Downtown Recovery: build universities.
Our downtown economy is struggling due to vacant office space and a reduction in office workers, which has led to a devastating lack of patronage to local businesses and a feeling that our streets are less safe. So let’s do something different: let’s convert downtown into an academic village, with a dozen university campuses, and 10,000 students permanently living here. I started the movement to bring a university to downtown San Francisco, and I will collaborate with city and state officials to pass legislation to streamline office to housing conversions that can support students and teachers to live here. Transforming our downtown into an academic village will bring patronage to the small businesses and nightlife, employ thousands of local workers, and help keep San Francisco a hub for technology, healthcare, and the arts.
Homelessness: the built for zero solution.
Our city does not have a money problem in addressing homelessness. We have a bureaucracy and implementation problem. I will advocate for a Built for Zero System - a data driven public-private partnership that centralizes fragmented government departments into a coordinated effort, and has helped 14 US cities reach a level of functional zero homelessness. The system will use real-time data collection and consolidated support services delivered via Managed Care Hubs - one-stop mobile-shops that bring housing, jobs, and healthcare services to those who need them where they need them. We have the resources, it's time to deploy those resources with accountability so we can finally start to measure results and end the era of encampments.
Small Business: night markets galore.
We must complement safe streets and dense housing with vibrant small businesses. Over 30,000 small businesses closed their doors since the pandemic, impacting immigrant and low-income workers the most. As the cofounder of 13 Fund and a Board Member of the Tenderloin Community Benefit District I have supported small businesses and their workers in the city, and believe we must continue that support by streamlining permitting and regulations that make it difficult to operate food establishments. I will advocate for legislation at both the city and state to enable us to build permanent night markets in our downtown - ushering in food stalls, vendors, and entertainment to fill our streets with joy, music, and tens of thousands of people every week. There is nothing progressive about making families - many of them immigrants - go broke or destroy their credit because they want to open a business in the city they love.
Transit: pave the green mile.
Cities are for people. We must activate our roads into public spaces where rapid buses and bikes can move free of traffic, where we build urban canopies to beautify the neighborhoods and reduce pollution with carbon sinks. I will advocate for the creation of a Green Mile - a contiguous slow street along Page Street from Golden Gate Park to Market. This will enable families, pedestrians, cyclists to commute safely from one end of the city to the other. And with the addition of diverters at intersections, resident and fire truck access, and bolstering of neighboring Muni services on adjacent streets, we can build an example of modern, safe, and inclusive urban design.
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