{"slug": "people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco", "title": "People can’t stop AI-generating San Francisco", "summary": "San Francisco's housing debate has moved to AI-generated images on social media, where urbanists and preservationists trade renderings of upzoned neighborhoods as ragebait. Architect Mark Hogan of OpenScope Studio said most AI images don't reflect what's feasible financially or structurally, while Marin County Community Development Agency Director Sarah Jones warned the images can reinforce confirmation bias. Open-source software engineer Kat Scott posted AI renderings of the city as Vienna-style social housing and as single-family homes to trigger YIMBY activists, saying 'it doesn't really mean anything.'", "body_md": "On social media, San Francisco’s housing warriors are trading AI-generated [pictures](https://x.com/TastelessAlex/status/2081513705112842268?s=20) of upzoned neighborhoods like barbs — either in furtherance of urbanists, or to mock them.\n\nThe posts are occasionally serious, and more often than not [ragebait](https://x.com/kscottz/status/2081891904686620827?s=20). The Marina — *but *[ make it Miami](https://x.com/KimChiSpicey/status/2042261645909782637?s=20). How about an\n\n[apartment super-complex](https://x.com/j_mcgraph/status/1962714639021777248?s=20)along Golden Gate Park? What if everywhere but downtown was more like Barcelona? “Here’s my best slop at what that might look like,”\n\n[one anonymous X user wrote](https://x.com/CircumjovialLLC/status/2081794260773605490?s=20).\n\nThe strange new medium for SF’s decades-old debate between growth and preservation has, if nothing else, amused the professionals.\n\n“It will come up in conversations at work. I’ve certainly seen all this on X, Bluesky, and even Instagram to some degree,” said Mark Hogan, an architect and principal at OpenScope Studio in SF, which redesigned Victorians in the Mission for transitional housing. “Most of these AI images don’t reflect what’s feasible, financially or structurally.”\n\nThere’s a long history of image manipulation in environmental decision-making, said* *Sarah Jones, the Director of Marin County’s Community Development Agency. Architects and developers are generally known to render their projects in the best possible light, highlighting the proposed buildings and not always their context, she added.\n\nA fluid technology that can start conversations about what’s possible for communities can, at the same time, pose more polarization: a “confirmation bias” of attitudes based on made-up scenarios, Jones said.\n\n“If you’re inclined to be opposed to more density, you’re going to see an AI-generated picture that embodies what you oppose and that will make you more opposed,” Jones said. “If you’re inclined to think it’s fine, you’ll see the same picture and think it’s great.”\n\nIn April, [an anonymous X user](https://x.com/KimChiSpicey/status/2042261645909782637) who regularly posts about SF politics submitted an AI image of the Marina neighborhood as a hyperdense stretch of high-rises, mockingly endorsing it in the voice of a YIMBY caricature. A collection of actual YIMBYs rallied around the rendering with enthusiasm, calling it [an improvement](https://x.com/KelseyTuoc/status/2042666881698664853?s=20) over the neighborhood. Some even tweaked the image [with their own ideas.](https://x.com/dcposch/status/2043848184145797292?s=20)\n\nKat Scott, an open-source software engineer living in the Sunset, said she doesn’t identify as a YIMBY or NIMBY: “I see the world both ways. Obviously, cities have to grow, that’s normal.”\n\nBut for months, her X timeline was dogged with YIMBYs dunking on her neighborhood’s lack of density. She found the posts annoying, but inspiring.\n\nOn Monday, Scott posted two AI renderings of San Francisco: [One as a collection](https://x.com/kscottz/status/2081918848757043520?s=20) of Vienna-style social housing, and the other with every building [replaced](https://x.com/kscottz/status/2081891904686620827?s=20) by a single-family home. The next day, she posted another of the city as a [proliferation](https://x.com/kscottz/status/2082184525296386372?s=20) of luxury five-over-ones, corporate chain stores and AI billboards. The purpose was — you guessed it — to trigger the YIMBYs.\n\n“If you just say the word YIMBY, they appear,” Scott told *Mission Local*. “I don’t know if it’s exactly productive. But it’s funny; these AI images are meant to poke people and get eyeballs. And look — I can do that too. It doesn’t really mean anything.”\n\nA string of pro-growth stalwarts flocked to Scott’s posts. Among them was [YIMBY activist ](https://missionlocal.org/2025/05/san-francisco-yimbys-our-leaders-have-finally-started-listening-to-us/) Armand Domalewski, who responded with [sarcastic despair](https://x.com/ArmandDoma/status/2081956925340844194?s=20) over the prospect of new homes.\n\n“The funny thing about this is it’s not anything new — I’ve been doing housing activism since 2015, and long before AI generation got decent, you would have NIMBYs create stuff with Photoshop,” Domalewski told *Mission Local. *“AI is a new tool for a longstanding tradition among people who fear change and support it.”\n\nHe said it’s too early to tell how it’s changing the debate, if at all.\n\n“I think all political arguments in general are not for the benefit of the people arguing but the audience,” he said. “I also feel like we’re being so spammed by AI representations of everything that people could be tuning it out entirely.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco", "canonical_source": "https://missionlocal.org/2026/07/ai-yimby-nimby-development-building-skyline/", "published_at": "2026-07-31 11:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-31 11:09:59.454382+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai"], "entities": ["OpenScope Studio", "Mark Hogan", "Sarah Jones", "Marin County Community Development Agency", "Kat Scott", "Mission Local", "Armand Domalewski"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/people-cant-stop-ai-generating-san-francisco.jsonld"}}