San Francisco, CA
Mayor Lurie gets an A in vibes, San Francisco City Hall veterans say
Just over 100 days into his term, Mayor Daniel Lurie has done a few things right: schmoozing the Board of Supervisors, trying to clean up San Francisco’s streets and engaging in much-needed boosterism of a city with an unsavory reputation, said two veteran City Hall politicos speaking with Mission Local at an event on Thursday.
Eric Jaye, former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s chief strategist and now a political consultant, spoke on a panel with former city controller and PUC general manager Ed Harrington before a full house at Manny’s cafe. The event was moderated by Mission Local senior editor Joe Rivano Barros.
Both panelists said it was too soon to tell whether the Lurie administration would be a success, but that it is a sea change from the London Breed administration — at least in terms of vibes.
“I could make a long list of what he’s done wrong, a very long list,” Jaye said, of Lurie. “But I would give him honestly an A right now because the things he’s done right are so important.”
Those right things include: making good on the nice-guy persona that was a big part of his campaign talking up SF instead of tearing it down, and delivering chocolates to at least one supervisor on her birthday. The change in vibes at City Hall matters for getting his agenda through, Jaye said.
Lurie has also focused on cleaning up the streets. This is a huge undertaking that may not see quick success, but it’s one that is smart politically, said both Jaye and Harrington. “It’s a great goal to say we’re no longer going to tolerate open-air criminal activity in San Francisco,” Jaye said.
“The No. 1 job of the mayor is to keep the city safe. He should keep whacking.”
ERic Jaye
Said Harrington: “He seems to care. He’s out in the streets. I think that’s important.”
One of Lurie’s first high-profile moves upon taking office was to crack down on drug sales, drug use, and the sale of shoplifted goods in a few high-profile spots in the city, including Sixth Street in SoMa, and at the 16th Street BART plaza. He’s also conducted high-profile sweeps of areas like South Van Ness and Market, which led to mass arrests, but few charges.
In his victory speech, one of the few specifics Lurie offered was a promise that public safety would be his “No. 1 priority” and that he would focus specifically on drug dealing. “We’re gonna get tough,” he said, at the time. In an interview with Mission Local three months into his term, Lurie modified that statement: the city will not “arrest our way out of this problem” and needs to get people “into the help that they need.”
The mayor needs to tread a fine line, Jaye said. Mass arrests of people with substance use disorder are inhumane, he said. And to some extent, the mayor is playing Whac-A-Mole. Cracking down in one place will just shift the nefarious behavior elsewhere, in San Francisco, or across the wider Bay Area, Jaye said. But “the No. 1 job of the mayor is to keep the city safe,” Jaye said. “He should keep whacking.”
The true test of whether Lurie is going to be an effective mayor is the upcoming budget negotiation, both Jaye and Harrington said.
San Francisco faces an $818 million budget shortfall. Lurie will present the Board of Supervisors with his proposed budget on June 1. Supervisors can vote down his proposals up to a point, but will need to adopt a budget by July.
Lurie has asked all department heads to present him with a 15 percent cut to their department’s budget. The district attorney’s office has already pushed back. Lurie “has to make hard decisions,” Harrington said. “And we’re all going to be unhappy about them.”
San Francisco’s overall budget is about $15 billion, but lots of that is already earmarked for guaranteed services, said Harrington. There are rules requiring a certain amount of funding for things like libraries, parks, fire stations, etc.
In previous years, San Francisco had other sources of revenue, like pandemic-era funding, to help cover the gaps, he said. But, those funds are gone or have been spent down by prior administrations. Some remaining city reserves cannot be legally released if revenue is rising — and it is, albeit slightly, even as expenditures are outpacing revenue.
The “easy ways” of fixing a budget deficit, Harrington said, have run out.
Of the money that is available for cuts, about two-thirds of it is employee salaries, Harrington said. Salary freezes, cuts or layoffs will mostly need to be negotiated with unions, he added.
But Lurie ran for office as a political outsider — unions backed his opponents in the race. He hasn’t done much since to curry union leaders’ favor, Harrington said.
“The biggest mistake he’s made is that he’s been very weak with organized labor,” Jaye added. “To make change in San Francisco, you have to make labor your ally. Otherwise they are going to wait you out, slow walk you, make problems for you.”
The budget battle, Harrington said, is one he would not want to deal with personally. Lurie has to say, “Look, the money’s not there,” Harrington said. “I don’t know that he has the wherewithal to do that, or the guts to do that, but I think that he doesn’t have much of a choice, because this is a big, big number.”
And how long does Lurie have before voters get restless? By the end of 2025, both said. If issues around neighborhood safety or the affordability of housing are not headed in the right direction, patience will wear thin.
“I don’t think anyone expected him to solve homelessness in 100 days,” Harrington said. “I think by the end of this year, though, if people don’t see more housing, if they don’t see a difference on the streets, they will be very upset.”
Santa Rosa prepares for next big earthquake
The Great 1906 earthquake devastated the Bay Area, destroying much of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000 people. The city marked the quakes 120th anniversary this weekend, but whats not as widely recognized is the damage to surrounding comunities like Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – While the Great 1906 Earthquake was a centerpiece of news around the world when its massive damage and fire destroyed much of San Francisco and took 3,000 lives, another far smaller, far less famous town, suffered massive damage almost forgotten by history.
Nearly forgotten
On this day 120 years ago, stunned people were digging for survivors two nights after the quake. Like a demon in the night, the Great 1906 Earthquake also came to Santa Rosa also bent on mass death and destruction.
Eric Stanley is the history curator and deputy director of the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa that supplied these pictures. “Santa Rosa, in particular, was devastated by the 1906 earthquake,” he said.
Survivors were shaken awake as whole buildings collapsed around them or on them. “A good portion, a really significant portion, of downtown Santa Rosa was completely destroyed,” said Stanley.
Many never woke up; crushed to death in their sleep. There were over a hundred people killed in the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa that only had 7,000 people in it at the time,” said the curator.
Active fault line
Sixty-three years later, in 1969, a time of budding, but far better science-based building codes, a double shaker nonetheless did significant damage and killed one person. “Even understanding all those things, you kind of at the earlier stage of that in the sixties,” said Stanley.
Today, four of Santa Rosa’s School buildings lie near or on the Rodgers Creek Earthquake Fault, capable of up to a 7.3 magnitude rupture. One is already closed with another due to close at the end of the school year for budgetary reasons.
That leaves two elementary schools, Hidden Valley, alongside the fault and Proctor, on the fault. The school board says both are seismically sound and safe to continue operating. “The two that are remaining open are both the ones that have the potential and the ability to grow because the entire site is not impacted by the fault line,” said Nick Caston, Santa Rosa City School Board president.
Staying prepared
In other words, things can and will eventually be moved around.
“What we’re gonna end up having to do is redesign the campus over the next several decades to have our fields and our parking in the front, which are totally acceptable to be over a fault line and actually move our academic builds and our student-serving buildings to the back,” said Caston.
Ultimately, the pictures and relics museums hold from natural disasters are given to those who come, a lesson and a warning. “Real people went through these experiences and we really do have to be aware of that and do our very best to prepare for those kinds of things,” said Stanley.
The 1933 Field Act requires earthquake-safe construction of schools, with evolving seismic codes as we learn more.
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
Advertisement
So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
Advertisement
They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
Advertisement
Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
Advertisement
Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
Don’t miss out on our ROUNDTABLE community and the latest news!
It’s completely free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members.
Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!
-
Austin, TX3 minutes agoTexas DMV launches authorization system for automated commercial vehicles
-
Alabama9 minutes agoNew Alabama Privacy Law Adds to Compliance Challenges for Businesses | PYMNTS.com
-
Alaska15 minutes agoAlaska’s embattled economic development agency approves $700,000 PR budget
-
Arizona21 minutes agoPilot Jessica Cox to be inducted into Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
-
Arkansas27 minutes agoEffort to cut former Arkansas corrections secretary’s position as adviser to governor fails – Arkansas Times
-
California33 minutes agoCalifornia sees lowest number of firearm-related deaths since 1968, new data shows
-
Colorado39 minutes agoSouthern Colorado farmers’ market season is here
-
Connecticut45 minutes agoAmtrak won’t close shoreline rail bridges during World Cup, reversing earlier proposal