Category: News

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The Power of Public Banking

Watch our new video: Unlocking the Power of Public Banking!

We’re excited to share a new video that will shape the future of your community and pave the way for economic prosperity. As passionate advocates in this ongoing journey, our latest explainer video shows the transformative potential of public banks and how they prioritize people over profits and drive community-focused projects. It’s a big step forward in our ongoing quest to champion public banking for a future that’s all about fairness and growth.

Unlocking the Power of Public Banking: Public banks are a financially secure solution, dedicated to funding critical community projects like local revitalization efforts, transit systems, green infrastructure, and affordable housing. Unlike traditional banks, public banks channel banking revenue back into our communities, not shareholder profits.

Your Community, Your Choice: The democratic essence of public banks will empower us to define our community’s future and needs, as these banks operate as public utilities rather than profit-driven entities. Community members have a say in what gets funded, impacting everything from school improvements to renewable energy projects.

Supporting Sustainability and Resilience: Public bank loans are pivotal in advancing climate justice by reducing costs associated with energy-efficient housing and sustainable transportation. By partnering with community banks and credit unions, public banks level the playing field against Wall Street megabanks, supporting local small business growth.

Financial First Responders in Tough Times: In times of crisis, public banks emerge as financial first responders, swiftly financing reconstruction efforts after disasters. These public servants understand their community’s unique needs, ensuring a faster recovery and a resilient future.

 

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Former SFMTA director to run for supervisor seat held by Peskin

By Michael Cabanatuan : sfchronicle – excerpt

Former Municipal Transportation Agency board member Sharon Lai is expected to announce her candidacy Friday for the Board of Supervisors’ seat held by Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who is termed out. Lai plans to share her plans at a rally in Chinatown, where she’s supported by a number of community leaders. In addition to Chinatown, District 3 also includes North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Financial District, Union Square and Nob Hill.

Lai, an immigrant from Hong Kong and a mother of two, said addressing public safety will be at the heart of her campaign for the November 2024 election. As a SFMTA director, Lai pressed for more collaboration between Muni and the San Francisco Police Department, which she said led to a tripling of the transit system’s public safety budget. A victim of gender-based assault, she said those experiences shaped her agenda and how she’ll approach San Francisco politics.

“I am unwavering in my commitment to creating a safer and stronger San Francisco for everyone,” she said…(more)

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San Francisco Merchants Hold Small Business ‘Funeral’ To Protest Geary St. Transit Plan

By George Kelly : sfstandard – excerpt

Photo by zrants

The mourners gathered Monday morning outside the former Thom’s Natural Foods in San Francisco’s Richmond District, watching as four black-clad, white-gloved men chanted and carried a black-draped coffin down Geary Boulevard.

The casket was adorned with notes listing Thom’s and other dearly departed businesses: Mike’s Chinese Restaurant, Silver Cut Hair Salon, Safe Harbor CPA, M.V. Code coding school, La Vie Vietnamese Restaurant, Mr. B.’s Sewing Machines.

The pallbearers chanted, “Geary Boulevard needs some help! Mayor Breed, we need your help! Jeff Tumlin, stop working against us!

“We’re gathered in memory of our beloved small businesses on Geary Boulevard,” former San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer told the group as the procession came to a stop outside Thom’s between two chairs with signs for San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director of Transit Jeffrey Tumlin. Neither official was present

“We know that many of them could not recover after Covid,” Fewer said of the closed shops. “We are also here to honor the existing small businesses that are trying to build up their business to pre-pandemic levels, and they are not there.”…

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said Breed and others need to listen to the business owners.

“The mayor needs to listen. The mayor needs to be present. She needs to step up, and she needs to show leadership. That’s what being mayor means,” said Safai, who is challenging Breed in the 2024 election. “Not hiding behind decisions of five appointed commissioners that she controls, and the director that she controls. The power rests with the mayor in this decision. We need leadership in this city right now.”...(more)

Traffic puts eyes on the street. Removing traffic and parking killed the downtown and makes it feel empty and not safe.

 

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Breed says she wants even more power

By Savannah Dewberry : 48hills – excerpt

Art by sfbluecomics

On national podcast, she says she missed the pandemic days when she emergency authority and calls for limits on what supes can do.

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter who hosts “Lovett or Leave It,” one of the most popular political podcasts in the country, parachuted into San Francisco last week to do a live show that featured Mayor London Breed demanding even more power for one of the strongest mayors in California.

Lovett demonstrated at total lack of understanding of the state’s housing crisis, and gave Breed a platform to send a mangled political message to the liberals who listen to the podcast.

Some of the material is comedy, and it’s funny, and Lovett is a great communicator. But the central focus of the discussion was housing, and while what Breed said isn’t surprising, really, it fit into a dangerous narrative for DC insiders…(more)

Power to do what? There is not a whole lot more that the Mayor could control. She should know that control comes with consequences. The higher you get, the further you fall when the blame hits you.

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Call Newsom: Don’t Tax the Sun

By Sue Vaughan : burningplanet – excerpt

Solar employees and advocates gather at the CPUC in San Francisco on June 2, 2022

Solar employees and advocates gather at the CPUC in San Francisco on June

ACTION ITEMS FOR TODAY

There are two major downsides to capitalism. One, in capitalism there are winners and there are losers. And two, the end product of capitalism is an unlivable planet.

One year ago, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. D-San Diego, the David in the so-far failed battle against the Goliaths of Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Doordash, and other exploitative and polluting gig industries, got very confused about who the winners and losers in the energy industry are, and tried to take on a new “enemy” — the California rooftop solar industry..

So their marketing wizards came up with a campaign that argued that lower income Californians who could not afford rooftop solar were subsidizing the rooftop solar of those who could – and who got rebates for returning energy to the grid. Gonzalez sponsored AB 1139, a bill that would have decreased the amount that people with rooftop solar would be paid for the energy they pump into the grid and increased the amount they would have been charged for monthly grid maintenance.(See analysis of donations to state lawmakers at the end of this story.).

Rooftop solar providers, customers, environmentalists, and working class advocates got organized – and the measure didn’t make it out of the Assembly.

But the idea hasn’t gone away. It’s just been moved to the five, unelected members of the California Public Utilities Commission...

On Thursday, June 2, hundreds of rooftop solar installers, rooftop solar customers, environmentalists, and representatives of disadvantaged communities rallied at the CPUC buildings in San Francisco and Los Angeles to protest the newest proposals. The essence of their opposition? Reducing net metering rates (the rebates that go back to entities that pump electricity into the grid from rooftop solar) and raising grid maintenance rates would enrich these utilities at the expense of the planet. Crucially, these proposals would eliminate the financial incentives that homeowners now have to install rooftop solar. Opponents have called the proposals a tax on the sun. They also would have put about 2,000 solar companies out of business and eliminated around 70,000 jobs, according to the California Solar & Storage Association...(more)

Read the rest of the articles linked above for more details on the various players so you will know where to push the matter at the state level. Phil Ting supported AB1139. Call him to let him know where you stand and how likely you are to oppose his next run for office if he continues to support Big Energy companies efforts to kill solar.

In our case, we should also call and send letters to Senator Wiener and Assemblymembers Ting and Haney and any oher people in Sacramento you know. Phone calls to the CPUC directors are also encouraged. See some contact info here:  https://discoveryink.wordpress.com/ca-legislative-process

ACTION ITEMS FOR TODAY

 

 

 

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SF Police Union President Steps Down Amid Claims of Financial Impropriety

by Michael Barba : sfstandard – excert

an Francisco’s police union has turned against its president, pressuring him to resign as rumors of financial impropriety upended his attempt to return to his leadership role from extended medical leave.

Tony Montoya has stepped down as president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, his successor Tracy McCray announced Wednesday in an internal email to officers obtained by The Standard.

Montoya’s departure represents a changing of the guard in a union that tried to rehabilitate its relationship with City Hall under his tenure. Montoya was by no means a champion of reform, but he struck a more conciliatory tone than his predecessors whose vocal criticism earned them a reputation for undermining change…(more)