The GrowSF Report: Our Voter Guide is here!
The GrowSF Report: Our Voter Guide is here!
PLUS: Fillmore Safeway to close after 40 years; Dorsey removed as committee chair
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of January 8, 2024:
- Our Voter Guide is here!
- Will biotech save San Francisco?
- Another attempt to change Supervisor elections
- Supervisor Peskin plays petty politics: dumps Supervisor Dorsey from committee
- Fillmore Safeway to close after 40 years
Recent & upcoming openings:
- New Peking Duck spot in Chinatown
Our Voter Guide is here!
We’re excited to share our Voter Guide for the March 5, 2024 Primary Election. Our heavily researched voter guides are 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!
Will biotech save San Francisco? Conference visitors think so
San Francisco experienced a surge of conference visitors this past week. JP Morgan Chase’s four-day healthcare and biotech conference drew 10,000 visitors to the city and sold out hotels. Last year’s conference generated “$86 million in economic activity” according to Roland Li of the Chronicle. This is the kind of tourism and marketing the City needs to boost our spirits and pocketbooks.
Although several conference attendees grumbled about how expensive San Francisco is, and there was that swipe about San Francisco struggling behind New York City’s post-pandemic come-back, overall, conference attendees spoke glowingly about our city.
“You’ve got the schools. You have the money. You’ve got the generators of ideas. You’ve got the ability to fund them where there’s more risk-based capital than anyplace else,” said conference attendee Brent Vaughan to the Chronicle.
Maybe biotech will save us after all.
Another attempt to change Supervisor elections
Retired Judge Quentin Kopp is making a third attempt to change Board of Supervisor elections from district to citywide voting. He teamed up with former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan and plans to gather more than 50,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
Mayor Jordan told Han Li at the Standard, “I believe it is more effective when you have representation of a person living in the district, but having a citywide election…there is strength in unity.”
The change would mean voters would vote for a set of Supervisor candidates across the city, not just one candidate where they live. This would return San Francisco to the way it was before 2000.
If they make it to the ballot, we’ll have a full analysis on our November voter guide.
Supervisor Peskin plays petty politics: dumps Supervisor Dorsey from committee
Supervisor Matt Dorsey was unceremoniously removed as Chair of the Rules Committee by Supervisor Aaron Peskin this week and replaced by Supervisor Hillary Ronen. Although it’s customary for Chairs to change after completing a term, Dorsey had completed only half of his term. Not coincidentally, no other Chairs of committees were replaced, either.
Matt Dorsey told Aldo Toledo at the Chronicle:
“When you’re going into an election year, there’s a lot of consequential work that can happen (in Rules),” Dorsey said. “And I’m not going to be an ally [to Peskin] on some things.”
In his role as Chair of the Rules Committee, Dorsey could influence if and when legislation would go to a full Board vote. It’s not terribly surprising that Peskin would want an ally in Ronen while heading into an election year, especially if he thought that he might be on that ballot, as well.
Fillmore Safeway to close after 40 years
Safeway will close its doors after 40 years serving the Fillmore District. It’s slated to become a mixed-use development with both commercial and residential space. The store has struggled with shoplifting and theft, prompting greater security measures.
Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the district, is upset. But rather than address the root causes of Safeway wanting to leave (it’s crime), he introduced a performative do-nothing resolution to stop the closure. Preston seems to believe government can force businesses to operate. But this isn’t Soviet Russia.
While we empathize with a loss of a grocery store in a neighborhood, we’re tired of the performative politics. Supervisor Preston could have acted earlier to address crime – rather than complaining about the damage done after the fact.
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Recent & upcoming openings
A great city is constantly changing and growing, let’s celebrate what’s new!
New Peking Duck spot in Chinatown
WHERE: 606 Jackson Street
Our mouths are watering thinking about when we can feast on Peking Duck. Z&Y Peking Duck (the chef behind Chili House in the Richmond District and Chinatown restaurant Z&Y) recently opened and offers “dim sum dishes like spicy wontons, pork dumplings and noodles in bean sauce.”
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
We’re registering Democrats!
Most people don't know that only Democrats can vote for the leaders of the SF Democratic Party (DCCC), a group that makes important endorsements. So we ran a campaign to tell them. We're excited to announce we're on track to register 2,000 new Democrats who can vote for the DCCC in the March election!
If you want to get San Francisco on the right track, the #1 thing you can do today is register as a Democrat. Usually this election is won by slim margins, so voting is key in this critical election. If you want to re-register as a Democrat, visit RegisterSF.org for help on how to do it.
Join us for Happy Hour on Jan. 23rd
Join us for the January edition of our monthly happy hour! Heads up: it’s at a new location! And you’ll get to meet DCCC and Judge candidates!
WHEN: Tuesday, January 23, 6-8pm
WHERE: ANINA, 482 Hayes St
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
Light Up The Night Bike Parade
As dusk settles over San Francisco, participants gather in front of the Conservatory of Flowers on JFK Promenade by the ‘Love’ blocks. Each participant gets adorned with an array of radiant lights, glow sticks, and illuminated accessories that turn their wheels into rolling works of art. The SF Bicycle Coalition will give out hundreds of free bike lights in Golden Gate Park (while supplies last), with lights generously sponsored by Bay Area Bicycle Law.
WHEN: January 20, 5–7 p.m.
WHERE: JFK Promenade by the ‘Love’ blocks
Glow: Discover the art of light at the Exploratorium
Compose music with light, touch quantum physics, play LED dungeon crawlers, unveil hidden crystals, see yourself in mechanical mirrors, and more. It’s literally nothing but pretty light displays in San Francisco nowadays. Don’t miss out. Tickets between $30-$40
WHEN: Now through January 28th
WHERE: Exploratorium, Pier 15 Embarcadero
What we’re writing about
San Francisco’s best new bar and restaurant openings in the past year
It feels like the news focuses more on closures than it does openings, but many great new venues joined our foggy city this year. Here are the new San Francisco spots that stand out most.
Is there any late-night food in San Francisco?
The Bold Italic just published why San Francisco has the best food — which arguably, it really does — and the top comment after “yes, I agree” was “yeah except there’s nowhere open past 9 p.m.!”
While there are scant midnight offerings here, they are by no means gone entirely. The following are all tried-and-true eateries open past midnight.
In Dry January, let’s kill the mocktail
We all know many millennials and Generation Z gave up on booze not just for Dry January, but permanently. At what point, however, did sobriety turn into strawberry lemonades, Shirley Temples, or a myriad other tall glasses filled with sugar and nothing that resembled alcohol?
Elixir Saloon in Mission hoped to change that in its recent event, “Death to the Mocktail.”
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