San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie wants to return his city to his days of glory. And he is convinced that technology leaders – who often open up their utopian ideals – can help him deliver.
“I am a mayor who is taking the phone and calling CEO,” Lurie said during Techcrunch’s strict event on Thursday night. “I am calling the entrepreneur and saying,” How can we keep you here? “Or ‘how can we get back to you?’ “
The first step to win these people back, he said, is to address a rampant drug and homeless crisis that drives many business leaders out of town. Lurie has spent most of his first 100 days in office walking in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods. This week, he rotated a long program in which San Francisco distributed free tubes, noodles and straws used to devour drugs, such as Fentanil.
Lurie’s “Politics of ordinary sense”, as they called them during his 2024 chairman campaign, are mainly being protected by technology leaders. While Ryan Peterson, the Director General of Flexport, left the scene strictly while the chairman of San Francisco continued, he shouted Lurie:
“Thanks for cleaning the city little.”
Beyond the public safety initiative, Lurie emphasized the need to make it easier to “build” in San Francisco – referring to the construction of houses and the creation of businesses.
The city recently discovered a new initiative, a SF permit, which would reduce the amount of red ribbon that beginnings should pass to operate in San Francisco.
On Thursday, the mayor also introduced a new zoning proposal that would allow taller buildings – and thus, more shelter – in neighborhoods that have traditionally allowed only lower family homes. If passed, it may be San Francisco’s first resonation since 1970.
“We want our entrepreneurs to start businesses and then stay here,” Lurie said. “It means fixing the permit, making it easier to start a restaurant, a bar or a start.”
“What we need most is people who gather and are (…) practice. We lost it here in San Francisco,” Lurie said. “I believe that the business community that has stayed here, which did not leave, understands our values and we will attract businesses again in the coming years.”
The construction of a center he
As part of this effort, Lurie said he wants to get “competitive in front of taxes”, suggesting that he is ready to give tax deductions on companies in the city. The Mayor of San Francisco said he has already worked with the city’s key companies to build more offices and have more conferences in the city.
For example, Lurie said he persuaded Databricks to hold her conference in San Francisco by 2030, instead of transferring to Las Vegas as the company was originally planned. Last month, the mayor also participated in cutting the ribbon for a new Openai office.
While these companies can receive tax cuts, the mayor wants them to invest in San Francisco in other ways. Specifically, he wants the CEO of Openai Sam Altman to “take out loudly” their investments in the arts and culture of San Francisco, which he says the company has already done quietly.
But Lurie does not only want the technology industry dollars, he is behind their ideas as well. The city recently announced the partnership for San Francisco – a consortium of business leaders, including the Atlantic owner and Steve Jobs Laurene Powell Jobs, the famous Apple Jone Ive and Altman stylist – to help give businesses a clear channel to talk to City Hall.
Robotaxis in SF
But some San Franciscans are concerned that the technology industry is pushing other communities. This tension recently turned on when Waymo tried to get a permit to design the SFO airport, allowing his robotaxis to take the knights in and from the airport.
Waymo successfully obtained a SFO mapping permit, but came with a strict carving to ensure that Waymo would not move trading goods to and from the airport. Thanks to the International Teamsters Brotherhood, distribution drivers hold great power in the city hall of San Francisco.
Lurie said he has worked an agreement with work unions to make Waymo’s SFO permit, but explained that “Waymo is nowhere to go.”
The mayor said he is convinced that autonomous vehicles are “where the future is going”, and that he has talked to other companies to have a greater presence in the city. Lurie also did not rule out the construction of the city’s infrastructure to accommodate more autonomous vehicles.
While much of the technology industry innovation has historically occurred in Silicon Valley, about 40 miles south of the city, the boom I look firmly concentrated in San Francisco. Lurie says this is given to the city a moment to truly restore innovation in the city.
“When we are over, everyone will be like,” I have to be in San Francisco. Otherwise I miss you. “Here we are going,” Lurie said.
