A crew of looters who robbed the Walgreens on Chestnut Street in the Marina Feb. 17, 2025, appears to be the same crew who looted a Walgreens in Noe Valley Jan. 31, 2025. According to a witness at the Marina incident, “the model of shoe is the same grey New Balance 9060. The dark puffy jacket is the same. The mask is the same. The white hoodie is the same, including the emblem on top of the hoodie.” Photos of both robberies seem to back up the witness.
A bus driver confirmed that on Feb. 17 around 8:18 p.m., the Marina crew hopped on the 22 bus at Fillmore and Lombard streets and got off at Mission and 16th streets, a corner that lately makes the infamous Sixth and Market streets look like Sesame Street. On a recent evening visit to the plaza in front of the Mission BART station, I watched one young police officer hold two groups of young men at bay during a tense standoff while dozens of people sold stolen goods and drugs and others openly used drugs despite the presence of the officer.
A photo analysis reveals one of the Marina Walgreens looters matches the Noe Valley Walgreens looter from Jan. 31. …
Meanwhile, the supervisor of the blighted, crime-ridden Mission District, Jackie Fielder, is more concerned that the city be allowed to continue robbing taxpayers blind. “There’s a lot of talk about San Francisco’s budget deficit and ‘spending beyond our means.’ That just isn’t true. The city almost always ends up with a surplus. Austerity measures for workers & residents, tax breaks for corporations and developers. We’ve seen this before,” the socialist activist turned lawmaker recently posted to X along with a graphic screaming “Don’t believe the hype!” in all caps. Fielder has long touted her vagabond lifestyle — she once claimed to be homeless and living in a van while attending Stanford when she was actually couch surfing — and has only resided in San Francisco off and on. (As usual, District 9 knows how to pick them.)
Fielder, a shill for labor unions and the nonprofit industrial complex, proved one thing for sure — she didn’t major in math. San Francisco’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024–25 is $16 billion, and for Fiscal Year 2025–26 it is $15.5 billion. The annual budget deficit could climb to $1.4 billion by 2027 if costs continue to outstrip revenue. In comparison, San Jose, Calif., which has an annual budget of approximately $3 billion, predicts a shortfall of $4.5 million for 2024–2025, followed by a shortfall of $37.6 million leading up to 2027. Labor is the largest expense for both. San Jose, the third largest city in the state, has the fourth largest budget for city employees: 8,600 employees, costing $1,100 per resident annually, or one city employee for every 112 residents. Despite having 125,000 fewer residents, San Francisco has 40,000 employees, costing each resident $7,000 annually, or one city employee for every 21 residents — that’s four times the number of public workers compared to what is, in my opinion, a city run by the best mayor in the Bay Area, Matt Mahan, who isn’t afraid to make tough cuts. Unlike Mahan, who has public and private sector experiences, San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, comes from a nonprofit background, and he’s running the city like he ran his nonprofit Tipping Point Community, filling his office with dozens of support staff to create a moat around him. This doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me that he is willing to cut redundant jobs and middle management. If I’m wrong, he should start with his own office which is filled with both. …
Speaking of Lurie’s staff, his 22 direct reports include Alicia John-Baptiste, chief of infrastructure, climate, and mobility, and transportation advisor Alex Sweet. Since he hired them to lead his transit plan, which includes the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), you would think Lurie would have turned to them when seeking a topnotch replacement for embattled former SFMTA boss Jeffrey Tumlin, perhaps even searching outside the city (something he said during his campaign he would not hesitate to do for key positions). Instead, Lurie took the advice of the SFMTA board. In a Feb. 18 message that went out to SFMTA employees and was obtained by the Voice, the board “reached an agreement” with Acting Director Julie Kirschbaum to become the next permanent director of transportation of the agency. “We are working very closely with Mayor Lurie’s office, and the Mayor’s Office will send out a press release about Julie’s appointment shortly,” the message read. “Her official contract will be brought to the Board for approval during open session at the March 4 Board meeting, but this is largely a formality as we have agreed on the terms of her employment.”
Referencing the agency’s financial woes, the message continues, “Rather than conducting a national search, which has historically taken nine months to a year, we are moving swiftly to appoint a candidate who has unparalleled experience and qualifications for this role.” Kirschbaum, who has worked at SFMTA since 2007 and served as director of transit from 2018 to 2024, was praised for her “natural inclination toward humility, collaboration and respect, the way she has focused relentlessly on performance and results, and her commitment to equity.” The letter was signed by Janet Tarlov, who was nominated to the board by former Mayor London Breed in 2024, and Stephanie Cajina, a pick from the Board of Supervisors in 2022. Lurie’s statement touted Kirschbaum’s “two decades of transportation experience” for making her “the best person to lead the system into a new era.” I’m not sure how someone who has worked at the city’s transit bureau for 17 years and spent six as the director of transit, second in command to the director of transportation — including Tumlin — is going to usher in a new era. Kirschbaum’s appointment reminds me more of that great song by The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which ends with the lyrics, “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” …
With the NBA All-Star game and festivities and the Chinese New Year parade happening over a single weekend, the city was bustling. Former Mayor London Breed posed for photos at the game with Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, looking relaxed after vacationing in Rome and negotiating to keep her taxpayer funded security detail through game — mayors lose their security the day they leave office, but apparently Breed felt her “recognizability” could present dangers for her in Italy and at Chase Center. “NBA Allstar weekend in San Francisco showed the world how truly amazing our city is, flaws and all! I’m really proud that I had a part in bringing it to our city. Thanks to the city workforce that kept our streets clean and safe. The city felt amazing!” she wrote on Threads.
For his part, Lurie attended both events, where, according to some attendees, he made at least one major faux pas: missing the Chinese New Year’s finale, where the mayor joins the Chinese consul general and Chinese Chamber of Commerce president to light firecrackers. (Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman stepped in as “acting mayor” for this ceremony.) According to the San Francisco Standard, Lurie’s absence “surprised some organizers, as it’s considered an important moment that former mayors would not have missed.” The Standard says Lurie “zipped back in time for an after-party at Far East Café with a cadre of Chinatown insiders,” telling fellow diners at the banquet, “Just for the record, I did sneak over to Chase Center.” You would think Lurie’s “AAPI community and press liaison” would have told him how important the parade finale was; however, that role was vacant at the time after Kit Lam stepped down after less than a month on the job. Lam has since been replaced by City Hall insider Crystal Liang, who most recently worked as a public relations officer for the Department of Public Works.
Over the course of the busy weekend, Lurie posted frequently to his social media as he traipsed through the city, stopping to have local luminaries tell the camera how great San Francisco was looking (“We’re back, baby!”). One of those luminaries was celebrity chef Tyler Florence, who partnered with the city to bring two Miller & Lux Provisions cafes to Union Square in a 2023 three-year lease deal made under former Mayor Breed. While Lurie and Florence smiled for the video segment, Florence had abruptly walked away from the projects right before the start of the NBA All-Star weekend. The City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development gave Florence a grant of $440,000, reportedly earmarked for revitalizing lower Powell Street, to get the eateries up and running. In 2024, the Board of Supervisors also voted to accept $2 million more in state grant money for upgrading the restaurant kiosks. The patisserie continued to operate, but the rotisserie has remained closed for nearly a year. I interviewed Florence several times and found him to be down to earth and dedicated to his craft (something I can’t say about every celebrity chef I have interviewed), so I feel like there is more to the story. Whatever it is, Florence’s departure is another blow to the already struggling Union Square.
