More than a year before the election, the race to represent San Francisco's Mission District is already heating up.

Leading candidates are touting early fundraising successes, and the race – which has included multiple candidates so far – is already heating up with a campaign finance investigation also in play.

Progressive activist Jackie Fielder and former tech executive Trevor Chandler released fundraising statements within days of each other last week — both aiming to position themselves as front-runners for District 9, which includes the Mission, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods.

Fielder, who most recently ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat state Sen. Scott Wiener, is currently the fundraising leader with $52,000 as of June 27 and said she has committed to $255,000 in public funding qualified. In a July 1 statement, Chandler boasted of $53,649 in donations and expected public funding of $179,315.

District 9 incumbent Hillary Ronen is retiring in 2024, filling a seat that has leaned reliably progressive since the city reinstated district elections in 2000.

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In a collection of relatively sleepy towns including the Outer Mission, Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods, the race for next year's supervisor job is already taking shape, with two distinctly different candidates already announced and the possibility of other hopefuls waiting in the wings .

With 11th District incumbent Ahsha Safaí running for mayor, more attention than ever could be focused on the district that some say is losing out on city resources. The two declared candidates, Ernest “EJ” Jones and Roger Marenco, have different moods, with the former leaning more towards a new establishment approach and the latter – who rails against “drug addicts” and “looting” – maintaining a more insurgent populist approach.

The district's boundaries today roughly correspond to those chosen in 1977 by arch-conservative Supervisor Dan White, a former police officer and firefighter who ran as a cynic “defender of the home, family and religious life against homosexuals, marijuana smokers, etc.” “, says the New York Times. A year later, White assassinated Castro supervisor Harvey Milk along with then-Mayor George Moscone.

This event still sometimes looms over District 11, which retains the atmosphere of old, working-class San Francisco alongside the contributions of newer immigrant communities.

While District 11 has elected reliably progressive supervisors in recent years, the election of Ahsha Safaí in 2016 saw it move more toward the center, albeit with labor support.

Here's a look at the two candidates running – with the caveat that it's early days.

Ernest “EJ” Jones is something of a “native San Franciscan” – he was born at St. Luke’s Hospital and grew up in the Lakeview/Ingleside neighborhoods. He attended St. Ignatius Preparatory School and earned his master's degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

“I’ve lived in this district my whole life,” Jones told The Standard. “I’m invested.” I’m rooted here. I don't plan on going.

With the support of incumbent Safaí, Jones wants to continue a pragmatic, “unionist” approach to government with an emphasis on consensus.

He began his career as an assistant to the director of equity in the San Francisco Unified School District and then moved to the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, where he supervised tenants of the Alemany Apartments public housing complex as they remodeled units through a federal program.

“I understand how important it is to have 100% affordable housing. But I also recognize that there is a need for other types of housing and I support worthwhile projects,” Jones said, adding that he is “very aware” of the city's goal of creating over 80,000 new homes in eight years. be.

Jones told The Standard that business challenges, public safety and affordability are all key issues in District 11, as are other districts.

But what sets the district apart from the rest of the city is the fact that it is often at the bottom of the list when it comes to investments, Jones said. For example, one of the two libraries in the district is the smallest in the city.

“There is currently a plan for one of the largest neighborhood libraries for Orizaba Avenue at Brotherhood Way,” Jones said. “It's just been slow going.” It's really important to have this library. It would show that there is investment in our neighborhood.”

The candidate most recently worked as a legal advisor for Safaí. “He spent two years in my office learning what it takes to be a boss,” Safaí told The Standard. “He’s ready for the job [on] Day one and have my complete trust.”

Roger Marenco has been involved in city politics since he was 19, and his family was threatened with eviction from their Mission District apartment. He was involved with People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Justice (PODER), a Latin American advocacy group, and the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, which organized against gentrification in the Mission during the first dot-com gold rush.

“How did I start organizing myself? I don’t know,” Marenco told The Standard. “I just started talking to people and telling them what's going on, that we need to fight, that we need to organize and that we shouldn't give in to let this happen to us in our neighborhood.”

He then interned for two years with progressive Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who was known for his advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and economic justice.

Now Marenco works as a muni operator for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, a job in which he has witnessed San Francisco's worst problems of street crime, homelessness and drug abuse. His views on what to do about these problems may raise eyebrows among progressives.

“My son had a pair of new Cocomelon shoes on. We walk out the front door and he steps on a pile of shit. Brand new shoes. Didn't even wear them for 30 minutes. And I said, “You know what? This is bullshit, bullshit in the truest sense of the word,” Marenco told the Standard about an incident that inspired him to run. “I was just cleaning up yesterday and now my boy comes out and the first step he takes on the sidewalk is a pile of shit. And I said, “You know what? I'm done with this.'”

Marenco was the controversial president of the Muni operators union for five years. He says he had to fight tooth and nail against a narrow-minded old guard that repeatedly worked to block his leadership, even though he was elected in a 3-1 vote and secured new contract deals for union members.

Marenco was barred from re-election by the union's board last year after he was accused of using “racially derogatory language” toward board members – an accusation he denies.

“Of the five times I have been suspended (by the union board), I have had all of my suspensions overturned when I appealed, so much so that the International Union in Washington, D.C. had to intervene,” and each for one throw him out of office for the whole year,” he said.

Marenco's experience fighting evictions in the dot-com era mission clearly shaped his perspective on San Francisco's housing problems.

“We need housing for a person who doesn't make $200,000 a year, who makes the salary of a teacher, a bus driver, or a janitor, or the people who clean or cook the hotels; These are the people we need to build housing for,” Marenco told The Standard. “These are the people who have families, not a single 23-year-old working for Facebook.”

Marenco also wants the city to do more for caregivers and other “other workers” who don’t receive the same benefits as more visible categories.

But some of Marenco's other views will set him apart from most progressives, particularly on the highly visible issues of crime, drug abuse and street conditions.

“I’m tired of seeing the homelessness, the drug addicts, the looting, the thefts and the assaults that happen every day,” Marenco said. “It has migrated toward District 11, and if we don’t stop it, it will continue.”

“I think it should be illegal for someone to dump in front of your house. But certain politicians in City Hall don’t see it that way,” he added. “I’m not a person who deprives the police of money because when I need help, the first thing I do is dial 911.”

Neither candidate has reported fundraising events, unlike the early fundraising race currently underway in nearby District 9. Both say they are still in outreach mode, talking to neighbors and neighborhood groups.

John Avalos – Safaí's progressive predecessor who challenged him in 2020 – told The Standard that he would not run this time.

Another oft-mentioned candidate, Chris Corgas, a deputy director of the city's economic development agency who recently worked with Safaí to create a Community Benefit District in Excelsior, told The Standard he was “flattered by the interest, but I “Keep my options open.”

Unless major players step in later, voters already have two clear options for District 11's future.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named the neighborhoods where Ernest Jones grew up.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Residents fed up with crime, homelessness, drug use and sales, and mental health issues in San Francisco’s District 2, which includes the Marina and Cow Hollow, aired their concerns in a public safety Q&A town hall at Marina Middle School Tuesday .

Supervisor Catherine Stefani, Police Chief Bill Scott, Northern Station Captain Derrick Jackson and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins took questions from the audience. City representatives from Healthy Streets SF, Homeless and Supportive Housing, and the Department of Public Health were also among the panelists.

Marina resident Sam Chehrazi shared a video with KPIX 5 of an attempted break-in in broad daylight at his home in May.

Home surveillance video showed a man scraping his front door with a tool, before kicking the door multiple times as he yelled threats and obscenities. Chehrazi was on the other side of that door on the phone with 911. He barricaded the door with his body.

It’s the kind of daily crime that brought concerned residents to the meeting, which at times got heated.

Long-time residents told the panelists crime has never been worse in their neighborhood.

“I too don’t feel safe and my wife when she’s walking around, I also feel concerned,” said Chehrazi. “And we all kind of walk around with our finger on our pepper spray around here.”

Chehrazi was victimized just a month after he moved to San Francisco from the Peninsula. He said former district attorney Chesa Boudin committed to charging the case as vandalism, stopping short of attempted burglary.

Following the incident, Chehrazi started a neighborhood petition called Saving San Francisco, asking city officials – including the mayor, district attorney and SFPD – for stricter enforcement of laws. He said he’s gathered 100 signatures.

“The fact that we’re witnessing criminal activity on a daily basis in broad daylight and we’re calling the police, we’re writing to our supervisor, we’ve written to the district attorney, we’ve written to the police caption , and we’ve also written to the mayor and nobody’s responding, it really makes it feel more unsettled,” he said.

The police department said it now has a strong working partnership with District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. SFPD encouraged residents to keep reporting concerns so the department can collect data and prioritize calls for service.

Scott acknowledged the department’s staffing crisis, saying it is at least 500 officers short. Jenkins promised accountability and pushed for a collective effort.

“As California residents, I think we have to look at the laws and see do we need to make changes,” she said. “Right now, misdemeanor laws don’t really hold any serious consequences at this point, and it’s because of things that have happened over the course of years to the laws.”

Jenkins told the audience she is making progress when it comes to cracking down open-air drug markets.

She said 400 narcotics cases have been submitted to her office and she filed 379 cases, more than double the amount filed by the office during the same time period last year.

Of those 379 cases, Jenkins filed motions to detain 16 drug dealers with the most egregious cases.

As for Chehrazi, his greatest concern is how the community is dealing with known individuals in the Marina, who don’t accept city services.

“So where does that put us having to walk down the street, and go to the grocery store, or go to the bank, or run errands and being integrated with people that need help,” he said. “They need stricter intervention, something more than just ‘do you need help?’ Those people say ‘no,’ and then the city walking away.”

Betty Yu

Betty Yu joined KPIX 5 in November 2013 as a general assignment reporter. She spent two years at WTVJ, the NBC-owned station in Miami, as a reporter before moving to San Francisco.

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Brooke Jenkins declared victory in the San Francisco’s District Attorney race on Wednesday after unofficial election results pointed to her win.

She secured 56% of the vote after multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting, and claimed almost 48% of votes counted so far, according to reports from city’s 514 precincts.

“It is an honor of a lifetime to be elected and I pledge that improving and promoting public safety will be my and our office’s top priority,” Jenkins wrote on Twitter.

Jenkins thanked her family, friends, campaign team and staff at the District Attorney’s office.

“We will work with city and law enforcement partners to address public safety challenges in every neighborhood that have festered for years with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose,” Jenkins said on Twitter.

Jenkins was appointed district attorney by Mayor London Breed in June after Chesa Boudin was recalled from the position.

Brooke Jenkins

Breed took to Twitter to extended her congratulations to Jenkins on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have a lot to do to address public safety in this city. I look forward to continuing the work Brooke and I have been doing to protect San Franciscans and uphold the law while getting at the root causes of crime,” Breed wrote in a tweet.

In second place was competitor John Hamasaki, who earned about 43.77% of ranked-choice votes. On Twitter he said he could not believe the support his team received in under three months of campaigning. “No matter how it works out, [I’m] grateful to live in the most amazing city and I will always stand with you to fight to make it better,” Hamasaki wrote on Twitter.

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the city’s 10th cultural district on Tuesday, a move that will recognize Pacific Islanders in Visitacion Valley and provide resources to support the dwindling community’s growth.

“People will be able to go somewhere they belong, somewhere people understand them, somewhere where they have all the same access to resources as every other community,” said Gaynor Siataga, the director of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander Community Hub and a leading advocate for the cultural district. “This will give them a sense of identity and belonging here in this wonderful city.”

Pacific Islanders’ roots in San Francisco date back to when it was still a settlement. But the community has steadily decreased in size — from more than 8,600 residents in 1990 to about 2,150 last year, or roughly 0.4% of the city’s population. Strong socioeconomic challenges, including high levels of poverty, unemployment and chronic health conditions, contributed to the community’s decline and intensified during the pandemic.

Around the same time that several Pacific Islander community-based organizations teamed up to respond to the population’s high rates of COVID-19 illness and death, planning for the cultural district started in earnest.

Tuesday’s 11-0 vote was seen as a culmination of those years-long efforts, but not an end point to them.

“We have folks who really want to come back to the city,” said Tino Felise, the neighborhood program coordinator at the Samoan Community Development Center and one of those behind the effort to create the cultural district. “Hopefully, establishing this cultural district will help us re-establish our population, and make sure this is a place Pacific Islanders can continue to call home.”

In coming months, the office of Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the area where the new district will be established, will work with Pacific Islander community leaders to cement the exact geographic boundaries of the district and solidify plans to protect and support the Pacific Islander community . This begins with the creation of a three-year strategic plan, according to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and the hiring of a cultural district staff.

Once finalized, the area will be awarded the annual funding provided to each district: $230,000 of hotel tax funds to plan for the services, resources and programs, all of which will be designed by a new cultural district advisory board and the city.

“I think the cultural district will really begin to allow everyone to see the specific needs of the Pacific Islander community, and focus on strengthening the solutions to supporting them,” Walton said.

Julia Sabory, who manages community planning and cultural districts at the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, said cultural districts can elevate a community’s voice at the policymaking table while promoting programs that are created with and for the populations they serve.

“It’s not so much about the numbers and the masses of residents,” Sabory said. “It’s about addressing the systemic exclusion of groups, and trying to include them into processes and opportunities to improve that community’s quality of life.”

“Getting the cultural district approved is just the beginning,” said Siataga. “The work — the deep-rooted work — starts after.”

Elissa Miolene is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. Twitter: @elissamio

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In the lazy hours of a late Sunday afternoon, a steady stream of customers passed under the dark green awning of Polynesian Island Luau. According to its patrons, the takeout-style restaurant and retail shop — where shark tooth necklaces dangle from the ceiling, racks of floral shirts line the walls, and the owner’s granddaughter runs the register on the weekends — is the last of its kind in the Bay Area.

“I come here whenever I can,” said Lori Peneueta, 40, who drove from Sacramento to visit the market, which straddles Geneva Avenue on the border of San Francisco and Daly City. “This is a part of my heritage, and it’s one of the only places I can really feel that.”

To the left of the 22-year-old business, there’s a KFC and a Taco Bell. Across the street, the hulking mass of a Dollar Tree. Sitting beside a four-lane highway, Polynesian Island Luau has witnessed the decline of nearby Visitacion Valley’s once-vibrant Pacific Islander community. But now, it may have a front-row seat for its comeback.

After more than seven years of on-the-ground organizing, the neighborhood stands poised to become part of a new Pacific Islander Cultural District. On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt legislation creating such a district, making it the 10th cultural district in the city.

Polynesian Island Luau owner Lafi Conway, right, chats with a customer of her takeout-style restaurant and retail shop Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

“There are a lot of Pacific Islanders across the area, so to have a place of our own would be really cool,” Polynesian Island Luau employee Thana Puni, 18, said from behind a tray of steaming plantains coated in coconut cream. “I would feel great if (the district) happens.”

Since the inception of the program in 2018, San Francisco has recognized cultural districts in Japantown, the Castro and the Mission to both honor and preserve diverse communities. Pacific Islander leaders hope the recognition and resources that come with such a designation will mark a turning point in a community long forgotten by the city.

“My goal is that 100 years from now, our community doesn’t have to suffer anymore,” said Gaynor Siataga, the director of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander Community Hub, a new community-based organization in Bayview. “They can go somewhere they belong, somewhere people understand them, and have some sense of identity and belonging here in this wonderful city.”

But with generations of entrenched disparities — and the risk of losing more community members to rising costs of living — those pushing for the cultural district know that this week’s vote is just the beginning.

Floral shirts and fabrics hang from the walls of Polynesian Island Luau on the northern edge of Daly City, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

A small community with a deep history

According to data from the 2020 census, the Pacific Islander community makes up just 0.4% of San Francisco’s population. Despite its size, the population has roots in the city more than a century old.

In the mid-1800s, Native Hawaiians made up 10% of the population in Yerba Buena, the settlement that later became San Francisco, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. During World Wars I and II, the U.S. military recruited Samoans, Tongans, Fijians and other islanders as it expanded its reach across the Pacific. But once World War II ended, many of the employment opportunities did too — leading to an exodus of Pacific Islanders to San Francisco.

Some came for jobs at the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard. Others were recruited to work in farms in and around the city. Still others were sponsored by the Mormon Church, encouraged toward the city for missionary labor after helping build a temple in Hawaii.

By 1985, San Francisco’s Pacific Islander population reached its peak, according to the cultural district’s “resolution document,” which was drafted by community leaders to make a case for the cultural district. But as of the 2020 census, San Francisco’s Pacific Islander community numbered just over 2,150. And in the past decade, the number of Pacific Islanders in Visitacion Valley — the neighborhood where the community first took root — dropped by more than 50%, from 33 people to 15.

In the years since peak migration, the community hasn’t just dissolved in size. It’s also been hit by stark socioeconomic challenges.

Even before the pandemic, 29% of the Pacific Islander community in San Francisco lived below the poverty line with a median per capita income of just $25,930 — the lowest of any ethnic or racial group — according to a 2020 report from the Regional Pacific Islander Taskforce. That data found nearly 15% of the community was unemployed, and nearly 23% lived in overcrowded households. According to the cultural district’s resolution statement, 73% of Pacific Islanders in San Francisco are now in public housing.

“I grew up with, and in, those disparities,” Siataga said. “But when I saw the data, it broke my heart.”

Reliance on public housing, she added, “has been generational. That’s our reality and it’s been our reality, and it’s sad because we know that our ancestors that migrated here came for that American dream. And yet, we’re still stagnant.”

Those disparities exacerbated with the pandemic. Pacific Islanders in California contracted COVID-19 at nearly twice the state’s overall rate. By May 2020, the community had the highest death rate of any racial or ethnic group.

Mareta Eelua, left, and Faye Ia assemble candy lei five days before a Nov. 15 hearing of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to establish a Pacific Islander Cultural District in the city.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

Today, city data shows the COVID-19 case rate for Pacific Islanders still outstrips all other communities: it’s more than double the rate of the city’s American Indian, Black and Hispanic populations, and more than four times that of white San Franciscans.

According to those pushing for the Pacific Islander Cultural District, these statistics are, in part, due to a lack of culturally attuned resources. For 20 years, there was just one fully funded community-based organization serving the population — the Samoan Community Development Center. But Siataga said that despite critical efforts, the organization wasn’t meeting the full range of services Pacific Islanders needed.

Because of that, community leaders say Pacific Islanders became “invisible” across the Bay Area, sinking toward the lowest levels of the city’s socioeconomic indicators.

Efforts with, for and by the community

During the initial phases of the pandemic, five of San Francisco’s Pacific Islander-serving organizations formed the SALLT Association, which aimed to strategically fill gaps they saw widening across the community. By coordinating across entities, SALLT began providing COVID-19 response services, counseling, employment assistance, housing support, language and translation services, and other programming, working alongside the Samoan Community Development Center to do so.

During the same year, Siataga — who has both Samoan and Latino roots — suggested creating a cultural district in the area after seeing its success for the Latino population in the Mission. But while the Latino community in San Francisco was growing, the Pacific Islander community was shrinking. With such small numbers, many felt like accomplishing such recognition would be impossible, Siataga said.

“At first, it was really challenging,” said Siataga, speaking of the first time she mentioned setting up a cultural district. “This community has never seen the resources, support or backing that other communities have seen, so when I first started talking about the cultural district, (the community) said things like: ‘That’ll never happen.’”

Still, she and others got to work.

Siataga encouraged elders to write down their stories, which they compiled into the district’s resolution document to demonstrate the community’s impact on San Francisco and their legacy dating back decades. They got in touch with Supervisor Shamman Walton, whose district encompasses the southeast corner of San Francisco home to many Pacific Islanders. And they dug into the data, trying to better understand what the Pacific Islander community was up against — a difficult task when across not just the city, but also the state, Pacific Islanders were consistently being grouped with the larger Asian community.

Palusami, a popular Polynesian delicacy made with beef, coconut milk and taro leaves, sit wrapped behind a counter at Polynesian Island Luau on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022. Customers sometimes travel from quite a distance for the traditional Samoan food.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

By disaggregating that data, a clearer picture of the community’s challenges began to emerge, allowing leaders like Siataga to better pitch the mission of a cultural district and the things it could accomplish.

According to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, cultural districts provide a funnel for representative policymaking, helping leaders from minority communities take a seat at the city’s decision-making tables. They allot funding to employ those in charge of the cultural district, who together work on a specifically tailored three-year plan.

The Pacific Islander Cultural District will receive the typical annual funding award for cultural districts: $230,000 of hotel tax funds to support the team coordinating the vision for community-led social programs, services and resources in the new district.

Tino Felise, the neighborhood program coordinator at the Samoan Community Development Center, said the cultural district will focus on affordable housing, entrepreneurship and retail development, particularly for smaller mom-and-pop stores.

“Hopefully, establishing this cultural district will help us re-establish our population and make sure this is a place Pacific Islanders can continue to call home,” said Felise, who worked with Siataga to get the cultural district proposed.

Some of this work will draw on the successes of other cultural districts. In the Mission, the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District has implemented policies to halt displacement and gentrification, according to Calle 24 Council President Eric Arguello.

Polynesian Island Luau has been selling its merchandise from a storefront on the border of San Francisco and Daly City for more than two decades.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

By placing “special use protections” on incoming development in the Mission, the district has reduced the number of large renovations in the area — developments that would make it impossible for smaller, community-owned businesses to eventually take over those spaces, Arguello said.

“The legislation helped us maintain a healthier balance to protect smaller businesses, and helped us stabilize rent by maintaining smaller spaces for mom and pop stores,” Arguello said.

Still, Arguello noted, each cultural district is led by the needs of that community — and each has its own challenges and solutions.

“The coolest thing about this is that it’s all going to be done by the community,” said Iose Iulio, a housing specialist at the Bayview YMCA, and part of the team behind the Pacific Islander Cultural District. “When you listen to the community and what they really need and want, it’s more likely that they will use the services you provide.”

In some ways, Polynesan Island Luau is San Francisco’s Pacific Islander community in a nutshell. It’s held on in a rapidly changing city, and it’s been witness to inconceivable challenges. But still, it’s standing — and it’s ready to welcome its community back home.

“We get people coming from as far as Seattle to taste our food,” said Lafi Faletoese, the granddaughter of Lafi Wilson, Polynesian Island Luau’s owner. “But there are so few (Pacific Islander-owned businesses), a lot of people don’t know about us. … (Having the Pacific Islander Cultural District) would bring a lot more needed recognition for each and every Polynesian culture that exists.”

Elissa Miolene is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. Twitter: @elissamio

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Brooke Jenkins was sworn in as San Francisco’s new District Attorney (DA) as the appointee of Mayor London N. Breed to replace the former DA following the recall of Chesa Boudin.

“As the District Attorney in San Francisco, I am humbled and honored to serve,” said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. “I have seen firsthand the imbalances and disproportionate impacts of our criminal justice system. As District Attorney, I will do everything in my power to restore accountability and consequences to San Francisco’s criminal justice system while also moving forward with implementing progressive reforms.”

She is vowing to clean up one of the most crime ridden areas of the city—the Tenderloin.

“The open-air drug markets are one of my top priorities,” Jenkins said Tuesday.

Jenkins said drug crimes have gone without much accountability in recent years.

“I’m aware of the data that only three offenders were required to plead to drug sale charges in the year 2021,” she said.

The mayor sounds encouraged with Jenkins at the helm of the district attorney’s office.

“I am proud that today we swore in Brooke Jenkins as San Francisco’s new District Attorney,” said Mayor Breed. “I hear from residents every day that they are frustrated with the state of accountability in our city and have real concerns about feeling safe, but they also don’t want us to move back on the progress we have made reforming our criminal justice system. I will do all that I can to work with our new District Attorney to ensure that we can restore faith in the system while staying true to the promises we have made.”

Jenkins served as an Assistant DA in the San Francisco DA’s Office from 2014 to 2021, where she worked her way up, serving in the Misdemeanor and Felonies Units before working as the office’s Hate Crimes Prosecutor. She was later promoted to the Sexual Assault Unit and eventually the Homicide Unit. Jenkins resigned from the San Francisco DA’s Office in October 2021 as a result of mounting dissatisfaction with the direction of the office. At the time of her departure, she prosecuted over 25 criminal jury trials and completed more than 100 preliminary hearings.

After an extensive and lengthy process that included meetings with community members, business owners and attorneys, Jenkins was chosen by Mayor Breed for her prosecutorial and personal experience that has equipped her to best understand both sides of the criminal justice system. Jenkins, who is African American and Latina, and a Bay Area native, received her JD from the University of Chicago Law School and BA from UC Berkeley.

She will serve until November, when she will then run during a special election which will decide who will complete Boudin’s term through 2023.

Related

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“This was never about one vote count, it was never about one election night party, it was never about specifically which person gets to be in the office of the district attorney,” he added. “This is a movement, not a moment, in history.”

Brooke Jenkins, a former assistant district attorney in Boudin’s office, and a lead organizer in the campaign to remove him, voiced gratitude at an election night party at the Del Mar lounge in the Marina District.

“I feel relieved. I feel hopeful for San Francisco,” she told KQED. “We knew all along this was not a Republican billionaire effort, that this was not a pushback against reform, that we were trying to protect reform. That we knew a DA can balance implementing reform with prioritizing public safety.”

The recall was largely driven by San Francisco’s more conservative neighborhoods — including the Sunset District, Marina District, Park Merced, and St. Francis Wood — where overall turnout was higher than in progressive-leaning districts that generally stood by Boudin.

While Boudin’s loss is decisive, he won’t be required to leave office until 10 days after the election is declared official by the Board of Supervisors, which may take place at its June 25 meeting. Mayor London Breed is expected to announce Boudin’s replacement soon thereafter.

A number of names have been floated to replace Boudin, including Jenkins, prosecutor Nancy Tung (who said she would run in a future election), and San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani (one of the few elected officials to endorse the recall).

Breed on Wednesday insisted the city is not backing away from progressive criminal justice reforms, and pledged to meet with community groups and police officials before appointing the next DA.

“This does not mean that criminal justice reform in San Francisco is going anywhere. It does not mean that there will be, all of a sudden, a significant setback,” she said. “We want justice. But we also want to make sure that people have a second chance.”

A group of recall supporters — including Brooke Jenkins, center — take a selfie during an election night party at Del Mar in San Francisco on June 7, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

And, Boudin may also choose to run in a future district attorney’s race. But newly appointed Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a former San Francisco police spokesperson who became one of the few elected officials to endorse Boudin’s recall, said he doesn’t think another election would bode well for Boudin, based on Tuesday’s vote.

“It could happen, yeah. But I think the numbers say something,” Dorsey said.

In the meantime, Dorsey noted, the debate over Boudin’s record has fractured the community, pitting neighbor against neighbor.

“The most important thing is, we’ve got to put the hurt feelings behind us and move the city forward,” he said.

The historic recall garnered national attention, bitterly dividing Democrats in the city on issues of crime, policing and public safety reform. The effort was fueled by a tsunami of contributions — more than $7 million, according to filings at the San Francisco Ethics Commission — from well-heeled donors, including real estate interests and Republican billionaire William Oberndorf, who individually gave north of $650,000.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin addresses a crowd at The Ramp restaurant after the effort to recall him succeeded. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

In contrast, recall opponents raised less than half as much — about $3 million — with the largest donations from the American Civil Liberties Union, a criminal justice reform PAC and tech billionaire Chris Larsen.

For months, the Yes on H campaign has saturated San Francisco media with online, television and radio ads, while also investing heavily in a field operation and a texting campaign.

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Bay Area // san francisco

May 23, 2022Updated: May 23, 2022 5:25 pm

Blurred view of fire truck driving in city. A tent fire spread to a nearby commercial building Sunday night in San Francisco’s Mission District, fire officials said.

PBNJ Productions/Getty Images

A tent fire spread to a nearby commercial building Sunday night in San Francisco’s Mission District, fire officials said.

The fire was reported on the 1400 block of 15th Street at about 10:32 pm and spread to a nearby building, causing moderate structure damage, said Fire Department Lt. Jonathan Baxter.

A homeless encampment suffered major damage, said Baxter.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze in about 45 minutes.

No injuries nor displacements were reported, officials said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Baxter said the number of individuals who were living at the encampment was unknown as people typically disperse before firefighters arrive on scene during fire incidents.

A series of encampment fires spreading to nearby buildings and other street conditions in the Mission District prompted Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the neighborhood, to craft a plan that addresses a myriad of issues.

Concerned residents have also hosted trash cleanups in their neighborhoods in an effort to revitalize the mission and provide resources to vendors and unhoused people.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores

Jessica Flores is a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining The Chronicle in 2021, she worked for USA Today, NPR affiliate KPCC and Curbed LA. Originally from LA, she received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

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This project challenges city leaders and the entire Bay Area to care more, to do more, and to help build a better Bay Area for our future. We address the problems within the district from the inside out.

Join ABC7 in our commitment to reporting from the Tenderloin. Watch our latest 30-minutes streaming special, “50 Blocks: Stories from the Tenderloin,” in the video player above.

Or by downloading the ABC7 Bay Area App to watch on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple and Android TV.

ABC7 News has covered stories in the Tenderloin ever since the station was founded in 1949, but this recent commitment came about after one particular event.

In December 2021, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin in response to the city’s drug overdose crisis. The mayor stated more than 700 people died due to drug overdoses in 2021, which at the time was nearly double the city’s COVID-19 death toll.

The ultra-lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl was believed to be responsible for the crisis and the vast majority of all fentanyl sales were happening in the tenderloin.

After this announcement, ABC7 News committed to reporting on how the emergency initiative unfolded, what difference it made, and what happened after the declaration was over.

This is a timeline of our reporting:

December 2021

Dec 17: State of Emergency Declared

When Mayor London Breed declared a State of Emergency in Tenderloin, she explained the keys to her plan would be, “To disrupt the illegal activity in the neighborhood, to get people the treatment and support they need, and to make the Tenderloin a safer, more livable place for the families and children who call the neighborhood home.”

She cited the COVID-19 emergency declaration as a template that allowed them to “cut through the bureaucracy and barriers that get in the way of decisive action, we can get things done and make real, tangible progress.”

One of the key pieces of her plan was the opening of a linkage center, which would connect Tenderloin residents with basic health and human services quickly and easily, including behavior health care, substance abuse treatment, and housing assistance.

ABC7 examined the mayor’s plan to figure out how it would work to make the city safer for residents, visitors.

Jan 2022

Jan 18: Tenderloin Linkage Center Opens

Officials said once fully staffed, the center on Market Street would be able to serve up to 100 guests at a time, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“I am optimistic that the new Linkage Center will provide new and useful services for Tenderloin residents who are battling mental illness and drug addiction,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “I am also watching its success closely to see if it could be converted into a Citywide resource as the permanent site of the upcoming Mental Health SF Service Center.”

Mayor Breed appeared on ABC7’s Getting Answers show to talk about the center.

February 2022

As the mayor’s plan began to actually happen, ABC7 News started actively reporting in the tenderloin to see how it was going. We walked through the streets with the captain of the Tenderloin station as he explained why 85% of SF’s drug arrests happen in this district.

ABC7 News also talked to a Tenderloin historian about how its rich history sheds light on its current role as a containment zone for vice.

Feb 8: Drug Addicts’ Families Protest Linkage Center

Not everyone was in favor of the new Linkage Center. A group of mothers staged a protest at the center because it has a safe injection site. That’s a place where drug users can take drugs while being monitored by a staff member so they do not overdose. The Department of Public Health said the staff has already reversed an average of three overdoses a week since the site opened. But the protestors say the site may only be making the crisis worse.

“You have to quit enabling them,” one demonstrator exclaimed. “Giving them everything they need. Why would I ever leave?”

Feb 23: Nonprofit Worker Shot In Broad Daylight

At the end of the month, a city ambassador from the nonprofit Urban Alchemy was shot, prompting residents to plead for more help saying, “It’s the Tenderloin. Nobody feels safe in the Tenderloin.”

Mayor Breed said this to ABC7 News, “We are definitely going to need to step up our presence. Both our wellness teams and our police and a number of other resources in order to ensure safety. Not just for people who are part of Urban Alchemy , but the entire community.”

Concerns later surfaced that the nonprofit, that received millions from the city to hire ambassadors, might be exploiting a loophole that exempts charitable organizations from having employees receive standardized security training. ABC7 News talked with our colleagues at the San Francisco Standard about this claim.

March 2022

Part of the mayor’s plan was to make the tenderloin a safer and more livable space. One key to that goal was to literally make the streets cleaner. ABC7 News went along as cleaning teams went out to work on cleaning up the Tenderloin’s streets.

“It’s daunting to be honest, because we can clean the street and 10 minutes later it looks like we have never been there.”

ABC7 also followed along with one family to see how they viewed the effort. Jacques Bidjima walks his two children to school in the Tenderloin everyday. They have two routes available. One could be described as bad, the other as awful.

“I start hating myself,” he said. “How can I have my kids growing up in an environment like this? I don’t have much choice.”

March 16: Mayor Breed Ends Emergency Declaration

Ninety days after the State of Emergency was declared, it came up for review. Mayor Breed announced she would allow it to expire and said the Tenderloin’s emergency declaration improved conditions, but still had a long road ahead. The city reported that 345 people were placed in shelters with another 154 going to permanent supportive housing.

The city agrees changing the persistent culture there will take more than 90 days and says the Linkage Center will continue to operate through June, but now under the direction of the public health department.

April 2022

April 4: Linkage Center Protests Escalate

The same group that protested the Linkage Center’s safe injection site escalated their protest by purchasing a billboard in Union Square calling out open drug use. The billboard read, “Famous for the world over for our brains, beauty and now dirt-cheap fentanyl.”

Organizers say they put the billboard up in response to the Mayor ending the emergency declaration and then heading to Europe to pitch San Francisco as a tourist destination.

“And we’re like, wait a minute, it’s not changed,” one organizer said. “We should still be in a state of emergency. And then she went to Europe and said, ‘Come to San Francisco. It’s fine.’ Um, no, it’s not fine. It’s really not.”

April 29: Another Urban Alchemy ambassador shot

The shooting happened in broad daylight and police said a search for the suspect was underway.

June 2022

June 16: City Announces Tenderloin Linkage Center Will Close In December

While the center got a 6-month extension to operate until the end of 2022, Mayor London Breed declined to fund the center in her latest budget proposal. A spokesperson for the mayor said the Linkage Center was only meant to be a temporary solution until they could develop longer term plans for the tenderloin.

June 23: City Announces Opening Of First Sobering Center

The center named SoMa RISE was described as , “a safe indoor space for people who are intoxicated… to come in off the streets, rest and stabilize, and get connected to care and services.”

They also said it would service the Tenderloin neighborhood by helping fill some of the void left by the Linkage Center.

So Where Does That Leave The Tenderloin Now?

ABC7 News is trying to answer that in our latest 30-minute streaming special, ”50 Blocks: Stories from the Tenderloin.”

You can stream the full documentary by downloading the ABC7 Bay Area App to watch on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple and Android TV or by watching it in the video player on this story.

Click here to see more ABC7 Originals content.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

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