Autumn Looijen
- Office: Board of Supervisors, District 5
- Election Date: November 5, 2024
- Candidate: Autumn Looijen
- Due Date: April 8, 2024
- Printable Version
Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the November 5, 2024 election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government. Our work includes running public opinion polls to understand what voters want, advocating for those changes, and ensuring that the SF government represents the people.
The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco.
Please complete this questionnaire by April 8, 2024 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.
Your Goals
We'd like to get some details about your high-level goals and how you intend to use your elected office to achieve them.
Why are you running for Board of Supervisors, District 5?
I like to fix things. 🤷
D5 boundaries changed two years ago, and D5 now includes the Tenderloin, a working class neighborhood that has been abandoned to open drug markets. Our vote in November will determine whether they get the help they need.
Do you think the incumbent, who believes arresting drug dealers is "pointless", will fix the Tenderloin's open drug markets?
The open drug markets in the TL are a moral failure. We are letting the worst capitalists in the city prey on the vulnerable people we invite here for sanctuary. The tragic street conditions affect not just the TL but the entire city, as tourists stay away. We must fix this for SF to recover.
Think it's impossible? So was the school board recall.
**I have a track record of getting difficult things done. I've already made big changes in San Francisco, starting with no connections, no funding, and no authority. ** When our kids were suffering from shut schools, and when the school board prioritized renaming schools instead of reopening them, I was the mom who co-founded the school board recall.
We worked with people across the political spectrum, from members of the Berniecrats to Grow SF to the GOP. In the end, EVERY neighborhood in the city voted yes.
This triggered a revolution in San Francisco, and we have turned toward common sense policies to fix our city. I also led the campaign to bring algebra back to our middle schools, which won in a landslide.
But there is much left to do. We need leaders with both backbone and heart to get the job done.
I am running to help the ordinary people of SF.
What is your #1 policy goal?
Shut down the open air drug markets, and bring the Tenderloin back to a vibrant working class neighborhood.
How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?
I will build a coalition to help the Tenderloin the same way I built the coalition to recall the school board, and the same way I built the coalition to bring algebra back.
Voters already want to help the Tenderloin.
They need to know why our current solutions aren't working, and what they can do to help, said clearly and simply.
Get the voters on board, get elected officials on board, and get it done.
Will the power of the office of Board of Supervisors, District 5 be enough to achieve this goal?
When I'm in that seat, yes. Power is not about your title or the tools the office gives you; it's about your ability to influence others and make things happen.
I took the school board recall to a landslide win with the help of over a thousand ordinary people in SF. I didn't wait for a title or for authority – I worked with people across the political spectrum and got it done.
Imagine what I could do from the Supervisor seat.
What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?
What's more important than my #2 and #3 policy goals is what I want for SF's future.
SF isn't short on policy – it's short on vision and it's short on hope.
We have a choice to make about the future of our city, and policy is just a tool to get there – we will pivot on policy again and again in service of the San Francisco we want.
I want to see our empty storefronts filled with thriving new businesses.
I want homes for our refugees, whether they're fleeing war or discrimination.
I want troubled people coming to SF to find compassion – not fentanyl.
I want drag queens dancing in our streets.
That San Francisco is worth fighting for. And **I will fight like hell to bring it back. **
But fine, the policy.
2. Housing: build more housing people can afford, so we can be a sanctuary for trans refugees, immigrants, and the quirky wonderful people who make San Francisco great.
We just streamlined the process for approving new housing. Now we need to make sure the housing we've approved is actually built. If a bed is never built, it doesn't matter how affordable it is.
3. Making things work around here, for residents and small businesses. Going through our laws line by line and removing requirements that no longer make sense, so we can fill our empty storefronts and make our city thrive.
Will the power of the office of Board of Supervisors, District 5 be enough to achieve these goals?
Yes.
What is an existing policy you would like to reform?
I would like to see a binding measure to force the BoS to focus only on things we can control, modeled after the similar policy in San Jose.
We have serious problems and limited time to meet and solve them. If we do not buckle down and focus, we will fail. This change would enable everything else good we want to happen in this city.
I would also like to reform our hiring process, which takes an average of 255 days. When we find great people, we should be able to bring them on board fast.
What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? (For example: adding at-large supervisors, changing how elections work, creating a Bay Area regional government, etc.)
No fucking swearing at BoS meetings.
Tell us one thing you think needs to change in SF that the average voter wouldn't know about.
Our procurement process is convoluted and slow, making it more expensive to buy everyday products the city needs… even toilet paper. The BoS is allowing the department of homelessness to do an end run around it. We need to streamline this process so we can buy what we need quickly and efficiently.
The Issues
Next, we will cover the issues that voters tell us they care about. We hope to gain a better understanding of your policy positions, and we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.
Public Safety
What is the #1 public safety issue today?
Open drug markets in the Tenderloin.
The open drug markets in the Tenderloin are a moral and economic disaster that killed 810 people last year, made our streets unsafe, and left us with blocks of empty storefronts instead of thriving small businesses.
Why is this happening? Because our drug policies are not designed for fentanyl, which is extremely cheap, highly addictive, increasingly resistant to narcan, and fatal in tiny amounts.
Current Supervisor Dean Preston blames "capitalism" for this failure and wants to defund the police by $100 million. This policy would worsen the tragedy in the Tenderloin -- but you don't have to take my word for it. Dean took over the Tenderloin in 2022, and drug overdoses in the Tenderloin were up 17% the next year. This year, they're on track to be 43% higher. The Tenderloin is suffering, and they deserve policies that work.
It's time for practical approaches and new leadership to cut out the cancer of open drug markets before it spreads.
My Fenta-NIL plan will close the open drug markets and bring our city back. We will reduce the supply, reduce the demand, and get the neighborhood help.
1/ We must curtail the supply by closing the open drug markets with methods effective against fentanyl markets, including jailing and deporting foreign dealers who repeatedly sell drugs on our streets.
2/ We must build more treatment beds and coax addicts into effective, compassionate treatment, including immediate access to medication-assisted treatment, so they can turn their lives around... while also banning the use of hard drugs on our streets.
3/ We must get the Tenderloin immediate help, so the streets are safe again and neighborhood businesses can recover, including keeping sidewalks safe and clear in front of open businesses and having regular beat cops.
We deserve a city where kids in every neighborhood can run out to the corner store without fear. Where the Tenderloin's nightlife is back and thriving. Where small businesses are bustling.
To make this happen, we must change SF from "the place to get high" to "the place to get hope".
San Francisco currently has about 1,500 sworn police officers. Some have argued that the City should try to match the per-capita staffing levels that other large cities have. If we matched cities like New York or Paris, we would need to have about 3,400 sworn officers. What do you think of this idea? If you support it, how would the City fund recruitment at SFPD to achieve this staffing level? If you don't support it, what would you propose to do instead?
Guys, I would love to hire beat cops in every neighborhood (that wants one), have quick response times for victims of crime, and hire only officers who treat our people with compassion and respect.
And, I'm very worried about our ability to retain police officers. We so often train officers, and then they leave. It's hard to fill a bucket when there's a hole in the bottom.
You're talking about more than doubling our police force at a time when we're having serious trouble recruiting and retaining officers. We're losing more police officers right now than we train. Let's get to 2100 officers first.
Let's do what we can to keep current officers in place. And let's help the police find people in the community who would make great officers – the police recruiting budget is small.
On a personal note, when I find people interested in becoming police officers, I've been connecting them with current cops so they can see if the job would be a good fit for them.
As we up the number of police officers, we must make sure that
1/ we hire GOOD police officers who treat everyone with dignity and respect, and
2/ the police department (and every city department) spends its money wisely.
What solutions might exist to improve public safety that don't involve expanding the size of SFPD?
Making the City less welcoming to the worst business in town – the drug dealers.
High school programs to help kids who aren't going to college find good careers. We need more carpenters and auto mechanics.
Holding kids back in third grade if they can't read – they are at elevated risk of falling behind, dropping out, & turning to crime.
Social services and community ambassadors also play an important role in keeping our streets safe – and I support using them so our police officers can concentrate more fully on crime.
What three things would you change about how SFPD operates?
1/ Less time on paperwork and more time on policing 2/ More beat officers, especially in the Tenderloin 3/ Use Prop E's loosened restrictions judiciously to keep our neighborhoods safe
Do you support policies commonly referred to as "defund the police"? Why or why not?
No; "defunding the police" is expensive and doesn't work.
We have fewer police than most other cities our size. The Tenderloin and Lower Haight are asking for beat cops, and we don't have the staff to provide them. And we cannot shut down the open drug markets without the police. (We've tried.)
What I'm hearing from our most disadvantaged neighborhoods is, we don't need fewer police – we need GOOD police.
And there is a cost to having fewer police. There is a cost in money, in empathy, and in our neighborhood services.
We have hundreds of closed storefronts downtown, in Union Square, and in the Tenderloin because shoplifting and other crime has driven them away. That takes a big bite out of our city budget.
3500 kids in the TL walk to school past drug users doubled up from fentanyl. Adults try to shield them, but kids see. They always see. This is eroding our kids' empathy.
And Tenderloin's closest grocery store – the Whole Foods on Market – closed because it could not keep its employees safe. Now the TL has no grocery store.
These are some of the costs of having fewer police.
Please explain why you did or did not support the recall of DA Chesa Boudin. If you were ineligible to vote in that election, please explain how you would have voted.
I supported its right to be on the ballot, but did not vote to recall Chesa Boudin. I did not feel the case had been made that the DA was the problem, and I liked his focus on preventing crime long term.
| Should San Francisco… | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Try to achieve "full staffing" for SFPD? (Defined as about 2,100 officers, according to the City) | x | |
| Change the cite-and-release policy so officers can arrest suspects of misdemeanors like shoplifting and car break-ins? | x | |
| Arrest and prosecute street-level fentanyl dealers? | x | |
| Prioritize diversion instead of incarceration for street-level fentanyl dealers? | x | |
| Investigate, arrest, and prosecute fentanyl distribution ringleaders (like organized crime and cartel members)? | x | |
| Arrest and prosecute street-level vendors of suspected stolen goods? | x | |
| Investigate, arrest, and prosecute the leaders of theft rings and fencing operations? | x | |
| Arrest and prosecute street food vendors operating without a permit? | x | |
| Fine street food vendors operating without a permit? | x |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Open to diversion programs that are proven effective, for people who are first time offenders. For local dealers, try drug market intervention; for foreign dealers who won't turn to honest work, jail and deport them.
Drugs
In general, how should the City handle people who are abusing drugs on City sidewalks?
Coax drug users or use the new "drug addiction 5150" laws to get people into effective, medication-assisted treatment. Have street teams provide outreach and medication to people on our sidewalks.
As a last resort, arrest users and compel treatment rather than allowing public drug use. Jails should provide drug treatment so jailed drug users don't go into unmanaged withdrawal.
Do you support the creation of safe consumption sites in San Francisco? If so, please detail how they should be run. If not, please explain a viable alternative.
No; they're illegal. And because they don't provide the drugs, they attract drug dealers to the neighborhoods.
I do support immediate access to medication-assisted treatment beds, with consistent support until people are on their feet again.
We don't have a medical alternative to meth, so I support paying meth users to not use drugs – which has been getting good results elsewhere.
Some have argued that safe consumption sites (or sobering centers) are only viable if they are paired with implementing zero-tolerance for public consumption of illegal drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Do you agree or disagree with this view?
Agree.
Should fentanyl dealing be penalized differently from dealing other drugs?
Yes - hard drug dealing should be penalized very differently than, say, psychedelics.
Mental Health
Should San Francisco amend our current laws around mental health crisis intervention to better help people suffering on the streets? If yes, why and how? If not, why not?
Yes; it should be easier to get people into treatment. We're just starting to experiment with CARE courts, and I'd like to see whether they are effective, or whether we need to do more.
What is the role of government in providing care for those who cannot care for themselves?
Who else is going to do it? Are we going to leave people to suffer on our streets? We need more subacute facilities for people with mental health issues, so they can get the compassionate care they deserve.
Some have argued that San Francisco should place people who are experiencing mental health crises on the streets into involuntary mental health holds at psychiatric facilities. Do you agree or disagree with this view? Please explain why or why not.
Yes. No one recovers from mental health crises on the streets.
If you agree with this view, please outline some guardrails and oversight the City must provide to prevent abuse.
We already have robust guidelines for mental health holds.
The City should track the results of this policy from both a patient and a community / public safety standpoint, and provide this information to the public.
If you disagree with this view, please outline your preferred alternative solution as well as any drawbacks it might have and oversight it might need.
Education
Should the Board of Education be reformed to bring more accountability and better performance to the Board, and boost public school performance? If so, how; if not, why not?
We should elect good people to the board and the school administration should support them in doing their job.
Some parents prefer their children attend religious schools, others prefer magnet schools for specific skills (like the Ruth Asawa School for the Arts or Lowell), and others prefer charter schools with nontraditional curricula. Do you think all of these educational options should be available to students in San Francisco?
Yes. I'm glad families have options to find the best fit for their kid. My kids go to public school, and in an ideal world, I would love to see every child in public school.
Did you support the recall of Board of Education members Collins, López, and Moliga? Please explain why you did or did not support the recall of each member.
I not only supported the school board recall, I led it. The school board had a responsibility to act competently and in the best interest of our kids. They failed to get the schools open, nearly failed to balance the budget, and instead spent their time renaming closed schools and denying that kids were suffering from the isolation at home. That was why every neighborhood in the city voted for it. It was a joint failure and we would've recalled the entire board if we could.
| Should San Francisco… | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| Offer Algebra in 8th grade to students who want it? | x | |
| Offer Algebra in 7th grade to students who want it? | x | |
| Offer AP courses to high school students who want them? | 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:
We don't have the ability to fire teachers who consistently underperform… certainly not from the Supervisor's seat.
Small Business
**What would you change about the process of new retail business formation in San Francisco? **
We have hundreds of empty storefronts that need to be filled. Let's make it easy to open new businesses in the City.
We are failing here. It costs $200k and multiple years to open an ice cream shop. Does it really benefit the community to allow neighbors to object to… ice cream shops?
Our permitting process should be quick and efficient.
We should be able to quickly tell potential new businesses exactly what needs to be done to open in a space – and that information needs to be reliable.
We should compare our processes against other, more nimble cities, so we can easily see which of our laws are getting in the way and make smart adjustments.
Should all businesses be permitted by-right? If not, which business categories do you think should require special government approval?
Yes, for almost all businesses. No for the illegal drug dealing business which is the worst form of capitalism in the City.
Some in the Small Business community have argued that San Francisco should increase the number of available ABC permits (also known as a liquor license) to lower the cost of running a business and increase customer revenues from alcohol sales. Others have argued against increasing the number of permits because they don't want more competition, or have already paid a lot of money for their liquor license. What do you think the City should do?
I would be inclined to issue more licenses, but open to changing my mind.
Similarly, some in the legal cannabis retailer community have lobbied to reduce the number of available permits. Economists have argued that this reduces competition, raises prices for consumers, and raises profits for retailers. What do you think the City should do?
Nothing. It's not a pressing issue right now.
| 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 | |
| Try to attract businesses of all sizes to the City? | x |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Housing
Do you believe that San Francisco has a shortage of homes? Why or why not?
Yes. We have over 400 homeless families on a waitlist for shelter, and the pipeline out of the shelter is clogged because families cannot find affordable places to live.
Do you believe that housing prices are set by supply and demand constraints? Why or why not?
Yes. That's what the evidence shows.
And you can see it for yourself – when people moved out of SF during covid, rents went down.
San Francisco will almost certainly fail its Housing Element certification, which will cause the State to take over local land use regulation. What should we do now?
Let's not fail the Housing Element certification.
Should homeless shelters be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
We should disallow CEQA objections and discretionary review for
1/ shelters serving families
2/ sober housing facilities
Should subsidized Affordable housing be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
We should disallow CEQA objections and discretionary review for projects with at least 15% affordable housing.
Should market rate housing be exempt from CEQA, Discretionary Review, and Conditional Use permits?
We should disallow CEQA objections and discretionary review for projects with at least 15% affordable housing.
Should San Francisco retain, loosen, or even abolish the existing limits on height, density, and bulk for residential buildings? (ie taller, denser, and fewer/reduced setbacks)
We need to make these decisions on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. I support allowing denser buildings within the currently approved envelope, with changes to height and bulk in neighborhoods where it makes sense.
San Francisco Planning requires that new street-facing windows comply with City-imposed design requirements that both raise the price of windows while lowering their thermal and noise insulation. Should the City abolish these requirements?
Yes.
| 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 | ||
| Renovate your home (update bathroom, kitchen, 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 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:
Transit Infrastructure
Should Muni be free for everyone? If so, what other programs would you take money from in order to fund this change, or what new tax would you propose to fund it?
No; it should be free for kids but not adults.
Some have argued that the cost of fare enforcement exceeds the benefit. Others have argued that not enforcing fare payment starves the Muni and BART systems of revenue, lowers quality of service, and makes the systems less safe. What is your position?
Enforce the fares. Much of the unsafe behavior on BART is from people who didn't pay the fare.
Recent State funding requires Muni and BART to enforce fare payments in order to receive that funding; do you agree with this requirement?
Yes.
Should it be the policy of San Francisco to build a citywide protected bike lane network? Why or why not?
Yes. It fights climate change, is great exercise, and provides a safe place for kids to learn to ride. I biked to work every day one summer in the Netherlands, and the protected bike lanes were amazing
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| Do you support banning cars from central downtown areas and certain retail or residential corridors? | x | |
| Do you support congestion pricing? | x | |
| Should San Francisco prioritize buses over car traffic by creating more bus-only lanes and directing traffic enforcement officers to ticket drivers who ignore the restrictions? | x | |
| Should Uber, Lyft, Waymo, and other ride-share services be permitted to operate in San Francisco? | x | |
| Should San Francisco allow more bike share and scooter share companies? | x | |
| 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)? | x |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Budget
San Francisco is facing a large budget deficit due to declining tax revenues from our struggling downtown. What will your approach be to fix this?
We need to provide education, infrastructure, public safety, and revive our small businesses to bring our tax revenues back up.
| 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:
Personal
Tell us a bit about yourself!
How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?
I've lived here since Dec 2020, when Siva and I decided to move in together.
What do you love most about San Francisco?
I adore all our brilliant, funny, quirky, smart, fascinating people here in the heart of the city. They deserve a city that works.
What do you dislike the most about San Francisco?
The suffering in the Tenderloin. We can't let it continue.
Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)
Until I began this campaign, I ran SF Guardians, the group that ran the school board recall. With that community, I personally ran the campaign to bring algebra back to middle school. I'm also a member of the Lower Haight Merchants & Neighbors Association and the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, as well as the SF Women's Political Action Committee and the Chinese American Democratic Club.
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.