Dean Preston
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Dean E. Preston (born 1969) is an American attorney and former member of the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...
. In November 2019, Preston won a special election to finish Mayor
London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...
's term on the Board of Supervisors. He was re-elected in 2020 but lost to Bilal Mahmood in 2024. Born and having grown up in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, Preston graduated from
Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
with a degree in anthropology and economics before moving to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. He graduated with a J.D. from
UC Hastings College of the Law The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (a ...
and was staff attorney for the Tenderloin Housing Clinic from 2000 to 2008, after which he founded and led Tenants Together, a tenant advocacy organization. Preston is a member of the
Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest Socialism, socialist organization. Sitting on the Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left of the politic ...
.


Early life and education

Preston was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to a Jewish family. His father and grandparents were refugees from
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. His mother was a New Yorker. Their family owned a co-operative apartment in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
. Preston attended
Horace Mann School Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...
, a prestigious Ivy League preparatory, which he graduated from in 1987. Preston attended
Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
, where he met his future wife, Jenckyn Goosby. He graduated in 1991 with a major in anthropology and economics. After graduation, the couple moved to Jenckyn's native San Francisco in 1993, settling down near
Alamo Square Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California with a park of the same name. Located in the Western Addition, its boundaries are Buchanan Street on the east, Turk Street on the north, Baker Street on the west, and Page ...
. Preston studied law at
UC Hastings College of the Law The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (a ...
, where he was classmates with Molly McKay. Preston studied international human rights law, completed an externship at
the Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, and interned for the
California Rural Legal Assistance California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal service organization created to help California's low-income individuals and communities. CRLA represents all types of individuals and communities, including farmworke ...
. He received his J.D. in 1996.


Early career

After law school, Preston worked for the law firm of John Burris, an Oakland-based attorney representing victims in police brutality cases. Preston spent the late 1990s working at public interest firms and clerked for Judge D. Lowell Jensen at the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, De ...
from 1997 to 1998. He joined the non-profit Tenderloin Housing Clinic in 2000 and transitioned to tenant rights law. As a staff attorney for THC, Preston represented tenants against evictions, particularly tenants facing eviction due to California’s ''
Ellis Act The Ellis Act (California Government Code Chapter 12.75) is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business" in spite of desires by local governments to compel them to continue provi ...
'', a law passed in 1985 which allows landlords to evict all tenants in a building and take the building out of the housing market. Preston was a co-owner of the bar and nightclub Cafe du Nord in the Castro District of San Francisco. In 2008, Preston founded Tenants Together, a coalition of more than 50 local tenant rights organizations in California. Preston served as Executive Director of the organization which advocated for state legislation and helped form local tenant unions to push for rent control and tenants rights laws in several cities in California.


San Francisco Board of Supervisors


Elections

Preston ran against incumbent
London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...
in the 2016 Board of Supervisors election for District 5 but lost 48% to 52%. In July 2018, Preston, a member of the San Francisco chapter of the
Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest Socialism, socialist organization. Sitting on the Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left of the politic ...
(DSA), became a candidate for the 2019 District 5 Supervisor election, to fill the vacancy left when Breed became mayor. Shortly after, Breed appointed Vallie Brown to the fill the position, and Brown ran as an incumbent. Preston ran as a
democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...
and won the election by a narrow margin, becoming the first democratic socialist elected to the board since
Harry Britt Harry Britt (June 8, 1938 – June 24, 2020) was an American politician and gay rights activist. Born in Texas, he worked as a Methodist pastor in Chicago as a young man and later moved to San Francisco. There, he worked with Harvey Milk until Mi ...
stepped down in 1993. Preston was sworn in on December 16, 2019. Preston ran as an incumbent in the November 2020 election, with Brown campaigning for her former seat. He won against Brown 55% to 45%. In his November 2024 election for a second full term, Preston received a plurality of first-round votes but was defeated by moderate opponent Bilal Mahmood in
ranked-choice voting Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: * Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference * Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-wi ...
.


Tenure


Tenant rights and eviction protection

Preston authored San Francisco's 2018 Proposition F, which directs the city to establish a universal
right to counsel In criminal law, the right to counsel means a defendant has a legal right to have the assistance of counsel (i.e., lawyers) and, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, requires that the government appoint one or pay the defendant's legal ex ...
for tenants facing eviction. The proposition was approved in June 2018 by a vote of 55%. After joining the Board of Supervisors, Preston continued to advocate for the program that provides legal representation to tenants in eviction court for the duration of their cases. By August 2020, the program was already underfunded by $4 million when the Mayor Breed announced an additional $1 million cut to the program in her proposed budget. Preston and other supervisors rejected the budget cuts and instead approved a $750,000 increase. In April 2020, Preston introduced an ordinance to permanently bar eviction of tenants for failure to pay rent because of issues related to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The measure, which passed the Board of Supervisors in June 2020 by a vote of 10 to 1, not only barred evictions but also prohibited fees, penalties, interest and other charges incurred due to the pandemic. A group of associations representing landlords in San Francisco filed a lawsuit in the
San Francisco Superior Court The Superior Court of California of the County of San Francisco is the state superior court with jurisdiction over the City and County of San Francisco. History Courthouse functions were incorporated into San Francisco City Hall prior to 1997. ...
challenging the ordinance but the court upheld the eviction prohibition in August 2020. Preston again introduced legislation to extend eviction protections in May 2021 as the state-wide eviction moratorium in effect at the time was due to expire. The Board of Supervisors passed Preston's eviction protection legislation in June 2021 to extend the moratorium until the end of 2021, but the state legislature a week later passed its own extension to September 2021, cutting short San Francisco's local measure by three months. In September 2021, the Board unanimously adopted emergency legislation introduced by Preston to temporarily bar "no-fault evictions due to owner move-ins, condo conversions, breach of contract, capital improvements, renovations and demolition of a unit". In October 2021, Preston started a tenant outreach campaign promoting his district as an “eviction-free zone", including programs to educate residents about ways to avoid eviction and obtain rental assistance. In December 2021, he proposed an ordinance to require landlords to give a 10-day advance notice to tenants before filing for eviction. The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the measure in January 2022. Preston led a successful effort in August 2022 to stop the eviction of several Black residents of the King-Marcus Garvey Apartments in
Western Addition The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights. ...
who were being evicted due to a technicality in the regulations.


Homelessness

In April 2020, Preston co-introduced legislation with Supervisors
Matt Haney Matthew Craig Haney (born April 17, 1982) is an American politician from San Francisco currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly from the California's 17th State Assembly district, 17th district, covering the eastern portion ...
,
Hillary Ronen Hillary Ronen is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2017 to 2025. She represented District 9, which includes the neighborhoods of Mission District, Bernal Heights, and Porto ...
and Shamann Walton to require Mayor Breed to secure 8,250 hotel rooms to house the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preston also raised the funds to rent 30 rooms at the Oasis Inn near City Hall to house homeless people. The following month, he supported the establishment of "safe sleeping sites", including one in his district at an empty lot in the
Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called the Haight and the Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the countercultu ...
neighborhood. The site included a security guard and access to food and bathrooms. In September 2021, Preston questioned the proposed acquisition of a tourist hotel in Japantown for use as permanent supportive housing. The acquisition, one of four proposed by Mayor Breed, was opposed by some residents of the Japantown neighborhood, and Preston who represents the neighborhood suggested two other tourist hotels in his district as alternatives. The owners of the Kimpton Buchanan Hotel backed out of the deal but the Board, including Preston, approved the purchase of the three other hotels in October 2021. The Board later also approved the purchase of one of the hotels suggested by Preston in February 2022.


Positions on housing and zoning

The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reports that, according to YIMBYs critical of his housing policies, Preston opposed development plans and legislative proposals that could have housed more than 28,000 people, including affordable housing for nearly 8,500 people, from December 2019 to November 2021. Preston has argued, "San Francisco is a shining example of the complete and utter failure of the free market to address housing needs." He has blamed homelessness in San Francisco on "unbridled capitalism." He has criticized
YIMBY The YIMBY movement (short for "yes in my back yard") is a pro-housing social movement that focuses on encouraging new housing, opposing density limits (such as single-family zoning), and supporting public transportation. It stands in opposition ...
ism as "a new face on private market developers' interests." In 2019, Preston opposed California Senate Bill 50, which would have eased housing construction near public transit, arguing that it was a " developer bill." In 2019, Preston spoke against the construction of a 186-unit apartment complex because only 20% of the apartments were for affordable housing while Preston wanted 33%. Preston is a proponent of rent control. In 2021, Preston blocked discussion of a proposal that would have required 50 signatures to invoke the California Environmental Quality Act to block housing projects, rather than just one person complaining. According to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', Preston appears "to be one of the supervisors most opposed to building market-rate housing". In 2020, Preston delayed a major zoning plan which would have led to the construction of thousands of housing units to the Van Ness/Market Street area of San Francisco. He called for a "race and equity study" of the project. Preston also introduced two ballot initiatives approved by voters in the November 2020 election. Proposition I raised the transfer tax rate for property sales valued over $10 million, intended to fund affordable housing. Proposition K authorizes the city of San Francisco to build or acquire up to 10,000 units of affordable housing. In March 2020, Preston successfully proposed in the Board of Supervisors to appropriate $10 million from the funds raised by Proposition I to fund rent relief and $10 million to fund additional affordable housing. The Board of Supervisors allocated an additional $32 million from the funds for rent relief in late June 2020. In November 2021, Preston led a successful proposal to allocate $64 million from Proposition I to fund the Small Sites Program, which subsidizes about half the cost to allow nonprofit organizations to purchase small apartment buildings with residents at risk of displacement. In June 2022, he fought to secure additional affordable housing funding including $40 million for land acquisition, $20 million for public housing repairs, $10 million for elevator repairs in hotels used to house homeless residents, and $12 million for teacher housing. In a committee meeting on the shared spaces program established by the city during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Preston supported a two-week delay on voting to make the outdoor dining spaces permanent. His questions on an indefinite extension centered on public access and accessibility. In March 2021, Preston called for a hearing on housing vacancies, arguing that the focus on building new housing had led to ignoring "the single biggest source of potential housing in San Francisco." In 2022, Preston proposed a ballot measure to tax vacant housing in San Francisco. The tax would apply to owners of buildings with three or more units when at least one of them has been unoccupied for more than six months in one year. The tax exempted vacant single-family homes and two-unit buildings. Revenue from the measure is earmarked for rental subsidies for low-income seniors and acquiring vacant properties for affordable housing. The measure passed with 54% of the votes. In October 2021, Preston voted against the construction of a 495-unit apartment complex (one-quarter of which were designated as affordable housing) on a parking lot next to a BART station. Preston said that the construction of the apartment complex on the parking lot was "gentrification."


Public bank

In January 2021, Preston introduced an ordinance, co-sponsored by five other supervisors, to start the process of establishing a public bank in San Francisco after the 2019 passage of California's ''Public Banking Act''. Preston’s legislation creates a working group to generate a business and governance plan for a public bank to be presented to the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the ordinance in June 2021 and the working group convened for its first meeting in April 2022.


Public transit and transportation

A few months after taking office, Preston introduced a resolution opposing proposed fare increases by the
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA or San Francisco MTA) is an agency created by consolidation of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), the Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT), and the Taxicab Commission. The age ...
(SFMTA). Preston's resolution introduced in February 2020 called on the SFMTA to avoid fare increases throughout the fiscal year 2021–2022 budget cycle. The Board of Supervisors approved the resolution in April 2020 and Preston also called on the San Francisco Attorney’s Office to investigate if the proposed fare increase violated California statute forbidding price increases more than 10 percent during a declaration of an emergency. The SFMTA board went ahead with the 12% fare increase a week after. In response, Preston and Supervisor
Aaron Peskin Aaron Dan Peskin (born June 17, 1964) is an American former elected official in San Francisco, California. He was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 3 from 2001 to 2009, and again from 2015 to 2025. Distr ...
proposed a charter amendment to strip the authority to increase fares from the SFMTA board. An agreement was reached in June 2020 in which the fare increases would be reversed and the charter amendment withdrawn. In February 2021, he called for a study into the feasibility of a city-run bike-share program. In April 2021, Preston and Haney introduced a three-month pilot program for "Free Muni", free public transportation service funded by the city. The Board of Supervisors approved the measure on May 25, 2021. However, Mayor Breed vetoed the measure in late June before the pilot program could begin the following month. In December 2021, Preston also proposed a resolution which passed unanimously calling an end to street parking at about 1,000 of the city’s bus stops.


Public safety and policing

In July 2021, Preston was the sole dissenting vote against the city’s budget, citing increases in police spending and a lack of investment in social housing as the reasons for his vote. He again was the sole dissenting vote on the budget in July 2022, citing the $50 million increase to the police budget. When the
San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the Municipal police, municipal law enforcement agency of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco, as well as San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, San Ma ...
(SFPD) requested approval from the Board of Supervisors to allow SFPD to use robots armed with explosives to kill suspects under certain circumstances, Preston was one of three supervisors that voted against the proposal in late November 2021. After significant backlash from residents, the Board reversed its decision a week later by unanimously approving an amended policy barring SFPD from using robots to kill.


Other issues and ballot measures

Preston introduced ballot measure Proposition H in May 2022 to shift local elections from odd-numbered to even-numbered years in an effort to increase voter participation. Twice as many voters participated in the 2020 presidential election compared to voters in the local elections for mayor, sheriff, treasurer, city attorney, and district attorney in 2019. While a similar bill was voted down in 2008, Proposition H passed with more than 70% of the votes.


Personal life

Preston is married. He and his wife live in a single-family house in the
Alamo Square Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California with a park of the same name. Located in the Western Addition, its boundaries are Buchanan Street on the east, Turk Street on the north, Baker Street on the west, and Page ...
neighborhood in San Francisco. The home was valued at $2.5 million in 2024, three times as much as Preston paid for it in 1999. The family trust of Preston's wife owns several buildings in San Francisco. He has been on the board of the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association. In the early 2000s, he worked to stop fast-food franchises such as
Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...
and
Domino's Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware-domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms office p ...
from moving into Alamo Square. Preston owns stock shares valued between $400,000 and $4 million in Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco.


See also

*
List of Democratic Socialists of America members who have held office in the United States The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political nonprofit organization, not a political party. Therefore, DSA members and endorsees usually run as members of the Democratic Party, Green Party, Working Families Party, or as independe ...


References


External links

*
Tenants Together
{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Dean Living people 1969 births 21st-century California politicians American civil rights lawyers American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American people in California politics Bowdoin College alumni Lawyers from New York City Lawyers from San Francisco Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from California People from Greenwich Village San Francisco Board of Supervisors members University of California College of the Law, San Francisco alumni Jews from New York (state)