The SF Department of Elections approved a petition on Jan. 21 to recall Engardio, submitted by a group called Our Neighborhood, Our Future. That started a 120-day period to get just less than 10,000 signatures to qualify for a special election later this year.
It’s a New Year and you can count the herculean resolutions of all San Franciscans from Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie to your humble but not always pleasing scribe. Remember that a New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other!
This year, it finally happened. The “at Strybing Arboretum” was removed from all “San Francisco Botanical Garden” signage. With this move, acknowledgement of Helene Strybing’s legacy vanished from public view. The current acreage bears less and less resemblance to what it was during its glory.
Democracy doesn’t just work when we show up to vote. It works when we step forward to lead. So, take the leap. Speak up. Run for something. You might just discover that the act of trying is a win all its own.
What we saw in the fight over Prop. K was a clash between affluent, self-interested, ideological activists and everyday San Franciscans – working families, small business owners, seniors and people with disabilities – whose lives will be negatively impacted by the longer commutes, more traffic headaches, quiet streets becoming cut-through zones and decreased access to business corridors.
Mark Twain once explained to readers in the 19th century: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
So, Proposition K won. I didn’t vote for it, nor did most westside residents apparently, but it passed. The ballot measure promised to replace the stretch of the Upper Great Highway from Fulton Street to Lincoln Way with a park. But it didn’t say what kind of park. So, let’s think about this!
This is where we as citizens can continue to engage in the civic process. We can be advocates that amplify what priorities and solutions matter. Organizing around these issues clarifies one’s values.
To control housing costs, tenant advocacy groups are always clamoring for stronger tenant protections and expanded rent control. But even as they do so, what they do not realize, perhaps through their own lack of understanding, is that they are advocating for even higher rental costs and restricted housing supply in the long term.
Many readers will be inoculated by this column’s volubility, and many will explore it for blunders which render my observations and information subject to judgment and even criticism. It has been observed that criticism from a friend is better than flattery from an enemy. I bear no malice because the person who is not criticized isn’t breathing. You might avoid criticism by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.
Running stop signs has become so common in the Richmond that it’s almost accepted as part of daily life. But this is a problem we can no longer afford to ignore.
Originally this started out as a pro-President Biden commentary on preparing for the November election. A meditation on how an incumbent running on a successful record of accomplishments should be more of a slam dunk than what was being portrayed in the media.
It was Adlai E. (for Ewing) Stevenson, then-governor of Illinois and the Democratic Party candidate for president of the U.S.A. for a second time who spoke via radio and television on election eve (Nov. 8, 1956) thusly: “Looking back, I am content. Win or lose, I have told you the truth as I see it. I have said what I meant and meant what I have said. I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly; no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.”
Soon, San Francisco residents will get their mail-in ballots and the voting will begin. Because last year’s election was rolled into this one, the SF Department of Elections voter pamphlet will be thicker than an old phone book. Nevertheless, it is important to read it in order to make informed decisions on the many candidates and propositions on the Nov. 5 election.
As a medical provider, I know that reproductive health care is not a political issue. It is a fundamental part of comprehensive health care. Access to services like abortion, contraception and reproductive counseling allows individuals to make informed decisions about their bodies and their futures
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 