Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to clarify Jane Kim’s position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Jane Kim, San Francisco’s first Korean-American elected official as well as a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, officially announced her plan to run for the city’s mayor position next year as she filed all the paperwork needed at the elections office on December 20, Wednesday. Kim is representing San Francisco’s District 6, which includes Union Square, Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mid-Market, Cathedral Hill, South of Market, South Beach, Mission Bay, Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island, and Alcatraz.
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According to Kim, while speaking with KPIX5 via
CBS San Francisco, her candidacy will open an opportunity to change the view and approach of the local government to solving the problem of income inequity.
“San Francisco has the fastest growing income gap in the country. I would really ask all of our residents and businesses big and small to come together to see how we can address our income gap between the healthy and poor,” the 40-year-old politician said.
As for the late mayor’s efforts to tackle homelessness issue, Kim said that she would continue his fight, but will try an aggressive approach toward housing.
“I think we have to be thoughtful and creative and part of that is finding shelters for people to go to immediately. It has been an approach that the city has been reluctant to take because it’s expensive. But we have thousands of people on the street and we need to find a place to put them. We need to explore the possibility of city-sanctioned sites for people to camp so they’re not on our doorsteps or our alleyways.”
Kim was also responsible for the campaign to make the City College of San Francisco tuition free,
SF Weekly reported.
According to reports, Breed once expressed her desire to run as mayor after Lee’s term. However, it is unclear if she would still consider running against Kim for the position in the special election next year.