What looked like a longshot a year ago has become San Francisco’s new political reality.
Daniel Lurie, rocketed by a voter base thirsting for a leadership shakeup, a hefty war chest from his ties to the Levi Strauss fortune, and a moderate policy platform that contrasted him against his City Hall “insider” opponents, has all but committed a coup d’état on the city’s political machine.
He will be San Francisco’s first mayor in more than a century to have no governing experience. But his decades-long ties to the city’s political, philanthropic, and social elite through his anti-poverty nonprofit, Tipping Point, don’t exactly make him an outsider either.
In his first speech since Mayor London Breed conceded the race Thursday, Lurie said he would create a “world class” administration to tackle what he described as “extreme challenges” facing San Francisco.
“Turning around this city will not happen overnight,” Lurie said, referencing plans to shake up the city bureaucracy, build a more effective public health infrastructure, and lure businesses back downtown.
Lurie enters the mayor’s office during one of the most tenuous moments for the city in decades. A shaky economy, beset by office vacancies and a beleaguered downtown, still hangs over the city as a budget deficit looms. Lurie will be responsible for making hard choices on how to cut spending.
And above all else, Lurie has made a series of promises that voters will expect to see fulfilled. He pledged to end unsheltered homelessness within six months, along with delivering cleaner streets, a well-functioning City Hall, a revitalized economy, an end to corruption, and a better worldwide reputation for San Francisco.
It’s a tall order. In his speech, Lurie promised a City Hall “that listens to you, even when we don’t agree.”
“Hope is alive and well,” Lurie declared.
The mayor-elect does have some advantages on his side. The ideological makeup of the Board of Supervisors has yet to be determined as election results continue to trickle in. However, there’s a chance Lurie will have enough allies on the board to help enact his political mandate, something Breed didn’t have on her side. Lurie will also have what many politicians don’t: a relatively clean slate with his board colleagues and department heads.
“When he said to me that the city administration will reflect the diversity of this city, that was exactly the words that my father used,” said Jonathan Moscone, the son of former Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in 1978.
But immense challenges await the newly cast politico.
The school system, while not technically under the mayor’s purview, will almost certainly be a quick test for the Lurie administration’s effectiveness. And there is, of course, the national political situation, with Donald Trump set to return to the White House in January. A hostile Republican Party may control both chambers of Congress, potentially diminishing federal support for San Francisco.
Lurie said he “shares the concerns” that others have about the incoming Trump administration.
“We will never turn an eye to racism, bigotry, and anti-Asian hate,” Lurie said.
Lurie, a wealthy heir who poured more than $8 million of his own money into the mayor’s race, said he doesn’t anticipate taking a city salary.
Will Lurie’s nice-guy, consensus-forming demeanor stand up against the greasy machine that is City Hall politicking — and to Trump? Will he surround himself with leadership that conveys a change to the system? Are voters patient enough to accept the reality that change may take years? Or will Lurie be the latest incumbent to get yanked out, like Breed and former mayors Art Agnos and Frank Jordan before him?
In a concession speech late Thursday afternoon, Breed said she had called the mayor-elect to congratulate him. “Over the coming weeks, my staff and I will work to ensure a smooth transition as he takes on the honor of serving as mayor of San Francisco,” Breed said. “I know we are both committed to improving this city we love.”
Lurie has entered the fray at a time when incumbents on all corners of the country — Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Alameda County’s Pamela Price, President Joe Biden — are being pulled off their perches as public safety, high cost of living, and housing roil an angered populace.
Voters are frustrated with the status quo. Soon enough, Lurie, too, will become the insider he once condemned.