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Tenderloin court funding locked up
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Related Topics: SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan to put a new kind of court in the crime- and drug-plagued Tenderloin neighborhood is in jeopardy after a Board of Supervisors committee Wednesday refused to approve a $500,000 allocation for the project.
The so-called Community Justice Center would be used for people in the Civic Center, Tenderloin and South of Market areas charged with misdemeanors and such nonviolent felonies as drug use and theft.
The new center would have a courtroom and social services under one roof, and those charged would be given the choice of being enrolled into social services or face the usual legal consequences.
On Wednesday, before the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn advocated for the new type of court, noting that, “criminal justice in San Francisco doesn’t work very well.”
The committee, however, voted 3-2 to not release $500,000 to fund the construction of two holding cells at the proposed court location at 555-575 Polk St.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who supported the release of funding along with Supervisor Carmen Chu, said the decision puts in jeopardy a $1 million federal grant to help pay for the court’s costs.
The center could cost up to $2.8 million annually, according to a City Controller’s report. The report also said that while the court could meet the needs of a population not benefiting from the current court structure, it might also duplicate existing programs.
Supervisor Chris Daly said he would not support the spending in light of service cuts The City is facing as a result of a projected $305 million budget deficit. Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Ross Mirkarimi also voted in opposition.
Mayorial spokesman Nathan Ballard said the supervisors “should be ashamed of themselves for trying to kill” a court that “has the capacity to transform lives.”
Ballard said the mayor would find a way to proceed nonetheless, adding that voters would “overwhelmingly support” the court.
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8:40 PM MST on Thu., May. 15, 2008 re: "Tenderloin court funding locked up"
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Examiner Reader said:
So can the voters just vote on this as a proposition. I bet it would win!
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Gretchen said:
Another example of Daly and his fellow travellers ignoring the wishes of the residents of the city in order to satisfy their petty agenda to thwart anything that Newsom favors. Daly - who is nothing but a self-promoting 6 year old crybaby - needs to continually pit his homeless, leftwing, giveaway agenda against anything that the Mayor wants, even when the Mayor is following the will of the people who want to see the city cleaned up. Community courts can work - and do work in NYC. Citizens of San Francisco applaud the concept and demand that the City move forward with a full fledged effort to install community courts. But Daly, who has never seen a good solution he couldn't dislike, is once again making it difficult for the will of the people to be realized. If he has his way, Daly will hold up funding so that the Court cannot succeed and then he'll sit back and say "see, I told you so." Daly is toxic.
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Examiner Reader said:
""Supervisor Chris Daly said he would not support the spending in light of service cuts The City is facing as a result of a projected $305 million budget deficit. Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Ross Mirkarimi also voted in opposition."" Things are truly out of control in District 6 why does this person Daly not get it?
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Native San Franciscan said:
If you want to know why San Francisco’s vagrancy problem only continues to get worse year after year, this vote by the supervisors to block the community court is a perfect example. I lived in New York when they implemented the community court programs there. Within six months, I noticed a sharp drop off in aggressive panhandling, defecation, urination and other quality of life offenses. The mayor himself acknowledged that homeless people continue to come to San Francisco. Why would someone who is ALREADY homeless come to a city with among the highest housing costs in the country unless it is to lead a life of parasitical vagrancy? As long as voters in San Francisco keeps electing ideological problem creators like Daly, Ammiano, etc. to the Board of Supervisors who seem intent on enabling vagrancy as a lifestyle rather then as a destructive behavior to be solved, this problem will only continue to get worse no matter how much money the city spends on it.
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Examiner Reader said:
This is the first time I agreed with Supervisor Chris Daly. The city just keeps on spending more and more money. Peoples jobs are going to be taken away(thousands of city workers)-The city officals should be looking at ways to help us out of the debt they created not trying to spend money and resources to futher there polictical careers.
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