District 8 needs a leader who will fight for the community.
Gary’s Priorities for District 8
A Thriving Economy
San Francisco must build an economy that works for everyone. While we’ve made significant progress since the height of the pandemic, San Francisco has yet to fully bounce back from the deep economic impacts it had on our city. A thriving San Francisco starts with a healthy economy where we reward creativity and entrepreneurship while having the backs of working people trying to make ends meet.
Small business owners are struggling to keep their doors open because of unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. I hear constantly from community members worried about the high rates of storefront vacancies and rising rents in our neighborhoods. As Supervisor, I will work to cut the red tape that our small businesses face when trying to open and run their shop. These businesses are the cornerstones of our community, and if we don’t act quickly, we’ll lose even more.
I understand deeply––from many years of personal experience trying to make ends meet––just how difficult it is to get by in San Francisco. Working and middle class people, including many long time San Francisco residents who grew up here, are among the most impacted by our economic challenges. In my daily conversations, I hear from so many workers who feel it’s become impossible to make a decent wage that allows them to support their families.
Our essential workforce includes many immigrants, who are being targeted by ICE for deportation. Our current leadership is not doing nearly enough to defend them, and I will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with workers by strengthening union protections and protecting immigrant workers from kidnapping and deportation.
I’ll also fight for fair wages, healthcare, and jobs with dignity. That’s why I’m proud to have endorsements from unions like the National Union of Healthcare Workers, UA Local 38 Plumbers, Steamfitters & HVAC/R, the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 8, and to have been a member of IFPTE Local 21.
My priorities:
Ensure our small businesses can thrive and grow in San Francisco through streamlining the city’s permitting process, continuing the “first year free” program for new businesses, growing our neighborhood anchoring business and legacy business programs
Support funding that improves our transit reliability and efficiency, extending service hours so our nightlife and workers can take transit home
Expand early childhood education and investing in strong public schools so working families can stay in San Francisco and get world-class educations
Strengthen union protections across the healthcare, hospitality and public sectors, fighting for staffing and safety standards, advancing living wages and fair contracts, protecting immigrant workers from ICE raids
Expand housing options, healthcare access, and community services downtown and beyond, while protecting and growing good union jobs
Housing
My experience taught me the importance of a full ladder out of homelessness. I had opportunities to go from the streets to shelters, to single room occupancy hotels (SROs). And I went from treatment to transitional housing, to permanent supportive housing and subsidized rent, to a market-rate two bedroom apartment. That ladder simply doesn’t exist today.
San Francisco must say yes to housing at every level so that we can build a city that’s affordable for everyone – the working class, young families, aging adults and seniors, our long-term survivors of HIV/AIDS, people with disabilities, and kids who grew up here and want to stay.
We also must ensure that tenants can stay in their homes, free from the threat of unlawful evictions, rent increases and other tactics of predatory landlords. I unequivocally support rent control and preventing the demolition of rent-controlled housing. As a renter for the past 13 years, I will always stand up for renters, who are often the most economically vulnerable people in our communities.
From affordable housing and middle income housing, to permanent supportive housing and sober living facilities, to new market rate housing in neighborhoods that have historically refused to build their fair share – if we want a city that’s truly livable and equitable, we need it all.
I’m supportive of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Family Zoning plan to expand family-friendly housing options across the city. I’ll fight to legalize more density along our major transit corridors, creating vibrant neighborhoods where people can afford to live, work, and get around without a car.
I also know that housing and labor go hand in hand: I’ll push for projects that move quickly through approvals while ensuring good union jobs and prevailing wages, so people can afford both to work and live in San Francisco.
My priorities:
Cut red tape and streamline approvals to get homes of all types – particularly dense, multi-family housing and affordable housing – built faster
Strengthen and expand tenant protections, including protecting legal aid funding for tenants
Support funding measures and mechanisms to build more affordable housing
Support reforms to end unnecessary and wasteful lawsuits against new housing, including CEQA and historic preservation reform to prevent both from being misused as tactics to block new housing
Support Mayor Lurie’s Family Zoning plan to build badly-needed new housing and ensure San Francisco meets its state-mandated housing goals
Ensure new housing construction creates good jobs with prevailing wages and benefits for workers
Champion mixed-income and affordable housing as a cornerstone of San Francisco’s growth, including in District 8
Public Safety
Too many members of our community feel unsafe in San Francisco. That’s unacceptable, and we must do better.
From mental health crisis response to community-based violence prevention to supporting and providing resources to our first responders, I believe improving public safety is about making sure everyone feels secure in the place they call home. There’s not just one approach to addressing our public safety crisis; we must implement a holistic and thorough set of policies that get at the roots of the crime, substance use, and mental health issues that we see in our neighborhoods.
As Supervisor, I’ll continue my work to expand mental health crisis teams so people get the care they need. I’ll support community programs that prevent violence before it happens and keep our neighborhoods and streets clean and safe. And I’ll make sure first responders, from police officers to firefighters to 311 teams, have the resources and capacity to respond quickly and effectively, so safety isn’t a privilege for the few, but a guarantee for everyone.
I also see street and traffic safety as a key component of public safety. I support building and maintaining District 8’s slow streets network, expanding protected bike lanes, and pushing for traffic-calming improvements like bulbouts, raised crosswalks, and lower speed limits. I believe in Vision Zero: no one should risk their life just getting across town.
My priorities:
Expand and fund mental health crisis response teams, and ensure that our first responders, like police officers and firefighters, have the resources they need to do their jobs effectively
Support funding for substance use treatment and recovery that works, so every resident can thrive in San Francisco
Support community-based violence prevention programs
Improve and maintain District 8’s slow streets network and protected bicycle lanes
Expand traffic calming improvements including bulbouts, raised crosswalks, and reduced speed limits
Protecting Immigrants
San Francisco’s immigrants are essential to the very fabric of our city’s culture, community and economy. Yet so many immigrant families live in constant fear of detention and deportation because Trump and his Administration are targeting immigrants at higher rates than we’ve ever seen before. It’s a terrifying time for immigrants and we need to stand with the community and defend our Sanctuary City status.
I believe San Francisco must do more than issue statements. We need real protections for immigrants and transparency and accountability about the ways in which San Francisco cooperates with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Otherwise, immigrants will continue to be disappeared without warning, ripped from their families and targeted for simply trying to work here.
As Supervisor, I’ll do everything in my power to support immigrants and keep I.C.E. out of San Francisco. This means building on existing state and local legislative efforts to ensure our city is a place of refuge, not fear.
My priorities:
Strengthen and fund immigrant legal defense and rapid response networks
Support clear notification and warning systems so undocumented residents know their rights and have time to seek help, while planning their day accordingly – whether it’s getting to and from work, or getting their children safely to and from school and other activities
Coordinate with state leaders and build on successful legislative models that limit I.C.E. cooperation
Protect workers from retaliation and exploitation tied to immigration status
Children, Families, Seniors & People with Disabilities
San Francisco’s population is aging quickly, and has the lowest percentage of children of any major U.S. city. San Francisco must become a city where parents both want to and can afford to raise their kids. We also must ensure that our growing population of seniors can age with dignity. Right now, we’re instead becoming a city that prices and pushes families out, while making it difficult for seniors to access quality health care, transportation, and more.
Too often, our systems make daily life harder than it needs to be, whether it’s unaffordable childcare, inaccessible transit, or public spaces that don’t work for strollers, wheelchairs, or seniors with mobility challenges.
I’ve seen firsthand how, when the city government gets involved in the right way, we can change outcomes for our most vulnerable. As a former Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), I worked directly with kids navigating the foster care system, advocating for their education, stability and safety when they needed it most. That experience shaped my belief that San Francisco should be a partner to families, not another barrier they have to fight through.
For families today, the cost and availability of childcare and preschool are among the biggest pressures they face. Long waitlists, limited slots, and sky-high costs are forcing parents out of the city altogether. Sky-high rent and housing costs make it nearly impossible for middle- and working-class families to live in high-quality housing.
Meanwhile, seniors and people with disabilities face similar challenges navigating a city that often wasn’t designed with them in mind, from dangerous or inaccessible sidewalks to a lack of senior services and accessible infrastructure and activities.
As Supervisor, I’ll fight for a city where families, seniors living on fixed incomes, and people with disabilities can afford to live and thrive here.
My priorities:
Expand access to affordable childcare, daycare, and preschool by increasing longer-term subsidies and free childcare options
For teens, support dual-enrollment programs between City College and SFUSD to create clearer, more affordable pathways for students to get a great college education
Improve sidewalk cleanliness, maintenance, and accessibility so public space works for seniors, kids, strollers, and people using mobility devices
Strengthen accessibility on Muni by expanding paratransit funding and improving reliability
Protect and expand access to disability benefits and supplemental income, SSI, SSDI, SNAP, and supportive services so people can live independently and securely in their communities
Safe Streets for Everybody
When people don’t feel safe walking, biking or getting their kids across the road, that is a public safety failure. I support building and maintaining District 8’s slow streets network, expanding protected bike lanes, and pushing for traffic-calming improvements like bulbouts, raised crosswalks, and lower speed limits. I believe in Vision Zero: no one should risk their life just getting across town.
Every serious traffic injury or fatality is preventable. District 8 must lead on building infrastructure that is easy and intuitive to use and keeps people safe. That means designing streets that work for the most vulnerable among us: seniors, children, people with disabilities, and anyone who relies on walking, rolling, biking, or transit to get around.
Promoting street safety is also good climate policy and economic policy. Safer, calmer streets reduce emissions by making it easier to take short trips without a car, support local businesses by increasing foot traffic, and create neighborhoods that feel welcoming and vibrant.
As Supervisor, I will push for connected, well-maintained infrastructure that makes safe travel the default — not something people have to fight for.
My priorities:
Complete a continuous, citywide connected bike lane network so biking is a safe and efficient option for everyday trips
Expand on successful corridors like Slow Sanchez, and create new slow streets where communities are asking for them
Improve street safety in high-injury and high-pedestrian areas by installing more bulbouts and raised crosswalks
Implement speed cameras on District 8 corridors with chronic speeding, including San Jose Avenue
Expand slow school zones so kids can get to school safely
Use daylit curbs creatively and effectively — with planters, parklets, art, and other treatments that physically prevent cars from lingering in dangerous areas
Pair lower speed limits with street design changes, not just signage, so slower speeds become the natural behavior
Nightlife
San Francisco thrives when we have vibrant, well-managed nightlife districts where people can gather, celebrate, and get home safely. The Castro serves as a cultural anchor for San Francisco and the LGBTQ+ community, and I’m proud that its nightlife is considered some of the best in the country.
Many of District 8’s bars and clubs also serve as spaces for many in the queer community to come together. These great local businesses deserve our support, especially now when it’s harder than ever for them to make ends meet.
My priorities:
Support safe, vibrant nightlife in the Castro through better lighting, transit access, and coordination between city agencies
Support state legislation to extend last call to four a.m. in nightlife districts to help hospitality businesses thrive
Invest in late-night transit so workers and patrons can get home safely
Parks, Pets & Quality of Life
District 8 is home to some of the best parks and public spaces in the city. From Dolores Park to Glen Canyon to the Noe Valley Town Square, our community is an amazing place to gather and explore all of the natural beauty the city has to offer. I had the immense honor of being directly involved in many of these projects during my time with the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department.
Personally, I get to experience these amazing parks as the proud owner of a rescue dog, Xander. For Kory and I, and for so many in District 8, pets are family. Access to safe, well-maintained open space for dogs isn’t a luxury, but a necessity.
In my career at the federal level, I worked to ensure many of our federal lands remained accessible to dogs, and that we maintained adequate off-leash areas – from Crissy Field to Fort Funston.
My priorities:
Use Noe Valley Town Square as a model and expand neighborhood plazas and shared spaces across District 8, including in Cole Valley
Ensure dog-friendly spaces are well-maintained, safe, and respectful of surrounding neighborhoods
Working closely with our dog advocacy groups, and ensuring San Francisco Animal Care is adequately funding, and continuing to work closely with the SF SPCA
Identify efforts to temporarily foster pets for people going into substance use disorder treatment, or people with disabilities and seniors requiring short-term stays in the medical system for procedures or treatments
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