District 6 Supervisor candidate Matt Haney is running largely on two major accomplishments, but one of them was actually a success of the late Mayor Lee in spite of Haney’s inaction, and the other is actually an example of his failure on the school board.
As a longtime commissioner on the SFUSD Board of Directors, Haney has taken credit numerous times for pushing for affordable housing. For example, in his ballot statement and in his stump speech, Haney took credit for initiating the process of building teacher housing on school district land at the Francis Scott Key Annex. In truth, Haney’s tenure as former president of the school board was marked by years of inaction. Mayor Ed Lee ultimately forced momentum on this project.
According to the SF Chronicle, “Last May, the late Mayor Ed Lee said he’d had enough of the working group on teacher housing that didn’t seem to accomplish much and announced unilaterally that he’d picked a site: the Francis Scott Key Annex at 1360 43rd Ave. in the Outer Sunset.”
How can Haney claim credit for this project? Unfortunately, he has shown a consistent pattern of claiming credit for other people’s hard work, or reframing his shortcomings as major successes.
At various candidate forums throughout District 6, Haney has pointed to a 2017 resolution to build a school in Mission Bay as an example of his effectiveness. In fact, it’s an example of his failure. Haney was elected to the Board of Education in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2017—his second term—that the school board resolved to move forward with the project.
Haney claims the project couldn’t have moved forward before 2012 because there was no money to pay for the school before a 2016 bond measure. But the school district did not even need a bond to pay for that school. The Mission Bay school site is zoned for nine stories. If the school district builds seven floors of office over the two-story school building, the rent from the office could pay to build the school.
District 6 needs a leader who finds ways to get things done—not someone who simply relies on hardworking community groups and civic leaders to push things forward, rubber stamps them, and then takes the credit. Matt Haney wouldn’t know an original policy proposal if it bit him on the ass.
Haney has already shown us that he can postpone addressing problems for years, and that finally addressing them when forced to can still count as an achievement. He has shown that he will let valuable school district resources go to waste, but will happily take credit when something finally happens in spite of his inaction. He is showing us that he is happy to wait until someone else does the work, and he will take credit for it.
What Haney has not shown is a willingness to take a leadership position and take political risks to build much-needed affordable housing. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Cathy Reisenwitz writes about software for a living, sex on the side, and policy for fun. Her column “Unintended Consequences” appears regularly in the Bay City Beacon. She’s pro-sex, pro-feminism, and pro-market. Sign up for her newsletter and follow her on Twitter.
Sign up for the Bay City Beacon weekly newsletter! It's a free way of getting the best of political gossip and cutting-edge culture in your inbox every Friday.
