JULY 2017 After Ronen forced Lennar to host a Navigation Center for close to two years in a building that was suppose to have been completed in 2017.
Dear Hillary,
The Navigation Center at 1515 South Van Ness has barely shut the door and already the sidewalks are starting to be populated by tents and trash. Because the endless delays in the Lennar building project that was proposed in 2014, this area has, yet again, become an empty lot attractive to illegal encampments and worse.
After delaying the Lennar project for two years, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on November 2016 to further delay the project keeping 157 units out of the housing market. At best, this was shortsighted. At worse, it reeks of unfair influence by a small group of political activist who do not represent me or my neighbors. The result of stalling this much needed housing for close to five years resulted in an out of control homeless situation on that block for ten months. This decision, along with further negotiations, and another twelve-month delay to enable a temporary Navigation Center at South Van Ness, has sorely compromised my neighborhood.
Because of the gross mishandling of the Lennar project, this area is yet again a vacant space subject to vagrancy, squatting, trash accumulation, crime, drinking and drug use. I believe you, the Board of Supervisors, and the SFPD owe it to us to keep this area clean and livable (such as it would have been for the past five years if the Supervisors were actually concerned with improving my neighborhood rather than catering to their narrow self-interests).
It was the office of Supervisor Campos that initially delayed this project, but you are now our Supervisor and, I would argue, further delayed the project with the Navigation Center. Now our neighborhood is right back to square one, a vacant and blighted one-half of a city block.
Unfortunately, this has been a hellish few years for me and my neighbors. My experience, on this one block, clearly illustrates to me why San Francisco is in the mess it is in now. City politics is hostage to activist groups that have no interest in the holistic well being of the City. Thanks to housing activist and groups like Calle 24, projects that can better neighborhoods are delayed. Thanks to the Coalition for the Homeless, tents are allowed to proliferated in public spaces. (I realize that, with the homeless situation, there are larger forces at play. However, after spending a half-a-year serving on the Advisory Committee on Homelessness at the SFPD, it is apparent to me that the hands-off approach to tent encampments advocated by the Homeless Coalition (and San Francisco's acquiescence to that policy) is a large factor in the stubborn entrenchment of homeless encampments. I strongly believe the homeless need advocacy and that groups calling for affordable housing serve an important role in keeping the city affordable. I would argue, however, that you and the Board of Supervisors, plus the Mayors Office, have a responsibility to work for the health and well being of all San Francisco citizens. Thus far, considering the current crises, San Francisco government has failed us miserably.
Sincerely,
Francesca Pastine
PS: I just checked the building department records for the Lennar cite and it indicates that Lennar filed for a building permit in July 2017 . On February 2018 this project was put on hold. I would like to know if the City is continuing to discourage this project and how the City plans to facilitate it as soon as possible.
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