The GrowSF Report: SF's new $14B budget
Plus: Pride, how ballot measures are made, and Galaga coming to Powell BART
What You Need To Know
Here’s what happened around the city for the week of June 27, 2022:
- We have a budget: how we’ll spend $14B
- Explainer: How Ballot Measures Are Made in San Francisco
- Nearly 500,000 turn out for Pride
- San Francisco’s new Chinese American leaders
- GrowSF is hiring a Head of Operations
We have a budget: how we’ll spend $14B
Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors reached an agreement on San Francisco’s budget for Fiscal Year 2022-2023: roughly $14 billion dollars (about 5% more than last year). The SF Chronicle breaks down the sky-high budget by department and tells us what’s getting more $ and what’s getting less.
For nearly all San Franciscans, $14 billion is an unfathomable amount of money. To help readers break down this large sum and better understand how it is spent, we visualized the 2022-23 budget with a series of interactive charts. The charts show which departments have the largest budgets and the departments for which the Mayor is proposing notable increases.
You can also read about the budget in the Mayor’s own words on her blog. (Yes, the Mayor has a blog)
Explainer: How Ballot Measures Are Made in San Francisco
Ever wonder how ballot measures end up on the ballot? Or why we have so many things to vote on? The SF Standard has broken down what it takes to get these measures on the ballot.
So, how do these questions come before the electorate?
Ballot measures can land on the ballot in multiple ways, from signature-gathering to the legislative process. Here’s a breakdown of the different kinds of ballot measures and how exactly they happen.
Nearly 500,000 turn out for Pride

After a two year hiatus, the SF Pride Parade came back and roughly 500,000 people showed up to celebrate.
“Battles we thought we had won we have to fight all over again,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, who wore a fitted rainbow T-shirt and rode in a white pickup truck. “I’m an optimist, and we are going to win this,” he said. “But now is the time to recommit.”
[…]
In spite of the grim political atmosphere, the mood was celebratory.
“We’ve been looking forward to this day for 2½ years,” said Kate Brown, president of SF Dykes on Bikes. “While we ride throughout the year, none of our rides bring the same amount of exhilaration as the ride that kicks off the parade on Market Street.”
San Francisco’s new Chinese-American leaders
The San Francisco Standard covers the next generation of Chinese-American and other East Asian descent leaders in San Francisco in this in-depth story about the rising stars.
With the passing of Rose Pak and Mayor Ed Lee in 2016 and 2017, a power vacuum opened up among Chinatown and Westside Asian voters. Now a new generation of activists, community leaders, parents, and small business leaders are now activating a community that elected officials have often ignored. Both the school board and the Chesa Boudin recalls showed the power of this budding coalition.
A new wave of activism has emerged around issues including anti-Asian hate crimes and merit-based admissions at Lowell High School, but it has exposed a sharp split between established left-leaning elected officials and energized moderates who supported recalls of the school board and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Meanwhile, a younger cohort of Asian Americans is stepping up to advocate for the community—and that group is marked by political divisions similar to those experienced by the previous generation.
Read the full story at the SF Standard.
GrowSF is hiring a Head of Operations
Want to help GrowSF grow? Help us find a Head of Operations! And donate today to help us pay them what they’re worth.
We need someone who can help us iterate on our strategy, execute on advocacy efforts, write and publish content, and do whatever is needed to make GrowSF successful.
Read the full job description and apply at https://growsf.org/careers/
Your Action Plan
Now that you know what’s happening, help us shape what happens next:
Say NO to Chan, Preston, and Peskin's anti-housing ballot measure
In an apparent move to undercut GrowSF’s Affordable Housing Now ballot measure, Supervisors Connie Chan and Aaron Peskin have introduced a rival measure that would make it even harder to build housing.
Jay Bradshaw of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, Todd David of Housing Action Coalition, and Laura Foote of YIMBY Action wrote in the SF Chronicle:
The measure is NIMBYism masquerading as progress… [it] will do nothing to remove the roadblocks that make building affordable housing difficult. Instead, it will place unrealistic constraints and requirements that make it nearly impossible to build anything.
We can stop this anti-housing measure from moving forward, just sign this petition to tell the Supervisors to say NO to the anti-housing measure.
Celebrate San Francisco
There’s a lot to love about our city. Here’s what makes it great:
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home outdoor screening at Union Square
KHAAAAAANNNN — wait, wrong movie!
Enjoy Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at a free outdoor screening on Friday July 8 in Union Square. Doors open at 6:30pm and the movie starts after sunset — around 8:30pm.
More info at Do The Bay.
Don’t forget to bring a jacket, this is San Francisco summer, after all!
Arcade games are coming (back) to Powell BART
We may be getting older, but we’re still young at heart! Celebrate your (inner) youth by playing Pong and Galaga at the Powell Street BART station this September!
This year, BART will bring four games back for a week beginning on Sept. 3, 2022, as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the system.
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Topical Tweets
Yes, there is good stuff on Twitter. Here’s some of it:
Did you catch the Pride laser?