The San Francisco Story of Progress
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom is proving what can happen when we put aside old-fashioned politics and start fighting together for sensible policy solutions.
Under Mayor Newsom’s leadership, San Francisco is the first, and still the only, city in America on its way to providing universal health care. For years, San Francisco leaders argued about how to address the health care crisis. Mayor Newsom decided it was time to stop arguing and start acting on proven facts. Today, Healthy San Francisco is proving that it is much less expensive to keep people well than it is to treat their sickness with high-cost interventions like emergency room visits. This bold initiative has already enrolled more than 38,000 previously uninsured San Franciscans and won praise all the way to the White House where President Barack Obama has said, “Instead of just talking about health care, mayors like Gavin Newsom in San Francisco have been ensuring that those in need receive it.”
While other California public schools are laying off teachers, San Francisco is giving teachers a raise and raising test scores. Mayor Newsom decided our children deserve more than the traditional political rhetoric from government leaders, they need real support. San Francisco now has one of the best performing urban school districts in America. While other cities in California fight over who is going to be in charge of schools, San Francisco has fought to support teachers and students through a remarkable Partnership for Achievement.
Politicians throughout California talk about the need to protect our environment. Few cities in America are doing more than San Francisco to address climate change, create green jobs and shape a sustainable economy. San Francisco recycles 70% of its waste, the highest recycling rate of any American city. It has implemented a pioneering local solar incentive program and has already rolled back carbon emissions beyond the Kyoto Protocols. And San Francisco has made it the highest civic priority to help communities that were locked out of the old industrial economy to gain new economic vitality as part of the emerging green economy.
While times are tough throughout California, San Francisco has a real plan to put residents back to work. Mayor Newsom helped create thousands of new high-wage jobs by attracting economic engines like the California Center for Regenerative Medicine. He is also implementing a local job stimulus strategy that will reward businesses that buy locally and create local jobs. And Mayor Newsom is working to make sure new jobs are available to residents through comprehensive new job training programs.
California is in fiscal chaos, with our state bond rating plummeting. In San Francisco, the bond rating was just increased because of sound fiscal management and the city’s Rainy Day reserve.
The state is putting up new barriers to a four-year college education. San Francisco is pulling them down, with a remarkable new initiative called San Francisco Promise that will guarantee admission to San Francisco State University to every public school student who qualifies.
And when the state and federal government have fallen down on their promises to fight poverty and help those most in need, Gavin Newsom has stepped up. Under Mayor Newsom’s leadership, San Francisco has implemented a local Earned Income Tax Credit that helps families earning less than $42,000 annually to keep more of their hard-earned money. Since its inception, San Francisco’s Working Families Credit has encouraged more than 24,000 low-income families in San Francisco to file taxes and claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. And, when the Bush administration gutted the successful Hope VI, Mayor Newsom took action. He created Hope SF, which is successfully leveraging local dollars to secure new state and federal money to rebuild San Francisco’s housing projects.
Time after time, on issue after issue, San Francisco is leading the state with bold new solutions and proven policy ideas. All Californians are paying the price for the poverty of new ideas in state government. Under Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco has generated a wealth of new ideas that look beyond the tired slogans of yesterday’s politics to forge new solutions for the California of tomorrow.
San Francisco’s Progress by the Numbers
• Number of individuals enrolled in the universal health care program Healthy San Francisco: 38,259 as of March 28, 2009 (Source: SF DPH)
• Number of homeless off the streets: 9,293 – a 38% decline since 2004 (Source: SF HSA)
• Number of supportive housing units created to house the homeless: 1,534 (Source: Mayor’s Office of Housing)
• Number of children attending preschool through Preschool for All: 2,400 for 2008-09; 3,000 projected for 2009-10 (Source: SF First Five Commission)
• Number of children enrolled in enrichment programs through Afterschool for All: 25,795 (Source: SF DCYF)
• Amount invested in public education: $181,210,776 (Source: Mayor’s Budget Office)
• Amount invested in violence prevention: $250.2 million (Source: Mayor’s Budget Office).
• Number of officers walking a foot beat: 147 walking 610 foot beats weekly (Source: SFPD)
• Reached mandated officer staffing level for the first time: 1,971 police officers (Source: SFPD)
• Amount of funding committed to clean up Hunters Point Shipyard: $428 million (Source: US Federal Government)
• San Francisco’s unemployment rate through March 2009: 9% (11.2% California; 8.5% national) (Source: Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development)
• Number of new companies since 2004: 169 (Source: SF Controller)
• Number of new companies headquartered since 2004: 91 (Source: SF Controller)
