The story was first published on Sep. 30, 2024.
The 2022 redistricting brought more conservative voters into District 1 by adding the wealthy Sea Cliff enclave and on Monday night, incumbent Supervisor Connie Chan found herself facing three challengers who might do well with those new voters.
When asked about their views on the city’s recent “very aggressive” sweeps on homeless encampments, for instance, Chan, who has been endorsed by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was the only candidate who expressed disapproval.
“We cannot arrest homelessness away,” she said. Instead, police officers should focus on violent crimes and “what we can do is continue to deploy our crisis team out there to assist people.”
Marjan Philhour, a former advisor and fundraiser to Mayor London Breed who lost to Chan by only 125 votes in 2020, said “That court injunction made it so that our officers … they couldn’t move individuals who are experiencing homelessness off the streets into services.”
That was not the case. A preliminary injunction imposed on Dec. 23, 2022, limited San Francisco’s ability to arrest homeless people to clear encampments off the street. However, police were still free to break up encampments on numerous grounds under the injunction.
Sherman D’Silva, a Geary Boulevard laundromat owner, agreed with Philhour saying that moving the encampments, “allows us the ability to help the people.”
Added Jen Nossokoff, vice president of a healthcare company, “We have to be able to say, not everything is okay to do everywhere, always.”
The forum was one of the series of supervisorial race forums hosted by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco and was moderated by Michelle Moritz, a board member of the group. The fifth candidate, Jeremiah Boehner, was absent.
Chan, who has almost two decades in city government, including time as a former aide to presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and chair of Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee, said the ballooning $1 billion budget deficit the city faces was part of her reason to run for reelection. She wants to “make sure our city government works for everyone.”
In response to an overall sentiment that “there is little to no police presence in the district,” Chan laid out a long list of initiatives to illustrate her support for the police department. It included a $153 million budget increase for the San Francisco Police Department since 2020, an annual department budget of over $800 million; a new contract to increase salary for officers by 10 percent for the next three fiscal years; a retention bonus for fifth, seventh, and eighth years on the force; and an $600,000 investment for police officer recruitment specialists.
But “we can do better in this neighborhood,” said Philhour. “We have seen crime affect not just small businesses, but our local neighbors.”
Philhour, who’s been endorsed by moderate tech groups including GrowSF and TogetherSF Action, followed the groups’ platform, proposing to reform the city’s commission system of “130 boards and commissions of unelected individuals overseeing some multi-million dollar departments,” and look into “city funded nonprofits that actually work on political campaigns, when they should be doing nonprofit work.”
She emphasized the importance of allowing police to use technology. Philhour is also a staunch supporter of the city’s proposed RV ban, because RVs are not “an acceptable form of housing for families or people who are trying to make a life” and they have “unacceptable” issues around homelessness, mental health, and human trafficking.
D’Silva echoed Philhour’s point by saying that “the condition of the neighborhood has gone downhill over the last couple of years” and “as a taxpayer, I don’t feel that we get what we are paying for.” He wants to bring the district back to what it used to be, making sure the streets are clean, traffic lights are installed, and there are police officers on the streets. According to crime data from SFPD Richmond Station, most crime types in the Richmond have dropped to levels lower than pre-pandemic numbers after seeing increases during the pandemic.
To encourage more people to take public transport, D’Silva pitched a shuttle service to help people carry grocery store bags to bus stops. He feels that the elected officials “have made the city so complicated that nobody knows who’s responsible for what and how things get done.” He’s also a strong supporter of the RV ban because “People are parking their RVs on the street and they’re not paying any taxes … This is unfair to people who rent.”
Nossokoff was the only candidate on stage who supported Prop. K, a controversial November ballot measure that would close the Upper Great Highway to private vehicles to create a public park. Because the road “is going to become redundant” and “I believe that our beaches should be places we go to, not something we drive through,” said Nossokoff.
Nossokoff plans to actively seek out ways to bring a subway to the Richmond District. “If we can get from the Richmond to downtown in 10, 15 minutes, that takes so many cars off the road,” she said. She also proposed to have “a harsh financial penalty” for when people who can afford market-rate housing rent rent-controlled get caught. “If you are found to be using Section 8 vouchers when you can afford a multi-million dollar home, the punishment should fit the crime,” she said.
All four candidates supported having more housing in the Richmond. Nossokoff wanted to upzone the district, especially along the transit corridors. “Higher along the transit corridors and then just a little bit throughout the Richmond seems like a very sensible way to do that,” she said.
Philhour echoed that and emphasized the need to create housing for middle class families. But 100 percent affordable housing, in Philhour’s opinion, is “unicorn housing that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Chan added that what the Richmond really needs is family housing of two to three bedrooms. D’Silva suggested allowing property owners to add units onto their existing structures, and the city can encourage that by waiving permit fees and inspection fees.
When asked about how they would help with District 1 families whose kids’ school is impacted in school closures, Chan turned out to be the only candidate who had a concrete answer. “I do not believe in school closure,” she said. “I will make sure we have petitions going on to make sure that no school closes down in the Richmond.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer for you on that one,” said D’silva. “I’ll be right there beside you, fighting,” said Nossokoff. “While the supervisor does not oversee the schools, the supervisor can be a resource and be accessible,” said Philhour.
According to finance filings, Philhour is leading the fundraising with $455,310, with Chan second with $384,468. Meanwhile, GrowSF’s committee to defeat Chan has raised $72,101.
Candidates were prohibited from talking about other candidates or mentioning them by name in the forum. The two leading candidates, however, still managed to find a way to get around that.
“I understand we can’t say our supervisor’s name tonight, so I will respect that rule,” said Philhour in the closing statement. Nevertheless, she added, “you do have a choice this November of sticking with the status quo or moving in a new direction.”
In response, Chan fought back in her closing statement. “Well, there are people who offer nothing but to be more than being willing to gaslight us with divisive messages and misinformation,” she said. “Instead of holding City Hall accountable for their failures and incompetence, they’re more than willing to rubber stamp policy benefiting billionaires.”
“As TimeOut magazine has put it, the Richmond is one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world, and I intend to continue to make sure that it is.”
