District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton

Shamann Walton was elected to represent Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Bayview Hunters Point, and Visitacion Valley on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors almost six years ago, assuming office in early 2019.

Walton spent his early childhood growing up in public housing in Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill, later living in Mountain View and Vallejo. In his 2023 autobiography, From Juvenile Hall to City Hall: Your Resume Can Change, he detailed his journey from younger days interacting with the criminal justice system, to college in Atlanta, Georgia and eventually City Hall.

“He doesn’t act like he knows it all, he really listens and incorporates what other people think,” said Uzuri Pease-Greene, Community Awareness Resources Entity executive director.

According to J R Eppler, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association president, Walton supported creation of the Dogpatch Hub, a community space, and responded to Dogpatch residents’ opposition to construction of a new large life sciences building in the neighborhood. 

Other residents have been less impressed with Walton’s performance, noting that he rarely highlights Potrero Hill in his monthly newsletter, and pointing to his lack of support to develop a staircase to replace a rough dirt path adjacent to 22nd street connecting Arkansas and Connecticut streets.  

Walton “…was in a few of the meetings we held, but essentially said we would have to figure it out ourselves,” said a Potrero Hill resident, who wished to remain anonymous. 

Walton highlighted safety, affordability, and quality of life as being his priorities on the Board of Supervisors, with a goal of enabling residents to remain in San Francisco. He claimed success in forging consensus on the Potrero Power Station, a mixed-use development east of Illinois Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. 

“Affordable housing will be the first thing built at the site,” Walton noted.

Eppler praised Walton’s effectiveness at helping to create an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District for the project, to pay for investments in roads, sidewalks, landscaping, and other elements.

State law limits rent increases for most residences to less than 10 percent a year. Walton, along with Supervisor Dean Preston, who is running for reelection in District 5, support Proposition 33, a November ballot measure that’d repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which exempts single-family homes, condominiums and units constructed since 1995 from local government-imposed rent control. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan advisory body, projects that by revoking the Act some renters would pay less for housing. However, it’d also result in fewer rentals being available and lower values for rental properties in cities that expand rent control. 

A 2018 study by Stanford University professor Rebecca Diamond indicated that San Francisco’s rent control ordinance can be effective at preventing tenants from being displaced in the short term, particularly benefiting lower income and minority renters, but that it decreases the rental housing stock by removing incentives for landlords to keep properties on the market, which increases rents in the long run. 

Walton led the development of a District 10 safety plan, a collaborative effort that included the San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco Unified School District, and Young Community Developers, an organization for which Walton previously served as president. The plan identifies neighborhood-specific measures to enhance safety, such as increased patrols by multilingual officers who are community members, traffic calming, and increased lighting.  Violent crime in the Bayview District – which largely overlaps with District 10 – is nearly 30 percent lower in 2024 compared with the same period in 2019. 

Amidst persistent concerns of poor property management – including roof leaks, vermin, and backed up trash chutes – at the Potrero Terrace-Annex housing complex, Walton held hearings at which he excoriated executives from the Eugene Burger Management Corporation, which manages a portion of the site, and the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA).  

“Eugene Burger has not been a good property management company,” Walton said, admitting that the hearings only prompted a temporary rise in service levels, with more work  needed to ensure better oversight by SFHA.