Hello! My name is James Coleman. I grew up in the neighborhood of Avalon Park with my working class mother and father, and I am running to represent District 4 in South San Francisco’s City Council. For as long as I can remember, I have cared deeply about our community and knew that I wanted to spend my life in service to our shared home in South City. As a lifelong resident, I attended Ponderosa Elementary, Alta Loma Middle School, and South San Francisco High School.
When I was 5 years old, my father sustained a traumatic injury, which left him largely paralyzed from the waist-down. My mother was forced to work two jobs to make ends meet, all while sharing the responsibility of caring for my injured father at home. As a young child, I did not understand why my mother was gone from home for long periods of time or why my father did not heal like other people when they became injured. Growing up, I became curious. I desired to incite change that would not leave other children in the world as confused and hopeless as I was.
This is what led me to study Human Developmental & Regenerative Biology and Government at Harvard University. During my experience in such a privileged space, my eyes were opened to the worlds of other students and the communities they came from. Others did not have to worry about being pushed out of their homes due to rising costs of living, or 4-year long waitlists for preschool, or underfunded extracurricular and afterschool programs.
For years, I have worked with the community to help make our political system work for all of us from the Greater Boston area to back home here in the Bay. In particular, I was a fellow with the Alliance for Climate Education, an advocate with Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and a cofounder of the Harvard Undergraduates for Environmental Justice. I have worked on campaigns advocating for safe and equitable working conditions for essential workers at Harvard, and have advocated for increasing resources for the homeless community in Cambridge. In addition to this, I have interned at the biotech company Bayer, conducted neuroscience research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and served as a Director for TEDx Harvard College. Now I want to take the experiences, privilege, and education that I gained from Harvard, and return to South City to empower and improve upon the community that I once grew up in.
Today, a pandemic runs rampant, the nation is suffering from the murder of George Floyd, and we are facing a looming eviction and unemployment crisis that dwarfs that of the Great Depression, all while the need to address climate change and rising costs of living remains ever so urgent. Now, more than ever, we need representatives that will represent and fight for the people.
I will fight for:
✔️A COVID-19 eviction moratorium with rental/mortgage payment assistance
✔️First-responders trained in social work and mental healthcare
✔️Net-zero GHG emissions by 2030
✔️Universal internet access
✔️Affordable housing
✔️Universal Pre-K
I’d be honored to have your vote.
