With the death of Mayor Ed Lee early Tuesday morning, there are voices calling for a new direction in San Francisco’s leadership. As The Frisc wrote earlier this week, Lee was working in the right direction on a few fronts. With that in mind, we offer six suggestions for the next mayor, whether it’s acting mayor London Breed or someone else, that should serve as top priorities.
1) Get out there more. When Ed Lee did things right, he did them without a lot of chest-thumping. There’s much to be said for quiet leadership. But San Francisco, with its supervisors playing to their fiefdoms and hundreds of special interests, is a fractured and fractious place. With so many decisions to make in the coming years, debates will need a public center of gravity. The new mayor must appeal to San Franciscans to think of their city in the whole, with passion, seriousness, attention to policy, and calm. It’s like the public library’s “One City One Book” campaign. You might not like the book, but if we all read it, we can get the conversation moving. The next mayor needs to be the one book. It’s particularly important for the next item on our list …
2) Manage the tech backlash. In San Francisco and across the nation, tech devices, companies, and systems are blamed for many of our ills — inequality and monoculture, short attention spans, job disruptions, even threats to democracy. Not every complaint has merit, but our next mayor must address and deal with the negative impacts. The pro-tech Lee had some reservations about the sector, but the next mayor, without choking off new businesses, needs to encourage an even deeper discussion of tech limits: in our schools (children’s screen time), on our sidewalks (delivery robots), and in our airspace (drones). He or she has to advocate for reasonable regulations for tech-driven businesses, like the city hammered out with Airbnb, when necessary. Which brings us to our next item …
3) Ease the congestion. No mayor can snap his or her fingers and take us back to 2005, when San Francisco had nearly 100,000 fewer people. We are, like most American places, a city built for cars, and not being flat like Amsterdam or even New York City, bicycles will only accommodate certain folks and certain routes. Until public transportation can truly make a difference, acknowledgement of the discontent over congestion is the first step. People want to be heard. Then pledge a few concrete steps, no matter how small, to get SF moving. Metered parking is already being adjusted to demand; keep improving that system. Be open to wiser use of for-profit shuttles, like Chariot. Also, start with a crackdown on Uber/Lyft drivers who double-park and drive like shit. Of course, the traffic cops can’t be everywhere at once to catch all offenders. That’s not the point. But a big fine now and again will grab attention; meanwhile, work with the companies to change driver behavior, and push smart curbside redesign for transportation firms. Show progress, build goodwill, get the money. Then perhaps there will be political momentum for a much bigger fish to fry: congestion pricing.
4) Keep building housing. There was, is, and always will be resistance. Explain, time and time again, in every public forum available (see No. 1) why this is critical, particularly along and adjacent to transit corridors. Then complete the other half of this bargain: Make sure the transit can accommodate growth in riders. San Francisco is never going to be a city of 650,000 again. Probably never 750,000 again. Nor should it be.
Muni, as we all know, is a long-term fix. But housing and transit go together like peanut butter and bananas, baby. Keep pushing toward Lee’s goal of 30,000 new and rehabilitated units. (City Hall included revamped public housing as part of its count. That was too bad, because improving public housing shouldn’t be political.) Make new housing a priority for teachers and other municipal and social-service workers who are having trouble affording life in the city they support. And use the mayoral bully pulpit to explain to every San Franciscan why NIMBYs shouldn’t be able to hold up new housing in places where it makes so much sense.
5) Diversify the revenue. Tech and tourism. Tourism and tech. How else does San Francisco make its money? There’s some biotech in San Francisco, but dreams of making Mission Bay a huge health-care and bio hub to rival Cambridge’s Kendall Square are being pissed away. Somehow, two of the neighborhood’s biggest parcels belong to the Golden State Warriors and (ugh) Uber. We could go on about the Warriors site, but it’s a done deal. Instead, the next mayor should put on a full-court press to ensure the life sciences don’t get dunked on again in Mission Bay. How about this: When Uber’s four-wheeled tire fire of sleaze finally goes down in flames, make sure its 422,000 square feet of HQ (opening now delayed until 2020) plus other holdings become biotech space. Still have room left over? Pick up the phone and call clean-energy startups, because there’s this little something called climate change.
6) Continue Mayor Lee’s work on homelessness. Our first Asian-American mayor showed that progress is possible. Read this Chronicle report for more details. But the total homeless population hasn’t changed in the past two years, and as any mayor of any city at any time in history will tell you, if you don’t fix the potholes or scoop the poop, dog or human, off the sidewalk, the polls aren’t going to go your way. With thousands of people sleeping on our streets, the city is often filthy. In one of his last acts on Earth, Ed Lee was picking up trash in the Tenderloin.
The new mayor needs to show people that what’s good for homeless people is good for those of us with homes. Put money and resources into a strategy that draws praise around the world, and don’t neglect to put money and resources into cleanliness and beautification. More public bathrooms? Lava Mae showers? Tap into the best San Francisco has to offer: Creativity. Generosity. Resources. Smarts.
We recognize that San Francisco’s mayor will never have the power of mayors in some large cities. The details behind these ideas house many devils. That’s why we’ll close this out by returning to our first point. Be out there. Talk, cajole, inspire. Always be jawboning. When Friends of the Urban Forest mobilizes volunteers to plant trees all over SF, amplify that call. When neighborhood groups walk their streets for cleanups, grab a pair of gloves too. We’ll all be more willing to roll up our sleeves if the next mayor does it as well.
Have ideas of your own? We’re all ears. Hit us up on social or in the comments.
Alex Lash is editor in chief of The Frisc.
