After being sworn in as San Francisco’s new mayor Wednesday, Daniel Lurie vowed to restore a sense of order and safety to a city beset by incessant public drug dealing, people in crisis on the streets and a declining downtown, even as he warned it will take him time to enact long-lasting change.
Lurie took the oath of office under sunny skies on a blue stage erected in the middle of Civic Center Plaza, with City Hall’s iconic dome looming large behind him. Minutes later, he told the large crowd seated before him how he will focus the early efforts of his administration around a push to accelerate City Hall’s response to the fentanyl crisis and fulfill promises he made in his campaign last year .
He said he would run a results-oriented administration that would tackle homelessness, help small businesses and streamline city services.
Lurie announced that he would ask the Board of Supervisors to approve legislation to speed up the city’s efforts to reduce fentanyl overdoses and eliminate the chaotic drug scenes on many of its sidewalks. He also declared that in the spring, the city will open a 24-hour drop-off center where police officers can take people struggling with addiction or mental illness. And he proclaimed the creation of a dedicated police unit focused on Union Square and the Moscone Center areas.
Versions of all those proposals were promoted by Lurie in his successful campaign to unseat his predecessor, London Breed, in the November election. Now Lurie, a 47-year-old nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir, is looking to show residents eager for change that he can deliver on the pledges that propelled him into the most powerful political job in the city. He is the first San Francisco mayor in more than a century to have never worked in government prior to his election.