Aaron Peskin

Aaron Dan Peskin (born June 17, 1964) is an American elected official in San Francisco, California.

He is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 3.

Peskin attended University of California, Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor's degree (1987).

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 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.

During his first two terms as a supervisor, Peskin mostly sided with a self-described progressive majority on development issues, often being at odds with the policies of mayors Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown.

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.

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

While Peskin had previously served the maximum of two consecutive terms as a supervisor from 2000 to 2008, the city code is silent on non-consecutive terms.

When Christensen used the physics concept of a wormhole—a connection between two different space-times—to describe the Stockton Street Tunnel connecting Union Square and Chinatown, Peskin's ally Rose Pak allegedly distorted the word wormhole to imply that Chinatown is a hole of worms, which successfully triggered the anger of some Chinatown residents.

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

Peskin ultimately defeated Christensen.

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

He 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.

The parties attempting to commercially develop the lot called this an abuse of government power.

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.

He also 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.

When he came to the end of his second term in 2008 he supported David Chiu's successful campaign for the District 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors.

San Francisco restricts supervisors to a maximum of two consecutive terms.

He was then elected chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party Central Committee (DCCC), 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 Peskin was not chosen by the Board of Supervisors.

The lot was approved as the new site for the North Beach branch of the San Francisco Public Library in 2011.

Peskin held this seat until 2012.

The library was completed in 2014.

He was elected in 2015, having previously served two terms in 2001–2009.

District 3 includes the neighborhoods of North Beach, Chinatown, Telegraph Hill, North Waterfront, Financial District, Nob Hill, Union Square, Maiden Lane, Polk Gulch and part of Russian Hill.

During his tenure on the Board of Supervisors, Peskin has been known as a "neighborhood preservationist", as he has persistently blocked new housing and other development in San Francisco.

Peskin was born and raised in Berkeley.

His mother, Tsipora, is an immigrant from Israel and a therapist.

She taught at University of California, Berkeley.

His father, Harvey, was a therapist and professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.

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

In 2019, 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.

Now in his fourth term, Peskin will again be termed-out in 2024.

Due to the city code limiting Supervisors to two consecutive terms, he will not be eligible to run again until 2028.

Since his first days in office, Peskin has been known as a "neighborhood preservationist" (SF Weekly), opposing and preventing many development projects in San Francisco.

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

Peskin described it as a "remarkably helpful law" that had protected the city from several bad projects, while acknowledging that the process was "messy and time-consuming."

Peskin blocked discussion of a 2021 proposal that would have required 50 signatures to invoke the California Environmental Quality Act to block projects, rather than just one person.

In 2024, Peskin spearheaded an effort to designate the Northern Waterfront as a historic district and thus downzone the area and prevent dense, large housing in the area.