Reporting from the Garry's List newsroom. Members can't post here — but every piece opens a thread you can argue in.
-
Editorial
A Third of LA's Affordable Housing Is Out of Compliance
A city audit found a third of LA's affordable housing out of compliance, health hazards going uncited, and no financial watch on a $2.9 billion loan portfolio. The failures built up over years and across administrations, but cleaning the...
-
Editorial
California's Wealth Tax Promises a Medi-Cal Fix. Doctors Aren't Buying It.
The wealth tax promises to rescue Medi-Cal, but the state's own doctors and clinics are worried it may do more harm than good.
-
Editorial
SF Drove Out Its Grocery Stores. Now It Wants to Pay to Get Them Back.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood wants to create a publicly backed fund to lure grocers back to neighborhoods they abandoned, without fixing the retail theft, permitting costs, or labor mandates that drove them away.
-
Editorial
You’re Paying $51 Billion for State Services. California Won't Tell You What You Got for It.
The state spends $51.2 billion a year on employee compensation and has never been required to measure whether any of it is working. A review of State Auditor reports shows what that looks like in practice.
-
Editorial
A Funding Deal Is Hollowing Out California's Public Ivies
A 2022 state funding deal has quietly forced California's elite research universities to chase graduation quotas at the expense of academic rigor, turning Nobel-minting institutions into remedial classrooms.
-
Editorial
We Audited California's Election Reform. The Results Aren't Encouraging.
California’s voter outreach plans look promising on paper. The data tells a different story.
-
Editorial
The Pelley Firing Is Not a Free-Press Tragedy. It's an Autopsy.
Five ways a once-revered journalist lost his way
-
Editorial
Flock Found More Stolen Cars Than Oakland Could Chase
Flock exposed the real bottleneck: not detection, but response.
-
Editorial
San Francisco's Nonprofit Trap
The SF Zoo just received an $8.5 million bailout three weeks after an audit found $12 million in unauthorized spending. This is just the latest in a string of nonprofit failures that SF continues to tolerate.
-
Editorial
Why Is Overall Crime Down but Homicide Up in San Francisco?
The California Supreme Court just narrowed one of the DA's key tools for holding repeat offenders before trial.
-
Editorial
Garry’s List Civic Impact Awards 2026: Voting Is Now Open
The first annual Civic Impact Awards celebrate the people, platforms, and publications holding California accountable. Here’s the full ballot — and how to cast your vote.
-
Editorial
The Federal Government Is Punishing Immigrants Who Play by the Rules
A USCIS memo could force immigrants who play by the rules out of the country, depriving America of essential talent while enriching our geopolitical rivals — a lose-lose for the U.S.
-
Editorial
Half a Billion in Lobbying, Zero Transparency
State Capacity
Two bipartisan bills would have shown you who's lobbying your lawmakers. Sacramento killed them both.
-
Editorial
SF's "Overpaid CEO Tax" Will Hammer Grocery Stores and Coffee Shops
Business Taxes
Prop D's 800% rate hike exempts every major tech company while hitting grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops hard.
-
Editorial
Introducing the Garry's List Civic Impact Awards
Media & Narrative
We want to hear from you.
-
Editorial
Yes, You Can Earn a Billion Dollars
Asset Seizure Taxes
AOC says you can't earn a billion dollars. Paul Graham, who spent 20 years predicting which founders become billionaires, has the data to prove her wrong.
-
Editorial
The Deficit California Can't Tax Away
Budgets & Fiscal Policy
The state's own nonpartisan analyst says spending outpaced revenue by 10 points. More taxation won't solve the problem.
-
Editorial
Exposing Nonprofit Fraud Could Come With a Price Tag
State Politicians
AB 2624 just cleared committee. It could allow taxpayer-funded immigration NGOs to sue the journalists investigating them.
-
Editorial
After a Rigged Review Process, SFUSD Just Approved Its New Ethnic Studies Curriculum
Merit & Excellence
The board voted 6-1 to commit to a curriculum validated by a rigged process. But litigation is incoming.
-
Editorial
California Will Lose a Million Students
Housing & YIMBY
Federal data projects a 15.7% enrollment collapse by 2031, the worst of any major state. Meanwhile, Idaho and Florida are growing. This isn't inevitable—it's what happens when the cost of housing skyrockets and the quality of education d...
-
Editorial
From AI Doomerism to Molotov Cocktail
Tech
The billion-dollar ideology behind the violence finally produced what it always promised.
-
Editorial
SFMTA Promised 465 Affordable Units. There Was Never a Plan to Pay for Them.
Housing & YIMBY
The Mission spent eight years in working groups designing housing that SFMTA admitted was only ever a future possibility — never a funded commitment. Then the city cut 365 units and called it a compromise.
-
Editorial
A Tropical Disease Hit a Berkeley Homeless Encampment. Courts Blocked Cleanup.
Homelessness & Drug Crisis
Leptospirosis, common in underdeveloped countries, spread through Berkeley's Harrison encampment—and courts continued to prevent cleanup efforts.
-
Editorial
Oakland Has a Gang Problem Disguised as a Gun Problem
Public Safety & Policing
Less than 2,000 Oakland residents drive most of its gun violence. Oakland Ceasefire shows just how important it is to target the right people.
-
Editorial
SFO Is Trying to Bury Waymo
Tech
Waymo cleared every safety bar and got exiled to the Rental Car Center. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft keep 800,000 monthly trips.
-
Editorial
California Auditors Confirmed Billions in Fraud. The State Ignored Them.
State Capacity
California's EDD lost $20 billion to fraud and still owes $21 billion on its federal pandemic loan — and that's only the tip of the iceberg.
-
Editorial
The Easiest Way to Sell Wine in San Francisco Is Illegally
Small Business & Regulation
SF makes restaurant owners navigate four agencies and wait six months to serve wine legally. Two blocks away, stolen bottles trade with impunity.
-
Editorial
Grandpa Vicha's Killer Was Just Released on Probation
Criminal Justice
A San Francisco judge just suspended the sentence of the man who killed an 84-year-old Asian grandfather in cold blood. This is the state of "justice" in the city.
-
Editorial
Yes, Fare Gates Actually Reduce Crime
Public Safety & Policing
BART's 2025 crime collapse confirms what NYC learned in 1990: fare enforcement isn't about the fare. It's about who's riding your system.
