Walk down almost any block in the Sunset built between 1920 and 1960, and you will find homes with basement or garage spaces that have long served a variety of needs. Some are occupied by extended family members. Some provide housing for students or working adults. Others have evolved over time into informal rental units. These spaces are already part of the neighborhood’s housing ecosystem, but many remain difficult or prohibitively expensive to legalize under current rules.
At the end of June, as Chair of the Board’s Budget and Appropriations Committee, we led the unanimous passage of the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 San Francisco budget, restoring more than $28 million in cuts to vital services, restoration of jobs and safeguarding more than $1.3 billion in reserve funds to protect against anticipated further cuts from President Donald Trump’s Administration.
On June 15, more than 50 seniors – with four dressed as iconic characters Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion – protested the mayor’s proposed $8.9 million in budget cuts to senior and disability programs. While singing a parody of “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, Hene Kelly, dressed as Dorothy, led protesters to each supervisor’s office and asked them to “have a heart,” “use your brain” and “show some courage” to say no to senior cuts.
This morning at City Hall, District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong announced a draft ordinance to change a decades-old building rule that housing advocates say has kept thousands of existing housing units off the legal rental market. The change would make those existing homes legal without requiring expensive renovations, and could make new construction more affordable, since lower ceilings require less material to build.
Ask any parent in the Sunset what the most stressful months of the year are, and many will give you the same answer: the months between submitting their public school application and finding out where their child got placed. It is a strange thing to put families through, and stranger still that it has not changed.
This year, as we prepare to tackle San Francisco’s budget deficit, I, as chair of the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s Budget Committee, called a number of hearings to help bring transparency and understanding to what is at stake in this year’s budget and what it means for all of us. This is my fourth year as the Budget Committee Chair, where I have worked with two different board presidents and two different mayors to help guide our City’s finances to provide a stronger and more resilient San Francisco. I believe that, throughout these four years, we have done a lot of good work to trim waste, increase efficiencies and guard against corruption. These hearings were intended to help Budget Committee members understand the progress we have made as well as hear the priorities of everyday San Franciscans.
District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and State Sen. Scott Wiener will advance to November’s election for Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the end of election night, with 49% of the votes counted, Chan was in second place with 28.6% of the vote, while Saikat Chakrabarti was in third with 14.9%. Wiener leads the pack with more than 40,000 votes (41.26%), and pulled the majority of votes from precincts citywide.
The San Francisco we want to build is a city with vibrant communities, rich with culture and ripe with opportunities; where families can thrive and put down roots, businesses can open their doors and keep them open and seniors can age in place. However, all this depends on people feeling safe in their daily lives.
In April, I called a hearing into the denial of healthcare by Blue Shield for our employees, retirees and their families. These denials came to light after a retired firefighter, Ken Jones, shared his story about being denied care as recommended by his oncologist for his Stage IV lung cancer. Firefighter Jones served and protected our City for almost 20 years, and to be denied treatment, particularly at this most critical time of care, is unacceptable. Across our country we are seeing access to healthcare being cut, made unaffordable or inaccessible. We must push back – we cannot allow insurance companies to put profit over people.
A few weeks ago, I launched what I called a “Dumb Laws” contest. I asked San Franciscans to tell me about the city rules and regulations that frustrated them most. The permits that took too long. The fees that made no sense. The codes that seemed designed to make life harder instead of easier.
In 30 days, San Francisco residents will begin to receive their vote by mail ballots for the June 2 primary election. This midterm primary election carries a significant importance for our City and state’s future.
Last week, I convened an oversight hearing to get answers. PG&E’s CEO came to City Hall. So did representatives from our Fire Department and the Department of Emergency Management. What we learned was troubling.
In the Richmond District, a group of 22 students are helping bring youth perspectives to their leaders. The District 1 Youth Council (D1YC) was founded in February and aims to help young San Francisco residents, aged 13 to 18, get involved in local politics.
This year we have seen more and more attacks and violence from the President Donald Trump’s administration on our rights and our communities. He is a threat to our immigrant community, to our access to health care, our education system, our most vulnerable and so much more. Locally we have been pushing back, making our voices heard and allocating additional funds to offset federal cuts, but we have so much work left to do.
Last month, a ballot measure that would have restored weekday vehicle access to the Upper Great Highway (UGH) fell one supervisor’s signature short of making it onto the ballot.
