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Chris Daly (born 1972) is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He represents District 6, encompassing the Civic Center, Tenderloin, and South of Market districts, Treasure & Yerba Buena islands and the northern half of the Mission District (known as Inner Mission). He was elected to the Board in 2000 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006. Aside from being a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he also represents San Francisco County on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Joint Policy Committee, and the Urban Counties Caucus.
Background
Originally from Bowie, Maryland, Daly graduated from Gaithersburg High School as his class valedictorian. Daly won the Young American Medal for Service in 1989. He left college at Duke University to work for the anti-poverty organization Empty the Shelters in Philadelphia. He moved to San Francisco in 1993 and worked at the Coalition on Homelessness before starting the Mission Agenda, organizing tenants in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Hotels in San Francisco's Mission District. He was later a co-founder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, a community group dedicated to fighting the displacement of tenants, artists, and small businesses in the Mission District caused by gentrification.
Daly was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in December 2000 with 81 percent of the vote. This election, the first since before 1980 in which supervisors were chosen by district, also saw the election of other progressive candidates. Daly won re-election to the Board in 2002 and again in 2006.
Housing and Homelessness
Many of Daly's major legislative accomplishments have come in the areas of housing development and homelessness. He has had a significant impact upon San Francisco's development policy, as his district includes the majority of land zones that have been slated for expanded residential development by recent administrations. He worked to require developers to include significant community benefits including affordable housing in their projects.
Daly has also sponsored legislation to help low-income tenants of SRO residential hotels, many of whom are located in his district. Specifically, Daly sponsored the Uniform Visitor Policy (which banned the practice of hotels charging "visitor fees") and a Sprinkler Ordinance that requires all SRO hotels to have a sprinkler system installed in each room to prevent fires. Daly's advocacy for SRO tenants has prompted Supervisor Sophie Maxwell to call him "the conscience of the Board of Supervisors."
In 2005, Daly negotiated a planned development on Rincon Hill, where the developer was allowed greater densities in exchanged for $120 million in community benefits.
Daly has been a staunch advocate of rent control.
A Passionate Activist
In his first year in office, Daly made headlines when he stood up to controversial Mayor Willie Brown, defending the City's most prominent homeless advocates from the Mayor's personal attacks in a private meeting. Brown was indignant, rarely having been challenged so effectively in his storied 40 year political career.
In 2002, Daly was arrested at a demonstration at Hastings Law School aimed at stopping an 885-space parking garage, universally opposed by the Tenderloin community. The protest was successful in getting Hastings to negotiate with the community to shrink the garage and include affordable housing and a new YMCA in the project.
In 2003, serving as acting Mayor while Willie Brown traveled to China, Daly appointed two environmentalists to the Public Utilities Commission. While one appointment was rescinded, the other, Adam Werbach stayed. Daly's move effectively blocked the appointment of Andrew Lee, failed candidate for District 4 Supervisor in 2002 and son of later-indicted Housing Authority Commissioner and Brown fundraiser, Julie Lee. Werbach still serves as a PUC Commissioner and served on Mayor Gavin Newsom's transition team.
National Stage
Daly's promotion of a progressive agenda has landed him on the national stage. Daly authored November 2004's Proposition N calling for an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The measure was the first of its type in a major American city and received 63% of the popular vote. The passage of this proposition marked one of the beginnings of widespread discontent with the Bush Administration's occupation of Iraq.
In February 2006, Daly introduced a resolution that was passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors 7-3 asking the City's congressional delegation to pursue impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Again, this was the first resolution of its kind passed by a major city. Daly's role in pressing for impeachment landed him on the national talk-show circuit. Daly then placed a measure calling for impeachment of the President and Vice-President on the November 2006 ballot. Proposition J received 59% of the vote despite some opposition concerned that the measure would hinder the Democratic effort to take back Congress.
Personal
Daly enjoys playing and watching basketball and is rumored to be good poker player. He lives with his wife Sarah and 2-year old son Jack adjacent to the Mission District in District 6.
External links
- San Francisco City Government profile page
- Supervisor Chris Daly's Daly blog
- Daly 06 Campaign website
- Supes Take Over Policy Agenda
- Brown Cries Political Foul: He calls Daly's move to make PUC appointments unethical