Everybody Hates Chris: The District 6 Interview
As promised -- it's round 2 of our District 6 interview with Chris Daly, where Daly gets all the same questions we asked everyone else running for his seat. Part 1 of the interview is here.
And speaking of round 2 -- let's get things started by hearing Chris's side of the story about his notorious 2002 dustup with the SFPD!
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?
You've got my commitment to always fight for my constituents. My political opponents love to castigate me for my "temperament," but they’ll pick and choose their facts and then embellish or outright lie to make me look bad. Back in 2002, before my last election, I participated in a peaceful demonstration aimed at stopping Hastings from building an 885-car garage directly across from a senior housing development. We were successful at getting the garage stopped and now development plans call for a new, state-of-the-art YMCA serving the Tenderloin and Hastings communities, a smaller garage with 395 stalls and new retail opportunities for students and the neighborhood. At the current site of the YMCA at Golden Gate and Leavenworth, tentative plans call for the development of over 200 units of new housing, most of it affordable.
I am proud of how I engaged on this issue and would do it again in a heartbeat. Yet my opponents will only publish a photograph from this action of me "yelling" at an officer claiming that I threatened him. Not only is their story untrue, their photograph is cropped to conceal the whole picture of me being placed into a pain compliance hold by another officer. It is true, however, that I am yelling in that photograph – "Ouch!"
Chris's plans if he's reelected, his favorite local politician, and his favorite Bay Area musician, all after the jump!
What do you think are the biggest problems facing District 6 today?
Access to affordable housing continues to be a huge issue. Almost 80% of D6 residents are renters, so tenant issues are of general concern. As a high needs district, access to high quality services including health care is especially important. While we are one of the lower-income districts, we are the home to significant development and economic pressures, so community-based planning, public transportation, and jobs access are also very important.
Any citywide proposals you're interested in sponsoring?
I am very happy about the big citywide wins this year, especially on universal healthcare, inclusionary housing, and the budget. I facilitated the budget process again this year, and I believe we passed the closest thing we’ve seen to a "people's budget." It included over $50 million in supplements for families, affordable housing, homeless services, childcare and after-school programs, AIDS/HIV and other public health priorities, community-based violence prevention programs, employment programs, immigrant rights, community arts, recreation and parks, and senior services.
Over the next 4 years I'd like to stay involved in budgeting issues. I want to use my position as Finance Chair to make sure implementation of universal healthcare goes smoothly. We need to get going on the work to rebuild General Hospital. More needs to be done on affordable housing. I'd love to forward my proposal to merge the Police Department with the Sheriffs.
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? Explain your answer.
Thanks for making me the 10, Rita! You've officially been outed as a sign-carrying Daly supporter.
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and the rest of your standard SFist questions:
Favorite place to spend time online (website/blog/RSS feeds)
Lately I've been negligent about keeping up my blog at www.chrisdaly.org, because I’ve been trying to put together my campaign site, www.daly06.com. Everyday my friends at www.sfusualsuspects.org compile all the good local news.
Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Too $hort – 16 albums and still going strong, are you kidding me?
Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
We're better than everybody else. I think it's problematic that we think this, but it may be true.
Favorite local hangout
Dovre Club.
You've never lived in SF until you've
been in the middle of a 100,000-person protest march.
Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
Barbara Lee.
You can tell someone is a local here IF
they’ve already told you they're born and raised.
SF would be soooo much better if
only people enjoyed it more and there were more kids.
You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
The family's going for a quesadilla, nachos and a trip to KidPOWER Park.