LAGUNA HONDA: Still No Plan, Brown Says
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) said in a news conference yesterday "there is still no plan in place for replacing Laguna Honda Hospital," and that he was still looking for "imaginative proposals," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "I'm not opposed to any idea. I want to see what's practical and what we can have success with," Brown said. The city acquiesced last week to "long-standing" demands that aging long-term care facility for the chronically ill be replaced. The mayor suggested that the winning idea may come from private developers. "Building supportive housing through a process unrelated to the city may be a way in which we further comply with the [federal] rules and regulations. Off the top of my head, the business of doing supportive housing could be self-financing. ... That might make some form of revenue bonding possible," he said.
Not In November
Supporters have pressed for a referendum to be placed on the November 3 ballot. Brown said yesterday that "November is too soon. We've got nothing in place." As an alternative, the mayor suggested a spring 1999 ballot initiative, however no other elections are scheduled at that time (Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/15). Click Laguna Honda for recent California Healthline coverage of this issue.