Brandon Johnson's Chicago Is a Preview of Zohran Mamdani's New York
Big city mayors' progressive ambitions are on a collision course with fiscal reality.
San Francisco
San Francisco's All-Electric Ordinance Will Make Housing More Expensive
San Francisco’s new ordinance would impose all-electric building standards for new construction projects or buildings undergoing “major renovations.”
How Texas Beat California on Housing
YIMBY policies in Texas have led to lower rents and increasing supply. The same cannot be said for California.
With Proposed Glue Trap Ban, San Francisco Sides With the Pests
Glue traps are a cheap and effective pest control tool. Naturally, San Francisco is considering banning them.
A New Study Adds to the Evidence That Drug Busts Result in More Overdose Deaths
The researchers found that drug seizures in San Francisco were associated with a substantial increase in fatal opioid overdoses.
Regulations Keep Millions of Bedrooms Empty During a Housing Crisis
Zoning laws, occupancy limits, and short-term rental restrictions are keeping housing off the market and driving up costs.
A San Francisco Coder Built a Musical Surveillance System
With a name inspired by a controversial police surveillance technology, Bop Spotter scans the streets for ambient tunes.
No Place To Go
Despite homelessness being on the rise, local governments keep cracking down on efforts to shelter those without permanent housing.
Kamala Harris Says She Owns a Handgun—Despite Fighting To Ban Others From Doing the Same
Journalists should be interested in interrogating this contradiction, should the 2024 presidential candidate continue giving interviews.
No More Special Little Freedom Zones
Plus: Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, death pods in Switzerland, mapping San Francisco's decay, and more...
San Francisco City Council Targets Free Speech To Cover Up Its Own Housing Failures
Desperate to control soaring rents, the city council bans rental data tools while ignoring its own role in the housing crisis.
Mike Solana: Can San Francisco Be Saved?
Pirate Wires Editor in Chief Mike Solana discusses the lessons of San Francisco's politics, his vision for the future, and his critiques of libertarianism.
Costly Complexity
The needless complexity of affordable housing programs are hurting people they're supposed to help.
The Best of Reason: Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Fueled America's First Drug War
San Francisco's prohibitionists worried that opium dens were patronized by "young men and women of respectable parentage" as well as "the vicious and the depraved."
Anti-Chinese Xenophobia Fueled America's First Drug War
San Francisco's prohibitionists worried that opium dens were patronized by "young men and women of respectable parentage" as well as "the vicious and the depraved."
California Politician Proposes Bill Making It Illegal To Contact Employees After Working Hours
State Rep. Matt Haney says he wants to attract workers back to California. But his "right to disconnect" legislation would likely scare businesses away.
San Francisco Bill Would Let People Sue Grocery Stores for Closing Too Quickly
A proposed ordinance would empower people to sue supermarkets that close without giving the city six months' advance notice.
Licenses and Dead Bodies
Plus: Evil tech bros want to teach kids math, Utah and Texas tackle DEI, Trump loves Sinéad, and more...
Birth of a YIMBY Folk Hero
Plus: The White House's rent controls, San Francisco's bad-to-worse turn on housing, and the latest unintended consequence of eviction moratoriums
Proposition E Would Make It Easier for Police To Surveil San Francisco
The measure, which will be on the March 5 ballot, would greatly expand the SFPD's power while subjecting it to even less scrutiny.
San Francisco Police Spent 193 Hours Over 3 Months Watching Private Surveillance Footage
The surveillance yielded 49 arrests, of which 42 were for possession or sale of narcotics.
California Stopped San Francisco's $1.7 Million Toilet. The City Can't Build Something Cheaper.
"Why isn't there a toilet here? I just don't get it. Nobody does," one resident told The New York Times last week. "It's yet another example of the city that can't."
Self-Driving Cars Have Arrived. They Will Make Us Safer.
The good news: Regulators have exercised unusual restraint.
Will the Climate Deal Do Anything?
Plus: White supremacists and plagiarism, Milei and shock therapy, checking in on California, and more...
New York's Broken Housing Court Lets Tenant Stay For Years Without Paying Rent
Plus: Austin and Salt Lake City pass very different "middle housing" reforms, Democrats in Congress want to ban hedge fund–owned rental housing, and a look at GOP presidential candidate's housing policy positions.
Ivy League Double Standards
Plus: Deepfakes in porn, Randi Weingarten's amnesia, San Francisco's Chinese-name crackdown, and more...
San Francisco's Can-Kicking on Zoning Reform Could See It Lose All Zoning Powers
Plus: the U.S. Justice Department says zoning restrictions on a church's soup kitchen are likely illegal, more cities pass middle housing reforms, and California gears up for another rent control fight.
Xi Jinping's in the House
Plus: AKs in the MRI room, protesters at Chuck Schumer's house, Sonic Youth takes on Javier Milei, and more...
San Francisco's APEC Cleanup Hasn't 'Fixed' Its Homelessness Problem
No amount of encampment sweeps and pressure-washing sidewalks is going to solve the problem of thousands of people living on the streets.
Bill Maher Attacks 'the Real Deep State' of Government Regulators, Administrators, and Zoning Officers
The comedian blames America's endless reams of regulatory red tape for slowing down new wind farms, housing, and public toilets.
Damning New Audit Finds San Francisco Takes 3 Years To Approve New Housing
The state housing officials who performed the audit describe San Francisco's approval process as a "notoriously complex and cumbersome" mess.
The Hidden Failures of Social Housing in 'Red Vienna'
A new report details how the city's famed social housing system is suffering from diminishing affordability, deteriorating quality, and funding shortfalls.
RIP Anchor Steam, the San Francisco Brew That Saved Craft Beer in America
Anchor Brewing was sunk by the same forces that former owner Fritz Maytag helped unleash by nurturing America's craft beer revolution.
1 Year After Chesa Boudin's Recall, Is San Francisco Safer Under His Successor's More Punitive Policies?
Brooke Jenkins took office one year ago this week promising more prosecution for drug and property crime offenders. Crime and overdoses still went up.
Study: San Francisco Rent Control Expansion Led to More Evictions
A new study from researchers at Northwestern University found that landlords were incentivized by rising rents to replace existing tenants with new market-rate-paying tenants.
San Francisco Gets $20 Million Zoning Reform Grant the Same Week It Halts New Housing For Casting Shadows
This is the second RAISE grant San Francisco has received since the Biden administration retooled the program to reward jurisdictions for adopting zoning reforms.
Transit Agencies Demand Taxpayer Subsidies To Stave Off 'Death Spirals.' There's a Better Way.
Service cuts that reflect falling demand and zoning reforms that bring more fare-paying residents back to cities could shore up transit agencies' budgets.
San Francisco's Got Problems. There's No Need To Exaggerate Them for Political Reasons.
If you don't like San Francisco, that's fine, but don't tell tall tales about it.
