Voters in San Francisco will have a lot to decide in the March primary election. Ahead of that, Mayor London Breed and her supporters kicked off three ballot measures in Japantown Saturday.
“We are proposing ballot measures necessary to get us to a better place,” Breed said at that event. “To help us continue down the path of safety.”
Breed went on to lay out what she believes Propositions C, E and F will make a difference in tackling some of the city’s toughest issues.
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“These are the kinds of things we need to do to focus on public safety, to focus on these challenges around drug dealing, and finally, to build more housing and to make it easier to convert what is happening downtown,” Breed said.
Other city and community leaders joined Breed, highlighting Prop F as the city faces a deadly fentanyl crisis.
“Proposition F is an opportunity to offer people treatment in this city. It’s not making nobody go to treatment,” said Cedric Akbar, director of the group "Positive Directions Equals Change."
The proposition would allow the city to require people with substance use disorder to enter treatment in order to receive cash assistance, according to supporters.
“We will still make sure their housing is taken care of, but we will not give out cash payments unless they agree to be in treatment,” Breed said. “We are not requiring sobriety, we’re requiring treatment.”
Opponents of Prop F argue it would increase the number of people who are unhoused and say that mandated treatment isn’t an effective way to reduce drug use.
Another Breed-backed measure: Proposition E.
Supporters argue it would get more officers on the street and give them the tools they need to fight crime, while opponents say it would erode privacy rights and put marginalized communities at risk.
“Prop C is one of those tools,” said State Senator Scott Wiener. “It is going to help us make the changes we need to make downtown.”
Wiener argues the proposition is a way to address downtown office vacancies left by the pandemic.
“We need to make sure that our tax structure is not stopping those changes from happening. So for the buildings that can be converted from office to housing, and some of them can be, we need to make sure that our very high transfer tax is not making that economically impossible,” he said.
Supervisor Dean Preston sees it differently.
“I’m opposed to Proposition C. It is a giveaway to billionaires and it’s really problematic, and I think it is one of the worst things on the ballot,” he said.
