If California is America’s laboratory for progressive policy, San Francisco is the petri dish where the most radical experiments grow. The city has spent years perfecting ambitious announcements followed by spectacular dysfunction. Homelessness spirals. Businesses flee. Streets that once defined American optimism now define American decline.
And the city is broke. San Francisco faces a staggering $1 billion budget deficit heading into the new year. Let that sink in — billion, with a ‘b.’ Basic services strain under the weight of fiscal mismanagement. You might think this would inspire some restraint, perhaps a moment of sober reflection about priorities and tradeoffs.
Surely this would be the moment for some fiscal sanity?
You would be wrong.
Two days before Christmas, while most Americans were focused on family and faith, Mayor Daniel Lurie quietly signed an ordinance creating a “Reparations Fund” for Black residents. The proposal? A potential $5 million lump-sum payment to each eligible recipient. With approximately 46,000 Black residents in the city, we’re talking about a theoretical liability north of $230 billion.
From Fox News:
“For several years, communities across the city have been working with the government to acknowledge the decades of harm done to San Francisco’s black community,” Mayor Lurie explained. Yet in the same breath, he admitted: “We are not allocating money to this fund — with a historic $1 billion budget deficit, we are going to spend our money on making the city safer and cleaner.”
The fund itself contains nothing. Zero dollars. I’ll say that again: zero dollars. The ordinance merely creates a structure that can accept private donations — essentially a tip jar for racial justice. But the 2023 report that inspired this legislation didn’t stop at cash payments. It also recommended a guaranteed annual income of $97,000, debt relief programs, and city-funded homes for qualifying residents.
A solution in search of funding
Here’s where the story takes an ironic turn. Even the San Francisco NAACP isn’t buying it. Chapter president Amos Brown called the plan “false hope,” and the organization labeled the $5 million figure “arbitrary.” When even the NAACP thinks your reparations proposal is performative nonsense? That’s almost impressive.
The Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance unanimously. The mayor signed it during the holiday dead zone when nobody was watching. The whole thing reeks of politicians checking a box rather than solving a problem.
The real cost of virtue signaling
Here’s what gets me about this whole charade. This is modern progressive governance distilled to its essence, and honestly, I’d laugh if it weren’t so predictable. Grand gestures. Historic frameworks. Soaring rhetoric about acknowledging harm. And underneath it all, absolutely nothing of substance.
San Francisco’s Black residents don’t get $5 million. They get a press release. They get to be props in someone else’s political theater. Meanwhile, the deficit grows, the problems fester, and the cycle continues.
The real question isn’t whether reparations represent good policy. It’s why San Francisco’s leaders believe empty symbolism counts as leadership. Their residents — of every background — deserve officials who can distinguish between governance and theater.
Apparently, that’s too much to ask.
Key Takeaways
- San Francisco created a reparations fund framework while facing a $1 billion budget deficit — with zero dollars actually allocated.
- The proposal recommends $5 million payments per eligible resident, totaling a potential $230 billion liability.
- Even the San Francisco NAACP criticized the plan as “false hope” with an “arbitrary” payment figure.
- Mayor Lurie signed the ordinance quietly two days before Christmas, avoiding public scrutiny.
Sources: Fox News, The Post Millennial
