Editor:

On one side there is a wealthy technocrat who is foul-mouthed, makes death threats against our supervisors and brags about it, and on the other side there is a public interest journalist who walks away from a coffee shop with some campaign literature. The latter is regrettable, the former reprehensible.  

Garry Tan is the CEO of Y Combinator and a Board member of GrowSF, and like Garry Tan, GrowSF has another side to it.  GrowSF sounds good, “We want our city to be inclusive, livable, sustainable, and affordable for all families. We want clean streets, healthy transit systems, great public schools, and more housing. We love San Francisco ….”  Doesn’t that sound just too lovely! Sounds like heaven; but they tell a false narrative. 

“Our city is divided and our leadership makes it hard to build or get anything done,” said Sachin Agarwal, Director and Board Member of GrowSF. Hard to build or get anything done? Where have you been Sachin?  Spending all your time at home in the Sunset?  If you haven’t noticed, in the last 10 years San Francisco has put up a skyscraper every two months, completed the Saleforce Park, a “5.4 acre public park, a living roof where a curved walking trail lined with benches surrounds grassy lawns, ….” Massive apartment blocks were built downtown and along the Van Ness corridor and south of Market, in the Mission and opposite the Zoo. We even put up a ferris wheel in the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park.  So, I have to ask, what planet have you been living on?  

Did you know that GrowSF and GrowtheRichmond are specifically targeting the western side of the City?  Their actual agenda has nothing to do with affordable housing, improving our community, or a better San Francisco for that matter; it has to do with making money and real estate speculation.  They’ve squeezed all the money they can, for the moment, out of downtown so now they’ve turned to the Richmond and Sunset as ripe for exploitation.  Connie Chan says it best in her newsletter: “The City’s own records show that San Francisco currently has 70,000 housing units approved for development, and more than 60,000 empty units available for rent.”
 
Why aren’t these 70,000 units being built? Because real estate developers can’t make the money they can make with a six-story building. Scott Wiener and London Breed “plan to upzone the entire City, which would increase the building height limit on our streets. In the Richmond, this means Geary Boulevard could have buildings as tall as 140 feet at some intersections,” according to Chan. This is for the benefit of real estate speculators and does not serve the needs of our community for affordable housing.  You can thank London Breed, Scott Wiener and GrowSF for making this possible. Your modest single-family home is going to be purchased by some speculator, torn down, and a six-story building with high-end condos will go up. The big money is not in affordable housing and if GrowSF gets control of our politics there won’t be much, if any, affordable housing built.  

“The housing shortage is a result of harmful laws at all levels of government,” according to the GrowtheRichmond.com website.  What are these “harmful laws at all levels of government?” As usual, the “growth at any cost” advocates make sweeping, negative comments and provide no specifics or plan. This kind of talk is irresponsible and actually harmful to a constructive conversation about the future of San Francisco. Brian Quan, who is running for the SF Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), is a member of Grow the Richmond.  You may like to read his column, but I would think twice about voting for him. 
 
“Ron Conway (the venture capitalist behind London Breed) has given $20,000 to Marjan Philhour for DCCC. Chris Larsen, the executive chairman of Ripple, put up $50,000 for Philhour, who also got $10,000 from the Police Officers Association. Philhour is running for supervisor in the fall, and in that race, contributions under local law are limited to $500. For DCCC, which operates under state law, there are no limits,” according to “The Billionaire Plutocrats Set Their Sights on Controlling SF’s Democratic Party,” by Tim Redmond at 48 Hills. 

Conway and Larsen, with their obscene wealth, are trying to buy our city government.  I would think twice about voting for Marjan Philhour, who is also supported by Gary Tan and GrowSF.

“Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, TogetherSF Action and Grow SF are Political Action Committees, exploiting a loophole in campaign finance law. By contributing to them – rather than to a candidate, directly – political donors can evade the $500 limit on campaign contributions. Money from groups like these will pour into the coffers of candidates who promise to carry out their agenda, one that benefits big business at the expense of regular San Franciscans.” – Julie Pitta, Richmond Review.

“Fact: SF NIMBYs, such as they exist, are not stopping housing right now; the Federal Reserve and the preferences of speculative capital are. The City has approved tens of thousands of housing units that could break ground today, no NIMBY opposition, no frivolous lawsuits … they have building permits. But there’s not enough return on investment to make those units profitable, which is what developers care about.” – An SF Chronicle op-ed on the housing hearing is wrong, and signals a new attack on the supes by Tim Redmond, 48 Hills, Sept.27 2023

“The main reason so little housing is under construction has nothing to do with city “red tape” or fees. It’s the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, which make financing much more expensive, and the cost of construction materials, wildly inflated since the pandemic, and the reduction in the demand for ultra-luxury units, which are often bought just as investments and never occupied.” – Tim Redmond, 48 Hills, Sept. 2023

Gary Tan and his GrowSF organization may sound awfully good on paper, but again, I would caution you to be wary of following any of their recommendations.

David Romano