SAN FRANCISCO—Ellen Zhou, San Francisco 2019 mayoral election candidate, held a gathering in San Francisco’s Chinatown. As President Trump delivered his 2020 reelection bid, Ellen Zhou echoed Trump’s message of protecting our freedom and the need to clean up our government.
Zhou held a dinner gathering on the evening of June 18 where attendees watched Trump’s speech and voiced their support for Zhou. Other diners had an opportunity to learn more about Zhou’s campaign and her plans for San Francisco, if elected mayor.
“I am here to support Ellen’s campaign because I do believe it’s time for San Francisco to try a different style of leadership,” said George Yang, an engineer who is active in politics.
Zhou noted that San Francisco currently faces many challenges and issues that need improvement, one of which is affordable housing.
“I will be creating programs to release all the empty apartments at the forefront, to help people get their money because people are paying for the banks. We have calculated, in San Francisco we have approximately 50,000 to about 75,000 empty apartments,” explained Zhou.
Multiplied by an average of $2,000 a month for rent, property owners would be losing around $1 billion a month. Annually, the city would be losing close to $12 billion in terms of rentable apartments.
Zhou and her campaign staff also cited drug use and homelessness as other problems that need attention.
According to a report by National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), statistics show that the number of deaths and overdoses from using drugs, such as opioids, heroin, and cannabis, has been steadily increasing in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Chronicle found that San Francisco has about 24,500 intravenous drug users, approximately 8,500 more people than the 16,000 students enrolled in San Francisco Unified School District’s 15 high schools.
Zhou explained that part of the problem is the existence of government-funded injection sites, which provides free needles to injection drug users. As mayor, Zhou says she will clean up San Francisco by helping people get off drugs, rather than provide them with easy access to feed their addictions.
People attending the dinner gathering voiced their support for Zhou’s vision for San Francisco, believing now is the time to lead San Francisco in a new direction.
“It is not about my campaign. It’s our campaign. We have been fighting for this fight for about two years. San Francisco has been lawless. We have no rule of law in San Francisco for many years. And if you do not like what you see, this is the year that has one window of opportunity,” said Zhou.
Professor Roger Jiang, a former professor at City College of San Francisco, expressed that San Francisco was once a beautiful city he enjoyed living in. Over the 30 years he’s lived in the city, the city has change drastically.
“I saw San Francisco’s change. This change, it’s for the worse, not change for the better! It’s become worse and worse. San Francisco used to be a safe city, but now it’s no longer safe. Every district is filled with crime and danger,” said Jiang.
He continues to explain that the current city officials passed a resolution that states crimes involving a monetary loss of less that $900 is not considered crime.
Professor Jiang, along with many other locals at the gathering, expressed that Zhou is the candidate they support because they hope she is the one who can help clean up San Francisco.
With six candidates running for San Francisco mayor, Zhou continues to campaign to gather support from local communities.
“I hope that through her [Ellen’s] campaign, we can give people a choice of new solutions and those new solutions will benefit all San Franciscans,” said Yang
When the gathering concluded around 9:00 P.M., Zhou remained in the restaurant to talk with locals and listened to their advice and feedback regarding what the local San Franciscans want for the city.
The mayoral election voting will be held on November 5, 2019.
