{"id":49089,"date":"2026-07-09T14:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49089"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:03:03","slug":"public-bank-moves-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/public-bank-moves-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Public bank moves forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Supes, 9-2, put measure before the voters. What is up with Sup. Alan Wong?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 7, 2026 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A City Charter amendment that could lead to the creation of a public bank cleared the Board of Supes today\u2014with two members voting against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means the voters will have the opportunity in November to start the process of creating an alternative financial institution that could provide financing and consumer services that private banks won\u2019t. It could set a national precedent. This is, in other words, a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Wong, who once identified as a progressive on the Community College Board, joined Stephen Sherrill, the most conservative supervisor, in opposing the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sup. Chyanne Chen is a primary sponsor of the public bank measure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sherrill raised some concerns about the plan when it was in committee. Wong, at the first vote on the measure week, said that he doesn\u2019t think the city is capable of running a public bank. That\u2019s the same old right-wing argument we hear about almost any new public services, including public power: Supes allies with PG&E used to say that the city can\u2019t manage a municipal utility, although 2,000 cities around the county do that very successfully. San Francisco runs an exceptionally complicated operation, SFO, which involves far more money than a startup public bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the private banking sector in this country has a long history of corruption,<\/a> lawbreaking<\/a>, cronyism<\/a>, incompetence\u2014<\/a>and demands for public bailouts in the hundreds of billions of dollars<\/a>. It\u2019s hard to imagine how a public bank could possibly be worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process for creating a public bank would, by law, be incremental, with the new agency demonstrating its financial solvency at every step. It would set a national model for local government to use its leverage to finance things like affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sup. Jackie Fielder ran for office in part on a promise to create a public bank.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed him to the board, Wong has never strayed from the mayor\u2019s positions and has been among his most loyal allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wong and I used to talk about City College on a fairly regular basis. Since Lurie put him on the board, he has not once responded to my calls and texts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, though, Lurie\u2019s Office has done nothing to oppose the public bank measure, and has not indicated to the primary sponsors, Sups. Chyanne Chen and Jackie Fielder, that he has any intention of working against the November ballot measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nine votes is a strong statement of support. Unless the private banking industry decides to mount a well-funded campaign against this, or the mayor decides to oppose it, changes of a public bank moving forward in November are good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit\u00a0here<\/a>. We also invite you to join the conversation on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supes, 9-2, put measure before the voters. What is up with Sup. Alan Wong? By Tim Redmond July 7, 2026 (48hills.org) A City Charter amendment that could lead to the creation of a public bank cleared the Board of Supes today\u2014with two members voting against it. That means the voters… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1878],"tags":[1862],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49090,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49089\/revisions\/49090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}