50 Facts About Aaron Peskin

Aaron Dan Peskin was born on June 17,1964 and is an American former elected official in San Francisco, California.

Aaron Peskin was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 3 from 2001 to 2009, and again from 2015 to 2025.

Aaron Peskin's mother, Tsipora, is an immigrant from Israel and a therapist.

Aaron Peskin's father, Harvey, was a therapist and professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.

Aaron Peskin attended University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor's degree.

Aaron Peskin sued the school over a plan to build more student dorms.

Aaron Peskin was president of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, where he co-led the effort to stop the Colombo Building from being converted into the Chinatown branch of City College.

Aaron Peskin wrote and won approval for 205 ordinances during his first eight years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making him the most prolific supervisor of his time.

Aaron Peskin was first elected in December 2000, along with activists who had gained their first significant political experience on Tom Ammiano's mayoral campaign.

Aaron Peskin passed legislation in 2003 to establish a 100-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics, requiring protesters to acquire consent before approaching people.

Aaron Peskin was unanimously elected President of the Board of Supervisors in 2004 and was later re-elected by his colleagues for a second two-year term as president in 2005.

Aaron Peskin served as a member of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, an agency responsible for regulating development in, on and immediately surrounding the San Francisco Bay.

Aaron Peskin was then elected chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party Central Committee, the local party's governing board.

In January 2011, he was a candidate for mayor to fill the unexpired term of Gavin Newsom, who resigned to become Lieutenant Governor of California, but Aaron Peskin was not chosen by the Board of Supervisors.

Aaron Peskin announced his candidacy for his old District 3 Supervisor's seat, challenging appointed incumbent Julie Christensen, on March 30,2015.

That negative press attributed to Pak's comments in Chinatown created an opportunity for Aaron Peskin to pick up much-needed votes in the Chinese community when he ran against Christensen.

In 2019, Aaron Peskin proposed naming the Chinatown station of the Central Subway the Rose Pak Subway Station against strong opposition from practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Aaron Peskin opposed the 2022 recalls of three school board members, and co-sponsored a charter amendment that would have limited the eligibility window for recalls.

Aaron Peskin has been described as aligned with "the housing policies of San Francisco's progressive Democrats, who prioritize existing tenants and neighborhood character when deciding where to build", but "earn[ed] a reputation as the city's preeminent NIMBY among housing activists".

Aaron Peskin has defended the California Environmental Quality Act against widespread criticism that it had "become a cudgel used by NIMBYs to block any project they don't like", with San Francisco's CEQA appeals process being especially onerous.

In 2023, Aaron Peskin authored legislation with Mayor Breed which aimed to redevelop underutilized space downtown.

Later, in 2024, Aaron Peskin spearheaded an effort to designate the Northern Waterfront and Jackson Square as historic districts and thus restoring the pre-2023 neighborhood height limit laws and preventing development of dense, large housing in the area.

Aaron Peskin instigated the eminent domain seizure of a triangular plot of private property at 701 Lombard Street in 2003.

Aaron Peskin acted with Telegraph Hill Dwellers, a neighborhood association, when it became clear that the lot could be used for open space and turned into a park.

Aaron Peskin prevented the conversion of hotel rooms by several San Francisco hotels into condominiums in 2005.

Aaron Peskin said that "turning 226 hotel rooms into 60 luxury, multimillion-dollar condominium units isn't addressing the housing needs of San Francisco".

Aaron Peskin sponsored 2006 legislation to curb the Ellis Act, a state law that allows property owners to evict tenants by quitting the rental business, by prohibiting landlords who instigate an Ellis Act eviction from participating in the city's condominium conversion lottery.

Aaron Peskin has been endorsed by the San Francisco Tenants Union, the Affordable Housing Alliance and the Community Tenants Association.

Aaron Peskin has been endorsed by the San Francisco Apartment Association, an advocacy group for rental building owners and property managers, of which he is a member as a landlord himself.

Aaron Peskin opposes the Treasure Island Development project, which over two decades is planned to create 7,000 to 8,000 housing units, 25 percent of which are affordable, alongside commercial, retail, office and public spaces.

Aaron Peskin led a group called Citizens for a Sustainable Treasure Island in lawsuits against the city of San Francisco and a developer, arguing that its impact on environment and traffic had not been properly reviewed.

In January 2022, Aaron Peskin defended the delay in approval for a $18.7 million grant to repurpose a hotel in his district into a homeless shelter for upwards of 250 people.

In 2023, Aaron Peskin voted to halt the conversion of a single-family home in Nob Hill into ten townhomes.

Aaron Peskin said that the new housing might adversely affect a nearby recreation center.

In 2024, Aaron Peskin opposed SB951, a bill that would remove the ability of the California Coastal Commission to delay and reject housing developments in areas of San Francisco's coast that are already urbanized.

Aaron Peskin voted to block the construction of 24 housing units on the lot of a former medical library.

Aaron Peskin has criticized the historical redevelopment of neighborhoods like the Fillmore and Japantown which has displaced Black residents.

Aaron Peskin spearheaded a 2001 plan to prevent the San Francisco Airport from filling in a 200-square-meter section of the San Francisco Bay to build more runways.

Aaron Peskin's proposed cuts to the airport project were passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, which cut funding of field studies for environmental impacts of proposed runways nearly in half, from $11.2 million to $6.2 million.

Aaron Peskin created the Landmarks Preservation Board, a commission to oversee the protection and preservation of historic sites in San Francisco, in 2008.

Aaron Peskin authored a 2007 charter amendment to increase San Francisco Municipal Railway funding and implement agency reforms.

Aaron Peskin has been involved with contentious decisions which weighed public landmarks and events against the desires of his constituents, including the disagreement surrounding alcohol permits at the North Beach Jazz Festival, the temporary shutdown of the Savoy Tivoli, and cancelling the San Francisco Grand Prix because the bike race's backers owed the city money.

Aaron Peskin has been known to make late night phone calls to public officials and private citizens.

In 2018, at the scene of the St Patrick's Day fire in North Beach, Aaron Peskin was reportedly intoxicated while he verbally berated then-Deputy Fire Chief of Operations Mark Gonzalez.

Aaron Peskin has denied being intoxicated at the time but has apologized for his behavior.

In June 2021, Aaron Peskin announced in a statement that he would be entering into alcohol treatment.

Aaron Peskin apologized for behavior that he attributed to his alcohol problem, but announced that he planned to remain in office while in treatment.

Aaron Peskin married in 1996 to land-use attorney Nancy Shanahan.

Aaron Peskin is a member of the South End Rowing Club and an avid outdoorsman, having hiked the John Muir Trail in 2006 and 2007.

Aaron Peskin owns a 1,495-square-foot duplex in Telegraph Hill that he purchased for $800,000 in 2002 and had a market value of $1,750,000 in 2022.