Japantown leaders say they want seat at table -- no matter who supervisor is

No matter who wins San Francisco’s District 5 supervisorial seat in the Nov. 5 election, Japantown residents say the race represents an opportunity for their neighborhood to have a greater say in city politics.

“We haven’t been vocal enough like other communities have,” said Rich Hashimoto, the head of the Japantown Merchants Association. “An elected official once told me, ‘Rich, you know, if you don’t say anything, we think everything is fine.’ So that’s our fault.”

San Francisco’s Japantown — the oldest in the United States — runs north-south between Sutter Street and Geary Boulevard and east-west between Gough and Baker streets. That’s a far cry from the 20 square blocks it occupied before the forced internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and urban renewal in the 1960s gutted the neighborhood. Hashimoto said those factors partially inform the neighborhood’s relative quiet.

As advocates and residents say the neighborhood grapples with losing much of its size, Japanese population and culture, they also face the same issues atop many San Franciscans’ minds, such as homelessness, housing and public safety.



https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/japantown-leaders-want-larger-say-in-san-francisco-politics/article_39f53cea-9591-11ef-ae2c-d3a8f303fb13.html