Phil Ting
- Office: Assembly, District 19
- Election Date: June 7, 2022
- Candidate: Phil Ting
- Due Date: Monday, April 11, 2022
- Printable Version
Table of Contents
Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the June 7, 2022 primary election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.
The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco and have the expertise to enact meaningful policy changes.
We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by Monday, April 11, 2022 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.
Vision
GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous San Francisco. We work to propose and pass laws that align incentives of private businesses and individuals to promote shared prosperity for every San Franciscan.
This section of our questionnaire seeks to help us gain an understanding of your alignment with our vision for San Francisco. Note that some of the questions may be outside the scope of the office you're running for.
Short-form questions
Please mark the box that best aligns with your position. You may explain any position if you so desire, but this section is designed to be a quick overview of your governing philosophy and view of the city's problems.
Small Business
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open a new businesses | X | ||
| Run a business in the city | X | ||
| Hire staff at a living wage | X | ||
| Obtain various licenses & permits (liquor, entertainment, etc) | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Housing
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expand your home (adding new stories, rooms, decks, etc) | X | ||
| Demolish your home and redevelop it into multifamily housing | X | ||
| Redevelop things like parking lots and single-story commercial into multifamily housing | X | ||
| Build subsidized Affordable housing | X | ||
| Build market-rate housing | X | ||
| Build homeless shelters (including navigation centers and "tiny homes") | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Public Safety
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| File a police report | X | ||
| Recover a stolen item like a bike or laptop computer | X | ||
| Arrest & prosecute criminals | X | ||
| File a domestic violence or rape report | X | ||
| Charge & prosecute domestic violence or rape | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Education
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attend a school of your choosing | X | ||
| Transport children to school | X | ||
| Hire teachers | X | ||
| Fire teachers | X | ||
| Set public education curriculum | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Budget
| Do you think San Francisco spends too little, too much, or just enough on… | Too little | Just enough | Enough, but badly | Too much |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Police and public safety | X | |||
| Street cleanliness | X | |||
| Homeless services | X | |||
| Affordable housing | X | |||
| Parks | X | |||
| Roads | X | |||
| Bus, bike, train, and other public transit infrastructure | X | |||
| Schools | X | |||
| Medical facilities | X | |||
| Drug prevention and treatment | X | |||
| Arts | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
What are the top three issues facing San Francisco, and what would you like to see change?
The top three issues facing our city are housing affordability, homelessness, [and street conditions?]. I support building more housing at all levels, including affordable housing, and have written legislation to streamline the building of accessory dwelling units and navigation centers. [Finally, while I see drug dealing and similar problems near my district office in the Tenderloin, I understand that we need to tackle such an issue in a reasoned way that deals with small users in a different fashion from dealers.]
Tell us one thing you think needs to change in SF that the average voter wouldn't know about.
The school lottery system has unfortunately pushed too many families into the private school system.
Long-form questions
This section is optional.
We know your time is short, so please feel free to respond to the questions below which you think are most relevant to the position you're running for (but you are, of course, welcome to answer all of them). It is not necessary to answer these questions to secure our endorsement, but more context always helps us make better decisions.
Public health
Do you support the creation of safe consumption sites in San Francisco?
Yes, I have supported legislation that would authorize the city to set up safe consumption sites.
Do you support our current laissez-faire approach to open-air drug usage? What would you change?
Education
How should the Board of Education be reformed to bring more accountability and better performance to the Board?
Should the ban on middle school algebra be reversed?
Should charter schools be allowed to operate in San Francisco?
Urbanism
Do you support raising the price of parking and driving in San Francisco?
Do you support banning cars from central downtown areas and certain retail or residential corridors?
Do you support congestion pricing?
Should San Francisco expand its protected bike lane network?
Yes; I have been a strong supporter of safer biking throughout my career.
Should San Francisco prioritize buses over car traffic by creating more bus-only lanes and directing traffic enforcement to ticket drivers who ignore the restrictions?
Yes; bus-only lanes are quicker and cheaper to build than grade-separated rail, for example. We have to speed up transit if we want to get riders back on board as we recover from the pandemic.
Should Uber, Lyft, and other ride-share services be banned?
Should San Francisco allow more bike share and scooter share companies?
Should San Francisco allow bike and scooter share companies to operate with fewer restrictions on the number of vehicles they offer for rent, and in more places (including inside Golden Gate Park)?
Do you support keeping JFK Drive and the Great Highway car-free permanently?
Yes?
Should Muni be free for everyone? If so, what other programs would you take money from in order to fund this change?
Taxes
Would you repeal Prop 13, if you had the authority to do so? Or, if not repeal it, how would you change it?
I have been a long time supporter of Prop 13 reform, especially the creation of a split-roll system that would re-assess commercial properties while keeping protections for homeowners.
Are taxes and fees on small businesses too low, just right, or too high?
Should San Francisco pursue any and all avenues to impose parcel taxes that could bypass Prop 13, which keeps property taxes on multi-million dollar property artificially low?
Yes.
Are sales taxes too low, just right, or too high?
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
What would you change about the process of new business formation?
Should San Francisco welcome all businesses, regardless of size?
Do you think the government should decide which businesses can and cannot open in San Francisco?
Should all businesses be permitted by-right? If not, which business categories do you think should not be by-right?
Housing & Homelessness
Do you believe that San Francisco has a shortage of homes?
Absolutely.
Do you believe that housing prices are set by supply and demand constraints?
Yes; even though we should build as much affordable housing as possible, building more housing at all levels will help with prices.
Should San Francisco upzone? If so, where and how?
Yes; the entire city should be upzoned.
Should homeless shelters be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
Should subsidized Affordable housing be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
Yes.
Should market rate housing be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
Policy
Now that we know where you align and differ from our vision for San Francisco, we'd like to get some details about how you intend to use your elected office to achieve your goals.
Why are you running for Assembly?
What is your #1 policy goal?
How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?
Will the power of the office of Assemblymember be enough to achieve this goal?
What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?
Will the power of the office of Assemblymember be enough to achieve these goals?
What is an existing policy you would like to reform?
What is an "out there" change that you would make to SF / local government / policy, if you could? (For example: adding at-large supervisors, changing how elections work, creating a Bay Area regional government, etc.)
Personal
Tell us a bit about yourself!
How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?
What do you love most about San Francisco?
What do you dislike the most about San Francisco?
Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)
Thank you
Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!
If you see any errors on this page, please let us know at contact@growsf.org.