The Weekly Digest (March 9, 2025)
Happy Sunday, Brionies! Here’s what you need to know about local politics this week and beyond:
San Francisco City Hall
Monday, March 10 at 10am: Regular meeting of the Rules Committee (agenda here):
Item 2: Hearing to consider appointing seven members to the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Advisory Committee. Weren't we just talking about how the City has too many commissions and committees? This particular group will decide how the City should spend the penny-per-ounce tax levied against those that “initially distribute” sugary drinks (in other words, the companies that sell them to retailers). Democracy in action.
Tuesday, March 11 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda here):
Item 1: Mayor Lurie will make his monthly visit to the Board. Supervisor Jackie Fielder requested a discussion on “displacement effects into the Mission and the comprehensive strategy to address the drug crisis.” Like her predecessor, Hillary Ronen, we expect Supervisor Fielder will insist that her district receive more police resources even though we are just a few years removed from her insisting the police are an unnecessary institution.
Item 14: Ordinance to suspend the Empty Homes Tax. In 2022, San Francisco passed a law that levied a tax on residential properties that remained vacant for more than 182 days. Opponents challenged the law on grounds that it violated the US Constitution's Taking Clause. In November, a judge struck down the law. A welcome loss for the pernicious progressive belief that one’s property really isn’t one’s property.
Happenings around town
Briones Society events
Thursday, March 13 at 5:30pm, location upon RSVP
Thursday, March 27 at 5pm, virtual
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
Coffee with ConnectedSF: SFMTA Deep Dive
Tuesday, March 11 at 9am
What’s with the $320 million fiscal cliff? What is SFMTA doing to close the gap? What should SFMTA be doing?
Tuesday, March 11 at 5pm
Inside City Hall: Ned Segal on Housing & Economic Development
Tuesday, March 11 at 6:30pm, Manny’s
What we’re reading
Add electric vehicles to the ever expanding list of things that progressives now think are bad. Increased EV usage has led to a decline in California’s gas consumption (wasn’t that the point?). And, as anyone who has had the misfortune of going to a California gas station knows, gasoline sales provide a lot of tax revenue to the state. Thus, the state has less money to pay for its long list of goodies. The progressive solution is hardly inspiring or surprising: “new taxes or fees that could hinge on how many miles a driver travels, or how many cars a household owns.” We are begging Democrats to start considering unexpected consequences before they act. Just once.
Gavin Newsom’s insatiable desire to be president knows no bounds. The Gav spoke with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on the former’s new podcast this week, where he broke from Democratic Party orthodoxy and called the practice of allowing transgender girls to compete in women’s sports “deeply unfair.”
We have a judge problem in San Francisco that San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins is trying to work around. Earlier this week the DA’s Office launched a “blanket challenge” against Superior Court Judge Michelle Tong, accusing her of incompetence — which she has in spades. As a public defender, Tong let a client’s sweetheart deal of one year in prison lapse because Tong decided to go on vacation without informing the prosecution her client wanted the offer. Her client ended up in prison for three years. On the bench, Tong ordered a husband who obtained a restraining order against his abusive wife to pay the wife $20 thousand in legal fees. Tong then let the wife take the couple’s child to Kazakhstan despite the husband’s fears they wouldn’t return. Unsurprisingly, the wife and child did not return. This screw-up was so colossal that the then-presiding judge reassigned Tong from civil harassment to traffic court. Simply put: San Francisco needs new and better judges. In the meantime, Jenkins is right to try to disqualify this deeply unserious person from hearing criminal cases.
Quick hits
How one sink turned Bob’s Donuts’ new S.F. store opening into a permit nightmare
San Jose Mayor Suggests Arresting Homeless Who Refuse Shelter
Beware, ye varmints! (At the same time, let’s not go crazy, people.)
Palate cleanser
This week in San Francisco history
The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco on March 9, 1842.