Breed’s rivals debate in Corona Heights

Candidates for San Francisco mayor faced off in a debate sponsored by multiple neighborhood groups in District 8 at the Randall Museum in Corona Heights last Thursday. Despite incumbent Mayor London Breed being absent from the proceedings, it turned out to be a lively event where two candidates argued over the city’s public safety policies, an issue that, along with housing, overshadowed the event. 

The challengers come to Mount Olympus

Corona Heights has steep, quiet streets populated with houses that, apart from some modern additions, would not look out of place in West Portal. Instead, it overlooks the Castro. Affluent and activist, this is the center of a bloc of neighborhoods with the highest reliable voter turnout in the city. It’s no surprise that 11 of the area’s neighborhood associations — including nearby Mount Olympus — hosted a mayoral debate here Sept. 5. 

What may be surprising is Mayor London Breed’s absence, given her campaign headquarters is just down the hill. Her spokesperson, Joe Arrellano, told KTVU that she didn’t have the bandwidth to attend. At least two televised debates are planned for later this month. Nonetheless, this event garnered a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 people. In addition to KTVU and The Voice, the event attracted media outlets as diverse as the Bay Area Reporter and Reuters. 

But the event wasn’t a Dump-on-Breed session. Challengers, including former District 2 Supervisor and interim Mayor Mark Farrell, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, and philanthropist Daniel Lurie, repeatedly differentiated themselves as they answered questions from veteran reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez. 

“Being here at the Randall Museum brings back memories. I had my eighth-grade science fair here,” Farrell told attendees in his introduction. “Despite our problems today, we have our natural beauty, our parks, our universities, but more than anything, we have the people of San Francisco. But the reality is our city is suffering under the leadership of Mayor Breed,” he continued, reiterating concerns about crime and blight. 

“I got my start at a neighborhood organization,” Peskin began in his introduction, referencing his leveraging of land use and other issues while leading the Telegraph Hill Dwellers. 

“You’ll hear some pretty stark differences this evening […] I have been a champion of affordable housing. Most of my opponents prefer to talk about luxury housing. I have a track record of sticking up for neighborhoods. Many of my opponents are pursuing policies that would be ruinous to them,” he added, framing a record that has shaped much of city policy over the last 20 years.

Safaí echoed Peskin’s messaging while highlighting upward mobility. He zeroed in on Lurie’s candidacy as an exemplar of “billionaires trying to buy this election.” 

“I’m a proud immigrant that came to this country, fleeing violence and upheaval when I was 6 years old; I was raised by a single mom […] ask yourself one central question: who has the vision, experience, and leadership skills to turn this city around and fight for all San Franciscans, not just the rich but working and middle-class families […] we can’t be a tale of two cities in San Francisco.”

Already on the defensive, Lurie urged attendees to look beyond his background. 

“People want to stick me with Levi’s; I run towards it. I’m proud of growing up in an iconic company that always took care of its employees. What you won’t hear about is that my dad was a rabbi [who] helped tens of thousands of Jews leave persecution in the ’80s and ’90s. That led me to start Tipping Point […] and raise over half a billion dollars to tackle poverty. The values my wife Becca and I are trying to instill in our kids are kindness, empathy, and to listen. We don’t get that from our elected leaders now. I’m going to listen to the community.”

Big questions: The city’s economic health

Rodriguez quizzed Farrell on how he would revitalize the economy. Farrell highlighted his private sector experience but emphasized public safety as a priority for reviving downtown. 

“We need to clean our streets and set the conditions so businesses can thrive,” he said, adding, “We have to get aggressive with tax incentives out of city hall, both in downtown and commercial corridors in our neighborhoods, including District 8, and we have to focus on the conversion of commercial to residential downtown.” 

Farrell did not directly mention plans already on the table, including Proposition M, the measure making significant changes to business taxes, or recently passed legislation aimed at easing conversions, but said, “We have to think outside the box” and explore policy “not being proposed today in City Hall.”

“I was actually the person to pass the legislation that Mr. Farrell was referring to ease conversion of the office buildings to housing, and then I passed legislation to finance those conversions,” Peskin countered. He expressed “grave concern” about “negative policy supported by the mayor and some on this stage to massively redevelop some of our neighborhood commercial corridors […] that is going to lead to the displacement of small businesses and residents.”

Safaí noted his legislation creating an investment fund to help public colleges buy distressed office buildings, dovetailing with Breed’s support for a historically black college downtown satellite campus. Like Farrell, he then pivoted to public safety, proposing to make the Department of Public Works “a true 24-hour department” to keep the streets clean. He also highlighted his recent legislation for police foot patrols.

Lurie also doubled down on public safety, calling for a new police station covering the city’s hospitality zone, from Moscone to Union Square. 

“Right now, we have three stations covering that area; we all saw what unfortunately happened on Saturday,” he added, referring to the shooting of 49ers draft pick Ricky Pearsall. “I was proud of our police for responding very quickly, but it’s not only having a fully staffed police department which we need.” 

The housing shortage

Public opinion may be friendlier to new housing than in previous years. Still, NIMBYs were out in force last Thursday, proselytizing forum attendees as they waited in line. One activist disrupted the program, demanding candidates’ opinions on controversial projects before being politely ejected. 

Rodriguez asked Peskin how he would balance building thousands of new housing units mandated over the coming years with neighborhood fears about upzoning. Peskin remained defiant, defending his policies over the last two decades. 

“I think we need to reject the narrative of the developers and real estate speculators, he told the audience. “They’ll tell you I’m the worst, but I am actually the best candidate to build the affordable housing that San Francisco needs. I have voted to approve over 100,000 new units, and insisted on affordability. I am the only candidate supporting expanding rent control. Unlike some of my opponents, I have never voted against affordable housing, but as I said earlier, I am deeply concerned about one-size-fits-all solutions. We can build the affordable housing that San Francisco needs without turning Ocean Beach into Miami Beach.”

“We have a housing crisis in our city. We have to build more,” answered Safaí.  “But we must think about who we’re building housing for and respect neighborhoods as we go. When we have an empty lot on Market Street or 18th Street, we have to look to create housing in those opportunities because all parts of San Francisco have done that.”

Lurie urged reform of the city’s permitting bureaucracy while highlighting Tipping Point’s partnership with Mercy Housing and the city’s Housing Accelerator Fund to develop affordable housing at 833 Bryant Street. “I got it done in three years and for $377,000 a unit. It was on time and under budget,” he told attendees. 

“The White House just smacked our city down last week saying it takes longer to get through permitting in San Francisco than any other city. The insiders I’m running against have created this broken, ineffective, and corrupt system where you have to pay a permit expediter to get housing built,” he added. (Unlike at an earlier debate, the house lights did not suddenly go dark at Lurie’s mention of permit expediters.)

Farrell also supported more housing, but with caveats. He noted his support of significant projects in his district while supervisor. His successor, Supervisor Catherine Stefani, has also supported those projects, which are stalled in the pipeline.

“I believe we need to build more housing in every neighborhood [but] I believe the greatest opportunity for density exists in the downtown, South of Market and Mission Bay corridors. I don’t believe every neighborhood should look the same,” he added. The massive upzoning that [Mayor Breed] has proposed would crush the city of San Francisco. We can build smart; we can build along transit corridors. We can do form-based density, we can do it in every neighborhood, and we can preserve what San Francisco is.” 

Peskin, Farrell argue over police policies

Most candidates took Rodriuguez’s question on candidates’ short- and long-term plans for public safety to highlight the city’s understaffed police department as a top priority, Safaí pushed Proposition N, a fund to help first responders pay off student loans, to boost recruitment and retention of police officers. Meanwhile, fireworks erupted between Farrell and Peskin over past policies. 

“Mayor Breed has completely failed the city of San Francisco in terms of public safety,” the former interim mayor told the audience. “Three years ago, she stripped $120 million out of the police department’s budget, and we are down between five and 600 police officers in our police department today,” repeating claims over the city diverting funds from the police budget to the “Dream Keeper Initiative” in reaction to outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. That money has since been restored, though fiscal concerns over the initiative have prompted an audit. 

Farrell also repeated his promise to hire a new police chief, fully fund the department, and focus on officer recruitment. Peskin then used some of his time to attack Farrell’s record, eventually leading to an argument. 

‘Mark, not to rain on your parade, but actually, for the brief period that you were mayor, crime was 30 percent higher than the same period this year,” he began before touting yet another one of November’s ballot measures, Proposition F, which would revive the Deferred Retirement Option Program for some officers. 

Offered the chance of a rebuttal, Farrell continued the argument over crime statistics, fueled by public perceptions driven by persistent property crimes, particularly robberies in public spaces, along with the city’s drug crisis, despite overall incidence of crime declining. 

“So, if you believe Supervisor Peskin’s stats, you probably believe Mayor Breed’s stats that crime is down and we should all be feeling safe in our neighborhoods right now. The reality is Supervisor Peskin was the president of the Board of Supervisors when we defunded the police department three years ago. Our police department has declined by close to 600 officers when you were in office,” he went on. Peskin repeatedly interrupted, eventually prompting Rodriguez to step in and move things on. 

The entire show is available to stream on YouTube here.