Blueprint for a Better San Francisco

Blueprint for a Better San Francisco Blueprint is a grassroots community of San Franciscans who believe that pragmatism and competence should always come before ideology.

We advocate for a safe, well-run, vibrant San Francisco where residents, families and businesses can thrive.

11/05/2025

People are understandably upset that a Waymo killed a beloved bodega cat named KitKat in front of Randa’s in the Mission. It’s sad - this cat was clearly a part of the community. But to use this to call for a ban on Waymo’s is a classic overreaction from our city’s most ideological leaders who are virtue signaling rather than focusing on the real issues at hand.

It’s no secret that the Mission has very real challenges when it comes to crime, homelessness, and fentanyl. It would be awesome to see ideologues like Jackie Fielder talk about, let alone take these very serious challenges as seriously as they do performing for the cameras.

10/31/2025

SF’s Public Defender Mano Raju is throwing a tantrum over not getting the budget he wanted, and in doing so, is forcing the courts to set detained fentanyl dealers free.

Mano Raju’s office is refusing to take new clients because they claim to be overburdened by the number of cases District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is bringing forward when it comes to holding fentanyl dealers accountable. In doing so, because it’s illegal for someone to be detained indefinitely without legal representation, courts are forcing jails to release arrested dealers before their court dates. When someone is released, it gives them an opportunity to escape justice. Worse - it gives dealers the opportunity to return to their lethal business of poisoning those experiencing addiction on our streets.

Raju is playing politics with public safety, and is an embarrassment to our city, especially at a time when there is so much on the line when it comes to quelling disorder on our streets.

10/29/2025

Major legal update in the case against Troy McAlister here in San Francisco: Judge Michael Begert is not giving McAlister diversion and has him scheduled for a jury trial next month. While this is a win the fight for justice for the many victims over McAlister’s over two-decade criminal career spanning 91 felonies, it’s too little, too late. Ideological electeds like former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and judges like Michael Begert are complicit in allowing a known and dangerous criminal to continue to terrorize innocent San Franciscans. And there are many others like Troy McAlister.

The work is far from over - but today is a step in the right direction.

10/27/2025

Troy McAlister is one of SF’s most notorious repeat criminals who has, time and time again, been given leniency despite posing a known and present danger to public safety in San Francisco.

McAlister is currently being charged for the murders of Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Pratt after he got high, stole a car, crashed it into another car, and in doing so, killed two people on the sidewalk. McAlister had a long record already - but because of lenient judges like Michael Begert and a terrible plea deal with former DA Chesa Boudin, McAlister was allowed to walk free despite a well-documented pattern of dangerous behavior.

Judge Michael Begert is supposed to hear McAlister’s case tomorrow morning, but may delay the hearing yet again. San Franciscans are watching - and demanding accountability.

10/21/2025

SF’s Better Market Street plan was supposed to result in just that. But amidst a retail vacancy crisis caused by a relatively slower downtown rebound and public safety challenges and a poorly (in incompletely) executed plan, Market Street continues to falter.

Downtown is the most critical piece of our city’s tax revenue. We need to solve for the challenges of today’s Market Street.

We need to critically reexamine everything we assume to be true about Market Street. We need to make downtown as accessible as possible to as many people as possible (including via vehicular traffic). We need to think of downtown as more than just a daytime economic corridor. We need to make downtown come alive.

Fentanyl has created one of the greatest public health crises to rock San Francisco — and yet, for all the talk about co...
10/18/2025

Fentanyl has created one of the greatest public health crises to rock San Francisco — and yet, for all the talk about compassion and treatment, we still don’t have the infrastructure to help people truly recover. Across San Francisco and the state, our “Housing First” system does little more than warehouse people in chaos. What’s missing isn’t money; it’s direction. The state has built thousands of “supportive housing” units but virtually none that require or even encourage sobriety. The result is a system that stabilizes no one and serves no one well.

To put it bluntly: California is in the middle of a public health emergency.

That’s why Assemblymember Matt Haney’s AB 255 was so important — and why Governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to veto it is such a failure of leadership.

The bill would have created a simple, long-overdue pathway for cities and counties to fund sober living environments — homes where people could choose to live in stable, recovery-focused communities, free from the presence and pressure of drug use. Instead, California is right back where it started: stuck in a gray area where state law supposedly allows recovery housing, yet no one — not cities, counties, or providers — can actually do it without risking a lawsuit.

AB 255 started as a bold proposal. Haney’s original bill would have allowed up to 25 percent of state homelessness funds to be used for sober housing — homes where people commit to sobriety and peer support. It was a practical step toward offering choice in a system that currently provides only one option: “Housing First” units where drug use is permitted and oftentimes, in San Francisco, rampant.

But as the bill moved through Sacramento, it got diluted. Groups who opposed the bill like the Corporation for Supportive Housing and other housing first advocacy groups lobbied to shrink that cap from 25 percent down to just 10 percent. Haney accepted the compromise to keep the bill alive — an act of pragmatism, not ideology — because something was better than nothing.

And Gavin still vetoed it. Read more on the Blueprint Blog.

10/14/2025

A strike is looming over SF public school families as the teachers’ union demands a 9-14% wage increase. And while teachers absolutely deserve more pay (and the union should advocate for its members), to threaten a strike and demand such a large increase after two significant increases in 2022 and 2023, and in light of SFUSD teetering on the verge on bankruptcy - ultimately harms SF kids and families who rely on public school.

A strike means less instruction days for students in a district already woefully behind grade-level learning targets. It means working families suddenly don’t have somewhere for their kids to go during the day - and parents accordingly forego pay. It means kids who rely on free and reduced lunch may not get three meals a day.

We can all agree - teachers deserve more. But at a time of unprecedented financial difficulties for SFUSD, a strike would be a bad-faith tactic. Both sides needs to strive for a reasonable compromise. The Board of Education shouldn’t cave to this reckless threat that harms students and their learning. What’s your take?

10/11/2025

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Donald Trump should send the National Guard to SF ahead of Dreamforce next week, which is Salesforce’s massive global conference. And it’s completely hypocritical.

If Benioff is serious about police staffing, he should have actually supported Matt Dorsey’s Prop F last year. He could direct resources toward officer recruitment and retention. But instead, he’s calling for a federal invasion of a city with one of the lowest homicide rates of any major city with historically low crime levels. All after being the primary backer of a Coalition on Homeless-backed ballot measure tied to actually worsening street conditions in San Francisco.

Marc, your hypocrisy is showing.

10/08/2025

Taxpayer-funded non-profits in SF continue to give out paraphernalia used to get high by those experiencing addiction on our streets. And while there is a place for harm reduction in our approach to the addiction crisis, when these kits - let alone used needles, foil, and pipes - show up in our playgrounds and parks, something is majorly wrong.

We know parks and playgrounds have been magnets for using. It should be unacceptable to us - especially in the neighborhood with the highest concentration of kids (the Tenderloin) that we’re somehow normalizing this behavior in SF. Parks and playgrounds should be safe places for children to play, not spaces for people to get high.

10/08/2025

There was a rally for fallen Urban Alchemy practitioner Joey Alexander today, who was shot at point blank range by someone doing drugs in front of the SF Public Library. The reason? He asked the user to not do drugs in front of families.

Today’s rally was an opportunity for elected leaders to say in clear and unwavering terms: we will not tolerate public drug use in San Francisco any more. Yet, Mayor Daniel Lurie didn’t say it. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood didn’t say it. Supervisor Shamann Walton didn’t say it. Only Supervisor Matt Dorsey and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins stood up and said enough is enough.

It’s clear when you drive through the Tenderloin, down 6th Street, or at 16th and Mission - despite us declaring a Fentanyl State of Emergency, there is still a rampant crisis unfolding on our streets. And it’s not just killing those using the drugs. It’s killing innocent people. And it’s ravaging our communities. When will enough be enough?

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