by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN JULY 16, 2024, 4:39 PM (MissionLocal.org)
Sign up below to get Mission Local’s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won’t find elsewhere.Sign up
Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Four candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which spans from the east end of Golden Gate Park through Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and the Western Addition, the Lower Haight and Hayes Valley, and most of the Tenderloin.
This week, we asked candidates about Haight-Ashbury. With all the focus on the Tenderloin or specific issues like the Fillmore Safeway or Parcel K in Hayes Valley, sometimes issues in each of our distinct neighborhoods get overlooked.
What is an issue impacting the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, and how would you address it as supervisor?
Stay informed on local elections — sign up for Mission Local’s free daily newsletter today!Sign up
Note: I will be at Alamo Square Cafe at 711 Fillmore St. on Thursday, July 18 at 10 a.m. Come say hi and share your thoughts about the election or District 5.
Bilal Mahmood
- Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, master’s degree from University of Cambridge
- Languages: English, Urdu
With over 1,000 doors knocked in Haight-Ashbury, our team has consistently heard the community’s concerns around a lack of progress on our homelessness crisis.
I’ve proposed a Built for Zero solution — an evidence-based framework that has addressed homelessness in 14 U.S. cities. The plan streamlines missing shelter beds, expands real-time data collection to personalize care to every individual, and consolidates city departments to reduce bureaucracy.
This will curtail the inefficiencies and corruption in our current system, and ensure we actually bring housing and services to those who need them, where they need them, and when they need them.
Endorsed by: San Francisco YIMBY, State Senator Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany.
Dean Preston
- Job: Incumbent, tenant attorney
- Age: 54
- Residency: Homeowner, in District 5 since 1996
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, juris doctor degree from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English
The Haight is special because of our residents and small businesses. Their top issues:
Small Business: We worked with merchants and halved storefront vacancies. We also passed small business protections, including a business eviction ban, rent debt relief, and grants for vandalized storefronts.
Housing and Homelessness: We broke ground on 160 affordable homes at 730 Stanyan, reduced neighborhood homelessness, and saved thousands from eviction by funding rent relief, providing counsel for tenants facing eviction, and banning evictions during the pandemic.
Community Safety: We brought community ambassadors to the Haight and supported moving officers from vehicles to foot patrols, which improved safety.
Endorsed by: Bernie Sanders, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Scotty Jacobs
- Job: Marketing
- Age: 30
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2022, homeowner
- Transportation: Public bicycle
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Washington University
- Languages: English
The Haight, like the rest of the city, has an affordable housing shortage.
730 Stanyan (the old McDonald’s) is a great example of a high-quality project that current Supervisors unnecessarily stalled. Blocking projects because they aren’t 100 percent affordable housing makes you anti-housing. We need to partner with private developers on projects that make mutual economic sense, which means, at times, including market-rate units in affordable housing developments. I will cut the red tape so we can build higher, denser, and faster, and make good on what we owe the citizens of San Francisco: an affordable and socioeconomically inclusive city.
Allen Jones
- Job: Activist
- Age: 67
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2021
- Transportation: Wheelchair
- Education: Teaching Bible studies at juvenile hall
- Languages: English
I am not aware of anything alarming in “The Haight.” I’ve only been there twice in the last year for BBQ. I noticed the tourists were not alarmed by the homeless.
Warning: If the next D5 supervisor does not keep a close eye on SFPD encampment sweeps throughout the city, the risk of encampments and fentanyl will be tenfold in crevices of Haight- Ashbury.
Autumn Looijen
- Job: School board recall co-founder
- Age: 46
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since December 2020, landowner
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from California Institute of Technology
- Languages: English
New housing for families and transitional age youth is going up now at 730 Stanyan in the Haight-Ashbury.
It takes a village to raise a child, and I’m excited for a new generation of children to grow up with a deep connection to the Haight-Ashbury.
Neighbors want to be sure the project is well run, and provides the stable environment children need to thrive.
I will work with TNDC and neighborhood residents to make sure community rules are enforced (quickly and consistently and compassionately), and to help our new families build deep connections with the wider community. Children need both.
Endorsed by: San Francisco police union.
The order of candidates is rotated each week. Answers are capped at 100 words, and may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at eleni@missionlocal.com.
Read all of the District 5 candidates’ answers here, and the entire “Meet the Candidates” series here. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
READ MORE CANDIDATE ANSWERS
Meet the Candidates: San Francisco’s District 5 supervisor race
ELENI BALAKRISHNAN
REPORTER. Eleni reports on policing in San Francisco. She first moved to the city on a whim more than 10 years ago, and the Mission has become her home. Follow her on Twitter @miss_elenius.More by Eleni Balakrishnan
What is up with the Lower Polk street Area ?
It appears to be a nogo zone .
It has only worsened since Preston was elected .
Why has this area been destroyed?
Why hasnt the city been able to regain control?
The drug cartels and addicts control
the area .
Garbage , graffiti , encampments , addicts , feces , needles and violence are the norm here ?
What when and who will address this area ?
Please ask the candidates why this area is ignored and destroyed ?
Preston hasn’t been able to make a dent ?
Ambassadors cannot handle this area