Lily Ho

• Office: DCCC, Assembly District 17
• Election Date: March 5, 2024
• Candidate: Lily Ho
• 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.

We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by December 23, 2023 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

• Education
• Business
• Public Safety
• Housing
• Drugs
• Mental Health
• Public Transit

Questions

Please mark the box that best aligns with your position. You may explain any position if you so desire.

Education

	Yes	No
Should all students in 8th grade have access to algebra, if they want it?	✔️
Should all students in 7th grade have access to algebra, if they want it?	✔️
Should all high school students have access to AP courses?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote making algebra available to 8th graders?	✔️
Did you support or oppose the recall of Board of Education members Collins, López, and Moliga? If you supported or opposed a subset, please specify below.	✔️

Explain why you did or did not support the recall of each member:

I supported the recall of these members because their antics clearly prioritized their personal ideological projects over the well-being and education of San Francisco's children. I also took deep offense at Alison Collins' choice to direct racial slurs at Asian American parents, as well the subsequent choice by other members to circle the wagons and defend her actions.

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Business

Should San Francisco…	Yes	No
Reduce the time to obtain all permits to open a new business to no more than 3 months?	✔️
Reduce the cost of obtaining permits to open a new business?	✔️
Reduce the number of activities which must obtain permits, and expand the number of by-right activities?	✔️
Increase the number of available ABC permits?	✔️
Increase the number of available recreational marijuana permits?	✔️
Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City?	✔️

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Public Safety

	Yes	No
Do you think that property crime in San Francisco is too high?	✔️
Do you support policies commonly referred to as "defund the police"?		✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote a fully-funded and fully-staffed police department?	✔️
Should police funding be from the general fund, rather than via special taxes and set-asides?	✔️
Did you support the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin?	✔️

Please explain why you did or did not support the recall of DA Chesa Boudin:

I supported the recall of Chesa Boudin. I believe that his soft on crime policies not only degraded the general quality of life for all San Franciscans, but also for Asian American communities in particular. His office's tendency to downplay hate crimes against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably hate-motivated assaults against Asian elders, was not a change that we signed up for.

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?	✔️
Is it too difficult to build subsidized housing in San Francisco?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build market rate housing in San Francisco?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build subsidized housing in San Francisco?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that would loosen the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? (ie taller, denser, and fewer/reduced setbacks)	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that would abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings?	✔️

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Drugs

	Yes	No
Should San Francisco arrest and prosecute fentanyl dealers?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that formally request help from the State and Federal governments to bolster our police force (both the officers and the investigators)?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies promoting "safe consumption" sites without altering existing laws and lax enforcement around open-air usage?		✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies promoting "safe consumption" sites only if paired with zero-tolerance for open-air usage? (ie consuming drugs like fentanyl on the street would be illegal; and users would be taken to a recovery site until they are sober)	✔️

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Mental Health

	Yes	No
Should San Francisco place people who are experiencing mental health crises on the streets into involuntary mental health holds at psychiatric facilities?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies that facilitate the construction and operation of mental health facilities, and permit those facilities to treat patients involuntarily if they are deemed to be unable to care for themselves (as determined by a panel of psychiatric professionals)?	✔️

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

Public Transit

	Yes	No
Should SFMTA and BART conduct fare enforcement operations and prosecute fare evaders?	✔️
Should the Party adopt or support policies requiring SFMTA and BART to enforce fare payment?	✔️
Recent state funding requires Muni and BART to enforce fare payments in order to receive funding; do you agree with this requirement?	✔️

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:

General questions

What needs to change with the Party?

The Democratic Party of San Francisco needs to better reflect the opinions of its voters. The DCCC has demonstrated, in key election after key election, that they are on the wrong side of public opinion in an almost uniformly Democratic city.

What are the top three issues facing San Francisco, and what would you like to see change?

I think the top three issues that need to be addressed to make San Francisco a better city are public safety, housing affordability, and education policy.

On the public safety side, public transportation needs to be cleaned up so more residents feel safe using it. More police are needed to stop crimes that degrade our general quality of life, as well as to protect small businesses from rampant vandalism and organized theft.

On housing, production of all housing needs to be streamlined, period.

And on education policy, attempts to rob middle schoolers of the opportunity to learn advanced math are pernicious and must be opposed. If San Francisco is to remain the world's innovation hub, we cannot foreclose technical career paths to our youth by cheating students out of necessary math skills.

Tell us one thing you think needs to change in SF that the average voter wouldn't know about.

The consequences of an understaffed police department are visible, but from my conversations with voters, many are unaware of how chronically understaffed the department actually is.

It should go without saying, but we should have a fully staffed police department.

Additionally, voters are largely unaware of the extent to which the police commission dictates the work of SFPD, extending to lengthy guidelines on what officers can and cannot do and how much extra administrative work is required in their daily jobs.