San Francisco, CA
SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin reflects on 24 years of public service. Here's what's next for him
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Despite an unsuccessful bid for San Francisco mayor, longtime Supervisor Aaron Peskin plans to still be involved “outside the tent” of city government and politics.
Come Jan. 8, San Francisco will welcome a new mayor and four new members to the board of supervisors. Peskin, currently the board’s president, will be termed out of his northeastern district seat.
First elected to the board in 2000, Peskin has served five terms, making him the city’s longest-serving district supervisor. During his tenure, colleagues elected him as the board’s president on three separate occasions. City term limits restrict supervisors from serving more than two consecutive terms, but Peskin returned to the board multiple times, despite initially planning to close his public office chapter at one point in 2009.
“I have learned so much along the way. I mean, I was 35 years old when I first ran for office. I am 60 now. Sure, there are things that I would do differently. I’ve learned that it’s always better to start with honey than with vinegar,” Peskin told ABC7 News in a one-on-one interview. “I love the city, and I keep running for supervisor and I keep winning. And it’s been a pretty wonderful chapter of my life.”
MORE: Sup. Peskin talks about his record, public safety and revitalizing SF
In a crowded race to unseat incumbent Mayor London Breed this year, Peskin stood out as the leading progressive. Peskin trailed Breed in third place, with political novice Daniel Lurie elected as mayor. In an interview with ABC7 News, Peskin said that he recently met with Lurie for coffee to offer the city hall outsider some insight.
“As somebody who has a lot of government knowledge and knows how the city works and has been very interested in making government function, I’ve let him know that I’m around for advice, free advice. I’m not looking for a job with the administration, but I’m here as a resource,” he said.
Even if Mayor-elect Lurie offered him a role in the administration, the term limit rules prohibit a supervisor from working in city hall for at least a year after leaving.
What’s next for Peskin and the city’s progressive base?
In his tenure, Peskin helped champion movements like pushing bikes and public transit over cars, drug treatment over incarceration, pushes to tax ‘Big Tech,’ and preserve SF’s iconic neighborhoods with less dense housing.
As for whether or not the progressive heartbeat of San Francisco still has a pulse, Peskin said he believes those ideals still define that city at its core.
“I think San Francisco voters are remarkably smart. They’re very well informed. They still embrace San Francisco traditional progressive values at their base. And they actually, by incredible numbers, rejected a lot of the very conservative pushes that were on the ballot,” he said. “There were wins and losses all across the ballot.”
MORE: SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin wants city to be a ‘more livable home for all’ in race for mayor
Despite his loss at the top of the ticket, Peskin points to other successful citywide ballot initiatives he backed. Like Proposition C, Peskin’s push to create and inspector general position in City Hall to crack down on corruption and increase accountability. Additionally, his Proposition E also won approval from voters, meaning the city will now evaluate its 100-plus commissions and decide whether to eliminate some going forward. It was an alternative pitch to the heavily-funded Proposition D, which would have slashed commissions down to 65 total and give the mayor more power.
“There are many individuals and organizations in San Francisco who want to make sure that these outsized political players don’t have their way with San Francisco, that the cultures that make San Francisco such a unique and envied place continue to survive and thrive in San Francisco,” he said.
Peskin said going forward he plans to coalesce existing progressive groups to make sure they are on the same page when it comes to fighting the billionaires who he said sought to “buy San Francisco.”
“San Francisco is kind of a national prize. And they have been outsized spending in San Francisco because they want to show the rest of the nation that they can take San Francisco. But the San Francisco voters aren’t having it,” he said.
MORE: SF Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie vows to revamp City Hall. Here’s what that will look like
ABC7 News Insider Phil Matier said Peskin’s departure from the board leaves a “talent train” amongst the city’s progressives, who will need to regroup without a clear leader for their values in City Hall.
“It’s a pretty nuts and bolts economic survival feeling in the city and not one that has a lot of room for ideology. We’ll have to see how the progressives go with the Donald Trump in the White House,” Matier said. “The progressives will be raising their voices. The question is, are people listening now?”
Peskin says he is “not going anywhere.”
“My interest in every aspect of the city is undiminished,” he said.
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A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
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