Joshua Arce

Joshua Arce

Democratic Party

Education

High school

Chatsworth High School

Bachelor's

University of California, Los Angeles

Law

University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Personal

Profession

Civil rights attorney

Contact

Personal website

Joshua Arce was a candidate for the District 9 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in California. He was defeated in the general election on November 8, 2016.

Although elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors are officially nonpartisan, Arce is known to be affiliated with the Democratic Party. He was appointed to the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee in January 2015 and ran unsuccessfully for election to the committee on June 7, 2016. He won 2 percent of the vote in the June 2016 race, placing 22nd out of 39 candidates.

Arce previously ran for the Los Angeles Community College District board in 1993 and the California State Assembly in 1994.

Biography

Arce received an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings.

As of his 2016 run for the board of supervisors, Arce was a civil rights attorney and affordable housing advocate. He has served as the president of the San Francisco Commission on the Environment, a community liaison for the union Laborers Local 261, an officer of the Mission Housing Development Corporation board, a delegate to the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades and Labor Councils, an alternate member of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and a member of the Sierra Club San Francisco executive committee. Arce founded a civil rights and environmental justice nonprofit, Brightline Defense, in 2005 and led it for 10 years.

Arce and his wife, Lisa, have two sons.

Elections

2016

See also: Municipal elections in San Francisco, California (2016)

This is the final round of voting. To view previous rounds, click the [show] button next to that round.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 9, General Election, 2016, Final Round
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Melissa San Miguel	0%	0	0
Hillary Ronen - Winner	64.5%	15,354	0
Iswari Espana	0%	0	0
Joshua Arce - Eliminated	35.5%	8,460	0
Write-In	0%	0	0
Exhausted		619	0
Total Votes		24,433	0
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 9, General Election, 2016, Round 3
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Melissa San Miguel - Eliminated	11.1%	2,705	−2,705
Hillary Ronen - Most votes	57.8%	14,044	1,310
Iswari Espana	0%	0	0
Joshua Arce	31%	7,531	929
Write-In	0%	0	0
Exhausted		153	466
Total Votes		24,433	0
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 9, General Election, 2016, Round 2
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Melissa San Miguel	10.5%	2,561	144
Hillary Ronen - Most votes	57.3%	13,952	92
Iswari Espana - Eliminated	1.6%	398	−398
Joshua Arce	30.6%	7,443	88
Write-In	0%	0	0
Exhausted		79	74
Total Votes		24,433	0
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

Legend:     Eliminated in current round     Most votes     Lost

This is the first round of voting. To view subsequent rounds, click the [show] button next to that round.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 9, General Election, 2016, Round 1
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Melissa San Miguel	10.5%	2,561	0
Hillary Ronen - Most votes	57.3%	13,952	0
Iswari Espana	1.6%	398	0
Joshua Arce	30.6%	7,443	0
Write-In - Eliminated	0%	0	0
Exhausted		79	79
Total Votes		24,433	79
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

1994

Arce ran as a Democrat in the 1994 election for California State Assembly District 38, but was defeated in the general election. He advanced from the primary election, winning 10,636 votes (55.23 percent) compared to the 8,621 (44.77 percent) won by his opponent, Donald A. Cocquyt. Incumbent Paula Boland (R), however, retained her seat in the general election. Boland received 74,382 votes (67.11 percent), followed by Arce with 28,699 votes (25.89 percent); Green Party candidate Charles Wilken won the remaining 7,748 votes (6.99 percent) cast in the race.

1993

In 1993, Arce ran unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. Turning 18 just three weeks before the general election, he was too young to vote in his own primary bid. Arce stated at the time that he considered himself a Democrat. Due to his age, however, he was unable to register as a member of the party nor could he receive the party's endorsement in his race.

Arce faced seven other candidates in the election, including incumbent trustee Patrick Owens. Ultimately, Arce did not make it past the primary ballot.

Campaign themes

2016

See also: Ballotpedia's municipal government candidate survey

Arce participated in Ballotpedia's 2016 survey of municipal government candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“

The biggest issue facing our city is access to housing. If elected, I will get to work on day one to deliver the affordable housing our community needs and end the decade of disappointment which has seen almost no new affordable housing built in our district.

”

When asked what he would most like to change about the city, the candidate made the following statement:

“

San Francisco is at a crossroads. We are losing our residents as they struggle with rising housing costs, homelessness, difficulty making ends meet, and declining community safety. City Hall has been unresponsive to our neighborhoods’ concerns, and we have suffered for nearly a decade from failed housing policies. The status quo has failed. We must fix this, now.

”

When asked what he is most proud of about the city, the candidate made the following statement:

“

I've lived in the heart of the Mission district for over a decade seeing firsthand how amazing our city can be. Our city has diversity and culture like no other, we must protect it.

”

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the city, with 1 being the most important and 12 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Housing
2	Homelessness
3	Civil rights
4	(Candidate did not answer)
5	Crime reduction/prevention
6	Unemployment
7	Environment
8	Public pensions/retirement funds
9	K-12 education
10	Transportation
11	Government transparency
12	City services (trash, utilities, etc.)

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer four questions from Ballotpedia regarding issues facing cities across America. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column:

Question	Response
Is it important for the city’s budget to be balanced?	(Candidate did not answer)
Which level of government do you feel should set a minimum wage?	Local
What do you think is the best way to improve a city’s public safety?	Increased economic opportunities
How do you think your city should emphasize economic development?	As a community activist, I championed the country's most successful local hiring program, securing jobs for residents while helping local businesses. We need to expand this program to industries such as health care and biotechnology

Additional themes

Arce's 2016 campaign website listed the following priorities:

“

The lack of affordable housing options, rise in evictions, and increase in the cost of living require that we have a leader who will take decisive action to solve our housing issues. As a board member of one of the city's oldest and largest affordable housing non-profits, Joshua is the only candidate with the hands on experience of building affordable housing. Josh will build upon this work to alleviate our housing crisis by: Building more housing for everyone in our city—low-income, worker, artist, teacher and middle-income housing Quickly identifying underutilized spaces that could serve as sites for affordable housing Pushing our state delegation to reform the Ellis Act and Costa Hawkins to protect tenants from no-fault evictions Supporting policies that encourage the creation of new community land trusts Introducing legislation to give tenants the 'right of first refusal' that would allow tenants to make a first offer when their building is put up for sale Protecting tenants from being put on 'tenant blacklists' due to aggressive and unwarranted unlawful detainers lawsuits

”

“

Our homelessness crisis has reached unprecedented levels with even more residents sleeping on our streets than ever before. The status quo has failed to address this issue and ask for the resources necessary to solve it. If elected, Joshua will work to combat homelessness by: Increasing the number of Navigation Centers throughout the city and expanding the Navigation Center model to other shelters Creating 311 dashboard that unifies data from all city departments to track reoccurring issues Ensuring that data on homelessness be available on the City's open data portal Replacing the temporary Navigation Center at 16th & Mission with a new facility that can serve homeless residents in the neighborhood. There must be a Navigation Center that serves the Mission given that the centers serve their immediate area. Dedicating more funding to go towards ridding our streets of needles and feces Demanding that the next 'Fix It' team be located in the District 9 Expanding pit stop areas in District 9 to allow homeless residents the ability to use a restroom and keep out streets clean

”

“

If elected as Supervisor, Joshua will take a more aggressive approach to incorporating renewable energy, energy efficiency, alternative fuel, sustainable transportation modes and waste reduction into every city policy for the maximum collective impact. He will continue to introduce sustainable, transit first policies including: Making our successful GoSolarSF incentive, which has connected thousands of homeowners, tenants, local businesses and non-profits with solar and created tons of jobs in our communities, a permanent program Combining GoSolarSF with our CleanPowerSF renewable energy and GreenFinanceSF property assessed clean energy programs Implementing the mandatory solar ordinance that we passed earlier this year after working on this first-in-the-nation policy for three years Codifying through ordinance our ban on fossil fuel exports such as coal and petroleum coke from the Port of San Francisco Expanding our Zero Waste Community Council program from Chinatown to limited English-speaking communities citywide Requiring composting and recycling facilities onsite for new construction Using data gathered under Chapter 20 of the SF Environment Code to continue to provide information about energy use to help building owners and managers increase their energy efficiency Incorporating more environmental science instruction in our K-12 schools Creating a neighborhood plan for Mission Street South of Cesar Chavez that creates a new 30th Street BART station, to increase ridership and connect to Muni's underutilized J-Church line Developing more bus rapid transit projects while engaging in thorough community input processes Creating Bike Superhighways and increase safe cycling infrastructure throughout District 9 to work towards a citywide network of connected bikeways for people of all ages and abilities Supporting and expanding Bay Area Bike Share opportunities in District 9 Expanding bicycle education and urban learn-to-ride programs, especially in low-income communities and communities of color Ensuring city departments prioritize and fast track safety improvements to achieve our City's Vision Zero goal of eliminating all traffic deaths by 2024 and our goal of doubling the number of bike trips citywide

”

“

Joshua championed the country’s most successful local-hire policy, and if elected, he will expand on this legislation and use this experience to combat inequality by: Expanding local hiring to healthcare and technology sectors Ensuring all workers have living wage protections, including those in city employment, landscaping, and janitorial services Removing barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated residents Creating career pathways to technology jobs through apprenticeship partnerships Protecting our longtime neighborhood businesses

”

“

Recent increases in violent and property crime in District 9 and around the City are troubling. The growing distrust between law enforcement and communities of color requires a leader who can bring communities together to implement real police reform. Joshua will work to remedy these issues by: Creating better communication between law enforcement and the community to address break-ins, burglaries, and incidents of violence in District 9 Funding community-based violence intervention programs Fully implementing 'Campaign Zero' to bring about meaningful police reform Improving economic opportunities and alternatives that provide meaningful skills and job training to benefit former sex workers and make our neighborhoods safer

”

“

Joshua has spent his entire career fighting for social justice and the rights of others. As your Supervisor, he will continue to protect our civil rights by: Continuing to stand up for marriage equality and protecting the rights of our LGBTQ community Increasing protections for the transgender and gender nonconforming communities so they no longer have to live in fear Creating housing opportunities for our LGBTQ seniors Protecting San Francisco's Sanctuary City policy to ensure our City remains a place where our undocumented residents can live peacefully Standing up for a woman's right to reproductive freedom and protecting the two Planned Parenthood clinics located in District 9 Setting an example buy implementing a workplace domestic violence policy for public employees in the City and County to stand with victims of domestic violence Eliminating gender-based price discrimination to make sure women are not paying more for goods and services than their male counterparts

”

Endorsements

2016

Arce received endorsements from the following in 2016:

• San Francisco Chronicle
• San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council
• Firefighters Local 798
• Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
• Black Young Democrats of San Francisco
• FDR Democratic Club City Democratic Club
• San Francisco Forest Alliance
• Plumbers Local 38
• IBEW Local 6
• Sheet Metal Workers Local 104
• Painters and Allied Trades District Council 16
• Sign and Display Union Local 510
• Elevator Construction Local 8
• Sprinklerfitters Local 483
• Carpenters Local 22
• Operating Engineers Local 3
• Laborers Local 261
• Teamsters Joint Council 7
• United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 648
• District 9 Tenants Alliance
• Alemany Resident Council
• Holly Courts Resident Council
• California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
• California Secretary of State Alex Padilla
• California Board of Equalization Chair Fiona Ma
• California Sen. Kevin De Léon
• California Assemb. David Chiu
• California Assemb. Phil Ting
• San Francisco Supervisor London Breed
• California Democratic Party Chair John Burton
• Former San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto
• Former San Francisco Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Joshua Arce San Francisco. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Joshua Arce - Google News

See also

• San Francisco, California
• Municipal elections in San Francisco, California (2016)
• United States municipal elections, 2016

External links

• Campaign website
• City and County of San Francisco, California