UGH Lawsuit Postponed

A California taxpayer recently moaned to me: “I owe the government so much money it doesn’t know whether to throw me out or recognize me as a foreign power.”

In 2022, before “draft dodger” President Donald Trump, there were about 3.1 million federal employees and about 30,000 City and County of San Francisco employees in a then-municipality of approximately 874,000 residents. San Francisco’s population has now declined to about 827,000 and the number of its local government employees is approximately 30,000. Yet, some City Hall denizens spew propaganda that we need more housing. The mighty mayor, fresh from our recall of Supervisor Joel Engardio, demands “upzoning” of the Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods plus the Marina and North Beach, meaning high-rise apartment and condominium buildings will be vacant in large part like Park Merced and its more than 500 empty units. Stonestown Galleria still hasn’t even broke ground on the 350 units for which it secured building permits three years ago.

At this writing Mayor Daniel Lurie hasn’t appointed an Engardio supervisorial successor, but only candidates who champion “upzoning” need apply. That servant of the people will then face in June 2026 District 4 voters and be retired to simple citizenhood by anti-upzoning citizens who overwhelmingly oppose such home derogation and demand a supervisor who represents their desires, not Room 200’s! Additionally, the lawsuit by Matthew Boschetto, Albert Chow and the great Lisa Arjes of the Sunset was postponed from Nov. 10 until Jan. 5, 2026, by the San Francisco Superior Court judge to whom it has been assigned because of another case, whose trial he will not complete until the end of November. The plaintiffs allege the Upper Great Highway’s closure is a matter of statewide concern and no court has ever upheld a local initiative (i.e., 2024’s Proposition K) whose subject under California law is a matter of statewide concern. Moreover, the offending November 2024 ballot proposition (Proposition K) was subject to an Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) which Engardio and City Attorney David Chiu never secured.

The damage in taxpayer funds and vehicular access has been done, but the legal issues will be decided by the Superior Court by April 5, 2026, and, barring a city attorney appeal to the Court of Appeal, restoration of the Upper Great Highway can start at enormous expenses duplicating its original cost. Maybe Engardio and his supervisorial buddies can raise money from their billionaire campaign backers to restore it!

Speaking of “Bone Spur” Trump, he promised last month to rename Veterans Day on Nov. 11 as “Victory Day for World War I” and simultaneously designate May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II.” May 8, 1945, represents the day when the war against Germany officially ended World War II in Europe. Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day after WWI (in which my father served as an Army corporal in the American Expeditionary Force in France and after Nov. 11, 1918, in the American Mission to Armenia until March, 1919) to remember the men who served in WWI and was later expanded to honor all our military veterans, becoming such a holiday in 1968. A Wall Street Journal reporter revealed last month the intent by Trump to make Veterans Day on Nov. 11 as acknowledgement only of WWI which could be considered by many Americans as excluding veterans who served in wars such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iran. Either way, Trump dodged military service.

There’s good news for U.S. Navy acolytes. The USS Hornet, berthed at Pier 3, Alameda Point for years and suffering little attention to its Sea, Air and Space museum from visitors, will move to refurbish Pier 35 in San Francisco within five years thanks to Sam Lamonica, its board chairman, and the Port of San Francisco led by chief executive Elaine Curis. We need the Hornet and its historied WWII accomplishments in what used to be a “Navy town” in and after WWII.

Meanwhile, my pal John Horgan, San Mateo Daily Journal columnist, took readers down memory lane last month, while reminding them of Marine World/Africa USA, which was east of Highway 101 in Redwood Shores until 1985 before shuffling off to Vallejo. It’s now occupied by the Oracle Corporation. Remember drag races at the Half Moon Bay Airport? Gone like Tanforan, Bay Meadows, Malibu Grand Prix and Marine World/Africa USA in San Mateo County.

Political writer and historian, Dan Walters, whose daughter (Staci Slaughter) is Mayor Lurie’s chief of staff, noted last month the array of eight times the registered Democrats in San Francisco as Republicans and Democrats carry other Bay Area counties by 5-1 or 4-1. All Bay Area U.S. House of Representatives and California Assembly and State Senate legislative offices are occupied by Democrats. So, too, do Democrats control boards of supervisors, city councils and school districts governing boards and other elected local bodies and public offices. Walters points out, however, that middle-of-the road Democrats are beginning to occupy such elective offices, including our mayor, Daniel Lurie, and San Jose’s Matt Mahan. San Jose’s population (more than one million) is the most in the Bay Area. I can recall in 1953 when I landed in Northern California in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War it was about 55,000! A recent analysis of voting in S.F. showed that our leftish supervisors are outnumbered by the moderates. Walters notes our state unemployment rate tops all other states, plus we host one-half of our country’s homeless people. I pity Oakland residents with their left-wing mayor, Barbara Lee.

Meanwhile, my not-so-favorite endeavor, the California High Speed Rail Authority, continues to embarrass us 1990’s dreamers in the legislature. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation stopped transmission of $4 billion in federal funds to such project. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta last month thereupon filed a lawsuit claiming that Sean Duffy and Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Drew Feeley violated federal law by doing so and now are attempting to give $2.4 million of it to other projects. The High-Speed Rail Authority still has a dream it can raise private money to secure the currently estimated $35 million cost of the Central Valley line which cannot function with competition from Amtrak lacking public funds from taxpayers. Bonta’s lawsuit is a loser and California voters who demonstrated support for high-speed rail in 2008 need either better governing board leadership or return to the plan voters were presented in 2008. As a Wall Street Journal letter writer from Moraga proclaimed last July: “Sacramento Democrats have every incentive to let the project take forever and cost an infinite amount of money.” Its sorry failure still constitutes cash for construction companies and their union employees. State Sen. Scott Wiener, our aspiring member of Congress, can do battle with Congressional Republicans if he sinks my friend and fellow War Memorial Board of Trustees member Paul Pelosi’s wife Nancy. If Nancy doesn’t, at 85 years of age, run again, their daughter Christine Pelosi, who was a classmate and friend of my son Shepard Kopp’s at Hastings Law School, may run. Neither Nancy nor Christine Pelosi will cover with high-rise buildings the Sunset or Richmond, while Wiener should do so if possible.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR”, reports the illegal alien population set a record of 18.6 million in January 2025. That’s a 28.2% increase during President Joe Biden’s tenure. In July 1984, the Census Bureau estimated net international migration of almost 2.8 million in one year. It’s estimated that in 2023 there were 16.8 million illegal aliens in the U.S.A. It doesn’t stop rising. It reminds me of public transit farebox recovery. In 2019, the average fare box recovery in the largest transit agencies was 35%. In 2021 it declined to 12.8%, understandably. It’s still in the sewer, and we’re going to be asked accordingly to pay one-half cent more in sales tax to BART, Muni, Samtrans, Caltrain and Contra Costa’s system. If passed, the regressive tax would go over 10% in some counties, sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Before we forget Engardio’s recall, I note the surprising SF Police Officers Association endorsement of his retention. After the election, I discovered that endorsement wasn’t the sense of the entire membership, or even board of directors. It was surreptitiously foisted on voters (together with a $25,000 campaign contribution) by one person, their 10-union president! That’s right. Under POA rules, she (Commander Tracy McCray) had such power. (Service promotion to commander, McCray’s no longer able to be president.) As the “cop on the beat,” you pay your income dues, then shut up! That’s a new one for me after 65 years in S.F. politics! Meanwhile, we still have two commissions to supervise the police department. Wait for Mayor Lurie’s two special commissions to tell us how we eliminate commission redundancy in City Hall. As one wag observed: “There are more than 200,000 useless words in the English language, and at some committee meetings, you hear them all.” Then again: “A committee usually keeps minutes and wastes hours.”

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator, SF Ethics Commission member, president of the California High Speed Rail Authority governing board and retired Superior Court judge.