San Francisco taqueria El Faro, credited with inventing the super burrito, may be forced to sell its restaurant, citing an extreme rent increase.

Esther Harkreader has lived in the Mission District neighborhood for 20 years. For her, it’s like home. 

“I don’t even have to say anything. I just walk in and say, ‘Hi.’ And they say, ‘How many?’ And they make my food. They know me. They are good neighbors,” Harkreader said.

El Faro has been in the Mission since 1961, known for its famous super burrito. But as the economy booms in San Francisco, so does the rent. The daughter of the family-owned business says her mother was caught off guard by the rent increase. 

“To our surprise, it was almost a double raise, so it was like 73% increase after we did some math,” Patricia Kocourek. “(My mother) spent her adult life coming from Mexico here. She’s very attached sentimentally.”

Customers, like Harkreader, can feel that community connection firsthand.

“She has given me free burritos on my birthday before, and they’ve become good friends, I feel like, you know? I read the story last night, and I almost cried,” Harkreader said.

Ce’Myah Bacchus attends a nearby school in the neighborhood and says the owners always take care of her, even when she is short on cash.

“I’m pretty sad, honestly, because it’s been here for so long. The burritos are so great. And the people there are just so nice. Any time I don’t have enough, they give me a discount,” Bacchus said.

The restaurant was able to pay rent for the month of April, but they say the future remains uncertain. 

Currently, El Faro is listed on Facebook Marketplace for $225,000. They say so far, they haven’t gotten any offers close to their asking price.

Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 2 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Tuesday.

District 2 covers neighborhoods in the north of the city including the Presidio, the Marina, Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, Anza Vista and portions of the Western Addition and North of the Panhandle.

Every year, confused parents of children entering San Francisco’s public schools have to confront the lottery. 

The system is theoretically simple. Parents provide a ranked list of their top choice San Francisco Unified School District picks by late January. SFUSD runs a lottery, and a few months later the district tells parents where their kid is assigned. 

But parents hate it. 

Making the list of schools is time consuming and the wait is anxiety-inducing, parents say. Plus, the results can be disappointing — an assignment to a school they didn’t want, or one with a start or end time that is impossible to coordinate around work schedules. 

So why have a lottery system? The lottery started in 2002 after a court case that prohibited the district from considering race when making school assignments. But SFUSD didn’t want to simply send students to their nearest school, which would result in schools segregated by class and race, mirroring the city itself. So, it started using a lottery. 

In the end, though, SFUSD data showed that the lottery system exacerbated inequality in the school system.

So, in 2020, SFUSD’s Board of Education voted to move San Francisco back to a zone-based system of school assignments. The hope was that the new zone system would lead to more predictability, students enrolled in schools closer to home, and more diverse classrooms. 

In reality, figuring out how to divide the city into zones that allow for all three of those factors — predictability, proximity, and diversity — is a tall order. Though the new zones were supposed to be implemented by the 2026-2027 school year, there is no current proposal for what the zones would look like and no timeline for SFUSD switching over. 

This week’s question: How should SFUSD students be assigned to schools?

When assigning schools to students, SFUSD should prioritize accessibility, strong education and ensure schools across the city are equally resourced. 

I have heard complaints from many parents that they would like the option to walk their kids to school and not have to send them an hour across the city every day. 

We can improve the selection process to ensure that students can choose a school in their neighborhood. Limiting travel time will also give kids one less thing to worry about and ensure that they are more focused on their education. 

See Brooke’s full response here.

Endorsed by: Former District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, former State Senator and Supervisor Quentin Kopp, UESF, CA Working Families Party … read more here.

Stephen Sherrill

• Job: Appointed District 2 Supervisor
• Age: 39
• Residency: Homeowner, moved to the district 11 years ago
• Transportation: Driving, public transportation, biking
• Education: Bachelor’s degree from Yale University
• Languages: English

SFUSD should move to a simpler, more neighborhood-based assignment system. Families deserve a fair chance to attend a school closer to home, without a confusing citywide lottery or long commutes. 

Assignment reform also has to be matched by a serious focus on school quality. In a district facing budget cuts and hard decisions about its footprint, resources should be concentrated so neighborhood schools can offer students the staffing, support, and academic programs they need. While the Board of Supervisors does not control SFUSD policy, I will continue to use this office to advocate for that approach.

See Sherrill’s full response here.

Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, GrowSF, Nor Cal Carpenters Union, San Francisco Police Officers Association, SF YIMBY, Northern Neighbors … read more here.

Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at io@missionlocal.com. 

You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.

Between surging gas prices and ransom-level parking fees, the cost of the daily grind adds up.

But AbdAllah Abou-Ismail has found a way to make the city foot the bill.

“I was like, you know what? This my reason for biking every day,” he said.

Every morning, he hops on his bike and pedals his way toward a free lunch. Call it a bit of roadside economics: The city of Palo Alto pays him to stay out of traffic. And instead of low-grade road rage, he starts his day on the right foot.

“Actually, my energy levels got a lot better once I started biking. Before I would get to work a lot more sleepy, but with the bike, I come into work 100% I can hit the floor. No downtime, no nothing,” he said.

It’s all thanks to a program called “Bike Love,” which tracks his commute and pays him $5 a day — up to $600 a year — to spend at local businesses. It’s one of several efforts the city has rolled out to get drivers to shift gears. The initiative runs through an app called Motion, which tracks trips automatically on your phone, whether you’re on a bike, e-bike or scooter. 

Pat Burt, a Palo Alto city council member who serves on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the goal is simple.

“We want this to be a means where they get addicted to biking and as a result, they’re healthier, mentally and physically, and happier,” he said.

According to the Palo Alto Transportation Management Association, the program kept nearly three million car miles off local roads last year and cut more than a thousand tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Not everyone thinks it goes far enough. Billy Riggs, a professor at the University of San Francisco who studies transportation innovation, says these programs tend to target people who are already biking.

“This is cute, it just can’t be about cute solutions,” he said.

As for Abou-Ismail, the payoff is simple — and daily.

“By the time I reach work, I’ve already had a small little adventure, and five bucks into my account,” he said.