San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been knocked upside the head by reality over the last two years. In 2021, she announced a “crackdown” on the open-air drug markets. And last year, she went toe-to-toe with the city’s radical prosecutor, Chesa Boudin. She has been more supportive of police than most Democratic big-city mayors and has pushed back more than many on the fringe policies enacted by radical city councils.
On Thursday, Breed gave a brutally frank assessment of San Fransico in her “state of the city” address that angered the far left but may have given hope to many others.
Like Washington, D.C., teleworking has hollowed out San Francisco’s downtown as the nation undergoes a radical transformation following the forced lockdowns and office closings during the pandemic. But unlike D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has begged Joe Biden to order federal workers back to their offices, Breed wants to roll with the punches and adjust to the new reality on the fly, dismissing concerns by referring to the most devastating event in San Francisco’s history.
“And you know what? That’s ok,” she said. “Let’s keep some perspective. In 1907, downtown was mostly rubble and ash. That’s considerably worse than today’s shift in how people work.”
Breed’s more moderate rhetoric comes after San Francisco voters recalled three radical members of the school board and, most importantly, Chesa Boudin. Any good politician goes with the flow, and Breed has also realized that cutting police budgets and refusing to enforce many “quality of life” crimes has made the city nearly unlivable.
California is amid a budget crisis, but Breed wants to spend money to improve the housing crisis.
Nevertheless, Breed told a room filled with cheering supporters Thursday that she will seek an extra $25 million for overworked police, improve the city’s permitting process so small businesses can more easily open and grow, and remove barriers to building more housing. The mayor is looking to build 82,000 homes partly by rezoning for taller buildings and cutting red tape that makes it expensive to build in San Francisco. Critics have said the plan would result in too many luxury units and not enough homes for low- and middle-income households.
Breed also announced a plan to remake downtown San Francisco, in part through tax relief for businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, such as retail shops, restaurants, arts and entertainment venues. She also wants to offer tax breaks for up to three years to office businesses that open in the city.
Not everyone is impressed.
“Tax breaks for rich corporations, deregulation of luxury housing development, and a $25 million giveaway for the police department. That’s the mayor’s plan in a nutshell, and it’s nothing more than doubling down on failed strategies that don’t work,” San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston said in a statement.
Art galleries are hardly “rich corporations,” nor are trendy, snooty restaurants. But those kinds of businesses are part of the DNA of San Francisco and, along with incentives for offices to open downtown, may indeed lead to a modest revival.
There’s no guarantee of that. But at least Breed is taking some of the hard, necessary steps to make San Fransisco livable again.
San Francisco is one of the most strikingly beautiful cities in the United States. But it’s suffered for decades under bad government. Breed is still something of a radical on many issues. Tipping her hat to reality, however, is a sign of intelligent leadership.
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