San Francisco Mayor London Breed's push to bring new giant pandas to the city's zoo took a hit Thursday when a supervisors committee shot down her fundraising plans.
Breed's plan called for $25 million to be raised to host the giant pandas once they were brought in from China, a deal the mayor secured after a trip there in April.
Committee members voted to postpone Breed's request, reportedly calling it a distraction in light of more urgent funding issues.
Last month, Breed posted to social media that she was submitting the resolution to the Board of Supervisors that would allow a variety of city departments to raise money from philanthropy and private entities. She said then the project is moving full steam ahead.
"We’re talking with representatives of the zoo," Breed said. "We had some engineers from China that were here while I was in China to talk about it and what it would entail. We have an architect, we have people working on it."
But mayoral candidate and Supervisor Ahsha Safai said Breed was tone deaf for announcing the $25 million fundraiser during a time of massive budget cuts, pointing to the announcement of $24 million in cuts to essential after-school and youth programs.
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