“Being a leader means stepping up when your constituents need help and doing whatever it takes to support them. For me, that included collecting and delivering tens of thousands of masks and gloves to frontline workers and service providers, and working night shifts serving meals in a COVID shelter hotel when we were severely understaffed. In times of crisis, you check your ego at the door, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.” -Matt
“San Francisco’s skyrocketing cost of housing isn’t just a problem—it’s a crisis. We can’t keep letting politicians block new housing we need now. We need more housing near jobs and transit, including affordable housing, so that working families can afford to live here. And we need to protect renters so that they can stay in their homes without being priced out or evicted.” -Matt
“It's not compassionate nor acceptable to have so many people living on our streets and sidewalks. We need a range of interventions to permanently get folks off the streets and into housing and care. That means much larger investments in emergency rental assistance, supportive housing, transitional shelters, mental health care, and addiction treatment in San Francisco. We also have to make sure other cities do their part to provide these services to decrease homelessness across California. This isn't something San Francisco can do alone—we need statewide solutions.” -Matt
“San Francisco has the largest income inequality of any Bay Area county. That disparity has only grown larger during the pandemic with small businesses and working families struggling to get by while millionaires and billionaires become richer than ever. That needs to change.” -Matt
“Climate change is the greatest existential threat we face, and it is already impacting our daily lives. We’re seeing devastating effects in the form of more wildfires, less rain, and soaring temperatures. The time to act was yesterday, and we need bold, immediate action at every level of government to slow this crisis. We can’t just pledge to take action by 2030 or 2040—the change has to start today.” -Matt
“I live in the Tenderloin. I see firsthand every day how urgent it is that we ensure our families, residents, and business owners are safe in every neighborhood in our city. Public safety requires community policing and crisis response teams to treat folks who are addicted or mentally ill on our streets. For people who need help, including treatment and rehabilitation, our system has to do a much better job of providing it. We also need to get guns and fentanyl off our streets and curb the recent spike in retail theft by going after larger organized crime rings. And we have to strengthen our laws to stop hate crimes. We shouldn’t be asked to choose between criminal justice reform and keeping communities safe. We must do both. ” -Matt
“Civil rights are under attack in America right now, and California must be a national leader in protecting voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, and a woman’s right to choose. All of these issues intersect with racial justice, which must always be front of mind as we work to dismantle systemic racism in our existing policies and institutions. I’m committed to defending and expanding the rights of ALL Californians.” -Matt
HOW CAN WE HAVE PRIDE in our community if our streets and sidewalks are covered with human waste, needles, and trash? One of my top priorities will be to fight for resources for daily sidewalk deep cleaning, community clean up crews, and open and clean public restrooms.
Here’s what I’ll do:
Fight for the deep daily sidewalk and street cleaning that our district needs -- right now, we are under-supported and under-resourced in street cleaning. This has to include early mornings, middle of the night, and weekends.
Increase community clean up crews -- helping to create jobs and pathways to stability, while also keeping our communities clean and safe.
Expand the number of trash cans in the district, and replace broken, old trash cans with new “Big Belly” style trash cans.
Implement “smart on trash” data analytics -- our resources should be targeted where, when and how they are most needed.
Double the number of public restrooms in our district, and extend hours into the evening and night.
Use public restrooms as fully staffed service centers -- if someone comes to a public restroom in the middle of the night, we should use that as an opportunity to get them off the street and into shelter.
LIVING IN THE TENDERLOIN I’ve seen first hand how unaddressed crime can have serious consequences. Robberies and car break-ins can be devastating financially for struggling families, and it is just plain wrong to simply tolerate the violence and open-air drug dealing that is taking place daily on our streets.
I believe it is the responsibility of a district supervisor to keep our neighborhoods safe. I'll be in the community, with our small businesses and residents, and in our police stations working to make sure that our district is no longer used as a containment zone for crime. Reversing decades of failed, ineffective public safety policy is not going to be easy, but I’m as frustrated as you are, and I want my neighbors to feel safe walking to school and work on our streets. I'm committed to bringing a hands-on, all-in, solutions-driven approach to addressing crime and its root causes.
Here’s what I’ll do:
Increase support for foot patrols all over D6. We need more in SOMA and the TL, and to add South Beach, Rincon Hill, and Mission Bay, where none exist now.
Ensure strong standards around community policing, where officers work closely in collaboration with our neighborhoods and reflect our values and diversity.
Activate corners and blocks that have become taken over by drug dealing by bringing in new businesses and economic activity, and empowering community organizations.
Increase support for community organizations like Safe Passage to provide “Community Safety Ambassadors” all over the district.
Work with the District Attorney to ensure more effective consequences for crime, getting people the help they need to stop committing crime, including support for a Mental Health Justice Center.
Provide support for more proactive investigations to stop property crime and drug dealing that prey on vulnerable people.
AS SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT, I visited every public K-12 school in the City. Our city's young people will tell you how much they love it here, but also how hard it can be growing up in the most expensive city in the country. They just want stable and affordable homes for their family and a future in a San Francisco where they can thrive.
Grandstanding and trading blame for our lack of affordable housing isn't going to solve our crisis -- building affordable housing and strengthening tenant protections will. As Supervisor, I’m committed to work tirelessly to find sites, make deals, and bring in funding to actually build the thousands of units of affordable housing my community needs. We can do this, but only if we're willing to move past the toxic infighting and get to work.
Here’s what I will do:
Develop bold goals to build additional housing, especially affordable housing, within D6, and work tirelessly to make it happen.
Use city owned land to build 100% affordable housing and acquire land on which to build.
Upzone and rezone parts of D6 for additional housing and streamline processes for affordable housing construction.
Advocate for an affordable housing bond -- to fund both low income and middle income housing.
Support stronger rent control and tenant protection to prevent exorbitant rent increases and speculation.
SAN FRANCISCO'S STRENGTH IS IN ITS CULTURE, INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY. The future of San Francisco must be one that protects and builds on what makes San Francisco the most magical, dynamic city in the country.
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Our residents should be able to walk down the street safely in any part of District 6 and experience neighborhoods that are clean and well-lit, businesses and restaurants that are open and thriving, and inspiring opportunities to interact, work and learn.
District 6 has the least amount of open space of any district in the city, and some of the most dangerous streets for pedestrians and bicyclists. As Supervisor, I will take action to protect and prioritize community serving small businesses, parks, and the arts. I’ll make sure that new developments include both affordable housing, and a real commitment to serve the current and future needs of the residents, including open space and transportation.
Here’s what I will do:
Fight for protected bike lanes to create a coherent, safe, and accessible network across our district and city.
Make Market St the thriving, vibrant, pedestrian, bike and public transportation it should be, by focusing on bigger infrastructure changes, and block by block economic development, activation, and improvement.
Advocate for funding for big infrastructure and public transportation projects--Downtown Extension, a second BART tube, an East West subway -- and ensure timelines and accountability.
Support nightlife, arts and culture in our district -- including our nightlife and entertainment zones -- and add outdoor cafe, parklet, and entertainment spaces.
Fight for equity in park funding -- funding to renovate, modernize, and acquire new park space should prioritize our needs in D6 -- including adding and improving dog parks around District 6, including in SOMA, Rincon Hill, and Mission Bay.
Fully fund our cultural districts -- SOMA Pilipinas, Comptons Transgender District, and Leather LGBTQ District -- and make sure they are at the center of future development and services.
Develop plans for each of our district’s “alleys,” which are too often now left without any sort of economic development or safety plans.
OUR TOP PRIORITY RIGHT NOW has to be solving homelessness. We can't just abandon people to live on our streets, especially people who are sick or mentally ill. It’s not right for them, and it’s not right for our neighborhoods, residents and small businesses. District 6 is bearing the brunt of this crisis, and it is completely unacceptable.
As Supervisor, I'll be laser focused on tackling homelessness, and that means getting mentally ill people into care, people experiencing addiction into treatment, and people living on our streets into Navigation Centers and permanent housing. And we need stronger protections and innovative solutions so that individuals and families don't become homeless to begin with. Every elected official and city department needs to do their part to solve our city's biggest crisis. The indifference and inaction from our city is shocking and must end immediately.
Here’s what I’ll do:
Build additional navigation centers that address the homelessness crisis here in District 6.
Expand homelessness outreach to make sure that we are being both proactive and accountabie. The police shouldn’t be the only ones providing frontline responses to homelessness and mental illness.
Ensure additional long term mental health beds and drug treatment, and the accountability within the system so that we stop letting people slip through the cracks and back out onto the street.
Enhance services at our shelters to transition them to the navigation center model, working to make sure there pathways to stability for people who enter our shelters, not a revolving door back onto the street.
Improve responsiveness and results from 311 and government services.