Recently in San Francisco, a debate popped up surrounding the cost of toast, which is just slightly burnt bread smeared with a paste made from nuts or fruit or milk. Specifically, people are arguing about whether or not someone should be allowed to charge three dollars and seventy-five cents for something so wholesome and unpretentious as bread with peanut butter. More so, people argued whether or not "$4 toast" could stand for something bigger than itself. For example, why the tech industry is ruining San Francisco or the need for affordable housing. Which is ridiculous.

Because it is a delicious piece of bread with almond butter and honey, one of the pieces of toast in question was featured on SFist's own Ten Best Breakfast Pastries In San Francisco list yesterday, so full disclosure: we're on Team Toast here.

But the toast first drew criticism from the belligerent tech blogging crowd, where VentureBeat's Jolie O'Dell reached for the headline: "$4 toast: Why the tech industry is ruining San Francisco." Which is 600 words abhorring an ambiguous, but overpaid tech community for their taste in meaningless buzzwords like "artisanal." As of this writing the piece, which was posted in late August, has been liked 3,400 Facebook. So a lot of people are rallying behind the idea that no one should pay $6 for coffee and a piece of toast. (Although: good luck getting out of Starbucks for under five bucks.)

Enter Eddie Kurtz, political director for the Courage Campaign, which did some good work in the past for marriage equality. As Kurtz told the Chronicle, $4 toast is what motivated his group to draft up an Internet petition telling Mayor Lee to "stop catering to the 1%" and build some affordable housing. This, of course, has nothing to do with toast. Especially not the excellent toast baked by human being and small business owner Josey Baker at The Mill, one of the few humans on earth whose given name matches their occupation.

It does, however, have everything to do with the terrible housing shortage in San Francisco, the skyrocketing rent prices, and the fact that new developments, if they can get approved at all, are mostly luxury properties. So, yeah, let's get the Mayor fixing that for us, but leave the bourgeois toast out of it. It's pretty good toast.