Issues
State Capacity
A California bill that could let taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofits sue journalists investigating them just cleared committee and is one vote from the Assembly floor. Meanwhile, SFUSD rubber-stamped a $147,000 sham curriculum review, SFMTA admitted it never had funding for 365 affordable housing units it spent eight years promising, and former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — whose tenure produced gutted police, fleeing businesses, and an indicted successor — was just rewarded with the Bay Area Council's top job. Across the state, the pattern is consistent: government agencies overpromise, cover their tracks, and face few consequences.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
Stanford's Fake Disability Crisis Is America's Future
Feb 03, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 07, 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 02, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
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
Oakland's Council Wants a 125% Raise. Here's Their Record.
Mar 29, 2026
SF's “Civil Rights Watchdog” Just Got Arrested on Suspicion of Felony Fraud
Mar 31, 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
Libby Schaaf Failed Oakland. She Just Got Promoted.
Apr 15, 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
Tech
AI is collapsing the cost of building software so fast that a quarter of YC startups now have 95% of their code written by machines—and the bottleneck has shifted from engineering to taste, judgment, and physical infrastructure. The latest dispatches cover everything from open-source memory architecture for AI agents to the power grid crisis that could choke the whole boom. YC's Summer 2026 application window just closed, but a Product Hunt partnership is keeping a side door open through this Friday.
$215 Billion New City Gets Historic Labor Deal
Jan 28, 2026
Mahan Takes Fire From Both Sides—And Wins
Feb 04, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 07, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 14, 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
New York Wants to Ban the AI That Outscores Doctors
Mar 14, 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.
May 01, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 08, 2026
Miss the YC Deadline? Gustaf Is Watching Friday.
May 05, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
Public Safety & Policing
AI-related violence has escalated from threats to arson, with a 20-year-old linked to PauseAI throwing a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home and threatening OpenAI headquarters — part of a pattern of targeted attacks on tech leaders that authorities are only beginning to reckon with. Meanwhile, the region's public safety institutions are failing on multiple fronts: SF courts haven't reported criminal case data to the state in five years while clearing only 32% of cases, Oakland's chronic under-policing earned it the second most dangerous city ranking in America, and a federal judge blocked cleanup of a Berkeley encampment for 16 months even after a leptospirosis outbreak. The through-line is a set of policy choices — on policing, courts, and encampments — whose costs are being paid by residents.
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 19, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 25, 2026
Richmond Cut Its Crime Cameras. Car Thefts Jumped 33%.
Mar 06, 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 25, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
This Is the Judge Who Let Grandpa Vicha’s Killer Walk Free
Mar 27, 2026
Oakland's Council Wants a 125% Raise. Here's Their Record.
Mar 29, 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 09, 2026
Libby Schaaf Failed Oakland. She Just Got Promoted.
Apr 15, 2026
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Apr 20, 2026
State Politicians
California's June 2 primary is weeks away, and Garry's List has launched a voter guide aggregating endorsements from housing, labor, and civic reform groups in one searchable place. Behind the election, the state's fiscal crisis is center stage: the nonpartisan LAO confirms spending grew 10 points faster than revenue since the pandemic, producing structural deficits of $20–$30 billion annually that analysts say are simply unsustainable. Meanwhile, the Legislature is moving contested bills that could reshape Big Tech competition and restrict press coverage of immigration nonprofits.
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 2026
Mahan Takes Fire From Both Sides—And Wins
Feb 04, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 20, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 28, 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
It's Here: The Garry's List Action Voter Guide
May 11, 2026
Merit & Excellence
Paul Graham is pushing back on AOC's claim that billionaires can't earn their wealth, citing two decades of data from evaluating thousands of founders at Y Combinator. Closer to home, SFUSD just voted 6-1 to adopt a new ethnic studies curriculum validated by a process critics say was rigged from the start — and litigation is already incoming. Meanwhile, federal data projects California will lose nearly one million public school students by 2031, the steepest decline of any major state, as Sacramento moves to gut Prop 209's K-12 protections through ACA-7 despite voters rejecting racial preferences twice.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 24, 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
Asset Seizure Taxes
AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" ignited a direct rebuttal from Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who argues his two decades of evaluating founders proves billionaires are made through value creation, not exploitation. The exchange lands amid a broader California fiscal crisis: the state's own nonpartisan analyst confirms spending has outpaced revenue growth by 10 points, exposing structural deficits of $20–30 billion annually that proposed wealth taxes can't fix. Meanwhile, Sanders and Khanna's new "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act"—a 5% annual tax on unrealized gains—faces mounting evidence from Europe that wealth taxes drive capital and founders out rather than redistributing wealth.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 28, 2026
Mahan Takes Fire From Both Sides—And Wins
Feb 04, 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 20, 2026
Bernie Sanders Can't Explain American Innovation
Feb 21, 2026
Asset Seizure: A One-Act Play
Mar 03, 2026
The Moral Bankruptcy of Ro Khanna
Apr 27, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
May 08, 2026
Criminal Justice
Oakland's gun violence — driven by fewer than 2,000 residents — is dropping when the city targets the right people, not just guns, while San Francisco's courts are moving in the opposite direction: clearing only 32% of cases, hiding five years of missing data from the state, and releasing the killer of 84-year-old Grandpa Vicha on probation the same afternoon he was sentenced. Judge Linda Colfax's decision to free Antoine Watson — made inevitable by California's pretrial credit math and years of continuances — has put a face on how SF's criminal justice system fails victims. These stories are connected: concentrated violence requires targeted accountability, and SF is delivering neither.
Sacramento Sabotages Prop 36 After Voters Spoke
Jan 20, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 25, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
This Is the Judge Who Let Grandpa Vicha’s Killer Walk Free
Mar 27, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Apr 09, 2026
Techno-Optimism
AI is collapsing the engineering barrier—a quarter of YC startups now have 95% of their code written by AI, some hitting $10M revenue with under 10 people—shifting the scarce resource from writing software to knowing what to build. The resulting compute surge is straining physical infrastructure, with US data centers projected to consume 10% of national electricity by 2028, while Germany's nuclear phase-out stands as a cautionary tale about what happens when energy policy can't keep pace with demand. The frontier right now is persistent AI memory architecture, with open-source projects racing to solve the context problem that makes today's agents forget everything between sessions.
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 14, 2026
Anthropic's War on Its Own Power Users
Feb 25, 2026
The Compute Is Ready. The Grid Isn't.
May 01, 2026
Personal AI Is in Its Homebrew Computer Club Phase
May 02, 2026
The Seeker and the Builder Are the Same Person
May 08, 2026
Your AI Forgets Everything. GBrain and MemPalace Don't.
May 06, 2026
Budgets & Fiscal Policy
California's structural deficit has hit $20–30 billion annually, with state spending growing 70% since the pandemic against only 60% revenue growth — and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office now says the imbalance is unsustainable. The fiscal rot runs deeper than budget math: billions vanished in pandemic unemployment fraud that the state still hasn't accounted for, a San Francisco equity official just faces 19 felony counts for allegedly steering millions to her partner's nonprofit, and Oakland's council is seeking a 125% raise despite a $100 million deficit and 48-minute 911 response times. Meanwhile, California is on track to lose nearly a million public school students by 2031 — a sign that families are drawing their own conclusions about what the spending has actually delivered.
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 07, 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 19, 2026
Mahan wants to fix the waste. Steyer just wants to raise taxes.
Feb 20, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 06, 2026
BART Paid Consultants to Say Fare Evasion Didn't Matter — Then Lost the Receipt
Mar 26, 2026
Oakland's Council Wants a 125% Raise. Here's Their Record.
Mar 29, 2026
SF's “Civil Rights Watchdog” Just Got Arrested on Suspicion of Felony Fraud
Mar 31, 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
Housing & YIMBY
California is projected to lose nearly one million public school students by 2031—a 15.7% enrollment collapse driven by soaring housing costs that's pushing families to Idaho, Florida, and beyond at nearly three times the national rate. In San Francisco, the broken economics of affordable housing are playing out in real time: SFMTA just gutted 365 of 465 promised affordable units at Potrero Yard after admitting the funding never existed, while a Chinatown nonprofit controlling 29 LLCs and $163 million in assets faces scrutiny over undisclosed conflicts of interest. Across California, the gap between housing promises and housing reality keeps widening—and families are voting with their feet.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 28, 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 19, 2026
The Builder Class vs The Luxury Beliefs Class
Feb 28, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 02, 2026
The Left's Housing Math Doesn't Add Up
Mar 08, 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
Homelessness & Drug Crisis
A leptospirosis outbreak at a Berkeley encampment—a tropical disease rare in developed countries—was allowed to fester for months while courts blocked cleanup, illustrating how legal battles over homeless encampments now routinely override public health emergencies. Meanwhile, investigations into LA's homeless housing spending reveal $625,000-per-unit costs for buildings that sit empty for years, and San Francisco data shows drug arrest rates collapsed to near-zero just as overdose deaths tripled to 810 annually. Across the state, the gap between what's being spent and what's being solved keeps widening—and the costs are measured in lives.
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 16, 2026
Matt Mahan Must Be California's Next Governor
Jan 30, 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 25, 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 spotlight the newsletters, reporters, and creators helping Californians cut through the noise ahead of the June 2 primary — nominations are open now. Meanwhile, a pressing legislative threat to that same journalism ecosystem is moving fast: AB 2624, a bill that could expose reporters covering government-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines with no press exemption, is one committee vote from the Assembly floor.
The NIMBY Millionaire Behind California's Asset Seizure
Jan 28, 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
A San Francisco judge just released the killer of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee — a man who body-slammed the Thai grandfather to death on camera — with zero additional prison time, citing a belief that probation would better serve public safety. The case has exposed how California's pretrial credit math and a reduced manslaughter conviction combined to make this outcome inevitable, raising urgent questions about whether anti-Asian violence is being taken seriously by the courts. Meanwhile, a separate civil lawsuit alleges that state parole officials told agents to stop monitoring a parolee who went on to kill two women, including Hanako Abe.
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 02, 2026
Chinatown Stabbing Victim Got No Press Conference
Mar 06, 2026
He Killed Grandpa Vicha. Tomorrow, He Walks Free
Mar 25, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
This Is the Judge Who Let Grandpa Vicha’s Killer Walk Free
Mar 27, 2026
SF Politicians
With the June 2 primary approaching, Garry's List has launched a voter guide pulling together endorsements from housing, labor, and civic reform groups on SF races and measures. Behind the election, deeper fights are playing out: Mayor Lurie is pushing the city's first comprehensive charter reform in 30 years while taking on the open-air drug crisis, but a broken affordable housing pipeline — exposed by SFMTA's quiet elimination of 365 promised units at Potrero Yard — shows how much structural dysfunction still remains.
CA Ballot Measures
With the June 2 primary weeks away, Garry's List has published its Action Voter Guide aggregating endorsements from housing, labor, and civic reform organizations on California ballot measures. The guide comes amid heated fights over competing tax proposals—including Tom Steyer's commercial property tax initiative and SEIU-UHW's billionaire wealth tax—that have sparked dueling claims about billions in potential revenue, inflated figures, and a documented exodus of wealthy residents already reshaping the state's fiscal future.
Elections & Voting Integrity
With the June 2 primary weeks away, Garry's List is launching its inaugural Civic Impact Awards to spotlight the creators, newsletters, and tools helping Californians cut through election-season noise — nominations open now. Meanwhile, the channel has been tracking how special interest money is shaping the governor's race, with public sector unions funneling endorsements to Porter, Swalwell, and Steyer while one Democrat, Matt Mahan, stands apart.
Federal Politicians
AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" is drawing sharp pushback from Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who argues his two decades of evaluating founders directly contradict her thesis. Meanwhile, California Congressman Ro Khanna is under fire for defending Twitch streamer Hasan Piker while quietly maintaining one of Congress's most profitable stock portfolios. The federal politicians shaping Silicon Valley's future—from Sanders and Khanna's proposed billionaire wealth tax to Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia redesigning the federal government from the White House—are making decisions that will define how wealth gets built and taxed in America.
Business Taxes
Tom Steyer is campaigning for governor on a pledge to close what he calls the "Trump Tax Loophole"—a rebranding of Proposition 13, a law passed by a Democratic legislature in 1978, with revenue projections critics say are inflated by up to 150%. Meanwhile, a union-backed "CEO Tax" heading for the June 2026 ballot would raise San Francisco's gross receipts tax by up to 800%—a move business groups warn could accelerate the corporate exodus that has already cost the city Stripe, Schwab, and Square. Both proposals arrive as San Francisco is outpacing every other U.S. tech hub in startup formation, raising the stakes for getting business tax policy right.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 26, 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 14, 2026
Steyer's $20 Billion "Trump Tax Loophole" Is a Lie
Feb 25, 2026
Small Business & Regulation
San Francisco's regulatory burden on small businesses is back in focus: restaurants must navigate four agencies and wait up to six months to legally serve wine, while stolen bottles sell openly two blocks away — a gap that illustrates how the city's rules punish the compliant and ignore the criminal. Richmond, meanwhile, just voted to reinstate its Flock Safety cameras after car thefts jumped 33% following a politically motivated shutdown — a reversal driven largely by immigrant shopkeepers who bore the cost of the decision. Across both cities, the pattern is the same: compliance is expensive, crime is cheap, and small business owners are caught in the middle.
Transit & Safety
SFO is forcing Waymo to the Rental Car Center while Uber and Lyft keep 800,000 monthly trips from the main terminal garage — the latest front in California's battle over who controls transportation. Meanwhile, BART can't produce the invoice for a consultant report it commissioned arguing fare enforcement was pointless, even as its own new fare gates drove a documented collapse in crime. From airport politics to transit safety, incumbent interests keep colliding with evidence.
SF Ballot Measures
With the June 2 primary approaching, Garry's List has launched its Action Voter Guide aggregating endorsements from housing, labor, and civic reform groups to help voters navigate a crowded ballot. The centerpiece controversy heading into election day is San Francisco's so-called "CEO tax," a measure critics say is misleadingly branded—it's actually an 800% gross receipts tax hike that economists warn will raise prices for consumers while leaving executive paychecks untouched. The debate matters beyond SF: with major companies already having fled the city over tax burdens, the outcome could signal whether San Francisco is serious about reversing its business exodus.
Tech & Startup Regulation
New York's S7263 — which would ban AI from answering medical, legal, and engineering questions — reached the Senate floor in February and a full chamber vote is imminent, even as new research shows AI consistently outperforming doctors on diagnostic tests. Meanwhile, Anthropic and Google have moved to lock paying subscribers out of third-party tools, and a San Francisco lawsuit is challenging the license plate camera network that law enforcement credits with solving 10% of reported crime nationwide. The common thread: regulators and incumbents are racing to constrain technologies that are already delivering real results for real people.
Skilled Immigration
Blanket visa bans targeting nationalities like Venezuelans are now blocking even model legal immigrants from basic family visits — a San Francisco couple known for personally stopping crimes and saving lives can't get the wife's mother a tourist visa to meet their newborn son. The case illustrates a growing tension between broad immigration crackdowns and America's long-standing advantage of attracting and retaining exceptional talent and citizens.
Tech Antitrust & M&A
California is moving to do what Congress couldn't: SB 1074 (the BASED Act), introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener with Y Combinator's backing, would ban Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft from self-preferencing, cloning competitor products using platform data, and tying marketplace access to other services. The bill targets any company with a $1 trillion market cap and 100 million monthly US users, with enforcement open to consumers, businesses, and the state AG. If it passes, it would be the most aggressive platform antitrust law in the country — and a direct test of whether states can succeed where federal regulators have stalled.
CA Prop 36 (2024)
California's legislature is refusing to fund Prop 36 after voters passed the criminal sentencing reform measure by a wide margin in November 2024, effectively nullifying the will of the electorate through budget inaction. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has made Prop 36 enforcement a centerpiece of his newly announced 2026 gubernatorial campaign, is calling out Sacramento directly: "Budgets are a reflection of our values." The standoff puts California's initiative process itself on trial—if lawmakers can simply starve voter-approved measures of funding, the ballot box means nothing.
CA Prop 47 (2014)
A viral post highlighting open-air wine fencing at 7th and Market in San Francisco — two blocks from where legal restaurants wait six months and pay thousands in fees to serve the same bottle — has renewed criticism of Prop 47's real-world enforcement gaps. The contrast has become a flashpoint for a broader argument: that California systematically burdens law-abiding businesses while offering little consequence to petty theft, a dynamic Prop 47's reduced penalties for sub-$950 theft have reinforced since 2014. With SF's Prop M having just eliminated some local licensing fees in 2025, the regulatory picture is shifting slightly — but the enforcement gap remains.
SF Prop M (2024)
San Francisco's business tax overhaul, passed as Prop M in November 2024, is now at the center of a fresh fight: a proposed "CEO Tax" that critics say is actually an up-to-800% gross receipts tax hike in disguise that could drive companies out of the city. The stakes are unusually high given that SF is the only major U.S. tech hub with *growing* startup formation since 2022, capturing 40% of early-stage venture capital while rivals like Austin and NYC have cratered.
San Francisco
SFUSD just voted 6-1 to adopt a new ethnic studies curriculum through what critics call a rigged review process — and a legal challenge was filed the same night. That fight is part of a broader pattern: San Francisco's institutions keep making expensive commitments they can't deliver on, from 465 affordable housing units with no funding plan to courts that haven't reported case data to the state in five years.
The 'CEO Tax' Scam That Will Crush Your Grocery Bill
Jan 24, 2026
Art Won't Save Downtown From an 800% Tax Hike
Jan 26, 2026
The "CEO Tax" Doesn't Tax CEOs. It Kills SF.
Jan 21, 2026
Housing Won't Fix This. It's the Drugs.
Jan 16, 2026
Lawsuit Wants to Ban the Tech That Caught My Wife's Hit-and-Run Driver
Jan 31, 2026
SF Is Winning the AI Race. Politicians Want to Kill It.
Feb 14, 2026
While SF stopped Prosecuting Drug Dealers, 3,700 People Overdosed
Feb 25, 2026
The San Francisco Chinatown Grift: 29 LLCs, Political Power, and Too Few New Homes
Mar 02, 2026
Lurie's Charter Reset Is a Masterclass
Mar 06, 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 25, 2026
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Mar 26, 2026
This Is the Judge Who Let Grandpa Vicha’s Killer Walk Free
Mar 27, 2026
SF Courts Won't Show Their Work
Apr 08, 2026
SF's “Civil Rights Watchdog” Just Got Arrested on Suspicion of Felony Fraud
Mar 31, 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 Bay Area
Garry's List is accepting nominations for its inaugural Civic Impact Awards, recognizing the people and platforms making California politics legible ahead of the June 2 primary. Recent coverage has focused on Bay Area accountability stories: BART's inability to locate invoices for a consultant it paid to argue fare enforcement was pointless, and the Bay Area Council's decision to hand its top job to former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf despite a legacy of police staffing collapse, business flight, and an indicted successor.
UC Regents Knew SAT Ban Was Wrong—Voted for It Anyway
Jan 24, 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
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
Libby Schaaf Failed Oakland. She Just Got Promoted.
Apr 15, 2026
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
May 11, 2026
South Bay
Congressman Ro Khanna is under fire for defending controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker while simultaneously holding one of Congress's most profitable stock portfolios — a hypocrisy that's drawing sharp criticism given that Khanna represents Silicon Valley's wealthiest district. The controversy compounds an already turbulent stretch for South Bay politics, with Khanna also co-sponsoring a billionaire wealth tax that would hit the very founders and engineers who built his district. Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is emerging as a rare Democratic voice demanding California fix its $20–35 billion structural deficit before raising taxes further — positioning himself as a credible alternative to Newsom-era spending orthodoxy ahead of the 2026 governor's race.
Sacramento
California's structural budget crisis is front and center, with the LAO confirming that state spending outpaced revenue growth by 10 points since the pandemic — producing chronic $20–30 billion annual deficits that more taxation won't fix. A bill moving through the legislature (AB 2624) could expose journalists covering taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofits to $4,000-per-violation fines, with no press exemption. Meanwhile, the 2026 governor's race is shaping up around these fault lines, with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan emerging as a center lane challenger demanding fraud accountability before new taxes.
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
Mahan Takes Fire From Both Sides—And Wins
Feb 04, 2026
California Is Killing the Golden Goose
Feb 07, 2026
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
May 01, 2026
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
May 07, 2026
Oakland
Former Mayor Libby Schaaf was just handed the top job at the Bay Area Council despite presiding over Oakland's police collapse, business exodus, and the political machine that produced an indicted successor — a reward that captures how accountability works in Bay Area politics. Back in Oakland, the city council is pushing a 125% raise for itself amid a $100M deficit and 48-minute 911 response times, while the Coliseum sits empty with no buyer in sight. From encampment fires shutting down the Transbay Tube to gang networks driving half the city's gun violence, Oakland's governance crisis is accelerating even as its leaders collect bigger paychecks and better titles.
New York City
New York State's S7263 — which would make AI companies liable for chatbots that answer medical, legal, or other professional questions — has cleared committee and is headed for a full Senate vote, a direct threat to the only affordable alternative millions of people have to expensive licensed professionals. Meanwhile, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing rent freezes, eliminating gifted school programs, and raiding reserve funds to plug budget gaps — policies that economists broadly condemn and that mirror the fiscal collapse already playing out in San Francisco.
Berkeley
A leptospirosis outbreak at Berkeley's Harrison Street encampment—a tropical disease spread by rats—festered for over a year while courts blocked cleanup efforts, with the city finally gaining clearance in April 2026 after 16 months of legal obstruction. Meanwhile, Berkeley professor Robert Reich has come under fire for hypocrisy as the public face of California's proposed wealth tax, and newly surfaced archival footage reveals UC Regents knowingly voted against faculty data when they banned the SAT in 2020.
East Bay
Berkeley courts finally allowed cleanup of a rat-infested homeless encampment after a 16-month blockade—even as leptospirosis, a tropical disease spread by rat urine, was confirmed on-site. Meanwhile, Richmond voted to reinstate the Flock license plate cameras its police chief disabled last fall over ICE fears, a decision that had sent car thefts soaring 33%—with immigrant shopkeepers among the loudest voices demanding the cameras back.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is facing fresh scrutiny over its homeless housing spending after a $20 million conversion of a former Ramada Inn left 32 units sitting empty for four years at $625,000 per unit — while the people originally housed there remain unaccounted for. The debacle has prompted city officials to admit the process was broken, even as the cost-per-unit reflects a statewide norm that Stanford researchers say makes the math nearly impossible to fix. Meanwhile, LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is pushing a platform that combines rent freezes with pro-construction policy — a combination that housing developers and economists argue is self-defeating, since rent caps eliminate the financial returns that make new construction viable.
Seattle
Washington State's proposed 9.9% millionaire tax is already rattling NBA investors and tech founders, with internal documents revealing that Seattle Kraken owner Samantha Holloway warned Governor Ferguson the levy makes it harder to recruit pro athletes and is driving investors to relocate to Florida — potentially killing the long-awaited Sonics return before it starts. Meanwhile, street-level outreach workers in Seattle and San Francisco are publicly breaking with the political consensus on homelessness, with firsthand accounts showing many people living outside already have taxpayer-funded housing but remain on the streets due to addiction. Together, the two debates expose a growing disconnect between progressive policy assumptions and on-the-ground reality in the Pacific Northwest.
Peninsula
A viral debate over Stanford's disability accommodation system is gaining traction, with data showing 38% of the university's undergraduates registered as having a disability — compared to 3-4% at community colleges. Critics argue the gap reveals widespread gaming of the system, with students obtaining single dorms, extended test time, and other perks through minimal medical scrutiny. The controversy raises broader questions about institutional integrity at elite universities and what it signals for accommodation policy nationwide.