{"id":34180,"date":"2024-06-04T12:34:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T19:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34180"},"modified":"2024-06-04T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T19:34:14","slug":"longshot-mayoral-candidates-to-host-peoples-debate-every-saturday-at-dolores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/04\/longshot-mayoral-candidates-to-host-peoples-debate-every-saturday-at-dolores\/","title":{"rendered":"Longshot mayoral candidates to host \u2018People\u2019s Debate\u2019 every Saturday at Dolores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/strong> JUNE 2, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From
From left to right, mayoral candidates Serena Hughes, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Shahram Shariati, Guy McCoy and Honest Charley Bodkin behind the Miguel Hidalgo monument in Dolores Park during the first People’s debate for mayor this season on Saturday June 1, 2024. Photo by Oscar Palma.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cruise ships to alleviate the housing crisis, temporary get-out-of-jail cards to allow prisoners to work, blue poles around the city with buttons that summon a police officer and many more gardens to grow food for San Franciscans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are all ideas from San Francisco mayoral candidates. Nope, not Mayor London Breed<\/a>, Mark Farrell<\/a>, Daniel Lurie<\/a>, Aaron Peskin<\/a> or Ahsha Safa\u00ed<\/a>. Instead, they come from some of the other 48 candidates hoping to defeat incumbent Breed in November and claim Room 200 in City Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These visions come from the longshots, the underdogs, the candidates all but certain to lose on Election Day, but who are making their appeal to San Franciscans regardless. Namely, that was Serena Hughes<\/a>, Dylan Hirsch-Shell<\/a>, Shahram Shariati<\/a>, Guy McCoy and Honest Charley Bodkin<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the San Francisco People\u2019s Debate<\/a>, a weekly mayoral forum that takes place every Saturday at Dolores Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open to all those running for office, the People\u2019s Debate is meant to provide a space for all the candidates most San Franciscans will never know. \u201cHear from the candidates for San Francisco mayor you haven\u2019t heard from\u201d is how the event\u2019s website<\/a> describes the debate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, June 1, at the first debate, only a handful of attendees showed up to listen to the five candidates who chose to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a bright afternoon and all of the candidates wore their sunglasses as they faced east to a beautiful view of San Francisco\u2019s landscape, one they hope to see as a mayor one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions touched on safety, homelessness, pedestrian safety, and Proposition 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis country is putting people in a position where they are in a sink or swim,\u201d said Hirsch-Shell, a former engineer at Tesla. \u201cAll it takes is your washing machine breaking down. You can\u2019t wash your uniform for your job and then you lose your job, then you\u2019re living in your car. You get parking tickets and then suddenly you\u2019re on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to street safety, Shariati, who is a transportation engineer at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority, said he would bring in a solution popular on university campuses: blue emergency polls residents can activate to call up the cops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing back to college, we have those blue poles with call buttons for the police. I want to implement that in the city,\u201d said Shariati. \u201cThat will help response times because the cops would know exactly where to go, and they can act immediately because we do have a low force right now. We have a shortage of police officers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCoy, who runs a restaurant and a bar in Hayes Valley, agreed that the San Francisco Police Department is understaffed, so he proposed focusing on those who are first offenders, to make them understand they will get caught if they reoffend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a certainty of being caught, you\u2019re going to be less likely to take that first step, and that\u2019s where we need to really focus our attention: The people who are doing this for the first time,\u201d said McCoy. \u201cWe need to take a different stance on repeat offenders. If you keep on doing it, then you shouldn\u2019t be out in the streets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience, a mix of the candidates\u2019 supporters and ordinary park-goers, also asked about Vision Zero<\/a>. Most of the candidates agreed that it would be difficult to get to zero traffic fatalities in such a dense city, but they said City Hall could do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bodkin jumped right into police car pursuits and spoke about his support for Proposition E easing the rules around car chases<\/a>, which San Francisco voters approved in March. \u201cWe need the police to be able to have the option to pursue vehicles that are fleeing a crime at high speeds,\u201d said Bodkin, who is a software engineer. \u201cWe can\u2019t be advertising to the world, to our neighbors, to people that want to come here to commit crimes that they can come here and simply flee at high speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hughes said she has the perspective of a driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian. She criticized the center-running bike lane on Valencia, and denounced Proposition E for allowing high speed chases, which she sees as counterintuitive to Vision Zero. Hughes also proposed yielding to cars and being polite on the road, because cars \u201care the hardest ones to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After about two hours, the candidates shook hands and attendees started to leave. The candidates said having this space every Saturday will allow them to speak to voters directly, so San Francicans know they have many choices come November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Francisco People\u2019s Debate will take place every Saturday until election day at the Miguel Hidalgo monument at Dolores Park from 1 to 3 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

oscar.palma@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar is a reporter with interest in environmental and community journalism, and how these may intersect. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2024\/06\/longshot-mayoral-candidates-to-host-peoples-debate-every-saturday-at-dolores\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mission+Local&utm_campaign=ccaf32966b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_06_03_04_07&utm_term=0_-ccaf32966b-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA JUNE 2, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) Cruise ships to alleviate the housing crisis, temporary get-out-of-jail cards to allow prisoners to work, blue poles around the city with buttons that summon a police officer and many more gardens to grow food for San Franciscans. These are all ideas from San Francisco… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34181,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34180\/revisions\/34181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}