District 1 re-elects its supervisor, but who’s going to fix the parking?

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It’s been a month since Election Day, when some 35,000 District 1 voters re-elected Supervisor Connie Chan to another four-year term, choosing her over challenger Marjan Philhour by 1,301 votes. 

It was a far larger margin than the 2020 matchup between Chan and Philhour, and a far more lopsided race than many people expected. Chan benefitted from more than $1.2 million in outside spending by labor unions and other groups; Philhour had $320,800 from more pro-housing, YIMBY groups.

What can voters expect from Chan? In an interview, the supervisor mentioned several priorities: The city’s looming $876 million deficit, local healthcare and childcare, wage theft, and job training and education like the Free City College program. 

District 1 residents, however, often speak of more parochial concerns than Chan’s citywide visions: Easier parking, better street designs and a more vibrant neighborhood. They want not just a legislator for the city, but a supervisor who just shows up and fixes things. 

But supervisors have limited power, and a staff of four. Listening to concerns from residents and being an advocate is part of the job, but they can’t make instant changes. 

“We can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything. We wish we could,” said Robyn Burke, Chan’s legislative aide. 

Instant changes, however, are what many would like to see. 

“You are the supervisor here,” said Ye, a shopkeeper at Tai Hung Bookstore on Clement Street, sitting behind his counter on a rainy Thursday; he declined to give his full name. “If something happens, you need to take care of it.” 

As with many others, Ye’s concerns are immediate: Recently, he’s been focused on the 2-Clement bus stop across from his shop. With the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s current plan, there will be loading zones on both sides of the street, which Ye said will make the street too narrow for cars to pass. Ye wants a loading zone only on one side.

Chan is in the middle, ferrying Ye’s concerns to the transit agency and back again. The compromise is to add a loading zone on one side first, and then remove the existing one on the other side. 

And this is a back-and-forth common in the job of a supervisor. 

The Richmond ‘could get livelier’

Asked how they’d like to see the area change, Richmond District residents and business owners shared a common theme: Making the quiet neighborhood more vibrant, especially at night. 

“I’m looking forward to getting more shopping areas around here,” said Jessica Anaya, who recently opened Alushe Coffee Bar at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Sixth Avenue. The neighborhood gets very quiet, very early, she said. 

At Tunnel Records, on Clement Street at 23rd Avenue, Ely Klen, a musician and employee, agrees. After three years living in the neighborhood, he hopes more music venues pop up. “There are pockets, like near the Balboa Theater, or near us, that could get livelier,” he said. Isaac Zakin, a dog walker working near Sea Cliff, said he wants late-night eating spots that are not fast food.  

Others say they love the neighborhood so much that they just want the city to preserve it. 

“I hope it stays just as it is,” said Jes, who was walking her baby in a stroller at the corner of El Camino Del Mar and Lake Street. She just went to a holiday craft fair at Laundromat, the beloved Richmond pizza and bagel spot. There were burgers on the grill, photos with Santa, and lots of diners. 

She hopes to see more events just like that, and more support for businesses to open and thrive. “Programs like this, landlords being reasonable, and the community coming out to support new restaurants,” she said.

Justin Yang, having lunch in his empty Three Polar Bears boba shop on Balboa Street, hopes the media and politicians avoid the doom-loop narrative; emphasizing how dangerous San Francisco is only scares tourists away, he said. 

Yang also pointed to an issue of renewed interest in city politics: Nonprofit funding. While city funding for nonprofits has been under scrutiny, Yang wants more funding for them, because they support Richmond small businesses. 

The Richmond Neighborhood Center, for example, ordered 800 egg waffles from Yang for an event. His boba shop also benefits from a discount program led by the same nonprofit: Anyone who shows a discount card — what’s called a SELF card, standing for “Shop and eat local first” — can get 10 percent off; customers post receipts in a WeChat group and get small gifts like toilet paper and avocado oil. 

But as the city faces a huge budget shortfall, funding for nonprofits like this will be harder to come by. “We’re having to choose between what we need to have and what’s nice to have as a city right now, across the board,” said Burke, the legislative aide. 

Eric Mar, a two-term former supervisor in District 1, agreed. “It’s going to be impossible to even maintain the level that we have now.” 

Safe streets and easy parking

For others, a key issue is a perennial one for the suburban westerlands: Parking. 

Michael Zhang, owner of Hair Dimension salon at California Street and Sixth Avenue, blames the city government for the district’s slow recovery. His point of comparison is San Mateo, where he saw people line up for ice cream and dine at restaurants around 9 or 10 p.m. He names two things would help: More parking spaces, and lower parking rates. 

On Clement Street, a block from his salon, the city meter’s parking rates vary from 50 cents to $4.50 per hour, but hover mostly around $2.25. It’s much less in San Mateo and other Bay Area cities, he said — and he believes that’s a major reason for these cities’ better recoveries.  

“If you are a smart supervisor, that’s the only thing you can do to make this neighborhood better,” Zhang said. “That’s the base!” 

Workers want easier parking, too. At C.Q. Noodles at Clement Street and 22nd Avenue, one waitress attended to a room of 14 at 1:40 p.m. on a Friday. In the middle of it all, she rushed outside to feed the parking meter.  

For people who work in the stores along the Richmond’s commercial corridors, it’s common to circle around for a free parking spot for 15 minutes, or park in the city metered spots that have a two-hour limit, workers said. 

A solution: Paying for the whole day at once. 

“Once you’re over two hours, boom, it’s a ticket,” the waitress said. “It’s ridiculous. Why don’t you just let us pay for it all at once?” 

The area has relatively few such all-day parking lots, however. Plus, improving parking is not a supervisor’s job. While supervisors relay complaints to city agencies, SFMTA controls streets, parking and fees. 

All seven members of the SFMTA board of directors are appointed by the mayor, and thus pretty much “at the call of the mayor,” said Mar, the former supervisor. 

“If you are close with the mayor, often the department heads would act on your stuff, or return your phone call,” said Mar. “But if you were on the outs with the mayor, or if you have a very sharp critique in the media, often the department heads would put your requests on the bottom of the list.” 

Supervisors who run into a brick wall with the departments may ultimately “resort to guilt, or attack the department head and try to embarrass them for not abiding by what neighborhoods want,” Mar added. 

Other than parking, streets design and safety is top of mind for residents throughout District 1, from Inner to Outer Richmond and in Sea Cliff.

Hugged by the Presidio and Lands End, with breathtaking ocean views, Sea Cliff is one of the newest additions to District 1, following 2022 redistricting. 

Here, houses have immaculate front yards, orchids in the windows and Chinese guardian lions at the entrances. On a recent Tuesday morning, more people were working in these houses than living in them: Dog walkers, cleaning crews and construction workers.  

But the roads; “The streets are in such terrible shape,” said Linda, 82, a homeowner near El Camino Del Mar. She is referring to bumpy roads throughout the city. “They do a terrible job of patching. It’s hard on the car, and on the riders. It hurts the body, especially for seniors.” 

Linda also complains that she feels unsafe when she goes downtown, although her neighborhood feels pretty safe. Still, “it’d be nice to see police walk by the house once in a while,” Linda said. “Just the idea that they are looking out for you.” 

In the Richmond, all crimes are on the decline, with robberies down by 43 percent and burglaries down by 14 percent, according to the San Francisco Police Department, compared to the same period last year. Public safety was brought up here and there, but residents also admit that they feel safer in District 1 than other parts of the city; many chose to live here because of that. 

Just one block north of Zhang’s hair salon on Lake Street, Kevin Thomas volunteered that he felt great about the election results. A registered Republican, Thomas calls himself “a minority in the city.” 

He particularly complained that “people don’t stop for stop signs anymore.” 

Thomas was almost hit three times in one day, he said. Lake Street south of the lush Presidio has been a city-designated slow street since the pandemic, where pedestrians can walk and bike in the middle of the road. But Thomas doesn’t do that anymore, as cars usually speed down the street. “There are no consequences,” he said. 

And others prefer a more laissez-faire approach. Alex Vidaurre, playing video games on Nintendo Switch while waiting for his laundry, said that the neighborhood is doing well. What does he like best? Not the restaurants, nor the cheap Asian markets. It’s the fortnightly street cleaning. 

Some of his neighbors want cleaner streets. But Vidaurre, who commutes to Stonestown for work, doesn’t want to move his car as often. 

The infrequent street cleaning is exactly what he wanted.