Former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced Monday his candidacy for District 3 Supervisor. Photos by Luke Thomas.
By Luke Thomas
March 31, 2015
Former Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin sent a shock wave through the San Francisco political establishment when he announced yesterday his candidacy to retake the District 3 supervisorial seat he previously held for two terms beginning in 2000.
“I’m running for supervisor because the challenges facing San Francisco and District 3 are simply too enormous for me to sit on the sidelines,” Peskin said to a throng of enthusiastic supporters across the District that includes Telegraph Hill, North Beach, Chinatown, Nob Hill and Russian Hill. “District 3 is being ravaged by the affordability crisis and that’s why we need experienced, effective leadership and not a rubber stamp at City Hall.”
As many 100 supporters from across the District attended the announcement.
Supporters held signs that read, “We need Aaron.”
Known for his creative legislative talent, oration skill, and for a Machiavellian style of politicking to achieve results, Peskin made the announcement outside the Nob Hill apartment building where 18 months ago an elderly Chinese-American couple and their disabled daughter was evicted after living in the building for 34 years. The Lee family was ousted by their landlord using provisions of California’s Ellis Act, taking advantage of the soaring costs of housing due to the influx of highly paid tech workers seeking housing.
“The facts are stunning and frightening,” Peskin lamented. “Evictions caused by the Ellis Act have doubled every year for the past three years. Median rent in San Francisco today has shot up to over $3,500 per month. Homelessness, always a vexing issue, is growing and seemingly more intractable each cycle. And it’s not just renters and the poor; the middle class is rapidly disappearing from San Francisco.”
Seventy percent of District 3 residents are tenants, the highest ratio of renters to homeowners in the City.
“Last year alone, some 2,000 tenants were evicted, told to pack up, get out and move – and after eviction they faced rent prices that could be double or triple what they could afford,” Peskin added. “Of the 14,448 housing units approved, but not yet built in this city as of the third quarter of last year, only 839 (units) are to be affordable to the middle class – that’s just 6 percent.”
Peskin’s candidacy has the full support of Mayor Ed Lee booster and Chinatown powerbroker Rose Pak who is at odds with the mayor over his appointment of Julie Christensen to the D3 seat vacated by former Board of Supervisors President David Chiu following his election to the California Assembly. Pak, who has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the election and re-election of Mayor Lee, supported Planning Commissioner Cindy Wu for the appointment.
Calling Lee’s appointment of Christensen over Wu “worse than a betrayal,” Pak said she is supporting Peskin’s candidacy because he is a “capable, talented, hard working individual.”
“While he was the supervisor for eight years, every time the community needed something, he came through,” Pak added.
Asked if technology angel investor Ron Conway, a Republican, has the mayor’s ear on appointments and public policy, Pak said, “Ron Conway just goes along with whatever he can buy and then he does the mayor’s bidding, spending millions to defeat who they don’t like,” a reference to the multiple independent expenditure campaigns funded by Conway to defeat progressive politicians and candidates who stand in the way of turning San Francisco into a dormitory for tech workers, or interfering with his portfolio of tech interests.
Chinatown community leader Rose Pak takes questions from reporters.
Help on the way
Peskin, 50, said his goals include pursuing an affordable housing policy that seeks a minimum of one-third of all large housing developments to be affordable, to protect non-profit commercial spaces, to identify surplus public lands for the development of affordable housing, to continue the fight for Ellis Act and Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act reforms to ensure housing units built after 1979 are also protected by rent control, and to fund and reform Muni, congruent with population growth.
Additionally, Peskin seeks to “fix the flawed Airbnb legislation that is, in its current form, unenforceable and doing nothing to stop the bad actors who are exploiting home sharing by illegally stealing affordable housing from the rest of us.”
In closing, Peskin referred back to the Lee family’s speculative eviction, “Standing here today, it is heartbreaking to say that it’s too late for Mr. and Mrs. Lee and their daughter, like it’s too late for thousands of others who have been evicted and displaced, but it’s not too late for us to make a difference – it’s not too late to take action to contain this raging crisis and bring relief to those who need it and deserve it.”
“Let’s take a stand to make San Francisco more affordable and livable and retain its essence, its soul and history,” Peskin added.
More photos
Bobby Coleman (left), a tenants rights activist, said Peskin’s “track record is obviously far more consonant with the Tenants Union than Julie Christensen. Julie opposed last year’s anti-eviction ballot measure and, so, by her own admission, she is not aligned with the Tenants Union.”
Rose Pak and SFDCCC member Hene Kelly strike up a conversation following the announcement.
Peskin with his wife, Nancy Shanahan (left) and Rose Pak.
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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April 7, 2015 at 10:47 am
Hmmmm, just read this and it’s been around for a week? Gonna take some time to put the old gang of outlaws and inlaws back together. Now if we can talk Gonzo into running for Mayor again it could be an interesting Fall after all.
Go Giants!
h.
April 5, 2015 at 5:42 am
If these folks are excited about this, there ain’t much for them to be excited about….
March 31, 2015 at 5:04 pm
Luke is back !!!!!
April 1, 2015 at 4:57 pm
Yes, I’m glad of that too. I miss the old FCJ.
March 31, 2015 at 3:27 pm
This just in from Peskin campaign HQ:
Peskin passes $10,000 threshold in under 24 hours
San Francisco, CA – Less then 24 hours after announcing his candidacy
for District 3 Supervisor, veteran legislator and past president of the
Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin raised the 10,000 dollars required to
pass his first ethics filing threshold.
“I’ve been touched and honored by the outpouring of support,” Peskin said.
“Donations from District 3 residents started coming in right after
my announcement and haven’t stopped.”
“Doesn’t surprise me in the least,” said Teresa Frandrich, president of the North
Beach Tenant’s Committee. “District 3 knows that Aaron is a leader in
the fight for an affordable city and we’re ready to get to work.”
Peskin, 50, is a 24-year resident of North Beach. He was first elected to the
Board of Supervisors in 2000 and was the first to represent the newly
formed District 3, which includes the neighborhoods of Chinatown, North
Beach, Nob Hill, Polk Gulch, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, Tenderloin,
Union Square, Golden Gateway, the Financial District and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Peskin served on the Board of Supervisors from 2001 to 2009. He was twice elected
unanimously by his colleagues as President of the Board Supervisors,
serving in that office from 2005 to 2009. He served as Chair of the San
Francisco Democratic Party from 2008 to 2012.
Peskin is the President of an environmental non-profit called Great Basin Land
and Water which secures water rights for Native American tribes. He is
married to environmental attorney Nancy Shanahan.
March 31, 2015 at 2:51 pm
HELP IS ON THE WAY.
TAKE IT TO THE STREETS.
VOTE EARLY – VOTE OFTEN.
PS. Read “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander. http://www.newjimcrow.com
March 31, 2015 at 2:38 pm
“…ensure housing units built after 1979 are also protected by rent control”
Once again…
Even a hint of this will, uh, ensure, that no more housing will be built in Frisco until the sun swallows up the earth.
April 2, 2015 at 4:03 pm
I’m about 99% sure that the 1979 cut-off cannot be legally changed. It’s not that the city can’t change the rent ordinance to make that change. But the state’s Costa-Hawkins Act specifically prevents any municipality from bringing under rent control any units that are currently not under rent control.
So the city might be able to bring new construction under rent control but would not be able to bring anything built between 1979 and 2015 under rent control.
And as you note, the original exclusion for new build was put in the 1979 legislation precisely because the framers of that law knew that nobody would build new rental units if they were immediately condemned for a lifetime of rent control. The numbers would not crunch.
Seems to me that Peskin wants more of the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.