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Bobak Esfandiari

@bobakkabob.bsky.social
438 followers 413 following 727 posts

Leader in SF YIMBY, past president of the United Democratic Club - #Persian #RichmondDistrict #Gamer - Barack Obama '12 & Santa Clara University '12 alum - views are my own More here: bobakesfandiari.com

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Reposted by Bobak Esfandiari
Lian Chikako @lian.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
San Francisco's Congressional debate is on! Scott Wiener's first answer includes mentioning that he passed our country's FIRST fully-paid parental leave law. I'm so grateful that this was in effect when my son was born because I was able to be present for the toughest and biggest job of my life.
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Here we go folks tonight is the CD-11 debate between @scottwiener.bsky.social and @conniechansf.bsky.social Follow along, I’ll do my best to share some hot takes along the way. Disclaimer, I’m obviously supporting @scottwiener.bsky.social 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
First off, @mikechensf.com nails it about this weird drama about Therapy Stores. Also, notably absent from this story? How does a space being vacant a decade+ help local retail? sfchronicle.com/sf/article/therapy-stores-clement-street-inner-richmond-22448156.php
Planning Commissioner Mike Chen suggested the 11-store threshold seems arbitrary. 

“Are there additional impacts or harms of this being the 11th store to open, versus the ninth store or the 10th store, in which case a conditional use authorization would not have been required?” he said. “I don’t think so.” 

He also objected to how the debate over the store was largely focused on the store owner’s character, her track record and speculation about her motives.

“I feel very uncomfortable by the fact that for both the pro and the con we are being asked to decide this on the basis of character attestations, about whether someone is being truthful or lying or whether they are acting in good faith or whether they are a good person, or whether they are donating to the community,” Chen said. “It’s extremely unfortunate we have a system that in some ways pits business owners against each other.”
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I was one of only three or four people in this meeting of about 50ish people who were supportive of the proposal to build 562 homes at 850 La Playa Street. I was more than happy to raise my hand and share my opinions that I think this proposal *is a good thing* missionlocal.org/2026/09/rich...
missionlocal.org
At Richmond District town hall on Safeway housing project, neighbors see an assault on democracy
Some 60 people attended to listen and air their thoughts about a proposed eight-story Safeway redevelopment project in the Outer Richmond.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It is legitimately insulting that we live in a time where democracy ACTUALLY IS under attack, but a bunch of neighborhood busybodies who hate housing think not having enough meetings is an assault on democracy. Get a grip missionlocal.org/2026/09/rich...
missionlocal.org
At Richmond District town hall on Safeway housing project, neighbors see an assault on democracy
Some 60 people attended to listen and air their thoughts about a proposed eight-story Safeway redevelopment project in the Outer Richmond.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 25/09/2026
San Francisco's "Formula Retail" ordinance, which forces businesses with more than 10 locations worldwide to get special permission to open in certain parts of the city, is nothing but snob zoning for commercial property. We should repeal it.
sfchronicle.com
A booming gift store chain is opening in an S.F. shopping district. It’s tearing the neighborhood apart
A battle over chain stores and their impact on neighborhood character has been playing out for months in one of San Francisco’s most beloved and vibrant retail corridors.
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can confirm 🙃 This is pretty much accurate.
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
San Francisco, don’t elect this conservative cosplayjng as a progressive: growusa.org/everything-c...
growusa.org
Connie Chan Opposes Everything
Twenty-three votes and positions where Connie Chan said no to homes, transit, police, treatment, and the school board recall, each linked to the record.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Laughs in San Franciscan
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Lmao this is embarrassing, the Clement Street Merchants Association has a petition against a chain store opening on Clement. The chain is a local Bay Area business (Therapy Stores) trying to open its 11th location. Our formula retail ban is so dumb
Formula retail uses are commonly referred to as "chain stores." Under Section 303.1 of the San Francisco Planning Code they are defined as "a type of retail sales activity or retail sales establishment that has eleven or more other retail sales establishments in operation, or with local land use or permit entitlements already approved, located anywhere in the world. Therapy Stores is attempting to open their 11th shop at 32 Clement Street and had chosen not to go through the proper permitting and regulations required by the city of SF until the Merchants Association stepped in.  We are asking for your help in gathering signatures to voice your opposition to No Chain Stores on Clement Street.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"The price of heating oil, a fuel that is very similar to diesel, is up roughly 60% since the start of the war in Iran on Feb. 28. "Many Americans are heading into a 'much more expensive' winter..." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/b...
nytimes.com
Why the Iran War Will Make Heating Oil More Expensive for Some This Winter
The cost of heating oil, which is similar to diesel and used extensively in Northeastern states, has climbed sharply because of the war in Iran.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is very good and I’d really implore my followers, especially my cis ones, to read it. It’s a topic that deserves more depth than a couple hundred characters and Julia nails it like usual
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Cyrus Hall @cyrushall.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The Chronicle gets it: the Bay Area will not work without public transit. We must pass the Regional Transit Measure, else we're looking at a future that may not have BART at all, and that will see drastic cuts to other services.
sfchronicle.com
Endorsement: The Bay Area cannot function without public transit. Yes on the Regional Transit Measure
OPINION: Basic geometry dictates that there are too many of us living in too narrow confines for everyone to drive. The Bay Area needs its transit systems solvent, the editorial board writes.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A lot of other people took a bad vote so I did too is not the stirring defense Connie Chan thinks it is lmao Scott Wiener is right to point out her thin record. San Francisco deserves a legislative leader in Congress, not a naysaying backbencher www.sfexaminer.com/news/politic...
Chan's campaign pointed out that she was part of an 8-3 majority of supervisors that voted to overturn the environmental document's certification, and that another one of those voting in favor was current board President Rafael Mandelman, who has endorsed Wiener.
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United Democratic Club @uniteddemclubsf.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Next up: We’re proud to endorse these candidates for local office who are ready to help move San Francisco forward. Swipe to see our picks.
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United Democratic Club @uniteddemclubsf.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Local measures play an important role in how our city operates and functions. UDC has endorsed positions on this year’s propositions. Review the measures, get informed, and make your voice heard by voting on or before Election Day.
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United Democratic Club @uniteddemclubsf.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our 2026 endorsement for State and Federal offices is here. See our picks and help support these leaders win by making your plan to vote on or before November 3!
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
In many ways it’s sobering to be back in Minneapolis. It’s still the city I know and love, but it’s not the same, a lot has happened since the last time I was here and there are reminders everywhere
A makeshift memorial on the site where ICE murdered Alex Pretti on Nicollet
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
There was already backlash against the smaller proposal. There will always be backlash from people who don’t want more homes unless they fit some magical, ever changing formula because they don’t want more homes. That’s their whole deal! www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Exclusive: Proposed S.F. apartment tower more than doubles in size, sparking fears of backlash
A developer that proposed the largest housing development ever in this San Francisco neighborhood is more than doubling the number of homes at the site and adding three stories to the project.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 27/08/2026
There are 2 positions on housing. YIMBYs believe we should build enough housing for everyone. NIMBYs believe we should only build housing for people who *really deserve it* and that they should get to pick and choose who gets to live in their neighborhood.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Connie Chan always says stuff like this like I haven't been her constituent for 6 years. She has no interest in hearing from people like me who want better transit or more homes. I am apparently not a part of that "my community" and we deserve better in Congress www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/c...
Chan, however, told the Chronicle that she was conveying frustration from community members who thought their complaints about the Geary project weren’t being taken seriously. Sometimes city departments didn’t listen to feedback, Chan said. She saw it as her duty to counter that.

“My job,” Chan said, “is to make sure that my community is being heard.”
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 25/08/2026
geese
a review of American Communism

If we endorse Raman, a candidate who lacks the inspirational leadership and collaborative political relationship that forms the foundation of a strong DSA endorsement, we risk spending the next four years managing the consequences; explaining, defending, and organizing around the shortcomings of a mayor who was never meaningfully accountable to our democratic socialist movement in the first place. Is that a risk we want to take?They don't want victory, they don't want power,

they want to endlessly "critique" power.
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San Francisco Democratic Party @sfdemocrats.org · 19/08/2026
It’s official! On September 10th at our annual Gala, we will honor David Chiu as a “Defender of Democracy.“ Join us in recognizing David Chiu as a valued Defender of Democracy in San Francisco. www.sfdems.org/gala2026
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It was a pleasure chatting with Maya C Miller at CalMatters about the way it is? Relatedly we talked a lot about why SF is the way it is, especially its progressivism (or lack thereof depending on your point of view). This is my best distillation calmatters.org/politics/202...
"Progressivism in San Francisco has really become very tied to this identity where it doesn't say 'yes' to a lot of stuff," said Jane Natoli, a housing advocate who lives in Chan's supervisorial district and supports Wiener.
"For whatever reason, especially on issues such as housing, San Francisco progressives have largely said 'no.
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Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
New from me at Governing: www.governing.com/finance/how-... State property tax caps are spreading like wildfire. And most concerningly, some states are adopting Prop 13-style "welcome neighbor" rules that lead to lower tax bills the longer you've been in your house.
governing.com
How Property Tax Caps Keep Too Many Homes Off the Market
By locking owners in place, Proposition 13-style assessment limitations put the homes that growing families need out of reach. Some states are finding ways to hold down tax bills while avoiding this t...
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 15/08/2026
A huge part of YIMBY policy advocacy has gone into subjecting land use to the rule of law, rather than having it governed by the capricious and discretionary whims of elected officials, judges, and neighborhood busybodies. bsky.app/profile/jjoe...
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Democrats running in battleground districts better cut these fucking comments up and use them every goddamn day between now and November 3rd
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
What she said 👇
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Bilal Mahmood @bilalmahmood.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Amidst a housing affordability crisis, there is legislation moving through City Hall right now to arbitrarily double the number of historical landmarks and make it harder to build housing, and put us at risk of violating state law. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/arti...
sfchronicle.com
A supervisor wants to double the number of historic landmarks in S.F. Is it a NIMBY ploy?
Opinion: We can’t just preserve the past, we have to encourage new great design that we’ll want to landmark down the road, writes columnist Allison Arieff.
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Alfred Twu @alfredtwu.com · 02/08/2026
CA Dem Proposition positions Yes✅ 1 Affordable Housing 2 Rainy day fund 3 School funds 4 Election public financing 5 Recall reform 37 Homeownership 38 Med research 40 Billionaire Tax No❌ 39 Vote suppression 41 blocks Prop40 42 blocks Prop40 43 Restricts taxes 44 Clinic spending reg 45 CEQA changes
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Your strategy for dealing with the housing shortage (actually building homes where people want to live) pales in comparison with mine (doing nothing until the revolution comes)
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This is one of the acute reasons we must build more housing in San Francisco, and California more broadly. I’d love to live in a country where trans people don’t have to flee their home states for ones with better protections, but we don’t and in the meantime we need to live up to our values here
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Jordan Grimes @cafedujord.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
YIMBYs vs our (leftist, somehow?) opponents
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Inner Richmond is a stretch but this is an awesome spot for 8 new homes on a small lot. A couple blocks from Masonic & Geary and for once not just crammed onto an arterial, we need a lot more of this! sfstandard.com/2026/07/24/f...
sfstandard.com
First Family Zoning test lands in the Richmond—gets approval
Planning commissioners unanimously approved the first project under the mayor’s Family Zoning Plan despite complaints it was “out of character.”
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San Francisco Democratic Party @sfdemocrats.org · 24/07/2026
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (SFDCCC) voted to endorse the following measures for the November 3, 2026 General Election: CLEAN UP CITY HALL REFORMS Yes on Modernize City Contracting Yes on Make City Government Accountable Yes on Fix Our Broken Ballot System
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San Francisco Democratic Party @sfdemocrats.org · 24/07/2026
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (SFDCCC) met on July 22, 2026 and voted to endorse the following Democratic candidates for the November 3, 2026 General Election: SF Assessor-Recorder: Joaquín Torres District 2 Supervisor: Stephen Sherrill
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Jordan Grimes @cafedujord.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
For the last 4 (!) years, I've been chronicling the journey of a 40 unit 100% affordable housing project for senior farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, California. Despite being approved in May, the journey sadly isn't over: a measure has qualified for the ballot this November to stop the project. 🧵
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 20/07/2026
Laws change and housing gets built.
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I was reliably told by “People Powered Media” and “48Hills” that housing only got expensive when all the techies started moving here in 1996-97 Do you mean to tell me that this city has been expensive for a LONG TIME and that it might be rooted in bad decisions from the 70’s??? No. I refuse🙃
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15/07/2026
OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election? CLAYTON: Uhm, you know, I'm not going to do this with you O: This is a job interview. You have an obligation to be honest with the committee. Who won the 2020 election? C: I'm not gonna get into that with you O: You're not being honest or forthright C: ...
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Planted a couple saratoga trees with my fellow volunteers yesterday for One City Day and they said we get to name them. This is Steve
A Saratoga tree we named Steve
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I love things like “former manufactured gas plant contamination” because literally no one gave a shit about that until someone proposed building something *new* with a lot of housing on the Marina Safeway site. Kinda gives up the game, you know?
A standard laundry list of NIMBY bs
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Wanna learn more about the upcoming housing trust fund ballot measure in November? Join us for our Alice July meeting! partiful.com/e/g21xv14FQN...
partiful.com
Alice July Membership Meeting | Partiful
Join the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club on Monday, July 13, for a panel featuring San Francisco elected leaders and housing experts discussing efforts to invest in new housing and address the c...
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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
It’s not just that due process doesn’t apply to political candidates—it’s literally the opposite of the evidentiary standard for political candidates. The burden is entirely on *them* to prove to *us* that they possess the integrity and good sense to hold office.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I actually found this quote to be the most confounding. Every corridor is not a special snowflake! I'm sorry but like...this issue has been studied many many times in many many places and the other problems are...well, problems you should address. Build more loading zones and ticket double parkers!
“It’s hard to compare us to other corridors where red lanes have been added,” like Geary or Van Ness Avenue, said Kath Tsakalakis, a volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of Lakeside and board chair of the Ocean Avenue Association. (The association has not taken a stance on red lanes.) She noted that Ocean is narrower than those other streets, that it’s a major throughway to I-280 and that it’s not really chopped into blocks. Tsakalakis has heard people’s worries over what will happen if cars double-park or trucks can’t find loading zones, and she thinks that apprehension is warranted.
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Max pulled up what I was too lazy to go dig up but absolutely everyone should understand that Supervisors predicted the outcomes of downzoning in 1978, on the record, cast dissenting votes, and were proven right. We’ve known the whole time that we need to build homes, don’t pretend otherwise
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Jane Natoli 🥑🚲🍍 @wafoli.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Look folks, I've lived this for 6 and a half years. We can do better. She has done everything in her power to block new housing, and that should not be rewarded with a level up
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Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Scroll through Connie Chan’s extensive record of blocking housing.
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Explain your @: My first name is Bobak. Spelled backwards it is Kabob. Kabobs are also a staple of my family and cultural cuisine Bobakkabob it is!
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Bobak Esfandiari @bobakkabob.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The Obama Presidential Library grand opening is today, and as I watch the livestream of the ceremony from afar, I'm reminded now, more than ever, how proud I am to be a member of the Barack Obama alumni 💙 obama.org/visit/grand-...
obama.org
Watch the Grand Opening
The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public! Come mark this milestone at a free, open-house style event, celebrating community, creativity, and joy. Dance to music on the plaza, create art with ...
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