Eight million dollars is headed into San Francisco's June ballot fight — and in the Tenderloin, the people who’ve buried family members are the ones doing some of the hardest drug-reform work. Welcome to the San Francisco Daily Fix — money, ballots, and grief all colliding on a Friday. We’ve got Mission Local’s breakdown of where that eight million is coming from and where it’s going, plus the human story behind the people trying to save lives in the Tenderloin. One of those stories is about power and cash. The other is about actual results. And yeah, I’ll let you guess which one I care more about. This one’s from Mission Local:
About three-quarters of all the money pouring into San Francisco’s June 2 election is going toward just four measures on the ballot. The majority of that $7.9 million is funding dueling businesses tax measures: The “overpaid CEO tax,” Proposition D, and a competing measure placed on the ballot in hopes of sinking it, Proposition C.
Hat tip to Mission Local for tracking the money — nearly eight million dollars has flooded into San Francisco’s June 2nd ballot, and most of it is tied up in a corporate cage match over two competing business tax measures: Prop D, the so-called overpaid CEO tax, and Prop C, the countermeasure meant to sink it. Classic San Francisco playbook: labor puts a populist tax on the ballot, big business fires back with a poison pill, and everybody hopes the voters split the difference and both fail. I just want to know whether either one actually changes outcomes for working people, or if this is mostly a consultant feast. Meanwhile, Prop A — the earthquake safety infrastructure bond — has pulled in more than 1.7 million, with Ripple founder Chris Larsen dropping half a million in support. He’s also given 700K to fight Prop D, so the man is apparently very busy writing checks this cycle. Prop B is the term limits measure, and it’s running on fumes — 352 thousand dollars, with Larsen and Michael Moritz basically carrying the whole thing. When two billionaires are the donor base, voters should definitely ask what’s in it for them. From The Tenderloin Voice:
Theris Coats Sr. and Richard Beal like to say they’re turning “pain into purpose” — and both men have experienced pain in profound excess. But on a sunny late April afternoon in the Tenderloin, they were celebrating. It was the one-year anniversary party for their organization, Brothers Against Drug Deaths, formed to support people battling addiction.
Out of The Tenderloin Voice — and hats off to them for covering this community so closely — comes a story about Brothers Against Drug Deaths, an organization started by men who lost people to drugs and decided to build the services they wished had existed. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to see more of — people from the Tenderloin, people who actually lived it, building solutions instead of waiting for City Hall to figure it out. Theris Coats and Richard Beal aren't outsiders parachuting in with a theory. They buried family members. They’re also pushing for legislative change in Sacramento, so this isn’t just a mutual aid story — it has policy teeth. They’re one year old and already headed to the Capitol. Peer-led, community-rooted, outcomes-focused — that’s the model that actually moves the needle on addiction. Not another task force. Not another report. These guys are the report. You’ll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if something caught your ear, you can dig into the original reporting there.
That’s The San Francisco Daily Fix for this Friday, May 8th. Thanks for listening, and have a good weekend. This is a Lantern Podcast.