Sad Francisco

In 2022, rightwing influencers began using the term "doom loop" to paint San Francisco as a crime- and fentanyl-ridden hellhole that whose downfall was due to too much woke progressivism. It didn't matter that the doom loop narrative wasn't based in reality: the media took it and ran with it. The narrative has since lost its resonance in San Francisco, but it's now being deployed in several other cities. Jeremy Mack is back to talk about the Phoenix Project's most recent report, "The Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop." The Phoenix Project: Rise and Fall of the San Francisco Doom Loop https://www.phoenixprojectnow.com/doomloop-report SF Mayor Daniel Lurie celebrates Blackstone and private equity https://youtube.com/shorts/1MsExVGa5sY Andrew Cuomo's racist anti-Zohran Mamdani ad https://youtube.com/shorts/y4yqFFDD650 Related episodes: TogetherSF (RIP), with Jeremy https://www.patreon.com/posts/togethersf-wants-114226580 5 Rich Guys Trying to Buy the Bay, with Jeremy and Julie Pitta https://www.patreon.com/posts/5-rich-guys-to-f-104982980 Garry Tan, with Emily Mills https://www.patreon.com/posts/stop-garry-tan-90552668

Jenny Chan founded Pacific Atrocities Education in San Francisco after learning about some of Japan's terror campaigns across Asia through World War II. It's history that Japanese conservatives are trying to suppress. The Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 was the chemical and biological warfare facility that conducted experiments on about 14,000 people in China. None of those 14,000 survived, while the leaders of Unit 731 were granted immunity by the US in exchange for their "research." Pacific Atrocities Education https://www.pacificatrocities.org/ Podcast / YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/PacificFrontUntold Video: Rightwing Japanese nationalist Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi doesn't love politician Taro Yamamoto's suggestion that Japan is an American colony https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRE4Bm7EUoR/ Related episodes: Comfort Women part 1, with Judith Mirkinson from Comfort Women Justice Coalition https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-1-109743478 Comfort Women part 2, with Kota from Against Japanism https://www.patreon.com/posts/nationalism-vs-2-78561553 Nikkei Progressives, on how ICE detention compares to Japanese internment during WWII https://www.patreon.com/posts/internment-camps-109659819 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

Jemma DeCristo RETURNS! Her new book The Aesthetic Character of Blackness is out, and covers how revolutionary Black art is co-opted by capitalists and the state, and art's limits as a revolutionary tool (and it's widespread use as a counterinsurgent one).   The Aesthetic Character of Blackness: Sounds Like Us (Duke University Press) https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-aesthetic-character-of-blackness   Support Dahnoun Mutual Aid (Direct Support for People in Gazan) https://chuffed.org/project/115245-dahnoun-mutual-aid   Previously: Jemma on the Transgender Cultural District https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-transgender-f-105793639   Jemma and Ralowe on the narrowness of Leftist organizing on (the app) Signal https://www.patreon.com/posts/against-signal-123358271   Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

Janetta Johnson and zen blossom speak from the home base of Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) in SF. They speak on Miss Major (who led TGIJP for years); the year Janetta turned down the SF Pride grand marshal title; and the status of the Bay Area's reputation for being a haven for trans people. TGI Justice Project https://tgijp.org Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex https://www.akpress.org/captivegenders.html Previous episodes mentioned: Rest in Peace Miss Major https://www.patreon.com/posts/rip-miss-major-142054390 Tourmaline on her biography of Marsha P. Johnson https://www.patreon.com/posts/marsha-p-johnson-129316368

Public universities are under constant threat of budget cuts, but somehow administrators find millions to toss at extractive tech, like ChatGPT Edu. SF State professor Martha Kenney describes how administrators at the CSUs spent $17 million on a contract with OpenAI without asking students or professors if it was a good idea—subsidizing an industry built on hype and plaigiarism. - Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln: "Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence And Austerity In The Neoliberal University" https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6z5pa_v1   MIT Study https://mlq.ai/media/quarterly_decks/v0.1_State_of_AI_in_Business_2025_Report.pdf   Library of Babel Listserv https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/assembly   Episode with Stop AI https://www.patreon.com/posts/end-agi-before-127632638   Martha Lincoln: "It's Time to Pull the Plug on ChatGPT at Cal State" https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/11/25/chatgpt-poses-risk-student-mental-health-opinion   Martha Lincoln on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/heavyredaction.bsky.social - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

San Francisco tried to atone for the war on drugs with a DEI program for recreational weed store owners. In the end, the real winners were rich white dudes like London Breed's old roommate, Conor Johnston. Chris Roberts—America's top cannabis journalist and historian reporting from America's number-one cannabis producing region—returns. We go deep on his recent Chronicle piece detailing how it all went wrong. - "San Francisco's first 'equity' weed store was an epic failure. City Hall insiders may still pocket millions" sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/marijuana-weed-legal-shop-haight-21063653.php "White Weed Entrepreneurs Are Gaming Programs Meant to Help People of Color" (Chris for Vice) vice.com/en/article/white-weed-entrepreneurs-are-gaming-programs-meant-to-help-people-of-color/ Previous episode with Chris, on the radiation disaster at Hunter's Point patreon.com/posts/radiation-at-132819458 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco   

dee(dee) c. ardan is live in the studio apartment for the first episode about trans/queer media from the Bay's past, showing that indeed, this place has been trans as hell for a long, long time. Starting with issue one of the 1970s zine GAY SUNSHINE, we deduce how the Bay gained a reputation for being the place you come to push the trans agenda and make life hell for conservatives.   Gay Sunshine's first two issues, via UC Berkeley Library https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121520 https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/121521   Shattered Glass reading group contact: essgeesquared@gmail - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

The Tenderloin in 1966: One of the earliest trans/queer actions (that we know of) against police and state violence happened at Compton's Cafeteria. Today, that space (111 Taylor Street) is occupied by Geo Group—otherwise known as the corporation that is America's number-one private prison and ICE profiteer. Zei Wilder is helping organize the local effort to get Geo Group out of San Francisco and turn the Compton's site into something that isn't evil. - Comptons x Coalition: comptonsxcoalition.net Demand Board of Supervisors Action Against Geo Group on November 6, 10 AM, SF City Hall Room 272: instagram.com/p/DPUQYewgdk4/ Episode with historian Susan Stryker, co-director of the Compton's documentary "Screaming Queens": patreon.com/posts/jail-at-comptons-79134233 - Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: patreon.com/sadfrancisco 

For Major, who passed on October 13.   Truthout piece https://truthout.org/articles/to-honor-miss-major-we-fight-for-the-trans-and-queer-spaces-she-built/   Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C5592116   A more recent episode with filmmakers behind the documentary MAJOR!, StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian https://www.patreon.com/posts/trans-film-cis-130068888   MAJOR! (documentary) https://vimeo.com/ondemand/major   Criminal Queers https://vimeo.com/221584005

This episode was recorded before the ceasefire deal went into effect on Oct. 10. Surprising no one, Israel has already broken its promises, continuing to kill Palestinians and withholding aid. UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao just ended a 38-day hunger strike to keep Palestine on the minds of people on campus and to raise money during Israel's US-backed starvation campaign. A few days before we spoke, UC Berkeley notified him that he was one of 160 people it had turned over to the Trump administration as college administrators cooperate with attacks on anyone who's against the genocide. Berkeley EECS/STEM 4 Palestine Fundraiser tinyurl.com/be4pfundraiser Truthout: Peyrin interviewed by friend of the pod Brooke Lober https://truthout.org/articles/computer-science-lecturer-at-berkeley-is-on-day-36-of-his-hunger-strike-for-gaza/ Brooke's episode on Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid https://www.patreon.com/posts/112157781 Dylan Rodriguez episode: Zionists and Counterinsurgency in Stop Asian Hate https://www.patreon.com/posts/103600189

Bench Ansfield is a professor in the History department at Temple University. Their book "Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City" covers how racial capitalism, political corruption, and the insurance industry created a world where landlords can profit more by burning their own buildings down than maintaining them. They were also part of the research team on the 2019 documentary "Decade of Fire". Bench Ansfield https://www.benchansfield.com Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/born-in-flames-bronx-arson-1970s Decade of Fire https://decadeoffire.com Born in Flames (the film the book was named after) https://www.criterion.com/films/30707-born-in-flames Let the Fire Burn: documentary about MOVE's infamous eviction in Philadelphia  https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/let-fire-burn Recent episode on the fire at 22nd and Mission with Angelica  https://www.patreon.com/posts/aftermath-of-at-135107521

Alexis Shotwell is a professor of gender and feminist studies and philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa. She's also an anarchist organizer particularly interested in the anarchist fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin. Alexis's website https://www.alexisshotwell.com/ Punch Up Collective https://www.punchupcollective.org/ Episode with Deeg on LAGAI-Queer Insurrection! https://www.patreon.com/posts/lagai-queer-w-1-104043005 October 11: Sacramento Anarchist Book Fair https://itsgoingdown.org/announcing-the-third-annual-sacramento-anarchist-bookfair/ October 18: Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair https://www.instagram.com/bayareaanarchistbookfair/ More episodes on anarchism: Edxi Betts https://www.patreon.com/posts/voting-is-scam-f-110266232 Margaret Killjoy https://www.patreon.com/posts/radical-demands-139152446

Court support has spread to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 100 Montgomery Street, while the mayor and SFPD continue to be complicit with ICE, against the city's sanctuary city policy.  Lxspinguinxs (updates about SF anti-ICE actions on Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/lxspinguinxs Lea on Substack https://leftylea.substack.com on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leftylea_in_sf Los Angeles Tenants Union https://latenantsunion.org/ Palestinian Youth Movement https://palestinianyouthmovement.com Tenants and Neighborhood Council https://baytanc.com/ Unión del Barrio https://uniondelbarrio.org/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Boiler Room is a global event promotion company known for enlisting local DJs and promoters to produce Boiler Room-branded parties. This year, Boiler Room was acquired by a Zionist private equity firm, Superstruct/KKR. Three people who DJ and throw parties in the Bay—Daria Lourd, DJ Fridge, and Juanny—on creating culture that is removed from the Boiler Room industrial complex. 9/19 at The Stud: No Bias https://ra.co/events/2225702 9/20 at f8: Bring It Back https://ra.co/events/2224734 9/26 at Monarch: Dj Warning https://ra.co/events/2235766 Daria / No Bias on Bandcamp https://nobias.bandcamp.com/ DJ Fridge https://linktr.ee/DjFridge DJ Juanny's party/label/recording studio project Amor Digital https://linktr.ee/amordigital On Instagram Daria Lourd https://www.instagram.com/bored_lord DJ Juanny https://www.instagram.com/dj_juanny DJ Fridge https://www.instagram.com/djfridge_ HYDEFM (radio) https://www.instagram.com/hydefmradio Ravers for Palestine https://www.instagram.com/raversforpalestine/ Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Tracey Helton Mitchell writes about living in San Francisco with an addiction in her memoir "The Big Fix" and now works in harm reduction in the city. The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3207933 Tracey on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@traceyh415. Tracey on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@traceyh415 Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street - HBO documentary released in 2000, following Tracey and others around San Francisco https://archive.org/embed/blacktarherointhedarkendofthestreet Update on the cast from Black Tar Heroin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQSpNmLVeM

Jen Snyder organizes with the Democratic Socialists of America, and recently wrote a piece for Jacobin about socialist policies like free MUNI, and taxing landlords for leaving homes empty. Things that are so popular in San Francisco, people voted to pass them. But then oligarchs and their minions defanged, reversed, or litigated them to death. San Francisco's Ultrarich Are Blocking a Zohran-Style Agenda https://jacobin.com/2025/08/san-francisco-zohran-democratic-socialism Red Bridge https://www.redbridgewins.com/ Jen on IG https://www.instagram.com/ohjennyboy Chris Arvin's Election Map SF https://electionmapsf.com/

Discussing the word "affordable" and how it's weaponized by the real estate industry. What is Affordable Housing? zine https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/What_is_Affordable_Housing_2025_zine.pdf Gay Shame zine: Steal This House: Dissecting the War on Houselessness and the Housing Crisis in the SF Bay Area https://gayshame.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Steal-This-House-Chronological-Order.pdf Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) https://baytanc.com West Side Tenants Association https://sfern.org Western Regional Advocacy Project https://wraphome.org Street Sheet newspaper https://www.streetsheet.org/ Indybay https://www.indybay.org Related episodes: With members of WSTA https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-keep-each-f-102747039 Landlord Tech with Erin McElroy https://www.patreon.com/posts/109663054 Food Not Bombs with Keith McHenry https://www.patreon.com/posts/136586623 Abolish Landlords with Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis https://www.patreon.com/posts/119757781 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sadfranciscopodcast/ Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103   

Keith McHenry co-founded Food Not Bombs in 1980, and has been arrested more than 100 times for serving free food to homeless people and protesting the US government. A history lesson on SF's Phil Burton Democratic Party machine, black bloc, and how FNB became labeled as a domestic terrorist group by the FBI. Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/ Seven Steps to Starting a Food Not Bombs https://foodnotbombs.net/seven_steps_flyer.pdf Keith on Twitter https://x.com/keith_mchenry Keith on Substack https://keithmchenry.substack.com/ Episode with Stop AI https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/M2FkNmUxNWEtM2M0NC00ZjBmLWE4NjQtYWQ2YmUxZDNhOTU5 Sad Francisco is produced by Toshio Meronek and edited by Tyger Ligon. Support the show and get new episodes early on Patreon: https://patreon.com/sadfrancisco  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/sadfrancisco.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/sadfrancis.co TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sadfrancisco Twitter: https://twitter.com/sadfrancisco69 Listen on podcast platforms https://pod.link/1653309103 

Starting in 2021, a shoplifting panic was hatched and spread by corporate media, cops, and politicians, resulting in life-or-death consequences (see: Banko Brown).  Damena Page called from SF county jail to report on the conditions, abuse, and how reporting abuse can result in retaliation.  Amy Martyn is a journalist based in the Bay, who's been covering the shoplifting panic since the beginning of the pandemic. Damena on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/girlyfacemena/ America's absurd war on 'organized retail crime' (Amy Martyn, Business Insider) https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-war-organized-retail-crime-target-cvs-victorias-secret-2024-9  Women Languish at San Francisco's Jail for Years Without Answers—or Sunlight (Amy, The Appeal) https://theappeal.org/women-languish-at-san-franciscos-jail-for-years-without-answers-or-sunlight/ The Killing of Banko Brown (Toshio, The Nation) https://www.thenation.com/article/society/banko-brown-killing-san-francisco-crisis/ Sad Francisco episode: "Avenge Banko" https://episodes.fm/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzQ0NTgyNC9yc3M/episode/ZTI4NDgxYzQtZmVjNy00MDUxLWE1ZTEtYmQ1ODA0MmE5ZDJi

Ten years have passed since the fire that disappeared the apartments and businesses at 22nd and Mission Streets, and killed Mauricio Orellana. Many people continue to suspect landlord arson. Slumlord Hawk Ling Lou inherited the buildings in the 1990s, and owns the now-empty lot, plus about 20 other buildings in San Francisco (some under family members' names). On May 15, 2025, despite overwhelming community dissent the Planning Commission granted Hawk Ling Lou the permission to build market-rate luxury condos on the space. If they're ever built, they'll be sold to hypothetical newcomers and investors from outside the Mission. Alejandra Rubio grew up in the Mission and has been following the story of the block since she was a teenager. Now a fellow at Galeria de la Raza, she's archiving the memories of people living in the area through a series of art and a zine, so the history of the block doesn't vanish. Download the zine https://alejandrarubio.art/22nd-and-mission-series-of-events Alejandra's website www.alejandrarubio.art Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alejandraaaa415/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@alejandraaaa415 Al Jazeera article on the fire (Toshio, with Prisca Carpenter, Kentaro Kaneko, and Clio Sady) https://web.archive.org/web/20160117083725/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/2/hot-rental-market-sparks-suspicions-of-landlord-arson-in-san-francisco.html Sad Francisco episode on 22nd and Mission, with Christen Cioffi https://episodes.fm/1653309103/episode/ZWVlYTI1MWUtYzk0YS00ZmRkLTgzMjMtYTIxNmYzMTVjZWJj