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Contents
Making Development Work for Us
Supporting Neighborhood Small Business
Safer District 6 Neighborhoods
A Tenant-friendly District 6
A Public Transit System that Works
A Bike-friendly District and City
Arts in Our Community
Putting 25-Years of District Experience to Work for Us
Debra has lived and worked in our neighborhoods since 1985. Her record of progressive activism – and accomplishment – is unmatched in the field of District 6 candidates. As a tenant representative on the Building Inspection Commission, Debra helped clean up a notoriously corrupt department and guarantee that new development in District 6 works for everyone. And as a small businesswoman herself, Debra will make sure city government listens to the concerns of struggling shops and businesses all over the district.
Making Development Work for Us
San Francisco’s District 6 is home to the most economically diverse populations in our city. Our district stretches from Civic Center (and a bit of Hayes Valley), parts of the North Mission, Lower Potrero Hill, Mission Bay, South Beach, East SOMA, SOMA, West SOMA, the Tenderloin, Little Saigon, Lower Polk, Treasure Island and more. From the hills to the Bay, our district is ground zero for some of the biggest changes in development planned for our city’s near future. Land use issues are constant and huge – not just in size but in terms of economic impact. In her nine years on the Building Inspection Commission Debra has used her understanding of land use and housing to bring about smart and sustainable development that offers something for everyone.
Supporting Neighborhood Small Businesses
District 6 can lead the city’s economic recovery by focusing on our greatest strength: our neighborhood small businesses. Small businesses, not large companies, employ the overwhelming number of people in San Francisco.
But City Hall has failed to address one of the biggest complaints of small businesspeople of all stripes – how difficult it is to meet permitting and regulatory requirements that can require sign-off from as many as 15 departments before opening a new business.
As a commissioner overseeing one of the City’s largest permitting departments, Debra fought to centralize inspection and construction to help make one-stop permitting a reality. As Supervisor, Debra will work to reduce unnecessary permitting requirements and make complying with the rest as easy as possible on small businesses.
Safer District 6 Neighborhoods
The first job of our local government is to keep our streets safe. Right now, in District 6, they’re failing at that task. Crime rates around the district are unacceptable, and, what’s worse, the city knows the solution to the problem but refuses to fund it. As Supervisor, Debra will fight to increase the number of foot patrols by district police staff, and lobby for closer attention to increasing violence around nightclubs in the District. By increasing the dialogue between the Police Department and the neighborhoods they patrol, City Hall can bring real change to the District.
A Tenant-friendly District 6
District 6 is home to the city’s highest percentage of renters. A significant number of those live in Single Room Occupancy hotels, and in sub-standard conditions. As a member of the Building Inspection Commission, Debra helped crack down on slumlords that prey on low income and immigrant families living in transitional housing. And as a member of the Live/Work task force in the last 1990s, Debra helped combat the flood of unpermitted development that displaced small businesses and tenants.
As Supervisor, Debra will continue the fight to protect tenants living on fixed incomes from eviction and unfair rent increases, and to guarantee that all buildings meet basic health and safety standards, regardless of the neighborhood or unit rate.
A Public Transit System that Works
Ask anyone who relies on our city’s public transit system to get around town and they’ll tell you it is badly broken. Buses run late and arrive in bunches when they do. Service has been severely reduced or lines entirely cut. In a city that calls itself Transit First, none of this makes any sense.
As a District 6 resident who doesn’t own a car and relies on the bus or her bike to get around, Debra understands how our struggling bus and rail system impacts people who use it. As supervisor, Debra will fight stop the annual cuts to the system and make sure the City Hall doesn’t balance its budget on the backs of Muni riders. Debra will call for a comprehensive audit of the Municipal Transportation Agency that runs our bus system to guarantee its funding is spent on services rather than on top level management.
District 6 is home to some of the most bikeable terrain in San Francisco, but the traffic design makes it a challenge for most people to make a bike their daily mode of transportation. As a city we must to more to make it easier for people to choose biking over cars.
A Bike-friendly District and City
As a participant in the recently-completed Eastern Neighborhoods rezoning process, Debra fought for improved an improved bike network in the South of Market and North Mission to make biking a safe alternative to bus and car travel for District 6 residents.
When not taking Muni, Debra rides her bike to get where she’s going. As supervisor, Debra will be a strong advocate for more bikeable, and more liveable San Francisco.
Arts in Our Community
As an artist, longtime advocate for community arts and Chair of the Arts Task Force, Debra has been working to ensure arts funding, encourage arts in schools and create arts-based after-school programs. She helped to create the Arts in the Community grant program to partner arts and community based organizations to do outreach in our neighborhoods. As supervisor, she’ll continue fighting to strengthen the arts in our communities and ensure opportunities for our children.
Paid for by Debra Walker for District 6 Supervisor - 2010 FPPC# 1318110
Tel: 415.644.VOTE (8683) • votedebrawalker@gmail.com • www.votedebrawalker.com • 540 Alabama St. #217, SF CA 94110