San Francisco News

Downtown’s Vast Expansion Where is San Francisco’s Downtown? It used to mean the highrise office buildings in the Financial District. Battles over highrise development in the 1980’s defined San Francisco politics. It was “Downtown vs. Neighborhoods;” the latter side rallied<br> Read More »

Cars vs Parks Polls have Connie Chan trailing Scott Wiener by roughly five points in their hotly contested congressional race. When I last wrote about the contest I cited the major differences between the candidates. Differences that made voters choice<br> Read More »

The Decline of Personal Contact What’s the best strategy for winning a San Francisco election? Aside from having a great candidate or issue, the traditional answer was: have a strong field campaign. A systematic effort to contact voters at their<br> Read More »

YIMBY’s Should Support Affordable Housing Most San Franciscans support more affordable housing. So why are SF YIMBY and the San Francisco Democratic Party opposing Prop I, the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act? The Act will bring roughly $100 million for housing<br> Read More »

San Francisco voters have two marquee races in November: the Wiener-Chan congressional contest and the Yekutiel-McCoy D8 Supervisor battle. In both cases the differences between candidates are so clear that voters can easily pick their favored candidate. Here’s how we<br> Read More »

Voters Back Mayor Lurie’s “Comeback” The June 2026 elections delivered a political earthquake to San Francisco. Supposedly tight supervisor races in Districts 2 and 4 became landslide victories for Team Lurie-backed candidates. Two tax measures opposed by Mayor Lurie were<br> Read More »

New Affordable Housing Reopens the Mission Since the late 1970’s a major San Francisco story line has been the Mission’s gentrification. It’s a classic case of the working and middle-class displaced by more affluent residents. Valencia Street’s upscale restaurants, new<br> Read More »

SRO Tenant Triumphs Over Drugs, Adversity “One thing about being clear and sober. Can’t nobody do nothing to you.” Candy Crawford, 73-year-old resident of the Mission Hotel, grew up watching her mom get beaten by whatever boyfriend she had at<br> Read More »