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Everybody Hates Chris: The District 6 Interview
We're continuing our series of interviews of the Anyone But Chris Daly hopefuls in the upcoming District 6 election! Today's guest: Matt Drake. Hi, Matt! Check out Matt's campaign blog too.
Matt emailed us after his previous never-met-the-guy profile, objected to our characterization of his as boring, and asked for a chance to prove us wrong. We're always happy to be proven wrong! (as you can see by our constant stream of corrections in the comments.) Judge for yourself, people.
What's your name, how old are you, and what do you do?
I’m Matt Drake, I’m 34 and I’m a former lawyer. I practiced commercial litigation and patent litigation.
So the name of the SFist District 6 election column is "Everyone Hates Chris." Why do YOU hate Chris Daly?
I don’t hate Chris Daly. I’m not much of a hater (sorry).
Dude, we love it when Daly gets in fights with people on the board. Will you promise to get in some fights too? Over what?
I can’t promise to get in fights. I’m sure there will be plenty of disagreements. I recognize that the press loves the yelling and screaming, but it’s not the best way to actually get things accomplished. As supervisor, my job isn’t to get in fights (sorry!), it’s to govern the city.
Picture of Matt from his campaign website.
In what neighborhood in District 6 do you live?
I live in SOMA on Folsom Street.
What do you love about District 6? What do you hate about it?
The district is big; it’s tough to generalize about it. I love that it’s diverse—the most diverse district in the city. I love our central location, the Embarcadero, Pac Bell SBC AT&T Park, the diversity of people here, and the eating and drinking options.
I’m not a hater, but I’m disappointed that this district has so much potential, but our leaders stand in the way instead of improving it.
Any city-wide proposals you're interested in sponsoring if you get on the Board?
Two big citywide issues: jobs and housing.
Jobs. I think the city needs more jobs. The Board of Supervisors often adopts rhetoric that gives San Francisco an anti-business reputation. We need businesses here (if there were no companies, where would we work, and how could we afford burritos?).
I’d like to try to change the culture of the Board of Supervisors so it welcomes businesses to San Francisco. It would be great if Google’s headquarters was here. Since that’s not going to happen, let's instead work to create the conditions so that the next Google will be located here.
If we had more businesses providing more jobs, it would help with so many other problems. Companies would compete for workers, which would lead to higher salaries and better benefits, like health care. Higher salaries would enable people to better afford housing.
Housing. It’s discouraging that so much of the talk about housing ignores supply and demand. We have a high demand for housing here, and a limited supply. As long as one has high demand and low supply, prices will be high.
So what should we do? Since demand is going to remain high, we should do everything we can to increase supply. We need to build, build, build. It so happens that SOMA is one of the very few places left in the city where it makes sense to build. We need to build dense housing here
The Board of Supervisors is pretty strongly divided between so-called "progressives" and so-called "Newsom" allies. On that scale, let's say Daly is a 10 and Sean Elsbernd is a 1. Where would you put yourself on that scale?
I don’t know exactly where I fall, but if I agreed with Chris Daly, I wouldn’t be running. I will list what I stand for, and let others pick where I fit on the scale. I will push for more jobs and higher paying jobs. I think we must build more housing. I’m a passionate environmentalist--San Francisco should try to be on the leading edge of trying new technologies like solar power to generate energy. I’m in favor of Care Not Cash. I support bringing more police to the streets so people can live without fear of crime. The best way to lure people out of their cars is to improve public transit. I think we need to build the Transbay Terminal so Caltrain stops in downtown San Francisco.
What do you think are the biggest problems facing District 6 today?
Development is the biggest issue facing District 6. I don’t think of it as a problem; I look at it as an opportunity. Development is inevitable. We need to manage it wisely. For instance, it makes a lot of sense to build housing adjacent to mass transit. As an example, dense housing should be put along Market Street, which has easy access to mass transit. SOMA is one of the few places left in the city where it makes sense to build more housing. There are plenty of parking lots and warehouses here where we could have housing.
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Awright! And onto the usual SFist Interviews fare:
Favorite local business
City Lights, but I’m open to switching to Cody’s since it’s in District 6.
What I'm currently Reading
Two books. The Master and Margarita and Grant’s Memoirs (who knew that General Grant was such a marvelous writer?)
Favorite local hangout
The Giants baseball stadium (the official name may change again by the time this is published)
>SF has the BEST _____________
brewery. Thank you Anchor Steam!
Best Deal in San Francisco
>The people watching—it’s cheap and it never gets old.
Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
I don’t think the Mayor needs my help……
Best Burrito
Whichever one’s closest to where I am at the moment
You've never lived in SF until you've _______________
I don’t know—run for supervisor?