Public Safety Takes Center Stage as SF Mayoral Hopefuls Court Chinese American Voters

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s lunch orders fly by at the bustling Hon’s Wun-Tun House restaurant, Mayor London Breed is touting her efforts to boost police technology and staffing. She’s flanked by Chinatown community leaders who have promised to back her reelection and is vowing to crack down even further on the community’s public safety concerns that ramped up following the pandemic.

“We’re catching people, we made some major arrests, and our district attorney is prosecuting. So when this stuff goes down, look out because we have the technology to come for you,” said Breed. “That’s very exciting and has had an incredible transformative difference around public safety, and it’s a game changer for us here in this neighborhood.”

San Francisco’s Chinese American community has a long history of political activism, from leading the fight for school desegregation decades before the Brown v. Board of Education ruling to advocating for affordable housing for low-income and immigrant families. Today, with just two months left in the race, public safety has emerged as a key issue for many Chinese American voters, polls show. Democratic candidates across the city’s political spectrum are rushing to prove their commitment to law and order.

In recent years, the city became an organizing hub for Stop AAPI Hate following the rise in attacks against Asian residents, and Chinese American voters later turned out in force for the District Attorney and School Board recall races in 2022.

Now, mayoral candidates hoping to harness that momentum are courting one of the city’s largest and fastest-growing demographics — with their eyes set on crime and policing.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a progressive candidate, recently addressed supporters in a velvet-red banquet hall in Chinatown, championing his efforts to bring Cantonese-speaking officers to the neighborhood and increase veteran officer salaries. Across town, former supervisor and interim mayor Mark Farrell, a moderate Democrat, echoed similar promises in a small Visitacion Valley park, vowing to boost multilingual police presence and greater support for law enforcement.

Yet the candidates’ rhetoric around public safety varies, and Farrell has made increasing police to soothe crime fears a key part of his platform.

“Public safety is a top concern for San Francisco. Homelessness is on the rise. Tent encampments have never been worse in San Francisco. A record number of people are dying from drug overdose. Deaths on our streets every single day in our city, and our economy is completely stuck in cement,” Farrell said, standing in front of a group of elderly Chinese supporters. “We need change in San Francisco, and we need a change of direction in City Hall.”

Diane Lee, a longtime San Francisco resident and voter, told KQED that she feels less safe in the city today than ever before, even as police data shows that retail and violent crime rates are significantly down in San Francisco.

“It’s ridiculous. They should put some of these people in jail. And I’m a moderate Democrat, but I’m tired of all this crime,” Lee told KQED at the Sunset Night Market, where mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie was out meeting voters on a recent Friday.

At the market on Irving Street, Lee peppered Lurie with questions about how he plans to reduce street homelessness and crime, which she and other voters said they view as related issues.

Standing beside retired San Francisco Police Commander Paul Yep, who is backing Lurie’s campaign, Lurie detailed his plans to staff up the police department, speed up 911 response times and find long-term solutions for the public disarray Lee and others are troubled by.

“We’re going to get (unhoused people) into shelter. We’re going to get them bus tickets home, and then we’re going to get those that are suffering on our streets into mental health and drug treatment beds,” Lurie said to Lee.

Lurie, founder of the nonprofit Tipping Point and heir to the Levis Strauss clothing fortune, is a political outsider who hasn’t run for office before but said his background in nonprofit work has positioned him to bring new ideas to City Hall. “We have the money. We have the resources to do this. That’s why I’m running, because all these folks who I’m running against, they had their chance.”

However, other candidates are carving out more aggressive lanes when it comes to policing. Farrell, who recently won the endorsement from the Chinese American Democratic Club, has leaned into Chinese American voters’ frustration and fears around public safety. He plans to increase funding and staffing at the police department and said he will replace Police Chief Bill Scott and hopes to bring in armed National Guard troops to the Tenderloin.

“They are incredibly fed up with day-to-day life in San Francisco,” Farrell told KQED, referring to the Chinese American voters he speaks to. “They want a mayor who’s going to bring change, and I will bring that.”

Shifting politics and representation

The rise in public safety as an issue among voters comes alongside the moderate takeover of San Francisco’s Democratic Party this past spring. Many of the new members have made broad calls for increased public safety and measures that give more powers to the mayor and police.

It also comes as Asian representation among San Francisco officials has dropped — and none of the leading candidates in the race are Chinese American.

“Almost 20 years ago, only a handful of San Francisco candidates even had literature of mailers in Chinese, and they were usually Chinese and Asian American candidates,” said former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, who now serves as the California director of the Working Families Party. “Now, almost all campaigns try to hire Chinese bilingual organizers and come up with the best Chinese name” to appear on the ballot.

San Francisco has given candidates the option to print their name — or a chosen name — in Chinese characters on the ballot for nearly 25 years in an attempt to appeal to Chinese-speaking voters. While the policy has met controversy, it symbolizes how any serious candidate must make inroads with Chinese-speaking communities to have a shot in the race.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about the network and community. Who are your neighbors and people you’re playing mahjong with and doing tai chi with? What are they saying? That’s how it’s really being relayed back to Asian voters,” said Supervisor Connie Chan, who is currently the only AAPI supervisor and running for reelection. “This is why endorsements are so critical and why the people that you know are so important.”

Kim, Chan, along with Assmeblymember Phil Ting and former Supervisor Gordon Mar are all backing Peskin.

Meanwhile, Breed has support from State Attorney General Rob Bonta, Sheriff Paul Miyamota and Board of Education Commissioner Jenny Lam.

Despite their backing, Breed faces a tough reelection battle this fall. She’s had to assuage some skeptical voters who are still reeling from the spike in attacks against Asian residents during the pandemic — which spurred one Chinatown rapper to put out a diss track against Breed. He later apologized for the song.

“What they really need to do is listen to Chinese voters and understand their needs. They need to provide campaign information so voters become educated, and then they have to get out the vote with Chinese volunteers,” said Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor who teaches at San Francisco State University. “That’s the voter education our communities need.”

A wide range of views

From 2010 to 2020, the Asian population in San Francisco had the highest growth rate among all ethnicities in the city, according to US Census data, and Chinese residents make up nearly 22% of the city’s overall population, making them a key voting bloc for mayoral hopefuls.

However, like any major demographic, opinions vary widely within the Chinese American community on issues like public safety and how that should be addressed. Having more representation within campaigns is important to understanding that, said Jeung.

“We are seeing a range of different political views, and that, to me, shows the maturation of the community. You can’t just talk about the stereotypical Asian vote,” he said.

For many Chinese American voters, Supervisor Chan said, improving public safety isn’t about simply increasing police budgets or policies around harsher prosecutions. Often, she said, people’s general well-being — like the ability to pay the bills, access healthcare, walk on clean streets, attend good schools — shape feelings and conversations around safety and are part of solutions voters want to see.

“What they consider as a safety issue is not just about incarceration or prosecution. It’s actually really more of a day-to-day, like, do I feel safe? Can I go shopping? Can I do my daily routine without being interrupted or any type of incident?” Chan said. “Those are more their top concerns.”

For friends and San Francisco natives Richard Fong and David Zhao, public safety is a concern. However, the two said they are most interested in seeing a candidate who can provide housing to people who are homeless on the streets as a solution.

“We need someone to get people off the street and into houses,” said Fong, who is heading off to college this fall but plans to place an absentee ballot for the mayor’s race.

To better capture those varying opinions among Asian voters, candidates are also stacking their campaigns with bilingual staffers and volunteers.

“We have volunteers and paid staff who do speak Cantonese, and that’s really helpful for us when we are in neighborhoods where the majority language is monolingual Cantonese,” said Lauren Chung, a Chinese American and the campaign manager for Ahsha Safaí, another leading mayoral candidate who currently serves on the board of supervisors. “It’s definitely something we need on a campaign in San Francisco so we don’t leave any communities out.”

Mayoral candidates also promise to increase Asian representation among department heads and other city positions if elected. On Monday, Breed announced the city’s first Chinese American to serve as interim Fire Chief, Sandy Tong.

“When I become mayor, there is going to be representation of the API community at all levels of my administration,” said Lurie. “I’m not going to just pay lip service. There will not just be a seat at the table, but seats at the table in terms of representation.”