Yes on Prop H and No on Prop 90 are the two big votes tenants need to make this year to expand and protect our rights under rent control. But, in addition 5 Supervisor seats are up as are School Board seats, Community College Board seats and a bunch of other local and state measures.

Board of Supervisors

Besides Props H and 90, the Board of Supervisor races pose the most interest for tenants. This year, the “even” seats are up—Districts 2 (Marina), 4 (Sunset), 6 (Tenderloin/SOMA), 8 (Castro/Noe), and 10 (Bayview/Potrero Hill).

The SFTU endorsements are:

District 2—Dave Kiddoo (Write In Candidate)

Michela Alioto-Pier has been horrible for tenants, with a 100% anti-tenant voting record but there’s no real challenge to her unfortunately.

District 4—Jaynry Mak (No other candidates ranked)

This Sunset district is never going to give tenants a Chris Daly. It’s overwhelmingly homeowner and tenant issues don’t dominate here. On the other hand, there’s no reason that District 4 should elect a Supervisor who was as feverishly anti-tenant as Fiona Ma was. Ma wasn’t happy ignoring tenants—she wanted us evicted and gone. Jaynry Mak will not have a 100% voting record for tenants, but she also won;t have a 100% voting record against tenants and that;s probably the best we can do here. Mak will at least be open to discussion and compromise and tenants can probably expect her vote on moderate issues (she supports Prop H, for example, and is against rent control means testing). Another factor is that Mak’s main opponents (Dudum and Chan) are both strongly supported by San Francisco’s landlords and right wing groups like SF SOS. Vote for Mak

District 6—Chris Daly (No other candidates ranked)

Not much has to be said here. Chris is awesome, leading the fight for tenants rights and rent control at City Hall. The moderates and conservatives may hate Daly and once again they salivate at the idea of defeating him. They just can’t grasp that Chris is loved in his district (he was the only Supervisor to avoid a runoff last time). Vote for Chris and get involved in his campaign.

District 8—Alix Rosenthal (No other candidates ranked)

The real struggle behind the condo conversion battles is over the demographics of the city. Downtown business interest and right wing groups have been in the forefront for more condo conversions because they are the most efficient way of eradicating the city of tenants (who tend to be diverse, lower & moderate income and a large progressive voting bloc). For every conversion, a tenant is evicted (usually out of the city) and the unit becomes million-dollar condo inhabited by a wealthier and more conservative homeowner. These r true believers of condo conversions don;t see evictions as an unfortunate by-product of the conversion, they see the evictions as positive and welcome. District 8 is a living example of this struggle. Once very progressive, the unprecedented number of evictions and conversions there mean the district is now moderate and up for grabs. There’s still substantially more tenants than condo owners in District 8, but nothing like before. Sup. Bevan Dufty was clearly elected to his seat by the condo owners (he narrowly defeated Eileen Hansen, who was strongly supported by tenants). This year’s race between Dufty and Alix Rosenthal will be similar. Rosenthal understands the issues that tenants are facing, especially in this district which has had so many evictions that it’s been deemed the AIDS Eviction Capital of the world and she would be a strong pro tenant vote on the Board.

District 10—1 st Choice Marie Harrison, 2 nd Choice Sophie Maxwell, No 3 rd Choice

This was a tough decision for the SFTU. As Supervisor, Maxwell has a consistent pro-tenant voting record. She has not taken the lead on any tenant issues and too often she remains on the fence until the last minute. Coming from a mostly homeowner district maybe not much more could be expected of her, but it is (a working class district which votes pro-tenant so the Supervisor here needs to be pro-tenant. A solid voting record like she has would normally get a candidate the Tenants Union endorsement and Maxwell would have gotten it except for the issue of Bayview Redevelopment. Maxwell supports the existing redevelopment plan and Bayview tenant and affordable housing activist Marie Harrison opposes it.

The redevelopment issue is a tough one, largely because the Bayview has been criminally ignored for so long that there’s temptation to support anything but the status quo. Nonetheless, the redevelopment “project area” is massive, encompassing the entire neighborhood (It’s the largest such project area in the history of redevelopment here and elsewhere; in other SF neighborhoods, these project areas designating areas as “blighted” are typically a stretch of 1 or 2 blocks, not entire neighborhoods. The massiveness of the area, coupled with the history of redevelopment as a tool to rid neighborhoods of poor and working people, layered on top of the fact that so many of the Bayview residents were already displaced once by redevelopment (from the Western Addition). The city definitely needs to pay attention to the Bayview—it needs grocery stores, jobs, reliable bus service, better roads, better parks, and police who treat it as a neighborhood, not as occupied enemy territory. A moderate redevelopment plan might make sense—along the 3 rd Street commercial corridor, for example, or a program with specific goals (e.g. get a grocery store into Bayview Plaza) or develop a program to give grants or loans for low income homeowners to bring houses up to code.

But, given the history of Redevelopment, the gentrification already happening in the Bayview and then a redevelopment plan which says an entire neighborhood is blighted and the current plan is a too much and will likely prove to be too much of a temptation for the Redevelopment Authority to do more harm than good, as history has shown us Redevelopment will do when the door is opened.

School Board

This is of less interest to tenants directly. Our endorsements reflect candidate positions on tenant issues (important because School Board is often a stepping stone to Supervisor), current education issues and a candidate’s understanding how maintaining affordable and secure housing is important to children going to school. Our endorsements (3 positions open).

Jane Kim

Kim Knox

Kim Shree Maufas

Community College Board

Also of less interest directly, but important for the same reasons above.

Johnnie Carter

Anita Grier

Bruce Wolfe

San Francisco Propositions

Prop A (School Bond) No Posiiton (Note this bond is partially passed through to tenants)

Prop B (Teleconferencing) Yes

Prop C (Elected Officials Salaries) No Position

Prop D (Private Information) No Position

Prop E (Parking Tax) Yes

Prop F (Paid Sick Leave) YES YES YES

Prop G (Chain Store Limits) Yes

Prop H (Eviction Relocation) YES YES YES

Prop I (Mayor-Supervisor Meetings) Yes

Prop J (Impeach Bush Cheney) Yes

Prop K (Senior/Disabled Housing) Yes

State Propositions (No Position if not listed)

Prop 1C (Housing Bonds) Yes

Prop 1E (Levee Repair) Yes

Prop 83 (Sex Offenders) No

Prop 86 (Abortion Waiting Period) No

Prop 90 (Property Regulations) NO NO NO