At Tuesday’s meeting, we welcome back Amy Farah Weiss of the Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge, featured in March 2016 on our illuminating, inspirational panel on interim homelessness solutions (video here), with an update on what the City is doing (or not doing) with our neighborhood encampments, and some new proposals that are now gaining momentum.   […]

We’ve heard about the problems. We’ve seen the problems. At this meeting, the conversation was about SOLUTIONS – real, imagined; happening, never tried; possible, impossible; short-term, long-term; direct action, legislation; good, perfect… The amazing panel consisted of (left to right in photo above): Emily Cohen, Deputy Director, Mayor’s Office of HOPE Shira Noel, Policy and […]

The club voted on the following endorsements at its September 1st meeting. Endorsements for propositions or candidates for a single office require at least 60% of votes cast. San Francisco Propositions A  – YES – General Obligation Bond Election – Affordable Housing C – YES – Expenditure Lobbyists Ordinance D – No position – Mission […]

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st, 6:30pm. Housing and Good-Government night at PHDC. Props A, D, F, I, J, & K (housing) and C & E (good government) were covered. There were mini-debates on the more contentious propositions: D – Mission Rock, former Mayor Art Agnos vs. Jon Golinger; F – Short-Term Residential Rentals, Dale Carlson vs. George […]

Calle 24, the stretch of 24th Street running from Mission Street to Potrero Avenue, is known as “El Corazón de la Misión”, or “The Heart of the Mission.” Calle 24 is also the name of the group of merchants and neighbors fighting for the heart and soul of the Mission. Erick Arguello and Edwin Lindo (right) […]

Sue Vaughan spoke in opposition to AB 61, introduced in the State Assembly by Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, which would grant legal authority to local transit agencies to allow private shuttles to use public bus stops. Here’s an SF Examiner article about AB 61. The Club voted to send a letter of opposition to the […]

PHDC started off 2015 with a couple of thought-provoking topics, both of which engendered very active audience participation. Dale Carlson (left) of the Share Better SF coalition discussed a proposed ballot measure his coalition of affordable housing advocates and community organizations is creating. The intent is to continue to expose the impact of Airbnb and […]

Arguments pro and con for a variety of measures on the November 4th ballot made for an engaging evening of mini-debates. There was a literal turf battle (at right, Mike Murphy & Donald Collins argue real vs. fake grass in the parks), the Pier 70 development height limit increase, an attempt to “balance” transportation priorities (oh, […]

The housing situation in our fair City is dire and fast-changing. Housing prices explode; protests against evictions escalate; legislation is introduced at state and local levels; lawsuits are filed by the City Attorney.  San Francisco leads the nation in income disparity. Participants in a thought-provoking discussion, which included plenty of audience Q&A, were: Tim Colen,  […]

Potrero Hill Democratic Club presented a lively and informative debate between the two Supervisors running to succeed Tom Ammiano in the State Assembly, District 17: David Campos and David Chiu. The two Davids, both Harvard-educated attorneys, agreed that they agreed on a lot – and also tried to bring their differences into sharp focus.  Moderator, […]

Since our regular meeting place – the theater at the Neighborhood House – was a polling place on election night, we gathered at the Dogpatch Saloon, site of our recent auction.  CCSF Trustee Rafael Mandelman presented his recently proposed Resolution in Support of City College (the club signed on to the SaveCCSF coalition back in […]