A Black Agenda for San Francisco
As Mayor, I have an agenda to do something unprecedented — rebuild the Black middle class for a major American City.
With daily and focused attention from our next Mayor, there can be a Black Renaissance.
At every forum and candidate interview I have spoken about my Black Agenda for San Francisco.
And I consistently hear from White San Franciscans and others that they know our City has become unwelcoming and unhealthy for the Black community and that they feel strange living in a diverse City that has lost its Black middle-class.
San Francisco is a City that prides itself on diversity, inclusivity and marching to a different drummer.
We have championed LGBT and marriage equality, Immigrant rights and Sanctuary City, and I even supported our requirement that Happy Meals have nutritional standards – why can't we be the first American City to restore our African American community in terms of economic empowerment and successful outcomes?
As Mayor, I will take our City from worst to first in creating a thriving, successful Black community in terms of economic viability, health, educational attainment, arts and culture.
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My History My Mother, Maely, came to America in 1939 to escape from the Nazis. She arrived in New York City and went to Harlem her first day to see Duke Ellington play in the Renaissance Ballroom. She She became best friends with the legendary Billie Holiday who became my Godmother when I was born in 1955.
I was 9 and the storefront was my summer camp. Black voters from 21 to 91 years old would come and practice reading comprehension and multiple-choice. I would take these tests, too, and think about White voters who never had to prove their literacy in order to vote. I also thought a lot about what it would be like to be the person that these individuals would vote for, believing that they could bring about change. And that is when I became interested in electoral politics. My Mom went on to work for anti-poverty agencies, such as HARYOU-Act (Harlem Youth) and later Model Cities. My Mom was a close associate of legendary Black Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and fought tenaciously, but unsuccessfully, to block his expulsion from Congress for acts routinely done by White Members of Congress.
Years later, I had the amazing opportunity to work for Willie Brown as San Francisco’s Director of Neighborhood Services. In this important role, I worked closely with the Community to develop the Bayview Community Court; facilitate speakers and funding for the Bayview ROSES (Residents of the Southeast Sector) community policing meeting; secure funding for the first two Third Street Fairs; and to assist Mother Brown’s United Council of Human Services, BAYCAT (Bayview Center for Arts and Technology) and others. We had a staff of fifteen at Neighborhood Services and I'm proud of the strong African American representation we had on our Team. LaVonne Barnes and Brajah Norris both joined us from the beginning, and over the next five years I am proud to have played a role in hiring Naomi Kelly (now City Purchaser), Jimi Harris (now with PG&E), Seth Steward (now an Assistant District Attorney), Kymberlee Pittman (community outreach), and Yolanda Harris (children's services). We had dozens of interns as well, including London Breed, now Director of the African-American Cultural Center and a member of the San Francisco Fire Commission. |
I am committed to recruiting and promoting African Americans in San Francisco. My campaign family represents this commitment: I am proud to have African Americans in significant leadership positions on my campaign like Erik Proctor, Deputy Field Manager, LaVonne Barnes, Senior Outreach Coordinator and Christine Keener, Field Organizer. Sylvia Harper, who is the first African American to ever serve as a Captain in the San Francisco Police Department, serves as a former SFPD Commander, and is a long-time Bayview resident, is one of my campaign co-chairs. I am also I am honored to be endorsed by three of our City's African-American elected officials - BART Director Lynette Sweet, College Trustee Anita Grier and School Board Member Kim-Shree Maufas (#2). Former Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and Former Assessor and Board of Supervisors President Doris Ward have honored me with their #2 endorsements. Expanding Economic Opportunity SF Black unemployment is at an unacceptably high 20% when you take into account the long-term unemployed. As Mayor, my focus will be on creating jobs. We need a success plan for existing and new Black-owned businesses. We need to ensure that the City contracting process provides meaningful opportunities for Black and other Minority, Women and Local Business Enterprises.
We need to look at the capacity for local, minority and women owned firms to do work – and then make sure we're bidding that work out so that it's not gobbled up by only the big or out-of-town companies. I will hire a senior advisor within the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development (MOEWD) who is community-connected to focus on many major, billion-dollar city initiatives, such as high-speed rail, Hunters Point Shipyard, America's Cup, and Treasure Island, among others. This role will ensure that we engage and utilize minority and women-owned businesses and that there is sufficient job readiness for individuals from the community. This speaks to my enormous frustration that, from most reports, there was little visible employment of African Americans on the Third Street Light Rail other than as flag-wavers around the construction.
This is devastating to small firms that have staffed up to win a job and then have to lay off those very employees. This will not happen on my watch. For many local entrepreneurs, winning a City contract can be the easy part. Getting insurance, bonding, and floating costs of hiring for months or even years can often send a business into the red. For Black businesses that have seen their market dwindle since Proposition 209, the City must do more to increase meaningful participation in capital projects. Building Capacity and Wellness There are many outstanding organizations serving Black San Franciscans— Bayview Senior Center, Mother Brown's United Council of Human Services, BAYCAT (Bayview Center for Arts and Technology), Young Community Developers, Mo' MAGIC, and Black Coalition on AIDS to name a few.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Since 2001, the annual AIDS rates among African American men have been higher than for men of all other race/ethnicity groups. I will closely monitor the recent changes in HIV prevention strategy at the Department of Public Health to make sure they don’t undermine culturally sensitive prevention work in the Black community. |
waited backstage to meet him and she became part of the Jazz World, managing musicians including Charlie Parker and writing about the artists and music.
Billie Holiday only lived a block away from our 93rd Street apartment, and she was over all the time. Holiday never had a child and my Mother always laughed that my Godmother insisted on breast-feeding me even though she had no milk.
In those days Jazz artists couldn't perform in clubs unless they had a cabaret card issued by the Police – and they could not be issued if there were narcotics arrests. My Godmother could not get a cabaret card, so she worked with my Mom and Dad on 'Lady Sings the Blues' - her autobiography co-authored with William Dufty.
In July of 1959, My Godmother died, devastating our family. My parents soon split up and my Mom went to work for Heroin Addiction programs in Harlem. In just a couple of years, she began her work in Civil Rights. She started a press representative and fundraiser for the 1963 March on Washington with A. Philip Randolph.
In 1964 she worked for the National Council of Negro Women and Dorothy Height, running a voting rights storefront on 116th Street in Harlem. At that time, Black voters in NY were required to pass a literacy test, proving they could read at the 9th grade level.
After college, I began my career as a policy aide for legendary Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), the first Black woman elected to Congress, who ran for President in 1972.
I worked my way up to become Mrs. Chisholm's Senior Legislative Assistant for Education, and later worked for Rep. Julian Dixon (D-CA), who was my father figure and mentor.
incredibly proud to have Dr. Annette Shelton, 3rd Vice President of the San Francisco NAACP* (*organizational affiliation for identification purposes only) working by my side, whether we are walking Third Street, visiting Church services, or talking to Bayview residents.
One great example is the minority business utilization work Derf Butler did during the construction of the Four Seasons Hotel downtown. There wasn't a Black Plumber with the bonding or capacity to do the bathrooms - but Derf broke this work down so that a Black Plumber was able to win the work and install every sink in the Four Seasons. And every time you see marble in the Four Seasons, smile - it was installed by an African-American owned business in San Francisco.
There is work to be done to restore confidence in the City’s hiring. The Third Street Light Rail project promised jobs for the Black community. It is disappointing and disheartening that the African Americans hired for the project were waving flags and not building skills as electricians, carpenters or concrete technicians. We are all too familiar with the way MBE subs are treated in City projects. Primes win bids with significant MBE participation and then negotiate the scope of work with a City Department; suddenly Minority, Local or Women subcontractors find that instead of 10% of the job, their role has been reduced to 2% and their work won't begin until the second or third year of the contract.
My goal will be to build capacity and improve services by recruiting nonprofit board members who come from business and other fields and are skilled in fundraising, management, and other skills. As Mayor, I will personally meet with prevention workers focused on the Black community and monitor rates of new infection to make sure that the community gets the services it needs to bring down the rates of new infection. I am confident that we can shift our prevention strategy while maintaining the critical cultural ties that make HIV prevention activities effective.
Environmental Justice
20% of children in BVHP have asthma, and chronic illness rates are four times the state average. I am committed to continuing environmental remediation, and using the finest eco-materials to re-build the Shipyard and Alice Griffith. I sponsored legislation to create GoSolarSF, and this program has both boosted the adoption of solar and created jobs in this new economy for Southeast residents.
Nutrition
40-50% of Black and Latino residents have health issues related to obesity. I will be a Mayor setting a strong example for health and wellness, and will increase the City’s commitment to wellness for its employees. For the Southeast, this commitment means expanding access to healthy food, increasing the role of faith communities in helping residents to stop smoking and start exercising, and creating better jobs with access to health insurance.
Violence
Neighborhood wellness includes public safety. I will invest in prevention to keep kids out of our justice system. San Francisco has 80,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24. This has become an increasingly difficult time of life, especially for the 10% who are at highest risk of unemployment, homelessness, or involvement in the criminal justice system. These disconnected youth require high-quality comprehensive services and I’ve worked consistently to secure funding and implement great programs that serve young people in this age group.
After two Mission High School students were murdered, I worked closely with Principal Kevin Truitt and Athletic Director Scott Kennedy to create a program to cultivate a college-bound culture by providing access to summer college programs, one-on-one mentoring, individualized academic guidance and college counseling services. I invited 49ers owners Denise DeBartolo and John York to participate, and their financial support has been an incredible launching point for the program. Now called Mission ASAP (Athletic Scholar Advancement Program), this program has helped triple the rate of Mission High students graduating ready for a four-year college — most of these students are the first in their family to attend college.
I have worked closely to improve outcomes for young moms attending Hilltop High School. I held hearings to draw attention to Hilltop and its unique ability to improve outcomes for two generations at once. This attention has ensured that Hilltop remains a unique high school educating young moms and providing on-site child development and care.
As Mayor, I will champion successful programs like ASAP, Hilltop High School and Kindergarten to College and actively work to connect them with private sector supporters. I will build on innovative initiatives like SF Promise, which provides underachieving students with educational support and guarantees admission to SF State University; and the Center for Academic Re-entry and Empowerment (CARE), a successful anti-truancy program in the Bayview run by the Bayview YMCA. I will focus our employment programs on the transitional age and disconnected youth facing the greatest barriers, providing training and job-readiness services.
When prevention fails, I will rely on our excellent SFPD to provide strong leadership on the streets, and our District Attorney to continue the innovative and effective Neighborhood Courts system.
Public Housing
I've been talking about a renaissance for public housing. There is no reason public housing can’t be the best housing in San Francisco. In homeless prevention we understand that giving someone a key to an SRO without any services won’t turn their life around, but yet we expect that an apartment in the Big Four will translate into economic success.
I want to create Life Campuses at our major public housing developments involving our higher education institutions – providing wellness, skill building, parenting, and other courses and programs. I would like to pursue artists-in-residence so that visual and performing artists can provide creative engagement and classes on site. I am honored to be endorsed by former SFHA Executive Director Ronnie Davis because of our experience working together for Public Housing.
I want Public Housing to be the best housing our City offers.
Quality City Services
The City lost the trust of Black residents in the Bayview because we haven't delivered services on par with other neighborhoods. My first order of business will be to convene a bi-weekly meeting of departments and neighborhood stakeholders to troubleshoot issues around City services.
The Bayview taught me so much about the inequality in city services. When Onnyx Walker owned Onnie Pies on 3rd he called to complain that street cleaning tickets were not being written, hence no one moved their vehicles for street sweeping. I didn't believe this until I spoke with DPT and, in fact, the PCO was on disability leave and had not been replaced. I could not imagine this happening in any other neighborhood without serious consequences.
As Director of Neighborhood Services I held monthly town hall meetings with residents at the Big Four Public Housing developments. We need this direct customer approach to measure progress and success.
Our next Mayor needs a Black Agenda – a plan to rebuild our Black middle class. Our Black population is shrinking every day. Instead, it must grow and thrive. This won’t be easy, and it won’t be fast. But it can be done.
As Mayor, I will drive change to help our black neighbors, and I will talk about it everywhere. I will discuss my Black Agenda in the Bayview, in the Sunset, in the Presidio, and in SOMA. It will be at the top of my mind. We have waited long enough for San Francisco’s Black renaissance – if not now, when?
