Over 60 people crammed into BookShop West Portal on Thursday night for the first forum of this year’s District 7 supervisor race, where two candidates are running against the incumbent supervisor, Myrna Melgar.
The debate, moderated by Mission Local reporter Kelly Waldron, was the first of six district debates and two mayoral forums that will be hosted or co-hosted by Mission Local this summer and into the fall.
The sharpest differences on Thursday came when Waldron asked each candidate to name a bold or even unpopular decision they would make as supervisor towards the end of the forum.
Stephen Martin-Pinto, a 46-year-old firefighter, would abolish ranked-choice voting. Melgar, the 56-year-old incumbent, would, “turn the Great Highway into a full-time park, just like Barcelona has” — a proposal she has co-sponsored and that will be on the November ballot — and Matt Boschetto, a 35-year-old small business owner, said he would stop the plans to restrict traffic around the West Portal Muni station. Those plans, which were proposed after a driver crashed and killed a family of four at the intersection near the station, will be presented to the Municipal Transportation Authority board next month.
Melgar, elected in November 2020, showed up in a scarlet blazer, ready to defend and run on her record, as her husband and daughter, a sophomore at Lowell High School, watched from the audience. Martin-Pinto and Boschetto seemed to ally on many answers.
“What I bring to the table for the people of District 7 is deep skills and experience,” said Melgar, who throughout the night pointed to her record on issues such as housing and transportation.
Melgar also wielded her experience and knowledge. After Boschetto proposed an AI chatbot to give citizens finance data about City Hall as a way to fight corruption, Melgar, who sits on the Budget and Finance Committee, shot back. “The budgets of the City and County of San Francisco are online,” she said, matter of factly. “I can send you the link. I’ll text it to you. It is public information.”
Boschetto underscored his identity as a small business owner, comparing at one point the tri-monthly review of his business’s budget to adjustments supervisors make to the city budget. His approach would be personal, he said. “I want to answer your emails, me, myself,” he said.
Martin-Pinto leaned heavily on his roots in the district, spending some of his time listing District 7 street names and Muni routes. “As careers go, firefighting is my wife, but politics is my lover,” he said, in one of the debate’s top moments of levity; Melgar guffawed at the joke, as the audience laughed.
Martin-Pinto and Boschetto kicked off their answers with their families’ long history in San Francisco: Boschetto is a fourth-generation San Franciscan, while Martin-Pinto can claim five. Melgar came to San Francisco as a child during the civil war in El Salvador.
Oftentimes Martin-Pinto and Boschetto had surprisingly identical answers.
Martin-Pinto said he supports making Brotherhood Way friendlier for bikers and pedestrians. Boschetto followed by saying, “Yes, I agree with the other candidates here” before elaborating that he’s all for more dedicated bike lanes throughout the city. Melgar pointed out that turning Brotherhood Way into a protected multi-use path is already in the plan.
When Waldron asked if the candidates agree to increase the height limits along commercial corridors like West Portal Avenue, 19th Avenue and Ocean Avenues to eight stories, Martin-Pinto said, “I think about four to six stories is adequate.” Boschetto followed with “Yes, to what Stephen said.”
Melgar said yes to the eight stories. She also advocated for all kinds of housing, everything from affordable to market-rate housing. The west side has been “underbuilt for decades,” she said. “I stand on the side of building housing. I think we need it for today and, most importantly, we need it for the next generation.”
In one round, Waldron had a specific question for each candidate, asking about Boschetto’s failure to vote in previous elections, which came up several times during the discussion; Martin-Pinto’s registration with the Republican Party and whether he supported Trump; and Melgar’s remarks that some in Neighborhoods United, a coalition stridently against upzoning, are “not my people.”
Boschetto tried to explain his lapse in voting. “I have a small business, I got kids, I like to vote in person. And on the days, I just wasn’t prioritizing it. That’s a huge, huge mistake. I’m massively accountable for it now,” he said.
When Mission Local asked him about his failure to vote earlier this month in an article about candidates who had failed to vote, he gave a different answer: “I felt like I had no say … It would make little difference voting.”
Martin-Pinto, who also served time in Iraq and Afghanistan as a marine, said that he was a registered Republican until 2023 because national security as well as foreign and border policy are very important to him. He said he had reversed many, many overdoses as a firefighter — some successfully, others not — and that when people lay dying, he would speak to drug dealers nearby. “A lot of them are here from Honduras, illegally … This is all downstream from poor border policy,” he said. “I supported the candidate, in 2020, who I felt had stronger border control policy.”
He is not supporting Trump or Biden this year, he said, seeking a third choice. He is not registered with any party.
Melgar avoided talking directly about Neighborhoods United and simply said, “I’m also proud that I listen and that I make alliances with people who perhaps don’t agree with me.”
Towards the end of the debate, she did just that. When asked who each would rank second in the District 7 race, after themselves, Melgar chose Martin-Pinto. “Steven and I are just about opposite politically in every way,” she said. “But I know Steven. I’ve seen him as a leader for a long time.”
The two challengers, who ranked each other second, also agreed with one another on police policies.
Martin-Pinto supported the recall of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and said the police commission “ties the hands of the police.”
Although citywide crime data is lower compared to last year, Boschetto said, “it’s still a lot worse than it’s been in my whole life here in San Francisco.” Data shows that 2020 also had a much higher crime rate than now.
Boschetto referred to the defund the police movement of 2020 that followed the murder of George Floyd. It’s problematic that the city still has a lot of elected officials who supported “disbanding or defunding the police” in office, he said.
Both Boschetto and Martin-Pinto advocated for streamlining the police work. Melgar said she wanted to hire more women officers and more Chinese- and Spanish-speaking officers at the Taraval Police Station.
District 7’s Asian community accounts for 35 percent of the population, compared to 38 percent citywide and its Latino population is at 11 percent, compared to 16 percent citywide.
On February 26,2024 at the Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting Melgar proposed giving forgivable loans to families that make $200,000 or less.She had no answer where the money was coming from or the qualifications for the loan or forgiveness. Could someone’s friends need jobs with no outcome?She also is in favor of the Irish Cultural Center. rebuild.At a different meeting she strongly voiced how her family and she used and lived it.That is a conflict of interest and she should have not been allowed to vote on it.This newly named chrome and glass building ,4 blocks to the beach ,built on sand is newly called The Cultural Center on 45/ Wawoma. The chances of getting insurance to be this is microscopic.
We understand there is a fourth candidate, Dr. Edward Yee. He is included in this interview in Westside Observer. https://westsideobserver.com/24/6-candidates-for-d7-on-mayors-upzoning-position.php