So is it just guaranteed? Do you have to accept that this is a very, very slow and steady process of reducing homelessness?

So I really appreciate being able to talk this through because this is not something you can do in just sound bites.

You know, we have actually more housing units per capita, you know, permanent supportive housing units than any place in the state.

And yet we still have our crisis.

And that is because we are sort of treating the issue of.

what we call homelessness as just one issue, but it's really a drug crisis on our streets.

And so we've really said we want to get people into treatment.

I was just going to

[laughs]

Um, you're ... [laughs] Listen, I mean, to be able to, uh, pitch San Francisco is, is, is, is, is pretty easy to do.

We have, we have the most beautiful ballpark in the, in the majors.

Uh, we have the greatest city in the world, and, uh, people are, are, are realizing that, uh, across the country and across the world.

Uh, you know, we had, we got, we ha- we're dealt some body blows there for a little bit, but, um, we're coming back, uh, with a vengeance and, and we are a city on the rise.

And then this is, this news today is just really exciting.

Wanna thank, uh, Larry, you and your team, and The Giants, and, uh, and all the sports fans.

No

Okay, and I guess why now, right? Is it that there are things you want to accomplish right now that requires that the charter be changed?

Well, it's not just about right now.

I ran in 2024 to bring accountability and change to City Hall, and the voters overwhelmingly supported that.

They like the direction we're heading in.

But 18 months in to office, I see where City Hall is incredibly dysfunctional.

It rewards the insiders.

It breeds corruption.

You think right now is too cumbersome.

How did your experience in that chair position inform how the city prepares now?

It was an interesting experience.

You know, over 10 years ago, I spent a couple of years planning for Super Bowl 50.

You know, we had a new stadium down in the peninsula in South Bay, but all the events were here in San Francisco.

But we had to move people back and forth, which is where transit and transportation were so critical.

And we spent a year working on it and we pulled off an incredible game.

So good that they came back and they came back for Super Bowl 60.

How is San Francisco uniquely qualified to move so many people around, whether it's to watch parties or down to Santa Clara?

Yep.

Uh, typically I would go to a place, China Live, uh, with the family.

I've gone there with my mom, and my, my, my, my, my brother and I went actually just over, uh, New Year's.

But, uh, we went to a place called Fang.

Uh, and, uh, this woman, Kathy Fang, uh, her dad started House of Nanking, which is a famous pla- place-

[laughs]

Cook the tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente.

Drain and stir into the warm cream, seasoning with sea salt and black pepper.

I hope you heard us say that, because it's very real.

I- you did- I heard that, and that's why I wanted to come say hi, and say thank you.

You know, listen, I ran for mayor.

I've never been in politics before.

I'm one year in.

I ran because some of those stories were true.

Uh, it, we had problems.

Ooh, the scoreboard

(cheers and applause)

Um, and that is- that is because of so many factors.

Uh, you have to count, uh, the AI boom, you have to count tech, I mean.

But you also have to count our restauranteurs and our entrepreneurs in the- in the- in- in the arts and culture scene who always drive our comeback.

Um, and when you have empty storefronts and you fill them with, uh, you know, local craftspeople...

Like, San Francisco's, uh, spirit has really shown through over the last year, last two years.

When everyone was knocking us, those that are true San Franciscans, they...

Mm-hmm.

(cheers)

...

Trump says he backed off because you, quote, "Asked very nicely." What is wrong with him? A lot of big tech guys reached out to him on your behalf, which I think is fine but horrible that this is the way it goes.

It's like, it's an oligarchy if that's the case, if the rich guys have to do this, Jensen Huang and Sam Altman.

Very different strategy than Gavin Newsom's, but talk about that.

Like, what i- i- is, does it still hang over your head? Does it, like, could he still threaten you if he decides? Well, let me just tell you what, what I said to him, that this is the greatest city in the world when our, when we are at our best.

Our local law enforcement is crushing it when it comes to driving crime down.

What'll you do if they decide to, he decides he needs to get out of, say, the Epstein situation and decides to distract people?

What are you doing on that front? When you say you need to get people help, what's actually happening?

Yeah.

First off, I don't believe it's compassionate to allow someone to be passed out on the sidewalk.

I don't believe, uh, we should allow people to smoke fentanyl in our bus stops.

We have to put an end to that, and we have to then get people into the right kind of bed, the right kind of treatment.

For example, we opened up a 16-bed center at a place called 822 Geary.

It is a place that someone can walk in, uh, it is voluntary.

Who disagrees with this?

The job in front of Lurie is to pull the city out of the tailspin that started in 2020 with COVID and population decline and the fentanyl crisis.

We as a city, uh, just got to this point where we were like, "If somebody wants to keep harming themselves and really killing themselves, that's their right." And we forgot about the 840, 850,000 other people that are raising families here, um, paying rent, taking their kids to school, and they don't feel safe taking their kids to a bus stop or just walking down the street because someone is struggling with addiction or is just not well.

I think we forgot that, uh, for, uh, a number of years.

I think we, we lost our way as a city.

So the mayor's mandate is to find a new way when it comes to unsheltered homelessness and addiction and behavioral health, to redraw the lines around what the city will tolerate and what it will not.

Having someone out that is lost and hurting and in pain and us saying, "Oh, we're gonna keep you out there, we're not gonna help you, uh, and actually we're gonna, uh, allow you to do that," that's not okay.

And these are not San Francisco values to s- let somebody struggle and use and die on our streets.

There's nothing compassionate about that.

(laughs)

Sam was on our transition committee, uh, and now we have something that we started called the Partnership for San Francisco where we have leaders from across business and arts and culture giving us advice and helping to, you know, cheerlead for our city.

Uh, you all are seeing the revolution happening.

Uh, if...

There is no better place in the world in terms of an ecosystem than San Francisco.

And there was a lot of talk, uh, for a number of years about how San Francisco was done.

That was a bad bet, uh, as everybody knows.

Is there anything you wish that you had that you don't have, or that the sort of tech could do for citizens here that it can't yet?