Mission Local is publishing campaign dispatches 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.
In San Francisco, night markets tend to start when the sun is still up. Friday’s Sunset Night Market was no exception.
Spanning seven blocks on Irving Street from 19th to 26th Avenue, the night market returned for the second year, and has doubled in size. Around 6 p.m., streets were already packed with people eager to line up for various food trucks and sit with friends around tables covered in green plaid tablecloths.
At the 21st Avenue stage, belly dancers mingled with the audience: “We want to teach you some movements so we can all dance together!” But the crowd seemed a bit shy, with a few kids dancing in excitement and adults just slightly moving their hips.
After circling around the neighborhood to find parking for quite some time, Ahsha Safaí arrived at the night market around 7:15 p.m., joined by Jackie, a campaign volunteer who lives nearby.
“What have you done?” asked a curious woman, after learning that Safaí represents the Excelsior, Outer Mission and Ingleside.
In fact, it has been a rough day for Safaí’s district and the supervisor: Early that morning, Youth 1st, a non-profit organization in the Lakeview neighborhood, was defaced with racist, anti-Black graffiti targeted toward its executive director, Renard Monroe. Just before Safaí arrived, he had been told a 10-year-old girl was shot in the back of her ear when a group of kids were playing with an unlocked gun in a house.
“It’s one of the things about being a district supervisor that you can’t really prepare for,” Safaí said later.
But at the moment, Safaí didn’t bring any of this up. “We brought over $1 billion worth of investment. We built almost 600 units of housing. We repaved all the streets. We put in over 3,000 trees,” he said.
The night market was not strictly non-political. It was the brainchild of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who set up a booth in the center of the festivities. Engardio himself was seen standing on top of a bench, taking photos, or speaking with a voter holding a “No on K” sign, opposing Engardio’s ballot measure to close the Upper Great Highway to cars.
On the streets, volunteers for mayoral candidate Mark Farrell held up signs. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, in a pink suit, took photos with residents. Another mayoral contender, Aaron Peskin, strolled down the street, while his staffer carried a tote bag with window signs peeking out of it.
Safaí was asked to limit campaigning to the sidewalk, not in the middle of the street. But, unlike smaller block parties, the volume of people made it almost impossible for anyone to stop — or be stopped, for that matter — when someone handed over a campaign flier.
When one of Farrell’s campaign volunteers greeted Safaí and asked how the night was going, Safaí was honest. “It’s tough, I mean, people want to go get food and hang out with their friends,” he said.
Volunteers of this competing campaign did not hesitate to share their secrets. “We find that just walking past them and putting it right in front of them, makes it really hard to say no,” one said. “Slightly obstructed,” one added. “Just guilting them into it,” another said. Then, the two campaigns wished each other luck and parted ways.
Between bursts of handing out fliers, this reporter noticed Safaí had gone quiet. It turned out he was staring at the “Hot Patties!” neon sign at one of the food booths.
“I love Jamaican Patties,” he murmured. But he soon talked himself out of it, “Look how long the line is!” He was trying to campaign, after all. Just few minutes later: “I’m still stuck on the Jamaican patties,” he said, telling this reporter about growing up on the East Coast and loving the filled pastries.
On the way back, without a word, Safaí stepped in line to get some. “I feel like the patty line’s gonna go fast,” he defended himself, like a dad would. The owners at the patty stand recognized the supervisor and wished him luck running for mayor.
At the night market where almost no one stopped for a flier, there might be nothing more one could ask for than an everyday San Franciscan familiar with your mayoral bid. Plus a hot beef Jamaican patty.
Crowds? Long lines? What happened to the almighty Doom Loop?
Thank you, Joel Engardio for making this happen!
There hasn’t been a supervisor who done as much for their district since Harvey Milk started the Castro Street Fair.
I really like Ahsha – he’s growing on me. He seems very personable and the folks in his district always have good things to say. Thank you for this series! It’s a great way to get to know the candidates.
Sunset night market, and you only write about Excelsior supervisor?
Sir or madam —
The premise of the “See how they run” series is to follow the candidates running for office. As Supervisor Safai visited the Sunset Night Market, that’s where the story took us. If he’d gone to play pinball at Free Gold Watch or buy black bread at the Europa market, that’s what we’d have followed him to.
Next week it’ll be another candidate doing other things. You get the picture.
Yours,
JE