San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is still very much enjoying a honeymoon with voters. That was apparent with Castro denizens who greeted him on a sunny Friday afternoon merchant walk two months into his term.
Gay and AIDS activist Cleve Jones was among those who said hello to Lurie as he strolled the city's LGBTQ neighborhood March 7. A longtime neighborhood fixture who now resides in Guerneville, Jones is a union activist with Unite Here, which represents hospitality workers.
Unite Here Local No. 2 and several hotel chains came to a labor agreement after a strike last fall, which Lurie had won praise for helping to resolve after winning last year's mayoral race on the November ballot. Jones walked up to Lurie to offer appreciation for his role in ending the strike.
"I just want to thank you," Jones, who had not met Lurie before, said. "What you did for the members of Local 2 meant the world for me. Apparently, you knew who to call."
Lurie responded, "I knew we had to get going on that."
To which, Jones quipped, "especially with the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference," referring to the January 13-16 confab. (The strike came to an end December 24.)
Lurie thanked Jones for the compliment and suggested they get coffee.
Despite that early success for Lurie prior to his inauguration on January 8, the city's challenges – from street homelessness to provocations from the Trump administration – remain salient. As the Bay Area Reporter reported the day prior to the mayor's Castro stroll, there was some talk at the March 6 Castro Merchants Association meeting that open air drug scenes and unhoused people had merely moved from the Civic Center Plaza and the Sixth Street corridor to other neighborhoods amid ongoing crackdowns by police in the downtown area.
Asked how he'd deal with these concerns, Lurie told the B.A.R., "We should do the same thing here we have done on Sixth Street, which is make sure we get people off the street and into mental health treatment beds, which is going to take us time. It's going to take us time on Sixth Street; it's going to take us time on 16th and Mission."
Police Chief William Scott explained to the B.A.R. last month that the plan is to provide permanent support from nonprofits like Urban Alchemy once police come into a neighborhood in an attempt to improve street conditions.
"This is an all-hands-on-deck approach," Lurie said last week. "There is going to be displacement, but the idea is we're going to go everywhere around this city."
Lurie is making good on a campaign promise for a 24/7 police-friendly stabilization center, which will be at 822 Geary Street. The 16-bed facility is slated to open in April.
Tough budget year looms
Throwing a potential wrench in Lurie's plans is that the city must deal with a projected $840 million budget deficit. In order to balance the budget, Lurie asked city departments to slash 15% of their budgets.
Federal funds for the liberal city are in jeopardy with Republican President Donald Trump and the GOP controlling the purse strings in Congress. The San Francisco Chronicle reported March 10 that Lurie sent City Attorney David Chiu, Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum, and other local leaders to the nation's capital to lobby against budget cuts.
Meanwhile, several local LGBTQ and AIDS service nonprofits (including the San Francisco Community Health Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation) are suing the Trump administration over stop-work orders or termination notices for federal funds that happened after the president signed a number of executive orders targeting certain health services, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
Asked if there'd be city funds available should the nonprofits' lawsuit be unsuccessful, Lurie said, "I cannot speak on pending litigation matters, but listen, we're going to be going through a really challenging budget time, and we need to fund those nonprofits that are effective and efficient. We got three months and we're going to be having conversations with [gay Board of Supervisors President and District 8 supervisor] Rafael Mandelman and the other supervisors, so we have a lot of work to do."
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Mandelman is among those who have made clear they feel the best way to stand up for San Francisco values is to show it's governable by focusing on public safety and boosting small business.
He supported Lurie's move to remove Max Carter-Oberstone, a progressive whom critics charged was an obstructionist, from the police commission ahead of Scott's rumored departure. Since the departure of lesbian Debra Walker from the oversight body late last year, it has no LGBTQ members, and neither of Lurie's two appointments are LGBTQ.
Asked about committing to appointing queer commissioners, Lurie said that one can't extrapolate based on these two appointments.
"100%," he said, when asked if he'd commit to LGBTQ appointments. "Absolutely. We are committed to it, and it continues to be a priority. People shouldn't read into two appointments."
Mayor promotes 24/7 mindset
Jones wasn't the only one happy to see Lurie in the neighborhood. He was joined on the walk by Mandelman, Mission Station Captain Liza Johansen, and members of the Castro Merchants Association's board.
"I think it's awesome he came to the Castro," said Merchants president Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who co-owns Cliff's Variety. "We asked him to come, and he came. It's important for him to see the street conditions here. Our street conditions change by the hour and day."
Lurie visited such businesses as Cliff's, Eureka Sky, the Castro Coffee Company, and Hot Johnnie's, He also stopped by the Castro Country Club, a sober gathering place on 18th Street, where he had a brief back patio meeting with Billy Lemon, a gay man who leads the nonprofit facility.
"I think the mayor is doing a really good job listening to constituents," Lemon told the B.A.R. afterward.
Two people drinking coffee on the patio of the club shared their views.
"I'm very grateful he won," Mark Stockbridge, a gay man, told the B.A.R. "I think he can do it. I firmly believe he can do it."
Ray Crist, another gay man, is warming up to the new mayor, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who had no political experience prior to moving into Room 200 at City Hall other than overseeing local poverty-fighting nonprofit Tipping Point.
"I was against him," Crist said. "All the money in politics doesn't sit right. But he seems to be a fine guy, talking about the right things."
Lurie spent $8.9 million on his own campaign, in addition to almost a million dollars in small donations, the San Francisco Examiner reported.
For his own part, Lurie said nothing about the job is really surprising him – except for how much he likes it. The Castro was one of several neighborhoods he visited last weekend that made an appearance on his social media accounts.
He said he wants to make sure the city government employees are cognizant of their need to stay responsive on weekends and after regular business hours.
"I love the job," he said. "I love being able to have impact and bring people together. I think, honestly, one the biggest surprises, we have to become a city government that really thinks of itself as engaged and on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's too often we turn off as a city at 5 p.m. on Friday and we wait till Monday to get back."
Having a round-the-clock mindset is critical, said Lurie, in a city where tourism is the number one industry.
"We got people working Saturday and Sunday who need the Muni stations cleaned," noted Lurie, adding that his administration is "building a culture that we need to lean forward, staff, really focused on those tourists, those visitors and our families. Breaking through that and being aligned on that, that's been one of the big challenges or surprises."
One way the Castro might be attracting some of those tourists in the future is through the forthcoming LGBTQ history museum at 2280 Market Street, as the B.A.R. has reported. Mandelman told the B.A.R. during the merchant walk that the city is still working on the lease to be sent to the supervisors for their approval, and that it may take several months.
Castro Theatre work resumes
As Lurie walked by the Castro Theatre – currently shuttered for renovations – he was approached by Derrick Connolly, a gay man, who told him about construction delays that theater manager Another Planet Entertainment blamed on the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., but that the utility said was due to last minute changes by APE, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
"You would get a lot of bonus points in this neighborhood if you could help," Connolly said.
The B.A.R. followed up with gay APE spokesperson David Perry, who stated March 10 the issue with PG&E has been resolved and that construction is moving forward. The opening, which had been originally announced as June 2025, will be at the end of the year, or after, Hoodline reported the same day.
"We have been working tirelessly in partnership with PG&E to bring the much-needed electrical service into the theater to support the theater's programming," Perry stated. "Work has already commenced and will continue until the job is complete."
Shortly after walking by the theater, Lurie, Asten Bennett and Mandelman were at Cliff's making an Instagram story for the mayor's prolific social media account on the site.
"They've got everything from puzzles to feather boas," Lurie touted.
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