By Joel P. Engardio -- Supervisor Katy Tang's approach to San Francisco's housing crisis is very different from her colleagues who are focused on stricter tenant protections without addressing the underlying supply problem. "I don't need to introduce quick-fix legislation five times a week," she said. "I'm trying to offer a different solution that addresses root causes."
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Supervisor Scott Wiener and I agree that Americans drink too much high-calorie soda, which contributes to our obesity epidemic and rising health care costs. So what’s the debate? We differ on how to persuade people to drink less.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Few people live to see a section of interstate freeway named after them, so Quentin Kopp doesn’t need to be reminded that he’s a San Francisco legend. But I wanted to know what battles remain for the 85-year-old, why he keeps going to his office every day and how he feels when the Chronicle dismisses him as “everybody’s favorite crank.”
“I’m old school and I’m going to articulate old-school criteria,” Kopp said in a raised voice as he banged his fist on the desk for effect. “It might just be in 20 years that people will agree with me.”
Yet Kopp admitted he's out of touch with younger generations, saying his 14-year-old granddaughter is “going to do things differently.”
“I do need to keep up, otherwise I’m totally mystified by what I see,” he said. “Don’t ask me what Justin Bieber does or why he’s successful.”
By Joel P. Engardio -- While city voters yawned through this month's low-turnout election, Supervisor Mark Farrell managed to do something unthinkable in San Francisco: He got a proposition approved with the support of both the Republican Party and those on the firebrand left. Farrell's initiative won big with nearly 70 percent of the vote and the support of every labor union -- except one. Why did activists from SEIU Local 1021 follow Farrell across a parking lot, screaming at him every step of the way?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- When you see the words "unfunded liability" please think of cat videos, sex or any other Internet obsession. Don't click away because "unfunded liability" is boring. The future of San Francisco needs you to crave this topic like it's a cronut.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- You know it's a slow election year when a vote on a condo development along The Embarcadero becomes a referendum on all that is good and evil in San Francisco.
Read MoreJoel Engardio interviewed on ABC 7 News San Francisco on eve of Supreme Court ruling against Proposition 8 to make same-sex marriage legal in California. June 25, 2013.
Read MoreJoel Engardio appears on the "Face-to-Face with Stu Smith" show. San Francisco cable TV. Engardio discusses San Francisco politics, his background and his run for supervisor. September 2012.
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