The Weekly Digest (June 15, 2025)

Written By Bill Jackson

Happy Father’s Day, Brionies! 



Here’s what you need to know about local politics this week and beyond:



San Francisco City Hall


  • Monday, June 16 at 10am: Rules Committee (agenda here):

    • Item 1: Ordinance approving a Surveillance Technology Policy for SMFTA’s continued use of automated red light and no turn enforcement cameras at high-risk intersections. The SFMTA has operated traffic cameras since 1996, but a new administrative code requires Board of Supervisors approval for any new or existing surveillance technology. Thus, SFMTA was required to draft a 15-page report and hold two public hearings before the Supes could officially green-light this nearly 30-year-old program. Excellent use of resources!

  • Monday, June 16 at 1:30pm: Land Use and Transportation Committee (agenda here):

    • Item 1: Ordinance allowing certain hotels and motels to be used for temporary housing without losing their hotel status. We noted several compelling letters of objection from local residents and business owners, including this one from the spokesperson of the Tenderloin Business Coalition: “I am writing to express our deep concern and strong opposition to the ongoing conversion of tourist hotels into shelter housing. While we recognize the urgent need to address homelessness, the current strategy is severely impacting our local businesses and the overall economic health of our neighborhood. The concentration of shelters resulting from these conversions has created a cascade of negative consequences. Our businesses are struggling with increased loitering, public drug use, and a rise in petty crime, deterring customers and creating an unsafe environment for employees and patrons. This has led to declining foot traffic, decreased sales, and in some cases, forced business closures. The very fabric of our commercial district is being eroded.” Another letter: “The city’s multi-year conversion of the COVA tourist hotel into a shelter created a day and night drug scene that has left dozens of vacant storefronts in once thriving Little Saigon. The conversion of the Monarch, which is across the street from the large 1001 Geary Multi-Service Center, made nearby retail economically untenable; vacant storefronts now dominate a once prosperous part of lower Polk Street. Open air drug sales and drug use constantly day and night.” We hope the Committee will take these concerns into account before extending this Covid-era program, which was never intended to be permanent.

    • Item 2: Hearing on the Housing Element Rezoning, with presentations from the Planning Department and Mayor’s Office. Organizations like SF YIMBY argue that upzoning is essential for addressing San Francisco’s housing shortage, will promote affordability, and will ensure the City meets state housing requirements. Critics, including 50 neighborhood associations, small businesses, and merchant groups, warn that upzoning could accelerate the displacement of vulnerable residents and small businesses while failing to deliver truly affordable housing or sufficient tenant protections.  The housing and upzoning issue is a hot potato, so expect a full house on this one.

  • Tuesday, June 17 at 2pm: Regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors (agenda here):

    • Items 1-5:  Consent agenda for proposed settlement of various lawsuits against the City, including a few big ones: $1.6+ million for damage from a 2023 water pipeline break near Gough and Ellis Streets, $1.1+ million for an employment-related lawsuit, and $2.9+ million for tax and fee refunds to Chime Financial, Inc. A million here, a million there, and the $16.9 billion budget starts to make sense.

    • Item 42: Resolution supporting California State Assembly Bill No. 1242, Language Access, to expand California’s language access laws.

    • Item 43: Resolution affirming the public’s right to assemble and protest actions of the federal government. (Who wants to tell the Supes that James Madison beat them to it?)

Happenings around town

We’re hiring!


What we’re reading


  • A former program director of fallen nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance spoke with KQED this week, describing financial dysfunction dating back to 2017. Upon joining the Alliance, the employee “quickly discovered the organization had been making off-the-books microloans ‘with poor accounting and no proper reconciliation’ to the dozens of community partners it fiscally sponsored. And while cleaning out the desk of a former staff member, she found over $400,000 worth of receipts from a city grant program that had never been submitted for reimbursement. ‘The city owed the San Francisco Parks Alliance hundreds of thousands of dollars, and no one was managing that or tracking that.’” The District Attorney’s office has launched a criminal investigation. Corruption and mismanagement seem to be a feature, not a bug, of many SF nonprofits. Lowlights include Collective Impact (conflicts of interest; misuse of funds), Providence Foundation (fake invoices), the Zoo (noncompliance with city audit), and J&J Community Resource Center (more fake invoices). Perhaps an absence of market discipline and cronyism are not a recipe for integrity and competence.

  • We’re shaking our heads over the “peaceful protests” happening in San Francisco and elsewhere against federal immigration enforcement. CBS News reports that more than a dozen local businesses, including Manny’s Cafe, McDonald’s, Wells Fargo, and Chase Bank, experienced property damage, such as shattered windows and vandalism involving paint, food, and graffiti. Police cars and Waymos were pelted with rocks and lit on fire, prompting the creation of this Waymo no-go map. We wonder: how many climate change activists objected to that?

  • The unrest puts Mayor Lurie, who campaigned on promises to get tough on crime, in the spotlight. Lurie faces the challenge of balancing public order with safeguarding the right to peacefully protest in a city known for its activism. The Briones Society is committed to genuinely peaceful protests, but these incidents fell short of that ideal. With the protest-industrial complex in full swing, it’s anyone’s guess when the chaos will subside.

  • Shout-out to Wells Fargo for stepping up with a $25k donation to help businesses damaged in the Mission District, though we can’t help but think that the money could have gone into helping these businesses grow, rather than just covering repair costs.

  • This is cool: AI tools are helping police officers with paperwork so they can get back to the beat, and drones are being used as first responders. 


Calls to action



Quick hits




Palate cleanser




This week in San Francisco history


  • A major fire on June 14, 1850, destroyed more than 300 houses and about two-thirds of the city’s richest area, causing $3 million in damages. This disaster was one of several early fires that shaped San Francisco’s growth and resilience during the Gold Rush era.


Bill Jackson
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The Weekly Digest (June 8, 2025)