The Weekly Digest (October 27, 2024)
Happy Sunday, Brionies!
Here’s what you need to know about local politics this week and beyond:
San Francisco City Hall
Tuesday, October 29 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda here):
Item 15 – Ordinance to eliminate a public art requirement for 100% affordable housing projects. How many silly roadblocks to housing projects does San Francisco need?
Item 26 – Ordinance to require certain supermarkets to provide six months notice to customers prior to closing. We wonder what penalty the Board of Supes intend to impose on businesses that want to close but won’t comply with the six month rule. Close them?
Item 33 – Hearing on the impact of school closures on SFUSD staff.
Happenings around town
Join us next Sunday afternoon, November 3, to call Republicans who have not yet voted, especially in Districts 7 and 1, as part of our push to get out the vote for the candidates and causes we care about.
Mission Station, Tuesday, October 29, 5-6pm
Tenderloin Station, Tuesday, October 29, 6-7pm
Wednesday, October 30, at 5pm, Manny’s
Thursday, November 7, at 12:30pm, SPUR Urban Center
What we’re reading
The Briones Society San Francisco Ballot Guide is still your best one-stop shop for how to vote this November! The guide walks you through ranked-choice voting, dozens of candidates, ten statewide propositions, and fifteen local propositions.
Mayor Breed is in trouble. A San Francisco Chronicle poll suggests that Daniel Lurie has an edge once ranked-choice votes are calculated. Troubling, however, is some evidence that Aaron Peskin is hovering around third place. Make sure you vote, Brionies–get those ballots in the mail!
San Francisco Unified School District has been an exemplar of incompetent public sector performance for quite some time: lengthy Covid-era school closures, a lottery system that weakened rather than strengthened racial diversity, the attempted cancellation of Abraham Lincoln, and board members using racial slurs to describe parents. But wait–it gets worse! In March, SFUSD announced it would close certain schools to avoid a takeover by the state. The District claimed it would announce the school closures at a special meeting in late September. Then, it canceled the announcement and said it would wait until after the election. But then–four days later–it changed its mind again and decided to release the school closure list anyway. The announcement predictably caused an outcry from affected families, and eventually, Mayor Breed denounced the plan. The process was so disorganized that Superintendent Matt Wayne resigned, and the Board appointed longtime San Francisco bureaucrat Maria Su to take the reins. So, what about the school closure plan? Of course, now, there is none. And, naturally, there is no plan to avoid a state takeover. Business as usual.
The progressive panic over Proposition D is coming into full force. We encourage you, dear reader, not to be fooled by this last-minute blitz against the measure. San Francisco has an institutional problem: not only does it have too many commissions, but those commissions are overly powerful and not accountable to voters. Commissions generally oversee and set policy for City departments. Once appointed, commissioners cannot be removed from their positions unless a supermajority of the Board of Supervisors acts. This is true even for appointees picked by the Mayor. This, in turn, creates a dysfunctional system where policy for various City agencies is dictated by unelected bureaucrats who are shielded from public criticism and the influence of the political class. Proposition D fixes that by giving the mayor more appointees (versus the Board of Supervisors) and allowing the mayor to remove his or her appointees. In short, by returning power to the mayor, Proposition D returns power to the voters, who can always find a new mayor. Vote yes on D.
Quick hits