Clean Air, Water, and Soil
I am proud to be the Climate champion in the District 9 race, having been endorsed by seven climate and environmental justice organizations.
As the co-director of a climate non-profit, I’ve worked for years to stop the flow of money to polluting fossil fuel industries and uplift the need for a renewable economy. I believe everyone has a right to clean air, soil, water, and good paying jobs. My journey to this campaign really began in December 2016 when I watched through my phone screen, videos of my Indigenous relatives, looking down the barrel of guns on the same land we traversed for thousands of years. All because a fossil fuel corporation wanted to ram a pipeline through the only source of fresh water for thousands of people in North and South Dakota. I had to go. When I arrived at the Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline protests on a sunny, white snowy December day, I walked down the dirt road entrance with dozens of tribal flags lined up on either side. I saw the one for my grandma’s tribe, MHA Nation, and the one for my grandpa’s, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. This unification of hundreds of Native nations was nothing short of a miracle. Our people weren’t supposed to survive the boarding schools, or the wars in which they served. Our grandmas were not supposed to bear children, and grandchildren. If the powers that be had their way, I would be using my Stanford degree to lobby for the oil companies or work for the Wall Street banks that were financing the pipeline. After that trip, my life got a lot clearer.
That’s how I learned about our city’s investments in Wall Street banks, which invest our money everywhere around the world but here, in our own communities. That is how I came to found the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, found myself on the city commission that oversees CleanPowerSF, and began a career in climate advocacy. Since then, I helped pass the first law in the nation legalizing municipal public banks. Just last year, the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted governance and business plans for a public bank, so we can start investing in affordable housing, small businesses, and renewable energy HERE in San Francisco. It has truly been a coalition effort, and I am proud to have contributed the research and governance ideas to the work. As Vice Chair of the city commission overseeing CleanPowerSF, I authored and passed a resolution urging the SFPUC to Adopt a Workforce and Environmental Justice Policy for Energy Procurement, supported a study on municipal social housing, supported the study of e-bikes for delivery drivers, and my biggest achievement was negotiating an MOU with the SFPUC to secure more than $650,000 for studies on various climate initiatives, including green banking, EV charging, battery storage, and natural gas transitioning.
Pollution impacts District 9 disproportionately, as the freeways that border and cross our district contributes to diesel particulate matter and high asthma rates. We also experience flooding due to the Mission’s positioning in a floodplain and excessive heat due to our lack of tree canopies. And lastly, working families are living in dilapidated housing that means cold winters and deadly heat waves. All of these invisible and structural environmental dynamics contribute to health disparities and lower quality of life for District 9 residents. It is my goal as a climate-oriented supervisor to not just ensure San Francisco leads on climate, but also provides material improvements to people’s everyday lives.
I have pledged to reject contributions or support from fossil fuel corporations, executives, and PG&E. As supervisor, I will champion…
Restoring nation-to-nation relations with the Ramaytush Ohlone
Our relationship with the land, air, and water has been broken here in San Francisco since Spanish settler colonization. Any climate or environmental justice plan would be incomplete without honoring the first peoples of this land, the Ramaytush Ohlone, and committing to a restoration of relations with the Ramaytush Ohlone and honoring their sovereignty. This is the foundation from which real environmental and climate justice will flow.
Dense, affordable green housing for low- and middle-income people
My housing plan calls for investment in community land trusts and permanent affordable housing in gentrified neighborhoods in order to prevent and reverse displacement as a result of “green” gentrification. You can read my full housing plan here.
Reduce pollution & invest in low-emission modes of transportation
If we want to meet our climate goals, we need to reduce our emissions and pollution from gas-powered caras. To cut emissions from private passenger vehicles including rideshares, I would fight for incentives for biking, walking, and rolling, invest in public transit and strive to make streets safer for bikers, pedestrians, and wheelchair users. I support the ComMUNIty Transit Act that would tax Uber & Lyft to keep MUNI afloat, and I also support expanding free MUNI to people who earn minimum wage or less. You can read my full transportation plan here.
Activating green spaces and community gardens
We must invest in urban greening across the District and San Francisco at large, with a priority on traditionally underserved neighborhoods and heat islands. The presence and quality of urban greenspace is directly linked to better health outcomes and mental wellbeing, especially for children who are still recovering from the pandemic mentally, physically, and emotionally. We must have equitable access to these spaces. It is critical that these greenspaces and greening projects are based foremost on the input from communities and employ individuals from these communities first.
A Green Bank for decarbonization and renewable energy
A green bank is unique because it doesn't take deposits, but uses special funds and financial strategies to draw in private investment for green energy projects. Green banks are designed to address areas that private finance is less incentivized to tackle, due to barriers like perceived risk or economies of scale. Establishing a green bank would provide direct advantages to our community by supporting small contractors with lines of credit, helping residents invest in their homes to ensure they are healthy and resilient, and protecting against climate changes and extreme weather events.
100% renewable energy for CleanPowerSF
We must and can develop more local renewable generation sources (within the SF and Bay Area Counties), supported by local energy storage and smart microgrids. With Biden’s IRA Climate bill, CleanPowerSF should be taking advantage of direct-pay tax incentives to ensure 100% of our energy comes from renewable sources.
Dignified union jobs
As jobs are created in new sectors, these must be high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages, hire local workers, offer training and advancement opportunities, and guarantee wage and benefit parity for workers affected by the transition. Through the transition, we can strengthen and protect fundamental worker rights, including the right of all workers to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain free of coercion, intimidation, and harassment. We can and must enforce workplace health and safety, anti-discrimination, and wage and hour standards across all employers, industries and sectors.
Climate disaster preparedness & infrastructure upgrades, especially for flooding
The environmental crisis includes sea-level rise. The effects of sea-level rise include groundwater rise as the heavier seawater will push ground water up from below through sewer drains, former creeks, former wetlands zones, and low-lying areas. This process has a dangerous potential to spread radioactive and other hazardous materials as groundwater and seawater floods low lying areas. We need investment in infrastructure for climate resiliency which prioritizes the most at-risk communities and begins to repair the damage of decades of environmental racism. These investments must work more fully in cooperation with community service groups, prioritizing day-to-day needs of residents, housed and unhoused, young and old. We need increased investment in community-based programs to train, network and support neighborhood and climate disaster preparedness. These programs must have rapid response capabilities managed and overseen by frontline communities.
Fund our Climate Action Plan
To finance San Francisco’s climate action plan, we need a green bond, green bank, and a tax on polluting corporations.
