SF politics

SF politics

Imagine freeways along Lady Bird Lake in Austin, through Georgetown in Washington, along the beach in Santa Monica, through the French Quarter in New Orleans, or bisecting Cambridge between Harvard and MIT. Freeway builders had their sights set on all these places. They would've had their way, too, if not for the meddling protesters who foiled their schemes. The freeway revolt of the 1960s and '70s changed the course of American history, saving some of the nation's oldest and most-beautiful neighborhoods.

A man claimed to have a subpoena for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman after vaulting onto the stage at the beginning of Altman's highly-publicized conversation with Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Manny Yekutiel on Monday. Within moments of Kerr and Altman joining Yekutiel on stage at the Sydney Goldstein Theatre in downtown San Francisco, the man left his second-row seat and bolted onto the stage.

Jennifer Friedenbach, a homelessness advocate and nonprofit leader who was the main architect of the 2018 Proposition C to increase funding for homeless services, lost a vote on Monday to retain her seat at the table. Proposition C, dubbed "Our City, Our Home," created a new tax on businesses with more than $50 million in annual gross receipts to fund the city's homelessness services and housing programs.

Sup. Jackie Fielder is asking the board to approve a resolution calling on the city treasurer to move forward to create a municipal green bank. The supes have already approved the concept, and Fielder has five cosponsors, so unless one member objects and demands that the proposal be sent to committee, this will pass. That would start the process of figuring out how to pay for what could become the country's first municipal bank.

"This measure would hinder the city's comeback by making rides more expensive and hurting drivers," said CJ Macklin, director of communications at Lyft. "This would be particularly devastating for low-income communities who struggle to even access the Muni system and depend on ride-share to get around. It's the wrong move for San Francisco."

After a month-long firestorm that a hit-and-run suspect accused of killing two women while driving on meth could get a diversion program instead of facing trial, an SF Superior Court judge just ruled the case will indeed go to trial. One issue that largely fueled the 2022 recall of SF DA Chesa Boudin was the infamous case of Troy McAlister, who was accused of killing 27-year-old Hanako Abe and 60-year-old Elizabeth Platt in a New Year's Eve 2020 hit-and-run crash.

"I have serious concerns about the tactics and tactical judgment used [by] Officer Samayoa in this incident,"

I spoke with Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, who confirmed through her communications with ICE that Border Patrol operations are cancelled for the greater Bay Area - which includes Oakland - at this time.

There will never be enough taxes to make up for what the Mercury News says will be a $223 million federal cut. The county politicians have done nothing to reduce expenditures, and they've been negligent in not telling us the truth. It's obscene that County Executive James Williams would have asked for more in Measure A had there not been legal limits.

Roughly 30,000 people took BART to the "No Kings" rallies in the Bay Area. "Saturday saw 149,582 trips, which is 31,000 more trips than the previous Saturday-a 26 percent difference," explained BART's Michelle Robertson. "We anticipated the increase in ridership and ran a majority of 8-car trains on Saturday. We also had extra staffing at stations."

"This is what democracy looks like!"

Beautiful people out there, and it was a love fest, Kerr said. Music playing, everybody marching peacefully. Everyone I saw 100% loves our country. And as is our country's custom, if you don't agree with what your government is doing, then you peacefully protest, and that's how it should be. We are the democracy, we the people.

We have to live with it forever, so I felt like maybe we should give input on what we like and do not like. Maybe the wolf will pull off her head and it will actually be grandma. That's not going to happen, but I like to grab onto some optimism.

We appreciate that your office is considering a local ballot measure to fund Muni via a parcel tax. Even if a regional funding measure passes at the ballot, Muni will still face a growing annual deficit of over $150 million. The stakes could not be higher. San Francisco's economic recovery, climate goals, and basic mobility for working people all depend on a stable, well-funded public transit system.

Saturday's No Kings! demonstrations are tomorrow and I will be at the San Francisco march, screaming my head off. As Barbara Ehrenreich said, it feels good to get together with other people and yell! So c'mon, everybody, show up, and do the same-if the spirit so moves you. Jump up and down if you're hopping mad. Link arms and kick. If you don't want to scream your head off, maybe you want to dance your ass off.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economic recovery, and SB 395 will help many new businesses get low-cost liquor licenses to boost our recovery around Union Square and Yerba Buena,

The company that won the $5.9 million contract, OpenGov, had significant ties to Lurie: Advisory board member Katherine August-deWilde is a major donor to and sits on the board of Tipping Point Community, the foundation where Lurie served as CEO until 2019 and board chair until 2023. She and her husband donated $60,000 to a pro-Lurie PAC in the 2024 election and $100,000 to Lurie's inauguration. Its co-founder and former chairman Joe Lonsdale and CEO Zac Bookman are both major donors to Tipping Point.