The GrowSF Report: Former Mayor Mark Farrell makes a run for Mayor
PLUS: The California Environmental Quality Act hurts the environment, is reform coming?
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of February 12, 2024:
- Former Mayor Mark Farrell makes a run for Mayor
- The California Environmental Quality Act hurts the environment, is reform coming?
- Do ankle monitors work?
- WANTED: Algebra teachers in San Francisco!
Recent & upcoming openings:
- Cultivar brings wine and classic comfort food to Fisherman’s Wharf
Former Mayor Mark Farrell makes a run for Mayor
The Mayor’s race got a little more crowded this week. A shocking 42 candidates have already filed to run, but there are only a few top contenders: Mayor Breed, Daniel Lurie, and Mark Farrell.
If you find Farrell’s name familiar, that’s because he was Mayor for about six months following the the unexpected death of Mayor Ed Lee in 2018. Prior to that, Farrell served as the Supervisor for District 2 for two terms.
Mark Farrell wasted no time telling voters what he’d do, announcing that he’d fire the police chief on day one, clear homeless encampments within a year, open Market Street to cars, and audit the sprawling network of nonprofits the City contracts with.
“I've spent over 20 years in the private sector—business, finance, practicing law—and spent seven and a half years inside City Hall with a track record of effective leadership. I was the longest-serving budget chair in our city’s history [and] became mayor in 2018,” Farrell told J.D. Morris at the Standard.
It’s going to be another busy year, so pull up a chair and get your popcorn ready.
The California Environmental Quality Act hurts the environment, is reform coming?
With a name like the “California Environmental Quality Act,” you’d think that it came from on high to save California’s endangered species and natural beauty. But after 50 years on the books, the impact is clear: higher cost of living, longer commutes, a crippling housing shortage, and millions upon millions of dollars funneled to law firms to encourage suburban sprawl.
But State Senator Scott Wiener wants to fix that.
Mr. Wiener on Friday will propose one of the broadest rollbacks of the once-vaunted California Environmental Quality Act by asking the state legislature to allow most projects in downtown San Francisco to bypass the law for the next decade.
- New York Times
GrowSF is a big believer in liberalizing local land-use laws to encourage dense development. Rather than force people into mega-commutes, people should be able to live near transit and high-paying jobs, and that means we should help homebuilders make room for them in our City.
Good luck, Senator Wiener! We’re rooting for you.
Do ankle monitors work?
GPS ankle monitoring is one pretrial diversion program that San Francisco has tried. From 2017 to 2021, the reliance on electronic monitoring for suspects grew twentyfold, but the approach doesn’t seem to work.
“I think we know these [tracking devices] are not a very useful tool to addressing public safety challenges,” Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told Rachel Swan at the Chronicle.
A report from California Policy Lab illustrates the drawbacks of relying on ankle monitors as an effective tool: in 2021, more than one-third of those using tracking devices were homeless, many didn’t stay within their designated area, didn’t have access to outlets, and couldn’t charge the batteries on their monitors!
Are ankle monitors another “sounds good but doesn’t work” policy? Maybe. Or maybe we need to do a better job enforcing penalties for noncompliance.
WANTED: Algebra teachers in San Francisco!
Algebra is on the ballot right now, but there’s already some good news!
Last Tuesday, the School Board voted 6-1 – with Board member Kevine Boggess as the lone dissenter – to bring Algebra back to eighth grade. It’s been TEN years since Algebra was offered in eighth grade, leaving thousands of students unnecessarily held back.
Back then, the School Board was convinced that lowering the bar would raise outcomes for students of color, but they were wrong. In fact, the data has shown that not only did students of color perform even worse, high-aptitude students fared poorly, and students with means left the school district entirely.
Now that algebra is back on the menu, we’re facing a shortage of qualified teachers. “We’re going to [have] middle school teachers who haven’t taught algebra in 10 years teaching algebra,” Superintendent Matt Wayne told Jill Tucker at the Chronicle.
One-third of middle and K-8 schools will offer the course starting this November, with online and summer programs filling in the gap for the rest of the schools. Proposition G is still on the March 5 ballot, and if passed, will encourage the school districts to comply with what voters, the school board, and residents want: more math!
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Recent & upcoming openings
A great city is constantly changing and growing, let’s celebrate what’s new!
Cultivar brings wine and classic comfort food to Fisherman’s Wharf
WHERE: 900 North Point St., Suite #E-211
Fisherman’s Wharf will now be graced by a new restaurant. According to Lauren Saria and Paolo Bicchieri at Eater, Cultivar Wine is opening a second location “Cultivar Wine and Kitchen” in Ghiradelli Square on February 22. Chef David Neri (formerly of Waterfront Restaurant) will preside over the restaurant, and its menu will offer classic comfort foods like grilled cheese and tomato soup, and white truffle caesar salad with farm-to-table ingredients from the owners’ Napa Valley garden. The menu will be paired with the Cultivar Wine brand also from its estate, first acquired in the 1960’s. We’re looking forward to cozying up near the Bay and having a glass (or two)!
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
Election Day is March 5th
Have you voted?
Election Day is on March 5th. You should have received your mail-in ballot by now!
The GrowSF voter guide is your key to voting for positive change in SF — we make it simple to elect results-focused leaders and vote for meaningful policy change. This March will be one of the most important SF elections in years. So please dive in!
Join us on Election Day!
We plan to celebrate the hard-working candidates running for Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) on the Democrats for Change slate. Mark your calendar for Election Night on Tuesday, March 5.
WHERE: ANINA, 1482 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102
WHEN: March 5, 6 p.m.
The Spirit of San Francisco
There’s a lot to love about our city and the Bay Area. Here’s what makes it great. Brought to you by The Bold Italic.
What we’re doing this week
‘Sqream’ drag show and sing-along at SF Oasis
Get ready for the 90s slasher sing-along; ‘SQREAM’ is an all-new immersive drag horror parody set to the hit songs of the 1990s. Join Neve, Courteney, Drew & more as they navigate a super queer whodunnit musical. Who will survive? Who is the killer behind the gay Ghostface mask? How are they going to do the garage door scene?
WHEN: Feb. 14 - March 23, 2024
WHERE: SF Oasis, 298 11th St., San Francisco, CA
Academy of Wine: Celebrating Black Voices in Wine
Join the Academy in Castro for this annual event that shines a spotlight on wines from Black producers and Black-owned wineries, this time in a new larger festival format. It's the perfect way to support outstanding people in the wine industry who are too often underrepresented. This year, the event once again will support The Two Eighty Project, and the lineup includes:
Fog Crest Vineyard
McBride Sisters
Theopolis Vineyards
Featured wines from Breakthru Beverage Group
WHEN: Tonight! February 17, 2024 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.
WHERE: 2166 Market St, San Francisco, CA
Lunar New Year with San Francisco Symphony
It’s the Year of the Dragon this Lunar New Year; celebrate it with SF Symphony.
The evening begins with preconcert lobby festivities and entertainment. The concert, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, draws upon a wide range of Asian traditions, spotlighting vibrant artists and music to commemorate the holiday. Dinner sponsors will enjoy an enhanced experience with preconcert receptions and the celebratory banquet following the concert. There are still some seats to the concert available, and we loved the last lobby festivity-heavy event we attended with SF Symphony: Día de los Muertos. These events are great to bring the family.
WHEN: Tonight! February 17, 2024 at 5 p.m.
WHERE: 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA
What we’re writing about
Why I love Russian Hill
Russian Hill is a neighborhood with that rare advantage of being tucked away, yet central to almost everything. I feel lucky that from where I live I can walk to Union Square, the Marina, Pacific Heights, Aquatic Park, Chinatown, or North Beach in about 15 minutes.
This is also a neighborhood that eludes stereotypes. If the Mission is hipsters, the Marina is yuppies, SOMA is techies, and the Haight is hippies, Russian Hill is just a bunch of great people coming together.
Disney’s love affair with San Francisco and Tokyo
What is it with theme parks and recreating San Francisco?
My children were surprised and delighted to stumble across “Fisherman’s Grotto” during a pre-pandemic visit to Universal Studios Florida, TBI covered the Osaka version and, last August, Disneyland’s California Adventure debuted San Fransokyo, a Japanese-inflected fantasy version of our city from the movie Big Hero 6.
What to do during San Francisco Beer Week 2024
There are still two days left with plenty going on. Our story in TBI has a couple of the finale events at the bottom of the article.
Beer aficionados find themselves navigating a sea of tantalizing events for SF Beer Week 2024. The event runs 10 days and covers much more than just San Francisco, showcasing a ton of restaurants, bars, and breweries across the Bay Area. We went to the opening gala on Feb. 9 and were gobsmacked by the huge offering at Pier 35.
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