The Weekly Digest (July 30, 2023)
Happy Sunday, Brionies!
Here’s what you need to know about San Francisco politics this week and beyond:
City Hall
The Board of Supervisors is enjoying its August recess. In other words, enjoy San Francisco’s one month of good governance.
Action item
State Assembly Member Isaac Bryan has introduced a bill to decriminalize fare evasion on BART. Register your opposition here.
Happenings around town
Mission Local Presents: A Conversation with Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Monday, July 31 at 6pm, Manny’s
The Living City: Restoring Life in Downtown San Francisco by Improving the Public Realm
Tuesday, August 1 at 12:30pm, SPUR Urban Center
You Will Own Nothing: Webinar with New York Times bestselling author Carol Roth
Wednesday, August 2 at 11am, online
What we’re reading
The San Francisco Standard reports on an evergreen topic: barriers to treatment for drug addiction. Individuals quoted in the article explain that rampant open drug scenes undermine their efforts to get sober by creating a constant source of temptation. This is another reason why enforcing drug laws in our public spaces is critical to ending this city’s addiction crisis.
In the fight against fentanyl, San Francisco’s Black leaders have called upon the City to invest in abstinence-based programs and increase transparency in the contracting process for treatment providers. We could not agree more.
Supervisor Ahsha Safai’s increasingly quixotic campaign for mayor hit another road bump when it was revealed that two convicted felons with ties to the construction industry hosted a benefit on his behalf. The good supervisor chalked the whole thing up to a “misunderstanding.”
Undaunted by California students’ dismally low proficiency in math, the California State Board of Education has adopted a new K-12 mathematics framework that centers “equity” – instead of, you know, numeracy – as its guiding principle. The new curriculum skips over boring times-tables for fun ideas like “math identity rainbows,” in which students weave colored cords to represent different aspects of a classroom community. The curriculum also advocates indoctrinating teaching policy issues, such as the desirability of the so-called “living wage.” Unfortunately for California families, we fear this progressive tinkering will lead to an even greater achievement gap between the wealthy (who can afford private schools and Kumon classes) and everyone else.
“San Francisco was never a model of good government,” says Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi. Indeed, with the city in the throes of an economic quagmire and no signs that our financial situation will improve any time soon, San Francisco has adopted its biggest budget ever and is blowing through its pre-pandemic reserves. Did anyone at City Hall apply “math identity rainbows” when tallying up this budget?
Who says San Francisco’s economic collapse is all bad? Downtown traffic has fallen 41% from 2019. Sneak in those FiDi joyrides while you still can!
Quick hits