By Natalie Dolce
October 25, 2023 at 03:40 PM

Tidewater has tremendous confidence in the long-term prospects of the Bay Area.

SAN FRANCISCO—Tidewater Capital, a San Francisco-based real estate investor and developer focused on the Bay Area, has exceeded its initial target of $200 million in equity commitments for its third discretionary fund with a diverse pool of limited partners, including university endowments, charitable foundations, and family offices, participating in a vehicle with a $250 million cap.

“We have tremendous confidence in the long-term prospects of the Bay Area,” said Tidewater Managing Principal Craig Young. “While capital markets broadly have been deeply challenging, both our returning and our new investment partners have placed a great deal of confidence in our ability to navigate a rapidly evolving market to capitalize on a Bay Area rebound.”

Tidewater will pursue investments across multiple property types and the firm will execute renovation and repositioning business plans, as well as select entitlement and ground-up development opportunities.

“With TC Fund III, we look forward to continuing to invest in our core product types of residential, industrial, and office, while also exploring select opportunities across niche asset classes as we’ve done historically,” said Tidewater Principal Ross Stackhouse, in a prepared release. “We will target value-add returns while exploring core plus opportunities with unique avenues to upside and select development opportunities with strong downside protection.”

Tidewater’s previous investment vehicles have capitalized an array of projects across the Bay Area, including in San Francisco, the East Bay, and the North Bay. Notable prior investments include 1028 Market Street, a 193-unit mixed-use apartment building in the Mid-Market neighborhood of San Francisco which began its life as an innovative Food Hall; and 888 Post Street, a 30,000 square foot commercial asset which Tidewater converted to a Navigation Center for Transitional-Aged Youth experiencing homelessness. Tidewater’s most recent fund also acquired Eastmont Town Center at 7200 Bancroft Avenue in Oakland, a 540,000-square-foot commercial asset housing an assortment of government and healthcare related tenants.

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By Jamie Chisholm

Critical information for the U.S. trading days

Wall Street is undecided about trying for another rally on Friday, according to early trading in futures. That’s in keeping with the struggle it has been of late, with the S&P 500 SPX down six of the last eight sessions amid August’s bearish tendencies.

Some technical factors are causing concern. The Nasdaq 100 NDX is in danger of decisively falling back below its 50-day moving average support trend. Apple (AAPL) did so a week ago, and now its relative strength index, a gauge of momentum, has swiftly dropped to 30, signaling the stock may soon enter short-term oversold territory.

Over the same short period, the yield on the 10-year Treasury BX:TMUBMUSD10Y has twitched within a range of roughly 4% to 4.2% as investors try to get a handle on varying inflation and economic growth readings.

So, what’s an investor to do amid such uncertainty? Well, buy the companies that help traders to trade it, reckons VGI Partners, the Australia-based fund manager. In it’s semi-annual investor letter, covering performance to the end of June, VGI highlighted the top ten long investments in its Global Investments fund , three of which provide, to varying degrees, what may be termed the plumbing of the financial markets.

With a weighting of 7% is the London Stock Exchange , which VGI is keen to point out has transformed from a traditional exchange into a data and analytics group. After its purchase of data group Refinitiv in 2021, the LSE now generates only 3% of revenues from its legacy cash equities exchange.

Deutsche Börse represents about 8% of the portfolio and is deemed atractive says VGI because it provides trading, clearing, pre/post-trading and data and analytic services in four key operating segments: Trading & Clearing, Fund Services, Security Services and Data & Analytics.

DB is a “well-diversified exchange group whose activities touch on most aspects of European capital markets, offering a blend of transactional and non-transactional revenue exposure,” VGI adds.

But top holding is CME Group (CME), with a 9% weighting. CME operates futures and derivatives exchanges, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Dow Jones Index Services.

VGI particularly likes CME’s “effective monopoly” of trading in interest rate derivatives. “Demand for interest rate derivatives is driven by volatility in interest rate markets, whose effect is compounded by the number of bonds held by those looking to manage interest rate risk and, by extension, market liquidity,” the fund manger notes. And the chart below illustrates this strong relationship.

VGI expects the growth in the size of the U.S. Treasury market, particularly in relation to privately held US treasuries as the Fed undergoes a balance sheet unwind, to provide important support to a CME’s interest rate derivatives business. CME should also benefit — as are other exchanges — from a boost to net interest income from the collateral balances it holds.

“We believe that CME’s assets are critical pieces of market infrastructure and will be recognized as such in the future,” VGI concludes.

Markets

U.S. stock-index futures , , are little changed as benchmark Treasury yields BX:TMUBMUSD10Y dip. The dollar DXY is lower, while oil prices slip and gold gains.

Try your hand at the Barron’s crossword puzzle and sudoku games, now running daily along with a weekly digital jigsaw based on the week’s cover story. To see all puzzles, click here.

The buzz

Economic data on Friday, include the July producer price index report, due at 8:30 a.m., and the August consumer sentiment reading at 10 a.m.. Both times Eastern.

UBS Group (UBS) has terminated a 9 billion Swiss franc ($10.27 billion) loss-protection agreement and a CHF100 billion public-liquidity backstop guaranteed by the Swiss government that were put in place at the time of its takeover of troubled rival Credit Suisse.

The pound rose back above $1.27 after data showed the U.K. economy grew 0.5% in June, more than twice the 0.2% expected.

Country Garden shares fell nearly 6% to below HK$1 for the first time as China’s biggest homebuilder warned of a loss and suffered another ratings downgrade of its debt.

Shares of Cano Health Inc. (CANO) are down more than 50% in Friday’s premarket after the primary-care provider and health-management platform said there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating.

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The chart

Just a reminder from Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies, of why some investors are getting twitchy about the recent rally in oil pries because of how it may clobber the happy narrative that major central banks can soon stop raising interest rates.

“The correlation between the Brent crude oil price and the five-year forward inflation expectation rate has been 0.88 since 2011,” says Wood. “This is potentially an awkward development in the context of the prevailing narrative that both the Federal Reserve and the ECB are all but done in this tightening cycle even if the official mantra in both cases remains ‘data dependent’.”

Top tickers

Here were the most active stock-market tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m. Eastern.

Ticker Security name
TSLA Tesla
MULN Mullen Automotive
AMC AMC Entertainment
NIO Nio
WE WeWork
NVDA Nvidia
GME GameStop
TTOO T2 Biosystems
AAPL Apple
NKLA Nikola

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STOCKHOLM, March 21 – Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, has sold all its shares in ailing US lender First Republic Bank (FRC.N) at a $728 million loss, Alecta spokesman Jacob Lapidus said on Tuesday.

Alecta was hit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as the pension fund was invested in three niche banks, all facing liquidity fears.

San Francisco-based First Republic Bank lost 90% of its value in March and S&P Global downgraded its credit rating to junk status.

Reporting by Marie Mannes, editing by Essi Lehto

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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The state Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for San Francisco to pay for additional childcare and early education services with commercial rental taxes approved by 51% of the city’s electorate in June 2018.

The move, Proposition C, was an electoral initiative aimed at raising $ 146 million a year, primarily to fund childcare and education for children under 6 years of age. It has been challenged in court by anti-tax advocates who argued that electoral action to raise local taxes requires approval from two-thirds of voters.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, named after the 1978 California tax cut sponsor Prop. 13, relied on a subsequent government initiative, Prop. 218 of 1996, which required two-thirds of voters approval for each of a. the proposed tax increase required local government to fund specific programs.

But California appeals courts recently ruled that the two-thirds requirement does not apply to actions taken by signing initiative motions on local ballot papers, as they are actions of voters, not local governments. That was the conclusion reached by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco last June when it upheld another city-wide initiative, a November 2018 move to increase corporate taxes to fund programs for the homeless. Another chamber of the court issued a similar judgment in January and upheld Prop. C of June 2018.

The power of initiative is “one of the most valuable rights of our democratic process” and must be interpreted broadly, said appellate judge Mark Simons in a 3-0 judgment, citing the earlier decision. He said the two-thirds majority of Prop. 218 only applies to measures that are decided by a city council, a supervisory body or a school board and presented to the electorate.

The Jarvis Association appealed to the state Supreme Court, which unanimously denied review on Wednesday. The court also denied review of the earlier appeal decision that allowed San Francisco to fund homeless programs with $ 250 million to $ 300 million a year in new taxes on gross income from companies with annual sales in excess of $ 50 million.

The June 2018 vote included a 3.5% tax on business income from leasing commercial space and a 1% tax on leasing warehouse space, excluding companies that receive up to $ 1 million in rental income annually .

In response to the verdict, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, “San Francisco voters have the right to direct democracy and self-government. This cements our victory and ensures long-term help for working families. “

Jarvis Association attorney Laura Dougherty said the court had falsely allowed “another loophole” in the nationwide vote to curb tax increases. As a result, she said, “If politicians simply copy and paste a government tax proposal into a citizens’ initiative, they can dramatically reduce the voter approval required for enforcement.”

Although the state’s Supreme Court did not make a decision of its own as to whether Prop. 218 applies to initiatives, the court interpreted the measure narrowly in one 2017 case. In determining that a Southern California city’s tax initiative was not covered by any other provision of Prop. 218 that required special elections for local tax measures, the Supreme Court said that neither the text nor the context of Prop. 218 “supports the conclusion, that the term “local government” should encompass the electorate. “

Jonathan Coupal, president of the Jarvis Association, said his organization is ready to support another referendum effort that requires approval from two-thirds of voters for any increase in local taxes for specific purposes.

The case is Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association vs. San Francisco, S267516.

Bob Egelko is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko

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VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (WAVY) – A couple who paid $ 10,000 to a contractor to install a defective, undersized HVAC system has a payment from the Fund for the recovery of transactions of the contractor.

Joe and Toby Rissin commissioned Antwain Chatman and his company HCEC to install the system in autumn 2018. They say the system never worked properly for the next 10 months, despite Chatman’s frequent visits and assurances.

The Rissins contacted 10 On Your Side and we were able to tell Chatman on camera that he would fix the issues. Then he went a step further and visited the Rissins and told them he would refund their money and remove the faulty equipment. In the end, he didn’t do either, and the couple never heard from Chatman again.

HVAC Contractor Says He Will Give Beach Couple A Refund For Nearly $ 10,000 Beach Couple Sues HVAC Contractors In Court

“I hate to be taken advantage of,” said Joe Rissin Wednesday morning from his home near Virginia Wesleyan University.

The Rissins think Chatman is bold and bold, but not believable.

“I was really surprised that he came here and in front of the camera he admitted he was wrong and then ran away,” said Toby Rissin.

10 On Your Side told them about the state Fund for the recovery of transactions of the contractor in Richmond.

“It takes more than ‘He did a bad job,'” said attorney Brian Miller, who represented the Rissins for their sovereign wealth fund claim. Miller says he can count on one hand the awards he’s received from the fund over the past 30 years.

“[Chatman] obviously taken a job he wasn’t qualified for, but that alone wouldn’t have allowed them to recover, ”Miller said.

In order to reclaim money, the fund needs two key elements: the contractor must have a license and the consumer must provide evidence of fraud. Chatman was licensed for Class A contractors in Virginia.

For the Rissins, the trail of evidence consisted of a combination of text messages Chatman had sent them and a series of investigative stories from 10 On Your Side.

“The video clips that [10 On Your Side was] and the text messages he sent Mr. Rissin making all sorts of false promises, “Miller said was the evidence necessary to support her case.

The Rissins paid a second contractor $ 16,000 for a proper system. They received the maximum of $ 20,000 from the fund but had to pay legal fees and other expenses and received $ 13,200. Not to mention the inconvenience of 10 months of being too cold in winter, too hot in summer, and hours of chasing a contractor and dealing with documents, lawyers, and government regulators.

But Toby Rissin feels “fantastic, I’m so glad someone recommended you. I don’t know what we would have done without it [10 On Your Side] and you recommended a great lawyer. “

At one point, Chatman communicated with WAVY-TV 10 about the Rissins and several other clients who had complained about his work. We tried to contact him on Wednesday afternoon. He didn’t send our message back immediately.

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Tiger Global Management, the New York-based investment powerhouse, is raising a new $ 3.75 billion venture fund called Tiger Private Investment Partners XIV, which is slated to close in March, according to a recent letter to its investors.

Despite its title – partners may be superstitious – the fund is Tiger Global’s thirteenth venture fund, and it follows the company’s twelfth venture fund, which closed exactly a year ago and also has $ 3.75 billion in capital commitments Has.

A company spokesman declined to comment this morning on the letter or Tiger Global’s broader fundraising strategy.

It’s a lot of capital to target even in the midst of a sea of ​​huge new venture vehicles. New Enterprise Associates closed its newest fund for $ 3.6 billion last year. Lightspeed Venture Partners announced $ 4 billion in three funds shortly thereafter. Andreessen Horowitz, the youngest of the three companies, announced in November that it had closed two funds totaling $ 4.5 billion.

At the same time, Tiger Global apparently has a strong argument to introduce potential limited partners. In the past year alone, numerous portfolio companies went public or were taken over.

Yatsen Holding, the nearly five-year-old parent company of China-based cosmetics giant Perfect Diary, went public in November and is now valued at $ 14 billion. (Tiger Global’s involvement didn’t deserve a mention in the company’s regulatory filings.)

Tiger Global also tacitly invested in cloud-based data warehousing company Snowflake, and while it wasn’t big enough to be included in the company’s S-1, even a tiny ownership stake would be valuable as Snowflake is now on Estimated $ 85 billion.

Tiger Global backed Root Insurance, a nearly six-year insurance company based in Columbus, Ohio that went public in November and currently has a market cap of $ 5.3 billion. Tiger owned 10.3%, which went into the offer.

The story goes on

As for mergers and acquisitions, Tiger Global saw at least three of its companies swallowed up by larger tech companies in 2020, including selling all of Postmates’ shares to Uber for $ 2.65 billion; the sale of $ 7 billion in cash and stock of Credit Karma to Intuit; and the sale of Kustomer, which focused on customer service platforms and chatbots, to Facebook for $ 1 billion.

Tiger Global, with roots in hedge fund management, launched its private equity business in 2003, led by Chase Coleman, who previously worked for Tiger Management for hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson; and Scott Shleifer, who joined the company in 2002 after three years with the Blackstone Group. Lee Fixel, who was supposed to be an important contributor to the business, joined in 2006.

Shleifer focused on China, Fixel focused on India and the rest of the company’s support team (which now employs 22 investment professionals) helped find business in Brazil and Russia before it began to look more aggressively on opportunities in the US focus

Each investment decision was ultimately made by each of the three. Fixel left the company in 2019 to start his own investment firm Addition. Now Shleifer and Coleman are the sole decision makers in the company.

Whether the company will eventually replace Fixel is an open question, though it doesn’t seem like the plan. Tiger Global is known for encouraging investors into its operations rather than hiring outsiders, so a new top lieutenant would almost certainly come from its current team.

Meanwhile, the company’s private equity arm, which has written everything from Series A (Warby Parker) checks to checks for hundreds of millions of dollars, currently manages $ 30 million in assets compared to its 49 Billions of dollars, the Tiger is being handled more broadly.

A year ago, Tiger Global, which has 100 employees, reportedly managed assets of $ 36.2 billion.

According to the company’s investor letter, the company’s gross internal return for its 12 previous funds is 32% while the net IRR is 24%.

Tiger Global’s investors include a mix of sovereign wealth funds, trusts, trusts, pensions and its own employees who, taken together, are currently considered the company’s largest investors.

Tiger Global’s biggest wins to date included a $ 200 million bet on e-commerce giant JD.com, which grossed the company $ 5 billion. It also settled more than $ 1 billion on China’s online services platform Meituan, which went public in 2018, according to WSJ.

Tiger Global also reportedly raised $ 3 billion from the majority sale of India’s Flipkart to Walmart in 2018, although the Indian government has recently attempted to reclaim $ 1.9 billion from the company, claiming it did have outstanding taxes on the sale of their stake in the company.

A finding that might surprise even Tiger Global’s investors, who are affiliated with the related fitness company Peloton, which at the time of Peloton’s 2019 IPO (a deal that Fixel allegedly brought to the table with Flipkart) was 20% owned. With the addition of new users during the pandemic, Peloton – which was valued at $ 4 billion by private investors and instantly doubled as a public company – now has a market cap of $ 48.6 billion.

Tiger Global has invested its current fund in around 50 companies over the past 12 months.

The latest bets include Blend, an eight-year-old San Francisco-based digital lending platform, which yesterday announced $ 300 million in Series G funding, including Coatue, with a post-money rating of 3.3 Announced billions of dollars.

It also spearheaded the newly announced $ 450 million Series C Round for Checkout.com, an eight-year-old London-based online payments platform now valued at $ 15 billion. And it wrote a follow-up check to Cockroach Labs, the nearly six-year-old New York-based SQL distributed database that has just raised $ 160 million in Series E funding valued at $ 2 billion just eight months after raising $ 86.6 million Round D.

Another of their newest and biggest bets is focused on the online education platform Zuowebang in China. Back in June, Tiger Global spearheaded a $ 750 million Series E round at the company.

It came back last month, spearheading a $ 1.6 billion round in the distance learning company.

Pictured: Scott Shleifer, Partner and Head of Private Equity at Tiger Global Management, right, speaks to an attendee during the UJA-Federation of New York Wall Street Dinner in New York, on Wednesday, December 14, 2011.

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As the water supply for the San Antonians continues and a day-long call to boil water has been lifted for a large part of the community, the local water authority is offering to help revitalize the residents’ frost-damaged pipes.

The San Antonio Water System has launched a new program called Community Pipe Repair (CPR), which aims to assist private customers with emergency repairs to damaged pipes in their homes so that they can regain access to reliable running water – even if they don’t possible is a plumber afford.

“The winter storm is over, but the recovery is just beginning,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg in a press release announcing the fund on Monday. “Many of our friends and neighbors have immediate needs that they cannot afford, but they cannot afford not to meet them.”

As the program has just started, SAWS notes that specific eligibility requirements will be available later this week on their website and after residents fill out an online CPR application, SAWS will be in touch with you within days, to inform residents of their application status.

The CPR program is open to both homeowners and tenants. For homeowners who qualify, SAWS sends a plumber in – free for homeowners – “to perform repairs and restore water flow to key functions: toilets, faucets, bathtubs and showers”. Eligible renters who apply must also obtain owner approval to participate in the program.

The program will prioritize emergency pipe repairs that could endanger the life, health or safety of a building’s occupants. The CPR fund is hosted by the San Antonio Foundation, and SAWS says the program will continue until all funds are used.

While Nirenberg acknowledges the need to raise more funding for the program, it has got off to a good start with early funding from a number of well-known organizations.

“I am pleased to announce that we launched the fund with generous contributions from Spurs Give and Wells Fargo,” said Nirenberg. “The Spurs contributed $ 250,000 to the fund and Wells Fargo has agreed to contribute $ 25,000 so that we can start the CPR fund with $ 275,000.”

The CPR fund was set up after last week’s record breaking winter storm and widespread utility outages that prompted SAWS to issue a citywide notice on Feb.17 about boiling water areas in San Antonio and that residents can reuse their tap water without boiling it.

The notice was lifted in most San Antonio communities after SAWS conducted the required water quality tests and its scientists and experts at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found the area’s tap water to be potable. While parts of San Antonio remain under evidence of boiling water – especially the northeastern region of Bexar County – SAWS continues to test water samples in hopes of releasing those affected areas from the evidence of boiling water soon.

With the lifting of the boiling water notice, SAWS is urging San Antonians to turn off their irrigation systems as water pressure continues to normalize across the city. Additionally, SAWS encourages residents to follow CDC guidelines to ensure their water is safe. These recommendations include:

• Flush the pipes by running each hot and cold water faucet for two minutes

• Rinse, clean and disinfect equipment that uses tap water (ice machines, dishwashers, etc.) according to the manufacturer’s instructions

• running water softener through a regeneration cycle

• Rinse ice machines according to manufacturer’s instructions, including throwing away any ice that remains in the bins and disposing of an extra amount of ice

• Replace filters in refrigerators and other water-consuming devices

• Flush drinking fountains by running them continuously for two minutes

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The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is accepting proposals for “The Dream Keeper Initiative” – formally known as the City Reallocation Fund – under which $120 million from the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff’s Office budgets is being redirected to nonprofits that serve the Black community.

“We know that to actually see true lasting change we need to focus on helping entire families, from early education for kids, to job training and workforce support for their parents, and serve communities that have been systematically harmed by past policies,” said Mayor London Breed.

Half the cash, $60 million, will be spent over the next two years. “Whether the money will be spent this fiscal year or this calendar year will vary depending on when funds are released. They might run over fiscal and calendar years. For instance, grants starting before June 20, 2021 will mostly likely cross over into 2022,” said Sheryl Davis, San Francisco Human Rights Commission executive director.  

Roughly $15 million will be spent to promote community health and well-being, through restorative justice, food security, and Black home ownership programs. Another $7 million will be used to create a guaranteed income program.  Six and a half million dollars will be dedicated to tracking expenditure outcomes and impacts.  Six million dollars will go to Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) training and development programs for youth and adults, supporting preparation program stipends, higher education financial incentives, and arts opportunities. 

Five million dollars will be spent to increase municipal employee diversity, by improving human resources infrastructure to expand Black participation in civil service jobs, particularly in underrepresented roles. Programs that support families and address youth academic and social-emotional learning needs within a cultural and racial equity context will receive $3.6 million, to pay for literacy and early education programs and family engagement, offering families resources, workshops, and access to services. 

Three million dollars will be spent to support Black-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs, with business development, technical assistance, and anti-displacement services. Art and cultural nonprofits in low-income and Black communities will be provided $2.1 million, to help Black-led and Black-serving creatives – theater companies, artists, and artist collaboratives – build the organizational capacity needed to compete for grants. Two million dollars will be spent to create culturally affirming spaces; commercial corridors in historical Black neighborhoods and incubation hubs for small businesses and community groups, where Black cultural events can be held. 

“We are working with several partners and academic institutions to do evaluations and case studies on this project,” Davis said.  She added that the community stressed the need to be able to pilot new ideas and learn from failures.

The first funding round, $687,500, will go to organizations that serve the Black trans community. OEWD will distribute another roughly $250,000 to organizations that assist Black-owned small businesses and entrepreneurship. 

African Americans who have been virtually meeting – including Black San Franciscans, municipal workers, those with historical ties to the City, and individuals who own, operate, or work at businesses in San Francisco – have proposed that funding be allocated to Black theater groups that stage productions that inspire and unite the Black community. Organized under African American Theatre Alliance for Independence, the African American Shakespeare Company, PUSH Dance company, AfroSolo Theater, Cultural Odyssey, and SF Recovery Theater want support for such productions as “Don’t Drop Dead On Stage: A Musician and Performing Artist Survival Guide,” conducted by composer, musician, and arts business specialist Idris Ackamoor; and “Mask Up: We Wear Masks to Save Our Lives,” an online feature by AfroSolo to be presented on Facebook and Instagram. 

The second round of grants will focus on programs which address public safety, provide mental health services, and support youth, seniors, and formerly incarcerated individuals.

“Shortly after that, there will be a call for proposals from organizations that promote home ownership, early education, and provide opportunities for family engagement. It is exciting to see organizations receive funding as folks come together and continue community meetings,” said Davis.

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who serves as Board of Supervisors president, said he and Mayor Breed want Black-led organizations to dictate how resources are distributed from the City Reallocation Fund.

“I consider this to be our first step toward reparations. We are looking at this through a lens of equity. The funding is providing resources for people to thrive and see positive outcomes,” said Walton. “We have to work together to make sure the outcomes are real and are acknowledged.”  

Through online conversations, African Americans defined funding categories and a grant schedule. Meetings were held in June and July, and at least once weekly between September and November, hosted by the Human Rights Commission. Occasionally, San Francisco Police Department officers participated in the gatherings, as Black community members or to listen to concerns about law enforcement practices. 

Sergeant Michael Andraychak, SFPD public information officer, said recommendations from the Alternatives to Policing Steering Committee, a group formed by Mayor Breed last fall, were designed with community involvement in mind rather than from a law enforcement perspective. 

“The Department’s participation thus far involves providing historical background, interpreting police data, and public safety concerns. This group is very enthusiastic about creating a system that would address calls for services which had been traditionally handled by the police.  The approach is a holistic one, looking at socioeconomic issues, equity and inclusion, law reforms, housing, underserved communities, and systems of care already in place, among other challenges,” said Andraychak. 

Nancy Crowley, San Francisco Sheriff’s Office communications specialist and media spokesperson, said her agency is committed to the City’s Racial and Social Equity Action Plan, which mandates that municipal expenditures be driven by equitable outcomes and accountability. SFSO has developed its own plan, Sheriff’s Alliance for Equity, which calls for advancing equity by reducing racial and ethnic-based disparities in SFSO’s activities. 

Phelicia Jones, founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community, a grassroots organization that advocates for police accountability and reform, wants more resources to be dedicated to the Black community. 

“One hundred and twenty million dollars spread out over two years, during a pandemic, is not going to create equity for all the disparities Black San Franciscans are suffering and have suffered in the past. The concerns that the Black community faces are long-term hardships. This is a work in progress,” said Jones. “They have known that Black folks have been concerned about these problems for decades. We want to see changes in how SFPD and SFSO do their jobs as soon as possible. A number of departments, including the Department of Public Health, Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, and the Human Services Agency, have not done a good job of being equitable to the Black community. They have failed to provide adequate services for Black San Franciscans. Funding community organizations that can provide necessary services is appropriate.”  

Melissa Hernandez, a member of the No New SF Jail Coalition, roughly 25 San Franciscans who want less policing and closure of the San Francisco County Jail, wants grants to be directed to help people with criminal convictions find housing and jobs. 

“Right now, the jail is a hotbed for infection. The goal is to help people receive re-entry services that are meaningful and help them stay out,” said Hernandez.

“We borrowed against reserves to provide cash grants for shelter, food, and necessities for members of the Black trans community,” said Aria Sa’id, co-founder and executive director of The Transgender District, a nonprofit that serves the Tenderloin. “We are currently working to provide financial assistance, cultural programming, and funding for entrepreneurship and development among members of the Black trans community.”

The Human Rights Commission provided The Transgender District with funding in 2020. Over the next three years The Transgender District wants to establish a shower program, offer free laundry facilities, and create a wellness center on Sixth Street.

Participating in the HRC-hosted meetings helped Sa’id realize that the Black community is supportive of trans people. “It has been endearing and heartening to see Black women who do not identify as trans stand in solidarity with us. There have been so many people who have spoken out for us, offered financial support, and shown themselves to be allies and advocates. I was apprehensive at first. Going to the meetings has shown me that we are in this together,” said Sa’id. 

Tuquan Harrison, HRC LGBTQI+ advisor, who oversees implementation of policies and funding to support the City’s LGBTQI+ community, said The Transgender District was one of several Black trans-led and serving organizations that HRC supported. 

“The HRC also provided TGI Justice Project and several other organizations with funding, with about $200,000 going to support the Black transgender community and transgender communities of color in San Francisco. These organizations are doing so much to help people remain housed during the pandemic and disperse funds in an equitable manner that the City is learning from them,” said Harrison.

“They can’t fall back on “business as usual” practices,” said Geoffrey Grier, director of SF Recovery Theater, a grassroots organization of actors that stage productions that encourage salvation and hope. “There is the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Black community has been in a social pandemic. Individuals and neighborhoods are suffering because of racism and injustice. Changes need to come now.” 

Grier, who has trained SFPD officers in crisis intervention, said law enforcement agencies prefer to conduct in-house exercises. “To do a fair training, you need to have a neutral third party. The unwillingness to have outside and community input has worked to their detriment. After all these years, we find ourselves here, with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black people killed by law enforcement officers,” said Grier.

Ebon Glenn, director of operations for the San Francisco African American Arts and Culture District (SFAAACD), is pleased that the Black community is brainstorming how to utilize resources, particularly as dedicated to the arts, which “…is self-expression. It’s a way to be able to be heard and in some instances, to have your statement be immortalized on a mural or through a poem that could be a historical document. The arts allow the expression of positivity, unity, and togetherness, that drafting of a positive narrative.” 

 SFAAACD, which has created murals and banners in Bayview, doesn’t intend to apply to the City Reallocation Fund. It receives monies from the Transient Occupancy Tax. Glenn, who participated in the HRC-hosted meetings, said he hopes arts organizations will create work that’s culturally competent, accurately represents the Black community’s history and ethos; intentional, and share significant Black social and historical events. 

“If you put the money in the hands of the right organizations, we could see those dollars go directly to work, funding artists to beautify our neighborhoods, nonprofits that organize youth talent shows, and more,” said Glenn. 

Edward Hatter, Potrero Hill Neighborhood House executive director, wants funds to be used to hire counselors and therapists of color to speak to low-income youth. 

“There has been violence, a lot of shootings during the pandemic. Almost all of the referrals have been to white counselors. Young people clam up when encouraged to talk to someone who doesn’t look like them and doesn’t have training in how to talk to them,” said Hatter.

The number of homicides in San Francisco has risen over the past two years, from 41 in 2019 to 47 in 2020, though in Bayview-Hunters Point the number declined from 14 to 13 over the period. According to the California Partnership for Safe Communities, a violence prevention organization that closely examined all 162 homicides in San Francisco from January 2017 to June 2020, the key to reducing street violence is to “focus on and invest” in a small number of “groups” that have committed the majority of homicides and shootings over the last 3.5 years. 

Hatter said that having many types of services in one location, as offered at Potrero Block X, in the Annex-Terrace housing complex, isn’t helping residents.

“Even during the pandemic, having all the services right where you live is contributing to that “8-block syndrome.” People are not being motivated to unlock themselves from a tight radius. This becomes crippling,” said Hatter. 

“On-site services are a safeguard against displacement, as they provide residents with access to services they need while reducing challenging barriers such as transportation, time and cost,” retorted Damon Harris, vice president of community development for Bridge Housing, which manages Potrero Block X. 

Delia Fitzpatrick, program liaison for Our Kids First, an afterschool program offered at Longfellow Elementary, Guadalupe Elementary, and Denman Middle schools, believes that mental health services for youth will help the Black community as a whole. 

“Strong personal connections help children of color throughout their lives. Counselors and social-emotional training is important, especially during the pandemic. The children can’t play, hug, and talk face to face with people outside their household right now,” said Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick said having online HRC meetings made it easier for her and other childcare professionals to join the larger conversation. “Before the pandemic, it was hard to get Downtown. I had to deal with parking, traffic, and public transportation issues. I needed so much time to get to a meeting, but I was also often needed onsite. With a virtual meeting, I can take time to be a part of the conversation and be visible,” said Fitzpatrick.

Felisia Thibodeaux, executive director of the Southwest Community Corporation, a nonprofit located at 446 Randolph Street which serves older adults and persons living with access and functional needs – concerns obtaining goods and services – in Lakeview-Ocean View, Merced Heights, and Ingleside said funding is needed for outreach to seniors who may be isolated.

“The Black community has been severely affected by racism. The time is now for funding to be directed to communities serving Black seniors and Black-led organizations in marginalized communities,” said Thibodeaux.

Southwest Community Corporation conducts wellness checks in person and by phone. “When we call, they say they are okay. When they open the door, we see what we couldn’t hear over the phone. Our seniors are disheveled and not eating well. They appreciate a conversation and additional resources, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, hygiene and cleaning supplies, and adult diapers. Since the pandemic began, we increased the number of seniors we serve from 40 to close to 200, based on community referrals,” said Thibodeaux.

“These funds will start to reverse the harm done to the Black community,” said Gina Fromer, chief executive officer of Children’s Council of San Francisco, a nonprofit that provides services to families and early childhood educators. “When we reinvest in early childhood education, better health outcomes, and systems that support Black children as they grow, the need for policing in our communities will start to go down.” 

Fromer, a sixth generation San Franciscan who grew up in Bayview, said there’s power in the conversations that the Black community is having.  “We’re able to speak our minds about where funding goes and what we need to accomplish. I’ve learned that if I can’t do something, another individual or organization will. Our collective impact of directing where the money goes and evaluating the changes it makes is bigger than the $120 million. The meetings, and our commitment to change, are restructuring, reestablishing, and reenergizing the City’s Black community,” said Fromer. 

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