See how they run: Aaron Peskin calls out Daniel Lurie

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Mission Local is publishing a daily campaign dispatch for each of the major contenders in the mayor’s race, alternating among candidates weekly until November. This week: Aaron Peskin. Read earlier dispatches here.

At first, the report is that Aaron Peskin set off early on Tuesday morning swimming in the bay with a group of campaign interns like a pod of dolphins. Not true, said Peskin. Only one intern got in the water — but she did well. “She made it all the way out to the blue boat,” Peskin said proudly.

In 1992, a man approached Peskin at Cafe Trieste in North Beach and looked him up and down. “You look like a bay swimmer,” he said.

Peskin was not, but he also had a policy to try almost anything once. The next morning, he accompanied the man to the edge of San Francisco Bay and went in. Then he came back the next day. And the next. Swimming in the bay is like nothing else, he said. Pelicans fly right over you. After a while, you gain a physical sense of the bay’s ecology— how it changes with the fluctuation of the tides, and infusions of snowmelt off the Sierras. He recommends a neoprene hat for staying warm.

The first public meeting of that day was the Transportation Authority Board meeting, which passed uneventfully, except for the appearance, during public comment, of a man who complained bitterly about the low quality of the crosswalk striping at Jane Warner Plaza at the intersection of Castro and Market streets. “Couldn’t we find some rainbow colors to enhance that gray gateway, as has been done at 18th and Castro streets?” he asked. “At first, I was angry. But today I just feel depressed that this great city with its international appeal seems to have lost whatever passion it once had to shine and sparkle.”

Next up was the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting. It began with Mayor London Breed’s appearance in front of the board, the result of a 2010 ballot initiative meant to open up communication between the board and the mayor, though it hasn’t necessarily played out that way. In this case, the communication consisted of a tense, convoluted conversation between the mayor and Supervisor Ahsha Safaí — another mayoral opponent, like Peskin.

Safaí asked if the mayor’s office could help his office get ahold of $3.6 million that he had negotiated for in the 2023 budget to open sober housing in Union Square/Nob Hill. The mayor neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the money, only that she, too, was a big fan of sober housing, had several sober housing projects of her own in the works, and didn’t see what that had to do with Supervisor Safaí.

“Now that you have both asked and answered each other’s questions, question time is over,” said Peskin, congenially.

“It ain’t never over,” said Breed.

The meeting went on. Peskin introduced a charter amendment that would expand rent subsidies for low-income seniors living in affordable housing. The city had encouraged housing nonprofits to buy existing buildings with low-income tenants to help keep them from being displaced, said Peskin. But at buildings like 1005 Powell St., the tenants were so low-income that 47 percent of the building’s current operating costs were covered by rent subsidies. “I welcome discussion with all of you in the days and weeks ahead,” said Peskin.  

Peskin also introduced a ballot measure that he had promised last month when he announced his candidacy for mayor. The measure — if approved to go to the ballot by the other supervisors — would create a new position within the city: An inspector general with the power to investigate fraud, waste, abuse or misconduct within city government, and contractors who do business with the city. “The strong IG model is considered the gold standard in municipal integrity, and is used effectively in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, Miami-Dade County, and many more,” said Peskin. “It’s time we stop relying on the FBI to uncover systemic corruption and start cleaning up our own house.”

“Finally,” said Peskin, “I’m also introducing a charter amendment. Actually, charter amendments, plural.” A group of extremely well-funded 501(c) (4) SuperPACs he said, are attempting to change the city’s charter and remove oversight into the city government by developing amendments to the city’s constitution that would increase the power of the mayor and create a task force with the power to eliminate entire advisory boards and commissions (the Health Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Library Commission, the Commission on the Environment) and remove the civilian oversight of the Police Commission under the guise of making city government more efficient.

Peskin’s amendments (he was submitting two versions, he said, so that the supervisors could debate which would be the best one to put on the ballot) laid out alternative paths towards streamlining city government via an independent blue-ribbon panel that would make any changes within a system of public hearings. “I actually think this is an exciting opportunity to embark on some hard conversations,”  said Peskin.

A few more updates from supervisors, and then it was time for public comment: An angry French man in a serape ranting about artificial intelligence and a man with a sermon about butts (“The sign of the butt is everywhere around us,” he said, and a deep “amen” echoed from somewhere in the room). There was a small group of taxi drivers extremely angry about how difficult it was to make money picking up fares at the airport. (“London brutally slaughtered us,” said one, referencing the mayor. “She killed us. We are dead. Uber uses us as slaves.”) And on it went until, two-and-a-half hours after it started, the Board of Supervisors meeting ended — relatively early, as these meetings go.

That night, several of the mayoral candidates, including Peskin, made an appearance at the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club mayoral town hall to be interviewed in preparation for the club’s endorsement.

The Unitarian church where the forum was being held was surprisingly packed for a Tuesday night. In front of a hot pink backdrop, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club President Jeffrey Kwong grilled Breed about the sudden inclusion of several million dollars for Harvey Milk Plaza in the proposed $390 million public-health bond going up for a vote in November.

“There was a perception that it was a politicized decision,” said Kwong. “Here’s the mayor running for reelection, who decided to throw something in for the LGBTQ community. We love Harvey Milk Plaza, but we wouldn’t prioritize that before City Clinic.”

“Jeffrey,” said Breed, smoothly. “I’m so glad that you asked about this. In the future, just pick up the phone and call me.”

She had included the plaza in the bond, she said, in an attempt to secure the two-thirds majority to pass it in November, and she had always had a different plan to take care of City Clinic with non-bond money.

When it was Peskin’s turn to come on stage, Kwong revealed that he had been an intern in Peskin’s office during Peskin’s first term as supervisor, promised to ask him tough questions anyway, and then segued into one of the main criticisms raised by Peskin’s opponents.

“There’s a lot of perception, ” said Kwong, “especially in the yuppie crowd, some of my best friends included, that you are this obstinate person that is opposed to housing. They think you’re the number one opponent to them being able to buy a house in San Francisco.”

Millions of dollars have been spent to create that narrative, said Peskin. But he’d worked on legislation that had led to more than 100,000 units of housing — the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, the Rincon Hill Plan, the Shipyard, Candlestick Point, Parkmerced, Western SoMa, and Central SoMa.

But that’s not in your district, said Kwong. Peskin countered that North Beach and Chinatown are already some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city, that nearly all of the buildings were old enough to qualify as rent controlled, and that when opportunities for new housing did appear, like the ground under the former Embarcadero Freeway, he outmaneuvered then-Mayor Willie Brown and made sure that the sites were built out with entirely affordable housing, instead of affordable housing, a hotel, and a police station.

“Mayor Breed is going on about up-zoning, repeating the mistakes that we should have learned from redevelopment,” said Peskin. “The issue is financing. We have introduced legislation where the city of San Francisco — and we’ve never done this before — can be the issuer of tax-exempt revenue bonds to build housing for middle-class people. San Francisco needs a plan to help them, and it’s not going to be $2,000-a-square-foot luxury towers on the waterfront. That’s not what these people can afford. But those astroturf billionaires make them think that.”

“You’ve been at the helm for a quarter century,” said Kwong. “Daniel Lurie — he’s an outsider. London Breed highlights the fact that you’re the veto actor in blocking reforms. Where’s the truth in these arguments?”

“Without casting aspersions on the other candidates in this race, let’s talk about money,” said Peskin, smoothly. “Proposition C, which is actually the biggest source of funding for homelessness, was opposed by Mayor Breed. Proposition I — another tax that Mayor Breed opposed because it was taxing some of the richest people in San Francisco. You’ve got to really stick up for what you believe in, and that’s what I’ve done. “

“And, by the way,” says Peskin. “Remember this, Mr. Lurie. It takes a long time to figure out how this government works. It’s not all going to be solved with philanthropy.”

As Peskin says this, the energy in the room changes from polite attentiveness to something like excitement. Peskin’s tone isn’t angry, but there’s an electricity in the air.

“Real democracy is people paying their taxes,” Peskin continues. “And then we collectively, as a government, with real input, decide how that money is going to be spent. It’s not just all going to be fixed by your billionaire friends.”

An aspersion has undoubtedly been cast. But something else is also true: The crowd is awake.

This article originally referred to Lurie’s reaction to Peskin‘s speech. Lurie had, by that time, left the event.