Aaron Peskin’s Private Tennis Club Progressivism

Ultra-NIMBYism masquerading as social justice.

Walking along the street, about a year after moving to San Francisco, I was handed a campaign flyer by a crust punk. It urged me to vote for Proposition B, a measure, the “No Wall on the Waterfront” pamphlet explained, that would stop greedy real estate developers.

This was in 2013. At the time, I wrote exclusively for left-wing publications and held a generally left-leaning disposition. The message resonated. In a city experiencing a tech boom like no other, why shouldn’t voters curb the excesses of yet another industry group?

The initiative, organized by then-neighborhood activist Aaron Peskin—now a candidate for mayor—was narrowly designed to block a mixed-use development at 8 Washington Street.

Far from a gargantuan building spree or a “wall,” the proposed development featured 12-story condominiums, a ground-level buildout of restaurants, a public playground, and a new underground parking garage. It was proposed in the financial sector, about a block away from the Embarcadero.

The ballot measure blocking the development passed by a landslide 62.79% vote. To me, this was astonishing. Why was this issue even up to voters?

Since moving here, I have watched dozens of new homes and small businesses blocked for years or shut down for the most trivial and bad-faith reasons.

A bakery founded by a Jewish Russian refugee from the former Soviet Union? Not acceptable to local activists because the owner isn’t Latino. A laundromat was classified as “historic” to prevent its sale to a housing developer. Hundreds of units of below-market housing – rejected because the developer hadn’t delivered “100%” affordable buildings. The impact of an afternoon shadow cast by new buildings, offensively white wallpaper, and the racial demographics of new residents, are among the many complaints local left-wing activists have deployed to shutter development.

The Peskin-led measure to kill the development at 8 Washington Street was no different. Peskin mobilized support from wealthy residents who angrily opposed any building that might obstruct their view of the bay. The late Richard Stewart, a resident of the ritzy Bridgeway Plaza across the street from the proposed development site, contributed nearly half a million dollars to the Peskin effort.

The site was far from a vulnerable community needing protection from rapacious real estate barons. The building would have replaced a private tennis club with memberships ranging from $369 to $590 a month and initiation fees as high as $2,500.

Thanks to the Peskin-led drive to kill the project, the private tennis club remains untouched.

In comments after the vote, Peskin boasted about his role in killing the project, calling the proposed development the type of "profound irreversible mistakes” a city can make.