Leaders promote ballot measures to tackle nagging San Francisco problems
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco is being described across the country as being in a "doom loop" beset by intractable problems. Now, some local leaders are acknowledging that as they push a set of voter initiatives meant to change the way the city deals with its problems.
At a Saturday morning rally in Japantown, Mayor London Breed wasn't sugar-coating the situation.
"We saw car break-ins and we saw open-air drug use and drug dealing and we saw a lot of folks die," the mayor said. "We're facing a new kind of public safety challenge in San Francisco."
City leaders are kicking off a campaign for three voter initiatives that will address some of San Francisco's toughest challenges: crime, drug addiction and the housing shortage.
Prop E would change public safety policies -- some advocated by the city's own police commission -- to allow officers to chase suspects in felony and violent misdemeanors. It would also allegedly cut down on mandated paper work and authorize police to use high-tech tools, including drones and license plate readers.
"We have to do more with less," said Nancy Tung, an SF prosecutor and Measure E advocate. "And the way we do that is to take off restrictions from the police department and then also allow them to use technology to help them in their jobs."
Next is Prop F, which addresses the deadly fentanyl addiction crisis. It would require single adults who engage in substance abuse to participate in treatment as a condition of receiving an already existing cash-payment benefit from the City.
"Opponents say that it's punitive because we're doing something," said drug recovery advocate Cedric Akbar. "For me, in this City now, it's time for change."
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, himself a recovering drug user, said it would start to demand some accountability of behavior without being outright punitive in nature.
"But it does need to have consequences," Dorsey said, "because what we're facing out there with the drugs that are so potently addictive, it is deadlier than ever. And we've got to do more."
Finally, Prop C is intended to bring some life back to the downtown. Advocates want to see some of the unused office space in the Financial District converted to housing. But developers say the City's 6% transfer tax-approved by voters in 2020-is a disincentive to sell properties for that purpose. State Senator Scott Weiner said Prop C would suspend that tax, in the downtown area only, for housing conversions that begin before 2030.
"We need to make sure that people are able to come in and do what they need to do with those buildings and convert some of them to housing," said Weiner. "And that we're not letting our taxes get in the way of those changes that we need in downtown San Francisco."
"All of these things together--our safety, our open-air drug use and treatment, our economic recovery--that is what's going to help us move this City forward, out of what was a very challenging time during a very challenging pandemic," said Mayor Breed.
The pandemic has changed San Francisco in a lot of ways, not all of them good. It's now being left to the voters to make some changes--in both policies and attitudes--that may help the City recover. Props C, E and F will appear on the City's March 2024 ballot.