Chyanne Chen, Candidate For District 11 Supervisor, Answers Community Questions

The Ingleside Light gathered questions from the community and posed them to the District 7, District 11 and mayor candidates in advance of the Nov. 5 election.

Here are the answers from labor union organizer Chyanne Chen, who wants to prioritize safety in the neighborhood and on public transportation. She has also focused her campaign on small business revitalization and providing the district’s residents with cross-generational support programs.

Chen is running against San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee member Michael Lai, political campaign staffer Adlah Chisti, small business owner Jose Morales, SFMTA transit operator Roger Marenco and former District 11 supervisor legislative aide EJ Jones.

Responses have been lightly edited.

How do you plan to be consistently involved in the neighborhood once in office?

If elected District Supervisor, I will be committed to collaborative, inclusive and participatory governance and engagement. First, I will draw upon my community-organizing background to build coalitions with our neighbors, neighborhood associations, community-serving organizations, schools, faith-based organizations and local businesses to foster an inclusive community movement. I will also dedicate resources towards strengthening and uplifting community-based planning processes, in order to create spaces for sharing experiences and gathering insights, asset mapping and participatory research and I will push our public agencies to join these efforts and adopt a community-centered approach while paying close attention to issues of interpretation, translation, childcare, cultural competence and intergenerational engagement. 

I will partner with the public in all aspects of decisions from the development of alternatives to identification of solutions. This would include implementing participatory budgeting strategies to deepen the voices of community members in shaping investment priorities in the district. Finally, I will pledge that I or my staff will attend key ongoing monthly scheduled meetings in the district to ensure two-way communication. I will also hold routine town hall events and bring representatives of city agencies to these spaces, in order to create spaces for oversight, evaluation and communication.

What will you do to eliminate drug dealing and other crime in the neighborhood's parks?

We all deserve the right to feel safe and it is essential that our public spaces be safe, accessible and welcoming to all of us. As supervisor, I will support proactive measures to deter crime in neighborhood parks, including deploying community ambassadors, increased foot patrols, better signage to alert authorities with anonymous tips and strengthening community programming to increase staff and community presence.  

I will work with the District Attorney, Public Defender’s Office and probation departments neighborhood-based to encourage neighborhood-based approaches to accountability and restorative justice so that the harm drug dealing may pose may be addressed with the community.

What will you do to reduce crime against small business owners?

As supervisor, I will work proactively to convene small business owners and community stakeholders to identify their specific concerns. I will ensure that we have an approach that is data-driven as well as reflects the lived experiences of small businesses. Those solutions may involve a number of needed interventions and my office will work on advancing each of these solutions. For example, these can range from public infrastructure improvements such as street lighting, investments in community safety measures such as community ambassador programs, training programs to equip employees with tools and best practices for crime prevention, as well as partnerships with law enforcement to dedicate focused resources towards particular problem areas.  

Additionally, it would be critical to partner with the community benefit districts along our commercial corridors. I will work with the local community benefit and commercial corridor organizations like the Ocean Avenue Association, Excelsior Community Benefit District, the Excelsior Action Group and other groups to leverage the neighborhood influence with the Mayor’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development to develop strategies for supporting small business to help with permitting, technology and energy efficiency grants, facade improvements and overall business planning.

Do you support adding more protected bike infrastructure in D11 and the city, even if it means the loss of some (but not all) parking spots? 

I recognize that the city’s long-term goal is to increase multi-modal ridership, which means more people using bikes, walking and public transit, and that requires improvements to our streetscape. I do support expanding protected bike infrastructure in District 11, especially around schools, as protected bike lanes are one way in which we can reduce fatalities and support alternatives to driving; however many small businesses continue to rely on patrons who arrive by car. I will both support bike infrastructure improvements and work to ensure we’re also meeting the needs of everyone in our diverse district.  

I’ve been very disappointed in how SFMTA has gone about achieving these goals at Frida Kahlo Way in front of City College. I know we can do better. Our community has to be active participants in these decisions so they work for all of us and it’s clear from talking to residents, students, and faculty at CCSF that those conversations didn’t happen. As supervisor, I will work to make SFMTA more transparent, more responsive and more connected to our communities so we can forge solutions that actually reflect the voices of District 11 residents.

Historically, the M line has been neglected; however, it serves communities along Randolph Street and Broad Street, extending to Balboa Park. Since the M line provides access for community members, Randolph Street and Broad Street are ideal candidates for development into a new commercial corridor. Please provide your vision for this corridor and outline the actions you intend to take to bring that vision to fruition.

OMI and Lakeview residents deserve development that meets their community needs. The Broad and Randolph Street corridors have not experienced development pressures at the scale of many other San Francisco neighborhoods and this provides an opportunity to proactively shape how the neighborhood grows and develops while protecting what’s best about the places we live. As supervisor, I would advocate to preserve and protect the cultural legacy of the many Black households and immigrant communities and seek to promote long-term intergenerational stability, housing security and generational wealth for current residents.   

It is important to lead with a community planning process that provides a seat at the table for everyone with a stake in the community. Through a community process, I would advocate to identify key opportunity sites that can be acquired to meet specific community priorities, whether it be for public space, affordable housing, or specific neighborhood amenities, such as the long-deferred Ocean View Branch Library project.

I will also support a range of developments that must include deeply affordable and middle-income housing so that we can sustain and strengthen the many BIPOC families in our district who are housing insecure. I would support creating partnerships with community housing organizations to develop a variety of housing models, whether it be affordable homeownership, land trusts, or limited equity models. I would also seek to partner with many of the local Black churches that possess surplus land. These kinds of investments will help stabilize the community as market-driven development takes hold along the corridor.

What is one issue in the neighborhood that you see ignored? How would you tackle this issue?

District 11 is short on vibrant public spaces. Our district has long received less than its fair share of public investments and the city administration has often deferred or allocated piecemeal funds toward public spaces. Investing in new and existing public spaces in District 11 can help build community, strengthen recreation opportunities and provide safe and welcoming spaces for people of all ages. 

Throughout District 11 and all along key commercial corridors, there are untapped opportunities to reclaim sites for public space. These include but are not limited to, the Persia Triangle in downtown Excelsior, the plaza adjacent to Kapuso at the Balboa Upper Yard and the Broad Street commercial corridor in downtown Lakeview. Through a community planning process, our community members can identify and prioritize key public space goals and sites within the District and as supervisor I would work hard to advocate for funding investments to bring them to fruition. For example, we can make initial investments for public table seating for lunchtime gatherings, spaces for elders to play chess and Mahjong, farmers and crafts markets to promote local arts and produce outdoor cinemas for community entertainment and community programming such as open mic nights and cultural celebrations. 

Will you commit to fully funding the Dignity Fund in this and future years to meet the growing number and needs of older adults and people with Disabilities?

Yes. The Dignity Fund, which voters passed in 2016, affirmed our citywide commitment to stabilize funding to serve elders and adults with disabilities. Key was the promise that funding would grow by $3 million each year, in part to keep pace with the growing number and needs of seniors and people with disabilities in San Francisco. However, during lean budget years, the city often erodes the public investments toward services such as those funded by the Dignity Fund. The senior and disabled community of San Francisco was hit hard by the pandemic, struggling through the recovery, and needing continued services and support to preserve physical and social health. Hard economic times are precisely when the city should be doubling down on investments that serve the most vulnerable. As supervisor, I would advocate alongside our communities to ensure that the Dignity Fund is fully funded in future years to meet the growing number and needs of older adults and people with disabilities.

In many ways, City College of San Francisco was the beating heart of the neighborhood, a source of jobs and customers for local businesses. But its troubles have led to a 60%+ decline in enrollment which has precipitated other issues. How will you work with the college community to turn it around?

City College of San Francisco is one of the city’s most beloved institutions. Its greatest strength is the ability to serve a wide variety of students and lifelong learners through a diverse set of educational programs. Austerity measures have put pressure on the institution to focus on a “completion agenda”, where certificates, degrees and transfers to four-year universities are prized over a comprehensive community college that also values cultural enrichment, civic engagement and life-long learning. 

We need to identify ways to make CCSF relevant, more accessible and better serve the needs of students and the community. I would partner with City College on strategies to grow enrollment, including among students of all ages and diverse academic goals. That means serving immigrants seeking English language skills for jobs and civic engagement; seniors looking for ways to promote health and well-being; community activities and others focusing on ethnic studies and social justice; people pursuing music, theater, film, art and dance careers or cultural enrichment; people needing to learn a foreign language for their job or for travel; people wanting self-defense, yoga or swim class for physical and mental health; people building skills for careers, such as nursing and aircraft maintenance technology; and people seeking associate degrees and transfer to four-year universities. A significant enrollment boost from efforts such as these would strengthen City College’s financial outlook. As supervisor, I would partner with City College to help stabilize and grow the budget and reserves through additional revenue strategies.  

I believe there are great opportunities to work with existing companies to create workforce development programs in the major industries in San Francisco including healthcare, infotech, biotech, hospitality, etc.  So many businesses struggle to find a local workforce and so many workers choose not to commute here from outside of San Francisco because it is simply too stressful for one’s quality of life. As a result, the economy suffers. Workforce development programs at City College can make a big difference in increasing enrollment, bringing in industry support, and providing a pipeline for local residents into a vibrant SF economy.

The SFMTA has big plans to speed up the K Ingleside and M Ocean View light rail lines that include boarding island modernization and consolidation, red lanes and more. How will you increase ridership in the neighborhood?

The M-Line serves a high proportion of low-income and people of color. It also provides important access to SF State and City College, as well as connects to downtown. It is a critical transit artery that serves the Lakeview and OMI residents in our District. D11 residents and San Franciscans overall are desperate for better transit service. To grow ridership, it’s really important to address ways that our public transit can best meet the community’s needs. Transit must evolve to become a practical option for social trips, shopping, getting kids to school and commuting to working-class jobs not centered in the Financial District. MUNI has taken steps in that direction but we need to go further. 

MUNI’s goal with the M-Line Equity project is to make improvements that can be delivered in a short time frame and deliver measurable outcomes. These include improving reliability, enhancing accessibility for people with disabilities along the corridor as many stops do not have fully accessible boarding areas and improving safety for people walking. MUNI is also establishing a performance baseline for the line, which is monitored annually. Making streets safer for pedestrians (especially at the M-Line stop at Balboa Station) and bicyclists can increase transit ridership as more people use these modes to connect to transit. There are many improvements in station cleanliness and access that can be made to make the Balboa Park Station safer to attract riders who may stay away due to perceived unsafe conditions.

In SF, ridership continues to grow — currently, it’s at 69% of pre-pandemic levels systemwide.  Those lines that have benefited from MUNI equity improvements are seeing the greatest increases in ridership. SFMTA has limited resources and more funding is needed to work towards the system that residents and visitors want and need. As supervisor, I would support bringing a regional transportation funding measure to the ballot in 2026 as well as efforts to enact progressive revenue strategies for MUNI. I am supporting Prop L on the November ballot to tax transit network companies like Uber and Waymo to increase Muni reliability and services.

The tree canopy could be a lot better in this part of town — and citywide. What will you do to make it grow?

As a result of years of disinvestment, there is a marked difference in the density of the tree canopy in District 11 compared to many other parts of the city. As supervisor, I would advocate to maintain and expand the tree canopy. The District's commercial corridors along Mission, Ocean, Geneva, Broad, and Randolph, are particular areas where new tree plantings can occur. With the passage of Prop E in 2016, the city is responsible for maintaining street trees and sidewalks. As supervisor, I will request an audit on how the program is running and if there are disparities that need to be addressed. In addition, I will work with the Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) which receives public support from the city’s general fund for tree planting and ongoing maintenance services within neighborhood blocks. These free community plantings are prioritized in neighborhoods with the least tree coverage and the vast majority of neighborhood blocks in District 11 are covered by this program. In addition, urban farms such as Hummingbird Farm, Geneva Gardens, Sisterhood Gardens and others are helping to cultivate environmental stewards in our neighborhoods and as supervisor, I would support efforts to grow and strengthen these cherished community assets. 

The Balboa Park Area Plan studied many major and minor projects, including decking the Interstate 280 freeway, realigning freeway ramps, etc. How will you advance portions yet to be done in the district?

The Balboa Park Area Plan sought to advance new projects and initiatives to improve the area’s public realm, make the transit experience safer and more enjoyable and improve the economic vitality of the Ocean Avenue neighborhood commercial district. Over the many years since the plan’s inception, there have been a number of key achievements. The Ocean Avenue Community Benefit District was created, the Kapuso affordable housing project was developed, the partial renovation of the Geneva Powerhouse was completed, the Balboa Reservoir development project was entitled, the pedestrian pathway leading from the BART station north towards Ocean Avenue and City College was completed along with wayfinding signs, the Phelan Loop bus terminal area was redesigned along with a newly created Unity Plaza, new housing was been developed along the Ocean Avenue commercial corridor and improvements were completed to the accessibility of the station area.  

Some of these projects are not fully completed and it is disheartening to see how long it takes to implement desired community investments. Most D11 residents who worked on the plan for the Balboa Park Area Plan did not believe the decking of the 280 Freeway was financially realistic and chose to work on most of the pieces that have slowly been accomplished over the years. We need new tools to fund and finance these projects that our local neighborhoods prioritize.  As supervisor, I will advocate to leverage investments from general obligation bonds and cultivate partnerships with external public entities to fund capital improvements. I am also interested in implementing participatory budgeting so that our local communities can help shape the investment priorities of our district, including for example the long-deferred projects in the Balboa Park Area Plan.

What will you do to breathe new life into the neighborhood's commercial corridors? Please list 10 concrete proposals.

1. Expand grants and lending programs for community-based organizations to purchase their own spaces.

2. Create partnerships and collaborations with local artists to expand the network of public art throughout our commercial corridors.

3. Invest in the expansion of storefront facade and corridor beautification programs.

4. Explore the creation of an International Cultural District to uplift and protect the legacies of our diverse D11 communities through the expansion of arts, culture, protections, and programming.  

5. Sustain and expand vibrant and healthy public plazas to ensure safe, accessible, intergenerational, and culturally based public spaces throughout our district to gather, play, and exchange.

6. Prioritize strategies to fill up our empty storefronts with affordable, locally serving retail, neighborhood services, family entertainment, and community-based organizations.

7. Support efforts to incubate worker-owned and community cooperatives to complement and strengthen our small business sector.

8. Support the creation of a San Francisco Public Bank to provide affordable lending programs for small businesses who otherwise have difficulty accessing capital. 

9. Monitor the implementation of the commercial vacancy tax to assess the impact on filling storefronts in our commercial corridors.

10. Strengthen our neighborhood-based economy by supporting family child care providers, domestic workers, day laborers, street vendors, worker-owned cooperatives, and micro enterprises.

11. Continue to support the implementation of the Small Business First Year Free program, which provides fee relief for smaller business enterprises.

What does adequate community policing look like for the greater Ingleside neighborhood and its diverse communities?

As District Supervisor, I will champion public safety solutions for our district.  What we do want is for our children, families, and elders to be able to feel safe in their own neighborhoods. What we don’t want is excessive force or for our civil liberties and civil rights to be stripped. As supervisor, I would promote community policing strategies. To me, that includes recruitment of officers from our local neighborhoods who speak Chinese, Spanish and Filipino to ensure linguistic competence. It means culturally relevant training for police officers to uphold standards of transparency, respect, community engagement, due process and use of force principles and practices. It also means police officers participating consistently in community events and are visible on our buses and our sidewalks, not just when a crime is reported. I have heard from neighbors who would like support organizing neighborhood watch groups. In addition to community policing, I would expand violence prevention strategies as well as investments in human capital such as meaningful access to affordable housing, education and quality employment. I also believe that we must be intentional about how we allocate our budget towards police services, so that we are not blindly increasing the budget of the police department, but looking at where to make investments in the budget that will increase accountability and impact. Lastly, I would uphold our Sanctuary City protections to ensure that immigrants are not unfairly scapegoated or criminalized in our criminal justice system.

Do you support the renewal and expansion of the Ocean Avenue Community Benefit District? If so, why and how will you work with its leadership to make sure it delivers the best results for all stakeholders?

Yes I do, subject to the approval of the voters and community stakeholders. I believe that community outreach and public engagement is crucial to securing the support of the district’s stakeholders and to shaping efforts along the corridor, and as supervisor, I would support these efforts. The Ocean Avenue Community Benefit District is considering increasing its services provided and expanding its boundaries in order to better serve the needs of the district and I support those efforts. Continued funding will enable the district to focus on safety, cleanliness and appeal to serve businesses and residents, sidewalk sweeping, pressure washing, graffiti removal, community outreach, placemaking and public art, community events, landscape maintenance and foot patrols above and beyond the city’s baseline of services. 

Will you support the Recreation and Parks Department in achieving the completion of Phase 2 of the Geneva Office Building? If so, how?

As supervisor, expanding intergenerational community programming will be one of my highest priorities. The Phase 2 renovation of the Geneva Office Building is a longstanding promise from the Ed Lee administration and the Recreation and Park Department that has been long delayed. As supervisor, I will make every effort to see that the Geneva Office Building is included in the next park bond. It is vitally necessary to expand our community assets and to cultivate home-grown institutions that are often done in wealthier districts in the city. It is critical to approach this effort in a way that builds partnerships and responds to the needs of District 11 communities. I am committed to working with community advocates and the Recreation and Parks Department and its charter mandate for equitable investments to advance this project and identify capital and operating funding sources.  

How will you incentivize landlords to rent out long-vacant units and thus increase the housing stock?

According to various studies, as much as 10% of San Francisco’s housing units are vacant at any one time. Many of these units are only temporarily vacant because they may be in the process of securing a new tenant or buyer or undergoing renovations. However, close to 32% of these units overall are systemically vacant. These systemically vacant units amount to as much as 10,000 units.  

Maintaining empty housing units in a city facing such a severe housing affordability crisis does not make for good public policy. In 2022, the voters of San Francisco passed an Empty Homes Tax and 2025 will be the first year that the tax is actually imposed. Next year will also be the first year that the city will have collected comprehensive data on all housing units through the Housing Inventory program. I believe it will be important to monitor the implementation of this tax to see its impact on incentivizing property owners to place empty units on the market.

As supervisor, after this first year of implementation, I will convene a hearing to analyze the data on implementation, including the impact on particular types of vacancies, in order to advance additional strategies targeted towards reducing vacancies.

What's your position on Recology's monopoly on trash collection?

I do not support monopolies. I believe competitive bidding is essential and that it must occur at regular intervals in order to ensure accountability. I believe that is our responsibility as stewards of public money.