The Weekly Digest (May 26, 2024)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Brionies! 

Here’s what you need to know about San Francisco politics this week and beyond:

A hale and hearty expression of gratitude to all who have served this glorious nation in the Armed Forces. We appreciate and celebrate you!

City Hall

• In recognition of Memorial Day, the Board of Supervisors and various committees will have no meetings this week.

• In previous Digests, we have taken committees/commissions out to the woodshed to highlight their uselessness (or worse), but not all of them are bad, of course. Given the Memorial Day holiday (as well as May being Military Appreciation Month), we thought the time was right to feature the Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC). The mission of the VAC is to advise the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors on issues like jobs, money, health, housing and social services for veterans. They also sponsor events, such as the Memorial Day Observance at San Francisco National Cemetery. Recent efforts by the Commission include pressing City Hall to complete technical updates required to include veterans as a priority in lotteries for affordable housing, which was made law in 2022. 

Call to Action

• Sign this petition to let SFMTA know that despite what they think, not everyone wants to take a bike everywhere - cars are still important.

• Along the same lines, here’s a petition calling for the resignation of Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director. Recent examples of the failure of this department include the Valencia Center Running Bike Lane, the Geary Boulevard BRT, the L Taraval Vehicle Suspension Obliteration Initiative Improvement Project, the Frida Kahlo Way Bike Lane, and the West Portal Safety Plan.

Happenings around town

• Since we send the Digest out on Sundays, we’re hoping you have been able to take in some of the Memorial Day activities that took place prior to receiving this week’s edition of your favorite newsletter. On Memorial Day itself, In addition to the Observance taking place at National Cemetery mentioned above, you can also attend the ceremony at Golden Gate National Cemetery (Monday, May 27, 10:30am, 1300 Sneath Lane, San Bruno).

• SFPD Community meetings

• Richmond District: Tuesday, May 28, 5-6pm 

• (Bonus content: check out this story about a member of the Richmond Station’s Community Police Advisory Board who reunites bipping victims with their stolen goods - good on ya, Mark Dietrich!)

• Mission District: Tuesday, May 28, 5-6pm

What we’re listening to

• Batya Ungar-Sargon: Politics, the Working Class, and the American Dream

What we’re reading

• Like yelling “You can’t fire me, I quit!”, Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safai have let everyone know that they will not accept any endorsements from the Briones Society or the SFGOP. (We’re all busted up about it, fellas, truly.) Our president and co-founder Jay Donde has some good quotes in here, particularly about how mayoral candidates may just be ignoring Republicans in SF at their peril. 

• A flurry of health-related stories hit the news recently, and they’ve done a decent job of showing how regulations make life more difficult by requiring patients to drive for hours to have a telehealth session with a doctor in another state, while at the same time hypocritically rolling out the red carpet for out-of-state doctors to perform abortions. Also, Asian-Americans are not considered by California to be a constituency worthy of advocacy to the same level as other minorities, as the state has removed acupuncture from the list of acceptable treatments for those on Medi-Cal. 

• Sigh…we Brionies do our best to stay away from ridiculous “stories-of-the-moment” that get the rage-baiters all in a tizzy, and we don’t often comment on national stories, so we’ll just say this one thing and let it lie: the whole “Appeal to Heaven” flag controversy is an absolute nothing-burger, and this recent story from the Chronicle is shoddy “journalism.” The headline alone is abhorrent and should be retracted. Notably, the Chronicle had nothing to say when the flag flew over City Hall in 2023.

Quick Hits

• Mr. “I Don’t Want Your Endorsement That Was Never Coming”, after 20 years of serving in city government, finally wants to weed out corruption

• Mr. “I, Too, Do Not Want Your Endorsement That I Had Zero Chance of Getting” is having a rough go of it in the mayoral race

• Meet the District 7 candidates: How has the L Taraval Project been allowed to go on for so long? (Part of Mission Local’s pretty decent election coverage series)

• Disturbing Behavior in SF Homes for Formerly Homeless Spurs Calls for Higher Level of Care

• People keep checking into hospitals for ODs and dying anyway

• “Literally life or death”: California kids are disappearing from school and the workforce. No one knows where they are

• A quiet power rises in SF politics: Chinese grandparents