SFGP WEEKLY For The Week of 8/4/05 - 8/11/05 This Week: ********************************************************** ************************************************** News: 8/2: Supervisors Should Reject Comcast Deal ********************************************************** Events: - 8/4: Public Input Sought in Selection of New Voting System - 8/8: Housing and Land Use Seminar - 8/11: Mujeres de Conciencia/Women of Conscience Fundraiser ********************************************************** Announcements: - Joke of the Week - Voter-Owned Elections - Become A Sustainer! ********************************************************** ********************************************************** News ***************************************** 8/2: Supervisors Should Reject Comcast Deal By Casey Mills Tomorrow the Rules Committee will be asked to rubberstamp a deal made by Mayor Gavin Newsom to extend San Francisco’s contract with cable provider Comcast. The Board of Supervisors should renegotiate the contract rather than flushing down the drain the first opportunity in 25 years to fix an awful agreement with a company American consumers rate lower than the IRS. The renegotiations represent an historic opening for strengthening cable workers’ and subscribers’ rights, obtaining Internet access for low-income people and non-profits, and involving the public throughout the process. The Board should not trade paltry giveaways from a corporate giant for a chance to prove it truly represents a progressive city. Read more at: http://www.beyondchron.org/ ****************************************************** ************************************* Events ************************************* Public Input Sought in Selection of New Voting System Thursday, August 4th- Friday, Sugust 12th 9am- 4pm San Francisco City Hall, Outside Rm. 48 The San Francisco Department of Elections is inviting members of the public to participate in a "mock election," featuring the two voting systems that the City is considering to replace its current voting equipment. The mock election will be held from August 1st through 12th, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, in City Hall outside of Room 48. (Please note that on Friday, August 12th, the last day of the mock election, voting will end at noon. Immediately after the voting is concluded, the vendors will demonstrate how to tabulate election results using the new voting equipment.) The Department of Elections is in the process of selecting a new voting system to meet new State and federal voter accessibility requirements for voters with, but not limited to, sight and mobility impairments, and verifiability of election results. Starting January 1, 2006, San Francisco will be required to place at least one fully accessible voting device at each polling place, and the voting system must provide a permanent paper record to verify election results. Approximately $8 million in State and federal funds is available to San Francisco to purchase a voting system that complies with these legal requirements. The City will use the new voting system starting at the June 2006 Statewide primary election. John Arntz, Director of Elections, explained: "To ensure that the new voting system not only complies with the new legal requirements, but also has a high level of acceptance among San Francisco voters, it is critical that we involve as many members of the public as possible in the selection process." To maximize public participation in this process, the Department of Elections is hosting the two-week mock election featuring the two voting system vendors who submitted proposals to the Department. Members of the public are invited to test the proposed voting systems and to complete a survey form about each one. Members of the public are also invited to observe the tabulation of election results following the mock election. The two vendors participating in the mock election are Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Voting Systems. For more information about the mock election, please contact Beth Lipski at (415) 554- 7780. *********************************************************** Housing and Land Use Seminar Monday, Sugust 8th 7pm-9pm First Baptist Church 7 Octavia Street, at Market St., San Francisco (on the historic F streetcar line) This month's topic: Smart Growth: What Does It Mean For San Francisco? Speakers: Tom Radulovich, Executive Director of Transportation for a Livable City, a grassroots activist organization working to balance a sustainable transportation system with complementary land uses; and Ninth District representative to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors. Chris Durazo, Community Planning Director, South of Market Community Action Network, a community organization committed to supporting the neighborhood improvement of the South of Market neighborhood. Gilda Gonzalez, Chief Executive Officer of the Unity Council, the non-profit community development organization responsible for Fruitvale Village, a transit oriented, mixed-use development located in the heart of Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood. This seminar will look at the growing movement defined as “smart growth”, a series of development policies aimed at minimizing dependence on auto transportation, reducing air pollution, protecting open space, and making more efficient use of land resources and existing infrastructure, to determine how its concepts and practices can best be implemented in San Francisco. For more information, contact HLU Co-chairs Jennifer Donlon at junipers.hill@gmail.com or David Wilbur at drwsf@yahoo.com *********************************************************** Mujeres de Conciencia/Women of Conscience Fundraiser Thursday, August 11th 6pm-9pm Offices of John Lira, Bay Direct Realty 3405 Cesar Chavez (corner of Mission Street) San Francisco Donations: $35.00, Students and Seniors $15.00. Tickets available at the door. (Your donation is tax deductible.) Community members are invited to an inspirational fundraiser to support the publication of Mujeres de Conciencia/Women of Conscience on Thursday, August 11, 2005 in San Francisco. Mujeres de Conciencia/Women of Conscience is the first book of its kind! This yet to be published book contains large black and white photographs with biographies of 75 California Latinas. Their hearts and commitment have a strong impact on the well-being of our Latino communities. These women are only a small segment of thousands of women and men who are committed to truth and social justice. We urge you to support the publication of this book through your participation in this fundraiser. Master of Ceremonies radio personality Marcos Gutierrez, Ed.D will host the event. Please join us for food, live entertainment, and prizes. We welcome you to come and meet with book participants. For more information on this event, please contact Nicky Trasviña at (510) 547–2766 For more information on the book project, please go to: <http://www.latinasforjustice.org/>www.latinasforjustice.org *********************************************************** ***************************************** Announcements: ********************** ************************************************************ Joke of the Week A Guide to U.S. Newspapers 1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country. 2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country. 3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country. 4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however like the smog statistics shown in pie charts. 5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it. 6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country. 7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train. 8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated. 9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are Newsom Democrats. 10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores. ************************************************************ Join the campaign for Voter Owned Elections! Voter Owned Elections is a revolutionary election reform measure that has been endorsed by the SF Green Party and every current and former elected Green official in San Francisco including Matt Gonzalez! What is Voter Owned Elections? The concept of Voter Owned Elections is simple: the public funds the campaigns of candidates who can demonstrate a wide base of community support by collecting a large number of small donations. In exchange, candidates agree to limit their private fundraising. Voter Owned Elections (also known as 'public financing of campaigns') is a progressive reform that helps ensure that candidates are accountable to the public, rather than big corporations, and creates a situation where grassroots candidates have enough resources to get their message into the hands of voters. San Franciscans for Voter Owned Elections is now working to bring Voter Owned Elections to the San Francisco mayor's race and we need your help! This is a people-driven campaign! Please visit our web site: www.voterownedelections.org to learn more and to get involved. ************************************************************ Become a Green Party Sustainer! As you may know, the SFGP is supported by our wonderful sustaining donors -- 175 and growing. In the next 12 months we hope to double that figure, and you can help us achieve our goal by signing up to make a regular contribution to the Green Party. Our sustainer program nearly pays all of our basic monthly operating expenses, including rent and utilities on the office, and drastically reduces the amount of work needed to raise money. Our sustainers free us up to do what we're really here for - to pursue Green values through the democratic system. Sustainers also ensure that we are able to keep our office, which has hosted numerous campaigns' headquarters including the successful Prop A, Instant Runoff Voting initiative. Becoming a Green Party sustainer is easy, fun, and secure! Online: http://www.sfgreenparty.org/makeadonation/makeadonation.html Phone: 415-701-7090 ************************************************************ For more info on our activities, please see our website, http://www.sfgreenparty.org. You can also email us questions at info@sfgreens.org. To send us news items (short blurb please, plain text only) for possible inclusion in the newsletter, email news@sfgreens.org. Please don't put these addresses on mailing lists; messages not specifically addressed to us won't go through. Submissions for Joke of the Week, or comments and questions on the content of the newsletter are welcomed by the editor at ladypest@hotmail.com