It’s not often that I agree with a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, let alone a member of the Green Party, but today is one of those rare occassions. It seems that the city of San Francisco has created a $160,000 a-year job for the urgently needed position of…drumroll please….Director of Climate Protection Initiatives.
The voice of reason, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the only Green Party member on the Board of Supervisors,
“Although it sounds very well intentioned, and perhaps even necessary, I’m concerned this is a case where eco-chic has gone out of control.”
You think?
SF Chronicle, February 20
Mayor’s climate aide gets $160,000 a year
In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.
One might expect someone with such an exalted handle to solve global warming and save the rain forest all in a day’s work.
But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll.
San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate issues at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It’s not like San Francisco is swimming in cash. How can this kind of nonsense can be justified at a time when the city is cutting basic healthcare services? And I thought being a taxpayer in Massachusetts was frustrating.
February 20
Crowd fights health care cuts
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) – With more than $33 million in budget cuts proposed for The City’s Department of Public Health, a crowd packed a City Hall meeting room Tuesday, spilling into the hallway to lobby for local health services and programs on the chopping block. With The City facing a projected $233 million budget deficit for next fiscal year, which starts July 1, Mayor Gavin Newsom asked city departments to cut budgets by 8 percent, as well as identify an additional 5 percent in contingency cuts.
February 20
Coalition Fights Back Against Mayor’s Budget Cuts
“..the Mayor has announced $18 million in mid-year budget cuts. These would eliminate 155 beds at Laguna Honda as well as chronic care nurses, the Workers Comp Clinic at SF General, Busters Place, along with 15 percent in cuts to “community program services.â€
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom endorsed Hillary Clinton for president so I did a litlle Googling and you’ll never guess where the big announcement was made,
Clinton …accepted Newsom’s endorsement on the academy’s unfinished “living roof,” which these days looks like a bumpy mound of dirt dotted with windows and tiny plants. When completed, it will be the biggest “sustainable” roof in the world, supporting 1.7 million plants, including strawberries and California poppies.
Of course it was.
Hat Tip: Megan McArdle, guest blogging at Instapundit