The gloves were off at Monday night’s District 7 debate, as the four candidates for supervisor and several audience members got into heated exchanges at the Forest Hill Clubhouse including, at one point, with the night’s moderator.
The joust began with crime.
“What is the state of public safety in District 7?” asked Mission Local Managing Editor Joe Eskenazi, who moderated the 90-minute debate organized by the West of Twin Peaks Central Council, a coalition of neighborhood associations.
Three of the candidates spoke about their own personal experiences being burglarized: Edward Yee, a 74-year-old retired heart surgeon who showed up at a District 7 forum for the first time; Matt Boschetto, a small business owner who hails from a wealthy family that sold a $870 million janitorial empire; and incumbent Supervisor Myrna Melgar.
Stephen Martin-Pinto — a firefighter, Marine veteran and former Republican — talked about residents’ concerns about sideshows and break-ins and falsely claimed that crime is rising in the area. “The public safety problem is coming to our front door,” he said, “and it’s getting worse.”
Eskenazi was quick to point out that while some residents might feel that way, statistically, crime is down in the district.
“I took the trouble of going and looking at the statistics from Park Station, Taraval Station and Ingleside Station and I was surprised, considering this narrative, to see that every reported crime, property crimes and violent crimes, is not just down, but down significantly from last year,” said Eskenazi.
That comment hit a nerve with some of the audience members.
“That’s not real,” someone shouted from the back of the 30-person audience. “Stop trying to fact-check,” another person said. “Just ask the question.”
“I can understand that people don’t feel safe, and that is something to address, but do facts not matter anymore?” Eskenazi countered. “And if we start drawing a line with safety, do we not look at traffic statistics anymore? Do we not look at educational outcomes anymore? Do we not look at safety with regards to environmental rules? Where do we draw the line?”
“Just ask the question,” the same person reiterated, more aggressively, prompting Denise LaPointe, one of the organizers, to intervene and tell the audience to calm down and “be civil.”
Martin-Pinto and Boschetto were, in many ways, preaching to the choir: Forest Hills and surrounding neighborhoods are some of the least progressive pockets in District 7, and the city.
The leafy, single-family-home neighborhood with old-growth trees — and old money — has historically been more concerned about neighborhood preservation than building housing, for instance.
Throughout the debate, a pattern persisted: Boschetto and Martin-Pinto pushed a similar vision on public safety while repeatedly calling out the incumbent Melgar for why something had or hadn’t happened. Several times, she corrected them, drawing upon her legislative record.
“What else I hear is that, in the last four years, it [public safety] has not been taken seriously. And I think that’s because our current supervisor, Supervisor Melgar,” said Boschetto. As evidence, he pointed to her vote for reappointing police commissioner Cindy Elias; support for Proposition B in March, which would have tied police staffing increases to identified future revenue; and endorsing Chesa Boudin as her second choice in 2019 district attorney race.
“My candidate was Suzy Loftus. She did not win,” Melgar countered. “I did do a ranking, and I showed up to vote. My co-candidate here didn’t even vote in that election,” she added, referring to Boschetto, who indeed has not voted in any of the five previous local elections in San Francisco, according to records from the Department of Elections.
Melgar went on to cite her wins, namely gaining the endorsement of every police commissioner — “the progressive ones and the moderate ones, because I have shown up and done the work,” Melgar said. She later mentioned that she has also received the sole endorsement of District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
When reached out to follow the debate, Melgar said she misspoke: She does not have the endorsement of C. Don Clay, one of seven police commissioners, who was appointed in June.
At another point, Eskenazi asked an audience-provided question about the El Rey Theater on Ocean Avenue, which has been either empty or underutilized for 15 years. “What is your vision for its future?”
Boschetto criticized the building’s historic preservation status, which he argued is a roadblock to the site being developed, and said he would support an investor coming in to make it into something else.
In her response, Melgar corrected his statement. “Former Supervisor Norman Yee led the legislation to landmark the outside of that theater. The inside is not landmarked. It can be used for whatever.” She also said an investor, whom she has met with several times, has put plans forward with the planning commission to build 42 housing units on the site.
Meanwhile, Yee — the District 7 candidate, not the former supervisor — stayed away from the finger-pointing.
Yee has remained all but hidden from the public eye after registering to run. There is no evidence of any campaign he is running online or elsewhere, and he has not raised any money to fund his campaign. Mission Local repeatedly tried to contact him over the weeks for our Meet the Candidates series, to no avail.
On Tuesday, Yee struggled to both answer the questions asked and stick to the allocated 90-second response time. While he said in his opening statement that he is focused on safety, making the city functional, supporting small businesses and planning for an aging population, it is unclear, based on his responses, how he plans to approach these issues.
Yee deferred to Boschetto in a response about propositions for the November election, stating “Matt and I met on many occasions. Our thoughts are on the same wavelength. So whatever he had voiced, I concur, and I will yield my time as such.”
Eskenazi had asked the candidates where they stood on state Proposition 36, which would increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking: Boschetto and Martin-Pinto support it, Melgar said she had not yet decided.
Proposition 33, which would allow local governments to consider expanding rent control: Melgar supports it, while Boschetto and Martin-Pinto oppose it.
And Eskenazi asked about the local measures as well.
Proposition L, which would tax ride-hailing companies to fund Muni: Melgar supports it, Boschetto and Martin-Pinto oppose it.
Proposition D, the TogetherSF measure to cut the city’s commissions and broaden the powers of the mayor and police chief: Boschetto and Martin-Pinto support it — Martin-Pinto said his only quibble was that it didn’t go far enough — while Melgar said she had not taken a position.
I’m so tired of, “people ‘feel’ like xyz is true, therefore your facts don’t matter”.
I couldn’t care less about district 7 politics, but this method of running for office is irresponsible. I won’t vote for (or donate to) any politician who runs on “feelings” rather than facts.
I like to see politicians who know how the city works, in detail, and have experience with government (which is a totally different animal than private business). Someone who hasn’t voted in the past 5 elections doesn’t get to run on a “people don’t feel XYZ is true”.
Please keep fact-checking. As long as politicians cite whatever alternative facts tempt them at the moment, let’s at least be able to rely on responsible journalists to insert the truth into the discussion.
Dang. “Stop trying to fact check.” ??? This is what the socials have done to people’s brains. Sadly there are meatheads who seek to foment fear and loathing in SF when actual data on issues with crime, vacant rental units and skyrocketing unhoused seniors is available, Follow the money. Look at an incumbent’s actual record and look at the data.
Exactly. Some are trying to make this a “vibes” election, more specifically a “bad vibes” election, when the actual real data flies in the face of their assertions. Meriam Webster tells me that assertions are “confident and forceful statements of fact or belief” which dovetails with the brain melt caused by overexposure to social media that you suggested.
I don’t think anyone thinks facts and data don’t matter. I think they believe that data in the city is inaccurate, and that it can’t be trusted to indicate the facts. When it comes to property crime, people have given up on reporting- it does no good, it is an idle act. We read story after story of businesses giving up on reporting crimes they’ve endured, since the police do nothing. If no one reports, *of course* the data will indicate it has decreased.
It’s funny how the same people who are suspicious of the police in every other respect say, “well, the police say crime is down.” Don’t forget, the police are where the data comes from. The police are the ones telling us, “nope, no one is reporting crime lately.” Why would anyone?
At a February 16 (?)Land Use and Traffic committee meeting Melgar proposed a grant that may be forgiven to families making $200,000 to buy a house.When asked where the money was coming from,she didn’t know. When asked what the requirement for this was she didn’t know. When asked about rules for forgiveness was she didn’t know. Preston voted for this.Peskun did not.This imeeting is available
online if you do not believe me.Melgar went to Japan on SF money.Why? She wanted the bike lane at City College ,taking away parking .City College did not want bike lane.Please get rid of her.
I’m pretty sure at this point, there’s not much Melgar could do to redeem herself. I’m leaving her off my ballot. She has her own agenda & could not care less about her constituents. I wrote to her several times and even went to “coffee with a supervisor” and she was a total snob could not give me 30 seconds of her time or bother responding to a single email.
Supervisor Melgar’s term in office has been one of looking for the next spotlight through PR stunts of little of benefit to her constituents. She completely inflated her role in the West Portal situation; a tragic accident which as SFMTA said did not result from any deficiency in the design of the streets. Nonetheless, she appropriated it to give herself a platform – as Transportation Lead on the BOS – ordering SFMTA to “do something and do it fast.” Meanwhile, she is offering zero oversight of the SFMTA agency, and egging them on to spend more money knowing they are facing a $200+ Million deficit. Every newsletter I get from her wants more glory for the pork she has gotten for our district, never mentioning the deficit. She is a poor choice for D7.
So public safety is #1 issue but when a family of 4 is killed we don’t want the Sup to do anything? Got it.
D7 resident here. Police at Ingleside station did not file accurate reports, and downplayed incidents the multiple times I had to call over break ins.
Crime isn’t down, it’s the quality of police response and accurate reporting that’s down. It’s like being in a bad cop show, they hear what they want to hear and it couldn’t be more blatant.
“statistically, crime is down in the district.”
Does this really mean “politics worked” because the crime rate happened to statistically adjust downward regionally at the same time? It’s disingenuous to pretend anyone had a serious hand in that almost no matter what they did, and they certainly didn’t do much. Crime is still way, way unacceptably high for a “world class” destination as Breed’s PR continues to pretend we are. We are under-served by her direct administration of the police resources, period. Her homeless PR sweeps haven’t solved anything. There are not fewer homeless, there are MORE HOMELESS now. This is statistical fact also. So while crimes may have hit a high tide mark last year compared to this one, it’s STILL high. That’s not a record to run on even while pretending to have affected it, if at all, significantly without proof of that whatsoever. Do not fall for it, it’s BS statistics supplanting common sense and telling voters they already are getting what they want – and they CLEARLY ARE NOT.
Would like to know their transit vision for the westside of SF since prior plans have gone nowhere and the great highway issue will seriously impact D7…. Especially when and if multiple long range projects go forward.
In D7 facts don’t matter. Just Fox, apparently.
Fact-checking is best done by rival candidates, not the moderator.
Protecting a hen house is best done by foxes, not the farmer.