Phil and Camille bring you the latest discussions in California politics and do their best to crack through the insanity.
On this episode, we are joined by political activist and former SF mayoral candidate, Richie Greenberg, who has been working hard in San Francisco to try and turn it around. We discuss issues such as the reparations panel, the recall of Chesa Boudin, crime, and the mass exodus of business from the city.
This episode was recorded on 5.16.23
*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*
Links Mentioned in Show
www.rejecttheplan.com
www.richiegreenberg.org
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What's going on everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another
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episode of the California underground podcast.
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I am your host, Phil as well as with my trusty co-host best and
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fastest researcher in the west Camille.
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And tonight, we are happy to have a very passionate political
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activist. You want to talk about deep
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Behind Enemy Lines, Richard Greenberg is deep Behind Enemy
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Lines and has been working and he's been actually doing some
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great things. I started Following him on
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Twitter not too long ago. And I've been loving everything.
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He's been putting out and I just reached out to him recently was
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like, hey, do you want to come on to the podcast?
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And he said, sure and we already had an episode about how
00:00:42
horrible and how bad things are going in San Francisco.
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He's based out of San Francisco, and here we are.
00:00:49
And he's rocking the SF pin. He's ready to go.
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Richie, welcome to the show. How are you?
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Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
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Pleasure to be invited. I really love basically to get
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the word out to as many people as possible.
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The way I look at it. It doesn't matter what the
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platform is. Does it matter how, few, or how
00:01:11
many viewers there are? Does it matter if it's local or
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national or International? In print, on podcast, live TV
00:01:20
recorded, radio, does it matter? There is a tremendous interest
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in San Francisco, and I'm happy to be part of it.
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Awesome. So why don't you tell people a
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little bit about your resume because I was reviewing your
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resume. You're very active, you've held
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you fit warned, several different, hats.
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Most recently were also involved in the recall chesa Boudin,
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which was a huge win. I don't think anyone expected
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that to actually happen in San Francisco made it happen.
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So why don't you tell us a little bit about your background
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and what you've been up to? So interestingly enough I was
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born in Queens, New York. And then grew up on Long Island
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and left when I just barely 21 years old.
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And I moved to the West Coast because that's that's what, you
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know, the coolest the coolest people did is they moved to
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California, you know, back in New York the East Coast you put
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up with moving around to other East Coast or Northeast cities,
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you know? Boston maybe New Jersey
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Washington, and or down. Also, the Carolinas or to
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Florida, but I wanted to go to school and live in California.
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And at that time, it was difficult.
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You have to pay per minute on the phone long distance and you
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try and get a long distance calling plan.
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They didn't have cell phones. We didn't barely even had a fax
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machines. I think at that point.
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Yeah. I mean, you know, we're talking
00:02:53
a little couple of decades back, so, I moved to Los Angeles, and
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I was living if, you know, or if listeners know about Southern
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California, I went to Cal State Fullerton.
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And I was living in Whittier and La Habra, La Habra Heights.
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And a lot of friends in that area there and I studied
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business business law and actually took a few courses in
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criminal justice as well. And So I was like a Southern
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California transplant, and as a result of being there, that's
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pretty much why I lost my New York accent.
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So if I really strain and you could, you could hear it, but my
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attitude is still sort of there. But, you know, growing up in New
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York. It toughened me as a person and
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wanting to fight for your beliefs.
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And to recognize BS. Can we use profanity on this
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podcast if you want to or not? Okay, bullshit, bullshit,
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instead of be as okay? But even even the mayor, San
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Francisco mayor on CNN the other night said, bullshit and they
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let that go through. So I can spot bullshit.
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I can spot when someone is being manipulative or exploitive that
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was and and to and to immediately call someone out on
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it. And that's why that's like a New
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York, kind of attitude and I still have that it was
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suppressed for a while but now it's back after moving here, to
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San Francisco but moving from Los Angeles and I lived in a few
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other cities and states for a year here a year, they are
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including towards the end of the 90s.
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I was in South Dakota, I lived there for a couple of years and
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I even had a home that I was renovating in North Dakota so I
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Both the most Urban cities of San Fran top of the United
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States to know what it's like to be in a real urban environment.
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And then also in extreme, rural Northern Plains within an hour
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or two of the border of Canada. So it's very cold there.
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So then I moved here to to San Francisco.
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I've been here for 22 years approximately and I have Over
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the years, been a business startup consultant, not the big
00:05:31
tech companies, but just small mom-and-pop shops and online
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things and really get to know a person as a consultant but
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almost like a friend as well. So I have that ability to get
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the report to talk with people to see what their needs are.
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What their concerns are to see what's important.
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Then what's not important and how we can make the best of of
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anything, you know, whatever they want to do, whether it's in
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business or elsewhere. So living here in San Francisco.
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I arrived here just after 9/11 in 2001 and have been here ever
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since and I didn't really pay that much attention to politics
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at that point. It's a new city.
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I wanted just to explore and wanted to see where I fit in
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there and niches. The kind of people that are out
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there attitudes restaurants, what's fun to do.
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And it wasn't really until about eight years ago that I started
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feeling that there's big problems here and it's because
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of the government. It's not us, it's not my
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friends, it's not good, my associate, it's not my clients,
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it's not the neighbors, it's the government, and they're the ones
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that are creating all these crazy ideas and proposals and
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policies. And I started paid paying
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attention, more and more. And then in 2008 2015, I decided
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to throw my hat in and start exploring different political
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clubs that were around. On the city, attend Community
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meetings, learn, who's who take a lot of notes and then in 2018,
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I was already at that point, I was already pretty involved with
00:07:38
the Republican party at that back end.
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And that point, which some people are like, what are you
00:07:45
talking about that? Yes, there's about 30,
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32 registered. Atkins in San Francisco.
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And I went to the Republican party's monthly meetings and
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quickly realize that they were very much the underdog, but I
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was, you know, it at that point. Seen that, that is where I fit
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in. And the thing to remember,
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though is that this is the city SF GOP, not to State GOP, not a
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federal not now, National RNC it's City only and I stuck with
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it. I ran for mayor.
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I decided I want to go ahead and try and make my mark on the
00:08:39
city. I saw the opportunity because
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our then current mayor mayor Ed Lee who was pretty well liked
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and he was very moderate Centrist.
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He was a Democrat as is everybody.
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In elected office and he suddenly had a heart attack late
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at night and died while shopping at one of those 24-hour
00:09:01
supermarkets. He collapsed and died.
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And the next morning I happen to have been in Sacramento on
00:09:07
business and I called back to some of the local San Francisco
00:09:13
GOP leadership and I said I think that's a calling.
00:09:17
I think that's a signal for me to take action.
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Personally. So while I was in Sacramento, I
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walked right into the, the State political Affairs Department,
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which is in the Secretary of State's office, and I filed the
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committee forms to open a committee to run for for office.
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So, I actually became the first candidate within hours of the
00:09:44
mayor passing away. I filed the paperwork and
00:09:49
somehow that information got to local media Here in San
00:09:53
Francisco within within a half hour already, was getting phone
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calls asking for interviews. So so that was 20, 18, June,
00:10:03
2018 was a special election. I actually ran against a few far
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leftist communist by candidates that were popular.
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That were known as well as London.
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Reed, who was our current mayor. Now we were all there were there
00:10:22
were eight of us. Candidates.
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And we went to other candidate forums and interviews and
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debates on stage, throughout the city.
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And I sat right there, right next to London, breed answering
00:10:33
questions in front of a crowd and in front of the media.
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So that was a great experience. I didn't win, I had no chance of
00:10:44
winning because the the Democrat Party Machine, the political
00:10:51
machine that is So entrenched in San Francisco and it's
00:10:54
elsewhere, of course, I know would never let an outsider win
00:11:00
for the most part and especially not someone who was from the SF
00:11:03
GOP. So since then, I have left the
00:11:07
party. I am independent right now a lot
00:11:10
more like towards libertarian is what seems a fit for me at this
00:11:14
point but right now I don't need the labels.
00:11:17
Just like so many labels have been causing problems.
00:11:22
Lee in politics looking for the intersection and all this.
00:11:27
So I am trying to avoid being labeled anything, it allows me
00:11:31
then to comment and aligned with and be supportive or critical of
00:11:39
anything and not have to toe the party line.
00:11:42
So that brings you up to date for the most part with the
00:11:47
exception of my activism year and a half two years ago.
00:11:52
With recalling Trista Boden. And now, I'm very active with
00:11:57
trying to push back against the San Francisco version of the
00:12:01
reparations plan. So those are the two things that
00:12:04
are most. I've had on my plate in the last
00:12:06
year and a half or so. It's, as I hear your story, it
00:12:12
actually reflects. I kind of identify with it.
00:12:16
I'm from New Jersey Jersey. What?
00:12:19
What exit weddings? It Exit, 12 off Route, 80
00:12:22
savesies coasters. This is how we communicate, what
00:12:26
is it? You off of Jersey Jersey.
00:12:30
So sharp it, right? Yeah.
00:12:34
And when I heard you're from Queens, I was like, I hope he's
00:12:37
not a Mets fan, like me and suffers.
00:12:39
I am I have, I have a heart meds, that's an Islanders and
00:12:43
jets. That's a rough trail right
00:12:46
there. Yes it is.
00:12:47
You know, we understand each other.
00:12:49
So if you can learn to deal with the disappointment of being a
00:12:52
Mets fan, you can learn what the disappointment of working in
00:12:55
California politics. Yeah.
00:12:58
But so I definitely identify with your story about like,
00:13:02
moving from the east coast to California because there was
00:13:05
this idea that California was sort of this land of milk and
00:13:10
honey and how opportunity is and it was new and you could
00:13:14
experience. New culture.
00:13:16
And just you could, it was different.
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It was different than the east coast and it's hard to really to
00:13:22
put into words. It's just you want it to be
00:13:24
somewhere out there and when I first used to go to San
00:13:27
Francisco in college, I loved it.
00:13:30
I went to school up north. My grandfather used to live in
00:13:33
San Francisco. After World War Two.
00:13:35
He worked at Fort Mason down there and his wife worked at the
00:13:40
Presidio for a long time. Yeah there was a magic wand.
00:13:45
Body about California and that's why to me it hurts to see where
00:13:50
San Francisco is right now, and how absolutely overboard.
00:13:55
It's gone with its policies reparations being probably one
00:14:00
of the most insane right now. Talk a little bit about the
00:14:05
specifics of reparations. What they're proposing in San
00:14:08
Francisco because there's there was a state task force, but
00:14:12
there was also a San Francisco task force, correct?
00:14:14
Yes, Correct. You sure you want to go into
00:14:16
this absolutely. We've already done a whole
00:14:20
episode so let's go ahead and just dump jump into it.
00:14:23
I have been approached by several different members of the
00:14:29
media TV and other podcasts and written newspapers and they all
00:14:40
say that it is such a thought button, you know.
00:14:45
Third rail topic that most mainstream media doesn't even
00:14:49
want to cover it. At least they don't want to
00:14:52
cover the push back to it. They are fearful for whatever
00:14:59
reason that it has to be only reported in a positive light, or
00:15:05
sort of like the straight factual, like, the committee
00:15:08
suggest this or the task for Force, wants that amount, or, or
00:15:13
this dollar amount. But But they don't talk about
00:15:16
the ramifications. They don't talk about the
00:15:19
legality and that's where I from the start.
00:15:25
So this just can't be lawful, it can't be constitutional.
00:15:31
That's mostly the how I'm coming at this, right?
00:15:38
So a couple of months ago when here in San Francisco with their
00:15:43
version, It came out of Summer of 2020 when the when the
00:15:52
country was all in the throes of covid, lockdown and BLM George
00:16:00
Floyd defund. The police movements, our mayor
00:16:06
here in San Francisco together with one of the members of our
00:16:11
city council said. I'm just imagining this but the
00:16:16
two of them said to themselves. Now is the time to push for a
00:16:19
reparations effort. So those two together did two
00:16:24
things. This was in I think August July
00:16:28
or August of 2020. They first pushed for a
00:16:34
committee in the state. It's a task force, but in San
00:16:37
Francisco, what was a 15-person reparations committee to create
00:16:42
a committee? And the second thing, what the
00:16:46
mayor did immediately, which I now am going to start
00:16:49
investigating? Is she took tens of millions of
00:16:52
dollars away from the police department budget and put it to
00:16:57
a project that she had just set up herself.
00:17:00
Under the auspices of the mayor's office.
00:17:03
And that was like a mini reparations, kind of test to
00:17:10
start funneling funds to underprivileged groups that are
00:17:17
within this city, but look very much like what the reparations
00:17:22
plan says, in terms of where they were located or who would
00:17:26
qualify to get this. So that's another topic.
00:17:30
So what happens is in 2020, they set up at a reparations
00:17:36
committee made up of 15 individuals and those that
00:17:41
committee works for a year and a half to create the plan 60 Pages
00:17:45
60 and it gets handed over to the Board of Supervisors are our
00:17:53
city council. For the purpose of them city
00:17:58
council reviewing the plan de debating it saying, you know?
00:18:05
Yeah, we like it. We're going to prove the whole
00:18:07
thing or part of it or some of the provisions or we're going to
00:18:11
say no to the whole thing. And so a couple of months ago in
00:18:18
January and early February, that's when this report, the 60
00:18:23
Pages was presented to our Our Board of Supervisors, city
00:18:27
council, that then triggered the Uproar because that then was
00:18:31
public. Now we can see and they publish
00:18:34
the 60 pages on their website. I got a hold of it.
00:18:37
My colleagues got a hold of it and we're like, holy effing
00:18:41
crap. This is absolutely racist.
00:18:45
Segregationist. It's like setting up an
00:18:47
apartheid system with in San Francisco where the
00:18:51
African-American black population are the beneficiaries
00:18:54
and Anyone else who's not? Black has to, then give up
00:18:58
basically everything to benefit the approximate 5% of the
00:19:04
population of San Francisco and the 95% of us have to pay for
00:19:08
it. See.
00:19:09
So I created a website to discuss all the details in
00:19:15
length and that was at length, reject, the plan.com.
00:19:20
So I created that just a couple months ago and at reject the
00:19:26
plan.com, you can see it's all. It's all me.
00:19:29
It's my commentary. My analysis.
00:19:32
My deep dive into the plan. I talk about each of the plan,
00:19:39
Provisions, with a reference to the page of their plan, that you
00:19:44
can look back at. So, for example, one of the
00:19:50
provisions that they said is they want to enact a reparations
00:19:53
tax and then, on my, on my website, it says, what page of
00:19:59
their plan. You can see where
00:20:00
cross-reference, I'm not just making it up here, here's the
00:20:03
page where it's from. So I did that, I got different
00:20:11
different analysis and viewpoints.
00:20:13
I have people that are in the legal profession were feeding me
00:20:17
information to go and put that there and ultimately as the week
00:20:24
We're going with this plan. Now, being out in the open and
00:20:28
being discussed and causing local and even national news and
00:20:33
even outrage to a lot of people justifiably.
00:20:40
I then conferred with an attorney down in the LA area who
00:20:44
is pretty well versed in state and federal constitutional law
00:20:50
and business, law, and political things.
00:20:52
And he Helped me, write a cease and desist.
00:20:58
Cease and desist is not a court filing, but it could become one
00:21:02
where I am saying to the reparations committee, the city
00:21:09
council the mayor to stop in your tracks.
00:21:13
Stop doing any work on this because what you were doing is
00:21:18
unlawful and unconstitutional and you're wasting taxpayers
00:21:22
money on an unlawful unconstitutional effort.
00:21:27
So, First question is, why am I who am I to be saying this?
00:21:34
Well, there is a specific law that is in California, only.
00:21:40
I mean, maybe other states have it, but here in the state of
00:21:41
California is called section 526.
00:21:45
A of the procedure Court procedure civil, civil
00:21:49
procedure, where any taxpayer anyone can file suit, Against a
00:21:59
city, government local government.
00:22:02
In this case, to have the courts enjoying them to stop to the
00:22:08
courts, to stop a local government from wasting
00:22:13
taxpayers funds on a wasteful or unlawful Endeavor.
00:22:20
And that's why I did that. So in the on the reject of
00:22:24
plan.com website, I do have a copy of the cease and desist,
00:22:28
it's like three pages and it outlines very specifically what
00:22:34
state or federal laws the Constitution Article this
00:22:38
article that or the Civil Rights Act or or other court
00:22:42
precedents. It's all in there.
00:22:45
Why the plan is unlawful unconstitutional illegal and
00:22:52
right now? That cease and desist is still
00:22:54
out there. It hasn't been canceled and I'm
00:22:57
waiting with my attorneys that if they try and go any further
00:23:01
to try and push this through and actually pass anything.
00:23:04
Boom? Right to court and you put my
00:23:07
shades. Yes it is who appointed the task
00:23:11
like the actual people and were they paid position?
00:23:14
So. Great question.
00:23:16
And I actually do explain this on the website.
00:23:19
I don't want to keep telling you to go back to the website and
00:23:22
I'm I know that, but this is one of the problems with this whole
00:23:28
reparations in San Francisco, their plan.
00:23:30
They decided to create a 15-member committee and rather
00:23:40
than as a many the Board of Supervisors are city council
00:23:43
said, okay? We're going to set up a 15
00:23:45
member committee to now create the plan, right?
00:23:47
So what they did not do. Is choose or have as a
00:23:56
qualification exemplary, the leaders of industry or or you
00:24:03
know, the best legal minds or infrastructure and business and
00:24:09
law and all that. No, they didn't do that.
00:24:11
What they wound up doing is they said we want a committee of
00:24:20
victims. so they came up with 15 levels of victimhood, one of
00:24:27
them being, if you are incarcerated, That's it.
00:24:32
If you ever cars, if you have to, you have to be black,
00:24:34
African-American, a resident, San Francisco.
00:24:38
If you've been incarcerated, come on by will talk to you.
00:24:41
And we'll see if we want you. If you have been denied,
00:24:47
everyone has to be black. African-American.
00:24:50
I know we use the interchangeably and the
00:24:52
reparations plan uses the word black, a lot more than
00:24:55
African-American, that's just how they're doing it.
00:24:57
So I wind up speaking that way. Oh, if you were ever denied a
00:25:03
loan, Come on, come on to the committee.
00:25:08
If you were a part of that, if you grow grew up and went to
00:25:12
public school between this year in that year, whatever
00:25:15
specifics, right? And you're black and you were
00:25:20
part of a decent desegregation plan.
00:25:23
We want to talk to you right now.
00:25:26
Another, if you're between the ages of 14 and 24 and you work
00:25:30
in like an after-school youth program, that is mostly catering
00:25:35
to Our City's African American kids.
00:25:37
After school, you can be on the program, so of of the 15
00:25:43
different potential, 15 potential seats, they call them
00:25:50
on this committee, each seat had a designation of what it is.
00:25:54
Like number 12 could have been that person who was 14 to 24 and
00:25:57
these field, they filled it. So you have a whole Committee of
00:26:03
Basically, victims, none of them are at the top of their fields,
00:26:08
as I said earlier. So, when they came up with this
00:26:14
60-page monstrosity of a reparations plan, it immediately
00:26:20
is being shot down because they didn't have legal constitutional
00:26:27
anyone on this committee to tell them hey, you can't do this.
00:26:32
You can't do that. You can't create, you can't say
00:26:37
that. I want programs that are going
00:26:39
to prioritize black housing. You can't have black credit card
00:26:47
debt eliminated, you can't create black, run banks with a
00:26:53
black only credit score. These are real provisions and
00:26:58
and so on it, is it, you know, I really I try and be respectful.
00:27:07
I try and be understandable, I understanding but I just cannot
00:27:12
believe they came up with so much of these.
00:27:15
You got to go to reject the plan that calm and see what they have
00:27:19
there. And and and I don't want to
00:27:22
laugh but it's just incredible what they want.
00:27:26
They basically want to segregate themselves out of the rest of
00:27:30
San Francisco, you know, it was like a logically Proverbially
00:27:33
stay in a certain part of the southeast section of San
00:27:37
Francisco and like in a walled-off segregated City black
00:27:44
schools, black teachers, black curriculum.
00:27:47
They want everyone who's not black to pay for all of this
00:27:53
they want within their school system, they want us to pay for
00:27:59
psych psychologist for therapy. To help the African American
00:28:06
teachers. Now today, deal with the white
00:28:11
supremacists curriculum, that they're being forced to have to
00:28:15
teach today in the public schools.
00:28:19
I sound listening to me saying this I sound nuts, what I'm
00:28:24
saying, it sounds nuts, but it is in their plan very openly and
00:28:31
I make reference to each plate page that they say it.
00:28:35
So what happens now is sometime. Next month, the reparations
00:28:43
committee is supposed to now prepare a second version of
00:28:47
their reparations plan. The first one is called the
00:28:50
draft reparations plan. That's what they referred to.
00:28:52
As the graft reparations. Plan a revised version of that
00:28:57
is due next month to be, given to the park, or to the
00:29:01
supervisors for Review, I'm going to be right there.
00:29:05
Getting the revised plan to see what they what they did.
00:29:10
If they made it worse was, and then sometime in September is
00:29:16
when the fateful day will come and our city council is supposed
00:29:21
to vote on it. So, that's where we're at.
00:29:24
It's exhausting. It's a, it's funny how and maybe
00:29:31
this is just how I perceive it. It it seems like San Francisco
00:29:35
was like they saw the state task force and then they were like,
00:29:39
we can't be, we can't be less than what they propose.
00:29:44
So we're gonna like go even farther off the cliff, we get
00:29:49
them like the state could go. It makes the state look more.
00:29:52
Say I mean the whole thing is insane in general.
00:29:55
Yeah absolutely. And on top of it I mean they're
00:30:00
going to make this recommendation but The city
00:30:03
itself is facing what like a 785 million dollar deficit.
00:30:09
It's probably going to balloon up to like 1.3 billion dollars.
00:30:11
So these numbers, they're throwing out there for like five
00:30:14
million dollars per citizen. It's just ludicrous, it's not
00:30:19
realistic. It's never going to happen.
00:30:20
If it did happen, it would definitely put San Francisco
00:30:25
farther in. The holding is, I want to kind
00:30:28
of like touch upon that, like, when we had our Our episode
00:30:33
about San Francisco a couple weeks ago.
00:30:36
The main topic was should we let San Francisco just fail?
00:30:41
Because it's over extended itself, it's has this huge
00:30:46
deficit. It's probably has programs that
00:30:49
can't pay for talk a little bit about that.
00:30:54
It like the state of what we're what San Francisco is looking at
00:30:58
in terms of their own budget in the economy right now.
00:31:01
So, yeah, even my Mine's me. That kind of question is similar
00:31:04
to what you hear about the bank's, you know, years ago.
00:31:06
It's too big to fail, right? We can't let it fail or it won't
00:31:11
fail because it's too big. San Francisco is, is a mess.
00:31:17
You know, it's this whirling whirling Cesspool of political
00:31:21
shit. I mean, it's such a mess and
00:31:26
because there's such a division between the farthest left
00:31:31
Progressive but you can't even call it Progressive.
00:31:34
They're like Marxist. These people are like petulant
00:31:38
children running around communist playing.
00:31:42
I don't know what they think that they're doing compared to
00:31:46
everybody else. Who's trying to hold the city
00:31:49
back from falling off over a cliff.
00:31:51
Okay? So you have a budget, you have a
00:31:57
required amount of money to run the city with all the programs.
00:32:02
You've got a low lower and lower amount of revenues that are
00:32:07
coming in and so you kind of have three choices.
00:32:12
One is to cut back on the programs to make it meet what
00:32:16
the revenues are coming in. The second one is to raise
00:32:20
revenues. The third option is a hybrid of
00:32:23
both. Okay, the problem is that our
00:32:26
city hall leaders for the most part don't want to cut back.
00:32:32
On any of the programs at all. They don't want to trim the fat.
00:32:37
They don't want to find where to cut.
00:32:40
I mean, they're going to have to do, they know that they're not
00:32:43
sure where, and we're waiting to hear what they're planning on
00:32:46
doing. But instead, they're trying to
00:32:49
find more Revenue sources, which means, whatever, unaffected
00:32:56
ineffective wasteful programs that are dealing with drug
00:32:59
addiction homelessness mental illness and all That just wasted
00:33:03
funds is not going to get cut. They're not going to cut giving
00:33:10
the taxpayers money to these ridiculous unaccountable
00:33:16
nonprofits, that are ruining our city streets.
00:33:20
And instead they're doing things like trying to raise taxes and
00:33:24
I'm sure because this year, we don't have an election, it was
00:33:26
postponed next year, we're going to have in March the primary and
00:33:30
then in November, Who is the general along with the
00:33:34
presidential, right? So they're going to try and put
00:33:39
on as many tax increases property tax increases other
00:33:44
taxes to try and pay for what is already, a horrendously High
00:33:50
budget. So there's the problem.
00:33:52
The problem is they are not willing to cut back any
00:33:57
programs, and it's going to squeeze the locals here.
00:34:02
The taxpayers worse and worse. So that's Why many businesses
00:34:07
have figured the big businesses said it's no longer economically
00:34:12
feasible for us to be here anymore beyond the issues of the
00:34:17
the homeless crisis that tend to dwellers and the people shooting
00:34:21
up right outside the front doors of our of our stores.
00:34:24
And I mean, we're like 22 or 23 major known retailers, have shut
00:34:30
up shut and left. Or are about to, you know, And
00:34:36
the tech companies, you know, they're the ones who are getting
00:34:39
the brunt of a lot of blame saying, well, you know, you
00:34:42
started as you're the ones that caused all of this, you know,
00:34:46
that's not true really about the tech companies that are
00:34:49
everyone's part of it. And is it going to fail?
00:34:55
Well, it could in certain aspects certain industries.
00:35:03
Yeah, it could the budget right now is for Fourteen point three
00:35:08
billion dollars, our city is seven miles by seven miles.
00:35:15
So think about where you live and in Orange County or in San
00:35:20
Diego. How far?
00:35:21
We're what is seven miles Square. 7 miles per 7 miles,
00:35:24
right? That's how big San Francisco is.
00:35:27
That's it. We are on the tip of a
00:35:29
peninsula. We're surrounded by water on
00:35:31
three sides. So we can't move anywhere.
00:35:35
We don't can't expand, we don't have any, you know, outskirts,
00:35:39
it's a different different, different counties.
00:35:42
So that's what we have 49 square miles, seven miles by seven
00:35:48
miles, and within it, we have about 800 people and our
00:35:52
budget is fourteen point three billion.
00:35:56
When I ran for office the first time years ago, it was only six
00:36:00
6.8 billion. So it's More than doubled just
00:36:04
in these few years and a lot of it.
00:36:08
Yeah, a lot of it is due to the fact that we have a very large
00:36:14
payroll. Like one of the largest
00:36:18
employers is the government, the city of San Francisco itself.
00:36:24
There's tens of thousands of employees that work for San
00:36:29
Francisco with, you know, the Union's, High hourly, wages,
00:36:35
very high benefit programs and a high pension.
00:36:41
So that I believe the. Last time I looked at that takes
00:36:45
up, like, five five-and-a-half billion of the 14 billion.
00:36:50
So if you say Okay, fourteen point three billion is the Is
00:36:55
the budget for the city, let's cut that down, let's cut it down
00:36:59
to 9, then you don't leave much to run.
00:37:03
Because so much of it is the city government itself, all the
00:37:07
different departments, and everything, everything their Rec
00:37:13
and parks, and, and humans is services.
00:37:17
And the police department. Everything is at least five
00:37:21
billion out of that. And They're not going to want to
00:37:25
cut back, they're not going to water, you know, say we're going
00:37:28
to have our budget. So we are in a very dire
00:37:31
situation and will it fail, it can fail.
00:37:37
But what does that mean? What's that going to look like?
00:37:40
It's going to look like we are hunkered down in our homes
00:37:46
whether we own them or rent, our homes apartments or houses,
00:37:51
we're paying the taxes that are keep it going.
00:37:54
Keep The city going, they'll be shortfalls.
00:37:57
And then they'll probably start defaulting on any of the city
00:38:00
loans. Any of the city Bond measures
00:38:03
the payments, they won't be able to pay on that.
00:38:06
The credit rating goes down. They can't borrow more money.
00:38:10
I have to put all these big projects on hold, and then we're
00:38:13
all going to start suffering the, the school systems, the the
00:38:18
infrastructure. So we're going to have to really
00:38:21
tighten our belts. Otherwise we're in trouble.
00:38:26
How do you even attack? Like the problem with that many
00:38:30
City governments and pensions is these are promises, I guess met
00:38:34
two people for working and they said, okay, well I'm going to
00:38:38
work in this government job and I'm going to get a nice pension.
00:38:41
How do you even tackle an issue like that?
00:38:45
Where people are promised a certain amount of money and you
00:38:48
can't really cut back on it. So how do you, how do you tell
00:38:51
they're? There are a few a few ways.
00:38:54
But, you know, any any attempt to play around with, with the,
00:39:01
with the city's earnings that these salaries.
00:39:04
The pensions is like, if they can attack you, you know, I
00:39:09
understand in La, this was an issue a few years ago and at the
00:39:13
mayoral debates they had they were all asked this question.
00:39:19
So what has to happen is you have to now create categories of
00:39:24
City employees. Those that have been around for
00:39:26
a long time that signed on and got employed with this kind of
00:39:31
benefit package than anyone knew that comes on board.
00:39:35
As of today, has a drastically different benefit package.
00:39:39
So you may have same employees working in similar departments,
00:39:44
maybe even working, you know, shoulder-to-shoulder but they
00:39:47
have different benefit packages because it depends on their
00:39:49
seniority. How long they've been there and
00:39:52
under wide benefit program. They They were hired.
00:39:55
So they're going to have to cut back on that.
00:39:56
That's the first thing. The second thing is possibility
00:40:01
is to ask for early retirement. Saying we, we can't employ you
00:40:07
anymore. We're doing like a mandatory lay
00:40:09
off a mandatory like a furloughing and then we can
00:40:18
bring you back, but it might be in a different category and this
00:40:22
actually happened in 2008. I'm when we had the mortgage
00:40:25
meltdown and all the all that back in those years there, what
00:40:30
the city did is in many of the Departments around the city.
00:40:36
They said, okay, everybody you're all laid off and we're
00:40:39
going to bring you all back with a different category or name or
00:40:46
title job description or job number designation, and you kind
00:40:51
of like, have to You have to come back on and choose your new
00:40:56
designation and you'll have to audition for it and you'll have
00:41:01
a different employment package. You're still, you know, you
00:41:05
haven't lost your position as a as a permanent or part-time City
00:41:11
employee, but now you're in a different different designation
00:41:16
and that will have a different, the benefits, and, and your
00:41:22
retirement, Aunt. So that's a way to do it and I
00:41:24
was long-winded but that's how a way you can do that without your
00:41:27
sing, everybody out, but it's slow, it's a slow process and
00:41:32
because the unit the unions are involved and they're going to
00:41:35
be, you know, really push back. I don't know if it'd push comes
00:41:41
to shove whether or not the Union's themselves would rather
00:41:44
see the city go bankrupt and collapse, then to make
00:41:47
negotiations on their on their, on their employees or And so
00:41:53
that's, that's really drastic, you know, I will see.
00:41:58
We don't want to see. We'll see, it's just, I guess in
00:42:03
a city that loves the idea that the government solves,
00:42:07
everything in the government is all-knowing and Powerful.
00:42:10
Yeah, it's I guess it's hard to think.
00:42:14
That San Francisco those in power.
00:42:16
And I feel like London Breeze. Got a little bit more moderate.
00:42:21
As reality is her office, but she's still, she's still and
00:42:26
moderate. She's got more moderate.
00:42:28
Yeah, compared to what she was. She's still super far left, but
00:42:33
it's just hard to think that, in a city that loves Government
00:42:37
Solutions to governments all these problems to ask them,
00:42:40
okay? We have to cut back and we have
00:42:42
to cut back the government. Aunt as opposed to well we'll
00:42:46
just tax people more because the government is all-knowing and
00:42:49
all-powerful it just seems like that's and with declining
00:42:53
Revenue into calling businesses, it just seems like we're you San
00:42:58
Francisco. Really isn't for like, a doom
00:43:00
Loops scenario. So if you look at the results of
00:43:07
the recall of DHS about Dean, the map, the department of
00:43:14
Chickens and other political analysts were able to come up
00:43:22
with a map and again, San Francisco is the square 7.
00:43:26
Miles by seven miles, it's easy to look at with all the
00:43:29
different districts and neighborhoods, right?
00:43:31
They came up with a map that shows who voted for recalling
00:43:35
chesa Boudin and who oppose the recall who wanted to keep him
00:43:39
in. And so in the center it's a kind
00:43:42
of like a donut in the Our area were those that were staunchly
00:43:46
against his recall, that's where he had the most support.
00:43:49
Were in the center of the donut hole all around the outside.
00:43:52
It's still San Francisco, but it feels more suburban and that's
00:43:57
where I live. I'm on the northwest, the upper
00:44:01
left corner of the donut on the map near the Presidio.
00:44:05
Is you say, so we all voted to recall him and we one more of us
00:44:11
on the periphery of the donut, Voted more moderate, more Pro
00:44:17
Law and Order, the ones in the center, the neighborhoods, their
00:44:21
parts of the mission parts of area, Noe Valley and other
00:44:26
areas. If they're rings a bell, they
00:44:28
voted to keep them in. So that's where the staunchest
00:44:34
most radical people are. Of course, all around there.
00:44:38
There are you know the extreme leftist but our challenge is to
00:44:43
ensure Sure, that that donut does the whole doesn't grow and
00:44:50
it's not like we can prevent people from moving in.
00:44:53
We can't, we can't erect a wall or not.
00:44:56
I'm not suggesting that we put a wall around the donut hole but,
00:45:00
you know, it's just very interesting to see that those
00:45:06
who were the most open to recalling were the ones that
00:45:10
were the most Pro Law and Order. Of course, But are
00:45:15
family-oriented a lot are immigrants or children or
00:45:21
families with immigrant parents. We have a large Russian
00:45:25
population. We have a very well-known large
00:45:29
Asian, Chinese population and then everyone else it just has
00:45:34
families with young kids. So we're all the ones that voted
00:45:40
and a much more moderate way. I don't say conservative because
00:45:43
that's that's not really correct.
00:45:44
But a lot more moderate Pro Merit Pro blond order prosafety
00:45:51
Pro Clean streets, Pro accountability in City Hall.
00:45:56
So we're the ones that are now driving the conversation.
00:46:02
Now, it used to be the most radical leftist, but the problem
00:46:07
is nationally, everyone is lit. The media are listening to the
00:46:12
loudest voices of the For this left because they're the ones
00:46:15
that yell and scream and have tantrums and some sucking, you
00:46:20
know, they're they're letting their beds because I don't want
00:46:23
this, I don't want that. They're the ones who are getting
00:46:27
the attention of the media, but they're not, the ones who are
00:46:31
driving us actual voters. So, it's going to be very
00:46:35
interesting to see, you know, we were supposed to have elections.
00:46:40
This November, we were supposed to have elections for mayor,
00:46:44
Mayor da Sheriff. I think the treasure was it and
00:46:49
the sheriff was supposed to have five.
00:46:51
Key City Hall positions, the mayor and Dai that's a big deal,
00:46:55
London, breed and the new DEA Brooke Jenkins was supposed to
00:46:59
be up for election. This November along with
00:47:02
whatever ballot measures would have been proposed along with it
00:47:06
and just throwing on a ballot, right?
00:47:08
But they put a ballot measure last year in November to say, we
00:47:15
want to delay November's elections for a year and move it
00:47:21
to 20 24, November, 20, 24. So that would be on the same
00:47:26
ballot as the presidential and the governor and all of those.
00:47:30
We fought against it saying, why do you want to do this?
00:47:33
What's the purpose for doing that?
00:47:35
Why do you want to delay democracy to say?
00:47:39
Well it's going to make more drama.
00:47:40
See. Because that was going to be
00:47:42
with all the other. No, it's not more democracy,
00:47:45
you've just moved it, so you cancel democracy.
00:47:47
It's so, anyway, our side lost, meaning meaning no matter how
00:47:54
hard we fought it. For some reason voters.
00:47:57
It was like, it was like, 6633, whatever percent.
00:48:02
Yeah, let's move it. So now we have no elections this
00:48:06
year. We're supposed to be, but it's
00:48:08
not. So now we are still Stuck with
00:48:11
our mayor and no ballot measures until the end of next year, we
00:48:17
have a heater and a half to eight.
00:48:20
Wow. So elections canceled.
00:48:23
Yeah, just yeah. In the name of democracy, you're
00:48:27
speechless, the name of the market.
00:48:29
Yeah. So was that, was that doughnut
00:48:32
hole? Just absolutely filled with, you
00:48:35
know, red bag of hat-wearing. Trump Republicans that doughnut
00:48:39
hole because that's Or how you were painted, if you voted
00:48:42
against chesa Boudin. And I want to talk about that
00:48:46
real quick, as we're coming up on the hour.
00:48:48
I can't believe how fast the time is gone.
00:48:51
Yeah, time flies, when you're having fun.
00:48:53
There's so much. We want to talk about.
00:48:55
We'll just have to admit come back on and do a second.
00:48:57
Do problem? Okay, the one thing I want so
00:49:02
you were integral in recalling chesa boudin.
00:49:05
Now, we have Brooke Jenkins and has the situation with crime.
00:49:10
Moved in San Francisco, or how is that going in San Francisco
00:49:13
right now with crime? Well, so it goes, much more than
00:49:20
removing chesa Boudin know that fraud of a fake da because he
00:49:27
infiltrated the criminal justice system, it wasn't just him.
00:49:31
It was also the people that were on staff in the district,
00:49:35
attorney's office, who he brought over from the defense
00:49:39
side. So it was a Whole mess and also
00:49:42
not just that there's also existing chesa Boudin loyalists.
00:49:47
Those who agree with his and any of the Sorrows mentality anti
00:49:55
prosecution prosecutors that are in in City Hall.
00:50:02
And so that includes some of the judges, the local judges and
00:50:06
includes some of the city councilman it includes The, our
00:50:14
police commission that has the oversight of the police
00:50:18
department, and they are pretty much anti-cop, as well, believe
00:50:21
it or not, the, the police commission is anti-cop.
00:50:25
So we can't really have a clean slate, fixing everything, until
00:50:32
all of, that is taken care of, but the, the chief law
00:50:36
enforcement officer now, Brooke Jenkins.
00:50:39
Yes, she is. To be prosecuting now but we
00:50:43
can't open the floodgates and arrest everyone that should have
00:50:48
been arrested and all bring them in for prosecution because they
00:50:51
don't have the staff. They don't have.
00:50:54
The police department, is in a shambles, as we here and all
00:50:57
over the country is his problem and they don't have the
00:51:01
Personnel to be able to just do a, you know, pick up 1000-2000
00:51:07
criminals and just start process and then they can't do that.
00:51:09
Then it would just overload. The It's overload, in jail, all
00:51:12
of that is that would be mass incarceration, right?
00:51:16
And what it, what is happening though, is, there is a very big
00:51:22
change. Now, in the fact that we have an
00:51:25
actual prosecutor behind, the Helm of the DA's office and
00:51:31
there is a change, but the problem is, we still have those
00:51:35
chesa Boudin loyalists that are still around.
00:51:41
Have you care? It's vote about until the very
00:51:45
2024, correct. All right, I did read that bird.
00:51:49
Jenkins was getting over the next year, when she was getting
00:51:53
rid of a bunch of the stuff. Yep.
00:51:55
Switching over to people who actually want to prosecute but
00:51:58
it is far as elections. Now that's all the lady here,
00:52:01
right? Yeah.
00:52:02
So, whether or not she likes it, whether or not the the mayor
00:52:05
London breed is happy about it or not, they're both in it for
00:52:08
an extra unelected year. They didn't have the campaign
00:52:12
for it, they just got it, you know.
00:52:14
So London breed now is going to be in for five years instead of
00:52:18
four and then she's going to run for re-election next year.
00:52:21
So she'll be in for quite a while.
00:52:24
Will she make it? Well it should be re-elected
00:52:26
right now she's in bad shape so we'll see you think she'll be
00:52:30
beaten by somebody farther left than her?
00:52:37
No because Looking at what happened with chesa Boudin.
00:52:41
And as I said before with the doughnut hole that we now have
00:52:44
that movement where we the scent wrists are a greater voting pack
00:52:52
than the farthest leftist Marxist, socialist bedwetting,
00:52:56
whatever you want to go upstairs.
00:52:59
So the thing is we're now hoping for someone that is to her right
00:53:06
That doesn't mean extremist right, because she has been
00:53:09
slipping further left further, left further left little by
00:53:12
little to, where many of the things that she's been doing.
00:53:15
She's just inept and supporting drug dealers on in some aspects.
00:53:23
She's trying to skirt federal and state laws and doing the
00:53:27
opening, a safe injection sites. That's a far left idea.
00:53:32
That's not centers, that's not moderate.
00:53:34
So, Anyone that is going to come in and come up with a, you know,
00:53:38
a nice slate of proposals could potentially beat her from the
00:53:44
right without being. I'm not a republican, which has
00:53:48
no chance here. Would you consider running
00:53:50
again? Yes, Yes, I will, but will I is
00:53:55
a different question, but considering I already made
00:54:00
promises to people that I wouldn't.
00:54:04
But the pressure. The pressure is mounting and
00:54:07
right now I'm enjoying just like relaxing doing a lot of
00:54:11
commentary on. I hear on a podcast or on TV.
00:54:15
They bring me on off in the just say what I think.
00:54:18
I'm enjoying wearing flip-flops in sand and Shores and enjoying
00:54:22
not shaving. You know, right now I'm having
00:54:25
fun. We'll see what happens in a year
00:54:29
from now, the deadline to file to be a candidate to run for
00:54:32
office is June of next year. So there's still a little over a
00:54:38
year, but that would be cutting it short because people, but
00:54:41
people are already now. Declaring someone three weeks
00:54:45
ago, a city council person already declared that, he's
00:54:47
challenging mayor, London breed, but he is to the left of her.
00:54:52
Wow, I brought this up last week, I will see it done a live
00:54:58
on Instagram just kind of ranting about stuff.
00:55:01
And I had a conversation with a good friend of ours who lives up
00:55:05
there in Pacifica, and just loves San Francisco.
00:55:10
That's her City. She loved going there and all
00:55:13
that. And we were having a
00:55:15
conversation and we knew politically she doesn't align
00:55:18
with my wife. And I, we had always Legend.
00:55:21
She was much farther left than us and somehow we got on the
00:55:25
topic and she said, you know what, I'm a registered Democrat.
00:55:31
But at this point, I don't care if they're Democrat Republican
00:55:36
or independent. I look at what happened in city
00:55:39
of San Francisco. And I just want someone who can
00:55:42
get stuff, done, and fix all these problems.
00:55:46
And I think to your point with the donut hole there's probably
00:55:50
a bunch Of Voters in San Francisco, who are looking for
00:55:54
that Common Sense? Hey, let's get Back to Basics.
00:55:58
Let's get back to just running this city properly, making
00:56:01
everyone feel safe, enjoying the city, and forget about all the
00:56:05
other stuff. So, I think there's probably a
00:56:07
big platform for that. Well, that's how it should be.
00:56:10
You know, technically, legality wise, city positions are
00:56:17
nonpartisan. So when you fill out the
00:56:20
paperwork as a Edit you don't put in what your party
00:56:24
affiliation is. So it's not a democratic running
00:56:29
against the Republican and run off.
00:56:31
No, it's just, it's open but people are proud to say that
00:56:36
there are Democrat when they are running and they put it in their
00:56:39
advertising. If anyone said I'm a proud
00:56:43
Republican, that's it. Your Trump your.
00:56:46
And that's it and you're done your anti your Portion your anti
00:56:52
this Pro. This for that, just link to
00:56:54
Trump and you're dead in the water.
00:56:56
You might as well just pack up and leave and that's that's what
00:56:59
happens. That's how anyone gets attacked.
00:57:02
You just say, you're a trump, your trunkfish, whatever word
00:57:06
you want to say. And you're sunk.
00:57:09
Yeah. Well, this has been an amazing
00:57:13
conversation as I was expecting. Definitely door is open for you.
00:57:19
To come back on. We may have to have you come
00:57:20
back on and check in more about San Francisco for us down here
00:57:25
in Southern California. Where can people find you or
00:57:30
follow you, or what? You're up to and learn more
00:57:32
about you if they want to reach out to you.
00:57:35
Okay. Okay.
00:57:37
So as we were talking about the reparations plan, specifically,
00:57:40
I have the website, reject the plan.com and you can miss a
00:57:44
wealth of information and it's getting updated as more.
00:57:47
And more comes out about that crazy plan.
00:57:51
I'm on Twitter, very active and at reject reject the plan.com.
00:57:55
You can see the link to my Twitter account, you guys follow
00:57:58
me so you can see Ritchie SF 2016 and you can engage with me
00:58:03
or see what I'm Talking about, but then my personal website
00:58:09
which just gives a bit more about me and my media
00:58:12
appearances and things like my positions.
00:58:14
That's my name. Dot org, Richie Greenberg
00:58:17
dot-org. So Ric hie Greenberg is Ollie's
00:58:21
GRE and be ERG, Richie Greenberg dot-org?
00:58:25
And you can always send an email to me and I'm happy to respond.
00:58:29
You can follow me on Twitter and ask questions I can respond.
00:58:32
So that's it. I don't really Anything on any
00:58:35
other social media so it's Twitter and my website, so
00:58:41
that's it. But yeah it was a pleasure to be
00:58:44
here really, really thankful that I have platforms to be able
00:58:48
to talk to anyone that wants to hear from the belly of the Beast
00:58:53
here in San Francisco. Thank you, we were happy happy.
00:58:57
Absolutely, I thank you. Yeah, we'll definitely
00:59:01
scheduling for another, for another podcast soon to check
00:59:04
in. And maybe who knows?
00:59:06
Maybe down the road, we'll be checking in with you as a
00:59:08
mayoral candidate for San Francisco.
00:59:10
I don't know, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, maybe.
00:59:13
Yeah, yeah, but thanks for coming on Richie and make sure
00:59:18
everyone to go follow him on Twitter is a great Twitter,
00:59:20
follower follow. And as always as I end every
00:59:24
show, If you want to help support the show, the best thing
00:59:27
you can do, that's free and the least amount of effort.
00:59:30
It's go. Share this with somebody,
00:59:31
especially people in San Francisco who are dealing with
00:59:35
these issues and need to hear a voice of reason.
00:59:38
Go check out this episode, share it with people and with that,
00:59:42
have a good night, everybody. If you want to help support the
00:59:26
show, the best thing you can do, that's free and the least amount
00:59:29
of effort. It's go.
00:59:30
Share this with somebody, especially people in San
00:59:32
Francisco who are dealing with these issues and need to hear a
00:59:37
voice of reason. Go check out this episode, share
00:59:40
it with people and with that, have a good night, everybody.