Breed takes on the big issues
Mayoral inaugurations can be long on uplift and short on details. It’s a time to savor an oath of office and look ahead without calling out political foes or wheeling out PowerPoint charts. San Francisco’s new mayor, London Breed, understood these basics and made the most of her prime-time moment.
In a glittering blue outfit, she stood on the sunny steps of City Hall and mapped out themes from her razor-thin win. If it was familiar stuff, her audience of several thousand people didn’t much care. Her rise from a childhood spent in public housing to become the city’s first female African American mayor was highlight enough.
She’s pledging to push along her signature causes and also take aim at larger issues that are troubling the city. She drew cheers plugging plans for drug injection centers, where addicts can shoot up, inside, under supervision, and a conservatorship program to care for the mentally ill unable to care for themselves.
On the broader themes, she struck all the right notes, though the financial details and telling ingredients are still missing. She’s promising a sharp focus on homelessness and housing, the twin issues most concerning to voters, visitors and residents. Specifics can wait for another day.
Her blueprints eventually will need followthrough. She’s arriving with historic trappings and the fervent support of a crowd that cheered her. But the fanfare won’t last long.
Still, there are indications of the kinds of tough calls she’s willing to make. She favors a larger police force. Confronting the Trump administration on immigration is important to her and nearly every other city lawmaker. On housing, she’s leaning against neighborhood objections that can slow construction, a crucial stand in a city that treasures local character but worries about one recent rating that finds it the most costly rental city in the world. If she can find a faster way to build more housing for all income levels, it will be a landmark achievement.
The election calendar adds pressure. She’s serving out the final stretch of the late Mayor Ed Lee’s term, meaning she’ll be on the ballot next year. She’ll need to pile up a strong record during a short political honeymoon.
Her speech underscores what she can do best: use her inspiring background story to remind a city that she hears all sides. In a city worried about a yawning income gulf, intense politics and rapid change, that’s a strong message from San Francisco’s new mayor.