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Prop A reinforces the Embarcadero seawall
Published on 10/12/18, 10:00 AM
If passed, this would be the beginning of an estimated $5B, 30-year undertaking.
What’s up with our seawall?
It ain’t doing so hot. SF’s Embarcadero seawall is slowly falling apart, which is why the BoS unanimously voted to put Prop A, a $425M bond measure, on the ballot. The goal is to protect our waterfront from potential earthquake damage and flooding, but the measure only covers 85% of a proposed $500M three-part renovation project. A complete overhaul of the seawall would cost up to $5B.
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Sign upWhat is this?
How’s this going to be paid for?
Prop A proposes paying for seawall repairs with another good ‘ole general obligation bond, which is when the City basically says, “Hey, we need to spend $425M, but don’t want to charge everyone all at once. So we’ll borrow the money from investors instead, and set up a payment plan, so ya’ll can pay it back over time.”
For Prop A, payments would average about $30M a year over the next 25 years, paid for by a property tax assessment that would approximately cost about 76¢ per $1,000 of assessed property value. For instance, a $1M property would pay an extra $76.70 of taxes every year. Keep in mind: the City doesn’t expect property taxes to increase because Prop A bonds would strategically replace other expiring bonds.
For Prop A, payments would average about $30M a year over the next 25 years, paid for by a property tax assessment that would approximately cost about 76¢ per $1,000 of assessed property value. For instance, a $1M property would pay an extra $76.70 of taxes every year. Keep in mind: the City doesn’t expect property taxes to increase because Prop A bonds would strategically replace other expiring bonds.
Okay, why are we doing this now?
Well, we built our Seawall over a 100 years ago on a layer of foundation called “young bay mud.” It turns out YBM is especially unstable during earthquakes, and the Port of SF found that if we get hit by The Next Big One, we’re kind of screwed, or more specifically, the Seawall could collapse, take down thousands of waterfront properties, cause flooding, and prevent an effective emergency response.
😱😱😱
Oh, and officials also think a combination of stronger storms and rising sea levels (global warming, remember?) could threaten our seawall, and flood the Transbay Tube and other BART/MUNI tunnels.
Are there downsides?
For sure. SF’s Libertarian Party argues the Port of San Francisco is poorly managed and we shouldn’t trust them with such a large sum of money. They also make the point that the City should have started planning and saving for seawall construction long before Prop A rather than propose it as an emergency measure. Moreover, the seawall only protects wealthy businesses along the waterfront, not the rest of the city, and should be paid for by those who will directly benefit from the construction.
That being said, a lot of people support Prop A too, including the SF Democratic Party and the SF Republican Party, Mayor London Breed, the Police Chief, Fire Chief, and the Sheriff, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, Save the Bay, the Affordable Housing Alliance, the leaders of BART and San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency...okay, we’ll stop there.
That being said, a lot of people support Prop A too, including the SF Democratic Party and the SF Republican Party, Mayor London Breed, the Police Chief, Fire Chief, and the Sheriff, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, Save the Bay, the Affordable Housing Alliance, the leaders of BART and San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency...okay, we’ll stop there.
More reading
No on Prop A
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
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Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018
Pretty much all rights reserved © By The Bay 2018