Elegy for Ed Lee
San Francisco mayor remembered as a model of ‘what was righteous and good in a public servant,’ whose 27 years of service were ‘truly amazing and unique,’ and was ‘an awesome dude all around’
In an emotional bookend to a weekend-long goodbye, fans of Ed Lee showed up Sunday by the thousands, filling San Francisco City Hall with an outpouring of warm affection for the town’s first Asian-American mayor.
Since Lee’s sudden death at 65 early Tuesday, the city he had led the past seven years has been in a state of disbelief. And Sunday’s memorial drew a huge crowd of the mayor’s admirers, from highprofile politicians and local celebrities to everyday residents who marveled at how the soft-spoken man had shepherded San Francisco out of the Great Recession and into its biggest boom time in recent history.
“Ed Lee epitomized what was righteous and good in a public servant,” said former Supervi-
sor Carol Ruth Silver, who joined those who filled the rotunda and adjacent rooms of City Hall to honor the man. “I worked in this building for 15 years and I’ve known a lot of politicians, but Ed Lee stood out among them all for his absolute probity. His humility was simply amazing.”
Prominent Democrats including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein were among the speakers who showed up to eulogize the former city-rights lawyer who collapsed last week while shopping at Safeway (the medical examiner has not released the cause of death). Lee was applauded by some, but not all San Franciscans, for helping to push an economic recovery largely driven by technology industry players that received generous incentives — nicknamed ”Twitter tax breaks” — from the city.
City rebounded
“His 27 years of public service are truly amazing and unique,” Feinstein told the crowd in the main hall as hundreds of others watched the event livestreamed elsewhere in City Hall and in the nearby Main Library. She ticked off lines from Lee’s résumé before he became mayor, including city purchaser and head of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works. “Under his leadership, the city not only rebounded from the Great Recession (but) it also added more housing units than any other mayor before him.”
Sunday’s event capped a sorrow-filled weekend in San Francisco, starting Friday with a steady stream of
well-wishers who came to bow and pray as Lee’s body lay in repose in a closed casket, draped with an American flag. Remembered as a big-hearted soul whom one friend called an “awesome dude all around,” Lee inspired accolades from city workers, students, tech workers, and the rich and powerful.
Appointed to serve out the remainder of former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term in 2011, Lee lived a life that looked like a classic success story — born in Seattle to Chinese immigrants, his father a cook and his mom a seamstress, all living in public housing. His death last week shocked
the region and beyond, and his body lying in repose in City Hall drew painful memories of other leaders who had been remembered that way: George Christopher, who was mayor from 1956 to 1964, died in 2000; and Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, who both were assassinated in 1978.
In a moving tribute that brought tears to many of those gathered, one speaker after another praised Lee for his kindness and dedication to public service as well as for inspiring a generation of young Asian-Americans to seek public office and improve the lot of those in need. Lee’s widow, Anita, Ed Lee’s daugheres, Tania and Brianna Lee, step down after speaking at a memorial service for their father.
and their two daughters sat in the front row, with other family members and a cast of the city’s powerful politicians seated on all sides. Sen. Kamala Harris was there, along with mayors from around the Bay Area and beyond, including the leaders of Denver and Columbus, Ohio.
Supervisor London Breed, now serving as acting mayor, told the crowd about traveling with Lee overseas where, she said, “in China, he was like a superstar, like Beyonce with a mustache.”
Still, she said, Lee was always humble, “carrying his own suitcase, bringing food home from restaurants in a doggy bag. And as San Francisco fights to hold onto its values against some strong national winds, Ed Lee was a guardian for us all against those winds.”
Public service
San Francisco resident Calvin Yee said he did not know the mayor but identified with Lee, who was also
a second-generation Chinese-American. Yee wants his two sons, a college student and college graduate, to emulate Lee’s dedication to public service.
“I want them to know that public service is a valued and important part of our everyday lives, and you can serve others, and that’s how you can, to me, gain true happiness,” Yee said.
Some supporters said Lee didn’t receive enough credit for working to build affordable housing and battle homelessness. His critics, and there were many, felt Lee didn’t do enough to stand up to tech companies after he lured the industry to San Francisco with hefty tax breaks.
But on Sunday, the crowd on hand shared common feelings: extreme gratitude and a sorrowful sense of a man who was gone long before his time.