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San Francisco’s ready for change — but Pelosi’s successors aren’t

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San Francisco has been more optimistic in recent years, with Mayor Daniel Lurie adopting a more pragmatic approach, and voters staging successful recalls of the most radical and destructive local elected officials.

But the race to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi shows that old habits are hard to break.

Three viable candidates dominate, offering voters the thrilling illusion of choice, while delivering few new ideas on the issues that actually matter to everyday San Franciscans — continued sky-high costs, street drug use, punishing taxes, and ideological purity tests.

Scott Wiener leads the pack as the current state senator and professional LGBTQ cheerleader. He’s authored a pile of state housing bills that generated impressive press releases.

Actual homes completed? That’s a slower burn, thanks to the usual California cocktail of fees, lawsuits, and mandates.

Wiener’s real passion remains cultural: sanctuary policies for transgender minors fleeing parental skepticism (SB 107), and a memorable pivot declaring Israel guilty of “genocide” after initially sounding more balanced.

Moderates in the city grumble that he’s too busy pandering to national activists on social media to fix the basics. But in San Francisco, that’s often a feature, not a bug.

Connie Chan, current Board of Supervisors member and the proud Pelosi endorsee, brings authentic local flavor as a Chinese-American immigrant who actually balances budgets and doles out immigrant services.

She’s competent at the city-county grind — revenue reserves, union deals, subsidized housing — yet quite vague on national or world........

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