-by Denise Sullivan
The mood was upbeat as the party thanking supporters and celebrating victory for District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin got under way at North Beach's historic Club Fugazi, otherwise known as the home of San Francisco's longest running show, Beach Blanket Babylon.
Though the margin was slight in the early hours of reporting confidence was high that Peskin would handily defeat Mayor Ed Lee appointee Julie Christensen. Fellow Supervisor David Campos called it from across town, live at the Mission's El Rio and on Twitter when he said, "Looks like we will have a progressive majority at the Board of Supes for first time in years!"
What San Francisco won't have-- for now, that is-- is a new mayor. Lee's win was by no means a mandate, as candidates Francisco Herrera, Amy Farrah Weiss and Stuart Schuffman, also known as the 1-2-3 Anyone But Lee ticket, along with Kent Graham and Reed Martin, took in an impressive 45 percent of the vote. As of this morning, 1-2-3 supporters seem to be in favor of running a recall election, confident they could collect the 40-50,000 signatures required).
There was a disappointing though not unexpected defeat of beleaguered Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi by insider and Lee favorite Vicki Hennessy, and there were victories for Legacy Business Legislation an affordable housing bond, the development of contested space on the Bay at Mission Rock and use of surplus public land, but it was Peskin's victory that served as the best news of the night for progressives whose two most important ballot measures, Prop F, regarding homesharing regulations, and Prop I, concerning a moratorium on development in the Mission District were defeated by the monied interests that support them. An eleventh hour protest on Monday at the Airbnb headquarters was not enough to persuade fence-sitting voters that a no vote on F means more for Airbnb and its illegal home-sharers, and less housing for actual San Franciscans. Though undoubtedly the protest and other Yes on F efforts got a few more people out to vote, the problem in general was as ever, low voter turn out (about 25 percent) for the local election means those who do vote swing to the conservative side, even within the Democratic party (recommendations from the DCCC didn't help).
Nevertheless, Peskin's victory remains a galvanizing force in the movement to "take back San Francisco" from the greedy and corrupt forces that have long-occupied San Francisco City Hall and which have officially grown viral and poisonous with downtown tech interests, an ill-equipped and complicit media, and city governance, joined at the hip. The hope is, this is the beginning of the change, or,as Supervisor Campos tweeted last night, "A year from now we'll be looking at tonight as the beginning of the end of corporate greed in San Francisco!"
Note: Denise Sullivan is an author/journalist/culture worker tuned into where the arts meet political and social movement
The mood was upbeat as the party thanking supporters and celebrating victory for District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin got under way at North Beach's historic Club Fugazi, otherwise known as the home of San Francisco's longest running show, Beach Blanket Babylon.
Though the margin was slight in the early hours of reporting confidence was high that Peskin would handily defeat Mayor Ed Lee appointee Julie Christensen. Fellow Supervisor David Campos called it from across town, live at the Mission's El Rio and on Twitter when he said, "Looks like we will have a progressive majority at the Board of Supes for first time in years!"
What San Francisco won't have-- for now, that is-- is a new mayor. Lee's win was by no means a mandate, as candidates Francisco Herrera, Amy Farrah Weiss and Stuart Schuffman, also known as the 1-2-3 Anyone But Lee ticket, along with Kent Graham and Reed Martin, took in an impressive 45 percent of the vote. As of this morning, 1-2-3 supporters seem to be in favor of running a recall election, confident they could collect the 40-50,000 signatures required).
There was a disappointing though not unexpected defeat of beleaguered Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi by insider and Lee favorite Vicki Hennessy, and there were victories for Legacy Business Legislation an affordable housing bond, the development of contested space on the Bay at Mission Rock and use of surplus public land, but it was Peskin's victory that served as the best news of the night for progressives whose two most important ballot measures, Prop F, regarding homesharing regulations, and Prop I, concerning a moratorium on development in the Mission District were defeated by the monied interests that support them. An eleventh hour protest on Monday at the Airbnb headquarters was not enough to persuade fence-sitting voters that a no vote on F means more for Airbnb and its illegal home-sharers, and less housing for actual San Franciscans. Though undoubtedly the protest and other Yes on F efforts got a few more people out to vote, the problem in general was as ever, low voter turn out (about 25 percent) for the local election means those who do vote swing to the conservative side, even within the Democratic party (recommendations from the DCCC didn't help).
Nevertheless, Peskin's victory remains a galvanizing force in the movement to "take back San Francisco" from the greedy and corrupt forces that have long-occupied San Francisco City Hall and which have officially grown viral and poisonous with downtown tech interests, an ill-equipped and complicit media, and city governance, joined at the hip. The hope is, this is the beginning of the change, or,as Supervisor Campos tweeted last night, "A year from now we'll be looking at tonight as the beginning of the end of corporate greed in San Francisco!"
Note: Denise Sullivan is an author/journalist/culture worker tuned into where the arts meet political and social movement