Slate Mailers and Sabotage
Joe Eskenazi's claim that a payment for a slate mailer reveals a double-cross by London Breed betrays a need to understand how they're financed. The real bad faith is from housing opponents
Monday’s column by Joe Eskenazi in Mission Local breathlessly claims that Mayor London Breed has decided to throw urbanists under the bus by abandoning Proposition A, the $300 million general obligation bond on the March 5 ballot. Offered as proof, along with some background comments, is a $1000 payment made by the Yes on E campaign to a slate mailer organization run by TakeActionSF.
That reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of how slate mailers run by many volunteer-based political groups are financed. It also ignores the legislative deal that resulted in Prop A being put on the ballot and who may be acting against the spirit of that deal.
TakeActionSF, which propagates a “No B.S. Voter Guide” reflecting mainly center-right positions, supports Prop E, the police procedures measure sponsored by Breed. They oppose Prop A.
A representative we spoke to on background described TakeActionSF as a group of long-time residents who are “sick and tired” of public safety and quality-of-life problems deriving from — you guessed it — the nexus of drug addiction, homelessness, and petty crime that has become San Francisco’s political bete noire.
That explains their position on Prop E, which promises, among other things, to streamline police procedures and oversight. Asked why they opposed Prop A, they cited reports of significant funds from a $600 million bond approved by voters in 2019 having yet to be spent, among other issues.
In San Francisco, hundreds of groups are organized to render and propagate some opinion on civic affairs. The city’s Planning Department maintains a list of community group contacts with over 300 entries. The local Democratic Party has chartered 25 clubs; in previous years, there have been at least twice that number, and there are many more unchartered groups.
Many of these groups are active during election season and propagate endorsements via mailers, online campaigns, billboards, and other means. To fund this, they solicit donations from campaigns they have endorsed. The more money a group can rake in, the more they spend on their outreach and the more voters they contact.
Donations are customarily based on each endorsement, not a slate of endorsements. Campaigns generally pay based on whether that campaign’s issue is supported, not on whether an allied position is supported.
Asked whether any campaign ever declined to contribute because of another endorsement on a slate card, Bruce Agid, president of the Eastern Neighborhoods Democratic Club, told us it’s only happened to his group once.
“This is the eighth cycle of slate cards I've managed for ENDC,” he said in a phone call. It's only happened one time. And there are many instances where I don't think anybody looks at our slate card and goes, yeah, I agree with everything. People always contribute because they focus on getting their message out to voters in as many venues and methods as possible.”
Agid highlighted the operative sentence in the required disclaimer for such campaign material: “Appearance in this mailer does not imply endorsement of others appearing in this mailer, nor does it imply endorsement of, or opposition to, any issues set forth in this mailer.”
Proposition A was put on the ballot because of a deal brokered between Breed, along with supporters of housing supply, and members of the Board of Supervisors who support a faction in the affordable housing developer community who usually oppose market-rate housing.
The bond measure provides replacement funding for affordable housing supporters claim would be lost due to a legislative package of inclusionary housing fee reforms, which will expedite the completion of already approved market-rate projects representing 8,000 new housing units.
That includes Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who has since tried to monkeywrench adoption of an ordinance passed to comply with state housing mandates and has now, in cooperation with affordable housing developer allies, organized a whole new campaign against residential upzoning to expedite much needed new housing.
“What is really sabotaging the enthusiasm for an affordable housing bond is how slow the (the Board of Supervisors) has been to bring down costs and make it easier to build housing,” one City Hall source told us. “People are frustrated. At this point, housing is so expensive that the bond will help build only hundreds of units. That’s not really a lot.”
As I understand it, the mayor refuses to write checks for housing projects the Board of Supervisors supports, including one in District 5. She is not very enthusiastic about purchasing and preserving existing affordable units or maintaining those that tenants reside in. This is where the tension between the Board and the Mayor became obvious. The public starts to feel like we are in Washington DC in a ship without a rudder.
The voters look at the vast empty commercial spaces downtown and think those should be converted to housing now. Any new housing will take years to build. Fill those first. Turn some into shelters. We understand there are thousands of empty housing units as well. Many are going into foreclosure or will very soon. Why doesn’t the city purchase them to keep them affordable?
We understand the affordable housing bonds may only be used to build new “affordable” units. None of the funds may be used for temporary shelter, conversions, or to maintain existing housing. It has to be cheaper to fix an elevator than to tear down a building and rebuild it from scratch.
What about the waste that is created when you tear down a building? We must now worry about recycling bottles and plastic bags. There is a lot more waste created when buildings are demolished.
The last but not least, there is also a matter of timing in this whirlwind economy. Where do you get the most bang for your bucks when the interest rates are through the roof, there are labor shortages, supply chains are disrupted, and fuel costs are at an all time high?