Episode 5: Recap of Episodes 1 to 4 Synopsis

On this Episode, Richie Greenberg simplifies the first four episodes of his "What Would Richie Greenberg Do, As Mayor?"  podcast - into a single, 24-minute review. He discusses his background, his priorities of Public Safety and the Budget, and his proposed Day-1 executive directives and declarations of policy. 

Transcript

RECAP OF PODCAST EPISODES 1 THROUGH 4

Welcome to my podcast, What Would Richie Greenberg Do, As Mayor?

As mayor, I would have plans and proposals to take immediate action, addressing the most urgent issues of crime, drug dealing, the city budget, transportation and how to bring an end to the doom loop caused by Mayor Breed and our City Hall’s elected and appointed officials.

Eyes have been on San Francisco for many years, and as our city slowly slips into criminal chaos, fiscal grifting and mismanagement contributing to the doom-loop scenario, scrutiny of our current mayor London Breed has been getting harsher, and condemnation of her has been getting stronger. And it’s well deserved.

This year, 2024, is a mayoral election year. The last “competitive” election featured a wide-open seat, back in 2018, called when previous mayor Ed Lee suddenly died late one night, setting off a widely covered competition of eight candidates, including yours truly. London Breed, as we know, won.

San Francisco needs closure. We need resolution to the concerns of the hard-working, law-abiding citizens of this city who have been suffering for years starting before Covid til now, a city that is a bizarre, upside down, taxpayers' money-wasting catastrophe.

So, buckle up! Get ready for a journey together with me as I outline how I would handle leading the city of San Francisco, as mayor. 

Episode 1: My Background:

I moved to San Francisco at the height of the dot com bubble's burst, late 2001, moving up here from Los Angeles.

I was a small business advisor, working out of a small office on California Street, minding my own business. By 2015, I began to pay closer attention to our city’s policies and politics as conditions on the streets worsened at an alarming pace.

Before 2015, I was too tied up with enjoying life, travelling, friends, family and working to give any thought to how city hall was functioning. But that year was a turning point for me, spending so much time in the downtown Financial District. I saw as more homeless were on the streets, graffiti on newly vacant storefronts appeared with regularity, crime was on the upswing, and local papers reported on the trials and tribulations San Franciscans were facing, pressing officials for solutions.

I began to take note, learning more about the city’s mayor and city council, which we call the Board of Supervisors. I learned more about the police chief, the district attorney, what ballot measures were being floated for the next election day and who was running for office. 

Seeing my hard-earned money being taxed yet things were slowing going downhill just didn’t seem right to me. 

My mayoral run in 2018, as an unknown and a Republican

In 2018, I made a bold move, I ran for mayor. The seat was up for grabs, no incumbent. Though I was an unknown, I did garner 22,399 votes overall, in the city’s ranked choice voting system. I knew that what I was saying resonated with voters. And though I did not win, that experience on the campaign trail, moving about the city to appear on stage with the rest of the pack of candidates, at debates and forums, solidified the need for me to continue to be vocal, to be an advocate and activist. I earned the ear of the media as well, being interviewed by radio, TV and newspapers, and that’s what I still to this day.

AFTERMATH, AFTER 2018:

Covid hit in March 2020 and mayor London Breed declared our city in lockdown. The stay at home order of March 16th, 2020, remained in varying levels of closed, partly open, closed again, partly open, open for some categories and not others, masks required, vaccine required, mask requirements lifted and so on, a roller-coaster, essentially lasting til 2022

The summer of 2020 saw the tragic death of George Floyd and riots, protests across the nation, and mass looting hit San Francisco’s Union Square and surrounding streets. Our police department was ceremonially defunded. Statues and monuments in the park were torn down, the economy was shuttered, many workers moved to either a work from home routine or fled to more open cities, often with their families. A rogue district attorney, Chesa Boudin, was just elected to power, a radical who sided with criminals over law abiding citizens, and three racist public school board commissioners, together with Boudin, were successfully recalled afterward.

These were the darkest hours of San Francisco in a generation.

The city of San Francisco has been slipping further and further into the abyss, accelerated by how mayor Breed handled the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, the Black Lives Matter riots, the defunding of our police department, the continued looting of our retail shops even til today and so much more. Confidence in her ability to lead San Francisco has fallen sharply, numerous scandals of associates of hers with corruption, trials and jail time adds to the environment Mayor Breed is in deep trouble and has lost control of the narrative and the city. The mayor is supposed to be in charge of and have oversight of city hall and public safety. And that's why several challengers have emerged, to oppose her re-election later this year. And that's why media is paying attention to the leading challengers this time. Public sentiment says, London Breed has got to go.

EPISODE 2: TOP PRIORITIES: PUBLIC SAFETY

Public Safety encompasses a range of aspects, from law enforcement, to fighting fires, emergency medical professionals, and more. Public Safety has been defined as a core of a functioning and productive society and necessary to attract and retain a competitive workforce.

I fully support our police department and the extremely hard work they do under the oppressive oversight commission, the Police Commission, I would demand restoration to the nearly 2,000 officers, along with the latest technology, vehicles, equipment. I demand resignation and removal of members of the Police Commission. I also equally support the Sheriff's department, as they are often overlooked and misunderstood, they guard city hall, the courts, the jails, and have been underfunded. 

But current mayor Breed, though she's often referred to as a "Moderate" democrat, acted like a leftist radical and defunded our police department in 2020 in the amount of $120 million. Breed had no reason to do this. San Francisco is not Minneapolis, and George Floyd tragedy did not occur here, and our police department is not the Minneapolis police department. She, unjustified, radically, set in motion a scapegoating of law enforcement in San Francisco, vilifying our front line in protection of life and property. Mayor Breed cannot be forgiven nor shall we forget.

Again, I will realign funding to the SFPD and Sheriff's Departments, for hiring of personnel, training, recruiting with bonuses, academies, new technology, equipment and patrol cars. Tasers and nonlethal alternatives must be a regular part of the equipment SFPD has available to them in any situation.

Public Safety includes being secure in our homes, when out on the street, shopping at stores, eating at restaurants, and commuting on public transportation like BART and Muni. It includes patrols, emergency services and response, as well as overall response to crimes, to fires and natural disasters. I believe the current reliance on "Community Ambassadors" has only limited application, and we need to focus much more on law enforcement. This means I would cut back on use of ambassadors.

 Criminals preying on San Franciscans are bolder, more heavily armed, more violent and we need our police officers to be able to meet this challenge.  Having more officers walking the beat or available to patrol our streets also has a benefit through traffic stops, moving violations, which directly affect street safety and other vehicles on the road, pedestrians and bicyclists.  Tents blocking sidewalks forcing pedestrians and bicyclists into the streets is a public safety issue.  We need more cops on city streets. Period. San Franciscans complain incessantly about unsafe neighborhoods and streets, so we can make a big difference by having deterrence and monitoring by actual sworn officers, police officers with real enforcement abilities, investigative and arrest powers. Not to merely observe but to enforce. And quickly. Community Ambassadors are not the answer and cannot be relied upon to deter crime.

I believe we need to ensure a jail in San Francisco exists. There is a movement to close and eliminate a jail. That movement is misguided and is completely unacceptable. We cannot pretend our city can be free of criminals and the answer is to not prosecute. It was tried and failed miserably, much to our city's detriment.  I will ensure resources, funding to jails remains. And as I said before, we need sheriff's department deputies.

 I mentioned the Police Commission earlier. For listened who aren’t aware, a seven member panel of individuals appointed by the mayor and board of supervisors has oversight and disciplinary powers over our SFPD. There is also a Department of Police Accountability which investigates when accusations are levied against a police officer. I find the existence of the Police Commission in its current form to be extremely troubling, as their powers are overtaken by the leftist radical members of the board of supervisors which control the approval process of appointments to the police commission. Its a process that's too influenced by a radical anti-cop agenda and aligned with the ousted DA Chesa Boudin’s ideology. 

As mayor, not only would I review and address the many rules that have been placed upon the SFPD whether they are lawful under California state law, I'd have them challenged and canceled. Even further, The powers and policies of the police commission can be challenged, changed, restricted, and that's what I'd do as mayor. Anti-cop, anti-law-abiding panel of commissioners cannot continue to detrimentally affect the citizens of San Francisco as they have, just because they have a gripe with cops, or affinity to defunding of police departments mentality.  They abuse their power to the detriment of San Francisco.

One focus of mine, as mayor, will be squarely on the reforming the Police Commission itself. It cannot continue to exist any futher in the form and manner it operates today.

 We must turn this around. We need to build trust, community relationships and security between our city's citizens. Our homes, our businesses, our cars, our lives, our city's shopping centers, tourism, conventions, are all affected by Breed's inconceivably terrible decision. There is no such thing as "victimless crimes", as some in city hall have said.

By regaining control of the law and order in San Francisco, and only then, can we expect a slow return of retail, cafes, offices and conventions.

EPISODE 3: TOP PRIORITIES: THE $14.6 Billion Budget

One of the most important duties of a mayor is to prepare a budget- in simplest terms, it’s the total amount of money the city requires to operate all the departments, agencies, commissions, government offices for the year. To pay government employees’ salaries and benefits, to operate our transportation system, maintain our streets, pay for public safety, the libraries, museums, parks. The budget also includes government programs relating to health, wellness, welfare and government-assistance to low-income families, drug treatment programs, government assistance for housing. It’s a very long list of expenses.

In 2015, 2016 when I started to really pay attention to politics here in San Francisco, the operating budget for the city was $9.6 Billion dollars. 

And now, for 2024/2025, the San Francisco city budget has ballooned to $14.6 billion. Yes, it went up nearly 50% over 7 years. Even though the population has actually decreased since covid hit. Even though our city’s downtown financial district is nearly a ghost town, so many storefronts are boarded up out of business, even though the homeless population is essentially holding steady. Even though our police department and sheriff’s department have had funding cut. Even though a recent official count of tents on the city’s sidewalks, the number of tents is nearly the same as in 2018.

How on earth did this happen, and can this be rectified, so our residents and businesses aren’t continually saddled with increasingly higher taxes, and saddling the next generation of San Franciscans with even higher tax? Yes, it can and I will tackle and rein in this gross spending , as mayor.

Mayor London Breed has irresponsibly doled out billions of dollars, literally billions, in taxpayers’ funds, to both city departments and to nonprofit organizations administering certain programs and outreach. And much of those billions are paid out to departments which have little to no accountability, no measuring of success, and many are corrupt, wasteful, ineffective.

Mayor Breed has grown our government, creating new commissions and agencies, and added to the overall cost of operating the city. There are now nearly 37,000 people working in the city government itself, not only paying salaries but benefits and retirement costs. This must stop. As mayor, this $5 billion dollar increase since 2018 is suspicious and has to be examined, scrutinized, and cut back. I will proposed a $4.5 Billion reduction to our city’s budget over the coming 3 years, cut by $1.5 billion the first year,  $1.5 billion in year two, and another $1.5 billion the third year.

I will realign spending, realign and refocus priorities. Cancel certain programs, review, evaluate and cut back or close down certain commissions, agencies and departments. I cannot in good faith continue to grow the size of government and budget of San Francisco city hall in an unrestrained manor, especially when so many programs and organizations are unaccounted for. 

City hall needs to become more efficient, smaller, less expensive and of course, accountable

EPISODE 4: IF ELECTED, MY IMMEDIATE DIRECTIVES ON DAY 1

If elected mayor, what would I do, on day 1 in office? Mayors - have the right, the privilege and the authority to create an executive order, they are directives. And that’s exactly what I’ve promised voters I would do on day one in office, once sworn in.  

I promised to stop the uncontrolled spending spree under London Breed. To not use taxpayers' money in a giveaway in a racially-biased manner. To be colorblind, to reward merit and encourage excellence, to bring San Franciscans together, not segregate. And to cut off irresponsible exploitation by many nonprofits. To stop further waste and unaccountability and bias and greed by mayor London Breed’s administration. To shut off the fire hose. To rein in the unconstitutional giveaways and programs. To quit rewarding nonprofit organizations who’ve failed us over and over.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTIVES

The issues of Public Safety and the unsustainable Budget are my priorities, along with unconstitutional and biased policies and therefore, the following executive directives are to be issued, on the first day in office:

 As mayor, I am ordering the reduction and cancellation of funding for:

The Human Rights Commission, 75% reduction initially, and also cancel all funding for race-based programs including the Dream Keeper Initiative and Office of Racial Equity.

The Office of Racial Equity to be closed, positions eliminated, office investigated.

Dream Keeper Initiative eliminated, positions eliminated, program investigated.

All city commissions, departments, agencies which employ DEI and/or Diversity Officer, 100% funding cut to specific DEI employee/officer positions, positions eliminated.

Department of Public Health, 50% reduction of the budget, further funding cuts pending civil and criminal investigation.

Homelessness and Supportive Housing, 75% reduction, pending civil and criminal investigation.

Safe Injection Sites, all programs and employment positions canceled 100%, state and federal civil and criminal investigation.

Housing First and Harm Reduction, 75% reduction in funding, pending review and possible entire program cut for all organizations, departments and agencies programs. Fund redirected to recovery, abstinence and return homewards.

No- bid contracts, investigated and canceled, new bids invited.

Policy Declarations:

I declare the Housing First model to be a failure, and we as a city must and will move forward to addiction treatment, counselling, recovery, abstinence, and return homewards. Taxpayers will not fund enablement of addicts to partake in their substance abuse use.

I declare DEI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)  a racist, bigoted, discriminatory segregation and speech suppression, intolerance failure. All city departments are prohibited from implimnting DEI ideology and prohibited from adopting race, religion, gender, orientation, national origin as consideration for employment, appointments, promotions, contracts.  Merit wins, experience matters.

I declare Vision Zero a failure, despite years of funding and fruitless efforts. We must create a new vision which encompasses a shared responsibility for safety by vehicles, public transportation, bikes and pedestrians, and traffic engineering. We must include law enforcement and citations as priority.

I declare the obvious, that Merit wins. Excellence matters. Success and achievement must be a goal, and the city moves forward with great minds and best ideas.