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Lydia So

Commissioner, Seat 5, San Francisco Planning Commission

Raised family zoning and upzoning at five meetings.

23 of 30transcribed meetings with their voice identified
23 of 23present at roll calls through Jul 30, 2026, from the clerk

Also sits on 1 other body

See all

Next Planning Commission meeting: Thu, Nov 5, 12:00 pm · Clerk’s calendar

Three clips, newest first

Family zoning and upzoning“I will conclude with my own thought process here is that this project really do comply with our new family zoning plan and our new design guideline, the design standards, and it does comply with the setback that is required, and I’ve seen it’s pretty clear, 20— actually, 27 feet.”Lydia SoCommissioner · Planning Commission · Sep 17, 2026 · 2:15:27Play at 2:15:27
Homelessness“It could be better, but having blight on the street, personally, I don’t feel safe. And that’s simple as that. And recently, I do recognize that AutoZone or the— actually, the Walgreens site has started to have encampment on the lot.”Lydia SoCommissioner · Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026 · 5:13:38Play at 5:13:38
“Do you mind saying that one more time? I think I understand what you’re saying.”Lydia SoCommissioner · Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026 · 3:32:59Play at 3:32:59

Officials only. Public speakers are counted, never named.

Issues So raised, by number of meetings

We count who raised an issue, not which side they took.

Every roll call, and So’s other bodies

Present at 23 of 23 roll calls at the Planning Commission, roll call through Jul 30, 2026

From the clerk’s own record. We don’t compare members on it.

PresentExcusedAbsentOldest first, 1 square per roll call

Absent 0. Nov 6, 2025 to Jul 30, 2026. The clerk’s record covers 24 of the 31 meetings we hold, through Jul 30, 2026.

Official roll call, from the clerk →
  • Planning Commission: talk time not compared. On a random sample of meeting time, between 36% and 66% of members' speech here carries a name; we rank when the low end reaches 60%.
  • Arts Commission: talk time not compared. Seated for only 5 meetings in 12 months.
Questions

So asked one question at the one Arts Commission meeting where we identified them

At least this many: direct questions only.

So’s one question to a city department at the Arts Commission went to libraries, arts and culture.

Who they question: 1 question to a department, 1 body · Oct 24, 2025 – Oct 8, 2026.

Arts Commission1 question to a city department
Arts Commission: questions by department
DepartmentShareQuestions
Libraries, arts and culture1
Neighborhoods So named

4 places So named in meetings

Lines where So named the place, read by two AI readers that both agree it means that place. Each dot plays the newest one; brighter means named more often.

San Francisco
  • Chinatown 1 time
  • Mission 1 time
  • Noe Valley 1 time
  • South of Market 1 time

Places are drawn at the centre of their own boundary in the city’s Analysis Neighborhoods file (DataSF (City and County of San Francisco)). A dot says the place was named, not where So was or what was said about it.

Meetings

Every meeting where we identified So’s voice

24, newest first. The date opens the meeting; the time plays the video at So’s first remark.

  1. Oct 8, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use12.9 min51:30
  2. Oct 1, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use13.3 min3:18
  3. Sep 24, 2026Planning Commission0.4 min7:12
  4. Sep 17, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use18.1 min29:38
  5. Sep 11, 2026Arts CommissionArts, culture and libraries4.7 min33:01
  6. Sep 10, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use5.3 min15:24
  7. Sep 3, 2026Planning CommissionHistoric preservation · Development and land use30.6 min5:04
  8. Jul 30, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use9.1 min11:33
  9. Jul 23, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use17.2 min1:21:15
  10. Jun 18, 2026Planning CommissionHousing and tenants8.2 min2:11:07
Show all 24Show fewer
  1. May 21, 2026Planning CommissionAlcohol, cannabis and business permits · Development and land use5.3 min48:59
  2. Apr 16, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use · Housing and tenants16.7 min4:22
  3. Mar 26, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use3.5 min1:12:14
  4. Mar 19, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use5.6 min33:39
  5. Mar 12, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use11.3 min1:08:10
  6. Feb 26, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use5.4 min14:44
  7. Feb 12, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use · Budget and spending9.6 min23:40
  8. Jan 29, 2026Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use4.2 min4:56
  9. Jan 15, 2026Planning CommissionAlcohol, cannabis and business permits4.9 min10:44
  10. Dec 18, 2025Planning Commission7.5 min24:20
  11. Dec 4, 2025Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use3.2 min1:17:11
  12. Nov 20, 2025Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use4.9 min44:18
  13. Nov 13, 2025Planning CommissionDevelopment and land use5.2 min44:32
  14. Nov 6, 2025Planning Commission6.5 min19:46
How we identify who is speaking · blind check, pooled across five cities: of 340 commission lines drawn, 260 right, 4 wrong, 1 unclear, 75 couldn’t be judged

We identified So’s voice at 24 meetings across two bodies. A meeting missing here means we couldn’t attribute the voice, not that So was absent. Claude and Gemini each read every transcript with that day’s roster. A voice gets Lydia So’s name only when both agree and a code check finds the name said on, or just before, their turn. Voices our transcripts merge with someone else’s are never attributed, so every count here undercounts what So said. For commissions, of 340 lines drawn, 260 were right, 4 wrong and 1 unclear, and the checkers couldn’t judge 75. We have since removed the voices behind 64 of those lines (3 wrong, 0 unclear, the rest we had already held for other reasons). Of the 276 lines we still publish, the checkers could judge 228: 226 right, 1 wrong and 1 unclear (90% lower bound 0.97). They couldn’t judge the other 48. The check is one sample pooled across the five cities, not of So or of San Francisco alone.