That's gonna leave a Mark: SF earns Worst-Run City laurels

Sometimes, coming in behind the fair suburb to the north is an advantage. Like when SF gets noted as the country's most dysfunctional city government. KTVU reports.

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☆ Is San Francisco Public Utility Commission under water?

The reason we can live on the Peninsula is because we have water. We buy it from San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC) as part of a consortium of 26 agencies (BAWSCA); and the sustainability of our civilization here, on the coast, is under threat—not just from the potential ~56% cutbacks in the 3rd year of the next drought, but from a lack of FISCAL sustainability. Opp Now exclusive op/ed by Gregg Dieguez, Vice Chair of the Midcoast Community Council, here expressing his own opinions.

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Grant's Pass immediate legal impact: Court order restricting SF homeless sweeps is officially no more

In response to SCOTUS' recent Grant's Pass ruling, an appeals court has overturned an injunction that has prevented San Francisco from enforcing or threatening to enforce laws that prohibit sitting, lying or lodging on public property. Gabe Grechler reports for the always impressive SF Standard.

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NYT: Some Western mayors get more aggressive about addressing homeless encampments, post-Grant's Pass

The Supreme Court decided last month that cities could cite homeless campers. Some cities say ‘clear them all.’ Some vow 'no change.' Others are ramping up outreach. Shawn Hubler and Mike Baker explore for NYT.

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CAA: Prop 33 is "extremist" rent control

According to the California Apartment Ass'n, economists and housing experts from Stanford and UC Berkeley warn that Proposition 33 would worsen California’s housing crisis by hindering new affordable housing construction and overturning state laws mandating more affordable housing. Additionally, Proposition 33 would remove protections for homeowners, allowing regulators to control rental prices for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units. From CAA newsletter. 

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Is driving in Silicon Valley subsidized?

When free marketeers daylight the massive subsidies needed to operate public transit, transit advocates often retort that private automobile driving receives gov't subsidies, too. The fearless Mark Joffe explores the question in the Cato at Liberty blog, and finds the transit advocates have a legit point. 

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Downtown SJ's ongoing collapse part of broader trends signalling the end of traditional urban centers

Billions of redevelopment dollars squandered. The mayor's security detail accosted. Crime, blight, and chronic homelessness. Maybe it's time to just move on from the naive dreams of a mini-Manhattan on the Guadalupe. Joel Kotkin explains in the New Atlantis how SJ's failure to build a vibrant downtown isn't simply a local failure--rather, it's evidence of inexorable changes in how modern people want to live.

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Post-Grant's Pass, SF to change direction, get "very aggressive" re: homeless encampment sweeps

SF's Mayor London Breed said the troubled suburb to the north will launch a much more vigorous crackdown on homeless encampments beginning next month. "Thank goodness for the Supreme Court," Breed said, re:  SCOTUS' Grant's Pass decision.  Maggie Angst at the Chronicle reports.

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Statewide rent control initiative continues to split SF liberals

Yesterday's rent control advocates are suddenly getting cold feet regarding statewide caps on rental prices, as they realize belatedly that their market-busting schemes have constrained new housing development, exacerbating cost of living and homelessness. The usually liberal SF Grow Report says No to Prop 33.

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Upcoming local tax tsunami may be prompting updated tax revolt, says expert

Regional housing tax. Parks tax. Measure E extension. Prop 5. SJ Unified parcel tax. The list could go on, but the threatening tide keeps rising: politicos are coming at Silicon Valley taxpayers with a tidal wave of new taxes--surging over Silicon Valley's already super high tax rates. But analysts suggest that residents may have had enough of high taxes and crummy services, and a new tax rebellion may be bubbling.  Nicole Nixon explains in Capradio.

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Fissures widen in SF over state rent control initiative

Trade unions oppose statewide ballot initiative that would unleash local rent control, calling it anti-housing at a time when California needs to build more. Traditional political allies at odds in the fair suburb to the north. Adam Brinklow at the excellent Frisc website explores. 

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Chron op-ed: Housing First's no-barrier orthodoxy

California mandates a “housing first” model that places homeless people into permanent supportive housing where drug and alcohol use is allowed. Keith Humphreys of Stanford says sober living arrangements are required to help manage homelessness crisis.

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