Marjan Philhour
- Office: DCCC, Assembly District 19
- Election Date: March 5, 2024
- Candidate: Marjan Philhour
- 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.
Table of Contents
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? | X | |
| Should all students in 7th grade have access to algebra, if they want it? | X | |
| Should all high school students have access to AP courses? | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote making algebra available to 8th graders? | X | |
| 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. | Supported |
Explain why you did or did not support the recall of each member:
I supported the recall of the School Board members because I believe in prioritizing the education and well-being of our children above all else. The School Board's focus on issues like renaming schools and eliminating advanced courses like 8th grade algebra, rather than concentrating on critical matters like reopening schools safely during the pandemic, demonstrated a misalignment with the core educational needs of our students.
San Francisco's families were facing unprecedented challenges, and our education system needed to respond with practical, immediate solutions. The recall was not just about specific policies; it was a call for accountability and a recommitment to the fundamental responsibility of the School Board: ensuring a high-quality, accessible, and enriching education for every child in our district. Our children's future and the integrity of our educational system demanded nothing less.
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? | 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? | ||
| Increase the number of available recreational marijuana permits? | ||
| Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
The market is determining if additional recreational marijuana permits are needed - stores are losing money and failing, and it is not clear to me that there has been an increased demand for these permits.
With regard to ABC permits, issuance of those permits should be expanded based on data and actual demand.
As far as activities which must obtain permits and expansion of by-right activities, in general this would streamline how small businesses can operate in the city and lessen the time that small businesses deal with red tape.
Public Safety
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Do you think that property crime in San Francisco is too high? | X | |
| Do you support policies commonly referred to as "defund the police"? | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies that promote a fully-funded and fully-staffed police department? | X | |
| Should police funding be from the general fund, rather than via special taxes and set-asides? | X | |
| Did you support the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin? | X |
Please explain why you did or did not support the recall of DA Chesa Boudin:
I supported the recall of the District Attorney because I believe in a balanced approach to law enforcement and public safety. It's crucial to have leadership in the DA's office that not only pursues reform and justice but also prioritizes the safety and security of our residents, which includes actually prosecuting criminals. The recall was a response to what many in our community felt was a departure from these essential responsibilities.
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 the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build market rate housing in San Francisco? | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies that make it easier, faster, and/or cheaper to build subsidized housing in San Francisco? | X | |
| 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) | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies that would abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Public safety - and the deterioration of support for public safety over the past 10-15 years - is the number one issue facing us in San Francisco today. This deterioration touches on every issue in this questionnaire, including housing. For housing especially, distilling my views to yes/no answers will not effectively communicate my overall housing policy.
We need more housing. The far left in this City has adopted a housing policy that may use the right buzz words, but in fact the policy is pushing out the very people they purport to be fighting for. Seventy percent of police officers do not live in San Francisco. Families and working people - the middle class - can't afford to live in San Francisco anymore.
In 2016, I wrote this piece on housing that still stands: https://medium.com/@MarjanPhilhour/housing-affordability-and-the-race-for-richmond-district-supervisor-5b2c9a9af278
In 2020, I wrote another piece on housing, that also still stands: https://medium.com/@MarjanPhilhour/100-affordable-housing-341af947ea82
The bottom line is, we can have a million units available for free, if people do not feel safe inside their homes or walking out of their homes, none of this matters.
Drugs
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Should San Francisco arrest and prosecute fentanyl dealers? | X | |
| 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)? | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies promoting "safe consumption" sites without altering existing laws and lax enforcement around open-air usage? | X | |
| 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) | X |
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? | X | |
| 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)? | X |
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? | X | |
| Should the Party adopt or support policies requiring SFMTA and BART to enforce fare payment? | X | |
| Recent state funding requires Muni and BART to enforce fare payments in order to receive funding; do you agree with this requirement? | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
General questions
What needs to change with the Party?
Within the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), there's a need for a shift towards more inclusive, pragmatic, and solution-focused politics. The DCCC, while representing a diverse city, seems to be driven more by ideological purity than by practical, results-oriented governance that addresses the real needs of all San Franciscans.
To start, there needs to be a broader representation of viewpoints within the party. San Francisco is a city with a range of perspectives, and the DCCC should reflect that diversity. We need to embrace moderate voices and those who may not align perfectly with the most progressive elements, but who share the core values of the Democratic Party.
Also, the focus should be more on actionable policies that address critical issues like public safety, supporting small businesses, and housing affordability. The party has at times been distracted by symbolic gestures and niche issues that, while important, don't necessarily address the urgent needs of most residents. That distraction has resulted in endorsements of candidates and ballot measures that do not serve the interests of every day San Franciscans.
Transparency and accountability are also key. The workings of the DCCC should be more accessible and understandable to the average voter. This includes clear communication about its decisions and actions, and how they impact everyday life in our communities.
Finally, there's a need for unity and a willingness to collaborate across different factions within the party. The challenges facing our city are too significant to be bogged down by internal disputes or power struggles. We need to work together with a focus on practical solutions and the common good.
The DCCC should strive to be a true representation of all San Francisco Democrats, focusing on pragmatic governance and policies that make a tangible difference in the lives of our residents.
What are the top three issues facing San Francisco, and what would you like to see change?
Voters in San Francisco routinely face obscure ballot measures or a host of candidates who appear to be offering the same solutions. Rarely, a moment of clarity arises when a clear choice can be made. This is one of those moments.
In the past two years, we've seen recalls of three members of the School Board (including in the Richmond), two consecutive defeats of progressive District Attorney candidates (including in the Richmond), a defeat of Connie Chan's ballot initiative (including in the Richmond), and the ousting of a nearby Supervisor who was just as out of touch with his district. The Richmond District is saying loud and clear that it wants a new direction, but our Supervisor keeps doubling-down on the failed status quo.
My priorities:
- Fully fund and staff for public safety so that we can walk down the street without being accosted, assaulted, or worse.
- Close the open-air drug markets by arresting dealers and public users of deadly fentanyl and other hard drugs.
- Remove tents and dangerous tent encampments from our sidewalks; support the City Attorney in his efforts to overturn the misguided court injunction.
- Compel the most troubled on our streets to shelter, treatment or conservatorship.
- Fight for small businesses by protecting store employees from assault, and by streamlining a bureaucracy designed to make opening and running a business impossible.
- Make the education of our children a priority; oppose misguided initiatives like renaming George Washington High School, or eliminating 8th grade algebra, which distract from this goal.
- Stop the endless obstruction of both affordable and market-rate housing and protect tenants so that our kids can find an affordable place to live.
- Challenge the failed status quo by upending entrenched special interests who oppose change at every turn.
Tell us one thing you think needs to change in SF that the average voter wouldn't know about.
We need to break the cycle of bureaucracy that hinders actual representation of San Francisco residents in City Hall:
We have too many Boards and Commissions, which are accountable to no one. This means that you have private, non-elected citizens serving on the Police Commission which sets public safety policy and discipline for SFPD.
This feeds into the outdated and opaque bureaucratic processes that affect everything from opening a small business to getting permits for home renovations, and even to the implementation of essential city services.
We say we have term limits, yet we allow for a loophole in the city's charter that allows Supervisors to serve for two terms, take a four year break, and run again. If we really cared about bringing new people and ideas into our City's leadership, we would close this loophole.
Every campaign season we hear candidates call for audits of city funded non-profits. This has yet to be implemented.
San Francisco voters are finally ready for change - I am hopeful and optimistic that 2024 will be a watershed political year that will ultimately serve as a key inflection point for our City.
If you see any errors on this page, please let us know at contact@growsf.org.