Public safety, housing, economic development and government accountability dominated the first of two community forums ahead of the November 2026 election.
Seven District 10 candidates for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors crowded the table at Providence Baptist Church on Monday night, hosted by the District 10 Coalition for Accountability.
Approximately 200 local residents, business owners, and community leaders heard from Theo Ellington, Shawn M. Richard, Pearci “PJ” Bastiany III, J.R. Eppler, Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter, Jessica Pessecow, and Mike (Trouble) Lin, all vying to succeed termed-out Supervisor Shamann Walton.
The evening’s moderator was Dexter R. Hall, interim executive director of the Providence Foundation, a Bayview Hunters Point-based nonprofit organization. Hall asked each candidate the same questions and called for specificity and courtesy. Issues ranged from public safety to economic development and government accountability.
Both similarities and differences among the candidates emerged during the forum, which lasted just over two hours.
Theo Ellington, executive director of the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House and a third-generation San Franciscan raised in Bayview, highlighted his experience leading cultural and community initiatives. A former city commissioner appointed by three mayors, Ellington said his priorities include expanding housing near transit, improving government efficiency and strengthening public safety. Black churches are an essential component, he said, explaining, “A successful community has to work with them.”
Economic development is core to Ellington’s platform. For the India Basin Waterfront Park, a $200 million, 10-acre development that will transform the Bayview-Hunters Point shoreline when fully completed, he said he wants to see locally owned and Black-owned businesses get those job opportunities. “We have to strap our boots up,” he said.
J.R. Eppler, a business attorney with years of neighborhood advocacy in Potrero Hill and experience serving on San Francisco’s Board of Appeals and Building Inspection Commission, emphasized a record of securing affordable housing, transportation improvements, and community benefits from major development projects while calling for additional housing, safer streets, reliable transit, and policies that support families and neighborhood stability.
“When my wife and I moved to the district, I discovered that City Hall didn’t’t do the job,” he said. “It needs to be more complete, vibrant, and connected. Affordable. Vibrant merchant corridors.” His aim is to establish a Community Benefit District for the Third Street corridor, the commercial artery stretching from downtown through Dogpatch, Mission Bay, and Bayview-Hunters Point.
Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter, CEO of Young Community Developers Inc., drew on his years of nonprofit leadership focused on workforce development, education, and economic opportunity. Endorsed by Walton, Brookter is advocating for a public bank for “small loans and hyper-local enterprise.”
Brookter wants to help keep district residents in their homes. He pointed to issues surrounding the Certificate of Preference, a document that grants the highest priority placement in city-sponsored affordable housing lotteries and waitlists to people displaced by redevelopment projects. He noted its limitations and said he’s working with the Lurie administration to improve the process. Brookter also pointed to his interest in public safety, which he believes can be improved through workforce development.
Pearci “PJ” Bastiany III, a San Jose native and graduate student at UCSF, is the founder and CEO of Martial Artists for Hire, a private security and public safety firm. He wants martial artists with black belt status on public transportation and to ban police cadets from carrying guns. He leaned into his experience in nonprofit leadership, violence prevention, and civic engagement.
“I’vet done the research about everything on the agenda,” said Bastiany, explaining that he’s fighting for improved shuttle service, shipyard jobs, youth activities, street vendors, and ferry and water taxi service. For area schools he wants community chefs, more technology, and different languages taught. He’s a proponent of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze, and would like to see modular container shelter units in the district. “Afro-Latinos need sovereignty,” he said.
Jessica Pessecow, a psychiatric nurse, believes her clinical experience gives her a unique perspective on the city’s challenges. Pessecow said she’s the unifying candidate who is interested in the district’s well-being and safety and has a plan. Asking for a show of hands, she asked the audience if they knew of a business that had closed recently or too early, then said she would help change the way the city deals with taxes, permits, and red tape. “I will streamline government agencies,” she said. “There will be one place to get everything approved. Online. And it will happen fast.”
An avid board meeting attendee, Pessecow said she’s the only candidate with a plan for improved bus routes. Regarding public safety, she wants more mental health staffing and support for police, “so they’re not hurting our residents.”
Shawn M. Richard, founder of the violence reduction nonprofit Brothers Against Guns, is a native San Franciscan born and raised in District 10. As such, he said he knows the community deeply and has lost a lot of young men, including two of his brothers, to gun violence.
Public safety is his specialty, he said, and he wants more police accountability and community policing. “We have changed the lives of young men and young women engaged in street crime,” he said, referring to his nonprofit. “They’re working. I know what to do and that’s invest in youth organizations.” Through his after-school programs, he said he taught kids how to behave. Richard advocates for entrepreneurship, as well as more technology in schools.
Richard wants to connect with the city’s housing coalitions to prevent displacement and protect tenants’ rights, and hopes to increase homeownership. “We gotta bring them back,” said Richard of the area’s natives. “We need to build housing that people can afford in our district.”
Mike Trouble Lin is a self-employed resident of Potrero Hill. He is focusing his campaign on promoting small businesses and elevating the conversation around mental health. During his opening remarks, Lin said he has bipolar disorder. “I have been involuntarily committed in the psych ward,” said Lin. “I’m here for people who aren’t represented and to keep people accountable. And I’m trying to get Taylor Swift to perform in San Francisco.”
Shouts broke out in the largely Black audience, first when Lin criticized Supervisor Walton about excessive recreational vehicles, then intensified when he used a curse word. Hall quickly reprimanded Lin, reminding him about civility and that the meeting was being held in a church. But when Lin said he’s a big fan of Flock cameras and license plate readers, and that as an Asian he will advocate for more, another outburst came from the crowd. “I’m tired of hearing this, this is not working for me!” a woman yelled.
For his platform, Lin wants tiny homes in the district and to implement artificial intelligence to make transportation more efficient. He’d like to form a partnership with ride-share companies to give credits to low-income people so they can ride for free, and to create an arts district with murals.
When the forum ended, the highly engaged audience spilled onto the sidewalk. Among the attendees was Cheryl Thornton, who works for the Department of Public Health and is a grassroots organizer for the NAACP. She came to learn more about the candidates.
“I’m not sure who I’m voting for yet, I need to drill down more about the issues,” said Thornton. “This district is one of the largest in terms of land, the most diversity with income, income disparity. The needs are many. I was impressed by DJ and Theo had some really good answers. The jury is still out though.”
Bayview resident Henry Rogers said he’s supporting Shawn Richard. “He knows everything that goes on in the streets,” said Rogers. “He has the heart. He was born and raised here.”
Many other attendees declined to comment, citing connections to one or more candidates. In District 10 — especially Bayview Hunters Point, where the meeting was held — longstanding ties and personal relationships carry significant weight. Here, who you know matters.
The District 10 Coalition for Accountability plans to host a second candidate forum before voters cast their ballots.
