FROM THE SUPERVISOR'S CHAMBERS
Working together for better neighborhoods

Dear Neighbors:

I am profoundly grateful to you for twice giving me the honor to serve as your supervisor, to work for you and with you to improve the quality of our neighborhoods, and to represent common sense at the Board of Supervisors.

Together we took on challenges that will have lasting impacts on District 2. We worked through the Marina Library and Moscone Recreation Center renovations and watched them open to everyone’s delight. Through much perseverance, the Marina Yacht Harbor is on course for renovation with a project completion date of summer 2012.

We worked with the Maybeck Foundation to restore and renovate one of San Francisco’s most treasured landmarks, the Palace of Fine Arts. As the last monument of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition still located on its original site, the Palace is an important part of San Francisco history. I am proud of what we have accomplished, as the Palace will forever remain a breathtaking backdrop to our city.

Union Street is thriving again and storefronts once vacant are lively again with the help of our restaurant legislation. Collaboration was the key as neighbors and merchants worked with us to create legislation that would stimulate business and respect the neighborhood’s concerns.

With your support, we took on what seemed like insurmountable challenges. When California Pacific Medical Center stated they intended to close St. Luke’s Hospital by December 2009, we held hearings, created a blue ribbon panel, and secured a commitment from CPMC to invest $220 million to rebuild St. Luke’s.

San Franciscans were given a chance to breathe cleaner air when we stood up to those who wanted to replace the polluting Mirant power plant with new, fossil-fuel-spewing smokestacks. I advocated early on that spending $250 million on fossil fuel plants that will harm our health and earth for the next 25 years was a costly mistake.

When we introduced legislation to require warning labels about the dangers of cold and cough medication for children under the age of 2, the FDA soon followed suit and issued an advisory recommending parents stop giving babies cold medication due to the adverse side effects and sometimes death. Due to the pressure, the over-the-counter drug industry voluntarily took the products off the market and made new labels warning parents not to give cold and cough medicine to children under the age of 4. Government research just found that removing cough and cold medicines for very young children from store shelves led to a big decline in emergency room visits for bad reactions to the drugs.

When faced with enormous changes in the Presidio, including the development of the Main Parade Ground that would greatly impact our surrounding neighborhoods, we created the Presidio Neighborhood Representative Work Group. The PNRWG studied the proposals, held hearings and made recommendations for change. In the end, our concerns were heard, and the Presidio altered their course.

These are just a few of our accomplishments. I cannot thank our neighborhood and merchant leaders enough for their hard work and dedication to District 2 and to San Francisco. I am also grateful to each and every one of you who called the office or sent an e-mail voicing your concerns. Your participation in our government allowed us to be in step with issues facing the district and the City.

Although my time as supervisor is coming to end, I assure you my days of service to my community have not. I will always remain committed to improving the quality of life of every San Franciscan and making San Francisco a city where families can thrive and where people can prosper.

I leave knowing that District 2 is in good hands with Supervisor-elect Mark Farrell. Born and raised in District 2, Mark understands the needs of our community and will continue to represent those needs at City Hall.

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as your district supervisor.

All my best, Michela

Supervisor Alioto-Pier can be reached at 415-554-7752 or [email protected].