Four years ago London Breed defeated bisexual former District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague, who had been appointed to fill a vacancy by Mayor Ed Lee, for the seat representing the Haight and Western Addition at City Hall.
Three years later Breed took over the gavel in the board chambers when she was elected board president, marking the first time an African-American had held the post since 1991. Part of the board's moderate bloc, which since last November's election has been in the minority on the 11-person body, Breed is now running for re-election to a second four-year term.
But the city's progressive political camp has made defeating her a top priority as it looks to strengthen its current six-person majority on the board ahead of electing a new board president come January. It has thrown its support behind the candidacy of tenants' rights lawyer Dean Preston for the seat.
And housing affordability issues have been a major issue in the race, with Preston hammering Breed for favoring policies that he contends benefit developers to the detriment of renters. Breed, in turn, argues that, as a renter who has no housing security, she personally understands the housing crisis the city is facing.
The two recently sparred over their stances regarding affordable housing and other issues at a candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters September 28 on the campus of UCSF.
"We have a crisis and I am amazed at how City Hall is unwilling to recognize it," said Preston, 46, who has lived in the district for 20 years since moving from the East Coast and is a founder and leader of the statewide group Tenants Together. "I will protect rent controlled housing, it is what I have been doing the last 16 years. The real estate developers committed to the mayor and the moderate supervisors have their sights on rent-controlled housing."
The child of immigrant refugees, his father and grandparents were kicked out of Germany by the Nazis during World War II, Preston is raising two young daughters near Alamo Square with his wife, Jenckyn, a fifth generation San Franciscan whose grandfather, Dr. Zuretti Goosby, was the first African-American on the city's school board. The couple met at Bowdoin College and moved to San Francisco after graduating from the liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine.
Among Preston's top priorities should he be elected in November would be to push for a policy ensuring tenants have a right to counsel in fighting evictions, universal pre-school, and a tax on the owners of vacant storefronts.
"Our housing crisis is the result of decisions made at City Hall that favor big-time developers and multi-billionaires," said Preston, a former co-owner of Cafe du Nord on upper Market Street in the Castro district. "The mayor has been far too accommodating, with assistance from the moderates on the board."
Breed, 42, grew up in the district in public housing and was raised by her grandmother. A former San Francisco Redevelopment Agency commissioner and member of the San Francisco Fire Commission, Breed for 10 years served as executive director of the African American Art & Culture Complex in the Western Addition prior to becoming a supervisor.
She has argued that during her time in office she has fought to build housing affordable for people at all income levels. At last week's candidate forum she pointed to her support of Proposition C on the June ballot that upped the set aside of affordable housing in new developments from 12 percent to 25 percent.
"Ten percent of that is for people making $80,000 to $100,000 a year," said Breed. "I want to try to make sure we look at not just affordable housing and market-rate housing but everything in between."
She also pointed to her pushing the city to adopt a neighborhood preference policy, where 40 percent of the units in new affordable housing developments are to be awarded to people who live in the supervisorial district the projects are located in, or within a half mile of the site. The policy was used in the selection process for the 55 Laguna senior housing development intended for low-income LGBT seniors.
When the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development objected to the policy this summer, Breed was among the city leaders who pressured the agency to reconsider its position. Last month HUD agreed to allow the city to pilot a policy where low-income seniors living in census tracts that have been identified as having the greatest risk of displacement would be granted priority for 40 percent of the units in the Willie B. Kennedy Senior apartment complex in the Western Addition neighborhood.
"In the past there was no linkage between people who need this housing and the affordable housing we build in the city," said Breed.
The two candidates have clashed over a re-zoning of the Divisadero commercial corridor Breed pushed forward that allowed for denser buildings within current height limits. She has said the proposal was presented to various neighborhood groups to gather their feedback and would provide much needed housing to the area.
"I would like to see, of course, 100 percent affordable housing. But the sad reality is market-rate housing helps pay for affordable housing," said Breed. "There hasn't been a balance, there has only been a push to build low-income and luxury housing, leaving everyone in between behind."
Yet Preston contended that her plan was drawn up without community input and didn't include affordable housing requirements until he and others began criticizing the omission.
"We are in an era of what I call trickle down housing theory," said Preston. "How the mayor and the moderates view housing is build housing and it will trickle down to low-income people. The progressives are standing up to developers and demanding more affordable housing."
Preston has hammered away at Breed for being too closely allied with the mayor and his moderate allies, while Breed argues she is an independent voice on the board.
"I am not a moderate or a progressive," she said. "I don't put myself in a box."
But based on her voting record on the board, Preston said there is no doubt of where Breed's allegiance lies. And the direction of the city, he added, could be determined by the outcome of their race.
"I am an unapologetic, proud progressive. I do believe if you look at her voting record and her siding with the mayor, she is a moderate," he said. "A key issue in this election is the future of this board, and the moderate majority, I believe, has caused a lot of the problems we have had."
Board presidency at play
The outcome of the elections this fall for the odd-numbered supervisor districts will determine if the progressives maintain their majority and elect one of their own as president in January, or if the moderates will claw back the majority and maintain a lock on the board presidency for the next two years.
Breed was noncommittal when asked by the B.A.R. if she would seek a second term as president.
"I am not adamantly opposed to having another person be president," she said. "It is not going to be a nasty fight with me when it comes to who is president."
One person who plans not to seek the presidency is District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who had held the post from 2005 through 2009. Last fall he returned to the board after defeating Julie Christensen, whom Lee had appointed to fill the vacant seat representing Chinatown, North Beach, and Fisherman's Wharf at City Hall.
Facing token opposition from residential property manager Tim E. Donnelly this year as he runs for a full four-year term, Peskin is widely expected to easily win the race. Yet when asked last week by the B.A.R. if he was interested in again being board president, Peskin reiterated the same response he had recently given to the San Francisco Examiner.
"Been there, done that," said Peskin.
He added that he has "been working quite well with Supervisor Breed," who rewarded him with influential committee assignments earlier this year. And unlike three of his progressive colleagues on the board who endorsed Preston �" gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, District 3 Supervisor Eric Mar and District 11 Supervisor John Avalos �" Peskin is remaining neutral in the District 5 race.
(As for the two other progressive supervisors, District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee, who is running for re-election next month, has endorsed Breed, while District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who is running for state Senate, has not endorsed in the race.)
Since Breed had endorsed Christensen in his race last year, Peskin said, "It would be a little bit of a leap for me to endorse her."
As for whom he would support to be the next board president, Peskin wouldn't say since it will depend on the outcome of the fall races.
"Who knows what the composition of the board will be," he said.