Grow SF is growing
Let's win the next four elections
In August I announced that I have been working on Grow SF alongside several other projects that have taken time away from my original plan to work on open source tooling for politics. Well, it turns out that I really love building Grow SF with Sachin and I'm going to focus my attention and effort on it full-time.
This means a couple things for this newsletter:
All future essays will be public, but the paywall will stay up for comments
Essay cadence will no longer be regular — they'll go out when I have time
And it means a couple things for me:
I'm going to have a full time job at Grow SF
I'll focus nearly 100% of my time on the four upcoming elections next year (Feb 15, April 12, June 7, November 8)
I need to fundraise and hire staff for Grow SF
If you want to support my efforts and goals for making positive change in San Francisco, please donate to Grow SF (and feel free to cancel your substack subscription!).
Now, let me tell you more about Grow SF.
Grow SF
Grow SF wants San Francisco to become the world-class city we know it should be. That means better public transit, more housing, better schools, lower crime, more businesses, and a local government free of corruption.
We won't get there overnight, but it can happen faster than you might think. We will make significant progress over the next two years, and within ten years we will have flipped every seat. A better future is possible.
San Francisco has the highest income inequality in California, the second-highest rents in the world (pre-Covid), one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country (including a shocking number of homeless school kids), is one of the worst cities to do business across Canada, Mexico, and the US, and has among the highest rates of property crime in California. It's clear that so-called progressivism has failed San Francisco — it's time, instead, for a new liberalism.
Grow SF prioritizes outcomes over ideologies. We will reform laws to lower the barriers to entry for new businesses and make it legal to build more housing. We will ensure Muni is run by competent professionals and not derailed by neighborhood busybodies who want free parking. We will support candidates who want to fund the police to ensure we have enough officers and detectives to solve and prevent violent crime, and actually arrest the gangs running theft rings. We will have no tolerance for corruption or abuse.
And we will ensure our public school system becomes one of the best in the nation: well-funded, free from political interference, and with programs for students at every level. Our public schools must be competitive with private ones. That means giving appropriate attention to the kids who need the most help, providing excellent grade-level instruction, and ensuring that best-in-class advanced instruction is available for gifted students. We must break the grip of the Teachers Union so we can fire poor-performing teachers and attract the best teachers with the best pay.
Our Strategy
Grow SF has a simple strategy: build a trusted and reliable brand by publishing unbiased and well-researched San Francisco voter guides, running political education events, supporting good reforms (like making outdoor dining permanent), and keeping voters regularly informed via the Grow SF weekly newsletter.
Our research has uncovered that most San Francisco voters are unhappy with the policies our elected officials are implementing, yet they keep re-electing those same politicians. This happens because voters lack robust and reliable information on what politicians actually believe, and a single-party city lacks the normal signals that voters use to make up their minds. Just voting for a Democrat means nothing when every candidate is a Democrat and they all believe different things.
The most important resource for voters to have is a clear, well-written, and concise explanation of the candidates and ballot props in every election. Grow SF is that resource.
Grow SF is not controlled by any political interest groups or political parties. We are, and will always be, independent. We are committed to giving you the best advice available and explaining the trade-offs of all of your choices.
Our long-term vision
As we grow, we will run candidate training events to help first-time candidates run for office and win their election. We will build a bench of high-quality candidates that want to grow San Francisco. We aren't looking to start our own political party — but you'll know that anyone we endorse believes in a safer, cleaner, more affordable, and economically vibrant city.
We will run ballot measures to reform policies that can't be changed any other way, especially to reform the City Charter in order to make San Francisco's rules less discretionary and corruptible.
We are setting off on a ten-year journey to fix San Francisco. Help us get there by donating today.