San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim Launches Mayoral Bid
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim joined a growing field of candidates applying to be the next mayor of San Francisco by filing paperwork at the elections office Wednesday.
Kim, the city's first Korean-American supervisor, has represented District 6, which includes the city's Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, since 2011.
She is a progressive who ran for state Senate last year but lost to Scott Wiener, then a moderate member of the city's Board of Supervisors.
Kim told KPIX 5 her candidacy is an opportunity to change the approach of solving the problem of income inequity.
"San Francisco has the fastest growing income gap in the country," she said. "I would really ask all of our residents and businesses big and small to come together to see how we can address our income gap between the healthy and poor."
Kim also said she would continue Mayor Ed Lee's efforts to end homelessness, but would also try different more aggressive approaches toward housing.
"I think we have to be thoughtful and creative and part of that is finding shelters for people to go to immediately," she said. "It has been an approach that the city has been reluctant to take because it's expensive. But we have thousands of people on the street and we need to find a place to put them. We need to explore the possibility of city-sanctioned sites for people to camp so they're not on our doorsteps or our alleyways."
Kim joins former state Senator Marc Leno and former San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto as notable candidates in the bid to replace Mayor Ed Lee who died last week of a heart attack.