Free Republic

Want more food deserts in San Francisco?Here's how you get more food deserts in San Francisco.According to Reason magazine:The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a remarkable policy that would allow people to sue grocery stores that close too quickly.Earlier this week, Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would require grocery stores to provide six months' written notice to the city before closing down.Supermarket operators would also have to make "good faith" efforts to ensure the continued availability of groceries at their shuttered location, either through finding a successor store, helping residents form...

(1/31/24 story) On the heels of Safeway's decision to keep its Fillmore grocery store open until January 2025, one San Francisco supervisor wants to regulate grocery store closures in the city to ensure local communities are not blindsided. Why it matters: The proposal is an effort to ensure food security throughout the city and is a direct response to Safeway's announcement and subsequent reversal of its decision to close its Fillmore supermarket, the only full-service grocery store in the neighborhood, in March. What's happening: Supervisor Dean Preston plans to officially introduce an ordinance, dubbed the Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act, that...

San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston claimed the city’s homelessness problems were “absolutely the result of capitalism,” and it was “counterproductive” to arrest people openly doing drugs. Preston’s District 5 includes the Tenderloin District, an area known for its open-air drug market. Nearly half of the city’s homeless population lived in this district in 2022, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Democratic Socialist supervisor argued his district was particularly affected by homelessness because of the country’s economic structure. “I think what you’re seeing in the Tenderloin is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at...

A controversial San Francisco progressive lawmaker has quit X, claiming he no longer feels safe after Elon Musk targeted him - but locals claim he's really left over outrage about his stance on the Israel massacre. Dean Preston announced his plans to quit the social media site formerly known as Twitter earlier this week - and blamed a personal attack by its billionaire owner for driving him off. Musk and other San Franciscans say Preston's progressive policies have contributed to the ruination of the city, now a byword for open drug-taking, ram-raids and violent crime.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed says a potential ballot measure to move citywide elections to presidential years is a democratic socialist power grab, and the proposal's author is pushing back. Breed, a Democrat, characterized Supervisor Dean Preston's proposal to hold the next mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney elections and treasurer in 2024 – and every four years after that – rather than in 2023 as Preston and a "group of democratic socialists" deciding "they want to have more control and power of being able to get their people elected." Preston, the board's first democratic socialist supervisor in decades, introduced...

San Francisco leaders on Friday approved an emergency plan to combat drug use in the city's much-troubled Tenderloin neighborhood after Mayor London Breed made a proposal earlier this month that some fear will criminalize addicts and the homeless. The 8-2 vote by the Board of Supervisors came after a lengthy meeting that ended just after midnight Friday. Board President Shamann Walton and Supervisor Dean Preston dissented, arguing that potential over-policing could impact African Americans, among other issues. "I know that this is an incredibly painful, traumatic and emotional conversation," said Matt Haney, the supervisor who represents the neighborhood, before the...