Getting Work Done: Rally at the Planning Hearing (07/10/2008)

Several housing rights and community organizations gathered on the steps of City Hall on July 10th, 2008 to show support and unity towards the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan. Many are affected with the prospect of zoning changes, and heavy hitting redevelopment corporations/agencies with the interests of a specific kind of growth in mind, that doesn't typically include families that decide to make their homes in the city.

Following support, I was able to take my camera into the hearing room, and document the 15-minute presentation from SOMCAN that broke down more terms of the the Youth and Family Zone (More on the YFZ in another entry).

Here's a short compilation of the rally:



Some of the speakers included: Marti D., Mai D., Eric Quezada, and folks from PODER, POOR represented as well.

I broke down the hearing into components of the presentation (In the queue for upload are both Chris Durazo's, and April Veneracion's part of the presentation):







If you want to watch this particular hearing, or any other hearing for that matter, hit up the San Francisco GOV TV website. Here's a link directly to the City Planning Commission's meetings. As an aside, it's impressive and makes complete sense that these hearings are available online. Granted, transparency in bureaucracy can never get to 100%, at least it's a step in the responsible direction.

So what's next for SOMCAN? Gathering more support for the Youth and Family Zone, and working towards meeting with the City Planning Staff responsible for the EN plan and working it to get the language and terms down on the page for the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors to approve and implement.

Estimated time line? Perhaps naively I thought that a final draft of the plans would be set on the tables of the Planning Commission by the end of this month, however, as I've quickly RE-learned, that one can't ever be certain with so many political interests in mind.