• Office: DCCC, Assembly District 19
• Election Date: March 5, 2024
• Candidate: Michela Alioto-Pier
• 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
  • Education
  • Business
  • Public Safety
  • Housing
  • Drugs
  • Mental Health
  • Public Transit
• General questions

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.	Support

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

I supported the recall. The School Board members should be focused on educating our children and doing whatever they can to insure healthy, well rounded, and educated youth. Our school board failed us at a time when we needed them most and politics played a larger role than the welfare of our children.

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?	X
Increase the number of available recreational marijuana permits?	X
Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City?	X

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free: ABC and marijuana permits still need to go under a review and still need to be monitored, particularly in residential neighborhoods.

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:

The District Attorney's main job is to prosecute criminals. Mr. Boudin would have been better placed in the Public Defender's office and did not do his job as District Attorney to protect the citizens of San Francisco by the proper prosecution of criminals.

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)	Depends
Should the Party adopt or support policies that would abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings?	Depends

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

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)?	Depends
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: We need to be careful working with the federal government to bolster our police force and on cracking down on drug use because the feds are still tasked with enforcing federal marijuana laws. Additionally, we are a Sanctuary City and working with the Feds can complicate matters for people who have not committed a crime and who have been good and hard working members of our community.

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?	Depends
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)?	Depends

If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free: Conservatorship is a useful tool but must not be taken advantage of. When I was on the Board of Supervisors I tried to pass Laura's Law in San Francisco. At the time, with the feverish opposition of the Public Health Director, Dr. Mitch Katz, I could not get the support of the Mayor or of 6 other members of the Board. Years later, after the departure of Dr. Katz, a watered down version of Laura's Law passed. Mentally ill people need conservatorships when they can cause harm to themselves or others. But to use conservatorship as a way of getting people to leave the city, take a homeless bed, or who are having a mental health crisis would be an egregious overuse, and other avenues to deal with those issues should be explored. We need to be careful not to fall back to the 1940's where institutionalization was used as a form of punishment or control.

The city should not have to carry the burden of constructing and supporting mental health facilities alone. We need a multi county approach with state funds to adequately accommodate our needs. Without state funds, a private public partnership could also be explored, but there is no question that we need adequate mental health facilities and programs to properly deal with our homeless and addict population.

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?

I would like to see a more inclusive party where people can actually talk and debate issues important to the city, without the fear of personal attack or vilification.

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

The 4 (I couldn't leave it at 3) most important issues facing San Francisco are homelessness, crime and safety, housing and job growth and development. I believe that the DCCC can be most effective in focusing on the issues where we can be most influential with the Mayor, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the state, that can have a more immediate effect on the daily lives of San Franciscan.

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

As a member of the Board of Supervisors I fought hard to save St. Lukes hospital in the Mission, now renamed CPMC Mission Bernal Campus, in 2018. At the time we fought, and were able to maintain, the maternity ward and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Since that time the birth center and the NICU have been removed. I believe that the city should have a NICU and maternity ward on that side of San Francisco and should encourage Sutter Health to reopen both.

I also believe that the city needs more Skilled Nursing Facility (SNiF) beds so that people in different parts of San Francisco can be near loved ones when they are recovering from surgeries or need extra care.

Additionally, I also believe that we need a Stage 1 Trauma Center with a helipad, if for no other use except during an emergency. Because of San Francisco's location to both the Hayward and San Andreas faults, we need to be more prepared, Although UCSF Benioff has a helipad, the only other trauma center with a helipad around San Francisco is on the other side of a bridge and in case of an earthquake, most likely not readily available to aide San Franciscans.