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Jane Kim (born 1977) is an American politician. She is a current member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 6, which includes Alcatraz Island, Civic Center, Mission Bay, South of Market, the Tenderloin, Treasure Island, and Yerba Buena Island. She is the first Korean-American elected official in San Francisco and the first Asian-American candidate to win a non-historically Asian district in the city.

Early Life and Education

Jane Kim was born and raised in New York City. Her parents immigrated to New York from Seoul, South Korea, in the early 1970s. During high school, Kim became involved in community service groups and participated in leadership development programs (http://www.janekim.org/about). She also began working at local community organizations in New York and credits these experiences with giving her, “valuable insight into the systemic roots of homelessness” and fostering a “lifelong commitment to advocating for the underserved” (http://www.janekim.org/about).

She attended Stanford University (http://www.stanford.edu) and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and Asian American Studies. She went on to receive her law degree from U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) (http://www.law.berkeley.edu) and was admitted to the California Bar in 2009 (http://www.janekim.org/about).

Career

In her first job after graduating from Stanford, Jane Kim worked as a Fellow at the Greenlining Institute, focusing her work on advocacy projects that included consumer protection, access to higher education, and universal lifeline issues for low-income communities of color (http://www.facebook.com/janekimforsupervisor).

In 2001, Jane Kim joined the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) in San Francisco, where she served as a Community Organizer organizing programs including Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Project (http://adoptanalleyway.org/#!/pageGallery) and Chinatown Alleyway Tours (https://chinatownalleywaytours.org/). Kim worked with hundreds of high school students to develop youth-initiated projects aimed to strengthen leadership, advocacy, and civic participation (http://www.facebook.com/janekimforsupervisor). Her work included improving public education, advocating for tenant protections particularly in Single Room Occupancy buildings, and strengthening community planning around pedestrian safety and public transit improvements.

Kim earned nationwide acclaim as Director of CCDC’s Adopt-an-Alleyway program, which included monthly cleanups of Chinatown’s alleyways. Kim organized hundreds of individuals every month and increased the number of active volunteers by over 350% (http://www.janekim.org/about). Kim also started the Chinatown Alleyway Tours Program, which offers youth-led tours of Chinatown’s historic alleyways including he history of activism, affordable housing, schools, and parks (http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jul/22/local/me-sftour22).

In 2005, Kim was elected to serve as the inaugural President of the San Francisco People’s Organization, an advocacy coalition that included over forty community organizations and labor unions working together to map a progressive agenda for San Francisco through legislating and organizing (http://www.janekim.org/about; http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Incoming-S-F-supervisor-Jane-Kim-has-grand-goals-2451655.php).

After graduating from law school, Jane Kim worked as a civil rights attorney at Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a law firm specializing in impact litigation and direct services to communities around issues of race, poverty, and immigration (http://www.facebook.com/janekimforsupervisor). There, she represented clients on voting rights issues and provided free legal services to low-income communities of color (http://blog.angryasianman.com/2010/05/angry-reader-of-week-jane-kim.html).

Board of Education

In 2004, Kim ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Board of Education. Two years later, she ran again—this time being elected as the top vote-getter in a citywide election that had 15 candidates. In so doing, Jane Kim became the first Korean-American elected official in San Francisco (http://www.janekim.org/about).

While serving on the school board, she developed a reputation for working with all of her colleagues to forge practical solutions that emphasized improvements in learning (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Incoming-S-F-supervisor-Jane-Kim-has-grand-goals-2451655.php). During her tenure at the Board of Education, the San Francisco Unified School District strengthened its academic standing, becoming the top-performing urban school district in the state of California. In 2010, her colleagues unanimously elected her President of the Board of Education.

As a school board member, Jane Kim offered legislative solutions to close the achievement gap, redesign the student assignment to give some preference for families who want to enroll their children in neighborhood schools, (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Incoming-S-F-supervisor-Jane-Kim-has-grand-goals-2451655.php) and promote policies that decreased suspension and expulsion rates (http://www.janekim.org/about). Kim also pushed for an ethnic studies program that would award college credit to San Francisco students and help offset the costs of college (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/ethnic-studies-seen-as-smart-move-despite-deficit/Content?oid=2135116).

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

Jane Kim ran for the Board of Supervisors in 2010 to represent District 6. Initially perceived as an underdog, Kim utilized her experiences as a community organizer and crafted an effective voter outreach campaign. Dubbed the “Fifty-Nine Precinct Strategy” (http://iamkoream.com/jane-kim-following-her-true-north/) Kim sought to reach out to every distinct corner and constituency of the district. Despite a lack of endorsements from major media and political organizations, Kim became the first Asian American to win a non-historically Asian district in the city.

Kim spent the first two years on the Board serving as a Chair of the Rules Committee and member of the Budget & Finance Committee. There, she worked with multiple stakeholders to pass a values-based budget that included community input (http://sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=11324). She currently serves on the Land Use Committee, making recommendations on small to large land use development projects and reforms to the Planning Code. Kim has also continued to push for greater cooperation in education, through her service as the Chair of the City and School District Committee. Passionate about public education, Jane Kim is an ardent supporter of increasing resources and money for San Francisco schools, and supporting city partnerships with the San Francisco Unified School District (http://sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=11324).

As Supervisor, Kim highlighted the difficulty homeless people endure in San Francisco by spending a night in a homeless shelter (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-horvath/supervisor-jane-kim-on-sa_b_3563067.html).

Jane Kim also chairs the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, the body that oversees the design, construction, and operation of the new Transbay Transit Center, which is currently in construction and includes the extension of the Caltrain commuter rail from 4th and King Station and accommodates for the future California High Speed Rail (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-horvath/supervisor-jane-kim-on-sa_b_3563067.html).

Legislative Agenda

Kim’s legislative priorities include “building more affordable housing, improving pedestrian safety, beefing up the city’s community policing program, combatting the bedbug epidemic, making it easier to open small businesses, and revitalizing blighted areas by offering businesses incentives to move into vacant storefronts” (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Incoming-S-F-supervisor-Jane-Kim-has-grand-goals-2451655.php).

Kim introduced legislation granting tax incentives to existing and new businesses that would relocate to the mid-Market area of her district, most notably Twitter (http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2011/02/08/jane-kim-on-board-with-drawing-twitter-to-mid-market/). Kim explained that, “It’s a partnership where we help growing businesses, and growing businesses help support a (neglected) neighborhood” (http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2011/02/08/jane-kim-on-board-with-drawing-twitter-to-mid-market/).

In addition, Kim introduced legislation to appropriate $2.7 million from the City’s untouched state reserves to create a credit recovery program that would create an afterschool program targeting at-risk English language learners (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sfusd-needs-aid-to-ensure-that-teens-graduate-high-school/Content?oid=2318931). The legislation sought to provide resources to ensure that the district could provide classes to help students meet the minimum standards to gain admission to the California State and University of California systems (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sfusd-needs-aid-to-ensure-that-teens-graduate-high-school/Content?oid=2318931).

Kim also authored civil rights legislation which requires the San Francisco Police Department officers working with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to be bound by local and state laws strictly governing intelligence gathering of First Amendment protected activities (http://newamericamedia.org/2012/05/san-francisco-mayor-signed-civil-right-ordinance.php). Kim sought to address issues directly impacting the Muslim and Arab communities in District 6: “A lot of mosques are in our district, and a lot of our small business owners are of Arab and Muslim background. A lot of our constituents said they were fearful of harassment and racial profiling. They were really scared to come out and talk because they were afraid of being further targeted” (http://newamericamedia.org/2012/05/san-francisco-mayor-signed-civil-right-ordinance.php).

In response to the high rates of pedestrian fatalities in District Six, Supervisor Kim sought to make pedestrian safety a top priority. Kim participated in walk to work day (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/san-francisco-supervisor-jane-kim-celebrates-walk-to-work-day/Content?oid=2172384) and held a hearing to address the concerns of pedestrians throughout the city (http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/04/01/advocates-supervisors-prepare-for-two-city-hall-hearings-on-ped-safety/) and how the city investigates vehicle collisions with pedestrians (http://sfappeal.com/2013/09/supervisor-calls-hearing-on-how-sfpd-investigates-or-doesnt-vehicle-collisions-with-cyclists/).

Kim has also worked to increase the open spaces in District 6, helping establish parks in both the SOMA (http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/sf-officials-celebrate-opening-brannan-street-whar/nYtcg/) and Tenderloin areas (http://www.tpl.org/media-room/work-starts-tenderloin-dream-park).