After nearly seven months in office, District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has attempted a delicate balancing act: He has shown a capacity to listen to his progressive constituency, one of the most left-leaning in San Francisco, but has also refrained from rocking the boat and alienating the moderate allies and forces who helped him get here.
Considering his backing from deep-pocketed San Francisco interest groups in his election campaign last year, Mahmood has surprised political observers: He is occasionally aligning with more progressive colleagues on legislation, and has even been spotted attending anti-ICE protests and speaking out against the deportation of Palestinians on a humanitarian mission.
Some progressives say he hasn’t pushed hard enough, while Mahmood says his “collaborative approach” gets results.
On issues like ousting a for-profit halfway house in his district at a historic transgender rights site, and spreading shelters and treatment centers across the city, Mahmood has cooperated with colleagues across the aisle.
Last week, he called for a hearing to investigate GEO Group, the company that operates the halfway house, with progressive District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder.
“He is demonstrating the wherewithal to roll up his sleeves to help serve his constituents,” said Ross Mirkarimi, former District 5 supervisor and Green Party member who supported Dean Preston, Mahmood’s opponent, and the ousted incumbent.
“And I believe it’s happening without ideology or political partisanship — and that’s what I like,” Mirkarimi said.
Much of Mahmood’s legislative record has been resolutions or public hearings with less tangible effect. And, while he has already proposed legislation on some of his campaign promises — to ease permitting, and to help distribute homeless shelters and treatment centers beyond their historical concentrations in eastern parts of the city — the effect of these moves remains to be seen.
But, compared to other first-time supervisors, who together make up nearly half of the board, he is a top producer of legislation: 12 resolutions and four ordinances, including one that has been approved.
“Out of all the newbies, Bilal has really impressed me by how quickly he has come up to speed on the issues,” District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar said. Several others echoed the same sentiment.
Distributing homeless and drug services
Bilal’s most substantial law to date, proposed in May with progressive District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, sought to ban new homeless facilities within 1,000 feet of an existing one, and to require every district to build a new facility by 2026. Currently, some 20 shelters dot the Tenderloin and SoMa, while other areas have none.
But Mayor Daniel Lurie stepped in with amendments, and Mahmood accepted them.
Advocates like Rene Colorado, the head of the Tenderloin Merchants Association, worry the law has now lost much of its bite.
District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood’s actions since taking office
May 6: Proposed equitable citywide shelter access ordinance, limiting new shelters and treatment centers in saturated areas to require a board waiver
June 10: Proposed ordinance to delay development impact fees for some residential projects
Mar. 4: Passed ordinance to allow
city departments to purchase content and data subscriptions and skip solicitation requirements
Jan. 14: Safeway closure hearing
July 1: Proposed
ordinance to
eliminate numeric limits on unrelated people sharing
housing
May 13: Resolution endorsing Tenderloin Community Action Plan
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
June
July
Aug
Jan
Jan. 14: Safeway closure hearing
Feb
Mar. 4: Passed ordinance to allow
city departments to purchase content and data subscriptions and skip solicitation requirements
March
May 6: Proposed equitable
citywide shelter access ordinance, limiting new shelters and
treatment centers in saturated areas to require a board waiver
April
May
May 13: Resolution endorsing Tenderloin Community Action Plan
June
June 10: Proposed
ordinance to delay
development impact fees for some residential projects
July
July 1: Proposed
ordinance to
eliminate numeric limits on unrelated people sharing
housing
Aug
Source: S.F. Legistar and reporting by Eleni Balakrishnan. Graphic by Kelly Waldron.
The latest version of the legislation, to be voted on this week, no longer requires neighborhoods without shelters to create any new ones — something Mahmood promised to fight for.
And with a waiver from the majority of the Board of Supervisors, new shelter beds can still be placed in neighborhoods that already have many. Still, Mahmood believes the mayor’s plans for new shelter beds will end up prioritized in other neighborhoods. That remains to be seen.
The legislation was approved unanimously by the Budget and Finance committee on Wednesday, and will go before the full board on Tuesday.
“In my view, there should be a complete stop to any new resources in the Tenderloin, full stop,” said Colorado, who has seen the impact of such concentrated services on the neighborhood’s commercial corridors.
Tenderloin Housing Clinic director Randy Shaw said he was also a stronger supporter of the original legislation, and wished Mahmood had included the community before reaching a new agreement with the mayor.
“I think he should’ve done negotiations differently, but he’s only been there six months and it’s a learning curve,” Shaw said.
But many, like Melgar, said they were happy that Mahmood chose to compromise.
“I was able to negotiate some language with Supervisor Mahmood,” said Melgar, who wanted different framing for the legislation to encourage the creation of services in District 7. “I appreciate that.”
Others said that Mahmood starting the discourse itself was a step in the right direction.
“He’s bringing up good issues, whether it’s the perfect legislation or not,” said former supervisor Mirkarimi.
Fighting the fight
Combativeness was a quality that Mahmood’s predecessor, Dean Preston, was both praised and vilified for, and some say Mahmood could stand to apply more of it.
“Dean was a fighter. He fought hard on things,” said political analyst Jim Stearns, who said Preston was “kicking ass” six months into his first term: Pioneering the shelter-in-place hotel program, passing eviction protections, and helping stop Muni fare hikes. “I just don’t see any fight in Mahmood.”
Stearns said he was concerned by a lack of pushback from Mahmood on cutting Muni lines, and his rubber stamping the mayor’s reappropriating $34 million in affordable housing funds. He said that Mahmood’s run on “results, not excuses” meant he needed to fight harder.
Tenderloin People’s Congress co-founder David Elliott Lewis agreed.
“We have serious deficiencies I’d like to see him work on,” Lewis said of the Tenderloin, noting the lack of a supermarket, pharmacy or sufficient recreation areas — and the dearth of any action on those issues. “He can at least start the dialogue … [and] hold a hearing.”
Mahmood is also focused on cutting permits to allow for faster housing development, another major campaign promise. But that, too, is moving slowly.
Two of his four ordinances have taken small steps toward reducing restrictions on building, but Mahmood said he has also requested a Budget and Legislative Analyst report on all of the city’s permits, to inform his legislative agenda to cut those permits moving forward. He said it will be the first of its kind, but does not know when it will happen.
“The city has passed a lot of the laws on permit streamlining and the impact fees, but we’ve made no more progress on this,” Mahmood said. “So what are the actual barriers that are left? … You have to understand the problem before we can solve it.”
Off to a good start
Even Mahmood’s resolutions — legislation without teeth that does not actually mandate change or action — have been effective, according to community members.
One resolution encouraging implementation of the Drug Market Intervention strategy to dismantle drug markets was approved with a board supermajority — with opposition from progressives Jackie Fielder and Connie Chan.
Mahmood said he expects the mayor to adopt the strategy and contract with the New York professor who developed it. It would purportedly deter drug dealing through law enforcement and community engagement.
Mahmood has also passed various resolutions: For an Arab American heritage month, transit operator appreciation, and an autism awareness month.
While the true way to effect change is typically through ordinances and charter amendments, Mirkarimi said, resolutions make people happy, and called it “good politics” to recognize the city’s citizenry.
“This is the first time I’ve seen women in hijabs come for public comment in the numbers that we’re seeing,” Melgar noted. “People see themselves represented at City Hall.”
Some skeptics appear to be warming to him.
After hearing Mahmood give an impassioned public comment about removing the GEO Group-run halfway house from 111 Taylor St., the site of a historic transgender protest, advocates in the audience left pleasantly surprised.
“I was surprised to see Mahmood there,” said a twenty-something in grunge attire in the elevator after the hours-long hearing.
A friend echoed the surprise: “I know. And I really liked what he had to say.”
How odd that Bilal Mahmood has lately taken to wearing a SUPERMAN t-shirt in his daily avalanche of social media pic posting. But misrepresentation has always been a habit of his…..recall his misuse of and false claims of neuroscientist, philanthropist and economist. Today…….NOW……. SF urgently needs and requires BOLD, smart, courageous and strategic policy makers who resist pointless and lowest common denominator personal attacks, the stuff of campaigns and social media threads, and not of problem solvers…..low hanging and rotted fruit. Electeds must prioritize the safety and rights of immigrants, Blacks and Browns and LGBTQ folks in a time of growing fascism. Collaborating with Lurie gets you Labubu and Mario. Allowing Lurie to steal/raid Prop C funds for his pet projects or to give them to SFPD overtime abusers during a budget crisis is infuriating. Mahmood and the other conservative supervisors consistently dodged the elephant in the room: the thoroughly documented misuse and abuse of taxpayer dollars for many years by SFPD on overtime. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN SF! Those million$ could be (and should be) spent on things that will improve and stabilize our city for nearly all San Franciscans like public transit, development and construction of socialized housing, public schools food deserts and pedestrian safety. Throughout Bilal’s “results” candidacy and now his tenure, he references “fun” “joy” and “abundance.” He should win an award for doling out citizen commendations and highlighting shiny new businesses. Joy! Fun! How about focusing on efficient, reliable busses and street cars? Convenient & affordable grocery stores? Stable housing for teachers, nurses and elders?
Thanks for reporting.
He is a nice person and trying.
Unfortunately , in our neighborhood , the Lower Polk Street Area , he is not acting.
It is worse then it was with Mr Preston .
After seven plus years , we still cannot once use our sidewalk due to the 30 to 50 addicts openly destroying their lives and ours .
For the definition of “hell on your doorstep”,
Please come visit .
Wish he would help out his district and constituents here .
Why do homeless and addicts have all these “rights” and we have none.
It is really out of control in his district 5 .
It is worse and not getting better because Lurie, Dorsey, Mahmood, Sauter, Engardio, Melgar and Sherrill support and spend all of our limited funds on police and raids. Expensive. Wasteful. Pointless. Nothing accomplished. Police officers are not social workers, psychiatrists and pharmacologists. And so the problems are shuffled from block to block and community to community without end.
Oops. Failed to mention the biggest hypocrite and disappointment of them all on the Board of Supes: that would be Rafael Mandelman.
Mandelman is almost the closest the BofS has to a swing vote. The fact that he is seen as someone who spans the different ideological camps is a big part of why he is now the leader of the BofS.
What is it that you expect him to do that he is not doing? He has actually shown flexibility in guiding the disparate elements on the Bof S to some form of consensus.
Mandelman’s record of consistently punching down on Dan Francisco’s most vulnerable people is gross. He is a performative, transactional and ineffective elected who’s accomplished little for D8 in his time as supervisor. He led on eliminating remote public comment at City Hall. He supported turning the crown jewel of the neighborhood, The Castro Theater over to the rapacious APE profiteers. He oversaw the costly & ineffective installation (and removal) of boulders in a D8 neighborhood as a cockamamie deterrent against unhoused people. And he had advance notification of and allowed the SFPD’s hairbrained raid on the Hill Bomb where dozens of teens were arrested, resulting in a multi million dollar class action lawsuit against the city. SF has complex problems. Sadly Mandelman is big on optics and performative actions and embarrassingly lame on thoughtful, effective solutions.
There’s got to be a merit badge somewhere in all of this!