SF: It Hasn't Hit Bottom Yet

Down memory lane: last October we mused on San Francisco's self-inflicted wounds.

Despite the litany of San Francisco problems--homelessness, crime, needles and human waste on the sidewalks, astronomical real estate prices, astronomical taxes, boulders in the streets, taxpayers leaving, empty storefronts, $billions of transportation over-runs, not to mention picking fights with the Federal Government over immigration and the environment--now activists want San Francisco to set up its own bank.

(Photo from grassrootsaction)

(By the way, the public bank has gone nowhere, like other San Francisco projects where the mouth is writing checks that the a** can't cash.) Since October San Francisco's awfulness has escalated to the Nth degree with even more homelessness, business closures, the defund-the-police movement, and huge budget deficits.

One might have expected that San Francisco voters would move away from far-left politicians like State Senator Scott Wiener (jailtime for wrong pronouns, tax California estates over $3.5 million, etc.). But one would be wrong. Scott Wiener is being challenged by someone who says he is not progressive enough:

(Image from Jacobinmag)

Jackie Fielder, a 25-year-old activist and college lecturer, is mounting a surprisingly strong challenge to state Sen. Scott Wiener in an only-in-San Francisco contest that features a progressive incumbent and an even more progressive opponent.

Fielder, a democratic socialist who describes herself as a “Native American ... Mexicana, and queer educator and organizer,” is making her first run for office against Wiener, a 50-year-old gay attorney who was elected to the state Senate in 2016 after serving two terms on the Board of Supervisors...

Fielder wants to see a $100 billion California Housing Emergency Fund, raised by tax increases on the state’s wealthiest taxpayers and corporations. The money would be used to buy at least 200,000 existing units and to build 100,000 new homes, owned either publicly or by nonprofit groups.

Whether it's called rock bottom or the "misery threshold," San Francisco hasn't hit it yet.