What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of July 4, 2022:
- Mayor Breed Appoints Brooke Jenkins to be Our New District Attorney
- Chan/Peskin Anti-Housing Bill Passes Committee
- CEQA Sometimes Abused to Stop Housing Production
- Signs of hope for Downtown revival
Mayor Breed Appoints Brooke Jenkins to be Our New District Attorney
On Thursday, Mayor London Breed announced her appointment of Boudin recall leader Brooke Jenkins as the replacement to her former boss Chesa Boudin. DA Jenkins left the prosecutor's office during Chesa’s tenure to protest his failures.
“If people begin to believe that reform entails lawlessness, they will begin to oppose the very reforms that our system really needs,” Jenkins previously said in an advertisement supporting the recall.
Will Chesa run again? According to SF Ethics Commission filings, Boudin’s committee for the previously scheduled 2023 election is still active, but nothing has been filed for 2022. That can still change ahead of November, though.
Chan/Peskin Anti-Housing Bill Passes Committee
Supervisors Chan and Preskin pushed an anti-housing bill through committee on Wednesday. The full Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure later this month. Their objective is clear - to confuse voters in November and put a deceptively-named housing ballot measure to rival GrowSF’s Affordable Homes Now.
The problem with Chan’s Affordable Housing Production Act is it would raise the bar so high that building mixed-income projects under her requirements will be financially infeasible.
There is still time to voice our opposition to this measure. GrowSF, the Housing Action Coalition, Greenbelt Alliance, SPUR, SF YIMBY, and others collaborated to power a petition to tell the Board of Supervisors to shoot down this measure before it makes it onto the ballot. Sign it today.
CEQA Sometimes Abused to Stop Housing Production
The California Environmental Quality Act - known as CEQA - is a perfect example of a well-meaning policy that is now being abused for selfish aims. CEQA was enacted in 1970 and was put in place to protect the natural environment.
Over the last 50 years, however, the act has grown in scope and used to unnecessarily block much needed housing. Fighting the misuse of CEQA will be instrumental in increasing housing in California.
Signs of hope for Downtown revival
The SF commercial real estate market took a beating from Covid, and the tech industry’s shift to remote working has not helped. There is some recent good news, however: Google Cloud just signed the largest new lease since the start of the pandemic, and is taking over a 300,000-square-foot office at 510 Townsend. Wells Fargo recently renewed their office space, and it is anticipated Levi Strauss & Co. will do the same.
More good news for the downtown area: Mayor Breed has proposed to the SF Board of Supervisors an $8M Economic Core Recovery Fund, to support a recovery of the SF downtown area. This fund is designed to do things like fund new festivals, beautify the district, support artists, and fill vacant store fronts.
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
Vote in the SF Guardians School Board Endorsement Process
Our friends at SF Guardians (the group that led the school board recall) are working on their endorsements for this November’s election. Click here to show your support for the newly appointed school board commissioners.
GrowSF Happy Hour July 20
Join GrowSF volunteers at The Orbit Room for a happy hour on July 20th at 6:30pm.
GrowSF Summer Picnic on July 24
GrowSF is hosting a summer picnic in Dolores Park on July 24th from 11an to 3pm. Come meet other folks who love San Francisco and want to see the city grow.
We will provide drinks and pizza. RSVP for the picnic here,
Celebrate San Francisco
There’s a lot to love about our city. Here’s what makes it great:
Sunday Streets is on Valencia
Tomorrow - 7/10 from 11-4 - Sunday Streets returns to Valencia. Walk, bike, roll, or bus on over to enjoy over a mile of car-free goodness from Duboce to 26th Street. And if you love Valencia Street and "car-free" as much as we do, check out Valencia for the People.
History of the Exploratorium Cow Eyeball Dissection
Did you know the cow eyeball dissection at the Exploratorium has been going on for over 50 years? Read more about it here.
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.
Topical Tweets
Yes, there is good stuff on Twitter. Here’s some of it:
Many businesses have struggling due to inflation. Here’s the story of Golden Gate Fortune Cookie in Chinatown. Please support local businesses, and tip well.
Incredible video of San Francisco from 1940!
Alfred Twu breaks down the economics of building apartments in San Francisco.
