San Francisco Mayor's Race: 3 Questions With Candidate Michelle Bravo

Mayoral candidate Michelle Bravo is a military veteran who served during the first Gulf War. She is a holistic health practitioner who has worked in San Francisco for over 12 years. 

Bisnow: What do you see as the biggest challenge to building new development in San Francisco?

Bravo: Two big challenges I see right now are two supervisors, District 10’s Malia Cohen and District 6’s Jane Kim, and the large developments in their respective districts that are potentially toxic to current and future residents. Neither Ms. Cohen nor Ms. Kim have stood up to do some hard questioning of the U.S. Navy and Tetra Tech for the toxic soil samples found on both [the] Hunters Point Shipyard development and Treasure Island.

Both [projects] need to be scrutinized and the U.S. Navy and companies involved held accountable. If indeed Tetra Tech was … responsible for falsifying soil samples, moving toxic soil off the site, etc., the time to act is now. The city of San Francisco needs to ensure both development sites … are safe for residents to live on before they build any more housing that could very well endanger families and their children’s lives.

We also need to look at culpability for the Millennium Tower and find out how this building was allowed to be built in the first place. Looking at old maps of that area where Millennium Tower is it’s built on landfill. 

We need to ensure city hall commissioners, supervisors and anyone working for the city [of San Francisco] and state of California and federal government understand that we must have transparency for [a] better and safer community.

Bisnow: How do you plan to fix San Francisco’s biggest development challenges?

Bravo: I would work with California mayors, the mayor of Los Angeles and all mayors who have cities near or within proximity of our earthquake-prone fault lines.

Together, we would collectively have a plan for our cities for earthquake preparedness, update guidelines of how developers will build with earthquake safety ... [and] work with insurance companies to find more affordable options ... for earthquake insurance for Californians. 

I would also work with the governor of Tokyo, Japan (they do not have a mayor but a governor instead), to work with California developers, leadership and government so we can learn from Japan’s experiences with both earthquakes ... and tsunamis. 

As San Francisco mayor, I would mandate all SFPD, SFFD, EMT's and any other first responder personnel be required to live in San Francisco as a way to reseed the middle class back into San Francisco.

If our first responders live here, they’ll have more opportunity to act and support our community in the event of a natural disaster as well as vote for leaders at city hall.   

I will work with developers who, now and going forward, have been cleared to build earthquake-safe buildings and ensure that first responders have first access to middle-class housing that these developers build as we get them to live in San Francisco.  

As mayor, I will work to offer low-interest home loans and tax breaks for first responders, teachers [and] social workers to encourage these important individuals to live in San Francisco as they represent the very backbone of infrastructure needed to effectively grow San Francisco sanely, intelligently and with effective long-term goals and planning. 

Bisnow: What will be your approach to address affordable housing issues in San Francisco?

Bravo: Reseed the middle class in San Francisco by requiring all municipal workers, cops, firefighters, EMT’s, teachers [and] social workers live and vote in San Francisco amongst the community they serve. 

Without middle-class first responders required to live in San Francisco, we’ll continue to have an SFPD that is not connected to our city nor will they share our values as San Franciscans. As San Francisco mayor, I would hold all new developers accountable to provide first opportunity for first responders to have middle-class affordable housing.  

Editor's note: This limited series highlights San Francisco mayoral candidates’ views on development and affordable housing based on the same three questions. Bisnow contacted all eight mayoral candidates and will run the answers from each of those who responded prior to the election. The responses are offered for information. Bisnow does not endorse political candidates, measures, laws or ordinances.