Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which 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.
San Francisco isn’t home to the same numbers of children as other major U.S. cities, but that doesn’t mean they’re not here. The Tenderloin has the highest density of children in the city, according to the 2022 census, and thousands of children also live in other District 5 neighborhoods.
So, we asked the candidates: How do you plan to support children and families in the district, particularly in the Tenderloin?
Most of the candidates talked about public safety and moving open-air drug use off our streets; Preston suggested wellness hubs as a solution. Read the full responses below.
Note: I will be at Mercury Cafe, 201 Octavia St, on Tuesday, June 4 at 5 p.m. Come say hi and share your thoughts about District 5.
Dean Preston
- Job: Incumbent, tenant attorney
- Age: 54
- Residency: Homeowner, in District 5 since 1996
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s from Bowdoin College, juris doctor from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English
Has children who attend public school in San Francisco
As a public school parent and a legislator representing families, I consistently fight for families and children. Families deserve affordable housing, great public schools, economic security, open space for recreation, and safety in their communities.
Iโve led efforts that protected thousands of families from eviction, rent hikes, and unhealthy living conditions.
I created a shelter for homeless families, won Free Muni for Youth, co-sponsored the School Success Charter Amendment, and brought community ambassadors to every part of District 5.
Iโll continue to push for wellness hubs to move drug use off our streets and connect people to the help they need.
Endorsed by: Bernie Sanders, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Allen Jones
- Job: Activist
- Age: 67
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2021
- Transportation: Wheelchair
- Education: Teaching Bible studies at juvenile hall
- Languages: English
I learned from my majestic late father, who raised his 10 children as a single parent. Love and patience were his teachers. However, as someone who has never had the privilege of raising children, I also learned to listen. These three traits were mandatory for the ten years (1983 to 1993) of volunteering at San Franciscoโs juvenile hall.
My candidate qualification statement, which will appear in the Nov. 5, 2024, voter information pamphlet, offers what I propose for all our school-aged children. Coincidentally, the eyes of the mostly immigrant families of the Tenderloin sum it up: Inspiring.
Autumn Looijen
- Job: School board recall co-founder
- Age: 46
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since December 2020, landowner
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s from California Institute of Technology
- Languages: English
Has children who attend public school in Los Altos, CA and San Francisco
Tenderloin familiesโ No. 1 priority is safe streets. They don’t want their kids to think it’s normal to see open drug use on the streets, and they want to feel comfortable sending their kids to the corner store. I will fight hard for them. Iโve done it before.
We also need to make sure our schools are effective. Are our kids reading? Ready for middle-school algebra? Prepared for college or career? With the district facing budget issues, we must not lose focus on giving kids an excellent education so they can thrive as adults. We must get the foundation right.
Endorsed by: San Francisco police union.
Bilal Mahmood
- Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s from Stanford University, master’s from University of Cambridge
- Languages: English, Urdu
The Tenderloin is home to nearly 3,500 children โ all of whom deserve a safe and vibrant neighborhood via safe streets, public spaces, and neighborhood activation.
We must expand support from Rec and Parks, which has been lacking across the Tenderloin park network, from Boeddekker to Turk-Hyde. We must work with community partners to hold regular fairs and carnivals celebrating our diverse immigrant heritage.
And we must end the open-air drug market that has resulted in countless overdoses and mass shootings, as no child should have to walk through a neighborhood at risk of open drug use and stray bullets.
Endorsed by: San Francisco YIMBY, State Senator Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany.
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.
Iโm tired of hypey speeches and candidates who have zero cred because they have zero policy making experience. THE primary function of a democratically elected district supervisor is to balance the diverse needs of their constituents. The fake neuroscientist and self made โphilanthropistโ doesnโt have kids but campaigns by posing for photo ops @ Tenderloin schools with kids. And Los Altos Looijenโs 3 kids attend private schools in the South Bay. Will she protect kids by recalls and by gutting our struggling public school system? Prestonโs kids attend SF public schools and have since tinyhood. Over the years Iโve seen him walking them to school in the mornings. His record shows he consistently stands with public schools, kids, families and teachers. Mahmood and Loony Looijen are full of slogansโฆโฆnot policiesโฆโฆnot ideas or plans. Ignore that at your peril .
Bilal, is your “concern” for Tenderloin kids the reason you have made two perfunctory visits to Tenderloin Community School in the past five weeks? Is that same “dedication” the reason you brought first two and then three paid campaign staff with you? Did you think it was a good idea to use those two minimal efforts to serve the kids you’re pretending to care about for political theater? Why did your campaign staff document your “volunteering” by using a cell phone to photograph and, so it has been reported by the teacher whose class you read to on April 25 (and briefly entered on May 30, without saying hello), make a video recording in the classroom? If in fact a video was made, your campaign staff committed a misdemeanor (California Education Code). The photo you posted was accompanied by text that made it abundantly clear you were there to campaign: “Thank you to the wonderful teachers and staff at TCS for inviting Team Bilal.”
Why did you tell Autumn Looijen to contact the school and ask to be invited? In an email, she specifically mentioned that she wanted to come meet “everyone” because she is also running for D5 supervisor. Why did you refer to Looijen as a “colleague” rather than a political opponent? (No need to answer that one – we all know it’s because both of you are faking it.)
There is no excuse for attempting to win votes by pretending to care about public school kids, Bilal. That was Autumn’s gimmick when she “founded” the school board recall. So far you have not demonstrated an interest in serving kids. An actual volunteer would not bring paid campaign staff to an elementary school and then use official campaign social media and email accounts to brag about that heroic deed.
Bilal, since you are so in favor of creating vibrant outdoor spaces for TL kids, will you publicly disavow any support from Kanishka Cheng and TogetherSF since Cheng is opposed to the Golden Gate Greenway? Talking points are pretty nifty, especially when your “kids in the Tenderloin” rhetoric is lifted directly from long-standing community efforts. Your arrival in the TL and assumption to the TLCBD Board of Directors shortly thereafter is just part of GrowSF’s well-oiled machine to “dump Dean.” They needed someone in D5, so – voila! – you became a renter at a gentrification project building after living โadjacent to D5โ for two years. I haven’t figured out yet if you share Garry Tan’s death wish for Supervisor Preston and six other members of the Board of Supervisors, but I assume you do.
Side note: Bilal, you are all-in with the rightwing plans (supported by mountains of cash) takeover of SF that includes eliminating commissions. Are you really actively opposed to the Youth Commission (they help kids – in the whole city, including the TL), the Human Rights Commission, and the Immigrant Rights Commission, among many others? If you are, that’s just so weird given how you describe yourself above. If you’re not, then why are you supporting precisely that charter reform?
Your campaign is just some kind of Neuroscientology nightmare youโre trying to inflict on San Francisco. Your cult (GrowTogtherAbundantSF) has gobs of Republican cash so you can try to buy the โtruthโ but no matter how much they spend on you, what youโre saying is just made up.
Thank you Scott for this detailed recount of candidate Mahmood and candidate Looijenโs campaigning. The Ethics Commissionโs funding and staff (that Mayor Breed tried to gut by +40 percent last budget cycle) clearly has its hands full investigating Mahmoodโs campaign activities. Itโs along list: comingling and improper use of funds by his two separate campaigns, improper ride alongs with SFFD, lying on his resume and in his campaign ads and lit, and now using school kids for photo ops and filming them for campaign use.
Dean Preston’s proposed drug use sites should be near his Alamo Square home.