Aaron Peskin

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Aaron Peskin (born 1964) is the current president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was first elected to the Board in 2000, and was re-elected in 2004. In January 2005, his colleagues elected him President of the Board.

Contents 1 Personal Life 2 Political Career 3 Controversies 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Personal Life

Peskin was born and raised in Berkeley. His mother, Tsipora, an immigrant from Israel, taught at UC Berkeley; his father, Harvey, was a professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. Peskin is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz. He is married to land use lawyer Nancy Shanahan.^[1]

Before entering politics, Peskin was an environmental activist and water rights negotiator for a non-profit organization which brokered passage and use rights for tribal lands. He first came to public notice as president of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, where he lead the effort to save the Colombo building (it was going to made a Chinatown branch of City College) and prevent a Rite-Aid drug store from moving into the Pagoda Theater.^[2] He is a member of the South End Rowing Club and an avid outdoorsman, having hiked the John Muir Trail in 2006.^[3]

[edit] Political Career

Peskin was first elected in December 2000, along with other progressive neighborhood activists who had cut their teeth on Tom Ammiano's mayoral campaign. When he was sworn into office, Peskin described District 3 (it comprises Chinatown, North Beach, and Nob Hill) as the "living room" of San Francisco. Peskin received less than 10 percent of the vote in Chinatown in the election.^[4]

As Supervisor, Peskin is known mostly for siding with a self-described progressive majority on development issues, being at odds with the pro-growth policies of mayors Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown. He authored an amnesty on unwarranted "in-law" apartment construction as a strategy to blunt housing costs and promoting fiscal conservatism in city spending.

He has also sponsored legislation to curb the the Ellis Act, a state law that allows property owners to in effect leave the rental business and in so doing evict tenants. This law has led to many condominium conversions in San Francisco by real estate speculators, especially in Peskin's neighborhood of North Beach.^[5] Some landowners use the Ellis Act as a means of evading what they believe are San Francisco's stringent and unfair rent control laws.

Peskin angered his progressive allies by supporting legislation to bring Home Depot to San Francisco.

Peskin has also come under criticism for trying to overregulate North Beach night clubs and festivals. Due in part to actions by Peskin, the 52-year-old North Beach Jazz Festival was canceled in 2006. In that year, the Board of Supervisors voted to prohibit alcohol sales at the fair because of political pressure from Aaron Peskin, who has close ties to the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association, which wanted a ban on alcohol sales. Festival organizers said that without the sales the festival couldn't turn a profit, so they canceled it. "He's using these people (the Telegraph Hill Dwellers) as his foot soldiers to get even with me for not supporting him," said Marsha Garland, executive director of the North Beach Chamber of Commerce, an organizer of the festival who endorsed an opponent of Peskin's during his 2004 re-election bid.^[6]

Peskin, working with the Telegraph Hill Dwellers, temporarily shut down the Savoy Tivoli, a North Beach landmark, when he had city officials rescind the Planning Commission order that had allowed the bar to operate without a restaurant.^[7] Along with Supervisor Chris Daly, Peskin was instrumental in canceling the San Francisco Grand Prix, a world-class bicycle race held in the years 2001 to 2005, because the race's backers owed the city money. Critics of Peskin alleged that the race was cancelled because it inconvenienced his North Beach constituents.^[8]

[edit] Controversies

In 2004, Peskin and his wife Nancy Shanahan may have been the benefit of a "sweetheart deal" in which they received a valuable property on Telegraph Hill at a discount price. In 2002, at a loss of $700,000 from the previous $1.5 million purchase price, the property in question was sold for $800,000 to a trust controlled by Harvey and Tsipora Peskin, Peskin's parents, who then, in 2004, conveyed nearly 70 percent of the ownership of the property to Peskin and his wife. The Peskins then converted the two-unit building to a single unit without first obtaining city approval.^[9][10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Aaron Peskin's government website
• "Doing mitzvahs" propels supe Peskin, by Alexandra J. Wall. Jewish News Weekly. December 22, 2000.
• North Beach politics at play in decision to ban alcohol at fair, by Ken Garcia. SF Examiner. April 27, 2006.
• Serious allegations against Peskin allegedly alledged, by Eileen Left. SF Bulldog. January 2007.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors
McGoldrick • Alioto-Pier • Peskin • Jew • Mirkarimi • Daly • Elsbernd • Dufty • Ammiano • Maxwell • Sandoval

• North Beach politics at play in decision to ban alcohol at fair, by Ken Garcia. SF Examiner. April 27, 2006.