On May 7, voters will go to the polls to decide whether to go with City Council’s regulations for transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft, or with the very limited rules the TNCs themselves prefer. While the success of that referendum did not carry over to the petition to recall Council Member Ann Kitchen, which has stalled for now, it’s spawned a crop of imitators. Naturally, there have been rumors of recall efforts targeting at least four other council members, not to mention a county commissioner and two other county officials, including one constable candidate who hasn’t even taken office yet. In fact, fueled by tech venture capital and social media expertise, recall and referendum proponents have realized that virtually anything within the city limits can be recalled, provided 5% of residents sign a petition. And the focus has shifted from council members and their laws to a wide range of targets, including city buses and even the Chronicle‘s own food editor. Here, we round up some of the more prominent campaigns.
This article appears in Our Next (P)resident.