How many ways is Mayor London Breed trying to protect herself?
By Sebra Leaves
Building a Fortress: The citizens are restless and many are angry with Mayor London Breed. Voters set her up in a very powerful position, which she is augmenting. She appointed the DA, Police Chief, City Attorney, and too many department heads to count. She has as much power as any mayor in the country and, as far as we know, the highest salary. There is little anyone can do without her approval in her city unless you can get eight Supervisors to override her, and that is not always an easy task.
Losing Support: A lot has been written about the mayor’s childhood and rise to power, but the question is, what will she do with that power? She has built a fortress that may sustain her for a while longer, but her tactics and are beginning to wear thin on her subjects. She may have gone too far with her latest anti-CEQA moves. She is distressing former supporters and environmentalists, oppose the anti-CEQA legislation she proposes that unleashes new threats to what is left of the environmental review process.
Feeling Pressure: According to the SF Standard, a recent poll showed, “More than three-quarters of San Franciscans believe the city is on the wrong track, and Breed’s approval numbers are plunging.” She cannot blame the Supervisors when her ideas fail. She owns the results so she is beefing up her defenses, digging in her heels, playing the blame game. If her ideas fail she will blame the supervisors and certain members of the public for failing to support them.
Appointing Friends: “Breed told The Standard she needs an expansion of powers” and she is building up her defenses by appointing her friends to high positions, regardless of their qualifications. She is also removing people who don’t support her when she can.
Attacking Opponents: After convincing the supervisors to remove one of her least favorite Ethics Commissioners, she is gutting their budget so whoever is left will have little hope of conducting substantive investigations into the Mayor or her friends. Some allegations involve election financing and this brings us to another power play on the Mayor’s menu. Rumor has it Breed wants to enact an option to opt out of some of the state’s recently passed clean money bills.
Blaming the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): Breed joins Newsom in blaming CEQA for slow housing production. Working with the Planning Department and some supervisors she is trying to force density and gentrification on the city’s West Side single family neighborhoods that includes a lot of homeowners who have a lot to lose. Attacking them may cost some city officials their jobs.
Supporting Density: There are two bills pending that are meant to undermine whatever security homeowners may have on the west side by attacking what is left of CEQA. The Mayor is backing two city ordinances in particular, that are keeping a lot of environmentalists up at night.
Supporting Anti-CEQA Legislation: The primary and worst of these two ordinances is File Item # 230446 the Breed-Engardio-Dorsey “Constraints Reduction Ordinance” (aka “Housing Production Ordinance”) which makes massive, unprecedented, sweeping changes in local environmental, community and demolition review that are absolutely unacceptable to many San Franciscans and must not be passed. They claim building more units will make housing more affordable, but that has not happened yet. The “affordable” housing is being built for families making $150,000 to $190,000 per year! Where is the affordable housing for people making less?
Here is the link to the legislative digest of SF File Item # 230446:
https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12072199&GUID=EB57FC75-EA12-4287-9E89-AB2B183E65BA
The second and companion ordinance to the “Constraints Reduction Ordinance” is File Item # 230026 the Melgar-Engardio “Family Housing Opportunity Special Use District Ordinance” which is less broad in scope, but waives nearly all environmental review for housing expansions in its large target project area to allow sweeping height increases, project design exemptions, open space requirement reductions, and condo conversions — all up to 6 stories high without environmental review! The legislative digest of SF File Item # 230026:
https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11981580&GUID=8674B447-EF2D-4C3B-AB82-96C94FC30CDE
Failing to Predict the Outcome: Not one Saw the Tents coming. As the Eastern Neighborhoods spiral out of control the Mayor and her team plan the invasion of the West Side, rattling off the same tired memes, “parking is a privilege not a right”, and “everyone must share the pain”. The pain is much worse than we imagined. When a high rate of displacement due to gentrification was forecast no one predicted that a large numbers of evictees would move into tents on the sidewalk, and that would be followed by a drug epidemic and crime wave. Residents can be fairly certain that tearing down housing and businesses along Geary Boulevard will create similar conditions. People living on the West Side will not accept these conditions.
Doubling down on Failed Policies: Traffic and parking removal did not increase foot traffic on Market, Mission or Castro Streets. Ubers, Lyfts, bike rentals, Waymos, and Cruises are not going to replace traditional modes of transportation in spite of the huge support they are getting from the state government. The business models are flawed and no one is giving up a car when they don’t feel safe.
Killing the Neighborhoods: Rents are tanking and investors are leaving large amounts of equity rather than deal with the mess. The tax base shifted from downtown to the neighborhoods, but, that does not stop the density dogs from trying to demolish the surviving businesses in the commercial neighborhood corridors. Mayor Breed is intent on removing what is left of CEQA protections in order to see her legacy fulfilled and she has backers who will attempt to buy the next election. Being right is more important for some politicians than getting the right results.
Controlling the Purse: Mayor Breed has repeatedly refused to honor the voters who passed Prop C to support families and children. She refuses to fund programs she disagrees with regardless of how the Board of Supervisors votes or how many letters or petitions she receives.
Ignoring Public Opinion: Time is a huge factor in determining how one conducts one’s life. Placating the political whims of powerful wealthy people is not high on the list of voter priorities. When those whims eat into our time and lifestyles, the Mayor may find herself standing alone behind her impenetrable fortress.
If these matters concern you, let the SF City Authorities know. Contacts here: https://discoveryink.wordpress.com/san-francisco-officials
