Barriers to Implemention

To fully evaluate the Green Building Ordinance it is crucial to examine the real estate market and financial climate in San Francisco. While the Task Force worked with the City to construct policies and procedures for adopting green building standards, the global financial markets started their decent. The government sponsored mortgage corporation Freddie Mac, was the first institution to be hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in early 2007. When the Mayor’s Task Force convened for the first time, investment bank, Bear Stearns liquidated two of its hedge funds and was heading quickly towards collapse (Federal Reserve, “Financial”). Meanwhile, the national commercial real estate market contracted, as the housing market spiraled downward. Lehman Brothers, another investment bank, filed for bankruptcy while the California Energy Commission reviewed San Francisco’s proposed Green Building Ordinance. By the time the Ordinance went into effect in November 2008, the U.S. Department of the Treasury was bailing out American International Group (AIG) and was considering doing the same for the failing American auto industry (Sorkin, “U.S.”). Marx’s theory of the State was being observed on the national stage and articles about the end of capitalism were circulating in reputable publications. The covert actions of the State institutions, its political process and embedded relationship with the ruling class were made visible.