Sophie Maxwell
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Sophie Maxwell (April 9, 1950) is an American politician. She is a former member of the
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
Board of Supervisors, representing
District 10 District 10 may refer to: Places * District 10 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam * District 10 (Zürich), in Switzerland * District 10, an electoral district of Malta * District 10, a police district of Malta * District 10 School, a historic school in ...
.


Early life

Maxwell has lived in the Bayview district in
San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
for the last twenty years. Prior to her election, Maxwell worked as an electrician for
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
.


Political career

In the 2000 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election Maxwell defeated San Francisco Planning Commissioner Linda Fadeke Richardson, who was supported by mayor Willie Brown. As a result of the shift from at-large to district elections, she served a transitional two-year term. She ran unopposed in the 2002 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election. She won re-election in the 2006 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election against six other candidates. Themes of her work covered issues such as:
environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...
, clean energy and equitable distribution of public resources. Maxwell supported housing development at the
Hunters Point Naval Shipyard The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city. Originally, Hunters Point was a commercial shipyard established i ...
, believing that it would bring 10,000 jobs to the area. Environmental activists have called for the preservation of the neighboring Yosemite Slough
wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
s. During her tenure, there were three failed recall campaigns against Maxwell by her constituents. In the second attempt in 2004, half of the 6000 signatures were deemed invalid and the petition was later thrown out. The 2010 recall campaign was partially motivated by Maxwell's vote against advising the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
from re-establishing the
Restoration Advisory Board A Restoration Advisory Board or RAB is a group, which meets on a regular basis to discuss environmental restoration at a US military installation currently or formerly used and owned by the US Department of Defense (DoD). These developed in the 1 ...
, founded in 1994 to inform the neighboring communities around the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard cleanup. Maxwell has stated that she offered the Navy the choice of either reinstating the board or finding new ways to engage the community, however her critics found that to be weak stance. Her termed finished in January 2011 and was succeeded by
Malia Cohen Malia M. Cohen (born December 16, 1977) is an American politician serving as the 33rd Controller of California since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Cohen previously served as Chair of the California State Board of Equalization from th ...
. In the
2010 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
, Maxwell endorsed
Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...
board member Lynette Sweet in a race that consisted of 21 candidates. In April 2019, Mayor
London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...
Maxwell appointed her to the
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city. The SFPUC also provides wholesale water service to an addit ...
.


Personal life

Maxwell's mother, Enola D. Maxwell, was a neighborhood activist in
Potrero Hill Potrero Hill is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is known for being one of the sunniest neighborhoods in the city and having view of the skyline, Sutro Tower, Twin Peaks, and the bay. A working-class neighborhood unt ...
and former executive director of the
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (also known as "The NABE") is a multipurpose community center and historic building built in 1922 at 953 DeHaro Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, U.S.. The Potrero Hill Neigh ...
. The Potrero Hill Middle School at 655 De Haro Street was renamed Enola D. Maxwell Middle School of the Arts in 2001. The building was then converted to
International Studies Academy San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), established in 1851, is the only public school district within the City and County of San Francisco, and the first in the state of California. Under the management of the San Francisco Board of Edu ...
, which closed in 2016, and is now the site of San Francisco International High School. Her son Rama died of
Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...
at the age of 30. She is divorced.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Sophie Living people San Francisco Board of Supervisors members Women city councillors in California African-American city council members in California 21st-century African-American women politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 1950 births 20th-century African-American women African-American environmentalists American environmentalists Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco African-American history in San Francisco