The Weekly Digest (March 16, 2025)
Happy Sunday, Brionies! Here’s what you need to know about local politics this week and beyond:
San Francisco City Hall
Monday, March 17 at 1:30pm: Regular meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee (agenda here):
Item 2: Ordinance amending the Planning Code to allow tourist hotels and motels to be used as interim housing for the homeless. The board package notes that hotel occupancy rates have not recovered since Covid and the City lacks sufficient shelter sites for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. Therefore, “it is reasonable for the City to partner with underutilized and vacant hotels and motels to provide safe housing and services for individuals in need of housing.” We urge the Supervisors to listen to neighborhood residents and businesses who oppose the move and remember that it cost San Francisco tens of millions of dollars in legal settlements to compensate hotel owners whose properties were damaged through the shelter-in-place program. Covid-era federal funding has run dry and we doubt the DOGE crew will write another check, so this could be an expensive move.
Tuesday, March 18 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda here):
Items 6-9: Resolutions authorizing the Office of Contract Administration to increase the not-to-exceed amounts for four contracts to purchase technology. Each of the four contracts had an original not-to-exceed amount of $20 million for a four-year term, but the proposed new amounts exceed that number by multiples: $85,014,000 to XTech JV, $61,065,000 to ISSSquared, Inc., $53,858,000 to Insight Public Sector, Inc., and $42,413,000 to Cornerstone Technology Partners II JV. Tech bros, here’s an opportunity for you to rehab your image: review these contracts and let us know if San Francisco is about to get fleeced. Thx!
Item 19: Hearing of the Board sitting as a committee of the whole to receive updates on the United States Department of Justice recommendations regarding the Police Department.
Action item
Senate Bill 436 is another misguided attempt by California legislators to solve the housing crunch. If enacted, the law will scare landlords out of the market by making it nearly impossible to evict a tenant for nonpayment. You can register your opposition here.
Happenings around town
Briones Society events
Briones 101, Thursday, March 27 at 5pm
What is the Briones Society? What is our mission and what are our core principles? How can you get involved? And where the heck does the name “Briones” come from? Join us for a half-hour Zoom meeting to learn the answers to these questions and more. We look forward to meeting you!
Other events of interest
Officer-Involved Shooting Town Hall Meeting, Tuesday, March 18, 3-4pm, online
Ingleside District, Tuesday, March 18, 6-7pm
Southern District, Wednesday, March 19, 6-7pm
Central District, Thursday, March 20, 5-6pm
Taraval District, Thursday, March 20, 6-7pm
A Conversation with Mayor Daniel Lurie, Tuesday, March 25, 6-7pm, Manny’s
What we’re reading
Last week, we asked readers to email state lawmakers to protest Assembly Bill 1333, a bill that would have made it harder to claim self defense. Good news! Assemblymember Rick Zbur announced he intends to withdraw the bill. Zbur claimed that “misleading information” caused the bill to fail, but as one former law enforcement officer said, “Californians today want tougher crime laws and to defend themselves if they need to. This was way off the mark.”
A year ago, Governor Newsom boasted that California would be the first state to offer free healthcare to all, regardless of immigration status. Unfortunately, this has turned out to be slightly more expensive than estimated – actually, three times more expensive. Originally predicted to cost $3 billion, the total bill this year will be $9.5 billion. The state finance department attributes the spike to “higher-than-anticipated enrollment, and higher pharmacy costs.” On Wednesday, the finance department sent a letter informing legislators that the state would need a $3.4 billion loan to cover Medi-Cal expenditures through the end of March. As Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio put it: “Gavin Newsom has now put Medi-Cal on the brink of financial collapse because he decided to gift free health care to illegal immigrants a year ago. It’s time for this madness to stop.”
Quick hits
Great Highway park opponents sue city, alleging Prop K's closure of the roadway was unlawful
With SFUSD budget cuts ahead, schools must combine two grades into one class
S.F. mural vandalized less than a day after Great Highway’s permanent closure to cars
Two Honduran nationals sentenced in San Francisco for drug trafficking
How a new ‘Ethnic Studies’ curriculum promotes antisemitism in California
This week in San Francisco history
On March 17, 1851, San Francisco held its first St. Patrick's Day celebration, featuring a gathering at Hayes Valley Park followed by a Shamrock Ball at a nearby bar.