District Elections - The Case for Them

September 14th at HANC will be all about District Election of Supervisors and just how and for whom it works. We are fortunate to have as our guest the longest serving district elected Supervisor in the modern history of San Francisco, President of the Board of Supervisors (for the second time), Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3–Russian Hill, North Beach and Chinatown.

The first neighborhood districts went into effect after being passed in 1976. The promise of district elections was that it would result in a Board of supervisors that looked like San Francisco. The first district elected Board had a majority of tenants and the first directly elected Black and Chinese Supervisors. This district-elected board passed rent control, condomin­ium conversion and public employee contract reforms.

After a repeal, then reversal, San Francisco has had district elections over the last 23 years.
Last month, a “study” called for the repeal of district elections (an analysis of the study can be found at Mission Local and 48 Hills). At-large elections are dominated by big money and tend to disempower communities of color and lower income voters. Join us for an important conversa­tion about this critical issue