SF League of Pissed Off Voters

London Breed with George and Charlotte Shultz, January 11, 2018. Photo by Drew Altizer.

(UPDATED 5/17/18 with confirmation from Richie Greenberg.)

In case you hadn’t noticed, things are getting weird in the Mayor’s race! Our friends at the Berniecrats posted this shocking video yesterday of a KTVU report that London Breed’s campaign approached the Republican Central Committee asking them to endorse her as their second choice, but they declined.

WHAT??

Breed rightfully joined the other major candidates in denouncing Angela Alioto’s proposal to weaken San Francisco’s Sanctuary City ordinance, but she’s going to ask for support from our local Republican party who opposes ALL Sanctuary City policy—in addition to all of their other awful policy positions?

This is extra troubling considering Breed’s campaign just paid $9,000 to send out a fundraising letter from George Shultz, a local Republican who was Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State and Richard Nixon’s Secretary of the Treasurer! We would love to see the distribution list of who they mailed those letters to. We bet they went to a lot of San Francisco’s 35,000 Republicans.

It’s also weird that Breed would want the Republican’s #2 endorsement after she refused the local Democratic Party’s #3 endorsement! What’s going on here?

One of the big topics in the Mayor’s race is the Housing Crisis. (Another is homelessness, which is totes connected.) We’ve been calling for reforming Prop 13 since we were founded and for building 100,000 new units of housing since 2014. We’re all about building more housing as long as we prioritize protecting vulnerable tenants and building as much affordable housing as is feasible, along with the vital infrastructure to serve all those new bodies.

We’re pissed off at those Forest Hill NIMBYs who blocked affordable housing for seniors, and pissed that the Mayor’s Office of Housing didn’t fight for the project. We’re also pissed off at the developers who are trying to use state law to build less affordable housing than our local laws require—and the state legislators that are enabling them.

You want to upzone the suburbs? So do we! But, we’re skeptical of this idea that, “if the government would just get out of the way and let developers build as much market-rate housing everywhere, everything will be better.” When in the history of capitalism has it worked out to fully deregulate an industry and “let the market decide??”

The League thanks the campaigns who took the time to respond to our policy questionnaire. Our qualified members will vote on endorsements on Saturday, March 10.

See links to the candidates full responses below. Be sure to check out what they say about their self-care strategy for the election (here's a twitter thread summary)! And scroll down for a table of the Mayoral candidates responses to our yes/no and short answer questions. 

San Francisco Mayor Candidate

Angela Alioto

Michelle Bravo

London Breed

Jane Kim

Mark Leno

Amy Farah Weiss

San Francisco District 8

Rafael Mandelman

US Congress, District 12

Shahid Buttar

Barry Hermanson

Stephen Jaffe 

Ryan Khojasteh

California Board of Equalization

Malia Cohen

Mayor Candidate Comparison

San Francisco voters asked for a transparent process to select an interim mayor, and hopefully that will happen at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, January 23! But, wait, we’ve still gotta show up to make our voices heard. Here's all you need to know to flex your democracy muscle.

(Two weeks ago, we broke down the whole mayoral succession process and gave our take, if you need a refresher.)

Here’s your secret decoder ring for mayoral succession. The League breaks down the City Charter, definitions, process, and political inside baseball.

It’s been 14 years since San Francisco had a mayoral election without an incumbent! We think it's time.

TL;DR:

• The last time the Mayor’s office was vacant in 2011 was a clusterfuck. The Willie Brown-Gavin Newsom crew pulled power plays to give Ed Lee the power of incumbency, which led to a divisive election and a lot of bad blood.
• We don’t support power plays where political insiders decide who our mayor is -- even if the potential Mayor is someone we would support.
• The Board of Supervisors needs to go through a transparent process to select a caretaker Mayor (we’ve got some ideas - see below).
• San Francisco voters deserve the clean slate of a fair and rigorous debate about who should be our next Mayor without an incumbent running.

The President-Elect's proposed first hundred days' agenda is anathema to progressive beliefs, and could undo years' of work. While the League's primary work has been producing voter guides and increasing voter engagement, we are each part of many communities in San Francisco. Although there is no local election in 2017, there is much work to be done. We reached out to our allies and received suggestions on groups who need your support now.

We have always resisted. Resisted the lies of the two party electoral game. Resisted police beatings and murders. Resisted environmental degradation and the evils of corporate polluters. Resisted male violence and transphobia. Resisted the rich bosses and landlords who own the airwaves and politicians. Resistance is our legacy. Resistance is our duty. We have resisted a long time. We will continue to resist.

- "Rising Up in the Trump Moment: We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For," Causa Justa

Have suggestions for this list? Email us @ [email protected]

Trump Resistance!

Bay Resistance is a new coalition of many of the groups listed below who are working together to resist the Trump administration. They will be sharing rapid response alerts to mobilize against threats to our communities such as immigration raids, healthcare cuts or Muslim surveillance. Sign up on their website and text RESIST to 41411 for action alerts. WHEN THEY COME FOR ANY OF US, THEY TAKE ON ALL OF US!

Immigration Services

Asian Law Caucus represents the legal and civil rights of Asian Pacific Islander communities. Volunteers, especially persons with language skills, are welcome. Donate here.

African Advocacy Network   provides legal and social services to African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants and refugees. Contact them for current volunteer opportunities, especially for people who can provide language support. 938 Valencia St., SF, CA 94110

API Legal Outreach  fights for justice in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in SF and Oakland, focusing on issues such as human trafficking, elder abuse, domestic violence, and immigration. Contact them about volunteering (especially pro bono law services) and donating.  1121 Mission St. SF, CA 94103

CARECEN (Central American Resource Center) provides direct services, community development, and advocacy to the Bay Area Latino immigrant community. Contact them to get involved or donate. 3101 Mission St. SF, CA 94110

Dolores Street Community Services- Deportation Defense Program provides pro bono legal defense for individuals facing deportation from the US. You can get involved with this or DSCS's many other programs. 938 Valencia St. SF, CA 94110

La Raza Centro Legal  provides legal services for immigration, workers' rights, housing, and civil rights for Latino and low-income communities. Volunteers, especially bilingual Spanish speakers, welcome. Donate here.  474 Valencia St., #295 SF, CA 94103

La Raza Community Resource Center is a bilingual, multi-service organization whose primary focus is to address the unmet needs of Latino immigrants. Contact them about current volunteer opportunities or donate.  474 Valencia St., #100 SF, CA 94103

Chinese for Affirmative Action works on community building, issue advocacy, and social change in the Asian and Pacific American community. They offer many ways to get involved and support their work. 17 Walter U Lum Place, SF 94108

Mujeres Unidas y Activas works to dismantle barriers for Latina immigrants through support groups, leadership training, and political engagement. Support them by volunteering, donating, hiring workers, and more.  543 18th Street, #23San Francisco, CA 94110

PODER works to create people-powered solutions to the profound environmental and economic inequities facing low-income Latino immigrants and other communities of color in San Francisco. Contact them to volunteer, or donate.  74 Valencia Street, #125San Francisco, CA 94103

Filipino Community Center provides community services and education to Filipino immigrants and residents. Contact them to find out how you can give support.  681 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94112

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights provides pro bono legal services for in many areas, including immigration, criminal justice, reentry, asylum seeking, and equal employment. They rely on volunteer attorneys, interpreters, and many others, as well as donations.    131 Steuart St #400, San Francisco, CA 94105

Pangea Legal Services provides deportation defense, community empowerment, and policy advocacy for immigrants. Support their work by volunteering, pro bono legal service, or donating.  350 Sansome St #650, San Francisco, CA 94104

Immigrant Center for Women and Children provides affordable immigration services to underrepresented immigrants in California. Lawyers and law students interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact them.  3543 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

International Institute of the Bay Area provides high-quality low-cost legal immigration services to community members who need them most. They have a number of volunteer opportunities and welcome donations as well.   657 Mission Street Suite 301 San Francisco, CA 94105

Racial & LGBTQ Justice

SURJ Bay Area - Showing Up for Racial Justice is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Check out their calendar or donate.

San Francisco Rising is an electoral alliance working to build political power of SF's working class communities of color. While much of their volunteer work comes during campaign season, they also need people to help with policy, fundraising, outreach, and more.

LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ Youth -- works with youth to build community and create social change. Their programs are open to youth and allies under age 24. Donations welcome.

SF LGBT Center offers services like career counseling, social events, youth outreach, and more in their goal toward equal rights for the LGBT community. They offer many ways to get involved.

Causa Justa:: Just Cause  is a multi-racial community-building organization working to achieve justice for low-income residents of SF and Oakland. They have many ways to get involved, especially for bilingual Spanish speakers. You can donate money or items from their wish list. 

Arab Resource and Organizing Center  works to empower and organize the Bay Area Arab community toward justice and self-determination. Contact them about volunteer/internship opportunities, or donate here.  522 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Legal Services

National Lawyers Guild Bay Area  is an association of lawyers, legal workers, and law students dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights. Volunteers can become legal observers for protests.

Bay Area Legal Aid  provides low-income clients with free civil legal assistance, including legal advice and counsel, effective referrals, and legal representation. They have a range of volunteer opportunities for legal professionals and community members. 1035 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Legal Services for Children  provides free legal representation to children and youth. Legal professionals can join their pro bono panel, and others can donate here  1254 Market St, Third Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 

Criminal Justice Reform

Officers for Justice works for equal opportunities for POC, women, and LGBT officers in SFPD, and reforming SFPD policy. They invite the public to attend weekly Police Commission hearings, or help out in their office.

Cut 50 is a national effort, under Van Jones's Dream Corps, to reduce America's prison population by half by 2020. Contact them to volunteer for one of their campaigns, or donate here.

Healthcare

HealthRight360 operates Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Walden House, Lyon Martin, and other clinics. Has some volunteer opportunities and accepts donations.

Mission Neighborhood Health Center provides affordable health care and community programs in the Mission and Excelsior. Contact them about volunteer opportunities or donate.

Planned Parenthood San Francisco provides a full range of women's health services. Get involved via PP Action Fund.

St. Anthony's Medical Clinic provides primary and specialty care to families in the Tenderloin, 80% of whom live beneath the federal poverty level. Volunteer with their clinic, dining room, or many other programs, or donate.

Housing & Homelessness

San Francisco Tenants Union advocates for tenants rights and affordable housing, SFTU provides counseling and publishes the Tenants Rights Handbook. SFTU operates almost entirely through volunteers and donations.

Compass Family Services assists homeless families find housing and support services. They have a variety of volunteer opportunities for individuals, groups, and corporations. Donations welcome.

Coalition on Homelessness works with homeless persons, services providers, and allies to expand housing and protect the rights of homeless people. Volunteers can join their policy workgroups or help produce the Street Sheet newspaper. Donate here.

Environmental Justice

350 Bay Area is a grassroots climate movement, working for divestment, renewable energy, and pollution reduction. With multiple active campaigns, they offer several volunteer opportunities. Donate here.

Education

Parents for Public Schools - San Francisco promotes the value of public school education and equitable schools. They work with newcomer families to navigate schools. Parents can volunteer as school ambassadors, and donations are welcome.

UPDATED FOR 2020: we now have twenty-three reasons Ahsha Safai is a terrible Supervisor.

There is so much shady, awful, and downright illegal shit going on in this election, we're all struggling to keep up. With Donald Trump threatening the very fabric of our democracy, misleading political commercials dominating the airwaves, and Scott Wiener spending millions trashing Jane Kim, we're concerned the critical races for the Board of Supervisors aren't getting enough attention.

The race for District 11 (the Excelsior, Outer Mission, OMI) is one of the most contested. We're 100% supporting Kimberly Alvarenga, who is awesome. The big business slates are all supporting Ahsha Safai, who is hella shady. But if you haven't been obsessively reading every local paper and blog, you wouldn't know how shady. So here is a quick summary of nine reasons why we can't let Ahsha Safai anywhere near the Board of Supervisors:

1. Safai is supported by the Police Officers Association, the biggest bullies in town and the biggest impediments to reform of the SFPD. 
2. He's supported by the Mayor, who has done several press events and press releases with Safai in the last few months.
3. He’s a house flipper. He bought a house in foreclosures in 2005, and sold it less than a year later for a profit.
4. Safai was kicked off the Housing Authority board after Executive Director Henry Alvarez was fired for gross mismanagement, discrimination, and intimidation, and the Authority was found to be in disarray. At the time Safai said Alvarez had “done a great job.”
5. On the ballot he claims to be a union organizer, but almost all of Safai's income comes from being a consultant for landlords and developers. In 2012 and 2013, he earned less than $10,000 as a consultant for the janitors union, but more than $100,000 from his consulting firm.
6. The leadership of the janitors union pressured its members to campaign for Safai, and fined members who didn’t "volunteer" $150 a day. These are janitors who are barely earning a living wage! 
7. Safai claims that he "saved St. Luke's Hospital," but the California Nurses Association and others who led that campaign say he had nothing to do with it. Check out this damning video.
8. Safai is benefiting from at least $700,000 in independent expenditures from real estate and big tech companies. That is being funneled through the dubiously named Robert F. Kennedy Democratic club to pay for tons of TV commercials. TV commercials on CNN for a district supervisor election?? Why do LinkedIn, Facebook, and Airbnb care about District 11? They don’t. They care about electing Supervisors who will keep their taxes low and favor big business and developers over workers and tenants.
9. Safai is an unregistered lobbyist for a real estate developer. Mayor Lee and the Chronicle recently trumpeted a press release about a new development that would be half rent controlled and half affordable housing, and they credited Safai as a “family friend” of the developer who came up with the idea and negotiated it with the Mayor’s office. But the thing is, the developer paid Safai as a consultant, which means his negotiations with the Mayor are lobbying. Safai has never registered as a lobbyist. And the developer’s promise of new rent control housing is hella catfish. There is nothing in writing to describe how it will work or to hold the developer to their sketchy campaign promise. Their announcement sounds awesome, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  

Wow, that's a lot of bullshit! 

We're excited to vote for Kimberly Alvarenga, a queer Latina mom who worked in Tom Ammiano’s Assembly office, where she played a significant role in the campaign to Save CCSF, the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, and Seth’s Law, which protects children who are bullied in California schools. She’s currently the political director for SEIU 1021, the most progressive union in San Francisco. 

We also endorsed Francisco Herrera as our #2 choice, and we've heard from some allies who are also including Berta Hernandez (a socialist who seems to share our values, but didn't respond to our questionnaire) on their ballot. With ranked choice voting, you get to vote for up to three candidates. It's fine to include Herrera and Hernandez anywhere on your ballot, but this election will come down to Alvarenga vs Safai.

That's why it's critical to vote for Kimberly Alvarenga and to leave Ahsha Safai off your ballot! Can you please help us out by sharing this and forwarding it to all your friends in the Excelsior, Outer Mission and OMI?

A lot of people have been asking us why we’re not supporting London Breed. We love the idea of supporting a sharp, young African American woman who grew up in public housing in the Western Addition. But when she ran four years ago, we wrote a letter expressing our worry that the folks bankrolling her campaign were people we just couldn’t trust. We hoped she would prove us wrong, but we think her record shows she doesn’t share our values. Part of the League’s promise is to pay attention to politicians’ actions between elections.

Breed has been good on some issues, and she’s proven to be a savvy politician. If she were representing a more conservative district (like the Marina or West of Twin Peaks), we would probably support her. But her politics are simply out of line with District 5, which is one of the most progressive parts of town. District 5 shouldn’t have to wonder when their Supervisor will be siding with the Mayor or developers or the Police Officers Association. District 5 deserves a Supervisor who will stand up for the progressive values the League has been championing for over a decade.

Here are seventeen of London Breed’s most disappointing votes and actions.

   Sides with landlords, realtors and developers over tenants:

1. Proposed amendments to water down TIC/condo legislation which would permanently remove rent controlled apartments from the market. 
2. Opposed 2014’s Proposition G, the anti-speculator tax, which would have stopped speculators from evicting tenants.
3. Voted repeatedly against regulating Airbnb, making rent-controlled homes in the city more scarce. She has only supported stronger regulations after Preston got in the race.
4. Tried to weaken tenant protections by giving less relocation compensation to people being evicted through the Ellis Act.
5. Voted against regulating “tenant buyouts” which have displaced thousands of San Franciscans.
6. Voted against a small increase in the fee developers of office space pay to fund transit impacts.
   Sides with the Police Officers Association over police reform:
7. Voted against holding the Police Department accountable for implementing reforms by putting a small chunk of their budget on reserve.
8. Refused to call for former Police Chief Suhr’s resignation amidst police killings and racist text scandal, despite community demands.
9. Voted against post-Ferguson resolution recognizing racial bias in Police Departments, calling the resolution “divisive.”
   Sides with Mayor Ed Lee over good government reforms:
10. Voted against Prop H that will create an Office of Public Advocate, an independent watchdog over the Mayor and City Hall.
11. Voted against Prop D that will let the people decide who should represent them when there’s a vacant Supervisor seat, making sure the Mayor kept the power to appoint successors.
12. Voted against Prop L that will split appointments to the MTA Board between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, which would continue the Mayor’s ability to bully the MTA Board into failed policies (rescinding Sunday parking meters, bad bike lanes on Polk, allowing median parking on Dolores, etc.).
    Other bad votes:
13. Voted against a 1% wage increase for nonprofit health and human services workers!
14. As Board President, handed control over key board committees to the most conservative supervisors and shut out progressive leaders.
15. Was the only supervisor to vote against sunshine legislation requiring supervisors to keep and release work calendars.
16. Endorsed Mayor’s candidate for District 3 Supervisor (Julie Christensen) over Aaron Peskin, and endorses Scott Wiener over Jane Kim
17. Supported and was a member of the realtor-backed slate for conservative control of the SF Democratic Party that would have made endorsements the opposite of our voter guide.

We know that Dean Preston will be rock solid on all of those issues. Before Dean founded Tenants Together, there was no statewide tenants rights group! They’ve kept thousands of people in their apartments. We’ve gone to Sacramento with Dean to fight for repealing the Ellis Act and protecting rental deposits, and we can all thank Dean for helping save rent control back in 2008! So please join us in voting for him and telling all your District 5 friends about Dean Preston!

(Note: Big thanks to Jennifer Fieber and the San Francisco Tenants Union for their research that we used in this post.)

Dang, Mark Farrell sure does hate homeless people. Though apparently the District 2 Supervisor has no problem using them as fodder to propel his fetid political career. He authored this Prop amending the police code to make it illegal “to place an encampment on a public sidewalk.” SFPD would have the authority to remove an encampment after giving just a 24-hour notice and offering ‘shelter options’. As we know, though, the options are pretty limited. Authorities would either bus folks out of the City via the Homeward Bound program or give them housing for 24 hours in a temporary shelter if housing was not available at the Navigation Center. But, seriously, one night is not even 24 hours of housing. They could also could toss homeless people’s seized property after 90 days - but eep! right now there are reports of people's belongings being tossed right away.

San Francisco has approximately 6,686 homeless residents according to the 2015 count, though many advocates say that is an undercount as families and youth are underrepresented. About half of them sleep on the streets every night. The City estimates there are 500-700 homeless residents in tents. There are only about 1,300 adult shelter beds - with a huge waiting list for 90-day beds (~900 on the waitlist any given night). There simply aren’t enough resources. Even great efforts like the Navigation Centers suffer from a fundamental problem. To quote Street Sheet: “The problem with the Navigation Center model is that it is not particularly successful in linking homeless people with long-term permanent housing because there is no housing to be linked up with.”

Prop Q isn’t just cruel, it’s arguably unconstitutional. In August 2015, the Department of Justice announced that these types of ordinances criminalize the status of being homeless and violate the 8th Amendment to the Constitution.

People for True Homeless and Housing Solutions released a short video on Proposition Q, which breaks down Prop Q, and really highlights the absurdity of it. 

Ultimately, this isn’t about helping homeless people. It’s about getting Mark Farrell’s name out there as a “homeless advocate” so that he can run for Mayor, similar to how Gavin Newsom did with 2002’s “Care Not Cash”. But it's more than just Farrell that deserve the blame: Prop Q was sponsored by Supervisors Wiener, Tang, Farrell ("Team WTF") and Cohen. Shame all four of them. We say fuck no.

What might be most frustrating about the fight over Prop Q is that it's distracting all of us from the measures that will actually fund housing for the homeless: Prop J, Prop K, and Prop S. Please vote yes on those three for real solutions to homelessness. 

Prop Q: Demonize the Homeless for Political Gain - Fuck No 😡