San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, other city leaders, and members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce gathered in Chinatown on Thursday morning to bolster support for a new earthquake preparedness bond on the June ballot.
If approved by voters, the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond — also known as Proposition A — would raise $535 million over the next 30 years that would finance the seismic retrofits of emergency service buildings, replace aging infrastructure, and fund an overhaul of the 110-year old Muni bus garage at Potrero Yard so public services in San Francisco remain operational after a major natural disaster.
Lurie pushed for residents to vote yes on Prop A in the upcoming election on June 2. He said it was important that the city take preventative actions to ensure first responders can effectively do their job following an earthquake, fire, or other type of city-wide disaster.
“San Francisco has learned through painful experience that in a major disaster, it is not just the earthquake that devastates a city, it is the fire that follows,” said Lurie. “Preparing now will save lives, protect homes and businesses and reduce long term economic damage.”
Sam Gebler is the president of the San Francisco Fire Department Local 798 union, and said the bond would fund new connections to water supplies for fires and add additional redundancies in case fire hydrants ran dry. He added that the funds would be used to bring old firehouses at risk of collapsing during an earthquake up to date.
“We currently have six stations that will either collapse or be red-tagged in the event of an earthquake,” said Gebler. “That means that you could have all the water in the world, but if those firehouses collapse on the firefighters, we have to save our injured members before we can put out fires.”
Supervisor Danny Sauter, who represents parts of Chinatown and North Beach, said nearby San Francisco Fire Department Station No. 2 was one of the firehouses in poor condition and needed immediate repairs. He framed the bond measure as an opportunity to help responders who help take care of the public.
“This is the station that if you’re in trouble in Chinatown, if you’re in trouble downtown, or in North Beach, those are the firefighters that are going to come to support you,” said Sauter. “We need to take care of them as well.”
The bond funds would be split between several first responder agencies and infrastructure projects. Approximately $130 million would be used for a dedicated high-pressure water system separate from the regular water supply, with a particular expansion focus on neighborhoods with an inadequate system like the west side of the city.
About $100 million would go toward firefighting facilities and $72 million toward police facilities for earthquake retrofits. An additional $33 million would be used for retrofits at other “public safety” facilities, as determined by a bond oversight commission.
The Muni bus storage and maintenance facility at Potrero Yard is the largest single allocation of the bond, coming out to about $200 million. Like the other projects in the bond, it would be used to improve and retrofit the garage so it will remain operational after a major earthquake.
Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said the projects in the bond are “must haves” for the city. He said the bond would not increase property tax rates.
“This does not increase property tax rates for anybody,” said Mandelman. “The new bonds will be issued as old bonds are retired and so what people see on their property tax bill should not change.”