The Grow SF Report, Vol. 18
What You Need To Know
The latest updates on SF government progress, policies, and priorities:
Outdoor Dining Is Here to Stay!
We won! 🎉
This wouldn’t have been possible without all of you! You sent hundreds of emails, spent countless hours doing public comment, told your friends, and helped us collect over 4000 signatures on our petition to save shared spaces. We’ve built a network of businesses who know that Grow SF and our volunteers are here to help.
Special thanks to Mayor Breed, Supervisors Safai, Melgar, Stefani, Haney, Mandelman, and Mar for their support!
What happened
While our Supervisors would like you to think they all support outdoor dining and that the legislation passed unanimously, that was only after a deeply divided vote on a critical amendment.
During the Land Use hearing on July 12th, Supervisor Peskin introduced a poison pill to prevent small businesses from securing their shared spaces at night, which would enable vandalism, discarded needles, and human waste to litter the spaces.
Supervisor Safai came to the rescue with an amendment to allow the parklets to be closed from midnight to 7am — a compromise negotiated with Supervisor Mar. How did the vote go? It barely passed, 6-5.
The coalition that supports San Francisco’s small businesses (Supervisors Safai, Melgar, Stefani, Haney, Mandelman, and Mar) voted in favor of the amendment and saved outdoor dining!
Supervisors Peskin, Preston, Chan, Ronen, and Walton opposed this vital change. If they had just one additional vote to kill the amendment, outdoor dining would effectively be dead.
This is another reminder that who you vote for in local races matters. We need to elect officials who promote growth and change in our city, and are building for future generations.
Read more details at the SF Chronicle.
Tech Workers Return to SF
In case you didn’t know that SF is back: SF is back. The NYTimes just published a story profiling the return of tech workers who had fled the city at the beginning of the pandemic. For all of SF’s problems, it turns out people actually like living here — who knew!
The Problem with Minimum Wage in SF
A new report shows that if you earn minimum wage in San Francisco — that's $16.32 an hour — you need to work 4.9 full-time jobs a week to afford a fair market rent two-bedroom apartment. That's 196 hours, more hours than there are in a week.
New Trash Cans
Every city has to deal with trash, and San Francisco is no exception. More trash cans are great! But in the name of SF exceptionalism, we spent a few years designing our own custom cans, causing major delays and added costs. Check them out in this tweet thread from Supervisor Matt Haney 👇
Update: SF COVID-19 Vaccinations
San Francisco has become the first major city in the United States to reach “herd immunity”. Great job everyone!
Vaccination Rate: 83% of SF residents over 12 have received at least 1 dose. 76% have been fully vaccinated.
Eligibility: All SF residents 12 and older are eligible to be vaccinated!
Vaccine Sites: Find a vaccine site near you.
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
Town Hall with Heather Knight
Our next Grow SF Town Hall will feature Heather Knight from the SF Chronicle! Tune in live on Twitter Spaces, or listen later on our podcast.
When: Wednesday, July 28, 12pm PST
School Board Recall Needs Donations
The best way to help with the school board recall is to make a donation or print the petition for you and your friends to sign.
The SF Chronicle reported support for recall is at 60 percent. But it has to make it on the ballot first!
Volunteers (mostly parents) have collected over 30,000 signatures, but they’re only halfway done and a September 7 deadline is looming.
Fun in SF
Check out some of our favorite fun activities happening in SF right now:
Envelop SF Returns
Envelop SF is back from a pandemic hiatus and has a BUNCH of sound baths and listening events coming up. We recommend the Pink Floyd experience. Buy your tickets today!
Topical Tweets
Yes, there is good stuff on Twitter. Here’s some of it:
In case you were wondering what those goats were doing around the BART station:
SF’s historic cable cars are returning to the streets August 1st:
Great thread from Grow SF’s Bilal Mahmood about what issues are really top of mind among local community leaders:
