The public face of San Francisco’s leadership change began Tuesday at City Hall with Mayor London Breed’s final address before the Board of Supervisors. It was the last board meeting before City Hall’s winter recess, and also for four board members. Breed defended her unusual and momentous six-and-a-half-year term as mayor. While supervisors’ responses were cordial, business at the meeting soon returned to the cycle of push-and-claw-back that characterizes the combative relationship between the mayor and the board.
“People say that we didn’t get along, and yes, we fought like cats and dogs and maybe sometimes brother and sister,” Breed said during her speech. “But nevertheless, we should be so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, especially around affordable housing bonds, tax reform, the ability every single year to balance our budget and to deliver the important services that the people of the city and county need and deserve at the end of the day as public servants. That is what we came into office to do, to serve the public and to fight tooth and nail, to get the kinds of things, whether it’s the policies or the investments that we care about delivered for what we care about.”
Breed defended her record, including on the city’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which received national acclaim, and on issues where she was subject to withering attacks during her unsuccessful reelection campaign.
“We have seen an incredible turnaround in the city, and when you look at where we were a couple of years ago. … One of the lowest crime rates we’ve seen in over a decade, one of the lowest homicide rates since the 1960s … record numbers of people who are accepting treatment. … We have helped over 20,000 people exit homelessness. We’ve done remarkable work and we have set this city up for an incredible future and I am very proud that I’ve been able to leave the city to get us to this point.”
Many supervisors also had kind words for Breed. Newly reelected District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar noted how she admired Breed’s “elegance and strength despite all the things that have come at you from all kinds of directions and taking us through a pandemic and economic recovery.”
“There were a million reasons you shouldn’t have given me a chance. But you took a chance on me, and I will never forget it,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who was first appointed to the job by Breed. “Scarcely a day goes by that I don’t hear from somebody in the recovery community, expressing appreciation for having a voice and a perspective and a seat at the table when it’s more important than ever.”
District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio predicted that despite the controversies on her watch, that “history would be kind” to Breed.
Even termed-out District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who, back in 2018, during a board vote that blocked Breed from becoming interim mayor after the death of incumbent Ed Lee, called Breed’s strong support from the tech industry and venture capital “gross,” had kind words.
“We accomplished a lot together, and so I will always be grateful to you for being the grown-up and for working together with me for putting our past differences aside and disagreeing when we needed to, but really, really forming a partnership and getting things done together when we don’t, it taught me a lot and I really appreciate it.”
Breed made some important strides in addressing the city’s problems, but couldn’t win over the voters, said Jim Wunderman, who worked with Mayors Feinstein and Jordan.
Several former elected officials were on hand for a meeting, which marked the departure of not only Breed and Ronen but Board President Aaron Peskin and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, both like Ronen termed out, and District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, whose reelection bid was defeated in an upset by Bilal Mahmood.
Among those attending was former Mayor Art Agnos, who told The Voice in an interview Wednesday, “I think that like most mayors, she had some great moments and some bad moments, but I will remember her most of all for her outstanding leadership during the Covid crisis early in her administration.”
Like Breed, Agnos was celebrated for his performance in keeping the city together during another significant crisis: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. But later, again like Breed, he was denied a reelection bid due to voter restiveness over issues including homelessness and street conditions.
Another Breed critic, Tenderloin Housing Clinic Director Randy Shaw, had strong opinions about her record.
“Mayor Breed failed to meet the rising challenges caused by the pandemic,” Shaw said in an email. “As a result, she leaves San Francisco in a much worse place than when she began as mayor. Breed also allowed Mid-Market and the Tenderloin’s progress under Mayor Lee to be halted, and even reversed.”
University of San Francisco Professor of African-American Studies and Political Science James Taylor, in an interview with The Voice, said that most people will have “a mixed view” of Breed’s record, citing significant turnover in the city’s population along with displacement “that London inherited from the legacy of Ed Lee and could never get out from under.”
“The Black community has mixed feelings on London Breed,” Taylor added, noting that she failed to move beyond traditional divides within that community, as reflected in her approach to African-American reparations, which became a controversial topic during her term.
“There’s a division in Black San Francisco, based on neighborhoods and old divisions around redevelopment,” Taylor added, noting Breed’s roots in the Western Addition neighborhood and those of one of her regular political opponents, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who sponsored the city’s Reparations Plan, in the Bayview. “London played DKI (the Dream Keeper Initiative) against reparations, which attracted greater controversy, but DKI ended up exposing the cronyism that she’s always been accused of.”
Other longtime observers had kinder appraisals of Breed’s record. Veteran pollster and political strategist David Latterman sees her performance as largely positive during a challenging time. “She could have reacted faster to post-Covid stuff, which is what cost her,” he told The Voice in an email. “I think her staff could have been better. But she meant well, and tried her best.”
“Mayor Breed’s tenure was largely defined by the Covid pandemic, the brutal economic and social fallout from that episode, and the rampant homelessness and drug and crime problems that plagued the city even before she took office,” Jim Wunderman, a former aide to Mayor Dianne Feinstein and chief of staff under Mayor Frank Jordan, and now CEO of the Bay Area Council, related to The Voice in a statement. “She may have gotten more blame than she deserves for these problems — and she made some important strides in addressing them, but couldn’t win over the voters. Now it will be up to Mayor-Elect Lurie to earn their confidence.”
As for Tuesday’s board meeting, once the pleasantries were out of the way, the partisan combat continued, with a slim majority of supervisors rejecting Breed’s final appointments to two important commissions.
