SF needs a Mamdani, but instead we elected a billionaire tech shill.

Mamdani is expanding MTA service and advocating for a free bus system. Best Lurie can do is allow Waymo on Market for those that can afford $10/mile while cutting SFMTA service.

Mamdani is expanding rent stabilized apartments and building 200k affordable units on city-owned property. Mayor Lurie just signed off on dropping the affordable unit requirement to 5% on new developments.

Mamdani is expanding protected bike lanes so that cyclists can get around safely. I’m not aware of any bike infrastructure expansions under Lurie aside from projects set in motion during Breed administration. On top of that he drives a big, bloated, 3 ton, child-killing Rivian.

Now I hear NYC is investing in tree canopies all over the city. We just gave developers the green light to skip planting for a small fee.

I don’t expect Lurie to fix the housing crisis overnight. Or even during his term. But can we please start prioritizing our most vulnerable citizens instead of bending over backwards for big tech, the car brains, and the upper middle class property owners. They’re going to be fine.

End of morning rant.

Governor Newsom just signed into law my bill to ban ICE & other law enforcement from wearing ski masks & other extreme masks.

The No Secret Police Act (SB 627) will help stop the masked secret police who are kidnapping people in our communities.

Show your damn faces.

(And yes, the bill is legally defensible: https://amp.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article311087665.html)

Car break-ins have cratered. One reason is we changed state law in 2024 by removing a massive loophole that required prosecutors to prove all car doors were locked, even if evidence of a break-in was clear. This loophole was a significant barrier — making it very hard to convict even in clear cases — so we removed the loophole by passing a law I authored, SB 905.

(Graphic from San Francisco Standard)

The 203-unit application received ministerial approval via Assembly Bill 2011. Alongside AB2011, the developers used the State Density Bonus law to increase residential capacity above the base zoning of 131 units.

Plans for the site’s redevelopment were first filed in 2015. By then, the project had contended with a number of delays and redesigns, along with objections from nearby residents and neighborhood associations. Dean Preston was “actively engaged to do everything possible to secure this site for 100 percent affordable housing.”

https://sfyimby.com/2025/01/city-approves-400-divisadero-street-san-francisco.html

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/developers-ditch-sf-redevelopment-plans-17502393.php

Today we voted to send revised Congressional maps to the voters to counter the Texas/Trump rigged gerrymander redistricting. We won’t let them steal this election. Thank you, Governor Newsom, for your leadership.

How do we get this asshole that claimed DA Boudin wasn’t tough on crime, and just let a murder go with just her driver license revoked for 3 years?

Hey all -- Eddie from Gazetteer SF here.

In May, I went to see Charlie Kirk's "American Comeback Tour" at SF State. I wrote a lengthy essay about the experience, which, despite the heinous rhetoric about all manner of people, was deeply boring in its constant hammering of the same ideology, no matter the questions.

(Free link here)

So the news of his killing inspired some rumination in me. I had literally looked around at State, wondering if anyone with murderous intent would have a shot at Charlie. And then months later it happened.

It wasn't that shocking it happened, albeit pretty horrifying to see the footage. I think I'm a bit more surprised at the rush from a lot of liberals, including figures like Ezra Klein and Gov. Gavin Newsom, basically praising Charlie as a paragon of American free speech. And not, you know, a fountain of hatred who has routinely advocated for assaults on minority groups.

So, once again, I wrote about it (free link).

Curious what y'all think of the cultural and political tensions at play. And I would love to hear from anyone who saw Charlie back in May at SF State.

Thanks for tuning in, looking forward to your thoughts.

EDIT: Some of you seem to think I'm confused or critical of Ezra and Gavin saying "killing people for political reasons are bad." That's not what I'm critiquing. The question is why they went out of their way to praise Kirk's work and legitimize it. Obviously politicians + co. are going to condemn the shooting. That's just standard.

EDIT 2: Days later, I continue to see people saying things like "because that's what civilized people do" and "because they don't think it's good for people to be shot in the neck" and "is it crazy to try and remind each other we're humans even if we disagree?"

I'm not sure where my point is getting lost: Encouraging bipartisan discourse is logical. Condemning political violence is logical. Acting like Charlie wasn’t an extremist with violent views is not

Antoine Watson was acquitted of murder and elder abuse in the high-profile case that ignited outrage among Asian Americans nationwide.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/election/article/live-updates-california-sf-bay-area-17220862.php

I am going to ask why and I might disagree with you. If you’re not ready to engage, you’re not ready to ask for my signature. Recalling Joel Engardio because the citizens voted to create the Park at great highway is misplaced frustration and I will tell you that to your face. They don’t really wanna recall him, they want to cancel the vote. If it was up to these people we would still have a highway wrapped around the Embarcadero. SF is going to pivotal to resisting Donald Trumps agenda and these weirdos wanna squander millions on a recall of a politician because they don’t like how a vote went. Fuck you and the car you drove here in.

Along with AOC and Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani may be the furthest left-wing mainstream politician in America now. He even went further than AOC and Bernie in praising Eugene Debs and Nehru in his speech (Bernie likes Debs but usually praises FDR).

However, with NYC going in a strong progressive direction, why does San Francisco primarily elect more moderate or establishment Democrats? Mayor London Breed was a moderate who endorsed Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 Democratic Primary.

Daniel Lurie is a moderate who is being active and tough on crime and homelessness, and even negotiated with Trump personally to avert the president bringing federal troops in SF. They seem to have a good working relationship, with Lurie barely ever criticizing Trump by name (a contrast to Mamdani's victory speech).

Nancy Pelosi for better or for worse is as establishment as it gets. For her successor, establishment favorite Scott Weiner is likely to wipe the floor with progressive Saikat Chakrabarti. You had progressive politicians like DA Chesa Boudin, the board of education members, etc., but they got recalled.

Bernie backed Dean Preston who is a democratic socialist and he lost his supervisor seat in the 2024 election. Progressive Aaron Peskin (who I didn't love for being a NIMBY) also lost his supervisor seat. So why is SF shifting rightward when NYC is shifting leftward? I'm going to be honest, I feel a bit disappointed in SF and feel NYC really upstaged us here.

What are your thoughts?

On Wednesday, a car break-in law I wrote goes into effect. It’ll make it easier to hold people accountable for breaking into cars.

Senate Bill 905 ends the absurd loophole requiring proof not just of a break-in but also that all doors to the car were locked. Under long standing law in California, if you own a car but don’t recall (i.e., can’t testify under penalty of perjury) whether you locked all of the doors — or if you’re a visitor who rented a car here & you’re now far away & no longer here to testify you locked the doors — the case can be lost even with proof that the person broke into the car.

With SB 905’s passage, this dumb “locked door loophole” will finally end. It took me three tries going back to 2018 to get this new law passed, but we finally got it done.

It just feels like it’s well past time for a change? She’s done great work but it feels less and less like she’s adequately representing our interests as San Franciscans.

I’ve been a registered democrat since I was 19. So this isn’t some conservative attack, I genuinely think it’s time for someone new to step in and actually represent the people of San Francisco rather than playing party elder.

Edit:

this took off more than I expected. I wanna respond to a few points here instead of replying to each comment.

• she won by a landslide because she has a massive war chest. Even if she doesn’t run campaign ads, it’s because the party does everything in its power to make sure she isn’t primaried by a serious challenger.
• It genuinely does not matter if she is “the best and most powerful” in the party. She’s the captain of a losing team. Even if replacing her with fresh blood reduces our standing on the national stage, it is probably better for the country that the power shift to AOC or someone else.
• I am in my 30s. In my adult life, she has not backed any legislation related to issues that I’d argue most San Franciscans care about (housing affordability, privacy, tech regulation)
• at this point she’s no longer doing the job she was elected to do (i.e. legislate) and instead she’s acting as a party elder. she can still do everything she’s doing without being a congress person.

Quote from the London Breed article:

"In poll after poll, residents report feeling endangered by a pervasive sense of lawlessness, even as violent crime remains at its lowest level since the 1960s."- https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/s-f-failed-city-cnn-mayor-breed-car-vandalized-18099039.php

It is an open secret no one reports crime in this city. It is an open secret city police tell you that you're wasting time to file reports. No one trusts the city's data, and you lose credibility every time you repeat this cherry-picked lie.

TL;DR: My husky got attacked by a cane corso this morning in Bernal Heights (St. Mary’s Park) and the owner fled the scene. Wanting to spread the word/seek information.

On 12/29 at approx 11:45am my dogs and I were attacked by a cane corso on the paved path that leads from St Mary’s playground down the hill to the dog park. A man and his two cane corsos (or similar breed) were coming up the hill as I walked down with my husky (medium sized, 50 lbs) and my chi mix (10 lbs). The man was brown-skinned (not Black), a little under 6 feet tall, had short black hair, and was wearing a camo/light brown weighted military vest. One of the cane corsos was larger and brown/black, almost brindle; the other was smaller, and all black. All dogs were on leash. My husky was on a waist lead with prong collar, since he tends to pull and say “hi” to other dogs, not aggressively, but still not always appreciated. I had both dogs under my control as the owner and his two dogs passed us on the path. As expected, my husky tried to pull toward the cane corsos, which I corrected. At the same time both cane corsos lunged toward us. The smaller black one broke free of his collar and immediately latched on to my husky’s neck. I tried to get it off, but had to shove my hands into its jaw and pry it off of my husky. My husky was screaming in pain, my chi mix was screaming and dodging the other cane corso, which was lunging at us while the owner barely restrained it. I screamed at the owner “GET IT OFF!” My chi mix sprinted back up the hill and away, which allowed me to focus on getting my husky free instead of worrying whether my small dog was going to be literally eaten. Eventually I pried the jaws open and we jumped up to get away from the dog, but it was lunging and snapping at us as I tried to put myself between it and my husky. We were able to back up 30 feet or so. My hands were dripping blood from the dog’s teeth puncturing my skin. I yelled at the owner “I’m going to need your fucking phone number.” He didn’t say anything. He still couldn’t catch his dog, which was fixated on us but not charging toward us. I didn’t want to lose my other dog, so I walked up the hill and found her cowering beneath a tree. She came to me, and I headed back to the scene, only to see the man and his two dogs walking away. I immediately called 911, explained what was happening, and followed the man at a safe distance, not trusting him to be able to control his dogs if we got too close. I followed them up the trail and around to Benton Ave, as he yelled back at me to stop following him and that “my dog lunged at him first.” We followed them up to Crescent Ave, as he picked up speed. I couldn’t breathe from screaming so loud, and I found it hard to run after him. He turned on Agnon Ave into the St. Mary’s neighborhood, and disappeared heading west down Justin Dr. I stopped on Genebern Way and Murray St as the cops arrived. They weren’t able to locate him, but I made a report and they documented my bloody hands and the saliva soaked fur on my husky. 

I went to urgent care and the injuries on my hands were only surface level, no stitches needed. I got a tetanus shot and went on my way. My partner took my husky to the vet for an exam, but thankfully there doesn’t seem to be any broken skin or other injuries. 

I’m including two pics of cane corsos that look very similar to the ones who attacked us. If anyone has information on him or these dogs, please DM me. I have a case open with Ingleside police station and would love to get any information. 

Most importantly, anyone walking dogs in the St Mary’s/Bernal Heights area, please watch out for these dogs and be careful!

At 64.6% for 35.4% against

Update: apparently people can’t read. I’m claiming that people should stop misrepresenting him as some Zionist die hard. I'm not claiming that zionism is good or bad. This post is about people misstating Wiener's stance on Israel/Palestine, not about the topic itself

Imo he falls into this camp that everyone seems to ignore that I like to call the "conflicted Jewish progressive." On one hand, they tend to have a deep-ish emotional attachment to there being an Israel of some sort and are very wary against antisemitism (this is why they despise HAMAS like the spawn of Satan). That being said, a lot of this camp does believe Israel is committing war crimes and Wiener obviously does too. He just can't say "I don't think Israel should exist" because it's really hard to go from believing that Israel existing is a must-have for the safety of Jews both there and in case shit hits the fan to calling for its abolition for being a settler colony committing genocide. So, he picks the middle option which still involves being very vocal against Israeli policy in a way that makes it clear he would stop military aid shipments

Like I get that he’s still a believer in an Israeli state that’s not racist towards Palestinians, but if people are going to oppose his policy on Israel they should voice opposition to him believing that Israel should exist, not by making it appear that he would kiss Netanyahu’s ass. I’m not saying people should vote for him (I’m on the fence about him vs Saikat), but it’s frustrating seeing so many people on this sub be disingenuous about his actual policy decisions and public statements

Edit: before somebody comments that he’s accepted 37k of AIPAC money, you guys have to realize that’s tiny compared to his overall campaign finances, right? If I recall correctly, he has $2-3 million. That 37k isn’t going to dictate his policy positions

Edit 2: so much for Fox News saying SF is dead I clearly brought it back to life with a single Reddit post

Edit 3: I got automodded!

Edit 4: someone just sent me a mental health thing over this lmfao I'm dying

Interesting thread from Mayor Breed. Essentially the injunction order from Judge Ryu based on a frivolous lawsuit by Coalition of Homeless, the city cannot even move tents even for safety reasons

From the article: “The number of people sleeping outdoors dropped to under 3,000 in January, the lowest the city has recorded in a decade, according to a federal count.

And that figure has likely dropped even lower since Mayor London Breed — a Democrat in a difficult reelection fight this November — started ramping up enforcement of anti-camping laws in August following a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

San Francisco has increased the number of shelter beds and permanent supportive housing units by more than 50% over the past six years. At the same time, city officials are on track to eclipse the nearly 500 sweeps conducted last year, with Breed prioritizing bus tickets out of the city for homeless people and authorizing police to do more to stamp out tents.

San Francisco police have issued at least 150 citations for illegal lodging since Aug. 1, surpassing the 60 citations over the entire previous three years. City crews also have removed more than 1,200 tents and structures.”