The Weekly Digest (March 30, 2025)
Happy Sunday, Brionies! Here’s what you need to know about local politics this week and beyond:
San Francisco City Hall
The Board of Supervisors will be on legislative recess from March 31 through April 4, per the regularly scheduled Board meeting schedule.
Happenings around town
Briones Society events
Monthly Happy Hour, Thursday, April 10, 5:30-7:30pm
Other events of interest
Understanding Housing Series at Manny’s, March 31-April 3, 6-7pm:
Beyond Race: Richard Kahlenberg on Building Real Diversity at Our Colleges
Tuesday, April 1, 5:30pm, the Commonwealth Club
Holding on to Humanity – Bereaved Israelis & Palestinians for Peace
Wednesday, April 9, 7-8:30pm, JCCSF
Action items
Consider joining ConnectedSF in opposing (1) a sales tax increase to bail out our transportation agencies and (2) the removal of a car lane on Oak Street.
Oakland friends: support Loren Taylor for mayor. San Francisco and Oakland need each other to thrive, and Taylor is Oakland’s best shot.
What we’re reading
We’re starting to wonder if former Mayor London Breed had any friends who didn’t milk their connections for perks and goodies. Last year, Breed’s pal Sheryl Davis was forced to resign as head of the Dream Keeper Initiative amid reports of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest. (We took a deep dive into the Dream Keeper Initiative’s shenanigans on Briones Society podcast episode 14). This week, the Chronicle reported that F.O.B. (friend of Breed) Kimberly Ellis was placed on leave from her post as director of the Department on the Status of Women after it was revealed that she spent $80,000 to take “dynamic portraits” of her staff and to produce a video series about them. Ellis, who has called herself the “most powerful unelected person in California Democratic politics,” also hired a life coach pal to host a series of staff training sessions, costing nearly $85,000. The sessions included “an expenses-covered work retreat near Lake Tahoe, where the staff drank heavily and spent the night at a resort-like hotel.” Everyone loves a glow-up, but with a looming $876 million budget deficit, City staffers should opt for a staycation next year.
Speaking of field trips, a delegation of San Francisco supervisors recently flew to New York City to learn about its congestion pricing model. New Yorkers pay up to $9 to drive into the city at peak hours, and the tax generated $52 million in February alone. San Francisco’s transportation system could use the money, but our downtown doesn't have a congestion problem - we’ve got tumbleweeds blowing down Market Street, it’s so empty. As Supervisor Rafael Mandelman noted, "right now, we would love to see more congestion and folks going downtown.” This begs the question, why take a trip to NYC to solve a problem we don’t have?
On Tuesday, Mayor Lurie launched an integrated street teams model to streamline nine separate teams (previously scattered across police, fire, public works, and other departments) into one system organized by neighborhood. We like it! Godspeed.
This sounds familiar: Obama-appointed U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter blasted Los Angeles city and county officials last week over epic failures to track and manage more than $2.5 billion in public money intended to address homelessness. In a court hearing, Judge Carter told Mayor Karen Bass and other leaders, “We pay your bills. Figure this out.”
Quick hits
A few pieces on positive changes under the Lurie administration: San Francisco’s promising drug policy shift; S.F. is done being soft on drug users, and Coalition on Homelessness loses golden goose as Mayor Lurie makes long-needed changes to residency requirements
S.F. is weak and ineffective at preventing conflicts of interest, report finds
Trump’s Housing and Urban Development cuts have already begun for thousands of low-income SF renters
Deregulation in Argentina: Milei takes “deep chainsaw” to bureaucracy and red tape
Palate cleanser
This week in San Francisco history
On March 29, 1848, the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma led to the Gold Rush, causing San Francisco’s population to explode from 400 to 35,000.