by Joni Eisen
The COP 30 UN Climate Summit concluded without a roadmap to phase out coal, oil and gas. The current US administration is aggressively increasing pollution and emissions in pursuit of more wealth for big corporations and far-right cronies. Now more than ever, it’s up to local jurisdictions to keep up the fight for a livable planet.
In streamlining City government and reforming the Charter, the mayor must prioritize climate goals. The recent and upcoming SF Environment Department (SFE) budget cuts will significantly and adversely impact the Department’s ability to implement the City’s Climate Action Plan at a time when local climate action is more important than ever. However, the mayor’s current focus is on restructuring City government to be more efficient and accountable – and this would necessitate reforming SF’s weirdly long, complicated and arguably outdated City Charter. That, in turn, would open up an opportunity to create a CAP-focused, authorizing entity with teeth to oversee and enforce climate goals in every City agency – bypassing the constant fight over General Fund leftovers, and exploring other ways to finance implementation of SF’s comprehensive, detailed Climate Action Plan.
Learn more and sign the petition to the mayor here. The petition will be delivered to Mayor Lurie, along with a letter signed by San Francisco Tomorrow and 30+ other local organizations, at a meeting with local climate leaders.
By Howard Wong, AIA
🚌 $750 million: To loan or not to loan? Of immediate concern is that while the State Legislature’s June budget had included an agreement on a transit-lifeline loan of $750 million to help Muni, BART, Caltrain and other transit systems through November 2026, when transit funding measures would appear on the ballot, the Governor’s office appeared to be reneging on the loan.
Lobbying by Bay Area political leaders reopened negotiations on loan terms in the next months (interest rates, repayment terms, possible concessions/ reforms), for Legislative approval in early 2026. Without confidence in a new funding stream, transit agencies would be forced to gradually reduce service. As federal/state transit relief funds run out, annual structural deficits are looming: Muni $320M/year ($430M/ year by 2030); BART $350M/year; Caltrain $57M/year. Muni could cut service
frequency by 50%, eliminate bus lines, end fare subsidies, and stop service after 9pm. BART could cut service by 65%-85%, and cut two of its five lines.
🚌 Regional Transit Funding on November 2026 ballot. California Senate Bill 63, passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, enables a sales tax measure for five Bay Area counties. If approved by voters, San Francisco could levy an additional sales tax of 1%, and Alameda/ Contra Costa/ San Mateo/ Santa Clara an additional 0.5%, for the next 14 years. New tax revenue would be shared by the SF Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA-Muni), BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, SF Bay Ferry and Golden Gate Transit. The measure has proactive language, requiring transit agencies to improve financial efficiency, rider experience, regional transit integration, and implementation of the MTC Transit Transformation Action Plan.
The best chance for success is to place the measure on the ballot via signature-gathering. SB 63 creates a five-county special district to enable the regional measure on the ballot, with an option for a voter-initiative process requiring only a simple majority (50% + 1) to pass, rather than the two-thirds vote needed for a tax placed on the ballot by a government agency. But even if passed, the estimated $1 billion in new annual funding would be insufficient to cover total structural deficits in all regional
transit agencies.
For those of you who have yet to vote, here are the issues that SF Tomorrow agreed to endorse for next week’s election. We require a supermajority to take a position so the endorsements you see here are very popular ones!
Mayor – Aaron Peskin!!
We’ve all received an avalanche of paper this election cycle supporting candidates with too much money and not enough experience. Not only is it a huge waste of money and resources, this onslaught represents campaigning at its most ineffective. Aaron Peskin is clearly the most qualified candidate, something the billionaires funding his opponents don’t want to admit. And he’s connecting with San Francisco voters on a personal level by meeting them where they are. We need someone strong to save Muni, revive our sagging economy and promote truly affordable housing.
BART Board – District 9 – Edward Wright
BART is a transit system that’s too big to fail. Unfortunately, that could happen unless a lot of smart committed people find a way to save it. Edward Wright has the experience and commitment to create the change we need to keep BART running.
At our May 8th meeting, San Francisco Tomorrow voted to endorse Aaron Peskin for Mayor of San Francisco.
You can donate to his campaign here.
City Proposition D – Changes to ethics laws – Support
* No Endorsement indicates a proactive vote to not endorse any of the candidates. Where the 60% endorsement threshold was not reached, the issue or candidate simply does not appear.
Dear SF Tomorrow members & friends –
So many of the pressing needs confronting our elected officials, from health crises to housing or lack thereof, are exacerbated by the ever-increasing climate catastrophes besetting our warming planet. And now it’s City budget time again, with competing funding requests looming.
SF Climate Emergency Coalition and allies are urging Mayor Breed to include funding in her budget proposal for SF Environment Department (SFE) to continue implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan. The request is for $6.6 million, reasonable in a budget of around $14 billion. Please chime in: Details and letter-writing tools are here.
Given the budget crunch, if the Mayor does not hear from a lot of organizations and individuals, we fear she will not fund the asks, and that means SFE will not be able to adequately staff and manage key programs. And any setback now means at least a year’s delay in meeting SF’s climate goals, as well as staff work wasted and opportunities missed for federal and state grants.
The Commission on the Environment, which approved SFE’s budget request this past Tuesday, then wrote the Mayor an excellent letter, worth a read.
San Francisco Tomorrow has signed on to a letter to the Mayor. It’s important that you, as an individual constituent, add your voice too. Please write to the Mayor now – or at least before February 21st. And/or, if you want to, you can sign this petition to the Mayor too – quick & easy.
Thank you!
Board of Directors
San Francisco Tomorrow
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San Francisco Tomorrow supports David Campos in the April 19 Assembly runoff. We believe David will do the best job of ensuring that the city can continue to decide its own future. While we join others in wanting more housing to be built here, we do not believe the state is in a position to sufficiently appreciate our issues with displacement and other problems, or has enough interest in making sure any housing built will be affordable to those who live and work here. The city already has 44,000 empty units that are either unaffordable or are intentionally kept vacant by the owners. We believe that housing should actually house people, not just serve as investments for Russian oligarchs.
We also think Matt Haney is doing a fine job as District 6 supervisor and would like to keep him there.
You can support David’s campaign here.
SFT Board member ClaireZvanski is among the women being honored at San Francisco District 11 Democratic Club’s Labor Day Picnic. Monday, September 6, 1pm to 4pm in McLaren Park at the John Shelley Picnic Area A (West). Rsvp and order lunch here.
Denise D’Anne
Friday, September 10 at 2pm. San Francisco Columbarium, 1 Loraine Ct near Stanyan and Anza. You must rsvp to attend: email Denise’s grandson Geoff at thegreenladydenise@gmail.com
Jane Morrison
A celebration of Jane’s life had been scheduled to be held at Delancey Street, but has been postponed due to the virus surge. Stay tuned to find out when it will be rescheduled.
Join us for San Francisco Tomorrow’s Virtual Holiday Party
When: Wednesday, December 9, 5:30-7:30
Where: Castello di Zoom, of course! (if you’re not set up for Zoom, a phone # will be available)
Donations: Please donate to the SF-Marin Food Bank or other CovID relief charity – we don’t need the money this year and a lot of others do!
We’ll send the zoom link and phone numbers out before the event.
What can you bring? We’re not providing food or beverages this year, so you’ll need to bring your own! To your own house!! Also, we’d like to have a San Francisco photo display – use your favorite photo of the city as your virtual background!
Reserve your virtual table here.
| Supervisor, District 1 | Connie Chan |
| Supervisor, District 3 | Aaron Peskin |
| Supervisor, District 5 | Dean Preston |
| Supervisor, District 7 | Myrna Melgar |
| Supervisor, District 9 | Hillary Ronen |
| Supervisor, District 11 | No recommendation* |
| Local Propositions | |
| A, $487m bond – housing, parks streets | Support |
| B, New Department of Sanitation and Streets with Commission | Support |
| C, Removing Citizenship Requirements for Members of City Bodies | Support |
| D, Sheriff’s oversight | Support |
| E, Removing Policy staffing mandate from charter | Support |
| F, Business Tax Overhaul | Support |
| G, Youth voting in local elections | Support |
| H, Streamlined permitting for neighborhood commercial uses | Support |
| I, Real estate transfer tax | Support |
| K, Affordable housing authorization | Support |
| L, Business tax based on highest/lowest paid staff | Support |
| RR, CalTrain sales tax | Support |
| State Propositions | |
| 15, Prop 13 split roll | Support |
| 16, Overturns 1996’s Prop 209 | Support |
| 17, Expands voting rights to former prisoners | Support |
| 18, Constitutional amendment to allow 17-year-olds to vote | Support |
| 21, Expansion of rent control options | Support |
| The following three measures are bad on their own merits, but additionally we strongly resent the constant attempts to overturn legislation by appealing to low-information voters. | |
| 22, Uber/Lyft exemption from employee benefits | Oppose |
| 23, Kidney dialysis | Oppose |
| 24, Overturns CA privacy laws | Oppose |
| 25, Referendum on bail elimination | Support |
* No recommendation: did not reach the 60% threshold
When it rains, it pours. Contact thegreenladydenise@gmail.com to sign up for the memorial.
