Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 10 supervisor candidates respond to questions each week in 100 words or fewer. Answers will be published every Thursday.
District 10 includes neighborhoods in the city’s largest southeast sector, including Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Visitacion Valley, Dogpatch, and Sunnydale.
Each candidate is first ordered alphabetically, then rotated each week.
In July, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to allow AutoZone, an auto-parts and supplies chain, to take over a now-shuttered Walgreens on the Third Street corridor.
The decision quickly catapulted into one of the most hotly debated issues in the Bayview this year.
At the planning commission meeting, Bayview residents showed up in droves. Most, including supervisorial candidate Theo Ellington, were there hoping to sway the commission to reject AutoZone’s offer. But a minority of public commenters asked commissioners to vote in AutoZone’s favor.
The shuttered Walgreens has stood empty on Third Street since it closed in 2025, and the building, said its landlords, Raj and Veena Kaul, has been difficult to fill. Neighbors have complained of blight, citing the need to quickly fill vacant storefronts, which has become an ongoing issue along the commercial corridor.
Third Street has been slow to recover after pandemic closures, and sales and retail growth in the neighborhood have plummeted. This concern was amplified by sitting Supervisor Shamann Walton, who supported the decision to let AutoZone in.
But residents at the meeting said the neighborhood didn’t need another auto shop. Though a nonprofit pharmacy is scheduled to open soon on Third Street, the neighborhood is lacking in essential services, including large, name-brand grocery stores and a pharmacy.
This week, we asked each of the candidates for District 10 supervisor whether the planning commission should have approved the AutoZone. Here’s what they had to say.
Theo Ellington
- Job: Executive director, Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House. Policy director, Brownstein, public affairs director for the Golden State Warriors and the first director of homelessness initiatives and community development for The Salvation Army San Francisco.
- Age: 37
- Residency: Renter and former homeowner, lifelong San Franciscan and third-generation resident, born and raised in Bayview near Third and Palou streets, has lived in the Hunters Point Shipyard in District 10 since 2016
- Transportation: Driving, public transit, walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, Notre Dame de Namur University; master’s degree in urban affairs from the University of San Francisco.
- Languages: English
No. Bayview lost its last pharmacy and vital grocery store. Third and Williams, a gateway to Bayview, needs an anchor that brings foot traffic. A car-centered chain at a T-Third stop cuts against our City’s zero-emission goals. I was the only candidate to publicly oppose.
Our Citizens Advisory Committee voted unanimously against it, and the Planning Commission approved it anyway. But because our community spoke out, the store must collect used fluids indoors and scale back its signage.
We can’t keep fighting parcel by parcel. We need a Community and Economic Development Plan, so we can dream bigger and build the neighborhoods we deserve.
Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, State Controller Malia Cohen, San Francisco Democratic Party, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Congressman Kevin Mullin, Former Mayor London Breed, State Senator Scott Wiener, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, Former Mayor Willie Brown, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, read more here.
Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter
- Job: No current job, formerly chief executive officer at Young Community Developers
- Age: 43
- Residency: Homeowner in Candlestick Point/Little Hollywood area since 2021, moved to San Francisco in 2014
- Transportation: Driving, public transit, walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in speech communication, Utah State University, master’s degree in business administration, University of Phoenix
- Languages: English, some Spanish
No one is happy that AutoZone is replacing the former Walgreens. But after more than three years of searching unsuccessfully for a tenant, the property owners found AutoZone to be the only viable option. Without it, the site could remain vacant for years.
Still, Bayview lost its only pharmacy, and this prominent Third Street property could have served broader community needs. This is a clear example of the market failing to meet the needs of a long-neglected neighborhood.
The City should step in to help secure the basic necessities residents deserve, whether through affordable housing, a grocery store, a pharmacy, or other community-serving uses.
Endorsed by: Supervisor Shamann Walton, Former Mayor Willie Brown, Supervisor Connie Chan, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, Former Mayor Art Agnos, Former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin, Former Supervisor Dean Preston, Former Supervisor John Avalos, read more here.
J.R. Eppler
- Job: Small-business attorney
- Age: 46
- Residency: Homeowner, lived in San Francisco since 2007 and Potrero Hill since 2010
- Transportation: Driving, public transit, walking, biking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, law degree from University of California, Los Angeles, MBA from University of California, Los Angeles
- Languages: English
No. Conditional-use approval requires finding a proposal necessary or desirable for, and compatible with, the neighborhood. In my judgment, AutoZone did not meet that standard.
But the site’s industrial zoning blocks alternatives like housing above shops, narrowing the choices and making approval highly likely. City Hall helped create that bind.
I would pair zoning reform with active tenant recruitment, storefront grants, and leasing assistance to attract uses that better serve Bayview. Filling vacancies matters; our zoning should also make room for the homes, services, and thriving corridors our residents deserve.
Endorsed by: Harvey Milk Democratic Club, SF League of Pissed Off Voters, United Educators of San Francisco, California Working Families Party, read more here.
Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, grammar, and to meet the word limit requirement. Do you have questions you’d like to ask the candidates? Email marina@missionlocal.com.
You can register to vote here.
For those who actually paid attention at the time, the Conditional Use hearing was required because AutoZone is Formula Retail. Walgreens, despite being a much more beneficial and genuinely community-serving use, is also technically Formula Retail. So the application technically replaced one Formula Retail use with another; it wasn’t introducing Formula Retail to the corridor.
The property owners also began searching for their next tenant before Walgreens even left, spent MORE THAN 4 YEARS searching, and even convinced Walgreens to stay an extra year beyond what they had originally planned. This is why denying the application would have been difficult to justify. But I guess no one cares about FACTS, just political rhetoric.
I’m unhappy with the outcome, but that doesn’t give candidates a license to misrepresent the circumstances that led to it. Before confidently telling everyone else why this happened, people need to understand the actual FACTS and the constraints the Commission was operating under.