Maurice Goodman of Millbrae: Good man, good mayor

Vice Mayor Maurice Goodman, posing outside Millbrae City Hall, boldly includes the Black community in his representation of all of Millbrae. – Photo: Kia Shaun Walton by Kia Shaun Walton Millbrae Vice Mayor Maurice Goodman extends a firm handshake, punctual and professional in a gray three-piece suit. Simply Maurice, his people-first personality collapses the distance one might expect from a public official. A calm confidence emanates, seeming much less to do with the& fact of his photo hanging on the wall of Millbrae City Hall as it does his core values. As he states it, “I’m centered in what I believe the community needs. And that means someone that’s going to be a voice, that’s going to be a unifier, that’s going to uplift and bring people together.”& Representation is central to Vice Mayor Goodman’s approach to developing “the foundation” of Millbrae, described as “a culture of properly looking at race and being able to create healthy environments for people and safe environments for people to talk about issues of concern.” As a Black man, leader, father and politician, Vice Mayor Goodman has endured the absence of this foundation, from lack of endorsements, to housing discrimination, to an assault by...