After Daniel Lurie is sworn in as the 46th mayor of San Francisco January 8, he'll have to focus on delivering for the communities that helped propel the political novice to Room 200 of City Hall. With a looming budget deficit, and the city's seemingly intractable issues like housing, homelessness and public safety, he will face myriad challenges on day one of his freshman term.
For District 8, where Lurie won a number of precincts in Noe Valley and Diamond Heights, as well as in the Castro neighborhood proper, that looks like working with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman on the new LGBTQ history museum, the Harvey Milk Plaza project, and adding more subacute behavioral health beds, the longtime gay civic leader told the Bay Area Reporter. Mandelman supported outgoing Mayor London Breed in the election.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, the city in late November officially purchased the Market & Noe Center at 2280 Market Street (at Noe Street) for $11.6 million to become the country's first free-standing LGBTQ history museum and archival center. Lurie's administration now needs to reach a lease agreement with the nonprofit GLBT Historical Society and another arts nonprofit that will help it manage the property, expected to be voted on by the Board of Supervisors before the summer.
"On the museum, we have acquired the building," Mandelman said in a phone interview. "The city now is the owner of the building, but we have to figure everything else out – the relationship between the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), the [GLBT] Historical Society, and the city, how that relationship will work going forward, what the documents will be, lease options to purchase rights of first refusal terms, all of the maintenance obligations, how the property will be maintained and the portions that are not going to be in the short-term part of the museum, how those will be operated and managed – basically everything beyond the acquisition itself."
Mandelman is in the running to be board president next week, and he added that "it'll be important for there to be alignment between the mayor and the Board of Supervisors in figuring out what the city's options are going to be in negotiating those terms."
The Harvey Milk Plaza renovation project got a boost when voters approved Proposition B, a $390 million general obligation bond for infrastructure in the November election. Of that, $25 million is earmarked for the plaza redesign that sits above the Castro Muni stop at Castro and Market streets. However, Mandelman said that will not be enough to completely fund the project.
"I've heard a number for the project costs in the high 30s, $30 million, and there's some question of where that number – I think [San Francisco] Public Works came up with that figure – it's much more than the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza anticipated it would be," Mandelman said December 16. "We're having a meeting with [Public Works] this week."
As the B.A.R. reported in its December 26 issue, the total cost for the plaza project is expected to be $35 million, with the friends group looking to raise more than $7 million to cover historical installations about Milk's legacy and other ornamental aspects of the design. It is hoped the city will cover the rest of the outstanding price tag for the remodel.
The $25 million specified in the bond may be enough to get the project started, as it will take several years to build, but "we need more clarity about what amounts are needed, where, what for and how we will close any gaps," Mandelman said.
The bond also set aside funds to relocate City Clinic, the public health center South of Market where many LGBTQ people have sought sexual health services for decades, out of its dilapidated building on Seventh Street. It will be up to the Department of Public Health under Lurie's administration to deliver on the new site for it.
Finally, Mandelman is trying to build the city's shelter bed capacity. On this he aligns with a Lurie campaign promise to add both shelter and treatment beds.
"In my first six months, we're going to set up 1,500 emergency shelter beds to make sure they're safe, they're dignified," Lurie said at a September debate.
Asked how he'd pay for it, Lurie responded, "We spend $700 million a year on our behavioral health system right now. There are savings that we can make."
Mandelman said that there's 140 subacute behavioral health beds and that adding 50-100 additional beds would represent "a significant expansion of bed capacity."
Mandelman explained to the Castro Merchants Association December 5 that "an additional hundred beds could impact thousands of people over the course of a year, freeing up the flow in the system" because the city's psychiatric beds are often full "because there's nowhere to take people in the psychiatric beds to."
"I think everyone in the Castro knows there's a lot of people in the Castro who need a long-term bed, and some people might need a lock on the door for their time in those beds," Mandelman continued.
Lurie picks ex-Twitter exec for downtown revitalization
The B.A.R. tried to arrange an interview with Lurie prior to this report, but a spokesperson stated that he would not be answering policy questions prior to his inauguration. The B.A.R. submitted written questions to Lurie about the museum, the plaza, and the behavioral health beds, among other topics.
Lurie responded only that, "I'm building a team rooted in accountability, service, and change to tackle San Francisco's historic challenges."
Indeed, the last several weeks have seen several personnel announcements. After announcing a transition team November 18 that includes gay OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung, Lurie rolled out his first appointments December 12, including Staci Slaughter, the previous longtime executive vice president for the San Francisco Giants, as his chief of staff, and Matthew Goudeau, a gay man who was a senior adviser to Lurie's campaign and is currently director of the office of the mayor-elect, as his deputy chief of staff.
Tung referred comment for this report to a Lurie spokesperson. Altman spokespeople did not return a request for comment.
Lurie also announced a restructuring of the mayor's office. The current situation has 56 agencies reporting to the mayor through a policy director who reports to the chief of staff, currently former supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who has largely fulfilled his promise of being an unseen partner in the administration of the city to Breed.
Under Lurie's new structure, there'll be one chief of staff and four separate policy chiefs, covering housing and economic development; infrastructure, climate, and mobility; public health and wellbeing; and public safety.
On December 17, Lurie named Ned Segal – the former chief financial officer of Twitter, axed by Elon Musk after his 2022 takeover of the company prior to its transformation into X – as the chief of housing and economic development. (Segal is currently suing Musk, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, for unpaid severance.)
A news release states Segal's main tasks will be "revitalizing downtown, with a strong focus on arts, culture, and businesses of all sizes" and "accelerating the development of new housing to meet the city's pressing needs."
To achieve this, Segal will be working with the departments of building inspection, city planning, economic and workforce development, and housing and community development, as well as with the arts, library, and airport commissions.
"As a city known for its innovation and boundless potential, San Francisco has long been a beacon of creativity and growth. Under the bold leadership of Mayor-elect Lurie, we have a mandate to reimagine what's possible and I feel great urgency to deliver," Segal stated in the release. "Together, we'll create a San Francisco that is not only safe and welcoming, but also full of opportunity and hope – a city where every resident and business can thrive, dream, and help shape the future. The city faces a budget crisis, and returning to meaningful economic growth will be critical to helping San Francisco and San Franciscans thrive."
During the campaign, Lurie had promised to create a downtown police district to cover the Moscone Center, Yerba Buena, and Union Square and to get the downtown office vacancy rate to 10% in eight years in office (it was 36.9% in the third quarter of 2024, Global Commercial Real Estate Services reports).
"Ned embodies the kind of innovative leadership San Francisco desperately needs to tackle our most pressing challenges," Lurie stated. "With his strong background in the private sector, a deep love for San Francisco backed by extensive civic engagement, and a track record of delivering results, Ned is uniquely positioned to lead the revitalization of downtown, accelerate housing production, and drive economic growth in our city."
Some pushback
Not everyone is pleased with Lurie's restructuring idea. Retired San Mateo County Superior Court judge and former state senator Quentin Kopp, who led a successful ballot campaign in 1991 to ban "deputy mayors" in the city, threatened to sue over the proposal, Mission Local reported.
Lurie also promised to declare a fentanyl state of emergency on day one, recruit 425 police officers in his first three years, and create an online permit and entitlement approval tracker.
Politicos sound off
Some of Tung's colleagues on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee shared their hopes for Lurie's forthcoming tenure. Joe Sangirardi, a gay man who was elected along with a slate of moderate Democrats to the DCCC earlier this year, stated that LGBTQ people should have confidence in him.
"Lurie was one of the only major candidates that doesn't have baggage with the LGBTQ community," said Sangirardi, who unsuccessfully ran for a BART board seat in November. "But actions speak louder than words. Many of Lurie's top advisers were LGBTQ. And we know the mayor-elect courted LGBTQ voters hard, even with (the fairly cutesy) LGBTQ-centered campaign signs. And now he's named a gay man [Goudeau] as his deputy chief of staff. This all gives me a lot of confidence."
(In one ad Lurie ran in the B.A.R. during Pride Month in June, it asked "Daniel curious?" with the lettering in the colors of the rainbow flag. The question played off the term bi-curious for people looking to explore their romantic options, similar to the largely unknown Lurie asking LGBTQ voters to be open to electing him as mayor.)
Michael Nguyen, a gay man, is one of several progressives elected to the DCCC.
"My hope is Lurie creates a signature LGBTQ program that addresses a huge need that intersects with his background doing anti-poverty work," he stated.
(Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, is the founder and former CEO of Tipping Point Community, a grant-making, anti-poverty nonprofit.)
"Nearly half of San Francisco's homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, and Mayor-elect Lurie can make a huge impact on the LGBTQ community by committing to ending youth homelessness in San Francisco," Nguyen stated.
Nguyen revealed that he met with Lurie and his staff about this issue during the campaign "and he seemed receptive at the time."
"My worry is that LGBTQ issues could get drowned out by the very real threat of Trump's mass deportation plans," Nguyen stated, referring to the president-elect, who will take office January 20 and has pledged to round up undocumented immigrants and deport them. "Yet, Lurie has surrounded himself with very knowledgeable and capable people, so I remain optimistic."
Nguyen is "also hopeful that social housing development will actually happen under this new administration."
"I had an idea for LGBTQ intergenerational social housing that got integrated into the official recommendations for spending Prop I funds, but the previous administration blocked the use of those funds for social housing," Nguyen stated, referring to the 2022 transfer tax ballot measure. "I am hopeful that the Lurie administration will take a new look at social housing and the recent study that was released showing mixed income social housing could be financially feasible in San Francisco."
Breed weighs in
Speaking of the last administration, the B.A.R. asked Breed during an exit interview in December what she thinks Lurie could learn either from things she thinks she did well, or things she thinks she could have done better.
"I don't know how to answer that question," Breed said. "That's a hard one to answer because, you know, I have a lot of experience and a lot of understanding about many complex problems running a city, and so my hope is that he does a good job because the city is important, and it shouldn't rise and fall with whoever is in charge.
"This office is bigger than a person, and my desire is to see any person in this role successful, and it's hard to say for someone coming in without really any experience what that might be," she added. "But I hope that, at least, he will surround himself with people who can help govern, because running a race, spending a lot of money to run a race, is not a hard thing to do, to hire a bunch of people – and I don't mean that in any way, look, the campaign is over – but that's different from when you have to come in and actually govern."
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