The Phoenix Review is a weekly analysis of the right-wing forces shaping local politics through campaign spending. Learn about the billionaire agenda in short takes from the Bay Area’s most thoughtful political observers.
In a few short months, state Senator Scott Wiener may come one step closer to his long-stated goal of replacing Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and attaining a measure of the power that comes with succeeding a Democratic Party icon. Recent polling has Wiener leading what is expected to be a
Where did San Francisco’s environmental movement go? This seems a rather naive question since concern for the climate is everywhere in the city’s political language. But that saturation conceals a troubling shift. Environmentalism in San Francisco has not been defeated in public debate. Rather, despite the indisputable reality
A few weeks ago it was revealed that San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie spent about $1 million on consultants to burnish his image during his first year in office. While the tone of much of this coverage was critical, although conceding that it was perfectly legal, there is another way
Mayor Daniel Lurie recently debuted his nearly $16 billion budget for fiscal year 2025-2026. Mayor Lurie’s proposed budget will close an $800 million-plus budget deficit at the expense of the working class and the city’s most vulnerable. The People’s Budget Committee has released a list
A charitable way to describe the Democratic Party since Donald Trump’s victory in the November election is that they have struggled to find their sea legs. Many Democratic elected officials have been unable to develop either a message or strategy that inspires or mobilizes voters. A significant exception to
In just three months under Mayor Daniel Lurie’s leadership, San Francisco has seen a 50% spike in overdose deaths, with 192 lives lost in early 2025 alone. That’s nearly two people dying daily from preventable causes. We’re seeing too much of the same failed War on Drugs
Last October, grassroots organizations, families, and educators thwarted then-Mayor London Breed’s push to permanently shutter 13 public schools. School closures are a conservative tool used as further “evidence” that public-schools are “failing,” a justification for charter schools, vouchers and the eventual privatization of public education. How did
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Daniel Lurie has now been Mayor of San Francisco for just over 100 days. While most of the world’s attention has been on the catastrophic, chaotic, cruel and destructive first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, it is useful to reflect on Lurie’s first 100 days
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance made a splash after its March release, earning a spot on the New York Times’ best seller list, a rarity for a book steeped in political wonkery. As weeks passed, it earned its share of critics — the Phoenix Project, among them — who rightly
It's a new day in San Francisco, according to Mayor Daniel Lurie, who recently touted the accomplishment from his first 100 days in office. Among them, was the new mayor’s abstinence-only agenda for substance-abuse treatment. This was a policy shift, not an accomplishment, but that
Oakland’s West and flatlands neighborhoods overcame the power of big-money in the city’s Mayoral race as former Congresswoman Barbara Lee defeated former Oakland City Councilman Loren Taylor in the April 15th special election to appoint a mayor to finish the remainder of Sheng Thao's term,
The release of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book Abundance has set off a policy debate between what is generally called the center and the left, but from an economic perspective is better understood as between the left and the right. Much has been written critiquing the problems
Five shadowy Independent Expenditure Committees have raised and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Loren Taylor for Oakland Mayor and District 2-linked candidates ahead of the April 15 Special Election, public records show. Empower Oakland; Revitalize the East Bay; Better Bay Area; Responsible Leadership for Oakland; and Oakland
San Francisco’s newest mayor, Daniel Lurie, swept into office on a campaign centered around his outsider status. He presented his lack of experience in public service as an asset, distancing himself from a broken, crooked City Hall. Given San Francisco’s recent history with public corruption, specifically the Public
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