SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The race for San Francisco mayor is on and the top candidates are making their case ahead of Election Day, including philanthropist Daniel Lurie.
WATCH: Top San Francisco mayoral candidates detail vision for city, tackling crime, homelessness and more
ABC7 News teamed up with our media partner The San Francisco Standard and their political and business reporter Annie Gaus, along with Kara Swisher, author and host of the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast to talk to Lurie and the other candidates about the issues facing the city, like crime, homelessness, the economy, tourism, and the recovery of downtown.
Watch the video above to see how Lurie answered tough questions from Reggie Aqui, Annie, and Kara.
Here’s where Lurie stands on some of the major issues:
Homelessness
Lurie is the former founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community which aimed to reduce chronic homelessness in San Francisco by 50% in 5 years. However, data shows that Lurie was unable to achieve that goal which he recognized.
“We did not hit our goal,” said Lurie. “We have a lot of work to do. I’m not going to challenge that at all.”
He defended his record of building affordable housing on time and under budget compared to the city.
“I’m proud of our record of holding nonprofits accountable, cutting funding to groups that aren’t performing, and getting resources to those that are high performing,” Lurie said.
He said the city will need state and federal support to address the homelessness issue in the city which includes dipping into Prop 1 funding for mental health and drug treatment.
“We have to get people off the streets and into treatment. We need to pull our police officers back from being the first responders to somebody who’s in the throes of a crisis of mental health or drug addiction,” said Lurie.
Lurie claims the city doesn’t have a crisis of resources but rather a crisis of leadership when it comes to the issue of homelessness.
Fixing Public Education
When asked about how he would address public education in the city, Lurie says the system needs to change. He says it’s been plagued by bad leadership which has crippled SFUSD.
Lurie pledges that from the first day in office, he will prioritize highlighting student achievement and paying teachers on time.
“I’m going to be a mayor focused on making sure that we have world-class public schools again,” Lurie said.
He says he will also utilize the help from other departments to ensure that students and families are receiving the assistance they need.
San Francisco’s Recovery
Lurie discussed bringing San Francisco back to the city people loved and were proud of, which included a 2-year and 8-year plan.
“I am not running for anything in Sacramento or D.C.,” said Lurie. “I just want to turn around the city that I love and 8 years from now artists, creatives, business leaders are going to be like I need to be in San Francisco.”
The philanthropist claimed that in 18 to 24 months his administration would be able to entice people from neighboring regions to come back to San Francisco.
Lurie says the top priority to bringing businesses back is having clean and safe streets.
“You don’t come to San Francisco to deal drugs, you don’t come here to do drugs and you don’t come here to sleep on our streets,” said Lurie.
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