Clear Out Connie Chan in 2024

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Why Clear Out Connie?

Public safety, public schools, and opportunity. These are the three pillars of a thriving community. Connie Chan has failed on all three.

Connie Chan votes against funding police, opposes merit-based admissions and advanced education opportunities, and consistently opposes neighborhood businesses and housing families can afford.

Follow along through November 2024 for copious considerations to clear out Connie Chan.

1. Connie Chan opposed the School Board recall

Connie Chan opposed the School Board recall despite overwhelming support in the Richmond. District 1 residents voted 3:1 for the recall, putting Supervisor Chan on the wrong side of her constituents. The recalled School Board members Alison Collins and Gabriela López supported banning 8th grade algebra, ending merit admissions at Lowell, and renamed schools instead of reopening them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We need a Supervisor that prioritizes the education of our children, not the political careers of her friends on the School Board.

2. Connie tried to defund the police

Despite a 567% increase in Asian hate crimes from 2021 to 2022, Connie opposed the $27m police budget supplemental that provides overtime funding for more police patrols.

Connie stood in opposition to the overwhelming majority of Richmond residents. She blocked the bill until the backlash from her constituents was so strong that she chose to give up.

Hold Supervisor Chan accountable for her inaction.

3. Connie opposed the Chesa Boudin recall

Despite urgent calls from her constituents for greater public safety and nearly 60% of District 1 voting in favor of the recall, Connie opposed the recall of Chesa Boudin.

Chesa Boudin was recalled by voters for his abject failure to prosecute crime, especially unprecedented burglaries and hate crimes against Asians which spiked by 567% in 2021.

4. Connie tried to kill outdoor dining

Connie Chan voted alongside Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin to make it illegal for businesses to lock up their outdoor dining spaces overnight. Outdoor dining was the only way many small restaurants could survive during the pandemic, and this law would have effectively killed it. Small businesses wouldn't have been able to protect their property against drug use, needles, human waste, and vandalism.

This proposal was called a "poison pill" because of its damaging consequences for small businesses who were already struggling to survive amid the pandemic. This move by Connie reflects a consistent history of fighting against the needs of small businesses in San Francisco.

Luckily, her opposition failed and small businesses were able to keep their outdoor dining spaces.

5. Connie supports banning successful small businesses who are "too big"

Connie is anti-business, including successful home-grown businesses like Ike's Subs and El Farolito. Connie Chan, alongside Aaron Peskin, wanted to stop the esteemed SF taqueria El Farolito from opening a new location in North Beach. The crime was simply that they were too successful and had more than 11 locations — the number that San Francisco's bureaucrats consider "too big for San Francisco".

We shouldn't be punishing successful entrepreneurs who provide much-loved food or entertainment to San Franciscans. We should be encouraging them to open more locations and hire more people.

6. Connie opposes Mayor Breed's downtown recovery plan

Connie does not support the Mayor's downtown revitalization plan, which includes tax breaks for businesses who want to open in the downtown area. San Francisco needs businesses to come back downtown, and we need to try an all-of-the-above approach: improve public safety, give tax breaks, and make it easier to open a business. Connie's opposition to the Mayor's plan is a vote against small businesses and a vote against the recovery of downtown.

7. Connie banned short-term residential rentals

Leaving town for the Summer and want to rent your place? Have family visiting from overseas and need a one-month rental? Sorry, thanks to Connie Chan that's illegal.

Connie voted with Aaron Peskin to ban rentals between 1 month and 1 year long (the city calls these "intermediate rentals"). The ban prohibits any intermediate leases aside from just 1,000 approved sites, which is 0.25% of the city's housing stock.

This ban came in the midst of the pandemic, making it even more difficult for tenants who were looking for flexible leases.

8. Connie fights against family housing

In a city where permitting a new home can take several years, Connie blocked a referendum that would cut 2 years of red tape off the process. This is a classic example of Connie's obstructionist approach to housing. She claims to support family housing, but her actions show otherwise.

Connie ran on a campaign of "affordable" housing, but her track record shows she is not prioritizing homes regular people can afford.

Here's a worrying statistic: in 2022, over 600 babies were born to families in District 1, but only 4 privately-owned homes and zero city-subsidized homes were built. Where will those other 596 babies live when they grow up? Connie's policies make it impossible for them to live in San Francisco.

What does Connie actually prioritize: families or City Hall red tape?

9. Connie opposes homeownership

Supervisor Connie Chan has resolved to block all housing that isn't subsidized by the government. That means no more homes owned by people; she only wants homes where City Hall has control. When home builders hear this, they choose to go somewhere else, making our shortage of housing worse.

Connie seems to believe that more homes won't help the housing crisis. But the data shows that more housing is the only way to make housing more affordable. It's simple economics.

Connie fights hard to stop homes from being built, and believes that all new housing must be subsidized by taxpayers. In order to live in those units, you can't make too much money or you won't qualify. So if you want your kids to get a great job and buy a home near you, you're out of luck in Connie's San Francisco.

10. Connie blocked building 100% affordable housing for families

Why is Supervisor Chan saying "no" to housing downtown? We should be building as much housing as possible downtown, especially housing that is affordable for families and near BART. But Connie blocked a 495-home apartment building next to the Westfield Mall downtown. Blocking housing downtown near transit, jobs, and shopping is no way to solve the ongoing housing shortage in the city.

11. Connie wrote a bill to make building affordable housing harder

Connie Chan wrote Proposition E, which was designed to muddy the waters around Proposition D in order to defeat it. Proposition D, which Chan opposed, would have made it easier to build affordable housing.

Connie's Proposition E would have made it harder to build affordable housing than existing laws by putting up more requirements, more review boards, and more restrictions. Even though Connie claims to support affordable housing, this would have presented a strong setback for achieving any affordable housing to begin with.

The San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board called Connie's bill "cheap political theater"

"Supervisor Connie Chan, the bill's primary backer, conceded in an endorsement interview that there are "probably not significant differences between SB35 and what we're offering." But that's not entirely true. The bill manages to be both redundant and a step backward."

— SF Chronicle

12. Connie keeps the Alexandria Theatre vacant

Connie blocked the construction of 74 homes at the site of the former Alexandria Theatre at Geary & 18th. The site would have provided much needed housing for the neighborhood, including subsidized affordable housing for the working class. The home builders even offered to restore the historic facade of the Alexandria Theatre building, including the marquee and blade sign, while introducing new features into the entranceway and interior to both preserve and update the building's style. But Connie blocked the project, leaving the site vacant and undeveloped.

13. Connie hates fun: she opposed the Golden Gate Park Ferris Wheel

Rather than focusing on what San Franciscans care about, she made a ferris wheel her #1 issue for months. This took time away from solving problems that actually harm San Franciscans. We need to elect people who care about problems that matter, not hate fun.

Connie opposed the Ferris Wheel on the grounds that the noise it creates would disrupt the Park's wildlife, but has no such qualms about any other noise-generating activity like driving, picnicking, the Bay to Breakers parade race, the museums, or the music concourse.

On further investigation, Connie's real reason for attacking the ferris wheel was due to the income it provided to the nonprofit Parks Alliance. Connie, for some reason, has a personal vendetta against the nonprofit. Much of Connie's time in office has been marked by her ongoing war against the Parks Alliance and the Parks and Rec department.

14. Connie hates fun: no free concerts for San Franciscans

Who doesn't love a free concert? Supervisor Connie Chan, apparently.

When the producer of Outside Lands proposed putting on free concerts downtown and a second weekend of Outside Lands, she demanded fealty and tried to extract concessions from Another Planet Entertainment. It seems this demand was just a ploy to stop the free downtown concerts from happening, and she has refused to even schedule a vote.

This is a classic blame-game strategy with no opportunity to make good on her demands.

15. Connie tried to kill Muni

Her "free Muni" plan would have left Muni with a $200 million deficit and at least a 20% reduction in service while regular riders are asking for more frequent, faster, safer, and cleaner service. Polls have shown that Muni riders are not unhappy about the $2.50 fare, but rather the quality of service. Connie's plan would have made Muni worse, not better.

Muni is a critical part of our city's infrastructure, and we should be expanding transit service in The Richmond and other District 1 neighborhoods. We need to elect people who will make it better, not worse.