In News by Patrick Range McDonaldApril 12, 2019 : housingisahumanright – excerpt
Before Scott Wiener became a state senator in 2016, he served as a San Francisco supervisor for six years. Known as a “corporate Democrat,” he aggressively pushed policies that benefited his campaigns contributors in the real estate industry — and left behind an appalling legacy. Today, he’s advancing the trickle-down housing bill SB 50, which will generate billions for his political patrons, but will fuel gentrification and displacement throughout California. The following is an excerpt from the Housing Is A Human Right investigation “Selling Out California: Scott Wiener’s Money Ties to Big Real Estate.”
An Appalling Legacy
When Scott Wiener ran, in 2010, for San Francisco supervisor in District 8, he was hardly a candidate to get excited about — unless you were a real estate hotshot. It was a time when African Americans were getting shoved out of San Francisco at a disproportionately greater rate than other ethnicities; a six-year, upward trend of evictions started slamming the city’s renters (from 1,372 in 2010 to 2,304 in 2015); and San Francisco was ranked the fifth most expensive metropolis in the entire nation. But Wiener, a 40-year-old deputy city attorney who ran as an openly gay candidate in a heavily LGBT district, didn’t showcase gentrification, tenant protections, or affordability issues on the campaign trail. Instead, he talked about the “basics” of government…(more)
One of the most important things we can do is to pick new representatives for California to send to Washington.