During a symposium held Saturday at the Herbst Theater, Supervisor Chris Daly discussed, among other topics, victories over displacement with Trinity Plaza community organizers Luisa Balatbat, Lolita Kintanar and Victor Herrera. Photos by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
July 19, 2010
Outgoing District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly held a symposium Saturday in what was billed as an opportunity to reflect and build upon progressive successes, but was also an opportunity for community groups and activists to celebrate and honor Daly’s activism and achievements as the most influential Supervisor in recent San Francisco history.
“What the symposium was for was to really let the people who are involved in the big struggles of the last ten years take the main stage and talk about their experiences,” Daly said during an interview following the symposium held at the Herbst Theater. “It was also meant to promote this partnership model that I discussed in my column on Fog City Journal this past week where grassroots community efforts really teamed up with those of us that have been elevated into the corridors of power in City Hall in order to form this coalition – to address real issues whether it be Trinity Plaza, Rincon Hill, Bessie Carmichael, all of the housing issues, the budget issues etcetera.”
“I think what we heard ring loud and true the voices from everyday people who are leaders in their communities and leaders in terms of citywide politics as well, that we need to continue to fight on these issues in this way,” Daly added.
Those voices included activists involved in improving living standards for single residency occupancy tenants, Bessie Carmichael Elementary School parents and education faculty, housing justice advocates, Trinity Plaza residents, labor leaders and a host of other individuals including Budget Committee Chair John Avalos.
The symposium attracted as many as 200 residents to the event. Most of those in attendance were eager to honor the man who, after election to the Board of Supervisors in 2000, provided a powerful and sustained voice for issues and causes that would have otherwise been ignored.
As many as 200 San Francisco residents attended the symposium.
San Francisco Sentinel Editor Pat Murphy, who fell out with Daly several years ago, attended the event and was observed clapping in recognition of Daly’s achievements.
“In a way this is little bit of a period piece, but he deserves it,” said candidate for District 6 Supervisor Jim Meko. “It was a great big thank you for all that he’s done. When you compare City Hall before Chris Daly and City Hall after Chris Daly, it’s incredibly impressive what he has done. We can never go back. Once you let people into City Hall like he did, you can never turn back. They have a stake in City Hall now.”
“If I can come close to addressing the social issues as sensitively and as strongly as he did, I’ll feel good about it. To really bring representation for the poorest of the poor and the neediest and the most unrepresented to City Hall, the era that we’re moving into starts off with that as a given. We’ve got to move on from there to be more inclusive, to bring the district together better than it is right now, and that is going to be the struggle of this campaign coming up,” Meko added.
District 6 candidate Jim Meko (right) with fellow District 6 candidate James Keys (left) and political svengali Marc Salomon.
Other District 6 candidates in attendance included Jane Kim, James Keys and Debra Walker. Keys and Kim used the symposium to gather campaign signatures from attendees and passersby.
During opening remarks, Daly said the work he is most proud of is improving the lives of the most vulnerable, particularly the lives of people who live in single resident occupancy hotels. He called the advancements in living conditions “transformational” and “revolutionary.”
“There’s very few things I’m more proud of than my work with hotel residents over the last 15 years here in San Francisco,” he said.
Supervisor Chris Daly.
Daly championed the construction and transformation of Bessie Carmichael Elementary School, which previously held lessons in 40s-era bungalows with leaky roofs. Daly said students told him the toilets were in such bad condition they were “embarrassed to go to the bathroom.”
It was a “complete situation of injustice and the community organized long before I was elected, and through our partnership, we were able to build a new school and a new park,” he said, referring to Victoria Manalo Draves Park named in honor of the Olympian and gold medalist.
Daly also responded to the plight of residents of Trinity Plaza who faced eviction, protecting them from displacement and negotiating rent-controlled protections in a replacement apartment complex developed by real estate speculator Angelo Sangiacomo.
It was “an amazing Herculean effort by everyday people to save their rent-controlled homes, a struggle that I think shows everything that is good about people power in District 6,” he said.
Daly also led efforts to mitigate community impacts by luxury condominium high-rise developer One Rincon Hill, successfully negotiating $20 million in community stabilization funds.
In closing, Daly said: “We’ve really built a very vibrant, powerful, unapologetic movement that I have been happy to work with and represent at City Hall. When you see me next time and you ask me what I’m doing after this, be ready for me to ask you, ‘What are we doing?”
When asked if he is ready to endorse a successor in the District 6 race, Daly demurred, saying, “Well, today is not about that. Today was about drawing from the strength of the last ten years and learning from it and moving forward, and maybe tomorrow – the figurative tomorrow – maybe tomorrow we can take some next steps.”
Nick Pagoulatos from MAC (Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition) said, “What we have now, which we didn’t before, is an organized movement that has experience, that has leadership - and it has a plan and a vision of how things should be, but also how they have been as a result of the changes that the community put in place and made happen beginning ten years ago.”
Supervisor Chris Daly discusses SRO tenant victories with panelists Joseph Brown, Russell Slayton and Victor Nelson.
Supervisor Chris Daly discusses the successful organizing around the new construction of Bessie Carmichael Elementary School and Victoria Manalo Draves Park with panelists Judith Baker, Tersesa Dulalas and Tina Alejo.
Supervisor Chris Daly discusses issues around "making development work for our community" with panelists April Veneracion and Jazzie Collins.
Supervisor Chris Daly discusses budget difficulties and priorities with panelists Budget Chair John Avalos, Chelsea Boilard and SEIU organizer Gabriel Haaland.
Supervisor Chris Daly discusses housing justice issues with panelists James Tracey and Eric Quezada.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
July 21, 2010 at 11:01 am
You’re right! I agree and do prefer raging lunatics walking the streets and gutterpunks with vicious dogs crowding the sidewalk. If people don’t like it, move to Walnut Creek or perhaps further abroad.
July 21, 2010 at 10:07 am
Re: David D:
If Avalos voted against Laura’s Law he was wise not to be taken in by a trick to assault our civil rights: it was a perfect foil to make Sit/Lie and other assaults more palatable to a gullible public that limits its news to the propagandistic establishment media. Searching Google News just now, I see no update as to what the Supervisors decided (if anything) about in-the-pocket of corporate interests Alioto-Pier proposed. Does that mean those interests are today licking their wounds… I wonder.
This is my view on the proposed law:
Laura’s Law implementation is a mistake. San Francisco should utilize
more humane methods of helping the mentally ill than the coercive solution Laura’s Law entails.
In a recent editorial, the editors at the Chronicle argued that passing
the law will allow San Francisco “to tap funding from Proposition 63,
the surtax on seven-figure incomes approved by voters in 2004 to expand mental health treatment in the state.”
Since when has the Chronicle been in any way supportive of taxes on the rich? There is an obvious deception going on here– and it is especially cruel because utilizing such monies– if indeed that is the Chronicle’s wish– exploits our weakest city inhabitants.
The labels for schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder are today tossed
around in great ignorance. Before implementing a law like the one the
Chronicle is urging, people should study the growing criticism of the
psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries and their encouragement of crude labeling in a relentless quest for profits over health.
Forced mental health treatment has a dark history that the industries would like us to forget and would like us to believe will never be repeated. It is wise not to be pressured by the establishment media and their chosen spokespersons to adopt a plan that will infringe on people’s civil rights– no matter how well-intentioned their claims are.
With Laura’s Law, some people could doubtless be helped, others could be victimized and taught to mistrust mental health providers.
I would add that in some peoples’ opinion our own mayor and current candidate for lieutenant governor appeared at times in his past to be in danger to himself or others (thankfully he was chauffered, I suppose)– might he have been a candidate to be forcibly detained?
July 21, 2010 at 7:32 am
Thanks Chris. A job well done. Keep on comforting the ‘afflicted’, by any means necessary. No retreat – No Surrender.
July 21, 2010 at 7:14 am
I could not be there (had to be at an exploratory committee for Cindy Sheehan for Arizona governor), but I heard that Daly fed the Progressive multitudes with only five loaves and two fish.
July 20, 2010 at 5:28 pm
So sorry I missed this. I was at the State Dem Party E-Board meeting in San Jose that weekend. Perhaps it was recorded and is on the net somewhere?
Chris Daly has been THE go-to guy for everything progressive for the past 10 years. Who will fill his HUGE shoes for the next 10 years?
Rick H
District 6 Dems
July 20, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Wow, check out that smug face on John Avalos. He must be proud of himself for voting against implementing Laura’s Law.
July 20, 2010 at 1:45 pm
It looks like he threw himself a little “Going Away” party. That’s kinda sad.
July 19, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for your post, Michael and for correcting the record. My apologies to those candidates I did not notice in attendance, some of whom I’ve never met.
July 19, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I know Luke was busy taking pictures to notice all of the District 6 candidates for Supervisor in attendance so I will mention them all here:
Dean Clark
George Davis
Glenda Hyde
James Keys
Jane Kim
Jim Meko
Nate Payne
Robert Raeburn
Debra Walker
This may give you an idea of which District 6 supervisor candidate is interested in communicating with District voters. And which candidate is open minded in learning about the history of District 6 for the last decade.
Michael Nulty
Executive Director
Alliance for a Better District 6
July 19, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Poor table manners aside, Chris has been a solid progressive anchor on the board of supervisors and it’s hard to believe that there will be someone else who can remain as steadfast in their unwillingness to compromise after getting elected.
July 19, 2010 at 1:31 pm
“… the most influential Supervisor in recent San Francisco history.”
That faraway sound you hear is Aaron Peskin, chuckling.