The Inside Scoop! A Fireside Chat with Supervisor Bilal Mahmood (D5)

Come join us in the next installment of our series: Scoop with a Supe!

This town hall style event is a great way to connect with the Board of Supervisors and others in your community. Most tickets include the price of a scoop of ice cream built in, provided by Smitten Ice Cream! And thank you to Mission Local for its partnership and moderation from editor Joe Eskenazi!

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Supervisor Bilal Mahmood represents District 5, including the Tenderloin, Hayes Valley, Lower Haight, Western Addition, Fillmore, Alamo Square, Japantown, NoPA, and Haight Ashbury.

The son of Pakistani immigrants, he is the first South Asian and Muslim-American elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. His career has spanned civil service, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy, working for over a decade to advance innovative solutions to support issues of public safety, inequality, and climate justice.

After majoring in Biological Sciences at Stanford University and attaining a Gates Scholarship to attend the University of Cambridge, he entered public service in the Obama Administration. As a policy analyst in the US Office of Innovation of Entrepreneurship, he championed policies to support access to capital for small business after the Great Recession. Returning to the Bay Area, he cofounded a software company in San Francisco to democratize access to artificial intelligence technology for small and medium sized businesses.

During the pandemic, Bilal started a community impact fund to invest back in San Francisco. He launched philanthropic campaigns that funded guaranteed income programs for restaurant workers, bystander training for members of the AAPI community, the Let’s Talk About Us campaign to raise awareness for domestic violence, and the Upgrade California campaign to advocate for zero emission buildings. He is also an elected member of the SF Democratic County Central Committee, where he has advanced resolutions calling for innovative solutions to our housing, fentanyl, and public safety crises.

Bilal is a lifelong renter, who currently resides in the Tenderloin. You can often find him working out of the Philz on Golden Gate Ave, grabbing a bite at Gioia Pizza in Hayes Valley, going for a weekend run through the Panhandle, or getting his favorite soft-serve from Cafe Maiko in Japantown.

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Smitten Ice Cream serves the freshest, creamiest ice cream on the planet. Known for its ultra-smooth texture and craveable flavors, Smitten keeps things fresh by offering ever-evolving flavors alongside beloved classics.
Founded in San Francisco by Robyn Sue Fisher, Smitten began with a simple belief — ice cream tastes better when it’s made fresh. Robyn Sue invented and patented a machine that freezes ice cream in about 90 seconds, taking it straight to the streets. In 2017, she brought on Brooke Mosley, and together they worked together to develop a proprietary ice cream base and continued to craft even more nostalgic, unexpected flavors and experiences. In 2024, Robyn handed the reins to Brooke, ushering in the next chapter of Smitten.
Praised by Vogue as “the freshest, if not the best, ice cream on Earth,” and featured by Food & Wine, The Infatuation, Forbes, Wired, and TechCrunch, Smitten operates popular scoop shops in San Francisco and San Jose, along with a thriving catering business — and continues to find new ways to surprise and delight.

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Since 2008, Mission Local, an independent news site based in the Mission District, has been focused on high-impact, enterprise reporting on everything from police reform to corruption at City Hall, housing, and the gig economy. Core to our mission is training the next generation of journalists who reflect the diversity of San Francisco.

We aspire to be a model of local, self-sustaining, fiercely independent news.

Originally a project of U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, we struck out on our own in 2014. In the summer of 2018, we became a fiscally sponsored project. We kept growing and in October 2022, the IRS granted Mission Local SF (EIN: 88-3177547) status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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Perks for Paid Tickets

• Show your ticket at the Cafe bar to receive
• 18% off beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic cocktails.
• Offer valid only for paid ticket holders.

Manny’s never turns away anyone for lack of funds. If you need a free ticket, just email "grapefruit" along with the event title to [email protected]

Want to support community members? By purchasing a "Pay It Forward" ticket you will allow us to provide free tickets to those who may not be able to afford entry otherwise and ensure we can create a diverse socio-economic audience that represents San Francisco.

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