San Francisco, CA
Transportation, Community safety and policing | 2025
Facilitating the development of noncarceral, community-informed transit safety solutions.
Hateful sentiment—even violence—against Asians, immigrants, and other people of color has risen alarmingly. Public transit is one common place where anti-Asian hate occurs. According to a 2023 Stop AAPI Hate and NORC survey, 27 percent of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders nationwide experienced hate, such as verbal harassment and physical assault, on public transit. Harassment and other abuse on transit can restrict many immigrants in San Francisco’s Chinatown from access to jobs, school, health care, and other resources for thriving. To address transit safety for Chinatown residents, Chinese for Affirmative Action, an immigrant rights and social justice organization, will conduct transit audits and engage stakeholders to recommend improvements in transit safety.
Chinese for Affirmative Action plans to conduct safety audits of two transit lines that serve San Francisco’s Chinatown. In a safety audit, individual transit users observe and collect data to document factors such as lighting and the presence of transit staff and signage in multiple signage. Using previously collected focus group and survey data, along with the results of the safety audits, Chinese for Affirmative Action will produce a report analyzing these data and recommending noncarceral solutions.
The Coalition for Community Safety and Justice is a group of four organizations: Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinese Progressive Association, Chinatown Community Development Center, and Community Youth Center. This coalition will use the report to advocate for noncarceral safety policies in conversations with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and a local city councilmember. Through this work, the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice hopes to implement community-based recommendations to improve transit safety in Chinatown and provide an alternative to carceral policies that disproportionately hurt Black and Brown communities. Increased safety will improve transit access for all communities, including Asians, immigrants, and people of color, leading to better health and economic activity.