D10 Meet and Greet at Velma's

Last night's D10 Meet and Greet at Velma's Jazz Club, hosted by The Concerned Citizens of the Southeast Sector of San Francisco, was a good opportunity to get to meet all the candidates, as one of the people in that room last night will be our next Supervisor.

For video of the event, click here. For another blog entry on the night, go to San Francisco FYI.

Leah Pimentel did a great job of moderating the event, and Velma Landers and her team were wonderful hosts, with food from Jordan's House of Ribs (4004 3rd St at Hudson), Auntie April's (4618 3rd St at McKinnon), and La Laguna (3906 3rd St at Fairfax) served up by local youth from the Old Skool Café, who also performed a powerful spoken-word piece at the end of the evening's program.

Most candidates were present, with notable exceptions being Dianne Wesley-Smith, Nyese Joshua, and Malia Cohen. Not sure why they didn't show, especially since Ms Wesley-Smith and Ms Joshua had both so vociferously disrupted the last meeting complaining that they weren't included, but I hope they're all OK and look forward to seeing all who missed this event at the next one.

After eating, meeting, and greeting, candidates were asked to speak for three minutes to outline their platform and to tell us what they wanted their legacy to be if elected, two tasks that not every candidate was able to completely accomplish.

Some candidates were able to distill down their major accomplishments, and to talk specifically about the people they'd met in the community and how they planned to help them/us. A couple of the candidates have done really great things for our community, and those who have, stood out above the rest. Some candidates attempted to inflate their resumes by claiming successes that were not entirely, or even necessarily, of their own doing. This is a reminder that we, the voters, need to do our homework and call these candidates out on their purported accomplishments. Proximity to good fortune does not mean that they're the one responsible for it.

I'd like to take a moment to make a personal comment on a theme in a couple of candidates speeches, and one that was brought up at the debate a few weeks ago as well. I truly hope that this doesn't get me into too much hot water, but a couple of candidates have mentioned their race and that of other candidates as being a factor in their ability to represent the district. Yes, D10 has a great if turbulent African American history, and yes, according to California Urban Issue Project stats, 1/3 of the city's Blacks live in D10. However, our diverse district is currently only 28% Black. The rest: 18% Latino; 21% White; and 33% Asian. No matter who gets elected, our Supervisor is going to be of a different racial background than at least 2/3 of the district. So for a candidate to say that because they're of one race and not another means they 'look like a D10 voter' is ludicrous. ALL the candidates look like D10 voters, no matter their race. I hope most of us would agree that candidates should stop using race as some kind of metric by which we, the voters, should judge them. We want a supervisor who can bring the most jobs, the safest streets, the best
schools, the greatest opportunities, and the smartest development to D10 that will benefit all of us. Their race has nothing to do with their ability to do these things, and I hope that the candidates abandon their racial line of reasoning in seeking our votes.

Looking forward to the next debate and/or event.

For a humorous take on the meeting, check out Beth Spotswood's blog