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In the first debate between the two candidates for San Francisco District 2 supervisor on Tuesday evening, housing was the most contentious topic.
Though candidates Stephen Sherrill and Lori Brooke also spent large parts of the debate talking about cars and public safety, their answers on housing drew the most audible response from the crowd of about 200 people gathered at Convent & Stuart Hall, who leaned older and whiter…
Brooke, a longtime neighborhood organizer, criticized the city’s recent upzoning plan, which allows taller, denser housing in the city’s north and west, including on commercial corridors like Lombard and Chestnut streets in District 2…
Neighborhoods United SF, which Brooke co-founded, is part of a coalition currently suing the city to block the upzoning plan.
Sherrill, who was appointed District 2 supervisor by outgoing Mayor London Breed in December 2024, voted for the plan. But at the debate, as he has previously, he distanced himself from it, pointing out that the upzoning was mandated by the state.
If he hadn’t voted for it, he said, the state would have taken over San Francisco’s ability to approve new housing, essentially allowing buildings of any height to be built anywhere…
Brooke pushed back on Sherrill, saying that state takeover wasn’t the “real issue.” That, she said, is YIMBY state laws — the ones that required upzoning and allowed a 25-story buildingto be proposed on the current site of the Marina Safeway right by the waterfront.
This did not let Sherrill off the hook. “My opponent says he doesn’t like [the Marina Safeway development], which is good, but he is endorsed by the very senator and the YIMBY organizations that wrote and championed the laws that made it possible,” Brooke said.
Unlike Sherrill, she said, she would push back strongly against Sacramento.
Sherrill, for his part, said, “I absolutely urge our state representatives to reform some of these laws.”…
Other questions focused on street safety and drugs.
Both Sherrill and Brooke said they think drug dealers with prior convictions should serve mandatory jail time. (“Thank you,” said Moriarty.) Both also agreed that fully staffing the police department was a high priority…
Another big topic: Transportation. Both candidates agreed that Market Street should be reopened to cars (a few people booed, then some cheered). They also both agreed that new housing developments should include more parking.
The city should not prioritize any “single mode” of transportation and should give “appropriate” weight to other forms of transportation, Brooke said, pointing to frustrations over traffic and parking. The city’s “transportation decisions,” she said, have become “less about neighborhood actual function and more about transit ideology.”… (more)
I love the way the media keeps harping on some districts for building less new housing than other districts. There is a good reason for this. Some districts are already built out, and some districts have a large amount of open space or old industrial uses that can easily to converted into new neighborhoods. There is also a different in seismic stress that we saw during the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Marina had heavy damage. Is this the place to build a 25 story housing project?
New Bombshell story from NY Post: Ex-San Francisco mayor appointed Bloomberg pal to key seat in hopes of landing a job. People ask, is that legal or is that a bribe? Could this effect the election?
