Has San Francisco made SoMa into a crime containment zone?

Good afternoon!

Well, the city’s budget is short at least $634 million, and Mayor Daniel Lurie is telling departments to cut or be cut—but the police and fire departments just signed four-year contracts that will give their members a 14% raise and add another $300 million to the deficit. H.R. Smith talks to the president of the POA, who is quite pleased.

And speaking of the police, Sarah Hopkins reports that residents and businesses in the western part of SoMa say it’s become a “containment zone” where regular law enforcement feels absent. Look at the stats for police response times.

D7 supervisor Myrna Melgar called the Board of Supervisors “too deferential to the mayor,” and told Joe Eskenazi in an onstage interview last night that newer members face “a steep learning curve” on how to legislate. Read what else Junyao Yang noticed about Melgar’s talk.

In election news, we asked the District 4 candidates for supervisor about the mayor’s plan to cut transfer taxes on the sale of high-value commercial and residential properties. Guess which one said, “I’m withholding judgment…I don’t take knee-jerk positions.”

More soon,

Sara

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