2024 Election: What to know about San Francisco's mayoral candidates
SAN FRANCISCO - A total of 13 people are running for mayor in San Francisco in 2024, including the incumbent London Breed.
In addition to Breed, the candidates are Mark Farrell, Henry Flynn, Keith Freedman, Dylan Hirsch-Shell, Daniel Lurie, Nelson Mei, Aaron Peskin, Paul Ybarra Robertson, Ahsha Safai, Shahram Shariati, Jon Soderstrom and Ellen Lee Zhou.
The front-runners include three supervisors and the former CEO of a nonprofit who also happens to be a Levi’s Strauss heir.
All the candidates are Democrats. San Francisco has ranked-choice elections.
Here’s how they stand on some of the issues facing The City.
SF mayoral race: In-depth with Mayor London Breed Pt. 2
The incumbent candidate in San Francisco's mayoral race, London Breed says crime is trending down in the city. She addresses the perception that her shift to a more tough on crime approach is a political move in an election year. She also talks about her preparedness for emergency events, citing her experience of leading the city during the coronavirus pandemic.
London Breed, incumbent mayor
Homelessness: Breed said that she wants San Francisco to be compassionate to the homeless, but she also believes in firm consequences if unhoused people don’t accept the help that’s being offered to them.
"We are doing everything we can to make it clear to people that our expectation is that you take us up on our offer for services and if you don't, we want to make things less comfortable for you," she said in July.
Earlier this year, Breed issued an executive order to first offer homeless people a ride out of the city before offering them shelter and stepped up efforts to sweep homeless encampments. Breed also said she increased the city’s shelter capacity and helped others get rental assistance to circumvent being homeless.
Housing: In her state of the city address, Breed said she will veto any piece of anti-housing legislation that crosses her desk. She has floated bonds to build and acquire affordable housing, and rezoned areas across the city to build new housing.
Crime: Breed said she’s working on getting the San Francisco Police Department fully staffed in three years. She has cracked down on drug enforcement, saying drug arrests doubled in 2023 under her watch. She directed the police department to deploy bait cars and installed 400 automated license plate readers. Breed supports shutting down open-air drug markets and easing up on when police can chase suspects in their patrol cars.
Transportation: Breed said she supports building infrastructure to keep Muni fast, frequent and reliable, and that pedestrian and bicycle networks remain connected and safe.
Revitalizing downtown: Breed is offering tax breaks to any company that comes to San Francisco, eliminating certain fees to fill empty storefronts and recruiting UC and HBCUs and others to relocate downtown.
SF mayoral race: In-depth with candidate Mark Farrell Pt. 2 | KTVU
Former San Francisco interim mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell joins us in studio to talk about his call for a tougher approach to concerns about public safety and street conditions. He's calling for new leadership at SFPD and for more officers on the streets. He says he would appoint an interim police chief before the police commission installs someone permanently.
Mark Farrell, former supervisor and appointed mayor
Homelessness: Farrell believes San Francisco streets have "disintegrated into a free-for-all of tents," homelessness and drug abuse. He wants to clear all large tent encampments in his first year, audit homelessness spending to ensure there is no waste, increase grants to the shelter system, hire a new Department of Public Works head, and add more trash cans.
Housing: Farrell wants to meet the state’s mandate for San Francisco to permit 82,00 new homes by 2031 to address the city’s housing shortage. To do that, he wants to increase the size of buildings to maximum heights in the financial district, SoMA and Mission Bay neighborhoods. He also wants to provide tax incentives and new zoning to create nightlife and entertainment areas.
Crime: Farrell said he feels that people don’t feel safe in the city and San Francisco is facing an "unprecedented public safety crisis," which includes a zero-tolerance approach to crime. He said he will "aggressively" address police staffing in the city, restore a retirement program to allow officers to return to patrol without affecting their pensions, commit to fully funding five police academies a year and outsource officer background checks to third parties. Like Breed, he supports expanding citywide illegal vending bans.
KQED reported that he wants to remove the Police Oversight Commission.
Transportation: Farrell said he wants to see that bicyclists and pedestrians are safe by installing bollards – vertical posts – on sidewalks at major intersections, adding more speed cameras and creating more bike lanes.
Revitalizing downtown: Farrell wants to create a 20-year plan for a mixed-use downtown that includes turning Embarcadero Plaza into a park, adding mixed-use projects and housing to Union Square, and repurposing downtown buildings to mixed-use "anchor projects."
Daniel Lurie, nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir
Homelessness: Lurie said he wants to build 1,500 shelter beds in six months and 2,500 tiny homes. He wants to prioritize cost-effective shelter, rather than expensive permanent housing. He also wants to require RVs to park in designated areas.
Housing: Lurie said he wants to speed up the permit approval process, direct the planning department to simplify guidelines and standards and rezone areas to make sure to create the mandated number of new housing units by 2032.
Crime: Lurie wants to fully staff the police and sheriff’s departments, offer first-responder incentives including rent, child care and housing subsidies, put more officers on foot patrol in high-crime areas and speed up 911 response times. Lurie also wants to shut down open-air drug markets, including using geolocation technology to keep first-time drug offenders out of the Tenderloin.
Transportation: Lurie said he wants to redesign dangerous intersections, expand the bike lane network, expand public EV charging, and bring more accountability to the SFMTA.
Revitalizing downtown: Lurie said he wants to create a new police district to oversee the "hospitality zone" from Moscone Center to Union Square, incentivize climate tech industries to move into vacant office space downtown and boost office-to-residential conversions through property tax relief.
Aaron Peskin, president of the Board of Supervisors
Homelessness: Peskin vows to end student homelessness by allocating city funds to provide them with housing, stop evictions and provide 2,000 shelter beds. He opposes sweeps that he says simply move people from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Housing: Peskin said he would build affordable housing for 15,000 teachers, healthcare workers and first responders, expand rent control, and provide rent subsidies for extremely low-income families.
Crime: Peskin wants to bring back community policing, focus on non-police responses to emergencies and continue to provide strong civilian oversight over the police department. Peskin wants to support the police officers by fully staffing the 911 system, crisis intervention workers and medical techs.
Transportation: Peskin said he has secured billions of dollars for Muni, made dozens of dangerous intersections safer, and increased service for critical routes. He wants to reduce traffic with dedicated bus and bike lanes. He also said he wants to hold the SFMTA accountable.
Revitalizing downtown: Peskin does not have an official downtown plan as part of his platform. However, last year, he and Breed introduced legislation to support the downtown’s future by filling up vacant ground floor spaces and underutilized buildings with re-zoning changes. For example, one of the changes included allowing a wider variety of uses and activities in Union Square and broadening the types of pop-ups downtown to support entrepreneurs.
Ahsha Safai, supervisor
Homelessness: Safai said he wants to reform the "point-in-time" count survey to count people more frequently and use that data to get people off the streets and into shelters. He also wants to fund at least 1,000 "Homeward Bound" trips to reconnect homeless people with their families, and build shelters in "no camping zones," which he wants to enforce.
Housing: Safai said he wants to streamline the housing site permit approval process, assign city planners to guide projects through the entitlement process, audit the city’s building department, and maximize height and density allowances along commercial corridors. He also has ideas about reducing the transfer tax on development projects and reducing fees and taxes for ADUs.
Crime: Safai wants to have police patrol on foot and bike throughout various neighborhoods, fully staff the police department, add automated license plate readers, and create a community safety liaison for each of San Francisco’s 10 police stations. He also wants to fix the 911 system, focus on crime hotspots, improve the 311 center, and fund dedicated anti-retail theft positions in the DA’s office.
Transportation: Safai does not have an official platform on transportation. However, he is the Transportation Authority board member who was also a key part in creating new District 11 traffic calming devices, like speed bumps and raised crosswalks. The goal was to make the streets safer and encourage slower speeds.
Revitalizing downtown: Safai wants more foot patrols, the Department of Public works to be a 24/7 operation, and attract public university campuses with a special investment fund.