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.
It was a typical Chinatown block party: Locals and tourists gathered around lion dance performances, played cornhole and put raffle tickets in a box. The weather on Sunday was warmer than usual: 75 degrees, with a pleasant breeze.
Ahsha Safaí arrived at the party, held between Clay and Sacramento streets on Grant Avenue in Chinatown, around noon to celebrate the 37th anniversary of APA Family Support Services, an organization offering families health services and domestic-violence prevention in Cantonese.
“There’s always something going on in Chinatown. You just gotta roll with the punches,” Safaí said.
Safaí gave a short speech celebrating the anniversary and then huddled with SFPD Assistant Chief David Lazar, asking him about installing security cameras in District 11. Some six businesses in the district have been broken into in two weeks.
The assistant chief then invited Safaí to the 145th year anniversary and banquet for the Gee Duck Sam Duck Association, one of several family associations formed in the 1920s to help newly arrived Chinese families.
“We are gonna pop our heads in. This is a detour,” Safaí said to his campaign staffers. But on the campaign trail, any spontaneous acts also need to bring in votes.
Some 30 tables were set up in the banquet hall on the third floor of the Imperial Palace, each with white cut chicken with ginger sauce and beef chow fun sitting on a lazy Susan. Attendees dressed in suits and dresses and wore elegant hats and pearl eyeglass chains, some with flowers pinned on the left side of their chest.
In a white shirt and clean shaven, Safaí worked the room, greeting each table with two Cantonese-speaking staffers, asking if they were from San Francisco; some had flown in from New York or Los Angeles for the event.
When the answer was yes, Safaí told them he is running for mayor and handed out his campaign flyers. Then he launched into the spiel about his background: He has worked for two mayors, studied city planning at MIT and sat on the Board of Supervisors for 8 years. “I’m ready for the job, day one,” he told the crowd.
Most attendees in the banquet hall were older and gave some encouraging nods after hearing of his run for mayor. Some reached out for a flier and complimented its contents, a portrait of Safaí’s wife and two kids.
“You have my vote already,” someone shouted at Safaí across the table. Safaí thanked him. But it turned out he lives in LA. “I just want him to feel good,” the southern Californian said.
But there was frustration, too. One visitor, who asked that his name be withheld, asked Safaí if he or his team had been near 7th and Market streets, where he bought an apartment unit in 2018. “It is unbelievable,” he said of the drug use and crime at night near the intersection.
He wasn’t satisfied when Safaí said he wanted more police foot and bike patrols — a pitch of every major mayoral candidate. “But walking the beat during daytime doesn’t really reflect what’s going on at nighttime,” he refuted.
“Government has unlimited time. I don’t,” added the resident. “If nothing changes, I’m moving back to Boston.”
Safaí, at last, promised he would meet the voter at his apartment at night, with the police captain.
Then Safaí was off to Sunday Streets in the Mission.
There, he introduced himself to visitors walking (or biking) down Valencia Street, asking dozens of times, “Can I give you one of these?” while handing out a flier, and looking undefeated when they said no or ignored him; an experienced salesman.
“Check me out,” he said to those speeding by.
And Safaí needs that salesman’s spirit. Only 5 percent voters have ranked Safaí as their first choice, and 10 percent as second choice, according to the latest San Francisco Chronicle poll.
“I think there is a lot of fluidity,” Safaí said. “Once the voters in San Francisco start to dive in … When they hear my story and then they see what I’ve done, it changes the dynamic.”
If I thought Safai had a chance I would throw my support to him.