In our final issue released before the 2024 election, the Foghorn has compiled a guide to the Board of Supervisors elections taking place in USF student populated districts.
The Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan legislative body charged with serving and representing the citizens of San Francisco within their elected districts. According to GrowSF, the Board also “shapes policy on everything from housing and transit to the City’s budget. They write laws and resolutions, influence planning and finances, and sponsor ballot propositions.”
District One, which consists of neighborhoods like Lone Mountain, Golden Gate Park and both Inner and Outer Richmond, District Five, partially made up of Japantown, Haight Ashbury, the Western Addition and much of the Tenderloin and District Seven, which includes the Inner Sunset, Golden Gate Heights and West Portal are all heavily student populated neighborhoods electing board members this November.
District One:
Considered one of the one of the progressive supervisors, Chan has served as the Supervisor of District One following the 2020 election in which she defeated her current opponent Marjan Philhour by 123 votes. Chan obtained a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Davis in religious studies and Chinese before she worked as an aide for then District Attorney Kamala Harris and Supervisor Aaron Peskin. Some of Chan’s main focuses are providing rent relief for tenants and small property landlords, supporting small businesses by landmarking buildings and waiving fees and improving public safety by increasing resources available to the police and increasing deployment of the Street Crisis Response team. Some of Chan’s endorsements include the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the San Francisco Labor Council and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
Philhour, who was born in the Richmond District to immigrant parents from Iran and the Philippines, formerly served as a senior advisor to both Mayor London Breed and Governor Davis’s chief of staff, Lynn Schenk, and currently runs a small business with her sister, Village Place. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in political science. Philhour’s campaign focuses include fully staffing the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and closing open air drug markets, creating more “mixed-income housing” and implementing new permitting systems to ease the opening process for new businesses. A few of Philhour’s endorsements include the San Francisco Democratic Party, the San Francisco Police Officers Association and GrowSF.
District Five:
Elected in a special election in 2019 and then again in 2020, Preston is the first Democratic Socialist member of the Board in more than 40 years, though board members are officially nonpartisan. He received his bachelor’s of arts from Bowdoin College and a juris doctor from the University of California, Hastings before working as a tenants attorney and founding Tenants Together, a nonprofit coalition of tenant defense organizations. Preston’s website highlights results from his time in office, including having “voted for 30,000 homes —86% affordable,” “created San Francisco’s first overdose prevention plan” and “restored bus lanes post-pandemic like the 6, 21 and 33.” Some of his endorsements include Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the San Francisco Tenants Union and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club.
Mahmood co-founded the start-up ClearBrain, an analytics software company. He got his bachelor’s degree in biology and economics from Stanford University and a graduate degree in bioscience enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Mahmood also served as a policy analyst in the Obama administration. Mahmood’s campaign focuses on streamlining the housing building and approval process, using a drug market intervention strategy to tackle the fentanyl crisis and launching a Built for Zero plan for the homelessness crisis, which would consolidate San Francisco’s city departments into a task force. Some of his endorsements include Mayor London Breed, the SF Democratic Party and the Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund.
District Seven:
Melgar, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2020, is an El Salvadoran immigrant who moved to San Francisco as a child escaping a civil war. She received her bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Excelsior College, as well as a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University. Melgar has previously served as President of the City Planning Commission and Vice President of the Building Inspection Commission. According to her website, Melgar’s work in office has resulted in “$25.3 million [secured] to fund officer overtime and foot patrols, enhancing neighborhood safety,” “an ordinance streamlining the development of new multi-family housing” to increase density and “stopped the SFMTA from closing restaurant parklets […] in the Inner Sunset” by securing “funding for traffic and transit improvements.” Some of Melgar’s endorsements include the San Francisco Democratic Party, the San Francisco Labor Council and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club.
Boschetto is a business owner and a fourth generation San Franciscan. He got his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Saint Mary’s College, and started his flower delivery business, Matilda’s Bloom Box, in 2016. Prior, Boschetto worked as an operations manager for his father’s janitorial business and as a development director for the Cultivate Foundation. His campaign focuses include accelerating police officer recruitment by creating additional incentives, improving government transparency by incorporating measurable objectives into third party contracts and supporting new housing by introducing incentives for maximized developmental potential, speed and probabilities. Boschetto’s endorsements include GrowSF, the Chinese Democratic Club and the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, News Editor: Phebe Bridges, Sports Editor: John Lindroos
