To get to where he is now — delivering his inauguration speech in front of a crowd of 2,000 attendees sitting at Civic Center Plaza alongside many hundreds of onlookers — Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, ran a lavishly funded campaign over 13 months, putting up his blue-and-yellow name signs all over town. He spent some $9.6 million directly, and a PAC ponied up $6.6 million more.
Now, under a cloudless blue sky, the Civic Center Plaza and the front of City Hall were adorned with blue-and-gold banners depicting the rising sun of a brand new day.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era of accountability and change at City Hall, one that, above all else, serves you, the people of San Francisco,” Lurie addressed the crowd, after being sworn in as San Francisco’s 46th mayor. “Make no mistake. Hope is alive and well in San Francisco.”
Unlike his predecessors, Lurie did not hold his inauguration ceremony at the steps of the City Hall. Rather, the Civic Center Plaza across from Polk Street was packed. Thousands, blocking the sun with their hands or the ceremony pamphlets, expected to hear from their new mayor about what he has in store for the city.
On the first day of his new administration, Lurie reiterated a campaign promise to tackle the city’s overdose crisis, albeit in a slightly modified fashion. He cannot actually declare a fentanyl state of emergency that gives him extraordinary powers — enabling him to essentially govern by fiat — because that requires a state of “unforeseen” circumstances, which the fentanyl crisis is not.
“The fentanyl crisis isn’t a 9-to-5 operation. It doesn’t take breaks, and neither will we,” Lurie said, “That is why I’m introducing a package of Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinances. This will allow us to further surge resources and bypass the bureaucratic hurdles standing in the way of tackling this crisis.”
Unlike an actual state of emergency, which would bestow vast powers on the mayor, the “package of fentanyl state of emergency ordinances” appears to be far more limited — though, as it uses the same terms, this may be difficult for people to parse.
The ordinances appear to remove the Board of Supervisors’ ability to review and approve nonprofits’ contracts, and transfer those powers to the implementing city departments. Lurie is, in essence, asking the Board to undercut its own authority over the hot-button issue of nonprofit performance.
Pushback from both the board and labor, which would have less input under this arrangement, is highly plausible.
Still, in his 18-minute long speech, Lurie promised to treat fentanyl as an emergency, and pledged a host of other things. He swore zero cuts to sworn police officers, 911 operators, EMTs, firefighters and nurses, and said he would fully staff those departments.
He also announced plans to open the city’s first 24/7 police-friendly “Drop Off Center,” an alternative drop-off point for the EMS and the police if an individual who needs crisis behavioral health care but doesn’t need to go to jail or an emergency room.
Lurie also announced a San Francisco Police Department hospitality zone task force for downtown areas including Union Square, Market Street, and Moscone Center.
The new mayor, who was sworn in 12 days before President-elect Donald Trump, did not once mention the incoming administration, which veteran politicos say will put a “bullseye” on San Francisco, leading to one of newcomer Lurie’s toughest challenges. He addressed the city’s fear of Trump only obliquely.
“San Francisco must be a city where every individual feels safe, valued, and empowered,” Lurie said. “That means standing firm against discrimination, and fighting for the dignity of all communities, no matter what comes our way.”
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the former surgeon general of California who met Lurie in 2005 when she was a pediatrician in Bayview Hunters-Point, was one of four who gave opening remarks today.
“It was no surprise to me when soon, community organizers started saying, ‘hey, Nadine Burke, I was at this meeting the other day, what’s up with the white guy in the back of the room with his sleeves rolled up?’ ” said Harris, who was also one of those giving opening remarks when Lurie launched his campaign in September 2023 — a full circle.
“It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work, San Francisco,” Lurie said in his ending remarks.
After Lurie spoke, Michael Franti, a Bay Area musician, came onto the stage with his guitar. “Here I am, just waiting for this storm to pass me by, and that’s the sound of sunshine going down,” Franti sang and was followed by the San Francisco Gay Men Chorus‘ sing-along. The crowd dispersed as lion dancers came in and hundreds of attendees lined up to enter City Hall for refreshments — donuts and bagels — and to write down their wishes for San Francisco on notecards and drop them into a wooden box.
One by one, they trickled into City Hall between the walls that Lurie, who fiercely criticized insiders during the campaign, now finds himself within.
He’s not going to do a damn thing that benefits working families. But watch all those tax breaks come for his friends, and the tax payers of S.F. will be on the hook. He won’t stop drugs because his friends use them in droves behind closed doors. He won’t stop prostitution because half his appointees benefits from it. And the police will be able to do whatever the they want, and watch them target people who isn’t rich or affluent. This mofo will use his pawns to give you word salad and when Trump comes in to the city to mess with it because of his own bullshittery, this aloof billionaire will bend over quicker than his cronies in the Castro when they see someone like Thor walks in to a “straight” bar.
Here we go,
This guy is his own man and while he’s singing the standard hard-line on drugs now, once he realizes that Reform works and Revenge only creates more criminals, he’ll be freer to move the money around w/out worrying about hurting the cops feelings.
Hey, SFPOA didn’t back him anyway.
I’d like to see him get really radical.
Copy Europe and decriminalize drugs.
Takes cops and dealers out of what is mostly a medical problem.
Hey, if addicts commit crimes then send the cops after them.
Otherwise, write them a prescription, not a citation.
Go Niners !!
h.
“Copy Europe and decriminalize drugs”. Done in Oregon a few years ago. Except our neighbors to the North forgot to implement the flipside: You won’t keep a tent on a sidewalk in Lisbon (or elsewhere) for long, or generally be a menace to residents and visitors. Same goes for selling stolen goods.
It makes you wonder whether any of the people who tell us to copy Europe have ever actually been to Europe.