Community College Board Trustee Chris Jackson. Photo by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
May 4, 2010, 1:47 pm
Community College Board Trustee Chris Jackson announced today his candidacy in the race for District 10 Supervisor.
“I am proud to run to represent the diverse communities of District 10 on the Board of Supervisors,” Jackson, a Progressive, wrote in a statement released to FCJ. “It is a place my family has called home since 1966. My candidacy will focus on how we can make our neighborhoods safer and more family-friendly. Our district is in a place of transition, and we need responsible leadership that will carefully advocate for smart growth and good-paying jobs.”
Jackson was elected to the Community College Board of Trustees in 2008. In that citywide election, Jackson garnered over 8,000 votes from District 10 voters. He is the only African-American male currently elected to public office in San Francisco and works as a policy analyst for the San Francisco Labor Council.
District 10 is located in the Southeast quadrant of San Francisco and comprises the Portrero Hill, Bayview Hunters Point, Visitation Valley and Portola neighborhoods. Jackson is the 17th candidate vying to replace sitting District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who terms out of office in January 2011.
Jackson said he will file his declaration of intent today with the San Francisco Department of Elections.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
May 13, 2010 at 6:05 am
Labor was a Supporter of Lennar in 2008. Where do they stand now? With affordable housing, or Against (as in 08)?
May 5, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I have my eye on one issue as this election approaches: the Redevelopment Agency, which is of course, most predatory in D6 and D10. I’d like to see most of its staff eliminated, for the sake of both the budget and the City, and see what’s left of the RDA brought under the control of the Board of Supervisors so that we might at least have some kind of dialogue with elected officials about land use and a chance of halting the ongoing aggression of the city’s most favored megadeveloper and/or whichever comes along next.
I’d like to see a candidate who knows that these stupid plans the RDA spews out, including the $1.1 million 2006 BVHP Redevelopment Plan, are pure boilerplate— templates used by RDAs all over the country, with fill-in-the-blanks for community meanings and the like, and that they’re both illiterate and racist.
I read the entire 2006 BVHP Redevelopment Plan, which goes on and on about the Concept Plan, a conceptual impossibility, and about the Master Developer (Lennar) in a majority minority neighborhood.
I hope that at least one candidate, most of all one from D10, will have the guts to point out that anyone who lost their city job, shelter, or bus line this year can thank Mayor Newsom and the pro-RDA/Lennar voters on the Board for enabling Lennar, one of the top 10 industrial builder-lenders, that triggered the subprime meltdown.
Lennar is not just a builder. It’s a lender. Universal American Mortgage. I hope to hear a Supervisorial candidate say that out loud before this year’s Supervisorial races are over.
Lennar’s not just a builder; they’re a lender. A big lender. A big predatory subprime lender pushing their own properties at inflated values.
May 5, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Awesome! I was scratching my head wondering why Chris hadn’t filed to run, since he’d be a good fit for the district. Now I have my answer. I haven’t decided who I’ll personally support yet, because I haven’t looked at all the myriad of candidates, but I think Chris has a lot of potential and I’m pretty excited that he’s chosen to take the plunge.
May 4, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Ho. Lee. Christ. I check Usual Suspects every day. Had no idea that resource was there. Kay, I owe you a solid. Whatever that means.
May 4, 2010 at 3:49 pm
generick, check out the goldmine: http://www.sfusualsuspects.com/elections/upcoming-races/
May 4, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Interesting. I’ve heard this referred to as “the black seat”. True? If so, other that Jackson and Malia Cohen, who are the other African-Americans who have filed?