Endorsement Interviews: Debra Walker

08.30.10 - 10:48 am | Rebecca Bowe |

(15)

District 6 Candidate Debra Walker

Sarah Phelan

Editors note: The Guardian is interviewing candidates for the fall elections, and to give everyone the broadest possible understanding of the issues and our endorsement process, we're posting the sound files of all the interviews on the politics blog. Our endorsements will be coming out Oct. 6th.

Debra Walker, a candidate for District 6, has obviously thought a lot about sustainable development -- and she isn’t just focused on what building materials are being selected. In addition to planning in ways that would limit traffic congestion and still make sense years from now when the city is grappling with sea-level rise, affordability ranks near the top of her list of priorities.

“Can we agree that we are not building enough below-market housing?” she asked.

A tenant representative on the city's Building Inspection Commission, Walker is interested in integrating an analysis of the socioeconomic effects of development into the city planning process. “We need to look at our development proposals through a different lens,” she said. “We need to come at planning from the perspective of what we need.”

She’d like to see the city look at the larger picture of what kind of a future is being crafted through its planning decisions. “Land use is the primary issue in District 6 and District 10,” she said. “If we do it wrong, it will exacerbate every problem we have. It’s the future of San Francisco.”

As someone whose primary mode of transportation is a bicycle, Walker looks at MUNI from the perspective of some one who might take transit more often if her busy schedule permitted it. “None of our policies encourage people to ride transit,” she pointed out, adding that she would be interested in exploring ways to boost ridership in order to improve MUNI service, and looking at measures such as a vehicle license fee to create additional funding for transit.

Walker also talked with us about revenue generating measures, why she would support a Bank of San Francisco as a way to prime the pump for our local economy, and how to address issues surrounding local hiring. Listen to the full interview below.

dwalker by tim94107

Endorsement Interviews

Comments

In essence - more government

That's Debra's answer to everything. More spending, more government, more services.

Posted by Lucretia Snapples on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 11:25 am

har

“None of our policies encourage people to ride transit,”

Well off the top of my head, Mirkirimi's commuter voucher law, the removal of hundreds of parking spots around town, the six week Market St. trial going on a year, the...

Everyday is the first day of year zero.

Posted by matlock on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 12:48 pm

Sorry guys

The BG called Debra a "seat warming liberal", now you are endorsing her...hilarious

Posted by Guest on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

Our endorsements

Will be coming out Oct. 6th.

Posted by rebecca on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 2:43 pm

Really?

The title of the piece is "Endorsement Interviews", what am I missing?

Posted by Guest on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 7:21 pm

They are interviewing all the

They are interviewing all the candidates for Endorsement and this is her interview you can listen to the other ones as well. I am not sure all have been completed yet so I am sure more are to come.

By the way BG can you make a link that allows you to see all of them in one place. Right now you have to hunt them down. I am one who plans on listening to as many as possible.

Posted by Guest on Aug. 31, 2010 @ 4:06 pm

Pensions

Maybe I missed it, but I wish you guys would ask the candidates about pensions and employee benefits. In this discussion, Tim said something like "no matter how you do it, now matter how you slice it, the City doesn't have enough money" for the services it wants to provide. The discussion with Walker then turned to ideas for revenue generation.

A key reason there isn't enough money is because the City's contribution to the pension fund (especially for public safety employees) and employee benefits is getting out of control. Adachi's Charter Amendment aside, even the controller and the City's own actuary says the City's contribution numbers are going up. Something has to be done to significantly reform the system. The past reform measures (like Prop D, which only applied to new employees) is just nibbling around the edges of a big problem.

I wish that one of these candidates would stick their neck out and propose some meaningful pension reform measures.

Posted by The Commish on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

Check Jim Meko's interview

Listen to District 6 Supervisor Candidate Jim Meko's interview for some "sticking their neck out" ... just sayin'

Posted by Jamie Whitaker on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

Supporting the status quo

"We need a quarter of a billion dollars more each year just to keep things running as they are now. So, we either raise revenues or cut the services.

...and not a mention of pension reform here in all this discussion.

I wish Jeff Adachi had been invited to the meeting and could have put in his two cents.

Posted by Guest on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

endorsements

We interview lots of candidates, and base our endorsements on their records and their positions on issues. Not everyone who is interviewed get the endorsement; we call them "endorsement interviews" as shorthand for "interviews with people who are seeking our endorsement."

We will, of course, be talking to Adachi and inviting him to make his case. And we will post that interview, too.

We'll publish our endorsements Oct. 6th. In the meantime, there are lots of interviews still to come.

Posted by tim on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 7:32 pm

Then....

Well then call them fucking candidate interviews...DUH!

Posted by Guest on Aug. 30, 2010 @ 9:46 pm

Tim, BG's editorial board

Tim, BG's editorial board endorsed Walker two years ago? Stop blowing smoke up people's asses that you're engaging in an impartial, objective fact-finding interview for District 6 voters to consider? This reeks of entitlement and privilege galore.

Posted by Guest on Aug. 31, 2010 @ 11:28 am

Yet another liberal elite

Same old far left policies. Anti-working class, Anti-Law enforcement, Anti-small buisness, Anti-American.. The result has been a
Poorly managed city. Walk down to Turk and jones and see for yourself.. Not all of us can afford high rise condos, and not all of us are habitual homless drug offenders..some of us ACTUALLY have a blue collar job, some of us have families to provide for.. Some progress San Francisco has made..

Posted by Guest on Aug. 31, 2010 @ 1:05 pm

Debra would be an excellent

Debra would be an excellent supervisor for D6. I am a long term resident of the City and a resident of D6 and know her long term record. You can trust her to be a solid progressive vote on the Board. If you are a renter, small businessperson or MUNI rider - she deserves your vote. Couple that with her experience and she definitely has one of my three votes.

Posted by Mark on Sep. 29, 2010 @ 9:28 pm

Walker knows her stuff--clearly the strongest for D6

If you really listen to this interview, Walker talks in-depth, with detailed knowledge and sharpness, about the key issues in D6. The anti-gov ideologues here are just plain wrong: she looks carefully at the issues, knows her stuff big-time, and does her homework. She's talking about real-life issues and proposing smart, balanced and well-informed solutions. She's done the work in the district, she's ready.

Posted by Guest Chris on Oct. 05, 2010 @ 12:01 am