District 4 Candidate Series: Natalie Gee on Leadership, Community, and City Hall

This episode continues the District 4 candidate mini-series on The Sunset Connection.

I’m speaking with every candidate who agrees to participate, using the same questions and the same format each time. The goal is simple: to give Sunset residents the opportunity to hear directly from the people asking for their vote.

In this conversation, I’m joined by Natalie Gee, Chief of Staff to Supervisor Shamann Walton and a candidate for District 4 Supervisor. Natalie discusses her priorities, her approach to problem-solving, and what she hopes to accomplish for the district.  Each interview includes a shared scenario question designed to help listeners compare how candidates approach problem-solving 

Local elections are often decided by very small margins. Clear, direct information matters, and this series is intended to help voters make thoughtful decisions by hearing from candidates in their own words.

About this series:
This is a non-endorsement candidate interview series. All participating candidates were asked the same questions in the same format to give District 4 residents direct access to how candidates think, not to persuade or advocate for any outcome. Any personal political views or activities of the host are separate from the podcast and do not affect participation or coverage. 

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The Sunset Connection — exploring the stories and histories that connect us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Candidate Intro And Background
• 2:47 Personal Roots In The Sunset
• 6:13 Why Run Now And For Whom
• 10:31 From Nonprofit To City Hall
• 16:42 First-Year Wins And Safety Plan
• 21:45 Balancing Conflicts And Consensus

Transcript

Jessica J. Ho: 0:04

All right, welcome back to the Sunset Connection. This episode continues my District 4 candidates series where I'm speaking with everyone running for supervisor and asking them the same questions in the same format each time. If you live in the sunset or you care about how San Francisco actually gets governed, 2026 matters a lot. This year, District 4 is choosing its next supervisor. And while only Sunset residents get to vote in this race, the decisions made here ripple far beyond the district and shape the city as a whole. So I'm thrilled today to welcome our guest, Natalie G. Alright, so Natalie G is a lifelong San Franciscan, a Lowell High and SF State alum, and a longtime community organizer. She spent over a decade organizing in Chinatown and now serves as chief of staff in the District 10 Supervisor's Office with a strong focus on Visitation Valley. Natalie has worked on legislation ranging from language access to the creation of the San Francisco's first Pacific Islander Cultural District, and she's deeply involved in the labor movement. She's fluent in Cantonese, can read and write Chinese, understands Mandarin, and lives in the sunset with her husband Ryan. Welcome, Natalie. Thank you, Jessica. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time. So, what is your personal connection to District 4?

Natalie Gee: 1:26

Yeah, as a daughter of San Francisco, um, going to high school at Lowell High School SS State, I spent a lot of time out here with my friends. My best friend actually grew up in the sunset. So we spent a lot of time out here. Growing up, my mom actually loved coming to Irving to get groceries. So we come here with her in addition to Chinatown. Those are the two spots that she would like to go. And so five years ago, Ryan and I moved out to the sunset. We got really lucky. It was during the pandemic where a lot of people were moving out. So we were able to score a really good deal on a one-bedroom apartment near 30th and Trita. We've been there since. And this is basically like where we were building our lives. This is where home is. Actually, like your where you live is actually around the corner where his aunt lives. And so he spent a lot of his childhood time out here because he will always be at his auntie's house after school. Um, but sunset is just is great because like I've been able to meet a lot of neighbors. I used to have more time and do nightly walks. So we meet a lot of people on my walks. And right now, as I'm campaigning, I'm still meeting a lot of neighbors. And I love how just our neighborhood is very walkable. I've walked from my apartment all the way to the beach. I walked from Judah all the way to Terravol, and usually it's it takes about like half an hour more or less. And it's like really nice to just get those steps in. I also play a lot of Pokemon, so when I had more time, it was a way to just catch Pokemon.

Jessica J. Ho: 2:49

Yeah, I know. I remember you trying to catch one uh by the Sunset Rec Center the other day. Yes.

Natalie Gee: 2:55

Did you catch it? I did. I did. Okay. Sunset actually has a Pokemon group that meets every Wednesday night.

Jessica J. Ho: 3:01

Oh wow.

Natalie Gee: 3:01

And they go around to just hang out and catch Pokemon and like fight the legendary bosses.

Jessica J. Ho: 3:06

Very interesting. I did not know that. Yes. Uh well, what specifically made you decide that this was the moment to run?

Natalie Gee: 3:13

Yeah, it was definitely a really hard decision because if you asked me a year ago, I would have been like, nah, I'm not gonna run. But my really dear friend to me named Alan Beltran, he actually was a sunset resident, his family's still here, but he passed away sudden suddenly last year. Um, exactly a year ago. And it just hit me hard because I think for me, I was really trying to encourage him to run. I was like, he was a big fighter for working families. And then I was just like, well, I've always been the one also fighting for working families. And I a lot of my friends were like, You've been doing the work just without the title. Like you know how to do this. And a lot of thinking, a lot of just talking to my husband, like, hey, this is gonna be huge sacrifice for both of us, and made the decision over the summer, like, I think this is a good opportunity to run because I know the district, I can speak the language, I can relate to a lot of folks out here, and I know how to get things done to represent working families out here in the sunset at City Hall. And I think that's just really important at this current time.

Jessica J. Ho: 4:17

Thanks, Natalie. So, how do you think your previous experiences have prepared you to serve as supervisor? I think you kind of talked about that already. So I just wanted to read out the question for in all fairness, but maybe you can speak a little bit more to that.

Natalie Gee: 4:30

For sure, for sure. So I spent my career working in community for the last two decades, whether it's working in nonprofits, actually started really young. Um, at a really young age, my mom used to take me out to neighborhood meetings and she didn't speak English. So I had to translate for her. And that kind of sparked my interest in community service and public service. So in college, that's when I joined Chinese Progressive Association. I joined her youth program. It was called Common Roots. It brought together Asian youth and Latino youth together, and we worked on environmental justice issues on the southeast part of San Francisco. Eventually I got hired on and I worked on their youth programs. I also helped them expand their youth programs to include more high schoolers through the youth mojo program. So that's my baby that I helped start in 20 or 2009. And um I think I got really burned out from working the nonprofit because one, it doesn't really pay that well and it wasn't sustainable. I was gonna do a side quest of helping my friend with his wedding photography business and being a second shooter. So I was gonna go into that creative route. And then I did for a little bit too, but Supervisor Hillary Ronin at the time was like, hey, I'm running for supervisor in District 9, and I grew up in the Portland in District 9. She was like, I need a Chinese organizer to run my campaign. Are you down? I was like thinking about it. I was like, Yeah, this is actually something I really wanted to do, is just uh level up and be at City Hall to be able to help represent voices. And so we're down to her campaign, we won. It was a really bittersweet moment because the year she won, or the night that she won, it was the same night that Trump won the first time. So we were seeing all this national new news that Trump was coming in, and so our victory felt really bittersweet. I was like, well, we won, but now we're gonna be in this national like era of Trump. And that was just for the first round. So um, but from that I went in as a legislative aide for her for six months and then had to step back for a little bit because both my parents were sick and I had to step back to do caretaking. I'm the only child, so a lot of just taking them to appointments, making sure they're okay, and just uh making sure that they were healing during that year. And so I stepped back from being a leg A and did that for a bit. And then Supervisor Walton or Shaman at the time was like, Hey, I'm running for supervisor in District 10 and I need a campaign manager. And so we got introduced to each other. I really liked his energy, really liked his vibe and just what he stood for. So I ran his campaign for the whole year, I think end of 2017, all the way to 2018, November. We won, obviously. And since then I've been his chief of staff since day one. So I think our office is one of the lowest turnover offices at City Hall. Of the seven years that we've been there, we've only had one turnover. And it was because our staffer needed to go to law school on the East Coast. So I think that says a lot about just his members mentorship and his guidance. Um, so coming back to the question, I think I spent just a lot of my career working in community and in city hall, just being able to navigate complex systems, whether it's like with my parents or in community, working on legislation, passing legislation, holding departments accountable. So I understand how policy actually gets implemented, not just how it's like discussed. And I've also worked a lot closely with labor. I think since being a union member for my first time since being alleged aid, so over seven years now, um, I started volunteering a lot more for my union and um expanding our member leadership. So just also working with a lot of small businesses in San Francisco, particularly in district 10, community organizations and just residents across SF, that experience uniquely gives me the ability to deliver the results and be able to effectively advocate for district four.

Jessica J. Ho: 8:28

Great. Thanks so much, Natalie. That's a a lot of experience. That was a lot. Yes. Um so if elected, what does a win look like for you in your first year as supervisor?

Natalie Gee: 8:40

So a win to me means that our residents can clearly see and feel the difference. I think that includes faster and more transparent responses from the city departments because as an elected official or as a supervisor for a district, your job is to serve the district and to be able to serve the constituents and uplift those concerns at city departments. You act as like the liaison, or at least your team acts as the liaison between the city departments as well as the residents. Um, I want to make sure we have stronger support for small businesses, whether it's streamlining things, making it easier to open businesses, cutting permit costs, and other tangible things on tackling affordability. I really like that the mayor in his state of the city address this year really highlighted affordability. That is something that I also want to fight for and make it easier for working families to live and thrive in San Francisco. Um, of course, improving quality of life issues in the neighborhood, whether that's like making sure that we have trees planted around Sunset Wreck. I've heard one of our my one of my neighbors who lives near there has said that like there's a lot of empty sidewalk spaces that used to be trees, but there hasn't been a tree there. Just like simple things of just getting things done. It also means rebuilding trust in the community. I think for District 4, there's been a lot of disconnect and divisiveness in the last few years that you know it's hard for residents to trust the city to do what is thoughtful and big picture good for the community. So it's about rebuilding that trust and making sure people are feeling heard and ensuring that those decisions are made with community and not just for the community. I think I heard a lot from District 4 is that a lot of people are just sick and tired of the rest of the city making the decision for them. They need someone who can be in a position to push back. And I think I am that person.

Jessica J. Ho: 10:38

Thank you, Natalie. Although I will say that the question was one year, so that seems like quite a lot in one year.

Natalie Gee: 10:44

That's a lot. I think I I'm confident that I'm able to put together a team to help me carry through. We definitely want to make a hundred-day plan. We want to make a one-year plan, and we want to try to achieve it as much as possible. One thing I do want to bring in from District 10 that we did is a district four safety plan. So in District 10, in our first year, we spent a lot of time in community working with residents, working with non-English speakers, working with community-based organizations, law enforcement, um, schools, like everyone, a lot of the different stakeholders to come together to come up with a district 10 safety plan on what they want to see public safety to look like. And that's a model that I want to bring to District 4 is to meet with all of the stakeholders and come up with a plan that we can help implement in our next four years together on how we can improve public safety out here.

Jessica J. Ho: 11:34

Great. Well, when community voices conflict, and they often do, as you mentioned, how do you decide who to prioritize?

Natalie Gee: 11:43

For sure, for sure. My North Star is always going to be working families, is working class votes. Because regardless of where people stand politically or where they where they might have their political views, when it comes to affordability, public safety, public transit, housing, healthcare, education, these are all issues that affect everyone, especially the working class. So those are the issues that I focus on. For me, my dad was a taxicab driver. My mom, when she first immigrated here, she worked at Carl Sr. at Civic Center. That's no longer there. But later on, she ran her own childcare business to take care of other kids while raising me. And then when I became an adult, she started taking care of my dad because he started experiencing early dementia. So she was a caretaker for her entire life, whether it's just me and then my dad, and now like now I'm caretaking for her, but I had to step back a bit because of the campaign. So my husband's the one who's also taking care of her now. But I've seen my parents just really work hard and try to survive here in San Francisco, which is why I'm like want to be able to fight for working families. Like I want to prioritize listening, transparency, and fairness for the community. My role as a supervisor is going to be thoughtful and just weigh the impacts carefully and just center long-term health of the neighborhood and just learn long-term vision. That also means being honest of like what kind of trade-off that we might make. We engage directly with the residents, like find different avenues where can we can be engaged, whether it's a town hall or meeting me at a coffee shop or having like a system where language access is people can also reach out to their supervisor's office in their own language, making decisions that protect working families, seniors, renters, homeowners, while also making sure the sunset is like livable and stable. And that also means like not having a bank check to developers without protecting our existing folks here. So a lot of things to think about, I think. But I think ultimately it's like I'm here to represent the community and I'm here to uplift the concerns from community.

Jessica J. Ho: 13:56

What I heard in your response was like a lot of groups, which is great. A lot of groups, yes. But when they conflict, how do you decide which ones it prioritize?

Natalie Gee: 14:05

Yeah, I think for me in my work in the past, it's also about bringing people together and try to find a consensus or find a middle ground. Cause we can talk about Great Highway, because that's been a really divisive issue here. My thing with that is just like, you know, even though we passed it, we could have phased it in a lot longer rather than four and a half months, knowing that like we had these big capital projects going on, like closing Highway One, closing 19th Avenue for the repaving, Sunset Boulevard Capital Project to repave Sunset Boulevard as well as uh redo the bus stops. Like the city, we've known we have these projects for a while, right?

Jessica J. Ho: 14:42

What is like yeah, your process?

Natalie Gee: 14:44

Yes, is just listen to community and bring people together and like bring sites that may not be on the same side together. Like my example for Great Highway is just uh it's been really divisive, right? We have people who really love the park, really love sunset dunes, we have people who really want the highway to come back, and it's just finding some way to bring everyone together. Like, we need to start with a divisiveness. We need to figure out where there are a lot more issues in sunset that we need to focus on to even though like this is a really important issue to other folks, but we can find some way to kind of like find that balance. Thank you.

Jessica J. Ho: 15:20

But the sunset is changing demographically, economically, and politically. What changes do you welcome and which ones concern you?

Natalie Gee: 15:29

I definitely welcome changes like new businesses coming in. I know Hot Pop A just opened up on Terra Well, it's really good. Um, I think new people moving in is great too, but I'm also concerned that changes that push out residents and businesses that have been here for a really long time. I think one thing that is also worrying to me this coming year is the city's budget. We're gonna have a billion-dollar deficit or close to a billion dollar deficit, but we don't have a good revenue source to fill in that gap so that we can keep public services running for our residents. One thing that I've been advocating on and pushing for is a CEO tax that's going to also appear in the June ballot. And this is taxing basically, you and I, we both pay our taxes, whether it's property taxes or sales taxes, but there are big corporations and billionaires who've gotten a lot of national tax cuts or federal tax cuts who are not paying their fair share to keep our city running. So if a CEO makes a certain amount of times more than their average worker, and it should be for companies with a thousand workers or more, then they have to pay an additional gross receipts tax to the city, and that money will go into the general fund. And that money can help support our basically running our basic public services. So that's one thing that I'm trying to push for to make sure that our city can continue to serve our residents, both new and old.

Jessica J. Ho: 16:51

What would you want residents to say about your leadership when this term ends, if and when you become supervisor, even if they didn't vote for you?

Natalie Gee: 17:00

I think I would want residents to say that I showed up, I listened, and I fought hard for the sunset. So they would know that there was never a question about my commitment to my district first and no one else. And, you know, that I was an honest, accessible, and effective leader. I think even if we disagreed at times, I want people to know that their supervisor still has an open line of communication for them. Um, there are gonna be times where we're not gonna agree on everything, and that's fine. That's part of the discourse of public service, of being in leadership. But I want to still be able to like have a conversation with people and know where they stand and let them know where I stand. So I want them to know that I respect them and that I'm working every day to try to make District 4 a better place to live. That means even if like there's an issue, like whenever there's an issue, people can just reach out to me. Thank you so much.

Jessica J. Ho: 17:57

So now we're moving into the scenario. This next section is the scenario. I will be asking every candidate the same scenario so listeners can better understand how they approach problem solving. If you were the supervisor of District 4 and a small business owner came to you for help with a parking issue, but SFMTA was unwilling to make the requested changes, how would you advise that business owner?

Natalie Gee: 18:22

Well, for the business owner, I would try to set up a meeting with the SFMTA. I think as a role of a supervisor, your goal is to bridge community with city departments. And even in my current role as an aide, our office meets regularly with the MTA, every two or three weeks, with Director Kirstbaum for regular check-ins. So we know what's happening in the district, what projects they have going through, but also so that we can bring up to MTA what concerns we've heard from the residents or small businesses. And I know the staffers by name at MTA. We have established relationships. That's not going to change once I'm supervisor. And so I know it's really important to be able to like make those relationships at City Hall to be able to get things done. I would elevate the issue to MTA, try to get the meeting set down with MTA and the small business owner and see what we can do from there. In District 10, I was working closely with small businesses on Leland Avenue. They were complaining about a lot of speeding down Leland Avenue. And some of the cars that were speeding were skipping stop signs. So it was a hazard to pedestrians. We worked with MTA and the small business folks to come up with a solution, which was they want to put in speed bumps. And so that's what the businesses wanted, and that's what we were trying to elevate and fight for at MTA. So happy to say that they are going to install speed bumps within the next year. So that's one way of just or one example of me just getting things done. Great. What would success look like in your view, six months down the road? So hopefully we've had one or at least several meetings with the small business owner or even the Small business owner and his nearby neighbors with MTA, we're able to come up with a plan and have a timeline of when that plan can be implemented to resolve that issue.

Jessica J. Ho: 20:11

Great. Thanks, Natalie. But let's say that uh that doesn't happen, right? If the outcome isn't achieved, what would you do next?

Natalie Gee: 20:20

I think when we look at solving problems, we have to figure out one, is it solvable? And two, if it's not viable, what are the reasons why? So I assume if the MTA says we can't do this, let's figure out the options. Like tell us why we can't do this. Is it illegal? Is there like a cult to it or something, right? Um, what's something that we can do as an office to change that code or to work with MTA and the small business owner to come up with a solution that works for everyone? Natalie, you get two minutes to talk about what you want. Two minutes, just like public comment. So I'm running because I really want to make sure working families have a voice at City Hall. And I see a lot of what's happening right now is that working families are not being included in a lot of the decisions. So a lot of us, if unless you're a billionaire, you're probably a working family or probably part of the working class. For me, some of my priorities include funding true public safety. That means making sure that we are staffed, fully staffed at the police department, but also making sure our other emergency services are also fully staffed because we know the police can't be the only ones doing everything. Um, making sure that, you know, we build trust, we build presence, not just with response times. We want to make sure we have officers and folks that know our neighborhoods, walk our streets, speak the language, and build relationships with people. For me, I also want to make sure we invest in our young people. I did a lot of young uh youth leadership development in my younger years, and we have so many young people in the sunset, but they leave the neighborhood because there's not enough opportunities or spaces that can reflect their potential. That also means like fighting for more after-school programs, job training, whether there's a pathway for young people to work in the city or work in other industries in San Francisco. Like we have such a vibrant tech industry here. Like, are there pathways for young people from public school or from just high schoolers to their career path? Um, making sure we have safe community centers and safe spaces for also elders. We have one of the higher highest racials, we have one of the highest racial of young people and seniors out here in District 4. And making sure we have activities for our seniors where they feel safe to hang out, to do their dancing, to either it's not just a school or a library, it can be other areas aside from a cafe, but like really having that space. Um, also making sure our streets are safe. I think we know that aside from potholes, we also know that there's a lot of traffic issues and making sure we mitigate those. Okay, two minutes.

Jessica J. Ho: 22:59

Okay, well that wraps up today's conversation. If you found this episode useful, please consider sharing it with someone who lives in District 4. Local elections in San Francisco use ranked choice voting and are often very close, and they're sometimes decided by just a few votes. So clear, accurate information really does matter. This episode is part of an ongoing series where I'm speaking to each District 4 candidate using the same format. So I encourage you to check out the other conversations as well. And before we close, I'd also like to give a plug for Natalie's podcast, which I just learned about. So tell us more.

Natalie Gee: 23:36

For sure, for sure. So last year, me and my friends Michael Nueyan, who's running for District 8, and Jeremy, we started a podcast called Beyond the Fog and Fury, and is a podcast centered around Asian American perspective on political things in San Francisco. We got eight episodes out that we recorded. That was our first season. We're still planning out the second season, but it's a little bit time consuming, and we don't really have the capacity because two of us are running for office right now. But I think we definitely want to do some special episodes. So follow on Instagram is Fog and Fury SF. And you can find us on all the major podcast locations YouTube, Apple, Spotify, I think SoundCloud too.

Jessica J. Ho: 24:16

Awesome. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourselves and each other, and I'll see you in the neighborhood.