A City Hall Fellow: Two Years Later
It’s been two years since I completed my memorable year of service as a City Hall Fellow with the City and County of San Francisco. Among the most memorable fellowship experiences was a January 2010 visit to the 10th and Mission Family Apartments run by Mercy Housing and Catholic Charities.
Only six months removed from completing my undergraduate degree, I had much to learn about the highly sophisticated industry buttressing the work of affordable housing. It is characterized by a decentralized system that relies more and more on non-profits like Mercy Housing (as well as for-profits) as agents of the public good. It is supported by federally and state allocated low-income housing tax credits and operating subsidies such as project-based rental assistance (formerly known as Section 8 vouchers). Equally important is property management that is both tenant-driven and revenue-concerned and complicated real estate financial modeling that glues everything else together and attracts necessary debt financing.
Cutting Through the Red Tape: Local Implications of Energy Policy
January seems to be a sign of a much cleaner future for residents of San Francisco’s Southeast.
This month, Mayor Gavin Newsom received a letter from the California Independent System Operator (CAISO, pronounced Cal-ISO) that it anticipates allowing Mirant’s power plant at Potrero to close at the end of the year. The closing of the power plant would mark the end of fossil-fuel plants in San Francisco; the other at Hunters Pointhaving closed in 2006. Closing the two plants have been environmental justice goals of the City since the 1990s. Pollution from the plants has contributed to record-high rates of asthma, cervical cancer and countless other ailments confronting a historically African American portion of the City.
