Mission Local is publishing a daily campaign dispatch for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: Ahsha Safaí. Read earlier dispatches here.
After a late Monday night at the second mayoral debate, mayoral candidate Ahsha Safaí started his morning at 11 a.m. at the Pineapple King Bakery in the Inner Sunset. After two hours of “sitting awkwardly” on chairs last night, Safaí got some steps in, also for about two hours, during a merchant walk in the Sunset.
The air was filled with the lovely aroma of Hong Kong-style buns, egg tarts and strong milk tea. It had been months since the mayoral hopeful’s last merchant walk in the area and, along the Irving Street business corridor, there was no sight of Safaí’s campaign signs.
That soon changed after the merchant walk from 19th to 23rd avenues. Safaí was accompanied by Richard Wan, a Chinese Chamber of Commerce member who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, and seemed to know just about everyone.
With Wan’s presence, business owners were quick to agree to Safaí’s request to put his signs in the window, sometimes right next to ones from his opponent Aaron Peskin.
It was a busy year for Wan, he said. Other mayoral candidates, such as Peskin and London Breed, have also asked him to be their guide in neighborhoods with significant Chinese populations.
“I’m a little numb to the politicians,” Wan said in Mandarin. “We used to have parties and invited [Breed] to come, and she wouldn’t come. Now, she flies over without even being invited.”
Wan was straightforward about his weariness towards “politicians,” even though Safaí’s campaign manager, Lauren Chung, was standing next to him. “There were lies, and they can’t achieve things. To be honest with you, after some time passed, everyone is pretty much the same.”
It is no secret that mayoral candidates are doing a fair bit of pandering to Chinese-American voters this election year. The Asian vote, estimated at 25 percent, is important and up for grabs.
At almost any big campaign event, Chinese grannies can be spotted in groups with their wide-brim sun hats, even though most events don’t have a Chinese interpreter and the grannies sometimes seem lost as to what is being discussed. All of the major candidates are posing for photo-ops at historic Chinese-American buildings, shaking hands at Chinese banquets or, like Safaí, walking business corridors in Chinatown and Westside neighborhoods.
On Tuesday, as weary as he might be, Wan was still helping Safaí, whom he called a good friend, and introducing him to restaurant owners and salon artists on Irving Street, helping him get the exposure he desperately needs.
The candidate showed off a few Cantonese greetings he had practiced with neighbors who speak limited English, and seemed amused by one particular sign: A “Salon De Hong Kong” logo on the windows of the hair salon, a Spanish syntax that must have reminded him of neighborhoods where he could fluently converse with voters directly in Spanish.
Indeed, the Inner Sunset is not Safaí’s home base, and he needed some help from Wan with introductions, just like all of his opponents in the mayoral race. But when asked about it, he said, “This reminds me more of the Excelsior, because a lot of the businesses are Chinese-owned.”
At Pho Huynh Hiep, a Vietnamese restaurant, a patron recognized Safaí for being on TV for the mayoral debate last night. As he enjoyed a bowl of pho at lunch with his wife, the patron, Joseph, looked concerned about the candidate’s prospects and started giving campaign advice, asking Safaí to see what San Franciscans really need right now.
What Safaí talked about — improving public safety by having police officers on foot patrols — appeared less interesting to Joseph. He may have heard it enough. What matters, Joseph said, is not policy, per se: “You have to get the vote!”
While Breed has touted her achievement of bringing a pair of pandas to the San Francisco Zoo, Joseph was skeptical. “If San Francisco has a strong economy, pandas are great, of course,” he said in Mandarin. “But now, where will the money come from?”
During the two-hour-long merchant walk, only a few business owners talked with Safaí for more than the typical meet-and-greet.
One of them was Teresa Tseng, co-owner of Noori Pakistani & Indian Cuisine, who asked Safaí about his biggest concern. He again made his pitch regarding foot patrols, but Tseng was not impressed. It won’t solve the root of the problem, she said.
Safaí swiftly added his record of funding youth intervention and after-school programs. When Tseng suggested he should have conversations with the kids directly, Safaí agreed and reminded her that he also has a 14-year-old daughter, who “has the most insightful understanding” about his campaign.
After Safaí left, Tseng said she was still undecided on the mayor’s race, but gave her interaction with Safaí an 80 out of 100 rating.
I like Safai. He is the only mayoral candidate talking about the middle class. The rich don’t need help, they demand it. For the poor there are many programs designed to move people forward if they take advantage of them. By the middle pays full price for everything, including their taxes.