It’s Time to Think Big, San Francisco — Like Chesa Boudin

San Francisco doesn’t know where it’s going. Until recently, we were the tech capital of the world, god help us. Then the pandemic swept the city, and began sweeping the tech towers with it. Salesforce, the city’s biggest employer, is the latest to announce at least a partial withdrawal from its big downtown perch, with its 10,000 local workers being told they can work remotely on a permanent basis. This follows Dropbox’s recent announcement that it was selling its big San Francisco building. So if SF is no longer going to be the land of the walking dead – sorry, tech zombies (those of you who have human feelings) – then what will the city be?

 San Francisco’s corporate overlords are in a tizzy – as are their mouthpieces at the SF Chronicle. But, as I’ve been arguing, the people of San Francisco – those of us with real roots here – can now reimagine the city and make it what WE want it to be, not Ron Conway, the tech billionaire who for too long threw around his considerable weight at City Hall.

 Speaking of City Hall, this reimagining of San Francisco can’t be led by Mayor London Breed. She’s an uninspired, uninspiring political hack who was lucky not to be rolled up in the ongoing FBI corruption investigation of local officials. But there ARE local officials who are thinking big.

 District Attorney Chesa Boudin, for instance. Boudin got elected in 2019 on the promise to rethink law and order and he’s done that. He has established himself as one of the few bold DAs in the country who believe that diversion and community service are often more effective – and COST-effective – than slapping people in jail. Boudin also believes that cops should be held accountable for their violent and abusive behavior, which as we all know (even in liberal SF) is disproportionately directed at men and women with black or brown skin.

Predictably, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and other reactionary forces are up in arms over Boudin’s reforms. Some clown named Richie Greenberg, who actually once ran for mayor in San Francisco as a REPUBLICAN, is trying to mount a recall campaign against the DA. Greenberg and his cronies claim that crime has skyrocketed under Boudin. It hasn’t – crime in San Francisco has actually dropped by 32 percent over the last year.

But the opponents of change in San Francisco are not fact-based. Like the national GOP/Q (as Chris Cuomo calls them), they will do or say anything to impose their delusional political will on the people. We must defeat them in San Francisco – AND in Washington.

 It’s time for San Franciscans to think big. We did so when we elected visionary lawman Chesa Boudin. And as the tech giants whose shadows once dominated the city continue their great exodus, we must also think deeply about what this once and future beautiful city will be.

 We can begin by becoming known as a city of true social justice – instead of a capital of greed and despair.

Chesa Boudin