From a post on the page of the only sitting city council member to which I donated (ask me why!), I replied:
The multiple people associated with AURA commenting on this thread are doing well to continue that organization’s history of shameless public dishonesty.
1. Prop B does not “criminalize” or (slightly less inaccurately) “recriminalize” homelessness. The only way that statement could be true is if cops could go into Camp Esperanza or the ARCH and write people tickets. Anybody using the phrase “criminalize homelessness” is therefore either dishonest or ignorant. (AURA contains both!)
2. I’m an urbanist; I want more housing supply! So what happened? Well, one of the main reasons urbanists no longer have a slim majority on City Council is the District 6 election, in which Jimmy Flannigan was pantsed by a complete novice, because people did in fact pay attention to the breakdown of public order and safety. (In the general, the candidates getting support because of the failure to deal with unregulated encampments split the anti-Flannigan vote; in the runoff, he lost pretty definitively).
3. AURA previously wasted those years of a supposed urbanist majority producing basically zero or even negative housing supply (the main ‘achievement’ being an ordinance related to advanced notice of non-renewals in demolition cases pushed by Casar that if anything REDUCES housing supply). They played footsie with DSA activists who never had any real interest in increasing market supply (because they don’t believe in it).
If you’re an urbanist, stay away from AURA; they’ve been co-opted by a combination of the DSA and other liars and fools.
