Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, where we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Three candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which 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.
Mayor London Breed last week proposed a midnight curfew for some convenience stores in the Tenderloin, aimed at deterring drug dealing activity in the neighborhood. It’s the latest in the city’s series of efforts to stop unwanted behavior by fencing it off or shutting it down.
Preston’s office, with the support of his fellow supervisors and the mayor, already passed legislation this month restricting new smoke shops from opening in some areas of District 5, with similar goals in mind. Although residents purportedly called for the earlier shop closures that Breed is now proposing, storeowners are reportedly unhappy about the proposal.
This week, we asked the candidates what they think of this plan: How will it affect residents and businesses, and what effect do you expect it will have on drug dealing and users in the area?
Allen Jones
I’m voting for Mayor London Breed, even though I do not support the proposal to close some stores by midnight in the Tenderloin.
Frankly, I don’t believe this is her idea. Closing stores early sounds like another harebrained SFPD plan run amok. And if true, is SFPD willing to share some of its budget to help these same stores? The lack of creativity by City Hall on this issue is the problem, not, poor ol’ mom and pop, if you will.
Autumn Looijen
Why would we force convenience stores to close from midnight to 5 a.m. in the Tenderloin?
Because these stores supply drug users with late-night strips of tinfoil, torches, and crack pipes … the purchases often funded by late-night sales of stolen goods.
They’re supporting the drug markets that force beloved restaurants and other businesses to close.
Would you want this in your neighborhood?
Tenderloin residents want a one-year pilot curfew narrowly targeted to just these shops, as one part of a broad strategy to shut down the drug markets and make our streets safe.
Let’s run this experiment (and others), and track the results.
Bilal Mahmood
Implementing solutions with community input such as this one is crucial, however, this is a temporary crutch. Supporting our local small businesses requires long-term solutions to addressing the underlying issues — we need to end open-air drug markets to restore safety and vibrancy to the Tenderloin.
I recently proposed a drug-market Intervention plan, a community and evidence-based approach to end San Francisco’s open-air drug markets. It will ensure fully staffed police departments to arrest fentanyl dealers and incapacitate the market, provide off-ramps for local low-level offenders to deter the market, and increase beat patrols to prevent markets from emerging.
Endorsed by: State Senator Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany
Dean Preston
The legislation is overbroad and would unfairly punish small businesses. Tenderloin businesses are struggling, and deserve to be at the table for decisions impacting them. Unfortunately, the Mayor didn’t consult with our office or the immigrant-owned businesses that would be impacted.
We’ve been meeting with stakeholders to arrive at amendments that address problematic businesses without unfairly harming others. The last thing we need in the Tenderloin is more vacant storefronts.
The proposed curfew won’t reduce drug use/dealing. Comprehensive approaches, like the Four Pillars Strategy, are proven to combat addiction, save lives, and improve street conditions.
Endorsed by: Bernie Sanders, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers
Money raised and spent in the District 5 supervisor race
For
Money spent
Against
Dean Preston
$10,530
$301,458
$26,174
$156,791
Bilal Mahmood
$6,846
$63,387
Allen Jones
$0
Autumn Looijen
$0
$0
$100,000
$200,000
$300,000
$400,000
Money spent
For
Against
Dean Preston
$10,530
$301,458
$26,174
$156,791
Bilal Mahmood
$63,387
$6,846
Allen Jones
$0
Autumn Looijen
$0
$0
$100K
$200K
$300K
$400K
Source: San Francisco Ethics Commission, as of April 3, 2024. Chart by Junyao Yang.
The order of candidates is rotated each week. Answers are capped at 100 words, and 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 District 5 questions here, and the entire “Meet the Candidates” series here. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
Surely any credible mayor, supervisor, elected leader or candidate for public office knows that we have a national and a citywide fentanyl problem. Mayor Breed stupidly (did she do it on purpose?) announced her latest plan to close largely immigrant run mom and pop stores without collaborating with the most important stake holders (the shopkeepers and the current D5 Supervisor). Breed rules by headline hoping to make others look bad………her oldest tactic. If the ideologue candidates (looking at you Los Altos Looijen and you fake neuro Obama staffer who doesn’t really live in the TL but plays one on TV, candidate Mahmood) think anything effective will be accomplished by this performative experiment, you belong in a laboratory/think tank, not as an elected policy maker. Step#1: bring all stake holders (shop keepers, residents, district supervisor, mayor, SFFD and SFPD, HHS and Coalition on Homelessness) to the table and make a plan to try to solve this bedeviling problem. Declaring multiple states of emergency and arresting people is expensive and is glutting our jails and courts and endangering even more residents, city workers, cops and sheriffs.
Bilal, what does “lived adjacent” mean and why are you telling us this? The US is adjacent to Mexico and Canada, but also a ridiculous way to look at things. More locally, I have been D2 and D3 adjacent since 2001. Before redistricting I had been in D5 for nine years and “adjacent” to my old district, D6. After redistricting, I was still in D5. I’m not sure if I am still D6 adjacent anymore. Please help me understand how “adjacent” you have to be in order to be adjacent enough to justify calling yourself D5 adjacent.
Once again, you are trying to pretend your way into being some kind of “authentic” person. You are now a “renter in the Tenderloin” because GrowSF needed a proxy, I mean, candidate, to run against Supervisor Preston – you know, the guy that some of your funders want dead.
It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to figure out that you’re making things up as you go along. Except for saying Dean is bad, your campaign is entirely devoid of meaningful policy proposals that demonstrate concrete knowledge or include detailed specifics. You’re a pretender, but not a great one.