Candidate for
Supervisor; County of San Francisco; District 5

I was born and raised in New York City. New York City. The daughter of two social workers, I grew up believing that we each have a personal responsibility to make the world a more just place and to work to improve conditions for others. It was also during my childhood in New York that I developed my lifelong fascination with housing, land use, and transportation.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in American Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Boston 1n 1989, I moved west to start law school at Boalt Hall. Commuting across the bay via BART for three years, I developed a deep love for my adopted home city: San Francisco. Through volunteer work during law school, summer jobs, and upon graduation, I dedicated myself to the work that captured my passion: creating affordable housing for low-income people. In 1994, I was thrilled to land my dream job with the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing. Today as I travel around the City, I enjoy seeing the buildings that comprise the hundreds of units of housing I helped create.

During my five year tenure with the Mayor's Office of Housing where I was employed as a Special Assistant, I was personally subjected to abuses, such as being told that I was required to "volunteer" to sweep streets when I was six months pregnant. (When I asked why I needed a doctor's note to be excused from a volunteer activity, I was finally excused.) In fact, I quit my job with the Mayor's Office of Housing + a job I loved + rather than work on Willie Brown's reelection campaign, as I was being strongly pressured to do. Later, I testified before the Ethics Commission and the Board of Supervisors about my experiences. My testimony started a series of events in motion that, today, is cleaning up Special Assistant abuses by reclassifying these jobs into the Civil Service system and requiring incumbents to prove + as all Civil Service candidates must + that they are qualified to perform the duties of their job.

My experiences as a City employee turned me into a labor activist. While I was employed I organized Special Assistants to gain union representation. A few years ago I started working for Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21 AFL-CIO as Policy Analyst. I'm proud of the work I have done to improve the lives of City employees and residents through the union.

In addition to my labor work, I have continued to follow my passion: affordable housing. For four years I have worked with non-profits and local governments throughout California to develop housing policy and obtain financing for affordable housing.

In 2002, I was asked to serve the people of San Francisco as a member of our Planning Commission. I was honored to accept this opportunity to continue to improve people's lives by making the best land use decisions I could for our city. I found this chance to serve to be deeply rewarding, and I am proud of my work on the Commission, where I brought our city's Transit First policy closer to fulfillment by introducing the now-standard practice of including dedicated carsharing spaces in buildings requesting more parking than called for under the planning code, and instituting the now-standard practice of "unbundling" parking from housing units (requiring that parking spaces be sold or rented separately from housing units). I was the sole vote against the parking garage in Golden Gate Park, and I led the Commission in opposing Urban Outfitters' application for Conditional Use authorization to open a store on Haight Street, where neighborhood serving businesses are desperately needed. The decision to leave the Commission to run for the Board of Supervisors was a difficult one, but I saw the opportunity to be of greater service to San Francisco and could not walk away.

I've been happily married for eleven years; my spouse, Max Drukman, works for Pixar Animation Studios. We have a six year old daughter, with whom we enjoy riding bikes in the park and performing community service. While I was pregnant, my grandmother honored us by moving to the Bay Area and granting us the privilege of caring for her through the last years of her life, until she died last summer. My parents, my sister and her family all live in Sacramento, and we enjoy spending time with them and with my in-laws in Berkeley.