S.F.’s Top Election Issues: What the Players Say

Editor’s note: As is the tradition during election season, candidates and advocates of city measures paid visits to editorial boards of newspapers to define their positions. As seen in our endorsements inserts, we did not agree with every view, but we do agree that a wide range of views deserves to be heard.

LELAND YEE: Yes on Prop. J (Central Freeway)
Among the key backers of the 1997 Central Freeway retrofit initiative, Supervisor Leland Yee calls plans for housing to be constructed along a widened Octavia Boulevard “pie in the sky” and “hope against hope.” The Central Freeway, he said, is the only way to deal with the constant gridlock that the city has suffered over the past 10 years.

He said the issue is far more than a Chinese American one, even though it helped propel moderate Chinese Americans into the city’s political spotlight. “Clearly, the Chinese benefit, but the city as a whole benefits, too.”

Yee cited city and state studies that showed that an Octavia expansion could handle only 50 to 67 percent of the expected daily 93,000 vehicles. “We have studies upon study that show that it’s just not going to work.”

He discounts Octavia Boulevard proponents’ arguments that the surplus freeway land can be sold at market rates. “We discounted the figure [estimated about $30 million] because its a fair market figure. Then you are not going to sell the property at a fair market... the city is going to be left in the hole.”

HOWARD WONG: YES On Proposition I (Octavia Boulevard)
“One can look at several cities in the world. San Francisco can go either in the direction of Los Angeles; sure it has high-speed freeways, but Los Angeles in our minds, is not a beautiful city. Or, you can look at other models like Paris, which has boulevards, nice streets and a neighborhood orientation,” said Howard Wong, an architect who said he believes that widening Octavia Boulevard and designating freeway land for housing is a better solution than rebuilding the Central Freeway. “San Francisco has been called the Paris of the West. I think that’s a better direction to go.”

Wong, who spoke with AsianWeek staffers on Tuesday, has been among the most vocal APIs against the Central Freeway, whose rebuilding became the linchpin that catapulted the San Francisco Neighbors’ Association into prominence two years ago.

He conceded that for many Chinese Americans, both inside and outside that organization, “it is emotional...It was very empowering, their first step into city politics.”

Hayes Valley resident She Ping Lee was also among freeway opponents who met with the paper Tuesday. In halting English, Lee said, “neighborhood, Chinese neighborhood group, they only want their area good. They don’t want other neighborhood good. They are very selfish. Rose Tsai and some Chinese member of community just want people to know them.”

In addition, said Robin Levitt, a widened boulevard “would revitalize the area and create a lot of housing.”

MAYOR WILLIE BROWN
In a 15-minute meeting on Monday, Mayor Willie Brown touched on the topics of housing, parking, Muni and his record of Asian American appointments.

He admitted that Muni “doesn’t lend itself to immediate recovery” but that “we have removed all the egregious work rules.”

Brown said that under his administration, the city has seen its first Asian American police chief and port director, in addition to the appointments of Supervisor Michael Yaki and School Board member Frank Chong. He said there have been more than twice the amount of Asian American appointees than under Jordan’s administration.

“There are Asians sprinkled throughout my administration at every level. They’re beyond parity” with their share of the city, he said.

CLINT REILLY (mayoral candidate)
Reilly’s campaign says he opposes Prop. A, the Laguna Honda measure, because “it does not include sufficient financial safeguards to ensure that the need of the patients at Laguna Honda are met.”

Saying that the measure “relies on tens of millions of dollars of cigarette funds that San Francisco may never see,” Reilly fears that taxpayers could be left with “a far larger financial liability than the proponents of Prop. A admit.”

On other matters, the former political consultant and businessman said he “fully supports” rebuilding the Central Freeway. When asked about newspaper mergers, his campaign said he “believes that competition of both economics and ideas ultimately benefits consumers.”

FRANK JORDAN (mayoral candidate)
Although Frank Jordan wasn’t able to meet personally with AsianWeek, he did respond in writing to our queries.

On addressing the different needs of Asian Americans; he said, “I believe the key to understanding issues that face any community is to have people around you who understand the issues and to have policies that are consistent with the needs of the community. My record shows that I have always had people around who understand the issues and that my policies are consistent with the needs of the community. The current mayor has none of these traits.”

Jordan credits himself for being responsive to various communities by meeting its leaders regularly. As police chief before becoming mayor in 1991, he created the department’s Hate Crimes Unit.

“I was replaced by a mayor who acted as though Asian Americans amount only to a number in a vote column. I was replaced by a mayor who surrounds himself with lobbyists and criminals who think that they can buy or sell the city’s sense of fairness.”

Jordan said he had made sizable numbers of API appointments as well, adding that he had protected the city’s minority contracting program, now under FBI investigation.

“Mayor Brown calls himself a gift to Asian Americans -- but what do you think? I have never been in the business of selling off protections for minority contractors.”

The former mayor said he supported widening Octavia Boulevard over rebuilding the Central Freeway. Referring to the Embarcadero Freeway teardown, which years later continues to divide Chinese Americans, Jordan said, “When I was mayor, many people were worried about the effects of the Embarcadero Freeway replacement. But now it’s beautiful. I also believe that Octavia Boulevard will prove to be a treasured addition to the San Francisco neighborhood ambiance.”

DISTRICT ATTORNEY TERENCE HALLINAN
Responding to criticism he has received from the San Francisco Chronicle about his conviction record on violent felonies and domestic violence, Hallinan maintained that “if you look hard enough you can find stats to bear out anything you want.”

Moreover, he said, the Chron stories did not accurately account for his diversion programs, in which the DA’s office sends non-violent criminals to rehabilitation or special community courts instead of to prison.

His office has diverted 4,000 felons (mostly drug cases) since he took office, and among long-term substance abusers, his success rate is 91 percent, Hallinan said. About 430 women have left prostitution, he added.

“I’m developing a program to get future offenders out of the criminal justice system.”

Responding to accusations from challenger Bill Fazio that Hallinan has been too political, he said “It’s a political office. I have to make decisions as to what priorities are and that’s a political question. If you don’t control politics, then politics controls you.”

BILL FAZIO (D.A. candidate)
Fazio puts more credence on the Chronicle stories, saying “the office has deteriorated to a level no one has anticipated.”

And while Hallinan pointed out that fewer crimes were being committed in the city since he took office, Fazio retorted, “The DA has as much to do with the crime rate as the weatherman has to do with weather.”

Contradicting Hallinan’s argument that the DA in San Francisco has the unique responsibility of dismissing cases that police usually dismiss, he added, “If cops are not doing something right about reporting [cases], it’s incumbent on the DA to do something about that. I’m not going to blame the cops like he did.”

TOM HSIEH: Yes on Prop. A
Prop. A spokesman Tom Hsieh Jr. emphasizes that San Franciscans have historically been invested in making the city “the best it can be.” And especially as more people get older and as more older people live alone, the numbers who might need the round-the-clock care that Laguna Honda provides is increasing, he said, even among Asian Americans. “We think that San Francisco will live up to its moral obligation,” he said.

KATHY YUHL: No on Prop. A
Kathy Yuhl of Seniors for Independent Living said plans for renovating the Laguna Honda Hospital were made without the consideration of alternative care options for the elderly and disabled that did not involve large, costly hospital staffs.

“We’re going to commit ourselves for the next 100 years to an institutional bias,” she said. “There’s no incentive for hospitals to move them into more independent living.”

A much better option, Yuhl said, would be for seniors to be in a hospital for 60 to 90 days, then move into independent living centers. That option, she said, would cost only $30,000 per bed per year -- a third of what she says a Laguna Honda bed would cost.

Citing stories of some Laguna Honda patients staying there for 20 years, Yuhl said “As long as we keep doing that we’re going to need more hospitals. We need to be creative, move outside the box.”