At a Civics Day hosted by the non-profit organization Generation Citizen high school students from John O’Connell High School argued that David Campos’ push for a housing moratorium in the Mission was all wrong. And it won them an award.
The winning students were from a class on economics at John O’Connell. Along with 17 other classrooms across San Francisco and the East Bay they presented their semester-long work on community issues to a panel of judges that included representatives from Google, Wells Fargo Bank, Chevron Corp., Microsoft, and the San Francisco Education Fund. The event was held at the Women’s Building.
The high school students said they used their knowledge of economics to come up with an affordable housing plan.
“We used things like supply and demand, and elasticity,” said 17-year-old student Aeris Velasco.
The students presented their action plan and emphasized that the root cause of not enough housing was policy and law. Their goal (through a better understanding of the housing market) was to increase affordable housing.
Their ideas included raising the height limit for housing units in the Mission, pushing for the city to buy abandoned buildings to refurbish into affordable housing on, and to increase the 7% minimum affordable housing requirement for new developments.
And not to “rat out” David Campos, but Velasco added that when Campos came to their class to speak and they asked him how the moratorium would help with affordable housing, they were not satisfied with his response.
“Time is crucial,” said Velasco, “And a moratorium is just a waste of time, [Campos] said if the moratorium went through, then the plan would come after.” But the students agreed that if the moratorium continued for two years, as his proposal suggested, it would only put them two years behind on a solution to affordable housing.
That was the reasoning, along with their comprehensive plan, that earned the group the “Grassroots Change” award presented by Generation Citizen founder Scott Warren.
Other topics that competed for the award ranged from child homelessness in San Francisco, to sex-trafficking in East Oakland.
Oakland’s Sankofa Middle School’s class chose sex-trafficking because several of the students in the class had personal experiences, and all felt connected to it after learning that the average age for someone entering sex-trafficking was between 12-14 years old.
Robyn Wilkes class said they plan on spending the summer bringing awareness about sex-trafficking in East Oakland, by forming a youth council, and asking local businesses to spread awareness through posters displayed in their business. Their plan earned them a “Change Maker” award.
“I take the bus down International Ave. to the school, and I’m shocked by what I see,” said Maggie Tober about her experience in Oakland. Tober is a UC Berkeley student, and a Democracy Coach for Generation Citizen and Wilkes’ class.
But how likely is it that students can make an impact on such broad topics in the course of one semester?
“Certain topics – housing – you can’t fix that in one semester, the city hasn’t been able to fix housing in years,” said Jessica Rojas, Democracy Coach for John O’Connell High School. Rojas said its just about understanding what’s happening. “They know their neighborhood is changing, but they didn’t understand the specifics. Now, they’re looking at it from an economic perspective.”
David Moren, Bay Area Site Director for Generation Citizen said it’s less about the finished product.
“It’s not whether they caught a fish or not, its did they learn how to fish?”
Generation Citizen’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter was formed in 2013, and this is the third Civics Day they’ve hosted.
Scott Warren, and Anna Ninna formed the non-profit while students at Brown University. Warren through his own experience in student organizing wanted to look for ways to get youth civically engaged.
Warren says he hopes that Generation Citizen is a pipeline to other community organizations that students can continue the work they began with them. “We’re the spark.”
Many thanks for more original reporting about important issues to the Mission. It would be great if the youths debated Campos in a public forum about not only his misguided moratorium, but his entire agenda related to housing in the district. Do you think Campos would agree to debates?
It seems to me the problem is not the lack of ideas; there are plenty of good ideas. It’s a lack of political will on the part of the city administration, and a lack of political muscle on the part of the reformers. A moratorium is a political move, and whereas it may not make sense economically, it does politically. Not as a breather to come up with yet more good ideas. But as a bargaining chip. Numerous examples over the past few years have shown the Lee administration incapable of meaningful action on affordable housing unless forced to take it. A moratorium would be a way of holding the administration accountable, trading the moratorium for real-time reforms rather than vague promises for the future. Probably take a good bit less than 2 years.
So you’re advocating blackmail? The same tactic the republicans used when they shut down the gov’t. I bet you were against that type of political blackmail then.
The proposals, such as increasing the percentage of required affordable housing in new developments, are great. How can the government get the leverage to make those changes?
They might understand the very basic of law of supply and demand, but they obviously don’t know how to pander to their voters.
If only we could replace David Campos with those smart youths!
Glad to read more journalism, giving me news I didn’t know, from the staff of Mission Local.
This site is a very welcome alternative to the endless cheerleading and stenography of 48 Hills, which should be paid for all the mouthpiece PR work they do for Campos.
Bravo to all the youths for their civic participation.
“… panel of judges that included representatives from Google, Wells Fargo Bank, Chevron Corp., Microsoft, and the San Francisco Education Fund.”
There’s a real civics lesson contained in that corporate-stacked panel.
Yes, inviting local companies to school events such as this is entirely novel.
The companies were simply invited by the schools? And they showed up to vote for a “Grassroots Change” award? There’s obviously some masterful P.R. going on with this astroturf “non-profit.” Too bad the kids are being used this way.
The students came up with their ideas on their own. The companies and orgs were judges. Too bad that anyone that having differing opinion, an educated one no less, than you, you feel is being ‘used’.
We rail against these companies for not being engaged with their local communities. This is what engagement looks like. You can’t have it both ways.