In short: Yes, you can count on another Great Highway ballot measure in 2026. All of San Francisco has the next several months to practice their bad Al Pacino "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in" impressions. Will this ballot measure win? No. Not even the people who will be ardently backing it expect it to win. So why do it?
As of publication, residents of San Francisco's District 4, comprising most of the Sunset from 7th Avenue out to the Pacific Ocean, do not have a representative on the city's Board of Supervisors; the 29-year-old former pet shop owner whom the mayor appointed to the position had to resign after around a week on the job. The cascading series of reasons is both very funny and a revealing look at the strange state of San Francisco local politics.
There has been much said about the Prop. C categories and the desire of some electeds to move money from housing to shelter. Their idea is typically explained that shelter is quicker to get up and running and less expensive. Neither are true. Housing First is an evidence-based model, has been massively researched and it works across the country. In SF, our supportive housing has a 97% success rate. Regardless of current political winds, nothing solves homelessness like a home. Obviously, building housing takes time and is expensive; however it does save money in both the long run and in the short term. It is worth the effort.
The day after Beya Alcaraz, Mayor Daniel Lurie's pick for District 4 supervisor, resigned from a post she had taken up just seven days earlier, political insiders in San Francisco were unified in their response: How could this happen? And, what happens now? Alcaraz, the only supervisor appointee in modern San Francisco history with zero political experience, was ousted hours after Mission Local found she admitted in writing to paying workers "under the table" and potentially dodging taxes, and just days after the San Francisco Standard found her former pet store was awash in dead animals and a rodent infestation.
Breed confirmed to Politico Friday that she is discussing a possible run with allies, including mentor Willie Brown, thus answering the question of what could be next for the ambitious former mayor. "I called a couple of people just to see what their thoughts were," Breed tells the site. "My text messages and phone have been ringing off the hook from a lot of people in San Francisco. It's important that San Franciscans have options. I want to explore whether I could potentially be one of those options."
The monolingual seniors depicted in the video, however, tell Mission Local that it's bogus. And they're mad. Over 60 percent of the Californians who voted in the state's Nov. 4 special election cast their ballots in favor of Prop. 50, a high-profile measure to gerrymander California's congressional map to add more seats for Democrats - a direct challenge to Trump's demand to gerrymander Democrats out of Congressional office in Republican-led states.
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.
"I'm going to lay out a hypothesis about why Trump's suddenly backing away from a crackdown in San Francisco (and possibly the rest of the Bay Area): 1) this place is organized, and 2) the wealthy, powerful people Trump listens to are especially vulnerable to organizing-driven-polarization. Two weeks ago, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff publicly mused that sending the National Guard to SF was a good idea. Now he's privately talking Trump out of it."
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.
Mayor Daniel Lurie has not appointed a new supervisor for D4, but already there's a strong candidate in the race to defeat the mayor's choice. Natalie Gee, labor and community organizer and chief of staff to Sup. Shamann Walton, announced Tuesday that she's running for the seat. Gee was born in San Francisco, went to local public schools, including Lowell High and SF State, and if offering an agenda that could appeal to many of the voters who tossed Joel Engardio out of office.
State Senator Scott Wiener made his big splash Wednesday morning by announcing he was running for Nancy Pelosi's seat in Congress, though it would have been an even bigger splash if that news had not already leaked last week. Though on this very same Wednesday morning, the publication Politico also made a big splash, reporting that District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan could run for that seat too, and indicated that Chan might even be the preferred successor of Nancy Pelosi herself.
President Trump spoke again about San Francisco at a White House news conference today thanks a lot, Benioff! spuriously claiming that "government officials" urged him to "start looking at San Francisco" for a National Guard deployment. Ironically, he claimed that San Francisco was "one of our great cities, 10 years ago, 15 years ago," clearly unaware that the city was being run by Gavin Newsom 15 years ago. [KRON4]
Several San Francisco supervisors expressed their disapproval of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's comments last week supporting Trump's threat to send the National Guard into the city. Supervisor Jackie Fielder vowed to boycott Dreamforce events this year. [NBC Bay Area] Our first significant rainfall of the season is rolling in today after 11 am, and will last into Tuesday. The rest of the week is expected to be dry. [KRON4]
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Salesforce founder Marc Benioff is doubling down on his support for President Trump - even welcoming National Guard troops in San Francisco. Benioff told the New York Times he would support President Trump sending troops to the city. MORE: A look at change in Silicon Valley as tech industry shifts to support Trump State Senator Scott Weiner reacted to Benioff's statement on X:
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will be 86 years old and running for her 21st term (!) in Congress should she run again in November 2026. It's no secret that Scott Wiener is itching to run for the seat, as is Pelosi's daughter Christine Pelosi, though neither would dare run unless Pelosi decided to retire. The same courtesy is not being extended by Pelosi challenger Saikat Chakrabarti, who's already declared he's running against Pelosi for the seat.
Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin is threatening to rile up a June 2026 ballot measure against Mayor Daniel Lurie's family zoning plan, and the union San Francisco Labor Council is joining the fight with him. Critics of Lurie's plan say that it could displace small businesses and rent-controlled tenants across town, and Peskin says that Lurie, like Supervisor Joel Engardio, would enrage Chinese-American voters with this move. [Chronicle]
"The termination of any of the current countries that receive Temporary Protected Status directly affects our immigrant communities in San Francisco," said District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who introduced a non-binding resolution urging the California federal delegation to urge Congress to establish a permanent pathway for Temporary Protected Status holders.
