SF League of Conservation Voters

Board of Supervisor Questionnaire

San Francisco League of Conservation Voters

Name: Rob Anderson

District: 5

1) What are the top 3 environmental issues facing San Francisco?

1. Replace all diesel Muni buses and give all other diesel buses that operate in SF---tour buses, school buses, etc.---a deadline beyond which they won't be allowed on city streets.

2. Invest in Muni to make it a better alternative to driving

3. Stop all the anti-car policies that make it difficult to drive in SF.

2) What can the city do to improve San Francisco's natural and urban environment?

Seems like it's in pretty good shape as it is. But the city's anti-car policies are misguided. Making it difficult for cars to drive and park in the city is counter-productive, since it will make traffic worse for everyone, including Muni and, importantly, the millions of tourists who drive in SF every year (tourism is our largest industry).

3) How do you think we should balance the recreational uses with protecting San Francisco's natural areas and green spaces? What can the city do to better provide natural habitats, parks, and more trees?

These big music concerts in Golden Gate Park are a bad idea. They not only degrade the park but they disrupt the contiguous neighborhoods. And the mayor's policy of keeping the homeless out of the parks needs to be continued indefinitely.

4) What qualifications would you consider to be most important in Planning Commission appointees?

Nothing but some intelligence is needed for that position, a qualification most of the present commissioners seem to lack.

5) What measures would you take to encourage San Franciscans to get out of their cars?

Muni is the only realistic alternative to driving for the overwhelming majority of city residents. Muni needs more buses and more drivers. Stop making traffic unnecessarily worse with anti-car policies and keep the bicycle fantasists from redesigning city streets on behalf of that small minority.

6) How do you suggest we address environmental justice issues in San Francisco?

We could start by locating the next power plant in a neighborhood other than Hunters Point. How about the Marina?

7) What, if anything, would you do to change the way the City manages its water supply, wastewater, and storm water runoff?

I don't know anything about that.

8) What are some concrete steps you will implement as a Supervisor to help our city do its share to address global warming?

Seems like the mayor and the Board of Supervisors are more or less on top of that---to hear them tell it, at least. One thing our city officials can do to give the citizenry a break: stop talking about global warming so much. If we have to listen to this sanctimonious, saving-the-planet rhetoric much longer, the death of the planet is going to seem like the better alternative.

9) Are you in support of or against Proposition H - Supporting Clean Energy Deadlines on the upcoming November 2008 ballot?

I'm against it. The mayor and the Board of Supervisors already have us awash in red ink, and they and the unions seem to think city government is a jobs program. Why should anyone think they will create a public power bureaucracy that operates any differently? P.G.&E. is doing a good job. Leave them alone.

10) How did you vote on the 2007 Proposition H Measure entitled "Parking for Neighborhoods"?

I voted for it.

11) Why should SFLCV endorse you?

Maybe you shouldn't, though of course I think I'm the best candidate. Supervisor Mirkarimi represents perfectly everything that's wrong with SF progressivism: he's aggressively pro-development (Rincon Hill, the Market/Octavia Plan, the UC/Evans development on lower Haight Street); he supports Critical Mass and whatever the SF Bicycle Coalition wants to do to our streets; and he's been AWOL on the homeless issue, which Mayor Newsom has been very good on. On top of that, he likes to cover all this bad policy with a patina of left-wing rhetoric. Just awful.