“It’s practically a ubiquitous sentiment here: People would like a little of the air to come out of the tech economy. They’re like people in a heat wave waiting for the monsoon.”
—Supervisor and mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin to the New York Times, 2016
Lenient Judge alert: Law enforcement sources tell me that Brandon Jenkins, a.k.a. “Striker,” is wanted for attempted murder with a firearm and a carjacking that occurred on June 24 in the 1100 block of Shafter Avenue in San Francisco. Jenkins has a long and violent criminal history including elder abuse with a firearm and unlawful sex with a minor. He also has numerous felony attacks on police officers and has a history of fleeing recklessly in vehicles in a manner that endangers the public. Despite having a parole warrant for robbery and a felony bench warrant for felony reckless evading (fleeing from the police while driving with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of people or property), on May 3 — less than a month before the attempted murder and carjacking — Judge Linda Colfax in Dept. 23 released Jenkins from custody. If you see Jenkins, use extreme caution and call 911 immediately as my source tells me that he is “extremely violent” and “the shooting was particularly brazen.” . . .
On July 16, when Elon Musk posted his intentions to move the headquarters of SpaceX from Southern California and X from San Francisco, Senator Scott Wiener seemed unimpressed. “California literally made you with taxpayer subsidies & because it’s the best place around. Will this be a fake temper tantrum move just like Tesla’s fake ‘move’ to Texas?” Wiener taunted Musk (on the platform Musk owns, ironically). Musk said the “final straw” was a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom barring public schools from requiring parental notification of their child’s request to change their gender identification. Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, said the new law “helps keep children safe while protecting the critical role of parents,” but critics like Jonathan Zachreson, an advocate in California who supports parental notification policies, opposes the law. “Telling parents about a student’s request to change their gender identification is critical to the well-being of children and for maintaining that trust between schools and parents,” Zachreson said. Wiener was a coauthor of the bill.
Progressive politicians have long criticized San Francisco’s tech community, and, while he’s been quiet on the X move thus far, District 3 Supervisor and mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin has been one of the most vocal detractors. “It’s practically a ubiquitous sentiment here: People would like a little of the air to come out of the tech economy. They’re like people in a heat wave waiting for the monsoon. . . . These billion-dollar companies should help ameliorate the impact they’re having. They can afford to do a lot more. So far, it’s only window dressing. They can volunteer to be decent,” Peskin told the New York Times in a 2016 article entitled, “In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Comeuppance.”
Peskin also attacked Amazon in 2019, tweeting on Amazon’s Prime Day, “I stand with the workers demanding a fair wage, job security and benefits while their corporate overlords reap billions in profits, evade taxes, kneecap our community corridors, and facilitate border separations.” Ironically, Peskin owns an estimated $1 million worth of Amazon stock. “It’s true. I bought it years ago for a handful of dollars as part of my self-employment pension plan,” Peskin told then-San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier. He also told Matier that he “thought about unloading the stock, but opted to keep it after learning he would lose about a third of his profit to taxes.” While Amazon is Peskin’s largest holding, it’s far from the only stock in his portfolio: He owns over 30 stocks, including Cisco Systems, Johnson & Johnson, Molson Coors Beverage, Novartis, Zillow, Apple, Alphabet, Boeing, Intel, Applied Materials, Pfizer, Southwest Airlines, and Verizon, among others. Combined with the estimated “$30,000 to $300,000” a month he receives from tenants (those 700 forms are so vague) from his Telegraph Hill rental properties, Peskin’s net worth is listed at a “minimum of $6 million and a maximum of $11 million,” making him the wealthiest member on the Board of Supervisors. . . .
Termed out District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen resigned from her role as chair of the Rules Committee. “I will not contribute to lowering the esteem of this important body,” Ronen wrote in a letter to Board President Peskin, also accusing Peskin and District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey of trying to convene “multiple special meetings and to wave every board rule and procedural protection in place” to overturn her decision not to proceed with the police ballot measure. Perhaps she just wants more time to pack. As I reported in November 2023, Ronen keeps a countdown clock on her phone detailing the hours until she can move to Spain for a year with her family. . . .
San Francisco really knows how to sock it to small businesses: After a car doing donuts in the intersection crashed into Market Street Cycles, destroying the façade and damaging both security gates, owner John McDonell is on the line for thousands of dollars and says, after 13 years in business, he might be done. “Just the crime and just the craziness is at an all-time high here,” McDonell told KRON 4 News. “I’m a third-generation San Franciscan, I live in this city too. But it’s very sad for me to see what’s happened to it.” Adding insult to injury, SFDeservesBetter posted a picture on X of a violation from the Department of Building Inspection for repairing the front gate slapped on the front of the building. . . .
Rather than garner sympathy, an article in The San Francisco Standard about the homeless who live in Golden Gate Park backfired big-time based on social media commentary. Reporter Tomoki Chien interviewed “Sean,” age 39, who said he doesn’t have a job and he likes it that way, having decided years ago that he’s “not a working man.” So how does Sean spend his days? According to Chien, “Every morning, he wakes up on a tarp sheltered by a thick canopy of low-lying brush. He then walks to the Ortega Library, charges his iPad, and downloads YouTube videos, usually horror movies or footage of people’s ‘Legends of Zelda’ gameplay.” Another park dweller, 44-year-old “Mike,” said he had been “homeless for two weeks after moving out of the apartment he shared with his boyfriend. The two would get high on meth — then his boyfriend would beat him.” Mike at least has a job: he takes a nap in a “secluded part of the park” before delivering food as an UberEats driver, where he averages $45 a day. . . .
And finally, our X of the Week: In last week’s column I disclosed that California Attorney General Rob Bonta, when he was Assemblyman Bonta, asked the California Energy Commission to award a $3.4 million grant to now defunct Viridis Fuels of Oakland. The company, which also has ties to the Duong family targeted in recent FBI raids, was run by Bonta donors, including CEO Kathy Neal, her ex-husband, former Oakland mayor Elihu Harris, and Mario Juarez, now a disgraced Oakland political operative who served as president. Comments on X ranged from surprise to anger to “Thanks for breaking this story.” One person who wasn’t impressed, however, was Mario Juarez himself, who responded, “Dumbest shit I ever read.” Until next week …
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