View the San Francisco for Sunday, November 10, 2024
Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie speaks at St. Mary’s Square in San Francisco on Friday with his wife, Becca Prowda, by his side. Entering Election Day, the race for San Francisco mayor remained so tightly contested that most political observers expected it could take days to determine who won.
Daniel Lurie seized a commanding lead that night — and as more ballots were counted throughout the rest of the week, it proved to be insurmountable. San Francisco Mayor London Breed quickly conceded the mayoral race to Lurie after additional ballots were counted Thursday. At a victory celebration in St. Mary’s Square on Friday, Lurie repeated the theme that he struck on election night — it’s a new day in San Francisco. “I’m going to work with everybody to turn our city around who is committed to change, who is committed to accountability,” Lurie said. In the first updated count released by the Department of Elections after Election Day, Lurie retained a sizable lead over Breed in ranked-choice voting, leaving little chance for the incumbent mayor. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin remained in third place, and former interim Mayor Mark Farrell, who conceded on election night, was in fourth.In a statement posted on social media, Breed wrote that she had called Lurie to congratulate him and pledged to help ensure a smooth transition between administrations. “I have always worked to be a Mayor for all San Francicans,” Breed wrote. “I want to thank all of the City staff who have worked tirelessly to improve this City for the last six years. I am the Mayor – but you all are doing the hard work every day and the City is on the rise.” Given his inexperience in government, a central question now swirling around Lurie is who he’ll surround himself with in City Hall. On Friday, he offered few hints. “We have started an aggressive search for a world-class administration that reflects the passion and the diversity of the San Franciscans they will serve,” Lurie said, adding later that he’s looking for talent nationwide.San Francisco’s presumptive Mayor Daniel Lurie is greeted by supporters after speaking at a press conference in San Francisco. Speaking to reporters Thursday night, Breed maintained the same upbeat disposition about The City’s future that she maintained throughout the campaign, promising that San Francisco is “on the rise.”Explaining her decision to quickly concede the race, Breed explained that the votes demonstrated that — barring a miracle — she would lose. Offered many opportunities by reporters eager to dissect the election, Breed demurred, instead stressing the same themes she struck in her initial statement — ensuring a smooth transition of power is vital for San Francisco.Asked if the concession was the most difficult speech she’s ever made, Breed said no and quickly placed it in perspective, noting that she also addressed The City following the death of former Mayor Ed Lee, the death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi, uprisings in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and to announce the first COVID-19 shutdown. At his results watch party on election night Tuesday, Lurie touted the early totals as evidence his message — that City Hall “insiders” had led government astray — had resonated with San Franciscans desperate for change. “I started this campaign not as a politician, but as a dad who could not explain to my kids what we were seeing on our streets, and what they were seeing on our streets,” Lurie told supporters on election night. “When you love something as much as we all love San Francisco, you fight for it, and it’s time to roll up our sleeves no matter who is elected.”. He also earned financial backing from his mother, Mimi Haas, who invested $1 million into an independent expenditure committee formed to support his candidacy. The committee also earned major contributions from people such as billionaire businessman Jan Koum. By the end of the race, it had spent more than double what any other independent committee in the race had, according to campaign-finance disclosures. Lurie told reporters Friday that he plans to place his various holdings into a trust, and does not anticipate accepting the mayor’s salary, although he said he has to work with the City Attorney’s Office to do so. But Lurie’s self-investment and support from wealthy elites was evidently not a turnoff for many voters, despite Breed’s increased efforts to highlight it.Mayor London Breed endorsed by Chinatown community leaders for reelection, at Hon’s Wun-Tun House restaurant in San Francisco on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. Breed, the only candidate in the race who rents her home, aligned herself with The City’s yes-in-my-backyard — or YIMBY — pro-housing-development movement., the divisive ballot measure that proposed converting upper Great Highway between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way into a permanent public recreation space. Despite low approval ratings and high voter dissatisfaction with the current state of The City, Breed framed herself as theThe litany of difficulties Lurie will face is daunting, and it remains to be seen how long a leash San Franciscans will provide him to fix them. Lurie built his campaign on the promise that he is not only a relative outsider — in contrast with the longtime politicians who dominated the race — but that he is a man with a plan for all of The City’s woes. He was careful to ensure that he built all of these proposals with the support of experts, whose endorsements he touted as he introduced them — a former city planning chief for his housing plan, the leader of a housing nonprofit for his homelessness plan and a former prosecutor for his plan to combat drug dealing.severe fentanyl overdose epidemic , but the rate of fatalities remains alarmingly high, and the drug’s impact remains evident to anyone who strolls down Market or Mission Street.that will allow The City to marshal resources to address the epidemic, and he promised to hold drug dealers “accountable.” Crime has been a driving force behind the reshaping of San Francisco politics in the last two years, starting with the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 — but also in accelerating voters’ dissatisfaction with city government and its leader, Breed.from their pandemic highs, San Franciscans still ranked public safety as a top issue in surveys conducted throughout the election. As mayor, Lurie will have to ensure that angst isn’t turned on him.Lurie has pledged to fully staff The City’s understaffed police department, in part by creating housing for first responders. He’s promised to reduce The City’s troublesomely long 911 call-response times, and to open a downtown police district to help combat retail theft. Among the pillars of his public-safety plan is a policy of asking courts to geomonitor people released from custody and prohibit them from returning to the neighborhoods in which they were accused of dealing drugs. On Friday, he deflected a question about whether he would fire police Chief Bill Scott, as former interim Mayor Mark Farrell had pledged to do if elected. Instead, Lurie said he would meet with Scott and every other city department head.in their march to recover pre-pandemic ridership, but the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency faces a fiscal cliff without a clear rescue plan. The transit system’s struggles are in large part a reflection of a lethargic downtown that has failed to recapture its pre-pandemic energy. Meanwhile, levels of homelessness remain stubbornly high. And while Breed touted The City’s ability to clear major tent encampments after it was unrestrained by a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year, it’s unclear whether many of the people sleeping in tents are now just living in cars or living tenuous existences in some other way. Lurie has promised to rapidly expand shelter and open 1,500 new beds within six months of taking office. It’s an ambitious goal, and he has yet to disclose precisely where all of these new shelters would be located. At campaign events, he encouraged San Franciscans to consider where they would like to see shelters in their neighborhoods, arguing that every corner of The City has to do its part in exchange for streets he promised would be kept clean of encampments. The City is also under the state’s watchful eye as it embarks on a plan to build more than 80,000 new homes by the end of 2031. Among its immediate priorities isthat will pave the way for all of those new units. Lurie has called for a plan that would allow for more six- to eight-story buildings along transit corridors, but he also placed an emphasis on reducing San Francisco’s notoriously long timelines for project approvals. There are also issues that are less within Lurie’s control to fix, but will still be top of mind for voters. They include a public-school district that, at some point, couldA man, who declined to give his name, reacts while watching election results update on a jumbo screen television in San Francisco on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Aside from everything he’s up against within his own borders, Lurie will have to contend with a second Donald Trump administration that many say will make San Francisco — long a poster child of the political left — a target once again. “Under my watch, San Francisco will stand up for the rights of all of our neighbors,” Lurie promised. “We will never turn a blind eye to racism, bigotry or anti-Asian hate.” Lurie steered focus back to addressing San Francisco’s problems but, pressed by reporters, Lurie elaborated that when it comes to immigrants concerned about deportation threats or LGTBQ youth, his message is “I will have everybody’s back here in San Francisco.”Harrell, a 25-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, was working her regular foot-patrol duty in Union Square on Aug. 31. She has shared her account of that day’s events with multiple outlets. Harrell suddenly heard three gunshots coming from about a block south of her. She rushed to the scene and saw a shirtless man covered in blood. The victim was San Francisco 49ers rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall. The team’s 2024 first-round pick, fresh off an autograph signing outside The City, was returning to his vehicle after purchasing new luggage to prepare for the 49ers’ upcoming road trip. Suddenly, a man approached him, stole his watch and shot him in the chest. When Harrell got to Pearsall, she immediately recognized the severity of his injury. Her next actions — grabbing the 24-year-old’s shirt and pressing it against his chest to apply pressure to the wound and stem the volume of blood oozing out of him — might have saved his life. Amid the chaos, Harrell ordered an ambulance and was able to get a description of the shooter from Pearsall, who described a young man with curly hair wearing all black and running barefoot down Geary Boulevard. Harrell yelled to a nearby officer to radio in the description to the rest of the force — she could not do it herself because she was tending to Pearsall’s wound. Harrell then told Pearsall that he was going to be OK and to be strong like he is out on the field. He even asked her if he was going to die. She assured him he would not.Pearsall held onto Harrell as an ambulance sped toward them. She continued to do so as paramedics bandaged him up and loaded him into the emergency vehicle. Meanwhile, down the street, officers had detained a teenager, and an officer asked whether he was the one. Harrell looked up, saw he matched the description and yelled to them, “keep him there!” The bullet passed through Pearsall’s chest without hitting any of his vital organs. Pearsall was hospitalized in stable condition and was released within days. He is now fully healthy and back on the field, having made his season debut for the 49ers on Oct. 20, less than two months after he was shot.“I think we’ve all seen the measures she went to to make Ricky comfortable,” Lynch told reporters at a press conference a few days after the shooting. “She was there for him in a real rough time, and I know how appreciative Ricky is of that.”during the team’s home opener on Sept. 10. They received a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, and Pearsall presented both with personalized team jerseys., The Examiner has set out to recognize the people who define The City. As our city is being reborn, there have been a few remarkable contributions by people who refuse to succumb to the lazy narrative of doom loops and ,instead, in truly San Francisco style, choose to see the opportunity and will a new future into existence. This is one of the 12 San Franciscans you, our readers, selected whose innovative work and leadership have left an indelible mark on our city and inspire us all to be better San Franciscans.Swords to Plowshares Executive Director, Tramecia Garner , Air Force veteran Joseph White with his dog Nana, and Navy veteran Mark Adams in the background at a Veterans Day party at Swords to Plowshares & Veterans Community Center at 1060 Howard St. in San Francisco on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Tramecia Garner said she never planned to enter a career as an advocate for military veterans, let alone head up one of the nation’s most revered veterans organizations.., a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to supporting unhoused, low-income and at-risk veterans in the Bay Area. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Swords to Plowshares is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. September marked the end of former Executive Director Michael Blecker’s 42-year stint atop the group. Garner said the death of her father-in-law put her on a path to lead the group. He was a Vietnam veteran exposed to Agent Orange — a chemical herbicide the U.S. unleashed during the Vietnam War that contains dioxin, a carcinogenic pollutant — who died while she earned her masters degree from Georgia State University in professional counseling. Millions of Vietnamese and Americans contend with the aftereffects of Agent Orange exposure, according to the Aspen Institute. Married to an army reservist, Garner said she originally sought to work with sexual-assault victims. But her father-in-law’s death “changed the trajectory of things in my life,” she said. Fourteen years ago, Garner moved to the Bay Area for the first time when her husband was called to active-duty reserve status in Mountain View shortly after her graduation. Then, she said, she saw a Swords to Plowshares job listing., which held its annual Veterans Day luncheon Friday at its recently opened Veterans Community Center. The event annually brings together veterans across the Bay Area — many of whom are unhoused or low-income — for a meal, conversations with other veterans and community-building. “There’s no pressure,” Garner said of the event. “No one’s expected to do anything. Just show up and enjoy such a cool space that we have at the community center.” It’s an encapsulation of the service the organization aims to provide for veterans, a group in San Francisco that Garner said sometimes gets forgotten about because of the lack of military bases or other infrastructure in The City. San Francisco is “There are absolutely veterans in San Francisco, folks who are currently serving in San Francisco,” she said. “You just may not see those folks in uniform.” For a half-century, Swords to Plowshares has provided an array of services for the Bay Area’s most vulnerable veterans, including mental-health counseling, meals, legal and housing support, and job training. It also prides itself on being a welcoming place for veterans from marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community, which Garner said still continues to endure fallout from a since-repealed federal law barring military personnel from revealing their sexuality. As she embarks on new role, Garner said that at the top of her priorities remains addressing The City’s unhoused veterans.in San Francisco, according to The City’s Point-In-Time Count earlier this year. That represented a 3% drop from 2022. Garner said Swords to Plowshares’ internal count is down to 350. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in San Francisco housed 574 previously homeless veterans from October 2023 to September 2024, according to VA spokesperson Philip Boughton. That span marked the third consecutive year the department has exceed its goals, which Boughton credited to work alongside organizations such as Swords to Plowshares. “We feel like we are definitely in a place where our numbers — specifically in San Francisco — are at a place where if we could just harness support from The City, working with the VA, we feel like we could really make a huge dent in our numbers,” Garner said. The organization’s strategy at addressing veterans’ homelessness and other chronic concerns centers on Swords to Plowshares serving as a comfortable space for veterans from all walks of life, Garner said.Monique Tran, a U.S. Army veteran, serves lunch at a Veterans Day party at Swords to Plowshares & Veterans Community Center at 1060 Howard St. in San Francisco on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Tran has served as an EMT since 2008. But while serving in Afghanistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, she suffered a permanent leg injury that knocked her out of field duty.Like many veterans, Tran said she was reluctant to ask for help. Her stepdad, a former Marine, encouraged her to join a network such as Swords to Plowshares where she could find community again. But Tran said she did not want to be around large groups — especially civilians, who would not understand the nuances of her experience. But when she finally entered Swords to Plowshares headquarters at 1060 Howard St., she said she quickly felt at home. Tran said she had finally found a place where her peers connected with her. They were people with military backgrounds regularly using jargon such as “roger” and “incoming” in everyday conversation and knew to approach her face to face, not from behind.Tran parlayed her time as a client into a full-time position with Swords to Plowshares as a peer specialist at the nonprofit’s year-old Veterans Community Center. Just as others did for her, Tran said, she helps new clients become comfortable back at home, keeping them comfortable and updated on veterans services available to them in the region. The center’s commissioner, James Boatman, said he knows firsthand the power of what a community space can do for a recently discharged veteran searching for their identity.James Boatman, Veterans Community Center Program Manager, at a Veterans Day party at Swords to Plowshares & Veterans Community Center at 1060 Howard Street in San Francisco on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. The Kansas City native moved to San Francisco in 2017 as a vessel inspector while in the Coast Guard. Following his service, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco. The school’s Veterans Resource Center is an on-campus study area for veterans to meet and build community, with staff providing benefits advice, counseling, document guidance and a host of other services. Boatman said he struggled adjusting to civilian life, away from his friends and the daily routine to which he had become accustomed. “It’s a scary thing, because up until that point, all you’re taught is to stay in the military, stay part of this larger group, because it’s cold outside,” Boatman said. “So when you step out into the cold, it’s a shock, and some people aren’t that equipped to deal with it, or aren’t fortunate enough to have the resources for them to kind of succeed.”“I walked into a community that was already built,” he said. He said many of his peers haven’t been able to land on their feet as he did. Boatman’s now using that experience to shape the mission of Swords and Plowshares’ Veterans Community Center, making it a safe haven for veterans in The City. There remains a deep mental-health stigma in the military and a pressure to adopt a machismo attitude in all realms of life, Boatman said. Military personnel are taught to be self-sufficient and not show weakness, he said. Boatman said that ethos stays with veterans after they’ve left service, discouraging them from seeking help even as they deal with scars — both mental and physical ones — from their time serving. Those struggles and that pain often lead veterans to narcotics, which Boatman said is the the beginning of a downward spiral that can result in homelessness. “Nine times out of 10, that monster is gonna eat you alive,” Boatman said. “So that’s all we’re trying to do here, is just provide a space for them to get that monkey off their back. And hey, we’ll make sure when you’re ready, whenever that is, we’ll be here.” Garner said it’s vital that everyone helps spread awareness about the services Swords to Plowshares provides so veterans know what’s available to them. It can be as simple, she said, as calling Swords to Plowshares to notify them about a veteran seen sleeping on the street. Garner said the organization will immediately deploy trained social workers to try to assist that person and get them into shelter. “We need to be eyes wide open that there are folks who have served their country that find themselves homeless, and we need to do everything that we can to find those folks, get them into services, reconnect them, because we know that their lives can change for the better if we can get access and start to work with folks to rebuild their lives,” she said. Garner also welcomed people to volunteer with them or any organization helping veterans in the Bay Area. Boughton encouraged anyone who wants to be involved with the VA to send an email or make a digital donation. The agency is also now holding its annual Winter Coat Drive, during which it accepts new coats, shirts, socks, gloves, beanies or hand warmers at either the VA Medical Center or any of its nine clinics across the region. Garner emphasized that like any group, veterans are not a monolith. They have diverse experiences with myriad interests, ideologies and social statuses. While much attention is paid — and rightfully so, she said— to veterans living on the streets, struggling with addiction or dealing with mental-health problems, she urged people to remember on Veterans Day that there are also plenty of veterans thriving and “doing amazing work” in The City and across the country. “Veterans do great things,” Garner said. “They’re in every segment of society. Their veteran status is a part of who they are, but not all of who they are.” “I find that folks who serve in the military are just very resilient and amazing people, and I think I would just want the public to know that,” she said.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. 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