by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN APRIL 16, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)
Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, where we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. All the responses are compiled onto a single page, where readers can peruse the potential District 5 supervisors’ stances on upwards of 40 topics before it’s time to vote in November.
Three candidates are challenging Supervisor Dean Preston in 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.
For the next couple weeks, we’re talking about housing. Last week, we asked candidates about what they will focus on to improve the housing situation here in San Francisco.
This week’s question is: What will be your first move as supervisor to start chipping away at this focus issue?
We asked candidates to be specific — their answers are below.
Note: I will be in District 5 this week on Thursday, April 18, at 12 p.m. at Alamo Square Cafe (711 Fillmore St.). Come say hi and share your thoughts.
Living in District 5 since May 2023, lived adjacent since May 2021.
Bilal Mahmood
Renter
I will prioritize fixing our broken permitting system. There’s too much red tape that makes it take over 1,000 days to build affordable or middle income housing, driving up costs of development and in turn, rent.
I will work to cut the bureaucracy impeding the permitting process — investments in technology to speed up application approvals, allowing parallel permitting and approvals, and reducing discretionary permits to effectively cut the time to build affordable housing in half. When there’s less obstacles, we build more homes affordably.
Living in District 5 since 1996
Dean Preston
Homeowner
As a tenant rights attorney and affordable housing advocate for decades, my priority is housing for low-income and working class people.
Priority D5 sites include the DMV lot, 730 Stanyan, Parcel K & more. In November, we’ll push for the regional housing bond and Costa-Hawkins repeal to expand rent control. We’re also launching a public bank to scale up investment in affordable housing.
My Right to Counsel law gives tenants facing eviction a free attorney, we passed legislation to ban pandemic evictions, and raised over $300m for affordable housing by taxing the rich. I’ve voted for 30k homes, 86 percent affordable.
Living in District 5 since Nov. 2021
Allen Jones
Renter
When I think of the San Francisco NIMBY vs YIMBY fight, it reminds me of the game show Family Feud. A clever episode addressed an old feud between two families: The Hatfields and the McCoys.
Some say this 1863 to 1891 feud between two families was over love. Some believe it was over land. Others think it had to do with a stolen pig. Nevertheless, years of ugly ensued. My first piece of legislation on the subject of housing would be a resolution declaring a truce between the Hatfields and McCoys — I mean, NIMBYs and YIMBYs.
Living in District 5 since Dec. 2020
Autumn Looijen
Renter
Have you walked by the abandoned carwash site at 400 Divisadero? It was approved for 182 homes five years ago (20% affordable) but was tied up in delays and never built.
Dean is insisting on 100 percent affordable, and blamed the Mayor when he couldn’t get it done.
We need homes on that site. I will work with the mayor and city departments to use every tool at our disposal (including our new Housing for All tools) to actually build affordable homes. If we also need to streamline the building process or take other measures, I will make sure it happens.
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 the rest of the District 5 questions 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.
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
