A talk with mayoral candidate Dr. Ahimsa P. Sumchai
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by Joanna Letz/PNN "Another four years of Newsom will have devastating effects on the people most vulnerable in the city, the homeless, poor, and drug addicted. This is ethically unconscionable in a city whose Patron is Saint Francis of Assisi…We are going in the wrong direction." Ahimsa Porter's voice reverberated within the small meeting room inside the Unitarian center on one of the first rainy days this fall. I had been enticed to attend the Gray Panther-sponsored event, entitled, "Gentrification, Redevelopment, and the Future of San Francisco," by the chance to hear Mayoral Candidate Ahimsa Sumchai speak and to report and support for POOR Magazine. I walked down the hallway of the Unitarian Center; its walls covered with children's colorful artwork, and opened the door to the Fireside room where the Gray Panther meeting had already begun. The group was in the middle of discussing the upcoming elections. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai arrived amidst an already heated discussion around redevelopment and gentrification. Sumchai jumped right in, saying, "Gentrification occurs when you cite increases in market rate housing. Replacing people with a calculator as opposed to a bulldozer." Sumchai went onto say that San Francisco needs a moratorium on market-rate and above market-rate housing. She also said, "There is an investment foreclosure seminar this month (called) ‘How to capitalize and make money off of foreclosures." Now it seems that there are even seminars teaching people how to make money off the displacement of poor people. Sumchai said, "For whom is this city destined…. we must oppose the privatization of San Francisco…like a Dunkin Donuts sign on the Golden Gate Bridge, and Lennar's poisoning of children at school; the reality of San Francisco's future if the mayor is re-elected is a city of the upper rich." She continued, "As a physician, as a person who cares for people, I have a commitment and mandate to protect people…who are most vulnerable and being most threatened." She discussed the extreme criminalization of poverty in the City, citing the recent dramatic increase in arrests and incarcerations. "The criminalization of the homeless in this city has resulted in 46,000 citations, in an effort to try and sweep them out of the city… We need to redistribute our wealth and our priorities," Sumchai added. Many people it seems feel that Newsom will be elected again despite opposition against him. Although Newsom's re-election would have little effect on many middle and upper class people in San Francisco, as Sumchai points out, for those most in need in San Francisco another term of Newsom could be a matter of life and death. Throughout her talk, Sumchai delved into numerous topics that Mayor Newsom's administration has remained quiet about, such as the debate raging in the Bay View/Hunter's Point on the devastating redevelopment tearing a community apart and harming the health of children and adults. Her own father worked as a longshoreman and died as a result of exposure to asbestos. "Twenty-three percent of the time asbestos levels exceeded the point that required shut down... Lennar may have to pay $2,500 for everyday they were out of compliance for not notifying the Nation of Islam School," she stated powerfully to the room full of nodding heads. Sumchai also voiced her support for more city-provided care for the disabled, mentally ill and elders residing in San Francisco, as well as for a single payer healthcare plan. "We cannot cut mental health services. We need a single payer health care plan. We need universal child-care and pre-school, we can't optimize employment without this," she said. Sumchai also called violence and substance abuse an epidemic and called for a look at the rooted problems causing this growing problem. "We need to look at why people are fundamentally addicted [and why] people self-treat for underlying disorders." Sumchai courageously and eloquently spoke to numerous problems our City is facing. From cuts in Muni services and rampant gentrification to the health of the City's children, Sumchai offered innovative solutions and ideas to the problems that the current administration seems to ignore. After listening to Ahimsa Sumchai speak I realized with greater clarity the need for change in San Francisco. Many of the issues Sumchai spoke passionately about are issues that are of life and death for people on the streets, for elders and youth, poor people in San Francisco, and/or for folks living with a mental or physical disability, folks that we consider poverty, race, disability and youth scholars at POOR Magazine. San Francisco thinks of itself as a Mecca for liberal thinking and activism, yet San Francisco continues increase the criminalization of poor communities and communities of color. San Francisco and Mayor Gavin Newsom have not addressed the economic and environmental injustice taking place in the Bayview /Hunters Point at the hands of Lennar and the Redevelopment Agency, which is an issue that Sumchai speaks openly and actively about. At the end of the talk Sumchai was asked what kind of alliances are being made between the candidates opposing Mayor Newsom. Sumchai responded, "Ahimsa for mayor [is a] vehicle to build a foundation of future political activities…Alignment is happening, people are looking for alternatives." Ahimsa Sumchai is running under the Peace and Freedom Party. |