SAN FRANCISCO — When Daniel Lurie won the election as San Francisco’s new mayor in November, he knew there were tough challenges ahead. The downtown economy is deflected. A common sense among locals is that mal laziness was clouding their colorful cities.
Five months later, 100 days after Lurie’s tenure – not that any of these issues have disappeared. Still, “I love my job,” said Lurie, 48, in a recent interview at his solemn city hall office.
“People say, ‘What’s the surprise?’ I’m sure you’re surprised at how much you love this job. ”
As the heir to the Levi Strauss Family Fortune, Lurie comes from one of the city’s most prominent families, and her roots appear in the Gold Rush. So it’s no surprise that he feels a deep connection to his city. But his decision to use mayoral postal mail to not only set policies but boldly hype San Francisco is part of a broader strategy. He wants to see the country expanding its cities. And perhaps even more important: San Franciscans embrace image.
“I think the change in atmosphere is real in our city,” he said. “There’s a sense of hope and optimism that people haven’t seen in a long time. I say that a lot of people are “only after a while I’m proud to be a San Franciscan.” Now I’m always proud. ”
A moderate Democrat, Lurie has acquired three moderate Democrats, London veterans, by being disillusioned with London veterans and disillusioned with the city’s stagnant post-Covid recovery. He came to work with no experience as an elected official. His work-life centers around Tipping Point, a Bay Area nonprofit founded in 2005, and has raised over $400 million for initiatives focusing on vocational training, housing and early childhood education for low-income households.
Even many of his supporters, with his starch shirt and monotonous voice, expected Lurie to approach a new job as a public policy nerd than the cheerleader in chief. But for now, he has effectively embraced both roles. One day, he announced that he would be facing a severe condition for public drug use. He then crosses town to throw his first pitch on the Giants’ first day at Oracle Park. He often uses his Instagram to highlight both the serious and more enjoyable parts of his work.
Lurie knows he has a long way ahead, as long as he demolishes the tent city, with the changes he promised to voters. Expanding shelter options. Revitalizing the business sector. It makes the city obviously friendly to drug dealers. But it’s not the scope of the agenda that ranks him. It’s bureaucracy that he thinks is in his way.
“In the first few weeks, I walked down the street and why is there trash in the bus shelter?” Lurie said. “Well, we don’t do garbage picks on Saturdays and Sundays. And I was like people were still on the bus on Saturdays and Sundays and tourists from all over the world are here.”
“We have to be a city 24/7. Often we are nine to five cities from Monday to Friday,” he said.
The father of two school-age children, Lurie is learning how to Mesh, a 24/7 mayor with a rich, supportive family life. He often refers to it as a role model for the late Senator Diane Feinstein, who served as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988. Like Feinstein, Lurie wants to be the hands-on mayor who walks down the city streets every day.
He smiles and assumes that he may actually have the lightest schedule in his family. His wife, Becca Pravda, is a senior aide to Governor Gavin Newsom and is Chief of Newsom’s Protocol. His son, Sawyer, 11, plays baseball, soccer and flag football. Lurie’s daughter, 14-year-old Taya, recently performed in a production of “Frankenstein” in the San Francisco Ballet.
“She was the first person on stage,” Lurie said with the smile of her extremely proud dad. “She has the moment when she dances on stage and stands next to Sasha (Desola),” said the company’s principal dancer.
Lurie still takes her kids to school every morning, aiming to get home by 9pm most nights. He spent Passover weekend with his family in Southern California.
On the campaign trail, Lurie said his children’s San Francisco experiences encouraged him to run for mayor, roaming the mission district and telling stories of meeting men amidst a mental health crisis. Lurie has committed to prioritizing public safety and increasing the pathway to treating mental illness and addiction.
Shortly after the inauguration on January 8th, Lurie introduced ordinances that allow the city to open new shelters and treatment programs more quickly, giving his office room to pursue private funds for those efforts. This month he announced a new public health policy that would prohibit city funds from receiving city funds from handing out sterile syringes and other clean drug supplies, unless people are actively working to connect people with services.
Lurie beat elite tech and business executives to a small number, serving as advisors, and helped shape policies that reinvigorated a policy that was a fierce hit with the Covid era closure and the departure of tech workers who embraced remote work. Among the people he recruited, Lauren Powell Jobs, a billionaire philanthropist and widow of Steve Jobs. Ruth Polatt, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google. Openai CEO Sam Altman; Larry Bear of the San Francisco Giants. Ron Conway is a venture capitalist. Executives from Doordash, Gap, Ripple, Salesforce and Visa.
Their brain power, and money, will be a powerful tool to help Downtown San Francisco come back, Lurie said.
“I’m going to work with people who want to help San Francisco return to its legitimate location as the world’s largest city,” he said.
Lurie’s performance was praised by an unexpected political corner.
“I think Mayor Lurie is doing great,” said Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) as an ally of the breed, who has expressed excitement over Lurie’s housing policy and public transport support.
“I personally enjoy him. I enjoy his approach,” said Coach Rafael Mandelman, the new president of the Board of Supervisors. The November election brought more centrist members to 11 organizations that may tend to support Lurie’s centralist agenda.
“He’s really willing to learn and he’s happy to listen,” said progressive director Connie Chan. “And that’s not just an iconic listening. He listens actively.”
Even Aaron Peskin, a former longtime liberal manager who lost to Luri in last year’s mayoral race, said he had accepted recent invitations from Lurie to go for walks and to talk shops. Peskin said he appreciates the new mayor being willing to listen to various opinions.
“San Francisco had to make a difference, both for national and local awareness,” Peskin said.
Many unpopular decisions are on the horizon. The mayors of them are a deficit of the disparity near $1 billion, almost certainly a number that requires severe cuts and strict negotiations between the Board of Supervisory and the city’s public labor unions.
Lurie has already been pushed back from several prominent community groups who are concerned that his new policies will repeat the repeated, failed wars with drugs and those skeptical of close ties with technology leaders.
“The Phoenix Project,” said Julie Pitta, president of the Phoenix Project, a progressive group that tracks technical money in San Francisco politics. “Does Mayor Lurie think he doesn’t want anything in exchange for the help these people are giving him?”
For at least for now, Lurie has been roaming both praise and criticism. He has already hinted at a reelection campaign, saying it may take more time to reestablish his homeland as a city that all tourists want to visit.
“I think we’re off to a strong start,” Lurie said. “But my expectations are free.”
