The Machine (opens in new tab)<\/a>,\u201d a long profile of Wiener published by the Bay Guardian in January 2013, after his first two years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Most of the progressive leaders I interviewed for the story opposed much of Wiener\u2019s policy agenda while praising his effectiveness and affability.<\/p>\nBut progressive views of Wiener have hardened since then, particularly around his championing of state laws to boost housing development and lower housing costs. His YIMBY approach, which curbs the ability of cities and local groups to deny or delay housing projects, is opposed by neighborhood groups that have long been a vital pillar of San Francisco\u2019s progressive political coalition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s understandable that these groups, now weakened, are angry at Wiener, just like the conservative groups opposed to his championing of nightlife and LGBTQ+ issues; the nonprofits that opposed his efforts to get more funding for public transit; and tenants groups opposed to his efforts to make it easier to convert apartments into owner-occupied condos.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve often criticized Wiener on issues ranging from the YIMBY agenda and condo conversion to his siding with political moderates over progressives in every election cycle. But as a journalist, I found him to be open, honest, and willing to discuss his positions.<\/p>\n
And there were many progressive issues he championed and advanced more than any other supervisor. Wiener has always favored expanding public transit and bikeways, even when it meant taking space from cars, or keeping the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in check.<\/p>\n
When police started cracking down on San Francisco nightlife and underground parties in the early 2000s, a tactic the Bay Guardian labeled the \u201cDeath of Fun,\u201d Wiener was an early and consistent ally, resisting the same San Francisco Police Department that he once defended as a deputy city attorney. As a California senator, Wiener led the fight to let bars stay open past 2 a.m. and allow public drinking in San Francisco\u2019s new entertainment zones.<\/p>\n
Yet somehow, in these days of extreme political polarization, Wiener has been painted by progressives as some kind of right-wing partisan. He got heckled and chased away from the trans march, even though he\u2019s been the LGBTQ+ community\u2019s biggest advocate in the California Legislature throughout his tenure. He gets called anti-tenant, despite his unflagging support for San Francisco rent control laws and advocacy for new apartment buildings.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve even come to have a more nuanced view of the YIMBY laws he has championed. YIMBY advocates are right that high housing costs force the working class and people of color to leave San Francisco. Today, it\u2019s hard to interpret a NIMBY agenda as progressive politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s progressive coalition seems stuck in the past, more concerned with performative politics, enforcing leftist orthodoxy and protecting its fiefdoms than with making genuine progress for all San Franciscans. Wiener\u2019s campaign has capitalized on that by noting Chan\u2019s history of rejecting ideas and projects. It is easier to say no than to take the flak associated with urging people to say yes.<\/p>\n
San Francisco needs a leader like Wiener in Congress, someone who will tirelessly and effectively advocate for San Francisco\u2019s liberal values in a country mired in conservative, reactionary dogma and failures. And unlike Pelosi, who silently presided over our country\u2019s lawless excesses and reckless financialization in the years after 9\/11, Wiener won\u2019t be afraid to speak up and fight back.<\/p>\n
Our country is a mess, and it\u2019ll take hard work and persistence to fix it \u2014 qualities that define Weiner\u2019s political leadership.<\/p>\n
Steven T. Jones was city editor of San Francisco Bay Guardian 2003-2013 and its editor-in-chief from 2013 until the paper\u2019s closure in October 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published Oct. 15, 2026at6:00am The race to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress has become a nail-biter, thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[37945,1752,8670,204,107575,8669,13,74790,9682,101,103,102,1621,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-496979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-2026-election","tag-congress","tag-connie-chan","tag-election","tag-moderates","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-politics","tag-progressives","tag-saikat-chakrabarti","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-scott-wiener","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}