The City Is Picking Up the Tab for the Harry Street Steps Trash Enclosure
Mandelman sponsored an ordinance waiving two fees that would otherwise apply to installing a waste bin enclosure at the Harry Street Steps, at the intersection of Laidley and Harry Streets in Diamond Heights. The first is a one-time encroachment permit fee — the charge the city collects when a private party wants to place a structure in the public right-of-way. The second is an annual right-of-way occupancy fee, a recurring yearly charge for continuing to occupy city-owned sidewalk space with a private structure. Waiving both removes the upfront cost and the permanent ongoing fee, making it easier for a community group or neighborhood association to put in and maintain the enclosure without the city effectively charging rent on the sidewalk in perpetuity. Passed 11–0 on first reading.
Mandelman sponsored an ordinance waiving two fees that would otherwise apply to installing a waste bin enclosure at the Harry Street Steps, at the intersection of Laidley and Harry Streets in Diamond Heights. The first is a one-time encroachment permit fee — the charge the city collects when a private party wants to place a structure in the public right-of-way. The second is an annual right-of-way occupancy fee, a recurring yearly charge for continuing to occupy city-owned sidewalk space with a private structure. Waiving both removes the upfront cost and the permanent ongoing fee, making it easier for a community group or neighborhood association to put in and maintain the enclosure without the city effectively charging rent on the sidewalk in perpetuity. Passed 11–0 on first reading.
Top 3 from July 7 BoS meeting
- SF Just Created a New Kind of Business: The Cannabis Café: The Board passed Mandelman’s ordinance creating San Francisco’s first cannabis café permit — a new license type that lets permitted businesses sell cannabis for on-site consumption, essentially legalizing the kind of consumption lounge model that’s been legal under state law but unavailable in the city. The ordinance also carves out cannabis cafés from the existing smoking ban and, for the first year, limits eligibility to businesses that already hold a cannabis storefront retailer license. The vote was 7–4 — Chan, Chen, Melgar, and Wong all voted no — making it one of the more contested items the Board has taken up in recent months.
- SF Voters May Lock In Affordable Housing Funding Through 2058: A charter amendment that would increase the mandatory annual appropriation to the city’s Housing Trust Fund and extend its sunset from 2043 to 2058 is heading toward the November 2026 ballot. The fund pays for affordable housing creation, acquisition, rehabilitation, and down-payment assistance. Melgar is the lead sponsor; Mandelman is among the co-sponsors. The Board continued it to July 14 to finalize the language, but the politics look solid — the co-sponsor list spans most of the Board.
- SF Won’t Count Certain Out-of-State Convictions Against You for Jobs or Housing: The Board unanimously passed an expansion of San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance — the local law that limits when employers and housing providers can use criminal history in decisions — to exclude out-of-state convictions for conduct that is legal in California: abortion-related healthcare, gender-affirming care, drag performances, and spontaneous abortion. The practical effect is that someone convicted under another state’s law for something San Francisco considers protected activity can’t have that used against them when applying for a job or housing here. Mahmood sponsored; Mandelman co-sponsored.