S3 E8: Hot 5: Iran Celebrates, Muni Tax, Parents Rights, Tech Fights, Workers Fired

It's a jam packed episode! Richie and Erica review the Hot 5 items in the news this week: Iranians across the Bay Area and California celebrate the elimination of Ayatollah Khomenei; SF leaders plan a tax to pay for Muni deficit; Supreme Court rules parents have a right to know about their own children's transitioning; Mayor demands 500 city workers fired; Tech gangs up to oppose  Billionaire Tax, and more. Send your questions to press@richiegreenberg.org

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Transcript

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Richie Greenberg: Hey everybody, Richie Greenberg here with my co-host, Erica Sandberg, and this is Really San Francisco, the podcast from San Francisco, where we talk about things that are good, bad, and ugly. And today's episode is, something that we're going to try and do a little bit more of.

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Richie Greenberg: more like rapid-fire, multiple topics per episode. Not every one, but today we're doing the Hot Five. How do you like that, Erica?

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Erica Sandberg: Love it!

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Richie Greenberg: The hot five.

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Erica Sandberg: We could do so many more, but we're gonna… we're gonna fixate on the… on that 5, because there are so many.

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Richie Greenberg: So this is, this is what we have identified.

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Richie Greenberg: as being, in the news, or of importance, or of, interest to our listeners. And so that's, that's what we're doing, the Hot Five.

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Erica Sandberg: What we will not be doing was talking about how bad my hair looked. I had two women give me a little whisper in my ear, going, you need to brush your hair before… okay, fine, fine, I brushed my hair. Thank you.

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Richie Greenberg: Oh, okay. All right. Not me, I don't have to worry about that.

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Erica Sandberg: No, exactly.

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Richie Greenberg: So, Erica, we've got 5 topics.

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Richie Greenberg: And, shall we go through them in order?

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Erica Sandberg: Absolutely, let's begin. Let's begin with, some excitement.

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Richie Greenberg: Excitement! And what is the excitement, Erica?

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Erica Sandberg: Well, a country people probably aren't familiar with, never heard of, Iran. Yeah, I don't know, Iran.

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Erica Sandberg: There's been some interesting activity. I don't… I really don't want to focus so much on the international gravity of the situation, good, bad, that type of thing. We want to focus on how San Francisco leaders and, the…

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Erica Sandberg: Anybody who's involved in politics and social issues reacted!

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Richie Greenberg: How are they reacting? And the media, and the media as well.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right!

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Richie Greenberg: So, I've heard some people, call the country Iran. I think Iran…

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Richie Greenberg: was the way that, people back in the late 70s and early 80s called it, because you had Duran Duran's song called Iran. And, no, it's not I… it's not Iran, it's Iran. Iran.

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Richie Greenberg: Right on, and so, yeah, exactly. There are so many debates out there on the pros and cons of the action and conflict, and is it a war, is it not a war? Does Trump have authorization? Is it illegally… all of that stuff, but that's not what we're talking about.

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Erica Sandberg: No.

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Erica Sandberg: about the reaction to the reaction, right? So…

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Erica Sandberg: the wonderful thing that happened afterwards, you saw the joy. There was so much, so much.

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Richie Greenberg: Immediate.

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Erica Sandberg: Immediate.

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Richie Greenberg: Across the world.

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Erica Sandberg: across the world, unbridled, and San Francisco was no different. At, right in front of the Ferry Building. There were a number… there were a number of celebrations, but right in front of the Ferry Building, at Harry Bridges Plaza, is what they call it.

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Richie Greenberg: Where is that? What is that?

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Erica Sandberg: It's a Justin Herman call.

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Richie Greenberg: Oh, Justin Herman, okay, yeah, Justin Herman Plaza, okay, yeah, I know what that is. I think everybody here knows what that is.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. So last weekend, there was this massive display of pure exuberance.

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Richie Greenberg: Joy. Joy. Joy. There we go.

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Erica Sandberg: real joy. And it was, it was really fascinating. There were, there were people honking, cars going by.

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Richie Greenberg: Flags. Flags! And what countries, what countries?

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Erica Sandberg: Well, it was really fascinating, because obviously…

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Erica Sandberg: the original Iranian flag that has the lion on it, right? That's right. That was there, it was beautiful.

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Erica Sandberg: You know, I'm not Iranian, so for me, I'm a stranger looking in. So, they were flying that flag, they were flying the United States flag, they were also flying the Israeli flag. So you had 3 big flags out there. Now, what happened, of course, is that, I think, made

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Erica Sandberg: San Francisco, the moderate left and the left, back away, going, what do we do with this? How do we react to this? Okay, let's just pretend it's not happening.

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Richie Greenberg: That just blew their mind.

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Erica Sandberg: It ends.

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Richie Greenberg: To have all 3 of them together.

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Richie Greenberg: How? A WTF? How could that happen?

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Richie Greenberg: And so, in a sense, it was like a coup, in a way, to have the three all celebrated together, embracing each other. And, yes, not only did it happen here, but down in Los Angeles, which is…

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Richie Greenberg: when I lived down there for a while, we used to call it Terrangelis, or Iranjalis, because there's so many Iranians and the expats, and…

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Richie Greenberg: And those who were forced to flee and their offspring, their children, back in 1979 and onwards, they moved to LA. They moved to the San Fernando Valley, they moved to the west side of LA. Huge, huge…

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Richie Greenberg: Outpouring of thanks and relief and hope for a better, a better Iran, a better world.

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Erica Sandberg: And I think what stunned people into, like, again, how do we react to this from… as a San Franciscan approach, is you saw people holding the signs

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Erica Sandberg: thanking Donald Trump for this. I mean, that really put people off. And I think what's important here, why this became the top of our hot five, is

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Erica Sandberg: This is kind of a call to action, I believe, for people to say, lay down your political affiliations and your gut reaction to

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Erica Sandberg: parties and political figures that you don't like, and allow yourself to take part in that thrill, excitement. People were crying, they were on their knees, they were hugging each other. Allow yourself to say.

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Erica Sandberg: Thumbs up. Congratulations.

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Richie Greenberg: This is a good thing.

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Erica Sandberg: It's a good…

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Richie Greenberg: Also, in New York, they were celebrating, around the world, and actually, most importantly, in Iran itself, in Tehran, we saw a video of people that were just the…

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Richie Greenberg: immediate outpouring of crying and joy. It was a little… a little surreal to have this, to see video.

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Richie Greenberg: where people in Iran, in Tehran, were cheering rockets that were falling down and blowing up buildings, you know? I mean, that's a little strange, but they realized what was happening. They realized that this was a sneak attack.

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Richie Greenberg: And they most likely had taken out the Ayatollah. That's right.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? So the, the muted reaction…

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Erica Sandberg: from city leaders does need to be called out. Let… encourage them, encourage the people who will say just about anything. They'll talk about… they'll talk about Palestine, they'll talk about, events around the world, Venezuela.

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Erica Sandberg: Where are you with this? So come on, come on, let yourself be joyful, too. This is a really great time to embrace the Iranian community who could not be happier at this moment.

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Richie Greenberg: Or, just shut up and don't say anything.

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Erica Sandberg: Well, this is pretty much what they've done.

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Richie Greenberg: Rather than having to now, throw, throw some water on, on this, the joy, you know.

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Erica Sandberg: And that'.

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Richie Greenberg: is what's important, yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: And speaking of the joy, the funny thing is, is that you would actually see if you go online and you go on Twitter, and you'll see these… some of the most beautiful women you've ever seen in your entire life, basically shed… excuse me, shed down to just about nothing, and, dance like it's going out of style. And it was such a gorgeous thing, so I say, gorgeous women, you get out there and you take off your clothes. Love it!

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Richie Greenberg: Alright, so what's, what's next? What do we have on in the top? Hot 5, what's number two?

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Erica Sandberg: Parcel tax. Muni! Muni's pitching a parcel tax.

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Richie Greenberg: to raise funds.

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Erica Sandberg: funds for a… I mean…

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Richie Greenberg: And that's a headline, that's a headline in one of the local newspapers here. Mayor Lurie, and I think also Scott Weiner, is trying to take some of the limelight from Lurie, the two of them at least.

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Richie Greenberg: They, they see a problem. Well, there's lots of problems. They are looking at a specific problem here in the Bay Area and in the city.

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Richie Greenberg: Where there's a shortfall, of course, as we know, in budgets, but this is talking specifically about the transportation, about Muni, the buses, the, the Muni train, light rail, and.

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Erica Sandberg: And the cable car?

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Richie Greenberg: And the cable cart, there you go, Muni, right? So, how do you… how do they handle a shortfall? Well, I could see…

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Richie Greenberg: three possibilities. One would be to make service cuts or some other spending cuts, so that way they can, deal with the budget that they have.

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Richie Greenberg: Number two is to, look at where's the waste? Where's all the irresponsible spending and irresponsible, just, everything, right, to bring down their costs? Or number three, a combination of both.

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Richie Greenberg: So, what we've got here is the headline here from Mayor Lurie. He's, charging… the charge for muni funding parcel tax, which means that, from his standpoint, from, Scott Weiner's standpoint, and everyone else that's going to go along with them…

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Richie Greenberg: They don't want to cut anything, they don't want to examine where are they spending too much money, where's all the waste or fraud or excess, and instead make the property owners have to pay more with a property, a parcel tax.

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Erica Sandberg: Trucks!

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Richie Greenberg: is homeowners, and others… so that's what they're doing. And that is very problematic, in my opinion.

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Richie Greenberg: Because it's not getting to the crux of what the issue really is, that they're spending irresponsibly, and they're not… accountability, right?

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Erica Sandberg: Absolutely true, and we're also talking about their whole… I feel like they're threatening

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Erica Sandberg: San Franciscans, threatening property owners, saying, hey, if you don't pony up.

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Erica Sandberg: You don't give us the cash. What we're going to do is, we're gonna eliminate the cable car. We're gonna snap that cable car, line in two. We're gonna double the wait times. Poor senior citizens are gonna be out there, and instead of waiting half an hour, they wait an hour, just so that they can do their… go to church on time.

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Richie Greenberg: What's the proposal here? I'm seeing here.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: How much is it they're looking to.

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Erica Sandberg: Single-family property, so if you have a single-family home, it's going to be $129 tacked onto your bill on an annual basis. If you have a multi-family unit, you're going to owe $249. And owners of non-residential

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Erica Sandberg: Parcels would have to shell out, just about $800 on an annual basis.

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Richie Greenberg: Now, do we know how that's calculated? In other words, is that just for the one square, you know, the footage of the footprint of a commercial building, or is it by 100 feet, or do we know, is that just a one-door.

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Erica Sandberg: I don't know. I mean, these are just the numbers that they threw out. These are per, so it could be a mansion in Pacific Heights or a Laurel Village, or it could be one of the earthquake shacks that was built, 1907, that's 300 square feet.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: As I know.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, that's…

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Erica Sandberg: the flat.

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Richie Greenberg: But basically, you know, this is one of the critiques that I've had about City Hall, and including the mayor, is that he ran on a platform of accountability. He kept talking over and over, he campaigned.

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Richie Greenberg: on the promise he made to San Franciscans and to voters, and also at his speeches that he's had since then, including the inauguration speech, where he talks about how

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Richie Greenberg: He was going to be bringing in the heads of the different departments, and he's going to… each one, he's going to ask, you know, what did you do this week? What can we do to, to be more efficient and accountability? And it seems to me that he has abandoned that, at least in this aspect, in terms of muni.

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Erica Sandberg: the big thumbs down. This is a big thumbs down to me. It's… and I think to you also, which is, instead of putting it back on San Franciscans, property owners, figure it out.

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Erica Sandberg: Figure out the funding. Figure out how you can make those… the… the… get back into the black instead of deep into the red. You can do it.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? It's… you've got… you've got to create better efficiencies. That's all we want, right? And I certainly really take umbrage in this whole, if you don't… if you don't give us the money, then we're going to make you all suffer. How dare you? I think that's really, really offensive.

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Richie Greenberg: Yep, and in a sense, by doing this, that's just prolonging the status quo. Yeah. And when we all voted…

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Erica Sandberg: It's true.

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Richie Greenberg: Election Day, this was supposed to have change, and by doing this, by.

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Erica Sandberg: It does not solve the problem. It does not solve the problem. Okay, let's move on to that.

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Richie Greenberg: Next, you can introduce this topic.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes.

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Erica Sandberg: Tech fights back.

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Erica Sandberg: Tech fights back. Fights back.

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Richie Greenberg: So that would imply that there is something happening against tech, and tech is now fighting back.

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, gosh, is there possibly something going on against tech? Most people make their…

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Erica Sandberg: money in this amazing city, in the technology sector. So you've got

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Erica Sandberg: Millionaires and billionaires, people who've, who've created these amazing jobs, for… for…

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Erica Sandberg: thousands of people, right? And they get constantly… their hand constantly gets slapped, including this whole ridiculous wealth tax, that 5%.

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Richie Greenberg: That's the state, state of California tax.

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Erica Sandberg: Right, the state of California.

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Richie Greenberg: That's different from California, I'm sorry, different from San Francisco's proposal, which is different, and we'll have to tackle.

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Erica Sandberg: It's all gotta stop. It has got to stop. And so, it really…

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Richie Greenberg: It does affect the technology sector.

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Erica Sandberg: most dramatically, which is why they're fighting back. They don't want to leave. By and large, people would like to be able to stay in California, in San Francisco, in Silicon Valley. They don't want to be frightened and scared and pushed around. So I went to this amazing event last night, put on by Gary Tan.

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Erica Sandberg: And essentially, it is a, hey, listen, we gotta come together. We have got to figure this thing out, and we've got to elect people who are with us, are gonna stand with us, and are going to say, we'll fight for you. We will fight for your ability to stay in San Francisco, and to have other startups

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Erica Sandberg: be here, right? And it was just a really, kind of an amazing event. And,

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Erica Sandberg: there was an introduction, first of all, the mayor of San Jose, Matt Mahan.

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Richie Greenberg: madman.

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Erica Sandberg: there, and he really voiced his support, and of course, he's running for California governor.

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Erica Sandberg: And so, right, so gave his pitch for that. Ro Khanna, who is, he's running for re-election in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he's been a real thorn in the side of.

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Erica Sandberg: the technology industry. Why? Right? Because, of course, he's all into that whole, billionaire's tax.

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Richie Greenberg: He has slid… he has slid more and more left.

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Erica Sandberg: to him.

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Richie Greenberg: If I throw this in… so, this is part of the, the whole farthest left-wing Marxist

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Richie Greenberg: destructive, jealousy mentality that a lot of people here in San Francisco and the Bay Area have, that, okay, we want you to stay here. This is like, they're talking about the rich, the tech people, right? The tech CEOs, the successful tech CEOs.

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Richie Greenberg: We want you to stay here.

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Richie Greenberg: We want you to, provide the jobs, we want you to…

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Richie Greenberg: Have your employees in your businesses, in your offices here, frequent the cafes and the restaurants. We want you to do all of that.

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Richie Greenberg: But, we don't want you to make so much money.

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Richie Greenberg: This is the attitude. We don't want you to be having such a high salary.

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Richie Greenberg: And we've seen this over the years, and I've been paying attention to this all the way back to 2020, 2021, when we had Prop L.

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Richie Greenberg: which was Matt Haney's thing way back then, to punish the CEO… punish companies by having highly compensated, salaried executives. So, that's it. This is, like, a real communist socialist drag down the salaries of the top performers. That's what this is about.

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Erica Sandberg: It's really bizarre. I mean, just for God's sakes, just let people…

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Erica Sandberg: start a business here. Just let them…

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Erica Sandberg: let them innovate, let them bring in that wonderful passion, that excitement, bring in new employees from all over the state, all over the U.S, all over the world. Come on in and make this an amazing Bay Area.

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Richie Greenberg: Otherwise… otherwise what? Like, you want them out? You want to force them out, you want to have them move somewhere else, and they're going to keep doing what they're doing. It's not a terrible, horrible thing that they're doing, and they're being labeled, a lot of the tech CEOs are being labeled as being horrible…

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Erica Sandberg: They are.

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Richie Greenberg: You know, greeting, and so that's the problem. They're just gonna go and bring their success elsewhere, and then San Francisco doesn't get to have… reap any benefits from that.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right, and so the good news is that you really… last night was the start of it for me. You… I really started to see a renewed energy, a real, like, coming together moment, like, this is it, which I think should scare the living daylights.

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Erica Sandberg: Out of anybody who's pushing for these Ridiculous.

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Erica Sandberg: Laws that are going… that are going to make more and more

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Erica Sandberg: wealthy people leave. We don't want them to leave. You know, if you want to be wealthy, go out and try and figure out… be part of it, but scaring them out of the state, out of the city, is absurd. It's really damaging, so…

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Richie Greenberg: We'll talk more about this, but the thing is, the four candidates that are running for Congress to succeed Nancy Pelosi, three of them pretty much all agree with this. I'm not sure about… I don't think Scott Weiner as much, but for sure, Saikat Chakrabhati and

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Richie Greenberg: And, even Connie Chan, who is

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Richie Greenberg: championing this whole, this whole ridiculous air quotes, make them pay their fair share, which is just so, so, you know, ridiculous. I don't want to spew profanity, but it's just… It's weird, it's weird to me.

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Erica Sandberg: It's not going to… it's not going to result in the result in what you're looking for. You want more cash, you want more equity, good luck. It's not going to happen. You're going to have a mass exodus instead, and that's just… it's infuriating.

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Erica Sandberg: Okay, next. Okay, what's number 4? That's the number 4?

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Richie Greenberg: We're on the hot, on the hot five. Number four, city employees should expect a pink slip, 500 of them. So, seeing that San Francisco has a budget shortfall, let me, let me,

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Richie Greenberg: Let me, back up for a second.

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Richie Greenberg: We don't have a shortfall.

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Richie Greenberg: City Hall's budget under Mayor Lurie has a shortfall. I have nothing to do with that, neither do you. Because if you and I were around, we would have a surplus, and we would have big joy from City Hall, and we would have a much leaner government. We'd probably have

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Richie Greenberg: 35-50% less number of employees that are even working in this city, and we would have a budget deficit… not a deficit, we'd have a surplus, and everything would be great. But, no.

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Richie Greenberg: So, because, again, going back to the other topics, the muni tax, parcel tax, Mayor Lurie sees and he knows that there is a budget deficit, they're spending more money than they're bringing in.

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Richie Greenberg: So…

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Richie Greenberg: Along with this ballot measure that they want to tack on for parcel tax, he's going to be, firing 500 city employees.

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Erica Sandberg: He's not… he's telling the story.

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Richie Greenberg: Right, right, he's telling them to fight, sorry.

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Richie Greenberg: But, he's pressuring them, he's telling them, he's directing them, he's saying, we're not gonna fund them.

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Erica Sandberg: Minimum. Minimum. Minimum.

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Richie Greenberg: There's 35,000 employees, I think?

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Erica Sandberg: 34, yes.

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Richie Greenberg: 24,000 that work for the city.

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Richie Greenberg: The city is, among the top employers of the city, is the city government itself.

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Richie Greenberg: And, it is extremely costly.

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Richie Greenberg: To run the city with that number of employees, salaries, benefits, insurance, pensions, and retirement plans, and all of that.

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Richie Greenberg: And it's gonna come to a head sometime in the future. But right now, he's gonna be saving what was the amount that they figured that they would save? $100 million, I think is what it looks like.

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Erica Sandberg: But, yeah, it's what they're looking for.

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Richie Greenberg: So they are, they're projecting a budget shortfall of somewhere almost a billion dollars, so this is 1 tenth of that amount that they need. So it's a start. But, do you think that this is okay? Do you think this is fair? Do you think it should be more?

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Erica Sandberg: I think that nobody likes to lose their job. I have been in the position before where I've been let go.

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Erica Sandberg: It happens. Media companies close. I've… I've been there. It is an agonizing decision that… that…

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Erica Sandberg: an employer has to make. It's horrible for the employee.

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Erica Sandberg: And yet, this is a budget that needs to be… it needs to pencil out, and it's not penciling out, so hard decisions absolutely must be made. And, you know, you and I, we can sound sort of gleeful, like, woohoo, get rid of those 500… and in some ways.

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Erica Sandberg: Okay, fine. In some ways, if I'm truthful, yes, I am happy about that, because I loathe waste. It's disgusting when you've got 3 people doing a job that one person can do, and then it ends up hurting the city. We have to come up with parcel taxes! Then come on now.

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Richie Greenberg: Right, right. It's unsustainable. In a city that loves to use the word sustainable, it is unsustainable, and this started

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Richie Greenberg: Back in the early to mid-20-teens or so, we had a certain city budget, a certain dollar amount that we've had for a long time, 6, 7 billion.

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Richie Greenberg: And then, towards the end of Mayor Ed Lee's term, which then, when he passed away, and then we got, london Breed came in, that's when things started really taking off. The budget went up $7 billion, $8.5%, $9, $10 billion, now it's up to almost $16 billion, so it pretty much doubled.

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Richie Greenberg: in about 10, 11 years or so, maybe 12 years, and massive hiring by the city itself as well. So this was unrealistic, unsustainable, even back then.

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Richie Greenberg: Anyone that was paying attention would see that this was the trend, so if it… when you get to the point that, like, we just can't do this anymore, it is unfortunate that so many people were hired, as you said, to do jobs when, they didn't really need that.

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Richie Greenberg: And we're finding this out now, and the dust is gonna settle, and it's gonna be kind of painful.

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Erica Sandberg: I mean, just… let's just look at a specific city department on its own, right? A relative… the newest city department that we actually have is the Department of Homelessness, or HSH. I always get that wrong. Homelessness and Supportive Services.

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Erica Sandberg: It's, it's only…

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Richie Greenberg: supportive housing.

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Erica Sandberg: Oh, supportive housing, thank you.

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Richie Greenberg: It's okay. There's so many three-letter agencies. Another one of those, the three-letter agencies.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, so they have a massive budget.

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Erica Sandberg: It's… they have a massive budget, and it didn't used to be. We didn't used to have this department. That meant all those city employees never were there. They were in other departments doing other things with working on the so-called homelessness issue, right? So…

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Erica Sandberg: Why not just slash the entire department? Go back to what it was?

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, this is part of that whole problem of having an issue, exacerbating it, then creating a department or an agency to deal with it.

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Richie Greenberg: Then get more funding, more funding, either from the federal, the state, or local taxes, or something, to now fund that, when it could have just been, dealt with at the beginning in the first place.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. So we end up having, I mean, I believe their annual budget is well over a billion dollars.

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Richie Greenberg: A billion. Nine. Yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: Don't quote me on that. But it's around those… that… that figure. And that was a department that, again, it was…

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Erica Sandberg: Was it necessary? What great of a job are we doing? Do you see a big improvement in homelessness on our streets and our street conditions? No. No. So let's go back to the beginning. Go back, have all those positions, have some of those positions absorbed back into other departments, and…

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Erica Sandberg: Make it more of an efficient city, which is what we're not.

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Richie Greenberg: That's an important word, just an efficiency, because we know that there's really very little metrics that are out there. This is a habit that the government has, not just in San Francisco, but the state and, you know, admittedly, federal as well, is that there are very little,

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Richie Greenberg: metrics. There's no way to check to see if the funding and the efforts are having any tangible benefit, beneficial results for the money. And the majority, we would say no. You would say, no, there is no, no,

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Richie Greenberg: you know, effectiveness of this, it's just a waste of money, and it's not going anywhere, and we've learned here in California, especially under Gavin Newsom, is that just money comes in, and it just disappears. That's right. So if we had the magic scissors, we would be able to sniff, but we don't.

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Erica Sandberg: So, what we do have right now, 500…

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Erica Sandberg: people who are on the city payroll, they're… they should be shed… they should be. They are set to be shed. It is up now… up to the city departments to figure out how… who, how.

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Richie Greenberg: And who?

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Erica Sandberg: and what they're gonna be able… how they're gonna be able to function without those people, that's going to be up to them. And they had, I believe it's March 12th, where they have to make that decision.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right. And I see, of course, immediate, very harsh pushback by the unions, by the SEIU and others, and some of the members of the Board of Supervisors who are going to say, no, that's unacceptable.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes, because some of the members of the Board of Supervisors… what do they care? What…

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Erica Sandberg: They care about votes.

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Erica Sandberg: If a union is going to help them either get elected or stay in power.

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Erica Sandberg: then that's going to be where they turn their attention. So, you know, is it for the good of the city? No. Is it good for… is it for the good of San Franciscans? No, it's good for them. So, sorry, that is how it is. Right. And yeah, so, okay, what's the last one?

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Richie Greenberg: And the last item on our Hot Five for the week is a Supreme Court decision that came down a few days ago, which is making the liberals cry.

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Richie Greenberg: Parental rights. Oh my God, how… How did this happen?

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Richie Greenberg: How did parents

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Richie Greenberg: lose their rights to what their children… the best for their children. This is what I find is one of the most horrific and despicable things out there, among others. But, you know, there is the undeniable bond

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Richie Greenberg: between a parent and their child. The responsibility, the love.

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Richie Greenberg: the, everything, right? I mean, what do you think, Eric? I mean, about your child, right?

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Erica Sandberg: I think, well, let's cover what it was. So, the Supreme Court, they made their decision, which is that California, so this is statewide, California public schools cannot permit or require any employee to withhold certain information from parents and guardians.

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Richie Greenberg: Yeah, this…

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Erica Sandberg: And the statement was, as parents have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school child expresses

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Erica Sandberg: gender incongruence.

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Richie Greenberg: So what this basically means is that there was an effort which became a law, which.

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Erica Sandberg: Let's go.

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Richie Greenberg: Wiener and others, right? That,

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Richie Greenberg: If there was a… a child, a student in public school that has decided that they want to go by different pronouns, that they want to be considered transgender, that the school… the teachers and the school system was prohibited.

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Erica Sandberg: Counselors, coaches, principals, anyone.

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Richie Greenberg: Could not tell the parents.

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Erica Sandberg: Correct.

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Richie Greenberg: It was secret.

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Richie Greenberg: So, kept secret from a child's own parents.

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Erica Sandberg: Right.

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Richie Greenberg: And, and so there was a lawsuit.

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Erica Sandberg: The reasoning behind that, let's talk about what the reasoning behind that was, was to protect the child against abusive parents

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Erica Sandberg: Who would react?

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Richie Greenberg: Right, if they found out.

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Erica Sandberg: I found out who would react very negatively if they… if their child came out as non-binary or trans, and so this is to protect the child, right? So that's… that's the underlying reason for this.

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Erica Sandberg: But there's… there's a glitch in the system here, which is, if teachers and school employees are mandated reporters.

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Erica Sandberg: So if abuse does… if they detect abuse, if… or harm, their student tells them that their, you know, parents are hitting them, or torturing them, or neglecting them, then they are required.

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Erica Sandberg: to notify

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Erica Sandberg: the state, right? Through the system. So, it's already there. It's already there, so students are already protected from… from that.

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Richie Greenberg: Right.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right, that's right. And certainly that does happen, you know, I mean, you do have… as a teacher, I was a teacher for a while, it was really heartbreaking to know that some students were going home to bad situations, and we had to make that decision, you know, we had to, like, at what point do we notify, right, the authorities?

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Richie Greenberg: Now, this specifically was talking about in this situation like that, but where the very narrow focus was that if the situation was because the child was, or is transgender pronouns or non-binary,

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Richie Greenberg: That was where now you can't tell the parent.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right.

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Erica Sandberg: That… which is absurd, right? You really… this is… this is…

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Richie Greenberg: This is something…

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Erica Sandberg: that every parent should be aware of. And it would… honestly, Richie, this would drive…

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Erica Sandberg: parents from putting their children into public school, because they think, well, they're hiding things. Why would… why would I participate in that system? I need to know. Honestly, if it were my decision, I would have cameras.

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Erica Sandberg: in public school classrooms, I want to know. I'd love to be able to check in, oh, what's going on in that classroom? What are they learning? Or at least having, you know, a lot more interaction to find out what's going on. You pay for it?

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Richie Greenberg: Now, Scott Weiner, as we know, is the champion of LGBTQIA plus, issues, and so what was his reaction? Well, it was very negative, because we know that this is all about him, and

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Richie Greenberg: And so, in an interview with, one of the NPR kind of public radio stations, KQED,

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Richie Greenberg: He said that this was a dangerous decision. He says that what the Supreme Court came up with was a dangerous decision.

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Richie Greenberg: forcing children to be… to out was a, the death… potential death consequences for too many, children. Some will die, some will get kicked out and become homeless. I don't know the statistics, but I don't think it's really that

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Richie Greenberg: high.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah.

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Richie Greenberg: But there's going to be other issues and other ways to deal with this, not to simply say, across the board, across the entire state of California.

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Richie Greenberg: that no… school…

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Richie Greenberg: employees, teachers, or faculty is able to say anything, it just makes no sense at all, and it's very detrimental, and the idea that the state knows better than the parent is completely…

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Richie Greenberg: Completely horsepucky.

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Erica Sandberg: It absolutely is, and it just has driven a wedge between parents and public schools. That is exactly where we do not need to be. There needs to be trust. There needs to be trust. If there's not trust, then you end up with a situation where

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Erica Sandberg: One of the reasons parents do not put their children into San Francisco Unified is because the education isn't up to par, but also, there's a lack of trust.

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Erica Sandberg: Right? So we moved maybe the elementary school level, which is what we did, into public, and then after that, you… if you've got any cash, you gravitate into a parochial school or into a private school, because it's… you don't have these situations.

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Richie Greenberg: Also, I have friends who, once they realize what's going on here in the public school system with their own kids, they leave.

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Erica Sandberg: Yes.

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Richie Greenberg: They, they move. They move out of town, they move out of state, and they say, we just, we're not gonna put up with this, and that's an unfortunate reality also.

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Erica Sandberg: I'm sorry, Senator Weiner.

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Erica Sandberg: you're wrong on this. This is… this is a bad move. The Supreme Court came out on the side of reason, rationality, positivity. There are other ways that we can ensure that

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Erica Sandberg: children who go to school are safe, feel safe, and are embraced, whoever they are, whatever they are. But this was… what had happened was not the way to do it. It was very harmful.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right, yes. Okay, that concludes the Hot Five, and thanks so much, Erica. What do you think we have looking forward for the next week or so? Anything coming up on your radar?

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Erica Sandberg: Oh… I don't know. My birthday!

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Richie Greenberg: Oh my god, your birthday, you're turning…

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Erica Sandberg: It's my birthday month.

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Richie Greenberg: That's right, you're turning 29, or forget about that, yeah. That's right.

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Erica Sandberg: Yeah, so, how about this? If anybody's got any special places, restaurants, bars, activities, anything.

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Erica Sandberg: Why don't you reach out to me? Reach out to us, let me know, I would love to check them out. You can always reach me through X on Erica J. Sandberg, that's my handle.

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Erica Sandberg: you know, I want to hear… I say, for me, being able to celebrate another

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Erica Sandberg: Another year, another upcoming year.

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Richie Greenberg: this is…

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Erica Sandberg: In San Francisco, in my most beautiful… although I'll be in San Diego for a few days, but…

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Richie Greenberg: Okay.

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Erica Sandberg: But, I'll be here. And, yeah, let's all celebrate everything. Celebrate spring is coming up.

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Richie Greenberg: And we're turning the clocks back, no, forward, spring forward this weekend, too, so don't.

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Erica Sandberg: That's right. Oh, and I believe Tulip Day is coming into Union Square.

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Richie Greenberg: Is it? Oh, they have the whole… the whole display and everything.

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Erica Sandberg: Have you… have you been to Tulip Day?

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Richie Greenberg: I think years ago, at one point. Yeah, if you're really into tulips, that's…

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Erica Sandberg: It's a madhouse. It is an absolute madhouse. If you love tulips and you don't mind staying in line, head on over, and I'm sorry, I don't know the date offhand, but you can Google it.

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Richie Greenberg: I'm the googling, yeah.

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Erica Sandberg: And, that's it for now. Really, San Francisco.

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Richie Greenberg: And you can find…

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Erica Sandberg: joining us. You bet.

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Richie Greenberg: find me on, on Green, at Greenberg Nation on, on X on Twitter as well.

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Richie Greenberg: You can reach out to me, either of us, and we are on Apple Podcasts, we are on Spotify, and iHeartRadio, I think we're on that, too, as well. So, you can find us various different ways. But yeah, Erica, thanks so much. It was a very informative Hot Five episode.

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Richie Greenberg: And look forward to chatting again with you soon, and bringing all the fun and games of San Francisco to viewers around the world.

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Erica Sandberg: Right, bring a little bit of rationality back here, I love it, but we'll still be who we are, which is a very interesting city. Okay, love you all, thank you so much.

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Richie Greenberg: Okay, thanks.

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Erica Sandberg: Bye.