The Weekly Digest (May 7, 2023)

Written By Bill Jackson

Happy Sunday, Brionies! May the Fourth be with you, feliz Cinco de Mayo, and good tidings all around to citizen soldiers rebelling against oppressive empires. In entirely unrelated news, some guy in England is getting a new hat this weekend.

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

City Hall

  • Tuesday, May 9 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda and call-in instructions here)

    • It’s safe to say that we aren’t huge fans of the Board of Supervisors, but none of us think giving them the ol’ “Manuel Noriega treatment” is the best way to effect meaningful change. Peak irony was achieved when our local shrieker called the supes “performative.” Onto the substance:

    • Item 21 – Resolution calling on Mayor Breed to fund 2,000 new shelter or temporary housing placements over the next two fiscal years. Resolutions have all the weight of a feather, but as long as the Board is going to spend time discussing them, the least they can do is stay away from the Grammys.

    • Items 22-25 – Four resolutions to extend contracts with various mental health services providers. The total increased spending comes to just under $79 million over the next four years.

  • Friday, May 12 at 10am: Regular meeting of the Homelessness and Behavioral Health Select Committee (agenda and call-in instructions here)

    • Did you even know we had a Homelessness and Behavioral Health Select Committee? Well, we do! The Board established the Select Committee in February to address the “City's response to homelessness and implementation of behavioral health interventions and treatment, including fiscal matters with direct and exclusive fiscal impact on homeless individuals, service providers, and medical and behavioral health treatment facilities that are not part of the annual budget appropriation process.” Sure, Jan. Instead of addressing the corruption and mismanagement that is rampant among the “nonprofits” receiving over a billion dollars per year from the City, this body has been busy with… let’s see… well, they canceled their first meeting. And then Supervisor Walton didn’t show up to the second meeting. But, hey, this next meeting is definitely going to happen.

Action items

  • Sign this petition to return algebra to San Francisco middle schools.

  • Volunteer to serve on the Civil Grand Jury. This body investigates the operations of our City and County government. Applications are due May 12. 

  • Do you know a teenager who loves to write? One of our favorite publications, The Free Press, is holding an essay contest for high schoolers: “Tell our readers about a problem facing American society – and, more importantly, how you would fix it. The problem could be technological, cultural, political, or social in nature, or something else entirely.” Enter here.

Happenings around town

What we’re reading

  • This week, Nordstrom joined the growing list of businesses that decided having a presence in San Francisco wasn’t worth it, while two major hotels are considering vacating their properties in the face of upcoming loan payment deadlines. Notwithstanding the views of gaslighting local journalists and pandering elected officials who can’t bring themselves to state the obvious, the primary reason for downtown’s (and other neighborhoods’) decline is clear: it’s the crime, stupid.  

  • What was the screamer we featured at the top of this Digest even screaming about? Who knows? But her (and her fellow travelers’) cynical excuse was the shooting of Banko Brown by a Walgreen’s security guard last week. District Attorney Jenkins’ office declined to press charges, saying that “the evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense.” While video of the incident has yet to be released, accounts indicate that Brown threatened to stab the guard and began moving aggressively towards him. The guard, who can hardly be faulted for believing Brown, pulled a gun and fired. In the end, Brown turned out to have been unarmed, and was shoplifting a miniscule amount of candy. What lesson is there to draw from this awful episode? If Jenkins’ description of events is correct, perhaps only that when you normalize crime and prevent trained professionals from responding to it, tragedy ensues.

  • The California Highway Patrol and National Guard arrived in San Francisco as part of a multi-agency approach to try and stem the scourge of fentanyl in the city. Here’s what they plan to do.

  • Once again, the majority of our current Board of Supervisors is on the wrong side of history, and the electorate.

  • The San Francisco Unified School District has had a tumultuous couple of years. Now, it may be facing a teachers’ strike. 

  • Laura Ingraham came to San Francisco last week and spent time touring the Tenderloin with SFPD Lieutenant Tracy McCray. 

Quick hits

Palate cleanser

Bill Jackson
Previous

The Weekly Digest (May 14, 2023)
Next

The Weekly Digest (April 30, 2023)