Two up-and-comers face off in next week’s election against a longtime incumbent in South San Francisco’s only contested race.
The race for the City Council seat representing District 3 is nonpartisan and has drawn conversations concerning affordability in South City. The incumbent, Councilwoman Flor Nicolas, joined the council in 2018 and was later the city’s first Filipino mayor in 2023.
Melanie Olson, a Woodside city planner, and Sophia Cyris, 19, a former youth commissioner and San Francisco State University senior studying political science, both cited affordability and street safety as central to their platforms.
Olson explained that since she began working full-time as a city planner in Woodside four years ago, she had become more involved with housing advocacy in her hometown. That included working with the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County and starting a resident coalition in South City to promote or prioritize building more affordable housing.
Affordability drives campaigns
“I decided to run because as an affordable housing advocate I’d reach out to Flor, for example, as my representative and it was very hard to get a hold of her,” Olson said.
Nicolas did not respond to requests for an interview with Bay City News other than to ask for questions in writing.
For Olson, South San Francisco has been and still is a working class city.
“I’m of the younger generation where we’re kind of having a hard time finding our place in more suburban areas specifically, or expensive areas,” Olson said. “So, I’m really running because I want to help people who want to stay in South City be able to stay in South City — including my friends and family.”
Bridging generational gap
Cyris, for her part, said she wants to bridge the gap between the city’s senior and youth populations. She feels her upbringing as a third generation local instilled in her an ability “to especially empathize with our senior community in South City” — a community she feels is often more vocal with their concerns than the youth.
“I think it’s really important to leverage that active experience because we all grow up and then our experiences change. What we’re in tune with changes,” Cyris said.
Housing visions and municipal services
Although both Cyris and Olson are for increased affordable housing, they differ on the fate of the non-functional Municipal Services Building at 33 Arroyo Drive. The decommissioned building formerly operated as a community hub, housing different city services and departments until they moved to the new Library and Parks and Recreation Center in 2023.
Cyris wants to save the building whereas Olson sees the spot as having the potential for more, including residential use.
“As a [city] planner, that’s what I look at as an opportunity site. Where we can incorporate senior services into it, but also maybe do some affordable housing on that as well,” Olson said. “It’s city-owned property, which is hard to come by and means you could do a lot with it.”
For Cyris, although the building itself is not located in District 3, its contentious fate encapsulates South City’s key issues for her: affordable housing, resident frustrations with the City Council, and lack of clear communication.
“It’s just this question of how much is the city going to prioritize housing and bringing in new ways to bring in money into the city rather than reinvesting in the city first,” Cyris said.
On the other hand, Olson argues that revamping the building would be more costly and that a new project at that central site could be done with community input.
“There’s a way to make everybody happy if we can all kind of have conversations about it,” Olson said.
The only other seat up for grabs on Election Day is for the District 1 seat, currently held by Mayor Mark Addiego, who plans to retire at the end of his term. Aysha Pamukcu is running unopposed for District 1, along with Councilman Eddie Flores of District 5.