Fake Outrage Season Is Here
PLUS: Poll shows support for drones & cameras, Mission safety, Manny's fundraising, Outside Lands, and Boundless San Francisco
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of August 2, 2026:
- Fake Outrage Season Is Here
- 72% of Voters Back Police Drones and Cameras
- Jackie Fielder Requests 24/7 Mission Ambassadors
- Manny Yekutiel Raises $769,000 in District 8 Race
- Outside Lands Expands Muni and Bay Wheels Service
TAKE ACTION
- Enter Boundless San Francisco: A $150 Million Competition by Crankstart
Fake Outrage Season Is Here
Published August 7, 2026
The Facts
Scott Wiener’s congressional campaign launched ConnieChan.ai, a parody chatbot portraying Supervisor Connie Chan as reflexively opposed to housing, transit, education reform, public safety, parks, and economic recovery.
Chan’s campaign repeatedly prompted the bot about her identity until it managed to produce a line about her “San Francisco accent” in order to manufacture a scandal. Nancy Pelosi and six other elected officials—all Chan endorsers—then denounced the bot as racist and sexist. Wiener’s campaign points out that a couple users rapidly submitted 109 questions about Chan’s accent, race, gender, appearance, or citizenship to provoke the desired response.
The Context
Wiener beat Chan 40.7% to 29.7% in the June primary, but two later polls showed a dead heat.
The GrowSF Take
Pelosi and Chan’s camp should be embarrassed for manufacturing a racism-and-sexism scandal out of a response their own side worked relentlessly to provoke. The media should be embarrassed for playing along. Wiener’s campaign deserves some criticism for handing them an opening with a campaign gimmick, but these offenses are not equivalent.
The chatbot is silly, but its core satire is fair: Chan opposes more homes and better transit. Her allies deliberately baited an offensive response, then presented it as proof that the parody itself is racist and sexist. That is dishonest left-wing slopulism, not a serious defense of Chan’s record.
Pelosi made it worse. A former Speaker of the House used her stature to validate an accusation built on intentionally provocative prompts, then Chan’s other endorsers eagerly joined the fake outrage. Instead of explaining why voters should want Chan’s obstructionist politics in Congress, Pelosi turned an obvious campaign stunt into a moral emergency. San Francisco deserves better from one of its most powerful political figures.
The media then breathlessly elevated obvious campaign theater into news.
Voters care about housing costs, safe streets, reliable transit, good schools, and whether San Francisco can function. Both campaigns should retire the chatbot drama and argue about those things, instead.
If you work in AI and would like to help us elect Scott Wiener instead of anti-datacenter, anti-AI Connie Chan, email us!
72% of Voters Back Police Drones and Cameras
Published August 6, 2026
The Facts
San Franciscans overwhelmingly support modern police technology. Our new GrowSF poll found:
72% support police using drones and cameras after a 911 call to assist an active investigatio
64% support continuous live camera monitoring in open-air drug markets is (rising to 69% with added civil-liberties protections)
67% support using drones to prevent illegal dumping and support enforcement
FM3 Research surveyed 662 voters from July 8–19 in English and Chinese; the margin of error was 4.9 percentage points. GrowSF always uses a professional polling firm to ensure our questions are without bias and the sample is representative of all San Franciscans.
The Context
Voters approved Proposition E in March 2024 by 54.09% to 45.91% to allow police to use drones for active investigations. It also changed rules for cameras, vehicle pursuits, police paperwork, and oversight of new surveillance tools.
The tools are helping police make arrests. In June, police said a drone tracked a suspected auto-burglary crew into Chinatown; officers arrested three suspects and recovered stolen property.
The GrowSF Take
Activists on social media are all a-tizzy railing against these technologies, but they are very popular with normal people.
The warnings that modern police tools would create an intolerable surveillance state have not survived contact with reality: drones and cameras help officers follow suspects, recover stolen property, and make arrests.
Jackie Fielder Requests 24/7 Mission Ambassadors
Published August 7, 2026
The Facts
Supervisor Jackie Fielder asked Mayor Daniel Lurie to provide 24/7 ambassador coverage around the 16th and 24th Street BART plazas. The current $3.2 million contract provides at least 12 ambassadors and two supervisors daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The Context
The request comes during a 90-day Mission initiative involving extra police and behavioral-health outreach. The city has repeatedly intensified staffing there, including after nearly 900 police calls around 16th and Mission in March 2025.
The GrowSF Take
Fielder is right, for once. Transit plazas do not stop being public spaces at 8 p.m. Mayor Lurie should approve round-the-clock ambassadors during the 90-day operation, backed by police who can arrest fentanyl dealers and people selling stolen goods.
Manny Yekutiel Raises $769,000 in District 8 Race
Published August 6, 2026
The Facts
New campaign filings show Manny Yekutiel has raised more than $769,000 since entering the District 8 supervisor race and had $540,801 in cash on June 30; Gary McCoy had brought in $262,348 by July 18, Michael Nguyen reported $148,754, and Darshini Patel raised $20,354 during the first half of 2026.
The Context
District 8, which includes the Castro, Noe Valley and Cole Valley, is an open seat this November because Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is termed out. Yekutiel, the owner of Manny’s café and co-founder of the Civic Joy Fund, is running as a pro-growth civic entrepreneur.
Official records show Yekutiel’s campaign received the maximum $255,000 in public financing.
The GrowSF Take
Yekutiel is plainly the front-runner. His enormous network shows real enthusiasm for a message of more housing, thriving businesses and competent government.
Outside Lands Expands Muni and Bay Wheels Service
Published August 7, 2026
The Facts
Outside Lands will bring about 75,000 people per day to Golden Gate Park from August 7–9. SFMTA’s festival service plan adds N Judah trains, 5R Fulton Rapid buses, and post-concert 5X express buses to Civic Center BART; wristbands provide all-day Muni rides except cable cars.
The city will also restrict pickups near packed exits, close roads, and operate two special Bay Wheels stations with valets tasked with keeping docks and bikes available.
The Context
The plan follows a July 4 breakdown in which more than 100,000 fireworks spectators overwhelmed the northern waterfront, trapping Muni buses and leaving some people stuck for hours.
Bay Wheels has already shown it can handle festival crowds. Its operator recorded 5,500 Outside Lands rides in 2025, using a temporary valet station; e-bikes made up 83% of its 11,000 rides during that August concert series.
The GrowSF Take
Major festivals are good for San Francisco. The city learned the right lesson from July 4: add transit capacity and keep pickup traffic away from transit routes and crowded exits.
But the simplest way home is on two wheels. Bike to Outside Lands. You can park your own bike for free, and if past events are a guide, Bay Wheels should have a ton of e-bikes waiting when the music ends.
Enter Boundless San Francisco: A $150 Million Competition by Crankstart
Crankstart and Lever for Change have just announced Boundless San Francisco, a competition that will award up to $150 million to organizations anywhere in the world with ideas for making San Francisco a better place to live. Up to three winners will receive up to $50 million each to bring their proposal to life.
Successful proposals will pair an ambitious vision for San Francisco’s future with a clear, credible plan to build it and make it last. In addition to grant funding, applicants may request flexible, below-market capital (such as a low-interest loan). Projects must primarily benefit San Francisco.
Applicants must register to apply by September 11, at 5 p.m.
Paid for by GrowSF Voter Guide. Not authorized by any candidate, candidate’s committee, or committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.