London Breed Is Ed Lee All Over Again
SAN FRANCISCO —
When San Francisco Mayor London Breed arrived at UC Davis for her freshman year, she saw her new classmates surrounded by family. Except for the friend who dropped her off — her belongings in two modest bags — she came lonely.
Breed would oftentimes make her way back to the notoriously unsafe housing project in the metropolis'due south Western Addition where she was raised past her grandmother. She came not just to visit but oft considering of tragedy.
"When I was coming abode, it was for the funeral of somebody I grew up with," Brood said in an interview in San Francisco's ornate Beaux-Arts Metropolis Hall. "And I just thought, what if he was here with me? I simply imagined them walking around campus, and this could be their life. And that'southward what got me involved in public service."
Breed, 47, is a ascension star in California politics because of her stewardship of San Francisco during the pandemic, also as her efforts to tackle crime, homelessness, addiction and education in a city that is famously — if not always accurately — known for its liberal, live-and-allow-live ethos.
Cornel Westward, left, and Mayor London Breed at a celebration of the Dream Keeper Initiative, which reinvests $120 one thousand thousand from police enforcement into San Francisco'southward Black community.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Up for reelection in 2023, Breed received national attending when she didn't mince words equally she declared a country of emergency in the Tenderloin district, beset by overdose deaths, open-air drug dealing, violence and homeless encampments.
"It's time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end. And it comes to an cease when we take the steps to exist more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies. And less tolerant of all the bull— that has destroyed our city," she said in December.
In a break with liberals who have chosen for defunding police enforcement, Brood's emergency proclamation allowed her to quickly increment police budgets and bypass metropolis bureaucracy to ramp up services to addicts and mentally ill people who are living on the streets. (Virtually one out of every 100 residents of the city is homeless, according to data from the federal government.) The declaration just expired, and some question whether it had a tangible touch.
A homeless encampment in San Francisco'southward Tenderloin district.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Regardless, Breed'due south approach drew praise at a pivotal moment for San Francisco, which was already struggling with gaping inequality betwixt tech millionaires and working class residents before the pandemic exacerbated the divide and also destroyed tourism in a city that is dependent on visitors from around the globe.
"I can't help but take risks in social club to transform lives so that the experiences that I had growing up doesn't happen to the next generation."
— London Breed, mayor of San Francisco
After a serial of smash-and-take hold of robberies late terminal year at luxury stores in San Francisco and other cities in California, police force presence in Union Square noticeably increased. An armed baby-sit stands picket at the archway of a Louis Vuitton store that was looted, and Macy's glass storefront remains partly covered with plywood.
"She'due south giving voice to something happening in a lot of progressive cities right now," said Sean Clegg, a Democratic strategist who lived in San Francisco for much of the concluding three decades and is working on man of affairs Rick Caruso'southward mayoral entrada in Los Angeles. "She's capturing the mood of the moment."
Simply Breed's efforts accept besides been faulted by some Democrats who argue she is falling dorsum on failed policies that place the interests of the well-connected higher up those of the marginalized.
Kaylah Williams, the immediate past president of the city's Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Order, pointed to Breed's opposition to several election measures, including a successful 2018 proffer that raised taxes on the city'south largest companies to fund more services for homeless people.
London Breed congratulates newly sworn officers at a San Francisco Police Department graduation ceremony in Feb.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
"We run across time and time over again, a lot of corporations and corporate interests put ahead of the interests of working-class San Franciscans," said Williams, who was the campaign director for urban center Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin.
Breed has repeatedly said that she is "unapologetic" and has rebuked white progressives such every bit Boudin — who is facing a June recall — equally not understanding what it is like to be poor and a minority in San Francisco.
"I can't aid but take risks in order to transform lives so that the experiences that I had growing up doesn't happen to the next generation," Brood said recently, speaking at a celebration of a $120-one thousand thousand two-year entrada she created that transferred coin from constabulary enforcement budgets to programs aimed at bolstering the metropolis's Black residents.
Later that solar day, Breed waved a wand at the reopening of the "Harry Potter and the Cursed Kid" play at the historic Curran Theater, which had been shuttered for nigh two years considering of COVID.
The oversupply shows its excitement at the reopening of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" in San Francisco, which was attended by Mayor London Breed.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
"This is actually icing on the cake as nosotros start to reopen our city and recover from this pandemic," she told costumed Harry Potter fans, before cannons shot confetti in the air and celebrants clinked bottles of Butter Beer.
Such moments — including a cameo in a "Matrix" flick that was shot in the urban center and write-ups in Vogue — were unthinkable when she was younger.
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Breed said her experiences as a child and immature woman ground her approach to governance.
She was raised in a roach-infested housing project and then dangerous it was chosen "Outta Command Projects" — or OC.
She never knew her begetter and her mother was largely absent. A younger sister died of a drug overdose; a blood brother is imprisoned. A cousin was shot and killed by law. She witnessed her first homicide when she was 12. The men in her family were pimps, hustlers and drug dealers, Breed said.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, shown holding a pic honoring Lunar New Year, prompts praise and protests as she leads one of the nation's largest and most complex cities.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
"I just know that we were poor, and it was difficult. And there were times where I wanted to get out there and sell drugs and practice illegal things in social club to have money, and fortunately I didn't," Breed said in her role, surrounded by pictures of herself with Autonomous luminaries, awards and a desk plaque that reads "What Would Beyonce Do?"
"And I'thousand glad I didn't and I'm glad that I'm in a place that could help empower other people then that they don't feel that they have to choose a path of doing something that can land them dead or in jail or on drugs."
She and her neighbors were too afraid to speak to police force after witnessing officers vanquish suspects and commit other crimes. But she also remembers the compassion officers showed her aunt, who was developmentally disabled and acted out — experiences that shaped her view of law enforcement every bit both necessary and needing reform.
"It'south a existent balance of making sure that people in communities like I grew up in too feel safe and able to communicate and piece of work with constabulary," Breed said.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
She attributes her success largely to the women in her life — her grandmother and members of the community who guided her, helping her write college application essays and providing an outlet that led her to stay out of trouble. "It was just and so many people, and it was constant," Breed said.
As part of a metropolis summer plan for low-income youth, Breed worked at the Family unit School starting at age 14. Some employees didn't desire to work with Breed because she was "rambunctious," so then-authoritative assistant Minyon McGriff had the teen assist her in the office.
"She was ever a bright, funny, smart kid. She just grew upwardly hard because she grew upwards in the projects. She was rough around the edges," said McGriff, 60. "Simple stuff — how to dress, advisable behavior, basic etiquette — those are a lot of the things she got from usa."
Breed's experience at the Family unit School prompted her to create a programme in 2018 that offers a paid summertime internship to any working-age student in San Francisco who wants one.
London Brood, right, mayor of San Francisco, with a bandage member from "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Such relationships, as well equally her sorrow that friends she grew upwardly with could not feel what she did at UC Davis, prompted Breed'due south first foray into public service — registering voters for the NAACP while in college. After she graduated, she worked on Willie Brown'southward 1999 mayoral entrada and served equally executive managing director of the African American Art & Culture Complex and on several other city entities before winning a seat in 2012 on the San Francisco Lath of Supervisors.
She has been dogged by claims that she was a boob of the machine run by Dark-brown — a legendary force in the city and state'due south politics — as well as concern leaders, wealthy donors and other power brokers who accept long controlled San Francisco politics.
She has repeatedly lashed out at such allegations.
"And so why practise women have to be a pawn for somebody?" Brood told the Fog City Journal during her 2012 campaign. "Willie Brown didn't wipe my donkey when I was a infant — my grandmother took care of me."
Brown declined an interview request.
Fifty-fifty some who disagree with Brood's policies don't believe she is making decisions based on who supports her.
A homeless encampment in San Francisco'southward Civic Center Plaza.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
"She does truly love San Francisco and she is genuinely committed to a vision of a safer urban center," said Jane Kim, who served with Breed on the Board of Supervisors and unsuccessfully ran against her for mayor in 2018. "Information technology's simply that her analysis lands her on the same side with developers and downtown interests."
Breed was president of the Board of Supervisors when Mayor Ed Lee died in 2017, briefly making her the metropolis's acting mayor.
She won the special election in 2018 to fill Lee's term, becoming the city's first Blackness female mayor. She promised to prioritize quality-of-life bug and, foreshadowing some of the struggles that would come, she pledged to fight a status quo that she argued had paralyzed the metropolis.
"The politics of 'no' has plagued our city for far too long — 'not on my block, not in my lawn,'" she said.
People move their holding equally San Francisco city workers make clean a street in the Tenderloin district.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Political observers say Brood's tenure got off to an uneven beginning as she sought to navigate the dissever that has typically bedeviled the relationship between the urban center'due south moderate mayors and the more liberal Board of Supervisors.
One time the pandemic hit, Breed was lauded by friends and foes alike for her leadership. San Francisco, with a population of about 874,000, was among the first cities to lock down, and had the everyman per capita decease rate of the nation's largest cities as of Dec. Three urban center school lath members were recently recalled — ousters Breed backed — for prioritizing the renaming of schools over the reopening of in-person classes and an effort to end merit-based admissions at a prestigious high schoolhouse.
Breed has made missteps. She was fined for using her title as she urged then-Gov. Jerry Brown to commute her brother'southward prison judgement, for accepting $5,600 in car repairs from the head of San Francisco's public works department (a former swain) who has since pleaded guilty in a federal corruption example, and for soliciting and accepting donations that exceeded campaign finance limits to help fund a float in the city's Pride parade.
Similar other elected officials, Breed has as well received flack for repeatedly being pictured not wearing a mask. When caught dining with several people at the sectional French Laundry eating place, she initially acknowledged that she needed to set a amend case. Only she also blames social media and the press for obsessing over moments she did not wear a mask while eating, drinking or taking a picture.
Breed has been defendant of viewing the checks and balances betwixt the legislative and executive branches of government as obstructionism.
"It's her abiding lack of respect for the of import office that the Board of Supervisors plays in the life of San Francisco residents, our constituents and their viewpoints that is often disturbing," said Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
The infighting and lack of trust between the mayor and the board — a perennial of San Francisco politics — have stymied major progress on some of the city'due south nearly intractable problems, but San Francisco State University political science professor Jason McDaniel said voters do not appear to be blaming Breed.
"Historically when we look at mayors, they are the ones held responsible by voters for the cost of housing, the condition of schools, the issue of law-breaking. And so far, she has managed not to be the focus of voters' attending," he said. "Whether that changes over time is a key question going forrard."
Jim Ross, a veteran San Francisco Democratic strategist, argued that moves that separate Brood from the more liberal elements of the city could exist smart politics for an aggressive elected official in a metropolis that served as a springboard for Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Vice President Kamala Harris.
San Francisco has been described every bit "47 square miles surrounded past reality," Ross said. "The existent question is how does her image project in the reality that's outside of San Francisco?"
Breed demurs when asked whether she plans to seek for college office.
"I would never dominion that out," she said. "Considering I didn't think I would run for mayor and here I am."
Source: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-03-22/san-francisco-mayor-london-breed
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