Sam Spade's San Francisco

Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced the City's new 2008 budget. Throughout most of the document it is simply a matter of continuing funding as appropriate. The four areas that represent major improvements over last year are Streets, Public Safety, MUNI and Homelessness.

These are four areas that have been in dire need to improvement and expansion. Keeping our City streets in good repair, beefing up the SFPD, improving MUNI and doubling the funding we spend to address homelessness in the City are all commitments that will result in fewer panhandlers and fewer shopping cart campers plus happier and safer citizens. These quality of life issues are key to keeping San Francisco's visitors and tourists returning.

Those tourists will bring bigger bucks, some of which will go into the general fund and enable the City to do even more next year.

Mayor Newsom's budget is a solid step in the right direction, but not everybody thinks the Mayor has created a good budget proposal. Supervisor Chris Daly is not only of the dissenting voices, he's out in front leading the loyal opposition. You can read Chris Daly's thoughts on the matter on his daily blog here and on Fog City Journal's latest blog posting here.

Here are some brief details of the Mayor's budget:

Streets

Mayor Newsom’s budget invests $5.4 million more for street repaving over last year, for a total of $36.4 million. This investment, for the first time, meets the city’s repaving needs. Hooray! No more potholes ruining my suspension and throwing the front wheels out of align.

Public Safety

Newsom’s budget improves public safety by adding 250 new police officers, augmenting the 354 new officers that have been added since 2004, and moving toward a goal of 750 officers by 2009. The budget also includes 12 new park patrol officers in Golden Gate Park. Terrific! SFPD Chief Heather Fong has needed this kind of upgrade for a long time.

Now, I'd like to see the City's various merchants associations to pool their funds and hire San Francisco Patrol Special Police officers to do beat foot patrols in their respective business neighborhoods.

Muni

Newsom’s budget will fill 135 Muni operator positions and add 18 street managers. The Muni fleet will be improved with 86 new hybrid buses, and a $2.5 million upgrade will be made to the light rail vehicle fleet. The budget invests $10 million in customer service improvements such as NextMuni, enabling commuters to get information on arrival times via the Internet, cell phone and bus shelter signs.

MUNI will also benefit tremendously if Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin's ballot measure succeeds. Read about it here.

Homelessness

Newsom’s budget doubles the number of Homeless Outreach Team members and invests $700,000 to create a Community Justice Center. The Center will address low-level offenses like panhandling, littering, and graffiti, and provide an array of services to rehabilitate offenders.

More information is available from the office of the City's Budget Analyst.