City Announces $7.9 Million Federal Grant to Improve Broadband Technology Access

San Francisco’s most vulnerable populations will benefit from a broad-reaching stimulus fund grant

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Mayor Newsom today announced award of the $7.9 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) competitive grant to increase access to technology. Entitled the San Francisco Community Broadband Opportunity Program (SF CBOP), the project is part of a nation-wide effort to increase sustainable adoption of high-speed Internet applications and encourage subscribership to broadband services. The program will provide extensive training, computers, and broadband connections throughout San Francisco, through partnering organizations, including senior centers, adult day and supportive housing sites, after school programs, youth organizations, digital media partners, and City College of San Francisco.

“San Francisco is at the center of the information and communications revolution that is changing the world, but too many people still don’t have access to broadband technology,” said Mayor Newsom. “I would like to thank Secretary Locke and the NTIA for their vision in awarding this grant, and Speaker Pelosi for her support and leadership.” Read more.

Mayor and Supervisors Introduce Agreement to Host America's Cup in San Francisco

San Francisco – Mayor Gavin Newsom, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and other members of the Board of Supervisors today introduced the formal agreement to host the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco.  The purpose of the agreement, or term sheet, is to set forth essential terms and conditions agreed upon by the America’s Cup Committee of the Golden Gate Yacht Club and the City of San Francisco with the Protocol for the 34th America’s Cup.  If San Francisco is selected to host the 34th America’s Cup, the term sheet provides a framework for promptly negotiating a legally binding Host City Agreement and establishing the terms and conditions under which the San Francisco would be prepared to host the America’s Cup event, subject to all necessary approvals and environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In addition to Mayor Newsom, Board of Supervisors President Chiu and Supervisor Mirkarimi, the agreement was also initially co-sponsored by Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu, Bevan Dufty, and Sophie Maxwell.
 
“We believe there’s no better place on earth than San Francisco Bay to defend the America’s Cup and bring millions of new fans from around the world to the oldest international sailing competition,” said Mayor Newsom. “This agreement establishes the strong partnership between the City, the BMW Oracle Racing Team and the entire community if San Francisco is fortunate to be selected as the Host City for the 34th America’s Cup. The entire City and State of California are united behind bringing the America’s Cup – and all the economic benefits, jobs and excitement that come with it – to San Francisco.” Read more.

City Announces $3 Million Grant to Improve College Graduation Rates

Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that San Francisco is one of four U.S. cities awarded a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National League of Cities to fund innovative proposals to boost college completion rates. The grants are part of the Communities Learning in Partnership initiative, which is led by the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families.

The City and County of San Francisco, City College of San Francisco (CCSF), and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will receive $3 million over the next three years to align expectations between high school and college, strengthen data systems, and coordinate student services. Last year, the City, CCSF, and SFUSD created the “Bridge to Success” partnership that brought together the Mayor’s Office, SFUSD and CCSF leaders to devise new ways of helping more students successfully complete an education beyond high school. Implementing those steps and achieving those benchmarks will be the focus of the grant-funded effort. Read more.

Mayor Announces First Annual Central Market Arts Festival

3-Week Festival to Highlight Arts and Culture in the Central Market Area

Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the kick-off
weekend for the new Central Market Arts Festival which premieres in Mint
Plaza this Friday at noon and continues over three weeks in satellite
locations that showcase arts and culture establishments in the area.
The arts festival is part of a comprehensive effort to catalyze arts and
culture establishments on Market Street between 5 th and 9 th
Streets, cultivating the area as a destination spot for both tourists
and local arts patrons.

“We are excited to highlight the incredible resources in our City’s
arts community and continue cultivating Central Market as a premier
venue for arts and cultural organizations in San Francisco,” said Mayor
Newsom. “Our intention is for the Central Market Arts Festival to become
an annual event and for it to serve as another piece of the City and
the community’s work to revitalize the area.” Read more.

Mayor Announces City Incentives For Local JobsNow! Program

City to offer local version of Jobs NOW! to incentivize private
sector employment, boost local economy if Congress fails to extend
successful federal stimulus-funded program set to expire September 30th.

Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Human
Services Agency (HSA) Director Trent Rhorer today announced new local
incentives and private sector wage subsidies to continue a modified
version of the highly successful Jobs NOW! program – which has put more
than 4,100 San Francisco parents back to work – if Congress fails to
extend stimulus funding for subsidized employment programs by September
30th. If Congress allows funding for Jobs NOW! and similar programs
around the country to expire, nearly a quarter million low-income
Americans will be at risk of unemployment come October 1st.

“Economists may tell us the recession is technically over, but a
jobless economic recovery is no recovery at all to parents out-of-work,”
said Mayor Newsom. “Jobs NOW! has subsidized thousands of private
sector jobs so we can offer people the dignity of a paycheck and a job
instead of unemployment. We still call on Congress to extend this highly
successful federal stimulus program, but if Washington won’t act, San
Francisco will step up to offer new local incentives for private sector
employers to keep people working and our economy growing.” Read more.

Mayor Announces $68 Million for Repaving and Infrastructure Improvements

Newly-completed Great Streets Project on Leland Avenue is latest example of City’s continued investment in local construction jobs, neighborhood streetscape and paving improvements despite economic
recession

San Francisco, CA— Mayor Newsom today announced $68.5 million in new infrastructure and streetscape projects for the current fiscal year 2010-11, leveraging Certificates of Participation (COPs), federal, state and local grants to fund improvements to San Francisco’s public realm. $50.6 million will go into street resurfacing, $5.9 million will go into Great Streets projects and other public realm improvements, $4.7 million will go into sidewalk inspection and repair and street structure improvements, and
$7.3 million will go to building curb ramps. The projects together will create at least 450 construction-related jobs.

“Despite the toughest economic environment in generations, San Francisco continues to make record investments and create hundreds of local jobs through our street repair, neighborhood improvements and repaving,” said Mayor Newsom. “Our Great Streets projects, along with transportation, pedestrian, bicycle, and other related streetscape improvements are literally paving the way for a greener, cleaner city
and better quality of life in our neighborhoods.” Read more

Mayor Announces Sunday Streets in Western Addition

New Sunday Streets route through the Western Addition, North of Panhandle, Lower Fillmore and Japantown neighborhoods on Sunday, September 19th

Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced a new route for Sunday Streets on Sunday, September 19th. San Francisco’s Sunday Streets program explores new communities with a 2.5-mile route through the Western Addition, North of Panhandle, Lower Fillmore and Japantown neighborhoods.

“We are excited to bring this popular event to the Western Addition neighborhood, this time in the center of the City and into one of San Francisco’s most diverse communities to promotes fitness, build community, and use our streets in a whole new way,” said Mayor Newsom. “Come out on Sunday and see for yourselves the remarkable transformation of Kimball Athletic Fields and Hamilton Rec Center.”

Sunday’s event is the eighth of the nine scheduled for 2010. Like previous Sunday Streets, this event promises a full day of activities for participants of all ages and abilities. Due to enthusiastic involvement from the community, there are a number of special activities that are unique to the Western Addition event. Read more

For more information visit: sundaystreetssf.com

Major Bond Rating Agencies Affirm San Francisco's Strong Credit

Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Fitch Ratings affirm San
Francisco’s credit ratings of Aa1, AA and AA, respectively, one of the
highest of any county in California

Mayor Gavin Newsom today welcomed the affirmation of bond ratings for
the City and County of San Francisco by Moody’s Investors Service
(Moody’s), Standard & Poor’s (S&P), and Fitch Ratings (Fitch).
The bond rating affirmations were released by the rating agencies in
connection with the City’s upcoming sale of approximately $135 million
certificates of participation (COP) to refund four COP transactions for
debt service savings.

Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch each recently affirmed the City’s Aa1,
AA, and AA credit rating, respectively, on the City’s general obligation
bonds and rated Aa2, AA-, and AA-, respectively, the City’s upcoming
refunding COP transaction. The ratings reflect the one-notch
distinction between general obligation bonds and general fund-secured
lease obligations. Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch also maintained their
rating outlooks. Read more.

Mayor Announces New Open Data Legislation to Improve Transparency

First APPNation Conference highlights San Francisco as center of fast-growing app economy.

Mayor Gavin Newsom today joined regional and national app developers at the inaugural APPNation Conference to announce new open data legislation. The new “OpenGov” legislation aims to enhance open government, transparency, and accountability by requiring City agencies and departments to provide permanent data sources.

“San Francisco’s world class technology community will take City data we collect and develop new and innovative applications that will serve the public better and transform government,” said Mayor Newsom. “This new legislation not only fundamentally changes how we think about City government departments and the data they collect, but also leverages existing resources to improve the quality of life, stimulate industry and even create jobs in the booming software application industry.”

In 2009, Mayor Newsom issued an Open Data Executive Directive requiring City departments to make all non-confidential datasets under their authority available on DataSF.org, the city’s one stop web site for government data. More than 50 applications have been created from the City’s data (including Routesy, SFPark, CrimeMapping and Mom Maps) and are featured in the DataSF App Showcase (datasf.org/showcase). There are dozens more in the pipeline. Read more.

Mayor Pledges San Francisco's Support for San Bruno Residents

At today’s meeting of the San Francisco Disaster Council, Mayor Gavin Newsom and City public safety officials pledged San Francisco’s continued full support and resources to ongoing response and recovery efforts for San Bruno residents impacted by last night’s explosion and fire.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives or who have been injured and displaced by the San Bruno disaster,” said Mayor Newsom. “San Francisco will continue to fully assist and provide mutual aid and recovery to the people of San Bruno. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the men and women of the San Francisco Fire Department, emergency crews, doctors and nurses who responded immediately with mutual aid last night, and for their continued support in the days ahead.”

Following a mutual regional aid request last night, the San Francisco Fire Department sent 12 suppression units to the scene, and San Francisco International Airport provided 3 fire suppression units within minutes of the disaster. Many of the injured San Bruno residents were taken to San Francisco hospitals for care and treatment. A full briefing of mutual aid support and ongoing recovery efforts was provided at the regularly scheduled Disaster Council meeting at City Hall.

Red Cross Relief for Victims of the San Bruno Fire

The
American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter is providing assistance to the
residents affected by the explosion in San Bruno. Red Cross teams are
supporting an evacuation center and two shelters in San Bruno. One
shelter is located at the Veterans Memorial Recreation Center in San
Bruno. The second shelter is open adjacent to the Veterans Memorial
Center at the senior center.  The Red Cross will be providing food,
shelter and crisis counseling services for affected families.

Any residents affected by the fire may contact 1-888-4-HELP-BAY (1-888-443-5722) for assistance.

All
Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by the donations
of time and money by people in the Bay Area. If you are interested in
helping residents affected by home fires and other local emergencies,
please call 1-888-4-HELP-BAY or visit http://www.redcrossbayarea.org

For additional ways to donate please visit EmpowerSF - http://www.empowersf.org/sfgivesback/

Mayor Announces Highest On-Time Performance for Muni

Mayor
Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
(SFMTA), which operates the Municipal Railway (Muni), announced today
that Muni achieved the highest recorded annual on-time performance (OTP)
rate of any fiscal year since recordkeeping on OTP began.The
Agency’s 73.5 percent OTP for FY09-10 is a high-water mark, up from
69.2 percent in July 2006 when the SFMTA began keeping the statistic.

“In
spite of $220 million in state transportation cuts and difficult budget
challenges, I am very encouraged that Muni has maintained and even
improved its on-time performance in the last year,” said Mayor Gavin
Newsom.  “We still have a long way to go to reach our goals, but I am
confident we can restore service and make even greater improvements to
Muni’s reliability through continued efficiency and common-sense
reform.”

In addition to the record-high annual OTP, the SFMTA has also posted
encouraging numbers in two other important areas of service delivery.
The Agency’s “Scheduled Service Hours Delivered” metric held steady at
96.6 percent. While this still falls short of the SFMTA’s stated goal,
it represents steady forward progress towards delivering reliable
service to Muni riders. This statistic is an indicator of how crowded
buses get and how frequently they pass-up customers.

Additionally, the SFMTA reported that on Tuesday, September 6, the Agency delivered
99 percent of service hours under the new partially restored schedule.
This signifies operator and equipment availability to deploy and
maintain a more robust schedule. Read more