Intrepid citizen journalists and campaign finance researchers have been tracking the rise of the tech-billionaire version of everyone’s favorite city by the Bay. With the election of new Mayor Daniel Lurie (heir to the Levi Strauss fortune) and the narrow defeat of progressive Supervisor Dean Preston, what do San Francisco politics portend for other Bay Area cities, and for the nation?
This show features the hosts of the Doomloop Dispatch podcast and leaders of the non-profit Phoenix Project, who have been sounding the alarm on a new “gilded age” of wealthy patrons directing city politics toward their own ends.
Covered in this episode:
- How did Daniel Lurie stave off an imminent ICE raid on a city that Trump and the Right have been bashing for decades? Who helped and why?
- What does it mean that Sam Altman, of Open AI, was on Mayor Lurie’s transition team? How do all these 1%er alliances impact a city like SF?
- The new mass surveillance headquarters for San Francisco police, sponsored by Chris Larsen, a crypto-billionaire
- The tech oligarchy moves from campaign finance to philanthropic influence
- Is the Network State considering a company town at the Naval Base in Alameda?
- How the SF media supported the narrative of San Francisco as “failing city.” Where was the crime rate going in 2024? Did San Francisco actually need saving?
“friends of mine who live in the area,” including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as well as Lurie, who “asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance.” —Donald J. Trump, on why he pulled back on the ICE raid of SF
Background:
It’s been a little over one year after we interviewed the podcasters documenting the fall of San Francisco to tech-billionaires and bizarre, far-right, techno-futurists. That was in two shows last August (2024) titled JD Vance and the Tech Bros of San Franciso (Parts I and II), when ego-maniacal tech bros like Balaji Srinivisan were advocating walling off parts of the city to keep Democrats out and fortify their “gray” neighborhoods with a “gray” police force and drones.
Well, some of that “Network State” vision is coming true now. What does it mean when tech executives begin to house and fund a city police department and its mass surveillance command center—including funding police drones, to the tune of $9 million? … Do other cities in the nation or the Bay Area, like ours, need to be worried? What should we be looking out for? And how can ordinary people organize to fight back for democratic governance?
ON THIS SHOW:
Kevin L. Jones is a multimedia journalist and audio producer who’s worked at some of the most notable news outlets in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and KTVU–for two decades now. He currently hosts the leftist news show and podcast, Doomloop Dispatch with D. Scot Miller.
D. Scot Miller is the former Managing Editor of The East Bay Express, Former Associate Editor of Oakland Magazine and Alameda Magazine, Columnist-In-Residence at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)’s Open Space, Advisory Board Member of Nocturnes Journal of Literary Arts, and contributor to several newspapers, websites and magazines. Miller is founder of The Afrosurreal Arts Movement through his publication of The Afrosurreal Manifesto in The San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2009.
Keane Chukwuneta is on the Board of the Phoenix Project in San Francisco. Keane is a seasoned political strategist and organizer, currently as Senior Campaign Coordinator at Jobs with Justice SF, and has a deep commitment to labor rights and political advocacy. From directing field operations for congressional campaigns to spearheading voter engagement initiatives, Keane’s expertise has been pivotal in shaping progressive campaigns and policies across California.
Jeremy Mack is Executive Director of the Phoenix Project. Jeremy is a dedicated advocate for transformative public policy, with a Master’s from the University of San Francisco and a dual major from Bates College. Specializing in Restorative Justice and ethical urban development, his work spans policy research, community organizing, and impactful academic work on the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Initiative in East Oakland.
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