In our โMeet the Candidatesโ series, we are asking every supervisorial hopeful in the November 2024 election one question each week. Candidates are asked to answer questions on policy, ideology and more in 100 words or less.
Answers are being published individually each week, but we are also archiving the weekly series here.
In terms of political happenings this week in the district, District 9 candidate Trevor Chandler will be at Manny’s at 3092 16th St. for a community conversation and a town hall meeting on Thursday May 9 at 6 p.m.
If you know of other political events, let me know and I will add them to the post.
I will be at at Stable Cafe at 2128 Folsom St. on Thursday, May 9, at 11 a.m. to say hello and talk about the district, or you can email me at oscar.palma@missionlocal.com.
This week’s question: In my last meeting with community members, multiple people shared their frustration with the small number of garbage cans in the district. They say that after the city took away some 1,500 trash cans more than a decade ago, their neighborhoods look substantially more dirty. What do you propose to solve this issue?
h brown
- Job: Retired special education teacher
- Age: 80
- Residency: Tenant, at current address for nine years, redistricted into District 9 in April 2022
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s in education and Master’s in Special Education from Clemson University
- Languages:
Two suggestions:
First, copy Manny Yekutiel’s ‘Disco Sunday’ concept.
Which boils down to establishing a regular time and place for DPW or Recology to come pick up trash gathered by neighborhood volunteers, whose reward, other than the satisfaction of doing good and widening their circle of friends, includes a potpourri of gifts from grateful businesses.
Second, make one of the ‘Rewards’ a million dollar lottery ticket.
That’s first place.
Next 100 winners each get ten thousand dollars.
Work one hour picking up trash and get a fancy lottery ticket.
Stephen Torres
- Job: Bartender at Twin Peaks Tavern, customer service at Flowercraft Nursery and freelance writer
- Age: 46
- Residency: Tenant, lived in District 9 Summer 2001 to Fall 2003, and returned in the Summer 2010
- Transportation: Public
- Education: Moorpark Community College and San Francisco City College as work has permitted
- Languages: Spanish
Like many in the District, I have seen refuse and street conditions deteriorate in the wake of years of corruption and grift in DPW and Recology and a reductive โless is moreโ approach to street infrastructure like trash cans and benches. Instead of trying to endlessly reinvent the wheel (i.e. wasting millions more dollars on delayed bespoke trash cans), we need to reform DPW contracting to streamline trash-can production and installation, and hold Recology accountable to a contract that prioritizes increased service in our densest neighborhoods.
Endorsed by: Mark Leno, Former State Senator, Aaron Peskin, President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Hillary Ronen, Supervisor, District 9. More here.
Trevor Chandler
- Job: Public school teacher since 2023. Former director of government and public policy at Citizen, a public safety app.
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant, living in District 9 since July 2021
- Transportation: Public
- Education: Plymouth State University
- Languages:
I regularly volunteer to pick up trash across District 9, and our streets are filthy. The Chronicle recently found Mission and Bernal Heights to have the dirtiest sidewalks in the city.
We absolutely need more trash cans, but City Hall canโt even get that right, wasting more than $500,000 trying to design bespoke cans, including one famously installed backwards on Cortland costing $10,000 that regularly overflows.
DPW still lacks permanent leadership following the [Mohammed] Nuru scandal, and is failing D9 residents and small businesses. I’ll hold them accountable, cut out the graft, and ensure D9 residents get the services they pay for.
Endorsed by: Latino LGBTQ political organization HONOR PAC, State Senator Scott Wiener, Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, Brownie Mary Democratic Club, Supreme Court Marriage Equality Lead Plaintiff Jim Obergefell. More here.
Jackie Fielder
- Job: Nonprofit co-director at Stop the Money Pipeline. Former educator at San Francisco State University, co-founder of the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition. Democratic Socialist
- Age: 29
- Residency: Tenant, Lived in District 9 Sept. 2017 to June 2018, Oct. 2019 to Aug. 2020 and April 2021 to present
- Transportation: Public
- Education: Bachelor’s in public policy and master’s in sociology from Stanford University
- Languages: Spanish
Everyone is going to say “more trash cans,” which I agree with. But we also need to fix our HR department, fix our staffing crisis and weed out corruption. Well-connected private contractors are gouging the city for bathrooms, trash cans and street lights. Clean and safe streets are one part infrastructure and one part staffing. Job applicants shouldnโt have to wait a year or more to get hired for city jobs like street cleaning in public works. We need to invest in the workers that make this city run, and in stronger auditing protocols for contracts.
Endorsed by: Former State Representative Tom Ammiano, Former D9 Supervisor David Campos, Former Mayor Art Agnos, City College Trustee Vick Chung, D3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin. More here.
Jaime Gutierrez
- Job: Transit supervisor for SFMTA/Muni
- Age: 57
- Residency: Tenant, born in District 9 in 1967 and, except for three years spent in the Army, has resided here ever since
- Transportation: Bike
- Education: U.S. Army, City College of San Francisco, University of California, Berkeley
- Languages: Spanish
Having a trash can on nearly every corner in the district is a must, because San Francisco has more dogs than kids. Allegedly, there are 5,000 cans in the city. I donโt see them. DPW could make a concrete form, and crank them out pretty quickly and cheaply! Allegedly, the trash cans were taken away because the city approved a spoked aesthetically pleasing design. Budget constraints halted this. The budget is still tight, and we have a dirty city that has not addressed this issue adequately. The solution is fairly feasible, if only the bureaucracy would allow it to happen.
Endorsed by: Transportation Workers Union Local 200. More here.
Roberto Hernandez
- Job: CEO, Cultura y Arte Nativa de Las Americas (CANA).
- Age: 67
- Residency: Homeowner, born in the Mission in June 1956 and has not left
- Transportation:
- Education:
- Languages: Spanish
My policy on keeping the district clean can be summed up in five words: We need more trash cans!
Providing D9 residents with enough simple, cost-effective vessels with well-designed compartments to separate trash from recyclables is a clear priority. As supervisor, Iโll advocate at the citywide level for the Department of Public Works to designate each neighborhood with an individual manager responsible for keeping it clean. Iโll work with the school district to ensure that children are properly educated, and Iโll apply for arts grants to fund culturally specific murals on our garbage cans to instill a sense of neighborhood pride.โ
Endorsed by: State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, Supervisor Shamann Walton, State Senator Scott Wiener, BART Director Bevan Dufty. More Here
Michael Petrelis
- Job: AIDS and LGBTQ activist
- Age:
- Residency: Has lived on Clinton Park since May 1996, which became part of District 9 in April 2022
- Transportation:
- Education:
- Languages:
Petrelis said he wishes not to participate.
Endorsed by: Not seeking endorsements, and I see much of the Endorsement Industrial Complex as corrupt, rife with payola and favor-trading, and for gotcha responses.
Julian Bermudez
- Job: Works in and directs his family business, Rancho Grande Appliance
- Age: 27
- Residency: Born SF in 1996, raised on and off in District 9 until he left for college in 2015, then the army in 2019 and now back, living in the Mission
- Transportation: Carpool/catch a ride
- Education: City College of San Francisco, Chico State University.
- Languages: Spanish
If I am elected to the board of supervisors, one of my first proposals will be to add extra garbage cans. In contrast to earlier attempts, I want the garbage cans to be cost-effective, long-lasting and reliable. There is no reason to spend $10,000 on a single trash can. My garbage cans will be double-bin trash cans, with one side designated for landfills and the other for plastic and aluminum recycling. I want them at every Muni station, near parks and schools, and in commerce areas, restaurants, and bars. I feel that everyone wants a clean street, but the city. Read More.
District 9 contributions
Money raised and spent in the District 9 supervisor race
Money raised
Money spent
Jackie Fielder
$31,954
$112,742
Roberto Hernandez
$11,443
$100,577
Trevor Chandler
$72,682
$90,840
Stephen Torres
$13,848
$5,949
Julian Bermudez
$740
Michael Petrelis
$0
Jamie Gutierrez
$0
h Brown
$0
$0
$50,000
$100,000
$150,000
$200,000
Money raised
Money spent
Jackie Fielder
$31,954
$112,742
Roberto Hernandez
$11,443
$100,577
Trevor Chandler
$72,682
$90,840
Stephen Torres
$13,848
$5,949
Julian Bermudez
$740
Michael Petrelis
$0
Jamie Gutierrez
$0
h Brown
$0
$0
$50K
$100K
$150K
$200K
Source: San Francisco Ethics Commission, as of April 3, 2024. Chart by Junyao Yang.
Candidates are rotated alphabetically. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at oscar.palma@missionlocal.com
Read the rest of the District 9 questions here, and the entire โMeet the Candidatesโ series here.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
Roberto Hernandez supported and socialized with Jon Jacobo. He supports Latinos but not Latinas. We don’t need a misogynistic bully in city hall.
This is such a great point by Jackie Fielder: “Job applicants shouldnโt have to wait a year or more to get hired for city jobs like street cleaning in public works.” Staffing is a huge part of this. We need a fully staffed street cleaning division of DPW!
For what it’s worth, to the other candidate who said, “DPW still lacks permanent leadership following the Nuru scandal,” this is no longer the case. I’m guessing this is a reference to Carla Short having been interim director for two years. That was indeed eyebrow-raising, but Short was appointed permanently and confirmed by the Board of Supervisors back in November: https://www.sf.gov/news/mayor-london-breed-appoints-carla-short-director-san-francisco-public-works
Adding more trash cans seems like an obvious solution, but I would argue that might be a knee-jerk reaction to the problem of the Mission’s filthy streets. Two city owned trash receptacles in my mission neighborhood were unofficially recognized as dumping grounds. The fact that the receptacles were there and were city property, seemed to represent to many that it was okay to leave all manner of waste alongside them, from furniture to bags of residential trash. To further the problem, if someone at least had the courtesy to put their trash in a bag before illegally dumping it, the bags would be ripped open within minutes by scavengers, leaving the trash strewn along the sidewalk and street.
When the city receptacles were removed, the problem was remarkably improved and the area became noticeably cleaner. One might say the problem has only been moved to another location. Perhaps, but this is not my perception as a resident. That so many people need to dump their trash illegally may speak to issues of not having regular paid trash collection as required or just people just being irresponsible neighbors. I also thank the recent crews of street patrol trash collectors for helping improve the cleanliness of the neighborhood. Hats off to those folks!