John M. Lee: 2011 City Mayoral Race

Come this November, San Franciscans will be electing their 44th mayor to preside over the affairs of the City. This has become an extremely crowded race with more than 30 individuals already registered to run and with about two months left to declare!
Why is this such an important race? Because we are facing many problems and issues in San Francisco at this time. We need a strong leader and problem solver to guide us through and make us a better city over the next decade.
I have not seen so many major problems all occurring at the same time. The next mayor will have to work on balancing the budget, reforming our pension system, fixing Muni, repairing our streets, reviving our economy, improving our schools, and providing more housing, just to name a few. We need an experienced individual who not only can lead, but who will have the respect and ability to work with all of the diverse factions within San Francisco to solve these problems. We also need a decisive leader with visions that he/she can advance and implement successfully.
Currently, I see these seven candidates, listed in alphabetical order, as leading the pack: John Avalos, Michela Alioto-Pier, David Chiu, Bevan Dufty, Dennis Herrera, Phil Ting and Leland Yee. I urge each one of you to study who they are and cast your votes accordingly in the November election. With ranked choice voting, you will be able to vote and rank your top three choices.
Avalos is running as the darling of the progressives, carrying the torch for the liberals in San Francisco. Alioto-Pier is running as the most moderate of the candidates while everyone else is positioned in between.
With what we saw with ranked choice voting last November in the District 2 and District 10 elections, where supervisors Mark Farrell and Malin Cohen, though not leading on election night, emerged as winners after ranked choice calculations were performed because they received more of the second- and third-place votes from the other candidates. This has created an election environment where the candidates are courting the other candidate's leftover votes, meaning that everyone has to be nice to everyone else! This has made for some boring campaigning thus far.
We, at the San Francisco Association of Realtors, have started interviewing the major candidates for the mayoral position. We pepper them with questions about how they would solve the budget crisis, how they would handle pension reform, what their position is on condo conversions, and other issues facing the City.
The topic that is of most importance to our organization is the housing crisis and the divide between the haves and have nots. The difference is not only happening in homeownership, but also in rentals. Within a large apartment building, there might be tenants who are enjoying the benefits of rent control to the max with ultra-low rents living next to new tenants who are paying 10 times more!
There was a recent report arising out of the 2010 census that indicates there are 31,000 vacant housing units in San Francisco. That is about one out of 12 living units and represents a 70 percent increase from the census 10 years ago.
People complain that rents are too high and that there are not enough available rental units. Others complain that real estate prices are too high and the middle class has to move out of San Francisco because they cannot find suitable housing at affordable prices. The debate regarding building more homes, allowing more condo conversions, and providing affordable housing is reaching its peak and will be some of the more important issues our next mayor will have to tackle.
So keep your eyes on the mayoral candidates and vote for the one(s) who can make a difference for our City in the future!
John M. Lee is the immediate past president of the SF Association of Realtors. For questions, call (415) 447-6231.