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Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan Is Organizing San Francisco’s Moderate Political Agenda

No ballots were cast last week in San Francisco, but that didn’t stop some of the city’s most influential political players from gathering for an election party in the Mission.

That may sound a bit unusual, but in many ways, this was not a normal party.

The gathering—held Tuesday at a condo owned by Garry Tan, the vociferous CEO of tech startup incubator Y Combinator—was designed to celebrate victories scored by moderate Democrats in 2022, as well as bring together an eclectic cast of elected officials and political organizers in a rallying cry for two elections in 2024.

According to several people who attended the party, a dramatic shift is underway in how local political organizations and their campaign committees are aligning to defeat progressives and confront a range of issues next year—from passing ballot measures and winning supervisor races to unseating incumbent judges. A leader of one of these political groups estimated they could spend as much as $15 million combined in next year’s elections.

Tan’s role in throwing the shindig carried far greater significance than simply serving as a good host. The centimillionaire appears to be completing his metamorphosis from a deep-pocketed political donor and attack dog on X (formerly Twitter) to becoming a major political player IRL, where his ability to convene disparate actors could be critical to achieving an ambitious political agenda.

“The meeting at my place in the Mission is part of the evolution of a new San Francisco that is turning the page on the failed leftist politics of the past,” Tan told The Standard in a statement. “This was an opportunity to meet and think out loud about the San Francisco we want to see.”

Dim sum and dumplings were served as Krista Nakamura, a private chef who was recently featured on the reality show Chef Dynasty: House of Fang, catered the event. Speakers included District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who was billed as a “secret very special guest,” as well as supervisor candidates Marjan Philhour and Trevor Chandler. Members of at least five moderate political organizations—Abundant SF, GrowSF, TogetherSF Action, Stop Crime SF and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco—were also present.
A woman in dark suit and brown scarf looks pensive, sitting in an office.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was among those who attended the gathering. | Justin Katigbak for The Standard

These groups have always been loosely associated due to their moderate agendas and, in some cases, seed funding, but it appears they are now planning to strategically leverage their individual pots of money and thousands of members to systematically reshape San Francisco’s political priorities on multiple fronts.

Abundant SF’s top priorities are advocating for the creation of public spaces and taking a YIMBY stance on housing while GrowSF emphasizes public safety and is conducting quarterly polling while seeking to boot progressive Supervisors Dean Preston and Connie Chan. TogetherSF Action has prioritized the drug crisis and intends to hold hundreds of small events between now and next November to distribute its voter guide. Meanwhile, a political committee for the Neighbors group essentially led last year’s successful recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

“We’re all trying to respond to similar problems but have different takes on what the solutions are,” said Kanishka Cheng, the head of TogetherSF Action. “I think people like Garry and others in leadership roles are doing their best to present this as a coalition of organizations that are working together to solve these problems.”

Todd David, a political director for Abundant SF who attended the party, said the groups seem to be aligned on almost everything outside of possibly the mayor’s race. Abundant SF is backing the reelection of Mayor London Breed but does not plan to spend money on the race.

“There is more collaboration happening today than I have seen in the last 15 years in San Francisco politics,” David said. “If we fail, it will be our collective fault.”

Candidates for elected office are not allowed to coordinate with independent expenditure committees, which are not bound by campaign fundraising and spending restrictions. But the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission has no rules against different committees working in partnership.

Steven Buss, a co-founder of GrowSF, whose board includes Tan, said the collaboration by different political groups is unlike anything he’s seen since becoming politically active in 2016.

“We don't all agree on everything, but that's the beauty of this coalition: no purity tests,” Buss said. “We are just focusing on getting the basics, like clean streets, safe streets, building homeless shelters, building housing and helping small businesses. Garry is a great cheerleader for commonsense causes.”
People congregate near the intersection of 7th and Market in downtown San Francisco on Oct. 16, 2023.
People congregate near the intersection of Seventh and Market in Downtown San Francisco on Oct. 16. The intersection is known for its open-air drug trade. | Loren Elliott for The Standard

Jim Stearns, a longtime political consultant in San Francisco who works on competing progressive campaigns, called the gathering at Tan’s condo “extremely dicey” as it gives off the appearance that candidates are improperly coordinating with political committees.

“I’ve always considered this to be a hostile attempt to take over San Francisco, and I think the veil is off,” Stearns said. “They’ve stopped pretending to be community-based organizations started by private citizens. They’re multimillionaire tech investors whose goal is to disrupt fragile systems in San Francisco.”

Common ground can occasionally be found between Tan’s coalition and progressives, as Stearns is working on an affordable housing bond measure with political consultant Maggie Muir, who is in charge of Breed’s reelection campaign. But in almost all other respects, a clear ideological line divides the two sides within the local Democratic Party.

Tan suggested last week’s gathering was the first of many events to come as he seeks to draw attention to the “failures of ‘progressive’ politics and politicians.”

He added, “We are working to create a new vision for San Francisco.”

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — California Governor Gavin Newsom initiated a last-minute cleanup of San Francisco ahead of a visit from China's communist dictator President Xi. He assured all unhoused persons in the area that they may resume their normal practice of sidewalk defecation as soon as his boss has left town.

"Please, we need to try and keep the place clean just for a few days while my boss is here," said Newsom in a press conference surrounded by a horde of angry homeless people. "Please don't mess it up for me and President Xi. I really want to impress him. Please hold it in for a couple of days. Just clench or something. After that, you may poop to your heart's content. Thank you."

"Please," he added. "If I play my cards right, Xi may even let me become President. This is huge for me."

Sources say locals were shocked to wake up on Monday and find their streets temporarily clean, safe, and free of mountains of human fecal matter. "What happened?" said one local to reporters. "Where am I? Where did all the poop go? Did I die and go to heaven?"

To keep the streets pristine through the planned Wednesday visit, Newsom also authorized the temporary relocating of all homeless to a Chinese-style labor camp.

Nov 14, 2023
Czech news crew covering Biden, Xi meeting ROBBED in San Francisco
The armed assailants stole more than $18,000 worth of equipment as well as footage.

The armed assailants stole more than $18,000 worth of equipment as well as footage.

Patrick says

The armed assailants stole more than $18,000 worth of equipment as well as footage.

I heard that Breed used city funds to reimburse the Czeck journalists for that loss. I bet locals would love such treatment after they experienced car break-ins.

The Dream Keeper Initiative: How San Francisco Defunded the Police for a Historic Racial Equity Cash Grab

In 2020, san francisco announced it would defund its police department of $120 million to fund a racial equity program called the dream keeper initiative — here's how the money was spent...

To date, DKI has disbursed $107 million in 165 grants to organizations across nine ‘impact areas’ ranging from “Economic Mobility” and “Health and Wellness” to “Narrative Shift” and “Capacity Building.” Almost half this money has gone to “Economic Mobility,” largely in the form of a $20 million grant to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, a department that funds affordable housing projects through the city. Part of this grant supports the DKI Down Payment Assistance Loan Program (DK-DALP), which offers lower and middle-class black San Franciscans looking to purchase property in the city up to $530,000 in the form of no-interest, indefinitely deferred loans of up to $500,000, and $30,000 “wealth building grants.”

Since 2021, almost $9 million, or around 12% of total funding, has gone to supporting the 30 new hires tasked with “supporting DKI full-time” in various departments across the city. Eight DKI jobs, costing the city a total of $1.7 million, were created in the Human Rights Commission alone.

The funding priorities of the Initiative are, in many cases, difficult to parse. DKI has only allotted around $5.3 million to “Education and Enrichment” grantees, but has spent almost $10 million on “Narrative Shift” — an area funding “small nonprofits who have experience…delivering actionable projects centering racial equity that harness the power of storytelling for advocacy.” Strangely, the largest recipient of Narrative Shift money is not a ‘small nonprofit,’ but the SF Human Rights Commission itself, which received over $5.6 million from the impact area. When I asked Dr. Saidah Leatutufu-Burch, DKI Director, about this, she told me that “the HRC grants [this] funding to the narrative shift grantees, nonprofit organizations.” The circular logic here is frustrating: the HRC, which already manages the disbursement of DKI funds to “Narrative Shift” individuals and organizations, granted itself $5.6 million, which it says it’s disbursing to “Narrative Shift” grantees.

An emblematic “Narrative Shift” grantee is Clari-T Media ($200,000 grant), a “multimedia, marketing communications & technical literacy solutions nonprofit agency” focused on “solutions-based stories.” The company’s YouTube and Facebook pages feature hours-long livestreams of “listening sessions” and hearings related to the ongoing push to provide cash reparations to black San Franciscans, along with a series of interviews with local residents. Most of the 100+ videos Clari-T has posted since 2020, often promoted with graphics with text reading “REPARATIONS UNLOCKED,” superimposed on stacks of $100 bills and gold nuggets, have fewer than 100 views.

A man who recently moved to San Francisco has revealed the shock he has felt after moving to the crime-infested Democrat-led California city.

After city officials cleaned up San Francisco for Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s visit earlier this month, crime, open drug use, and rampant homelessness are already back.

One new resident has told Fox News that he’s stunned by what he has seen after moving to the liberal “utopia.”

“This is a disgrace,” Jeremy Bernier told FOX’s Carley Shimkus on Monday.

“I’ve been to 50-plus countries and traveled the world.

“I’ve never seen anything like this.

“It’s just ground zero of the fentanyl crisis.

“You’ve got people literally smoking fentanyl, taking these drugs out on the streets.

“You’ve got the tents and camps while you’ve got a playground with children playing right nearby, and this is blocks away from the mayor’s office.

“It’s just unbelievable to me that a city and country with such immense wealth can have such blatant poverty and suffering.” ...

“Whatever your party is, you can look at this and see this needs to be solved,” he said.

https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/our-lifestyle-and-travel-correspondent

https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/our-lifestyle-and-travel-correspondent

the car owner ends up paying out of pocket at least $300 to fix the window

Patrick says

Gosh, you think it might have something to do with idiocy like this?

It isn't idiocy, it's kickbacks. Nobody is getting kickbacks from tech workers sleeping in pods.

If we double the speed of your CPU programs instead of running instantaneously, will run twice as fast as instantaneously.

It’s the Bay Area brownout.

DeSantis held up a picture of our map in response to questions regarding the homeless crisis in San Francisco. Many commentators say it was one of the top moments of the debate.

As they say, “a picture tells a thousand words.”

We launched this map in 2019 by plotting nearly 120,000 case reports of human feces on city streets during the period 2011 through 2019. And yes, we did use brown pins.

The entire city was covered.

Last night saw the long-advertised debate between Republican presidential candidate and standout Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and some guy named Gavin (if that’s his real name) Newsom. Governor DeSantis came out strong and wasn’t taking any bull-S. Literally. At one point, he even confronted Newsom with a stinky poop map of San Fransisco:



Like a magician unveiling the missing Ace of Spades, Governor DeSantis whipped out a map from a website that reports sightings of human feces in San Francisco. Gross! But oddly, like a homeless drug addict who just found a half-full two-liter bottle of cherry Ripple, Newsom uncontrollably chortled in weird, inappropriate ways while DeSantis was pointing out “features” on the disgusting sewage map. Worse, even when he wasn’t chuckling maniacally, the California Governor was grinning wider and more unnervingly than an over-caffeinated chimpanzee indulging in alternating bouts of wild self-gratification and feces flinging.

The result was politically devastating for Governor Newsom, who is either blithely unaware or perhaps unexpectedly overjoyed that his political future was incinerated faster than a Los Angeles courthouse after a mostly-peaceful BLM protest. (Or BM protest, you decide.)

In this next clip, behold DeSantis flaying Gavin alive — using a dull flaying knife — over basic dinner-table economic issues. It was Newsom’s own fault; he set DeSantis up perfectly by advancing the buffoonish claim that California offers an inviting, lower tax environment for “working families and the working poor.” DeSantis melted him faster than a plastic toy soldier dissolving in the microwave...



... Maybe most telling of all, when I surveyed corporate media headlines this morning, they all declared the debate to be an uninteresting and politically insignificant “tie,” allowing that, if perhaps DeSantis did win by a nose, it was only because conservative host Sean Hannity tipped the scales. For example, Politico ran its story headlined, “It was Hannity and DeSantis v. Newsom in messy Fox debate.” ...

It’s still early, but one wonders whether Newsom might have completely ended his political career last night. It seems almost certain to end his presidential ambition, at least. Leftists expected their Golden Boy and recall survivor Newsom to wipe the floor with Ron DeSantis. But — to liberals — if he can’t “even” beat DeSantis, how could he possibly survive against Trump?

Newsom to wipe the floor with Ron DeSantis. But — to liberals — if he can’t “even” beat DeSantis, how could he possibly survive against Trump

PumpingRedheads what is HST?

Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis exposed the graphic imagery from “woke” children’s books that his state has been pushing to ban from schools.

As DeSantis noted, those books are being promoted by the Democrats and can still be found in California’s schools.

DeSantis showed the graphic images during his debate on Thursday night with California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom.

The moment came during the Fox News debate in Georgia after Newsom was trying to defend his record on parental rights.

DeSantis argued that the materials children are shown in schools must be “age appropriate.”

“The role of the school is to educate kids, not indoctrinate kids,” DeSantis asserted.

“It’s not to impose an agenda.

“It’s to do the basics,” DeSantis continued.

“And what we’ve said in Florida is it’s inappropriate to tell a kindergartener that their gender is a choice, it’s inappropriate to tell a second grader that they may have been born in the wrong body.” ...

The book is “called, ‘Gender Queer,’” DeSantis explained.

“Some of it’s blacked out,” he noted as he held the images up.

“You would not probably be able to put this on air.

“This is pornography. It’s cartoons.

“It’s aimed at children and it’s wrong.

I still don't get it.