SF’s reform fights are hitting housing, courts, schools, and Muni today. And honestly, the surprise may be how much private tech money is now flowing into public safety.
This is The San Francisco Daily Fix — a tight look at the city’s latest fights over police protection, supportive housing, overloaded courts, school curriculum, and transit spending.
Alright, let’s do it.
First up: when tech companies want extra police on the block, who pays for that?
From WIRED:
Elon Musk called violent crime in San Francisco “horrific” and moved the offices of his social media business X outside the city in 2024 because of safety and business considerations. Other local tech companies have attempted to address their security concerns by partnering directly with cops.
That’s the privatized public-safety story in one line: if you’re big enough, you don’t just complain about policing — you buy your way closer to it.
Now, on supportive housing. From ABC7 San Francisco:
A move to expand drug-free supportive housing in San Francisco is gaining traction. Supervisor Matt Dorsey is proposing legislation that would require the city to only fund new sites that prohibit the use of illicit drugs.
This is where housing-first runs straight into overdose reality. If people are dying inside the building, then “supportive” has to mean more than handing someone a lease.
But at 48 Hills, Tim Redmond pushed back hard:
San Francisco is moving to a radical shift in its policy on housing and substance use, with Mayor Daniel Lurie and Sup. Matt Dorsey pushing to cut off all city funding for permanent supportive housing that doesn't evict people who use "illicit drugs". This move would move the city backwards towards the Reagan era of mass incarceration and…
And look, the eviction concern is real. Nobody wants a pipeline from supportive housing right back to the sidewalk. That’s the implementation risk to watch. But calling drug-free supportive housing a return to mass incarceration skips the hard number Dorsey is pointing at: if 26% of overdose deaths are happening inside permanent supportive housing, the status quo doesn’t get to call itself compassionate by default.
Next, the courts. From Jesse Alejandro Cottrell at The Standard:
In an act of silent protest against what they consider crushing caseloads and chronic underfunding, members of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office showed up to work on Thursday wearing the same color: black.
When the people whose job is to keep the courts constitutional show up in funeral black, that’s not just a workplace complaint. That is a warning light. Fining the office might move a docket on paper, but it does not magically create enough lawyers to make those cases fair.
Now to schools. From Ezra Wallach at SF Standard:
The San Francisco school board is set to vote on making the two-semester class a permanent fixture of every student's high school education in fall 2024. The move comes amid concerns about the development of the curriculum, which has been controversial for years. The original homegrown curriculum was criticized by parents and city officials, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, who viewed it as ideologically driven rather than academically rigorous.
A graduation requirement is a big lever. So if the district wants trust here, the process has to look as rigorous as the class it’s telling every student to take.
And finally, Muni. From Caroline Cabral at SFMTA:
Our agency faces the most challenging financial crisis in its history. This budget is the first step of a multi-year strategy to reduce costs and stabilize our finances. The first year of the budget includes a $200 million loan from the state. The loan helps close an immediate shortfall of $307 million that we face when the next fiscal year begins on July 1.
That is not “problem solved.” That is a bridge loan over a canyon. San Francisco keeps Muni intact for now, but the fight is what happens when the stopgap money runs out.
Links to every story we covered today are in the show notes, so if one of these stuck with you, you can jump straight to the source.
That’s The San Francisco Daily Fix for this Tuesday. This is a Lantern Podcast.