The GrowSF Report: SF ditches outdated rules for replacing windows
PLUS: Mayor Lurie rolls out accelerated plan for homelessness and drug-use response
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of March 16, 2025:
- SF ditches outdated rules for replacing windows
- Mayor Lurie rolls out accelerated plan for homelessness and drug-use response
- Dream Keeper Initiative relaunches with new rules
- SF public schools get surprising surge in applications
- Waymo just moved closer to SFO service
Recent & upcoming openings:
- Saint Frank Coffee expands to Inner Sunset
SF ditches outdated rules for replacing windows
San Francisco is finally scrapping its outdated rule that forced homeowners to use pricey, inefficient wood for street-facing windows.
Thanks to Supervisor Myrna Melgar, you’ll soon be able to choose more affordable, energy-efficient materials like aluminum and vinyl—without jumping through bureaucratic hoops. It’s a long-overdue fix that prioritizes practicality without sacrificing SF’s charm.
Once signed into law, the change takes effect in 30 days, making home upgrades easier, cheaper, and far less frustrating. The policy got a unanimous yes from the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, now it’s heading to Mayor Lurie’s desk for final approval.
Mayor Lurie rolls out accelerated plan for homelessness and drug-use response
A new one-year plan to address the homelessness, drug, and behavior health crises was just rolled out by the Lurie administration. It's a departure from the vague five-year plans of past administrations, focusing on 100-day, 6-month, and 1-year deliverables instead.
Here’s what’s changing:
1,500 new shelter and treatment beds in six months. For years, SF has focused on permanent supportive housing, which is expensive and slow to build. But we need shelter beds now to help people off the streets faster. This plan finally prioritizes immediate solutions over long-term delays.
No more city-funded fentanyl pipes. The city is moving away from its failed harm reduction model and focusing on treatment. We need to stop open-air drug use, not encourage it.
Reforming general assistance. Right now, anyone who has been in SF for just 14 days can qualify for cash assistance. This policy was well-intentioned, but it has ended up attracting people from all over the Bay Area. The new plan will prioritize connecting people to care in their home communities, where they have better long-term support.
Better technology to track services. The city will finally start tracking who is getting help and what’s working—so we stop wasting money on programs that don’t.
It doesn't promise to fix everything, but it’s a bold plan with big promises and tight timelines. Read the full order.
Dream Keeper Initiative relaunches with new rules
San Francisco’s Dream Keeper Initiative has officially relaunched—this time with stronger oversight and clearer accountability.
The program began in 2021 as a city-backed effort to reinvest in San Francisco’s Black communities, but instead we saw dollars used for personal businesses and expensive travel. We learned this week that Sheryl Davis, the former Human Rights Commission director at the heart of the controversy, also used $19,000 in public funds to cover her son’s tuition at UCLA, according to the City Attorney’s office.
Now with tighter controls, the Dream Keeper Initiative has been relaunched with an annual $12 million through 2028, this time with independent contract oversight and performance requirements. Updates include:
Clear minimum and maximum award amounts — Earlier rounds had no minimum or maximum limits
Funds are only approved for SF residents — No more out-of-city recipients
Restricted to 501(c)(3) nonprofits — No more grants to individuals or private businesses
Financial stability is now part of the scorecard — previously, grants went out without checking whether recipients could responsibly manage the funds
Read the full announcement from Mayor Lurie’s office.
SF public schools get surprising surge in applications
San Francisco’s public school applications just hit a decade high—but it’s a rare boost as the district braces for long-term student declines.
SFUSD received more than 15,000 applications for the 2025-26 school year, marking a 10% increase from last year and the highest number in over a decade. The surge is largely thanks to the expansion of universal transitional kindergarten (TK), which received nearly 2,000 applications—marking an increase of 673 from the prior year.
Even with this year’s boost, SF’s public schools are still in a long-term decline, with more than 4,000 students lost since 2012 and many more projected to go. And SFUSD is facing the fallout from years of financial mismanagement: The School Board has announced $113 million in cuts next year, with up to 837 positions on the chopping block.
Waymo just moved closer to SFO service
Waymo just landed at SFO—but we can’t ride one just yet. The company just secured a 30-day permit to map the airport’s roads.
The Teamsters Union secured a condition in Waymo's permit, though, which bans Waymo’s cars from moving commercial goods. Still, we’re happy to see a clear runway for innovation at SFO. Aaron Peskin wanted to shut the door on Waymo, and we're grateful to the voters for shutting the door on him instead.
Love the GrowSF Report? Share it
Help GrowSF grow! Share our newsletter with your friends. The bigger we are, the better San Francisco will be.
Recent & upcoming openings
A great city is constantly changing and growing, let’s celebrate what’s new!
Saint Frank Coffee expands to Inner Sunset
Saint Frank Coffee is set to open its third San Francisco location soon, taking over a former Starbucks space on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset. Co-owners Kevin and Lauren Bohlin, who moved to the neighborhood two years ago, are excited to bring their specialty coffee offerings closer to home. The new café will feature a spacious layout with a long bar and a small patio, serving the same high-quality coffee and pastries from their Polk Gulch bakery, Juniper, as their other locations.
WHERE: 744 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
We want you! Join GrowSF Talent
We’re excited to launch GrowSF Talent, a new initiative that helps talented, passionate San Franciscans participate in local government. Whether you’re looking to volunteer, join a Commission, or even run for office, we’ll help you navigate the process and find the right role where your skills and expertise can make a difference.
Every great city is built by the people who show up. Safer roads, better housing policies, thriving small businesses — all made possible by our San Francisco electeds and residents like you.
San Francisco needs leaders like you. Join GrowSF Talent today.
The Spirit of San Francisco
There’s a lot to love about our city and the Bay Area. Here’s what makes it great.
Frankenstein at SF Ballet
San Francisco Ballet brings Frankenstein to life with Liam Scarlett’s stunning adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece. This haunting production, set to Lowell Liebermann’s evocative score, follows Victor Frankenstein’s tragic creation and the devastating consequences of playing god. A visually arresting and emotionally charged ballet, Frankenstein is a must-see for fans of powerful storytelling and dramatic stagecraft.
WHEN: March 20–26, with evening and matinee performances
WHERE: War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
Massive sand art gathering at Ocean Beach
It recently looked like TikTok-famous aliens had ditched the cornfields in 2025 to gentrify Ocean Beach — upgrading the coarse, unkempt sand with sprawling geometric patterns. Spirals, peace signs, and sunrays stretched across the shore, anchored by a simple message: “Be Kind.” Beachgoers wove through the designs, careful but inevitably disruptive, because this was art meant to be temporary.
How Boudin Bakery baked its way through history
San Francisco’s got a long history of reinvention, but one thing that hasn’t changed? The city’s love for Boudin’s sourdough. In this historical jaunt, we dig into how a scrappy Gold Rush-era bakery survived earthquakes, corporate takeovers, and shifting food trends—all while sticking to its old-school fermentation process.