Aysha Pamukcu’s career as a public interest lawyer has always revolved around equity and fairness.  While her campaign for the South San Francisco City Council centers housing and affordability as her top priorities, she sees a direct link between a healthy, vibrant community and climate issues. “I think of clean energy within a broader vision of a generative economy, where climate resiliency, including energy solutions, is seen as essential to public health and our economic future of shared prosperity.”

As the chair of the Planning Commission, and a board member of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Aysha has first-hand knowledge of the challenges facing the community and what it will take to meet the goals of South City’s Climate Action Plan, She favors denser, transit-oriented housing over expanded urban growth boundaries, and will oppose any data centers proposed for the city.  Among other initiatives she has championed are:

• Enhancing the role of the main library and other public buildings as resilience hubs, with solar capacity and local energy storage for use during extreme heat events or power outages.
• Working with community organizations to prioritize tree planting and building a cooling tree canopy, especially in the most vulnerable neighborhoods.
• Adding climate adaptations such as solar+storage to city-run child care facilities.

The mom of small children and the daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and Turkey,  Aysha is acutely aware of the devastation caused by a warming planet and extreme weather events. Her approach to climate policy and sustainability is rooted in the idea of  “targeted universalism”, that is, designing policies that prioritize those experiencing the greatest harm or impact, in such a way that everyone benefits.

Campaign website: https://www.voteaysha.com/

Volunteer some time: http://voteaysha.com/support/