Stormwater Project Dated March 28, 2024 , the below signed organizations ask the City agencies of SFPUC, SFDPW, and SFMTA to collaborate to deliver nature-based post-project streetscape improvements on Harrison, Treat, and cross streets affected by the Folsom Stormwater Improvement Project.
The default plan ironically proposes to resurface the low-lying Mission Creek Neighborhood with impervious surfaces such as asphalt and concrete which increase flood risk to neighboring homes and businesses instead of permeable surfaces to abate local flooding and reduce the impact of high-velocity stormwater effects. It ignores the recommendation of the Mission Streetscape Plan, which was developed in 2010 after robust community engagement by SF Planning, for converting the unaccepted block of Treat Avenue into a community-serving public open space, mirroring Treat Plaza located kitty-corner. This block doesn’t provide vehicular access to any adjacent businesses or residents, and creates a complex and unnecessarily dangerous five-way intersection at Treat and Harrison Streets.
We, undersigned neighbors, community members, businesses and other stakeholders live and work near the above-referenced beautification project which we support. The conversion of this area including unaccepted streets into a green, open space will help with the following:
● Activate sites by providing a space for people to walk, sit, play, host community events, and even bring their dogs.
● Enhance the area by providing an attractive,usable, and green public open space to positively activate the area and discourage dumping and other illegal activities. ● Greatly improve pedestrian and active mobility safety by simplifying traffic movements and replacing a dangerously long crosswalk with a continuous sidewalk and cycle path ● Integrate green infrastructure solutions such as bioswale and linear nature corridors with traffic safety and multimodal access.
While we are proud of the efforts done by community members, nonprofits and nature advocacy organizations, it is time for the City agencies to step up and take accountability for delivering best-practice project solutions such as those already specified in the 2010 Mission Streetscape Plan from SF Planning, instead of putting the burden on the community to navigate permitting and funding processes.
Specifically we ask for:
1) SFMTA to appoint a project manager to collaborate with SFPUC and SFDPW to plan post-project streetscape design and implementation.
2) Funding for City Agency Staff and/or third-party entities for project management, community engagement, landscape design, and inter-agency review, and other essential implementation steps.
3) For City Elected Officials to keep City agencies accountable to deliver the true, nature-based climate change resilience solutions and flood protection for the community instead of minimum technical compliance with the Abatement Order. 4) For State and Federal Elected Officials to explore securing State and Federal funding (such as the 30x30 Conservation Program or IRA) to cover capital expenditure for these nature-based solutions that may exceed Prop 218 restricted SFPUC funds.
We appreciate everyone’s collective efforts to bring these plans forward, now we look forward to putting them into action.
NB: The contents of this letter were endorsed August 20, 2024 by the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club of California.
CHARLES WHITFIELD
Executive Committee President, Sierra Club San Francisco Group
KIERAN FARR
Mission Resident and Executive Committee Member, Sierra Club San Francisco Group
CANDACE COMBS
Mission Business Owner and President, Mission Creek Business Association
TOM RADULOVICH
Executive Director, Livable City
APRIL MCGILL
Executive Director, The American Indian Cultural Center of San Francisco (AICC)
ROBIN PAM
Kid Safe SF
PETER BRATT
Friendship House, Julian Street, San Francisco
CHRISTIAN MARTIN
Executive Director, SOMA West CBD
NINE LADOW (Treasurer), BRIAN FLAHERTY (International), ROARK O’NEILL (Executive Secretary), JIM O’DONNEL (Founding Member)
Leadership Team, SOMA Rotary Club
SHERRI FRANKLIN
Founder and CEO, Muttville Senior Dog Rescue
DHEYANIRA CALAHORRANO
Founder and CEO, IntegrArte SF
SCOTT WEBB
Director of Advocacy and Engagement, Resource Renewal Institute
NINA ATKIND
Chapter Manager, Surfrider Foundation San Francisco
DOUG JACUZZI, Assoc. AIA
Executive Director, Westside Water Resources
KAREN CURTISS
Principal, Red Dot Studio Architecture and Design, 2121 Harrison St.
GWEN KAPLAN
Owner, Ace Mailing, 2736 16th Street
SAM CONKLING
Sam’s Woodworking, 2121 Harrison St.
SI-HAN HAI
Board Member, 320 Alabama St HOA
ANGELA SINICROPI
Owner, Sintak Studios, 2779 16th St
AARON BREETWOR
Executive Director, Skateable Cities, 15th Street
TODD MASONIS
CEO, Dandelion Chocolate, 2600 16th St
JUSTIN FRASER
Owner, Mission Web Works, 2101 Folsom St