Will Ocean Beach be transformed into Miami Beach?
Probably not, but worries about mega-development along the water is forcing Mayor Daniel Lurie to deny, again and again, that his proposed “family zoning” plan won’t transform San Francisco’s coastline into a billionaire's row of gleaming skyscrapers worthy of Tony Montana.
“I don’t want Ocean Beach turning into Miami Beach,” Lurie declared in a TikTok video last month.
The mayor is far from the first person to make this particular quip. The Ocean Beach/Miami Beach comparison has been everywhere in the last two years in the talking points of politicians to headlines and social media posts.
There’s one man you can thank for this: Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
“I coined the phrase in my contest for mayor last year,” Peskin said with a laugh. “The phrase that I used a lot was, ‘San Francisco can build the housing we need without turning Ocean Beach into Miami Beach,’” Peskin told me. “That was the phrase in my campaign, long before this mayor’s quote-unquote family zoning plan.”
The family zoning plan is designed to accelerate housing development by reducing height and density restrictions, especially around key transit corridors and commercial areas like Fisherman’s Wharf. It would rezone 92,000 parcels around the city, including in the Sunset and Richmond. The plan is slated for review by the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee on Nov. 17 and must be approved by the end of January.
If rejected, the city could be subject to the state’s own rezoning plans to increase housing construction in SF.Expect Lurie to talk about Ocean Beach not becoming Miami Beach a lot more in the month to come.
Peskin dropped the slogan endlessly in his mayoral campaign, including in debates and at appearances around the city. The imagery is so strong that both supporters and opponents to the family zoning plan have latched onto the saying. Miami Beach, apparently, is in the eye of the beholder.
On an Oct. 6 TikTok post, Lurie said that, contrary to the claims of detractors, his zoning plan actually prevents their biggest fear from coming to fruition: “We cannot have towers near the beach,” he said.
At a jam-packed town hall in the Sunset that same day, the mayor again stated, “I also do not want Ocean Beach turned into Miami Beach.”
District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who has supported Lurie’s plan, also echoed the phrase at the same town hall. “Nobody wants Miami Beach,” he told the crowd. “That’s an interesting point of where we can all come together: We don’t want Miami Beach.”
It’s almost as if every political figure dealing with the west side of SF has had to invoke this rhetoric. “You’ve probably heard the rumor. Watch out, Ocean Beach is going to become Miami Beach. Not true! Fake news!” said former District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio, who was recalled in September, in a July video on Facebook.
(It wasn’t Engardio’s first dance with the Miami Beach line: “No one wants Ocean Beach to turn into Miami Beach, he told KQED last December.)
Nobody, however, has wielded the slogan quite like Peskin, who used it to jab repeatedly at his opponents in the mayoral race.
“All of the moderate conservative candidates in the race are singularly focused on turning Ocean Beach into Miami Beach, and they are all focused on the problem which is zoning and not financing,” Peskin told KQED in July 2024.
Digging a bit, I found Miami Beach comparisons from before Peskin’s campaign began, including from a community advocate in March 2024 and a resident in February 2024. Peskin said he didn’t recall cribbing the line from any particular source, but said that it has “taken on a life of its own.”
“Lurie keeps running around saying ‘My plan isn’t turning Ocean Beach into Miami Beach!’ To be fair, dude, I never said your plan is to do that,” Peskin said with another laugh.
“Let’s be clear: The proposal he is championing does not create a row of 40-story condos for miles. However, the truth is that there are at least 10 sites within the coastal zone that can be built up to 110 feet or even higher under the plan. I believe SF would deeply regret that if it comes to pass, but I am not claiming that’s the same as Miami Beach.”
Lurie’s controversial pick for the empty District 4 supervisor seat, Beya Alcaraz, will have to battle with the Miami Beach rhetoric in weeks to come: Zoning is, after all, the top issue in the minds of her loudest, most politically active constituents.
I reached out to the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority for a comment on the anti-Miami Beach rhetoric subsuming SF’s west side. They did not respond to my request.
