In a heated two-hour town hall, some 300 residents from San Francisco’s Bayview grilled Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city officials about everything from health to economic development, saying City Hall has failed to serve the district.
Like many other residents who attended the meeting at the Bayview Opera House, Timothy Simon, president of the Candlestick Heights Community Alliance, chastised officials for failing to enforce laws in Bayview.
“There seems to be an attitude at City Hall about District 10,” he said to applause in the packed room. “I believe that permeates into the agencies when there’s a very lax attitude about our needs.”
Lurie played offense, first applauding residents for showing up, and calling their passion and comments inspiring. The residents, he said, are not alone. He is hearing similar complaints about city services in other neighborhoods as well.
“I hear about homelessness, I hear about my streets not being clean, I hear about trash not being picked up,” Lurie said. For now, he added, he is prioritizing public safety, business development, and clean streets. RV parking in Bayview has been an ongoing issue. He said he wants to help people living in RVs to find a permanent living solution.
In the middle of Lurie’s response, a man in the back yelled, “We need jobs!” Lurie paused for a second and continued.
“Those that are suffering from addiction, from mental health, that are homeless,” he said, “I don’t think they should eat inside broken down RVs in the Bayview.”
Lurie defends a budget that ‘didn’t make me happy’
The auditorium filled early on, and staff needed to bring in more chairs; some attendees opted to sit on the floor. Lurie stood at the podium, sharing the stage with District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, San Francisco Police Lieutenant Kevin Lee and San Francisco Fire Department Chief Dean Crispen, who also spoke during the evening.
The mayor faced an unhappy crowd when he tried to explain budget cuts made to nonprofit organizations and social services in the Bayview.
During his explanation, people yelled out to challenge the mayor, sparking applause and cheers. Lurie did not directly engage people heckling him and, in a moment of frustration, asked if he could finish his explanation.
“This budget didn’t make anyone happy,” said Lurie passionately. “It definitely didn’t make me happy.”
The mayor blamed the decision to cut funding to nonprofits and services on an $800 million budget deficit which, by law, the city has to balance.
Homelessness and RVs in the Bayview have become a huge topic of discussion. The issue has caused friction between Lurie and Walton, who also attended the meeting.
Walton blasted the mayor after his decision to expand homelessness capacity at 2177 Jerrold Ave., in the Bayview. Walton says Bayview is oversaturated with homeless services as it is, and that the mayor should look to expand services in other neighborhoods.
Walton and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, tried to pass a law earlier this year to do just that, but Lurie moved to gut it. It is being heard at a board committee later this month.
Majority of San Francisco’s RVs are in Bayview
The mayor acknowledged that the issue of RVs is more prevalent in the Bayview and invited Kunal Modi, his policy chief overseeing public health and homelessness, to discuss his plans.
“We have 500 RVs or oversized vehicles, broken down vehicles across the city,” said Modi. “Over 55 percent of them are in this neighborhood.”
Modi’s proposed solution was to enact 24/7 parking restrictions across the city for oversized vehicles.
“This is not going to solve the problems affecting this community,” shouted one woman in the audience, who cheered as others attempted to console her. She was visibly upset.
Modi had to pause to hear them out before acknowledging that people park their RVs where enforcement is lax. The city is looking to provide those living in RVs with housing and “not looking to criminalize the unhoused,” he added.
Some attendees talked about how market-rate development is not benefitting the entire neighborhood, asking for more job development and small-business support. Others asked about immigration arrests, and Lurie replied that city workers do not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Lurie was originally slated to be at the meeting for 45 minutes, but stayed for almost two hours. People were still waiting in line to address him after it was announced he would have to leave, and the crowd asked him to stay.
“I appreciate the room feedback and the interruptions,” said Lurie with a smile. “I will come back, I won’t shy away, we can do this every month.”
Headline feels a little attention grabbing don’t you think? Why did you not mention the other neighbors who when they had a chance to speak, asked the room to respect the process and not dominate others time and was received with major applause? I’m not a shill, but let the man at least be the mayor for a second before you crush him.
I was there, as a new homeowner of the bayview, what this article leaves out is how many voices at this event were speaking to the concerns of those of us in the neighborhood who don’t have an agenda further than living in a good, business rich, safe community with events, parks, and clean street. Love the bayview and will be here forever. Cheers to the third street business owners who spoke facts. Come visit the bayview, grab a gumbo and take a walk at herons head. Everything could be better but let’s help change the narrative.
Friendly reminder that Jackie Fielder, Sam Moss, chief YIMBY of Mission Housing ($275K/yr), Luis Granados of MEDA ($366K/yr) and Kenneth Lombard of Bridge Housing ($1.007m/yr) can’t keep 1950 Mission’s Head Start facility clear of addicts and are proposing Permanent Supportive Housing for addicts and psych cases adjacent to Marshall Elementary School that serves an abundance of homeless, immigrant, low income and non-white students.
These people call themselves “the community” and are allowed by the City and district supervisor to dictate what kind of housing is going to be at 1979 Mission, adjacent to Marshall.
At least D10 has supervisor Walton going to the mat for his constituents. D9 has Jackie Fielder supporting YIMBY bringing more degradation for the North Mission. Fielder has achieved the kind of detachment in five months that it took Hillary Ronen 5 years to achieve.
I’m beginning to think that YIMBY stands for:
Yes
In
Marcos’
Back
Yard.
I don’t trust the fire chief. He has let those white explorers with red stripes have the city vehicle numbers taken off. That’s not following the city controller and administrator about proper use of city vehicles. Shady shady shady
Thank you I appreciate your journalism.
Great article from a homegrown San Franciscan! Thanks for highlighting the plight of the residents in D10. We need more advocacy for D10! I would love to see the number of service requests per resident by district. Anecdotally, it seems that many people don’t have the time/energy/access to report issues compared to higher income districts.