Thanks to the incredible engagement of SOS supporters and the leadership of Mayor Cox and the City Council, last night’s meeting was a huge success. On our key issues, we achieved total victory.

Key Wins:

✅ Alta Mira Removed as a Housing Opportunity Site
This outcome exceeded our expectations! Our petition with 630 signatures and 19 outstanding speakers made a strong impact, leading to the Council’s decision to remove Alta Mira entirely from consideration.

✅ 605 Bridgeway Removed as an Opportunity Site
A longtime goal of Save Our Sausalito has been achieved! While we must continue to oppose the aTpplication which remains pending, removing this site adds further protection to the Historic District and strength to our cause.

✅ Stronger Protections for the Historic District
SOS attorneys identified critical technical changes to the Environmental Impact Report, and the City Council accepted all requested revisions. Even a single word can have legal significance, and SOS legal diligence ensures the City gets it right.

✅ View Protection Advocacy Was Heard
While the discussion on Objective Design Standards was deferred to next week, our advocacy was loud and clear. Our petition demonstrated strong public support for View Protection and Chapter 3 of the ODDS. The Council received the message, and we’ll closely monitor the next meeting to ensure Chapter 3 moves forward.

Other Important Outcomes:

🔥 Spencer Fire Station Preserved
In a remarkable moment of leadership and style, Mayor Cox followed up on her earlier work and texted the Fire Chief during the meeting and confirmed interest in using the site for wildfire preparedness—removing it as a housing opportunity site. “Luck favors the prepared.”

🌳 MLK Housing Significantly Reduced
MLK, an essential city park, saw its proposed housing reduced to 29 units per acre. Our friends at Team MLK made a strong case, emphasizing the park’s importance, with discussions focusing on a small senior or other affordable housing project.

🏡 Future Agenda Item: Senior Visitability Ordinance
The Council committed to discussing the Visitability Ordinance in an upcoming meeting to promote accessibility measures such as no-step entries for seniors.

A Community Effort

This meeting was a shining example of effective local government, with most votes ending 5-0 or 4-0 when a member was recused. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and action of SOS supporters and the broader community.

We are stronger together—thank you for standing up for Sausalito! While today is a great day, Save Our Sausalito will continue to be vigilant and alert to advocate for issues as they arise.

– Save Our Sausalito Team

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By David Lightman : sacbee – excerpt

Rep. David Valadao and other potentially vulnerable Republicans face a vote this week on a plan that could mean big cuts in Medicaid, a vote with the potential to be a big deal in 2026 congressional races.

The House is expected to take up a sweeping budget plan as soon as Tuesday that could mean large reductions in Medicaid. The program, called Medi-Cal in California, helps about 15 million people in the state.

Valadao’s district benefits like few others from the health care program, which aids lower income people.

The California Health Care Foundation, an independent nonprofit group that studies health issues, estimates that two-thirds of all residents in the district get help from Medi-Cal. Valadao represents a majority Latino district that includes most of Kings County and slices of Tulare and Kern counties…

Last week, Valadao joined seven other House Republicans by signing a lengthy letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

They pointed out that nearly 30% of people on Medicaid across the country are Hispanic Americans.

“Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open,” the letter said…

Valadao is a veteran of close House races over the years and has shown some streaks of independence from the Republican Party.

He was one of 10 Republican House members in 2021 to vote to impeach President Donald Trump. But he voted for a committee to look into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and then later voted against it after complaining that the commission was stacked with Democrats. He has been largely silent on the riot since then.

… (more)

By Ethan Varian : mercurynews – excerpt (audio)

A state audit last year found California had failed to track $24 billion in homelessness funds

Gov. Gavin Newsom is again threatening to withhold money to address homelessness from local governments that are failing to make progress in moving people off the street.

In a virtual news conference on Monday, Newsom announced that cities and counties that do not meet certain benchmarks — such as closing more encampments and finalizing plans to build more housing — could lose out on their share of hundreds of millions of dollars in future state homelessness grants…

Newsom has repeatedly made similar threats in recent months, including when announcing an executive order last summer directing state agencies to work with cities and counties to ramp up encampment sweeps and move camp residents into shelters. So far, relatively little state homelessness money has been withheld from local governments…(more)

RELATED: 5,000 residents could be forced to move from Alameda County fairgrounds next montH

Newsom has repeatedly made similar threats in recent months, including when announcing an executive order last summer directing state agencies to work with cities and counties to ramp up encampment sweeps and move camp residents into shelters. So far, relatively little state homelessness money has been withheld from local governments…

Some local officials, however, dismissed Monday’s announcement as political “spin” and blasted Newsom for “blaming local governments” for the crisis.

“The governor’s threat to block future funding for local governments puts headlines above solutions,” said Graham Knaus, chief executive of the California State Association of Counties, in a statement. “Progress will remain frustratingly slow until we work together to address the gaps in responsibility at all levels of government — including the state.”…

On Monday, the state also launched a website to monitor county-level metrics related to housing, homelessness and mental health. Those metrics include recently completed housing units, shifts in local homeless populations, the number of people connected to homeless services and a partial accounting of state homelessness funding for each county.

Newsom said state officials plan to add more tracking measures to the site and consult them when determining whether to accept local governments’ applications for future homelessness funding.

…(more)

By Hauren Hepler : calmatters – excerpt (includes detailed graphics)

The records catalog the chaos inside California homeless shelters.

In Salinas, internal emails say the staff at one brand-new shelter grabbed the best donations for themselves and helped friends and family jump the line for housing. In Los Angeles, court records show a leading nonprofit hired a man who was convicted of attempted murder to work security at a shelter, where he committed three sex crimes in one day.

Then, buried deep within thousands of pages of shelter reports, there are the stabbings in forgotten corners of Silicon Valley, the child abuse in Fresno and black mold in Oakland. Just about everywhere, a hidden epidemic of shelter death lurks.

Even if residents of the state’s roughly 61,000 emergency shelter beds endure the gauntlet, they’ll likely get stuck in housing purgatory. New state data obtained by CalMatters shows that fewer than 1 in 4 residents who cycle through shelters each year move into permanent homes, far below what many shelter operators promised in their contracts with public agencies…

Unsafe Havens

Read the entire series:

• ‘A volunteer jail:’ Inside the scandals and abuse pushing California’s homeless out of shelters
• 7 takeaways from our investigation into California homeless shelters
• How to file a complaint against a California homeless shelter

…(more)

Please read more on the site and leave comments here.
For some time I have been wondering why we need to spend so much time and energy on temporary housing and why it takes so long to fill the “permanent affordable” housing. Why so much is empty all the time. These articles seem to answer some of my concerns. Instead of housing homeless people, the goal seems to be to manage the non-profits managing the housing operations.

By Laura Waxmann : sfchronicle – excerpt (audio)

OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is on the cusp of expanding his artificial intelligence empire at the San Francisco waterfront.

Altman’s new startup, World — formerly known as Worldcoin — is close to leasing a chunk of office space in a newly constructed office building at Mission Rock, a brand-new mixed-use development spanning 28 acres at the waterfront that is co-owned by developer Tishman Speyer and the San Francisco Giants, according to individuals with insight into the deal…

The entire Mission Rock project calls for 1.4 million square feet of office and life science space and 1,000 apartments, but only the first phase has been completed.

If the deal closes, World, a cryptocurrency project that uses AI technology for iris scans to create a global identity network, would join a growing list of companies that have made a move to the project’s newly constructed office space: Visa took an entire 300,000-square-foot tower known as 300 Toni Stone Crossing, next to Oracle Park, after ditching its longtime downtown San Francisco headquarters. Tech firm Capgemini and the Golden State Warriors have also leased space at Mission Rock… (more)

The headlines do not tell the whole story any more than the new lease announcements do. There is no net gain in leased when the companies move out of their downtown offices into the next shiny new built 15 minute neighborhood. In this case it is Mission Bay. The neighborhood that was built for the medical professionals and students may not survive the onslaught of 24/7 business and entertainment, but, the transient techies will no doubt want to live there until they program their jobs out of existence.

You might want to tread carefully into Altman’s World, If you don’t want to be a part of his currency ID system described here… ” World, a cryptocurrency project that uses AI technology for iris scans to create a global identity network.”

Maybe just let the AI techs fight it out among themselves.

By Kellie Hwang, Bay Briefing : sfchronicle – via email

Gem of government efficiency

The news of President Trump’s executive order Wednesday night to eviscerate the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that runs the Presidio National Park, rang alarm bells about the fate of one of San Francisco’s most scenic and popular destinations. While the impact of the order is still unclear, it raises questions. The executive order calls for the functions of the Trust to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

Here’s what we know so far:

• Will services be reduced at the park? Not at the moment, according to the Trust.
• Will the Presidio look different than usual? There have been no known cuts to the staff who maintain the park’s historic buildings and landscaping, said Ryan Heron, a representative of the union of employees at the Presidio.
• What does the Presidio Trust do? It’s required to maintain and operate Presidio National Park, including its 600 historic buildings, and to be financially self-sustaining.
• How is it financed? The Presidio is one of the most efficiently run agencies in the federal government, and is entirely self-sufficient in its operations and finances. It has not received annual contributions from Congress since 2013. The trust covers the park’s expenses mostly with rental income from businesses. Its total operating revenue for fiscal year 2025 is expected to be about $195 million, with expenses of about $139 million, netting the trust a $46 million surplus for this year, according to budget documents. The trust had a 93% commercial occupancy rate and 96% residential occupancy rate last fiscal year and ended the year with $94 million in reserves.
• Is the executive order legal? Sen. Alex Padilla, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a spokesperson for the trust have all said that they are looking into the legality of the order.

The head of San Francisco’s Republican Party downplayed the impact of the move. “Trump‘s executive order does not abolish the Presidio Trust, which is a self-sustaining entity created by statute,” San Francisco Republican Party Chair Bill Jackson said in a statement. “Let’s give the Trust a few weeks to figure out the impact of the order, if any. This gem of a San Francisco institution is not going anywhere.”

The Presidio Trust is “one of the most efficiently run organizations in the federal government,” said Craig Middleton, the trust’s first employee and former executive director. “If you’re trying to save money, this is not the place to look.”

Read our full story on how the Presidio Trust is managed and financed, plus what legal experts say of Trump’s order — and what may happen next.

By Matthew Tom, Silas Valentino : sfgate – excerpt (more)

Trump executive order targets San Francisco treasure Presidio Trust

LATEST Feb. 20, 11:40 a.m. The Trump administration hit one of the agencies tasked with overseeing San Francisco’s Presidio, the Presidio Trust, with an executive order Wednesday, labeling it an “unnecessary governmental entity.” The agency released a statement Thursday defending itself against possible elimination.

“The Presidio Trust has not received regular annual appropriations from Congress since 2013, instead relying on the funds earned by leasing the historic buildings that the Trust has renovated,” wrote Presidio Trust spokesperson Lisa Petrie in response to the executive order calling to eliminate “non-statutory components and functions” performed by the agency. “We will present a report on our activities to the Office of Management and Budget, as required by the order, in two weeks. We are confident that our activities are all statutorily-based.”

Bay Area political leaders have started rallying behind the trust, namely the agency’s original sponsor, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. “The Presidio Trust is statutory, and it has been protected from assaults over time by its statutory strength,” Pelosi wrote online. “We will be carefully reviewing the language of the President’s executive order and its purpose.”

Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, a regional business advocacy group, called the Presidio Trust a national model for how government and the private sector can collaborate and pleaded with President Donald Trump to reconsider the executive order in a statement shared with SFGATE… (more)

By Stephen Council, Tech Reporter :sfgate – excerpt (audio)

Humane aimed to “fundamentally reshape the role of technology in people’s lives”

Humane, which made wearable, AI-embedded pins, is shutting down the devices it had sold and pawning off its software, patents and employees to Palo Alto tech giant HP Inc. The deal, which Humane said in a Tuesday press release will close at the end of February, marks the end of the line for a startup that had used pedigreed founders and a lofty concept to raise more than $230 million in funding.

The startup was, in 2023, an archetype of Silicon Valley buzz. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff both invested in it. The company’s married founders had left prominent roles at Apple and described their screen-free AI pin idea as a way to “fundamentally reshape the role of technology in people’s lives.” The pin had a camera and responded to verbal questions like a leveled-up Siri… (more)

Of the three things one entrepreneur said he looked for in a company, the first is MONEY. Where is the market? Who is going to buy the product you are thinking of making? Looks like that one was overlooked by Humane. Anybody can buy a media campaign. Anybody can (it appears) raises capital when there are so many rich people looking for investments in anything other than their own workers. BUT it is not easy to sell a product nobody wants, unless you are selling energy and the government is forcing you to buy one, as is the case with a lot of the stuff we are forced to do to comply with state laws. Comments are appreciated and sharing this article..

By KATE TALERICO : bayareanewsgroup – excerpt (audio)

Oakland Asm. Buffy Wicks is back with a proposal to fund affordable housing, after it failed to make it to the November ballot last year.

East Bay Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks and state Senator Christopher Cabaldon, a Yolo County Democrat, on Tuesday brought back a proposal to place a $10 billion bond for affordable housing programs on the June 2026 ballot after failing to get a measure on the November 2024 ballot.

If approved, it would authorize general obligation bonds for low-income rental housing and supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness, among other purposes.

“These bonds are a necessary step to address the staggering need for safe, stable and affordable housing,” Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, said in a statement. “Even in a tight fiscal climate, we must act with urgency.”

With a limited capacity to authorize new bonds, the legislature last year decided to prioritize two other bond measures of $10 billion each over Wick’s housing measure — one for renovations to public schools and community colleges, and the other to fund climate resiliency projects. Both bonds passed, with 59% and 60% of the vote, respectively… (more)

By Damien Rashidi : richmondsunsetnews – excerpt

Who doesn’t know about this recall? And who is paying to fight it?

Betray me once, shame on you. Betray me twice, shame on me.

Joel Engardio, San Francisco’s District 4 Supervisor since 2023, has had a relatively short tenure in City Hall and yet has already committed a serious violation: Ignoring the will of his constituents.

This past election cycle, we saw Proposition K on the ballot, which would have shut down the Upper Great Highway (UGH) indefinitely and turned it into a park. On the surface, a new community park sounds good, but the people of the Sunset District had serious problems with it. Without the UGH, many commuters would have to shift their routes to cut through the small narrow neighborhoods on the west side. Rerouting heavy traffic through these neighborhoods will lead to increased accidents and congestion, and endanger the citizens of the surrounding region. The partial closure of the UGH already has. This measure had no plan and no budget. It was all around a bad idea.

However, Engardio’s violation was not in supporting a proposition widely deemed as a bad idea, it was in supporting a proposition a supermajority of his constituency vehemently disapproved of. If you look at the returns from election night on Prop. K, you can easily see that the west side was united in their rejection of this measure. Some precincts reported as high as 83% of their voters rejecting it! Yet the proposition passed because the people on the opposite end of the City (with higher populations) approved it. Poll after poll through the election cycle gave a clear image of the Sunset community’s rejection of the proposal. But Engardio chose to stand with former Mayor London Breed, Sen. Scott Wiener and Abundant SF over the people who elected him…

… (more)

RELATED:

It’s Not Just the Great Highway. Some Chinese American Voters Have Felt Unheard for Decades

From a Reader: The (Not so) Subtle Takeover of Private Property by the City

If you need another reason to replace Engardio, he gives them to you every week. His latest is turning ADUs, (originally zoned for affordable units) into market rate condos, using the split lot legislation and other state bills to lure more single families into cashing out to wealthy carpetbaggers, as they exit the city for what they hope are greener pastures, with less draconian anti-family laws. If Lurie wants them to stay, he needs to appoint a new supervisor they trust to represent them. Hopefully he will ask them this time, since they also supported him in large numbers.