Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer, hknight@sfchronicle.com
The mayor also will be doing a little advocating for his own political future -- attending four fundraisers to supplement the $1 million already in his re-election campaign war chest.
Newsom arrived in New York on Sunday and spent most of Monday attending to his political donors, according to his press secretary, Nathan Ballard.
Meanwhile, a trip to a community court in Brooklyn was postponed; Newsom earlier this spring toured Manhattan's Midtown Community Court, which he is using as a model for his planned court in the Tenderloin. Due to open in late summer or early fall, the court would focus on prosecuting quality-of-life misdemeanors and infractions ranging from public urination to disorderly conduct.
Today, Newsom is due to travel to Washington, where he has a full schedule of meetings with federal officials, including Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department funds the San Francisco Housing Authority, which serves 32,000 San Francisco residents and operates 6,400 public housing units. Federal funds for public housing have been cut every year for the past several years.
Newsom's newly released budget proposal for 2007-08 includes $5 million to rebuild decrepit public housing developments in the southeast sector of the city through an initiative he has dubbed Hope SF. Newsom has said the money could be used to leverage millions of additional dollars, including a $95 million bond issue.
"The mayor's Hope SF plan is a priority, and he will be discussing that with our elected representatives," Ballard said.
Newsom is expected to push Jackson for more funding for public housing and supportive housing for homeless veterans. He also is expected to discuss resolving $15 million in outstanding judgments against the San Francisco Housing Authority. The judgments, stemming from a fatal house fire and two sexual harassment complaints, have led a local judge to threaten to jail the executive director of the local housing authority over failure to pay. HUD, however, has not given the required permission to the authority to make good on the judgments.
Newsom is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to discuss a variety of issues, including the cleanup of the Hunters Point shipyard, part of the mayor's strategy to persuade the 49ers to stay in San Francisco. Discussions also are expected to focus on President Bush's proposal to refigure the way the federal government funds social services for HIV and AIDS patients.
The mayor will end his trip Wednesday night by attending a gala reception and dinner honoring Pelosi's 20th year in Congress.
Chronicle staff writer Cecilia M. Vega contributed to this report.
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