Members of the Castro Merchants Association got front-row seats Thursday to expositions from the two most powerful people in San Francisco government – Mayor Daniel Lurie and gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman. The men discussed how they’re implementing their policy priorities even as they see a rough budget process on the horizon.
The appearances come as Castro residents and business owners are on edge following several recent incidents, including the beating of a bar bouncer last month.
“I’m going to be relentless” in efforts to see improvements, Lurie, a straight ally, told attendees at the April 3 merchants meeting.
“Our departments are starting to work together,” he said. “They’re collaborating. They’re addressing the crisis on the streets in real time.”
Lurie said that while “there was truth” to dystopian narratives around the city during his predecessor’s term, news of its recovery will hopefully bring people attracted to the values that always made the City By The Bay special.
“Come here. Be who you want to be. Love who you want to love,” Lurie said. “Hopefully, what’s going on everywhere else, we draw even more people.”
Lurie named three priorities – public safety, “the behavioral health crisis on our streets,” and “streamlining our permitting process.”
Amid a Castro on edge after high-profile incidents – including a vicious beating of a neighborhood bar employee in front of the eponymous theater, for which an arrest was made March 27 – the mayor said he’s focusing on bringing more police to San Francisco one way or another.
“We did have a full academy class – 55 – in January, and the numbers are looking good for our classes as we go through the year,” Lurie said. “We need more lateral hires, we need more reserve officers as well.”
The man arrested in that incident, Victor Barrios, 34, was charged with felony assault without a firearm. He had a hearing before a judge at the Hall of Justice concurrent with the merchants’ meeting. Barrios pleaded not guilty and he's been ordered to appear in Department 20 at the Hall of Justice for a preliminary hearing May 23 at 9 a.m.
David Ayerdi, a gay Castro resident who is also a Realtor at Sotheby’s International Realty, showed up to the meeting with signs asking for “town halls asap” and “footbeat cops ASAP.”
There are foot beat police walking in the Castro, but it is during daytime hours.
Outside the meeting, Ayerdi, who said he is his “own person,” said he had not heard back from Mandelman about the possibility of a town hall in the wake of the violence. He spoke with Lurie inside.
“Lurie saw my signs and he right away came up to me and said, ‘What’s going on?’ and he said, ‘I’m going to talk to Rafi [Mandelman] so we can put together a town hall.’ That’s what’s nice to hear,” Ayerdi said.
Reached for comment on the town hall matter after the April 3 meeting, Mandelman avowed that he had been in touch with Ayerdi and added that his office will “probably do a Castro-focused town hall sometime this year.”
Mandelman routinely holds office hours on weekends at which his constituents can RSVP a time slot to talk to him about any issue. He will hold a virtual one via Zoom this Saturday, April 5, from 10 a.m. to noon and an in-person one at Duboce Park Cafe, 2 Sanchez Street, on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to noon. Those interested should email [email protected] to book a slot.
Behavioral health issues
With regard to the behavioral health crisis, Lurie discussed his recent change to city policy regarding drug paraphernalia, which city-funded nonprofits can no longer distribute to drug users unless it is tied to treatment or counseling.
“We have two people dying a day of overdoses on our streets,” he said. “It’s unacceptable. … We’re going to be guided by the evidence. What we’re doing, the evidence tells me, is not working right now.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported it’s unclear if the city and its nonprofit partners have the resources needed to meet the mayor’s mandate.
Ray Connolly, co-owner of Eureka Sky, asked Lurie if he is planning to bring more big conferences and conventions back to San Francisco. Several have pulled out in recent years amid the city’s crises.
“You’re the guy who can pick up the phone and call,” said Connolly.
“I am, and I am doing that,” Lurie responded.
Lurie said he helped Databricks, a data and AI company, to commit to major investments in the city. The company had planned a move to Las Vegas when, “I got on the phone with them and said, ‘What can we do to keep you?’” he said.
Now, the company will keep its annual conference in the city through at least 2030, which Databricks claims will generate $980 million in additional business value for the city till that time, the company stated. The number of attendees at the June confab is expected to mushroom from 20,000 this year to 50,000 in 2030.
The company also plans to invest $1 billion into its San Francisco operations in the coming years
“Databricks has deep roots in the San Francisco Bay Area, with our founding team having first met as researchers at U.C. Berkeley,” stated Patrick Wendell, co-founder and vice president of engineering at Databricks, in a news release. “San Francisco is quickly becoming the AI capital of the world and we are thrilled to be investing heavily in the city. These investments reaffirm our commitment to the Bay Area and will help us rapidly expand our workforce, with a particular focus on engineering and AI talent.”
Lurie told the Castro Nail Salon owner Riyad Khoury that he’d be working with Mandelman’s office to help support the new legacy business, which may have to move as its lease with the Nasser family at 431 Castro Street comes to an end in June. The Castro Coffee Company also may have to close or move, as the B.A.R. previously reported. Both businesses are located in the building that includes the theater, which is undergoing renovations by Another Planet Entertainment. Negotiations are ongoing.
After the mayor spoke, Mandelman had nothing but positive things to say about Lurie, whom he said personally interrupted an open-air drug scene at Market and Octavia streets.
“There’s just sort of a doggedness to him,” Mandelman said. Lurie “runs over with his detail to break up a little drug convention that was happening, and apparently, this happens every day. He’s clearly very focused on it.”
Mandelman conceded, “I don’t think you can solve it with just the mayor and his detail breaking up these things.” Therefore, the SFPD will be making its presence known in the Castro in the coming weeks, sending in plainclothes and undercover officers, SFPD Sergeant Stephen Tacchini said.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Lurie and the SFPD’s focus on downtown has coincided with an increase in unhoused people in the Castro as well as visible public use of narcotics.
Tacchini said, “We will be saturating the area not only with SFPD but with undercover officers, California Highway Patrol, probation, parole. They’re all going to be going out in the community and grabbing everyone that’s wanted. They see any minor violations, they’re going to snatch them up.”
There will also be blitz operations to combat organized retail theft.
“It does kind of put, instill, a little bit of fear into folks who are committing these crimes,” he said.
Tacchini said that it will take some time before those new academy officers can walk a beat, as there’s a seven-month program and four months of field training before they are assigned to a district station.
Asked if there’s been an increase in homophobic or transphobic-inspired violence in the city, he said he can’t speak to the whole city but Mission Station has not seen any indication of that.
Mandelman ‘worried about the budget’
Mandelman flatly admitted that, “I’m worried about the budget.”
Some $800 million is expected to be cut as the city faces a deficit amid the decreased tax base.
“The LGBT center has been slated for some cuts,” he said. “It’ll be important to be advocating for the mayor’s office.”
The center, which receives city funds for a number of its programs, didn’t return a request for comment for this report. As the B.A.R. reported last summer, it avoided a proposed 56% cut to its LGBTQ youth services drop-in budget.
“You don’t have to advocate with me, but to the extent you have connections with the other supervisors [on the] budget committee,” you should, he advised.
Those include Supervisors Shamann Walton (District 10); Connie Chan, who’s chair (District 1); and gay colleagues Matt Dorsey, District 6; and Joel Engardio, District 4.
Mandelman said the budget has implications in particular for two Castro-area projects – the Harvey Milk Plaza renovations and the LGBTQ history museum planned for 2280 Market Street.
Regarding the plaza, there is a gap of between $3 and $8 million that will need to be filled, he said. Proposition B, passed by voters last November, set aside $25 million for the project, and the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza plan to raise $7 million, a figure that Mandelman said was “ambitious.”
Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza Executive Director Brian Springfield, a gay man, said, "I was very pleased with President Mandelman's summary of where things stood with the project, which was 100% accurate."
"The Prop B funds have set in motion all the necessary conversations to develop a plan to deliver this important city project, which will be transformational for the Castro neighborhood, most especially for our small businesses," he added.
The total project cost is expected to be $35-$40 million, and city officials told the B.A.R. late last year that construction will not commence until the renovation plan is fully funded. The need to fill the fiscal gap comes “when there’s less money in the city budget, and [Congressmember] Nancy Pelosi has less ability to draw down federal money than she has had,” Mandelman said, referring to the San Francisco Democrat and former House speaker.
He said ultimately that people should “push for the city or the state” to find more money, as Lurie’s office said the project can start as soon as next year if there is funding.
“If this is your top priority, make it your top priority when you see him [Lurie],” Mandelman said.
Mandelman said that as for the museum being planned by the GLBT Historical Society, “That’s a go.”
“They are trying to figure out how much they can really put into that building,” he said.
Reached for comment after the meeting, Mandelman said he can’t recall who “they” is — but added that the existing allocated funds may need to be used to repair a roof.
The society didn’t return a request for comment.
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) secured $5.5 million in state funding for the project that has to be used by early 2026. The city purchased the building for $11.6 million last year.
Another threat from budget cuts is money that the Castro Community Benefit District uses to take care of Jane Warner Plaza. CBD head Andrea Aiello, a lesbian, said, “Without a grant, outside funding, we can’t take care of that space … so it will very, very quickly become blighted. It’ll just be really, really, really awful.”
Aiello urged people to write to Lurie about that grant money and grant funding for four full-time CBD ambassadors that is also in peril. Together these comprise 35% of the CBD’s budget.
The April 3 meeting of the association was one of two the group is annually required to make open to the public and hear their comments on each item.
The only comment was from Ayerdi, who after Tacchini spoke, brought up unlicensed food vendors and said it has been too long unaddressed that legitimate food vendors needed permits while others do not abide by the legal avenues.
At the meeting, the association also elected its new leaders for the next year.
Updated, 4/4/25: This article has been updated with information on the defendant in the Castro Theatre beating case and comments from the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza.