by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN FEBRUARY 13, 2024, 12:00 (MIssonLocal.org)
Two candidates have filed to run against incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to lead District 5. The district saw big changes during the 2022 redistricting, and now 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.
We have invited the three District 5 hopefuls to participate in our series, “Meet the candidates.” We will ask each candidate to answer one question per week, leading up to the election, with answers capped at 100 words. All the responses will ultimately be compiled onto a single page, where readers can peruse the potential supervisors’ stances on upwards of 40 topics before it’s time to vote in November.
Here’s our second question: How will your life experiences help in your work as supervisor?
Allen Jones
I wrote and self-published an autobiography in 2010. With misspelled words, this book is in the San Francisco Main Library.
How I live, help and inspire others is detailed in 25 chapters. This includes a chapter titled “Beautiful.” Stories of how my father raised ten children as a single parent and taught me to love. Another chapter, “Respect Thy Neighbor,” explains how San Francisco taught me to respect others. Another chapter, titled “King of Hearts,” is a 10-page poem describing the true stories of how I believe God taught me, a crippled homosexual, never to give up.
Bilal Mahmood
I am a Muslim American and a proud son of immigrants. My grandparents’ and parents’ journey from Kenya to Pakistan to the Bay Area, to rise through the middle class, inspires my focus on ensuring San Francisco remains a beacon for upward mobility for all peoples. And as a lifelong renter and current resident of the Tenderloin, these experiences guide and inform my priorities as Supervisor: Ensuring safe streets for the 3,500 children who live in the Tenderloin, streamlining affordable and middle-income housing from Hayes to the Haight, and guaranteeing support for our elders from the Fillmore to Japantown.
Dean Preston
Prior to taking office, I worked as a tenants’ rights attorney for 20 years to keep vulnerable low-income residents in their homes. In 2008, I founded California’s only statewide tenant organization, Tenants Together. I’ve fought on behalf of tenants for housing stability against profit-driven speculators and mega-landlords for decades. Alongside a grassroots coalition, I played a leadership role in fighting to save rent control in 2008 and, a decade later, authored and championed Proposition F, our city’s groundbreaking law to provide legal representation for all tenants facing eviction. My decades of experience as a tenants’ rights lawyer and affordable housing… Read more here.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically. Answers 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 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
