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Libertarian Party of San Francisco News

  • Uncommon Sense

    Senator Wiener is at it again.  Teamed up with Assemblymember Phil Ting, they have introduced SB 221, which would ban the sale of all guns or ammunition at the Cow Palace beginning in 2020.  The Cow Palace is state-owned and located in Daly City on the cusp of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, and local officials have tried for years to shut down the guns shows held there.  This is the umpteenth attempt to pass such legislation, and previous attempts were vetoed by both governors Schwarzenegger and Brown, though with every school shooting that occurs, there’s been a greater push for “common sense” gun control.

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  • Mountains & Extortion

    A $5,600 bill from the government for having an illegal chicken coop in the backyard?  A $31,000 fine for doing a minor expansion to your home without a permit?  A $4,200 bill for a Halloween decoration stretched across a road?  Sound too incredible to be true?  Think again.  In the world of government enforcement of “public nuisance” ordinances, nothing is impossible.  The cases cited above all occurred in California in the inland empire cities of Indio and Coachella.

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  • Underground SF Culture Still Has Its Charms

    Not too many people have heard of political writer and agitator Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912), so I was surprised and delighted when a performer at a "secret garden" party I attended here in San Francisco earlier this month announced that she was going to perform a song written by the 19th century individualist anarchist.

     
    Left-anarchist singer-songwriter Erica, who goes by Unwoman after the banished women in Canadian sci-fi writer Margaret Atwood's dystopian "A Handmaid's Tale", proceeded to give a beautiful musical rendition of VdC's haunting poem "Written In Red" on the electric cello, a performance somewhat similar to which you can view here:

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  • January - July 2018: What We've Accomplished

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    We've really accomplished a lot in the first half of this year! Thank you everyone who continues to put in the time and energy to fight for liberty in San Francisco! It's an uphill battle, and sometimes it doesn't feel so rewarding, but it's important work that wouldn't happen without our amazing activists and volunteers.

    So, take a few minutes to reflect on the first half of this year and ask yourself: how can we make the rest of the year even better??

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  • Keeping Out The Riff-Raff

    With the Nimby’s and Yimby’s battling each other over land use rules in tackling The City’s and California’s housing problems, we wonder why so little is being said about another major cause of the high prices—urban growth boundaries (UGB).  UGB’s have been around for decades all along the west coast, so it should be no surprise that the highest cost of housing in the nation tends to be in California, Oregon, and Washington state. Boulder, Colorado has a UGB and not coincidentally very high housing costs too.

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  • Divorce—San Francisco Style

    Last weekend the LPSF hosted a booth at the San Francisco Pride 2018 Fair.  We’ve become a regular exhibitor (not literally!) at the fair for many years, and liberty-leaning folks always love to see us there each year with our brochures, posters, buttons, World’s Smallest Political Quiz, Spinning Wheel of Crazy San Francisco Laws, and other tricks of the outreach trade.  This year folks may have noticed that we were there under our own Libertarian Party of San Francisco banner, rather than Outright Libertarians, which we had used for the last 14 years. The general public probably didn’t even notice the subtle difference because to the average person, once you’ve seen one Libertarian, you’ve seen them all.

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  • San Francisco, 2028– A Healthy City?

    San Francisco, 2028 – Under legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, all city residents who don’t already have a SuperHealthySF chip implant will be required to obtain one by January 1.

    After that date, persons not showing up on a Department of Public Health scan will lose various privileges, such as the ability to connect to the Internet via the civic network, the ability to use virtual reality programs and other services provided by the library, and the ability to enter parks and other facilities that require chip recognition for entry.

    Visitors will be able to get temporary chips by applying and paying a fee at one of the DPH checkpoints at SFO, on the bridges, at the Convention & Visitors Bureau, or along the city’s southern border.

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  • The Seen & The Unseen

    Do you ever wonder why The Golden State is no longer golden?  Just one look at a state initiative that is circulating for signatures for the November election might give you a clue.  The desire to “do something” quickly to fix a serious problem might make sense at first thought, but not considering the long-term effects of more government laws can (and usually does) lead to worse problems.  It’s what Frederick Bastiat, the French classical liberal economist, referred to as the “seen” and the “unseen.” In this case it’s the repeal of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, or as more commonly referred to as Costa-Hawkins, passed in the state legislature in 1995.  A spokesman for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which supports the repeal, noted, “People are excited.

  • The Bad Apple

    I’ve been meaning to write this article for years, and it’s only the addition of Prop G to the June ballot for a new parcel tax for San Francisco’s government teachers that prompted me to think about my experience with teachers when my son was growing up in The City.  I must add, first of all, that my experience with teachers in both government schools and religious schools was very positive. Almost without exception, I found all the teachers I had contact with were dedicated, loved the kids, and worked long and hard to make sure the kids actually learned something in school.  They weren’t just overpaid babysitters watching the kids so both parents could work, as often happens these days.

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