Issues
Tech
AI is compressing software development timelines by 100x—a quarter of YC startups now have 95% of their code written by AI, and some teams are hitting $10M in revenue with fewer than 10 people. That shift is moving the scarce resource upstream from writing code to knowing what to build, while exposing new bottlenecks: the power grid can't keep up with AI compute demand, and today's AI agents lose all their context the moment a session ends. The race to solve those two constraints—energy infrastructure and persistent AI memory—is where the next wave of startups is forming.
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Airbnb's Cofounder Is Redesigning America
Feb 06, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Washington's Tax Blitz Could Kill the Sonics—And the Startup Economy
Feb 19, 2026
Bernie Sanders Can't Explain American Innovation
Feb 21, 2026
Anthropic's War on Its Own Power Users
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
New York Wants to Ban the AI That Outscores Doctors
Mar 13, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
The Compute Is Ready. The Grid Isn't.
Apr 30, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 07, 2026
Miss the YC Deadline? Gustaf Is Watching Friday.
May 05, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
State Capacity
Sacramento killed two bipartisan lobbying transparency bills without a hearing, while a new Assembly bill could expose journalists who report on government-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines—with no press exemption. These aren't isolated failures: recent months have also surfaced a rigged curriculum review in San Francisco, $465 affordable housing units that were promised but never funded, and a tropical disease outbreak that courts kept cities from cleaning up for over a year. The throughline is a government that resists scrutiny, avoids accountability, and leaves the public to find out after the fact.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
Oakland's Coliseum Fiasco: Managed by Clowns
Jan 27, 2026
Stanford's Fake Disability Crisis Is America's Future
Feb 03, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Airbnb's Cofounder Is Redesigning America
Feb 06, 2026
This Citizen's Union Is Throwing a Party March 4 in Mountain View, California
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Public Safety & Policing
AI-related violence escalated dramatically in April 2026, when a PauseAI member threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home and was arrested carrying a hit list of AI executives—part of a broader pattern of ideologically motivated attacks on tech figures that authorities are now taking seriously. Meanwhile, San Francisco's public safety infrastructure is under scrutiny on multiple fronts: SF courts have gone five years without reporting criminal case data to the state while clearing just 32% of cases, Oakland's gang-focused Ceasefire data shows that less than 0.5% of residents drive most gun violence, and a leptospirosis outbreak at a Berkeley encampment festered for months while courts blocked cleanup.
Oakland's Crime Crisis by the Numbers
Jan 05, 2026
Lawsuit Wants to Ban the Tech That Caught My Wife's Hit-and-Run Driver
Jan 31, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
Richmond Cut Its Crime Cameras. Car Thefts Jumped 33%.
Mar 05, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
Yes, Fare Gates Actually Reduce Crime
Mar 13, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
Richmond Just Voted to Reinstate Their Flock Cameras After Crime Spiked
Mar 28, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
The Easiest Way to Sell Wine in San Francisco Is Illegally
Apr 01, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Apr 08, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
State Politicians
California lawmakers killed two bipartisan lobbying transparency bills without a hearing, blocking public access to records that ten other states already publish openly — while the state's own nonpartisan analysts confirm a structural deficit of $20–30 billion per year, the result of spending growth that outpaced revenue by 10 points since the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Legislature is advancing AB 2624, a bill that could expose journalists investigating taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines with no press exemption. From fiscal accountability to free speech, Sacramento's actions this session raise serious questions about who the Legislature is actually working for.
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Merit & Excellence
Paul Graham is pushing back on AOC's claim that billionaires can't legitimately earn their wealth, drawing on two decades of data from evaluating thousands of founders at Y Combinator. Meanwhile, Sacramento is moving to gut Prop 209's K-12 protections through ACA-7, which would allow race-based preferences in gifted programs — a direct challenge to a voter mandate that was reaffirmed as recently as 2020. Together, these fights reflect a deepening battle over whether merit and individual achievement still have a place in California's public institutions.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 23, 2026
Blanket Visa Bans Punish America's Best Immigrants
Jan 28, 2026
Stanford's Fake Disability Crisis Is America's Future
Feb 03, 2026
Noam Chomsky Denied a Genocide, Advised Epstein, and Paid No Price.
Mar 05, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
May 08, 2026
Techno-Optimism
AI is collapsing the cost of software creation—a quarter of YC startups now have 95% of their code written by AI, with some teams hitting $10M in revenue with fewer than 10 people—shifting the scarce resource from engineering to judgment and taste. The energy grid is struggling to keep pace, with US data centers on track to consume 10% of national electricity by 2028, while Germany's nuclear phase-out stands as a cautionary tale: Chancellor Merz now calls it both "a serious strategic mistake" and "irreversible." The open-source push for persistent AI memory is the next frontier, with projects racing to give agents context that compounds across sessions rather than resetting every time you close a tab.
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Anthropic's War on Its Own Power Users
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
The Compute Is Ready. The Grid Isn't.
Apr 30, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 07, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
Asset Seizure Taxes
AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" just collided with Paul Graham's two decades of data as a professional billionaire scout — and California's own nonpartisan analysts simultaneously confirmed the state's spending outpaced revenue by 10 points, making new wealth taxes an even harder sell. Sanders and Khanna are still pushing a 5% annual tax on unrealized gains despite Europe's wealth tax failures, while the California governor's race splits between candidates who want to raise taxes and those demanding accountability for $150 billion in new spending that delivered nothing measurable. The core question driving all of it: does taxing wealth create prosperity, or just accelerate the exodus of the people who build things?
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
Washington's Tax Blitz Could Kill the Sonics—And the Startup Economy
Feb 19, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Bernie Sanders Can't Explain American Innovation
Feb 21, 2026
Asset Seizure: A One-Act Play
Mar 03, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
May 08, 2026
Criminal Justice
San Francisco's criminal justice system is under mounting scrutiny: courts haven't reported a single data point to the state in five years while resolving only 32% of cases, and the man who killed 84-year-old "Grandpa Vicha" Ratanapakdee just walked free after pretrial detention math erased his entire sentence. Meanwhile, new research confirms that less than 0.5% of Oakland's population drives the majority of its gun violence—and that targeted intervention, not broad policy, is what actually works.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Apr 08, 2026
Housing & YIMBY
California is on track to lose nearly a million public school students by 2031—the worst enrollment collapse of any major state—as housing costs drive families to Idaho, Florida, and beyond. In San Francisco, the dysfunction is playing out in real time: SFMTA just gutted 365 promised affordable units from a flagship transit project, admitting the funding was never secured, while a Chinatown nonprofit controlling 29 LLCs and $163 million in assets faces scrutiny over undisclosed conflicts and ballot harvesting. The debate over how to fix it is fracturing the left, with progressive mayors pushing rent freezes alongside new construction—a combination developers and economists say is mathematically incoherent.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
California Taxes Affordable Housing Into Oblivion
Feb 10, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
The Left's Housing Math Doesn't Add Up
Mar 07, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
Budgets & Fiscal Policy
California's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office just confirmed what critics have argued for years: state spending grew 10 points faster than revenue since the pandemic, producing structural deficits of $20–30 billion annually that more taxation alone can't fix. The same period saw $20 billion in EDD fraud, an unpaid $21 billion federal pandemic loan, and enrollment projections showing California will lose nearly one million public school students by 2031. From Sacramento's chronic overspending to BART commissioning consultants to argue fare enforcement was pointless — and then losing the invoice — the fiscal dysfunction runs from the statehouse to the transit board.
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
California Taxes Affordable Housing Into Oblivion
Feb 10, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
NYC's Socialist Mayor Raids the Piggy Bank
Feb 18, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 19, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
Apr 03, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Homelessness & Drug Crisis
A tropical disease common in developing countries has spread through a Berkeley homeless encampment while courts blocked cleanup for 16 months—a sign of how legal battles over homeless policy are now producing concrete public health crises. Meanwhile, investigations are exposing staggering dysfunction across the state: a $20 million Los Angeles housing project sits empty at $625,000 per unit, BART admitted it knew about an encampment before it burned and shut down the Transbay Tube for 12 hours, and San Francisco data shows drug arrests collapsing to near-zero as overdose deaths tripled to 810 per year. The emerging picture is of a system that has failed on every front—enforcement, treatment, and housing—with a rising death toll to show for it.
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 15, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
Chan and Fielder Vote to Keep People Dying on Sidewalks
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Apr 12, 2026
Media & Narrative
Garry's List is launching its inaugural Civic Impact Awards to recognize the newsletters, reporters, and creators helping Californians make sense of the June 2 primary — nominations are open now. Meanwhile, AB 2624, a bill that could expose journalists investigating government-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines with no press exemption, is one committee vote away from the Assembly floor. From AI-linked political violence to the ideological battles reshaping the Democratic Party, this channel tracks how stories get told — and who pays the price for telling them.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 27, 2026
Noam Chomsky Denied a Genocide, Advised Epstein, and Paid No Price.
Mar 05, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
Asian American Issues
Antoine Watson walked out of a San Francisco courtroom this week a free man after killing 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee—a outcome made mathematically inevitable by California's pretrial credit rules, which converted five years of detention into ten years of credit against a four-year maximum sentence. The case, never charged as a hate crime despite occurring at the peak of anti-Asian elder violence, has become a flashpoint for a broader pattern: a Chinatown stabbing two days before Lunar New Year drew no press conference, a civil lawsuit exposes how parole officials told agents to ignore violations before a parolee killed two women, and Sacramento is advancing ACA-7 to allow race-based preferences in K-12 schools—a policy voters rejected twice.
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Politicians
San Francisco's housing and governance failures are compounding: SFMTA just voted to gut 365 of 465 promised affordable units from the Potrero Yard project, exposing that the city never had funding to build them in the first place — while the community that spent eight years designing the project wasn't even consulted. Meanwhile, Mayor Lurie is pushing the city's first comprehensive charter reform in 30 years to break the structural dysfunction enabling these failures, as progressive supervisors Chan and Fielder continue blocking street-level drug interventions even as SF's overdose death toll since 2020 tops 3,700.
CA Ballot Measures
Tom Steyer is running for governor on a promise to close what he calls the "Trump Tax Loophole" in Prop 13 and raise $20 billion a year—but the law dates to 1978, Jerry Brown signed it, and California's own fiscal analysts put the real number closer to $8-12 billion. Meanwhile, the broader tax fight is reshaping California politics in real time: a union-backed billionaire wealth tax has reportedly triggered an exodus of 48 billionaires and $1.1 trillion in wealth before it's even passed, with Google's founders and Zuckerberg among those who have already left. With Gavin Newsom warning the wealth tax will backfire, a $18 billion structural deficit persisting despite record revenues, and a new UC Berkeley study showing cities are taxing affordable housing into oblivion, California is facing compounding fiscal crises that no single ballot measure can fix.
Elections & Voting Integrity
Sacramento killed two bipartisan bills that would have required lobbyist position letters to be posted online in real time — blocking a reform already standard in at least ten other states. With half a billion dollars flowing through California's lobbying system and records arriving months after votes are cast, the question of who's actually writing California law is getting harder to answer. The governor's race is raising the same transparency stakes, with public sector unions coordinating early endorsements across the Democratic field while one candidate, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, is conspicuously absent from the lineup.
This Citizen's Union Is Throwing a Party March 4 in Mountain View, California
Feb 11, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 27, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
Business Taxes
San Francisco's Proposition D — branded the "Overpaid CEO Tax" — heads to the June 2026 ballot with critics arguing it's a stealth 800% gross receipts tax hike that exempts major tech companies while hammering grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops. The tax doesn't touch CEO paychecks; businesses pay it on total revenue, meaning higher prices for consumers. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer's parallel push to reform commercial property taxes has drawn scrutiny for inflating the fiscal impact by as much as 150% and misattributing a 1978 Democratic law to Donald Trump.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 25, 2026
The "CEO Tax" Doesn't Tax CEOs. It Kills SF.
Jan 21, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
SF's "Overpaid CEO Tax" Will Hammer Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops
May 14, 2026
Federal Politicians
AOC is under fire for claiming billionaires can't "earn" their wealth, with Y Combinator's Paul Graham — who spent two decades professionally predicting which founders become billionaires — pushing back with data showing exploitation isn't what creates them. The debate sits inside a broader battle over how Democrats talk about wealth creation, with Sanders and Khanna pushing a 5% annual wealth tax on unrealized gains and Saikat Chakrabarti, AOC's former chief of staff and dark money architect, burning through $1.47 million of his own fortune to win Pelosi's old seat — only to receive zero votes from local Democrats. Meanwhile, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia is inside the White House redesigning how 300 million Americans interact with their government.
Small Business & Regulation
San Francisco restaurants face six months of permitting delays across four agencies just to serve wine legally — while stolen bottles sell openly two blocks from City Hall. Richmond's vote to reinstate Flock Safety cameras after a 33% car theft spike shows how regulatory and public safety decisions directly shape whether small businesses survive. These cases reveal a consistent pattern: California's rules impose maximum friction on law-abiding business owners while offering little protection from the disorder that drives them out.
Transit & Safety
SFO is forcing Waymo to the Rental Car Center while Uber and Lyft keep exclusive access to the main rideshare garage — incumbent protection dressed up as a pilot program. Meanwhile, BART can't produce the invoice for a consultant report it commissioned to argue that fare enforcement doesn't work, even as its own crime data shows the opposite: new fare gates helped drive a 2025 crime collapse mirroring what New York saw in the 1990s when turnstile enforcement became a filter for wanted criminals. From airport politics to transit accountability, the fight over who controls how Bay Area riders move — and who profits — is accelerating.
SF Ballot Measures
San Francisco's Proposition D, the union-backed "Overpaid CEO Tax" on the June 2026 ballot, would impose an 800% increase in gross receipts tax rates — but critics say it's designed in a way that exempts major tech companies while hammering grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee chains like Safeway. The tax doesn't touch CEO paychecks at all; it's levied on business revenue, meaning consumers would likely bear the cost through higher prices. This comes as San Francisco already faces a massive office vacancy crisis and the departure of companies worth $400 billion in market cap that have cited the city's existing gross receipts tax burden.
Tech & Startup Regulation
New York's S7263 — which would ban AI chatbots from answering medical, legal, and other licensed-profession questions — reached the Senate floor in February and could come to a full vote any day, even as studies show AI outperforming physicians on diagnostic benchmarks. Meanwhile, Anthropic and Google have locked paying subscribers out of third-party tools, and a San Francisco lawsuit is challenging the license plate cameras that law enforcement credits with solving 10% of reported U.S. crime. Across the board, regulators and corporations are moving to restrict technologies that millions of people already depend on.
Skilled Immigration
Blanket visa bans targeting countries like Venezuela are ensnaring lawful, model immigrants—including a San Francisco family celebrated for repeatedly intervening in crimes and emergencies in their neighborhood—who simply want a grandmother to visit her newborn grandson. The policy offers no mechanism to distinguish between bad actors and exactly the kind of people America's immigration system should welcome. The case is fueling a broader debate over whether blunt enforcement tools are undermining the skilled, legal immigration that has long been central to American competitiveness.
Tech Antitrust & M&A
California is moving to do what Congress couldn't: SB 1074, the BASED Act, would ban Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft from self-preferencing their own products, mining third-party seller data to build competing products, and tying marketplace access to other services. Introduced last week by State Senator Scott Wiener at YC headquarters, the bill targets companies with over $1 trillion in market cap and gives consumers, businesses, and the state AG independent power to sue. If it passes, California becomes the de facto national battleground for tech antitrust enforcement.
CA Prop 36 (2024)
California voters passed Prop 36 overwhelmingly in November 2024, but Sacramento is now effectively killing it by refusing to fund implementation—a move San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is calling out publicly as he launches a 2026 gubernatorial bid. Mahan, whose city reduced unsheltered homelessness by nearly 23% through accountability-focused policies, argues the legislature is vetoing the will of voters after the fact. The standoff is becoming a flashpoint in California's broader debate over whether the state's political class will ever be held accountable for ignoring election results on crime and public safety.
CA Prop 47 (2014)
A viral post highlighting open-air stolen wine sales at 7th and Market in San Francisco has renewed debate over Prop 47's role in enabling low-level theft by keeping penalties below the felony threshold. The contrast is stark: law-abiding restaurant owners navigate six months of permitting and nearly $2,400 in annual fees before serving a legal glass of wine, while fencing stolen bottles carries virtually no consequence. The episode illustrates a core criticism of Prop 47—that it systematically reduced the cost of property crime without reducing the friction of following the law.
SF Prop M (2024)
San Francisco's business tax overhaul from November 2024 is now at the center of a heated fight over the city's economic future, as a proposed "CEO Tax" would hike the Administrative Office Tax by up to 800% on companies with high pay ratios. Proponents call it corporate accountability; critics say it's a job-killer disguised with populist branding—and the stakes are high with SF now the *only* major tech hub in America with growing startup formation. Whether the city capitalizes on its AI boom or drives companies out may hinge on how this tax battle plays out.
San Francisco
San Francisco's June 2026 ballot will ask voters to approve an "Overpaid CEO Tax" that critics say is structured to exempt major tech companies while hitting grocery stores and pharmacies with an 800% rate hike. Meanwhile, the school board just voted 6-1 to adopt a new ethnic studies curriculum through a review process that had no defined passing threshold — and a legal challenge was filed the same night. From a transit agency that promised 465 affordable housing units it never had funding for, to enrollment data showing California losing students faster than any other large state, the city's institutions keep making commitments they can't keep.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 25, 2026
The "CEO Tax" Doesn't Tax CEOs. It Kills SF.
Jan 21, 2026
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 15, 2026
Lawsuit Wants to Ban the Tech That Caught My Wife's Hit-and-Run Driver
Jan 31, 2026
Chan and Fielder Vote to Keep People Dying on Sidewalks
Feb 11, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 13, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 24, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 01, 2026
A parole officer sent an email: "Agents must not search for violations." Then two women died.
Mar 05, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 05, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
Most Democrats Want Normal. Nationally It's Going Bad. In San Francisco, There's Hope.
Mar 07, 2026
Yes, Fare Gates Actually Reduce Crime
Mar 13, 2026
The BASED Act Comes for Big Tech
Apr 02, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 24, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
The Easiest Way to Sell Wine in San Francisco Is Illegally
Apr 01, 2026
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Apr 07, 2026
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Apr 17, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
California Will Lose a Million Students
Apr 23, 2026
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Apr 28, 2026
SF's "Overpaid CEO Tax" Will Hammer Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops
May 14, 2026
SF Bay Area
Garry's List is accepting nominations for its inaugural Civic Impact Awards, recognizing the creators, journalists, and tools helping Californians navigate the June 2 primary. Meanwhile, BART is under fresh scrutiny after a public records request revealed the agency can't locate the invoice for a consultant report it commissioned — one that argued fare enforcement doesn't work — even as it pursues a new tax measure. The region's accountability deficit is on full display: from BART's "leave them be" encampment policy that shut down the Transbay Tube for 12 hours, to LA spending $625,000 per unit on homeless housing that sits empty four years later.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 23, 2026
The Wealth Exodus Is Live: Watch California Die
Feb 11, 2026
BART's 'Leave Them Be' Order Burned the Transbay Tube
Feb 25, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
Brain Computer Interfaces Are Now Giving Sight Back to the Blind
Mar 06, 2026
Why Is Los Angeles Spending $20M on 32 Empty Housing Units?
Mar 26, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
South Bay
Ro Khanna is facing sharp criticism for co-sponsoring a 5% annual wealth tax on unrealized gains — a bill that would directly hit the Silicon Valley companies and founders in his own district. Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is emerging as the South Bay's most consequential political figure, turning zero market-rate home starts in 2024 into 2,000 new units in 2025 through fee cuts, and positioning himself as the fiscally serious alternative in the governor's race.
Sacramento
Sacramento's transparency problem is getting harder to ignore: bipartisan bills to post lobbyist letters online were killed without a hearing, a new privacy bill could expose journalists who report on government-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines, and the state's own nonpartisan analyst confirms California is running $20–30 billion structural deficits every year after spending grew 10 points faster than revenue. With the governor's race heating up and reformers getting blocked at every turn, the gap between Sacramento's progressive reputation and its actual governance is the defining story of 2026.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 06, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
May 22, 2026
New York City
New York State is days away from a full Senate vote on S7263, a bill that would make AI companies liable for chatbots that answer medical, legal, or professional questions — effectively banning the tools that outperform doctors on diagnostic tests and serve as the only affordable option for millions who can't access professionals. Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is accelerating a progressive agenda — rent freezes, elimination of gifted school programs, city-run groceries — that economists and enrollment data suggest will hollow out the city's housing stock and public schools while wealthy families escape to $75,000-a-year private schools and rent-controlled apartments sit vacant.
Oakland
Oakland's gun violence is driven by fewer than 2,000 people — less than 0.5% of the city — and new analysis of Oakland Ceasefire data shows targeted intervention, not gun control, is what actually cut shootings in half. Meanwhile, the city is grappling with cascading failures: a homeless encampment fire that knocked out BART's Transbay Tube for 12 hours, a Coliseum sale on the verge of collapse with no buyer in sight, and a property crime solve rate of just 0.5% — one-fourteenth the peer city average.
Berkeley
A leptospirosis outbreak at Berkeley's Harrison Street encampment—a tropical disease rare in developed nations—exposed how court injunctions blocked the city from clearing the site for 16 months, even after rats tested positive and the public health officer intervened. Meanwhile, Berkeley is at the center of two broader California controversies: a UC Regents exposé showing board members knowingly overrode faculty data to kill the SAT, and a fight over a proposed wealth tax championed by a Berkeley professor earning nearly $400,000 annually to teach one class per semester.
East Bay
Berkeley courts finally allowed cleanup of a leptospirosis-infected homeless encampment in April 2026—sixteen months after the city first tried to clear it. Meanwhile, Richmond voted to reinstate its Flock Safety license plate readers after disabling them over an ICE data-sharing concern that had already been resolved, a decision that cost the city a 33% spike in vehicle thefts.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is under fresh scrutiny over a $20 million homeless housing project that has sat empty for four years, producing 32 units at $625,000 each while the people displaced to build it remain unaccounted for. The debacle is fueling a broader debate over whether the city's approach to homelessness is structurally broken — and whether proposed fixes, like mayoral candidate Nithya Raman's push to combine rent freezes with new construction, would make things worse.
Seattle
Washington State's proposed 9.9% "millionaire's tax" is rattling Seattle's tech and sports worlds — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has privately signaled that landing a Sonics expansion team depends on whether the state can attract the right investors, while Kraken owner Samantha Holloway warns the tax is already pushing wealthy residents to Florida. Meanwhile, street outreach workers in Seattle and San Francisco are publicly contradicting the city's housing-first approach, reporting that many people living on the streets already have taxpayer-funded apartments — pointing to addiction, not housing supply, as the real crisis.
Peninsula
A viral debate over Stanford's disability accommodation system is gaining traction, with data showing 38% of undergraduates registered as disabled compared to 3-4% at community colleges. Critics argue the gap reflects widespread gaming of a system that awards coveted perks like single rooms and extended test time through minimal oversight. The controversy touches broader questions about elite institution culture that Peninsula residents — home to Stanford's backyard — have a front-row seat to.