SF League of Pissed Off Voters

The League of Pissed-Off Voters urges BART Directors, BART General Manager, and the Alameda County District Attorney to be on the right side of history — join community organizations, transit advocates, social justice leaders, and thousands of multiracial allies fighting for Black lives.

On November 28, 2014, fourteen protesters locked themselves to BART trains at the West Oakland station. Instead of citing and releasing protesters, or charging them with the same minor infraction applied to the thousands of multiracial allies that have blocked buses, trains, and traffic, a harsher penalty has been discriminatively applied.

Please help us by calling and emailing the BART Board of Directors, and tell them to drop the charges against the BlackFriday14:
(510) 464–6095
[email protected]

Transit advocates, including a member of the League’s Steering Committee, joined BART Directors Rebecca Saltzman and Nick Josefowitz as they rode BART’s new late night bus to shine a light on this issue and request support for a potential resolution calling for the demand for restitution and criminal charges be dropped against the group of protesters known as the BlackFriday14.

The League believes that the BlackFriday14 have paid significant restitution for their protest. They were held in the Santa Rita Jail and Glenn Dyer Detention facility, and they have expended significant time and resources in their legal proceedings. We call on the BART Board of Directors to pass the following resolution to urge District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley to drop the charges against the BlackFriday14.

This picture speaks volumes about the different priorities of these two Mayors.

Bill de Blasio canceled his appearance at the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting and gave a powerful, frank, 30-minute speech about the grand jury decision to not charge the officer who killed Eric Garner.

Press Release:

Today, the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission asking them to investigate the potentially illegal collusive actions of David Chiu, Nicole Derse, 50+1 Strategies, and Airbnb.

The complaint alleges that Nicole Derse and 50+1 Strategies failed to register as lobbyists for Airbnb, and that they violated the prohibition on lobbying by campaign consultants.

The complaint also alleges that David Chiu continues to employ Derse and 50+1 Strategies as his campaign consultant despite knowing that they should have registered as lobbyists for Airbnb.

The videotaped confrontation at Mission Playground between a bunch of young tech workers and Latino youth has lit up the City. It seems like the vast majority of us — from progressive activists to moderate urbanists to nerdy redditors to cranky Internet commenters — all agree: this is a vivid embodiment of how new wealth is literally displacing long-time residents.

And while we think the tech workers embarrassed themselves in the way they handled the situation, we think they were unnecessarily set-up to make fools of themselves by one of City Hall’s worst policies: Phil Ginsburg, the General Manager of the Rec and Park Department, wants the parks to pay for themselves. Here’s the TL;DR version of our plan to fix the mess at Rec and Park:

1. Rec and Park needs to restore free play every evening at Mission Playground.
2. Mayor Ed Lee needs to fire Rec and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg.
3. The City needs to review and undo the past five years of privatization.
4. The City need to create new parks in low-income neighborhoods instead of allowing wealthy donors to pick new park locations.

California Propositions

Prop 1: Water Bond — Yes
Prop 2: Rainy Day Fund — No
Prop 45: Health Insurance Thing — Yes
Prop 46: Drug Testing of Doctors and Malpractice Limits — Frustrated No
Prop 47: Lock up Fewer Nonviolent Offenders — HELL YES
Prop 48: Approve an Off-Reservation Casino — No Endorsement

State Offices

Governor — Jerry Brown
Lt. Governor — No Endorsement
Secretary of State — Alex Padilla
State Treasurer — John Chiang
Attorney General — Kamala Harris
Insurance Commissioner — Dave Jones
State Board of Equalization, District 2 — No Endorsement
Superintendent of Public Instruction — Tom Torlakson
Controller — Betty Yee
US Representative in Congress, District 12 — No Endorsement
US Representative in Congress, District 14 — Jackie Speier
State Assembly, District 17 — David Campos!!
State Assembly, District 19 — Phil Ting
BART Board of Directors, District 8 — No Endorsement

Frisco Propositions

Prop A: $500 Million Transportation Bond — Yes
Prop B: Set-Aside for Transportation Funding — Conflicted No
Prop C: Reauthorize and Expand the Children’s Fund — Yes
Prop D: Retiree Health Benefits for Redevelopment Workers — Yes
Prop E: Soda Tax — Yes
Prop F: Increase Height Limits at Pier 70 — Yes
Prop G: Anti-Speculation Tax — HELL YES
Prop H: Grass Fields at the Beach Chalet — No Endorsement
Prop I: Artificial Turf Fields All Over the City — No
Prop J: Raise the Minimum Wage to $15! — HELL YES
Prop K: Non-Binding Pinky Swear to Build Affordable Housing — No Endorsement
Prop L: Non-Binding Recipe for Carmegeddon and Gridlock — HELL NO

Local Offices

Board of Supervisors: District 2 — Juan-Antonio Carballo
Board of Supervisors: District 4 — No endorsement
Board of Supervisors: District 6 — Jane Kim
Board of Supervisors: District 8 — No Endorsement
Board of Supervisors: District 10 — 1) Tony Kelly 2) Ed Donaldson 3) Shawn Richard
Board of Education — Stevon Cook, Shamann Walton, Jamie Rafaela Wolfe
Community College Board – 4-year term — Wendy Aragon, Brigitte Davila, Thea Selby
Community College Board – 2-year term — William Walker
Judge of the Superior Court, Office 20 — Daniel Flores
Public Defender — Jeff Adachi
Assessor-Recorder — No Endorsement

We weren’t involved in writing Prop B, so of course it’s not perfect ☺. We would love to see Prop B get revised in November with a more nuanced approach: like, if a waterfront project wanted to raise the height limit in order to build 50% affordable housing, that shouldn’t require a ballot measure to approve. Maybe there could be a similar threshold for projects that create a certain amount of public space?

Urban free marketeers love to Sanfransplain to us how to fix San Francisco’s housing problem. Since we are opposed to letting the market decide how to use our waterfront, they ask us what we should do instead?

Governor — Luis Rodriguez
Lieutenant Governor — Jena Goodman
Secretary of State — Derek Cressman
Attorney General — Kamala Harris
Treasurer — John Chiang
Controller — John Perez
Insurance Commissioner — Nathalie Hrizi
Superintendent of Public Instruction — Tom Torlakson
Board of Equalization, District 2 — No Endorsement
House of Representatives, District 12 — Barry Hermanson
House of Representatives, District 14 — Jackie Speier
State Assembly, District 17 — David Campos
State Assembly, District 19 — No Endorsement
SF Superior Court Judge, Place 20 — They’re All Good!

CA Prop 41: $600 Million Bond for Affordable Housing for Veterans — Yes
CA Prop 42: Make Counties Comply with the Public Records Act — Yes
SF Prop A: $400 Million Earthquake Safety Bond — Yes
SF Prop B: Let the People Decide Waterfront Height Limits — Yes

Have you heard about this "Stop San Francisco Shell Shock"? If you live in the City and you use Facebook, google, or Pandora, odds are you've probably seen these misleading ads. In a nutshell, this is a last ditch attempt by PG&E’s union to block CleanPowerSF--the program to give San Franciscans the choice of buying 100% clean energy. CleanPowerSF is the single biggest step the City can take to directly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change, and PG&E’s gang is doing everything they can to stop it.

Here's the super short version:

• Do you want to have the option of switching to 100% renewable electricity? If so, you should support CleanPowerSF. Here’s the Facebook page to find out more: http://www.facebook.com/IHeartCleanPowerSF
• Or would you rather continue PG&E's monopoly on electricity service in the City and continue to have no choice except to buy their dirty energy? If so, then forget about CleanPowerSF and feel free to click on those misleading "Stop the Shell Shock" ads.

Over a couple weeks of discussion among our steering committee members, we wrote this letter which we sent to the SF Ethics Commission asking them to reinstate Ross Mirkarimi as sheriff. We know this is a sensitive and emotionally charged issue, but we ask y'all to be respectful about it. We felt it was important to articulate our position about this case.

Dear Supervisors,

For years, San Francisco has led the way in workers issues by providing things like the nation's highest minimum wage and paid sick days. In 2009, San Franciscans took great pride in the passage of the Health Care Security Ordinance, which we were told would require employers with more than 20 employees to provide health insurance for their workers. We see signs at restaurants around town saying they are adding a surcharge to their bill so they can provide health insurance for their employees, and we were satisfied to know that our money was going to take care of the people who prepare and serve our food.

But now we're pissed off to learn that almost half of the restaurants are not providing actual health insurance or access to Healthy SF for the employees. Instead they are putting money into Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) that is set aside for employee health costs. The bottom line is this: HRAs are not health insurance. They may be adequate to cover routine health care costs, but any kind of serious illness or injury will quickly wipe out an HRA account. HRAs are also typically too limited in what types of health care they provide.