All Hands & Hearts helps communities recover after disasters and gets children back in school.

_Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 8 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Wednesday._ _District 8 includes neighborhoods in the center of the city, including the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Duboce Triangle, Dolores Heights, Parnassus Heights, Ashbury Heights, Corona Heights, and Diamond Heights._ * * * San Francisco has embraced surveillance technology in recent years, adding speed cameras, drones, and more to its streets. None has been as controversial as the Flock license plate readers the city installed in March 2024. The police say they are useful for fighting crime — they can be used to identify where a stolen car may have gone, for instance. But critics have raised privacy concerns about Flock cameras, saying that the dense camera network — there are over 400 in San Francisco — can be used to track people. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used Flock’s database elsewhere in the country to track down immigrants they want to deport, officers have searched for their exes and romantic partners, and an officer has used the cameras to track women traveling out of state for abortions Though California law prohibits San Francisco from sharing its data with out-of-state law enforcement agencies, San Francisco has allowed improper searches of its data 1.6 million times, according to the San Francisco Standard, including at least 19 that were on behalf of ICE. The data breaches continue: In June, SFPD revealed another 299 improper searches of Flock data by federal agencies. A working paper released this week found that motor vehicle theft decreased in jurisdictions that put in the cameras. In two other studies, where license plate readers mounted to patrol cars were placed near theft hotspots, crime did not decrease. One of those studies, though, showed that the cameras helped officers recover stolen cars. This week’s question: ****Do you support San Francisco’s use of Flock cameras?**** * * * _Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A green background means the candidate answered yes, a red background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate dodged the question._ Answered yes Answered no Dodged the question * * * ## Darshini Patel * **Job** : Former DoorDash employee, worked on the 2012 Obama campaign and the 2024 Harris campaign, former Obama staffer * **Age** : 38 * **Residency** : Homeowner, has lived in District 8 for 10 cumulative years since 2010 * **Transportation** : Public transit, walking and biking * **Education** : Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College * **Languages** : Gujarati, English No. A searchable record of where people travel can reveal visits to LGBTQ+ spaces, healthcare providers, religious institutions, or immigrant-serving organizations. In just six months, outside agencies ran over 1.6 million searches of San Francisco’s plate data, including 19 for ICE. Even after shutting down that access, improper outside searches continued. Evidence also hasn’t shown that Flock reduces crime. A system that doesn’t offer security or results isn’t working for us. SFPD’s $3.9 million contract expires in February 2027; I’d vote against renewal. I’d invest instead in well-lit streets, vibrant storefronts, after-dark programming, and street crisis response teams. _See Patel’s full responsehere._ _**Endorsed by:** N/A_ * * * ## **Manny Yekutiel** * **Job** : Founder and owner of Manny’s, co-founder and former executive director of Civic Joy Fund * **Age** : 36 * **Residency** : Renter, has lived in San Francisco since 2012 and District 8 since 2013 * **Transportation** : Driving, public transit and walking * **Education** : Bachelor’s degree from Williams College * **Languages** : English, Hebrew Yes, I support it, with real guardrails. Technology like cameras are proven to help solve crimes and slow down reckless drivers on our streets but I won’t support any of it if that data ends up with ICE or the federal government, full stop. I want clear limits on how long footage is kept, who can access it, what it gets used for, and no recording of people’s private conversations. Public safety and privacy don’t have to be in competition. We can give our police, sheriff, and fire departments real tools and still protect people’s rights. _**Endorsed by:** District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Jane Fonda, Senator Cory Booker, Grow SF, Abundant SF, San Francisco Apartment Association … see more here._ * * * ## Gary McCoy * **Job** : Former staffer to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360 * **Age** : 48 * **Residency** : Renter, has lived in San Francisco for 24 years and District 8 for 15 years * **Transportation** : Driving, biking, public transit and walking * **Education** : Former City College of San Francisco student, certified phlebotomy technician from Bay Area Medical Academy * **Languages** : English No, I don’t support the city’s use of Flock cameras. I’ve refused donations and support from Flock, its lobbyists and employees. Our first responders should have the resources they need to keep people safe, but privacy is an important part of safety when undocumented immigrants are being kidnapped on and off our streets. These cameras collect data that can be used against vulnerable members of our community. There aren’t enough safeguards around who can access this data, especially at a time when the federal government is criminalizing LGTBQ+ people, abortion and reproductive rights, and immigrants. _**Endorsed by:** Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, San Francisco Labor Council, Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, San Francisco Tenants Union … see more here._ * * * ## Michael Nguyen * **Job** : Patent attorney * **Age** : 44 * **Residency** : Renter, has lived in District 8 since 2006 * **Transportation** : Driving, public transit and walking * **Education** : Bachelor’s degree from Southwestern University, law degree from University of California Law, San Francisco * **Languages** : English, some Spanish, some Vietnamese No. I oppose expanding Flock Safety cameras in San Francisco. They create a mass-surveillance system that tracks where people travel and can be shared with entities that are beyond local control. The public-safety tradeoff is not worth the threat to privacy, civil liberties, immigrants, communities of color, and political protesters — especially as authoritarian governments increasingly try to criminalize and target vulnerable people. District 8 deserves safety without a surveillance state. I support (and we deserve) accountable community policing, well-lit streets and transit stops, violence-prevention outreach, and real investment in the Street Crisis Response Team — not establishing a mass surveillance state. _**Endorsed by:** GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club (#2), San Francisco Green Party, former supervisor Dean Preston … see more here._ * * * _Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at_ _io@missionlocal.com_. _Election Day is on Nov. 3, 2026. You can register to vote via the_ _sf.gov website_ _._ You're using an **ad blocker**. That's OK. Mission Local is a nonprofit newsroom. We rely on readers to support our free reporting. Subscribe to our **free** newsletter and support us a better way. Pick at least one newsletter to subscribe. Sign up free You follow **the election**. So do we. Pick at least one newsletter to subscribe. Sign up free #### We won't ignore your neighborhood When a San Francisco neighborhood has a _Mission Local_ reporter, **it means someone is there**. We're following new housing projects proposed on your block, keeping tabs on what your district supervisor is up to at City Hall, and letting you know when longtime businesses close (and new ones open). When big news breaks, we already know the context. Most neighborhoods don't have that. **_Yours could._** **That's what _Mission Local_ is building. **Our reporters don't parachute in -- they write consistently on San Francisco, so you're never reading about your neighborhood from someone who just looked it up. So far we are in five of San Francisco's neighborhoods. But we know all San Franciscans deserve our kind of coverage. **Will you join us?** Put a reporter on your block! ## Latest election coverage ### OpenAI workers ditched their boss’ politics for Anthropic’s ### Ro Khanna backs Connie Chan, saying next S.F. congressperson will have ‘huge megaphone’ ### California billionaire-tax brawl kicks into high gear

On Wednesday February 25, billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood announced a tax cut for wealthy real estate investors. They propose to repeal 2020's Proposition I, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for rent relief and affordable housing. Although Prop I revenue has never been fully dedicated to social housing as intended, it has funded over $200 million to help San Franciscans afford housing as of 2024, including $42 million for the strongest Covid rent relief program in country, which helped save more than 20,000 San Franciscans from eviction; $40 million for land banking, which has been used to build more than 550 affordable homes; and $64 million for housing acquisition that has taken hundreds of homes off the private speculative market. Even more can be accomplished if the City devotes future Prop I funds to social housing as voters intended. Write a letter to the Board of Supervisors telling them to reject this blatant attempt to cut taxes on the richest corporate real estate owners at the expense of working San Franciscans.

Dear Neighbors in District 4, I am writing to you from a faraway place that most of you have probably never visited, because according to local media, you spend all your time driving back and forth from the SF Zoo to the Golden Gate Park windmills. ## Never miss a story. Get The Frisc in your inbox. SIGN UP Greetings from District 10. That’s the southeast corner of the city, if you’re not familiar: the Bayview, Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, Visitacion Valley, and more. I feel compelled to reach out because I just read that you’re gathering signatures to reintroduce a ballot measure to reopen the Great Highway. If your out-of-town friend reads this and asks, “But why would someone not in your neighborhood feel so strongly about this ballot measure?” here’s a brief recap for them: In March 2020, San Franciscans went into one of the most restrictive pandemic lockdowns in the country. To help us spend time outside, the city limited traffic on several local streets and called them Slow Streets. My neighborhood got Slow Lane Street, where my three preschoolers could run and ride their bikes because, remember, playgrounds and schoolyards were closed. ## This 100% SF journalism needs your support. We can't do this work without you. DONATE TODAY But it only lasted a week after neighbors complained to our supervisor they had to drive too slowly. In a district with one of the highest concentrations of children, it was like our Slow Street was never there. Meanwhile, City Hall went further with the Upper Great Highway, which runs along Ocean Beach, closing a nearly two-mile stretch to cars on weekends; and with Golden Gate Park, barring cars completely from John F. Kennedy Drive. Emerging from the pandemic, most supervisors read the room and voted in 2022 to close JFK to cars permanently. (My supervisor voted against it.) Voters reinforced the ban in subsequent ballot votes. Ocean Beach is easy to reach from the former Great Highway. Just walk through the sand dunes. But watch out for the rip tides. (Photo: Alex Lash) A similar thing happened with the Great Highway. Supervisors in 2022 affirmed the weekend closure as a three-year pilot project. Then the District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio led the charge for permanent closure via a 2024 ballot measure. It won with 55 percent of the citywide vote (but lost on the west side) and last year became Sunset Dunes Park. Then District 4 residents, whom I hadn’t thought about much before but are now emerging as extremely sore losers, got enough signatures to trigger a special election to recall Engardio. And it worked. ## SF’s One-Week Supervisor Was Bizarre Politics. Welcome to the Sunset District The mayor had to appoint an interim supervisor to the District 4 seat. One week later, he had to appoint another. The new-new guy, Alan Wong, half-heartedly tried to work up a “re-open the highway to cars” proposal for the June ballot, but he failed. Now, a retired police commander is leading the charge to get the re-opening proposal on the November ballot. ## **Your Sunset life** Hopefully, your friend is up to speed now. Let’s get into the reasons it would be better for all of San Francisco if you dropped this and moved on with your lives, which you likely live within shouting distance of Golden Gate Park on one side and a two-mile stretch of Pacific shoreline on another. As Fox News likes to tell us, we are a city full of problems. Take your pick. (Did you hear about the mountain lion in District 2?) That District 4 chooses to burn resources on this issue — I’ll be generous and call it Quixotic instead of idiotic — is not neighborly and takes away from more pressing situations. Heron’s Head Park is one of the few places in District 10 where the industrial bay shore gives way to public green space. (Photo: Lindsey J. Smith) You lost. Enjoy the park! I’ll see you there because, remember, I do not have a Slow Street in my neighborhood to stroll out to and enjoy. Drivers continually blow through our stop signs because my supervisor decided our kids don’t need a Slow Street. No one ever voted on it. Much of the water on my side of the city is too toxic to swim in, and the shoreline is too industrial for foot traffic. So I need to come over to your side and use the beach too. ## Sand reasoning By now, your friend is saying, “I hope she gets to the actual reasons and quits griping about the problems in District 10.” Well, if your friend is a reasonable person, I only need one reason to convince them: the Great Highway had to be closed to cars more than 25 times a year due to sand and flooding, sometimes for weeks. Sand removal was estimated to cost the city $1.7 million a year. This does not include the environmental cost of bringing large-scale equipment to a fragile beach environment. The Great Highway extension, south of Sloat Boulevard, was already closed for good due to coastal erosion. Why, neighbors, do you think you can win against the Pacific Ocean? What kind of hubris is this? Please give this up. I understand your main gripe is about traffic, but before the recreational closures, were you complaining to the wind and ocean when sand made the Great Highway impassable? #### Keep up on SF's big civic issues. Join the list! SIGN UP Increasing and improving public transit in the Sunset and the city as a whole is the most effective way to cut down on traffic woes. I would love to see a 44 Rapid or Express from my neighborhood to Golden Gate Park. I drive in the Sunset frequently, and it’s not as bad as the squeaky wheels make it out to be. I’m not even going to get into your refusal to build multistory housing in a city where thousands sleep on the street every night. Just throw the rest of SF a bone here. Let’s get back to fighting about the important stuff, like who will replace Nancy Pelosi, or how to refill the Academy of Sciences swamp now that Claude is gone. — Your neighbor in District 10, Andrea Rease _**The Frisc** encourages submissions of opinion and commentary from diverse perspectives. Please email your idea to hello@thefrisc.com with the word COMMENTARY in capitals. The opinions we publish are not necessarily those of **The Frisc** , but they are of San Francisco._ ## Before you go... #### Reporting like this is only possible because of reader support. Donations help us hold San Francisco accountable — and keep our stories free for San Franciscans. #### You can fund our next story. **Become a Frisc supporter today.** DONATE NOW ### _More from The Frisc..._

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