By Josh Koehn : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco political groups come and go, but a new clique of concerned residents who want to save the city—but also kind of want to mingle and party—are coming together to take a seat at the table. And, preferably, that table will have good lighting to make the evening Insta-worthy.

WE San Francisco started popping up on social media feeds last month as it began hosting summertime events in the city. The organization’s members appear to be a clean-cut group of young professionals, some of whom have sizable social media followings. While the group’s own Instagram account had fewer than 160 followers as of Monday, organizers say they have already recruited the support of 500 residents since June and have ambitions to grow to a “magic number” of 8,000 members.

“I like to create movements or to make things go viral,” said Ben Kaplan, the founder of WE San Francisco and the CEO of multiple marketing and PR companies. “And when we do that, we basically need 1% of the population to really buy in to something, get aligned, be kind of die-hard about a message, and it will spread in the whole population.”…

Once the community survey is completed, WE San Francisco intends to hold town hall meetings before formalizing operations by filing for nonprofit status and creating a political arm to get involved in next year’s elections and budget cycle, Kaplan said. A focus will be using community pressure to reshape city department priorities. Kaplan cited pro-vaccine education programs he led in Georgia during the pandemic as a successful model for pressuring lawmakers into action.

“I don’t think we have to wait for the mayor or a Board of Supervisors member or the head of some department to be like, ‘Here’s our plan,’” Kaplan said. “I think the community can do it. And that’s one of the big differences is we’re trying to, like, community-lead stuff. And the idea is that if we get enough of our community behind one voice, then politicians, elected leaders and others will follow it.”…

Those paying attention to the local political landscape might think WE San Francisco’s mission will overlap with moderate, public safety-focused policies being pushed by organizations like TogetherSF and Grow SF—and they might be right! Podcast episodes for the fledgling political group feature interviews between Kaplan and billionaire Chris Larsen, affordable housing developer Sam Moss and TogetherSF founder Kanishka Cheng…

Jim Ross, a longtime political consultant in the city, was dubious about the new political group’s chances of making meaningful policy changes, but he appreciated the social angle, noting that “San Francisco politics have been kind of boring lately.”…(more)

This may be a group to watch. They may not be dedicated to any positions yet, other than “things need to change.”