On a steady course
“I can’t help anyone be successful unless we have an economically successful city.”
Mayor Ed Lee
Afive-block stretch of Mid-Market may be the best argument to both re-elect Mayor Ed Lee and demand more from the city’s cautious, conciliatory leader. On a recent morning there were four major construction projects, a long-missing grocery store in full swing, new apartment towers, and bike and transit lanes transforming a once car-clogged street. Porn theaters are gone and only a handful of empty storefronts remain. It’s a stunning turnabout for an area that had been impervious to improvement for decades.
But there were also more than 30 drifters, sleepers, and others selling scraps of clothing and DVDs from doorways and Muni shelters. A half dozen women sifted through trash cans for recyclables. Walkers heading to work looked straight ahead and kept moving. The sharing economy isn’t fully sharing.
With no major foe, Lee is coasting to re-election, another four years on top of the last five. In a city accustomed to battles between progressive and moderate Democrats, Lee floats above the political divide. There’s no need for Lee bumper stickers, house signs or campaign workers.
There are good reasons for his comfortable stature. He’s a leadfrom-behind mayor, who manages problems by committee and consultation. Asked about his achievements, he harks back to his first, all but forgotten challenges to chill the City Hall temperature with softer rhetoric and his all-sides-together plan to patch over looming pension debts.
The mayor also bought into a winning city economy. He pushed through a tax break that brought tech employers to Mid-Market, an achievement he vigorously defends. Other areas are flourishing too: Five hospitals are under construction in a city that’s a regional health center and the tourism, hotel and airport mix continues to boom. Both sectors are bigger contributors to the job rolls than the much-mentioned tech world.
This surge yields a 3.6 percent unemployment rate and fuels an $8 billion budget, up from $6.5 billion when Lee took office. Rising real estate prices have brought in extra money that canceled the need for higher taxes, a politician’s dream come true.
But these numbers aren’t enough, not in a city racked by doubts about its future. Housing prices continue to soar along with eviction rates. Schemes to control the problem get more more farfetched such as a ballot measure to put a moratorium on new marketrate housing in the Mission District.
Lee’s answer is a sensible one. Over time — not overnight, as his critics appear to want — San Francisco’s housing supply will grow steadily. He has a plan for 30,000 units in five years, with up to a third of it priced for families in the $100,000 per year salary range. It’s a message that doesn’t match a near daily rent raise or eviction horror stories, but it’s a plan that is under way in Hunters Point, Treasure Island, Pier 80 and Parkmerced.
As Market Street shows, there’s another problem that afflicts San Francisco: persistent homelessness. Despite years of overhauls, crackdowns and new ideas, the numbers aren’t budging with the population pegged at 6,800, even as the city spends $160 million a year on the issue.
Lee’s solution is the Navigation Center, a one-stop operation that aims to pick up, treat and house people living on the streets. Over time, it could dent the problem. But, like his citywide housing plans. it will take time, and San Francisco is rightly impatient with the lack of progress.
Lee must do more to communicate and follow through on these critical goals. His deserved re-election should be a chance to act more aggressively in a city hunting for answers to acute problems.