The kids apparently went to bed, because Garry Tan is back to war. It’s nearly midnight, and he’s been firing off tweets with the precision of a sawed-off shotgun. Hot takes and ragetweets may be the coin of the realm in Elon Musk’s new world order, but even by social media standards, Tan’s metabolism for vitriol and the breadth of his disdain for what ails San Francisco is staggering.

Over the course of two hours, the CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator personally attacks or retweets criticism of “extremist judges,” whom he accuses of emboldening criminals with the help of local media; any supervisor who dares to oppose bonuses to hire more cops; Nancy Pelosi and lawmakers concerned about the safety of autonomous vehicles; education activists who want to change math curriculum in public schools; venture capitalists who are “evil” to startup founders; “decels” who want to pump the brakes on technological progress; Apple’s monopoly on apps; YouTube censors; and last, but certainly not least, NIMBYs.

This behavior would be less remarkable if Tan, 42, weren’t a centimillionaire and one of the most influential people in tech. He boasts 362,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and a quarter-million subscribers to his YouTube channel. He has also poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into local elections since 2021. 

Tan’s critics have attempted to brand him as a toxic tech bro who lacks empathy and political chops, but he’s more than a malcontent with a big microphone. In just a few years, Tan, a registered Democrat, has fashioned himself into San Francisco’s preeminent political pitbull, an attack dog with a taste for progressives.

Trump pushed SF to the hard left and with it came the grift: ideological purity enforced by the most extreme viewpoints that must be adhered to with perfection

— Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 — e/acc (@garrytan) September 20, 2023

“One thing that I’m starting to realize about myself is I always look for chaos,” Tan said in an interview this month at Y Combinator’s cavernous headquarters, a former power station in the city’s Dogpatch neighborhood. “Most people want certainty. They want to feel comfortable. And then the true founders, they want to find chaos, and they want to turn chaos into order.”

Tan, who lives with his wife and two young sons in Noe Valley, also wants San Franciscans to join him in picking up their pitchforks come election time in November 2024. The city is on pace to smash its own record for drug overdose deaths, more than 4,000 people are sleeping on the streets every night, and property crime and quality-of-life issues have made San Francisco a national punchline. With businesses fleeing and vacant Downtown towers collecting dust, the city could be creeping toward a fiscal crisis.

Regardless of whether people like or loathe Tan, both his supporters and detractors acknowledge that few people—perhaps only Mayor London Breed—have greater influence at this moment over the city’s political discourse.

Mayor London Breed speaks at a press conference at City Hall in June concerning San Francisco’s many unapproved housing projects. | Jeremy Chen/The Standard

“Where does this guy have his pull? It isn’t in banking votes in San Francisco politics. It’s in that broader, end-around messaging: the negative light that has been cast on the city,” said David Latterman, a longtime political analyst in San Francisco. “Locally, people might just roll their eyes. But you can’t deny that the national spotlight through these means—and it’s a negative spotlight—has been enough to get Breed to react. And so, in effect, it does work.”

In turn, online attacks against Tan are becoming increasingly aggressive, which may be why his list of accounts he’s blocked on X numbers in the tens of thousands. 

I’ll have you know I block people by hand.

— Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 — e/acc (@garrytan) April 20, 2022

A website called Techbro SF has been trolling Tan and his political allies, circulating an image that shows Tan’s visage on a squid, suggesting his tentacles control political groups and the media—including, incorrectly, this publication. The graphic harkens back to a racist “Mongolian Octopus” illustration circulated in the late 1800s to bolster arguments against Asian immigration. Tan’s attacks on progressive supervisors who are Jewish, such as Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen, have led to accusations of antisemitism. One progressive commenter called Tan a “lil Nazi snake.” Tan responded by calling the posts smears and saying he is “a big fan of Jewish people.”

The smears are truly absurd at this point

This is a lie about me and my videos. There is literally no basis for a tweet like this.

I am in fact a big fan of Jewish people pic.twitter.com/3rI77eF3YT

— Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 — e/acc (@garrytan) August 28, 2023

The political maneuverings of wealthy power brokers in San Francisco have always been met with deep suspicion and pushback. Tan saw firsthand how progressives blamed people like his mentor Ron Conway, a billionaire venture capitalist, and the tech industry at large for driving up the cost of rent and gentrifying neighborhoods. Conway receded from the spotlight after dramatically shaping city politics during Mayor Ed Lee’s administration, but it appears there will be no such backing down with Tan.

“Every way they come after me,” he said, “I’m going to go after them 10x.”

‘Prototypical, Testosterone, Poison Tech Bro’

Tan’s massive social media following—and real-world clout as leader of what some consider the top startup incubator in the world—gives every acerbic tweet about housing, the drug crisis and public safety a special weight among the city’s tech and political classes. Over the summer, he and Musk started replying to each other’s posts, giving Tan an even larger reach thanks to the budding digital bromance.

Elon Musk and Garry Tan tweeted support for a boycott of global law firm Latham & Watkins for providing legal support to a San Francisco nonprofit that’s suing the city over homelessness issues. | Chesnot/Getty Images | Source: Getty Images

In direct broadsides on X, Tan has drop-kicked state Assemblymember Matt Haney for “virtue signaling” on the drug crisis, tagged Supervisors Connie Chan and Aaron Peskin as part of the “corrupt political machine,” suggested Ronen has the IQ of a borderline intellectually disabled person and declared all-out war on Preston, a Democratic Socialist. Tan has also called for abolishing citizen oversight groups like the Police Commission, a proposal political insiders have scoffed at as an example of naivete.

Peskin said he has never met Tan but sees him as a “prototypical, testosterone, poison tech bro.” The supervisor questioned Tan’s goals beyond “throwing bombs.”

“He definitely donates money to campaigns,” Peskin said. “But he doesn’t seem to be a [political] player that is actually looking for solutions or sitting down and trying to have mature conversations about how to make the city a better place.”

Tan has contributed more than $278,000 to political campaigns since early 2021, putting him in the top tier of individual spenders in San Francisco. While Tan has made it abundantly clear whom he doesn’t support, he’s more evasive about whom he plans to back in next year’s elections.

Tech entrepreneur and CEO of Y Combinator Garry Tan smiles during an interview at his Y Combinator offices in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco on Sept. 14. | Source: Noah Berger for The Standard

This summer, Tan held a fundraiser for Breed at a condo he owns near Dolores Park in the Mission. Breed’s approval ratings have plummeted since the start of the pandemic, and the private event offered the beleaguered mayor a chance to rekindle support from her frustrated base.

Tan, who supported Breed’s appointments of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Supervisor Matt Dorsey, considers the mayor to be a “friend” and said the two text each other. But even after giving money to her campaign last year and throwing her a fundraiser, he won’t commit to officially backing Breed in the November 2024 election.

“No,” Tan said. “I’m a big fan, and honestly, we don’t even know who the field [of candidates] is yet. So, it’d be way premature to say either way. I can say I’m a fan and supporter. Like, she’s definitely going to be on my ranked-choice vote.”

A day prior to his interview with The Standard, Tan met Daniel Lurie, an anti-poverty nonprofit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who is running for mayor. Tan said he walked away from their conversation impressed.

Daniel Lurie shakes hands at a press conference at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House after filing paperwork officially announcing his candidacy for mayor of San Francisco with the Department of Elections. | Source: Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard

Tan’s support is likely to carry enormous sway in the city’s growing collection of moderate-leaning political groups, some of which Tan is advising. Tan sits on the board of GrowSF, a moderate group launched by two former tech workers, and is part of the “donor table” for Abundant SF, a coalition of upper-crust tech entrepreneurs who plan to pool millions of dollars to spend on city elections each year starting in 2024.

Tan’s chaotic foray into politics appears to mark a new era from the high-society, ball gown and bowtie power brokers of the past.

“The old guard of people in politics, kind of like the Downtown developers and the Shorensteins and the Fishers, that’s a different class,” said Todd David, political director of Abundant SF. “When I think of the new generation of business leaders, especially the young ones, it’s hard for me to think of anyone who is more important than Garry.”

‘People Just Read It and Engage’

Tan’s origin story is far from glamorous, and the trauma he endured as a child, along with the training he received, seems to have made him uniquely suited for the stress of startup culture and San Francisco politics. He was born in 1981 in Winnipeg, Canada. His ethnically Chinese parents—his father was from Singapore and his mother was from Burma—met at an A&W Root Beer restaurant and struggled to make ends meet. 

The family moved around—once to California, then back to Canada—before settling in Fremont in 1991. His dad, a mechanical engineer, drank too much and changed jobs often. His mother’s limited English skills prevented her from trading in her two jobs, including work at a convalescent home, to pursue her dream of becoming a registered nurse. 

Garry Tan displays his TI-99 Texas Instruments calculator and handbook while sitting next to his computers at his home in Fremont in 1999. | Source: Courtesy Garry Tan

Tan’s father would come home and pass off machinist paperwork to Garry, the eldest of two sons, so he could relax and drink beer. Food was often in short supply—in interviews, Tan has recalled meals of sliced bread dipped in milk—and his father’s discipline could be severe. The tension of home life was paired with mundane family outings in which his father would take him to technical bookstores, preparing Tan for a life of building and breaking things.

“It’s hyper common for founders to basically have limbic systems that are tuned up in a way where if it’s, like, too calm or too safe, they start looking for things to find stimulation,” Tan said.

At age 14, Tan started cold-calling companies in the Yellow Pages to land a $7-an-hour job building city websites, a grind that eventually paid off with Tan helping his parents make a down payment on a house. In middle school, Tan and a friend created a website that became an “underground newspaper” tackling thorny issues like California’s three-strikes law. 

An American High School yearbook photo shows sophomore Garry Tan, center, during class in 1997.

“I just got addicted to this idea that media was a way that you could actually have an influence on the world around us,” Tan said. “And on the internet, it sort of didn’t matter who you were. People just read it and engage with it.”

Obviously, the difference now is what Tan says matters.

After graduating from American High School in Fremont and receiving a computer engineering degree from Stanford in 2003, Tan worked at Microsoft and became an early employee at Peter Thiel’s Palantir. He joined the Y Combinator program as a partner in 2011, and a year later, he sold his first startup, a blogging and sharing platform called Posterous, for $20 million. He created another company similar to his first before launching Initialized Capital, a venture capital firm that hit big with Instacart and Coinbase.

Tan has voted in all but one San Francisco election since 2014 after moving to the city about two years earlier. Tan contributed $5,139 to various campaigns in 2015 and 2016 and supported Sonja Trauss and other YIMBY housing activists. But it wasn’t until the 2022 district attorney and school board recalls that Tan—infuriated by the city’s public school system and a spike in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)—began more aggressively speaking out and pouring money into campaigns.

“You see this in Garry and, just in general, in how the AAPI community is voting right now,” said Lee Edwards, a friend of Tan’s and a fellow venture capitalist.  “When you look at safety and you look at public schools, these are things that the community cares a lot about, particularly if they’re first-, second- or third-generation immigrants.”

A volunteer campaigning to recall the SF School Board reminds passersby of the election that was held on Feb. 14, 2022. | Camille Cohen/The Standard

Kim-Mai Cutler, a close friend of Tan’s who worked as a tech journalist before joining his former investment firm, Initialized Capital, suggested the departure of Donald Trump from the White House has made San Franciscans like Tan less concerned with assaults on democracy, LGBTQ+ rights and immigrants; instead, they are taking a harder look at the conditions here at home.

“That [wave of electing progressives] was very much fueled by the Trump presidency and people wanting to make a clear statement that they were as far away from that as possible,” Cutler said. “In some ways, maybe Garry’s trajectory mirrors that shift in the tone of city politics.”

‘The More I Find Out About Him, the More Angry I Get’

It isn’t difficult to see how Tan and Supervisor Dean Preston see the world in different colors. 

In contrast to Tan’s hardscrabble beginnings, the 53-year-old Preston grew up in Greenwich Village with the safety net of generational wealth before coming to San Francisco to work as a tenants rights attorney. Eight years after Tan and his family arrived in Fremont, Preston and his wife were buying a 2,400-square-foot home overlooking the Painted Ladies and Alamo Square. 

Supervisor Dean Preston speaks at a rally to protest illegal evictions in San Francisco on Aug. 5, 2022. | Juliana Yamada/The Standard

“We’re, like, exactly the polar opposite,” Tan said. “I don’t think I’ve found a single thing I agree with him on. … What’s funny is I don’t think it’s personal. It was the policies that made me angry first. And the more I find out about him, the more angry I get.”

GrowSF launched a campaign committee this summer colloquially called the “Dump Dean PAC,” with Tan contributing $50,000 to the effort. The group’s website ticks off 31 reasons why voters should not reelect Preston, whose supervisorial district includes the Haight and the Tenderloin. The arguments against Preston range from his opposition to numerous housing projects and calls to defund police to his stances against last year’s recall elections. Tan has recited many of these points in dozens of social media posts, accusing Preston of “ruining” San Francisco.

As if on cue, my car got bipped this morning https://t.co/NTnHco58zf pic.twitter.com/LR6SPg7wdq

— Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 — e/acc (@garrytan) September 21, 2023

The contempt appears to be mutual.

In an appearance this month at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, Preston—who joined the Board of Supervisors in 2019—blamed the city’s ills on wealthy elites and a “billionaire backlash” that he said has rolled back progressive reforms.

“Even worse than the billionaires like Musk are the wannabe billionaires. Like, they only have hundreds of millions,” Preston said. “Guys like Garry Tan and others, they’re very angry that they’re not yet billionaires, so they’re even more toxic.”

Tan laughed when he heard about Preston’s speech being posted to YouTube, which also features a channel Tan has fine-tuned with advice from social media star Mr. Beast to share life lessons and business strategies.

“Like, they’re anti-capitalists,” Tan said. “I’m a capitalist! Basically, I feel like I have to [fight back]. It feels like a little bit of a duty.”

Garry Tan, then the co-founder and managing partner of Initialized Capital, talks with Tim Draper during the opening day of Web Summit 2018 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. | Source: Seb Daly/Web Summit/Getty Images

The war between Preston and Tan is clearly personal. But a recent exchange shows how Tan’s social media tactics can act as a double-edged sword. The same day Musk pledged to double Tan’s $50,000 donation to GrowSF, Preston sent out a call for donations saying that he is running against the “billionaire class.”

Bilal Mahmood, a tech entrepreneur who is expected to challenge Preston in next year’s election, attempted to distance himself from Musk in a post on X. While he has little in common with Preston, Mahmood’s reaction could have just as easily come from one of the supervisor’s supporters—a seeming acknowledgment that, in Preston’s progressive district, any association with the divisive billionaire would be a political non-starter. 

“San Francisco is a city of progressive values,” Mahmood tweeted. “Elon should keep his fucking money out of our politics.”

Elon Musk is many things.

He is Anti-Trans.
He is Anti-Semitic.
He is Anti-Choice.
He is Anti-Worker.

San Francisco is a city of progressive values. Elon should keep his fucking money out of our politics.

— Bilal Mahmood 馬百樂 (@bilalmahmood) September 23, 2023

‘What Happens in San Francisco …’

Last summer, Tan was lured back to Y Combinator as CEO to carry the baton previously held by tech whisperer and Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham as well as Sam Altman, who is now the CEO of OpenAI.

Tan has been bullish in defending the work of Y Combinator founders and calling out “greedy” investors. But unlike his predecessors, he’s also more politically outspoken and believes an alignment between San Francisco tech founders and policymakers could spark a global movement for the betterment of humanity.

Also, it’s a big deal imo that YC will have a president so active in local politics! I think YC can make a real difference here…

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 29, 2022

“I never want to run for office. Like, it’s not for me to figure out,” Tan said. “I really think that we can find people who have our values, who believe in the acceleration of human abundance. And those are the people I want in power. If we align ideologically, this is the city to do it. And what happens in San Francisco will not just be for the people who grow up in San Francisco. It’ll be for the Bay Area. It’ll be for California. It’ll be for America. It’ll be for the world.” 

The handle of Tan’s X bio includes the acronym “e/acc,” which stands for effective accelerationism. The ideology du jour in Silicon Valley—endorsed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and convicted pharma bro Martin Shkreli—suggests rapidly scaled innovation and capitalism can create social change bordering on a utopia. There will be collateral damage, the theory goes, but this should not be seen as a reason to “kill the golden goose,” as Tan put it in a defiant YouTube video defending robotaxis in San Francisco.

The ideology has fringes that border on cultish—such as those who believe in a “thermodynamic god”—but Tan sees e/acc as a motivating force in bringing more tech people into San Francisco’s political fold.

“We’re trying to get tech people to realize: ‘You may not be interested in government, but government is absolutely interested in you,’” he said. “And you know what? I’m not asking for more than a vote. I just want our vote. That’s it.”

Tan’s influence in this regard appears to be bearing fruit. In just the last two weeks, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has come out hard on public safety after largely sitting on the sidelines since 2018 when he backed Proposition C. The controversial ballot measure taxed companies making over $50 million in annual gross receipts to help fund homelessness services, but conditions on San Francisco’s streets are no better, and critics say the tax played a role in driving businesses out of the city.

“I think he’s coming over,” Tan said of Benioff. “I think that he understands the unintended consequence [of Prop. C]. And he’s pro-police, he’s pro-public safety and I’m excited about that.”

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff answers questions from the press at the Dreamforce conference on Sept. 13. | Source: Justin Katigbak/The Standard

There is a question as to how long Tan can keep up the pace of raising a family, serving as CEO of Y Combinator and acting as San Francisco’s chief political antagonist. Blocking tens of thousands of people on X can silence some of the noise—and conversely, create a dangerous echo chamber of thought—but one meltdown or poorly worded tweet can lead to becoming persona non grata in this city.

“Folks burn out or wear out their welcome pretty quickly,” Latterman said. “[Tan] takes one issue that’s really unpopular—you know, some kid gets killed by an automated vehicle—and then suddenly he’s out defending it? Then his cred is done.”

Some of Tan’s supporters and friends have expressed concern about the toll of his social media brawls: “I can’t see that level of Twitter fighting is great for anyone’s psyche long-term,” Cutler said. But Tan said he rarely suffers a moment of doubt in his mission.

“Not really,” he said. “I mean, yes, but I care about this, and it’s worth it. Like, what other game of FarmVille am I supposed to be playing?”

A composite image shows tech entrepreneur and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan reacting during an interview with The Standard on Sept. 14. | Source: Noah Berger for The Standard

Tan used to play video games on his family computer as a kid, trading floppy disks with his friends. When asked what he does for fun now outside of picking political fights, he smiled, almost confused by the question.

“Oh, my God,” Tan said. “This is fun.”

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The San Francisco Bay Area has banned gas stoves and some other gas-powered appliances. George Frey—Bloomberg/Getty Images

San Francisco Bay Area regulators on Wednesday approved a de facto ban on new residential furnaces and water heaters that run on natural gas — but not gas-fired stoves — as states, cities and political parties debate the future of the fuel fight.

The region’s air pollution authorities overwhelmingly approved the ban, which would come into effect in stages from 2027 to 2031, depending on the size and type of equipment. Notably, the measure does not target gas stoves, which have emerged as a cultural hotspot in the debate about phasing out fossil fuels at home.

The gas industry and many Republicans say gas bans increase costs for homeowners while violating their right to heat their homes and cook as they please. Climate activists believe replacing gas appliances with electric ones is a necessary step in the fight against climate change, and see the Bay Area’s new rules as a way to do it.

Bay Area Air Quality Management District regulations focus on stoves and water heaters and the air pollution they produce, particularly nitrogen oxides (NOx). NOx, produced when gas is burned, is part of smog and can aggravate asthma and cardiovascular problems. The district estimates that gas stoves and water heaters generate more NOx than all the cars in the region each year. Water heaters and furnaces sold in the Bay Area are not required to emit NOx by the implementation date, effectively forcing homeowners to purchase electric heaters or heat pumps.

The requirement has raised concerns among some residents that in the event of a sudden failure of their water heaters or furnaces, they will be forced to pay more for an electrical replacement – as long as they can find one readily available. District Executive Ray Mueller said that while he supports the idea, the requirement could put a strain on homeowners, especially if the switch to electrical appliances is forcing them to upgrade their home’s electrical panel and wiring.

“Frankly, what I think is missing from this discussion is that there’s a middle class out there that’s really doing badly,” said Mueller, a San Mateo borough chairperson who is involved in voting on the measure voice contained.

However, most board members said that by setting the requirement years in the future, the district would send a clear signal to the market to offer more models with heat pumps and electric water heaters, thereby lowering the price. The measure also provides that two years before the first implementation deadline, the members of the Management Board can take another look at the market conditions and adjust them if necessary.

“Necessity breeds invention, so we create necessity and the market will respond to that,” said Board Member Juan Gonzalez, Mayor of the City of San Leandro.

Even if the measure is implemented, many gas furnaces and water heaters in the Bay Area will remain operational for decades to come, said Leah Louis-Prescott of RMI’s climate and energy think tank. Homeowners will still be able to fix their old gas appliances after 2031.

“It ensures the consumer is buying a cleaner device and avoids decades of pollution,” said Louis-Prescott, who is part of RMI’s zero-carbon building team. “It’s not so much a ban as it is a phasing out if your devices break.”

The gas debate has raged for years in the Bay Area, home to more than 7 million people. Berkeley officials in 2019 passed the country’s first regulation banning gas hookups in new buildings. San Francisco and other cities across the country followed suit, with New York City enacting its own ban in 2021 and Gov. Kathy Hochul calling for a statewide version this year. The gas industry and its political allies have pushed back: At least 20 states have enacted laws preventing their cities from blocking use of the fuel.

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Moving concierge startup Kandela has filed for bankruptcy after losing a legal battle porch groupthe company that bought it in 2019, The only true have learned.

Beverly Hills-based Kandela, which arranged for the installation of services like internet and cable television for people moving into new homes, attributed its bankruptcy to a $1.4 million prize that Porch won in an arbitration had.

Porch acquired Kandela in 2019 in an all-stock deal valued at $11.5 million. More than 100 Kandela employees were retained after the Porch acquisition.

Kandela sued in 2020, claiming that its new parent company was involved in a “stunning and systematic fraud scheme,” according to court documents. The dispute revolved around $6 million in earnouts that Kandela was entitled to for meeting profit and revenue targets. At the time, Kandela said Porch was “intent” on making sure it didn’t get the earnouts.

“Kandela discovered several material misrepresentations by Porch that demonstrated the impossibility of meeting the milestones envisaged by the Earnouts,” Kandela’s new bankruptcy filing reads.

In response to the lawsuit, Porch CEO Matt Ehrlichman said that Kandela “oversold” its ability to meet the targets, previous reports show.

Porch won in arbitration last May. Kandela then appealed and lost. In September, Porch filed a case to enforce the award.

In its bankruptcy application filed on Monday, Kandela described itself as a “letterbox company without assets and business operations” and thus without the solvency of the arbitral award. The firm said it tried to settle the matter for “an amount it felt it could collect for satisfaction” but was repeatedly turned down.

“The immediate filing is the result of Porch and his vengeful efforts to harass Kandela to enforce an otherwise irrecoverable judgment. Kandela has no assets, no employees and no business operations. Accordingly, Kandela has filed this case to finally close this chapter of his life in the best interests of his estate and creditors,” the petition reads.

Kandela put the value of his fortune at $6,529. His liabilities, meanwhile, totaled nearly $1.8 million, spread across nine creditors.

The post Transferring Concierge Startup Kandela Declares Chapter appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a state of emergency Thursday over the rapidly growing number of monkeypox cases in the city.

The legal action, which goes into effect Monday, allows officials to mobilize personnel and resources and cut through red tape to get ahead of the mounting public health crisis. City officials hope that the declaration will also pressure the federal government to increase the available supply of the monkeypox vaccine.

“We are at a very scary place,” Breed said at a press conference held at City Hall on Thursday. “We don’t want to be ignored by the federal government.”

Earlier this week, San Francisco had to shut down its primary monkeypox vaccination clinic at SF General Hospital for the second time this month after it again ran out of doses, turning away long lines of people. The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) said it was expecting to receive an additional 4,220 doses of the vaccine this week, bringing the total number of vaccines received to roughly 12,000 — about a third of the supply they’ve requested from the federal government.

“We have a solution in the vaccines and we want to make sure that everyone who is requesting a vaccine gets one,” Breed said.

News of the declaration — which comes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — was welcomed by LGBTQ+ advocates who have grown increasingly frustrated by what they call a lackluster response from the city and the federal government to a virus that can infect anyone, but has so far primarily affected communities of gay and bisexual men, and men who have sex with men.

“We know the challenges of what happens in San Francisco when we put public health on the back burner,” said Breed. “During the AIDS crisis … San Francisco was virtually left on its own to fend for itself.”

During the initial onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco during the 1980s, the majority of infections were among gay and bisexual men, and men who have sex with men. City Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax praised the way local care providers reacted to HIV/AIDS back then and said that response has informed the way San Francisco is responding to monkeypox now.

“As a gay man who came out and did my medical training during the peak of the AIDS epidemic,” Colfax said, “I personally and professionally experienced the indifference, the homophobia and the stigma by the medical and public health institutions in regard to prioritizing HIV prevention and care.”

“But San Francisco’s community-driven and responsive care systems were a notable exception.”

The post Monkeypox in San Francisco: Metropolis Declares State of Emergency As ‘Epicenter for the Nation’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The mayor of San Francisco announced a state of emergency Thursday over the growing number of monkeypox cases, allowing officials to cut through red tape and fight a public health crisis reminiscent of the AIDS epidemic that began devastating the city in the 1980s.

“We are at a very scary place. And we don’t want to be ignored by the federal government in our need. So many leaders of the LGBT community have also, weeks ago, asked for additional help and support and assistance,” said Mayor London Breed.

The city is in “desperate need of vaccines,” she said.

The declaration, which takes effect Monday, was welcomed by gay advocates who have grown increasingly frustrated by what they called San Francisco’s lackluster response to a virus that so far has affected primarily men who have sex with men, although anyone can get infected.

“San Francisco was at the forefront of the public health responses to HIV and COVID-19, and we will be at the forefront when it comes to monkeypox,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who represents the city. “We can’t and won’t leave the LGBTQ community out to dry.”

The city has 281 cases, out of about 800 in California and 4,600 nationwide, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. A national shortage of vaccine has resulted in people waiting in line for hours for scarce doses, often to be turned away when the shots run out.

Members of the LGBTQ community expressed anger and frustration at a city hearing last week, saying they were relying on social media because the San Francisco public health department had not dispensed basic information on testing or vaccine availability.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman excoriated the department, saying it was unclear why it could not staff phone lines, especially after telling people to call those phone numbers for information, while the San Francisco AIDS Foundation was able to quickly staff a monkeypox information hotline. The organization also has started a wait list for people wanting the vaccine, unlike the public health department forcing people to wait in line.

“It’s a bad look for San Francisco,” he said.

After attending the San Francisco Pride weekend in late June, Tom Temprano, 36, got a notification that at least one other attendee had tested positive for monkeypox. He called four numbers that local health officials provided in an effort to get vaccinated, but no one picked up. He left voicemails.

“I waited and I waited and I waited,” said Temprano, “And there was just sort of — I think for myself and many people — just growing concern, really, about our safety, given that we were further and further out from an exposure.”

Finally, on July 8, two weeks after being potentially exposed to the virus at the pride event, and monitoring gay social media networks all the while, he learned through an Instagram post that a vaccine drop-in clinic was being held at San Francisco General Hospital. The poster said drop everything and go now. Temprano texted a half-dozen people and rushed over.

He waited with hundreds of other people in a line that snaked out into the street and halfway down a block. After waiting for 3 1/2 hours, Temprano, who is the political director of San Francisco-based Equality California, got his first dose of the vaccine. One of his friends stood in line four times before he was able to get the shot.

Temprano was scheduled to get his second dose next week but that was canceled — with vaccine in short supply, city officials have opted to prioritize getting first doses to people. He is frustrated that authorities have taken so long to respond, and noted they did so after LGBTQ politicians in his community raised their voices.

“I think the saddest thing is there are people who are getting monkeypox now who tried to get that vaccine over the last month-and-a-half and couldn’t get one, who are sick and are in pain and are going to be out of work potentially for two to six weeks,” he said.

Wiener had urged local and state officials to declare a health emergency, which he said would give the city and counties greater flexibility to respond to the growing outbreak. For example, it would streamline getting test results to people and allow a broader array of providers to perform vaccinations.

Wiener, who is gay, also noted the parallels to the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.

“I feel like this is like deja vu — that once again, gay men are getting attacked and demonized and blamed as we get sick, and that we can never tolerate that,” he said.

In the early 1980s, the US government was slow to react as the AIDS epidemic ravaged gay communities in San Francisco and elsewhere. Groups like ACT UP emerged to push for action to fight AIDS. That struggle has echoes today.

Despite the problems with vaccine supply, federal officials said Thursday that the country’s monkeypox outbreak can still be stopped, amid worries that the US has missed the window to contain the virus.

The monkeypox virus spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact, which includes sex, kissing, breathing at close range, and sharing bedding and clothing, the public health department said. Health officials are asking people who could be at risk to cover exposed skin when out in crowds and to watch out for symptoms, such as fever, blisters and rashes.

The World Health Organization over the weekend declared the monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries a global emergency.

___

Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon. Associated Press writer Janie Har also contributed to this story.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a state of emergency Thursday over the rapidly growing number of monkeypox cases in the city.

The legal action, which goes into effect Monday, allows officials to mobilize personnel and resources and cut through red tape to get ahead of the mounting public health crisis. City officials hope that the declaration will also pressure the federal government to increase the available supply of the monkeypox vaccine.

“We are at a very scary place,” Breed said at a press conference held at City Hall on Thursday. “We don’t want to be ignored by the federal government.”

Earlier this week, San Francisco had to shut down its primary monkeypox vaccination clinic at SF General Hospital for the second time this month after it again ran out of doses, turning away long lines of people. The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) said it was expecting to receive an additional 4,220 doses of the vaccine this week, bringing the total number of vaccines received to roughly 12,000 — about a third of the supply they’ve requested from the federal government.

“We have a solution in the vaccines and we want to make sure that everyone who is requesting a vaccine gets one,” Breed said.

News of the declaration — which comes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — was welcomed by LGBTQ+ advocates who have grown increasingly frustrated by what they call a lackluster response from the city and the federal government to a virus that can infect anyone, but has so far primarily affected communities of gay and bisexual men, and men who have sex with men.

“We know the challenges of what happens in San Francisco when we put public health on the back burner,” said Breed. “During the AIDS crisis … San Francisco was virtually left on its own to fend for itself.”

During the initial onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco during the 1980s, the majority of infections were among gay and bisexual men, and men who have sex with men. City Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax praised the way local care providers reacted to HIV/AIDS back then and said that response has informed the way San Francisco is responding to monkeypox now.

“As a gay man who came out and did my medical training during the peak of the AIDS epidemic,” Colfax said, “I personally and professionally experienced the indifference, the homophobia and the stigma by the medical and public health institutions in regard to prioritizing HIV prevention and care.”

“But San Francisco’s community-driven and responsive care systems were a notable exception.”

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San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) on July 28 announced a local emergency declaration to strengthen the City’s preparedness and response to the rapidly rising cases of Monkeypox. This action will expedite and streamline the availability of resources to better respond to this developing health emergency.

The declaration of a local emergency is a legal action that will mobilize city resources, accelerate emergency planning, streamline staffing, coordinate agencies across the city, allow for future reimbursement by the state and federal governments and raise awareness throughout San Francisco about how everyone can stop the spread of Monkeypox in our community. It went into effect on August 1.

“San Francisco showed during COVID that early action is essential for protecting public health,” said Mayor London Breed. “We know that this virus impacts everyone equally — but we also know that those in our LGBTQ+ community are at greater risk right now. Many people in our LGBTQ+ community are scared and frustrated. This local emergency will allow us to continue to support our most at-risk, while also better preparing for what’s to come.”

Currently, SFDPH has confirmed 261 cases of monkeypox in San Francisco. There are reportedly 799 cases in California, over 4,600 cases in the United States, and more than 19,000 cases globally (in 76 countries).

“We need to be prepared and this declaration will allow us to serve the city better,” said Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax. “Our COVID-19 response has taught us that it is imperative that we mobilize city resources. The declaration helps us ensure we have all the tools available to augment our outreach, testing and treatment, especially to the LGBTQ+ who remain at the highest risk for Monkeypox .”

“San Francisco is an epicenter for the country. Thirty percent of all cases in California are in San Francisco,” said San Francisco Public Health Officer Dr. Suzanne Philip. “We have always been on the forefront of advocacy and action for LGBTQ+ health and I’m issuing this declaration to reaffirm our commitment to the wellbeing of these communities and to allow us to move more quickly to obtain and distribute the resources needed to help those disproportionately impacted.”

As Monkeypox cases continue to increase in San Francisco, the demand for vaccine remains high and additional supply is needed to stop community spread. This week, San Francisco is expected to receive 4,220 doses of Monkeypox vaccine. SFDPH initially requested 35,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine to meet the needs of San Franciscans. Including this week’s allocation, to date the City has only received approximately 12,000 doses.

“I’m grateful that San Francisco, under the leadership of Mayor Breed, understands the deep public health threat that Monkeypox poses,” said Senator Scott Wiener. “San Francisco was at the forefront of the public health responses to HIV and COVID-19, and we will be at the forefront when it comes to Monkeypox. We can’t and won’t leave the LGTBQ+ community out to dry.

”While the Monkeypox virus impacts all people, data shows significant spread in San Francisco’s LGTBQ+ community at higher rates. However, anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, can be infected and spread monkeypox. The local emergency declaration will also provide adequate support for San Francisco’s LGTBQ+ population.

“I am grateful to our Public Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip for declaring this State of Emergency,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. “In the face of a frustratingly slow federal response, it is all the more important that we be able to mobilize all available local resources to get vaccines into arms as quickly and equitably as possible.”

“I strongly support our local public health authorities’ decision to declare a public health emergency for Monkeypox, and I think it’s important for San Franciscans to understand that this isn’t about alarmism but preparedness,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “It’s a prudent step, which aligns with recent moves by the World Health Organization and the US Department of Health and Human Services. I think it also reflects the ‘San Francisco Model’ of care, which is rooted in our City’s early response to the AIDS Crisis a generation ago, and which put us far ahead of other cities’ response to COVID-19 in 2020. It prioritizes the health and safety of at-risk populations in San Francisco, and I’ll be supporting it at the Board of Supervisors.”

The City has been working diligently to increase the implementation of testing, treatment, and vaccine distribution in response to the spread of the Monkeypox virus. San Francisco has a significant number of Monkeypox cases and lacks sufficient vaccine supply for the number of people in need. SFDPH will continue to request additional vaccine allocations from the state and distribute them to community clinics, health systems, and other locations where they are needed.

Additionally, SFDPH is also reaching out to communities to raise awareness and education about monkeypox, the city’s response, and ensure clinicians remain well informed about testing, infection control, and management of monkeypox as the health emergency develops.

Monkeypox spreads through prolonged skin-to-skin contact, which includes sex, kissing, breathing at very close range, and sharing bedding and clothing.

While SFDPH continues to advocate for more vaccines for our City, here are some additional preventative measures you can take to reduce your risk of infection:

• Consider limiting opportunities that put you in close skin-to-skin contact with others

So see

•Stay home if you do not feel well and encourage your friends to do the same

•Call your doctor if you are experiencing a rash or sores

• Talk with your sexual partners about yours and their health

If you have symptoms:

• Talk to a healthcare provider as soon as possible

•Avoid skin-to-skin, or close contact with others

•Avoid sharing your bed while you have the rash

•Do your best to keep a healthy distance from othersTo find additional guidance on monkeypox, including local case counts, and updates about vaccine supply, please visit sf.gov/monkeypox

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The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission declared a water shortage on Tuesday and urged nearly 3 million of its customers in San Francisco and three other Bay Area counties to take shorter showers and conserve water.

The commission unanimously agreed to a commitment to voluntarily reduce the city’s water use by a total of 10% compared to water use from July 2019 to June 2020.

This news comes after two consecutive winters of drought. The 2021-2022 rainy season got off to a wet start with two atmospheric rivers soaking the region, but the last week has been dry and no significant rain is forecast.

“With California still suffering from devastating drought and uncertainty this rainy season, we must make tough decisions to ensure our water source continues to be reliable and dependable,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement.

“Year after year, the San Franciscans strive to conserve our most precious resource, resulting in one of the lowest water usage rates in California. ” She said.

The commission provides water to residents of San Francisco and wholesale water to customers in parts of Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. The statement calls for a 5% reduction in water use in San Francisco and 13.7% in wholesale customers. The cuts are based on fiscal year 2019-2020 levels, the commission said.

San Franciscans are among the most efficient water users in the state. SF residents use an average of 42 gallons of water per person per day, less than half the national average of about 90 gallons, the commission said. Wholesale customers consume an average of 63.4 gallons per person per day.

“We are in a drought with far-reaching consequences and it is clear that we all have to do more to combat it,” said SFPUC Managing Director Dennis Herrera. “The San Franciscans have done their part and have some of the lowest water usage in the state. This water scarcity declaration will help all of our customers pull together and move in the same direction.”

As part of the declaration, the Commission will introduce a “temporary drought surcharge” of 5% for water and wastewater customers. The surcharge will come into force on April 1, 2022 and will be lifted after the declaration of emergency has expired.

Part of the Emergency Declaration will also include a public awareness campaign on water saving, consisting of media advertising in multiple languages, prompting customers to take water saving measures such as repairing leaky toilets, installing low flow faucets and using outdoor water to reduce, so the city officials said.

Over the summer, California Governor Gavin Newsom urged all California residents to reduce water use by 15%. According to the federal map of the US Drought Monitor, 80% of California is in extreme drought.

Bay City News contributed to this story.

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San Francisco has some of the most environmentally conscious water users in California, and its reservoirs contain enviable reserves, a crucial resource two years after a nationwide drought.

Now the city is demanding even less consumption from its water customers.

Members of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission voted Tuesday to declare a water shortage emergency and adopt a system-wide reduction in water use by 10%.

They want to get there by urging city residents and businesses to cut water usage by 5%, and urging more than two dozen government agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties that buy water from San Francisco to save even more by reducing water consumption by 14. reduce %.

The statement requires the city to add a temporary surcharge of up to 5% on city users’ water bills – the amount they charge customers – to ensure prices do not fall below what the city is paying for the Running their water systems costs. The surcharge is measured by water consumption in the 2019-2020 financial year, a period chosen before the pandemic. At most, consumer bills are expected to increase by about $ 6 per month.

Steven Ritchie, assistant director general for water at SFPUC, said at the meeting Tuesday that the planned cuts are intended to offset the long-term effects of the drought on the city’s water resources. The October storms brought temporary relief to northern California’s water reserves, but they weren’t enough to offset the effects of two dry winters.

“It doesn’t look like storms are on the horizon,” said Ritchie. “Sure, recent storms have helped, but the drought is still going on.”

A rainwater collection system helps save water in Zan Sterling’s house.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

San Francisco’s reservoir supply remains fairly robust at nearly 73% capacity, just below the 80% capacity typical for this time of year. But about a third of the supply is off-limits due to government restrictions imposed amid the drought.

Public Utilities Commission officials announced they would return to the commissioners next year to discuss the possibility of increasing prices for about two dozen wholesale customers including Alameda County and the towns of Hayward, Daly City and Sunnyvale who have their water buy from the city.

San Franciscans consume an average of about 42 gallons of water each day, less than the national average of 90 gallons.

Saving water means, among other things, turning off the tap while you lather your hands with soap and brush your teeth. On a larger scale, water collection systems can be used to collect rainwater for use in gardens.

Zan Sterling, who works to reduce water consumption at her Bernal Heights home, checks a clay crock that she uses for her plants.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

In Bernal Heights, Zan Sterling welcomes the call to save more water.

Sterling said some of her earliest memories of her childhood in South Bay were in the 1970s, when everyone stopped using sprinklers and the lawn turned brown.

“It went from flushing the toilet to ‘If it’s yellow, make it milder,'” said Sterling.

She has installed a special toilet with a tap on the tank that flushes with the water for hand washing. She built a system to collect the water that ran off an awning for use in her garden. She buried clay pots at the base of her backyard fruit trees, an age-old method of collecting rainwater and draining it into the ground when the ground is dry.

“We should all save water – 5% isn’t that much,” said Sterling.

Alameda County Water District

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Burlingame city

California Water Supply – Bear Gulch District

California Water Service – Mid-Peninsula District

California Water Service – South San Francisco District

Coastside County Water District

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Estero urban improvement district

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Hillsborough town

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Central Peninsula Water District

City of Millbrae

City of Milpitas

City with a view of the mountains

North Coast County Water District

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City of Santa Clara

Stanford University

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Westborough County Water District

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However, at Tuesday’s meeting, there were some concerns about the impact of the SFPUC’s decision.

The declaration of emergency could allow the SFPUC to bypass government restrictions on water abstraction due to the drought. The State Water Resources Control Board has ordered San Francisco to stop withdrawing water from the Tuolumne River to fill its reservoirs, but the declaration allows the city to apply for an exemption to withdraw some river water.

Peter Drekmeier, political director of the Tuolumne River Trust conservation group, has called on commissioners to withhold their vote so they can discuss in more depth the implications of their decisions for the rest of California. The salmon river has decreased in recent years and the flows in rivers have decreased, he said in a previous interview.

“Our concern is that the Tuolumne River is in really bad shape,” said Drekmeier. “It has the worst salmon yields on our Central Valley rivers.”

The commissioners did not respond to Drekmeier’s concerns. The five commissioners unanimously approved the declaration.

SFPUC President Anson Moran described the statement as a normal move during the drought. Ritchie, the PUC’s water manager, said it can be lifted once the city reaches its goals.

That would end the surcharge.

In an earlier version of this story, the process for a water user surcharge was misrepresented. The surcharge remains at 5% until the breaking news is canceled.

Julie Johnson is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: julie.johnson@sfchronicle.com. Twitter @juliejohnson

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The San Francisco states were used nationwide as fodder for Fox News and other conservative media outlets as a sign of the disorder allegedly caused by liberal governance. In San Francisco, opponents of District Attorney Chesa Boudin have tried to use clutter and high-profile incidents of retail theft to drive product recalls. This week Ms. Breed used a more high-pitched language than even the harshest critics of her town.

Their announcement came as mayors across the country grapple with an increase in gun violence, murders and overdose deaths.

Ms. Breed made a list of initiatives aimed at preventing street sales of stolen property, increasing police surveillance powers and pressuring drug users to seek treatment. Ms. Breed said the declaration of emergency would reduce red tape and increase resources for the police, who, she said, have already started “arresting people who have held this neighborhood hostage” during warrant searches .

Some who work at the tenderloin said they were encouraged by Ms. Breed’s announcement.

One block from an abandoned playground, Hanh Huynh, 33, said the Vietnamese grocery store she works at has been robbed frequently and that she had recently moved because she was concerned about raising her 2-year-old in the area. Ali Baalouach, 44, said homeless people often stole the groceries he sold in his father’s halal grocery store. “I love the mayor,” he said. “Listen to her, follow the rules and do what you have to do.”

Fatou Sadio, 37, who lives two blocks from Tenderloin and does frequent shopping in the area, said she was happy with the crackdown on drugs and homelessness. “You go out your door and have to be careful,” she said, “because someone is sleeping there, using needles, and pooping.”

But not everyone welcomed the news from the mayor.

“Anyone who lives or works in the Tenderloin knows absolutely that we need to do more,” said Laura Thomas, director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Harm Reduction Policy, adding that increased criminalization and coercion are not working. “We don’t have enough services, we don’t have enough housing, we don’t have enough emergency shelters.”

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