The 14-person volunteer Board of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition weighed our mission, core values, and member input as we contemplated our endorsement for the special election of the 17th District of the California Assembly.
We are fortunate to have four strong contenders in David Campos, Matt Haney, Bilal Mahmood, and Thea Selby, who we believe would be advocates for a safe, just, and livable San Francisco. Within this group, there is a stand-out in Matt Haney who has a solid record of advocating for the transportation needs of this city. As supervisor of District 6, he worked to get immediate improvements on Howard Street in response to a fatality, which then helped to spur the creation of the SFMTA’s quick-build process, resulting in several new protected bike lanes. He funded and championed a neighborhood-wide 20 mph speed limit and no turn on red policy in the Tenderloin. Matt’s leadership on local CEQA reform is indicative of the type of inventive thinking we need at the state level to prevent procedural abuse that causes delay and stop implementation of Slow Streets and other street improvements. We trust that he will continue his work to ensure that critical public transportation improvements are done in an equitable way that emphasizes “prevention and harm reduction … instead of traditional, punitive law enforcement which relies on the collection of fees and infliction of punishment after the fact”1. Matt Haney is well known within the community as someone who repeatedly shows up in a genuine way to advance street safety.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Board is proud to endorse Matt Haney in this special election for Assembly District 17. We encourage our members to support him. Remember to vote on or before February 15th.
1 Matt Haney — Special Election State Assembly (AD17) Candidate Questionnaire.
