Candidate for
Green Party County Council; County of San Francisco

I believe that we can create the conditions for a true democracy in our city, with the active participation of our residents, where money does not dictate policy and laws and where everyone has access to quality education, health care and housing.

We need to enfranchise each person living in San Francisco, to make them feel they have a stake in the system, and to offer them a place at the table. To accomplish this, we have to change not only our policy prioritie but also revamp the procedures by which laws are made and implemented.

I believe we need more diverse representation on city boards and commissions. I favor giving the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor equal powers of appointing commissioners. Positions for certain more powerful commissions, such as the Public Utilities Commission, Planning Commission and the Police Commission, should be elected. We need more community people on commissions and boards, not just academics, bureaucrats, career politicians and lawyers.

We must retain district elections to ensure representation of all neighborhoods at City Hall. City revenue must be distributed to Bayview-Hunters Point on an equal basis as it is to Pacific Heights.

We need to reform our election system. I favor instant runoff voting, public financing of elections and giving candidates free and equal television and radio time and eliminating street lamppost campaign signs.

My main policy priorities are as follows:

Big downtown corporations need to start paying their fair share of taxes. We need to use this revenue to fix our schools, e.g. recruit more teachers for smaller classrooms, pay teachers higher salaries, repair the buildings and equip the classrooms with books and supplies, reinstitute after school programs and increase the racial and economic diversity in all schools. San Francisco must continue to educate children of undocumented parents. I oppose privitization of our schools and I vehemently oppose using public funds for school vouchers.

We must provide affordable health care to all residents who don't have insurance or cannot afford it. Prenatal and postnatal care should be available to every mother and child.

I favor building more low-income and middle-income housing units in new developments and converting units in existing buildings to low and middle income units. We should use abandoned warehouses and buildings to create temporary shelters for homeless people with full services. The city should provide subsidized loans for home purchases.

Finally, the Green Party must reach out to communities of color and to women to join. Many people of color disaffected by the Democratic Party will find a home with the Greens. We share in our fight for social and economic justice and an end to discrimination on all levels.