July 2021
Cow Hollow Association Newsletter
In This Issue

Bus Route 43: Bring It Back Sooner
HOV Lanes on Lombard: Several Concerns
State Housing Bill SB 9: LA Times "Absolute Wrong Way"

Webinar: The History of Homelessness - 7/28 at 7pm
Webinar: SF Supervisor Redistricting - 8/19 at 6pm


Bus Route 43:
Bring It Back Sooner
As buses come back online with the increase in vaccinations, the 43 bus is slated to return to its full route in 2022. If you feel strongly that the 43 bus service should return to its full route sooner, please write to MTA asking them to accelerate the return of the full 43 bus route to August 2021. You can send public comment to SFMTA and the SFMTA Board of Directors at:


Please copy Supervisor Stefani catherine.stefani@sfgov.org and her Legislative Aide working on this, dominica.donovan@sfgov.org. 
HOV Lanes on Lombard:
Several Concerns
High-Occupancy Vehicles (HOV) are motor vehicles carrying more than a specified minimum number of people and therefore permitted to use a traffic lane reserved for such vehicles.

SFMTA has approved a temporary, 120-day test period for an HOV lane (right-most lane) on the MUNI 28 --19th Avenue bus line. It is scheduled to begin this summer. The HOV designation was allowed along Lombard and Richardson since they are considered state highways. SFMTA’s contention is that as traffic congestion returns, installing the HOV lanes would allow Muni, regional transit vehicles, and vehicles with two or more occupants to move more quickly through San Francisco without getting stuck in traffic. (see SF HOV lanes proposals).

While this may be feasible on some of the streets included in the SFMTA study, the Lombard/Richardson corridor is significantly different and our concerns include:

Residents & Businesses: The right-most lane is also used for private access to driveways and small business delivery vehicles. These local needs will disrupt the flow in the right-most lane and defeat the purpose of the HOV lane. It also raises serious concerns over the safety and efficiency of the HOV lane.

MUNI Bulb-Outs: MUNI and other transportation buses have many designated stops and bulb-outs for off-boarding and on-boarding along this corridor. Bulb-outs make the public transportation vehicles block the right-most lane while they are at their stops. Consequently, all the other vehicles allowed in the HOV lane will move out of this lane and into the remaining two lanes causing added lane changes and increased congestion.

Enforcement: The proposed HOV lanes will need significant traffic enforcement to be successful. Any vehicle needing to make a right turn off Lombard/Richardson will need to get into the HOV lane for the distance needed to make the turn. (Note that any vehicle turning right at an intersection will need to stop on green lights to allow pedestrians to make the east/west intersection crossing blocking all traffic in the HOV lane.) What if non-HOV eligible vehicles use the right lane for blocks at a time? The fine for illegally being in an HOV lane starts at $490 and goes up to $1,000. How will this be enforced? 

Action Item: This temporary test period is going to occur. It is the responsibility of all of us to monitor these changes and provide feedback to SFMTA.


SFMTA Contact Information
Erin McMillan, Public Information Officer
(415) 646-2350
State Housing Bill SB 9:
Absolute Wrong Way
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-07-09/california-affordable-housing-sb9

LA Times Op-Ed: The absolute wrong way to solve California’s affordable housing crisis

By CHRISTIAN HORVATH, OLIVIA VALENTINE, DREW BOYLES
JULY 9, 2021 4 AM PT

In recent years, a group of California lawmakers has been pushing for legislation to override locally approved zoning rules and permit denser development in residential neighborhoods. At the moment, a bill is rushing toward passage in the state Legislature that would dramatically and undemocratically rewrite land-use rules in California.

The bill is SB 9, written by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). If approved, it would effectively eliminate single-family zoning in wide swaths of California’s cities. Under its provisions, the owners of parcels currently zoned for single-family use would be allowed by right (subject to very limited environmental and other exceptions) to split their lots in two — and then to have up to two residential units on each lot.

In other words, a parcel currently zoned for only one family could soon have four families squeezed together.



To voice your concerns:
Click here for details on how to send your comments to legislators in Sacramento.

To learn more:
Webinar: The History of Homelessness
Hosted by Together SF
According to a recent poll conducted by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, 80% of respondents viewed addressing homelessness as a top priority. 

Do you ever wonder where this crisis came from and how it got so bad? Does it feel like homelessness always has been and always will be a part of life in our city?

Homelessness has a history and TogetherSF is here to tell it. Join them on Wednesday, July 28th at 7:00 pm for their upcoming webinar, History of Homelessness where they describe the national, state, and local failures that have made it difficult for so many to transition out of homelessness.

They are joined by their expert panel, Donald Whitehead, Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, and Conor Dougherty, author of Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream.

Different Ideas on Homelessness Solutions:

San Francisco Supervisor Redistricting
Hosted by League of Women Voters
Following each decennial census, San Francisco redraws the district lines of the Board of Supervisor districts to account for population changes. The Task Force works with an outside consultant to rebalance the population counts in each supervisorial district. The Task Force will make decisions on district lines based on the federal census and in accordance with the law and the criteria established in the Charter of the City and County of San Francisco Section 13.110, and make adjustments as appropriate based on public input at public hearings. The Task Force will convene no earlier than August 1, 2021 and must complete its work no later than April 15, 2022.

The League of Women Voters SF's next event is on Thursday, August 19 at 6:00 pm. It's about what a community of interest is and how you and your neighbors can define yours to get fair representation in government during the city's upcoming redistricting process.

It features speaker Jonathan Mehta Stein of California Common Cause, and is supported by SF Rising and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus.
Cow Hollow Association Board
David Bancroft, Anne Bertrand, Lori Brooke, Don Emmons,
Cynthia Gissler, Barbara Heffernan, Karen Laughlin, 
Claire Mills, Victoria Osman, Veronica Taisch, Geoff Wood