As we knew from his first announcements last week about his campaign for mayor, Supervisor Aaron Peskin is leaning into the concept of "recovery" — both as it pertains to the city of San Francisco's return to prosperity and his own struggles with alcohol.

That's the theme from the outset of Peskin's first campaign video advertisement, posted to X on Wednesday afternoon. It's two minutes long — more than will air as a TV spot, giving him some room to lay out how he differs from the other, more moderate candidates, and to defend against attacks that he has stymied housing development in the city.

"San Franciscans are still proud of their neighborhoods, but they're feeling down about San Francisco. And that needs to change," Peskin says in the video. "I'm Aaron Peskin, and I know something about recovery, and what it takes to rebuild from a very low point."

Peskin goes on to show us a string of newspaper headlines that tout his good works, including the approval of "thousands of new homes in the Hunters Point Shipyard, China Basin, and SoMa."

"We need a neighborhood mayor with the experience to rebuild our city from the ground up," Peskin says. "We need a leader who will fix our city for everyone, not one who will ruin it for the many to please a wealthy few."

Peskin is pledging to recruit more police and 911 dispatchers, to add 2,000 homeless shelter and treatment beds to "drastically reduce homelessness," and he says he will "make sure San Franciscans are in charge of development decisions."

By contrast, former supervisor Mark Farrell, who is also running for mayor, sounds a bit more stern and unrealistically draconian when it comes to homelessness, saying he'll clear all large homeless encampments in his first 100 days, establish a "24/7 intake center" for a population that is not always looking to be taken in, and "mandate treatment-focused detention and a connection to services for individuals who are revived with Narcan on city streets." He doesn't mention a specific expansion of shelter beds, but he does say he will take a "shelter-first approach because San Francisco can’t just build itself out of the homelessness crisis."

Daniel Lurie has pledged to build 1,500 new shelter beds, and to establish 24-hour shelters — he's basically talking about more Navigation Centers — where people are not kicked out during the day.

Back to Peskin, though. He finishes the video saying, "Extreme solutions might feel good in moments of frustration and fear, but to truly recover we need to come together and heal our city while living up to the ideals that made San Francisco so great."

We don't yet know who is throwing funding behind Peskin — his announcement was just made last weekend, and data on the SF Ethics Commission website is still a week old. But as of now, Mayor London Breed has the most candidate-controlled funds, with just over $658,000 at her disposal, and Daniel Lurie has the most PAC support, with Believe In SF: Lurie For Mayor group commanding almost $3.3 million at this point.

Previously: Mark Farrell Wants to Bring Car Traffic Back to Market Street Downtown — Is That Wise?