Bike lane vote, housing audit, and breakfast rumble

Good afternoon! We’ve got reports on several contentious issues:

Today, the SFMTA board will vote on a controversial plan to create a center bike lane on Valencia Street between 15th and 23rd streets, and our reporters did a door-to-door survey of 82 businesses in the zone. It turns out that 60% of the business owners and employees interviewed were unaware of the project.

Of the 32 people who did know about the project––which will add center bike lanes, ban left turns, and replace around 70 parking spots with additional loading zones––10 were supportive, 14 were against it and eight offered no view. Supporters were tepidly optimistic that the plan might help Valencia’s current chaos and congestion. As Noah Ben-Eishai, a box-office manager at the Chapel, said, “Anything’s better than what it is now.” The SFMTA meeting is at 1PM, with the Valencia plan last on the agenda; call-in info here.

Mayor London Breed’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) was blasted in an audit by the Budget Legislative Analyst for its lack of transparency and incomplete records about its financing of affordable housing. The audit says MOHCD relies on staff expertise, “informal documentation” and “memories for records” to make its housing decisions. “We knew it was bad,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, who will call a hearing in response. “We didn’t know it was this bad.”

At present, much of MOHCD’s financial plans and strategies are informal and internally discussed, according to the audit, making it difficult to hold the department accountable. MOCHD defended its process: “In general, we agree” with more financial transparency, spokesperson Anne Stanley said in an email. However, the department still wants to maintain its “flexibility” and “discretionary policy” to achieve its goals.

Is there any holiday in San Francisco without a rumble? Supervisor Matt Dorsey left Friday’s Cesar Chavez breakfast right before Olga Miranda, president of the janitors’ SEIU Local 87, loudly lit into Dorsey’s proposed legislation to change the city’s sanctuary policy to ease the deportation of fentanyl dealers. “I was really upset at the fact that [Dorsey] thought he could show up to the Cesar Chavez breakfast and wear a button and say ‘Si Se Puede’ and you’re okay,” she said. “You’re not an ally of our community if you try to chip away at Sanctuary City.”

Dorsey, the former head of strategic communications for the SFPD, has insisted the city do more to address the drug overdose crisis. He hasn’t won support among colleagues for his proposal: Supervisor Asha Safai said that “making this into a immigration debate is a complete distraction.” (A recent study found, in fact, that the vast majority of fentanyl smuggled into the country is brought by U.S. citizens.) Dorsey, who says he didn’t hear Miranda’s attack at the breakfast, said, “I know Olga feels strongly about it. And I feel strongly about what I am doing.”

More soon,

Sara