It’s 2018 in the Bay Area, and this year we have TWO elections to contend over. Flyers have been piling up for weeks and I just received my vote-by-mail ballot. It’s time to vote for a new mayor of San Francisco (among other things).
Since I love biking, I usually take a look at the SF Bike Coalition for their endorsements. “Bike the vote!” as they say. If you want the juicy details on the Mayor candidates and their opinions on bike commuting, the SFBC even has a questionnaire for them to answer! Make sure to click on “Full Questionnaire” and scroll down to get more details in their own words.
I hope some of this information can help you make some better decisions for mayor of San Francisco or motivate you to vote in the first place!
Mayor of San Francisco: Jane Kim and Mark Leno
Reading between the lines it seems that the SFBC likes Jane Kim more. Probably because she actually rides her bike and there are lots of cool shots of her doing so.
I found out on the endorsements page that Mark Leno sponsored the 2001 Valencia bike lanes! That was just the beginning of all the great bike lanes we see today, so even though he doesn’t ride a bicycle in the city he seems onboard with the bike infrastructure.
District 8 of San Francisco: Mandelmann vs. Sheehy
If you look at the SFBC questionnaire, again it seems that they’re choosing the person who bikes in the city. I read some of the questionnaires and their answers seem similar, except Sheehy being the current sitting supervisor has battle stories of taking real action. I did really like this quote from Sheehy: “Simply said, you need a district supervisor who is willing to lose votes to do the right thing so MTA and/or other city agencies don’t delay making safety changes waiting for options that don’t exist or are half-baked compromises. My record demonstrates that I will make those choices, even if it costs me support.” He had mentioned a few examples before that if you want to read them yourself.
That’s a bold statement…makes me wonder if he loses will it be because people didn’t like that he put bike lanes above parking? Or is this all fluff anyway? No one knows for sure. Welcome to politics.
Even with that statement by Sheehy, the SF Bike Coalition still seems to endorse Mandelmann over him. I’m still up in the air about this one from this research, but I usually trust the judgement of my favorite bike coalition! Let me know in the comments if you have any more insight.
I did read that whatever happens for district 8, the vote comes up again in November elections anyway with the same candidates!
Good luck voting, and here’s another plug to become a member of the San Francisco Bike Coalition if you aren’t one already. They do lots of heavy political lifting so we can just ride our bike and enjoy the huge amount of bike lanes and safety improvements being added to San Francisco every day. If you live in another city, find your local bike coalition and support them!
