The platform, out loud.

The explainers

One problem at a time.

• 1:05

  Make safety mean care

  Where a safe injection site belongs.

  Yes to safe injection sites, and not one in District 8, because the first site should go where the need is most critical.

  Read the safety plan →

  › Transcript

  On safe injection sites: I support them. But I want to be clear that a safe injection site and an open-air drug use site are very different things. One says it's okay to just come and use drugs of any kind. The other says we understand that people are going to be using drugs anyway, and without safe, clean needles we are only promoting the spread of illness and disease.

  In an environment where we don't have adequate health care services, that only increases the burden on taxpayers and the community when people inevitably end up in the hospital to treat those illnesses, or end up on the street dying, which is also incredibly unfortunate and sad. No one wants that.

  So yes, I support safe injection sites. No, I would not have one in District 8. That's not for any reason other than this: if we were to have one, it should go where we have the most critical need, and I don't believe that the most critical need at the moment is in District 8.

• 0:47

  Across every issue

  Housing is the first bill. It isn't the only one.

  Groceries, getting around, keeping a job: cost of living is a departments-working-together problem, and one person on my staff owns it from day one.

  Read the platform →

  › Transcript

  We need to remember that housing is obviously the most critical and fundamental need. But housing alone is not a solution, because once you find a home, you have to pay for groceries. You have to get around the city. You have to find and maintain a job. So my platform is rooted in how we ensure that our departments can all work better together.

  The number one thing I hear after housing is, wait, that Safeway is the only one open after 10 p.m. That tells you there's a fundamental need here, and we need to be thinking in a really integrated way if we're going to actually reduce the cost of living. I'm going to have a specific person on my team, starting day one, who's dedicated to that.

• 0:37

  Across every issue

  A sanctuary city doesn't work with ICE.

  Guardrails on the surveillance data federal agencies can reach, for immigrants, for trans people, and for anyone who comes here for care.

  Read the surveillance plan →

  › Transcript

  I don't believe that the city should be working with ICE. This being a sanctuary city, we should be working very closely with our internal groups to protect the people who are here.

  Last year there were 1.9 million cases of abuse of our public safety surveillance system, largely by federal agencies entering it to use the information for their own cases. So we need to create a lot of guardrails around that. Part of it is for immigration, but a lot of it is also for trans services, for women’s health care, for people coming here to get health support and then getting tracked.

• 1:33

  Open childcare

  71 infant slots for twelve neighborhoods.

  District 8 lost 205 childcare spots between 2016 and 2022 while posting the fourth-largest growth in children of any district in the city.

  Read the childcare deep dive →

  › Transcript

  There are only 71 slots for infants who need childcare in all of District 8, across twelve neighborhoods. That's clearly not enough. So what's the deal with that, and why aren't we using rec centers or public spaces like this one behind me to fill some of the extra need?

  Between 2016 and 2022, District 8 lost 205 childcare spots. That's despite seeing the fourth-largest growth in children across the whole city over that same period.

  So how do we fix this? We fast-track permitting for childcare centers. We reopen the ELFA applications, which have been closed. And we use childcare-ready spaces that already exist. The Douglass Park clubhouse, where we just were, is a great example, and cities like New York have already been doing this with great success.

  I'll also require childcare centers in all new multi-family developments. The Family Zoning Plan unlocks new housing, and each project should include ground-floor, childcare-ready spaces. Finally, I'll create startup grants to make it easier for new daycare centers to open.

  As District 8 ages, we need to welcome new families into the community and make it easier for the families already here to afford to stay. Our city should make it easier for families who want to live here, not stand in their way.

  You can learn more about my childcare plan at votedarshini.com. If you like what you read or what you just heard, we have canvasses and phone banks every day of the week. Come volunteer with us, because this is a grassroots campaign that's run and driven and working because of people like you.

• 1:24

  Unlock housing

  Pro-tenant and pro-housing, at the same time.

  Prop I funds homes people can afford from a tax that already exists, and leaves new privately funded housing exempt, so the 75,000 approved units can still break ground.

  See my ballot positions →

  › Transcript

  This parcel behind me is set to be converted into fifteen stories of queer senior housing, providing necessary affordable housing for District 8's aging residents. In San Francisco, rents for one-bedrooms have hit $4,000 per month. We all know that we need more housing in San Francisco, and yet it's been so difficult making that happen.

  That's why I'm endorsing Prop I as part of my housing platform. My team has already been canvassing for Prop I, which is the Affordable Housing Guarantee Act. It uses funds we already have from an existing tax. What does that mean? No new taxes, and money for housing you can actually afford, right here in San Francisco.

  So how will it work? The money will be used to convert existing homes into affordable units, actually break ground on new housing, and help people already living in rental units stay in their homes.

  I understand that if we want more housing, some of it needs to be market rate. That's why new multi-unit homes created with private funds will still be exempt from the transfer tax. That means developers working to build the 75,000 units already approved can continue to do so, and actually break ground, without additional fees.

  I support Prop I because San Franciscans deserve housing they can afford, and programs that treat housing like a right, not a commodity. You can be pro-tenant and pro-housing.

• 2:27

  Fix Muni

  Why the sign says two minutes but the bus never comes.

  In 1999 the city voted for an 85% on-time standard. When a bus runs late, the countdown clock quietly falls back to the printed schedule, and you are waiting for a ghost.

  Read the Muni plan →

  › Transcript

  Fun fact that I learned after many, many years of using Muni: you don't have to tap on the way out. It's not like Caltrain or BART, so I can stop holding up the line.

  We've been waiting here for a few minutes. We were taking the 24 to get to a meeting. We thought it was coming in two minutes, so we rushed over from the office, only to find that it's not here and there's no prediction or information provided. So far we've been waiting about ten minutes and it still hasn't come. We're going to take the train instead, and along the way I'll tell you why this happened.

  Here's what's actually happening. Those arrival times for Muni are supposed to tell you, based on GPS, where the bus or train actually is. But if a bus leaves the terminal late, or if things are running behind, the system quietly falls back to the printed schedule. That's a ghost bus: the system is tracking it as though it exists and is running on time, but it's actually not coming. Meanwhile we're all waiting, wondering where it is.

  In 1999 the city voted to add a charter amendment that made 85% on-time performance a mandate for Muni. Trains and buses couldn't leave more than one minute early or more than four minutes late. Today we're far from that standard.

  To be clear, this isn't about bad operators. We have some of the best operators in the country. This is about a broken information system. When people can't rely on the information SFMTA provides, they lose trust, and we lose riders.

  This is why I'd push SFMTA to do three things. One, tell us where the bus is. I'd rather see a GPS dot of where the bus actually is than a fake countdown. Two, when a trip gets canceled or delayed, push that to riders right away, whether that's in Citymapper, Apple Maps, Google Maps, Transit, or any of the other places riders actually check. Three, bring back the timeliness reports, so we know exactly how on time Muni is.

  If we can make Muni reliable, more people can use it, and San Francisco will work for all of us.