Cynthia J. Cravens
- Office: State Senate, District 11
- Election Date: March 5, 2024
- Candidate: Cravens, Cynthia J.
- Due Date: December 23, 2023
- Printable Version
Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the March 5, 2024 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 December 23, 2023 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.
Table of Contents
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.
As a candidate for federal office, your day-to-day responsibilities in office will affect not just San Francisco, but California and the United States as a whole. As a representative of the people of California and of San Francisco, the policies you bring to Washington should reflect the best of what we have to offer.
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 problems of the city, state, and/or country.
If you are not familiar with San Francisco in particular, feel free to skip the questions about it. But please do answer the questions about state and federal policy.
Small Business
| Should San Francisco... | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Reduce the time to obtain all permits to open a new business to no more than 3 months | X | |
| Reduce the cost of obtaining permits to open a new business | X | |
| Reduce the number of activities which must obtain permits, and expand the number of by-right activities | X | |
| Increase the number of available ABC permits | X | |
| Increase the number of available recreational marijuana permits | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
| Should the state or federal government have more say, the same say, less say, or the same amount but of a different variety on... | More say | Same amount | Less say | Same, but different |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small business creation | X | X | ||
| Rules & permitting fees enacted by cities and states | X | |||
| Corporate tax policy | X | |||
| Tax incentives for high tech, green tech, or other desirable industries | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Housing
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Is it too difficult to build market rate housing in San Francisco? | X | |
| Is it too difficult to build subsidized housing in San Francisco? | X | |
| Should San Francisco make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build market rate housing? | X | |
| Should San Francisco make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build subsidized housing? | X | |
| Should San Francisco loosen the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? (ie taller, denser, and fewer/reduced setbacks) | X | |
| Should San Francisco abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
SF definitely needs more market rate housing; and, I would like to see, at least in the short run, more subsidized housing in the city for police officers, 911 dispatchers, and school teachers…municipal positions that urgently need to be filled, but are hard to recruit for and retain.
Loosening existing limits on height, density, bulk for residential buildings…thoughtfully, carefully,* is definitely the path forward, but abolishing these limits altogether takes things too far
*After all, SF residential buildings must still withstand powerful earthquakes, and other severe phenomona.
| Should the state or federal government have more say, the same say, less say, or the same amount but of a different variety on... | More say | Same amount | Less say | Same, but different |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoning | X | |||
| Taxes and fees on homebuilders | X | |||
| Oversight of cities' housing policies | X | |||
| Building subsidized Affordable housing | X | |||
| Building market-rate housing | X | |||
| Building homeless shelters | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Public Safety
| Should San Francisco... | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Have a fully-staffed police force? (That means hiring about 800 officers) | X | |
| Change the cite-and-release policy so officers can arrest suspects of misdemeanors like shoplifting and car break-ins? | X | |
| Shut down its open-air drug markets by arresting and prosecuting both the street dealers and bosses? | X | |
| Shut down fencing operations by arresting and prosecuting both the vendors and the theft rings? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
I'm a classic liberal…which means that not only do I believe in the rights of individuals to free speech/ free assembly, I also believe in individual accountability. San Francisco must, once again, hold those who break the law accountable. Sections 484(a) & 488 of the California Penal Code, introduced after Prop 47 passed, decriminalized most shoplifting, and shoplifters know it…which results in the chaos we're now seeing across our city. This must change.
At least 2 people a day die from fetanyl overdoses in SF. This is unacceptable. We must stop normalizing public illegal drug use, and start giving people a reason to leave illegal, devastating drug use behind. Treatment First programs, programs that require people living on the street to participate in drug treatment with extensive and long term wrap around services BEFORE receiving other public aid are the way forward.
| Should the state or federal government have more say, the same say, less say, or the same amount but of a different variety on... | More say | Same amount | Less say | Same, but different |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal justice administration at the state or city level | X | |||
| Police funding | X | |||
| Rehabilitation of prisoners | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Recently, San Francisco was awarded $17 million in funding from the State of California's Organized Retail Theft Grant Program. In instances like this, I would hope that the state would establish goals as to what success would look like, and to then track progress against those goals.
However, there are other instances when the state or federal government establishes mandates without providing funding to do so. I am far less enthusiastic about these mandates.
Education
| Should San Francisco... | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Allow more educational options, like charter schools, magnet schools, and others? | X | |
| Offer Algebra in 8th grade to students who want it? | X | |
| Offer Algebra in 7th grade to students who want it? | X | |
| Have magnet schools with entry requirements like Lowell and Ruth Asawa School for the Arts? | X | |
| Require schools to improve student performance and fire teachers who consistently underperform? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
San Francisco needs to prioritize policies that enhance the academic excellence of all students, and worry less about identitarianism politics.
| Should the state or federal government have more say, the same say, less say, or the same amount but of a different variety on... | More say | Same amount | Less say | Same, but different |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standardized education curricula | X | |||
| Public School funding | X | |||
| Private Schools | X | |||
| Religious Schools | X | |||
| Staffing levels | X | |||
| Advanced, remedial, or special needs education | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Budget
| Do you think the state or federal governments spend 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, California, or the Nation and what would you like to see change?
◾️Disunity. Disunity at the municipal, state and national levels. The growing divisiveness between Democrats vs. Republicans, progressives vs. moderate Democrats, and the elite managerial class vs. the working class. I'd like to see a return to classic liberal values…individual freedoms…freedom of speech, assembly, AND individual accountability. Also, a turning away from new ideologies that emphasize oppressor vs. oppressed narratives and an insistence that the "sins of the fathers, should be paid by…even visited upon their children."
◾️Crime/ lawlessness. Too much heedless permissiveness towards those committing crimes, and not enough concern for the victims themselves. More cops on the beat…cops on the ground…building trust in neighborhoods. More 911 dispatchers.
◾️Rootlessness / homelessness…brought about by drug addiction, mental health issues, and exorbitant housing and rent costs.
Solutions: emphasize drug treatment programs, and not easy access to drugs. We should not make using illegal drugs attractive to drug users. More mental health services. And, housing policies that make finding affordable housing possible. Certainly more market rate and affordable, subsidized housing (particularly for police officers, teachers, other civil servant positions that are hard to fill. Also, we should be looking at laws,/ policies that create favorable conditions for tenants AND landlords to agree to additional density, additional roommates.
Tell us one thing you think needs to change in San Francisco, California, or the Nation that the average voter wouldn't know about.
◾️Most voters are unaware just how deeply embedded DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs are in institutions across the United States, and in California in particular. Moreover, they may be lulled into complacency by the friendly terms in the title. The term "inclusion," for instance…sounds compassionate, but in some institutions actually means "decentering whiteness." Tabia Lee, an African American DEI administrator at DeAnza College in California learned this the hard way. Jewish students had approached her department, seeking help because they were experiencing anti-semitism on campus, but when Lee tried to take action on their behalf, was told not to by college execs: Jewish students were considered white, and, therefore, part of the oppressor class, and, therefore, undeserving of DEI assistance.
This type of thinking…oppressor vs. oppressed, and that one SHOULD be treated differently based on skin color or ethnicity or religion…DEI philosophy, in other words…is anathema to American values…especially values surrounding the individual freedoms of speech and assembly.
Moreover, it's a highly divisive ideology…one that is sure to provoke conflict in the future.
I would like to see a review of all DEI programs in academia in California…would like to learn whether they all mimic that of DeAnza College, or whether the DeAnza program was a one off. And, if they do, would like to see them all disbanded…as quickly as possible.
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 State Senate, District 11?
Identitarian politics, DEI programs, gender identity ideology…belief systems and programs untethered from reality that make running effective institutions, government agencies, corporations, and non-profits almost impossible are why I launched my campaign for Senate. But, once in the thick of the campaign, realized that I am just as passionate about finding solutions for the drug addiction / homelessness problem.
What is your #1 policy goal?
That the state of California and the polities of District 11 conduct a review of DEI programs in their jurisdictions, and learn whether these programs are helping constituents or hurting constituents…exacerbating antagonism/ racism/ anti-semitism/ etc. among various groups.
And, if the latter, they will cancel these DEI programs in governmental agencies and government - funded programs.
How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?
Excellent question. The DEI movement is very powerful among my fellow Democrats, but I would seek out support among independents and even Republicans.
Concerning political capital, I have very little, but recent circumstances (the anti-semitism unleashed by the October 7th attack by Hamas on Jewish students here in the U.S….some of it unleashed by DEI consultants on campus) may create momentum or a kind of capital of its own.
Will the power of the office of State Senate, District 11 be enough to achieve this goal?
Not currently, but politics are in flux…so, we'll see.
What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?
#2. More drug treatment FIRST programs, less programs associated with the harm reduction model in helping people living on the street to reclaim their lives.
#3. More law enforcement…more beat cops…more 911 operators.
Will the power of the office of State Senate, District 11 be enough to achieve these goals? Hard to say. California's looming, massive budget deficit will make things a lot harder.
What is an existing policy you would like to reform?
SB132: I would like to see this particular policy / law overturned. That male inmates may self-identify as trans/ non-binary/ or female, some of whom are rapists and murderers, and request to be housed with vulnerable female prisoners in women's prisons, and that that request will be seriously considered is disturbing to me.
What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? (For example: changing how elections work, creating a Bay Area regional government, etc.)
I would like public commentary to elected officials to be easier and more frequent. Having one's say at legislative hearings is growing harder and harder.
Personal
Tell us a bit about yourself!
How long have you lived in California? What brought you here and what keeps you here? Most of my life. The weather. The people. The beauty of nature. The innovation.
What do you love most about California and/or your hometown?
The diversity. And, that I can feel like I live in a friendly small village (the outer Richmond), but still have great access to terrific museums, entertainment, art, and nature.
What do you dislike the most about California and/or your hometown? The current permissive atmosphere concerning crime.
Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)
I volunteer for my church, a very liberal denomination, quite a bit…scheduling ushers/ lectors/ serving as an Usher.
I also volunteer for "Freer Speech," a new group trying to preserve our 1st Amendment rights.
And, from time to time, I participate in Refuse Refuse clean-ups sponsored by my church.
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.