Look, I'm watching what CalMatters Housing is reporting about the San Francisco congressional race to replace Nancy Pelosi, and it really comes down to one thing: how you think about building housing. According to their reporting, the two main Democratic candidates, Supervisor Connie Chan and State Senator Scott Wiener, both call themselves progressives, but they couldn't be more different when it comes to development and zoning.
Chan has positioned herself as a protector of working families and says she won't take money from corporate PACs, painting Wiener as beholden to tech money and big developers. But here's the thing CalMatters lays out: Chan's record shows she's consistently blocked new housing projects and zoning changes in her district. She's concerned about tenant displacement and the damage that urban renewal did to Black communities in San Francisco decades ago. That's a real concern, historically speaking, but it also means fewer homes getting built.
Wiener, on the other hand, is a full-throated YIMBY supporter who pushed state legislation that streamlined building permit approvals. According to CalMatters, his reforms cut permit wait times from years down to three to six months. He believes the state should make sure local governments actually build housing instead of just talking about it. Both candidates agree San Francisco has a serious housing shortage affecting people at every income level, but they fundamentally disagree on whether state and local government should be the ones mandating new construction.
The reporting shows that even some younger progressive voters are torn. Saikat Chakrabarti, who ran to Chan's left with anti-capitalist messaging, got eliminated in the primary. One of his former staffers now supports Chan, though others seem frustrated that San Francisco progressives keep saying no to housing. Chan recently voted against the mayor's zoning reform that was mandated by the state to increase density near transit, saying it didn't have enough protections for rent-controlled buildings and existing tenants.
What I am seeing locally in the Bay Area is this same tension playing out everywhere from Fremont to the Peninsula. We have real affordability problems, and people disagree genuinely on whether the answer is more supply through development or better protections for the people already here. Both matter, but this race shows how hard it is for a city to move forward when there's deep philosophical disagreement about whether building more homes is actually progressive or progressive-betraying.
