Safe and Vibrant Neighborhoods

Great neighborhoods are the building blocks for a great city. Scott is committed to using our city’s government to build strong neighborhoods that are safe, vibrant, and clean.

Neighborhood safety: Scott believes that safe neighborhoods result from a partnership between the police and the people who live and work in the neighborhood. Scott supports our police department and wants to make it as good as it can be. We need to modernize the department’s outdated technology so that the police can more effectively track criminal activity and respond efficiently. Scott also supports increased foot patrols, since effective policing must include a strong connection between the police and the community. Scott wants the city to be much more proactive in engaging residents in community policing activities, including neighborhood watches and other grassroots ways of creating safe neighborhoods, such as the grassroots neighborhood safety organization that Scott helped to found. It is also important for the police department, with support from the District Attorney’s Office and the city as a whole, to enforce quality-of-life laws, ranging from vandalism and graffiti to harassment on the street. Traffic calming, with strong input from the neighborhood, is also a key part of neighborhood safety.

Homelessness: Scott believes that the ongoing problem of homelessness in our city is unacceptable. It is a problem that negatively impacts everyone’s quality of life. While there have been some changes and improvements over the years in terms of how we address homelessness, we still have a long way to go. Scott believes that we need to provide people with access to housing, mental health, and substance abuse services. Scott supported Care Not Cash, which has been successful in moving almost 3,000 homeless people into supportive housing. Scott also supports the Community Justice Center, which diverts quality-of-life misdemeanors out of the formal criminal justice system and into an alternative setting that holds people accountable for their behavior while requiring them to receive services to address the underlying problems that lead to that behavior. Scott cares deeply for all members of our community but also recognizes that if people decline the services offered to them and then break the law, people need to be held accountable for their behavior as a matter of neighborhood safety.

Great public spaces: No neighborhood is complete without usable, vibrant, and well-maintained public spaces. Public spaces come in all shapes and sizes from parks to plazas to wide sidewalks that allow people to congregate and get to know their neighbors. Scott supported the 2008 parks bond and believes that we need to prioritize the upkeep of our parks, including safe playgrounds, clean restrooms, and space for all users, including adults, seniors, teens, kids, and dogs. Rec centers and public libraries are also important gathering spaces and must be supported. In a city as small and dense as San Francisco, we also need to be creative in creating public space. Scott supports creative use of our streets and sidewalks, such as the 17th Street Plaza in the Castro, the Guerrero median greening project, and Sunday Streets. Scott is also an advocate for streetscape improvements, such as widening of sidewalks, creation of pedestrian bulbouts, sidewalk greening, and better crosswalks. Scott supports the Castro/Upper Market, Noe Valley, and Glen Park streetscape plans.

Culture and Entertainment: Entertainment is the cultural lifeblood of San Francisco, which is one of the most creative and lively cities in the world. From traditional nightlife to outdoor fairs and festivals to creative uses of our parks like movie night in Dolores Park, DogFest in Duboce Park, and the Easter Egg roll in Douglass Park, entertainment brings people together, takes our minds off of the daily grind, and reminds us how creative and diverse San Francisco is. Unfortunately, city government has at times impeded entertainment in San Francisco by charging excessive and unpredictable fees. Scott supports making the fee structure more reasonable and predictable. In addition, the city needs to be proactive in fostering the entertainment industry, which provides jobs and tax revenue, while also ensuring neighborhood safety.

Families, kids, and public education: Families in San Francisco come in many forms, from single people with tight-knit friends to couples without kids to families with kids and everything in between. The city must support all of these families. District 8 has seen an increase in the number of children being raised in our community. We need to make it easier for people to raise kids in San Francisco. This includes safe neighborhood parks, streets, playgrounds and other spaces for kids of all ages to have recreation opportunities, as well as public schools that help keep and support families in the city. Scott is an ardent supporter of public education and will do everything in his power to support the San Francisco Unified School District and to promote our public education system. He believes in reforming the school assignment system so that we maintain diversity in our schools while not forcing parents to transport their kids across town. Supporting families also means supporting seniors. The City has a role to play in ensuring that seniors have access to recreational opportunities and meals. Scott strongly supports the City's senior centers and meal programs.

Public health: A strong public health system is one of city government’s most important tasks. We have an amazing public health network in San Francisco, including San Francisco General Hospital, Laguna Honda, our system of primary care clinics, and nonprofits that focus on specific needs like HIV, children’s health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment. Scott supports maintaining and strengthening our public health safety net. Scott also supports Healthy San Francisco, our universal health care program.