Supervisor-elect Bilal Mahmood, in a conversation at Manny’s on Monday night, pledged to be collaborative and reduce bureaucracy in his new role as the representative of District 5. Residents in the audience seemed optimistic about his plans.
Mahmood, who in January will take the seat of Supervisor Dean Preston, discussed with a full room of residents his plans to address the fentanyl crisis and homelessness, as well as how he plans to make it easier to build housing in San Francisco.
For Mahmood, eliminating bureaucracy was the solution to many problems, from permitting new housing to hiring more police officers.
Asked by an audience member how Democrats — thereby, most of San Francisco — would “get their shit together” as the rest of the country becomes more conservative, Mahmood emphasized a need to deal with the city’s local issues to avoid being a “punching bag.”
“There’s a narrative that San Francisco has moved to the right, which I fundamentally disagree with,” Mahmood said, adding that he considers himself a progressive within the slate of new candidates elected to the board this election. “Unless we focus on the issues and get the basics right, it’s going to be very difficult to live up to our progressive values.”
Housing
Mahmood didn’t answer the direct question of how much housing would be built under his watch, but said, “as a city, we don’t really have a choice” but to build: The city has a state mandate to build more than 82,000 housing units by 2031.
To make that process go faster and encourage building, he said, he wants to reduce the “high number of permits and impact fees” in the early stages of development, and reform the post-entitlement process to keep developers on slow or lengthy projects.
“My focus is what makes us [take] so long to build housing in the city? It’s all the bureaucracy, it’s all the red tape,” said Mahmood, who has aligned himself with SF YIMBY and, on the campaign trail, often criticized Preston for putting too much emphasis on affordable housing at the expense of other types. “When you build housing faster, you make rents cheaper for market rate, middle income and affordable housing.”
Mahmood, who is new to public office, said he is preparing himself by hiring staff and meeting with residents, community groups and department heads. He’s also been trying to go jogging every morning. Next month, he said, he’ll enter a Board of Supervisors onboarding program.
But unlike other new or aspiring leaders who seem to know little about how things work at City Hall, Mahmood was generally knowledgeable about the topics his new constituents questioned him about on Monday evening — or, at least, he had answers.
Drugs and homelessness
When it comes to drugs, Mahmood said he is looking forward to implementing a “drug market intervention” strategy, a deterrence-focused approach for law enforcement to disrupt open-air drug dealing.
For homelessness, Mahmood said he opposes encampment sweeps; his answer was interim supportive housing, which he noted has helped reduce homelessness in San Jose. Alongside new shelters, tiny homes, and more comprehensive, wraparound services, he said this policy approach could help get people off the streets in San Francisco.
Amid a massive budget shortfall, Mahmood said housing and public safety would remain his top two priorities.
“My focus is on … ensuring that whatever cuts we make, that those two goals are not impeded,” Mahmood said.
Joining the board
As he discussed his future colleagues and new job, Mahmood kept the tone positive and emphasized his willingness to foster good relationships with his fellow supervisors.
“One of the things I’ve been surprised by in some of my meetings and interactions is how much I’m agreeing with certain things that you wouldn’t expect,” Mahmood said.
Mahmood spoke of conversations he’s had with Supervisor Shamann Walton, for instance, about the Dream Keeper Initiative that has proved problematic for the mayor. He said he is supportive of maintaining the program’s objective despite scandals this past year.
Similarly, he mentioned compromising with Supervisor Connie Chan about the woes of Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit that helps people transition out of jail, and said he is aligned with Supervisor Jackie Fielder on preserving the city’s sanctuary city status in the face of expected anti-immigration efforts at a national level.
Mahmood refused to say who he’d prefer as board president between supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Myrna Melgar, the two veterans jockeying for the spot — “Does their name start with M or R?” as Yekutiel asked it — but said he was looking to support “someone who can bring people together.”
When it came to his opponent, Preston, Mahmood still squeezed in a couple of jabs: He accused Preston of not focusing enough on addressing the fentanyl crisis, and echoed a claim made at a Mission Local candidates forum that Preston has never visited the Tenderloin police station.
Preston has insisted that claim is false.
Mahmood emphasized tonight that he won “nearly every precinct in District 5.” But Preston won more first-place votes in the district, and was top ranked over Mahmood in 23 of 43 precincts. After ranked-choice votes were tallied, Mahmood came out ahead.
Mahmood said he has also been meeting with Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, the nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir who put unprecedented amounts of cash into his campaign and came out well above his competition.
“It helps to be a billionaire but, regardless of that fact, he doesn’t owe anything to anyone,” Mahmood said, noting Lurie lacks the big political or institutional backers other mayoral candidates had. “So he has the liberty to take big swings on things without being afraid of repercussions, because he got elected completely on his own.”
Whether Mahmood, whose campaign raised large sums and enjoyed the support of tech billionaires and political action groups like GrowSF, will be beholden to anyone, is unclear. But tonight, he appeared to distance himself from those groups.
When a resident pointed out controversial GrowSF billboards in District 5 stating an apparent campaign promise to develop a former car wash at 400 Divisadero St. into housing, Mahmood was quick to emphasize that it wasn’t his.
“What are the specific things that will turn that into apartments?” a resident asked.
The car wash was acquired this year, and plans to build 200 units of housing at the site are already in the works. The site’s owners called the project “financially impractical” when the most recent developer dropped out.
“It wasn’t my billboard, someone else put it up. So it wasn’t a promise I made on that one,” Mahmood said. But still, he said, the answer was simple: Don’t let developers get “stuck in development hell,” and reduce the permitting requirements and bureaucracy.
“When you build housing faster, you make rents cheaper for market rate, middle income and affordable housing.”
Studies have shown that simply isn’t the case. Look at Vancouver, they’ve built more market rate housing than just about any place in North American and also have some of the highest rents and housing costs. Since the return on investment for real estate has recently and historically outpaced other investments, those with large amounts of money to invest will continue to buy market rate housing, pushing both rents and housing costs skyward. SF could build a hundred thousand units of housing and that will still be the case.
Considers himself a progressive? Give me a break. If we was progressive he wouldn’t still be taking shots at Dean. He’s supported by Grow SF. Can we please stop calling conservatives “moderate” in SF simply because they have a moderate approach on a couple of social issues? Until he starts supporting increased taxes on the wealthy to alleviate social ills, he’s not progressive in my book.
Rents have gone down in SF and increasing supply will only continue that trend. This is not Vancouver
“Can we please stop calling conservatives “moderate” in SF simply because they have a moderate approach on a couple of social issues? Until he starts supporting increased taxes on the wealthy to alleviate social ills, he’s not progressive in my book.”
The city is very limited in the taxes it can raise on the “wealthy”. For example, no city/county income tax, CGT, estate tax or wealth tax as the state bars them.
And a SF “moderate” would be considered a left-wing extremist in 99% of the nation.
Hey Eleni, Did anyone ask him about his time at his Climate non-profit and how he might bring that experience to government? I can’t seem to find any information about this non-profit at all.
It’s likely that it doesn’t exist. If there is no 501c3, with a board and incorporation documents, it’s not a non-profit. Some have surmised this climate gimmick is on par with his expertise as a trained neuroscientist and his internship during the Obama administration that he has twisted into a position as a policy analyst.
Doesn’t he know that due to State laws there are no longer any post-entitlement appeals? (AB 1114). Once the PAL (Planning Approval Letter) is issued a project has a glide path? And doesn’t he know that there is now concurrent review by Planning and DBI? (Safety does still matter, but this is another glide path). What bureaucracy is he going to get rid of? Also there are now very strict timelines the City must meet to review a project once a developer provides all the material. This is another glide path unless he thinks that there should be no review of a project. Plus there are objective design standards. Another glide path. Plus neighborhood notification has been greatly curtailed….another glide path.
Let the record reflect unhinged psycho and Techbro Garry “die slow” Tan created a $50,000 Super PAC called “Dump Dean” 2 years ago. Tan also funded GROWSF and its 2 grand wizards Sachin Agarwahl and Steven Buss, both unapologetic YIMBYs. For +2 years, these individuals and groups spewed misinformation regarding Preston’s legislative record, while they funded, endorsed and campaigned for candidate Mahmood. GROWSF’s billboard read “That car wash should be affordable homes. Bilal Mahmood will fix it” but local residents know that the deal was already done and the site had already been purchased by private developers; their plans for development have nothing to do with Bilal Mahmood. Once again, the fake neuroscientist dishonestly claimed he could “fix” it and campaigned by lying to D5 residents. And now he is distancing himself from the billboards and the lies he told as a candidate.
During the 2022 budget negotiations, Preston championed an unprecedented affordable housing package that included a commitment to acquire 400 Divis for 100% affordable housing. Everyone at the 2022 Budget Committee negotiating table—including the Mayor’s office—knew and committed that 400 Divis would be acquired for affordable housing. Preston fought hard for this agreement and for AFFORDABLE housing at 400 Divis. Mahmood supports more “streamlining” of luxury housing and cutting of red tape” for market rate development…..all while ignoring the reality that San Francisco is woefully behind in building the state mandated affordable housing.
Note to D5 Supervisor Elect Bilal Mahmood: your primary focus should be on building state mandated deeply affordable housing in San Francisco.
Building 46,000 new units of affordable housing will cost San Francisco $19 billion. The state has offered essentially nothing to help out.
It’s an “unfunded mandate” and it is illegal in California for the state to tell local governments they have to do something expensive unless the state will pay for it.
I’m sure Mahmood will be keen to listen to your bon mots and advice after you viciously attacked him for months on this platform.
I’ve got news for you Cardinal: fact checking a pathological candidate’s myriad lies and deliberate false statements is not “viciously attacking.” All that i stated is true……not opinion. Otherwise why the 3 Ethics complaints and the bold face lies about being a neuroscientist AND an economist (and stating so in his campaign ads and lit) only to retract them when caught? Who does that? Candidates know they will face sctutiny. They are running for elected office after all.
While you endlessly relitigate Preston’s losing campaign with the same attacks that didn’t work, Mahmood and the rest of us will move on to focusing on the city’s problems. Your choice though.
Hope springs eternal.
In his campaign for D5 suprtvisor, Bilal Mahmood was bankrolled by billionaires and endorsed by Republicans.
Bilal Mahmood campaigned by saying he was a “neuroscientist when he was not. He has no Phd or MD, no Masters or undergraduate neuroscience degree, and has never published a paper on Neuroscience. Yet he conjured himself a “Neuroscientist”. Why? A completely false statement simply meant to create the illusion of expertise.
Mahmood is still under Ethics Commission investigation for illegally using funds from his DCCC campaign to subsidize his second campaign for Supervisor. The DCCC campaign has no contribution limits; the Supervisor campaign can only raise $500 per person.
Mahmood ran for DCCC (and won) on a slate that was literally financed by billionaires and endorsed by Republicans.
Mahmood claims to be the Director of a non-profit, but it simply doesn’t exist. When you scour the business and non-profit filings of the California Secretary of State and the CA Attorney General, no such organization is listed, and a website is a simple outdated landing page.
A “vicious attack” is more like when you go after an individual who truthfully states that they are a democratic socialist and you stoke fear and loathing against them. Or filing a frivolous lawsuit that you know will be quickly tossed as nonsense.
Another lie from Mahmood is that he’s a progressive. The Republican billionaires behind GrowSF spent $300,000 on his candidacy to unseat a DSA tenant advocate/affordable-housing broker. That will never go down with D5 progressives—ever.
The first time Bilal attempts to present some policy ideas, he does it in District 9 at a “moderate”-friendly venue.
He couldn’t possibly have held an event at, say, the auditorium of the long-closed Fillmore Heritage Center or at the US Bank Community Room in Japantown or the Kelly Cullen Community room on Golden Gate (a block from where he lives) or the “town square” of Hayes Valley (a parking lot) or one of the many cafes along Divisadero or Haight Street. It comes across Bilal against those many options because he didn’t want to let nearby D5 residents hear what he had to say and ask him questions.
Best to Bilal,
Dean’s talents will have an equal impact if he only writes and publishes.
Hope the new Supe will bring back the monthly Office Parties which Gonzo made famous in D-5 back when Willie was da top dawg.
First clue out of the Gate on these things is the Newbie’s choice of Top Staff.
I’m still biting my nails hoping the truly Independent (thanks, mom) Lurie chooses natural pick, Aaron Peskin as his Chief of Staff, albeit working as a Volunteer for the first year to comply with one of Aaron’s laws which is ironic.
I have great hopes for Lurie tho I disagreed with pretty much all of his Campaign Planks because he really and truly does listen.
I built little outlines and sample Million Dollar Trash Lottery tickets and he argued with me about who should get credit for Ben Weprin taking down the scaffolding around the Armory (he went back-channel billionaire route) and I went 311 and 3 dozen contacts including here in a show of district complaints with Michael Petrellis and it was London’s Planning guy, Hillis who finally brought the hammer down.
Go Niners !!
h.
No one owes anyone anything
Dean was a major fail
The Lower Polk Street area , under Dean’s watch, only worsened .
“ Rats will keep eating poison until
they die” said a pyschaitrist about addicts
The drug dealers run lower polk
The deliveries to the addicts in the city paid for housing needs to stop
Taxpayers should not be paying for addicts to be given free housing food etc and then allow them to “ get high” all day
Why are all the conversions being rubber stamped for the Tenderloin? They are not going through the Planning Commission.
Please get your facts straight .
There is someone commenting on many articles with long and uncivil
comments .
I think the staff at this paper should stop printing the nasty comments .
Accountability and self worth need to be included for the homeless addicts
The same dealers and addicts line the streets in the Lower Polk Street Area daily
Law and order
Close the drug scene down Housing but no drug usage or expulsion and jail
Game over
“I think the staff at this paper should stop printing the nasty comments .”
Wow, please practice what you preach! Every reactionary lie in the book. You’ll be quite satisfied with the carpetbagging Bilal.
I hope this works. I like the guy but a “Savant” as the Chronicle described him, can’t solve the problems of the TL. Creativity will. And not the creativity he borrowed from his trip to Tokyo. I will be his biggest supporter and biggest critic since we live in the same building. We see the same mess on our block everyday. Dean ignored me when I reached out to his office. And I admit that I am a skeptical conservative who donated $1,200.00 to Biden for President in 2020.