The Phoenix Review provides analysis on the presence of right-wing forces shaping Bay Area politics. Learn more about the billionaire agenda in short takes from the Bay Area's most insightful political observers
Now that we are removed from the despotism of the last century, there is a tendency to deny the signs that signal the beginning of fascistic policy. The notion that the technocrats who influence and run our city are essentially benign is the result of careful branding, one that allows
You wouldn’t know it from corporate media, but there’s a mobilized, determined movement protecting San Francisco from a deepening crisis under a rising authoritarian government. Everyday people -- organizers, protestors, activists, and labor leaders -- are doing the real work of fighting back against the ethnic cleansing campaign
The brief saga of Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz in San Francisco reveals something about the mayoral administration of Daniel Lurie. For those of you who have been paying attention to other things in recent weeks, following the recall of Joel Engardio, the supervisor for District Four, which includes most of the
Emilio Garcia-Ruiz came to San Francisco in the fall of 2021, taking the helm of the city’s largest daily newspaper. Garcia-Ruiz had previously served as digital editor at the Washington Post and many hoped his arrival would signal an era of serious journalism at the San Francisco Chronicle. It
One of the many ways the second Trump administration feels different from the first one is that this time it seems to be hitting San Francisco much more directly. During the first go around, whenever I was in San Francisco the horrors, excesses, cruelty, incompetence and crimes of Trump felt
JJ Smith became a local internet star by posting videos of drug users in the city’s long-troubled Tenderloin neighborhood. Smith’s videos became fodder for members of the Astroturf Network as it attacked progressive elected officials including former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Supervisors Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin and
Not long after the new year began, political provocateur and Pied Piper of right-wing San Francisco Garry Tan announced his departure from Astroturf group, GrowSF. Using his famously hyperactive X/Twitter account, Tan issued a terse message. He was abandoning local politics to spend more time in Washington, D.C.
As recently as a few years ago many would have identified San Francisco as the capital of liberal, or at least Democratic, America. The Vice-President was from the Bay Area and had gotten her start in elected office in San Francisco. One former mayor of San Francisco was the governor
Gil Duran was the first journalist to identify the strange right-wing beliefs being enthusiastically embraced by Bay Area tech leaders. The Network State, a scheme for tech elites to exit democracy and create their own sovereign states, served as a blueprint for their recent involvement in San Francisco elections. As
Conway and Mehta contributed $50,000 each for a chance to cozy up to the newly elected mayor. Coming, as it does, on the heels of Lurie’s appointment of yet a third tech billionaire, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, as co-chair of his transition team, the news is worrying. Elected,
Mayor Daniel Lurie faces a choice. He can continue to embrace the doom loop narrative instrumental to his election victory, or declare victory it and take on the hard work of governance. The doom loop narrative reframed how much of the country and world viewed San Francisco politics, and sought,
Mayor Daniel Lurie raised eyebrows when he announced that Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, as a co-chair for his transition team. Although many expected the mayor to follow through on his promises to seek advice from the tech industry as he attempted to “open San Francisco for business,” the
Biden’s comments, a bit late and more than a dollar short, were a clear shot at billionaire Elon Musk and the tech barons now surrounding President Donald Trump. Simply being extremely wealthy does not an oligarch make; undue influence does. Musk is a classic example, acting on Trump’s
Days after GrowSF’s Garry Tan announced his intention to step away from local politics, TogetherSF delivered similarly shocking news. The group, founded by billionaire Michael Moritz, said it would “merge” with Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, leaving TogetherSF’s chief executive Kanishka Cheng without a job. TogetherSF and
The message was brief, even by the standards of Twitter/X. “I am stepping back from GrowSF,” Tweeted Garry Tan, San Francisco centi-millionaire and political provocateur. “I’m spending more time on startups and AI and in DC this year.” With that, Tan announced his exit from city politics after