 |
SCREEN CAPTURE / KRON San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, right, and ormer Supervisor Beya Alacraz. |
Filipino Americans in San Francisco are upset. We've just witnessed a political fireworks show in San Francisco, and it fizzled out faster than you can say "accountability."
A week ago Isabella "Beya" Alcaraz made history as the first Filipina American on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Her appointment provided a moment of pride for the Filipino American community. A week later, she made history again with her resignation.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, a relative newcomer himself, thought he had a winner. A 29-year-old local, a former small business owner, no political baggage. A "community voice," he called her. Sounds great on paper, doesn't it? A breath of fresh air in the sometimes stale air of San Francisco politics.
But the real story, the one that quickly emerged, paints a different picture.
Alcaraz, a 29-year-old former small business owner and music/art teacher, was appointed by Lurie on November 6, 2025, to represent District 4, the southwest portion of the city known as the Sunset district, after the previous supervisor, Joel Engardio, was recalled.
Lurie's vetting process was flawed. It seems nobody did their homework.
Alcaraz, a lifelong Sunset District resident, was a political novice with no prior government experience and no experience in community organizing, which Lurie highlighted as a strength, positioning her as a grounded voice for the neighborhood..
Media reports came pouring in about Alcarez's small business, "The Animal Connection" pet store. The new owner, Julia Baran, described a nightmare scenario: the place was a mess, with dead rodents everywhere and a freezer full of deceased pets. Not exactly a shining example of business acumen or responsibility.
Then came the Mission Local story, the final nail in the coffin. Text messages revealed Alcaraz herself admitting to paying people "under the table." Tax fraud? Questionable business deductions for dinners and drinks with friends? How she ran her small business raised questions of ethics and basic legal compliance.
A week is all it took for the truth to sink in. On November 13, she resigned. In a prepared statement, she said, “When I raised my hand to serve as supervisor, I told the mayor that it was time for someone who is from the Sunset to represent the Sunset. I believe that my community deserves someone who will work 24/7 to advocate for us. I understand that today’s news stories would distract me from doing that.”
Lurie said he didn't learn about e-mails until Nov. 13. He asked for her resignation that evening, saying in a statement that the "new information" would be "a significant distraction" from her efforts to serve the Sunset community.
Mayor Lurie, himself a political novice, has taken the fall for the vetting failure, which is the least he could do. But it leaves a sour taste. Filipino Americans, who make up 4.6% of San Francisco with a long history in the city, finally get a historic "first" for our community, only to see it evaporate amid scandal and poor judgment.
It's a shame, really. About 37,000 Filipinos call San Francisco home and distributed throughout the city. Except for District 6, which is home to the Filipino Cultural Heritage District in the South of Market neighborhood where Filipinos make up largest ethnic group, there is no real power base in the diverse city where racial politics is a rough-and-tumble enterprise.
When Alvaraz was sworn in, the Filipino American celebrated the historic moment, even though she was not well known among community leaders.
“I’m surprised it took this long for a Filipino to be in one of those seats,” said Rudy Corpuz told Mission Local. He is a first-generation Filipino immigrant and executive director of United Playaz, a violence-prevention and youth-development organization.
He told the local media outlet that one of the reasons Filipinos don't have more influence in San Francisco is that the city is not always the final destination for Filipino families. Many Filipino newcomers move to the Bay Area suburbs where life is more affordable in search for their families.
The Filipino American community deserves better. San Francisco deserves better.
“We need to rally the Fil-Am community. He (Mayor Lurie) can’t play with the Fil-Am community like thism" long time womens' rights advocate Marily Mondejar told Inquirer.net. Can you imagine the very first Filipino Supervisor in SF had to resign in disgrace: This is unacceptable. We all have worked many, many years to uplift our community, and now this.”
“We need to rally the Fil-Am community. He (Mayor Lurie) can’t play with the Fil-Am community like thism" long time womens' rights advocate Marily Mondejar told Inquirer.net. Can you imagine the very first Filipino Supervisor in SF had to resign in disgrace: This is unacceptable. We all have worked many, many years to uplift our community, and now this.”
The search for a new supervisor is back on, and let's hope this time they look a little harder before swearing in the next person. The odds of Lurie appointing another Filipino American is unlikely. There are so many other ethnic nd special interest groups with political clout who want to part of San Francisco's governing body.
Although there are plenty of highly qualified FilAms who could serve on the Board of Supervisors, the question is will any of them want to step up after the embarrassing Lurie debacle. Filipino Americans need a real win, not just another footnote in San Francisco's political history.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.
No comments:
Post a Comment