BCNA

(Editor’s note: This is part of of a two-part article about the Civil Grand Jury’s report on sea level rise. Part 2 will appear in early December.)

Can a small coastside city that started with a Gold Rush only 165 years ago, and (1) courageously rebuilt following a horrendous earthquake and fire in 1906 and (2) another major quake in 1989, and (3) in this century is undergoing a feckless, reckless complete transformation… also withstand relentlessly rising waters?

Sounds like a case for the fearless 2013-2014 Civil Grand Jury.  (The Civil Grand Jury is a government oversight panel of volunteers who serve for one year, making findings and recommendations resulting from its investigations.)

The Grand Jury did undertake a study of inexorable sea level rise and its expected impact on San Francisco and San Francisco Bay. The members named their report:  “Rising Sea Levels…At Our Doorstep.”

The issue was stated as “How and where will rising sea levels most likely affect the City of San Francisco and what is the City doing to address the issue.” Continue Reading→

BCNA NEWS

(Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a two-part series on affordable housing by June A. Osterberg for the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association. Click here for part 1.)

The 2013-2014 Civil Grand Jury selected several unquestionably timely subjects for study, including “The Mayor’s Office of Housing…Under Pressure and Challenged to Preserve Diversity.”  The 18-member Grand Jury’s job is government oversight – particularly relevant in rapidly-changing San Francisco.

While the Jury’s final report on Housing, published in June, is primarily about Affordable Housing, it repeatedly refers to the continuing need for moderately-priced housing. Continue Reading→

(Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a two-part series on affordable housing by June A. Osterberg for the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association.)

The City’s 2013-2014 Civil Grand Jury last year chose three topics for its investigative reports that are of special interest to BCNA members and other residents of the Northeast Waterfront community.

They are: The Port of San Francisco, the Mayor’s Office of Housing, and Rising Sea Levels.

The Civil Grand Jury’s well-researched and well-written findings and recommendations are too lengthy to be reproduced in these pages.

But the BCNA intends to carry locally relevant excerpts and quotations from the reports, beginning with housing, before the valuable reports disappear onto shelves at City Hall.

The Civil Grand Jury is an 18-member government oversight panel in the Office of the Controller.

Copies of the bound book of all the reports are available at City Hall. They also may be seen at the Main Library, and the reports can be found online at www.civilgrandjury.sfgov.org. Continue Reading→