Issues

• Public Safety
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has been a fearless advocate for public safety by supporting:

  • Community policing, including increased foot patrols and violence prevention programs;
  • Gun-fire detecting sensors installed in Western Addition;
  • Crime-fighting security cameras installed and monitored for privacy concerns;
  • Programs designed to rehabilitate and prevent re-entry of prisoners and youth offenders;
  • Passage of the toughest, most restrictive laws on firearms in the country;
  • Improved juvenile offender/truancy tracking system.
• Fighting for Public Schools
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has Prevented Closure of Public Schools in District Five by:

  • Spearheading the effort to prevent closure of Swett elementary school in the Western Addition;
  • Introducing legislation to prevent closure and merger of public schools.
• Banning Plastic Bags
  

  As Supervisor, Ross Enacted Groundbreaking Legislation to Prevent Chain Grocery Stores from Distributing Plastic Bags by:

  • Introducing first-of-its-kind legislation to prevent large chain grocery and pharmacies from distributing plastic bags, effective December 2007;
  • Other cities and countries, from Oakland to Paris to China, have since sponsored similar legislation.
• Smart Land Use and Housing
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has fought for smart land use and affordable housing by:

  • Requiring developers to include units affordable to lower and middle income residents;
  • Reducing the amount of parking in new buildings to encourage use of public transportation;
  • Proposing legislation to charge developers a $10 fee per square foot to pay for affordable housing;
  • Advocating for tenants in cooperative housing threatened with losing Section 8 rental subsidies by HUD;
  • Supporting cooperative housing model as a path to future affordable home ownership;
  • Doubling the number of affordable housing units at 55 Laguna;
  • Leveraging developers to turn an asphalt lot into a park and community garden at former UC Berkeley Extension site;
  • Requesting a hearing on the City's affordable housing goals and how to achieve them;
  • Negotiating for community centers in new housing;
  • Containing urban sprawl by encouraging building up, not out;
  • Emphasizing design standards that encourage walking and public transportation;
  • Requiring developers to increase the number of family-size units;
  • Increasing the total number of housing units available in San Francisco by supporting housing over retail;
  • Supporting a full-service grocery store at Haight & Stanyan;
  • Enabling farmers' markets to apply to use City land around the City.
• Mandating Benefits for Commuters
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has sponsored employer-friendly legislation to encourage public transportation by:

  • Sponsoring legislation that requires businesses of 20+ employees to establish a program to encourage employees to use public transportation;
  • Creating a flexible, employer-friendly plan that presented businesses with 20+ employees with three options:
  • Offer workers free transit passes or vanpool reimbursement;
  • Provide door-to-door shuttle service on vans or buses;
  • Tap into federal program where employees can set up pre-tax commuter accounts to pay for travel by train, bus, ferry or vanpool, and save approximately 40% of the employee's commuting costs
• Reforming the City's Workforce System
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has streamlined City government to provide more efficient, accountable job placement and training services by:

  • Sponsoring legislation that centralizes a myriad of city programs that separately helped residents gain employment and receive job training;
  • Centralizing 11 different divisions of city government into a single department with one director, the Department of Economic and Workforce Development ;
  • Developing a system to evaluate how many people who enroll in City employment programs find jobs, keep jobs and advance in their careers;
  • Organizing a broad coalition that included business, labor and nonprofit organizations ;
  • Supporting minimum wage for independent contractors;
  • Working to prevent violence by job creation and training.
• Fixing Affordable Housing-Goodbye to Redevelopment
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has Righted Historic Wrongs in Redevelopment by:

  • Calling for a hearing to hold the Redevelopment Agency accountable;
  • Proposing an ordinance to create housing reparations to people forced out of their homes by the Redevelopment Agency in the Fillmore in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as Hunters Point in the 1970s;
  • Righting a historic wrong to Japanese and African-Americans by allowing qualified direct descendants of people displaced by the Redevelopment Agency to be placed on the top of the city's lottery system for affordable housing units;
  • Urging caution as San Francisco plans to turn over 1,300 acres in Bayview-Hunters Point to clean up blight, build affordable housing and stimulate business.
• Saving Japantown
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has protected Japantown's unique culture by creating a special use district by:

  • Working to protect Japantown as a cultural resource, historic spot and tourist draw;
  • Proposing legislation to classify Japantown as a special use district to ensure that new owners maintain the area's cultural identity.
• Regulating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has been a solid proponent of medical marijuana by:

  • Regulating medical cannabis dispensaries with input from the community;
  • Spearheading moratorium on new pot clubs;
  • Supporting both statewide and San Francisco-only medical marijuana ID cards;
  • Legitimizing process infrastructure (licensing, permits, zoning) so cannabis clubs do not operate in subterranean atmosphere;
  • Advocating to de-criminalize marijuana.
• Fighting for Clean Energy Independence
  

  As Supervisor, Ross Led the Movement toward Clean Energy and Public Power by:

  • Supporting an incentive program that provides rebates for residents and businesses that install solar energy systems;
  • Creating pilot program with $1.5 million in funding to help non-profit and low-income residents access solar rebate program;
  • Refusing to build new fossil-fuel powered plants in San Francisco;
  • Supporting public power with management responsibility by a City agency;
  • Proposing Community Choice Aggregation plan (a buyers' co-op for electricity) with goal of making city residents' energy 51% renewable by 2017;
  • Supporting the creation of an independent Municipal Utility District in San Francisco;
  • Directing the Public Utilities Commission to seek information and costs to generate electricity from renewable sources, including wind, sun and fuel cells;
  • Encouraging the City to develop tidal power technology;
  • Advocating for tidal and renewable power to belong to the public, not PG&E;
  • Co-author of the Clean Energy initiative (Prop H) that requires the PUC to report most effective and economic means of implementing clean energy goals, including 51% of city's energy expenditures from renewable or conserved sources, up to 75% in 2030, and 100% by 2040.
• Saving our Public Libraries
  

  As Supervisor, Ross secured funding to expand library hours by:

  • Securing funding to expand Sunday library hours for six separate branches;
  • Prioritizing underserved neighborhoods for expanded hours;
  • Opening a renovated library in the Western Addition that reflects the diversity of the neighborhood;
• Protecting our Public Health and Environment
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has protected the public health and environment by:

  • Speaking against closure of St. Luke's as corporate redlining of medical care;
  • Banning the sale of tobacco in pharmacies (first city in the nation);
  • Proposing ordinance that requires restaurants and markets to post tri-lingual warnings about mercury levels in fish (first city in the nation);
  • Prohibiting smoking in outdoor city parks and open spaces;
  • Investigating legal options to prevent spraying of brown apple moth;
  • Requesting moratorium on spraying of brown apple moth;
  • Introducing resolution to create bicyclist-friendly crossing-light system at intersection of Fell and Masonic;
  • Roundly criticized the City's response to the November 2007 oil spill;
• Improving our Neighborhoods
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has taken a hands-on approach to improve our communities:

  • Organizing a dozen community clean-up days in District Five;
  • Set up formal process for farmers' market organizers to set up on city land;
  • Encouraging farmers' markets on small swaths of land in low-income areas;
  • Creating new opportunities for people to buy fresh, locally-grown produce;
  • Proposing three-year moratorium on new bars and liquor stores in the Lower Haight;
  • Allowing neighborhood businesses to apply for outdoor seating;
  • Upgrading Divisadero Street corridor to make it more inviting and safe;
  • Allowing new alcohol-serving restaurants to apply for permits in Upper Haight;
  • Celebrating return of 50-year-old family grocery store at Broderick & Fell;
  • Supporting transformation of Sacred Heart Catholic Church into a school in the Western Addition;
  • Drawing attention to homeless encampments and public health risks therein;
  • Authored legislation to restrictions on chain stores to protect small business and maintain strong sense of neighborhood community on lower Divisadero Street;
  • Established Fillmore Jazz district as a community benefit district;
  • Drafted legislation for new skateboarding facility in Golden Gate Park;
  • Co-authored bill to allow needles to be sold in pharmacies;
  • Calling for a better system to ensure that needles are properly distributed and collected;
  • Sponsored measure to limit traffic in Golden Gate Park;
• Reforming the Zoo
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has supported animal welfare at the zoo by:

  • Questioning the public-private arrangement in administering the zoo;
  • Considering converting the zoo to an animal rescue center;
  • Entertaining ideas that bolster the City's commitment to animal welfare;
• Seeking Real Free WiFi
  

  As Supervisor, Ross prevented a poorly vetted plan from contaminating SF's cyberspace by:

  • Questioning viability of free wireless contract offered by internet provider Earthlink before Earthlink backed out and went out of business;
  • Raising privacy concerns that internet providers could access, store, use or sell information;
  • Seeking an internet provider who can provide real free wireless connectivity to everyone in the city.
• Delivering Good Government Reform
  

  As Supervisor, Ross has promoted an efficient government of public access by:

  • Sponsoring legislation to broadcast City Hall hearings on the internet;
  • Questioning fiscal responsibility of having 25 city employees working on climate protection issues;
  • Introducing legislation to require City to take a more unified effort on climate change initiatives;
  • Supporting voter-owned elections;
  • Proposing public financing for candidates running for Mayor;
• Profile Pieces and Snapshots
  
  
• Persian Connection