Thanks, Daniel Lurie. Now every SF official thinks they’re an influencer

<p>Few San Franciscans are as Insta-famous as Mayor  Daniel Lurie .  Now all the other politicos want in — no matter how obscure their office.  Cue  Joaqu í n Torres,  the city’s assessor-recorder. “I’m the role you never heard about,” he  tells the camera  as he walks Clement Street in an Instagram post from last week after he filed his reelection paperwork. A jazzy drum number plays as he explains that his office handles assessments of taxable property. The campaign video has been making the rounds among City Hall’s chattering class for its slick production values, nearly 500 likes, and resemblance to Lurie’s walk-and-talk videos. Former  Aaron Peskin  campaign finance director  Jack Shelley  called the video a “banger” in the comments, and even local impresario  Broke-Ass Stuart  commented that it was “great.” That got Power Play pondering: Which SF politico has best replicated the mayor’s Insta style?  One way to measure that is raw influence. Lurie has 259,000 souls following his Instagram. No member of the Board of Supervisors comes remotely close; most have fewer than 10,000 followers — though Supervisor  Jackie Fielder , with 32,000, stands out.  That hasn’t stopped them from trying. Supervisor  Stephen Sherrill  — representing the Marina, Cow Hollow, and Pacific Heights, among other neighborhoods — posted  this Lurie-style update  on a marathon late-July board meeting that covered everything from issuing liquor licenses to appointing new members to the Planning Commission. We give it a B+ — clean delivery, relatable governmental griping, but scattershot, topic-wise.  Supervisor  Bilal Mahmood ’s   Aug. 4 post  explaining the whys and wherefores of the Waymo Fourth of July  traffic car-mageddon  is a classic Lurie walk-and-talk, but Mahmood is playing a losing game by explaining how government actually works. In the comments, citizens saw the post as trying to deflect criticism of Waymo. That’s a solid C, supervisor, because you forgot something important. Lurie floods the zone with positivity, the social media equivalent of plugging your ears while saying “Nah, nah, nah!” Supervisor  Danny Sauter  has a handle on how Lurie addresses things that piss people off (which does happen, occasionally). Take Sauter’s  Aug. 5 video  on illegal dumping — he leads with, “We’re taking action,” trying to communicate to voters that the problem is being addressed, even though the jury may be out on the results.  Natalie Gee,  a District 10 legislative aide and onetime supervisor candidate, has found success spilling the SF political tea, like in her  July post about the fight over naming rights  to the “Friends of Sunset Boulevard” ( first reported  in The Standard). The comments, from “BAM!” to “don’t be a shitty neighbor,” show that her hot takes spark engagement. We’ll note that her videos pre-date Lurie’s Insta-stardom by about a year. Sometimes the best way to win the game is to avoid playing entirely. To wit, Supervisor  Myrna Melgar ’s post Sunday about her vacation to Central America’s Gulf of Fonseca. (The board is on August recess.) Melgar reports back about the “pristine” nature  and charmingly counts the iguanas  she can see from her room, which is surrounded by palm trees and an easy breeze you can hear over the microphone. “Check this out, this is the wall next to our hotel room,” she says. “That is one iguana. That is two iguanas. Three iguanas. Four iguanas. Five iguanas. Six iguanas. Just resting on the wall.”  — Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez Chime in, Power Players: What’s your favorite SF politico or government account? Who just absolutely misses? Write us:  powerplay@sfstandard.com .  THE GARRY GANG : Gubernatorial candidate  Xavier Becerra  is hoping to tap the deep pockets of the Silicon Valley world. Y Combinator CEO  Garry Tan  is hosting a fireside chat fundraiser for the Democrat on Thursday, according to an invite obtained by Power Play, with general admission at $50, seated entry at $250, and a private reception at $10,000. The event is being thrown by Garry’s List,  the techie’s policy nonprofit  that launched this year. “Garry Tan and Garry‘s List are very excited to have the future governor appear before its members,” spokesperson  Sam Singer  said in a statement. “Garry believes Becerra is going to be a great governor and keep our state in a leadership position as the center of our nation’s innovation economy.” Becerra’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.  — Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler BOARD DRAMA : Mahmood   is at it again, shaking up the usually tranquil Board of Supervisors (with the nerve to do it on recess!), claiming that a historic preservation bill from Lurie and Supervisor  Rafael Mandelman  is NIMBY in disguise and offering amendments. The legislation would streamline the historic designation process for certain buildings, raising the number of such sites from 2,500 to 5,000. Mahmood,  who has recently been ruffling feathers with Lurie , is pushing to study how much housing can be built on sites deemed historic and whether zoning tweaks could offset any loss of housing capacity resulting from the designations.  It’s not sitting well with Mandelman. “It’s a pretty hostile amendment, and it does weirdly borrow from the worst version of NIMBYism, which is to drown something you don’t like in process,” he told Power Play, referring to what he perceives as Mahmood adding steps to everything. Lurie feels the city can do two things at once. “We can build more housing that fits in our neighborhoods, and we can protect the gems that define what our city is,” he said in a statement. “San Francisco doesn’t have to choose between growth and preservation.” Why the tumult? As Power Play has covered,  this is the latest public display of disagreement  between Mahmood and moderate City Hall forces as the supervisor tries to carve out a lane: hard-line YIMBY while socially progressive. His diagnosis of the conflict is that the board got along just fine in year one of Lurie’s term as public safety, which many of the members align on, was the topic du jour. But affordability is now  the  problem, and Mahmood thinks it has scrambled the alliances. “A majority has a consistent voice on public safety, but a majority of the board and the mayor have a very fragmented view on affordability and housing. That lack of cohesion — that is the truest test of collaboration,” he told Power Play.  — G.G. COMMENTATOR TO CANDIDATE:  Speaking of Instagram, progressive influencer  Bunny McFadden  has won the hearts and minds of San Franciscans  through our phone screens . She has gathered 36,000 followers with her scathing political commentary, perhaps because she’s one of the most prominent online voices lampooning “Denim Dan,” her oft-used nickname for the mayor. Now she’s hoping those likes translate to votes.  McFadden filed paperwork Wednesday to run for the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees, along with a progressive slate of candidates: former SF Democratic Party board member  Leah LaCroix  and  Rose Pak Asian American Club  President  Jeremy Lee . Her priority, McFadden said, is “protecting our students and holding true to Free City,” the resident subsidy for City College — especially at a pivotal time for the college as enrollment continues to slip, imperiling its financial standing. And worth mentioning, her socials aren’t her only bona fides; she’s also got a doctorate in education and previously taught at the community college level. At the Department of Elections in City Hall’s basement,  Evangela Brewster , a member of the Associated Students Executive Council, greeted McFadden warmly — even though they had never met. “You don’t know me,” the student said as she hugged McFadden, smiling wide, “but I know you from your content. Congratulations!” —  J. F. R.</p>

Inside the desperate campaign to stop the Overpaid CEO Tax

<p>When San Francisco’s labor unions put the Overpaid CEO Tax on the June ballot, they were betting that an AI boom and looming federal cuts would push voters to demand that corporations pay more. They were wrong. With two-thirds of returned ballots   counted through the end of the week, Proposition D is likely going to be rejected by a double-digit margin.  The looming defeat marks a rare loss for the city’s  most powerful unions  — among them, SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 — which led the campaign and won endorsements from the state’s leading Democratic candidates for governor, Nancy Pelosi, and a supermajority of the Board of Supervisors. The loss caught labor insiders by surprise. San Francisco voters, for two decades, have embraced higher business taxes at nearly every turn. Meanwhile, corporations — often splintered along industry or generational lines — were regularly defeated at the ballot box.  But this time, the business community put up a real fight, with billionaires Chris Larsen and Michael Moritz (chairman of The Standard) cutting six-figure checks, and organizations like Advance SF airing negative TV ads during the NBA playoffs.  But the person who pushed the “no” campaign over the top was Mayor Daniel Lurie.  A Chamber of Commerce poll showed support for Prop. D  was ahead in the race  leading up to the election. Almost half of voters, however, were not aware that the popular mayor was opposed to the measure. This gave the business coalition the data point it needed to approach Lurie’s team and argue that the mayor should become the face of the anti-tax campaign.  “Let’s go, San Francisco” became “Let’s go defeat that darn tax.” “We knew turnout was going to be more last minute because of the uncertainty surrounding the governor’s race,” said a source involved in the No on D campaign. “So we called in the Lurie cameo at the end.”  From a business perspective, Lurie saved the city from Prop. D. But he also had a role in getting it on the ballot in the first place. Behind-the-scenes negotiations, which The Standard is reporting in detail for the first time, point to a key weakness in the mayor’s political armor.  Sources say Lurie threw the business coalition and labor unions into a room together, walked away, and essentially told them to figure it out themselves. For decades, mayors have embraced the role of chief negotiator, but Lurie has shied away from it. For example, in February, he sent his subordinates to broker peace between the United Educators of San Francisco and the San Francisco Unified School District, but they failed  to avert a strike .  In the case of Prop. D, Lurie didn’t even go to bat.  Pinch hitters Left to its own devices, the business lobby tried to deal with the unions directly, warning them of the dire economic consequences for San Francisco if it were to renege on the  business tax reform passed in 2024.  That reform was viewed as a grand bargain between major business and labor factions and was born of a fragile truce forged for the sake of the city’s economic future. The conversations to salvage the bargain hit a wall, sources said.  With a solution nowhere to be found in the days before the Feb. 2 deadline to submit signatures to the city’s Department of Elections, Lurie asked Larsen, Boudin Bakery scion and veteran civic dealmaker Lou Giraudo, and former City Administrator Ben Rosenfield to intervene and negotiate with the labor unions.  The three men were regarded by both sides as neutral brokers.  The last-minute negotiation sessions, sources say, were an attempt to salvage as much of the  2024 bipartisan tax reform  as possible while finding room for a partial rate restoration to generate new revenue. Sources briefed on those talks said the unions wanted the business lobby to agree to tax hikes that could generate at least $200 million in annual revenue, as well as a guarantee against layoffs of city workers during 2027 budget deliberations.  The mediators countered with a best-and-final offer of between $100 million and $150 million, but pushed for their own protections, including a sunset clause on tax increases and guarantees that the unions would not pursue future tax hikes.  Factions within the labor coalition, including the building and construction trades, supported the proposed deal but ultimately deferred to SEIU and IFPTE because they represent the largest number of public-sector employees, sources say. SEIU and IFPTE did not respond to requests for comment.  Bottom of the ninth On Jan. 30, just two days before the deadline to submit petitions to the Department of Elections, the labor coalition submitted Prop. D for the ballot, despite the mayor’s pleas against it.  “Business didn’t have a track record of fighting, let alone winning, so why not take more at the ballot box?” said a source who worked on the 2024 business tax reform and opposed Prop. D.  The proposed measure went beyond any of the compromise negotiations, proposing an Overpaid CEO Tax rate higher than the one voters approved in 2020. Without factoring in any potential exodus of companies from the city, the Prop. D coalition said the new tax would generate up to $300 million in annual revenue.  The Chamber of Commerce, fearing that Prop. D would derail the city’s  fragile economic recovery , countered by placing a competing measure on the ballot, Prop. C, which would lock in reduced rates negotiated in 2024 and expand exemptions for small businesses. Had both passed, the measure with more votes would have gone into effect.  Voters rejected both. The Yes on C, No on D campaign  spent roughly $6 million . Standing outside Original Joe’s in North Beach on Tuesday, Lurie spun the pending results as proof that “San Franciscans like the direction that we are going in.”  Alongside the failures of Propositions C and D,  all of the mayor’s endorsed candidates  won their races, giving him even stronger support in his second year. It will strengthen Lurie’s hand when entering into contract negotiations next year, when City Hall’s public-sector unions will likely demand raises, especially in light of the 14% raises police officers received  just two months ago .  But political and business insiders say that while labor is down, it’s not out. The consequences of this fight will reverberate into 2027, when public-sector unions negotiate their next contracts with Lurie.  When they do, they will be legally allowed to strike for  the first time in 50 years . If Lurie had helped them avert layoffs with a compromise tax measure, it may have softened the blow, taking the wind out of a possible strike.  Now, labor unions are holding a weak hand — and that’s when they’re at the fiercest.  “I’ve watched mayors come and go,” said Mike Casey, president of the San Francisco Labor Council. “I’ve watched popularity rise and fall. I’ve watched labor with our backs against the wall, in difficult fights.”  “My money,” he said, “is going to continue to be on working people.”</p>

Can’t figure out how to vote? Neither can anyone. Luckily, we’ve got you

<p>San Franciscans, a lot of you haven’t voted yet, and the  data shows it .  There are roughly 70,000 ballots in the hands of the city’s Department of Elections right now, with turnout hovering at about 13%. That’s low, even for a primary.  Your hesitation is understandable. There’s a confusing, clown car’s worth of Democrats running in the gubernatorial snoozer, and sussing out who should succeed  Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s nearly four decades in Congress  is a daunting task for any voter (even if it’s just Round One before the general election).  Fret not, we’re here to help. Instead of writing our own voter’s guide, however, we thought we’d try something a little different: welcome to  The Standard’s Unofficial Guide to a Bunch of Other SF Voter Guides,  wherein we help you make sense of which voter guide or endorsement list may best suit your particular political sensibilities. Think of it as a political matchmaking service: work out where you fall on the political spectrum, and we’ll point you to the voter guide that speaks your language and will, literally, tick your box(es). Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, an abundance-bro or a “sensible centrist,” we’ve got links to voter guides to meet your needs. Our bar for including a guide or an endorsement list is simple — the writer needs to explain their reasoning (the SF Labor Council,  for instance , doesn’t go into its rationale). We also preferred guides focusing on local races. The list is by no means comprehensive, but we tried to hit the mainstays. And while we poked a little fun at the categories we slotted these guides into, the truth is that few voters fit into such neat ideological boxes. With nearly two dozen guides in total, one thing is clear at least: San Francisco is bonkers-level serious about local politics.  Lurie stans unite Do you roll out of bed every morning and shout, “Let’s go, San Francisco!” Do Lurie’s dulcet tones emanate from Instagram on your phone while you brush your teeth? OK, we got it, you’re likely aligned with the mayor’s priorities, too, from boosting police hiring to boosting downtown’s economic recovery through tax breaks, and you probably worry that the Overpaid CEO tax will threaten the city’s comeback.  Here are the business-friendly, moderate Democrat-aligned guides of choice to point you in the right direction.  GrowSF  — This pro-development, pro-business group is so aligned with the mayor that it,  until recently , employed his former campaign consultant. It’s almost like getting an endorsement from the horse’s mouth. Almost. The group backed both of his allies, Supervisors Alan Wong and Stephen Sherrill.  Blueprint SF  — This group’s guide was paid for by Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, a group whose leadership  famously earned Lurie’s ire . That said, they’re billionaire-backed, and their political worldviews still align.  SF Chamber of Commerce  — If you’re pro-business, who better to listen to than an organization that represents businesses across San Francisco of every size and shape?  Chinese American Democratic Club  — This group of centrist Chinese voters broadly aligns with Lurie’s politics, but not always with Lurie himself, particularly in their District 4 supervisor pick. The club passed over Wong, the mayor’s appointee, for their first rank. Progressive stalwarts Maybe you consider yourself a member of San Francisco’s capital-P “Progressive” Democrats, or you’re a progressive in the national sense. You worry about an excess of police power, think  billionaires should get taxed  to pay for social services, or want San Francisco to prioritize tenant protections over building towering market-rate housing. You might catch up on  Democracy Now!  episodes during weekend chores, or watch  Hasan Piker  rack headshots in Cyberpunk 2077 while waxing philosophical about economic inequality. Enjoy this squad (of voter guides). SF League of Pissed Off Voters  — These progressive political nerds dive deep into the weeds to explain their picks, and are oft-aligned with Progressives on the Board of Supervisors. Note their congressional pick of Supervisor Connie Chan over Saikat Chakrabarti. Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club  — Named for the gay-rights champion on the Board of Supervisors, the club carries on his political legacy for LGBTQ+ San Franciscans. SF Rising Action Fund  — The rebellious SF Rising Action Fund calls out “corporate greed” and authoritarianism while touting roots in  Black, Latinx, Chinese, and Filipino communities from across the city. Chinese for Affirmative Action  —   The Chinese electorate is not a monolith, and this group presents the leftist arguments for ballot propositions.  SF Propel  — Long-time progressive supervisor staffer Sunny Angulo leads this org, building on years of experience in the movement. Build, Build, Build Housing — we all need it, and some of us pay through the nose to get it. If housing affordability is your key issue, you may align with a distinct ideological track: YIMBY and other urbanists, who push for more housing to be built to bring down prices across the market, or tenant activists, who think market-rate housing leads to more evictions. Whether you  pine for Ezra Klein  or think market-rate housing equals  luxury   housing, we’ve got guides for both flavors of housing activists — so stop fighting, by God, or I’ll turn this voter guide around and drive  straight  home. SF YIMBY  —   The big mac daddy of the “build the damn housing already” movement. The original recipe, accept no substitutes. SF Tenants Union  —   While yes, you can be for tenants’ rights and also a YIMBY, functionally in SF politics these two groups are often on opposing teams. Use this guide if you favor tenant protections or harbor a distinct distrust of housing developers. SPUR  —The O.G. urbanists, into building more housing before it was cool. Maybe problematically so, if you look back  far enough . Look up “pragmatist” in the dictionary, and you’ll find their staff photo. Also generally Lurie-aligned. The dead tree vote Look, the SF Standard obviously employs journalists, and we’ve therefore got a soft spot for the written word, which is sometimes— shockingly — printed on gray paper that’s tossed onto your doorstep. While a certain congresswoman may have recently  called these endorsements “totally irrelevant,”  we’ll respectfully posit they hold value because they’re often well-researched and try to weigh counterarguments. Although much like our categories above, they often sail down ideological lanes. SF Bay Guardian  — The now-defunct alt-weekly newspaper still raises hell in its annual endorsement lists, a mighty checklist that progressives used to rip from the side of their newspapers and take into voting booths. Print it out and crumple the edges for nostalgia’s sake.  SF Chronicle   — Its endorsements this year are pretty Lurie-aligned, but don’t take that as a given. Their editorial board can surprise you, once in a while. SF Examiner   — Its owner, Clint Reilly, has a say in the endorsements, and he’s been around city insiders  longer than most . And we think that perspective is worth its weight in newsprint.  The Bay Area Reporter  — A publication serving the LGBTQ+ community since 1971, come for the hot takes, stay for  the hot cookie .  League of Women Voters  — OK, OK, the league isn’t a newspaper, but they’ve been educating voters so long, they’re certainly an institution. Plus, I didn’t have another natural category for them. Enjoy! Random folks tell us how to vote There’s a fascinating phenomenon bubbling up: random, highly motivated citizens drumming up their own voter guides and seeing them take off. It’s incredibly charming — we should all be so industrious. Here’s a smattering we were sent by sources when we went asking around. Chang Sun, “Principled Agents”  —   This guide is aligned with YIMBY yet spurned state Sen. Scott Wiener for Congress. Worth a read just to find out why.  Hansen Qian  —   This guide is pretty standard, moderate Democrat fair, touting fiscal pragmatism, but you’ve gotta appreciate the hustle.  Pamela Drake  —   I’m cheating a bit here. Drake primarily writes about East Bay races, but for a San Franciscan, you can check out her rationale for statewide races. I’m just really into self-described grandmas who blog about politics.  Corry Frydlewicz  — Again, another East Bay-focused guide, but not many of these guides focus on trans rights, making this one worth a read for statewide races if you’re a San Franciscan.  Twilight of Greed  — Bonus points to a student and teacher, calling themselves “radicals,” who repeatedly call themselves the “Editorial Board” in their guide. Cheeky. Now, just go vote.</p>

The Standard wins initial ruling in fight for Mayor’s PG&E blackout records

<p>It’s been months since PG&E CEO  Sumeet Singh  said during astonishing public testimony at a Board of Supervisors hearing that Mayor  Daniel Lurie  personally directed the utility to prioritize  restoring power at the War Memorial Opera House  during the December blackout, which plunged a large swath of the city into darkness for days. Singh quickly recanted his statement as The Standard reported on his testimony, chalking it up to a “misunderstanding,”  and the mayor’s office denied the remarks.   But questions remain about how that memorable (not in a good way)  holiday weekend  unfolded. As a reminder: Lurie received an “ opera house update ” text message from  Jake Zigelman , PG&E’s Bay Region vice president, on Dec. 21 — the same day the mayor’s daughter was set to perform as Clara in “The Nutcracker” at the venue. Through a public records request, The Standard obtained that iMessage, which shows undisclosed correspondence above and below the text. The Standard has repeatedly pushed the mayor’s office to provide those additional messages, but Lurie’s team maintains that it has disclosed everything in its possession.  Power Play’s  Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler  filed a complaint in April with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, a local body that enforces the city’s open-government laws, seeking those records.  During a hearing Tuesday, a subcommittee of the task force ruled in favor of The Standard in a 4-0 vote after Greschler, who came to the meeting with a large poster board showing the Dec. 21 text, argued that the public has a right to know what fully “happened between the mayor and the utility while the city sat without power.”  “In addition to requesting all messages from Dec. 21 based on this thread you see, we have also asked for text messages from Dec. 20, the day the blackout first began,” Greschler told the task force. “It is hard to believe that the mayor and a VP at PG&E were not in conversation on this date, too, when one of the biggest blackouts in decades hit San Francisco.” In a response to the complaint, the mayor’s office said Greschler was “using both the complaint and the Task Force to promote the false narrative” that Lurie was directly involved in getting PG&E to prioritize power at the opera house.  Dexter Darmali , the legislative and ethics secretary at the mayor’s office, repeatedly said throughout the hearing that it had produced all responsive documents. But task force members remained skeptical.  “[Greschler] has been continuously asking for PG&E records, and he’s been very clear about what he wants, and then he had to file the request again, but it sort of seems like [the mayor’s office is] deliberately hiding some information and not sharing it with the petitioner,” said member  Ankita Kumar .  Another member,  Saul Sugarman , said the ordeal “seems slightly fishy.”  Task force members did acknowledge that Lurie has at least been disclosing texts — a marked departure from his predecessor,  London Breed ,  who was accused of hiding such correspondence. The complaint will now move to a vote before the full task force, which has limited enforcement powers. It can rule that agencies or public officials violated public records law, order the disclosure of documents, and refer especially egregious cases to the Ethics Commission for potential discipline.  The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the ruling.  “The mayor’s office is claiming we want to ‘promote a false narrative,’” Greschler said. “Let’s get these documents released and clear up whatever truth arises.”  — Hannah Wiley Got tips? Send to us at  powerplay@sfstandard.com . BIG TECH BECERRA? : Critics of former Health and Human Services Secretary  Xavier Becerra  blasted a  $950,000 donation  from Meta to an independent committee supporting his gubernatorial bid. The funding came Tuesday, a day before the company  laid off thousands of workers , and comes amid the legislative fight to crack down on the industry amid concerns over AI and youth social media use.  Becerra appears increasingly likely to  survive the June 2 primary  over fellow Democrats such as billionaire climate activist  Tom Steyer  and former Orange County Rep.  Katie Porter  — and interest groups have noticed his rise. “Meta is laying off thousands of workers while investing nearly $1 million in Xavier Becerra, and that’s because Becerra is their best bet to protect their profits regardless of the human cost,” Steyer spokesperson  Kevin Liao  said in a statement.  Campaign mudslinging aside, the donation has generated alarm within parent advocacy groups pushing for greater oversight of tech products.  “I’m incredibly disappointed and afraid of what this means and what Meta thinks it’s going to get out of this,” said  Julianna Arnold , who founded the group Parents Rise after her teenage daughter fatally overdosed on a  counterfeit fentanyl pill purchased on Instagram .  Arnold said she was particularly concerned that the donation coincides with California’s legal battles against social media companies over claims that their products are designed to  addict children .  “Unfortunately, I think that they are doing this so they can turn the tides on the state’s direction of being the enforcers of this,” she said.  Becerra spokesperson  Jonathan Underland  said the candidate “has never been bought by a check” and pointed to his experience leading California in “a  multistate antitrust action against Facebook  over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.”  “That’s who Xavier Becerra is — someone who doesn’t ask how powerful an interest is, or how big their check was, before deciding to hold them accountable,” Underland said.  — H.W. SNOOZIN’:  San Francisco voters are clutching their ballots close to their vests.  Turnout data  shows just 7% of ballots returned so far in battleground districts 4 and 2, where incumbent Supervisors  Alan Wong  and  Stephen Sherrill , respectively, are vying to hold onto their seats. One can almost see the tumbleweeds rollin’ through the Department of Elections.  While each district shows roughly 3,500 ballots returned out of 47,000, Sherrill has less to worry about, insiders said. Lower turnout is “a problem for Alan,” one insider told Power Play, mostly because the mountain of cash in third-party spending (including from San Francisco Standard chairman  Michael Moritz ) is most likely to sway low-information voters. But in a low-turnout scenario, only the most dedicated, frequent voters show up.  In the Sunset, part of District 4, those are voters who followed every twist and turn of the recall of Supervisor  Joel Engardio  and could tell you off-hand which candidates back the Great Highway reopening. Insiders said that helps candidates who either have strong local roots, like recall leader  Albert Chow,  or those with strong ground game, like legislative aide  Natalie Gee , who is known to exhaustively door-knock and has strong support from labor groups, whose members also are known for hitting the streets in support of favored candidates. —  Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez PELOSI, PUH-LEAZE:  Speaker Emerita  Nancy Pelosi’ s endorsement of Supervisor  Connie Chan  in the congressional race had heads spinning — some doubted the day would ever come. But few had a reaction like that of techbro political influencer and Y Combinator CEO  Garry Tan. Tan  openly wondered  on X why Chan never followed through after he asked her to resign. (You know, after publicly  including her on the list of politicians  he thought should “die slow.”)  “Last year I asked Connie Chan to resign for her role in making San Francisco unsafe for Asian Americans. This year she somehow got the endorsement from Pelosi,” he posted. “Make it make sense. You can’t.” While Tan tries to figure out why one of the most powerful Democrats in the U.S. doesn’t give two wits about what he says about Chan, or about anything, the betting website  Kalshi is showing an upswing  for the progressive supervisor in at least  two distinct markets . With $94,560 on the line, the first betting pool shows that Chan’s chance of a win rose from 6% to 36% in just two days after Pelosi’s announcement. Her rival  Saikat Chakrabarti  saw confidence drop from 20% to 8% — more than a hundred people threw down bets after Pelosi’s endorsement. A second pool, asking which of the two would advance alongside state Sen.  Scott Wiener,  showed Chan leap to more than 73% and Chakrabarti drop to roughly 26%, when days before they were roughly 50/50. Pollster guru  Paul Mitchell , vice president of Political Data Inc., told Power Play that while he thinks the prediction market stuff is generally “stupid,” this particular case “is actually an instance where Kalshi is able to respond to an event rapidly, where a poll won’t catch that for another week or more.”  In this case, he said, “yeah, it can be used as a data point” — one that measures the weight of Pelosi’s influence.  — J. F. R. THE STANDARD AT MANNY’S : With less than two weeks until the June 2 primary, enormous sums of money continue to pour into what’s shaping up to be a historically expensive election cycle. On Wednesday, for example, Google cofounder  Sergey Brin  chucked in a cool half million to one of the city’s business-backed ballot measures, Proposition C.  Breaking this all down for you are The Standard reporters  Hannah Wiley  and  Emily Shugerman , who will talk money in politics with “Pacific Standard Time” podcast host  Emily Dreyfuss  on May 27 from 6 to 7 p.m. at Manny’s. The group will hash out the contest to succeed Pelosi, the California Billionaire Tax Act, and the governor’s race. University of San Francisco politics professor  Keally McBride  will also offer her analysis.  Get tickets here .  — Gabriel Greschler</p>

Lurie launches City Hall clean-up campaign. Plus: Wiener’s spicy video

<p>This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard’s  newsletter page . It’s spring cleaning time in City Hall.  Mayor  Daniel Lurie  filed paperwork with the Department of Elections on Wednesday to launch three signature-gathering drives aimed at placing charter amendments on the November ballot. The mayor’s calling it the “Clean Up City Hall” campaign. “This system works for the insiders,” Lurie told reporters. “It does not work for everyday San Franciscans.” Of the three proposed amendments, two are expected to be noncontroversial. One would  streamline and centralize the contracting process , giving more flexibility to the city administrator; the other would  expand the mayor’s power  to hire and fire commissioners and department heads, and allow the mayor to restructure departments. The third proposal will likely spark a battle, as it would raise the threshold for future ballot measures to qualify. Currently, proposals backed by signatures from 2% of registered voters can qualify; Lurie wants to raise that to 8%. He also proposes increasing the number of supervisors required to place a measure on the ballot from four to six — a simple majority of the board. The plan would also remove the mayor’s own authority to place measures directly on the ballot. The change would apply only to ballot measures that are ordinances, and the process for charter amendments would remain unchanged. Some  labor leaders have spoken out against that proposal.   Beyond political opposition, the biggest challenge may be gathering signatures. Lurie and his allies must collect about 53,000 — roughly 10% of local registered voters — to qualify the measures for the November ballot, a process likely to cost millions of dollars. “[We] haven’t figured out how much that will cost,” Lurie said. “But anyone who wants to join us, we would love their support.” There’s a notable exception to the mayor’s expanded authority. While Lurie wants broader power to hire and fire most department heads, he keeps the existing process for selecting the police chief. Under that system, the Police Commission provides the mayor with a shortlist of candidates to choose from. “We’re always going to work with a commission on that front,” Lurie said. “And I think that process is working well.” If all that isn’t confusing enough, the mayor’s proposals come alongside a separate effort to streamline the city’s commissions that stems from Proposition E in 2024. That effort is expected to advance through the Board of Supervisors. Lurie has also launched a separate signature-gathering campaign for a tax measure to fund the city’s transit system.  — Han Li Got tips? Send to us at  powerplay@sfstandard.com . VIDEO FIGHT:  The race to replace Rep.  Nancy Pelosi  is heating up as state Sen.  Scott Wiener , a leading candidate, posted  a spicy video  Tuesday targeting  Saikat Chakrabarti , a former tech founder who has been flooding local airwaves with expensive TV ads. “Being hyper-rich can buy you a lot of things, but it shouldn’t be able to buy you an election,” Wiener wrote in the social media post. In the video, Wiener accuses Chakrabarti of not living in San Francisco, suggesting he resided in Maryland or Los Angeles. The Maryland accusation stems from  reporting  by The Standard showing that Chakrabarti bought a $1.6 million house in the city of Gaithersburg in 2018 and signed a deed promising to make it his principal residence. The candidate chalked it up to a paperwork error, calling it “an honest mistake.”  Wiener also claims his opponent “deleted 13 years of his social media posts.” Chakrabarti previously served as chief of staff to Rep.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , and his past posts — including  provocative tweets criticizing Pelosi  — were  widely documented in press coverage  at the time. The exchange quickly triggered a firestorm on X, with allies on both sides rushing to join the battle. Chakrabarti and his supporters quickly pushed back, blasting Wiener’s message as a  “nativist dog-whistle attack.” His campaign admitted to deleting tweets but also accused Wiener of recycling an old campaign tactic. “If you run against him, he’s going to call you a carpetbagger. It’s his thing. He did it to [ Jackie Fielder ] , and now Saikat,” campaign communications director  Tiffaney Bradley  said in a statement. “It’s ironic coming from someone who moved here from New Jersey and now thinks he gets to decide who qualifies as a real San Franciscan.” Meanwhile, the moderate political group GrowSF  released TV ads  backing supervisors  Stephen Sherrill  and  Alan Wong , both of whom face reelection in June. GrowSF said it expects to spend about $250,000 on each race.  — H.L. BIG ETHICS FINE : A Municipal Transportation Agency staffer  who engaged in a yearslong scheme  to score sports tickets and other free stuff by faking a job title has been handed a big fine by the Ethics Commission.  Charlie Chiem  has agreed to fork over $42,611 in response to 19 violations of city laws, according to a stipulation agreement made public Monday. Chiem was found to have broken a slew of rules: use of city resources for personal gain, misuse of city email/impersonating an official, falsely representing oneself as a department representative, accepting gifts from businesses seeking contracts, and accepting gifts from restricted sources.  Investigators say Chiem, an IT administrator for the transit agency, pretended to be a manager and attended 14 sporting events, some in luxury suites, with companies that were expected to do business with the city. Monday’s filing states that the value of his attendance at those events totaled nearly $9,000 between 2021 and 2023.  Chiem also found time between 2021 and 2024 to attend more than 600 webinars, in which he received thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, including Uber credits, headphones, and gift cards. The pace of Chiem’s attendance of the webinars — which were hosted by Microsoft, Proofpoint, Nutanix and other companies — is eye-opening: He would join more than one per day; he attended eight over the course of three days in 2023. He would also create fake email accounts to attend events multiple times. “Respondent’s use of significant amounts of City time and resources, including creating unauthorized City email accounts are severe and demonstrate a blatant abuse of City resources for private gain,” the commission stated. Attempts to reach Chiem were unsuccessful.  — Gabe Greschler PROP. ASSIGNMENTS : The proposition letters for the June primary election are here. Prop. A, a bond, would bring $535 million in funding toward earthquake safety and emergency preparedness. Prop. B, a charter amendment,  would establish lifetime term limits  for the mayor and Board of Supervisors. Props. C and D are in battle with one another: C is the business community’s tax on top executive pay, while D, the “Overpaid CEO Tax,” is the union version, which would more aggressively tax businesses based on C-suite salaries.  — G.G. Clarification: Wednesday’s newsletter’s description of the “Overpaid CEO Tax” has been updated for this article.</p>

Wiener has pole position in money race for Pelosi’s Congress seat

<p>State Sen. Scott Wiener is far outraising the pack in his bid for Congress — even beating out a wealthy, self-funded progressive who has written himself seven-figure checks. The candidates’ financial documents, released over the weekend, reflect campaign activities through the end of 2025. Wiener is the leader among the top three candidates, with $2.8 million raised. Tech founder and former congressional staffer Saikat Chakrabarti follows with about $1.8 million – although $1.5 million comes from his own sizable bank account, and  more self-funding is expected.  Supervisor Connie Chan has raised roughly $175,000. The race to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who is  retiring after nearly four decades  in Congress, is shaping up to be the biggest and most expensive battle on the June ballot. The congressional seat has no term limit, making it a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Wiener, who had been exploring a run  for three years , had raised more than $1 million before officially entering the race in October. His donor list includes tech leaders such as Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Twilio cofounder John Wolthuis. Wiener’s campaign said 1,455 San Francisco residents have contributed. “These numbers show that San Franciscans want a progressive fighter in Congress,” Wiener said. “Our campaign is building real momentum in every neighborhood, and we’re just getting started.” Chakrabarti, a newcomer to local politics and former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York,  is believed to be a centimillionaire . He blasted Wiener’s “reliance on large donors” and defended his self-funding strategy as it allows him to spend more time talking to voters instead of courting donors. “I can put in my own resources,” Chakrabarti said. “I have chosen to do that so I will have the freedom to fight an oligarchy that has taken control of our government.” Many of his donors, from whom he has raised about $300,000, are from outside California. “My campaign received national attention from the start,” he explained. “I’m the only one in this race who had the courage to  start campaigning  nine months before Speaker Emerita Pelosi decided not to run for reelection.” Wiener’s campaign fired back at Chakrabarti’s self-funding strategy and out-of-state support. “Saikat is a borderline billionaire carpet-bagger, with an entirely astroturf campaign, who is trying to buy the race,” Joe Arellano, spokesperson for Wiener’s campaign, said in a statement. “Saikat has no local support because he’s never genuinely been part of the San Francisco community.” Chan, a progressive supervisor representing the Richmond, has struggled to keep pace financially. She announced her campaign in late November, the last of the top three, after Pelosi confirmed her retirement. Chan’s campaign said she has 1,350 individual donors. “We had a lot of grassroots excitement for our campaign,” Chan’s consultant Julie Edwards said in a statement. “We continue to build momentum with our recent endorsements from California teachers and the San Francisco Labor Council.” A total of 10 candidates  are listed  on the Department of Elections website. The top two vote-getters in June will advance to the November general election. Pelosi’s campaign account, which is no longer receiving donations, raised $2.4 million in 2025.</p>

Sunset recallers launch effort to reopen Great Highway after supervisor’s plan crashes

<div class="content-grid article-content"><div class="Metadata_container__fxAzw"><div class="flex flex-row gap-x-md"></div><div class="Metadata_metadata__W_0LF"><span>By <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/han-li/">Han Li</a></span><time datetime="2026-01-14T01:44:56.673Z">Published Jan. 13, 2026 • 5:44pm</time></div></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The endless saga surrounding the Great Highway — San Francisco’s version of “War and Peace” — is about to get another bloody chapter. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">A group of west-side residents tied to the 2025 recall movement against former Sunset Supervisor Joel Engardio is taking over the campaign to reopen two miles of the coastal highway to cars on weekdays.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Their effort began Tuesday, just as the clock wound down on Supervisor Alan Wong’s effort to <u><a data-post-id="9da505bd-6054-445c-9a69-f9189a504185" href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/12/reopen-great-highway-fall-short/">secure support</a></u> from board colleagues to put the Great Highway issue back on the ballot. Wong gave up the push after failing to convince a minimum of three supervisors to lend their signatures to his proposal for a June voter referendum to overturn Proposition K. </p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Jamie Hughes, a leader of the Engardio recall and the spokesperson for the new campaign, said Tuesday that his group will file paperwork with the city to start gathering signatures for a November voter initiative that would return the Great Highway to a state of “compromise”: open to car traffic on weekdays and to pedestrians, skaters, and cyclists on weekends. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Supporters of the closure have continued to gaslight residents into thinking this is working while wasting unapproved taxpayer dollars and ignoring the unsafe conditions this has brought to the west side,” Hughes said. “San Francisco voters are looking for a sensible solution to this issue.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">He dismissed the effort from Wong, who was appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie at the end of November.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Supervisor Wong campaigned citywide multiple times and never did anything to support this effort,” Hughes said. “He made an unserious last-minute attempt, solely to benefit his supervisor campaign. Unfortunately for many of us counting on him, he flunked his first test of leadership. The ‘at least I tried’ act is not good enough.”</p></div><div class="w-full bg-warm-gray-50 border border-warm-gray-300 rounded-xl flex flex-col gap-md px-lg py-[20px]"><div class="flex flex-row text-medium leading-[1.1] text-black font-inter gap-xs"><span class="italic font-normal">More about</span><a href="https://sfstandard.com/tag/sunset-district/"><span class="font-bold underline decoration-highlight decoration-[3.2px]">Sunset District</span></a></div><ul class="flex flex-col gap-md"><li class="flex flex-row gap-sm pb-md border-b border-warm-gray-300"><a href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/12/reopen-great-highway-fall-short/" tabindex="-1"><div class="flex-none w-[90px] h-[60px] overflow-hidden"><img alt="A man in a suit raises his right hand, taking an oath from another man holding a document, while a crowd watches and records the event." class="object-cover w-full h-full lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="5464" loading="lazy" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_ngnejqthi50ld15hk7lb7ek51f/-S3840x2561-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_ngnejqthi50ld15hk7lb7ek51f/-S3840x2561-FPNG 1x" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 8192 5464'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="8192"/></div></a><a class="h-fit" href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/12/reopen-great-highway-fall-short/"><h3 class="text-medium sm:text-lg leading-[1.3] font-medium text-warm-gray-900 font-ivar-headline">Sunset supervisor gets cold shoulder from colleagues in bid to reopen Great Highway</h3></a></li><li class="flex flex-row gap-sm pb-md border-b border-warm-gray-300"><a href="https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/01/11/s-time-tear-san-francisco-zoo-s-should-go-its-place/" tabindex="-1"><div class="flex-none w-[90px] h-[60px] overflow-hidden"><img alt="A woman and child walk on a boardwalk by a wetland with birds, a snake, plants, and the sun setting over the ocean in the background." class="object-cover w-full h-full lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3508" loading="lazy" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_urfl7ontbd2qr81bu3mls4604l/-S3840x2715-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_urfl7ontbd2qr81bu3mls4604l/-S3840x2715-FPNG 1x" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 4961 3508'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="4961"/></div></a><a class="h-fit" href="https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2026/01/11/s-time-tear-san-francisco-zoo-s-should-go-its-place/"><h3 class="text-medium sm:text-lg leading-[1.3] font-medium text-warm-gray-900 font-ivar-headline">It’s time to tear down the San Francisco Zoo. Here’s what should rise in its place</h3></a></li><li class="flex flex-row gap-sm"><a href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/08/sunset-night-market-return-2026/" tabindex="-1"><div class="flex-none w-[90px] h-[60px] overflow-hidden"><img alt="" class="object-cover w-full h-full lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3743" loading="lazy" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_4ovvmb1rnt2sr13lcj5d84ko6e/-S3840x2560-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_4ovvmb1rnt2sr13lcj5d84ko6e/-S3840x2560-FPNG 1x" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 5614 3743'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="5614"/></div></a><a class="h-fit" href="https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/08/sunset-night-market-return-2026/"><h3 class="text-medium sm:text-lg leading-[1.3] font-medium text-warm-gray-900 font-ivar-headline">Sunset Night Market to return after last year’s political chaos</h3></a></li></ul></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Wong met with reporters in his office on Tuesday night to emphasize his commitment to the issue. He declined to say whether he will support a citizen-led initiative.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Ultimately, we were not able to get enough signatures. I am disappointed with the results,” Wong said. “Our office did our best to advocate for our constituents.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Two supervisors, Richmond representative Connie Chan and District 11’s Chyanne Chen, had agreed to back his proposal.</p></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="A man in a gray suit sits on an office chair holding an open signed document, with a wooden desk, two monitors, and office supplies nearby." class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3024" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S3840x2880-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S640x480-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S750x563-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S768x576-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S828x621-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S1024x768-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S1080x810-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S1200x900-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S1920x1440-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S2048x1536-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_77dkgka1hh2h585q6cb3cib71j/-S3840x2880-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 4032 3024'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="4032"/></div></div><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">Supervisor Alan Wong shows that he received two signatures from his colleagues, Connie Chan and Chyanne Chen.<span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Han Li/The Standard</span></figcaption></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Richard Corriea, a retired police captain and a leader of the Engardio recall effort, will serve as principal officer of the new campaign.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Alan Wong began slow-walking this issue the minute he took office and had no intention of truly supporting it from Day One,” Corriea said. “He may want west-side voters to give him an A for effort, but that’s disingenuous.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The effort continues a four-year battle over the Great Highway’s future. It adds to a deepening divide between the city’s urbanist activists, who want more green space and bike lanes, and those who rely on cars. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The city first closed the road to cars during the pandemic to create recreational space. In 2021, cars were allowed back during the week while the road was turned over to pedestrians on weekends. A 2022 ballot measure to reopen the highway to cars failed before supervisors <u><a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/sf-supervisors-seal-great-highways-fate--for-now/article_f5afab98-759d-11ed-b34f-efe8146882c7.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">voted to keep its dual status <span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u>through 2025. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The board then put Prop. K on the ballot to allow voters to decide the road’s fate. The measure passed in November 2024 with 55% of the vote, but west-side neighborhoods rejected it, including 63% of voters in District 4, where the two-mile stretch is located. This prompted a revolt against Engardio, who had championed Prop. K and was ousted in a September recall election.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The campaign to overturn Prop. K must collect roughly 10,000 valid signatures, <u><a href="https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/Guide_-_Qualifying_SF_Initiative_Measures_June26.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to the Department of Elections<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u>. Unlike the process to qualify the Engardio recall, which was limited to D4 voters, the campaign can collect signatures citywide.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">It will be an uphill battle. The highway will have been closed for almost a year, and Sunset Dunes, the park that was built there, is <u><a href="https://sfrecpark.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2182" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thriving<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u>, according to the Recreation and Parks Department. The California Coastal Commission has approved the road’s closure, and a lawsuit challenging Prop. K was rejected by a San Francisco judge in early January.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Any effort to overturn Prop. K, whether through a signature-led initiative or via the Board of Supervisors, would face fierce opposition from park advocates.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Today is an opportunity for the park opponents to come to terms with a democratic outcome and join us in planning the future of our collective park,” said Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes. “We’re disappointed but not surprised that instead they are choosing to waste further resources in their attempt to rip out one of the city’s most used parks. We look forward to San Franciscans telling the anti-park zealots no for the umpteenth time.”</p></div></div>

Supervisor candidate disavows anti-Palestinian comments made by fundraiser host

<div class="content-grid article-content"><div class="Metadata_container__fxAzw"><div class="flex flex-row gap-x-md"></div><div class="Metadata_metadata__W_0LF"><span>By <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/josh-koehn/">Josh Koehn</a></span><time datetime="2025-11-14T14:00:00.000Z">Published Nov. 14, 2025 • 6:00am</time></div></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left"><u><a data-post-id="e53e1a94-83ec-4783-b737-ab836c19f722" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/19/manny-yekutiel-district-8-supervisor-castro/">Manny Yekutiel</a></u>, a candidate for District 8 supervisor and owner of a popular cafe and civic engagement salon in the Mission, is disavowing extreme anti-Palestinian comments made in the past by a supporter who hosted a recent campaign fundraiser at her home.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The supporter, Tahlia Bliss, a community volunteer who has served as a board member for the Brandeis School, a Jewish private K-8 school in San Francisco, sent an incendiary message in February to a WhatsApp chat of 400-plus members, including Yekutiel, according to screenshots obtained by The Standard.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Fuck every single person with a keffiyah or hanging a ‘Palestinian’ flag,” she wrote. “Fuck all of them. Level that plot of land and let all the Jews who once lived there return. I can’t wait to buy my first international piece of property on Gaza water front.”</p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="A message with hateful language targets people wearing keffiyehs or waving Palestinian flags, expressing violent wishes and a desire to buy property on Gaza waterfront." class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="286" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S3840x851-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S640x142-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S750x166-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S768x170-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S828x184-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S1024x227-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S1080x239-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S1200x266-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S1920x426-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S2048x454-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_g318ue6u3d4lp13jmevcb6kd5k/-S3840x851-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 1290 286'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="1290"/></div></div></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Yekutiel — who is Jewish and whose cafe, Manny’s, has been repeatedly defaced by antisemitic and pro-Palestinian vandalism — condemned the message, saying he never saw it in the group chat and was unaware of its existence until The Standard contacted him Wednesday. He said a group of Noe Valley residents offered to host a fundraiser for his campaign, and he was “horrified” to learn that one had made “violent, disparaging” comments about Palestinians.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“I strongly condemn the post and have immediately returned the donation from this individual,” Yekutiel said in a statement. “This post was abhorrent and does not reflect any of my views. Had I known about the post prior to the event, I would never have agreed to work with this host or host a campaign event at their home.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The event was held Monday at Bliss’ home in Diamond Heights and was organized by Bay Area Jewish Action, the political arm of the Jewish Community Relations Council.</p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Bliss said she regrets making the remarks, which came after  reports in February that Hamas would <u><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdnp4ly5d1o" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">return the bodies of Israeli hostages<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> Shiri Bibas, 33, and her sons Ariel and Kfir, 4 and 9 months. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“I deeply regret the comments I made following the return of the Bibas family’s bodies from being held hostage in Gaza,” Bliss said in a statement. “I was overcome in this devastating moment by the destruction this war has wrought. These inappropriate remarks do not reflect my values and my desire for a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Tyler Gregory, executive director of Bay Area Jewish Action, condemned Bliss’ comments. “They are entirely antithetical to our values,” he said in a statement. “Our organization remains wholly committed to fostering productive, civil discourse and advocating for peaceful coexistence.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Bliss’ post sparked immediate backlash from some members of the “Noe Valley Chavurah” chat. “Chavurah” is a Hebrew word that refers to a fellowship or group of friends. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Yekutiel has been vocal in criticism of the war in Gaza and has held events at his salon that focus on finding peaceful solutions to the conflict. His cafe has been the <u><a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/mannys-cafe-mission-sf-20374708.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">target of antisemitic attacks<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> and vandalism over the years; in June, protesters smashed the windows and spray-painted messages like “Fuck Manny” and “Die Zio," an anti-zionist slur. Yekutiel said he has attempted to be a bridge-builder on the Israel-Palestine conflict. </p></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="A man in a navy shirt and orange belt listens attentively to another man holding an orange slice in a dimly lit backstage area." class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3648" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S3840x2560-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S640x427-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S750x500-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S768x512-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S828x552-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S1024x683-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S1080x720-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S1200x800-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S1920x1280-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S2048x1365-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_r8gklraujt69f6opp019i84n4r/-S3840x2560-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 5472 3648'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="5472"/></div></div><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">Yekutiel, left, disavowed comments made by a supporter of his campaign.<span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Tâm Vũ for The Standard</span></figcaption></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“We need to end the killing of innocent people across the region and work toward a solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live with dignity and safety in their homelands,” he said. “Hateful words like these have no place in our community and destroy our ability to have positive dialogue about the peaceful future Israelis and Palestinians so ardently deserve.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Yekutiel is considered a formidable candidate in the heated race to succeed D8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman to represent the Castro, Noe Valley, and Glen Park in next year’s election. Mandelman, who endorsed Yekutiel’s candidacy and has been a member of the group chat, declined to comment.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The incident highlights how the global conflict could play an outsize role in a local election that has no impact on international affairs. The past comments by Bliss could be challenging for Yekutiel, given that Jewish politicians and candidates for elected office<b> </b>are often accused without evidence of supporting Israeli government policies.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">State Sen. Scott Wiener, who is running to fill Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat in Congress, has frequently been targeted by anti-Zionist activists in spite of his condemnation of the war in Gaza. Wiener said he will not seek support from AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, in the congressional race.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">In an interview Wednesday, Bliss said she is supporting Yekutiel because of the way he has conducted himself in the face of antisemitic attacks.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“I think he’s handled himself quite well and will be a great leader,” said Bliss, whose LinkedIn and Twitter accounts were no longer active Thursday. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">A <u><a href="https://sas.rutgers.edu/about/sas-offices/detail/deans-advisory-council/bliss-tahlia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bio for Bliss<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> on the website of Rutgers University, where she earned a degree in Jewish studies, says she was a trustee at Brandeis and chaired the development department for several years. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Nadia Rahman, a political organizer and Palestinian rights advocate in San Francisco, criticized Yekutiel’s association with Bliss.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Manny is a very kind individual, but you are the company you keep,” Rahman said. “You can’t say, ‘I’m against this’ and then hang out with people or take money from people using this kind of genocidal and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Yekutiel has spent years in the upper echelons of San Francisco politics. He opened Manny’s in 2018 and the cafe has welcomed some of the most prominent Democrats and organizers for events and fundraisers. Before announcing his run for supervisor, Yekutiel worked in 2023 with Daniel Lurie — now the mayor of San Francisco — to form the <u><a data-post-id="47b2ce5a-ed19-445a-a287-bdf85e81e5f0" href="https://sfstandard.com/2023/05/08/san-francisco-civic-joy-fund-aims-to-fix-doom-loop/">Civic Joy Fund</a></u>, which organizes community cleanups and events. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The race for D8 also includes declared candidates <u><a data-post-id="949f87b0-12fb-4dd0-a50a-cbb3ac39ef1a" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/30/gary-mccoy-supervisor-run-san-francisco/">Gary McCoy</a></u>, a former staffer for Pelosi and Wiener, and Michael Nguyen, a patent attorney who serves on the Democratic County Central Committee, according to the Department of Elections.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">As of Thursday afternoon, a screenshot from the Noe Valley group chat showed that an administrator had activated advanced privacy settings, which make it harder to export the contents of the chat.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left"><i>Correction: An earlier version of this story defined the Hebrew term “chavurah” as “a social fellowship of like-minded individuals.” A more accurate interpretation is a fellowship or group of friends.</i></p></div></div>

Democrats — and Gavin Newsom —  win Prop. 50 battle in redistricting war against Trump

<div class="content-grid article-content"><div class="Metadata_container__fxAzw"><div class="Metadata_metadata__W_0LF"><span>By <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/hannah-wiley/">Hannah Wiley</a></span><time datetime="2025-11-05T04:09:53.300Z">Published Nov. 04, 2025 • 8:09pm</time></div></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting measure <u><a data-post-id="e50793ab-17d3-4b76-89f7-31ebfc39ca28" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/11/03/newsom-s-prop-50-gave-democrats-something-fight-can-win-long-game/">Proposition 50</a></u> easily won in Tuesday’s special election, a dramatic finale to California Democrats’ three-month retaliatory campaign against Republicans’ gerrymandering efforts.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Prop. 50 was ahead by an <a href="https://electionresults.sos.ca.gov/returns/ballot-measures" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">overwhelming margin<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a> in early results posted by the California secretary of state’s office. More than 64% of voters had approved Prop. 50 out of roughly 7 million ballots counted so far. The Associated Press<a href="https://apnews.com/live/2025-election-updates-news?tab=0000019a-26a6-db7d-a9fe-3eafa5160000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> called the race<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a> soon after polls closed at 8 p.m., though it will take several days for state officials to finalize ballot counting. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Democrats, who have spent the year since their devastating 2024 losses in a state of paralysis, needed this win. </p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Prop. 50 unified the fractured party in its crusade against President Donald Trump’s administration, if only temporarily, and invigorated a disillusioned voter base, at least in California.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“What a night for the Democratic Party, a party that is in its ascendency, a party that’s on its toes, no longer on its heels,” Newsom said during his victory speech at the California Democratic Party’s headquarters in Sacramento. He toggled between celebrating and warning Americans of what he described as the Trump administration’s threats to democracy.</p></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“We stood tall, and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump’s recklessness,” Newsom said. “And tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared, with an unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Prop. 50’s easy success belies what was once an <u><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-04/gavin-newsom-redistricting-gamble" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">uphill battle<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> for Democrats. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Newsom was <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2025/08/25/how-california-dems-bluffed-their-way-into-a-gerrymandering-showdown-00522510" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">largely bluffing<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> this summer when he said California would “fight fire with fire” against Trump’s demand for Texas Republicans to find five more congressional seats to retain the GOP’s slim House majority in next year’s midterms. </p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Newsom vowed to call off the tit-for-tat fighting if Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott backed away from their plan. That never happened, forcing Newsom to make good on his promise to wage war in California and pursue legislation to put new congressional maps before voters in order to make five Republican-leaning districts more favorable to Democrats. He dubbed his measure the “Election Rigging Response Act.” </p></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="A woman wearing a blue patterned sweater stands at a voting booth inside a building, next to a door labeled “Department of Elections.”" class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3882" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S3840x2590-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S640x432-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S750x506-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S768x518-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S828x558-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S1024x691-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S1080x728-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S1200x809-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S1920x1295-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S2048x1381-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_1vj7g2667511j7eisovamiid6j/-S3840x2590-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 5756 3882'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="5756"/></div></div><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">A voter fills out their ballot for Prop. 50 at a polling station inside San Francisco City Hall on Nov. 04, 2025.<span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span></figcaption></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">It was a big gamble.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">California voters more than a decade ago created an <u><a href="https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">independent redistricting commission<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> to draw congressional boundaries after each decennial census. Surveys have shown that the 14-member panel, which consists of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four unaffiliated voters, <u><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000198-a50a-d204-a5bb-b56fc79c0000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">enjoys bipartisan support<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u>. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“In one fell swoop, political insiders grabbed the power away from the people,” California Republican Party chair Corrin Rankin said in a Tuesday speech after the race was called. “I truly believe that the Republican Party is on the right side of history in this case.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The maps authorized via Prop. 50 will be used for the next three election cycles, until the commission meets again in the new decade, a temporary alteration that helped Democrats convince skeptical voters that it was the best tactic to take on the Trump administration.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“It’s one of the very few means by which Democratic voters might feel like they have some control in their hands when it comes to battling the Trump administration,” said Cal State Sacramento political science professor Kim Nalder.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">During Monday’s rally, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi warned voters that Prop. 50 was their best chance to push back against Trump, whom she described in a CNN interview as a “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/03/politics/video/nancy-pelosi-vile-creature-trump-elex-michaelson-vrtc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vile creature<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a>, the worst thing on the face of the earth.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“So much is at stake in this,” Pelosi told reporters after the Prop. 50 event. “The antidote to their poison is to win the election. I want to win big.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell said Prop. 50 was “not just a fight for California, but a fight for the country.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“It means having a government that functions, having healthcare that’s affordable and delivers, and having a president that’s compassionate,” Swalwell said. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Prop. 50 is a big boost for Democrats, but it’s Newsom who stands to benefit the most. Newsom is openly<u><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/newsom-says-he-will-consider-white-house-run-after-2026-elections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> considering a 2028 presidential run<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> and can leverage his role as Prop. 50’s champion — along with donors across the country who <u><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/us/newsom-redistricting-donors-proposition-50.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contributed roughly $114 million to pass the measure<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> — to launch his campaign. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Newsom has used [Prop. 50] to his great opportunity to take on Trump, to organize. He’s grown his online fundraising capabilities nationally,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP consultant based in Sacramento. “He won 2025.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Indeed, the Prop. 50 event Monday in San Francisco felt more like a campaign rally for the governor, with supporters cheering “Viva Gavin Newsom!” and one speaker after another praising his leadership. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“It’s clear that this governor has a vision for our country,” said Pelosi, who has bolstered Newsom’s career since his early days in San Francisco politics. “When this opportunity occurred, Gavin had a plan.”</p></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="" class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="5145" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S3840x2561-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S640x427-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S750x500-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S768x512-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S828x552-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S1024x683-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S1080x720-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S1200x800-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S1920x1281-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S2048x1366-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_gdfrgajobp2n10kvqd8ibrrd6q/-S3840x2561-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 7714 5145'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="7714"/></div></div><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">“So much is at stake in this,” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi told reporters after a Prop. 50 rally in San Francisco. “The antidote to their poison is to win the election. I want to win big.” <span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard</span></figcaption></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">It’s still far too soon to commission Newsom’s presidential portrait. Many see Democrats as vulnerable to the same cultural and economic problems that plagued them in the 2024 election. And while Newsom has earned accolades from voters with his <u><a data-post-id="ab615e2d-98c9-4a8b-8b2c-eab66df8852b" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/08/21/newsom-online-war-maga-trump-press-office/">confrontational tone against Trump</a></u>, it’s unclear whether his reputation as a sleek San Francisco liberal would appeal to the masses against more moderate challengers.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“Several of his would-be competitors are running for reelection in 2026. And they’re going to gain more spotlight and attention than he will as he finishes out his last year as a lame duck, with frankly a lot of difficulties in California,” Stutzman said. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Newsom’s popularity has waxed and waned over his years in office — which saw a pandemic, a recall election against him, a ballooning homelessness and affordability crisis, and two Trump presidencies, Nalder noted. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“He’s taken on the mantle for years as the anti-Trump governor, the antidote to Trump,” Nalder said. But “the hopes and expectations [in 2028] are going to be sky high, beyond probably what we’ve ever seen in a presidential election.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Meanwhile, Democrats still have to win the new districts that Prop. 50 creates, which span from Northern California to the Inland Empire, and party leaders are not certain they can easily claim all five. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“This is not the end. This is the beginning,” South Bay Rep. Zoe Lofgren, one of the architects of Prop. 50, told supporters during Monday’s rally. “It doesn’t mean we will get five seats. It means we have an opportunity to win five seats.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Newsom ended his speech cautioning supporters against believing the fight was over. He noted that Trump on Tuesday called the election a “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-04/la-me-prop-50-trump-scam" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GIANT SCAM<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a>” and that mail-in ballots were “under very serious legal and criminal review.” Other GOP-led states have meanwhile <u><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxydpr1zz2o" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">joined the gerrymandering war,<span class="sr-only"> (opens in new tab)</span></a></u> which could dilute Prop. 50’s overall effect. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“He is not screwing around,” Newsom said of the president. “So tonight I’m proud, but I’m very mindful and sober of the moment we are living in. Donald Trump does not believe in fair and free elections.” </p></div></div>

Joel Engardio trounced in recall election

<div class="content-grid article-content"><div class="Metadata_container__fxAzw"><div class="Metadata_metadata__W_0LF"><span>By <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/han-li/">Han Li</a>, <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/gabriel-greschler/">Gabe Greschler</a>, <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/hannah-wiley/">Hannah Wiley</a>, and <a class="" href="https://sfstandard.com/author/josh-koehn/">Josh Koehn</a></span><time datetime="2025-09-17T04:39:44.797Z">Updated Sep. 16, 2025 • 9:39pm</time><time datetime="2025-09-17T03:48:36.311Z">Published Sep. 16, 2025 • 8:48pm</time></div></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Voters in the Sunset overwhelmingly ousted Supervisor Joel Engardio from office in Tuesday’s recall election, which was sparked by his support for a 2024 ballot measure that closed the Great Highway to cars to make way for the Sunset Dunes park.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Election results published late Tuesday showed 64.6% of District 4 voters approved <a href="https://www.sf.gov/voter-information-pamphlet-and-sample-ballot-s25">Proposition A</a>, the measure to remove Engardio from office, compared to 35.4% who voted against it. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Engardio’s removal is the first time in city history that a supervisor has been recalled. The election is expected to cost city taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. </p></div><div class="!p-0 !m-0"><div class="hidden border-none relative left-1/2 right-1/2 -ml-[50vw] -mr-[50vw] w-screen"><p class="text-xxs text-[#ABA29C] py-xs mx-auto hidden">ADVERTISEMENT</p><div class="overflow-hidden w-full mx-auto flex justify-center article-body max-w-[728px] max-h-[90px]"><broadstreet-zone keywords="politics" zone-id="180071" zone-instance-id=":R2cj536:"></broadstreet-zone></div></div></div><div class=""></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Cheers erupted when the first batch of results dropped at a pro-recall election party at Celia’s by the Beach, a Mexican restaurant a handful of blocks from the Great Highway. Around 80 people from across the city’s political spectrum — conservatives, moderates, and progressives — had gathered to celebrate the results.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Albert Chow, a vocal recall supporter and local business owner, said it’s crucial the city course-correct after the recall and reevaluate the Great Highway’s future. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“That is our community coming together and saying, ‘None of these decisions about us without us,’” Chow said.</p></div><figure class="relative m-[0_0_1em] w-full"><video autoplay="" class="w-full" controls="" loop="" muted="" playsinline="" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/asset/994911177489/video_pnl84pfqld4q79bpns8ki61k03/?content-disposition=inline"></video><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">Supervisor Joel Engardio conceded in a speech to his supporters. “My time as a supervisor is going to be shorter than expected,” he said. “I accept the election results.”<span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Gabe Greschler/The Standard</span></figcaption></figure><div class="!p-0 !m-0"></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">It was much quieter a short drive away at Engardio’s campaign headquarters on Taraval Street, where the embattled supervisor and supporters sipped on seltzers and Fort Point beer while eating Golden Boy pizza. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“My time as a supervisor is going to be shorter than expected. I accept the election results. But we can still celebrate, because we are on the right side of history,” Engardio said in a speech to his supporters. “Sunset Dunes is a success. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the local economy. It’s bringing joy to people of all ages. We created something positive, and very soon people are going to wonder: what was the controversy about?” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The San Francisco Department of Elections had counted more than 15,400 ballots so far, with thousands more to count this week. There are about 50,000 total registered voters in D4, which includes the Sunset, Parkside, and Lakeshore neighborhoods. </p></div><div class=""></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Late ballots, which have historically leaned progressive and anti-recall, are expected to narrow the margin.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">”It doesn’t matter that it’s absentee [voting]. He got his ass kicked,” said David Latterman, a political analyst in San Francisco. “Any way you look at it, it didn’t go well for him.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The recall stemmed from Engardio’s support for <a data-post-id="fe879cc8-f8f8-47a4-8f46-5b720dda3758" href="https://sfstandard.com/2024/10/31/sf-election-2024-prop-k-great-highway/">Proposition K in the November election</a>, which converted a two-mile stretch of the Great Highway into the Sunset Dunes park. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The measure passed with nearly 55% of the vote citywide, but was rejected by 64% of voters in Engardio’s district, where the road is located. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Prop. K’s passage fueled outrage among D4 residents, who criticized Engardio for championing a measure they argued would worsen traffic in their neighborhoods. They spent months collecting signatures to qualify the recall as a special election.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Engardio said he supported Prop. K because of coastal erosion and other environmental concerns that threatened the Great Highway’s future. He argued that despite some frustration in his district over the park, which opened this spring, there is also widespread enthusiasm for it among his constituents. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“It’s disappointing,” said Peter Belden, political chair for the San Francisco Sierra Club, about Tuesday night’s results. “Across a range of issues, [Engardio] really had the best voting record on environmental issues.”</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">In his speech, Engardio argued that “San Francisco cannot be the most progressive city afraid of change.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“We have to be the most progressive city that embraces the future,” he said, ending his speech with an open invite to meet him at the park. “I will see you at Sunset Dunes.” </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Recent polling showed Engardio, a moderate Democrat elected in 2022, faced <a data-post-id="756e9fe3-dead-4afc-bcde-27d5a2d0e248" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/05/newly-obtained-poll-shows-engardio-peril-counters-optimistic-field-numbers/">tough odds at surviving the recall</a>. </p></div><div class=""></div><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Engardio’s campaign lacked public support from San Francisco’s moderate political forces, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and some members of the local Democratic Party, though House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi <a data-post-id="57faf9b6-3709-45f6-bf52-afaf830f9cd1" href="https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/02/nancy-pelosi-joel-engardio-recall-endorsement/">publicly endorsed Engardio earlier this month</a>.  </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Wealthy donors contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Engardio survive the recall, outraising the pro-recall campaign by a roughly three-to-one margin. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">His supporters hauled in over $824,000, including support from crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, who gave $200,000, Yelp co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman, who forked over $175,000, and Silicon Valley titan Ron Conway, who threw in $25,000. The local police and the Northern California carpenters’ unions also came to Engardio’s defense with a combined $100,000.</p></div><figure class="ImageBlock_ImageFigure__ZnquR inset-image mobile-grid-full mobile-grid-full" data-align="none"><div class="relative"><div><img alt="Wooden signs point towards Sunset Dunes, The Great Highway, and Andytown near a beach path where people walk beside a large rock and sandy dunes." class="block lazyloaded" data-nimg="1" decoding="async" height="3600" loading="lazy" sizes="(min-width: 1001px) 600px, (min-width: 768px) 700px, 100vw" src="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S3840x2560-FPNG" srcset="https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S640x427-FPNG 640w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S750x500-FPNG 750w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S768x512-FPNG 768w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S828x552-FPNG 828w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S1024x683-FPNG 1024w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S1080x720-FPNG 1080w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S1200x800-FPNG 1200w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S1920x1280-FPNG 1920w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S2048x1365-FPNG 2048w, https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_81dglht1o5635d9cgrlcdure5t/-S3840x2560-FPNG 3840w" style="color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url(&quot;data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 5400 3600'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw=='/%3E%3C/svg%3E&quot;)" width="5400"/></div></div><figcaption class="basis-full mt-[10px] text-xs text-gray-550 font-inter leading-[18px]">“Sunset Dunes is a success. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the local economy. It’s bringing joy to people of all ages,” Engardio said.<span class="image-caption-divider"> | </span><span class="image-credit"><span class="sr-only">Source: </span>Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard</span></figcaption></figure><div class="floats"><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Recall advocates raised more than $250,000, with a good chunk of support from the Chinese American Democratic Club, which gave $27,000.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">Engardio’s ousting is the third successful recall in San Francisco in recent years. Former District Attorney Chesa Boudin was removed from office in 2022 over voter concerns with public safety issues in the city, while three school board members were also recalled that year. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">The department is expected to submit the final result to the Board of Supervisors for certification 10 days after the election. The board could vote to certify the results as early as Sept. 30. </p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">From there, Lurie would appoint Engardio’s successor — with far-ranging implications through 2026.</p><p class="paragraph-block article-body undefined text-left">“I want to thank Supervisor Joel Engardio for his years of service and commitment to San Francisco. And I want to thank all the District Four residents who made their voices heard and participated in today’s special election,” Lurie said in a Tuesday statement. “As votes are still being counted and the election will be certified in the coming weeks, our team is evaluating next steps for the District Four supervisor seat.”</p></div></div>

Asian Art Museum

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Adult Probation Department

Airport

Arts Commission

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Office of the City Attorney

Department of Children, Youth and Their Families

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Office of Economic and Workforce Development

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Human Rights Commission

Department of Human Resources

Human Services Agency

Health Service System

Juvenile Probation Department

Public Library

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Office of the Mayor

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Port

Public Utilities Commission

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Sheriff's Department

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War Memorial

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General City Responsibilities

General Administration & Finance

Culture & Recreation

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Public Works, Transportation & Commerce

Public Protection

SF Civil Grand Jury

STATUTORY signing duty: indictments 'signed by the foreman' (Penal Code 940); presides

SF Civil Grand Jury Foreperson

SF Superior Court

SF Superior Court Presiding Judge

judicial assignments; court administration (CRC 10.603); CEO direction

The Abatement Appeals Board provides a final review process for City permitting decisions. It ensures fair and efficient adjudication of permit-related disputes before an impartial panel. The board holds authority to make binding decisions on appeals concerning notices of abatement.

Abatement Appeals Board

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 1

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 2

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 3

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 4

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 5

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 6

Abatement Appeals Board Commissioner 7

The Access Appeals Commission provides final reviews for a wide range of City permitting decisions. It ensures an efficient, fair, and expeditious permit issuance process through an impartial panel. The commission holds authority to make binding decisions on appeals related to City permits.

Access Appeals Commission

Access Appeals Commission Commissioner 1

Access Appeals Commission Commissioner 2

Access Appeals Commission Commissioner 3

Access Appeals Commission Commissioner 4

Access Appeals Commission Commissioner 5

The Adult Day Health Care Planning Council advises on the development and improvement of adult day health care services. It provides expertise in healthcare planning, policy recommendations, and program evaluation. Key responsibilities include assessing community needs and advising on service delivery enhancements.

Adult Day Health Care Planning Council

Adult Probation Department supervises individuals on probation and facilitates their reintegration into the community. It provides reentry and rehabilitative services, including victim restitution and financial assistance for crime victims. The department values public safety, offender rehabilitation, and community partnerships.

Cristel Tullock

The Advisory Committee of Street Artists and Crafts Examiners evaluates arts and crafts applicants and monitors program compliance. It conducts studio visits and public screenings to ensure adherence to established criteria. Members also revise program criteria and undertake additional tasks as needed.

Advisory Committee of Street Artists and Crafts Examiners

The Advisory Council on Human Rights advises on anti-discrimination laws and racial equity initiatives. It provides expertise on reparations and public policy impacts on Black communities. It guides efforts to establish partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities in San Francisco.

Advisory Council on Human Rights

San Francisco Airport manages air traffic operations and ensures safe aircraft movement. It provides parking facilities and maintains airport infrastructure to accommodate travelers and staff. The department oversees ground transportation and coordinates with airlines for efficient passenger services.

Mike Nakornkhet

The Airport Commission oversees policy and strategic planning for San Francisco International Airport. It makes key decisions on airport development projects and financial management. It ensures compliance with regulations and collaborates on initiatives like terminal naming.

Airport Commission

Airport Commission Commissioner 1

Malcolm Yeung

Jose F. Almanza

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Airport Director

Animal Care and Control Department manages animal sheltering, adoption, and emergency response services. It enforces animal-related laws and regulations, ensuring the humane treatment and safety of animals. The department also provides public education on responsible pet ownership and animal welfare.

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Virginia Donohue

Animal Care and Control Department, Director

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Arts Commission Commissioner 1

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Debra Walker

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Nabiel Musleh

Charles (Chuck) Collins

Lydia So

Arts Commission Commissioner 15

San Francisco Arts Commission invests in a vibrant arts community and shapes cultural policy. It enlivens the urban environment through public art programs and supports diverse artistic expressions. The commission facilitates meetings and discussions to engage the community in cultural development.

Ralph Remington

Arts Commission, Director of Cultural Affairs

The Asian Art Commission determines policy and administers the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. It oversees museum operations and collaborates with the Asian Art Museum Foundation on fundraising efforts. Commissioners ensure the museum's strategic direction and financial sustainability.

Asian Art Commission

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 1

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 2

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 3

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 4

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 5

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 6

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 7

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 8

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 9

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 10

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 11

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 12

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 13

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Asian Art Commission Commissioner 21

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 22

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 23

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 24

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 25

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 26

Asian Art Commission Commissioner 27

Asian Art Museum showcases Asian art and culture through exhibitions and educational programs. It offers diverse collections and hosts special events to engage the community. The museum fosters cultural appreciation and understanding by providing access to its extensive art collections.

Dr. Soyoung Lee

Asian Art Museum, Director

The Assessment Appeals Board #1 hears property tax assessment appeals in San Francisco. It evaluates evidence presented by taxpayers and the Assessor to determine property values. The Board has the authority to make final decisions on assessments regardless of property type or value.

Assessment Appeals Board #1

Assessment Appeals Board #1 Commissioner 1

Assessment Appeals Board #1 Commissioner 2

Richard Lee

Stephen Wasserman

Adena Gilbert

Paul Bellar

Quirina Mitchell

Hilary Winslow

The Assessment Appeals Board #2 adjudicates property tax assessment appeals for San Francisco taxpayers. It evaluates evidence presented by taxpayers and the Assessor to determine accurate property values. The Board exercises authority to render final decisions on residential properties and specific real estate assessments.

Assessment Appeals Board #2

Assessment Appeals Board #2 Commissioner 1

Assessment Appeals Board #2 Commissioner 2

Assessment Appeals Board #2 Commissioner 3

Claire Ervin Lee

Louisa Mendoza

Joyce Lewis

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Michelle Domingo

The Assessment Appeals Board #3 provides a platform for San Francisco taxpayers to contest property tax assessments. It conducts hearings where evidence from both taxpayers and the Assessor is evaluated. The Board makes binding decisions on property assessments based on presented evidence.

Assessment Appeals Board #3

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 1

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 2

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 3

Marc Dickow

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 5

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 6

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 7

Assessment Appeals Board #3 Commissioner 8

Assesses property, applies exemptions, collects transfer taxes, and records official documents.

Assessor-Recorder