“Prop. D ,campaign against keeping JFK Drive open to pedestrians”
Prop. D was actually to keep JFK CLOSED
for all Private cars ( including local businesses vehicles and parents).

In reply to Roz smith.

Thank you for an excellent article! “Both sides” whingeing misses insights offered here: generational big money supports harsh, incarceral & invasive responses to economic challenges facing many San Franciscans; for which unions mediate by advocating for “living wages, adequate healthcare, and pensions.”

What do the solid lines — versus dotted lines — signifiy?

How long before the MAGA RNC rides into SF and makes it demand$ from these big tech coalitions for its Vig?
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.

In reply to John Hurabiell, Sr..

So who the heck do you think will work with the homeless, the drug addicted etc? Local churches? GMAB I am so sick of hearing this demand. As if these organizations do nothing unless they 100% solve homeless or addiction.

In reply to Retiarius.

Their only goal is to “own the libs”.

In reply to Harrison.

Oy vey. I swear you rich folks are afraid of your own shadows. If SF is hurting, it is in part because people like you TRASH THE PLACE.

In reply to Mark.

But you didn’t give a fair and accurate accounting of all seemingly independent groups. You only focused on the moderates- who are new to the table here. The progressives have decades of dark money funding from billionaires millionaire tech Vc … sound familiar? This is unethical journalism and should have been touted as the progressive opinion piece, not legitimate journalism. Serious real Journalist have a standard.

Anyone who is able to think critically will see this as a Lazy and sloppy propagandist editorial. How? How do you mention the money on one side with out mentioning the 100’s of millions of dollars yearly that’s been pouring into the progressive side for 15 plus years now also given by billionaires tech VC and the City of sf Unions? Explain This is not ethical journalism. This is a progressive commercial aired through a progressive news rag.

In reply to Chris.

Hi Chris — 

Mission Local provided Will Jarrett’s amazing interactive tool to the Guardian to be used in its story. That’s a collaboration. But the stand-alone that you read on our site was produced only by Mission Local.

Nobody has slighted anyone. We’d love to work with them again and, as far as I can tell, they feel the same way.

Yours,

JE

Great reporting, thanks! Quick question: The Guardian story presents this as a collaborative investigation between them and Mission Local, but there was no mention in the ML story about The Guardian. Was it a collaboration? Did ML not give credit to The Guardian, or did The Guardian take credit it didn’t deserve?

In reply to cardinal.

An election with a bunch of Drama Props that cost a ton and tangibly do nothing other than fuel a wave of outrage which candidates try to ride to (re)election without having to form serious policy platforms?
Sounds like business as usual in SF.
But it comes down to the voters- unless we do our due diligence and refuse to advance vapor-policy props, they’ll continue to be the norm. If we keep passing seemingly well intentioned nonsense like Prop G, where voters are asking the wrong civic body (board of supes) to do something the new superintendent and board of ed are ALREADY doing, we get what deserve: a prop system that is actually just a fundraising system that gets nothing done. Clearly a prop telling the wrong people to do something already happening should be a ‘no’ vote, but no one wants to seem anti-education so they’ll vote ‘yes’. Many political groups supporting the prop will fund raise a ton off of confusing voters. Many political groups will take credit for the ‘win’ of ‘fixing math’ and have cover for wasting your donations, wasting time, and measurably accomplishing nothing. Wash, rinse, repeat for Prop Whatever on Issue X for Infinity.

Puh-leease.
You’re silent unless people you disagree with are funding political campaigns. Where are your complaints on Soros and Hastings?
If you opposed funding of political campaigns you’d have partisan support.
You don’t, and so your transparent hypocrisy makes you an laughing stock! Hold yourself to the standards you expect of your scapegoats!
This groups identity politics which holds that all that people from one’s own group are good and all that disagree, and all who point to problems and the bad actors and the bad outcomes are the enemy and are evil is what’s ruining progressivism. Outcomes matter numskulls! Look upon the outcomes and demand outcomes as Progressives once did. *Allow* the outcomes to be measured and hold NPOs accountable for waste that fails to help the poor! I want much of what our progressives want but what has brought us to where we are is fecklessness, silence and consent to failure: Support for a school board that sowed community division and failed to bring opportunity for demographics with 20% making grade level. The destruction of small business. Rampant opposition to housing at all levels (<1 new housing permit per day!). Supoprt and consent to the abuse and an annual massacre of 750 people downtown. $14B and can't provide shelters for the homeless. Thieves in the party who steal election petitions – silence! Rapists in the party! – silence. Abusive drunks and misogynists – welcomed as leaders. Apologists for people who murdered for sport. The president of the board tried to take away voting right from voting while at the same time claiming he supports participatory democracy. On and on. Please are right to ridicule. Read the room.
Something something tech workers, something Republicans? JFC! Check yourselves. Hold yourselves to the standards you demands of your critics.
Continue to fails to do so and our progressive left deserves no place in SF politics.

Good reporting, but not sure of the implication that these folks are “buying” elections – my sense is many San Franciscans broadly accept the current progressive administration has failed, and are ready for a new, likely more centrist approach.

In reply to Repeal citizens united!.

Repeal, there is nothing inherently wrong with spending money on getting ideas across to the voters. After all ML does that all the time.

The important point is that it is disclosed.

This story got me to thinking about how San Francisco got into this difficult state of affairs that needs to be fixed. My comments turned into this : https://sebraleaves.medium.com/san-francisco-has-become-the-poster-child-for-how-to-not-to-grow-a-city-a145c3f42eb5

Great reporting by Mission Local. Every dollar spent in politics should always be public knowledge, as this impacts all of our lives.

That said, I think it would be the wrong takeaway for people to assume that this money is crafting public opinion and not the other way around. The recalls were not close races. The current polling on Props E & F suggest massive blowout victories for both.

The people with means might be writing fat checks for these issues, but make no mistake, San Franciscans largely agree with the policies. When you’ve had your car or storefront broken into, or see police tape next to your building because a homeless person got stabbed, or tents on fire, nothing else matters. And it doesn’t take a Together SF pamphlet to tell you that.

SF Progressives simply don’t get it.

Great investigation and reporting. And great interactive graphic! Thanks, Will and Mission Local. Hands down the best political reporting in the Bay Area.

As the saying goes, “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Well done.

In reply to Mark.

Perhaps you’re right that these folks are pissing in the wind and San Francisco voters are just fine with the status quo of 800+ overdose deaths a year, tents on the street, and an uncontrolled night market for fentanyl and stolen goods. We’ll find out come March 5 and November 5!

In reply to Harrison.

“The internationally recognized jewel it once was”? When was that? During the 2008 Depression? The Dot Com bust? How about the gang wars of the 90’s, the Crack/Cocaine wars of the 80s and the evictions and gentrifications that followed? The corrupt Alioto/Labor administrations of the 60’s? How about the 30s when the City and State killed waterfront workers who wanted a union? The 1850s when New York transplanted gold diggers hung Chilean and Chinese “immigrants”? San Francisco has long long long been a site of immense inequity which has played out in many forms. What has made it a jewel of international renown, and still does, is its physical attractiveness, the proximity of Mt Tam, Pt Reyes, the north and east bay areas, and of course — the fog. SF’s international reputation has more to do with bacon-wrapped hot dogs than the suffocating and fraudulent politics we have endured, now approaching new heights or new lows, depending on your point of view.

In reply to cardinal.

Since these are “mom and apple pie” issues, what are the billionaire $ actually going to do — build more jails, bring back mental institutions, do something for residential construction that isn’t already mandated at the state level? All I see are useless recalls — what did the Boudin & school board recalls actually accomplish? How about we hand the billionaires some paint brushes for graffiti abatement and see how long it takes them to be truly interested in “helping” San Francisco.

In reply to cardinal.

The point of the article was not to argue policy provisions but to expose the concentrated money behind seemingly independent “ citizens” groups. It is an elaborate and expensive form of “astro-turfing” used by oil companies and other big corporations to hide behind fraudulent “grass roots” groups. If you agree with their extreme positions of undoing efforts go make the SFPD transparent and accountable, to undo regulations which are the only provisions that affordable housing will ever get built, to drug test welfare recipients ( but not corporate welfare recipients) and throw the homeless in jail, then vote for these guys, but don’t pretend this is a “mass movement”.

SF’s reputation is in the toilet right now. Thanks Mission Local for highlighting these groups efforts to improve SF for the better.

Mission residents have seen enough of the bleak, dirty streets, crime, homelessness, and disorder that years of progressive rule have brought us.

Enough of the bs, let’s get this city back to being the internationally recognized jewel it once was.

These so-called moderate groups are merely a step towards the conservatives who will actually save this City and State. It’s about time that we returned sanity to government. No more freebies to those who won’t work to improve their own lot in life. And no more money to the NGOs and individuals who suck at government’s teat.

There are no good arguments against the actual policies under discussion – things like removing tents from the streets, stopping open fentanyl dealing and use, building more housing of all kinds, doing more to protect small businesses and residents from crime – so progressives are going for a pure guilt by association play this year. It’s the best they’ve got.

congratulations to mission local on this excellent reporting.
you’ve made it to the international scene with a collaborative story in the guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/12/san-francisco-tech-billionaires-political-influence

keep it up.

Thank you ML!! I was waiting for someone to expose the small group of conservatives spending insane amounts of money to Make AllSF Ghastly(for poor people) Again. Those of us who don’t approve of rich people buying elections and support transparency and democracy should fight this shit with everything we have. Because whether voter agrees or disagrees with me on a particular issue facing our city, I’d like their opinion to be based on facts and arguments one way or the other and not propaganda paid for by billionaires with special interests.

Congratulations on your piece in the Guardian which I saw before I saw this.

Funding should be out in the open for sure. But I think a lot of SF voters have a problem with extremists like Preston and Chesa, and prefer the city to have more moderate officers and policies. So I do hope you maintain balance in your coverage here.

This fantastic local reporting. Thank you for the legwork to bring us this story