Can San Francisco’s New Mayor Make the City Shine Again?

Daniel Lurie, the mayor-elect of San Francisco, invited local officials one by one to his impressive four-story brick mansion on a hill in the exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood.https://wordpress.com/

The San Francisco supervisors, who function similarly to city council members, met with Mr. Lurie in his breakfast nook for brief, half-hour sessions. Despite the opulence of the setting — his home boasts nine bedrooms and is valued at $16 million — the discussions, held over the last few months, were focused on practical, everyday issues.

Topics included keeping the sidewalks clean, combating illegal drug markets, and filling vacant office spaces downtown.

When Mr. Lurie, a Democrat and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, is sworn in as the city’s 46th mayor on Wednesday, he is unlikely to echo the rhetoric of revolution, resistance, or anti-Trump sentiment that some liberal mayors employed during the first term of President Donald J. Trump. In fact, the name “Trump” does not appear at all in the working draft of his inaugural speech, according to an advisor.

Instead, Mr. Lurie, who founded an antipoverty nonprofit, will focus on his vision for transforming San Francisco into a well-managed city — the best way, he believes, to secure the future of progressive politics.

“I want to show the world that we can live up to our values, demonstrating that we can be both compassionate and firm,” said Mr. Lurie, 47, in an interview.

He believes his success will be measured by tangible improvements: growing the economy, helping people off the streets and into mental health care, and restoring a sense of safety to city streets.

Ultimately, Mr. Lurie hopes to rebuild San Francisco’s reputation. “My measure of success,” he says, “is if everyone around the world is saying, ‘I’ve got to visit San Francisco again.’”

He does not appear particularly interested in national politics or the future direction of the Democratic Party. To him, all politics is local. He spent his last weekend as an ordinary citizen picking up litter with a trash picker.

Yet he represents a shift in approach that many Democrats see as necessary after the party’s significant losses in the 2024 elections. Mr. Trump garnered more votes in liberal cities like San Francisco than he did in 2020, which suggests that voters, even in traditionally Democratic strongholds, are growing disillusioned with politics focused more on ideology than on tangible improvements in daily life.

“One of the key messages from this election is that in blue cities, people are frustrated,” said Danny Sauter, a newly elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “They’re so frustrated that some are looking for other parties or leaders. The best defense is producing a city that works.”

The question remains whether a man who inherited vast wealth, leads a life far removed from most residents, and has no prior experience in elected office, can truly turn San Francisco around.

No blue city has suffered more than San Francisco in terms of reputation in recent years, often mocked by Mr. Trump and his allies. The city has faced a brutal combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl crisis. Drug markets on the streets overwhelmed neighborhoods, with two people dying from overdoses daily on average. Property crimes, including burglaries, spiked.

Though overdose deaths and property crime rates have begun to decline, they still remain high compared to other cities.

In addition, office towers in San Francisco are about 35 percent vacant, a higher rate than most large U.S. cities, and tourism has yet to fully recover. With tax revenue down, Mr. Lurie will need to address a budget gap nearing $1 billion in the next two years.

Despite these challenges, the city’s leadership has at times been more focused on ideological debates than on practical solutions. During the pandemic, the school board seemed to spend more time on renaming schools than on reopening them. The former district attorney resisted prosecuting fentanyl dealers, viewing it as a continuation of the failed war on drugs.

In response, voters recalled three school board members and the district attorney in 2022. In November, they also voted out Mayor London Breed, a Democrat.

During her tenure, Mayor Breed attempted to address major issues, such as easing housing development, but faced backlash for some of her initiatives, like permitting a supervised lounge for fentanyl users near City Hall.

Mr. Lurie has stated he will maintain San Francisco’s liberal values, including advocating for immigrants’ rights, transgender rights, and women’s access to abortion if challenged by a Trump administration. However, his primary focus will be on the practicalities of running local government.

His agenda, he claims, is rooted in “common sense.”

Others have described it as “practical progressivism,” in the words of Bilal Mahmood, an incoming supervisor representing the struggling Tenderloin district.

“It’s resistance via results,” said Dan Newman, a Democratic consultant who worked on Mr. Lurie’s campaign.

Mr. Newman recalled his involvement in anti-Trump protests years ago, saying, “Eight years ago, I was in the streets wearing a pink hat. Now, we’re back on the streets, making sure they’re clean and safe.”

However, Mr. Lurie’s specific plans remain somewhat vague. He has promised to declare a fentanyl emergency on his first day in office, but has not clarified what that would entail. He has pledged to eliminate drug use from city streets, though his stance on police involvement in arrests remains unclear.

He has also proposed requiring all city employees to return to in-person work five days a week but has not specified whether this applies to all city workers or just those in the mayor’s office.

His most concrete promise — to build 1,500 new shelter beds for the homeless in six months — has been met with skepticism.

Mr. Lurie will benefit from a more centrist Board of Supervisors, after the November election shifted the board away from far-left figures.

“People just want to make sure the grocery store stays open and their children don’t have to walk past drug dealers on the streets,” said Mr. Mahmood.

Mr. Lurie’s most significant assets are seen as his affable, high-energy personality, his broad connections with a variety of residents, and his persuasive abilities.

He recently helped resolve a strike by working with hotel workers’ unions and convinced wealthy donors to contribute $500 million to Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit he founded to combat poverty.

However, Mr. Lurie does live a life of privilege. He can escape to his $15.5 million vacation home in Malibu with his wife and two children, and his closest advisors hail from the tech and business worlds, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

Mr. Lurie has appointed longtime friends from the business world, such as Ned Segal, a former Twitter executive, to lead the city’s housing and economic development efforts.

Many local politicians remain hopeful but cautious about his leadership. Supervisor Myrna Melgar noted, “He’s new — he doesn’t even know where the bathroom is,” though she added that their initial conversation was pleasant.

Mr. Lurie, for his part, looks to political figures like Dianne Feinstein, who led the city after the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and Michael Bloomberg, who helped rebuild New York after 9/11. Both leaders were known for their pragmatic, non-ideological approach to governance — and for their wealth.

Mr. Lurie has already started making direct calls to department heads about issues he’s spotted in the city, a tactic he admires in Feinstein.

Like Bloomberg, he has pledged to take just $1 a year in salary and forgo the mayor’s standard $383,000 salary. Mr. Lurie’s wealth comes from his late stepfather, Peter Haas, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.

Since his election victory, Mr. Lurie has spoken with Mr. Bloomberg and expressed a shared belief that effective governance can improve cities.

“I’m a San Franciscan through and through,” said Mr. Lurie. “I just want to get results.”