Before Julia Baran, the proprietor of the pet store the Animal Connection, shared videos with reporters documenting the state of the store she took over in May, she twice called the mayor’s office to let them know her concerns about its former owner, Beya Alcaraz.
She wasn’t taken seriously. The responses from Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office ranged from offering to refer her to business programs to questioning the messenger. Twice, a staffer asked what Baran expected the mayor’s office to do.
Exchanges between the 26-year-old Baran and the mayor’s office illustrate that Lurie’s team lacked its own answer on how to handle the nomination of a district supervisor that was quickly unravelling.
A new owner, videos and shock at a mayoral appointment
Baran, who purchased the Animal Connection from Alcaraz in May of this year, learned about Alcaraz’s appointment on Thursday, Nov. 6, when Lurie announced his pick for District 4 supervisor and swore Alcaraz in at the Ortega Branch Library.
“I was in such disbelief,” said Baran. “This seems like a joke.”
Her surprise came from her own disappointing experience with Alcaraz, who left her a pet store in disarray, as reported by the San Francisco Standard.
When she took over the shop, Baran discovered hundreds of dead mice on the sales floor, rodent feces and urine, and a freezer filled with dead animals. Baran also blamed Alcaraz for not being transparent about the lease, which the landlord will not renew beyond January.
As recently as Sept. 14 — almost two weeks before Alcaraz reportedly approached Lurie at the Sunset After Dark night market to ask him for the job of supervisor — Baran posted a video of cleaning up mouse droppings and a mouse nest at her new store.
“It was my ‘Oh sh*t, what did I get myself into?’ kind of moment,” she wrote.
“Everyone working here has cleaned a lot,” she said in another video in July. “It was definitely in need of a deep clean.”
It appears that no one in the mayor’s office had seen the public postings — or they chose to ignore them.
But Baran was not going to let that happen. To her, they indicated bad business practices, and Baran knew there were others, like the lease, that could not so easily be cleaned up.
A series of phone calls
On Nov. 6, the day Alcaraz was sworn in, Baran decided to text the San Francisco Standard’s tip line. A reporter immediately followed up.
But before sharing the video evidence to the press, Baran reached out to the mayor’s office to alert them the state of the store she had acquired.
She made her first call to the mayor’s office at 9:28 a.m. on Nov. 7, a Friday. An unknown female staffer took the call, Baran said. She told the staffer that Alcaraz had left her with a store that was filthy and financially precarious.
Instead of asking questions, Baran said, “They kind of wrote me off and were like, ‘We have business programs to help you.”
“I was like, ‘I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. I have reporters coming later today. This is about the new supervisor Alcaraz,’” she said.
That same afternoon, she had a meeting with a Standard reporter. But before the meeting, she again called the mayor’s office at 2:09 p.m.
This time she was told “someone was looking into” Baran’s concerns about Alcaraz. The staffer took down Baran’s email and phone number.
Baran pleaded with the staffer, whose name she did not get: “I have reporters coming, please take it seriously.”
That Friday afternoon, as Alcaraz and Lurie went on a merchant walk on Irving Street, Baran met with two reporters and shared one of many videos she had of the rodent-infested pet store.
Later that day, Han Zou, the mayor’s director of public affairs, called Baran. She gave him the rundown of her complaints and sent videos of the store covered in rodent feces. She also sent screenshots of texts in which Alcaraz had asked Baran to stop posting Instagram videos of cleaning up the store.
“And do people have these?” Zou asked, according to Baran. When he learned that Baran had sent one video to the press, “he audibly sighed,” Baran recalled.
On the same Friday, Nov. 7, at 5:25 p.m., Baran texted Zou all the videos of the pet store’s conditions. Zou did not reply.
On Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11:41 a.m., Baran texted Zou again asking for an update. She was angry. The Standard reporter told her that the mayor’s office was pushing back on her claim and questioning her credibility.
“It’s disappointing to hear that you’re telling the Standard the story isn’t true when I’ve sent you the evidence,” Baran texted Zou. “Please let me know what steps are being taken to remedy the situation or I will send the rest of these videos to the Standard and Chronicle.”
Zou texted Baran, “Are there specific actions you’re hoping we can do to remedy the situation?”
Baran said she didn’t know the options. She asked if the mayor knew about Alcaraz’s history with the pet store.
“I’m making sure the appropriate people from our office are aware,” Zou texted, and again asked what Baran wanted the mayor to do.
“I don’t want anything,” she wrote back. “It is not right that the taxpayers are paying for someone to represent them that is clearly unfit to do so. It should be up to the mayor and your team to figure out how to remedy the situation of appointing someone like this without doing any proper due diligence.”
Zou did not reply. On Sunday, Baran sent all videos and screenshots to the press.
The next day, on Monday, Nov. 10, the Standard published the story revealing the pet store’s filthy conditions and struggling finances. In a statement to the Standard, Lurie stood by his decision, applauding Alcaraz’s “determination and work ethic” for keeping the store open during the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Lurie doubled down on his appointment and told reporters that Alcaraz was “absolutely” vetted, ABC Channel 7 reported.
On Thursday, Nov. 13, when Mission Local called the mayor’s office for a reaction to a story about Alcaraz’s acknowledging in writing potential tax evasion practices, the Lurie team again stood by Alcaraz.
She “knows how hard it is to run a small business in San Francisco” and will “bring the same grit and determination” to advocate for the Sunset, the mayor’s office wrote to Mission Local.
Four hours after Mission Local published its story, Alcaraz had had enough. She stepped down from the job. It’s unclear if Alcaraz made the decision on her own, or with the mayor’s office.
The following day, Friday, Nov. 14, the mayor stepped up.
“As mayor, I take full responsibility for Supervisor Alcaraz,” he said at a press conference at City Hall. “We are going to have a much more thorough vetting process.” He declined to answer questions about the current process.
Baran, who voted for Lurie last year, said the saga “just showed so much incompetence” from the mayor. “Just one phone call would have saved everyone from this. [Alcaraz] has been so publicly embarrassed, and she didn’t have to be,” Baran said.
Baran wasn’t the only business colleague the mayor’s office failed to call for references.
Jamaica Stevens, executive director of JAMaROO Kids, the school where Alcaraz taught music and arts to kids before taking on the supervisor job, said that she didn’t receive a background-check call from the mayor’s office, either.
“But if he did, we would only have positive things to say,” Stevens said. She described Alcaraz as a “responsible and communicative” employee who has “strong work ethic and excellent attendance.”
For her part, Baran said she has no regrets about her decision to go to the press.
“I do feel bad for her. I think I will continue to feel bad for her,” she said. “But I did the right thing. People deserve to know the truth, and that the mayor is not doing his job. This was a really big decision for him, and he just messed it up really bad.”
Julia Baran, at the tender age of 26, has major chutzpah, a solid moral compass, and considerable life experience. Mayor Lurie should personally thank her and invest in her fledgling enterprise. She exactly the kind of citizen and business person that we should want in our City.
Baran admits to being late on rent and has said no money has changed hands regarding transfer of ownership despite Alcaraz stating she wanted “a couple hundred grand” for inventory when searching for a new owner. Business is in Baran’s name and lease is in Alcaraz’s name. These are red flags. There is potentially a ongoing financial agreement between Alcaraz and Baran. How short-sighted would we have to be not to realize Alcaraz probably has her own version of how the business transfer went down, and how capable Baran has proven.
Please cite your (credible) sources of information.
In the articles published in the SF Chronicle and SF Standard, there is no mention of Baran “being late on rent”.
To the contrary, the articles note that it was Alcarez who was late on paying rent.
Furthermore, in those articles it was stated that Alvarez agreed to sell the business to Baran for a lump sum of $10,000; not “a couple of hundred grand”.
> “Baran says she should have been more diligent about reviewing The Animal Connection’s background and Alcaraz’s record as its owner. She hasn’t been the perfect tenant.
She admitted to paying her rent late.”
Upon rereading, I see I confused the antecedent. I did it twice, so a Standard editor might want to better clarify. My apologies to Baran. Fwiw, I do think she made the right decision.
Oh now I see what you did.
Always sucks for a lawyer to get burned by a keyboard warrior.
> “Baran says she should have been more diligent about reviewing The Animal Connection’s background and Alcaraz’s record as its owner. She hasn’t been the perfect tenant.
She admitted to paying her rent late.”
> “While the deal was advertised as a giveaway, Alcaraz said she wanted to recoup the price of her merchandise for “a couple hundred grand” … no money has exchanged hands, according to Baran.”
https://sfstandard.com/2025/11/10/san-francisco-alcaraz-daniel-lurie-sunset-supervisor-animal-connection-pet-store/
The lease ends Jan 1 either way because they aren’t renewing it, which Alcaraz promised apparently, and Baran had to haul away all the ruined inventory as well as deep-clean the building inside the walls and whatnot. Being slightly late on the rent for a cancelled lease ending in 30 days is literally the least important of the daunting tasks ahead if she’s going to keep the business alive as she’d hoped. They tried to transfer the lease to Baran and the lessor denied the request. That’s certainly not Baran’s fault whatsoever and only partially in Alcaraz’s control, though she did seem to promise it. “There is potentially a ongoing financial agreement between Alcaraz and Baran.” Until one is released to the media you’re speculating based on nothing. Read the other articles. Baran is the one getting screwed over here, Alcaraz is at least partially at fault, and the lessor pulling the rug out is perhaps expected to those with real estate experience but disappointing nonetheless to those who hope to keep the pet store afloat. Alcaraz has admitted what Baran has said is true in so many words. Please think about what you’re claiming.
Not true. I am speculating based on reporting and claiming nothing. And to be clear, I have no issue with Alcaraz or Baran. My point was that @Karl is ignoring the lesson. Swap Baran’s name for Alcaraz’s in @Koba’s post and it reads like a promo for Alcaraz from two weeks ago.
Well at least you admit it’s speculation. That is something.
I don’t understand the motivation.
Great respect for Ms. Baran. We need more people of this city to stand up, make the effort, and have the courage that she did in seeing it through. Bravo.
With every detail that emerges, Julia Baran come out looking even better and the Mayor comes out looking even worse. Not even calling the current employer?? Lurie owes the city a full accounting of his selection and vetting process, not that I trust him to deliver.
Top notch reporting! Glad to see the focus on the mayor’s poor-decision-making. I’m like with his process poor decision to choose his buddies database system for Permit Center despite all the red flags. Certainly our city needs strong leadership, but as a strong leader it’s good to ask *some* questions before you make a decision.
It is certainly disappointing that this mayor, who campaigned on not being a politician (implying he wouldn’t engage in political games), and his team chose to ignore a resident’s legitimate concerns. Instead of addressing the issue, they went into damage control, attempted to cover up their mistakes, and continued to support a candidate with numerous red flags. If this is the alternative to traditional politics, it is truly very upsetting.
Pretty disgraceful from Lurie and his Admin. My hometown is used constantly as everyone’s honey pot and toilet tissue.
Lurie, Zou and Alcaraz are a disgrace. End of story.
Alcaraz is a failed small business owner who cut some corners, but I think Han Zou has the most liability in this. He knows what vetting looks like, or he should. This was all very academic stuff to check into and he obviously didn’t, and when Baran came forward to him with hair on fire details, he shrugged and said “well what do you want me to do about it” like it’s Baran’s job to explain Alcaraz isn’t fit for Supervisor and the Mayor needs to act, now.
Han Zou has absolutely blown his job up. Lurie obviously put too much stock in him doing the work that needed to get done, and it simply didn’t. If Lurie doesn’t fire Han Zou by the end of the week I’ll be facepalming for him from afar. You can’t fail like this at this salary level with all the eyeballs of the City on you. He did not do his job and Lurie (rightly) gets the PR consequences that officially end his post-election honeymoon. Whatever he does next, people are watching.
Totally agree. In fact, I just wrote to Lurie saying, at the very minimum, he should fire Han Zou. I also said he (Lurie) should resign, but I know that’s never going to happen.
Yeah this was all on Zou. Lurie delegated and it blew up.
A little premature to resign I think, but he did take “full responsibility” at least rhetorically so that’s… what that’s worth. Better than London Breed? It’s kind of a wash.
When Mayor Newsom had a D4 vacancy, he found a competent staffer with his politics (Carmen Chu). When Mayor Lee had a D4 vacancy, he found a competent staffer with his politics (Katy Tang). What’s so tough? But Mayor Lurie pretends that he is an apolitical technocrat. Makes it hard to do a fundamentally POLITICAL act. He can’t own it.
“People deserve to know the truth and that the mayor is not doing his job. This was a really big decision for him, and he just messed it up really bad.”
Thank you, Julia.
It will only get worse,
Lurie is now pretty much silo’d by a staff who, as Zou put it are …
“making sure appropriate people from our office are aware”
Notice the huge glaring cop in your lead photo.
That’s his idea of a good cop and he sent one from this detail to replace a new Progressive minded Mission native who was extending an open hand to our residents and not a closed fist.
First thing they did was bring back the ‘Hill Bomb’ Captain who’s about to cost us millions for his violence against innocent Latino youth so’s the guy could lead squads around the district breaking up 4th of July parties.
If it weren’t for the dead bodies lying around 16th and Mission he’d probably be convinced that this method works.
He could have avoided all of this by taking on Peskin as a Volunteer adviser as I suggested and drawn on that 25 years of honest experience.
We need an elected Police Chief and Kobans at the BART stops for a start.
For more answers from people who know like Matt Gonzalez and Adriel Hampton and Rich Hillis come to Manny’s for this Saturday afternoon’s screening of a film of my attempt to stop Newsom in 2002 in his first contested election.
go Niners !!
h.
Han Zou is incompetent. That’s what this all boils down to.
Maybe if this pet store doesn’t work out, I hope she can go back to finish her studies at UC Berkeley. According to the SF Chronicle story she’s had quite a rough road. Good luck to her and her brother. Admire her courage.
Looks like Ms. Baran would be a great candidate for the position of D4 supervisor.
She’s already running to replace Lurie, she just doesn’t realize it yet.
Not all heroes wear capes! Good work Julia.
The highest form of wisdom is kindness.
Lurie deserves this scrutiny. I wish Mission Local would have the same scrutiny for the Mission District supervisor. How many articles have been about the mayor vs the local Mission representative? Maybe the newspaper needs a name change…. Keep up the good work!
What’s with the fetishists always trying to change the subject to Fielder?
There are plenty of articles about Fielder you can go read. Not this one.
Get with it folks.
Great story. Might you look into the purchase of the Alcaraz family home?
Team Lurie, please send your resumes to Mar A Lago or Washington, they always hire the brightest.
Missing the part of the story where she inspects the business she’s buying…
She paid nothing just to keep the long standing local business going. Baran did the right thing throughout.
Pretty sure she did, that’s why the price was reduced from $80k to $10k
Haha yeah that’s why she should not be appointed to citywide office! Got her! Oh wait…