SFist interview: Michael O'Connor

Name:
Michael O'Connor

Introduce yourself in one sentence:
I think that most people would say that I am an optimist who is creative, real, and pragmatic, and I am someone that possesses an extremely wide range of people as my friends.

Age and Occupation:
I am 36 years old. I am a small business owner, designer, youth activist. I am currently a co-owner of The Independent (a live music club on Divisadero) and formerly the owner and booker of the Justice League at the same address. I am the recent recipient of a grant from The Creative Work Fund to design and build a furniture installation at the soon to be opened Project Yes! youth center in East Oakland.

Home Town:
San Francisco...Born at Kaiser Hospital on Geary St., right outside District 5

How long have you lived in the Bay Area?
I have lived in the Bay for 36 years including several in Berkeley after having gone to Cal. I actually lived in the city most of the time I was a student at UC Berkeley.

Favorite website:
sfstation.com, sfist.com (!), theindependentsf.com, sanfranciscosentinel.com, craigslist.com, sfgov.org

What I'm currently Reading:
I just finished reading Fogtown by Peter Plate. He wrote a quartet of books about street life in the Mission. It's hard to find them.

Best Deal in San Francisco:
Stuffed Trucha (trout) at El Zocalo (Mission and 29th), Tommy's
Joint, free shows at Stern Grove

Favorite mode of transportation:
I live in Hayes Valley so I usually walk a lot...then the car 'cause I have kids and a business...then my broken down vespa...then my bike which recently got stolen...taxis.

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area:
DJ Shadow, Michael Franti, Van Morrison (although he's actually from Ireland), the Uptones (my favorite band in high school), Too Short, Sly and the Family Stone, Goapele, Rafael Saadiq, Tommy Guerrero.

Favorite local hangouts:
The Mint, Café Flore, MILK, Nickie's, Momi Toby's, Café Abir, The Make-Out Room

SF has the BEST...
Burritos and dj's

You've never lived in SF until...
You've made a fool of yourself singing karaoke at the Mint on Market St.

Favorite Bay area politician of past or present:
Very past---O'Shaughnessy
Recent past---Harvey Milk, Willie Brown, the Speaker of the House, not the Mayor.
Current---Ammiano, Angela Alioto, Newsom

You can tell someone is a local here IF...
They use the word "hella" a little bit too much, and that they know where the other "crookedest street in the world" is besides Lombard St.

SF would be soooo much better if only...
People that try to look creative would actually be creative, instead of spending so much time and money looking like they don't care when they really do.

Best Burrito:
La Cumbre…I have literally grown up on La Cumbre Burritos as it's on the same block on Valencia as my parents’ shop (Harrington's)

Best Restaurant:
I'm going to give 10 because 1 is impossible.

• El Zocalo (see above for my recommended dish)
• Limon
• Tommie's Joint (great decor/great characters)
• House of Nan King (you know you love it)
• It's Tops (best pancakes in SF)
• Zuni Café (best hamburger after 10pm)
• Phuket Thai on Haight (mostly because their name is so fresh)
• Chow/Park Chow (I hate the word "comfort food")
• Bix (best interior)
• Brother-in-law’s BBQ (Popeye’s is also a neighborhood fav.)

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF:
I just saw it again this week---Bullitt. Steve McQueen takes on the Streets of the 'Sco with his '67 Mustang. Great soundtrack.

I want all the SFists out there to know...
The TWIST panels which were up in the Justice League are saved and preserved and will hopefully resurface at a museum somewhere.

Tell us a San Francisco Story:
I was at this dinner last night at the Irish Cultural Center in the Sunset with my dad, and I was talking to another candidate who was running for Supervisor in another district (no names necessary). After he left, my dad told me how he had arrested him in about '68 with a couple bags of weed. Classic. My pops was in the police department for about 6 years before he opened Harrington Bros on Valencia.

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview:
Where have you been thrown out of and why?

Special Election Week Grilling of the Candidates:

Please give our readers a bit of your background--both personal and professional.

In relation to other candidates, my background is based more on actual contributions to the city (The Justice League, The Clarion Alley Mural Project, Informal Nation, Excelsior Youth Center Recording Studio, The Independent, etc), than on political contributions. I became really intrigued by the importance of public policy while studying architecture and city planning at UC Berkeley. I currently serve on the Small Business Commission and am a parent of two daughters in 2nd and 3rd grade, and coach soccer. I love live music as well as dj culture.

Do you have any party affiliations?

I am registered as a Democrat, and although I feel frustration towards the Party, particularly on the local level, I hope to see it become more meaningful to my generation. I plan to co-create a new local
Democratic Club after this upcoming election...one that will be fun, creative, ethnically diverse, and inspiring.

Why are you running for Supervisor of District 5?

I believe strongly that City Hall needs more voices that are local, knowledgeable of the whole city, and passionate about participating in the culture and challenges of their own district.

What do you see as the biggest issues in your district this election cycle?

A.) I believe that the next Supervisor needs to prioritize addressing crime in the Haight and the Fillmore. I plan on being the first Supervisor to prioritize after school youth centers that focus on the arts, creativity, academic support, and the involvement of volunteer adults.

B.) I believe that the area that encompasses District 5 has been one of the most musically and culturally relevant areas in the world. I appreciate the efforts Matt Gonzalez made in this area, but overall we can do a lot better. I plan on working with local entrepreneurs and event planners to create the type of cultural spaces and events which truly inspire the district's residents and visitors.

C.) I am a firm believer in district elections. However, it is clear that the district has to be the priority of its Supervisor. Because of that, I believe the last of the three main issues facing the district has to include the issues that will constantly be brought up by the residents of the district.

If you had to name one issue that differentiates you from the other candidates in your district, what would that be?

The one issue that differentiates me is a record of concrete accomplishments in the city.

While campaigning, I have learnt that what differentiates me is that while many candidates talk about their vision of what should be done, I am usually explaining what I have already done. Many candidates will bring up their support for small business, while I have successfully run several and have helped many people get off the ground with their businesses. Many candidates discuss the need for alternatives to crime while I have been focused on this subject for 15 years and have concrete accomplishments like the Excelsior Youth Center Recording Studio. I have heard many candidates explain their vision for supporting the arts while I spend time attending things like the Clarion Alley Mural Project's Block Party today, which I co-founded in 1992.

What do you think makes you the most qualified candidate running for Supervisor of District 5? In other words, why should we vote for you?

My background shows that I am a passionate worker, and won't stop until a job is really done. My background and personality allows me to work and connect with all parts of the district--from the younger renters to older homeowners--from newly arrived college grads to people who have been living in the Fillmore for 50 years--from the dj-friendly shops of the Lower Haight to the designer boutiques of Hayes Valley and the Upper Fillmore. This is an incredibly diverse district, and the diversity of my background and my inherent knowledge of the city as a whole makes me the best candidate.

You have said on your website, www.moc-d5.com, that District Five is the most significant zipper district of San Francisco. Could you explain to our readers what you mean by that, and what implications this has for all of San Francisco's neighborhoods?

I described District 5 as the "zipper district" because its perimeter touches more districts than any other one. District 5 has the most diverse collection of neighborhoods within its boundaries, but in addition, it touches District's 1,2, 6, 8,7, and 4. Thus, the Supervisor in District 5 has to have a working knowledge of all of these districts as well. I think that if you look at the supervisors of other districts they are more apt to reflect one or two demographics in their district, but because D-5 is so centrally located, the Supervisor needs to be able to connect with a much more diverse group of constituents.

You have a strong connection to hip-hop culture, and music in general. There have been attempts to revitalize the Fillmore District Jazz scene. How do you feel about this, and how would you involve the youth of the Western Addition in creating their own legacy?

I am fully committed to the realization of the Fillmore Jazz District, and because of my small business experience in establishing a nationally known music club, I am clearly the candidate who can best see this project through to its potential. In addition, the vision of this project does need to make room for hip hop culture in that it is now the most dominant musical force in Black Culture (as well as other cultures), not jazz. I agree with the project's emphasis on jazz but the fact that hip-hop culture in the Fillmore has no home is a serious cultural problem. The Jazz District must be realized for many reasons but one of the most important is to regenerate small business jobs in the Western Addition that are black-owned.

Here is another question along musical lines - you are a proponent of affordable housing for developing musicians and artists. First, how do you plan to run that by City Hall. Secondly, what will you do about affordable housing for non-artists?

I am interested in pursuing the idea of creating an "affordable" housing project for musicians (in particular) in the Haight, which would serve as not just housing, but as supportive housing so that we can get back to the time when the Haight was so musically influential. It is important to reclaim this past just like it's important to reclaim Fisherman's Wharf and Beat Culture in the North Beach. However, instead of creating a museum of the past, let's create housing to create a new generation of musicians for the future.

I ask that anyone reading this votes for the passage of Proposition A which will create funds for homeless supportive housing, new affordable rentals, and first time homebuyers. In addition to Prop A, I would like to see the creation of a Non-Profit Community Housing Developer in District 5.

I have lived in the Western Addition for 5 years, and am constantly amazed at how many people overlook this area of the city. How do you plan on drawing small businesses to an area of the city many ignore as a thriving one?

I would agree with that observation. I think this observation is particularly pertinent to Divisadero St. There are probably more young renters living in this part of town per capita than any other part of San Francisco. Yet, there has traditionally been so little to do along the Divisadero corridor. When I was trying to open the Justice League, I was met with a year and half resistance by the SFPD's permit department most people would have quit.

There is also a strong history of local neighborhood associations going out of their way to stop any nightlife. It basically comes down to the fact that for a long time liquor licenses were seen as "crime magnets." To this day most of the bars in the Lower Haight exist solely with Beer and Wine Licenses (Nickie's, Movida, and Noc Noc) and thus aren't really taken seriously as "real" bars...thus many people head down to the Mission. We are now starting to see a little more pedestrians and action on Divis due to the entrepreneurial risks of small business owners at Tsunami, The Independent, Madrone, Blue Jay Café, Herbivore, and Waziema. That demonstrates how valuable the small business community is. The city (including our current Supervisor) has done little to generate new life on Divisadero...small business owners have.

Can you let those in your district know what you plan on doing to make them feel safer–especially at night? Isn't the proposal of a Panhandle/ Haight St. public bathroom project detrimental to this exact issue?

I believe that safe streets are active streets. When we have more people out and walking around we have more eyes and a more involved community. If elected I would like to see the Lower Haight prosper, the Divisadero upswing continue, the Fillmore Jazz District truly come to life, and the Upper Haight regain some of the vitality of yesterday.

I look forward to working with Park Station and Northern Station, so that we have as many police officers as possible out of their cars and on the streets engaging with the community. I believe that by working more closely with the small business community and making them feel like they matter, we can also increase their involvement with community policing.

Finally, and most importantly, WE HAVE TO OFFER ALTERNATIVES TO CRIME. San Francisco is not that big. I firmly believe that with creativity and pragmaticism we can get to the kids who have chosen the streets as an option to pursuing the slightly slower pace of day-to-day employment. We have to get to these kids early. Having grown up in the city's hip-hop community, I have known too many friends that chose crime over pursuing their real goals...almost all "gang bangers" have actual "normal" goals...they have chosen to give up on them.

As far as the Haight St. bathroom goes, I believe that the bathroom should be installed and should be open during daytime hours only.

Any parting words for our readers?

I have to say that running for Supervisor has been an incredibly educational and humbling experience, and whether I win or lose I look forward to continue contributing to the great culture of San Francisco. I ask you to ask yourself how you can get involved to make this city a better place. Peace.