Mayor Daniel Lurie made a “surprise” visit to the Alice Griffith apartments on Monday, dropping in on a public housing complex in Bayview following tenant complaints of mismanagement by the John Stewart Company.
Though the visit was supposed to be a surprise, tenants say property manager Melanie Casperson knew when Lurie was scheduled to arrive, and made sure to clean and prune before the mayor’s 45-minute visit on Monday afternoon.
Lurie walked through the garage, but did not go upstairs to any units, according to tenants, who would have shown him mold, leaky ceilings, and pests. Instead, what he could see had been cleaned up. Even the elevators worked.
Property management could not be reached by the time of publication.
Lurie’s staff say the mayor visited the property at about 2 p.m. with a crew of police officers. A video shared with Mission Local showed Lurie stepping out of his car with Ernest Jones, his director of community affairs.
The property manager greeted him, and Lurie shook hands with a tenant in a wheelchair alongside case managers from Bayview Senior Services, a nonprofit that works with tenants.
Some tenants were under the impression his visit had been rescheduled and missed it. Tenant Pam Dawson had gone to the grocery store, and was upset to miss the mayor. She said he should have stayed longer.
“Of course he didn’t stay long,” chided Dawson, from her car, when a tenant told her he had already left the building.
Adrianne Vandercourt, another tenant, said that Lurie shook hands with residents, and she even got a hug. But Vandercourt says she found it difficult to get much of a word in. Lurie was surrounded by 10 to 15 tenants and his security detail.
Vandercourt is disabled and walks with a cane. Though she wanted to tell Lurie about issues at the property, especially about accessibility and potential disability discrimination, she couldn’t keep up with him during his brisk walk around the property.
Though for some, he made a good impression.
“He was very down to earth,” said one tenant, and noted that he looked “disgusted” with conditions at the property. Two other tenants who were present at the time did not remember him remarking upon anything but dog poop.
“He said, ‘Someone should pick that up,’” recalled Vandercourt.
She, too, was disappointed he did not spend more time at the property, and didn’t see it in what she says is a usually much worse condition.
Property management allegedly defended their actions to the mayor, arguing that there was “no money” to maintain the property because tenants won’t pay their rent.
But that happens when maintenance isn’t kept up. The San Francisco Housing Authority withholds housing subsidies for units that aren’t repaired by the property manager.
“He should spend a weekend here,” suggested one tenant in a wheelchair, who remembered that former San Francisco mayor and senator Dianne Feinstein was challenged to stay for a weekend in Bayview public housing. The late senator declined.
“Then he’ll see what it’s really like to live here,” the tenant added.
Now the elevators work. Come again anytime.
Lurie’s visit caused chaos & hindrance for me as a disabled person & caused me to miss an important appointment because they parked their car in my assigned garage handicap parking stall. I called management & only got difficulty from Donna the receptionist refusing to contact a manger because they were with the Mayor & when finally reaching a manger, it took more than 30mins to finally get someone to move the vehicle out of my stall. This caused me to be over an hour late leaving & did not make it in time to my appointment. Not only was the person driving NOT disabled but also stated management had given them permission to parking in my assigned handicap parking stall. I have video & photos available.
@s. marie:
Sad to see that. You could have submitted photos with the 311 app and requested enforcement. It works; I see reports like that often in the app. Too late now though. vote
That people think publicly subsidized housing should be well run and nice is hilarious ! Nothing the inept and corrupt government does, is ever well run and nice. How do people get so old and manage to stay so dumb? Did years of living teach them nothing ?
Obviously you missed the part where it says the place is run by the John Stewart Company.
I live in a building that was intended to be a model for low-income residents, but it is horrible… and managed by the John Stewart Company. I dream of leaving but where can I go?
I have been homeless before and even sometimes consider that being homeless again is preferable to living where I do. (Especially after enduring any of our many fires.)
It is insulting when politicians make a pretense of responsibility when so few people who should be held responsible are.
Seems a bit disingenuous to not even go in one person’s apartment. Especially when they are inviting you in. They make the effort if going all the way down there, could just pop in for one minute. He affords that much for his donors, I’m sure he’s been to plenty a house party when they are rich constituents….
Mayor Lurie has become Mayor Photo-op, and no better than the other mayors. He’s also bringing in his rich buddies and getting rid of people on the Ethics Commission.
Well played. The deal: Fair warning this time, we can see now you can get your act together, keep it up.
Really getting tired of the Millionaires and Billionaires from Pacific Heights . No clue why they think it’s okay to drive in their Maybachs to Hunters Point . They go in the hallways and dump all their trash like they own the place .