No matter which District 11 supervisor candidate wins, they will push for residents to be able to park on the sidewalks — as long as a wheelchair can pass by.
Five of the six candidates running to represent the district in November want to maintain sidewalk parking — no matter that it is illegal and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority has been ticketing the practice regularly. That hurdle was disregarded at the forum on Sunday afternoon, co-hosted by local YIMBY group Southside Forward and neighborhood group We Are OMI and moderated by Mission Local’s managing editor, Joe Eskenazi.
Only Chyanne Chen, one of the six candidates, was missing. She had an engagement that predated her declaration of candidacy, Eskenazi said.
More than 100 neighbors from District 11 packed the community forum at the Minnie & Lovie Ward Recreation Center at 650 Capitol Ave. to meet the candidates, who offered distinctly different approaches to winning over the crowd.
Michael Lai, who has spent the least amount of time in the district, tried call-and-response chants to “get the energy up a little bit.”
“When I say ‘we want,’ you say ‘change,'” he implored the crowd. While it worked the first time, on Lai’s last attempt, an audience member switched out “change” to the name of his competitor, “EJ.” “I respect that,” Lai said good-naturedly.
Ernest “E.J.” Jones, who was an aide to the current District 11 supervisor, Ahsha Safaí, leaned on his extensive experience in the district and often ended his responses with a soft-spoken, but direct, “let’s do it.”
Roger Marenco, a Muni driver, likened himself to Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador who has drastically reduced street crimes by jailing more than 76,000 Salvadorans, roughly one percent of the population. In San Francisco, he said, “the Cheetos and the Doritos are locked up, but the criminal behind you is set free.” He wants to change that.
Jose Morales referred to himself as “a regular Joe,” and Adlah Chisti leaned heavily into her born, bred and still-living-in-the-district resume. Jones and Morales also have deep roots in District 11.
It wasn’t an entirely convivial affair. When Lai mentioned a few solutions to housing in a neighborhood that Eskenazi described as house-rich, but cash-poor, Lai said the city needs to support homeowners to split their lots for extra income or to make space for their children.
Jones took issue with Lai’s suggestion.
“If the people are cash-poor, how can they afford a lot-split and the development?” Jones asked, and suggested homeowners instead need help in estate planning to make sure families can hold onto their properties.
Lai responded by calling for creative models, and used the example of Athens, Greece, after World War II, where private developers partnered with homeowners and fronted them capital to turn homes into duplexes. (Called flats-for-land, the program involved owners allowing developers to build on their property in exchange for partial ownership of the units.)
Morales proposed a subsidy program for the younger generation to move out of their family homes, but failed to clarify where they would go. Marenco also suggested, without details, move-out incentives, and citations for vacant properties.
Chisti lives in one of those multigenerational homes with her two-year-old daughter and elderly parents. She is their part-time, in-home caregiver, and recalled when her family almost lost their home. She proposed flexible financing, accessible resources and education for families when they inherit homes.
The five contenders also gave the crowd a preview of what they would focus on during their first days in office.
Marenco said he would first move to clean up the streets, and then build — presumably housing. “You can’t build anything until you first clean the streets,” he said.
Morales also talked broadly about cleaning up the streets, reducing crime and addressing drug use issues.
Chisti said her first move would be to support oversight, accountability and transparency for large nonprofits.
Lai, who is on the board of Head Start centers in the district, will focus on affordable childcare and reducing permitting fees for small businesses.
Jones said parking permits are an inevitability, so he would push for the first parking permits to be free. He’d also work to bring out a comprehensive public safety plan within his first 100 days. “So, I’m ready,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Four of the candidates thanked either or both the current supervisor, Safaí, and the former supervisor, John Avalos, who served for two terms, for their work in the district. But only one of them, Morales, didn’t provide an answer for the question of which District 11 supervisor was either a “positive or negative role model.”
“It is a tough question,” Morales said. “I think I’m gonna go with ‘no comment.'”
“District 11 has never had an effective supervisor? You would take no lessons from anybody’s tenure, positive or negative?” moderator Eskenazi asked.
“No,” said the contender, who is one of two supervisor candidates who failed to vote in earlier elections.
Jones called the housing initiatives from each former District 11 supe “spot on,” but added, “They did not do a good job of unifying these communities. I think John [Avalos] did a great job of serving the Excelsior, and Ahsha [Safaí] did a great job of serving parts of the OMI [Oceanview, Merced Heights, and Ingleside]. We have to do a better job of making this one community I have on this shirt,” he said, referring to his T-shirt emblazoned with “We are District 11.” “Not because it’s fun, but because it’s right.”
Chisti, too, agreed that “it’s time to bring and bridge both of these communities.”
Differences aside, the candidates agreed on many issues:
The next Ocean View Library should be built faster at 100 Orizaba Ave. and Brotherhood Way, an intersection close to the highway. The district has too many cannabis dispensaries but not enough affordable housing. More housing density is needed at corridors on Ocean Avenue.
Lai and Jones seemed to like the idea of restricting new developments to six- to eight-story buildings. Both Lai and Jones also support traffic cameras to stop speeding.
Accountability, all agreed, is needed for those running stop signs and red lights, and the city needs a fully staffed police force.
And, pleasing the District 11 crowd, no one should reserve parking spots in front of their homes with cones.
I think most of the discussion of parking is short sighted and takes away the focus on public transportation and making the city less car dependent. It seems that the only way to win support is to win the votes of the people today rather than making the city better for the people of tomorrow.