This followed Supervisor Susan Leal's legislation prohibiting new alcohol licenses for non-restaurants in the Mission District in 1994 due to a high crime rate within the area.

[5] On December 13, 1996, Teng and Supervisor Tom Ammiano protested sweatshop labor in Nicaragua and unpaid wages for garment workers in Los Angeles outside of the Macy's West store in Union Square, San Francisco alongside other activists, garment workers, and members of various labor organizations, including the San Francisco Labor Council and AFL-CIO.

[6] In February 1997, Teng sought an 18-month moratorium on any "new bars, full-service restaurants, specialty grocers and retail coffee stores" in the West Portal commercial district, which encompasses the part of West Portal Avenue between Ulloa Street to 15th Avenue.

This was in response to complaints from neighbors and store owners who tried to prevent the opening of a new Starbucks and wanted to keep intact the neighborhood's "village character".

[7] In July 1998, Teng proposed renaming a portion of Myrtle Street after lesbian writer Alice B. Toklas.

Teng won in neighborhoods with an Asian majority while Hall captured more votes in the city's Irish-Catholic enclaves.