THIS WEEK AT THE VOICE FOR THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2026
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by Mike Ege
Editor in chief, The Voice of San Francisco
About a hundred local stakeholders, including people from politics, philanthropy, banking, and real estate, discussed San Francisco’s exigent policy issues on Wednesday at the Solutions Summit, sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and held at the Merchants Exchange Building downtown.
Elected and appointed officials who participated in the all-day, invitation-only event included Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Board of Education Commissioner Supryia Ray, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Housing and Economic Development policy chief Ned Segal, Downtown Development Corporation CEO Shola Olatoye, and SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su.
Panel discussions covered economic development, education and criminal justice policy, housing affordability, and homelessness.
AEI is a center-right-aligned think tank based in Washington, and there’s been chatter in local political circles that the confab was another in a plethora of recent overtures meant specifically to overturn the overall ideological direction of San Francisco. The reality may be a bit more prosaic. AEI president Robert Doar told The Voice that the event was an opportunity to generate new ideas to help San Francisco’s recovery, but it was also one stop in a traveling policy and networking show.
“San Francisco is a great city. It’s one of the great cities of our country. AEI is a national institution that believes in a prosperous America, and San Francisco is part of that,” Doar told us in an interview. “And I think it’s true that the current leadership in the city government is looking for new ideas and is receptive to ideas from outside San Francisco and receptive to serious public policy discussions, and that’s what we’re about. But, you know, next year, we’ll be in Milwaukee, last year, we were in Memphis. We go to lots of places.”
Among the highlights:
With Lurie bringing staffers in from the private sector, one theme in management was to “try to bring a a comfort with mistakes to decision making … if we can make a lot more decisions, and make a few mistakes, and then fix them afterwards, we think the city would be much better off … create a culture where people can do more things, where they don’t have to be afraid that they’ll get in trouble or lose their job, if they make a well intentioned, ethical mistake.”
One elected official talked about the turnaround in drug crime policy: “We had had a 10- to 15-year experiment with direct decriminalization. I [still] think that drugs should be a public health challenge that we manage through our public health system; it shouldn’t be the basis for mass incarceration. But drug decriminalization was a failure in San Francisco, and a big, bad one … the recall of the D.A. was a big deal, a significant change.”
Dorsey boosted his drug-free supportive housing bill, which ended up skipping a vote at the full board this week. Dorsey asked to have it continued to help bring the San Francisco/Marin Medical Society on board, but also because one of his needed votes had a jury duty summons this week.
One of the steeper hills to climb is education. Panelists bemoaned stubborn post-Covid absenteeism, a national problem, and continued path dependence on the part of teachers and administrators, leading to delays in implementing curricula, and 20-year-old textbooks still being used in some classes. One grim factoid we overheard: “Fifteen years ago, San Francisco Unified School District was perceived as the school district to go after. We were the benchmark. Our students were reading, doing math, and graduations at extremely high levels … over the years, it keeps dropping, to the point where Garden Grove is surpassing us.”
On what may be the city’s biggest challenge — reorienting the way downtown works, among the solutions mentioned were bringing in more research universities and the conversion of obsolete office space into housing. We heard this from one panelist: “We are the sort of old central business district model of you coming down Monday at nine and you leave at five Monday to Friday. That doesn’t exist anymore. We actually have to transition downtown to a truly mixed-use, 24/7 environment that acknowledges our assets. We have tremendous cultural assets, community assets, that make us that punch way above our population of 800,000.”
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EVENTS
Out and about May 7–13, 2026
What to do this weekend and beyond.
By Lynette Majer
Managing Editor, The Voice of San Francisco
If you’re up for film, music, dance, art, and more, we’ve got you covered, with Mother’s Day events, and more.
Thursday, May 7
The 44th annual Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Fest opens tonight with a screening of The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas, featuring Sandra Oh, Tammy Duckworth, Connie Chung, Kumail Nanjiani, and others, who reflect on navigating their identities and finding community. Following the screening is the Opening Night Gala. 6:45 p.m. at the Kabuki AMC. Festival through May 10. Tickets tonight from $30.
Friday, May 8
Dancing Moons Festival: Angel Island is composed by Huang Ruo, who was inspired by the poetry carved into the walls by detainees at the former immigration station between 1910 and 1940. It features Oakland Ballet Company members, choreography by seven Asian American Pacific Islanders, and live music by the Del Sol Quartet and Volti. 7:30 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre. Through Saturday. Tickets from $30.
Support our local music scene at Lakehouse Jazz, an intimate concert series at the hidden, historic Blue Heron Boathouse in Golden Gate Park. Enjoy all things jazz from Swing to Latin, Funk, Fusion, and original compositions. BYO food, and get your wine and beer onsite. Well-behaved and quiet doggos are welcome, just ask your seat neighbors if they’re O.K. with your furry friend. Through Saturday; ongoing. 7 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $28 and change.
There’s an opening reception tonight for two exhibitions: Once the Ocean Floor, featuring photography by John Chiara, Linda Connor, David Maisel, and Meghann Riepenhoff, focusing on the natural world as an active force, and For Olle by Andy Goldsworthy, celebrating his longtime friend and collaborator, who recently passed. 5 to 7 p.m. at the Haines Gallery. Through July 3. Free admission.
Saturday, May 9
Today is the day to leave a bag of nonperishable food by your mailbox for the Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. I’m sure everyone will help the almost 50 million Americans who are food insecure, including 14 million children.
Sweet Honey in the Rock, a worldwide all-ages performance ensemble of all-inclusive backgrounds and cultures rooted in African American history that educates, entertains, and empowers audiences through a cappella singing and American Sign Language, performs tonight. 7:30 p.m. at the Presidio Theatre through Sunday. Tickets from $50.
The 26th season of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival opens today featuring programming from Salsa Nights to Poetic Tuesdays, lunchtime concerts, kids’ shows, and more spanning multiple genres. Today’s season opener features Hermán Olivera y Orquesta Taíno. 2 to 4 p.m. on the Great Lawn. Free admission; RSVP here.
Sunday, May 10
What mom wouldn’t enjoy the 85th Annual Rose Show? The show will feature a variety of roses grown in San Francisco, as well as arrangements designed around the theme “Stars, Stripes and Rose Petals.” Cut roses are often offered for sale mid-afternoon. 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., appropriately at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Free.
And as long as you’re in the park, Mom may enjoy a stroll through the next-door Botanical Garden, the nearby Japanese Tea Garden, the park’s award-winning rose garden, or the Conservatory of Flowers. (Or if Mom is more into science, head to the Embarcadero to the Exploratorium.) All are free today to celebrate moms.
Maybe Mom would enjoy A Mother’s Day Concert in her honor. The Golden Gate Park Band will feature a new solo work for clarinet by Francisco Javier de Alba with Sarah E. Sarah E. Korneisel Jaegers, works of Leroy Anderson, Gilbert & Sullivan, and much more. 1 p.m. at the Bandshell. Free admission.
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- The race for governor is front and center as we prepare for the “debate” tonight on CNN.
- The passing of Larry Mazzola Sr., the Ferry Building, the zoo, and more.
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