Why San Francisco has a Commission to Nowhere
Published Mar. 18, 2024 • 6:00am
San Francisco Standard
https://sfstandard.com/2024/03/18/san-francisco-ommission-addiction/
A couple Fridays ago at City Hall, I got to witness, in all of its banal absurdity, the reality of San Francisco-style citizen democracy.
I attended a meeting of the Sanitation and Streets Commission, a five-person commission appointed by a combination of the mayor, the Board of Supervisors and the controller. This is a commission that oversees a city department which—I kid you not—no longer exists.
The vibe was that of a school-board or town-council meeting in a tiny hamlet with an uninvolved citizenry. The hearing room itself, on the fourth floor of San Francisco’s ornate Beaux-Arts municipal building, had a certain grandeur to it. The raised dais, the theater seating, the virtual hookup for the viewing public to watch the proceedings—all stood in stark contrast to the hum-drum affairs at hand.
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