On the Ousting of Acting Mayor London Breed
Tonight, while I was attending a community meeting hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to remove acting Mayor London Breed and replace her with Interim Mayor Mark Farrell.
Shortly thereafter, I made up my mind about who I would be supporting for San Francisco Mayor in both June 2018 and hopefully November 2019
I then immediately went to the web portal to go volunteer for now Supervisor Breed’s campaign for Mayor. At the bottom, there’s a field that asks this question:
The following text is what I placed in that box in a sort of stream of rage
I’ll share with you what I posted in the YIMBY slack to all my friends as I was watching you getting voted out of being the Mayor in this travesty of a Board of Supervisors hearing:
Bobak: “…seriously, this was the same thing that made me vote for/support Marjan Philhour in 2016. The rhetoric of inclusion, the rhetoric that makes me feel like just because I wasn’t born here doesn’t mean I am any less San Franciscan than the rest of you.
People who TRULY believe in this:
“…what I am trying to do as a leader this city is bring out the best in people…it’s not about progressive or moderate…all of the people who live in this city are San Franciscans and deserve the right to be treated with respect.
They deserve to have a mayor that respects them…they deserve to have a mayor that represents them. As I’ve said before time and time again, if you don’t belong in one of the cliques that they’re talking about, then I’ll be your mayor too.”- London Breed
…will always have my vote over craven political calculations.
because that statement^^^ is part of what it truly means (at least to me) to be a YIMBY
Additionally I’m also organizing a group of 150+ neighbors in my spare time into a group called Grow The Richmond, where we advocate for building more housing at all income levels to ease our 50+ year housing shortage and reverse decades of entrenched segregation:
https://growtherichmond.com/
I volunteer some of my time with the San Francisco Transit Riders here and there, pushing to make it easier to get around this city without the need for a car:
http://sftransitriders.org/
I spend time in my local community with the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, cleaning our sidewalks, picking up trash, and engaging with my neighbors for cleaner streets:
http://rdnc.org/
I spend time with friends in local democratic clubs to advance progressive policies and elect democrats near and far to roll back the regressive policies of the Trump Administration:
https://www.uniteddems.org/
And yet I am not a San Francisco native.
- I am tired of people in this city writing me and people like me off as “scum” just because we were not born here.
- I am tired of people that disagree with me immediately accusing me of being a “corporate/developer/some other shill” just because we don’t agree about the right solutions for the problems that face this city.
- I am tired of having my identity as the son of immigrants erased constantly because of where I was (or wasn’t) born
- Our ideas for how to make this city better are no less important than everyone elses.
- Our money that patronizes local businesses is no less valuable than the money of people born here.
- Our frustrations at watching people get displaced in this city from the lack of housing is no less painful to us.
- We struggle to make ends meet too, not all of us make six figure salaries.
- We dream of a brighter future for our families, and we want to contribute to the beautiful character and community that makes San Francisco so special to all that inhabit it.
What happened to you tonight was wrong. It was a farce, it was calculated, it was hypocritical, and it was self-serving on the part of those so called “cliques”.
London Breed, If you truly believe in what you said tonight in the halls of City Hall, moments after being voted out of the Mayor’s office…
“…all of the people who live in this city are San Franciscans and deserve the right to be treated with respect…”
If you get frustrated the way I do when someone starts their public commentary by highlighting how long they’ve lived in the neighborhood, and then use that fact to denigrate or write off the opinions of people who were not born here or have lived here for generations.
If you are going to be a Mayor that is going to continue to advance a city that is inclusive, tolerant, open, and welcoming to everyone, native and newcomer alike.
You’ll have my vote, you’ll have my volunteer hours, my meager dollars, and my support.
Bobak Esfandiari
Outer Richmond Neighbor
San Francisco Resident
