Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in plastic chairs, hundreds of defiant San Francisco residents, a noticeable number of them gray-haired, packed themselves into a gallery at the Fort Mason Center last Thursday.
The reason? To protect their famously quaint waterfront neighborhood from the development of a large new residential tower.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Laura Waxmann captured last week's scene in a photo she shared on X, which has since sparked pushback from social media users frustrated by the city's housing market.
Many of the responses came from the tech industry, which, some might argue, has played a role in San Francisco's housing crisis. They zeroed in on the crowd's appearance and characterized the opposition as highly organized.
Jason Calacanis, an investor, podcaster, and prominent voice in Silicon Valley, was among the chorus of tech workers who, in response to the photo, criticized the residents opposing the new development.
"These oldsters were dropping acid, dancing naked in Golden Gate Park and living on each others couches 60 years ago," he wrote on X. "Now they're banning new housing to protect their $7m Victorians."
Last year, Calacanis left the city for Texas, where he now owns a 33-acre ranch.
Evan Conrad, the CEO of the San Francisco Compute Company, a marketplace for AI startups and others to rent and trade large-scale computing power — which was valued at $300 million as of last year — blamed those resisting new residential buildings for the city's lack of affordable housing.
"when rent is $8k for a one bedroom, please remember that the fault is in the people who, for 50 years, showed up to argue against nearly every unit of housing proposed," he said on X in response to the photo.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Bilal Mahmood said the photo of the meeting symbolized a generational divide.
"We have a deep affordability crisis right now, and younger generations are calling BS now both on NIMBYs who will find any excuse to oppose housing, as well as on our city's lack of action," Mahmood wrote in an X post over the weekend, using the acronym for "not in my backyard."
The Marina District sits on San Francisco's northern waterfront. It is famous for its park with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and its Victorian and Mediterranean Revival houses.
Local development firm Align Real Estate has proposed demolishing the current Safeway grocery store on the waterfront to build a new version with a housing complex on top.
The U-shaped complex would include a 20-story and an 18-story tower that combined would house 848 units, according to local outlets. Initial documents related to the project were filed in December 2025.
A proposal to build 790 apartments on the site of a Safeway and surface parking lot in San Francisco’s Marina district would more than double the size of the grocery store. Naturally, the mayor, the district supervisor, and many nearby residents oppose it. pic.twitter.com/8inqnw9SHT
— Hayden (@the_transit_guy) December 8, 2025
Although the San Francisco Planning Department has not yet approved the proposal, the mixed-use development has drawn fierce opposition from many residents. They are concerned that the development will increase traffic, cause environmental issues, and redefine the neighborhood's character.
"It has become a test of how California's state housing laws affect local planning, environmental review, and whether communities still have a meaningful voice in shaping their neighborhoods," a flyer advertising the community meeting said.
That's one side. On the other is younger residents in the tech industry and beyond competing for pricey apartments. They believe more residential units could benefit a city facing an extreme housing shortage and sky-high rents. Many of them also said the divide was between the old and the young.
What's happening in the Marina District is something of a microcosm of the housing crisis across the country. A March 2026 Realtor report found that the housing supply gap surpassed 4 million homes last year.
Older Americans — specifically baby boomers — dominate the country's housing market. Many of them have chosen to age in place or forgo downsizing, leaving fewer options for younger Americans hoping to enter the housing market. That is part of what is forcing millennials and Gen Z to cut costs by renting or moving in with their parents. Rising home costs and mortgage rates are also barriers to entry, as is the lack of newly built housing.
In California, as a result, multigenerational living, or when two or more adult generations live together, is on the rise. Data from Realtor showed that San Francisco ranked high on the list with a 17.40% share of multigeneration listings.
Facts Only
* Hundreds of San Francisco residents gathered at the Fort Mason Center.
* The purpose of the gathering was to protect the waterfront neighborhood from a large new residential tower development.
* A local development firm proposed demolishing the Safeway grocery store on the waterfront to build a housing complex.
* The proposed complex would include 20-story and 18-story towers housing 848 units.
* Initial documents for the project were filed in December 2025.
* Opponents expressed concern that the development would increase traffic, cause environmental issues, and redefine neighborhood character.
* The Marina District houses Victorian and Mediterranean Revival houses.
* A proposal to build 790 apartments on the site of a Safeway and parking lot would more than double the grocery store size.
* San Francisco ranked high on multigeneration listings with a 17.40% share in the region.
Executive Summary
Hundreds of San Francisco residents gathered at the Fort Mason Center to oppose the development of a large new residential tower intended to build on waterfront property, which is located in the Marina District. This opposition stems from concerns about protecting the neighborhood's character against new construction. The proposed development involves creating a U-shaped complex with 20-story and 18-story towers that would house 848 units, potentially including a proposal to build 790 apartments on the site of a Safeway grocery store. Opponents cite concerns over increased traffic, environmental issues, and changes to neighborhood character.
Various voices have reacted to the situation. Some members of the tech industry criticized the opposition, framing it as organized resistance against housing development. Investors and developers are involved in the plans for the mixed-use complex. The conflict highlights a significant generational divide regarding housing affordability and urban development priorities within San Francisco. Furthermore, broader trends in the housing market, including a supply gap and demographic shifts among older Americans versus younger residents, are contextualized by this local dispute.
Full Take
The conflict exemplifies a tension between immediate local preservation and broader systemic issues concerning housing supply and affordability. The juxtaposition of long-term neighborhood identity, represented by historic architecture, against large-scale, high-density development exposes a fault line often found in metropolitan areas where scarcity drives intense positional conflict. The narrative shifts from a specific NIMBY action to a critique of the city's response—whether it prioritizes established residential character or addressing the extreme housing shortage that affects younger demographics.
The resistance tactic deployed against the development is framed by an external critique from affluent segments of the tech industry, which positions themselves as moral arbiters over development goals. This dynamic reveals how economic power structures influence community discourse, often channeling legitimate concerns into polarized debates about who has the right to shape urban space. The underlying pattern suggests that disputes over physical space are rarely just about zoning; they are proxies for unresolved generational and economic inequalities regarding access and security within the city's infrastructure.
What is the cost to ensure that the voices of long-term residents, who value stability, are not entirely subsumed by metrics that favor rapid density or external economic valuations? If the housing crisis functions as a national microcosm where older generations’ inertia clashes with the demands of younger populations for access, how can local governance effectively mediate these conflicting spatial and demographic demands while maintaining true community sovereignty?