The Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors met on March 9, 2026, chaired by Supervisor Miranda Melgar, with Vice Chair Cheyenne Chen and Member Bilal Mahmud. The committee considered three agenda items: a commemorative street naming, a firehouse landmark designation, and a Special Use District for a Holocaust Center.
Good afternoon, everyone. This meeting will come to order. Welcome to the March 9th, 2026 regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. I'm Supervisor Miranda Melgar, Chair of the Committee, joined by Vice Chair, Supervisor Cheyenne Chen and Supervisor Bilal Mahmud. The committee clerk today is Mr. John Carroll. I would also like to acknowledge Jeanette Egonlauf at SFGov TV for staffing us during this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Please ensure to please ensure that you silence your cell phones and other electronic devices you may brought with you into the chamber. Documents to be included as part of any of today's files can be submitted directly to me. Public comment will be taken on each item on today's agenda when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called. Please line up to speak along your right-hand side of this room. Alternatively, you may submit your public comment in writing in either follow either of the following ways. First, you may email your comments to me at J-O-H-N period C-A-R-R-O-L-L at SFGOV.org. Or you may send your written comments via U.S. Postal Service to our office in City Hall. The address is one Dr. Carlton B. Goodlit Place, Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102. If you submit public comment in writing, I will forward your comments to the members of this committee and also include your comments as part of the official file on which you are commenting. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of March 17th, 2026, unless otherwise stated. Thank you so much. Agenda item number one is a resolution adding the commemorative street name James Richards Way on Oakdale Avenue between Third Street and Newell Street. This item is on our agenda as a potential committee report. It may be sent to the Board of Supervisors for consideration tomorrow, March 10th, 2026. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Chair Melgar, and thank you to the committee. Colleagues, James Richards is a community trailblazer that is responsible for providing jobs for hundreds of District 10 residents and people across all of San Francisco for decades. He is also an electrician by trade and has provided opportunities for entry into the trades, not just for electricians, but for trades across the board. He fought early in life with the Big Five with the likes of Eloise Westbrook, OC Ola Washington, Julia Commer, Ethel Garlington, and Bertha Freeman for housing rights and accessibility for low-income and black people in the city. And this is how his organizing began. James Richards also co-founded Aboriginal Black Man United and is responsible for community building that has led to successes never before seen. He created a legacy of ensuring that residents in their own neighborhoods have the first opportunity to work on development projects and receive the jobs benefits available through these projects. He was a key instrument of achieving local mandatory hiring goals on projects funded by the city and county of San Francisco and legislation here in San Francisco, along with Supervisor Walton, all of labor and community at the time. In recognition of the very same location of the tragic shooting of his friend and community member outside of the Bayvie Opera House as well as the longtime headquarters of ABU for many years. This resolution commemoratively renames one block of Oakdale Avenue east of third to James Richards Way. And I just want to thank the committee for hearing this this morning. I also want to say that I hope that you can move this forward with the recommendation as a committee report. And there is a slight amendment that I will be requesting that on line one, page one, we change from we we add a S to Richard. And also on page one line three, we add a S to Richard because right now it reads James Richard way, and it should say James Richards way. But thank you so much. And I know that we will have some public comment on this item. Thank you so much. And uh amendment noted. Um I don't see anyone on the roster with questions or comments. Uh please add me as a co-sponsor, Mr. Clerk. Uh, and thank you so much, uh, Supervisor Walton.