![]() | This article is an autobiography or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject.(February 2019) |
Gordon Mar | |||||||||||
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![]() Gordon Mar (official portrait, 2019) | |||||||||||
Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from District 4 | |||||||||||
In office January 8, 2019 –January 8, 2023 | |||||||||||
Mayor | London Breed | ||||||||||
Preceded by | Katy Tang | ||||||||||
Succeeded by | Joel Engardio | ||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||
Born | Sacramento,California | August 15,1962||||||||||
Nationality | American | ||||||||||
Political party | Democratic | ||||||||||
Residence(s) | San Francisco,California | ||||||||||
Occupation | Politician | ||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 馬兆明 [1] | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 马兆明 | ||||||||||
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Gordon Mar (born August 15,1962) is an American politician from San Francisco. He was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2019 to 2023,representing District 4. He is the twin brother of former District 1 supervisor Eric Mar. [2]
District 4 includes the western San Francisco neighborhoods of Central Sunset,Outer Sunset,Parkside,Outer Parkside,and Pine Lake Park. [3]
He was Executive Director of Jobs with Justice San Francisco and the Chinese Progressive Association. [4] [5]
After incumbent District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang declined to run for re-election in 2018,Mar filed papers to run for the District 4 seat in the November election. In the months leading up to the race,the campaigns of both Mar and his primary opponent,Jessica Ho,were criticized for "mudslinging" tactics. A Mar campaign staffer was caught tearing down a poster for Ho. [6] [7]
Mar was elected supervisor for District 4 on November 6,2018,receiving 10,314 first preference votes (36.29 percent of all valid votes). [8] After allocation of preferences from eliminated candidates in San Francisco's ranked-choice voting system,Mar received 56.84 percent of final-round votes,compared to 43.16 percent for runner-up Jessica Ho,an aide to the incumbent supervisor Katy Tang.[ citation needed ]
Mar led negotiations with San Francisco Mayor London Breed to fully fund City College of San Francisco's free tuition program for ten years beginning in 2019, [9] and negotiated a deal to provide full reserve funding for raises for San Francisco Unified School District educators. [10]
Mar has called on SFPD to release aggregated demographic data on Asian-American crime victims,following an increase in hate crimes in San Francisco and several high-profile attacks on members of the Chinese community, [11] and announced legislation requiring this data to be released annually.
Mar is the author of a number of ordinances reforming San Francisco's electoral system and addressing money in politics,including 2019's Proposition F [12] addressing pay-to-play politics,corporate contributions,and dark-money donations,and Public Financing 2.0,which tripled the impact of San Francisco's public financing program for elections. [13]
In November 2022,Mar lost his bid for re-election to Joel Engardio. [14] With the redistricting process,Engardio was eligible to run in District 4 after running and losing three prior campaigns for Supervisor in District 7. [15] With this loss,Mar became the first elected Supervisor in the ranked-choice era to lose their reelection bid. [16]
Mar spearheaded multiple Board of Supervisors resolutions which denounced California State Senator Scott Weiner's SB 50 bill,which would have legalized higher density housing development in areas close to public transit. [17] When asked to explain why he voted to block the construction of a 495-unit apartment complex (with 25% affordable housing) on a Nordstrom's valet parking lot in the South of Market neighborhood,Mar said there was an abundance of available "luxury units" in the neighborhood and families "can check Craigslist today" to find housing. [18]
Mar opposes building a Navigation Center in District 4. [19]
When asked to comment on legislation that would permit construction of fourplexes across the city,Mar said "a modest density increase to single-family zoning is certainly worth considering" in San Francisco but did not specify further. [20] Later in 2021,amid debates to allow the construction of four housing units on lots previously designated for single-family housing,Mar proposed to prohibit the construction of market-rate housing on the upzoned lots. [21] [22]
In November 2021,Mar proposed to scale down a 98-unit low-income apartment complex in the Sunset District so that it would only have 80 units. Mar characterized this as a compromise between supporters and opponents of the apartment complex. [23]
In January 2022,Mar defended the delay in approval for a $18.7 million grant to repurpose a hotel into a homeless shelter for upwards of 250 people. Mar said,"We’re all well aware of the urgency of this work. But I would echo the comments of my colleagues that we can’t use that urgency to go through a bad process." [24]
His wife Cecilia is a realtor. [25] Together,they are landlords. [25]