A photo of a community meeting has sparked a generational fight over San Francisco real estate

Some residents in San Francisco's Marina District are resisting a new development that would bring hundreds of new homes to the neighborhood. Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A proposed housing development is dividing residents in San Francisco.

A developer wants to build a large waterfront residential tower in the city's Marina District.

Residents, many of them older, are resisting. That's angering the younger generation.

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 .

Hundreds of #SanFrancisco Marina residents turned out this evening for townhall on controversial @Safeway housing plan, which would place what for many is an uncomfortably tall, 22 & 18 story project at the low-slung neighborhood’s waterfront. @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/2MTDL19NyQ

— Laura Waxmann (@laura_waxee) July 24, 2026

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.

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