Meet SF's District 7 supervisor candidates
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
District 7 supervisor Myrna Melgar is facing a formidable challenger in small business owner Matt Boschetto, who has a slight edge on her in the fundraising race ahead of November's election.
The big picture: District 7 includes westside neighborhoods like West Portal, Inner Sunset, Miraloma Park, Midtown Terrace, Parkmerced, Forest Hill and others.
- Including Boschetto, Melgar is up against three challengers in her re-election bid: The other two are firefighter Stephen Martin-Pinto and Edward Yee, a doctor.
Catch up quick: District 7 has made headlines as of late around plans to bring housing to the Stonestown Galleria as well as traffic design plans in West Portal.
- In July, city supervisors approved plans, introduced by Mayor London Breed and Melgar, to bring thousands of housing units to the shopping center. Once completed, it will be the largest residential redevelopment on the westside in 50 years.
- City officials, meanwhile, are working to determine how best to improve traffic and pedestrian safety around West Portal in light of the crash that killed a family of four waiting at a bus stop in March.
Follow the money: Boschetto has raised about $127,000 from supporters while Melgar has just shy of $100,000, according to campaign financing disclosures.
- Including public financing, Boschetto has amassed about $356,000 compared to Melgar's roughly $237,000.
Meet the candidates: Axios asked each D7 candidate the same question: What is the first policy you would seek to enact or change if elected, and why?
Myrna Melgar, incumbent D7 supervisor
Create a program "to finance, refinance and support housing co-ops" — legislation she said she's been working on that she hopes to introduce by her second term, if re-elected.
- "In other cities, like New York and Washington, D.C., co-op housing has been the main tool for homeownership for working-class people, but not in SF, for a variety of reasons, and I am tackling it as it is important for the westside, which has always been an area of middle-class families," she added.
Matt Boschetto, small business owner
Direct the city's transportation agency "away from disruptive traffic reengineering projects in my district and towards a results-based approach focused on safety," he said.
- Additionally, Boschetto said he would identify dangerous locations for pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders with "logical, data-driven solutions rather than sweeping changes that have often caused more harm than good."
Stephen Martin-Pinto, firefighter
Work to end Sanctuary City "protections for convicted felons and persons guilty of fentanyl trafficking," he said, calling San Francisco's drug crisis "objectively the most urgent public health crisis today."
- Martin-Pinto added that the drug crisis also contributes "significantly to crime and quality-of-life issues."
A fourth candidate, Edward Yee, did not respond to Axios' request.
What's next: The election is Nov. 5, with vote-by-mail ballots expected to arrive by early October.