“As an adjudicated insurrectionist, Trump is an illegitimate president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and therefore every official act as president will be illegitimate.”
–Mike Zonta, co-editor of OccupySF.net
The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Call your Congressperson and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121
The Official White House Website features a “Media Offenders” / media bias portal that catalogs independent commentators and journalists, including political podcaster David Pakman, criticizing their coverage. (Note: While Amy Goodman and her show Democracy Now! are frequently discussed in relation to independent media landscapes and retrospectives like the documentary Steal This Story, Please!, she is distinct from the specific digital creators highlighted on this registry). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
White House Media Oversight Portal
The List: Published on White House Media Bias Reporter, targeting prominent progressive digital influencers and commentators.
The Purpose: The administration characterizes the database as accountability and a response to alleged media bias or misleading claims.
The Reaction: Critics, free-press advocates, and named commentators have called the government-hosted list an escalation and an unacceptable pressure campaign against independent press. [1, 2, 3]
Home / Connect / Ring the Alarm Bells: The Ten Rules of Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook
Authoritarianism isn’t down the street or around the corner — it is here right now. We are at the most perilous moment for our democracy since the Civil War.
We now have all three ingredients of a strongman state in the United States:
a rubber-stamp Congress doing the President’s bidding
a Supreme Court finding “invisible ink” in the Constitution to enhance the President’s powers; and
a power-hungry president behaving like a king, breaking the law and violating the checks and balances of our Constitution.
People think of democracies dying at the hands of men with guns. But, in the modern era, they more often die at the hands of elected officials who erode the separation of powers to solidify a strongman state.
That will require robust citizen action and an unmistakable rejection of authoritarianism at the next election. Both are essential to restore and revitalize our democracy.
Our mission is clear: Let’s save our “We, The People” republic!
RULE ONE: Fire the Referees RULE TWO: Pack the Government with Loyalists RULE THREE: Demonize the Enemy Within RULE FOUR: Disregard Due Process RULE FIVE: Silence Free Speech RULE SIX: Steal Congress’ Power of the Purse RULE SEVEN: Abuse Government Authorities RULE EIGHT: Weaponize the Justice System RULE NINE: Use the Military to Suppress Dissent RULE TEN: Rig the Next Election
Your Power as a Citizen
1: Join an organized, nonviolent protest or demonstration. 2: Write and call your elected officials – and share personal stories! 3: Join an organized, nonviolent general strike or boycott. 4: Host a monthly friends meeting to discuss policy and political issues. 5: Help someone running for office. 6: Run for office! 7: Join an affinity group that organizes around issues. 8: Train as an observer of ICE operations. 9: Help turn out the vote. 10: Show support for vulnerable communities.
District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he still believes “there is a will in our city to still address the underlying issues of food insecurity.”Craig Lee/The Examiner
Following pushback from local lawmakers and other leaders, District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he will introduce new legislation aimed at improving residents’ access to groceries.
The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee on Monday tabled Mahmood’s Affordable Groceries Act, which would have placed on the November ballot a pair of measures meant to address citywide closures of supermarkets in recent years while also expanding residents’ ability to buy fresh foods.
The first, the Abandoned Pharmacy and Grocery Stimulus, would have offered tax credits and permitting assistance to grocery stores and pharmacies bringing business back to vacant lots. It also would have taxed corporations that left their spaces intentionally empty.
The second, the Affordable Grocery Fund, would have established a fund to help convert corner stores into fresh-food markets.
Mahmood said earlier this month that Supervisor Connie Chan, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, told him she would not be scheduling a hearing at the request of Mayor Daniel Lurie, arguing that the proposals needed more work before going to a vote.
Mahmood said his new legislative proposals, which will be introduced at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, take key components from his originally proposed measures.
“San Franciscans are hungry for bold ideas to tackle affordability,” Mahmood said Monday.
“I remain committed to working with anyone and everyone to advance the solutions we agree on today, while continuing to push for the bigger changes our city needs,” he said.
Mahmood’s new package will entail three efforts. The first would restore funding to Healthy Retail San Francisco, a citywide program that focuses on turning convenience stores in low-income neighborhoods into retailers selling healthy foods.
His second endeavor would aim to expand The City’s First Year Free program by exempting grocery stores from building and planning permit fees. Mahmood said he would also propose expanding the Storefront Opportunity Grant Program by funding the construction of new grocery stores in parts of San Francisco with limited food-market options.
The last piece of Mahmood’s proposed package would legislate new density bonuses for any housing development that would incorporate a ground-floor grocery store in its construction plans. Mahmood said the proposal is modeled on New York’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health program, which was established in 2009.
The program provides zoning incentives that allow property owners to construct slightly larger buildings in mixed residential-and-commercial districts if their plans include supermarkets. Mahmood said he would also propose reforming how The City subdivides existing vacant parcels to make it easier for new grocery stores to open locally.
“The price of groceries is growing exponentially year-over-year,” Mahmood said.
“This is a national problem, but one that other cities are boldly tackling,” he said.
Artificial-intelligence security startup C1 recently leased a new headquarters space in SoMa — and it’s just one of many companies in the sector that are expanding in The City
In a statement, Chan said she was “disappointed“ in Mahmood’s “continued misrepresentation of our communications and his apparent lack of knowledge of the legislative process.”
Chan said she supported the intent behind Mahmood’s ballot measures, but that his proposed legislation had fallen short in being presented as “sound economic and revenue policy for San Francisco.”
“As supervisors, it is our job to do the work, to make the hard decisions daily,” Chan said.
“We are elected to create sound policy to present to voters, not rush through any piece of legislation, let alone a ballot initiative that is not ready for prime time and would not provide its intended impact,” she said.
Though Mahmood noted that his ballot measure failed to drum up support among colleagues, the District 5 supervisor said conversations with multiple city departments, community organizations and residents over the past two months showed him that there is a strong shared interest in addressing food insecurity and expanding people’s access to grocery stores through creative approaches.
New legislation being proposed this week by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood would help fund the construction of new grocery stores in parts of The City where only limited options currently exist.Craig Lee/The Examiner
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who chairs the Rules Committee, said Mahmood could look into additional funding sources, such as the Food Empowerment Market Fund established in 2021.
A $1.5 million allocation from that fund helped create the District 10 Community Market, a 4,000-square-foot market that gives residents in The City’s southeast corridor the chance to shop from a free selection of groceries. Customers can also be connected with social services.
Walton said the program’s success was something that Mahmood “could possibly build off.”
Mahmood said at Monday’s committee meeting that he still believes “there is a will in our city to still address the underlying issues of food insecurity.”
“The people deserve immediate relief,” he said.
Examiner staff writer Patrick Hoge contributed reporting to this story.
How SF Can Promote Recovery, Safe Streets. Of all the strategies San Francisco has used to reduce drug-filled sidewalks—- the $22 million Linkage Center, $13 million crisis clinic at 822 Geary, the $6-14.5 million for the RESET Center, and the over $10 million annually spent using tourist hotels as shelters—none matches the positive impact of drug-free housing.
So why hasn’t the city aggressively funded this strategy?
Why Drug-Free Housing is Best Strategy
Last week, the Board of Supervisors passed Matt Dorsey’s legislation mandating that new supportive housing sites be drug-free. The challenge now is to get the city to add sites, and to finally offer drug-free permanent housing.
Residents of drug-free housing are more likely than addicts to either work or be seeking jobs. They are not hanging out using drugs on sidewalks.
Contrast two hotels on the 600 block of Geary.
The city has leased the Abby Hotel at 630 Geary as drug-free temporary housing for years. There have been virtually no neighborhood complaints. But after the Breed Administration began using the Adante Hotel at 610 Geary as a shelter that was not drug-free, neighborhood complaints exploded. Responding to these concerns the Lurie Administration closed the Adante shelter earlier this year.
Similarly, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic’s drug-free program at the Drake Hotel at 235 Eddy left the area in front of and near the hotel clear of sidewalk drug activities even when they were exploding elsewhere. (I head THC and it publishes Beyond Chron).
Prior to the then-vacant Kean Hotel on Mission between Sixth and Seventh Street being leased to the Salvation Army, it had a huge open-air drug market nearby. It disappeared once the Kean became drug-free temporary housing.
Those seeking drug-free housing are out to improve their lives. They want to get as far away from drug users as possible.
That’s why drug-free housing involves more than recovery by individuals. It’s a core public safety strategy that San Francisco should expand.
City Invests in Costly, Ineffective Alternatives
It’s mind-boggling how much money San Francisco has spent trying to close open-air drug markets but instead making sidewalks and the city less safe.
The Linkage Center was supposed to get drug users off Tenderloin sidewalks. Driven by harm reduction ideology that says you can improve safety by creating de facto safe injection sites, it caused Central City drug activities to explode. The city spent $22 million wrecking the Mid-Market, SOMA and Tenderloin economy and expanding sidewalk drug use.
The city purchased 822 Geary because Mayor Breed saw an opportunity to open the nation’s first safe injection site. But legal concerns halted this plan. So after buying the site for $6.2 million the city had to find a new purpose. It became a crisis clinic Mayor Lurie routinely praises it as an example of what the city is doing to address the drug and public safety crisis.
But 822 Geary did not make the Tenderloin safer. There never was drug activity in front or near the site. It’s become a citywide clinic that should have been connected to SF General or another medical facility. Instead, the city converted what was a longtime grocery store and then a Goodwill into a crisis clinic.
For all the talk about the Tenderloin needing a grocery store, let’s be clear: the best site was at 822 Geary. It was long home to Solo Foods grocery. The city’s acquisition was a negative for the Tenderloin.
The RESET Center
It’s too soon to issue a final verdict on the RESET Center on Sixth Street. But it’s not too soon to conclude that it has not met expectations. And that it is virtually certain to fall far short.
I, along with the Tenderloin Business Coalition, backed the RESET Center. We thought it would return cops to the street faster after arrests. I spent a lot of time on this issue in 2014. We had a breakthrough then but it proved temporary.
The RESET Center at 444 Sixth Street has only served Southern Station. JJ Smith’s videos (check out July 12) show that Sixth Street drug activities are still thriving. SOMA activist Lara Hashimoto emailed the mayor’s office last week, stating “that despite having RESET in our neighborhood we continue to see the same volume of drug addicts and continue to rely on MMCBD and Urban Alchemy to move these individuals off our block every day.”
We appreciated Mayor Lurie’s RESET plan and his openness to new strategies for combating sidewalk drug use. But despite using RESET exclusively for Southern Station, the 6th and Market open-air drug market still thrives.
Under RESET police arrest people for public intoxication or being under the influence of illegal drugs. They are then brought to 444 Sixth Street instead of jail. The RESET Center is not a jail and those brought there are free to leave once they can care for themselves. Most of those arrested soon return to the streets. The first two reports found only 29% and 27% of those brought to RESET accepted treatment. The mayor’s office describes this as a success.
That’s a very low bar for “success.” The city is funding a program where over 70% refuse to even enter treatment. We don’t know how many leave after a week. Or stay until completion.
The RESET bottom line: the city is spending millions—even with its creative performance-based outside contract—on a population that overwhelmingly doesn’t want recovery. Police resources are not making a visible difference.
Why not instead prioritize drug-free housing for those who do want to get help?
Wouldn’t that do more to get sidewalk drug users off our streets?
The mayor’s funding of Urban Alchemy has reduced sidewalk drug activities on Sixth Street. So did drug-free housing at the Kean.
The city should prioritize proven strategies that close drug-filled sidewalks. How about following Dorsey’s legislation with a major investment in drug-free housing?
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.
Democrats on Capitol Hill and voting rights advocates on Tuesday sounded the alarm about Republicans in the House of Representatives trying to push through voter suppression legislation under cover of passing a ban on congressional stock trading.
According to a Tuesday report from Roll Call, House GOP leaders recently added “unrelated language” to what was a bipartisan bill banning congressional stock trading that would “require voters to produce photo ID at the polls, a signature issue for President Donald Trump.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hammered Republicans for what she said were underhanded tactics that are undermining what had been a serious bipartisan effort to halt congressional stock trading.
“Republicans are trying to pull a trick this week,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a social media post. “They say we are voting on an ‘insider trading’ bill, but have snuck in massive SAVE Act-style voter suppression measures to it. This is a GOP effort to sabotage national mail-in voting, disguised as a trading ban. I’m voting NO.”
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that the caucus was opposing the GOP’s legislation not just for its attacks on voting rights, but because it only forces congresspeople to stop making new stock trades, while not requiring them to divest of their current holdings.
“House Republicans are not serious about enacting a meaningful congressional stock trading ban,” said Clarke. “The combined Stop Insider Trading Act and Voter ID Act… would allow members of Congress to continue owning, selling, and, in some cases, purchasing individual stocks while simultaneously imposing stricter voter ID requirements that would make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote.”
“This bill is a Trojan horse,” Clarke added, “using the premise of congressional ethics reform to advance a broader effort to restrict access to the ballot box.”
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) on Monday sent lawmakers a letter opposing the GOP-backed legislation, which it said would “impose onerous new requirements on voting.”
Among other things, the group said the proposed legislation would “demand Americans provide ID to cast a ballot but only accept an unreasonably narrow list of acceptable types of documentation,” excluding the kind of “widely held and reliable forms of ID that young people and voters of color disproportionally rely on.”
The CLC also said the bill doesn’t provide “sufficient safeguards” for voters wrongly deemed ineligible to prove they are legally allowed to participate in US elections.
A page on congressional contact portal 5 Calls recommended users oppose the GOP-backed bill, which it described as “partisan legislation” that “uses the guise of much-needed ethics reform to sneak through an unpopular and unrelated attack on voting rights.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
District 1 supervisor Connie Chan (left), former software engineer and Capitol Hill staffer Saikat Chakrabarti. Photos by Yujie Zhou.
Saikat Chakrabarti, who failed to score a place on the November ballot for California’s 11th congressional district, said Wednesday that he will support Connie Chan’s race through the November election.
Already, his newly formed SF Solidarity PAC has spent $425,000 for Chan.
“I’m gonna do what I can to help her win,” said Chakrabarti.
Earlier, Chakrabarti offered his campaign staff of some 250, mostly paid canvassers, the option of working on his new independent expenditure committee to back Chan through July 10.
Now, his support of Chan will be through the general election on Nov. 3.
The field team plans to return to residents who were Chakrabarti supporters in the primary and persuade them to vote for Chan in November.
It’s unclear what the campaign will do after that outreach is finished.
“We’re going to look at where we are at the end of the month [July 10] to see how much more work is left to do, and to see what we need to do to actually make sure she wins,” said Chakrabarti.
Nate Allbee, Chakrabarti’s campaign consultant, who now works on the SF Solidarity PAC, oversaw the Chakrabarti campaign’s field operation, one of the largest paid-canvasser operations in San Francisco history, with canvassers paid top dollars.
So far, Albee said on Tuesday, they have talked to 500 Chakrabarti supporters in Wiener’s old supervisorial District 8. Some 80 percent of them said at the end of the conversation that, yes, they’d vote for Chan, according to Allbee.
“I mean, that’s really high,” he said.
Chakrabarti won 17 percent of the vote in District 8 compared to 26 percent for Chan and 51 percent for Wiener.
Chakrabarti, who self-funded his own campaign with $10 million, is also committed to spending whatever it takes to help Chan.
“We haven’t made a decision on how much funding the campaign will need, but the goal is absolutely to make sure Connie wins,” said Allbee.
Chakrabarti said, “this is about trying to help the progressive movement at large in Washington.” He added he’s also putting “significant financial support” towards helping close to 20 other progressive candidates across the country.
He’s still trying to decide how much money to put into each race.
Locally, Chakrabarti sees himself playing whatever role necessary to help the progressive movement and fix issues in the city. He’s been a generous donor to nonprofits, and he’s willing to contribute more right now when many are facing budget cuts.
He’s also open to being a supporter — and possibly a sponsor — for ballot measures that represent causes he supports.
“There’s no calculus of which faction or which tribe or whatever,” he said. If he agrees with the idea, he said, “I’m going to support them,” giving as an example Wiener’s November measure to fund public transit.
Map by Kelly Waldron.
How significant are Chakrabarti’s money and endorsement for Chan?
Chakrabarti’s endorsement of Chan doesn’t mean his votes will automatically transfer to the 47-year-old supervisor of District 1.
Before the primary, the general perception was that whichever candidate, Chan or Chakrabarti, advanced would need almost all of the other’s votes to have a chance of defeating Wiener in November.
Until the last few weeks of the campaign, Chan and Chakrabarti were careful to avoid upsetting each other’s supporters and instead directed most attacks at Wiener. That now makes it easier for Chan to convert Chakrabarti’s voters, his campaign said.
“We never said, ‘Don’t vote for Connie,’” when knocking on doors, Allbee said.
However, with Chakrabarti clearly antagonistic to Representative Nancy Pelosi’s way of doing business, it’s unclear if his supporters will embrace Chan, the candidate with Pelosi’s endorsement.
And it’s unclear how much Chakrabarti’s quick backing of Chan means.
Joe Arellano, Wiener’s campaign spokesperson and advisor, said many of Chakrabarti’s supporters who are urbanists will transition to Wiener, who has branded himself as the pro-housing candidate in the race.
And some may just disengage entirely from the process, “because they were in it for the cult of Saikat and his personality. It doesn’t simply transition over to Connie as soon as he’s gone,” said Arellano.
“Some of Saikat voters who were really motivated by his outsider and anti-establishment messaging might not feel excited about either candidate” and may sit out the general election, added Mike Chen, a Wiener supporter and a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee.
“It’s one thing to win some votes for yourself, it’s much harder to use your own profile to sway an election where you are not on the ballot,” said political consultant Derek Jansen. Chakrabarti “is just not a real factor in San Francisco.”
The two assets he could bring to Team Connie are funding and, potentially, an endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. However, his campaign fell short of earning the latter, and Chan could earn that on her own.
“I don’t think [Chakrabarti’s endorsement] is gonna have a huge impact. But it is not nothing,” San Francisco State University political science professor Jason McDaniel said.
To an extent, “she doesn’t need him to get progressive voters. She got more of them than he did,” he added. For the remaining ones, “I don’t think they liked him and hated her,” meaning they would go to Chan, the sole progressive candidate in November, even without Chakrabarti’s support.
Chan may be her own best advocate
A plus for Chan is that she has few political enemies. In a two-person race, where the competition to claim support and allegiance in San Francisco’s political circle has been fierce,
Chan has created an environment where “she’s made it easy to come over and help her. And I really appreciate that,” said Allbee.
This may have something to do with Chan’s philosophy as a politician.
“I believe in direct communication and building intellectually honest and respectful relationships,” she said in response to a Mission Local Q&A in May.
Allbee agreed. “Connie doesn’t have a lot of enemies for a reason. It’s just how she acts in politics and how she treats people. It’s not surprising to me that she has such a broad coalition at all … When you disagree with Connie on something, there’s a basic level of respect.”
“Over the years,” he added, “I’ve always felt like Connie was somebody that I could disagree with in a friendly way.”
We won’t ignore your neighborhood
When a San Francisco neighborhood has a Mission Local reporter, it means someone is there. We’re following new housing projects proposed on your block, keeping tabs on what your district supervisor is up to at City Hall, and letting you know when longtime businesses close (and new ones open). When big news breaks, we already know the context.
Most neighborhoods don’t have that. Yours could.
That’s what Mission Local is building. Our reporters don’t parachute in — they write consistently on San Francisco, so you’re never reading about your neighborhood from someone who just looked it up.
So far we are in five of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. But we know all San Franciscans deserve our kind of coverage. Will you join us?
Yujie is a staff reporter covering city hall with a focus on the Asian community. She came on as an intern after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and became a full-time staff reporter as a Report for America corps member and has stayed on. Before falling in love with San Francisco, Yujie covered New York City, studied politics through the “street clashes” in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She’s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Find her on Signal @Yujie_ZZ.01More by Yujie Zhou
FRONTLINE PBS | Official May 9, 2023 FRONTLINE As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, this two-hour documentary special tells the inside story of their path to power. This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: http://www.pbs.org/donate. Over the past three decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has risen to the center of power in Washington, impacting issues affecting millions of Americans — from abortion to affirmative action. By his side has been his wife and best friend, Ginni Thomas. Together, the Thomases have left an indelible mark on America — in the legal realm and in conservative politics. But what has fueled their rise and expanded influence, and what have been the consequences? “Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court” is a FRONTLINE production with the Kirk Documentary Group. The director is Michael Kirk. The producers are Michael Kirk, Mike Wiser and Vanessa Fica. The writers are Michael Kirk and Mike Wiser. The reporters are Vanessa Fica and Jane Mayer. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. Explore additional reporting related to “Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court” on our website: https://to.pbs.org/3LyTJbv
The Committees of Correspondence were vital Patriot networks established by American colonies before the Revolutionary War. Initiated by Samuel Adams in Boston (1772) and expanded colony-wide by Virginia (1773), they allowed leaders to share political grievances, mobilize grassroots resistance, and coordinate the First Continental Congress. Wikipedia +5
Origins and Purpose
Before the American Revolution, intercolonial communication was slow, limited, and heavily reliant on official (and often intercepted) British mail routes. To counter British policies—such as the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts—Patriots established an underground letter-writing network to bypass royal authority. Wikipedia +2
The movement evolved in two major phases:
Local Committees (1772): On November 2, 1772, during a Boston town meeting, Samuel Adams formed the first major committee to draft a statement of colonial rights and circulate it as a pamphlet throughout Massachusetts. Wikipedia +1
Intercolonial Committees (1773): In March 1773, Virginia leaders—including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee—established the first intercolonial standing committee to communicate directly with other colonies, unifying the Patriot cause. Encyclopedia Britannica +1
Key Functions and Impact
The Committees of Correspondence functioned as “shadow governments” that actively undermined royal rule in the Thirteen Colonies: History.com +2
Information Exchange: They rapidly circulated news about British abuses, legal infringements, and local protests (such as the Gaspee affair). George Washington’s Mount Vernon +2
Public Mobilization: They educated everyday colonists on their political rights, ensuring that the push for liberty reached rural towns and not just coastal cities. George Washington’s Mount Vernon +1
Unification: By spring 1773, 12 colonies had joined the network, creating a unified political front that bridged cultural and economic differences. Society for History Education +3
Legacy and the Continental Congress
The unified communications network laid the crucial political groundwork for organized resistance. When the British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) in 1774, the committees were instrumental in organizing and summoning the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The vast majority of delegates who attended this historic convention were active members of their local or colonial Committees of Correspondence. Wikipedia +3
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said Sunday he’ll drop a controversial proposal to tax vacant chain grocery stores, shifting his focus to an ordinance to support smaller grocery stores.Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco lawmakers killed a package of ballot measures Monday aimed at lowering grocery prices and penalizing shuttered supermarkets during a committee hearing Monday after the proposals met pushback from business interests and Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s original “Affordable Groceries Act,” as introduced last month, sought to place two separate measures on the November ballot: a city-run fund to convert corner stores into grocery stores and a tax on existing vacant grocery chain locations. But after the tax drew opposition from fellow city leaders and members of the business community, Mahmood said he’s reversing course
Instead, the District 5 supervisor says he’ll focus on pushing a new ordinance that would devote funds toward helping convenience stores stock fresh produce and support new grocery stores with incentives and zoning reforms. The new legislation would be decided at the Board of Supervisors rather than by voters, who would have decided the fate of the original proposals.
Tensions over the measure spilled into public view earlier this month as Mahmood pushed back against mounting criticism from business groups, developers and elected officials. The measures’ demise signals the political might of the mayor, who has enjoyed tremendous popularity during his first term in City Hall.
At a Rules committee meeting Monday, Mahmood said he did not have the votes necessary to move either of his original proposals to a vote at the full Board of Supervisors after Supervisors Shamann Walton and Stephen Sherrill withdrew as co-sponsors last week.
Mahmood previously told the Chronicle the measures were inspired in part by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open city-run grocery stores to combat rising grocery costs. Over the past few years, San Francisco has faced several high-profile grocery store shutdowns — including a Safeway in the Fillmore, a Whole Foods in Mid-Market and a Lucky in the Bayview, the neighborhood’s only major supermarket prior to its closure last year.
While Mahmood’s proposal would not have put the city in charge of running the grocery stores, it would have allowed it to use donations from nonprofits or money from the tax to support more grocery stores. Mahmood had said he hoped the tax would also incentivize bigger chains to remain open.
Mayor Daniel Lurie opposed the vacancy tax. A spokesperson for the mayor told the Chronicle that Lurie was working to get more grocery stores in San Francisco but believed a tax wasn’t the way to do it.
The Chamber of Commerce and Align Real Estate, the developer seeking to turn the shuttered Safeway in the Fillmore into a housing complex, also spoke out against it, arguing it would make it harder to fill that site with a new tenant. Mahmood told the Chronicle that Amazon, owner of the empty former Mid-Market Whole Foods, was “actively lobbying” against the tax.
Supervisor Connie Chan, the chair of the board’s budget committee, declined to bring the vacancy tax to a vote and expressed reservations about the policy earlier this month. E
On Friday, Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman told the Chronicle he questioned whether the vacant grocery store tax might have “unintended consequences” as the city tries to lure businesses back after the pandemic. Mandelman said he is “concerned that measures like this send a different message that is a little more adversarial and that imagines that San Francisco can tax and regulate our way to recovery.”
Mandelman said representatives from the mayor’s office including Lurie shared concerns including that putting the measures to voters in November could distract from “extremely high-priority” measures headed to the ballot already, including funding for public transit and a slate of charter reform efforts.
“There’s a strong argument to be made that we really want to try to limit how much stuff we’re throwing at the voters and how much opposition we might be summoning,” Mandelman said.
Walton said in a statement Monday that he changed his mind after a report from the controller found that the vacancy tax would yield little money for city coffers.
In light of the opposition, Mahmood said he would pivot his efforts from twin ballot measures.
“I recognize that while there is not consensus in City Hall on how to address this issue today, … I know and believe that there is will in our city to still address the underlying issues of food insecurity,” Mahmood told the committee Monday.
Instead, Mahmood announced that he would ask the city attorney to draft new legislation that would expand existing city programs to help combat rising grocery costs and food deserts in the city. It would revive an expired city initiative that helped convenience stores sell fresh produce and exempt new grocery stores from building and permitting fees in food deserts.
It would also provide incentives to developers who build new housing with grocery stores on the ground floor. Mahmood said that idea came out of conversations with Mamdani administration staffers about a similar New York City program that launched in 2009.
“We’re seeing these large scale developers coming in and removing grocery stores, so we need to make sure that when housing is built we’re maintaining neighborhood benefits,” Mahmood told the Chronicle on Monday.
Mahmood said he believes his colleagues had changed their minds about supporting the measures “due to pressure.” It’s not clear whether the new proposal will be met with similar opposition.
“I remain committed to working with anyone and everyone to advance the solutions we agree on today, while continuing to push for the bigger changes our city needs,” Mahmood told the committee.
Megan Fan Munce is a reporter on the climate team covering California’s home insurance crisis. She writes about rate changes, state policy initiatives, the growth of the California FAIR Plan, and how homeowners are navigating challenges in the insurance market. Her awards include the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for “Burned,” a series that explored how insurance industry practices left many wildfires survivors unable to rebuild and recover. Munce joined the Chronicle as part of the two-year Hearst Journalism Fellowship, spending her first year at the Houston Chronicle. She grew up in the Bay Area before attending Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
How to reach Megan
Email megan.munce@sfchronicle.com or reach her on Signal at meganmunce.88 to share tips or tell Megan about your experience with home insurance in California.
Alyce McFadden is a City Hall reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle covering the Board of Supervisors. McFadden previously worked at the New York Times, where she was a news assistant and reporting fellow. She covered Andrew Cuomo’s history of sexual harassment, the trial of the man accused of attacking Salman Rushdie, the Los Angeles wildfires and the reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk. McFadden has also written for Law360, OpenSecrets and the Maine Beacon. She’s a graduate of Bowdoin College, where she studied government and legal studies and was editor in chief of the student paper.
How to reach Alyce
To provide story tips or feedback or to obtain her Signal number, email alyce.mcfadden@sfchronicle.com.
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Trump Regime Takedown: Every Saturday Saturday, March 7, 2026 12:00 PM 2:00 PM Tesla San Francisco999 Van Ness AvenueSan Francisco, CA, 94109United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Keep democracy alive every Saturday by showing up, taking a stand, and sticking together for the long haul. Standing together is better than standing alone. Let’s get together... Continue reading →
This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
Milk Club Trans Caucus Meeting Date: Tuesday, July 28 Time: 5-7 PM Location and Zoom Link: Meeting info available to members of the Milk Club Trans Caucus. Please reach out to trans@milkclub.org if you would like to join the Milk Club Trans Caucus.
Milk Club Joint Caucus Meeting & Trivia Night! Date: Tuesday, July 28 Meeting: 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM Trivia: 7:30 PM Where: Teeth – 2323 Mission Street, San Francisco Milk Club invites you to our Joint Caucus Meeting featuring the HIV Caucus, Trans Caucus, and BIPOC Caucus. This is a space to organize, connect,... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
Two nights ago, nearly 450 people from around the country joined us and our partners for a massive Medicare for All National Organizing Call! The Medicare for All movement is flexing its muscle, and we spent the call standing united with our coalition partners, Progressive Democrats of America, Public Citizen,... Continue reading →
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