By Tim Redmond :48hills – excerpt

Last-minute Mandelman move seeks to allow widespread housing demolition—potentially dooming Chan’s affordable-housing measure.

The Board of Supes delayed consideration of an affordable-housing measure today after a hearing that showed how the fall campaign on this critical issue may play out.

The San Francisco Labor Council and some construction unions are siding with Sup. Connie Chan’s measure, which would give developers a valuable fast-track process for projects that are 100 percent affordable or contain a significant number of units affordable to people who make less than 120 percent of Area Median Income.

But the Yimbys, who have their own ballot measure that raises the limit of “affordability” to 140 percent of AMI, have managed to get some labor folks, including members of the Carpenters Union, to side with them.

During public comment, a number of union members said they sided with the Yimby measure and opposed Chan’s plan.

That, Chan said, showed that the Yimbys were seeking to “divide the labor movement.” Chan’s measure sets higher labor standards for affordable-housing production.

Then we saw a perhaps unexpected twist: Sup. Rafael Mandelman offered an amendment to the Chan measure that would allow for-profit developers to get fast-track approval (that is, no public hearings, no appeals) to demolish existing housing in any neighborhood and build up to nine new units…(more)

If any of this make any sense read on. It feels like whatever is contaminating Washington has hit SF City Hall. It is getting hard to figure out who is playing what game and how many sides there are now. Supervisors may deny the amendments and voters have the option of opposing all of the measures. Get ready for a lot more mail and email than you want arriving daily as they try to outspend each other.