Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Early care and education helps children build the skills they need for success in kindergarten and can help close the achievement gap.
Walking the streets of San Francisco can be a frightening, demoralizing, even an unhealthy experience for residents and tourists alike.
We need a coordinated, citywide approach to make sure that everyone in San Francisco is sheltered and has access to the care they need.
I ask people to not attribute what I've done - my success and how hard I've worked - to not reduce that or attribute that to someone else.
When I was growing up in San Francisco, one of the experiences that changed my life was my first paid internship - a summer job at The Family School.
I grew up in Plaza East public housing in the Western Addition, five of us living on $900 per month. 'Recycling' meant drinking out of old mayonnaise jars.
There is nothing compassionate or safe about relegating people, particularly those suffering from mental health or addiction issues, to sleep on our streets.
San Francisco needs a Mayor who will make all our neighborhoods safe, a Mayor with a record of standing up for public safety and fighting for the resources we need.
The voters have been very clear that we need to address the homelessness and housing crisis that is affecting our City, and I remain focused on solving these issues.
We can't keep limiting ourselves when it comes to housing. Affordable housing and teacher housing are too crucial to let the failed policies of the past get in the way.
Fighting for tenants' rights has never been about political posturing for me. It's very personal. It's why I fight for everyone who's struggling to stay in San Francisco.
Access to quality early care and education is an important part of our efforts to make San Francisco more equitable, and ensure that every child who grows up here can thrive.
I want to make sure we are spending wisely and using our resources effectively to address the issues facing San Francisco, while reaching residents throughout our entire City.
By providing every student with a quality education, and the materials they need for class and to do their homework, we can help students from all backgrounds learn and thrive.
We share common values as San Franciscans: we help each other; we welcome newcomers; we innovate and learn; we focus on facts; we work together; and we find creative solutions.
Our streets should be inviting and safe so anyone can feel comfortable choosing to ride a bike, walk, or take transit, and so it is clear which space is for which mode of travel.
I grew up in a San Francisco very different from what many have experienced: a place called Plaza East, notoriously one of the most dangerous public housing developments in the City.
Every student should be able to start the school year with the supplies they need, and shouldn't feel left out if their family is unable to afford a new backpack, notebooks, and pencils.
Our young people need safe, permanent housing, so they can focus on their education or job, live healthy lives, and pursue their interests - without fear of where they'll sleep at night.
Far too many LGBTQ individuals are the victims of violence and hatred, and we must all fight together to ensure that no one is erased or marginalized because of how they identify or who they love.
In San Francisco, we strive to be a beacon of progressivism for the rest of the country and the world, whether it is leading the way on gay marriage, immigrants rights, or combating climate change.
Too many people are suffering from severe behavioral health and substance use issues on our streets, which puts a strain on our hospitals and our criminal justice system instead of treating the root cause.
In my sophomore year of high school, I watched my friend Loretta leave in a U-Haul headed for Oakland. She and her mom had been tenants in a nearby apartment, forced out by rent they couldn't afford anymore.
We need to improve our public transportation and invest in physical infrastructure changes so that people can safely choose alternatives to driving like walking, riding a bike or even, yes, electric scooters.
Costly jail calls and high commissary fees have forced families to choose between paying their bills and talking to their loved ones who are serving time, adding further costs to an already difficult situation.
Some consider bicycling an 'alternative' mode of transportation, but it should not be considered alternative. It should be an easy choice for getting around in our City, and we need to do more to make that a reality.
We need more housing in San Francisco, plain and simple, and we especially need more affordable housing for our low-income households, seniors, teachers, formerly homeless people, veterans, and middle-income residents.
Businesses have played an important role in advancing nondiscrimination protections across the county because they have recognized that inclusion is the right thing to do and fairness and equality are good for business.
People coming out of jail need a path back into society: access to a job, a place to live, supportive services. We've seen what happens without it: they commit more crimes and return to jail, which is worse for everyone.
I have the ability and the will to lead San Francisco in building more housing. Without it, people like me who grew up in San Francisco, and people who came here for the values we embrace will simply not be able to stay.
If we are ever going to fix our housing affordability crisis, we have to make significant changes to how we plan and construct, and we have to be open to solutions that make it easier and faster to build much-needed housing.
As a kid growing up in public housing, I didn't always get show up at the first day of school with a new backpack full of supplies. Having the school supplies I needed would have made me feel more prepared and ready to learn.
Homelessness isn't just an issue in San Francisco. It's an issue throughout California and up and down the West Coast. We need to support policies that address our twin troubles of housing affordability and homelessness at the state-level.
We need housing for people who are exiting homelessness, and need to make sure we're providing housing at multiple levels of care so people can get the services they need to permanently exit homelessness and make their home in San Francisco.
When I was in college, the bell tolled for us. Just as my grandmother, the woman who had cared for me all my life, started needing me to care for her, we were told our home was being torn down, and we would need to find another place to live.
With commitment and the right investments, we can create a San Francisco where no one is forced, relegated, or allowed to sleep on the streets, and where no one endures addiction or mental illness on the streets without supportive and effective services.
We have so much work to do to meet the challenges of people living on our streets. But every day we are out there doing the work, finding solutions not only to help those living on our streets, but to prevent more people from ending up there in the future.
Improving our transportation infrastructure reduces car trips, helps us reach our carbon emission reduction goals, is healthier for our residents, and saves lives. Too often in the past we have been slow to make these common sense improvements to our streets.
Both San Francisco and New York are taking bold, sweeping action to reduce emissions, make our infrastructure more resilient and improve the health of our people. We are also leading the charge against those who continue to deny the existence of climate change.
If there was a street synonymous with San Francisco, it's Market Street. It is the everyday backbone of the City, with hundreds of thousands of people traveling along it on foot, bike, bus, or streetcar. It's where we gather to celebrate our victories and protest injustices.
Young people experiencing homelessness often have a difficult time accessing services, including shelter, medical care, and employment. This is due to the stigma of their housing situation, lack of knowledge of available resources, and a lack of services targeted to young people.
Children who attend high-quality early care and education programs before kindergarten perform better on assessments of reading and math skills and socio-emotional development. However, since early care and education programs are so expensive, low-income families face significant barriers.
While it's absolutely important that we build housing for our low-income residents, when we are talking about opening up hundreds of sites for housing, we should be trying to build affordable housing for all of our residents struggling to pay rent. That means housing for teachers, for nurses, for janitors.
Every day on our streets there are people who are facing a combination of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. Each of these conditions is challenging alone, but when experienced at the same time it creates a downward spiral that makes it even more difficult for the person to get treated and housed.
As a child, I walked with my friends to Rosa Parks Elementary and then to Ben Franklin Middle School. I rode Muni to Galileo High School. And thanks to amazing teachers who believed in me and supported me along the way, I was able to matriculate to another public school: the University of California at Davis.