The next time you hear cries about transparency in government in San Francisco, you may want to see if the shouts are coming from behind opaque glass. A city known for its laborious political process — where any decisions are subject to myriad public hearings, debates and community courting — this week became the home of the backdoor stunt, whereby three major policy initiatives were snuck onto the November ballot by our most left-leaning supervisors without any discussion. Read More

They’re asking San Franciscans for their votes, but how often have the nine mayoral candidates gone to the polls themselves? The San Francisco Examiner broke down the voting history of the mayoral hopefuls, plus interim Mayor Ed Lee, and found that venture capitalist Joanna Rees missed the most city elections and several public officials failed to make it to the polls every election. Read More

At last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor John Avalos (who is running for mayor) announced he is requesting that the city attorney draft a housing bond measure that would fund “affordable housing development,” “transit-oriented development” and “upgrades to single-family homes including seismic safety retrofits, green energy production and energy efficiency measures, and bringing buildings up to code.” In addition, the bond would provide down-payment assistance for first-time ho Read More