Sad Francisco

In 2017, City College of SF became one of only a few colleges in the US with free tuition for locals.

One of the organizers behind Free City was James Tracy, an author, organizer and teacher at City College in the Department of Labor and Community Studies. He describes the organizing strategy behind a successful campaign where the Left went on the offensive.

'Free City' by Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger and Vicki Legion: pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1141

Two of James's many books about organizing on the Left you should read:

Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes From San Francisco's Housing Wars: akpress.org/dispatchesagainstdisplacement.html

Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Interracial Solidarity in 1960s-70s New Left Organizing (with Amy Sonnie): mhpbooks.com/books/hillbilly-nationalists-urban-race-rebels-and-black-power-updated-and-revised

More Sad Francisco: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

The self-appointed voice of techbros and "effective accelerationism," Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan is a prime example of a common archetype in Bay Area tech - a libertarian who wants socialism, but only for corporations.

Emily Mills (@sf_mills on Twitter/X) does the undervalued job of keeping track of some of the richest people in the Bay, and which politicians and campaigns they're spending their money on, including Garry.

Taping of an evening with Garry Tan, featuring Martin Shkreli, hosted by techbro hype house AGI House: youtube.com/watch?v=xMRlKPqNMT4

Latest puff piece on Gary, from venture capitalist Michael Moritz's SF Standard (Josh Koehn): sfstandard.com/2023/09/27/garry-tan-y-combinator-declares-war-san-francisco-politics-progressives-elon-musk/

"Pro-recall committees have raised 46 times more money than the anti-recall campaign, according to Ethics Commission data" (Will Jarrett, Mission Local): missionlocal.org/2022/01/who-is-funding-the-school-board-recall

"Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group tied to disinformation in Alabama race" (Tony Romm, Craig Timberg and Aaron C. Davis, Washington Post): washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/26/internet-billionaire-reid-hoffman-apologizes-funding-group-behind-disinformation-alabama-race

"Immigrant Rights Activists Renew Push Against Palantir to Cancel ICE Contract" (Kevin Gosztola, Shadowproof/Truthout): truthout.org/articles/immigrant-rights-activists-renew-push-against-palantir-to-cancel-ice-contract

More Sad Francisco: sadfrancis.co

Nestor Castillo lays out the recent racist media tropes around Honduras, and why they're especially dangerous for immigrants. Nestor's El Tecolote column, "Dear SF Chronicle: No, Hondurans aren't responsible for the City's fentanyl crisis": eltecolote.org/content/en/dear-sf-chronicle-no-hondurans-arent-responsible-for-the-citys-fentanyl-crisis/ Nestor on Twitter: twitter.com/ProfeNessC "The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations" (George Washington University's National Security Archive): nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.html "Defensores exigen investigación por crimen de ambientalista del Valle de Siria" (Defensores En Linea): defensoresenlinea.com/defensores-exigen-investigacion-por-crimen-de-ambientalista-del-valle-de-siria/ | Google translation: www-defensoresenlinea-com.translate.goog/defensores-exigen-investigacion-por-crimen-de-ambientalista-del-valle-de-siria/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp "Honduras Defense Official and U.S. Drug War Ally Tied to Narco-Trafficker, Notorious Mercenary Firm" (Jared Olson and John Washington at The Intercept): theintercept.com/2023/08/25/honduras-military-elias-melgar/ "Honduran Ex-President Extradited to U.S. to Face Narcotrafficking Charges" (Democracy Now): democracynow.org/2022/4/22/headlines/honduran_ex_president_extradited_to_us_to_face_narcotrafficking_charges "Gold giant faces Honduras inquiry into alleged heavy metal pollution" (Rory Carroll, The Guardian): theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/31/goldcorp-honduras-pollution-allegations More Sad Francisco: sadfrancis.co

Silicon Valley scions tried to sell Appalachia on how crypto would bring every out-of-work coal miner a job. Locals got nothing, but the scheme worked for a few tech entrepreneurs, who were showered with government subsidies and tax breaks. With Tom Sexton of the Trillbilly Workers' Party.

Trillbilly Workers' Party: soundcloud.com/user-972848621-463073718/tracks

City College of San Francisco is one of the only remaining public colleges in the US where the tuition is free for locals. CCSF professor and AFT 2121 member Adele Failes-Carpenter talks about why City College presents a threat to the forces that want to completely privatize higher education, and ongoing battles over one of the remaining free spaces where people can still come together, in-person, across difference.

'Free City' by Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger and Vicki Legion: pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1141

CCSF Collective: youtube.com/@ccsfcollective6130/videos

AFT 2121: aft2121.org

Thanks to Gracie Quinn and Leslie Simon.

More Sad Francisco: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

The War on Drugs doesn't save lives, but it brings in huge profits for anyone who works for the police, in all of policing's forms.

While rich people can microdose LSD at the office or Burning Man without any worries of getting arrested, the War on Drugs is fought against poor, often nonwhite queer and trans people, in what local media loves to call 'open-air drug markets'.

Sara Shortt (@Shorttyshorttt) is on to talk about harm reduction and the city's strategy of throwing money at policing in response to rising overdose statistics.

GLIDE: glide.org; Gubbio Project: thegubbioproject.org; Safer Inside: saferinside.org; National Harm Reduction Coalition: harmreduction.org; Drug Policy Alliance: drugpolicy.org;

Support the show: patreon.com/sadfrancisco

"This land is too valuable to let poor people park on it," said SF Redevelopment Agency head Justin Herman, about Asian and Black people living in Central San Francisco. Today many politicians are acting like it's the 1950s all over again. Niccolo Calderaro, professor of anthropology at SF State, speaks on resistance then and now.

Niccolo Calderaro's article in Progressive City: "Community Mobilization against Eviction in 1970s San Francisco & the contribution of Chester Hartman": progressivecity.net/single-post/community-mobilization-against-eviction-in-1970s-san-francisco-the-contribution-of-chester-hartman

Niccolo's book, "An Ethnography of the Goodman Building: The Longest Rent Strike": link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-12285-0

John Fossum, California Law Review, "Rent withholding and the improvement of substandard housing": sci-hub.ru/10.2307/3479098

"Oakland-Based Government Finance Director Pleads Guilty To Embezzling Public Funds": justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/oakland-based-government-finance-director-pleads-guilty-embezzling-public-funds

Curtis Choy's "Fall of the I-Hotel" (trailer): youtube.com/watch?v=lzrWwvI8JpI

Chris Carlsson's essay "The Freeway Revolt," at FoundSF: foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Freeway_Revolt

Bay Area Tenant and Neighborhood Councils: baytanc.com

patreon.com/sadfrancisco

The local politics around kink culture, and how the same bureaucracy put in place to preserve it is helping to undermine that culture. With Cole Clark.

Previous episode mentioned: "Is the Transgender District a force for gentrification or liberation?" w/ Jemma DeCristo: sites.libsyn.com/445824/is-the-transgender-district-a-force-for-gentrification-or-liberation-w-jemma-decristo

"How Gentrification Is Eroding San Francisco's Historic Leather Scene" by Toshio Meronek and Cole Clark for them: them.us/story/san-francisco-leather-gentrification

Homeless Exclusion Districts, via Western Regional Advocacy Project: wraphome.org/homeless-exclusion-districs/

For the photo of London Breed and other politicians in hard hats, see: "Cultural Districts in San Francisco Exacerbate Issues of Displacement and Affordability" by Stasha Lampert and Toshio Meronek, in Progressive City: progressivecity.net/single-post/cultural-districts-in-san-francisco-exacerbate-issues-of-displacement-and-affordability

patreon.com/sadfrancisco

Urban Alchemy is the proto-policing nonprofit incubated in SF, and exported to Austin, Los Angeles and Portland. Norma Azucar and Brooke Lober talk about harm reduction in the midst of the Tenderloin's overdose crisis, and how the city is funneling millions in the resource-suck known as Urban Alchemy.

"#SweepThePolice" by Brooke Lober: stjamesinfirmary.org/wordpress/?p=5738 | Tenderloin Peoples' Congress: tlpeoplesplan.org/tenderloin-peoples-congress | St. James Infirmary: stjamesinfirmary.org/wordpress/?page_id=5821 | Hope Center: cityhopesf.org/programs-410661.html | GLIDE: glide.org/programs/walk-in-center | "The Confounding Life of the Woman Seeking To Heal San Francisco's Wounds" by Matt Smith for SF Standard: sfstandard.com/2023/02/06/the-confounding-life-of-the-woman-seeking-to-heal-san-franciscos-wounds | London Breed Speaks at Dalda's Community Market via @jenset: twitter.com/thejenset/status/1470933700279881728 | patreon.com/sadfrancisco

How are landlords using tech to refine evictions, surveillance, and speculation? Erin McElroy of The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project tracks the new brainchildren of the real estate and tech industries.

Anti-Eviction Mapping Project: antievictionmap.com | Landlord Tech Watch: antievictionmappingproject.github.io/landlordtech | Anti-Eviction Lab: antievictionlab.org | Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance: pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1140 | "Prison Tech Comes Home" by Erin McElroy, Meredith Whittaker and Nicole E. Weber for Public Books: publicbooks.org/prison-tech-comes-home | "Access Denied: Faulty Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters" by Lauren Kirchner and Matthew Goldstein for The Markup: themarkup.org/locked-out/2020/05/28/access-denied-faulty-automated-background-checks-freeze-out-renters | "Why Zillow Couldn't Make Algorithmic House Pricing Work" by Chris Stokel-Walker for Wired: wired.com/story/zillow-ibuyer-real-estate | www.sadfrancis.co