The City of San Francisco Has Boycotted Nevada

San Francisco, the “City of Brotherly Love”, has zero love for Nevada.

The good news is, we are not alone. Nevada is one of 28 states on the progressive naughty list. The bad news is….well, maybe there isn’t any bad news.

In the following tweet and must-read thread, management expert Michelle Tandler lays it bare:

Apparently we have even banned travel to Nevada due to voter laws that passed 60-0, led by Democrats.

This means that SF government officials can't go to conferences in Vegas.

I write this from an HR conference in Vegas…

My fourth time at a conference here…

— Michelle Tandler (@michelletandler) March 15, 2022

According to a 2016 ordinance passed by former San Francisco Supervisor, now State Senator, Scott Wiener, states that did not meet a progressive checklist related to LGBT rights were banned. Since that time, the ordinance has been amended twice to include abortion and voting rights. Businesses headquartered in those targeted states are not awarded contracts and official travel to those states is forbidden.

As per the March 4th memorandum issued by Carmen Chu, City Administrator:

“On October 14, 2016, the Board of Supervisors enacted Chapter 12X of the Administrative Code (Ordinance No. 189-16, file No. 160425) (“Chapter 12X”) which prohibits city-funded travel and City contracts involving states with certain anti-LGBT laws.

On August 9, 2019, the Board of Supervisors enacted an ordinance amending Chapter 12X (Ordinance No. 200-19, file No. 190658). The ordinance moved the existing provisions concerning states with anti-LGBT laws into Article I and created a new Article II, which prohibits city-funded travel and City contracts involving states with laws that prohibit abortion prior to the viability of the fetus.

On November 5, 2021, the Board of Supervisors enacted an ordinance amending Chapter 12X (Ordinance No. 201-21, file No. 210811). The ordinance created a new Article III, which prohibits city-funded travel and City contracts involving states with voter suppression laws.”

Restrictive voting laws? In Nevada?

In 2019, expansive voting laws were passed by the Democratic majority that nearly doubled the size of precincts, restored voting rights to most felons, allowed for same-day registration and voting, expanded early and absentee voting, and automatically registered every person who obtained a driver’s license–without showing proof of citizenship. (What could go wrong?).

In 2019, it was still a felony to harvest ballots in Nevada. But due to the pandemic in 2020, the Democratic legislature legalized ballot harvesting and passed a law which allowed every registered voter to receive and cast their ballot by mail.

This legislative onslaught, without Republican power to stop it, ushered in a near Democratic super-majority comprised of mostly women.

Restrictive Abortion laws? Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks in Nevada and with very few restrictions. Yet Nevada still fails the progressive litmus test.

The man behind the plan, Sen. Wiener told Mission Local:

“I’ll be honest, over time I have come to have mixed views on the approach,” says Wiener. “On the one hand, I believe in using our dollars to express our values. When you have a state like Florida right now, which is about to enact its horrific ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, the idea of spending our public dollars in Florida is an affront.”

“But on the other hand,” Wiener continues, “we know that an awful lot of Floridians, maybe the majority, don’t support that law. There is a huge LGBTQ community in Florida, including many LGBTQ-owned businesses. We are sweeping in an entire state, and sweeping in businesses owned by people who are trying to help. So, it’s complicated and I have become very conflicted and I argue with  myself.”

“It is fundamentally not as straightforward an issue as I once believed.”

What is straightforward is the detrimental costs it is having on the goods and services provided to San Fransisco residents, as explained by Mission Local:

“When San Francisco obtains products from companies in blacklisted states through a third-party vendor, it both drives up costs and mitigates any possible impact of the boycott.

At a time when San Francisco needs to spend less on overhead, we’re spending more. At a time when we need more agility, we have less.

In San Francisco, it can take a year to execute a relatively low-dollar contract. It can take nine months to hire for a single position. These, too, have become San Francisco values.”

While looking for the bad news, in my first-hand experience, many Nevadans—specifically in the Tahoe Region, welcome the boycott. Although the mountains teach you patience, patience can wear thin.

I have witnessed this thinning while waiting in line at the under-staffed, over-crowded Tahoe post office. A man standing in front of me completely lost it and starting yelling, ‘Move the fuck back to San Francisco and take your bullshit with you!’ Needless to say, no one left. But many people clapped and even a few high-fives were exchanged.

The  ‘locals’ don’t particularly care for the ‘city folk’ and the litter, congestion, sky-rocketing real estate prices, honking Teslas, and endless complaints and comparisons that they bring with them—what many Nevadan’s consider ‘San Francisco values.’ Nevadans survived the winter of 2022, which dumped 18 feet of snow in the mountains in December—the largest recording in 142 years. Nevadans will survive this boycott.