by Harry Louis Williams II
San Francisco is currently experiencing an era of unparalleled prosperity. Cranes are raising up towering temples of opulence and luxury while, at the same time, poverty and homelessness have reached crisis levels. Affordable housing has nearly vanished.
In District 10, the sight of moving trucks being loaded by families that have called their neighborhood “home” for generations are not an unfamiliar sight. That same stretch of San Francisco is a food desert where fresh fruit and quality vegetables are scarce and in high demand.
District 10 needs new ideas. It needs an uncompromising new voice that will fight for its people. That is why Gloria Berry is running for the position of District 10 Supervisor.
Gloria Berry is a lifelong resident of the city of San Francisco. She attended both public and private schools in the city. At an early age, she developed a thirst for justice and equitable treatment of all of the city’s residents. That hunger to see justice done has planted her firmly in the fight against environmental racism, the mistreatment of veterans, police brutality and construction hiring practices that do not provide jobs for District 10 residents.
Finally, here is a candidate who can relate to the struggles of many in her district. After 11 years of home ownership, Gloria Berry, a single mother, lost her house in the foreclosure crisis. She fell from the status of homeowner to homeless. When housing prospects in her rapidly gentrifying home city dried up, she traveled from shelter living to drug infested transitional housing.
In those dark days, this candidate for office witnessed it all. Today, this Navy veteran is a renter with a vast understanding of how to fight for the rights of the underserved.
District 10 needs new ideas. It needs an uncompromising new voice that will fight for its people. That is why Gloria Berry is running for the position of District 10 Supervisor.
Gloria Berry brings some new ideas to the table. She wants to expand after-school activities and see that tutors are hired for school children. Berry wants to have a state of emergency declared in her district at which time she will demand that state and federal funds be used to fund drug and alcohol dependency programs. She supports outpatient wrap-around services for people seeking to recover from chemical addiction.
Berry’s 20 years of service experience leading up to this point have well prepared her for the office of District 10 Supervisor. She has written policy and created designs that effected thousands of people. She has conducted hearings and investigations at the state level.
What’s more, Gloria Berry has been in the trenches as part of the struggle to end development of the Hunters Point Shipyard until it is properly tested and cleaned. She can be counted on to stand up to developers like Lennar.
In addition, Ms. Berry would push to have a police commissioner appointed who would be tough on the issue of police brutality. She would insist that police officers spend time in the community doing non-punitive activities like attending school graduations. Supervisor Gloria Berry will demand that District Attorney George Gascón step down because, she states, 17 people have been killed by police since he assumed his office in 2011 and he has yet to file any charges.
Gloria Berry’s candidacy is not being funded by a political machine or some old guard cronies with deep pockets. Hers is a grassroots campaign. She is proceeding forward handshake by handshake, door knock by door knock.
Are you willing to fight side by side with a candidate with the courage to speak the truth who will make sure that your voice will be heard in downtown San Francisco’s citadels of power?
Reach out to the next District 10 Supervisor, Gloria Berry. Call 415-509-6012 or email gloria.berry2010@gmail.com. Visit her website HERE.
Vote Berry Smart. Vote Gloria Berry for Supervisor District 10.
Harry Louis Williams II, an Oakland-based author and community activist, can be reached at innercityhealing@yahoo.com. His website is revharrywilliams.us.