Assemblymember Matt Haney would be quite the tree hugger if he simply knew where to find one.
The legislator from San Francisco seems to have reprioritized the city’s many crises — such as homelessness, drug overdose deaths and a housing shortage, to name a few — by asking Attorney General Rob Bonta last month to launch an investigation into a lack of trees in his district, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
Haney, who became the focus of a state political watchdog investigation after blowing $75,000 in campaign money on boozy sporting events, wrote that his constituents recently alerted him to a lack of “essential green infrastructure, specifically street trees” in some neighborhoods within his district, which makes up the eastern half of San Francisco.
In a head-slapping lack of awareness, Haney acknowledged in his letter that many trees aren’t being planted in his eastern San Francisco district because they don’t meet “survivability” criteria due, in part, to vandalism.
“This practice raises a critical question of whether these neighborhoods are effectively being treated as ‘containment zones’ for environmental and social burdens,” he wrote.
Haney, whose district has historically included a containment zone for illegal drugs called The Tenderloin, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Others made aware of Haney’s letter suggested the chair of the state Assembly’s committee on housing might be better off focusing on more pressing issues.
“It’s just hard to take anything he does seriously,” said David Latterman, a political analyst in San Francisco. “I’d love more trees. Trees are good. And he isn’t wrong in that there are not a ton of trees in the southeast [section of the city]. But then he goes and turns it into a big performative issue.”
Haney argued in his letter that the lack of trees in his district may violate SB 1000, a state environmental law passed in 2016. He claims that hundreds of “tree wells” in his district are sitting empty while federal and local funds are being directed to nurture and plant trees in other parts of San Francisco.
A failure to plant more trees in Haney’s district, which includes the Mission and South of Market area, have led to residents paying out of pocket for their own street trees, “effectively subsidizing the city’s failure to provide basic environmental health protections,” he wrote.
It’s unclear how likely Bonta is to launch a full-scale investigation into trees. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
California’s attorney general has been busy combatting the Trump administration in court by filing a lawsuit at a rate of once per week last year. Bonta also might question whether state funds should be used on Haney’s alleged Tree-Gate when the state of California is facing a $3 billion deficit that could grow to as much as $22 billion the following year.
In 2022, Haney famously had to cancel a celebration of a $1.7 million public toilet after outcry over the costs.
Alexandra M. Macedo, a Republican assemblymember from Tulare, quipped that the letter shows how much California’s priorities are out of whack.
“We are being governed by people who think ‘vandalism risk’ is both a reason to skip planting trees and a reason to trigger a civil rights probe,” Macedo said in a statement to The Post. “At this point, the trees would have better luck getting city funding if they were part of a bike lane.”
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