Nearly one year into his tenure, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is offering a candid diagnosis of the city’s recent struggles: The municipal government became an adversary to the very economic engine it relied upon. Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference in early December, Lurie admitted the city’s political class previously operated under the assumption businesses would tolerate endless hurdles.
“We took our business community for granted,” Lurie told Fortune Editorial Director Andrew Nusca. “We said ‘We can just keep punishing you… and you’re going to stay.’ Well that didn’t happen. People fled.” (As of 2024, San Francisco had lost people every year since 2020, with 2025 census data not available yet, but projected to have stabilized in the past year. Total net population loss is between 30,000 to 55,000, against a wider population of around 834,000.)
“The elected class in San Francisco took people for granted,” Lurie said, from its artists to its restaurants to its entrepreneurs. “We’re not going to do that again.”…