Blog - Ross Mirkarimi

Impact of State Budget Cuts

On July 29, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a balanced California budget but not before using his line-item veto to make draconian cuts to social services and other state programs on top of cash grabs from local cities and counties.

Yet it is not at the state level where these cuts will be felt. Besides closed state parks and furloughed state offices, there is also the reduced revenue that municipalities will have to work with.

The preliminary report issued by the Controller on August 4 shows that state funding reductions could in total add up to $146 million. This is in addition to the cuts that were already included in the 2009-2010 budget, and far greater than the $18 million reserved as a hedge against state funding reductions.

Public Health will see the biggest cuts, with a total of $19.8 million funding to be stripped from various programs including Medi-Cal and AIDS programs. An estimated $16.1 million will be taken from Human Service programs, including workfare programs, senior care, and child welfare. The Municipal Transit Agency, the Library Fund, Children's Fund and Open Space fund could also see a combined total of $18.7 million in cuts.

Over the next month or so, the Board of Supervisors will be working with the Mayor's office, Controller and city departments to find funding and other financing to cover this shortfall.

Update on the Bike Plan in District 5

(Click the map for a larger view.)
Great news! After three long years without any new bike improvements in San Francisco (because of an injunction against the Bike Plan), the MTA gave legislative approval to 45 Bike Network Projects on June 26th. On August 4th, the Board of Supervisors approved the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the Bike Plan. Now the City Attorney will present the EIR and ask the judge to lift the injunction, and hopefully in another month or two, we'll finally see some new bike improvements in the City!

We won five bike projects in District 5: a left turn lane on Scott approaching Fell, a bike traffic signal at Fell & Masonic, an improved traffic signal at Page & Stanyan, intersection improvements at Lincoln & 7th Ave., and bike lanes and sharrows on 7th Ave.

Unfortunately, two major proposed bike lanes in District 5 were not approved by the MTA: Masonic (from Fell to Geary) and McAllister (from Masonic all the way to Market). The Masonic bike lane is on hold while traffic calming plans are considered. The McAllister bike lane didn't pass due to MUNI's concern with minimum lane width, so this project needs more planning. For the Google Earth geeks out there, you can download the KMZ file pictures above here: SFBikeMap-District5.kmz. For more information on the Bike Plan in District 5 or to get involved, visit the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition website: http://www.sfbike.org/?d5

July 25th Iran Rally a Great Success

Supervisor Mirkarimi would like to thank everyone who attended the rally for democracy in Iran on July 25th. And a big shout out to all the dedicated volunteers that put the event together. Worldwide there were more than 100 similar rallies: from Atlanta to Amsterdam, Boulder to Budapest, Kansas City to Kuala-Lumpur, Seattle to Seoul, Tulsa to Tokyo, and even in the Middle East: Cairo and Dubai.

The struggle continues for freedom and democracy in Iran. To get involved locally go to: http://www.norcal4iran.com

More information:
- Op-Ed by Supervisor Mirkarimi, Sean Penn, and Reese Erlich
- Photos by Bernd Bandemer
- Photos by Steve Rhodes
- CBS 5 story
- ABC 7 story
- KTVU channel 2 story