Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar is calling for the city to expand its abilities to fight emergency fires across the city, ensuring that all of the city's neighborhoods are equally protected in the event of a major disaster.
During Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Mar introduced legislation to declare a state of urgency in order to expand the city's Emergency Firefighting Water System, with a special emphasis on the covering the city's west and southeast neighborhoods.
The city's emergency water system, comprised of a 135-mile-long network of high-pressure pipelines and two saltwater pumping stations, was first created after the 1906 earthquake.
The network, however, covers mostly the city's northeast side, leaving at least one-third of the city vulnerable to widespread fires, fatalities and property destruction in the event of a major earthquake.
Unprotected neighborhoods include the Richmond and Sunset districts, the Bayview, Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, Oceanview, Ingleside and Merced Heights, among others.
Mar's resolution comes after a civil grand jury released a report back in July highlighting the city's most vulnerable areas. The report cited a 2014 prediction by the U.S. Geological Survey of a 72 percent chance of a 6.7-magnitude earthquake striking the Bay Area by 2043.
The Civil Grand Jury recommended that the city come up with a plan by the end of 2020 to extend the emergency water system to all neighborhoods before 2043.
"These warnings and predictions from the USGS, as well as the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, should be a wakeup call," Mar said during a news conference ahead of Tuesday's meeting.
"This is intended to bring greater attention and to elevate the priority of these urgent issues here at City Hall and throughout our city," he said.
"This weekend's earthquake was just a preview of the coming attractions," said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, referring to a magnitude-3.5 quake that struck off the coast of Pacifica Saturday morning.
"This was a reminder that we haven't done enough to make sure that every part of our city is resilient; every part of our city is defended," Ting said.
"We are a hundred years behind in having the high-pressure water systems that safeguard our communities," said Li Miao Lovett, an Outer Sunset resident and member of the community group D4Ward.
"As a parent and as an educator, I want to ensure that our children are protected," she said.
The resolution is being co-sponsored by Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee and supervisors Sandra Lee Fewer and Ahsha Safai.
Also during Tuesday's meeting, Mar introduced a charter amendment for the November 2020 ballot to prohibit the city's mayor from appointing a declared candidate of a city office to that same office, within 90 days of their election.
The announcement comes after Mayor London Breed last week appointed Suzy Loftus as district attorney following the announcement that current District Attorney George Gascon will resign later this month. Loftus is running in next month's race against Chesa Boudin, Nancy Tung and Leif Dautch.
"Part of why I ran for supervisor was because of my strong belief that we the people deserve to choose our representatives in free and fair elections. It's also why I've made strengthening our democracy an early priority in office," Mar said. "But our efforts to strengthen our democracy are weakened when democracy itself is ignored."
Loftus' appointment to the position last week was met with criticism from police reform advocates, many who rallied in Chinatown Thursday, alleging Loftus' appointment would give her an unfair advantage in the race.
In a statement on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California echoed similar sentiments.
"Appointments like these are fundamentally undemocratic and favor candidates who have established support, as opposed to allowing the process to run its course and let voters decide in an even playing field," ACLU officials said.
Also, during Tuesday's meeting, Yee introduced legislation to create a new city office, the Office of Emerging Technology.
According to Yee, the office, the first of its kind, would allow the city to evaluate any emerging technologies and its impact on public infrastructure ahead of its launch.
"In early 2018, when I tried to ban the delivery robots, I was seen as anti-tech," he said. "A few weeks later, hundred of scooters were dumped on our sidewalks.
"The city and its residents are demanding action in order to control what's taking place on our streets," he said.
"I want to be clear that the objective is not to stymie or control those technologies, but to balance the public service innovation with the public good and safety," he said.
October 9, 2019
SFGate
By Bay City News Service
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