Matchmaker Julie Lee and Freeway Politics

When I started writing this column in 1996, I tracked San Francisco’s highway housewives – Julie Lee and Rose Tsai. In her heyday, realtor and neighbor Lee would call me at home to offer a tidbit or invite me to a press conference. If my mom answered, the two would chit-chat in Cantonese about finding me a wife and bringing some photos of prospects.

Although gregarious, Lee and Tsai would deride on Cantonese radio people like Supervisors Michael Yaki and Mabel Teng for being “shoe shiners” for powers-that-be like Mayor Willie Brown (who as a kid polished shoes in Texas). Like the colorful Chinese Chamber of Commerce‘s advisor Rose Pak, they were equally saucy in dishing it out politically….TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: San Francisco’s 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged two freeways. The Embarcadero freeway’s demolition impacted Chinatown and led to the undoing of incumbent Mayor Art Agnos. The damage to the Central Freeway had more consequences on Asian Pacific Americans citywide but would lead to keeping a mayoral incumbent, Willie Brown, and electing his successor, Gavin Newsom. Connected to the Central was Lee’s grassroots activism, which was recently overshadowed by her conviction for allegedly misusing public funds, and her stoic sidekick Tsai. Although eventually losing, Lee and Tsai did more than delay demolition of the band-aided remains of the Central. Winning the 1997 freeway initiative transformed the Chinese American and larger APA community from a supporting to a leading actor in San Francisco’s political theater… FREEWAY MATRIARCHS: At their height, Lee and Tsai were emerging as Westside rivals for influence in City Hall with the Chinatown-based coalition led by Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Pak and Chinatown non-profits like Chinatown Community Development Center led by Gordon Chin. Pak and her allies had conceded to Mayor Agnos and lost a battle against the Embarcadero Freeway’s demolition in 1991. However, they gained an Agnos sinecure (the Chinatown Economic Development Group) to help with post-quake recovery. Recently CCDC developed and opened up desperately needed affordable housing near Chinatown at an old Embarcadero freeway ramp site…RISE OF THE SFNA: Lee and Tsai – through their hundreds of members in the San Francisco Neighbors Association and the many listeners to their Chinese-language talk radio show – galvanized a base of mostly immigrant and blue collar homeowners. They backed shopkeepers over the right to sell live animals in Chinatown for consumption. The two supported mom and pop landlords and fought to expand or build Sunset and Richmond homes, especially with the median of APA families being three members (exceeding the city median of two). NIMBY activists and preservationists had protested “Richmond Specials,” which some racists had labeled as “Chinese Victorians.” Likewise, SFNA had organized against headquartering a parole center in the heavily Chinese American neighborhoods of Portola and Silver Terrace…

FROM CHINATOWN TO CITYWIDE POWER: During the 1997 Proposition H campaign for the Central, then Supervisor Leland Yee – ally of Lee and Tsai – had touted it as a “Chinese freeway” and later deemed the structure as a source of “personal pride” among Chinese Americans (AsianWeek, 10/21/99) for supporting a cause of both Chinese American and citywide interest. That differed from the Embarcadero fight centering around Chinatown, which led to a commercial shutdown protesting the 1991 Embarcadero demolition and formation of curios shop owner May Louie’s Chinatown Merchants Association…In contrast, the Central touched down in the midst of the city’s core liberal/progressive but least APA neighborhoods – Western Addition, Hayes Valley and Haight-Ashbury. The push by Lee, Tsai, Yee and Assemblyman Kevin Shelley of the city’s Westside 12th District was a statement that the Central linked APAs from all corners of San Francisco. APAs lived far from the city’s civic, cultural and commercial centers (Central passed near City Hall, main library and fine arts centers). Most APAs had settled in a crescent pattern on the city’s outer periphery, hugging the county’s coastline or borders in communities more than 45 percent APA: the densely Chinese American Sunset, Richmond, Visitacion Valley, North Beach and Chinatown or the heavily Filipino and Chinese American Crocker-Amazon and Portola. These major APA neighborhoods delivered landslides to winners of contested 1991 (Frank Jordan), 1999 (Willie Brown) and 2003 (Gavin Newsom) mayoral races…

IMPACT ON APA POLS: Prop H made Lee and Tsai a major political force, making even omnipotent Mayor Brown pause before belatedly opposing Proposition H. (After Prop H was overturned in 1999, the mayor swung the ceremonial sledge hammer kicking off the freeway’s demolition). Following the freeway campaign, Lee and Tsai on behalf of mom and pop APA landlords and allies at the Small Property Owners of San Francisco were moderating influences on tenuously liberal Supervisors Michael Yaki and Mabel Teng. The legislators sought compromises on owner move-in eviction protections for seniors and the disabled. Teng’s stance however led to her re-election but a disappointing third place finish for the board presidency as she tried balancing her progressive credentials like the Chinese Progressive Association and Jesse Jackson/Rainbow Coalition with an emerging conservative Chinese American base led by Lee and Tsai. Rose Tsai’s unsuccessful insurgent, anti-Mayor Willie Brown supervisor’s campaign in 1998 hurt Teng and helped buoy Supervisor Tom Ammiano to the board presidency, especially in Tsai’s home turf of the Richmond. Tsai’s 2000 supervisor campaign likely led to Yaki’s defeat ….MAYORAL RACES: Mayor Brown had seen the results of Teng and Tsai’s campaigns as a referendum on his own mayoralty. Riding on those results, Ammiano would win a progressive mayoral write-in campaign to unseat Brown in a December 1999 runoff. Brown – conceding progressives to Ammiano – swung to the political center-right and heavily courted Chinese Americans, conservative whites and Republicans. Among Chinese Americans for Brown was Julie Lee, while Tsai split for Ammiano. The anti-same sex marriage and pro-landlord Tsai had little in common with the gay and pro-tenant Ammiano except for being unified against Brown’s re-election. And like the 1991 mayor’s race that unseated incumbent Art Agnos in his four-point loss, overwhelming margins in the Chinese American community this time delivered the mayoralty back to Brown, who won by 14 points over Ammiano. In 1999, the Chinese vote was a moderating influence on the liberal Brown who appointed Lee to the S.F. Housing Authority and key Lee allies to commissions or staff positions, including Lee’s son Andrew. He went on to run but lose a 2002 bid for supervisor to present Assemblywoman Fiona Ma. And likewise in 2003, Chinese Americans, including Julie Lee, once again gave winning APA landslides to businessman and centrist Supervisor Gavin Newsom’s narrow 6-point victory over progressive former Board President Matt Gonzalez.

Reach Samson Wong at (415) 321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.