Earlier tonight, the Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR) and the League of Women Voters hosted a candidate forum for the District 1 Supervisor candidates Sherman Dsilva, David Lee and Supervisor Eric Mar.
The forum was held at the Richmond Recreation Center and was well attended by over 100 people. Strangely, the event was held in the small meeting room at the center instead of the main gymnasium (where last year’s mayoral debate was held). And unbelievably, no microphone was available. In case you’re keeping score already, Supervisor Mar was the best among the three candidates at projecting his voice.
The debate was moderated by Maxine Anderson, a member of the League of Women Voters. Each candidate had 1 minute to answer the questions posed by the moderator, which ranged from neighborhood specific issues like vacant storefronts and the Beach Chalet Soccer fields, to wider city issues like the 8 Washington housing project and rent control.
All three candidates have met in debates before tonight, but this was the first truly public debate that had been hosted for the election. As a result, Mar and Lee both used the occasion to clear up some misconceptions and engage in some verbal sparring.
The first question of the night was about rent control. All candidates went on record to say they support rent control, contrary to what some campaigners have been saying in the neighborhood recently. During his minute, Mar held up a flyer from Lee’s campaign, and accused Lee of unfairly attacking him on the issue. “These kinds of mailers are despicable, David,” Mar hissed.
The second question was about the public school assignment process in the city. All three candidates have young children, and both Lee and Mar have children of school age. Dsilva attended three schools here in the neighborhood – Sutro Elementary, Presidio Middle School and George Washington High.
Lee took part of his turn to defend himself against Mar’s earlier accusation, saying “I thought we weren’t going to have personal attacks tonight.”
When Mar got his turn to speak on the school issues, he mentioned that his own daughter attends a public school in the Richmond District. He then told the audience that he’d like to know why Lee’s children don’t. “Why aren’t his kids in a public school?” Mar asked.
The sparring between Mar and Lee continued into the next question about “Care Not Cash”. Lee used Mar’s word back at him, saying it was “quite despicable for our Supervisor to challenge someone’s personal choice, about where you send your child to school.”
The Beach Chalet soccer fields project was also brought up for discussion. Dsilva said he would not change the plan that has already been approved by the city. Lee was a Recreation & Parks Commissioner as the project moved through city channels, and he said he felt it was the best solution at the time. But since entering the race, he has talked to residents and heard many concerns. While Lee is still in support of the project, he acknowledged the need for further discussion. “This is a solution that doesn’t work for a lot of people. Let’s sit down and talk about compromises we can make.”
Supervisor Mar said that he had studied the Beach Chalet project “to death” and still feels that the need for more fields and playing time, along with more recreation options in the neighborhood outweighs any of the environmental and health concerns that opponents have raised about the project.
The Alexandria Theater was the subject of the next question. This was a bit of a softball for Supervisor Mar who just last Friday, held a press conference to announce the latest plans for the property.
But Lee was unimpressed by Mar’s recent actions on the project. “Every year, Mar has a press conference to announce plans and nothing happens,” Lee said.
Other topics in the debate included the Geary Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and how to reduce the number of commercial vacancies in the neighborhood. You can hear what the candidates think about those issues in our earlier article which features their video responses to those questions.
The last hot button issue discussed was whether or not the candidates supported variable rate meter parking, as well as parking meters operating on Sundays – both proposals that the MTA has made to try and make up for revenue shortfalls.
Mar expressed concern about the “nickel and diming” of residents and emphasized the need for the MTA to explore other funding sources. But Mar never actually came out and said where he stood on the two proposals.
Neither Dsilva or Lee support Sunday meter parking, with Lee declaring “Sunday meters is antithetical to what Sundays are about.” Both Lee and Dsilva support variable rate meters, theorizing that rates could drop in lower traffic areas and turnover could be better in the busiest areas.
A question about the Ethics Commission and campaign financing led to the final episode of verbal sparring between Mar and Lee. During his minute, Mar reached behind him to pull out a handmade bar chart poster showing Lee’s alleged funding from special interests far outpacing his own.
Which led to Lee countering to Mar, “What did it cause this district to get Rose Pak’s support?”
Candidates were also asked about the 8 Washington project, which prompted one audience member to shout “Who cares?”, much to to the chagrin of organizers and the candidates.
In another question, Lee and Mar got a chance to namedrop when asked about how they would generate more stimulus funds from the federal government if they were elected. Lee took the opportunity to mention his endorsement from Dianne Feinstein and to say “Nancy Pelosi is an old friend of our family’s”.
Mar used the opportunity to stump for President Obama’s re-election, saying that was the best way to ensure that federal money would keep coming into the city. Dsilva took a more pragmatic view, saying “We can’t always rely on the federal government.”
All told, the debate lasted 50 minutes and though organizers collected questions from the audience, it was unclear if they were among the 13 questions that candidates were asked.
We did see someone videotaping the debate so if it becomes available online, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Sarah B.
Hi sarah. Just wanted to link to the chart that mar held up because it is not aledged but true. See the independent facts from sf’s ethics commission here on the record breaking money being spent by big landlords and outside groups on our neighborhood: http://www.sfethics.org/ethics/2012/08/november-6-2012-election-campaign-finance-dashboards.html
Excuse typos etc. typed from trader sam’s on an iPhone
Very good capture of tonight’s event. I am curious if D’Silva will pick up more votes after the sparring between the other two. And, can we raise donations for the rec center for at least one mic to be kept under lock and key?
One important point you didn’t mention is that David Lee clearly said he’s in favor of neighborhood school assignment, meaning if you live in the Richmond you’ll be guaranteed your child can go to a school in the Richmond over anyone from another district who applies. Mar put the lottery in and is not for this. D’Silva said he is for neighborhood school assignment as well.
This was a bitter debate in which they yelled at each other a lot.
My prediction is the initial vote will be Lee 48%, Mar 45%, D’Silva 7%. However, everyone will put D’Silva as a 2d choice. No Mar voters will put Lee # 2 and no Lee voters will put Mar #2, so ultimately, due to ranked choice voting, D’Silva is going to be the next Supervisor for District 1. Lee has a slight chance to get 50%, but virtually no Mar supporter will put Lee #2 nor vice versa, so if D’Silva’s militant 7% don’t put a 2d choice, as it is rumored they are being instructed to do, D’Silva will win in a shocker. Note, he only gets 7% in the first round, but then he gets all of Mar’s supporters as a #2 vote.
At this point it’s probably 40% likely D’Silva wins due to this, 40% likely Lee wins, and 20% likely Mar wins. Mar has a solid core of supporters, but has less money and many of his supporters live outside the district. If D’Silva would let his voters put Lee or Mar 2d, most would put Lee 2d due to their agreement on the schools issue, so this is the X Factor, what D’Silva tells his voters to do. They are only 7% but they are very solid and will volunteer for him next time. He’s a good speaker too. If D’Silva doesn’t win this time he’ll win in 2016 or 2020.
Mar probably would have won easily if he hadn’t put in place a system by which Richmond District kids don’t get into Richmond District schools.
These are the facts, and they are undisputed.
Thank you for your excellent reporting Sarah. Many of us who don’t always take the time to comment on your daily posts appreciate your thorough and fair coverage of all things neighborhood. Your coverage of tonight’s debate typifies how fortunate the Richmond is to have this blog.
Sarah, your accoiunt, as above: The first question of the night was about rent control. All candidates went on record to say they support rent control, contrary to what some campaigners have been saying in the neighborhood recently. During his minute, Mar held up a flyer from Lee’s campaign, and accused Lee of unfairly attacking him on the issue. “These kinds of mailers are despicable, David,” Mar hissed.
I’m confused by this… I’m getting mailers and reading articles from MAR’s people starting rumors about LEE trying to get rid of rent control… not the other way around. Mar’s campaign has even colluded with the Tenant’s Union to get that rumor circulated (they’re collecting signatures around the district to look like they have a petition to stop an “attack on rent control” that doesn’t exist).
I wasn’t able to make the debate. Sarah, did you mean Lee held up the flyer and not Mar?
@dman – Yes, it was Mar that held up a campaign flyer. I couldn’t see what the flyer actually said from the back of the room. It was unclear if it was even related to rent control or if Mar was just using the first opportunity of the night to spar with Lee.
Sarah B.
Debate was good value for money. DSilva held his own and Mar seemed to be having a lot of “Romney” moments — e.g. seemed a number of times that he really didn’t understand his audience — which suggests he is really out of touch with his district in general. Great to hear both of the candidates for Assembly. Appalling that there was no mic for anyone — esp. embarrassing when the candidates for Assembly came to talk, as everyone was talking, leaving, paying little attention (about 1/3 of the audience stayed and listened to two very good speeches.)
A few outstanding moments, as you noted. (Was glad that the crowd was instructed not to comment, clap or yell — they mostly followed those instrutcions after they were given).
The campaign contributions chart that Mar so obviously couldn’t wait to show, presumbably anticipating a gasp from the audience and an “I gotcha!” moment that would make Lee wither and die seemed to communicate something quite different: that so few people thought Mar should be re-elected that no one wanted to give him the money to run a campaign.
OUCH.
Worse, after the chart went down the Facebook IPO, Mar continued to try to draw attention to it, actually holding it up on the table in front of him when it was Lee’s turn to speak in an attempt to upstage him. It was so awkward and clownish, that the moderator actually had to ask him to please take it down, which no one in the audience protested in the least.
OUCH, OUCH!
Even after that The response to the question about the 8 Washington project was another real surprise — and amusing. Judging from the campaign lit I’ve been getting, that was a question planted by Mar’s people. It wasn’t just 1 person who yelled “who cares?” — the whole audience just went “hunh?” and before the “who cares” was heard, I heard people saying “that’s not in our district?” and “where is that?” the moderator even said to the audience that if we didn’t care about it, she’d be happy to skip the question and move on.
Another surprise was the reaction from the audience to Mar’s trying to attack David Lee about whether his kids attend private school. Instead of responding (as Mar surely expected) that this meant that Lee was the Devil Incarnate, the majority of the audience clearly agreed that a parent’s choice of where they want to send their chid to school is personal and Mar was out of line to try to use that to attack.
Thanks to PAR and the League of Women Voters for providing us with this opportunity to see our candidates!
after the last 4 years all I can say is NO MAR!!!!!!!!
I think that it was actually a great opportunity to see Richmond District politics as they are. I looked at the Ethics Commission website today and saw that David Lee has actually raised that much more money than Eric Mar and now I can actually appreciate that Eric chose to show off the chart. Considering that we put the money into public financing to see such a large number of independent expenditures and big dollar donors giving to David as opposed to quite a lot of community people who seem to be giving small dollar donations to Mar was unsettling. That explains why one person has more money and the other has less. It’s very similar to what’s going on nationally with corporations and billionaires buying elections.
As far as the subject of rent control goes, any pro-Lee attack ads that I’ve received in the mail are coming from conservative groups, realtors, etc. Sorry, but that doesn’t sound very tenant friendly to me so I don’t really see a Mar-TU conspiracy theory there.
I’ve had quite a few opportunities to meet and work with Eric and he’s usually very mild mannered and positive. But I feel like everything that’s ever been put out against him from the mailers to that terrible “Send Mar back to Mars” video, has just been below the belt and that’s not helping to offer any solutions. Maybe Eric just had enough of all of the dirty politics because he took of the kid gloves last night.
Notwithstanding any sparring between the two, I feel like Eric actually gave a lot more concrete details of what he’s accomplished and what he wants to try to implement if re-elected, while David Lee didn’t really answer a few of the questions as asked. But a couple others like the Muni and BRT question made it interesting to see Lee talk about what his revolutionary transportation plan was and then hear Mar list that very same plan as what he’s actually already been working on with the community and MTA. Criticize his style all that you want, but when you really consider the nuts and bolts of last over the finger pointing, Mar actually brought more substance last night. Plus he has the sole endorsement of San Francisco Democratic Party (which actually went more moderate this year) an the majority of the Dem clubs and most of the unions (save for trade, police, and fire who tend to lean more conservative). Clearly a lot of other people see him for more than happy meals and the Grammys and instead for having a track record worth backing.
I thought Mar did fantastically. Obama can take some lessons. He came out swinging about the deceptive mailers on 8 Washington and the SuperPAC contributions, and really called out Lee’s lies.
For those who are trying to tell us that both candidates support rent control, please. Who are we kidding here? Most people rent in the Richmond, so OF COURSE Lee can’t come out and straight up say he wants to get rid of it right here and now. But look at who’s backing him -the real estate and landlord lobby, which has fought for decades to eviscerate rent control, makes up the backbone of his contributor base. These people do not part with their money out of the goodness of their hearts. They do not make donations. They make INVESTMENTS. And they are investing their money in David Lee. You can bet they’ll want to collect a return on their investment.
And please… David Lee’s defense of the 8 Washington mailers was utterly laughable in its convoluted logic. Let’s see if I can follow the logic here… because David Lee never met a developer project he didn’t like… because by his own admission he supported the awful Lennar project, and the Park Merced project which would kick tenants out of their homes, AND 8 Washington… somehow we’re supposed to believe he’d be better for tenants than Mar??? What? You’ve got to be kidding me.
As I told the Lee people outside, I’m just a renter. I can’t AFFORD David Lee!
So Greg, let me get this straight… David Lee is going to get rid of rent control, which would require a vote from every other supervisor in the city, and they’re going to agree? Uh… yeah, right.
I spoke with a guy who’s put up over 300 signs for David Lee because they tried to make his daughter go to Hoover when he lived a block from Presidio and sent many of his friends’ kids to other schools, said his block has 8 families in 8 elementary schools, and said friends have left the City due to the lottery. I wish I had the energy to do the same but my knee would go out after 10 signs. I have one up on my house.
If Lee wins, it will be because Mar didn’t support neighborhood schools and opposed Prop H, not because of any other issue. It has nothing to do with the money. It’s a sign he’s out of touch with his constituents, 60% of whom voted for Prop H, which would have passed had Mar supported it (it lost by 153 votes out of over 180,000). He cost the residents of the Richmond a guarantee they could send their child to school there if they wish.
Mar is right to support public schools, but Lee tried to send his kids to public school and only went private due to losing the lottery. I asked him about this and he hopes to send his kids to public school later.
Also, Lee is happily married and Mar is divorcing, despite stats showing that if you divorce, it reduces the odds your child will graduate from college by nearly 50%. The right thing to do would be to stay married and work it out and focus on his daughter, not himself. Mar let churches be torn down during his tenure, and obviously doesn’t follow the church values of till death do us part. Most of the Richmond is Christian or Jewish and puts children first. We don’t have a lot of children of divorce, which is why most of our children do well in school. We also have a lot of learning centers and education is a priority. I’m older but my kids went to Lafayette and Presidio and Washington, not Visitation Valley and Galileo or Mission as is happening to many of our neighborhood kids now. Our discipline in staying married pays off in having good schools, but it gets muddled if we shuffle everyone, then our test scores drop and those at other schools rise despite them doing no extra work to stay married or help their kids study more, just because we shuffled kids around. That’s not right. I don’t want my grandchildren on a bus to a bad school, risking their health, spending hours to attend a lower quality school. If my kids can afford to stay. I support rent control, but think the neighborhood schools issue will be the determining factor in this election.
Focus on the issues. Sherman D’Silva or David Lee will win because of this issue, but probably D’Silva because of the fact that D’Silva’s supporters are not putting a 2d choice down and he’s almost everyone else’s second choice. D’Silva was the only one who didn’t seem super mad. There’s so much bitterness I think we should just have a backroom meeting and let it be D’Silva so we don’t have violence in the streets. The debate was unpleasant and equally on both sides. Only D’Silva was reasonable.
Benefits of diversity in our schools…
According to William Kidder, assistant provost at the University of California Riverside, in his article, “Diversity makes a difference in higher learning,” Kidder reveals “diversity creates a challenging learning environment ripe for cognitive growth.” Further, “when students are exposed to individuals who answer the question from a novel perspective, students show a measurably higher disposition toward critical thinking.” Ultimately, “hundreds of studies confirm that greater contact with those from other racial and ethnic backgrounds reduces levels of prejudice.”
Supervisor Mar understands the benefits of diversity and wants to best for children across San Francisco. In order safety for our students, Mar championed the Safe Route to Schools program to increase pedestrian safety measures around our schools. As a Supervisor, he continues to fight tirelessly to ensure that the city provides funds to make up for shortfalls provided by the state, including preventing teacher lay offs, and funding to for school arts, librarians, music, recreation, sports & enrichment programs across San Francisco. This is kind of why it’s important that we have a Supervisor who has a stake in our public education system here in San Francisco, if we go back to an entirely neighborhood based school system (although you can appeal school assignments, if it’s important to you), will Lee put his kids back in public school? Not likely. Our public schools, including the one’s in the Richmond, if we lose a public school champion on the Board of Supervisors, will deteriorate.
Debunking the myth about people not wanting to contribute to Supervisor Mar’s re-election campaign:
Mar was the first candidate in the entire city to qualify to receive matching public funds (San Francisco Ethics Commission).
What does Supervisor Mar getting divorced have to do with anything? (That remark, is reminiscent of Mitt Romney’s remarks about single parents families at the Presidential debate this past Tuesday.) Barack Obama was raised by a single parent, and he’s President of the United States.
This entire “rent control” thing is the most outrageous red herring — totally manufactured. Rent control has not even been an issue AT ALL in these elections. And, as another pointed out, you think that any candidate would go near that “third rail”? No way. Anyway, Lee has never, ever come out against rent control, nor would he.
So how and why this has suddenly appeared and is being actively promoted on Geary Blvd.by a guy who is trying to pretend that there is actually some rent control measure on the ballot and collecting signatures for — what purpose (since there is no measure?)
This signature-collector isn’t from the Richmond and doesn’t seem to be personally invested in this issue at all — which strongly suggests he’s being paid to spread these patent lies.
So — you tell me who’s idea — and who’s funding — this is? Mar…)?
Come on, you’re telling me a child in the Richmond benefits if they live a block from Alamo and can only go to a school 3-5 miles away. Their parents have to drive them 10 hours a week instead of grandparents or parents walking them to school. The school they will go to probably has worse test scores as the schools here are all towards the top. You’re telling me a child a block from Presidio benefits by living with grandparents or taking 2 buses or a long drive to Visitation Valley or Marina Middle School? A 13-year old a block from Washington benefits by taking 2 buses to Mission high where violence is the norm? Are you insane? Eric Mar is supervisor for the Richmond, not the whole City. I went to Presidio then had to go to Mission. I did not benefit from this, I was at a worse school and exhausted from 2 bus rides. I can’t study well on the bus, sure I tried but it’s not the same as at a library or at home. Friends didn’t get into Presidio, they went to other worse schools. We lost contact. None of them wanted that. Mar hurt them, he didn’t help them, that professor doesn’t know the details. There’s no way this professor can convince me this policy benefits children in the Richmond. If it benefits them, why do so many move away when losing the lottery instead of thanking Mar and this professor and staying? That’s such a ridiculous claim it doesn’t even merit a response, so easy to disprove. There is plenty of diversity in the Richmond District and one study showed if everyone went to their neighborhood school, the schools would be more diverse. If this were true, Mar would have voluntarily sent his daughter to Visitation Valley Middle School or Everett as it would doubtless benefit her? As a professor, surely he would know this would be good for her.
Our schools are diverse and many taking local resident’s spots are actually Asian and white from other areas who would make their school more diverse if they went to it. I know people from San Bruno Avenue who are Chinese who go to schools here. I know one family from the Western Addition near a nearly all black school whose kids are white and Asian, and there are almost no white or Asian kids at the school near their house. That took from diversity, didn’t add to it.
Yes, David Lee tried to send his kids to public and will if the lottery is disbanded. Ask him yourself.
As for divorce, if you love your kids, would you do something which might improve your love and sex life knowing it will reduce the odds they graduate from college by 50%? It shows priorities and values. Moreover, the majority who do divorce and go with another woman divorce or break up with her in less than 2 years, so they cut their kids’ odds of a degree in half in return for a relationship no better than the one they left. I’d go to counselling and try to save my marriage, and I will if this ever happens, my priority will be my kids just like I was my parents’ priority. My younger brother goes to Presidio and I looked at the wall and all the kids with a 3.00 or higher are on that wall. I didn’t see the name Mar up there. This is hurting her. I don’t know her first name, but if she has under a 3.00 GPA, this divorce is hurting her. Just look at the wall for the last name Mar, I don’t know her first name but I looked, and it’s not up there. Unless she didn’t take her dad’s name, he’s a professor raising a daughter with mediocre grades, solid proof divorce does hurt children.
And I just looked up the name again, Kidder. That’s apropos. You have got to be kidding if you think it benefits a kid a block from Alamo to have their parents drive them to a school with lower test scores miles away, or a kid a block from Presidio benefits from going to Marina or a kid a block from Washington benefits by taking two buses to Mission or ISA or Galileo, and this is happening to thousands of our children. It adds to traffic, sends them to worse schools, etc.
Lowell isn’t that diverse and the kids there are going to do great. UC Berkeley is not very diverse, and the students do great. It’s the top public college in the world.
Great point Jared. My guess is “Clement Street Resident” either doesn’t have children or, if they do, will not try to send them to a school in the Fillmore or Mission or Bayview when they turn 5. Mar sure didn’t. No one in this neighborhood is going to fall for the idea that the lottery helps children in this district. Fortunately only District 1 residents can vote which is why Lee or, more likely D’Silva. will win, not Mar. If you put Mar #2, you may have to send your kids outside the neighborhood for school. People in the Mission may vote for that, but they don’t get a vote in this election. People in the Richmond do. Lee only needs 15,000 votes to win, and if he gets 14,000, D’Silva will win. We won’t have a supervisor from District 1 opposed to neighborhood schools.
Fred Dobbs is mistaken in how ranked-choice voting works. If the initial vote will be Lee 48%, Mar 45%, D’Silva 7%, then D’Silva will be eliminated and people who voted for him will have their votes distributed to their 2nd choices (if any). The winner will then be either Lee or Mar.
Wow… this is getting ugly. I hope everyone who’s gone through a divorce in their families sees some of the comments here. The fact that David Lee supporters are bringing up divorce as a smear shows the character of the campaign. What is this, the 1950s?
Speaking of the 50s, I thought we settled the bussing question in 1954. Remember Brown vs Board of Ed? I’m surprised that we’re still having this discussion, and on the same terms too. Last night, one of the “neighborhood schools” protesters actually said it outright. “Do you want your son or daughter going to school with someone from the Bayview?” Disgusting. But actually I’m kind of glad he said that, because at least he was honest. That’s what it’s really all about, not convenience. It’s racist NIMBY-ism of the worst sort. In any case… the Supervisors have nothing to do with School Policy. Who gets elected Supervisor doesn’t matter one iota in this issue, because they have no jurisdiction over that. None. Zero. Take it up with the School Board… and the courts.
Rent control, OTOH, they do have jurisdiction over. And no, David Lee can’t take it away singlehandedly. But let’s not kid ourselves. Between Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd, Scott Weiner, Mark Farrell, the addition of David Lee will just about give the real estate lobby the anti-rent control majority it needs. More likely than outright repeal, however, will be a gradual weakening of rent control through various real estate-supported measures. With Malia Cohen, they’ll probably have a majority for that. It’s the same thing that the Republicans want to do with social security -no they can’t repeal it right now, completely. That’s what they want to do, but they can’t do it right away. Give them a majority, however, and they’ll chip away till there’s nothing left. David Lee will provide that crucial anti-rent control vote. If he wins, start saying goodbye to your renter protections, people. Have fun sending your kids to those neighborhood schools when you can’t afford to live here anymore!
D’Silva will decide who wins then by who he endorses for #2. I’ve heard it’s very close and it’s very unlikely one candidate will reach the 50% threshhold. I looked into this and isn’t it also true that if you don’t put a 2d choice, your vote is just thrown out as if you didn’t vote? That could lead Lee to a narrow victory. Or Mar. D’Silva is almost sure to be Supervisor eventually, so in some ways if he endorses Mar, Lee will probably serve from 2016-2024, but if he endorses Lee, D’Silva will serve from 2020-2028 instead of 2024-2032, and this could get him into the State Assembly and Congress and who knows, maybe the Senate or Governor’s Mansion, since he’s so young. D’Silva has a chance to be the first Asian American President, this just isn’t his time. Not yet. But he showed a lot of poise last night and will make a good President.
I do not get that he has high-reaching goals for top political office. Based on his campaign, his demeanor, and even his closing speech; I feel he genuinely wants to make improvements to our district, no matter how small the progress.
Now the other two, who spent more energy last night on addressing each others smear campaigns, are mostly seeking life-long, political careers.
Greg, have you ever looked at the stats on how divorce affects children? If you’re a parent, who should you support first, your child or yourself? Isn’t becoming a parent about putting your kid first? You’re just trying to score points, not studying what is best for children.
As for the supporter you mentioned, did you notice his wife is Hispanic, his kids are half Hispanic as is mine, and he adopted an African American girl? I spoke with him for a few minutes and you’re totally mis-characterizing that guy to score points. His oldest daughter made it into Lowell and all his kids are underrepresented minorities. His youngest daughter, adopted, is in kindergarten and reading well, I’ve seen him help her learn to read at Rochambeau, despite being born with drugs in her system. His comment was that it is a difficult drive to the Bayview, and it is, parents physically cannot drive to the Bay View and back twice a day and keep their job in many cases, particularly in the case of single mothers. It makes our schools less diverse because most whites don’t have grandparents living with them as they’re from another state, so if both parents work and they don’t have a way to get them to school conveniently, we lose them to the suburbs, which hurts our neighborhood. I meet nice families and say goodbye to them and my son loses friends because of this policy.
Neighborhood schools is about time and convenience. We pay a lot in rent or property taxes and deserve what people in Burlingame get, a good school close to home. It causes traffic, cuts down on study time as Jared mentioned not all kids can study flawlessly on a loud, moving bus, drives good families away, and generally hurts our district. I want to stay in the City but I won’t if I am told I have to drive twice a day several miles instead of go to the school near my house.
Brown v. Topeka was a long time ago and did not mandate every district have busing. San Francisco is part of less than 1% of America in which you can’t go to a school close to your home. You’re totally wrong to suggest it’s normal and that we settled this and this is the only way to go if you’re not for the lottery. Oakland has neighborhood schools, San Jose does, Los Angeles does, give me a break! We are the only City in California where you can move a block from a district, non-alternative school and risk not getting in. That simply doesn’t happen anywhere else, even in Topeka, the site of Brown v. Topeka. I have a cousin in Topeka and yes, they do bus African American students into mostly white areas to this day, but no one is ever forced to drive their kid to a school far from home past a public school in their own neighborhood. That simply never happens.
Wow! A white guy with a Latina wife and biracial kids and an adoped black daughter just got called a racist by Greg. How low will Mar’s supporters go to try to win this race? Unbelievable!
If we want to be technical, it was Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education in 1971 that established the busing of students to ensure desegregation.
The school lottery is not a matter of diversification, last I checked most neighborhoods in San Francisco are quite diverse, not only racially but very much culturally. The lottery is merely a coat of paint. Instead actually managing funds more effectively and yes, more funding for schools are needed), the City and School Board of San Francisco has decided to assign students all over the city to better ensure that everyone get’s an equal chance and a hope to equalize performance across all schools. As I said, just a coat of paint that attempts to mask under-performing schools.
Yes, it is important to know where are supervisor stands on this issue; but until another ballot initiative is put up addressing this, a Supe cannot do much. However, he/she can rally and support such an initiative.
Look guys… I’m just saying what he told me. He told me point blank that he doesn’t want his kids going to school with the kids from the Bayview. I don’t care if he’s white, black or green -that’s just plain ugly. But again… Supervisor -no control over this. Housing policy -big time. School assignment policy, none.
And smearing someone because of a divorce… TOTALLY ugly. That’s between Eric and his wife, and it has nothing to do with his job as supe. And… I don’t think that kind of smear flies in this city. This isn’t Kansas. It isn’t the 1950s. So keep doing this guys. All you’re going to do is turn off a lot of people with this line of smear attack.
I looked into this and isn’t it also true that if you don’t put a 2d choice, your vote is just thrown out as if you didn’t vote?
Only in the sense that voting for a candidate who doesn’t win also results in your vote being “thrown out”– eg Ralph Nader in Florida.
If you only care about one candidate, and all the others are equal in your eyes, then you’re fine voting just for a first choice. But if you have even a small preference between the other two, you should vote for a #2.
I spoke with him for ten minutes and he said actually he thinks more black and Latino kids should be bused to go to school with his kids at Alamo and he actually complained that there is not diversity because most of the people who use the lottery to get into schools in the Richmond are white and Asian. He said that if you are white or Asian and from outside the district, you shouldn’t be able to displace someone from in the district and should go to the school in your neighborhood, as that would make it more diverse. He never said he didn’t want his kids in school with kids from the Bayview, just that he didn’t want his kids in school in the Bayview considering the cost and time. He invited anyone to go look at the race of the kids at Alamo and see how very few black and Latino kids are there, a lower percentage than the district percentage, despite local families not being able to have a guarantee they can go there. The lottery has been a disaster and caused flight from the City for parents who get no guarantee. Amazing that you would intentionally misquote him and accuse a man with a Latina wife and Latino and one African American children of being racist. It makes me wonder if “Greg” is really someone who supports David Lee. This will only cost you to bring up the race card. I do remember a Greg working for David Lee and suspect this is some sort of slick ruse.
As for influence of this policy, yes, Mar had 100% control over where your children go to school. He got his daughter into the best middle school in the City, public or private, a few blocks from his home. He opposed Prop H and used his trust and political capital to defeat it, and in a 153 vote loss out of 180,000, if he’d supported it, it would have passed. Mar alone is the reason your kid is forced out of SF or driven to the Bayview or Mission or anywhere else, if that happens, it is 100% his responsibility and fault. He also put the lottery in after the consent decree expired, so he could have let it go to neighborhood schools or gerrymandering to diversify, but he didn’t. Mar fully earned the opposition he gets from neighborhood residents because many were affected by this, and if he loses, and it will be close, this will be the reason.
The huge X factor is white and Asian parents using the lottery to avoid mostly black and Latino schools. If this didn’t happen, the lottery would work, so the real solution is to ban anyone who’s not black, Latino or Native American from getting into a school over a local resident, but to allow anyone who is one of these races to do so. Maybe add Samoan/Pacific Islander.
The divorce isn’t only between him and his ex wife. It also affects his daughter and that’s why I always vote for married candidates over divorced candidates if they have children. His wife will be fine, she’s beautiful and will find another guy. Probably a better one. His daughter will be irreparably damaged and will never be able to be as successful as her father, or as she would have been had Eric and his wife put her first. And the rumor is she was willing to go to counselling but he wasn’t.
I am in complete support of David Lee, and have to agree that Greg’s postings are a pretty desperate -and somewhat paranoid – attempt to seek votes for Mar. I do agree with him, however, that neither candidate’s marriage/divorce or childen’s lives (“irreperably damaged?”) are fodder for this forum. When people start talking about “rumors,” it starts to get ugly. This is a forum re: electing the best candidate as a supervisor for the Richmond, not making judgements and assumptions on their private lives.
Kinda tacky…
I find fallacy with causation being determined from the correlation of non-relational data, i.e., children of divorce are doomed to failure and that divorced candidates make poor, elected officials.
Yes, everyone hopes that a marriage can be sustained and that couple make the efforts to do so; but there are times when some relationships have to be dissolved. I would rather a healthy relationship evolve between two parents that live separately than those who “persist uncomfortably” for the sake of the children. An environment in which a child or children are raised is marked by bitterness, passive aggression, and displeasure is not a conducive environment.
However, everyone has a right to their opinion and the freedom to make decisions based on their own interpretations and conclusions about marriage, religion, and how they choose candidates. Yet, when these opinions are voiced and a child is used as mud to be slung at a candidate, this is truly unacceptable. To say that Jade Mar will not succeed and that she will be forever damaged is distasteful. You do not know her, you do not know what other factors affect her life, and you do not know her measures of success and aspirations. But most of all, you are not a soothsayer of her future.
One of the most damaging aspects of not allowing children to go to the schools in their neighborhood is that it makes it much more difficult to form community. One of the reasons why the Richmond district gets so little from the City of San Francisco, though it gives so much (look what we go through with Bay-to-Breakers, Outside Lands, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, etc.) is that we are so culturally and linguistically diverse. Having the kids in the Richmond attend their local schools does something VERY important — it gets the parents together and forms community. At first it forms because the kids play together, PTA meetings fundraisers, etc. Then, the parents start to say “we need a traffic light” …or a speed bump, or to have a playground fixed up or…whatever it is. When the kids in a neighborhood don’t play together, it means the parents/adults in a neighborhood tend not to meet each other and all that positive, constructive, community-improving energy is disspated and wasted.
I’m not saying this is a conscious strategy — but it seems to me keeping residents of a district or area from having their kids go to the same school could be a central part of a strategy to keep them from getting together to demand improvements — or gain political power.
Sue, I do not always agree with you. But, that was truly well said. Kudos.
I think it was too. :-). You made some really great points about how schools bring the community together.
Good point Sue we need community. And Jade Mar should be left out of this her success will be based on her own hard work and her parents. He may work hard to raise her and he may not none of us know. One report card for 6 weeks doesn’t decide this see if she makes it into Lowell before you judge Eric. I’m voting for Lee because of what Sue said but not based on any judgement of !ar as a parent.
Let’s set the record straight. Board of Supervisors have NO INFLUENCE on school assignments, and changing our current school assignment system. If someone is telling you otherwise they are merely trying to court your vote.
Not true. 4 Supervisors could put Prop H on the ballot again. David Lee would try to convince 3 or help organize volunteers to get signatures, donations, etc. Eric Mar would oppose this effort. I would like to see it back on the ballot slightly changed, with a statement that no kid would be switched mid year or at all, that if you are in Kindergarten now you will stay in the school through grade 5 or 8 if it’s a K-8, 6-8, 9-12, but that all new admissions would be sibling, then neighborhood, then other factors, with the exception of alternative schools.
I believe it would have won if Mar hadn’t told people it would cause kids to switch mid year, which wasn’t true. It wouldnt’ have caused any kid to switch, they can’t do that, once you’re in a school you’re in. So it would be fair to put it back on the ballot and let people vote knowing it only affects new admissions, and I’m pretty sure that would get 153 more votes, probably 10,153, and thus make it win. This would be fair because the whole point was to let people vote and that argument muddled things and made it not an honest vote on assignment, and I believe most want new admissions to be sibling, then neighborhood, then other factors. Now language immersion, Lowell, SOTA and others would still be open, but this way everyone would have a guarantee they could go to school close to home if they chose to.
Also, Mar passed this measure when on the school board, so in a sense a vote against him is payback for hurting the Richmond’s children. If Mar loses, any future school board members from the Richmond or Sunset will know they can’t vote for a lottery and expect to win a supervisor’s race in a district where almost everyone wants to go to a nearby school. Mar doing this will cost him the election because it motivated many of Lee’s volunteers. Lee has a lot of volunteers, and their time is worth well over $100,000, so in addition to having more money, he has more value in his many volunteers from the Prop H movement.
You’re just trying to obfuscate because you want Mar to win. Mar hurt our children. Children are not pawns. He drove many out of the neighborhood. It’s about what kind of community we want and if we want it to include children. San Francisco has a lot of good jobs and the Richmond is expensive, but if you tell people they can’t have a guaranteed school close to home, then families will move and we’ll become like the Marina. Voting for David Lee is a statement you want neighborhood schools and you want families to stay in the neighborhood. One woman who recently moved here from Russia with 2 kids said she doesn’t have a licence and losing the lottery forced her to take a bus across town twice a day. That’s not the kind of community I want to live in, which is why I’m voting for Lee. D’Silva #2.
OK I agree with Lee on neighborhood schools, it’s insane a kid could live a block from a public school and have to be driven somewhere else, but what other issues are important and what are the differences between the two? I don’t have kids so this isn’t my main issue. Who will permit more housing? I think San Francisco could easily reach 1 million population if we just built up SOMA, Treasure Island, and some other parts of the City that aren’t developed well. We should become more dense and more public transit focused. The Presidio could also house more people without losing it’s charm. We won’t significantly lower housing costs until we get to over a million and push Marin’s population to at least 700,000, as well as build up parts of the Peninsula. Which candidate is for this. And does D’Silva really have a chance? I’d also love to see a few mini-parks in the Richmond like they have near Japantown.
OK I agree with Lee on neighborhood schools, it’s insane a kid could live a block from a public school and have to be driven somewhere else, but what other issues are important and what are the differences between the two? I don’t have kids so this isn’t my main issue. Who will permit more housing? I think San Francisco could easily reach 1 million population if we just built up SOMA, Treasure Island, and some other parts of the City that aren’t developed well. We should become more dense and more public transit focused. The Presidio could also house more people without losing it’s charm. We won’t significantly lower housing costs until we get to over a million and push Marin’s population to at least 700,000, as well as build up parts of the Peninsula. Which candidate is for this? And does D’Silva really have a chance? I’d also love to see a few mini-parks in the Richmond like they have near Japantown.
Wow… 1 million population? If that’s the goal here, Count Me OUT!
But of course that is the end result of those who make the facile claim that we can just build our way out of the housing crisis. What these people don’t realize is that the demand for housing in San Francisco is for all intents and purposes limitless. If we built enough housing to accommodate 1 million people, it wouldn’t come close to satisfying all the demand. Not even housing for 2 million. And do you know what it would do to the traffic? The environment? To public transit? You think parking is bad now? Wait till we have a million people living here! Even the economy would suffer. Because the economy depends in part on the fact that San Francisco is the most visited city in America. And Manhattanizing it would essentially destroy the character of the city that makes it so beautiful to visit. Not to mention it would make it a living hell for those of us who live here!
Oh but a lot of developers would get very rich, which is why they’re all supporting the likes of David Lee. 1 million people… yikes!
The proposal for the Alexandria theatre is for it to include “low-rent housing.” I believe this means Section 8 housing. Does anyone know for usre?
We also have just had the old Cala Foods on 27th and Geary filled by a “Grocery Outlet.” May I suggest that you check the locations of other “Grocery Outlets” and see if you think that says something profound about what our neighborhood is becoming.
There has been a dramatic increase of massage parlors, “Wellness centers,” and “stress reduction” centers in the Richmond in the last year. I find it difficult to believe that, in a terrible economy, the working-class residents of the Richmond district are all suddenly flocking to spend $50 for a massage that they never felt the need to have before. Perhaps I am wrong — the black-out windows and the signs on these places suggests to me that something else is going on in many of these locations — and that may well include human trafficking and forcing girls into slavery to work as prostitutes.
I emailed Capt. Ferrigno to express my concern about this last week. I told her that I had asked Capt. Sanford about this almost 2 years ago and I was told that they are “being monitored.” I wanted to know what “monitoring” is being done and who is doing it. I received a reply saying that I should call….THE HEALTH DEPT. (I am not sure they are unsanitary, I am concerned about prostitution and the enslavement of women in my own backyard).
I bring this up because the term “affordable housing” sounds great — but I’m suggesting you find out what that phrase actually means — and what the impact will be on our neighborhood. We already have a number of halfway houses, etc. in our neighborhood. We suddenly seem to be a hot spot for the massage business… i
And I walk and run around the neighborhood constantly. I have seen a marked and dramatic difference in the last year — and it’s NOT a good one. After renting in this neighborhood for 20 years, I finally became a homeowner 8 years ago. And I am very, very concerned that my once-stable and solidly middle-class, good-for-families, safe neighborhood is going downhill very quickly.
When I moved to the Richmond, Clement St. was the vibrant, “happening” street in the Avenues — and Irving Street was dowdy and dead by comparison. The way it looks today compared with how it was is shocking. Conversely, Irving Street is buzzing, vibrant, has nice restaurants, and many NEW restaurants and stores have moved in in the last two years (for example: NOPA opened a second location there a few months ago).
Why is the Richmond looking like a seedy, run-down, neglected, half-boarded up mess — when right across the Park, in an area that was always considered less nice than the Richmond – is there such a difference?
I want to say the answer to that question isn’t simple — but let me suggest that we have suffered from a lack of LEADERSHIP.
Supr. Carmen Chu has worked really hard with the merchant and business community in her district — and look at Irving from 6th to 11th, and even further…and then again from 19th out to about 26th! It’s day and night from how it was 10 years ago.
Yes, UCSF is near Irving – but it ALWAYS has been. WE have the Vet’s hospital, we have UCSF at Masonic, we have Seacliff, we have Ocean Beach and Baker Beach, we have GGPark and the Bridge and the Presidio… all great assets.
I recently realized, as I drove a visiting friend down Geary, past the trash-filled medians and thehandful incredibly badly “replanted” ones…past the still-vacant former Walgreen’s (which Mar stopped PetCo from taking a lease out in 3 years ago, .that would have been filled all these years…), past the Alexandria, with it’s chain-link fence around it and it’s sign jerryrigged to keep it from crashing down…etc., etc. ) that I was actually EMBARASSED and apologizing for my beloved Richmond district, where I have invested all the money I have, and lived most of my life.
I think David Lee missed a great opportunity when he made his closing remarks on Tuesday. I think all he really needed to say was “Eric Mar has had FOUR years to show the kind of leadership he could provide and the kind of help he could get from City Hall for our district. When you drive around the Richmond, when you walk down the sidewalks, do things look better to you than they were 4 years ago? Do they seem about the same? Or do they seem worse. Do you feel safer? Are you embarrassed when you drive people who don’t live in the Richmond down Geary Blvd?”
My view is that McGoldrick and Mar have let our neighborhood be use, abused and pillaged by S.F. whenever they needed a big space. They did not ask us about Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. We did not get a vote. It was just forced upon us. Surely any supervisor who cared at all about his district would have said “Just wait a minute! You are going to have a concert that bring 700,000 people into this quiet residential district in 3 days, fence off a major public park for a week, take a major percentage of the already inadequate parking away from residents, mess up the traffic, and all the attendant problems? Okay — first let’s talk about what you are going to DO FOR THE RICHMOND in exchange for that massive inconvenience…”
How did that never happen? I think it’s high time I did…
oops! last line should read “High time it did…”
–Greg, you seem to feel it’s OK for a parent in the Richmond to get a letter they have to drive 5 miles, 25 minutes, to take their kid to school while a kid 5 miles away gets a letter they go to school here, which adds to traffic tremendously. Some parents want to have no car, but you have to buy a car if your kid gets sent to a far away school. I’m all for diversity but let’s say we’ll create spots for Latino and black kids and provide one bus or three buses, not have hundreds of parents cross each other in a bizarre lottery increasing traffic.
–Sue, as a college student I am still deciding if I will stay here. I feel some of your comments are NIMBY. I agree more should be done to improve the corridor. I’m not sure David Lee will be better than Eric Mar on this, but I’m not sure he won’t. That is my question. What is Lee’s plan? Why do you feel he’d do better? Are Grocery Outlets bad for some reason? I think it’s bad it’s been nothing for 2 years and was happy with Mar’s announcement, but I haven’t decided who to vote for yet.
–As for prostitution, they should have passed Prop K. We should have the Rhode Island law, what you do in private behind closed doors if you are a consenting adult is private, I don’t need the government telling me what reason I can have sex for and what reason I can’t. My body is my own. When you criminalize it, when people dig through the garbage cans outside and say look, a condom, let’s arrest someone, you encourage people to be unsafe and women can get STDs. Now in my view prostitution in public, trafficking, pimping, violence, underaged prostitution are all serious crimes which should end in long sentences, but if it’s between consenting adults, you put the women at risk when you criminalize their behavior and a woman should never have her body controlled.
–Because it is illegal and women need to be secret, they put themselves at great risk and are about half of all the non-family murders in the US, whereas in Europe and Japan and Australia, it’s less than 1%.Services to help them get out if they choose and prosecuting those who force anyone to do what they don’t want to, yes, but criminalizing adult women’s choices, no way. Same with drugs, you can’t go up to a cop and say that guy stole my cocaine, so drug dealers end up fighting and dying and if it were legal, we could focus on treatment. We have 10 x the % of people in prison as the aforementioned nations due to telling everyone what they can do with their body, the drug war.
–Sue, it’s been around for thousands of years. Men like sex more than us. Some men will always pay some women for it. It balances things out. What we need to do is make sure no one is forced. It can help the economy and make people happier. Government, let me decide what to do with my body. Many women don’t want as much sex as their man wants. Some do. For those who don’t, some women can take advantage of it if they so choose and men have a way to satisfy their needs..
–I say, spend that money on schools and give every child the help they need, pay for Kumon for every child, so we don’t have anyone so desperate they end up in prison. They count those failing 4th grade to predict and build prisons. Instead of constructing a prison, give that child a tutor a year or two before if they need help. Reduce our jails and spend it on schools.
–That being said, Lafayette, Presidio and other public schools made a lot of extra and needed money from those festivals selling parking. I think they were a good thing for the neighborhood. Inconvenient yes, but a good thing, money spent, parking, etc.
Sue Fry’s posts are spot on and well stated. Local school pride and increased family involvement are critical to healthy neighborhoods, … assuming you think families have a place in the Richmond. Whatever your morality on the issue, increased prostitution in all of its forms hurts neighborhoods. Clement Street and Balboa St. both (inner and outer sections) could be so much more.
Come November, please vote David Lee or D’Silva …first or second choice, or vice versa. Just leave Eric Mar off your ballot. He had his chance and, for the most part, wasted it pursuing ideolgical and symbolic goals.
I agree so much, Mar could have done so much more. I agree women and men should be able to do what they want if it’s behind their own doors. The problem is sometimes there are drugs involved, or trafficking, and then you get bad elements. I say let there be a few blocks in SOMA or somewhere where it’s legal, and if it’s in a house or apartment and discrete, fine, but I don’t want brothels and trafficking and drugs on Balboa or Clement. Those places Sue is talking about are brothels and they probably are not doing it by choice. They are adults, but probably not consenting. Consenting adults yes. Slaves, no. That should have ended in 1865. I had one creep circling the block near the one on Balboa looking at me and it made me very uncomfortable. That place should be shut down.
@Sarah Miller, the real issue is not prostitution, it is human trafficking. There are plenty of foreign nationals willing to pay anything to come to America and there are plenty of criminals delighted to help them. I do not know who wields the baton but there has been a blind eye turned for decades on single family residences turned into boarding houses, with 7-8 in a bedroom, in the Avenues on both sides of the park. Occupants are not seen outside Home Depot so where do they go? There is little discussion in the English language press here about gambling and other forms of debt causing home invasions, nor is there much discussion of the grow houses, consuming industrial quantities of power in underwired residential areas. One can learn plenty by visiting all the homes for sale in your immediate area.
I graduated from Galileo, having returned to the City in my junior year where I stayed with friends in Pacific Heights; it was my assigned school. Several months later I moved to the Richmond but chose not to transfer to Washington because it was farther from my after school job downtown. I could not get into Lowell because SFUSD made major errors transcribing my British school’s grades (Effort and Attainment) and subject matter (converting A Level Economics to Home Ec for one). I did my homework (what little there was) while standing on the 31L and 47 in the morning. I had no community; neighborhood schools would have made some difference but I missed out on that by living abroad. What I see happening today with the school assignment lottery is turning many of the schools into third world instead of third culture, the latter is vastly preferable. Unfortunately the lottery was driven by Asian families and their litigation against SFUSD. My experience at SFUSD showed me it was already failing *before* Prop 13. Neighborhood schools are needed for elementary grades; I’m not sure about middle or high school as some students could benefit vastly by being tracked to specialty schools. For the students who lack homes and parent(s) and use much of the district’s resources could boarding schools with live-in faculty work? What I did learn at Galileo is that there is a lot of crime in Chinatown and much of it does not get disclosed. One of the first things I learned there was to avoid clusters of brown jackets and clusters of black jackets (both Ben Davis) and to exit the building immediately if they began facing each other off.
None of the questions in these debates or any other election matter have addressed the nature of San Francisco’s budget. The taxpayer dollars going to public housing and SRO rents are hidden in the Mayor’s budget and the majority of the General Fund goes to 1. Debt Service, 2. Payroll, 3. Employee & Retiree Health Benefits, 4. Pensions. Once these are disbursed the remaining preponderance goes to Health and Social Services. So if we expect improvements to Muni (am old enough to remember the Fulton and Clement streetcars, did not see the ones on Geary) and improved parks, we need a new voice at City Hall. McGoldrick and Mar may have served specific special interests but they did not serve our district as a whole. Frankly I believe district elections don’t serve the City as a whole and that they increase the headcount at City Hall.
Sarah,
I actually agree with virtually everything you said.
As far as the lottery goes, I think you somewhat misunderstand my position. I acknowledge that there are problems and injustices that happen with the lottery. But I’ve yet to see a better plan. I’m all for tweaking it to correct some of the problems you talk about, but what the neighborhood schools advocates want is a system that forces every parent to send their child to the school closest to their home. The racial aspects aside, that’s simply wrong for most parents. It’s great if you happen to live two blocks away from the best school in the city, but it wreaks havoc on everybody else. I’ve lived under this kind of system, and I can tell you from personal experience that this kind of one-size-fits all policy is awful for most families… and it creates tons of incentive for fraud. I think that’s why voters rejected it when it was put on the ballot, not because of some endorsement or lack thereof.
The other thing to remember is that -and I can’t say this enough -is that supervisors have precisely Z-E-R-O control over school assignment. Even some of the Lee supporters here acknowledge that their vote is just “payback” over something the school board did when Eric was one of the members. They should remember, though, that just as many people are on the other side of this issue. Eric won *after* his time on the school board, and always received some of his strongest backing in his actual school board races from right here in the Richmond.
The rest of your comments are absolutely spot on. Regarding the bus issue, I didn’t hear anything resembling a plan coming from David Lee. Eric actually does have a plan, whether it’s pushing for a 5 Fulton Express line or Geary BRT, at least he’s doing something. It’s easy to criticize when you’re not in there rolling up your sleeves, but at least Eric is doing something to make things better.
Which is why I find the comments about lack of leadership bizarre. And to go as far as saying the Sunset is somehow more vibrant than the Richmond. Really? Really??? You’ve got to be kidding me. The only part of Irving Street that’s actually nice, is the part in District 5 (hint: that’s not Carmen Chu’s district). Carmen Chu is mediocrity personified -I can’t think of a single thing she’s actually done, except rubber stamp city hall corruption. If you ask me, the Richmond is a more desireable place to live than the Sunset in every way… but I guess you see what you want to see.
I do agree, however, with these posters who think David Lee would be in the mold of Carmen Chu. If you want a do-nothing rubber stamp for anything the Brown machine asks for, if you want a guy who by his own admission (at the debate) likes virtually everything developers put in front of him, if you want a guy whose only idea for housing is build and build like there’s no tomorrow (neighborhoods be damned), th
Sorry, hit “post” by accident. The last sentence should read “then Lee’s your man.” That’s IF you want another Carmen Chu clone in there -I don’t. I think we have enough of those.
Greg, no one says everyone should be required to go to school in their neighborhood. The point is, there should be no scenario in which a child close to Alamo doesn’t get in and a child from outside the entire Richmond District does. That’s what is happening now. They also should never have closed Cabrillo, considering that was happening. We need to convince families to stay and to do that, we need to give a guarantee. 60% of the Richmond voted in favor of Prop H, and that is all that will be voting in this election. Other neighborhoods voted for it. Many people voted for many reasons, but I think it’s doubtless that the concept that kids would switch in January cost at least 77 votes, which is all that would have been needed to switch for it to win. No one should be forced, but no one should get into Alamo from San Leandro or the Mission or anywhere else if a kid across the street couldn’t get in, that’s just Green Policy and reducing our carbon footprint.
Sarah: I can certainly appreciate your view on Proposition K re: the POSSIBILITY of massage parlors being brothels in the area; I would think this would be an easy thing to find out, just by going inside and asking subtile questions if you’re a male. I know I’ve been going to a reflexology business that opened up not too long ago (across the street from the upcoming Grocery Outlet!) and it’s clearly on the up and up… as a matter of fact, I helped them get a guy out one evening who had gone into a room for a reflexogy session, dropped his pants and asked for sex from one of the masseurs and refused to leave until they complied. That being said, I have to add that legal prostitution, as an example in Amsterdam or Thailand, tends to be set up in one area of a city, and it’s a bit of a circus in that area due to the draw. Frankly, I’d rather not live in the middle of a circus like that, nor have my neighborhood turned into the area that’s known for (legal or illegal) prosititution. I tend to like peace and quiet, which is why I moved into this neighborhood in the first place compared to other areas of the city.
Which brings me to a word that’s becoming increasingly as misused and tired as the word “progressive.” That’s NIMBY. The message is basically, “You allow me to come into your neighborhood, walk over as many of your rights as I want, and let me act in any way I decide. If you don’t, then you’re telling me, “Not in my neighborhood.” Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing, and what every neighborhood in any city is doing. That’s why we’ve created laws for privacy, noise, as well as crime. People have a right to accept or not accept certain behaviors in their own homes or neigborhoods when THEIR basic rights are being stepped on. To be called a “nimby” for that is a total whitewash and isn’t fooling anybody anymore.
I agree, we have a right to a nice neighborhood. How about this, you do what you want in your home, but no storefronts or businesses based on this. If 3 women who want to do this want to rent a 3 BR and be discreet, fine. I know a couple Russian women on my block are doing this it’s so obvious but I don’t care because they don’t hurt me, but when you have a storefront or pimps you get a horrible situation. I don’t want marijuana smell or loud music or homeless guys lying around or any of that. I don’t care if you have a pot brownie, so long as I don’t have to smell it.
Prostitution is ILLEGAL.
And there are many, many good reasons for that.
We as a community, the state, the people of the city and county of San FRancisco have voted and decided that WE, as a community DO NOT WANT THIS . In fact, we voted on it just a couple of years ago.
This is a Democracy — so it is not up to you to decide for the entire community what you think should and should not be legal. We vote, the majority rules and then the residents respect that decision and honor the laws. What do you think happens if every just decides for themselves and wont’ obey the laws.
When you allow prostitution and drug dealing and other activities, you are setting up an environment that invites gangs, organized crime, the trafficking of women, etc to go on. You don’t know how those Russian women are really employed by, who they are answering to. Do you know if they’re legally here? Do you know that they might have been kidnapped from their husbands or parents, shipped to the U.S., have no legal papers, be terrified of the men they’re working with, being beaten and forced to do this? You don’t.
If you are ignoring prostitution on your own street — you are not doing anyone a favor. You are not being “nice.” Far more likely you are inviting all manner of really nasty problems, violence, abuse into our neighborhood. And how can you — as a woman — support this and turn a blind eye to it?
Dman, I agree with you totally. “NIMBY” is the claim of people who want to piss all over our neighborhood and walk away and let us clean it up. It’s a total b.s statement. It is the equivalent of how people in the ’80s when they were full or it or trying to shut you up would say “wow! you’re SO defensive…!”
Yeah, damn right. This was a really nice neighborhood. And why should I stand around and watch it be ruined by people who have no roots here, aren’t interested in putting any down, and will have moved out in a year or two, having ruined it for those of us who love it and have a real long-term vested interest in it? I’m not a NIMBY — I’m a CAMBY “Care about my backyard.” You think people who live in the Mission or the Marina are going to fight to keep out prostitutes and GGPark from being ground to dust or every corner from having mattresses and garbage thrown on it?
I don’t think so.
I went to Presidio to pick up my kid today and looked at the wall. For the record, she has between a 3.50 and 3.83, not below a 3.00 as was claimed before. As for the issue of divorce and Mar’s daughter, I generally agree that people should try to stay together if possible and go to counselling, but if they do divorce I feel it is OK so long as they don’t date new people or if they do, never put those people over their own children in terms of time and energy. I think if you divorce you should wait until your child turns 18 to date again to ensure you spend as much time with them as before, have a FWB situation if you need it but in my experience, when parents fall in love with a new person, they will give into pressure from that person to spend time with them and thus neglect to help their child with homework, spend money for tutors, so it can negatively affect their grades and STAR Test scores. And usually they end up divorcing that person, so their kid loses a good college for a relationship that lasts a couple years, not fair to the kid. In theory it would be OK if the new person respects your relationship with your child comes first, but in the real world this usually doesn’t happen which is probably why statistically, GPAs and SATs drop drastically as a result of divorce, but they don’t have to, it’s not set in stone, if you put your child first, they can do as well as if you’d stayed together.
Mar’s daughter got high honors, which means a 3.5, 3.67 or 3.83 GPA. That’s pretty good at Presidio, a very good school and not easy. I’m still voting for Lee because I want kids from the neighborhood to be able to be able to go to school without taking a bunch of buses or having their parents drive them and have seen families leave due to this. I also don’t like what Mar did with the Jack in the Box, that place is just a magnet for crime.
I also think that there should be a factor in school assignment for after school programs. I’m Russian and live closer to Lafayette, but my son couldn’t study Russian in an afterschool program because it isn’t offered there. At Alamo, there’s a good program and feel that if you commit to the Russian program, you should be able to go to Alamo or a school with a Russian program after school. But yes, you can guarantee kids a spot in the Richmond Greg, the only reason some of our neighborhood kids are being turned down is because kids from other neighborhoods are being awarded those spots, which should never happen.
Prostitution is about our own body and should be legal. Forced prostitution is not, that’s trafficking, which should be illegal. It’s that simple. We all choose what laws to obey. I will ignore stupid laws. Half of adults have tried marijuana. We all jaywalk. Hell 15% of this district lives in illegal inlaw units. In Europe and Asia, it’s legal and should be legal here, which is why no one ever gets convicted of it here, no jury of 12 will convict on a victimless crime. Yes, if they’re being beaten, forced, raped, sure. If an 18-year old wants to do it, her choice. If a man would rather pay than try to seduce a woman, his choice, not yours, and not mine. I agree 100% if there is trafficking, they should go to jail, if they consent, no. The Russian women I mention, they are not being forced, trust me I can tell the difference.
Quality of Life is key. Live and let live with personal choices.
I’d rather have horny guys have some legal outlet so I never get raped. I just don’t want to have to look at it. I went to Jack In the Box last week and the way these guys were looking at me just made me feel really nervous and I left. I agree about Jack in the Box. It ruins our quality of life It just attracts the worst of the worst. I think they should close it or at least make them close at midnight.
Agreed, the government needs to stay out of my vagina. No overturn of Roe vs. Wade. No forced ultrasounds or bans on birth control, Romney and Santorum. No telling me when and for what reason I can have sex. No telling me what kind of movie I can see, and letting kids see movies with people hacking each other to death with swords but one breast or penis and it’s a million dollar fine on the network. No censorship. No forced transvaginal invasive ultrasounds. No execution of women. No hateful judgement of women that sleep around as sluts while it’s just fine if a guy does it. No putting prostitutes in jail so they are afraid and vulnerable to psycho killers like Jack Bokin. No Senators (Todd Akin) who think there is forcible rape and rape that isn’t really rape, and that you can’t get pregnant if you’re really raped and we’re all lying. No trafficking. No pimps. No police telling me what reason I can have sex for. No gold diggers going online to guestimate a guy’s income before they agree to a third date and hiring detectives and women who are more honest and ask for cash risking a criminal record. Just let me control my body, government, you’re not my mother and you’re not my father and I’m an adult. I don’t care how stunned you are, just don’t try to control me I’ll do what I please. Peace out!
Ladies, this is about David Lee vs. Eric Mar for District 1 Supervisor. Neither one is probably for this. Do what you want, but it has nothing to do with this. Mar wants your child in a lottery and if you lose, you drive. Lee wants you to be able to go to a public school in the Richmond if you live in the Richmond, and no one outside the area to take your spot if you are in the area. I will vote for Lee. And Popek for School Board.
Property Values will benefit if neighborhood schools is passed. It’s inevitable, but if it’s within 2-3 years, you’ll see an increase in the Richmond of 10-20%. Right now, if you buy in Burlingame, you have a school you can look at and say, my child will go here, and it’s good. If you buy in the Richmond, you have a chance at 6 great elementary, 2 great middle, or a pretty good high school and a chance at the best high school in Northern California in Lowell. You also have a chance at a bad school far from home. Property values in Burlingame would drop if you sent half of Daly City’s kids to Burlingame and half the kids in Burlingame had to go to Daly City. Same here.
If property values go up, it will be good for renters too because there won’t be sales which can lead to owner move ins, as many renters are in buildings and flats which will be sold if the owners can’t refinance. Also, you’ll live in a better neighborhood with more stability and less crime.
David Lee will help improve our neighborhood for middle and upper middle class families. People will pay more for a home with a guaranteed school. Foreclosures will drop and refinancings and new sales will rise. It will be win win. No one here now loses.
Stephanie, you think women should automatically be exempt from the death penalty just because they’re women? I agree with you on everything else, but this is sexist. I am voting to get rid of the death penalty entirely but men and women should be treated equally. And women are hardly ever executed so I don’t see how you view this as a feminist issue.
Dima,
It’s interesting that you chastise the “ladies” for getting sidetracked on an issue you don’t want to focus on, and then you segway right into another issue that the Supervisors have absolutely no say in!Do you even realize the irony of that?
Look, I understand you’re fixated and angry that once upon a time when Mar was on the school board, he was one of seven unanimous votes who chose not repeal integration. I get it. You’ve said it many times. But dude… this was years ago, and since that vote Mar has been both re-elected onto the school board (on the strength of Richmond votes I should add), AND elected to the BOS.
And while you may have a narrow majority of people who voted on your side in the Richmond (as well as others like me who think you’re totally wrong), honestly I don’t think that many people really base their votes on an issue that the supervisors have no control over. If this is David Lee’s reason for running, he really should be running for School Board.
Mr dobbs — You don’t understand how ranked choice works. If no candidate gets over 50% after first choices are counted, then the last place candidate is eliminated and those ballots distributed to the 2nd choice candidates listed on those ballots. Therefore, if D’Silva is last after first choice votes are counted, it is not possible for him to win. End of story.
On the topic of neighborhood schools… I am a strong supporter of most children being able to walk or bike to close-by schools. However a system of exclusively neighborhood schools is simply a direct prescription for economic segregation (which generally leads to racial segregation) where the rich have good schools and the less well off have bad schools. That is simply unacceptable. No amount of school resources can change this, because it’s simply a matter of fact that families with more resources have more free time and financial resources to pay attention and get involved in their children’s schooling and their education. If you want to live in a homogenous, wealthy suburb in a small jurisdiction, one of the benefits you get is the schooling that goes with it, though that is incredibly sad that as parents and citizens people are willing to throw less wealthy families and the future under the bus and exacerbate a system of intense inequality that harms us all. And yes, I am a parent.
LOL. Re: Dima’s remark, I also felt the subject was getting way off-topic, especially after reading Stephanie Lowe’s posting. It kind of stuck in my mind, however, and I went back and looked at every statement. Realized also I was in complete agreement with everything she wrote except that one statement about no executions for women, and I also thought it was sexist. Why does she think a woman committing a serious crime is any more forgivable than a man?
I DO think we need to stick on the topic of the forum, but that comment was a liitle vexing to me… sorry to take us off track again…
If you do not like the laws, then you organize and you work to have them changed. I may want to steal, or murder or hit you in the face with a bottle or refuse you a job because you’re gay or black or handicapped, but the LAW is in place because we, as a society, do not condone these things. And we live in a DEMOCRACY , which means the majority rules . and you have avenues to work to change these things if you think they are wrong.
And I would suggest that you educate yourself about what allowing prostitution into a neighborhood does to it.
Yes!!! I’d like to have run several red lights on my way home from work yesterday, but knew there would probably be consequences. I work with a lot of clients who have jail histories for murder, crack dealing, and robbing… they too decided to “ignore stupid laws.” I can’t say it got them very far.
Consenting adults doing what they want is victimless. That and illegal marijuana are two of the stupidest things in our law code. We have 10 x the % in prison and jail as European nations, and this makes it so a third of black males can’t vote in some states, such as Florida where Gore lost by 552 votes. We criminalize a lot of African American males. It’s also stupid we spend $775 billion on “defense”. Since 1941 or 1945 we’ve only been attacked by an 850-person terrorist organization, and that’s more crime than war, our “defense” is mostly offense, trying to invade Iraq, control Nicaragua, kill 3 million in Vietnam.
As for schools, the truth is resources are actually lowest at the schools in the avenues. Much more money goes to the schools on the East side. The achievement gap is a function of two things. The first is how many hours do you study. If you go to the libraries on San Bruno Avenue, near the Bayview, on Saturday, you see lots of kids in there and almost all are both poor and Asian. Asians study an average of 16 hours a week. Whites 6, though in SF it’s higher. Latinos and African Americans in the 3-4 range. You just can’t get equal grades with less input of time. The second is many don’t have a parent who offers to help. We need to spend more money on tutors to teach these kids how to read at a young age. The schools in the Bayview are just fine, Asian kids there n Visitation Valley and the Bayview have a higher college graduation rate than white kids nationwide, even than white kids with above average incomes. But some families have no one who can help, so we need to hire many tutors to help kids read early, do math, and have Saturday homework clubs all kids have to go to if they aren’t performing well. Geoffrey Canada addressed this issue excellently in The Lottery and Waiting for Superman. It isn’t money, it’s convenience. Our kids need a guarantee of a school nearby, an ironclad guarantee. It’s good for the environment, it’s good for them and yes, it’s good for the kids in the Bayview because it forces the School Board to focus on what’s really holding their scores back. It isn’t money (they get more) and it isn’t integration (black and Latino kids at Presidio do just as bad as black and Latino kids at Visitation Valley or Denman, and white kids at Presidio do just as well as white kids at Denman or James Lick, which are considered bad schools full of Latino victims. Asian kids at Presidio do no better than Asian kids at Visitation Valley or Denman.). It’s hours studying and it’s tutoring availability. Force the school board to focus on convincing all kids to study 3-4 hours a day and turn off the TV and you’ll see the achievement gap disappear. Obama and Canada are black, and they believe this. We need more charter schools. Having them on a bus actually reduces how many hours they can study, ironically. Greg likes to brag that when he was a kid he spent hours on a bus each way so none of our kids should complain, maybe so but in 2012 with the intense competition, I doubt you’d have gotten into Lowell or a UC if you had to put so much time into a bus ride.
And JE, the simplest fix to this would be no Asian or white can take a spot in a Richmond District school over a local resident of any race. You could reopen Cabrillo and guarantee every local resident a spot in the Richmond AND have a higher black and Latino percentage at each school. The elephant in the room is PPS knows how to tell parents of means in Noe Valley, the Mission, Glen Park, the Excelsior, the Tenderloin (yes there are 3-4000 dollar a month apartments and million dollar condos), Nob Hill, the Fillmore, SOMA, etc. to put 25 schools down and there is a trade. Therefore you get Rooftop or a unique language school you have no intention of attending, then the algorithm switches you with someone who gets Alamo and prefers the school you got. So a white or Asian of equal income crosses your kid driving to your neighborhood. PPS brags about this when you meet them, Parents for Public Schools, they advise this strategy. I say, just put that in. It isn’t integrating our schools. Set aside 10% or 15% of each school for Latino and African American kids and provide a bus. They are about 5-6% now, and almost all of those live here in the Richmond. I’m for integration, but it would increase integration to force these PPS parents from Noe Valley to go to the mostly Latino schools near them and the parents in Pacific Heights to go to Cobb and Kipp and the mostly black schools there. Private schools and the PPS lottery are segregating our schools. Prop H would have increased integration by race and by income.
I support neighborhood schools as a former SFUSD student. I hate it how voters vote against public schools in an effort to make themselves feel better about how forward thinking they are by mixing district assignments. They do not realize however how horrible it was for my fellow students that had absolutely no say in this matter. They ended up having a torturous commutes on our great and always on time MUNI. So many were discouraged to attend school, and many ended up being late to school due to the cross city school commute.
As a woman and a feminist I must take bones with you. Words mean something. It doesn’t feel good to marry a man and give him a child and help him through school and support him and satisfy his strange whims and cry when he doesn’t spend enough time with you and then you get older and gain some weight from childbirth and he gets recognized and his career which you supported takes off and he just callously trades you in for a younger (much younger) model. I can tell you it really really hurts to be abandoned this way and it hurts your child too. You never get over it. I am almost 90 and if I am still alive on election day I will be voting for Lee.
I do not even have school age children, but I firmly believe that Richmond kids should have the actionable right to go to Richmond schools; the other scenario is harmful in more ways that one can count: to the kids, families, community at large. I am horrified at a prospect of 4 more years of Mar.
Myrtle I’m still in college but am very sympathetic to you and feel its horrible that this still happens in 2012. Till death do us part or till I make it and you gain weight and age and young gold digger sluts hit on me do we part. Not to even mention what this does to their poor daughter. I’m disgusted by this story. Needless to say I will vote for David Lee. I’ve seen his wife at his rallies and she really loves and supports him and he seems like a dedicated family man.
Myrtle Beaumont: I’m glad to hear you’re voting for David Lee. It sounds like you had a very rough time with your ex-husband, and coming from divorced parents myself (and also experiencing a couple of relationships similar to yours), I can definitely understand the frustration and hurt you feel. And I think you’re right, divorce did leave some scars with me that I’ve never been able to completely outgrow and probably never will. My point was that a very large percentage of relationships don’t last for a long time anymore for a lot of different reasons, and there are a lot of kids who experience divorced parents; I’m not sure that necessarily affects either the parents’ or the child’s abilities in their job performances (it would be an interesting study, though, if anyone ever conducted one). I know of several relationships in which the couple stay together – often for the sake of the children – but are very unhappy and fight all the time; even though they don’t divorce, I’m not sure that child feels like they’re in a very secure home life either, and probably has issues/self-esteem problems of their own from all the strife he or she witnesses on a continual basis. But if we judge someone’s job performance based on the success of their marriage or whether or not they stayed together with that partner, we’d have a huge amount of people being judged… divorce is, unfortunately or fortunately, a pretty common occurrence these days, and has been for a few decades now. I can remember as a kid being glad to go to school just to escape all the tension at home; I can’t say my grades suffered from it, though. I think it also in its own way motivated me to go into the healthcare field in order to help people who were having difficult lives… I never had any desire to be the CEO of a large corporation, and I can’t say I regret that I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings with my earlier post, as that certainly wasn’t my intention; people can be very cruel to each other sometimes, and I’m sorry that at 90 years old you’re still feeling the disappointment of the relationship you went through.
And ALY: I too am “horrified” at the prospect of another 4 years with Mar. For the first time in my life I completed an absentee ballot today and it felt great to vote for both the local and presidential candidates I wanted as well as the propositions I did or didn’t agree with almost three weeks early; nothing would make me happier to see some of these votes make a major difference when the results come in on November 7th. Considering some of the issues we’re up against, I think this is one of the most important elections I’ve experienced in my lifetime. PLEASE vote, people, otherwise nothing changes.
I just want to rephrase that last sentence in my posting: please encourage your friends and neighbors to vote. I think the group on this forum show some real unity within the Richmond district, which is really refreshing to see, and definitely WILL vote,
No unity but Lee will win by 3-5%. He just has too much more going for him at this point, more signs, more volunteers, more mailers. It’s overwhelming. I’ll vote for him based on the issues, but those who vote based on the issues will be about 50/50, but the undecideds or those who don’t think much about it will be influenced by all the mailers. I just hope we can heal the wounds and move on afterwards. And fix this neighborhood so every family can be at peace with their children’s education, preserve rent control, open new businesses, increase property values, reduce crime. I just hope this district isn’t so divided that there is violence and ill will in the neighborhood. I also think we need to stop the littering and grafitti. It’s not OK to throw cigarette butts all over the streets, that’s littering just like throwing a soda can or empty bag of chips on the street, it’s disgusting. And it’s not OK to walk around naked or smoke marijuana out the window so families with children can smell it or walk through the neighborhood screaming at 2 AM when the bars close and kids are sleeping. We just need some common decency in this neighborhood again.
I just hope this district isn’t so divided that there is violence and ill will in the neighborhood.
Dima, I can’t see ths happening… it’s hard enough to organize people to go to meetings in this district, much less create violence in the streets.
Some of the Mar people have been nasty in the streets and cafes, yelling at people who support Lee. I’ve seen some of the Lee people who aren’t much better, they seem to be more polite but a couple are obnoxious. Some of the Mar people take down Lee signs and try to convince you, and if you ask them about the schools issue, they call you a racist and storm off. I’m telling you, there are no black kids at Alamo who don’t live in the Richmond, there are about 6 and I know them. Most have white parents and are adopted. If there were this would be a different argument. The PPS people and the Mar supporters from the Mission want this because they know the system, know to put 20 schools and get a swap. They are white and Asian. I know people here who know how to play the game and drive their kid to an equally good school they don’t want, in the Sunset, like Feinstein, just as middle class.
If they just said only Latino and black (and Native American and Samoan) kids from outside the Richmond can take a spot from a school ahead of a local kid and we’ll make the schools a little bigger if need be, but zero white or Asians from outside can get in over a local resident, we could solve the problem. Most black and Latino people from other areas don’t want to go to school here. Virtually any who wanted Alamo could get it. That’s the simple solution. These Asians and whites from the Mission don’t want diversity, or they would send their kid to school in the Mission. Mar doesn’t want diversity or he’d send his daughter to a school in the Mission or Fillmore, which isn’t far.
Immigrants don’t join PPS or know the system, so Russians and Asians who aren’t in the know get put on a bus. The white kids usually leave or go private if they don’t get in. It isn’t about race. We want a neighborhood where we can have anyone who move here stay and go to public school.
This is a big issue because I’ve lost friends. And when someone approaches me and I respond logically and get called a racist or, in one instance, told to “go back to Russia if I don’t like black people”, that’s ugly. I barely have an accent and one guy yelled that at me a week ago. What? This is not cool. I was quiet and polite. I asked him if he lived in the Richmond and he said no.
I understand the issues and study them. But they hope they can confuse people and that most people will probably just vote for Mar because he is the one the party chose. I don’t want to live in a world where they party chooses who I vote for. I left that. I am a Democrat but I will choose. Most Russians are voting for Lee.
I do think that in a neighborhood where you move after college and stay, you are more respectful. Most people who grew up here or plan to raise their kids here don’t storm through the neighborhood talking or arguing or flirting loudly after the bars close or throw cigarette butts on the ground. College kids who think this is cool for a year do that. The schools issue prevents community because many think, I could lose the lottery, I will move in a few years, f it. The college kids and childless people are mostly for Mar, I see the signs for poetry readings and things not many parents go to. If we have neighborhood schools and a guarantee we will have more of a sense of community and that we are all part of this community for the long haul and you don’t scream when people are sleeping. Last night again I was woken up by a screaming group of college age or young 20s kids, 2 guys and two women walk by my house in a loud laughing discussion about penises and vaginas and the shape while my 2-year old is sleeping. That’s not a peaceful community. It’s just rude and disrespectful. I’m not saying Mar is for this in any way, just that when you don’t have a guarantee and people live here who don’t plan to stay, you get that. It’s much more common in the Marina where everyone plans to stay as a stepping stone. It’s not as common where people have a school guarantee and plan to stay. That’s what I want, a community, embrace it, welcome, but if you want to live here for 5 years and litter and yell and get drunk, live in the Marina. It’s just rude.
@Dima, Please do not paint childless couples as pro-Mar, not all of us are. I have no children by choice; two of my neighbors became widowers young and have not remarried and none of these households with lifetime affiliation to the Richmond are pro-Mar. I have already voted. I can’t speak to my neighbor’s voting status.
It is vitally important in the elementary school years that children go to a neighborhood school and form a community. Once they are in junior high most are able to take Muni to school provided there aren’t too many transfers.
Galileo was already plenty diverse when I got there, I was a minority: Caucasian. Caucasians and Samoans were bused in from Potrero Hill because most of the area’s Caucasian families put their kids in private or Catholic High Schools after Marina if they didn’t get into Lowell. This was *before* Prop 13. Once I got tuberculosis, I understood why the parents wanted their kids away from Gal.
It is my belief that the only way to raise test scores for the chronic underperforming groups is to mandate fixed hours of on-campus tutoring/homework/study hall after classes every day and to enforce closed campuses along with involving CPS in every case of truancy. Another approach would be to withhold intermural team sports unless a school reaches a certain achievement level, intramural sports could remain. This would have an effect on all households expecting junior to be their NFL/NBA meal ticket as the school could not compete against other schools. The longer day would also help instill some time management skills in students who lack in this area. For the students “too tired” to do homework, they could be assigned to lay down on mats in the school’s gym or auditorium and be asked to leave by monitors when making noise. The Teachers Union will balk, claiming this extends their day; however I feel tutors can come from peers slightly more advanced in a given subject where they would benefit from the satisfaction and esteem which comes from helping others. Same happens with study groups.
My observation of what district elections have done to San Francisco is to cause an increase in social services with neglect of the City as a whole, particularly infrastructure. As more and more progressives populate City Hall, they embrace policies which attract clientele from other counties and states causing the need to create more bureaucracies to serve that clientele or to manage the non-profits “serving” them. Many of the non-profits are staffed by SEIU members who rally to increase costs to taxpayers for their higher wages and more generous benefit packages. I am very saddened to see this; one of my aunts was Director of Pupil Services at SFUSD and brought social services into schools back in the 1950s, my other aunt was head of northern California’s Department of Mental Health. They did not enjoy the lavish compensation the politicos claim is needed. Both passed away before HMOs and PPOs existed and they had to pay the same 20% co-pay every other Blue Cross member did. When my aunt started as a schoolteacher, she was required to spend a year as a Truant Officer before she was deemed suitable for the classroom, perhaps we need something like this brought back.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I dearly appreciate them.
I got a mailer yesterday about Care not Cash and agree with Lee on this, it was for Lee. Mar wants to end Care Not Cash. I hate how these perennial losers take money out of our school budget and always have some story blaming others for their plight. I call bullshit. You didn’t lose your job and not get another because you were a model employee, and there is enough money in food stamps, food banks, welfare and soup kitchens that you aren’t asking me for money because you are hungry. They just panhandle and do drugs and break car windows. Any policy that attracts more here is horrible. You should have to show you went to an SF high school or worked here to get anything, and if then, only the minimum. We should send them to a boot camp where no alcohol or drugs are allowed in and they work out, eat, learn, and lose their addictions, and dogs sniff them or they strip search them going in, no visitors, and army colonels work them out to get their discipline and heart and dignity back. We shouldn’t feel sorry for them and give them our hard earned money. We just encourage more to come here from other areas. Before this policy, they’d come here from everywhere. That’s money that could be spent tutoring a poor minority child in the projects with bad parents so they can become a lawyer or doctor or businessperson or engineer. It’s money that could make muni go on time, or allow grass fields instead of astroturf. Every one of these people you see is hurting the residents of San Francisco. Mar is encouraging more of them to be here. It’s a very effective flier.
Agreed, increasing the homeless population increases crime, break ins, car window smashes on Fulton which is the only parking available for some, being bugged by panhandlers, drugs, etc. It just doesn’t add to quality of life. We have more than our percentage of these people and they are almost all from somewhere else. Giving cash again will cause those in other cities to fake an SF address and come hear to get drugs once a month or twice a month. When Care Not Cash went in, the cost to SF went way down. We need to put that money into our schools. And I agree about the drunks yelling walking down the street. People don’t do that if they have kids. I saw a Mar supporter take down a Lee poster today just because, in a cafe, without owner permission. That is illegal and not right. Yelling that people are racist isn’t right. The behavior of the Mar supporters seems more of an idealistic, give money to the poor without deep thought type philosophy that leads to a Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley situation. I support help, but a hand up, not a hand out. A tutor is a hand up. Care not Cash is a hand up. Cash is a hand out. It’s our community.
It isn’t right to give cash to someone so irresponsible with their life decisions in the past that they’re homeless. Most of them have a great story but you could give them $10,000 and they’d be homeless again in a few months. They lost their job for a reason. I even think shelter, a boot camp, and they have to do certain things to get any welfare like treat the camp seriously and pass each level and check, if they get a job and the boss says they showed up late or didn’t try their best, then it’s their fault they were fired and we don’t have to give them anything ever again as a San Francisco taxpayer. We really need to cut this part of the budget and put more into schools. Tutors, etc. And the idea that everyone will magically learn from them if they’re in school with good students doesn’t really hold water. When I went to Washington the black kids didn’t ask me why I studied 4 hours a day and all weekend and see I had over a 3.5 and want to be like me. Most made fun of me and my cousin got bused to Galileo and she worked hard and did her best and had a good GPA but the common culture of the school was that studying was not cool. The bottom line is, you have to do it, it comes down to studying a lot, not who you sit next to. I wasn’t some hero to learn from and I’m a minority too. I was a sellout to some, a nerd to others. Black girls made fun of me to no end for graduating from high school a virgin, like it was the worst thing ever. I just didn’t meet the right guy or feel like doing that, and mostly focused on studying. Isn’t everyone supposed to study hard and wait? I was wrong for this. I was treated as wrong for not drinking. I was called racist names by blacks at least 50 times in high school and never said anything racist myself towards anyone. I only remember one black student who ever expressed admiration for me getting good grades and 30 who reproached me for it. I also remember taggers, kids who would litter at hte bus stop. I don’t remember anyone from the Richmond doing that. Fights, etc. There’s better behavior when you’re in your own neighborhood and know if you get a bad GPA or litter or fight, your parents will find out and your community will be dishonored. I didn’t see a lot of shame in a bad GPA or even littering. Once this black guy from somewhere else threw an empty soda can on the ground and I told him it was wrong and he yelled and cursed at me and it was kind of scary, he didn’t feel he had even done anything wrong, he felt I was wrong for disputing it. I think this idea we can close the achievement gap by taking two buses so they can emulate us Asians and whites, well it isn’t the truth. We go to all the trouble and nothing changes. I know I’ll make more money but it’s from hard work, not because I’m super priveleged. I’m not some rich girl, I took a bus till my late ’20s and worked long hours at jobs and studying and waited for sex and didn’t drink or do drugs. When I have kids, I don’t owe it to kids whose parents made fun of me to drive my kid across town. Plus as some have noted, they still allow white and Asian kids from other neighborhoods to get into here in the lottery if they know the tricks, so sometimes people going to school close would make it more diverse.
Wow, I’m hearing more and more about this from others in the district, but if anyone witnesses any of Mar’s supporter’s tearing down signs or shouting racist accusations because they can’t get a resident to agree with them, I hope they’ll take note of it and call the police immediately (also, notify David Lee’s campaign headquarters on 5th and Geary, so they can bring them another sign!). Almost all of Mar’s people are brought in from other districts, and are part of the “fan club” he worked to get started by promoting Outside Lands, etc. This kind of behavior is disgusting, and, again, a pretty desperate attempt by his campaign to throw a tantrum because they can’t get the support they demand. They consistently make negative comments about Lee on his Facebook page, but I’ve yet to see that happen toward Mar on David’s Facebook site. As I’ve observed for four years now, Mar seriously considers himself a “leftist,” but what he really is is a facist who thinks he knows what’s better for everyone else and dictates that; now the real behaviors are coming out because he was too concerned with his own issues to read the writing that was on the wall two years ago. What’s being described by some of the postings here is totally unacceptable and a complete violation of free speech. I’d like to see stories like this one covered by the Chronicle for all of San Francisco to hear about… and Mar’s an attorney? Why doesn’t he have enough integrity to step down now rather than wait out the next two week? Really pathetic.
And I’m not religious or conservative or judgemental, do what you want, I agree with the person who says stop spending City money locking up everyone who uses drugs and the woman who says prostitution should be legal, it’s not my business, do what you want. Have a drink, have sex, pay for sex, get paid for sex, I don’t care, but don’t expect me to sacrifice if it doesn’t work out and say the reason I’m successful is racism, I’m a minority too and the reason is long hours of studying boring things. I know I worked hard and wasn’t admired by those who didn’t in school and don’t think busing helps. The only thing that will fix it is long, hard hours. Blacks will have a worse, more boring life for many years but more money in the long run if they do this. Teachers aren’t racist, it comes down to hours studying, nothing else. Maybe tutors, sure, but nothing else. I volunteered to tutor at Washington and usually no one showed up so I just sat there doing my homework or talked to other tutors no one wanted. It’s never going to happen without a lot of study hours. We don’t expect something for nothing and we make more than whites on average, 25% more, and have faced a lot of discrimination in the past. Hard work does pay off.
Wow… the hatred and nastiness on this board is overwhelming. I think I now realize the reason someone turned me on to this blog -I didn’t even know people/attitudes like this existed here. My first instinct, as always, is to discuss issues in a logical manner. But I’ve come to realize that for folks here it’s not really about logic or issues. When the two main reasons I hear about voting for Lee (or rather getting rid of Mar -I don’t even think it matters who/what the alternative is), are ending SF’s desegregation programs, and the fact that Mar is going through a divorce… well then I realize it’s not about issues. It’s visceral hatred.
When I came to this city, I thought I left behind the kind of environment where a candidate getting divorced is seen as something negative that could torpedo someone’s election chances. I thought this city was better than this.
And to an extent, I still think it is. Decent, progressive candidates have now won in the Richmond 3 times in row, so I guess I shouldn’t extrapolate the whole Richmond from the postings on this blog. Of course it’s been close, so I guess this kind of thing has always been there ready to rear it’s head if we let it out.
I just hope that it doesn’t turn out to be a majority this time. The prospect of an anti-rent control, corrupt, right-wing majority on the board of supes which rubber stamps anything developers want… that just terrifies me. So in a way, this board has inspired me, because for me it’s not just ideological. It’s existential, because I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford living in the city I love if they get their way.
Thanks for your assessments, Greg. Your postings have always sounded to me to be a little too slick and manipulative… You’re clearly trying to sway as many people to vote for Mar as you can, but you sound like someone, frankly, from a labor union. I agree there are some disturbing comments that have been made on this forum, but I think you’ll find those same types of people in every district in the city. Frankly, I find the behaviors from Mar’s campaign supporters “ugly,” and I’m hearing more and more accounts of these. It’s a known fact that most of these volunteers are not from the Richmond district, so if I were you, I don’t think I’d be throwing stones.
And re: the labor union remark, please don’t misunderstand me… I’m also a union member, and Mar was a very good supporter for our causes. I’m grateful for that. But his primary concern was to be a supervisor, and as far as I can see, in that role he failed. Owing to several different incidents a number of us have had within the district in which he showed no concern at all – but had plenty of time to pursue things like toys at McDonald’s and several other issues in his own agenda – I don’t think he has any business being a supervisor. From what I could see, if he had his way, he’d have let his aides do his job for him (and I just read that he was requesting a third one not long ago… talk about spitting in the face of his constituents). As someone who has known David Lee for awhile, spoken with him re: his plans for the district and have been pretty frank with him about our concerns (especially about rent control), you clearly no nothing about him at all and are doing your best to create a panic. Your accusations are all based on assumptions you’ve made.
One last thing: if you’re yet another person who came to San Francisco thinking you’d walk into the sixties again, welcome to reality. San Francisco is just another city.
@Greg, I wouldn’t call McGoldrick decent. My first and only communication with him was regarding broken pavement at a Muni stop facing Park Presidio which I felt could cause a pedestrian/Muni rider fatality by tripping and falling into Park Presidio. His response was to block my email address.
Greg you are being dismissive of my life experiences and I know many Asians who work long hours at school and are disrespected for it often get tired of being quietly diligent and going along with an idea that others couldn’t possibly get good grades because they are disadvantaged. I also do believe that the lottery is more about white and Asian kids from other neighborhoods coming here. I agree with the previous poster that saying only black and Latino kids could come here via the lottery and then everyone could be happy. I also say, we have to teach these kids that they aren’t just doing poorly because of past racism, and as Obama said, you’re never so poor you couldn’t possibly turn off the TV and study. There has to be a process where they are taught, going from the lower middle or lower class to a high-paying job and a good college takes long hours of study. 20+ hours studying every week. We do it, and we mostly do it quietly, but don’t expect us to sacrifice long bus commutes when we don’t see these kids making the effort to work as hard as we do to solve the problem. it isn’t fair. Most of my Chinese friends, when we’re together, there’s a mix, we didn’t own slaves, we’re not part of that history, we didn’t steal California we moved here poor. We want to solve racism but we are frustrated when we see ourselves more dedicated to studying hard than supposed victims of racism. Greg, it isn’t right. You should at a minimum ask the blacks and Latinos who benefit from this to study every chance they get, obsessively, like we do. Then in a generation racism can be solved. You seem slick to me too. You seem to want Mar to win and be willing to say anything. I wasn’t even born in this country, I’m not part of your dogma. I just want to see a constructive way to fix inequality and yes, it will take some taxes on the well off but it will also take elbow grease and long, difficult hours, like I did, from the poor performing students. There are a lot of kids who cry racism and make us take two buses and then don’t put in much work at all after school, and it makes me and a lot of others mad and feel like suckers. If we saw black and Latino kids next to us in the library as many hours as we’re there, then we’d feel better, there’s a problem and we’re all working hard together to solve it. We don’t see that. We’re mostly there alone. Studies back this up Greg, it’s not fiction.
I think it’s important to note that “Greg” is posting for political reasons as he does on the Bay Guardian website. He is likely not even from the Richmond.
The bottom line is that many of us in the Richmond are fed up with Eric Mar’s lack of attention to our district. He is a reliable member of the Progressive block which is why so many outsiders are very interested in this election.
Greg is obviously being manipulative and selectively listening. He just ignores good points that go against him and calls everyone racist if they don’t agree with him and isn’t thoughtful.
I agree with a lot of what Sarah said. I think if you live in the Fillmore projects and your parents pay no property tax, and you are given a spot at a school where most of the parents are paying property tax, you have to recognize that other people who are harder working as parents, who aren’t abandoning their kids in record numbers and watching 3 times as much TV as we Asians do, and we Chinese watch even less because the Asian stats include Filipinos and Hmongs and Samoans and Vietnamese, are making a significant sacrifice for your benefit. They are paying taxes, sending their kids into a lottery, and we are not ahead of you and ahead of whites due to racism. We were victims of racism and worked extremely hard to gain the reputation and success we have.
I think a key factor is, if you are white or Asian, you can’t displace someone. If you are black or Latino, you can, but the parents have to sign a pledge that they will try to learn from the Asian and to some degree white example, that they will take their kids to tutoring, that they will make their kids watch less than 7 hours a week of TV and make them study 20 hours a week and, if there are bad grades, raise it to 30, that they will teach their kids nothing is more important than getting good grades. That they will be respectful of their teachers and not disrupt kids trying to do well. That they will not litter, draw grafitti, yell, fight, etc. because this community is sacrificing to end racism and if they don’t change and become really focused on grades, our kids will have to suffer so their kids can have these advantages and it will never end. If they do put the long hard work in, it will be one generation of suffering and then it will be over once and for all.
This started in the ’70s and early ’80s, so that’s a generation ago that Reagan called us the “model minority”, but no one has followed the correct model. We are a model, we come here poor and move past whites in a generation, and are overrepresented at all the top Universities and would be moreso without discrimination. But blacks and Latinos rejected following us as a model and never have recognized their mistake. Look at Lowell, look at the UCs, look at the Ivy League, Stanford, etc. We do it by hard work. We obsess over grades and we sacrifice our weekends, our sleep. How often do you see a Chinese guy beg you for money or sleep on the street? We just don’t do that.
I don’t mind sacrificing for a few more years, but there should be a time limit on it because we are really making a sacrifice and I don’t feel it’s appreciated and I don’t feel that blacks and Latinos take advantage of the example we set. I feel they want something for nothing. If we’re going to close the achievement gap, literally 12-15 hours a week that black and Latino students are now spending playing video games, watching TV, playing sports and doing things a lot more fun than most Chinese kids are doing will have to be transferred to rigid studying in a library or a bedroom. If I saw the sacrifice being made, I’d feel it was a fair tradeoff but when I don’t see that, it upsets me.
We’re not only an example for other minorities but for whites themselves. We should get more respect for that. I feel Lee feels he succeeded due to hard work the way most of us feel, and Mar feels he succeeded due to racism or something being unfair and wants to give back. I agree with giving back, but Mar doesn’t demand accountability from those he helps. It is just a hand out, not a hand up, with Mar. Lee wants to help, but you have to show you are worthy of the help and help yourself.
Greg is the the type of guy who just gives and doesn’t ask for anything in return. He doesn’t want to make sure there is a quid pro quo of equal work in return. He wants permanent socialist redistribution, not hard work and achievement to end inequality. I don’t know Greg but he seems like a manipulative loser to me because he so clearly ignores 90% of the posts he responds to. He is a far left extremist shill for Mar. He doesn’t respond to each point, just the part that helps him slickly manipulate the argument. Ironically he reminds me of Romney, but a progressive version. He is neither intellectually honest nor thorough.
4th Generation Richmond Resident: I totally agree… who was Jake McGoldrick? He was another absent supervisor. One of the reasons I’m feeling as passionate about this subject as I am is that we’ve been through two supervisors who’ve ignored the district and our issues… I initially voted for Mar, and frankly, I’m reached the point where I’m tired of being disappointed. I think the area is showing how much it’s been ignored for as long as it has in the way Geary looks as well as the increase in crime in the neigborhoods. I’ve lived here for 13 years now and have seen major changes in the last 4-5 years, and they’re not for the better… I want my neighborhood back.
Mar’s nowhere near as bad as McGoldrick and does respond if you talk to him, in fairness. However Lee will be far better and care about our district’s residents. Mar doesn’t care families leave and suffer by the lottery. He lied to maintain it last year. If he had not signed the argument kids would switch in January, it would have passed. He hurt our children. So I’ll vote for Lee.
You guys are figuring out the hidden undercurrent of this neighborhood. Equal opportunity doesn’t guarantee equal results. We spend a lot of money on the homeless and a lot of money on the students to make up for their fathers abandoning them. People like Greg never say, let’s spend this money and I guarantee you I’ll get involved and make sure the targeted students, despite having fewer advantages, at least put in as much study time as the kids who are doing well. He just says, I did this as a kid, 1954, blah blah blah, spend money or you’re racist. He’s unaccountable. He makes a good point, we started this in 1954, or more accurately the ’60s, and 50 years later the difference in study hours is, shocking, huge. And not surprisingly, those who don’t study get bad grades and test scores and then want more money because they say the reason was racism.
Blacks don’t do bad in school because an Asian or white kid doesn’t sit next to them, because when one does, it makes no difference, they don’t admire or emulate them. Equal opportunity doesn’t guarantee equal results, but Greg will never hold one of his proposals up to study or validation based on results. The average black kid in SF has way more spent on their education, and in DC it’s 30k per kid, and the results are horrible.
Blacks and Latinos to a lesser degree do poorly due to the following reasons:
1. Language. Latinos are a generation behind with parents who can’t help and blacks often adhere to ebonics despite studies showing the best thing for them would be getting rid of ebonics and enforcing standard English.
2. Hours studied, Asians, 16. Whites, 6, hence not doing as well nationwide, but in SF whites have more resources and study more as they are a higher subset of educated whites. Latinos and blacks, around 4. You have to expect an achievement gap with an effort gap.
3. Availability of parents and tutors. This is the one we can do something about and should, spend less on prisons, defense, staffers for Supervisors, bureaucrats in offices in SFUSD, tax more.
4. Grade Inflation/social promotion. If a kid in 2d grade isn’t ready, do 2d grade again, but pay a lot to tutor them and catch them up. Social promotion is horrible. Have kids come in on Saturday, get tutors, do whatever necessary to catch up. There’s no pride in a diploma with no skills.
5. Lower expectations.
6. Single mothers.
7. Culture which doesn’t hold high scholars, intellectuals and success (this goes for whites too).
There have been multiple cultures who emphasize and obsess over education, and it always works. Jewish, Asian, Russian, African, Middle Eastern, East Indian.
There was once a Jewish Quota in the Ivy League. Now there’s an Asian Quota. Let the winners win so the others emulate them. It hurts in the short run but helps in the long run. That’s the only solution that permanently fixes the problem. All the others create resentment and mask underperformance and don’t really change the underlying issues.
Definitely voting for Lee. Mar in my opinion thinks like Greg. Very random and just everyone successful owes huge sacrifices to everyone unsuccessful. I really like Michael Li’s idea of when you give someone something special, you make sure they promise to return the favor by putting their best effort forth.
Dima, Mar may have listened to you, but he did very little for the causes we approached him about, or never showed up at all and sent his aide instead. We had several meetings re: wanting some input on the concerts for those who lived nearby-he was a no-show and no follow-up; he manipulated a decision re: closing time after a serious crime at an all-night Jack in the Box; and trumped up charges against a member of the Police Advisory Board, had him thrown out, and then blamed it all on a third party, who left the Richmond police precinct quickly after. Unfortunately, you can’t read about the last two incidents in San Francisco, because it was outlined in the media and then suddenly suppressed (similar to the rapes reported at the last Outside Lands concert a couple of months ago?) The Wall Street Journal actually covered the last incident, but no investigation to uncover what really happened ever took place. This is a supervisor who protects and supports our district? I don’t think so.
Look, I’m voting for Lee. I know my kids have really enjoyed the free concerts in the park. From what I’ve heard from those who want to meet about the concerts, you aren’t really suggesting minor changes but continually asking questions and opposing issues to the point of wanting the whole thing canceled. I think Supervisors and the Mayor are wary of people wanting to meet with them to voice concerns because often they become belligerant and unreasonable and just argue and will be mad, and the only way they won’t be mad is if you say let’s cancel these big concerts which many of us enjoy, make us a lot of money and raise a lot of PTA money for Presidio, Lafayette, Argonne, should for Alamo in the future, Washington, etc.
I don’t mind if we ask for adjustments, but just what I’ve heard has been continually hostile. I’m old enough to remember the Giants Stadium could have been approved in 1987 and was blocked 4 times before we finally got it in 2000. I like thinking about it if it is honestly what it is and not obstruction under the guise of wanting some input. The most important thing is these concerts must happen. They are wonderful for our neighborhood and community.
And most of the people who go to these concerts you can tell are very young, liberal, pro-pot, promiscuous, artistic, so I find it strange that people who consider themselves liberal are so opposed to these concerts all the time. A weekend with a concert is more liberal than a weekend with no concert. I was very observant. It was good for the liberal type people on my block. The two prostitutes previously mentioned, at least I suspect they are the same, hung out in shorts while people walked back to their cars and made a lot of money and the one pot dealer on my block, a single mother of 2 who is very liberal, made a lot of extra money. I know these things are illegal but it does stimulate our economy. I’m more conservative myself, don’t drink, don’t smoke or touch drugs, married 11 years, live the straight life, but I do think it is colorful and interesting.
Now if these are genuine concerns, let’s mend it, but not end it. I don’t want to NIMBY the concerts out of existence. And it’s not the concert or Mar’s fault if there is a rape. It happens, it’s life, but people should have intervened if there were so many people there and helped them. But to blame Mar is unfair.
I’m a renter, for rent control, for Obama, I’m generally very liberal and love this City. I’m voting for Lee solely on the neighborhood schools issue, nothing else. I just think it’s insane that you don’t know where your kid will go to school. My son knows a Russian boy who lives in the projects in the Mission and got into Lafayette. I know a black kid across the street who had to go to a school in the Haight, I forget which but a crummy one. This isn’t causing integration, there are almost no whites in the schools in the Mission and very few blacks here. It’s crazy.
I also don’t like that Jack in the Box because I was threatened there once and felt scared for my life.
Also I looked into the Prop H thing. It’s incredibly hard to get things on the ballot. I volunteered for the ROTC ballot measure a few years back. I think it’s absolutely crucial every politician be honest when debating ballot measures. We need an open and honest vote on an issue and I’m sure without those lies, H passes and we don’t have this mess. I feel that way about all issues. I supported H and the lie about kids switching in January killed it. I supported K, legalizing prostitution, and lies about it allowing trafficking and letting pimps go killed it, and they were totally untrue. I supported legalizing marijuana and lies killed it. Ironically lies from the dealers who wanted it to stay illegal so they could make money. I support getting rid of the death penalty and lies are killing it.
If it’s OK to lie about a ballot measure, to knowingly lie, if it’s OK to divorce with a 12-year old, then every single thing anyone wants to do is OK. I’m liberal but not that liberal. This is why I am voting for Lee.
I don’t agree with a lot of your points but I will say this, I agree with you about integrity and ballot measures. It is never OK to lie about ballot measures, and I know Mar knew kids wouldn’t switch in January if H passed but that scared a few thousand voters away. I remember politicians who do this and will never vote for them. It ruins Democracy, which I truly value. Honesty and integrity on ballot measures is essential. I remember things. Kamala Harris, will never vote for her, etc. It’s negative campaigning what Mar did, like Grey Davis, George Bush Sr. (Willie Horton), it’s just ugly and dishonest.
It isn’t OK to lie about a ballot measure, it undermines everything we stand for. It’s just one more reason to vote for Lee. It reminds me of when anti-pollution measures are on the ballot and these organizations that look like environmental charities are against it and they’re really right wing think tanks funded by oil companies, or the snow job we’re getting on Prop 32 from the billionaires in Arizona. Personally, I think you should be subject to criminal prosecution if you spend money to knowingly and intentionally lie about a ballot measure, and I have absolutely no doubt Mar did this. It may not be a legal crime but it is a moral crime.
Gee, I can just feel the love.
I like how everyone makes assumptions about me, each more laughable than the rest. I was going to respond by demolishing each of your assumptions about me, but what does it matter? Does my background make my ideas more or less valid in some way? I think ideas are what’s important. But for what it’s worth, suffice it to say that virtually *all* of the assumptions and conjectures made about me are dead wrong. You think you have me all figured out, but in fact your assumptions about my background are far less accurate than chance. But again, does it really matter?
I believe in hard work and studying like the rest of you. Never claimed otherwise. Problem is that those who have been lucky enough to succeed tend to suffer from confirmation bias. The reality, however, is that working hard and studying is a necessary but insufficient ingredient for success. The other big ingredient that successful people don’t want to admit to, is luck. And what’s worse, luck isn’t exactly spread out evenly. Connections, race, class all play a big role in America. Those who would deny that, are living in a fantasy world.
And speaking of connections… how exactly does one get to be a 90K/year “Voting Rights Educator?” Nice work if you can get it! Of course you and I *can’t* get that kind of work. That’s the point! In order to make gobs of cash from some do-nothing non-profit, and employ your wife for another 65K like David Lee, you have to have corporate and City Family money greasing the skids for you. At least Eric Mar is someone who made an honest living as a professional -a *real* educator, rather than a phoney-baloney one who set up a “non-profit” which was really not much more than a vehicle to funnel your and my taxpayer dollars into the David Lee family pockets. Yeah, I’ve educated voters too. And registered them. Lots of them. For free. Well I guess I just don’t have the entrepeneurial spirit of David Lee to start such a successful non-profit that I my family could make 155K/yr off of it!
See this is what I can’t understand. All you folks who immigrated love to talk about how you worked hard and you don’t appreciate those lazy “others” who just don’t work as hard. I get that part. In the culture of the country I immigrated from, they value hard work too. So doesn’t it make you feel uneasy about voting for a guy who’s never held a real job?
You all say that I’m “slick” and I’m just saying this to get Mar re-elected. Nothing slick about it. I’m 100% pro-Mar and unabashedly so. Never claimed otherwise. I know the value of hard work, and I succeeded. But I nearly fell through the cracks too. And if it can happen to someone like myself who worked hard and did all the right things, then it can happen to absolutely anyone. My life’s experiences have led me to understand that unless you’re born into the top 1% (or really more like the top 0.1%), your situation in this country is quite precarious no matter how hard you work. That’s what makes me such a strong advocate of social and economic justice. And I feel there’s only one candidate who understands that in this race -Eric Mar.
Oh, one more thing… San Francisco is NOT just another city, as one poster said. It may be “just another city” to you, but not to me. I live here not because I happened to pop out here, not because this happens to be the place where my parents left me property worth several hundred thousand dollars, not because I’m lucky enough to own a house which I need to hold on to because I can pay next to nothing in taxes on thanks to Prop 13. No, I live here because this city, out of the *many* places in the country I’ve lived in, is the ONLY place where I feel at home, and that’s why I’ll fight to keep it that kind of a place.
Just saw Jeff Sanchez’s post above, and this is the kind of post that makes me want to bang my head against the wall. It sounds like on all the issues that Eric Mar actually has any control over… you’re probably much more in agreement with Mar than Lee. And yet you’re voting for Lee… because of the one issue that Mar no longer has any control over -school assignment policy!
That’s what they call cutting off your nose to spite your face.
And fyi… you DO realize, that Eric was one of seven unanimous votes on the school board upholding the desegregation policy, don’t you? And you do realize that every member of the current school board opposed Prop H too? That includes even conservatives like Jill Wynns. Do you know why that is? You think that none of these people understand your concerns or care about kids? Or maybe it’s because what you folks are asking for is not even possible? Maybe it’s because they’re charged with representing the whole city, and throwing out the lottery probably wouldn’t even hold up in court?
It might serve you better if you held as nuanced and rational of a view on the lottery, as you expressed on the subject of concerts in the park. I agree there are problems with the lottery. I think Eric would too. So rather than have an absolutist attitude about asking for the impossible (getting rid of it completely), why don’t you work with the BOE (not the BOS!!!!) to make some changes to the lottery to smooth out some of the rougher edges?
And please, vote your interests on the issues that the BOS can actually control rather than casting a meaningless protest vote.
The vitriolic comments expressed to other posters and candidates has truly soured my stomach. However, I am not surprised since the forum had the same overtones.
Personally, I feel that Lee and Mar have plans that are too far reaching and don’t have a chance at fruition or are very disconnected from the needs of our District. That said, divergent thinking deserves respect without attack, regardless of view points.
Greg, in 99% of America you go to school close to home and have no risk of being assigned far away. Don’t you see, this prevents us from increasing the number of children and families in the City because no one can plan ahead.
Every board member lied. One guy challenged any of them to a $1,000 bet they couldn’t pass a lie detector test that they honestly believed that children would be forced to switch schools mid year creating chaos if it passed. They took advantage of a mistake, but this would never have happened. It was dishonest.
Do you honestly believe if it had passed kids would have been forced to switch mid year? It was dirty politics by the elite brain trust liberals that think they know what’s best for us and reminds me of the old USSR, it’s OK to lie if you feel it leads to social justice, as you call it, or the new Soviet man, as my parents were taught it.
If you knowingly, intentionally and pre-meditatedly lie about a ballot measure, the hallmark of our Democracy, if you cause an honest vote to become a dishonest vote, you lose my respect and I will never vote for you.
By the way, the Prop H people who put it on the ballot only did so because they went to every BOE meeting and none would listen to them, and the majority at the public meetings by over 2-1 supported neighborhood schools. Jane Kim was reading while people waited for a chance to speak.
Look at the voter’s pamphlett. You’d think on an important issue like this, everyone would state their view. Popek is the only one for neighborhood schools and even she is vague in the way she states this. None of the challengers says they are for, or against it. You can’t vote on this issue because they hide their views. The party will decide. Murase said she was for it, then switched. It is like the old Soviet Union. There was no other way to do it and having a vote on this was such a threat to the establishment that hides and avoids being open about this that they lied to preserve the status quo.
I will never forgive Eric Mar for this and will always vote against him. Even if he is the Democrate I will vote for a Libertarian. Honesty and integrity are important in politics. It’s OK to make an honest argument, but that was dishonest and hurt children as a result. I’ll vote for David Lee even though I agree with Mar on most issues. You just can never condone lying about a ballot measure or democracy becomes meaningless.
Lying is never cool. Never.
Yes, Greg, underneath all the tinsel, San Francisco is just another city, and it’s becoming more and more like every day. I’ve been here since 1976, and I’ve seen the changes. People here like to gloat about how they live in San Francisco to the rest of the country (and frankly, the majority of people aren’t that impressed… we just end up coming off as arrogant), but it’s become very much like New York as the population and the costs have property have greatly increased, and the only thing that makes us stand out is the eccentricity of some of the laws and people here… and usually not in a positive way. People get defensive and make the same comments about Chicago and NY (“They’re not just any cities, they’re MY cities.”), but it’s no different there. The question is whether or not you have decent leadership to maintain all the issues and types of people that crop up. In a lot of those issues, San Francisco has reached the point where it”s our of control, and it’s the eccentricities the officials give more credence to because thet’re trying to keep the reputation (it brings in tourists and more $$$).
And Jeff: in regard to the concerts, I think you missed my point. There were a lot of us at those meetings, and had we had a supervisor who had enough concern to show up for them and address (that doesn’t mean change, but there certainly could have some adjustments, or at least an open ear re: our concerns) some of the problems rather than run away from us, I might have had a little more respect for Mar. Instead, he made no bones about going to the concert himself on his Facebook page, complete with pictures of how the park had been decorated, etc and what a wonderful time he was having. This is what I mean by spitting in the faces of your constituents. Ignoring large groups of angry residents in your district and running off to play definitely puts a message out re: how invested you are in the their issues. His statement on Facebook the Monday after the concert: “Tired of hearing people complaining about the concerts.” Most people would have have gotten a clue at this point.
Did he think about maybe investigating them to find out why? Was that not a concern from those people who helped vote him into office, or were my and my neighbors’ complaints just something to ignore? “F*** you” would have been more of a response than what we got: nothing.
The other two issues I brought up were of more concern, but going into them would result in three pages of explanation.
Interesting, I agree, if you were trying to make sure there was adequate security or parking that should have been listened to, I get that. I just see in SF sometimes people argue about things and really want to stop it entirely. I heard that with H, I’d have voted for it but it switches kids in January. It wasn’t true, but it’s so much work to put it on again. Or you should have done it another way (every other way is blocked, no one knows who is for neighborhood schools, they’re all secretive about it, and they don’t listen to people who are for neighborhood schools, so there was no other way). I hope it does go on again. That is one reason to vote for Lee, 4 supervisors could vote to put it on the ballot. Carmen Chu’s district was 66% for it, and whoever the Supervisor is for West Portal, be it Crowley or Garcia, is on record as being for it. That means Lee just has to convince one more to put it on the ballot, 4 total. It’s not only payback for the lie, it’s also that it could lead to an attempt to put it on and let the people have an honest vote with no lies. We could rewrite it more carefully. The lie showed lack of integrity to me, like the blow off showed lack of integrity to you. I was blown off by McGoldrick and didn’t like it. Mar hasn’t been like that to me, but if he’s like that to you that’s wrong and a good reason to vote against him. I know Campos and Avalos would be against it, and likely Olague though she is an independent thinker. However, the supervisor for the Excelsior or perhaps the Marina or Pacific Heights might be for it. I know someone who says Olague is for it though I’m suspicious, a former school board candidate. Alioto, likely. You just need one more, 3 would be no brainers, but it becomes difficult if the Richmond, where 60% supported it, has a Supervisor who lied to maintain the status quo and openly refuses to take a $1,000 lie detector bet, so basically admits it.
I do think it would be fair, if as the opponents claim they were honestly concerned with a January switch, for them to let us have a revote and we take out the parts that offended them, specifically stating that no child will ever be switched and it will only apply to new admissions. A vote this important shouldn’t be muddled by a lie. That’s my reason for my vote for Lee. I don’t feel he would ever lie about an initiative. I don’t agree with him on some issues but he’s logical and honest and shows integrity about it.
Nothing is more crucial to our quality of life than guaranteeing everyone a neighborhood school. And as for the hours studied, I think Michael’s suggestion that kids sign a contract to work the amount of hours it will take to have a top GPA is a great idea. Some private schools do that, some charters as well. You owe it to yourself, your community, and your family to study 15 or more hours a week. I mean, a kid watching 30 hours a week of TV and studying 3 or 5 is just pathetic and doesn’t show proper respect for the amount of money the taxpayers spend on public education, and I don’t say that as a conservative but as a liberal who wants more equal results and closing the gap. It just won’t happen if we keep an hours studied gap. If we can get all kids in SF to guarantee at least 20 hours of studying and guarantee them tutors as much as they need them, the gap will disappear in a New York Minute.
I really do think that you should have to swear an oath before writing a ballot argument. To me what Mar did is no better than when billionaires bribe scientists and form phony trusts to make a pro-environment bill that will cost business look like it was almost good, but there’s this one little thing and it’s horrible so vote against it, and give themselves a name that makes them look like they’re pro-environmental. You should be able to be impeached if, as a public official, you lie about a ballot measure. Mar’s not the only one, but it still shows a tremendous lack of basic human moral values. You just can’t do that and call yourself a decent person. To me that’s worse than the divorce and the blowing off, it just shows a basic lack of moral values and an obsession with winning at all costs. It’s like a liberal version of Fox News. It’s just morally wrong.
Interesting, I agree that when groups lie it damages the ballot initiative process, but it seems someone is lying on most of them, and often you have elected officials on both sides of the issue. Also interesting to see this could bring back neighborhood schools. That’s great news, it’s been long enough. But as for lying, how can you ever prove it?
You guys keep mentioning “the divorce.” Having lived here since the late 70’s and having led a pretty wild life for a good decade, I guess I’ll never be able to run for any public office (not that I would want to) considering my history. I had no idea people took a divorce so seriously re: an elected official. It appears to be looked at as badly as physical abuse (although that person in question managed to stay in office). People grow and change, and so do their relationships… sometimes they grow away from each other. How can you guys blame human beings for that, it’s so often a part of people’s lives? I’m curious, do a lot of people posting here feel a divorced person is too “damaged” to be a politician? I had no idea it was taken so seriously until reading some of the comments in this column. Anyway, just saying.
Personally I am not conservative. My brother was unhappy in his marriage but he had a mistress and his wife, well she was really bisexual so I believe she had a mistress too, though I know there was one man she also slept with and from what my brother said they would sleep together from time to time as well and always slept in the same bed. They got along some but were open.
I also have a gay sister, a gay uncle, and I smoke marijuana though I don’t have extramarital affairs, mainly just because I don’t have time or trouble for it, not because I’m conservative.
To me, no matter your romantic interest, no matter your arguments, no matter your sexual needs, you stay together for the children. I am not upset for his wife, I am upset for his daughter. Children need to live with two parents. There is a reason the odds of a college degree drop by 50% when there is a divorce, the odds of getting into UC also drop, every measure of educational achievement drops. Many kids at Presidio are surprised to find how rare divorce is at Lowell vs. how common it was at Presidio. There’s a reason for that. I don’t think you do that to your children.
Why does it hurt? You sleep at two houses, your schedule is impacted, much in the way a far school assignment does, but even more so. You forget books, assignments, etc. You have two sets of rules. You blame yourself as a kid even though psychiatrists say not to, and of course are right, it’s inevitable. It’s emotionally draining and upsetting. Kids cry, they get sad, they have difficulty trusting people they date and their relationships suffer. The stats back this up, but from what I’ve seen, it really does hurt children.
Also, costs are divided, two rents or mortgages must be paid, if both don’t remarry quickly, there is less money for tutors, enrichment camps, books, less time for the kids as new lovers often pressure you away from time with the kids.
I think if they grew apart, the best thing for the children is, stay together, have an open marriage, maybe convert a dining room into a second bedroom if you have to. If you love your children you always put them #1. You can marry another person when your child turns 18 if you want and keep them as a lover for now. I’m very liberal, I just don’t believe in hurting children.
There is also something wrong with leaving a wife after she supported your career for so long. I don’t know the details, but let’s face it, men and women marry for different reasons and goals. A woman trades her charm and beauty and intelligence often for a less physically attractive man because she thinks he’ll be successful and loyal and stay with them. I realize some things have changed, but there is kind of an implicit deal.
As women age, and men age, men are more attractive. I get talked to by more young women now than when I was young. I am very happy with my wife and don’t feel tempted, but some men do. Now a fling, an affair, I can forgive. But some men want to fall in love with a young beauty over and over and will throw their kids under the bus, and their wife, to get there.
As men age, they are considered more interesting, more attractive, to a certain point, maybe not at 55, but at 45 of 50. As women age, they are considered less attractive, less beautiful, etc. So for a man to stay with a woman for a long time, get a child out of the bargain, get elected partially on the basis of a wife who helps, and then dump her for a young beauty when he gets more attractive and she less, to me is just the strong taking advantage of the weak and really unfair. I agreed with Myrtle on that point.
It’s not that I’m religious, I’m not. It’s just about morals and loyalty. We’ve seen Mar feels it’s OK to abandon his wife and hurt his daughter’s life chances because he falls for a young beauty. We’ve seen he feels it’s OK to say something he won’t back up with a lie detector bet and which most honest observers feel was an outright lie in kids switching in January if Prop H passed.
I know these things are both all too common in modern society, but I feel we deserve better in a Supervisor which is part of why I’m voting for Lee, though the neighborhood schools issue was part of it too. I also don’t like that Mar tried to overturn Care not Cash, I don’t like what homelessness does to our City.
I think he should have had a discreet affair and stayed with his wife and daughter, and told his wife she was free to have discreet affairs. That would have been the more loving thing to do. Outright divorce and showing off a trophy wife his ex wife really contributed to earning for him, well call me old fashioned but to me that’s just plain tacky.
If Mar feels he didn’t lie on Prop H, he should come out in favor of putting it on the ballot again without that. Even if he disagrees, it should be up for an honest vote, not a dishonest vote as it was. He won’t do that because it was dishonest manipulation.
If he feels his wife is no longer attractive, he and his wife should seek counselling, allow discreet affairs, find a way to do what’s right for the most important person in this whole debacle, and that is his daughter.
I only have one vote, but it’s just how I read it. Honestly if he were married, I’d still vote for Lee because of the Prop H/lies issue and the Care not Cash issue, but I would respect Mar more if he had found a mutually agreeable way with his wife to ensure his lust didn’t hurt his daughter.
I agree, I wouldn’t never vote for a divorced candidate. To me it’s just so much is not known, no one has seen his new girlfriend, his wife says nothing, it seems like backroom politics to me but the details that I do see seem like he put his personal needs, political goals and career over his wife and daughter. I smell a fish.
Jeff, not sure if I understand your posting. Are you being serious?
Dima, I gotta say you’ve opened up a whole world for me I never knew existed. Your perspective on staying together and why is fascinating, considering how varied your family’s personal lives are. I’m still curious about a couple of things you’ve mentioned:
1.) “There is a reason the odds of a college degree drop by 50% when there is a divorce, the odds of getting into UC also drop, every measure of educational achievement drops. Many kids at Presidio are surprised to find how rare divorce is at Lowell vs. how common it was at Presidio.’
How do you know this? Have you actually read statistics on this, and, if so, where are they? Coming from divorced parents I didn’t get a college degree, but I got a license to practice… is that considered a degree or not?
2.) How do you know Mar left his wife? Maybe she left him… women do that as well. What happens in your description when the wife leaves the husband. and how is that viewed?
I can certainly understand some of the feelings you describe kids have after a divorce, I went through some of those feelings myself; but I also know some kids that were miserable because their parents stayed together and their house was constantly a battleground. They never got married or wanted kids when they became adults, because they didn’t want anything to do with relationships due to their upbringing.
I have a number of Russian friends and co-workers… are a lot of these beliefs from the Russian culture? They’re very different from what I grew up with.
Your first two paragraphs actually shocked me with how honest you were. I think you might have the plot of a very interesting novel here!
As with most inidiscretions of this sort its not that he did it but that the way he did it came across as callous and heartless. And call it a hunch or womens intuition or whaatever I don’t think there is even a 1 percent chance she put Mar through graduate school and stayed home for years to raise their daughter and help his political career take off and gained weight and got older while Eric remained thin and then she decidednto divorce him. Who do you think you are fooling?
Get real!
I don’t get it… how does everyone know the details of Eric Mar’s personal life, is there a book or was there an article about it, or what? I honestly have never heard or thought anything about it, as it was his personal life and didn’t seem relevent. When did this happen and when did it become such a public issue? Chelsea, what kind of “indiscretions” are you referring to?
So your claim is he did everything he could to be a good husband and father and she left him? Don’t you think if it was so he’d not be so secretive about the details? I don’t know for sure its possible I just ain’t buying what you’re selling Mister. Maybe he just changed and wanted to find himself and its not you its me. This is neither here nor there but I’ve heard that one before. Its a bum steer and is not what likely happened.
Dman, I was thinking the same, neither one of us support Mar (you Lee, me DSilva), but what the… where has it been reported that Mar has something-something on the side?
Nothing has been reported it is all pure speculation. Usually when a couple stays together for 20 years and a man leaves in his 40s, in his prime and as she is declining, it is the man’s decision. 20s or early 30s divorces and older ones are sometimes the decision of the woman. No one knows, but Myrtle has a point. It’s likely it was his decision and maybe he didn’t date another till they separated, but he’s leaving her, which is worse than an affair, he’s making his daughter live in two houses, have the public shame of divorced parents, and deal with a lot of issues a 12-year old girl shouldn’t have to deal with. It’s not good parenting. He should have at least waited till she was 18 and could handle it.
As for DMan’s comments, you do not have the right to criticize Russian Culture. Even when our economy was failing due to corruption, even when most of our nation was floundering we did work hard at education and we actually outperformed the US in education, though it didn’t translate to the economy because of corruption and because Communism didn’t take into account human nature. I say we because at that time, my family was there, I am very proud to be an American now and love this country.
In the U.S., we are statistically the highest income and education ethnicity. We do better even than the Chinese and Indians. People think the Chinese do better at Lowell, but Russians are fewer in San Francisco. We are about 15% of the Richmond District, I know the census says 6% but if you add in Ukranians, Moldovans, Byelorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and Polish, and the others of the former USSR and satellite nations, the percentage is about 15. We put education ahead of everything. People say this is because many of us here are Jewish but this was 0.9% of the USSR, and only about 25% of the immigrants to the US.
We work hard, we teach our kids from a young age, math, reading. We get them tutors. We don’t start caring about our kids grades at 11 or 12, we start at 7, or even 4-5. We also think about each aspect of our life and how it will impact our children’s educational performance. When one of us doesn’t have kids, we help our nieces and nephews with homework, doing well in school, because family is everything. Achievement is everything. When you loo at the difference between an engineer or a doctor and a janitor or unemployed person, well it usually comes down to how they developed before the age of 18. If we move, we talk about it. How are the schools, the neighbors, will they lose contact with someone who is a good influence, grandparents, an uncle or aunt, a neighbor, a friend at school. That is why so many of us stay here. We also hope our kids speak Russian to maintain some of the culture.
I think we are pretty open minded sexually. A lot of Russian women will be escorts to pay for college, but they aren’t like American escorts, addicted to drugs, usually ruining their life and dropping out. They get a degree and never look back. They do it to have more time to study, to get a better GPA and have more free time. Most don’t, I’m just saying the ones that do, we don’t look at them the way you do, like they’re abused drug addicts, they aren’t, they make a choice and use the money to build a future. Even the Russian mafia in the neighborhood, the bookies, the pot dealers, they almost all end up with a college degree and a good job, they aren’t lifelong losers like most American criminals. If they don’t, their kids do.
The thing you forget is, half the time a divorced father remarries, he divorces again in 2 years. So to hurt your children’s future for a 50% chance of a better relationship, well that’s the opposite of being a bookie, that’s gambling with the odds against you. It’s just stupid and heartless towards your kids.
We get into Lowell more often than the Chinese, per person, same with UCs and Ivy League schools. There just aren’t as many of us.
Now you ask me to back up my stats. The observations about Lowell and Presidio I cannot prove, this information isn’t available, so it’s anecdotal. However, there are many studies on the family status of Ivy League Students vs. college grads vs. some college vs. high school vs. high school dropouts, GPA, SAT. They all show kids do way better with two parents. Now the jury is still out on gay and lesbian families, and personally I believe kids under these families will do as well if not better than those of traditional families. I think the key is having 2 different influences and people who love you and spend time with you, and you may fantasize that you will spend quality time together after a divorce, but it is mostly trying to talk yourself into doing something you want to do anyways and not an honest scientific assessment about which course of action is best for your children. You can justify anything talking in circles, but in the Russian community we analyze our decisions scientifically. We like to talk about it with friends, family, grandparents, people who have no emotional stake in the issue. If a guy wants to leave his wife, usually the grandparents, the siblings, the friends will talk him out of it and say, think about your children. Some Russians divorce after their youngest turns 18. Most stick it out even after that. We argue a lot but we make it work.
Now you say it’s bad if people stay together for the kids and hate each other and act resentful. I think that is a more American way of thinking. You see, when you stay together for the kids, if you are honestly doing it for the kids, you go out of your way to make things feel nice and let things go. Sure, in theory, if one man is selfish and wants to complain all the time and act like, I wish I could move, so I’ll act like an ass to the point where it’s worse for the kids and she’ll tell me to go anyways, well that is conforming to what seems best for the kids but not putting your heart into it. You’re basically saying you’ll do something and not honestly doing it. It isn’t right to do that. It’s more of an American phenomenon however because in our community, if one of the two people is acting like this, we usually sit down and 5 or 10 adults will talk it out and come up with a solution. We settle it in a committee, so if one of the two is intentionally making a mockery of the idea of staying together to benefit the kids, being rude or belligerent or whiny, and not living up to the spirit, then the neutral parties will step in and say something and put the person in their place and pressure them to not just stay together, but act happy about it, even if you are not, in front of the kids. It’s very different from American culture where abandoning a wife and kids is quite common.
There are a lot of stats on this. It is one big thing holding back the African American community. You see so many say if only more money were spent or class sizes were smaller or they sat next to richer kids or teachers weren’t unfair, things would be better. The constant divorce is devastating to black kids. 15% of black kids live with dad at 18. This is a huge problem, they don’t have the balance of two parents helping them strive and learn. Those who do actually perform almost at the white level. This isn’t due to past racism because divorce was very rare in the black community when times were much more racist. This was a community decision and a bad one.
When we make decisions, we think about how it affects our parents, our family name, the reputation of our ethnicity, our church or synagogue, and most of all our children.
We accept discretion. We accept secrets. We don’t accept just doing whatever you want with no consideration of your children. We even think about how actions by uncles and aunts, grandparents, siblings and friends affect children. It’s very hard to explain to someone who doesn’t grow up with it but that’s basically it.
This race has nothing to do with Russians as it’s two Chinese guys and an Indian running, but I feel Lee’s philosophy is more closely aligned with Russian culture, from Care Not Cash to neighborhood schools to prioritizing children. I know some Russians are not happy Lee sent his kids to private school and even know a few who won’t vote for him for this, but I believe him that he would have if he could have gone to a neighborhood school. Mar has some good things. A lot of Russians actually agree with him about the Happy Meals issue. I do. However I will be voting for Lee because he values family and children. The divorce is just part of it. He should have kept his girlfriend secret and as a mistress if he needed that. He shouldn’t have just left his wife. He should have had a sit down with the grandparents, his wife’s parents, his brothers and sisters, friends, and stayed together and been pleasant and let his wife do what she wants discreetly and do what he wants discreetly.
This will be a close election but will probably come down to the Russian vote. In my limited calculation, the neighborhood is about 50% white including 15% Russian (or USSR-related ethnicity), so let’s separate and say 35% American white, 15% Russian, 42% Asian and 8% Latino and Black. Out of this, I believe Mar wins the white Americans 20-15 and the Asians are a tie, 21-21. Mar also wins the Latinos 6-2. However, I believe Lee will win the Russians 12-3. This makes it exactly 50-50. So the real decider who D’Silva’s voters put down as their #2 choice. If Lee put up Russian language signs, he would win. It also could come down to turnout. Lee’s mailers may help him slightly win the Chinese vote or get closer on the white/non-Russian vote. I predict Lee will win by about 100-200 votes out of 32,000. It will be that close.
Please if you are for Lee, if you support children going to a neighborhood school and living with two parents who put their education and welfare first no matter what they do in secret, if you support Care Not Cash, if you support commitment to those who trust and love and look up to you, our children, volunteer for Lee and help him. He has many dedicated volunteers and this election will probably be one of the closest in modern history. Mar has a significant chance of winning re-election and that would truly be a tragedy.
Dman, a licence to practice is good, it’s not an absolute, it’s just on average kids with a degree do better than those without and it’s a sign of better parenting. It’s not an absolute. Russians are very statistical. We understand proportions. Sure, some kids who watch lots of TV do better in school than some who don’t, some high school dropouts make more than some college graduates, many college dropouts earn more than many grads, many kids of divorce do better than many kids of stable marriages. Yes, there are exceptions to every single rule, absolutely.
However, we all know that 9 times out of 10 the Lowell grad makes more than the Washington grad and has a better life, 9 times out of 10 the UC grad does better than the State Grad, 9 times out of 10 the kid who reads and studies does better than the kid watching lots of TV, 9 times out of 10 a child of divorce does worse than a child of a stable home, 9 times out of 10 a College Grad does better than a high school only grad. We realize there are exceptions but we analyze the odds. If a guy says, so and so has divorced parents and went to Cal, the others in the group will counter with all the kids we know who got into a UC and all who didn’t go to college, and we’ll find that yes, that’s true, there was one kid who graduated from Cal with divorced parents but we know of 20 who got into a UC with parents together, and we go to web sites and google and go to the library or research it and look at the odds. And we go with the odds. We don’t use an outlier as an excuse to do whatever we want.
Myrtle, my claim is that I have NO IDEA what happened in their marriage, but it’s interesting how people jump to conclusions and judge. People seem convinced that they know the details of what happened in Eric Mar’s marriage… are you sure you’re not making these assumptions because you had a difficult marriage and your husband left you, so you’ve decided all marriages end in the same way? I know a fair number of men who were madly in love with their wives or girlfriends and THEY got dumped, and they’ve never gotten over it. I seriously wondered if there was some article or scandal years ago that was public knowledge that I didn’t know about re: Mar. How do people know all thse details they’re writing about? I was being very serious in my response, but I obviously hit a nerve.
Secondly, how about if we go into everyone’s life here and dig up THEIR private secrets? Do people think that’s really an appropriate and worthwhile thing to do? I knpw I certainly wouldn’t pass the test of living a perfect and upstanding existence… I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, but I learned from them. I thought that was what a big part of what being a human being was about. How many of you would make perfect people with the standards you’ve placed on character?
We ARE getting way off topic here. The forum was about the debate. It’s starting to get a little dirty; I feel like I’m reading the National Enquirer. I’m voting for David Lee solely due to Mar’s abilities as a supervisor… that’s all I know about him. My decision has nothing to do with his private life, as, frankly, like your private life, it’s none of my business, unless you decide to publically share it.
And Dima, I just read your postings, and in NO WAY was I criticising Russian culure. Reading my post, where do you see that? I made it clear I thought it was an interesting and pretty fascinating viewpoint you had. Maybe it’s a better one than we have as Americans. I was very serious in my posting, but no one responding seems to undertsand that. As I said, I live in an apartment building that’s about 60% Russian, have a fair number of co-workers who are Russian, and a couple of them have become pretty good friends I hang out with. Their views are very similar to yours when it comes to marriages staying together. Why do you think that’s being critical? Am I going crazy here?
I’m sorry I overreacted dman. I don’t know what happened with Mar and don’t care. To me, the thing that irks me about him is that he signed his name to the claim kids would be forced to switch schools in January if Prop H passed just one year ago. I believe personally he knew 100% this would not happen. If you will sign your name publicly to something you know not to be true, you don’t deserve to be Supervisor. You can be drunk and have an affair or hit on a woman or lose your temper and grab an arm (Newsom, Julian Davis, Mirkarimi). These I can forgive as a momentary lapse of judgement. But Eric Mar went to sleep and woke up for months knowing his name was signed to a knowing, intentional lie, and never felt bad enough about it to recant, and if he gets in will not support letting the voters vote on a pure measure with no irrelevant, dishonest side issues muddling it. He did it with premeditation and malice, and it was immoral. It undermines our basic democratic values to do that.
As for my personal life, I believe my parents did this for me at one point. However, funny thing, when you once fell in love there are times when you may be mad, but you have the ability to love each other again, the fundamental points of common interest aren’t there. They are very happy now. I think a lot of Russian couples spend a few years of their marriage wishing they were divorced, but then they get over it and feel close and in love again. That’s the nature of marriage, you may have a fight that lasts a couple years but you don’t just quit, you work it out. In the U.S., couples don’t get over this because they quit when they get to this point. I believe Russian parents fall back in love at a higher percentage that 2d marriages by divorced men to young trophy wife types last, and to a tremendous benefit for our children which is very important and statistically measurable. That’s my opinion. But my reason to vote for Lee is not the divorce. It’s the premeditated lie. To me, that was intentional so it is unforgiveable. To this day he has not recanted or apologized for that and it did damage a lot of Richmond District children, so there was a real cost of pain to that lie of our children. Just the stress of waiting for the letter that accompanies the lottery damages our quality of life.
A man who will lie intentionally cannot be trusted, it’s that simple. He feels he knows what’s best for us and that’s why he won’t put it back on the ballot, he feels the ends justify the means. I disagree, but that’s how he feels. This kind of thinking was very damaging in the Soviet Union. With the lie, he can’t be trusted. He has not addressed this issue because he knows it is damaging for him and that no one believes he honestly believed that.
I believe my parents did this too and are happy now, Dilma is right about percentages. Knowing what it is to live in dictatorship, I cherish democracy and think that it threatens democracy if people are dishonest in arguments. You shouldn’t say anything on the ballot argument if you are unwilling to take lie detector test that you believe is true what you said. Or signed. I don’t believe this is just. I will vote for Lee.
At a risk of sounding too academic, there is actually a field of study on cultural differences, which provides measurements of core values and believes like: attitude to education, to authority, individual-v. collective; family v. individual; to perception of time : monochrome or polychrome ; control over or controlled by and so on. When you study these it became apparent that cultures differ and the differences matter, but not every human born into a culture displays all traits. Interestingly Russian culture does not show to be particularly family oriented. It shows to be collective oriented which is not the same thing. Hence the tendency to say things like WE Russians when expressing a personal opinion. FYI many of us really do not see and judge things the same way as Dima for instance. But on 2 things we agree a 100% – the situation with schools must change and soon, and Mar divorced or not (personally do not think it matters) is not good for Richmond.
I do not think Mar will get 20% of Russian vote in the Richmond, or 3 of 15%. I am unique in that I am of mixed religious marriage. I go to Orthodox Church and Synagogue and in both, I am hearing everyone say they are voting for Lee. I haven’t heard anyone discuss the divorce but I have heard many discuss the lie about the January switch and neighborhood schools issues. I know others were offended that 28th and Geary was allowed to remain vacant for 2 years, weeds in the parking lot growing out of the grass, parking which is desperately needed but was fenced off for no reason but greed of owner. It should have at least been made parking lot during the time closed. Care not cash is one more. I think it will be 14-1 personally. Leaders in both communities want Lee. So if your other statistics are right Lee will win. We feel at home here and you don’t understand how much of an outsider we feel when sent to a far away school, many of us move to suburbs when this happens but if we do we lose connection to our language and culture, church and food for our kids, so it’s a tough choice. I feel Mar will cause this to be a neighborhood of a few suffering Russians and many who come in from suburbs to church or synagogue on weekends or to shop, but Lee will cause it to be neighborhood inclusive of community for us. To have to take a bus to an area where no one is Russian or very very few, it turns a neighborhood we love into a neighborhood that is unlivable.
I don’t think anyone really allowed the space to remain vacant at the old Delano’s. I believe it was more of an issue that it was such a large space and had the infrastructure of a grocery store. Now that the is a grocery store moving into the space, some people are even unhappy about that. As to the parking lot being fenced off, I doubt it was an issue of the owner just being “cheap.” It was likely related to permits that had to be obtained and then the tax collection. Also, since it was not intended to be a full-time, general parking lot, this would be another reason for not taking this path. I cannot think of any other free parking lots in our district. Even the Alexandria only has limited free parking for the Europa store that is timed.
I agree with everyone about that the school lottery is foolish and especially so since our city does not even have the funds to provide dedicated school transportation (i.e., school buses) to facilitate this process. Although Lee indicated that he was against the lottery during the forum, there is no indication that this will be on his agenda as supervisor. His plan is focused on real estate development, BRT/lightrail, and street fairs. I do not disagree with some of his plans, but I am really concerned about how many favors he will have to do for his large donors.
But, I also think that Mar has been truly ineffective as a supervisor and is very disconnected from our district. So for me, the only choice is D’Silva, who is also against the school lottery. No he does not have any grandiose plans, but does have some realistic ones such as repairing streets and curbs, putting in stop lights at dangerous intersections on Geary, and a simple measure of locks on garbage bins to mitigate litter and recycling theft.
I like D’Silva too. I may vote for him #1 but definitely Lee #2. 2d votes probably will decide it.
Is it possible D’Silva could win?
Frankly I dislike rank choice voting, particularly since it limits us to the top three choices. In protest I always leave the first choice blank.
I agree, especially for Mayor. The problem is in runoffs for Supervisor, there is low turnout so not every voice gets heard, only the more militant and angry. Nationwide this helps Romney, because anti-abortion voters vote no matter what and are fanatics. In this district, I think it would help Mar. He has the unions and the militant far left people who vote no matter what. We should all vote every time, people died for our right to vote, but that’s the way it is. Romney may win because a lot on the left don’t believe in the rigid discipline of you vote no matter what. Lee will probably win in our neighborhood, but Mar would probably win a runoff. I believe Mar might have lost a runoff last time because the two women he beat were very similar and for neighborhood schools, and both have endorsed Lee, but some people automatically vote for the incumbent.
You should not leave the first one blank because then your vote doesn’t count at all in the first round which could cause one candidate to get 50% who wouldn’t otherwise. If you like D’Silva #1 and Lee #2, it helps D’Silva fundraise for 2020 assuming Lee wins and have a future. He’s very well-spoken and has a future, he just didn’t raise enough money for this election. He would have played a spoiler role and given Mar the win if it weren’t for ranked choice voting.
But for Mayor, we should have had a run off between Lee and Avalos where they focused on the issues one on one. Why the hell were most of those people running who had no chance, wasting taxpayer money. I understand if you’re a Ron Paul and have a unique point of view and want to get a message out but these people weren’t like that. Michaela Alioto? Liberal handicapped yet pro private school/Pacific Heights business tax exemptions elitist? Phil Ting? What point of view did he have that was unique? He got less than 1%. Joanna Reis? 1.9%. Tony Hall? Dufty? Chiu? It was a shower of idiots. There were a bunch of clowns spending collectively millions of dollars who had nothing to say except remember my name so you vote for me later for something else. It was the most ridiculous Mayor’s race I’ve ever seen. Dennis Herrera? It was clown after clown after clown.
I remember the Agnos Jordan debates, Brown Jordan, Gonzalez Newsom, those were good for the City and focused on important issues. This was just hand the baton to Ed Lee because he lied.
A few interesting observations about the mailers. I think both might backfire and are not well thought out. Lee has one about Care Not Cash and I agree with the premise, but the picture he chose of a homeless person sleeping has a wheelchair, which makes him look more sympathetic. I think of agressive jaywalking panhandlers who break into cars on Fulton, want money when they wave when you’re parking like they helped you find the spot, pretend to need food then spend money on drugs and alchohol etc., which is why I like Care Not Cash, because it says if you need help honestly, here’s honest help but there’s no way to cheat the system and do drugs with the money. So I agree with Lee but wrong picture. They do need our help.
Mar sent out one about Childhood Obesity which reminds many of the Happy Meal debacle. I actually agree with him on the Happy Meal issue and on nutrition, requiring fruits and vegetables. However, he’s going to get very few votes of people with children because of his neighborhood schools issue, and he has a part attacking 2d hand smoke. The Richmond has the highest percentage of smokers of any district in SF. He’s going to offend a lot of smokers who would tend to be the kind of single liberal people with no kids who party a lot and are progressives, people who think hookers and drug dealers are juat aok and 2d hand smoke is no big deal, don’t mind when someone yells at 2 AM, etc. We’ve had comments from these types. I think a lot of smokers will read that and feel annoyed and not vote for him.
I am voting for Lee but not based on any of the issues discussed on this board. There are so many issues you don’t even discuss. What about the Park and Req issue? What about increasing the school budget? What about MUNI? What about parking? Creating mini parks and extra parking lots? Nothing! I might actually go D’Souza, then Lee as a protest vote, but definitely Lee over Mar. But I wish they would address the real issues.
Let parents decide what their kids eat, not the government, but don’t force parents to drive far to get their kids to public school. There are 100 elementary schools in SF. No one shouldn’t be able to go to school in their neighborhood if they wish to, especially with no busing offered. It’s a policy designed to drive families away and turn this neighborhood into a Marina type neighborhood. Lee and D’Souza are the only hope we remain a family neighborhood and I bet home prices would go up 10% if we offer a school guarantee. It’s the one thing holding home prices here down. Have you ever noticed the Mission is as expensive for homes as here with far worse schools? Our great schools don’t reflect in our property values because of the lottery. If H had passed, we’d all have another $50-100,000 in net worth right now.
I hate walking around smokers and seeing cigarette butts everywhere, breathing in 2d hand smoke when I walk past a bar or in the park, it’s disgusting. Is Mar going to make smoking illegal? If so I’m definitely for him. That would be great!
@Susan, Making smoking illegal would face constitutional challenges at the Federal level.
@Jason, You are aware that all pre-cut fruit sold in supermarkets and fast food chains has had chemicals added to prevent oxidation and decomposition. At present I do not know the names of the treatment suppliers and what chemicals they are using, whether they are naturally occurring or compounded in a lab from organic or inorganic matter. This treatment is in addition to chemical processes already used to coat whole fruit and to ripen unripe fruit so that it can be picked and handled before the flesh is soft and susceptible to imperfections. Coming soon are membranes sprayed onto berry surfaces to prevent water (weight) loss and to eliminate the need for refrigeration while being transported long distances. Del Monte plans to use this technology on Chilean grapes as soon as it is available. The membrane developer intends to switch from natural components to synthesized ones as soon as there are enough treatment facilities in fruit distribution centers.
@Jeff, The Mission is desirable for those who commute south of the City and is served by more employer operated buses than the Richmond. 19th Avenue (Highway 1) has been severely neglected by CalTrans. It’s been a decade since their last community meeting on improvements (read paving) and it was last properly paved before Loma Prieta.
Susan: I’m not a smoker anymore, but I don’t think any supervisor or all them as a group would have the ability to stop public smoking on the streets (although now that I’m thinking about it, didn’t Newsom stop smoking in GGP when he was the mayor? Is that still being enforced?). It was a big deal just to stop smoking in bars and make people step out and have a smoke on the street; I seriously doubt it would be legal to tell people that now they couldn’t even do that either.
I wish it was at least illegal to just throw your cigarette but on the street. Or let your dog shit on the street. It’s not cool. I’d rather see that enforced than stupid victimless crimes like (voluntary) prostitution or marijuana use. I could care less about those, but I really hate the cigarette butts and the dog shit, I really do. Who are you going to vote for? Who is the best candidate on these issues?
I walked past 10 smokers throwing cigarette butts in the street today and had to walk around dog shit twice. Who has a plan to fix this issue? I also walked past a crazy guy screaming at himself, kind of made me nervous. I don’t like these kind of people. It makes me uncomfortable. He may be harmless but it harms the ambience. I don’t feel safe. Who would do best to have these people not around on the street bothering innocent people?
I don’t like it either but I don’t think either candidate will do anything about this. I saw 7 police working at the Battle of the Birds Washington vs. Lowell football game last night. I’d rather see 7 undercover giving tickets to everyone who tosses a cigarette but or let’s their dog shit, actually doing some work. They know Lowell and Washington kids wont fight plus there’s security, they’re just sucking up thousands of tax dollars standing around for 3 hours, overtime. What a joke! In Russia we’d make sure they were catching somebody doing something. We built up this force in the early ’90s when crime was high. We could get by with a lot less. 2 armed cops would be plenty to prevent any Lowell-Washington fight, and even that would probably be a waste.
@Susan T, Belmont sounds like somewhere you would like. No smoking in public, no smoking in rentals, no mental health facilities, but you’ll have to drive everywhere.
I don’t want this, suburbs are boring and I have kids and want them to go to Lowell, there is no better high school for your future. 2 kids got kicked out of Lowell this week for living in Daly City. I also like art and dance and culture, diverse food. I also hate it when it’s too hot outside. I love this neighborhood. I just wish they could bring the best elements of Belmont here, like clean streets, neighborhood guarantee for schools, enforcing quality of life laws, and making people whose sole purpose is to con honest people into giving them drug money and claim they lost their last job when they probably quit last job or acted lazy and got fired to feel so uncomfortable that they go to shelter or leave us honest people alone. It’s by choice, you never see a Chinese or Russian person doing that. We can arrest dog shit leavers too. If they just had a couple cops enforce the butt law, everyone would be scared. No one feels scared to panhandle or throw a butt or let their dog shit. In front of my house so I must clean it up. In Russia, I remember one guy did this and my father hit him and knocked him over, and the neighbors laughed at him and he didn’t do it again.
I really like Mar in banning all smoking and arresting butt throwing and dog shit leaving people, but I like Lee on neighborhood schools. This election is confusing me. Care Not Cash may be the decider. But maybe not. I am not clear on Mar’s position on this.
“I really like Mar in banning all smoking and arresting butt throwing and dog shit leaving people…”
Mar never banned all smoking and legally couldn’t have anyone arrested for throwing cigarette butts on the sidewalk. Nor did he enforce any laws against dog owners. Where are you learning this?
The flier says he wants to ban smoking in public places, parks, not sure. Mar really is going after the smokers, the flier talks about all the people killed by 2d hand smoke. He wants to get those people and so do I. It was vague, not sure if it means in front of a bar or just a park. He just seems more focused on the filth. I don’t like kids being in a lottery and going to school far away, and I don’t like panhandlers, got my car broken into on Fulton, don’t like that. But I really don’t like the butts. I’ll probably vote for Lee but am really thinking about it, just dont know what to do. It’s already illegal to toss a cigarette butt or not clean up after your dog, but no one ever enforces it. I smelled marijuana once walking down Clement. The cops should search all the nearby homes and arrest someone. I don’t like that either. I also don’t like all the signs and mailers and I don’t like the guys who go to bars when you just want to have a drink and they hit on you all agressive and assume you are looking for sex. I also don’t like it when people scream late at night. I also don’t like the fog horns. We need to clean all this stuff up.
I guess I haven’t received that flyer; sounds like Mar is getting desperate for votes if he thinks he has the authority to stop smoking on a city street. He would have to also have the consensus of the other supervisors as well as the Mayor, and even then I don’t think that would suffice.
What a hatchet job! I’m voting for Lee too but sheesh, what a hatchet job!
I got the flyer earlier this week. I also got polled for Lee today about the school issue (which I agree), so I think his team is pushing this issue now along with recent family adverts that have shown up (it still not a part of his plan on his website).
Speaking of the giant, 4-color paperboard fliers/adverts, if Lee or Mar are elected and they pitch the “greening of the city,” I really want to drop these into their laps as a reminder of their green washing. In just past couple of week alone, more than 50 pieces have clogged my mailbox, polluted my walk-up, and left me to deal with the collecting and recycling of them.
Personally, I am going with D’Silva.
Mel, it’s up to you who you vote for, but if you vote for D’Silva, I would say it’s pretty much a wasted vote. Re: flyers, I agree with you re: my mailbox being stuffed every day (not just with District 1 Supervisor info, but A, B, 30, 32, Phil Ting, etc.). I suppose i’s not that different than any other election year. Re: D’Silva, I’ve never seen one flyer or heard anything from this guy except that he showed up for the debate… he clearly doesn’t have much of a campaign going, and his chances of making it to Supervisor appear to me to be pretty much about as close as Roseanne Barr getting the Presidency this term. From what I’m hearing, he had some good things to say at the debate. Unfortunately, for those of us that weren’t there, we know nothing about him, how he feels about issues in the Richmond, or what his plans are. Despite the influx of flyers, I would have liked to have seen a little more media from him as well as see him reach out a little more to voters in the District. I’m curious why he bothered to run?
I disagree that a vote for D’Silva it is a wasted vote and I would correlate Barr and Sheehan’s run for the presidency as a wee bit of an insult. I totally disagree with their (Barr ad Sheehan) position, their half-ass attempt, and it feels more like a last grasp for more fame time than anything.
As to D’Silva, he has outlined his plans and position on his website–albeit, loaded with copy errors–he needs at least a copy editor (I work in publishing). Yes, he has limited advertising, most of which are merely signs in a few store fronts, on his car, and the TV set up outside Shersomnia Laundry. Mr. D’Silva stated at the forum that he decided to enter the race because he saw someone get hit by a car at 22nd and Geary, One of D’Silva’s foci is adding streetlights at uncontrolled and busy intersections on Geary. I have also met him briefly, a really nice and sincere man.
I feel that D’Silva is the true image of grassroots ((although he is not selling this) and how the original populist movement began. I also chose to research candidates rather than waiting for them to come to me. This is how I found out about D’Silva initially, coupled with a few posters in the Central Richmond. But mostly, I cannot cast my vote for Mar or Lee because they display politics as usual, and I think that Richmond District Supervisor is merely a step to get them enough kudos (typically measures that are not all that effective but look spiffy on paper) before they grab the brass rings of better offices.
Finally on the other topic: yes, I agree, about 10% are dedicated to props and legislative positions, but the average of about 5 a day are coming from Mar and Lee.
Mel: vote away, it’s your choice. I’m not dissing Mr. D’Silva, just not seeing much interest from him in contacting residents and stating his issues, which doesn’t show much initiative to me, and I’ve already experienced that through the last two former supervisors. The fact that it’s left up to the voters to seek him out and go on to his website (which you state is full of copy errors? Impressive…) to find out his views doesn’t strike me as a very aggressive candidate, which I feel the district needs now more than ever. I’d be interested to know how many other readers here feel D’Silva has any chance of winning as supervisor; he’s made himself virtually unknown in the Richmond, except for showing up for the debate. As far as your perceived “wee bit of an insult,” I guess that’s dependent on your view that Barr/Sheehan are running for publicity purposes… I’ve heard some of Barr’s views, and they’re very idealistic, but make some sense… as far as publicity, I think her career is past that and pretty much over, and has been for some time. Deluded? Yes. Publicity seeking? Maybe a little, but I don’t think that’s her main goal Right now the heat is on between Lee and Mar, and from what I’ve been reading, they’re pretty much 50-50. Just my opinion, but I would think your vote would be a lot better served by voting on one of them rather than D’Silva, which is going to be the equivalent of not voting at all. Unfortunate or not, the man has absolutely no chance of winning; he’s completely overlooked due to the brouhaha between the other two. How many times have you seen Mr. DiSilva out meeting voters, making the rounds out on the streets, or voicing his plans/opinions in the media? I don’t need to see that lack of inertia for a third term.
D’Silva is a great candidate and has a future, but he needs to do more fundraising and organization for next time. I’d love to see him run for school board. Voting for D’Silva will not waste a vote because if Mar and Lee each don’t get 50%, it will go to 2d choice votes. Just put Lee # 2 and you have spoken for neighborhood schools and community. And it will encourage D’Silva to run in the future and probably win.
I believe Lee will get 48% and Mar will get 44%, and D’Silva’s voters will go 6-2 for Lee, giving Lee a 54-46% victory in the second round. Lee has a lot of fliers, as does Mar, but Lee has more of a grassroots community effort of people on the ground, calling, going door to door, more signs, etc. It’s really impressive how many regular working people are putting in evenings and weekends to volunteer and help David Lee. Mar has some but most are from outside the district and being paid by their unions to pretend they are from the neighborhood, some are violating laws, taking down signs without the permission of the store owner. They feel Mar will not push for pension reform or fight spiking. Lee’s people are an amazing grass roots consortium of families, single people, high school and college students. I’ve gone by Mar and Lee’s headquarters every weekend, they’re on the same side of Geary, Lee’s has 20-30 grass roots volunteers every weekend, Mar has maybe 5 people in there, and I see more of Lee’s people on the streets. I’ve never seen so many neighborhood residents volunteer for a candidate. The Haight is very different, a handful of people for Olague, a few for Breed, a few for Julian Davis, one or two for the other candidates. Maybe it’s because he helped turn the Chinese community in SF from below average voting percentages to above average, most are Asian, but many are not Asian. It seems to be a unique race. I’ve never seen this before, never with McGoldrick or Mar.
It’s great to see the district show this much unity, which has always been difficult to get organized in the Richmond. I’ve volunteered for Lee’s campaign a couple of times too, I voted by absentee almost two weeks ago… between Obama and Romney, Propositions 30 and 32, and Mar and aLee, I wish wecould get the vote over wit now! We have another week to go..
It’s not unity, Mar will get some votes, but Lee’s supporters seem much more passionate and numerous. There are so many of them everywhere. It’s a real movement. I’ve been involved in other issues and never seen this many people working so hard together, so passionately for one cause. Maybe Lee is better than he seems. I was planning to vote for him, but he just seemed a regular guy, even kind of boring, but he seems to have a real cult-like following where thousands of people really believe he can make our lives better. You don’t see that in the Haight, you see a few but nothing like this, it’s incredible.
Whew.
Susan,
I am a Lee supporter and I am Russian. I researched all the issues in depth online, and I certainly DO NOT blindly follow anybody. I support Lee because I believe he will prioritize the Richmond District over other city-wide issues. We badly need improvements, there is garbage everywhere, graffiti, dead trees, closed businesses, cracked streets and sidewalks. I believe that Lee genuinely wants to improve and beautify the Richmond District.
I am for neighborhood schools, I have a five year old daughter and I have to take a bus to pick her up from school. She missed school four times over a month when I couldn’t take her to school by bus, the fleet week, the blue grass festival, etc. affected the public transportation. Neighborhood schools are extremely important to me, and I believe that all schools have to be on a very comparable and sufficient level as it was in Russia.
For those of you who support neighborhood schools: I received the email below from David Lee’s campaign:
Thank you for supporting David and agreeing to attend our Neighborhood Schools Press Conference. We are inviting press, parents and supporters to attend. We want to contrast David’s support for neighborhood schools vs. Eric Mar’s support for busing kids across town.
Please tell your friends and neighbors who support schools close to home:
Thursday, 11/1
4:00pm
David Lee for Supervisor HQ
4050 Geary Blvd.
SF, CA 94118
Yana, thank you, I will be there. I would suggest continuing to appeal for a January switch and/or 1st Grade. It is hard but you should be able to get him into one of the Richmond District’s schools. This policy really disrupts people’s lives and prevents us Russians from having a unified cultural community the way the Italians did in North Beach in the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s when everyone spoke Italian and played bocce ball and ate the food, knew each other, etc. I have some friends who are older and Italian and I wish we could be this way. When Russian kids spend their whole childhood in schools in another area, well they really become less Russian and just more confused. They lose the language and sense of identity. I appealed and won, but it was scary, I didn’t like the idea of my kids having no Russian friends and no after school Russian language program, which they got at Alamo. Plus what a waste of time! For no reason! I know they will assimilate and that is good but I hope they keep the language and travel to Russia and love the food and history, the good history before 1917. Good luck in your appeal. I will be there.
Dima,
Yes, it would be great to have a closer Russian community in the Richmond where we can maintain our language and heritage. My daughter understands Russian but cannot speak, she doesn’t have any Russian friends around. I often feel it’s unfair that there is a large Russian community in San Francisco, but no public school with a Russian immersion program. They even removed all Russian lessons from Argonne, which is our attendance area school. I don’t think Argonne even has an after-school Russian program now.
It’s very important for me that my child speaks my native language, and that she is able to understand my culture and where I came from. Without the Russian community around, it’s almost impossible to achieve.
I want my daughter to go to school with many Russian kids, and make Russian friends. She already has a French-Canadian friend, an Italian friend, and many American friends of various races. Of course, they all speak English to each other.
Argonne or Alamo are my top school choices, they both are within a few blocks from my house, a walking distance. If we get into Argonne, I’ll have to talk to the principal and insist that they need some Russian program, especially for kids with Russian parents who want to preserve their heritage. I know they have a computer lab with Macs, and I thought that maybe they can just install Rosetta Stone Russian lessons on a few computers and let the kids learn on their own. It’s better than nothing, since they don’t have funds for a Russian teacher.
Well David Lee is a step in the right direction but according to the poll on this site it looks like he is sure to lose. I will still vote for him to make a statement. I agree, they should have a Russian program and a French program. People proposed French and the District told them no interest because it wouldn’t help ethnic minorities. Maybe they feel the same way about Russian. We should have a program at one school. Alamo has a decent afterschool program run by one woman. I know David Lee agrees they should have programs for all languages there is a desire for.
I got a disgustingly dishonest flyer claiming a Camille She, who lives in the neighborhood, feels Eric Mar somehow helped her choose to send her kids to school in the Richmond. He did no such thing. He put in a program which only 1% of America has where you don’t have a guarantee and this year, many kids didn’t get into schools here, Washington, Presidio, Roosevelt, Alamo, Argonne, etc. I looked her up and she does live here and she is very dishonest, you should call her and tell her your story. She put her face into every mailbox in the Richmond claiming Mar helped her go to school here, he made it so you cannot. She absolutely lied. I know many families who didn’t get into school here while someone from another neighborhood did. It’s incredble how Mar will get people to lie for him, will lie. I’ve never seen a candidate with such a troubled relationship with the truth. Now they are passing out mailers claiming Mar helped families choose the Richmond. What twisted logic. If you want to help our residents choose the Richmond, just provide a guarantee. Mar never did that.
I’m really amazed how dishonest the fliers are.
That’s disappointing. I was hoping Lee would win but the poll is well beyond the margin of error. It looks like everyone just automatically votes for the incument if they don’t follow the issues. I had thought it would be close but it looks like Mar in a landslide, not even a run off. No real change will happen in this neighborhood until 2016, by which time Mar will run for assembly or something. What a bummer!
Wow, I’m disappointed in Camille She, or is it Camile She? I think I’ve met her but am not sure. She seemed like a nice person but wow, that’s terrible. My tongue was hanging out, I was floored by the duplicitousness of that quote. I was speechless. I read the flier and there’s about a zero percent chance she actually believes that is true. You’d have to be braindead to believe it. She’s not, she’s educated/smart, which means she’s lying 100%. Mar is spreading the idea that lying is OK to achieve your goals. Just incredible! There are a lot of ridiculous mailers coming into our boxes but that is the most dishonest one I’ve ever seen.
Anything goes now, just anything. Divorce, no problem. Lies, not a problem. I’m sad to see what society is coming to now. We had our problems in the past and I’m so happy I lived to see the first black president, but in general I’m sad to see what society has come to when you get decent family people lying on campaign pamphlets. They should make a law, one pamplet per candidate, that’s it, make it big if you want but don’t send me a new one every day, please. It’s neither here nor there but I must say I’m disappointed in Mar, I thought much more of him before these pamphletts. Lee sends too many also, but not so deceitful. Please just be truthful, whatever the cost, it isn’t worth it to lower yourself by being mendacious. That’s what I was taught. I guess I don’t fit in anymore. I’ll be out of your way soon enough.
The poll posted on this blog can be checked by anyone in the city, regardless if they’re a District One resident or not. A large percentage of Mar’s supporters live out of the district and you can be sure they’re participating in this also. Sarah, I think this is a great idea but unless you can somehow limit votes to Richmond district computers – which isn’t possible – I don’t think it’ll be very telling considering how dishonest this election is getting. If I were in New York right now I’d be able to vote. I can also see some people seeing this, thinking, “What’s the use of voting, then?”, and not showing up at the polls.
True, everyone must vote because you never know, it is possible Lee could win. Plus 30 must pass and Obama must win. This is an important election. We can also get rid of stupid 3 strikes and the wasteful death penalty and evil traffickers (I’m not against consenting adults who choose, but traffickers are serial rapists, truly evil people who should go live on an island forever). We must strike down 32, an evil anti-union measure. And I will be proud to vote for Pelosi, who could again be Speaker in 2014, or maybe this time if Obama has a wave. And a vote for Lee is a vote for honesty in campaigns.
I think that if you can use different computers, you can vote more than once for the same poll. I still hope that Lee has a chance, and I believe that everyone should go and vote on election day.
I received the same flyer that Dima did. I think that someone should ask Eric Mar what exactly he means by “Supporting Neighborhood Schools”. This phrase usually means “I am for neighborhood school assignment”, and that every child living close to a school is guaranteed a space in this school. As far as I know, Eric Mar is AGAINST it. Did he change his mind? Can we hold him to his words on the flyer if he wins the election?
Also, to clarify, the city-wide schools, magnet schools, language immersion schools, charter schools, and special schools such as Lowell high school will be equally available to everybody to apply under the neighborhood school assignment system. They are NOT neighborhood schools.
The people who are hurt the most by not having a neighborhood school available to them are recent immigrants, who are generally poor, and don’t speak English well. In my daughter’s class, at least two more families commute to school in the Marina District by bus, one from outer Sunset, and another from near the City College. It takes the mother of two young boys two and a half hours to make a trip to and from school, two times a day!
They don’t know how to complain, appeal, etc. They don’t know how to manipulate the lottery assignment system. The system itself is dishonest, with parents discussing online that they should rent a place in the low test-score area, get a good school, and then move to be close to that school.
You can’t hold Mar to this, it’s a lie, a prevarication. He’s trying to fool you. Ask him point blank in person if he will put it on the ballot if he wins. He will say no. Lee will say yes. It only takes 4 Supervisors. Mar is not for a guarantee, he is for a chance. Camile She and Eric Mar are both lying 100%, they both know that what they are saying is a lie and it is a desperate attempt to stave off a challenger with a good chance and who is better on the issues.
Marie,
I know that Eric Mar is against neighborhood schools. That’s why I think someone should talk to him publicly about the school assignment issues, to reveal where he actually stands.
From the email that I received:
“Eric Mar was publicly against Prop H and did not offer support of the initiative, which solely focused on making a child’s proximity of their home to a neighborhood school a higher priority. District 1 voters voted overwhelmingly in favor of Prop H. Voters need to be made aware of the priorities of those they elect to office,” said Chris Miller, Chairman of Students First SF, the organization that drafted Prop H.
“No one has been more consistent in their opposition to neighborhood schools than Eric Mar. His campaign’s latest claim to the opposite is complete and utter non-sense,” said Justin Van Zandt, a zealous volunteer on the Prop H campaign.
I agree. I don’t like people trying to trick me. If you disagree, just say so. I don’t agree with Obama on everything, but I’m voting for him because he’s more honest and cares more about all of us than Romney. That’s pretty much the same reason I’m voting for David Lee. If someone can try to write tricky words to make it look like he’s for neighborhood schools, when he clearly isn’t, he can do anything. Now read this, tell me you think Camile She believes this is true logically:
“As President of the Board of Education, Eric Mar helped strengthen parents’ choice in the student assignment process. Thanks to Eric Mar’s leadership, we can now send our children to school right here in the Richmond, which our family prefers.”
Camile She lives in the Richmond District, I know this. So considering that, this is a lie. Eric Mar’s policies did nothing to make it more likely she would get her child into Lafayette. Now after he was gone, they did a feeder system where Lafayette kids get into Presidio, but if you don’t get into an elementary school, you don’t get into a middle school. Some hate private school but have no choice due to their job demands, then can’t switch back. Also, without his leadership, without his lies about prop H and vote against neighborhood schools while on the board, she would have automatically been able to send her child to Lafayette and Presidio. In fact, due to Eric Mar’s leadership, if her children aren’t able to get into Lowell or SOTA and want to go to Washington, she may be told her only choice is Lincoln, ISA, Galileo, Mission or Marshall, while a kid comes to Washington from another neighborhood.
Without his leadership, her kid could have automatically gotten into her district school, not sure if it’s Lafayette but it would be that or another school here as I know she lives in the Richmond. So breaking this statement down, there’s no way she believed it was true. It’s 100% certain she told a pre-meditated, intentional lie to basically all 80,000 people in her neighborhood in an attempt to confuse them into voting for Eric Mar. Eric Mar made the decision to send it out, and paid for it, but she had to approve it for it to go out. This is par for the course with Mar, who falsely, and he knew it, claimed kids would switch by force mid school year if Prop H passed.
If you break it down, assuming her family chooses the Richmond, Eric Mar’s policy makes it so she may get in and may not, by lottery. She doesn’t have that choice guaranteed, she can choose where she applies to but the computerized lottery will put her info into an algorithm and spin the wheel and that will decide where her children go to school, not her choice. In fact, she could have been rejected, as many of her neighbors were, while at the same time kids from other areas got into a school here, both parents driving past each other, depriving their kids and themselves of time, sleep, money, study time, etc. It’s insane to somehow twist it that you can be for choice which allows people to choose a school here. If not for the policies Mar supports which are only in 1% of America, or less, by population, every family in the Richmond would have a guarantee to send their child to school here. Also, don’t forget Mar voted to close Cabrillo while families were leaving the district because they couldn’t get into a school in the neighborhood, meaning the goal was to force families out, or to other areas.
The statement is either nonsensical or an intentional, pre-meditated fabrication with the goal of misguiding voters, a threat to our Democracy. Camille She is as opposed to democracy as Eric Mar, at least real democracy. She feels anything goes. It is actually both, nonsensical and an intentional lie. I’m really disappointed in both Mar and her. The level of dishonesty in this campaign is unprecedented.
So if you live in the Richmond and choose to go to school in the Richmond, Lee wants you to be guaranteed you can have that choice, and Mar wants you to have a chance so residents of other supervisoral districts can also have a chance. He cares more about issues outside our neighborhood than inside. He’s not looking out for you. Vote for David Lee. He’s one of us and wants what’s best for our neighborhood. To vote for Mar makes the idea of neighborhood district representation meaningless, he’s the kind of guy who would win back when the top 11 vote-getters city-wide get in and Margo St. James came in 12th, a wild eccentric old lady from North Beach who claimed to be an ex-hooker and wanted to turn houses into parking lots.
These are the facts. And they are undisputed.
You know, I thought about this and the only way Camille She could say Eric Mar helped her choose Lafayette and Presidio for her children as a choice, because she lives in the Richmond and is not poor by any measure, is if there is corruption in the lottery. Mar won Presidio for his daughter while hundreds of kids close got sent far away, and hundreds of kids far away were sent to Presidio, about half of the 400 admitted, the year Mar’s daughter got in. I’m not sure what grade She’s child is, but the only way she could be telling the truth is if there is a way people in power can put something onto the algorithm for friends. I doubt this is true, but it would explain every elected official winning the lottery and She believing she told the truth. It’s either that or Camile She intentionally lied and knows Mar made it so she had a chance, and she got lucky. According to the official law and what SFUSD says, there’s no way that he helped her. The only way he could have possibly helped her is if there’s a fix. That’s probably not the case, but if he did help her choose the Richmond, considering she lives here, and that can be determined by anyone with a browser or phone book, then there is corruption. If not, he did not help her, she simply got lucky, but in that case she knows she’s lying.
There is no logical way to deny this.
The comments on this site never fail to amaze. Marie Zheng… I agree with you about 30 and 32. So consider something then… Mar’s campaign is coordinated with Yes on 30 and No on 32. It’s even in the phone script. David Lee has nothing about the propositions in his HQ. There’s a VERY good reason for that, as I’m about to explain.
By the numbers, San Francisco needs good turnout for these measures to go the right way, but remember that not *all* San Franciscans are going to vote our way on these measures. About 75% will, but not all. And the vote in the Richmond will be ever so slightly more conservative.
So here’s the million dollar question: WHICH San Franciscans are going to turn out for what? Well, let’s say Eric Mar and David Lee get about 45% each. You can bet that every Republican, every conservative, every Romney voter… will wind up in David Lee’s column. Note: I am not saying that every Lee voter will be a conservative anti-union Romney voter. But it’s safe to say that virtually none of those votes go to Mar. So David Lee desperately NEEDS to turn out those votes. If about 15% of the Richmond votes for Romney, and 25% of the Richmond votes No on 30 and Yes on 32, then it’s safe to say that about a third of David Lee’s coalition is Romney voters, and a MAJORITY of David Lee’s coalition may well vote against your (and my) position on the propositions. Mar voters are going to be 95% Obama, and close to that Yes on 30 and No on 32.
So, Marie… which voters do you think Mar is turning out, and which voters is Lee turning out?
If that doesn’t bother you, it should.
That said… I’m seeing some pretty good signs for Mar.
-A month ago, all I saw were David Lee signs in people’s houses. Now? Well… just look around. What a turnaround.
-The poll on the Richmond blog is encouraging. Of course it’s not a scientific poll, but still. Judging by the comments, you’d think the people who read this blog are very anti-Mar.
-And speaking of scientific polls, I was actually polled a couple weeks ago. Unlike the Mirkarimi poll, which was a push poll, this was a real poll. Real questions. Straightforward. Someone wanted to know the real numbers in the race. The numbers were not released to the public. The poll was not done by anyone on our side. That’s a good sign in politics. If the numbers were good for their side, they would have released them.
In any case, it’s almost over. Tomorrow we’ll see if a million bucks is enough to buy the Richmond. I actually think not. I think it was overkill. The spending turned people off in the end, and you can’t buy grass roots at $15/hour either.
But I know one thing for sure. And that is that the people who have this kind of money, don’t part with it out of the goodness of their hearts. These people don’t make donations. They make *investments.* And if we are so unfortunate that David Lee wins, you can bet that they’ll be coming to collect their returns.
Greg, you make a few good points though Lee has promised to support rent control 100%.
I would have voted for Mar, but he lost me when he supported the lottery. Lee will try to be 1 of 4 to repeal it, Mar won’t. Mar also lost my basic respect for his integrity when he sent the flier in which Camile She clearly lied. She replied to the Chronicle blog and didn’t even bother to try to defend the logic of her statement, there’s no way she didn’t knowingly lie and agree to let Mar send it to every home in the District, with Mar’s approval. To me this is a scandal and a grass roots effort.
The poll showed Lee ahead by 2% and was released. This is very close. Everyone on either side should vote. It will be decided by fewer than 1,000 votes, very likely fewer than 100. It could go either way. 2% is 600 votes.
The neighborhood schools policy only hurt Richmond District residents, didn’t help any of them. You don’t win a District by throwing the residents under the bus. Too many local children were hurt by this. This is why Mar was involved in the scandal of trying to make people believe he wanted neighborhood schools while hundreds are still living near a school and not getting in, getting none of 7 choices, not getting into Washington and instead going to Mission, not getting into Alamo. This is a Nixon level scandal. Mar is responsible for the fliers that went out. Mar knew it wasn’t true but didn’t care.
I’d have respected him more if he’d had the honesty to look the voters in the eye and say, “I don’t think your children should have a guarantee, I think we should put them in a lottery because we owe that to the residents of other neighborhoods to endure hard commutes because of past racism (even though most of the residents in the public schools here are Asian and weren’t here before 1965, 100 years after slavery ended, and over a third, nearly two fifths, of the white kids who make up 25% of the Richmond District public school kids are Russian or Polish or Ukranian or other Soviet, who weren’t here before 1965, and some others are recent Irish or French immigrants). This is what I feel, and here’s why.” He had no such integrity. He tried to fool us. I believe this will be his fatal mistake and cost him a couple thousand votes. This doesn’t show up in money but many are so motivated due to this they volunteered many hours for David Lee. The value of these volunteers I would estimate to be in excess of $150,000. This is probably a swing of 2000 votes.
There are volunteers worth at least $50,000 motivated by his Lee’s registration of Chinese voters, his stand on the storefronts, crime, Care not Cash and other Quality of Life issues.
Also, his decision to try to forgive the black panthers who blew up a bomb at St. Brendan’s Church near Forest Hill at the funeral in 1970 of a murdered police officer, to try to not try them because they were too old, motivated a group of volunteers, police officers, retired officers, etc. to pass out a magazine to every home which came today, about how Mar let these people go. This was a surprise and I read the web site about it, they feel it is in honor of the murdered officer Steven Young’s memory. I didn’t expect this but the value of the volunteers outside of the campaign is probably 30,000 homes times $2 to print and deliver the magazine, or $60,000. This is probably another 500 vote swing.
Now people usually automatically vote for the incumbent, but the more they pay attention, the more open they are. For instance for President, it is quite common for an incumbent to lose (since 1900: Taft, Hoover, Johnson, Ford, Carter, Bush, and the winners of re-election were not much greater in number, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, Frankin D Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II), 6 to 10, or 37.5%. So it is highly likely. But with lesser known offices, with less of a spotlight on the election, the incumbent almost always wins. In fact, since district elections re-started in the late ’90s, after the 15-year or so experiment with city-wide supervisor elections, no incumbent has lost. Therefore, there is a value in being an incumbent of probably $250,000, which is significant.
But matching that has been the incredible dedication of the volunteers. I believe you will see an incredible dedication of grass roots volunteers tomorrow. You will see so many people volunteering all day near precints, on the boulevards, holding up signs, getting voters to the polls. Hundreds of people working for not a cent, grass roots, volunteers, to help Lee win. To avenge the children driven out of the City, the families, the children suffering long commutes to unfamiliar schools, the loss of friendships and community resulting, the loss of time, thousands of hours, the death of Sargeant Young and Mar’s intent to forgive those trying to terrorize the funeral, and the other issues. These people will rise up, it is an uprising, and spontaneously work together to unseat an incumbent, something which has not happened in many, many years, since the ’70s.
People are impressed with the humanity of this David Lee movement, the courage volunteers have to stand up to the machine, to stand up to being told they must send their children to school far away and suffer due to past events during which they were mostly in another nation, the forgiveness of crime, the coddling of the homeless allowing them to damage our quality of life and trying to end Care not Cash which would cause more to be here, breaking into cars on Fulton (happened to me), polluting, panhandling, instead of being in a shelter and getting help to get a job, the empty storefronts.
This wave of humanity will rise up and stand up for what is right tomorrow and my prediction is David Lee will be the next Supervisor of the Richmond. And it had to do with passion and righteousness. It is truly a liberal thing that Supervisors aren’t guaranteed re-election, as Avalos, Campos and Chiu are, and have to do what’s right. If you hurt your district’s children, if you let a terrorist go, if you dishonor a slain police officer, if you try to end Care not Cash, and if you lie to your district in the Camile She scandal, and if you put your personal dating life ahead of the well-being of your child, the voters can and will rise up against you and vote you out of office.
This is my prediction.
We will all know the answer in fewer than twenty-four hours. Whoever is right will prevail. No whining. You will win or lose on the facts, and they are out there.
Sorry I can’t feel bad about the money. Mar lost my sympathy when he sent a flier out he knew wasn’t true. The Camile She mailer scandal and the Argonaut were the final straw. Hundreds of people offered to volunteer when they received the She flier, schoolchildren who suffered for years, parents who drove to the tune of hundreds of hours and thousands of hours they couldn’t afford. Schoolchildren are missing school tomorrow to volunteer, many are missing work. This is a movement and it’s great to see.
But tomorrow we will know for sure. My prediction is a lot of whining by Greg and not a lot of understanding of how Mar hurt his constituents very badly by his schools policy and that cost him the election. Being a kid is tough, and anyone who puts them through that hell should lose their job, but we will start with Eric Mar.
Greg, I’m disappointed and surprised you never address the Camile She scandal. I guess you feel that we should have a lottery, so we are wrong to be 60% in favor of Prop H in this district, so it’s OK for Mar to lie, or for She to lie about Mar’s work on this issue and Mar to spread her lie to our homes with taxpayer money.
To me that’s just basic morals. You seem to feel because you feel it’s right, it’s OK for Mar to lie on purpose to trick us. You never address the veracity.
To me this is the character issue which decided my vote. Even if I were against neighborhood schools, I would not vote for someone who held one view and tried to fool everyone into believing he had another. There’s too much of that and that’s why I’m voting for Obama over Romney.
Lying is wrong, it’s not a debatable issue to me. Your silence to me says you admit it and think it’s OK.
“Without district supervisors, neighborhood needs could be largely ignored.” These are the words of Eric Mar himself, from the Board of Supervisors Candidate Questionnaire online. I feel that the needs of the Richmond district residents were ignored for many years now. Neighborhood schools are just one example.
I want a supervisor who would advocate for our Richmond district, and put the needs of his district first over the city-wide issues. I want our supervisor to be accessible and open to suggestions from the residents. I feel that Eric Mar is not too concerned with the Richmond district, and usually votes against the district.
My neighbor recently informed me that he wants to leave San Francisco after being a resident for twenty years. He said that the neighborhood deteriorated considerably in the last few years with more crime, garbage, graffiti, and unsafe driving. He has small children and elderly parents, and he feels that our street is unsafe for them to cross. He wanted to petition to put a Stop sign on the intersection, but decided that “it’s too hard to fight the city”.
I want a supervisor who would advocate for his district’s residents, and who would make it his priority to improve, clean, and beautify his district. I feel that David Lee is much more down to earth and in tune with the district than Eric Mar. I will vote for Lee with hope that our Richmond district can change for the better.
Marie,
I didn’t respond regarding Camile She because it’s really not my issue. I don’t know her, and if you think she lied, you can ask her yourself.
My main purpose was to try to break your cognitive dissonance, because clearly a lot of the people supporting Lee, the people who Lee needs to turn out the most, are people who are voting in ways that will hurt you. I wanted to get you to think about that -what it is that makes David Lee so attractive to conservatives and Republicans, and to think why you’re aligning yourself with these folks.
I think the neighborhood schools thing is a red herring, and the accusations of lying are just rationalizations for a decision already made.
If neighborhood schools were really the big issue with you folks, you’d be working to defeat Jill Wynns. Jill Wynns is still on the BOE, so unlike Eric she still has control over it. Jill Wynns voted the same way as Eric. Jill Wynns pretends to be a neighborhood schools advocate, but she signed her name to the No on H pamphlet. If anything, HER endorsement made the difference between passage and failure, not Eric’s. Eric’s progressive -people expect him to come down on that side. But Jill Wynns is a mod, so her endorsement really made the difference. Such treachery, huh?
And yet, not a peep about Jill Wynns from you -it’s all Mar Mar Mar. And Jill Wynns has her mug on Lee’s lit now.
And if you really cared about lying, then you’d be up in arms about Lee’s last minute lies like accusing Mar of “willful official misconduct.” That’s about as shameless a lie as it gets. Remember, lying is never right. Never. Isn’t that what all of you are saying?
So this has nothing to do with lying. It has nothing to do with neighborhood schools. For whatever reason you’ve all decided that you hate Eric Mar, and you’ll vote against him out of spite, revenge (for what?), whatever. Even against your own interests.
Cognitive dissonance is a hard thing to break. But I wanted you to think a little.
I vote for Robertson, Popek, Haney, and Wynns for the Board of Education. Robertson is the only one who openly stated he is for neighborhood schools, but I feel that the rest of the above candidates are sympathetic to the issue. Jill Wynns was on the flyer for David Lee, that’s why I decided to vote for her. There has to be a balance on the Board of Education, and a desire to change a school assignment system that obviously hasn’t been working well for many years.
Dima,
Regarding the poll, I actually find those numbers encouraging, for a couple reasons.
First of all, all these polls have likely voter models. But there are new voters and unlikely voters, and those are disproportionately for Mar. Renters, young people, people who move around a lot -these people are undercounted in polls, but they vote. That’s why Mar pulled it out in the provisionals last time.
Let’s not forget there was a poll that came out in 2008 which had Mar 17 points behind. Labor pulled out of the race because they thought he was done. So I’ll take -2 over -17!
Secondly, I’ve seen a sea change in the Richmond over just the last couple weeks with my own eyes. People are really getting turned off by David Lee’s big-spending astroturf campaign. And it is astroturf.
I actually talked to one of those lovely paid canvassers of yours while walking a precinct. She told me she didn’t know about “either of these guys.” She told me it’s just a job for her -the first she’s had in 3 years. She told me that as long as she got to play her music she didn’t really care. She told me she lives in D5, and all she knows is that she’s for Julian Davis in D5. When she asked why I was laughing, I told her, “You’re for Julian Davis and you’re working for David Lee??? Why don’t you ask Julian Davis what he thinks of this race.” I started asking her a few questions about the issues that concerned her. She obviously wasn’t too informed. At one point she asked me if she could still vote in D1 if she lives in D5. She also said that yesterday they were walking for London Breed, today for David Lee. “They move us around wherever they need us.” I felt really bad for her, because she’s struggling economically, and obviously needs the money, and she’s forced to work at a job that hurts her own long term self interest, for a few dollars short term.
I told her that if I were her, I’d take their money, but no one is forcing you to deliver the lit. I’d take the money… go have lunch… and maybe think about the issues. It’s her city too, and what she does even in districts where she doesn’t live will affect her life.
Not one of Mar’s canvassers are there because they’re getting paid, by the way. They, like me, are doing this because they care about the issues and the city.
I’m thinking Mar pulls it out. We shall soon see.
Greg, you would advocate a person take money for employment then not do their best job? If you are paid, you are morally obliged to do your best. That is pride and honor. This is why Chinese get ahead and others don’t. She probably is unemployed because she doesn’t have good references. If you take money for a job, you are obliged to do your best, which means passing out literature, yet you advoicate she promise to do one thing, take money for doing that job from the David Lee campaign, then sit in a cafe and read?
This is the problem with the far left prescription. Care not Cash is better, it helps people but doesn’t give them drug money. Mar opposed this. The union wants seniority, which hurts boss’s ability to pressure workers to work harder.
No wonder so many in this city are in poverty if they feel it’s OK to take money from a boss and then intentionally not do the work you agreed to do and are paid to do. Whenever I am paid, I do my best, even if it’s a pizza job or something like that. It’s just not ethical to do what you are advocating.
Lee will win because Asians are half the voters and we believe in studying, not complaining, working hard, not cheating our employer. That’s really immoral what you write above.
I am a Democrate because I believe everyone deserves a chance and we should cut defense (offense, we invade people) and the rich should pay their fair share, but I am not so liberal to believe it is moral to take money and not work.
Mar did hurt real families with the lottery, and bad. Greg, I bet you don’t have children. We need a new generation and we need to make it easier for families with children. We need to walk and bike to school.
And I feel Lee’s literature, while silly (showing a scary white guy, maybe somewhat geared toward elderly Chinese immigrants who are scared of young white Americans, the Argonaut showing a bomb at a church Mar let the criminals free for, the 10%) are always at least plausibly backed up by facts and none is an outright lie.
The She quote was. I did call her and she told me to go to hell. When I see her I will ask her about it. It was immoral of her to approve that going out.
I see a lot of union people out helping Mar. It’s not a super liberal neighborhood, hard to predict. I think it will be very close.
Throw out the old polls. Last time people didn’t care much. Any one person, volunteering 100 hours to put up signs, could have given Sue Lee the election if each sign gives 3 votes. Those people did volunteer this time, though more volunteered for Mar now.
Today union people are being paid by their unions to take a day off of their difficult jobs and walk around supporting Mar. This doesn’t come out in $, but is a huge amount of $ in donations and hurts the jobs they’re supposed to do. A construction project, a water main, a street fix, goes on hold one day so people can hang out on street corners drinking coffee and talking to passers-by.
Both sides aren’t well – informed Greg. I’ve spoken with Mar supporters from other neighborhoods who know very little, same with Lee. This race is insane all around, but I will be voting for Lee.
If you believe it’s OK for people to take money, then not do their best, there will be poverty for a long time in this nation.
Greg, this is what made communism not work. You cannot take money and then not try your best. What you are advocating, taking money then sitting in a restaurant, would ruin America. Is Eric Mar in favor of this? Does he feel it is acceptable to take money for doing a job, then not make a best-faith effort to do a good job?
Marie, I agree with your statement that one should do the job they are paid to do, and do it well. Greg was wrong in suggesting that the campaign employee should shirk the job she agreed to do.
However, as a white woman who has studied and worked hard and always put my best forward all my life, I do take offense to your statement that such ethics are only unique to Asians. In addition to myself, I know many of different races and cultures that also ascribed to a strong-work ethic.
As to voting today, I voted for neither Mar nor Lee. Some may this was a throw away vote, so be it; but for me it was not a throw away since my vote reflected what I felt was morally right.
D’Silva is a good candidate. I hope you put Lee #2. I never said only Asians work hard. Individuals can do anything. We have our Charles Ng, etc. but we commit 1/7th the murder rate whites do, which is lower than others. We study 16 hours a week in middle and high school vs. 6 for whites, and thus get more into UC with less than a third the population. We have a very good work ethic. How often does a Chinese American ask you for a dollar in front of Walgreens? The idea of neighborhood schools is if others sit next to us, they’ll learn to be Tiger Parents, Tiger Kids, but no, we are teased and made fun of for working hard, not admired and emulated.
There are great individuals in each race. I meet white dads and black dads who say they are Tiger Dads and make sure their kids study a lot and admire the Asian example. Stereotypes are never 100% true, but there are tendencies you can follow.
It’s just Greg wants very socialist policies. These, as Dilma says, could work if people are honest and work hard. However, if you have seniority in all jobs, as Greg wants, and then individuals say thanks for the check, I’ll take a 2-hour lunch and read, then it all falls apart. Taxpayers have to pay for that. Greg is very pro-union, and I am somewhat, though don’t agree bad teachers should be kept over good ones if they are older, but generally won’t cross a picket line. But the whole morality of what Greg supports breaks down if people take money for doing a job and then don’t make any effort.
There are some immigrants who feel, we have to learn a language, focus, and when you see a homeless person, there’s little sympathy, but to many whites, they feel they are victims and deserve sympathy.
Congratulations to Eric Mar. The Richmond wants to stand on national issues and help other kids at the expense of our own. Maybe there was fear about rent control. Maybe confusion, but the campaign was dirty on both sides so congratulations to Eric Mar on a hard fought campaign. I thought it would be very close but Mar won in a landslide.
I do think Camile She damaged her reputation in the community, showed herself to be lower than dirt in her character. I’d be embarassed to have her as a mother, a wife, a friend, especially since she debated certain points and ignored whether what she said was true. Lying is never to be condoned and the Richmond would be better with people that morally bankrupt in another neighborhood. I wouldn’t cross the street to spit on her shoe, she just showed herself to be an amoral, completely value-less person.
But congratulations to Mar. You won a brutal campaign. I hope you will work hard to help the Richmond District get better. Please focus on us for the next 4 years, not national issues.
Well I was going to write this last night, but I heard somewhere that typing while drunk is a bad idea…
So anyway, let me just say a couple things in response before moving the discussion off the third page and onto the first page.
To those who criticize me for advocating a poor work ethic or something like that, this has nothing to do with work ethic. Look, I’m an immigrant. I know the value of hard work. I’m successful financially (not that I judge people as human beings by the amount of money they make or have), I have an advanced degree, and I worked hard to get there. Don’t tell me about the Chinese or the Russian work ethic. I know more about it than you guys think. And I didn’t have tiger parents or dragonlillies or whatevertheheck else helping me financially (for the most part). That’s where it really counts, too. While I was taking out the big loan, I saw other students’ parents do everything possible, bending over backwards to make sure the kids have a free ride through college and professional school. Some with parents who had less than mine. But it’s ok, I made it.
But… I almost didn’t. There were times in my life where financially and personally, things were pretty bad. And I came close to falling through the cracks. Very close. And I look back at that time and think, if someone like myself, who is trying to do everything right, who’s smart and can work hard, can fall through the cracks, well then it can happen to anyone.
So I believe that it’s better for the *entire* community when we come together to take care of each other and make sure no one falls through the cracks.We all make mistakes. We’re not born into equal circumstances. Some of us are more fortunate in the way our lives turn out. And yes, good fortune ALWAYS plays a role, even for those who like to think they do it all on their own. And those of us who are more fortunate, those of us who have been able to better take advantage of society’s opportunities, have a responsibility to give back more to the society that they have received so much from.
And with the revenue that we get (from people who have made it, like ME, incidentally), I want government to aggressively make sure that nobody has to fall through the cracks. I want *everyone* to have a free ride through college, not just those lucky enough to have tiger moms and dragon dads and rich uncles. Classes should be hard. Paying for them should not be. I want health care for the sick and pensions for the old -not some phoney baloney 401K that you fund yourself, but real pensions like in the public sector, extended to everyone. Because you know what? After 40 years, you DESERVE it, dammit. Landlords shouldn’t get to charge whatever the heck they please and take advantage of people just because they can. Schools work best when they’re integrated -not just between black and white, but between rich and poor. Because on a macro level, that is what works. I want the poorest among us to be treated like human beings -and yes sometimes that means cash subsidies for those who really need it. Basically I want a civilized society where the government protects the weak from the strong, doesn’t let the rich take advantage of the poor, and otherwise lets people do with their own bodies whatever they please.
If you call that socialism, then I’m guilty as charged. And proud of it. Damn proud.
But what I advocated for this poor girl, forced out of economic necessity to labor in a job against her own self interest, is not about work ethic at all. If you say that what I advocated was immoral, I want to tell you that what Ron Conway and his real estate buddies are doing is immoral. They were trying to steal our democracy in the Richmond. This kind of wholesale purchase of elections should be ILLEGAL, and when I see that, the only moral course of action is to undermine it in any way possible.
I don’t need to the money, so I wouldn’t take that job. I just volunteered my time for the other side in a straightforward manner. But she clearly did, so who am I to tell her not to take the money. But after talking to her, it became clear that she wasn’t informed about what she was doing. And when it comes to democracy, in order for it to work, we need informed and engaged citizens, not hired drones. So I told her essentially to go ahead and take the thief’s money, but think about whether she really wants to perform this work that goes against her own self interest.
The job itself was immoral. We’re talking about the theft of our democracy here. If our democracy is just something that’s for sale to the highest bidder, then we have no democracy at all. The only moral thing to do would be to fight that any way you can.
I do want make some general comments about the D1 race, but I think it’s more appropriate to make them on the first page where the article about the results is, so that’s where I’m going to take it from here.
Both sides had uninformed people. Do you think politics should be only volunteers? I think this was equal. Lee had these people, but Mar had union people, probably being paid, and people from Chinatown who didn’t speak a word of English. Rose Pak? I think this factor of buying was equal on both sides. Mar spent money that didn’t go down as money, people from Rose Pak/Tongs, unions, being paid but to take a day off from their dull job and pass out fliers. Lee rose tons of money and paid people who knew nothing to pass out fliers. So much paper. You know I was for Lee but for this post, I think what you criticize was equal on both sides.