San Francisco, CA
'I am the change.' Facing tough reelection, London Breed says she's still what San Francisco needs
If there’s anything Mayor London Breed has learned in office, it’s that compassion has its limits.
So when she talks about her steady tack right in recent years on issues such as retail crime and homelessness, she’s direct and unapologetic. Sitting at the helm of one of America’s most celebrated cities and trying to keep that city on course, she said, has opened her eyes to some hard truths. Among them: That without guardrails, there are people who will take advantage of San Francisco’s generous spirit and behave in ways that drag the city down.
“We’ve gone too far in just letting people get away with things,” Breed said. “And as a result, people have been getting away with things.”
Breed, 50, made history six years ago when she became the city’s first Black female mayor. She was president of the powerful Board of Supervisors when then-Mayor Ed Lee died of a heart attack in December 2017. She won a special election to fill his seat the following June and was elected to a full term in 2019.
She’s now fighting to keep her seat in November against four other high-profile Democrats, three of them wealthy white men. This time, her greatest political threat isn’t coming from the left. Instead, the challengers with the most traction are two fellow moderates who’ve criticized Breed for not doing enough to rid the city of the tent encampments and open drug dealing pervasive in certain neighborhoods or to speed its recovery from the economic malaise still lingering from pandemic-related shutdowns.
Breed reflected on her tenure during a lengthy sit-down interview with The Times last month outside a café at the Transamerica Pyramid. The iconic building reopened in September after an extensive renovation that some see as as a symbol of downtown’s nascent comeback.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are the first Black women to lead their cities.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
Breed has never been a bleeding-heart progressive, despite San Francisco’s liberal reputation. But the Breed of six years ago was more open to experimenting with a progressive reformist agenda when it came to solving intractable issues such as addiction and poverty. That included promoting “safe injection” sites — essentially sanctioned, supervised illicit drug use — to counter the staggering toll fentanyl was taking on the city’s homeless population, and encouraging police to form better relationships with residents in marginalized communities.
In the last two years, by contrast, she has become a leading voice in a statewide movement to crack down on homeless people and addicts who refuse shelter or treatment. And she successfully championed two local ballot measures that bolster police surveillance powers and require drug screening and treatment for people receiving county welfare benefits who are suspected of drug use.
Although some people dismiss her policy shifts as a calculated political ploy, Breed said her decisions are about personal growth, fueled by what she sees as a lack of accountability that has allowed social problems to fester.
“San Francisco has never abandoned its values of compassion and second chances,” said Breed, wearing one of her signature suits, this one a bold cerulean blue. “But I think that before the pandemic, we were headed in a direction with criminal justice reform, police reforms, and it went too far. And when I say it went too far, if you commit a crime, you have to be held accountable somehow.”
Born into poverty in the Western Addition, at the time one of San Francisco’s toughest neighborhoods, Breed doesn’t shy from political combat. She was raised by her grandmother, lost a sister to a drug overdose and has a brother who is serving time in prison for robbery and other charges. Throughout her career, she has fought and won against critics who doubted her.
“London will fight back. She’ll snap. She’ll show you she’s from Plaza East projects,” said James Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco and author of “Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama.”
“She’ll go street on you in a second. That’s why the men who are running against her have to be careful.”
“London will fight back,” says University of San Francisco professor James Taylor. “She’ll go street on you in a second. That’s why the men who are running against her have to be careful.”
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Breed’s evolution started with the COVID pandemic.
She was celebrated, initially, for her decisive response when she became the nation’s first big city mayor to declare a coronavirus state of emergency, followed soon after by a citywide lockdown. The move is credited with saving thousands of lives and keeping San Francisco’s death rate relatively low.
But a year later, she was on the defensive.
The combination of remote office work and prolonged restaurant and bar closures decimated downtown street life. And parents fumed as city schools remained closed for months longer than public schools in most districts in the nation.
Homelessness and rampant drug use have been a major campaign issue in San Francisco’s mayoral race.
(Tayfun Coskun / Getty Images)
Sprawling homeless encampments took root in portions of the city once lively with workers and tourists, spilling trash and needles onto the sidewalks. People overdosed in the streets, unattended. Videos of smash-and-grab retail crimes and auto theft went viral, giving ample opportunity for right-wing media pundits to use San Francisco as an urgent warning against electing Democrats.
“People were at home. They couldn’t travel. They couldn’t go on vacation. Their kids were with them all the time. The issues around government and government functioning, that was a real pain point,” said Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party. “Things were broken, and you knew it.”
Breed said she grew tired of seeing videos of people flagrantly grabbing merchandise from Walgreens and Louis Vuitton, as if it were their right, and of hearing from police that they didn’t have the tools they needed to fight crime. She was sick of battling supervisors and community activists who disparaged her tactics as inhumane and short-sighted when she called for giving police more authority to disperse homeless people and arrest drug users.
Her frustrations erupted in 2021, when during a news conference to announce a crackdown on crime in the drug-infested Tenderloin, Breed proclaimed it was time to be “less tolerant of all the bulls— that has destroyed our city.”
During her sit-down with The Times, Breed said her decision to declare a state of emergency in the Tenderloin stemmed from a visit a week earlier with families and local business owners. One mom told Breed how hard it was to raise her son in the neighborhood. Business owners shared their struggles running their shops amid break-ins and other crime.
“My heart broke,” Breed recalled. “They were tired of living like that. And, more importantly, they were hoping that we could help.”
Her emergency declaration enabled the city to cut through bureaucratic red tape to more quickly move people off the streets and into shelter and services. Separately, she pledged to assign more officers to the neighborhood.
Breed also took her grievances to voters.
In June 2022, voters ousted progressive Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin over frustrations that he was focused more on on sentencing reform and addressing the root causes of crime than on actually prosecuting criminals.
Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin and his wife, Valerie Block, leave an election night gathering after Boudin’s recall.
(Noah Berger / Associated Press)
Breed didn’t endorse the recall, but she and Boudin had traded barbs in the press over who was to blame for rising crime. After the recall, Breed appointed Brooke Jenkins, a more traditional law-and-order prosecutor who had quit Boudin’s office and worked on the campaign to remove her former boss from office. Five months later, Jenkins was elected to fill the rest of Boudin’s term.
Breed continued her crusade to push San Francisco toward the political center last spring, when voters approved the ballot measures she sponsored to bolster police powers and increase oversight of people receiving county benefits. During the summer, she applauded a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed cities to more aggressively enforce laws against homeless people camping on public property. On the heels of the decision, she has launched an aggressive effort to clear tent encampments, leading to hundreds of arrests.
“Like a good politician, perhaps her best fuel this last year or two has been reading where the electorate is at,” said Jason McDaniel, a political science professor at San Francisco State University. “Voters have become fed up with this. There’s just no patience for a more systemic, root-cause kind of approach.”
The question before voters is whether they see Breed’s efforts as too little, too late.
“There’s no mayor that has overseen a steeper decline in our city’s history than London Breed,” said challenger Mark Farrell, a venture capitalist and former supervisor and interim mayor who is running a formidable campaign to replace Breed in November.
“She had her chance. It is time to turn the page on this mayor and all of the City Hall insiders,” said challenger Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit executive and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, who is also considered a front-runner.
Like Breed, both Lurie and Farrell are moderate Democrats by San Francisco standards. And like Breed, they say they want to clear out tent encampments and end rampant drug dealing in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. They’ve focused their pitch to voters on revitalizing the economy and reviving downtown.
Both blame Breed for the city’s continued struggles, and they argue she is undeserving of another four years in office.
Voting for Breed, Lurie said in a recent interview, would be like “getting onto a plane with a pilot that you know has crashed the plane over and over again.”
Breed’s supporters stand by her, hailing her as a homegrown champion who has led the city during a period of crisis that included a global pandemic and the insidious rise of fentanyl.
“They’re just going to blame everything on her, because she’s the mayor, and they are going to take whacks on her day and night,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said. “I am 100% confident none of them would have done better than London Breed on these massive issues that go well beyond San Francisco.”
“She sees the big picture on housing,” state Sen. Scott Wiener says of London Breed. “And she’s willing to spend political capital and take heat and take risks.”
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
Wiener disagrees with Breed on some of her criminal justice policies, but said she’s the only candidate who will prioritize the construction of thousands of homes in a city desperate for affordable housing.
“She sees the big picture on housing,” Wiener said. “And she’s willing to spend political capital and take heat and take risks.”
Breed also has the support of the San Francisco Democratic Party, whose leader, Tung, recalled another time when Breed took a bold risk: shutting down the city during the pandemic.
“She kept our city safe,” Tung said. “She got people vaccinated.”
Speaking to the Noe Valley Democratic Club at a neighborhood pub last month, Breed listened as members shared their frustrations. One man asked why they should vote for Breed given the city’s problems. Another complained that police didn’t do anything after his home was burglarized.
Breed listened intently as they detailed their grievances. And in her responses, she was candid about mistakes.
“After the pandemic, it’s like, man, crime was out of control,” she said. “I’ll be very honest, we weren’t prepared.”
“We’ve gone too far in just letting people get away with things,” says San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “And as a result, people have been getting away with things.”
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
She touted her efforts to forge change, and smiled as she talked about enlivening downtown with night markets and music festivals on the waterfront.
As a result, Breed said, crime is receding. Homicides are down 40% compared with last year, according to the Police Department’s crime dashboard, and robberies have fallen 23%. This month, Breed announced 60% fewer tents across the city.
For those who want to see a better day in San Francisco, Breed said, “I am the change.”
The city’s ranked-choice voting system — which allows voters to choose several candidates and rank them in order of preference — makes it difficult to call out a clear leader in the mayoral race. Recent polls show Breed with a slight — but not decisive — advantage.
Still, Breed doesn’t give up easily. She said she’d like to be known as the mayor who guided San Francisco “through unprecedented crisis after crisis” and got the city “out to the other side.”
She is convinced she can get there. She just wants another four years.
Cross that big street
Major arteries like Market Street and Van Ness constitute mental borders for many drivers. If your destination is near a popular street, aim for the other side of it, where there’ll typically be more vacancies.
Stray uphill
Hills, too, create mental obstacles for people looking for parking. If you’re willing to walk up one of San Francisco’s many hills either before or after the show, you’ll find more spots.
Always check signs
Pay attention to posted time restrictions to avoid tickets. Some meters in San Francisco mercilessly run until 10pm. Also, street cleaning hours can start at 12am, before some shows get out.
Know when you’re beaten
Some neighborhoods are hopeless. North Beach, Nob Hill, Divisadero — forget about it. The sooner you accept this, the more inner peace you will find.
Trust your gut
I acknowledge that I am a 6’1” man, and not everyone feels as comfortable as I do walking alone at night. If you’re not a local, and you’re feeling unsure, read up on the neighborhood beforehand.
Realize the ‘right’ way can be painful too
If you’re tempted to suck it up and pay for a parking lot or garage, remember: after the show, you may be stuck for a long time in a parking-lot traffic jam as cars try to get out all at once.
Okay! On with my list, with suggested free parking areas marked red.
Where to find parking for Davies Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House, Herbst Theater or Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
East side of Gough Street, between Golden Gate and McAllister
Pro tip: Park on the left side of the street. Quick eats to go are almost nonexistent in the area, so pick up any pre-show provisions you may need at the Super Sam corner store.
Where to find parking for SFJAZZ, Rickshaw Stop or Mr. Tipple’s Jazz Club
North side of Oak Street between Buchanan and Octavia
Pro tip: The right lanes are almost always congested due to the upcoming freeway onramp. Watch for cars speeding down the hill behind you in the left lanes, and nose in rather than backing into the spot, if possible.
Where to find parking for the Castro Theater
Castro Street, between 14th and 16th
Pro tip: Separated from the Castro by Market Street, and up the hill a little, most people don’t think of parking here. I found a cool old metal dustpan on the street here once. Still use it.
Where to find parking for the Chapel
South Van Ness Avenue between 17th and 21st
Pro tip: Parking in the Mission District can be maddening; find solace on either the east or west side of the main artery on the edge of the neighborhood. Say hi to Whiz Burger for me.
Where to find parking for the Great American Music Hall
Franklin Street between Ellis and Geary
Pro tip: I’ve also found Geary Boulevard, between Van Ness and Franklin, to usually have open spots. (Plus, you’re right next to Tommy’s Joynt for post-show eats.)
Where to find parking for the Regency Ballroom
Franklin Street between Post and Bush
Pro tip: Separated from the venue by Van Ness, and up the hill a little, most people don’t think of parking here. Aim for the left side of this one-way thoroughfare, where parking is usually more open. Pour one out for the closed Walgreens.
Where to find parking for Mabuhay Gardens or On Broadway
Leavenworth Street between Francisco and Chestnut
Pro tip: Trying to find parking in North Beach is like repeatedly hitting yourself in the face with a hammer for a half hour. I park an entire mile away, and enjoy the walk along Columbus, which is teeming with action on weekends.
Where to find parking for the Midway
Illinois Street between 23rd and 25th
Pro tip: Do not be seduced by the road leading toward Pier 80; it looks wide open, but is full of private parking, and Pier 80 itself will be closed off.
Where to find parking for Chase Center
16th Street between Carolina and Connecticut
Pro tip: For concert parking, the Chase Center garage currently charges $75. Ahem. I think you’ll agree that a nice 10-minute stroll down 16th Street is a better alternative.
Where to find parking for the Bottom of the Hill
16th Street between Carolina and Connecticut
Pro tip: Parking’s not nearly as plentiful as it used to be here; be aware of the new-ish protected bike lanes on 17th and the many time restrictions. (Also, bring presents for the excellent staff at one of the city’s best clubs before it closes at the end of the year.)
Where to find parking for the Fillmore
Geary Boulevard between Divisadero and Scott
Pro tip: I agonized for years driving in circles on neighborhood streets until finding this wonderful stretch of Geary, down the road and on a slight curve, where no one thinks to park.
Where to find parking for the Warfield
Folsom Street between 7th and 6th
Pro tip: This one’s tough, being close to both Union Square and the Tenderloin. I shoot for the less-populated area south of Market and walk up 6th Street, home of harm-reduction services, pizza-by-the-slice joints, SROs and Tú Lan.
Where to find parking for the Brick and Mortar Music Hall or Public Works
Gough Street between Market and McCoppin
Pro tip: This is on an odd little diagonal block that’s off of most people’s radar, on the other side of a freeway overpass. It’s never let me down.
Where to find parking for Oracle Park
Harrison Street between 3rd and 4th
Pro tip: Optimal ballpark spots used to change each year. In a coincidence that I won’t overanalyze, I’ve had luck parking on this block ever since Buster Posey left the Giants in 2021.
Where to find parking for the Masonic
Van Ness Avenue or Franklin Street between Sacramento and Pine
Pro tip: Sorry, man. You will not find parking on Nob Hill. You can try driving up California while looking for a spot, but likely, you’ll have to head back and make the five-block walk.
Where to find parking for August Hall
Mission or Howard Streets, between 5th and 6th
Pro tip: The “park up the hill” trick doesn’t work here, since the nearby hill is Nob Hill. If you strike out on Mission or Howard, Folsom is often open.
Where to find parking for the DNA Lounge
Treat Street between Florida and Alameda
Pro tip: Luckily the DNA is surrounded by a pretzel of strange, short, wiggly streets, good for finding parking; head south of the freeway overpass to this hidden curve. (It’s where I parked when I saw Prince at the tiny club in 2013; yes of course I am bragging.)
Where to find parking for Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands or Hardly Strictly
Clement Street between 34th and 38th
Pro tip: The best way to get to these festivals is to throw a bike in the trunk, park near Ocean Beach, and ride in past the bison to the free bicycle parking area. Barring that, your other best bet is to park up the (very) steep hill, near the VA hospital.
Where to find parking for the Cow Palace
Geneva Avenue between Stoneridge and Carter
Pro tip: I don’t really have a pro tip for this one. I just want to say that there should be more concerts at the Cow Palace, which is cool as hell.
Where to find parking for Stern Grove
Portola Drive between San Fernando and Santa Clara
Pro tip: Park across the major artery of 19th, and up the hill a little bit. And, since Stern Grove concerts always take place on Sundays, there are no two-hour parking restrictions to contend with.
Where to find parking for the Independent
Divisadero Street between O’Farrell and Turk
Pro tip: You’ll have to go back in time to when you could park at the DMV lot, because this neighborhood is impossible now. I go down the hill a ways, and usually find a spot north of Primo Pizza.
Where to find parking for the Black Cat
East side of Van Ness Avenue, between Turk and Ellis
Pro tip: Aim for Van Ness, the west boundary of the Tenderloin. For a major thoroughfare, Van Ness often surprises me with open spots, especially on the east side heading north.
Where to find parking for Cafe du Nord or Swedish American Hall
16th Street between Guerrero and Sanchez
Pro tip: Once the daycare that’s just east of Dolores on 16th closes for the day, the white curb — which tends to scare off many drivers — is free for you to park at. Bonus points for the view of the Mission Dolores basilica, just a beautiful building.
The SF venues you don’t need my help parking at
San Francisco is having a civic nervous breakdown because the brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law is buying a minority stake in the Giants.
Not Donald Trump. Not Jared Kushner. Joshua Kushner. And not control of the team. A minority stake.
Apparently, that is enough to send parts of San Francisco’s activist and media culture into full panic mode.
One Giants employee posted a video from Oracle Park turning in their uniform and quitting because Kushner was buying into the team.
Social media lit up with complaints about “MAGA ownership” and Trump-world influence invading one of San Francisco’s most beloved civic institutions.
There is just one problem. Joshua Kushner is not exactly Steve Bannon in a Giants cap.
He has historically donated heavily to Democrats and has occupied a very different political lane than his brother Jared and the Trump orbit. But nuance never stood a chance here.
For some in San Francisco, the name “Kushner” was enough. That is the story.
The Giants are not some random expansion franchise nobody cares about. They are one of the oldest and most storied franchises in Major League Baseball history — with eight World Series titles and a lineage that includes Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, and Bruce Bochy.
Oracle Park is one of the great settings in American sports. Giants-Dodgers is still one of baseball’s defining rivalries. Generations of Northern Californians are emotionally attached to this team.
Which is precisely why the reaction has been so revealing.
Nobody was arguing about payroll. Nobody was debating the farm system. Nobody was asking whether this helps the Giants close the gap with the Dodgers in the NL West.
The panic was political from the first pitch.
That tells you where we are now.
Sports ownership used to be judged mostly by whether owners were competent, stable, and willing to spend money to win. Now it is an ideological background check.
Who donated to whom? Who attended what fundraiser? Whose brother married whose daughter? Who might show up in the owner’s suite?This is what happens when politics becomes religion. Everything becomes a loyalty test. Even baseball.
The irony is almost too perfect.
San Francisco is not exactly at risk of becoming a MAGA beachhead because a Democratic donor with the wrong last name bought a small piece of the Giants. But symbolic politics runs the city now.
In Democrat circles in San Francisco, politics is not just something people believe. It is something they perform. It is identity. It is status. It is social sorting.
So even indirect association becomes contamination. Joshua Kushner does not have to be Trump. He does not even have to be conservative. He just has to be Kushner.
That is enough.
To be fair, Giants ownership was already politically sensitive. Current owner Charles Johnson has drawn years of criticism for conservative political donations.
So this latest development landed on dry grass.
Still, the reaction says more about San Francisco’s liberal elite than it does about the Giants. The city’s activist class cannot even let baseball remain baseball.
A minority owner becomes a political emergency. A family connection becomes a scandal. A business transaction becomes a moral crisis.
This is not normal.
Fans used to argue about batting orders and pitching rotations. Now they investigate ownership family trees.
And the Giants are not being bought by Donald Trump. They are not being turned into a Trump campaign surrogate. They are not replacing team mascot Lou Seal with a MAGA hat.
A minority stake is changing hands. That’s it.
Yet for the loudest voices in San Francisco, even that apparently requires public anguish.
If this is the reaction to the brother of Trump’s son-in-law buying a minority piece of the Giants, imagine what happens if Donald Trump ever throws out the first pitch at Oracle Park.
Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics and a lifelong baseball fan, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com.
San Francisco, CA
Casting shade on shadows: S.F. supervisor seeks to bar using shadows to block new housing
Shadows cast by tall and not-so-tall buildings alike have long been used to block housing in San Francisco, and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood wants it to end.
The District 5 legislator is announcing a law on Thursday that would eliminate the ability for people to say shadows cast by a building are an “environmental concern” that can be used to delay, and possibly block, new housing.
“In San Francisco, we’ve literally paid the price of being too afraid of our own shadow,” Mahmood said, pointing to data showing that shadow-based concerns were used to delay or block 2,195 housing units in 11 projects since 2017.
Whenever a new housing project is proposed in the city, its developer must create an environmental impact report on a variety of factors, like toxic waste and seismic hazards.
San Francisco requires that report to include a shadow analysis noting whether the new building will cast shade on any open space in the city. Mahmood’s legislation would get rid of that requirement; it is not in state guidelines, and most California cities do not consider shadows an environmental factor.
The environmental impact report is intended to help politicians make an informed decision about whether to approve or deny a development proposal. But any resident can file an appeal if they think environmental impacts were not fully considered, which can delay, block, or alter projects.
Shadows ultimately led to a delay for the infamous 469 Stevenson St. project from 2021, a 495 unit building on the site of a Nordstrom parking lot in SoMa.
Some SoMa residents were concerned that the project, which contained about 100 affordable housing units, would gentrify the area.
But gentrification alone is not a legal reason for supervisors to block a project. So residents filed an appeal alleging the project’s environmental impacts were improperly evaluated. The Board of Supervisors ended up siding with them in an 8-3 vote, citing shadows cast on nearby Mint Plaza in their decision.
The developer was forced back to the drawing board and had to redo his environmental report, delaying the project by several years.
Even when projects are 100 percent affordable, shadows cast uncertainty: Residents near 16th and Mission’s “La Maravilla” housing project, a 380-unit project next door to Marshall Elementary that broke ground last month, raised concerns that the development would darken the school’s playground. That forced the nonprofit developers to hold meetings and negotiate with residents about the issue.
Mahmood said even if appeals are ultimately rejected, the length and cost of the appeals process makes it difficult to produce housing projects and leads developers to avoid building in San Francisco.
“The housing problems we’re facing are death by a thousand cuts,” said Witt Turner of the Housing Action Coalition, a proponent of the bill. “We need to start sewing them up one by one.”
San Francisco is required by the state to plan for 36,000 more housing units by 2030, and the city’s best guess is that even under the most favorable scenarios developers will build less than half of that, and in four times as much time.
Mahmood, a YIMBY, has made streamlining housing a focus of his 15 months in office. His new legislation eliminates certain intermediate appeals and hearings and shortens appeal timelines, mostly from 30 days to 15 days.
The bill will be evaluated by the planning commission and the Board of Supervisors in early summer.
The bill is no silver bullet, however. Environmental appeals often cite more than just shadows when seeking to change projects. In the case of the Nordstrom parking lot building, for example, a failure to properly consider the seismic impact of a building was also a component of the decision.
YIMBYs have long pursued reform to CEQA, a California law outlining the environmental appeals process.
“We shouldn’t let outdated laws get in the way of building housing, which is actually important to making progress on our climate goals,” Mahmood said.
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