Cities matter

Cities are the drivers of our national economic growth, where cultural and social capital accumulates, and where more than 100 million Americans reside. But our cities are also in crisis. Public education is failing, crime is rampant, and entire neighborhoods are being surrendered to a spiraling drug, homelessness, and mental health epidemic. What happened?

Decades of far left, performative politics

Defunding the police, opposing school choice, and supporting harm reduction solutions to drug addiction and homelessness — all of these ideas sound great to the privileged few who can afford homes in gated communities, private schools for their children, and hired security for their families.

But small minorities of wealthy progressives shouldn’t get to bully the rest of us into a politics that denies opportunity and quality of life to the working class — all while buying their own way out of the consequences. We deserve better. We deserve a new politics of opportunity for everyone.

We’re all part of the solution

Too many conservative and independent leaders have turned their backs on cities, taking our nation’s strongest institutional advocates for free minds, free markets, and ordered liberty out of the fight. We refuse to give up the ship.

And just like Commodore Perry did when he used those words to rally his sailors in the War of 1812, we’re fighting back — and winning. The Briones Society’s mission is to develop, promote, and advance a brand of conservatism that works in cities and for city dwellers. When we win:

Conservatives win, with better representation and more experience in more parts of the country.

Moderates — yes, even moderate liberals — win, with credible competition from the right pulling their own coalitions and leaders back to the center.

And cities win, with improved governance from more robust political competition and a broader array of solutions available to tackle urgent problems.

Our north star is the indispensable argument for the United States of America, articulated in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights… That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

CORE ISSUES

We advocate for:

  • SFPD staffing at an officer-per-capita ratio that mirrors the safest cities in the world, challenges to lenient judges and slap-on-the-wrist legislation at the ballot box, and real accountability for criminals at sentencing. If we don’t have public safety, we don’t have public spaces.‍ ‍

  • An all-of-the-above approach to lower the cost of housing, including: CEQA reform, by-right permitting, allowing mixed-use development on industrial parcels, breaking up labor union monopolies, and authorizing modular construction. The cost of living in cities, of which housing is the primary component, is not just driving economic inequality. It is hampering American economic growth and competitiveness, radicalizing young people into pernicious ideologies, and destabilizing our society. To change course, we need a program that both (a) treats long-time residents’ concerns over changes to neighborhood character with respect, and (b) challenges them to follow the lead of earlier, great American generations and make shared sacrifices for our country’s future.

  • More and better options for K-12 education. Universal school choice achieved via (a) new charter schools and (b) vouchers that families can redeem at any school in San Francisco, private or public, should be paired with significant pay increases for teachers. This way, all children in San Francisco (not just those of wealthy families) have the opportunity to attend schools that meet their needs, and all teachers who help meet those needs earn salaries that reflect the value and dignity of their work.

  • A hand up, not a handout, for the homeless. This means housing now in shelters, not “housing first” in condos that don’t exist. It means expanding the Homeward Bound program to reunite homeless individuals with their families and communities of origin. It means zero-tolerance enforcement of laws against public intoxication, drug use, and urban camping, and a threshold for mental health conservatorship and compulsory drug rehab that doesn’t allow those in crisis to die on our streets. Finally, it means meticulous, independent performance and financial audits of all City homeless service providers, tying their compensation to demonstrated results.

We do this by:

  • Hosting events to educate, organize, and mobilize urban conservatives and independents who are serious about reform.

  • Publishing voter guides, podcasts, and newsletters to inform citizens of what’s on their ballots and what City Hall is up to.

  • Registering new voters to grow the center-right constituency in San Francisco that supports commonsense candidates and policies

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