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Michael Lai

@mtclai

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AI for government at Anthropic
By night: SF DCCC, community organizing

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Started off as a DM and snowballed into a theatre with 100 of our friends. Big thanks to my amazing cohost @mtclai!!

@nathanfielder

#youcanseeeverything

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The annual @sfdemocrats gala is in the books! 🪩

Last night we held our annual celebration / fundraiser and this year the theme we chose is “Defenders of Democracy” opting to honor individuals and groups that are fighting for our democracy and for our city every single day. Honorees were @davidchiu.sf @liuna261 and CA Secretary of State Shirley Weber, with the keynote being delivered by one of MY favorite defenders of democracy, and very tall housing champion, Senator @scott_wiener 🦒💙

Every year this event consumes a ton of my work bandwidth around the Summer/Fall and every year it’s always a mad dash to the final finish. Ironically enough because it’s an event I have to produce and *work* at, I never actually get to enjoy the program and/or soak it all in…😅

But that’s okay, because this event is what powers our work at the @sfdemocrats for the coming year and it just brings me joy to see so many different folks from various causes, unions, advocacy orgs and other places in S.F. political life come together, get a little glamorous, and enjoy themselves for the evening before we all hunker down and volunteer around the clock for our favorite candidates and causes ahead of November 🗳️🇺🇸

As always, my deepest appreciation for my coworker @csidpics (who took on primary management of the event this year!), the volunteers that helped make the event a success, the members of the gala organizing committee @carrieelisebarnes @joesangirardi @jaimehuling for being so excellent to work with.

Another thanks goes to @preziosieventproductions for helping us manage the event logistics, to the team at @paulaleduc for catering the event with precision, to the fine folks at @bimbos365club for hosting us again, and as always, my deepest appreciation to my boss and mentor, @nancyhtung for constantly living up to our shared @uniteddemclubsf motto of #DoTheWork and for being an absolute badass fundraiser 💸💰

Now onward, to November, we have some elections to win 💪🏽

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Blew out my birthday candles Rube Goldberg style this year! Thanks to my ingenious, fun loving friends and family for this contraption and so much more.

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Proud of our AAPI community leaders in California! Fun to have Mayor Willie L Brown, Jr share stories of solidarity.

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Some things that made me ☺️✨this week

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Chinatown was full today.

A sold out screening of The Joy Luck Club at the iconic Great Star Theater brought generations together more than three decades after its release.

Made in San Francisco 33 years ago, the film still carries the emotional and visual imprint of this city.

Grateful to Janet Yang (@janetyangofficial), Kieu Chinh (@thekieuchinh), Rosalind Chao (@chao_time), and Russell Wong (russellwong88) for sharing reflections with our audience.

Thank you to our co-hosts Mark Young (@marksyoung), Michael Lai (@mclai), Joe Talbot (@technicolor_talbot), Spencer Kingman (@spencyp), Mike Wang (@zmwang), and Amy Lee (@amy.l.xy), and to the Great Star Theater (@greatstartheater) for stewarding this historic space.

Thank you to everyone who chose to spend their Saturday celebrating Lunar New Year, the Year of the Fire Horse, with us.

Cultural storytelling endures when cities choose to invest in it.

#joyluckclub #standwithasians

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This is @Scott_Wiener at the “Dem” rally last election with literally the worst people in S.F. political history backing him 🤷

Danny Sauter
Bilal Mahmoud
Michael Lai
Joe Sangirardi
Trevor Chandler
London Breed
Marjan Whatsherface
Ruth Ferguson
Myrna Melgar
Saikat (in spirit 💫)

Who else?

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Today Mayor @danielluriesf was joined by members of the the Board of Supervisors, @sanfranciscoplanning, and several other groups to formally sign the Family Zoning Plan into law.

Passed earlier this month after several years of workshops, community meetings and feedback sessions, the Family Zoning Plan is our opportunity to make more homes legal to build in more parts of the city to help keep skyrocketing home costs in check, create opportunities for more young people to stay in San Francisco and ensure that we continue to grow and ensure our city can thrive for the next generation.

Our appreciation to all the Supervisors that voted to pass this historic legislation and our thanks to Mayor Lurie and his team for seeing it across the finish line ☑️

This wont be the end of the fight to make San Francisco more affordable for the next generation, but it is an important step along the path. @sfdemocrats will continue to fight to end our housing shortage and put a dent in the skyrocketing costs that so many have been burdened with for far too long.

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Elected members of the SF Democratic Party are strongly for Drug-Free Sidewalks. We want people to feel safe walking down our streets so our City can thrive. We support legislation, ordinances, and policies and resolutions that move us in the right direction.

@bilalmahmood @cedricakbar @mtclai @lanier.coles @lilyho_sf_democrat @drugfreesidewalks

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We did it 🥳

7.5 years from when @scott_wiener and his team (h/t @anniefrylady) introduced SB827 and kicked off a serious conversation about what it would take to pass statewide zoning standards to ensure that California localities do not continue to constrain home building through restrictive and exclusionary zoning…7 years and 8 months later the third iteration of this idea has been made into law thanks to Governor @gavinnewsom signing SB79 today 🙏🏽

Put simply, SB79 enacts statewide standards around what should be allowed to be built near our most robust transit stops that we’ve invested in heavily as a public.

It is a law that honors localities who engage in good faith to rezone “in their own way” to allow for the same amount of homes, but for those cities and counties that continue to be obstructionist, who continue to be in denial about our multi-decade chronic housing shortage that has destroyed countless lives and made the state progressively more unaffordable over time…for those places, these standards will begin to kick in, and the days of kicking the can down the road or having another “18 month community feedback process” that ends with no actual changes…those days are over.

We will have more work to do, and this law and its standards will come into effect fully in San Francisco if our local leaders do not pass Mayor @danielluriesf’s Family Zoning Plan to rezone the city.

The era of saying “not in my back yard” it’s over. We’ve let this problem fester for too long as it has eroded the opportunities and lives of too many people who are struggling in the state, or have left altogether due to high housing costs.

Massive props to @yimbyaction @cayimby @scott_wiener and everyone else that worked on this. Thanks as well to @matthaneysf and @stefani4ca for voting for the bill and massive props and appreciation to @gavinnewsom for signing it into law ✍🏽💙💙💙

And a special special thank you to the GOAT of housing policy, @scott_wiener for always leading on housing, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard 🙏🏽🏳️‍🌈🏗️🏠🦒🦒🦒

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Our thanks to DNC Chair @kenmartin1973 for taking time out of his Bay Area trip to meet with some of the board members of the San Francisco Democratic Party, City leaders, and several of our San Francisco Union partners.

Strong conversations were had about the work that needs to be done to build a durable Democratic coalition and plan for victory in future elections and the role that San Francisco Democrats have in helping shape those victories as we continue to revitalize our city. Thanks to @chuysfiestasrestaurantofficial for great burritos and to our friends at @liuna261pec for hosting us.

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Members of the @sfdemocrats joined Bay Area residents from all over in wishing @dionlimtv well as she celebrates 20 years of journalism and begins her next chapter in her career👏🏽

Thank you @dionlimtv for your fearless storytelling and journalism!

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