San Francisco is set to formally apologize for black residents for past discrimination as the city weighs costly reparations payments.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors held a committee hearing Thursday on a resolution to apologize to black residents and their descendants for removing black people from historical areas, tensions with police and subpar public investment, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
A draft version of resolution makes references to the history of chattel slavery and Jim Crow laws that inflicted segregation on black Americans before specifically describing San Francisco’s history of discriminatory zoning laws and forced removal of black residents.
“San Francisco has a long history of creating and/or enforcing laws, policies, and institutions that have perpetuated racial inequity in our city, much of which is difficult to document due to historical erasure,” the draft resolution begins.
Disparities in wealth, employment, life expectancy, education, arrests and housing are also included as justification for the apology. The resolution attributes those disparities solely to past discrimination.
A city advisory task force recommended in December 2022 that San Francisco pay $5 million in reparations to each longtime black resident who meets a series of requirements, a proposal that is estimated to cost the city over $100 billion. Cost estimates for the reparations plan and additional wealth redistribution recommendations by the task force would drive the bill to over $200 billion or $263,000 per city resident. The apology was also recommended by the reparations task force.
“You are an embarrassment to my people and my nation, and every one of you is guilty. We need you to call to action,” a disappointed local activist told the Chronicle.
Shamann Walton, a member of the Board of Supervisors, previously told National Review he does not believe the $5 million proposal goes far enough.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, an opponent of the reparations plan, proposed eliminating the city’s reparations office from its budget as part of a $75 million budget cut to reduce the city’s ballooning deficit. She previously came out in support of a local effort by parents to recall three progressive members of the city’s school board for prioritizing political activism over education.
Breed’s Dream Keeper Initiative has directed over $100 million of city funding since 2021 into San Francisco’s black communities. Half of the funds have gone towards black economic and workforce development, and the rest have been used for various government projects.
The city is simultaneously dealing with rising crime and disorder on the streets prompting businesses such as the famous toy store that inspired the Toy Story movie franchise to close up shop.