Mayoral candidate Ahsha Safaí reveals which city officials he’d fire

“Department heads in particular, if they’ve served over a certain number of years — maybe five years — they need to go,” said San Francisco mayoral candidate and District 11 supervisor Ahsha Safaí. “because what happens is, they start to get too comfortable in their position.”

Then who is he going to fire on day one as mayor? “Police department would be one; public health would be one; SFMTA, absolutely, would be one,” Safaí said. As he spoke, sporadic applause rang out in the packed Manny’s cafe.

On Friday night, Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi sat down with Safaí, who is working to distinguish himself from the rest of the contenders in San Francisco’s mayoral race. Currently, all of the serious candidates hail from San Francisco’s moderate camp, including Safaí, incumbent mayor London Breed, philanthropist Daniel Lurie and, purportedly any day now, former mayor Mark Farrell. 

One means of differentiating himself is his opposition to Proposition E. 

It is “shocking” that Mayor Breed would put her name on Prop. E, a ballot measure that aims to ease restrictions on police chases and surveillance, said Safaí, who was slated to attend a rally opposing Prop. E on Sunday (it was later postponed due to stormy weather). “I truly believe this is one of the most anti-Black, anti-brown, anti-communities of color, immigrant communities [laws]. This is a racist piece of legislation.”

Just a couple years ago, the country grappled with the Black Lives Matter movement and “the national reckoning that took place with George Floyd,” he said, and now “we are literally putting out a ballot measure that is going to decrease police oversight.” 

“That’s going to, literally, be a massive step backward” for San Francisco, Safaí said. 

Prop. E is by far the highest-funded ballot measure on the March ballot. An initiative from Mayor Breed, Prop. E has been funded by tech executives, including Twitch founder Emmett Shear and Ripple founder Chris Larsen. In January, Breed’s competitor, Lurie, also launched his own, independent expenditure campaign supporting Prop. E, in a novel attempt to appropriate Breed’s ballot measure.

Lurie’s committee supporting the proposition has now outraised Breed’s, and Lurie himself is pulling in major donations, including $1 million from his own mother. 

But “money is not going to decide this race,” said Safaí. In contrast to Lurie’s mother, Safaí’s made a more modest donation: $150. 

“The truth is, his mother probably could give him $1 million a month for the entire campaign, and it wouldn’t make a dent in their savings,” said Safaí. He spoke to his mother, who surprised the candidate by showing up and sitting in the third row, saying she was “on fixed income,” but would “do everything she can to get to the $500 [donation limit].” 

“I’m sure she’ll get there,” he said.

Safaí mocked the mayor’s moon-shot proposal to build a soccer stadium in reeling downtown San Francisco, where vacant office space has hit a record high of 30 million square feet.

His own proposal? Universities, Hollywood, and a clean and safe downtown, Safaí said. 

Safaí wants to convert some of the city’s empty office space into university, housing or research space. One thing world-class cities — he cited Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; London, England; Paris, France — have in common is “a university presence in the downtown,” he said.

That, he said, could bring foot traffic to downtown small businesses. “What do students like to do other than study? They like to spend their parents’ money.”

Safaí said he’s been on the phone with multiple university presidents who would “trip over themselves” to land a beachhead in San Francisco, and would “work really hard” to pass legislation facilitating their move.

Another proposal: making San Francisco a Hollywood backdrop. “We used to film commercials, programs and movies, and the place was San Francisco downtown and all the different neighborhoods,” said Safaí, who feels it would be a great advertisement for San Francisco, and attract more people to the area.

“I can recall San Francisco being destroyed in every movie,” Eskenazi said, as the entire audience burst out laughing. 

On solutions to the record numbers of overdose deaths, Safaí expressed support for clean and sober living homes, as well as overdose prevention sites. “If you really want to intervene and stop this crisis, you have to have the opportunity to have an overdose prevention center,” said Safaí. “Otherwise, you won’t stop these deaths, because it takes less than my pinkie for someone to overdose on fentanyl.”

But San Francisco’s overdose-prevention sites should be modeled after those in Harlem, where outreach workers, public health workers and the police department work in collaboration to get people into a safe place, he said. “It’s not like it’s some opium den, where everyone’s just lying around. That’s what happened in the Civic Center.”

Asked about his relationship with Siavash “Sia” Tahbazof, a San Francisco construction executive who pleaded guilty in November to federal bribery charges, Safaí replied that it was “absolutely shocking, and I had absolutely no idea.” Safaí bought and sold properties with Tahbazof and his associates. 

“I don’t know how I could do anything differently other than to say, ‘if I know what I know now, then I might make different decisions, for sure,’” he added. 

All in all, how would Safaí describe San Francisco to someone who has never been here?

It’s an embracing, diverse city with cutthroat politics and a staggering gap between rich and poor, he said. “It’s such a small city, but it really has the influence of a big city punching far above its weight.”

“It’s tough, it’s a tough city,” he concluded. “It’s certainly not for the weak.”

You can read the full transcript of the interview here.

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