Blueprint Briefing: Week of 9/01/2025

Why can’t we get things under control on District 9’s Shotwell Street?

San Francisco families deserve safe streets—but in the Mission, residents have been raising the alarm for years about rampant sex work outside their front doors, only to be met with half-baked fixes that shuffle the problem around. From bollards on Capp Street to “Dear John” letters, the City’s attempts have done little, and neighbors are still frustrated. What makes it worse: their own supervisor, Jackie Fielder, has been silent. Read more about the Mission's sex work crisis here.

Three possible scenarios around the District 4 Recall.

With ballots already in mailboxes, come September 16th, voters in the Sunset will decide whether to recall District 4 Supervisor Engardio. The issue that sparked this recall is clear enough—Engardio’s support for last November’s Prop K, which closed down part of the Great Highway to turn it into a park. There are three possible scenarios that could unfold depending on what voters decide. Read about them here.

We need a new social contract for fentanyl intervention.

Fentanyl has rewritten the rules of San Francisco’s drug tolerance. As Lily Ho—an elected member of the San Francisco Democratic Party and Co-Founder of Drug-Free Sidewalks—writes, our instinct to “live and let live” has blurred into paralysis while over 600 residents die from overdoses each year. True compassion now means intervention—using every tool, from conservatorship to recovery-focused programs in jail—to pull people back from the brink. Tolerance without boundaries isn’t compassion; it’s a death sentence. Read more here.