Fillmore/
Lower Fillmore Neighborhood Association Questionnaire
Submitted by Julian Davis, Candidate for District 5 Supervisor
FLFNA
Questionnaire Responses
1)
District
elections allow for a fine-grained level of neighborhood representation and
also create an opportunity for grass roots candidates to compete and win
against larger special interests.
A
supervisor has various roles to play in representing a district. On a basic
level a supervisor must be a diligent advocate for constituents. That means
having a responsive and effective office at handling the myriad daily issues
that come up for residents and merchants in our neighborhoods. This level of
commitment is what we expect of any elected office holder.
District
supervisors also have a role to play as supervisors for the entire city. In
this capacity, it’s important to both represent the interests and needs of the district
but also to have a larger vision about the future of San Francisco and to
present a positive legislative agenda for the district and the city at large.
2)
The three
most pressing issues for the Lower Fillmore are public safety, clean streets,
and community economic development.
Our communities should be safe
places to live and work. Adding more beat cops may help in the short term, but
we need to address the root causes of poverty and crime, and foster fair and
effective community-police relations. It’s also about neighbors looking out for
each other and building a trusting community. As supervisor I will ensure that
our police department achieves culturally competent community policing.
On any given day a pile of litter
and garbage can be seen collecting at street corners in the neighborhood such
as Fillmore and Golden Gate. While it is the everybody’s responsibility to be
good stewards of public space, the City should also step up and ensure that we
have clean streets. As supervisor I will make sure that DPW is on the job in
our neighborhood and also work to organize district clean team days in
conjunction with DPW so that residents can take an active role in keeping our
streets clean.
Finally, the Lower Fillmore has seen
intensive redevelopment over the past few decades and yet has not fully
succeeded at creating a vibrant commercial corridor in the Lower Fillmore. Fillmore between Turk and Eddy is stark
reminder of the failure of redevelopment. Why should a whole city block in the
heart of town be shuttered with venetian blinds? It doesn’t make any
sense. As supervisor I will work to
support community based entrepreneurs so that we can bring life to the
storefronts of the Fillmore commercial corridor.
3)
I have worked for most of my
organizing career on remedies to the negative impact of redevelopment on the
neighborhood and on the African American community. Working with San Francisco
Housing Development Corporation, the Booker T. Washington Community Service
Center and other community partners, we were the first to successfully sunshine
the Redevelopment Agency’s records of displaced people from the redevelopment
era. This allowed us to do effective outreach about the certificate of
preference program for the first time since its inception.
I also worked to amend the City’s
planning code to expand the certificate program to Mayor’s Office of Housing
administered units, not just redevelopment units - our housing reparations
ordinance was passed by the Board of Supervisors. Without this change,
certificates would have been useless in the Fillmore after the agency exited
the district over the last few years. In addition I and other activists worked
to extend the program to children and grandchildren of displaced householders.
While these accomplishments are
important, it’s still not enough. I will continue to bring leadership to this
issue as supervisor in District 5 by focusing on economic and housing justice
for a community whose roots were ripped from the ground.
4)
I did not support the Gang
Injunction and still don’t. I believe the Gang Injunction is of marginal
utility and raises serious concerns about the civil liberties of those whom it primarily
affects. After a crisis of violence mid-decade, community members, including
myself, stepped up to take leadership by enhancing programs for at-risk youth
in the neighborhood, especially in public housing. The collaborative approach
to programming was successful and we’ve seen a steady decrease in youth on
youth homicide since that time. I believe it was the work of the community, the
Supervisor’s office, and the Public Defender’s Office that successfully
addressed the root cause of violent crime in the neighborhood, not the Gang
Injunction.
5)
I am most proud of my work as
President of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center. At Booker T, I
have had the honor of working with a fantastic staff to envision a new center
that will be a home for emancipated foster youth and provide them with critical
on site support services. It is not always easy to win approval for this type
of development but we did it because we were organized and had the courage to
do what’s right. The new center will better serve our community’s needs and
will include a San Francisco bureau of Youth Radio, a tech skills center, a
childcare center, a mind body health center, and a community garden, in
addition to a new gymnasium.
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