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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. Four 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.
Our candidates come from varied backgrounds, and their time living in the district ranges from one to nearly 30 years.
This week, we asked candidates: What are three things you have done to help District 5 and its residents?
Note: I will be at Philz Coffee (399 Golden Gate Ave.) at 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 15. Come say hi and share your thoughts about the election or District 5.
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
1. Tenderloin Community Cleanup with refuserefusesf.org. On July 13, 2024, I went out to pick up trash throughout the Tenderloin with about 50 San Franciscans happy to help the TL.
2. I submitted my idea to SFPD Tenderloin station to clear the sidewalks of drug dealing. I invite people to follow up with SFPD on my concept: Heat Wagons. I promise, itโs humane.
3. Followed up on the need for public electric wheelchair-charging stations, starting at UN Plaza. And if our current Rec and Parks director continues to drag his feet on this, we need a new director.
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 degree from California Institute of Technology
- Languages: English
I have a track record of focused, effective leadership that delivers results.
I led the campaign to recall the school board from our apartment in Lower Haight. We gathered our first signatures here. We voted, every District 5 neighborhood voted YES, and we got better leaders.
I led the campaign to bring algebra back. We voted, every District 5 neighborhood voted YES, and now hundreds of 8th graders will be in algebra class this fall.
Iโm the only challenger candidate attending the meetings about the Fillmore Safeway. Itโs closing shortly after the new Supervisor is sworn in, and Iโm prepared to help.
Endorsed by: San Francisco police union, Marina Times.
Bilal Mahmood
- Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, master’s degree from University of Cambridge
- Languages: English, Urdu
Iโve collaborated with community groups to uplift marginalized communities across District 5.
On small business, I have served on the board of the TLCBD to help launch advocacy campaigns in support of immigrant-owned restaurants.
On womenโs rights, I partnered with the Asian Womenโs Shelter to launch the Letโs Talk About Us campaign, raising awareness for domestic violence in the AAPI community via literature still distributed throughout schools and senior centers from the Tenderloin to Japantown.
And on food insecurity, I have volunteered at St. Anthonyโs, Glide and Project Open Hand to serve food to our unhoused and vulnerable families.
Endorsed by: Mayor London Breed, TogetherSF Action, San Francisco YIMBY, State Sen. Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany … read more.
Dean Preston
- Job: Incumbent, tenant attorney
- Age: 54
- Residency: Homeowner, in District 5 since 1996
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, juris doctor degree from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English
Saved thousands of renters from evictions and rent hikes. Specifically, led efforts to defeat landlord state ballot measure to abolish rent control, and stopped 20,000 evictions in SF during the pandemic through our unprecedented rent relief program, pandemic eviction bans, and our tenant right to counsel.
Reduced unsheltered homelessness in District 5 through our work to fill vacant supportive housing units and acquire hotels.
Improved community safety in D5 by bringing community ambassadors to every neighborhood, pushing for departmental coordination of the cityโs response to car break-ins (dropped 50 percent), and pressing for equitable deployment of public safety resources/investments.
Endorsed by: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Public Defender Mano Raju, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers … read more.
Scotty Jacobs
- Job: Marketing
- Age: 30
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2022, homeowner
- Transportation: Public bicycle
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Washington University
- Languages: English
The biggest thing Iโve done in service of District 5 is leaving my career in the private sector to run for supervisor.
Since entering Iโve immersed myself across the district. Iโve picked up trash with Refuse Refuse, engaged with grassroots community leaders and organizations from all ends of the District, and continue meeting with police and firemen to understand the unique challenges they face in serving our District.
Iโve engaged with homeless and addiction advocates to understand how best to serve those groups as supervisor in the hopes of improving outcomes, cleaning up our streets, and saving lives.
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 all of the District 5 candidates' answers 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.
Scotty: The best thing I’ve done for District 5 is quit my job. I have that luxury. Besdies quitting my job, I have done nothing for people who live in the district. It’s already a huge amount of work for me to offer myself up to the district. You guys need to thank me – in fact, honor me for my noble sacrifice and doing nothing besides quitting my job.
โฆโฆmapping โparty zonesโ and potential sites for Burning Man and laser shows across D5 and the city are another focus of Scottyโs. D5ers cringe as the clueless carpetbagger candidate Instagrams while telling Sanctuary City San Franciscans (created in response to Trumpโs Muslim ban and his racist and terrifying targeting of black and brown people) to call ICE on drug dealers. ICE? Odd too that Scotty thinks he fell on his sword in order to save the people of D5. Go back to the private sector my dude where noone but you โcan run multi million dollar brands without experience.โ
To the Tech, real estate and venture capitalist billionaire jerk wads who are funding these 3 clueless carpetbagger candidates: you forgot that of all the eleven citywide districts, D5 (even after the hideously unjust gerrymandering/โredistrictingโ by Breedโs installed Task Farce) IS THE MOST LEFTIST VOTING DISTRICT IN SF. Maybe that is why they are targeting us so hard with the carpet bagger idealogues. Candidates Mahmood, Looijen and Scotty โparty zoneโ Jacobs belong in Pac Heights, the Marina or the newly manufactured โCut.โ
Heโs lived in the district for an entire year and a half, give him a break.
Bilal: I oppose affordable housing on Parcel K because no one should live in Hayes Valley if they can’t afford to spend $15 on a salad and buy other overpriced food and trinkets. I don’t care that “people like that” can’t afford to live here even though they have to work here. I’m a super “green” type guy and I believe it’s “green” to have poor people live elsewhere and drive into Tech Bro Valley to barista up a coffee or scoop an ice cream or clean up the dog shit in Patricia’s Green (which, by the way is not a green space or a town square – that’s why we need a parking lot right across the closed street from it).
Sure, I can say I do a lot to help immigrants and the most vulnerable people in District 5, but it isn’t true. It’s all smoke and mirrors with me.
Autumn: I carpet bagged into the city (and district) to start working as a Recall Founder. It’s still the only job I have. But what I want to say about that is I was so clueless about SFUSD and where students lived, that I was cool with the idea of starting this new “job” that I didn’t even know or care that when SFUSD first established food distribution sites early in the pandemic, there was no site in the Tenderloin or SoMa. I mean, anyone could look at the map of the city with dots showing pick up sites and see that there was a huge part of the city that had nothing. But you wouldn’t necessarily do anything about it if you are clueless, mean and self-serving. Think of those children – because I sure as hell didn’t.
Not Autumn: A lot of actual people did look at the map and see an enormous food desert. One of those people was Alison Collins. She pushed to get additional sites. None of the district hacks could look at the map and see the huge mistake.
Autumnโs endorsements are both totally terrible. โEndorsed by: San Francisco police union, Marina Times.โ LOL
โBoink Bilalโ says it all.
โBARF BILALโ equally resonant.
โDump Deanโ says it all